Johnny Q: How I Built a Business Overnight With NO Experience

Johnny Q is one of Trinidad & Tobago’s most iconic entrepreneurs — but his journey didn’t start in business. It started with DJing, sound systems, and figuring things out in real time.

In this episode of The Corie Sheppard Podcast, we sit down with Johnny Q to unpack how he built multiple businesses across events, hardware, auto parts, and entertainment — often with zero experience.

He shares the story of opening a hardware business overnight during COVID, the thinking behind his viral marketing campaigns like the “Tarzan” ad, and the mindset required to take risks and execute at scale.

We also dive into:

• The evolution of Trinidad’s entertainment industry
• The real economics behind Carnival and events
• Why customer experience matters more than being right
• Missed opportunities in tourism and local business
• And what young entrepreneurs need to understand about starting

This is a masterclass in entrepreneurship, adaptability, and building a household name in the Caribbean.

00:00 Introduction
00:22 Meet Johnny Q
01:02 Opening a hardware business overnight
02:52 Learning business with zero experience
03:40 The viral “Tarzan” ad strategy
06:26 Early days as a DJ
08:59 Breaking into radio and changing the culture
12:20 How DJs transformed radio in Trinidad
14:20 The evolution of parties and live entertainment
20:19 Building stages and solving problems
25:43 From DJ to entrepreneur
27:10 Expanding into events, tents, and rentals
32:04 Starting in business with no formal training
33:45 The turning point: building a sound system business
38:47 The business of entertainment and networking
42:09 Scaling the rental and events business
45:58 Expanding into security and other ventures
48:05 Getting into the bar business
51:25 Entering hardware and auto parts
53:44 Building the Q Power brand
54:23 Customer service philosophy
57:08 Being hands-on in business
01:02:59 Why the events business isn’t as profitable as it seems
01:06:20 The reality of running events
01:09:23 Creating Monday Madness
01:12:42 The truth about Soca Monarch and performance
01:15:14 The rise of new artists
01:16:51 Giving back with the Evolution band
01:19:49 Developing young talent
01:22:25 Why Trinidad is missing opportunities in tourism
01:32:20 Supporting artists and the Carnival economy
01:34:56 The venue crisis and its impact
01:36:52 Why consultation matters in decision-making
01:41:17 Challenges faced during Carnival
01:45:27 The business reality behind Carnival bands
01:45:59 Fixing the road and parade experience
01:47:01 Final thoughts

Transcript

From Oil Drums To Real Stages

SPEAKER_00 0:01

That's how speed just started. Before that, it was it was oil drums. Right.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

I guess. I guess. I guess.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

With two by four and ply on top of it. Yeah.

Corie 0:11

See, guys, you think I always feel everything that's here was always here, you know.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

My history in this thing.

Corie 0:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

My history and this thing, Rich. I'll tell you.

Corie 0:21

Well, alright. So let me get to some of the history. Welcome to the Corey Shepard podcast. My name is Corey Shepard. Welcome back to everybody who's been listening. Today they tell us we have to introduce guests properly, right? So I want to introduce if you don't know the name, Mr. Johnny Q, entrepreneur businessman. We go ahead and get the rest of the list as we sit here today.

SPEAKER_04 0:37

Yeah, yeah. Slowly, but surely.

Corie 0:39

Welcome to the show, man. Thank you. Thank you. It's nice to have you here. Johnny Q has been a household name for a long, long, long time. But for younger people, let me start by helping the young people, right? The Tarzan Adenting. You're paying attention to the Tarzan Ad on the radio. They say people say they never had play as much as Tarzan before. I want to know if you're behind that.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

You know, it's amazing because when COVID was approaching around let's say November, the I um I had a feeling that we were going to end up in some problems worldwide. So, you know, I went to a hardware in Degon Martin called 7 to 7. And when I went there today, the person did not have what I was needed, right? So I said, boy, I have to open my own hardware. Right? And then I suspect that the government would have shut down the country. But everybody was saying, ah, that won't happen, you know, because it never happened before. So nobody was really thinking it will realistically happen. So the next day, I remember that Monday, I went driving all over Trinidad. And I say, I have to get a spot to open a hardware. I'm not going 7 to 7, I'm going eight to eight. Right? So I visited like six locations. I went opposite the um the health center in St. James, right? I went, if you see locations, I went like all over. You wouldn't, you would not believe. Eventually I said, you know, I need to narrow this down because by this afternoon I want to lock down and sign this lease, right? Yeah, yeah. Believe it or not, by the next morning, lease was signed and I chose our Peter Avenue. They had an ice cream shop there before. I remember. So I signed off and I um I started to like move in like a bulldozer. And I didn't have shelving.

Corie 2:51

This is the week before carnival, huh? Okay, that's the cut the carnival at COVID, the last carnival before the country. Just before they closed the country.

Opening A Hardware Before Lockdown

SPEAKER_00 2:58

So I went price mad. I buy about 60 black shelves. If you see me rolling out about five trolleys, ten trolleys loaded with these black shelves. Everybody watching me like I'm going mad. You know? And then um I didn't I didn't know who the suppliers were. So I call a partner of mine with a hardware Nelsie Kuro around where he said, look, I'll put you on to these people. I call them. They say, Well, you know, we don't really know you, we can't give you credit just like that. Right. So it was a whole process. Right? And then figuring out what to buy and figuring out what to how to price it.

Corie 3:36

So at this point, you have no experience in the hardware business. So you learn it as your book.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Everything I I am into now, I have I had absolutely no experience. It's unbelievable. But I'm a fast learner. So I remember the staff saying, Well, boss, we we we 75% stocked. When are we gonna open? I say, Well, let's open the day of Marshall Monday. Yeah, they say, but boss, that is your most busiest day. I said, that's all right. Let's try that day. So we opened. I never reached there for the opening because I was busy in the stadium with Marshall Show. And we couldn't get the message out because we knew. So they say, boss, how we um we we attracting people to this business. So I say, Well boy, I know now um we had to do some ads, right? So the first ad I did was an ad saying, get a bigger tool for yourself. Yeah, I like that. Right? So everybody started to say, hey, hey, hey, you know, that kind of vulgar, and but it got the attention of man, woman, child, granny, grandpa, right? Then the second ad was the gorilla glue ad, right? Right, right. Which you know, they say if you're married, go in and break up, get some gorilla glue, keep it together, right? And then came the Tarzan ad. So the Tarzan ad was born out of a series of ads, right? Yeah because the first two ads was good, but they always had a complaint about the ads. Uh-huh. So I say, all right, no problem. Let me um let me try to come out with an ad that will deal with a wide cross section of people. So I my neighbor leaving home a morning, and he said, I need to talk to you, you know. Now this neighbor already talked to me much, right? I say, Well, what happened? He said, Man, let me tell you something, yeah. I am sick of hitting that ad. My children, every single morning, reciting that ad. And if I try to change the station, they're upset. Yeah, Tarzan, right? You have to, we have to stick on that station. I think it was on star 947. And the man said, Oh gosh, please, please, please come up with a new ad. I beg you, I beg you. So yesterday that came up with the with the death of the Tarzan. You know, you know, everybody who was complaining about the Tarzan had started complaining that they want back to the Tarzan ad. I say, but but you really please people in this place, boy. We get the Tarzanad. Not a one back the Tazanad.

Corie 6:18

People missing it, people missing it.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

You know, it's like I give them a rest and know they want it back. I like I was like so amazed. I was like, you know.

Corie 6:26

No, but it's genius, boy. Marketing, marketing for your money. Because I even forget the gorilla glue one. That that one was put back your household together. Your marriage. Yeah. But for people who don't know, when you say Marshall Monday, for instance, as a youth growing up in the 90s, the first time I heard the name Johnny Q was a DJ. And then people might know the song system days and themselves.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

It's so interesting that you would say that because I um I started off as a DJ. Well, the history is that my dad was the owner of Blue Ventures, which is one of the oldest, I will call it, combo bands. Because in those days, in those days, it was a lot of acoustic percussion, like congers, iron, like what you see in the pan sides now. Right. Those circle irons that they beating, cowbells, a lot of timberlees, right? A lot of brass. You still have five and six men in a horn section in those days. Now, now horns is like is like in an Ableton or a keyboard. That's right. Right? So he originally came from that combo acoustic age. And then, you know, as time went, he he converted and he started to get more into the technology, right? So my background was that um I used to DJ.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

So I used to go in my old man warehouse and borrow two speakers, blow it every now and then. He quarrel and he said, Well, if you blow it, tell me you blow it, you know. So you let any man push he carrying these speakers down our venue and he plugged it in it now. And he like, what really going on here? You know? So the man takes back his key, I fall out with him. I went down my door and ram me, and I said, Well, boy, I get put out, you know. He said, Well, look how I'll spot here on Church Street, right next to where Roy Cape is uh rehearsed, which was downstairs, um, where he presently living before he passed away, you know. And um, and I um I went there and I bought a speaker box here and a speaker box there. Eventually I had a song system after I blew up all the man things, right? So what really happened is that when um I started to DJ was through Pelican. So, I mean I'm looking young, but I have a good 40-something years in the industry, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

So I started renting pelicon in their song system, and I used to do all their screens and TVs and in in Pelican In. And then eventually the DJs, which was Louise Hart, and um they had a group called Two Tone, which was Gary Hunt and Richard Cornwall. Right. They um they lost some of the days that they used to play weekly, and then I took over with some of those dates, and then eventually I took over DJing completely. But I was in school, I was age 12, and I could not um DJ and go to school at the same time, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

It was too hard. The hours was like till 2-3. Anyone know Pelican? Pelican used to go till 2-3-4 in the morning. Any time. So, you know, at age 12, I was like hiring people to work for me, and you know, these people like double mage and double my size too. So imagine I both an up man for coming late or not playing, you know. I was I was employed by a fella called Patrick Hamel Smith, right? And Larry, right? Um, Larry died in a plane crash going to watch cricket. Um and Patrick originally, one of the original, he still is the original owner up to when you know I was there. And um Patrick was a little different kind of guy because the the slightest thing you do, you could be one year old, you could be a hundred years old, you're getting cuss. You're getting a real cost. Right. So I grew up under Patrick, and Patrick was the one who instilled professionalism and you know, making sure that things done a certain way. He wanted a certain, you know, style of music to please everybody, not just one type of crowd or one general music. No, he wanted a complete over, you know, like everything.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

So yeah, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

So yeah, he would call me two o'clock in the morning and say, hey, this DJ playing too much of this type of music, you know. I need you to um to to talk to him.

Corie 11:11

Oh, so you respect any as a man who hiring the DJs responsible for music in this place.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Yeah, I was responsible for the DJs now too.

Corie 11:17

Got it, got it.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

And then what happened is that from Pelican I started to evolve into playing for parties, and then an opportunity came up where 9-5 wanted to get some DJs and announcers, but in those days, you could not go on a radio station without having a certificate or a diploma in broadcasting. So men like Holly Thomas, Ericsson Bernard, Ian the Goose. Right. We need we need them, they wouldn't get any work, you know? So they came up with this pilot program where on a Monday would have been Downtown Outlaws, which was Mario, um, Tuesday was Dr. Hyde, which was Franco, who won hot 93 now. Wednesday would have been uh me. Thursday would have been Twees, and Friday would have been signal to noise on Chinese laundry, right? And we used to go from 12 midnight to I think 5 or 6 a.m.

Corie 12:19

Which starts off in the graveyard, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Well they couldn't trust us, yeah. But they they don't know if we're gonna talk Tayton or Bakayah language, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because none of us have these trainers, the papers, you know. So I mean, that is where we really got the recognition, yeah, yeah. So we were the ones who really brought the party DJs onto the radio. Because if we did not do that, you wouldn't be hearing all the Tilburn radio at all.

Corie 12:52

It's a Tilburn.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Because I saw 99% of the announcers on the radio stations now do not have well, that's true.

Corie 13:01

Do not have the paperwork. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

You know, so coming out of.

Corie 13:06

But let me ask you before you go to that, where's people responds to hearing all even in a late night? People, the public responding?

Shock Ads That Sold Tools

SPEAKER_00 13:13

People used to like it. They used to actually stay up and listen to us. If they had to study, like who was going to UV and all these places, they would pick that time. Right. Because the music that we played there, we used to bring our own DJs and mix down the music. Right, right. Whereas when you had Eric and Ericsson Bernard and Holly Thomas and they would just have a turntable there and they're playing song after song. And they're not really mixing like if you're in a live party.

Corie 13:45

Yeah, play a song talk, play a song talk, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

So you know, we change radio, we change radio into more like a party vibe, yeah, and people really like that. You know, so if you realize the radio stations now, when Aki 5.0 no, he has selector carry playing for him, of course, yeah. And it's a party, and it's a party. So we would have been back in the days where you just have an announcer and he's playing his own song one by one. You know, in those days you had men like Chris Boyne, Adrian Donmora, Stanley Augustus. They had a group called the Dream Team.

Corie 14:19

If you remember that, no, I don't remember that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

We used to have big parties called Cinderella and Michelle and you know, yeah. One of the biggest promoters was a guy called Edison Walker. And I remember going to a party called Pajama Party, I think it was Christmas night, right? And people in their pajamas and bottle fight breakout.

Corie 14:43

I was now watching something like that from Guyana recently. I said the base done of that. No, yeah, bottle fight breakout.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

I mean, I I I in the I was in the era of Donkey Derby, right? Right in cruise ship complex when bottle fight break out again, and men scaling fence with Bob Wyon and hiding. Yeah, yeah. Man, I was around since from time let's say Boxing Day hit everybody. Used to go to Palms Club, right? It's a staple. Then a Rima Tennis Court used to be New Year's Day with Roy Mirage and all of them, and Cliff Harris. Then we had Metal Box, then we had um a lot, a lot of events, national flower mills. We had um licensing Wasa, yeah, different. We had console fit. I used to be going to these parties with my father with Blue Ventures, right? And and lying down, sleeping in between a blue tool and you know. I mean, I was around for Soka Village with Cliff Harris and them. I mean, those were exciting days, eh? Now, when when you go to an event, each band plays like all the bands play on one song system. But in those days, boy, it was so exciting because it had four stages. Right. So, like every weekend you'll have four different bands. So Charlie's Roots in one corner, Blue Ventures in our next song Rev in another corner, Chandelay in our next, taxi in our next corner. And they have multiple bands, right? And you always waiting to hear the next band start out. Because I remember a time boy, Taxi was opposite uh um Blue Ventures and Charlie's roots, and Robin Imamsha was the engineer, and when the band, I think it was Blue Ventures, was finishing in the last, last part of the song, Robin E. Mamsha like go a kick drum any place, the whole place shake like a hood quick, you know. And and I was saying, if you see me, I was like, what the hell this man having these boxes, boy? You know, I go and mako in. Yeah, you gotta check. I say, well, I had to buy the same amplifier and speakers and thing, but it was really Lalu doing the song system for them in those days.

SPEAKER_04 16:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

I mean, we we this era of people and these times, they miss all the excitement because in those days, man, I telling you, it was amazing.

Corie 17:07

Yeah, I think people to experience that now, even fetters know. The feeling of like it's a songwriter finishing up on one stage, and you had to move because if you want to be in front, you had to move when you had a kick drive.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

You used to move from stage to stage.

Corie 17:20

That's right, that's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

I remember Byronly bring a speaker box called a silvo drive. So Byronly used to community system too. Yes, yes. Byronly brought a speaker box down a time called a silvo drive, right? It was powered by a motor, the speaker. First time I ever see that. When the man kicked that, he had a run, you know. Then he brought a board, a mixing board called, I think it was a DDA, I can't remember the exact name. I see Cliff Harris from Atlantic, and and everybody started by that. Davey from Rentham, everybody started say, boy, we need to get at. We need to get at. So, you know, in those days, you were it was exciting because when they had the quality and the the power that men was putting out because everybody had their own sound system, every single band had their own song system. Yeah, it's different now when you go on and four and five bands playing on one song system.

Corie 18:17

Yeah, even when you say too about the technology on stage, I mean I can understand how it makes it better or easier for artists, but the sound of every band was so different.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Not only that, the change over time was less.

Corie 18:28

It was less then.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Oh, yeah, I guess you just kick up. You just kick up right after. So, you know, the the times were really different then. Yeah, yeah. So as one band finished, and the people had a lot more stamina in those days.

Corie 18:41

Yeah, no joke.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Because they used to come in the party eight, nine, ten any night, and they go into the next morning, and it's it's ban after ban after ban.

Corie 18:49

Like brass was an example of that, it's in daylight till you leave there, and you come in eight nine the night. So then days you as a youth, you didn't mix, you you're just looking at them, you know.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Brass started off, I think, with individual stages, if I remember correctly, at the beginning. There was then they changed, you know, they eventually went with two main stages, right?

Corie 19:06

But remember to the right off, roll off because I think one of the problems was you couldn't get a band to stop playing with the one stage, correct? And I guess you're right too. Black brass was one of the few feds where the DJ had to kind of play to.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

But times really change, you know. I mean, you wouldn't believe, I mean, even before we we we started the interview, I was telling you, long time a stage was our oil drum with two by four and some ply on top of it, and you could not get the stage higher than about three feet, three and a half feet because of the height of the oil drum. And my dad, he designed an angle iron stage. Well, we had um some guys called the Go Sign family, which was Steve Go sign Ralph, go sign is a set of brothers. Well, a father with a set of sons, and they had a set of three-ton trucks, and they used to transport my dad by about two, three trucks to go on a job, right? Right. And every time we reached there, the stage never in place in time. And my dad said, Look, I fed up for this. And and they they came together and they designed this Angle Iron stage, you know, to slot in bars, and and that was just the whole beginning of a new era with stages.

Corie 20:18

Yeah, so they're just solving their problem.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Yes, and then after that, we went to scaffolding stages, which we now presently use. And we also, of course, use the aluminum stages, right? So times rarely change a long time. You put a tent on the stage, and that was your big covering.

Corie 20:37

That was it.

Tarzan Ad Backlash And Comeback

SPEAKER_00 20:37

That was it. Now we have trussing, you know, and top the stage, truss and roofs and motors.

Corie 20:43

I mean, the the the times yeah, I guess the things the things are evolved, but it's part of the story, you know. When when you look at where we come from, because even before, when we were talking about how much of the world's song system uh technology or the things that we change, or even you talk about your further billing stages, people look at what we're doing here and do internationally.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Yeah, I mean, even the song systems, you know. Um, I I grew up in this with my dad, and um, I learned a lot from my dad. It's Bobby Kwan, yeah.

Corie 21:15

Bobby Kwan. Yeah, for the Google people, both Google.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

I learned a lot from Ellis Chowlinon, who used to manage David Ruther, Charlie's Roots, Tambu, all of them. I was with I was the main song company for Charlie's Roots when they were in the peak. Yeah. Right? I mean, I learned a lot from Byron Lee, right? So, I mean, my journey was uh a long journey. I actually started off with a guy named Neville Al Young. And he was like one of the he was like one of the first songmen in this country. In those days, we didn't have the type of song systems we have now, you know. We had something called a short column. The box was about this deep, this wide, and about this tall.

SPEAKER_04 21:59

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

And it have a set of small speakers in it. Yeah. And on top of that, they used to have those Indian horns that you see guys driving around the place with now. That's announcement. Yeah, in top of the cars and things, right? Scrap a hair. So it was like this short column with an Indian horn in the top of it. And that driving the event. And we used to use the I-beam columns in the savannah and weld a little bracket on it and rest it in top of the columns.

Corie 22:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Right? Now it's a whole different ball game.

Corie 22:28

You have I even say, as you say, Robin E Mamsha, I heard him and maybe Beaver, if I if I'm not mistaken, talking about the fact that Trender and Tobago could probably be credited for the PS system the way it is in the world now. Because we we fix it, we put it together, we figure it out, and we make it up.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Well, I mean, we did a lot, but we were not the ones who invented or designed the um like we didn't the technology came from outside, right? And we um we just took it and utilized it based on their um you know advice, and you know, we put it together and we we designed sound systems to to fit different um yeah, whatever the application is, yeah, whatever the application is. But I mean in my dad's days, boy, we had an engineer called Charles Nichols, which he does work for like he's still around, actually. A surprise. Yes, I saw him the other day. Um, we had a lot, a lot of guys, boy, in in my dad's time, and I learned a lot of stuff from all these guys, you know.

Corie 23:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah. As you're coming up to watching y'all, because I think people underestimated, even going back to the DJ days, how much y'all change. Like, I didn't even know the overnight radio thing. I saw it in parties where I now begging to come out as a young teenager, right? And I remember going to one party in particular with um it was Neil Giuseppe's daughter, her birthday.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Yes, I did her birthday party actually.

Corie 23:56

So I um I got a little youth man, and I begging for a blight to come out something because people don't understand what it was like hearing from Chinese laundry or Johnny Q. That was that was them all of us controlling the cool. So wherever Ole go, if we were here, Johnny Q, especially for us, eh? Because maybe laundry we see him as a little older and more established. So when we had Johnny Q and Oliver's bad and we getting some dance hall, we never used to hear that on your radio. Correct. So when I went up in the um where's the area you were living in again, boy? Up. It was in Dago or something. It's in the back of the valley. Palm. There's our fet now names Palm Avenue. Palm Avenue.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Right.

Corie 24:29

We went up in the back deal. And when we reached and Johnny Q played them days, you hear and Trimble, Trimble dancer. Is the whole party trimbling to them things?

SPEAKER_00 24:39

I used to do a lot of events in those days. I used to do a lot of school bazaars.

Corie 24:43

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

You know, I had a crung wagon and now finished painting the wagon. And I put musically speaking, put some fancy rims and thing. And I went to the holy name bazaar. And one of my DJs saying, boss, um, I think we should park the car inside, you know, because I think if we park it outside, something could go wrong. We did the paint job, you know.

Corie 25:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

So we was contemplating if the park outside or park inside. We end up parking inside behind the stack of speakers and our bottle come flying over. Some two students end up in a little fight. And my bonnet get it. I tell you, like, I just got back the car the morning, you know. The the the wavelength, you know.

Corie 25:25

That was that was school dance days.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

I yeah, that was school dance days. You know, I I wanted to end the party right away.

Corie 25:33

So from from them days of DJing and thing and your name known, when when it starts to become more business like for you, but I guess it's early because you're hiring DJs and putting them out early.

Growing Up DJing At Pelican

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Well, it it's so what really happened is that from young business was instilled into me, you know, because I always have high, I set high goals, right? And I have big expectations. So I would have gone to DJ on a job, and the man who bring in the stage, he can't reach on time because in those days my dad and Steve goes sign and have much stages. But everybody started to copy what he did. And then um the guy who have to bring the 10 for me, he would reach late, right? And hold me back from hold us back from setting up all the amplifiers and ink. So eventually I said, look, I need to invest in a stage. So I took the design and uh made it better than even what they had in those days. And then I started to buy one tenth, then two tenths and three tenths. Before you know it, I won a few hundred tenths. I won about ten stages. Actually, I still have these stages. I remember I was parked up there because it it's outdated now, right? So I don't even know what to do with it, you know. So um, and then I realized the promoter was complaining that he booking toilets and the toilet company don't have enough toilets. I said, Well, but you know, I'll try my hand with a few toilets. Right. End up buying toilets, then the generator, man. He always took a book out, so you know, you're fighting with him to get a generator. I said, Look, I'm a buy generator. And funny enough, my first my first generator came from Don Ramden. Oh nice. And I said, I said, Don, I know money, you know. He said, What are we gonna do? You say call me Chiny. What we gonna do, Chiny? I said, Well, you tell me. I said, Well, I'm gonna borrow the generator, make sure I can work good first now for what I do. So I take the man generator, I'm going on a path to a job. It works. So a month go on, I still have each generator, two months gone. He said, Um, you say, Chiny, I still own that generator, or it's yours by now. I say, Well, it works, you know. But um, waiting about a payment plan. Yeah, all right, all right, because if I if I don't give you a payment plan, I feel you'll keep it and do pay. Yeah. So you give my payment plan, and then he had some speakers there. You know, in those days it was called Martin Audio. I say, um, I say, well, I could try all these boxes to you. He said, well, yeah, but I can't lend it for one on one event, eh?

Corie 28:18

So he wasn't doing event rentals for event then, too? No, no, no. What he was doing was not like a big one.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

He was investing in equipment and he would um help the bands who traffic used to rehearse right next to Roy Cape. So it was traffic and Roy Cape next to where my my warehouse was, which I was renting from him, you know. Right, right. So this is in St. James, too, this is it. Yeah, yeah, on Church Street. So the bands will envigle him to to buy all this and a little that, and you know, and they will use it too and pay when they want just like me, you know. But he had a kind heart and a kind soul because he used to like the business, you know. Right. So, you know, he would always say, Look, we need this, all right. Let's buy it. You know, and and he will give us when we can pay, we pay, when we can't pay, we can't pay, and you know, he going down with us, you know. And Don played a very important role in helping a lot of the bands in those days because there was it was a lot of bands, believe it or not. We had Chandelier, Traffic, Fireflight with Beaver, Taxi, Song Rev, Kalian, Blue Ventures, Charlie's Roots. Yeah, yeah.

Corie 29:24

Those days when they see a flyer or a billboard on Racing Road for a fit. The whole billboard full of bands. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

But the the people of today don't really know about the history of where these bands, you know, how much bands it really had, and yeah, and where we came from to where we are now, eh?

Corie 29:44

No, yeah, lacking a little bit. I just feel sorry for them. I missed it for them. I wish they had experienced.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

I remember Beaver from Fireflight going to play in Chinese Association, and I see the man come out with a real fancy stage boy. All the top glittering, and it has like a plexi on the top, and I'm like, what? This man carry this to another level, boy. Right? And I mean, it's it's just so amazing. In those days, everything was just so competitive.

Corie 30:12

But even as you say competitive, but you're all living together, all you're helping one another, but you under another kind of relationship.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Well, you will always have the little bacana behind the scenes, of course. But I think in those days, everybody was a lot more friendly. You know?

SPEAKER_03 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

And in those days, you could have afforded to you could have afforded to hire five and six bands on a venue because a band was going for five to ten thousand dollars a gig. Oh, serious. Right? Now you and I'm gonna say the kind of figures these bands and artists working for now. Yeah, different book. But I mean, it's it's crazy from then to know how these prices, you know, reach of course. Where it reach now.

Corie 30:57

But especially when you look at what a band was then versus a band.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Well, yeah, in those days, you are 20, you can have what 15, 16, 20 men in a band.

Corie 31:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's stage four.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

If you check five, six one men, you know, then you check four men in a rhythm section, there's ten. There, you can't. You still have two guitarists, you still have a single lead guitarist.

Corie 31:16

Well, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

A rhythm guitarist. That's true. So that's 12.

Corie 31:19

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:20

A drummer, 13, a bass man, 14, about four lead singers.

Corie 31:25

And you ain't got engineer nothing yet.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Yeah, I mean, uh, we ain't talking the drum machine man, we ain't talking the technical team. So, you know, the price, it it went real high, and the the the quantum of man on the stage went rich real low.

Corie 31:43

Yeah, it's five, six people now. Yeah. If that, if that. So you're going through them days and you're you're starting to understand where you're coming from because you're solving your own problem by getting your own tents, getting your own toilets, and so how you getting the information in terms of what is out there? You used to do the conferences abroad, or how you how you learn um it was all self-taught.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Being uh in a business, or in any type of business, as you as you um progress, you're going to realize that you need things because you need these tools to be able to operate your trade. And in those days, you really cannot afford to buy everything needed. But as you make a dollar, you reinvested because I remember after falling out of my dad, um my spectacular, which was the biggest tent, which a lot of youths don't know about these tents. No, but that was a big thing in those days. You used to go to the tent, you know, where you had all these top artists every night. And I remember the Martino brothers coming to me and asking me to do the song system in Spectacular on Henry Street, and I was like, Well, all right, I think I'm ready, but I don't have no speaker boxes. So I call him my father, I say, Well, let me get somebody, but he said, Oh no, you can't get that because when you use that every night, how are you getting my speakers to play out? So I called my godfather. I say, um, I said, Boy, I need some speakers. And he was like, You need some speakers? I say, Yeah, well, I mean, I mean, I got a contract, and and I asked my dad, I say, Well, I get another one. Come on, course, you know, sign for the security. He said, No, no, I ain't sign for no security. You gotta make it on your own. He said, When if you can't pay back your loan, you had a guy to forge up. No, right? I don't nobody ringing down my phone, right? So my godmother and my godfather assisted me, right? And I got a loan from um, I think it was Fidelity Finance, right? And I bought the song system and I put it in spectacular, right? And it all started to grow from there. It was crazy. Also, spectacular was really the jump off here with the with the song itself, right? With the the song system part, apart from the savannah, right? Because I learned all the technology and learned how to mix and how to I was the DJ playing cockroach and the petticoat in in the savannah, you know. They used to have a boot and closed air conditioned boot in the top of the grandstand. Right. And I was the DJ and the engineer mixing the pan and playing the the song 99 times while the band coming on stage, right? But you still have to play the song over and over, especially Kitchener Days.

Corie 34:41

But you any you these songs are ears attached to them, you know. You was underage, you wasn't supposed to be legal playing these.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

Well, I wasn't I was not drinking alcohol, but I remember Neville Aliong. If Neville Alion was like a Patrick Hamilton kind of guy, he would have more costs than Patrick, right? And boy, every oh I'm hungry. I used to bought six hamburgers in one night and eight hamburgers, and the man said, Boy, cheaper tough the tough it's cheaper to pay you than to feed you, you know. You couldn't pay a hell. Yeah, because in those days I wasn't really getting paid, you know. That was my dad's best friend.

Corie 35:16

So you do anyway.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

So he said, you know, send send him learn the business, you know. In those days, Neville used to record the pan sides with something called a boom mic. The man had a mic like this long, right? A gun mic, used to call it. And he recorded on real to real, you know.

Corie 35:33

To record pan.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

Real to real. I don't think people know about realtor real.

Corie 35:37

No, no, no, they wouldn't.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you know the history of recording a song. Used to people, everybody used to go choral studios in the back of sea lots, yeah. And one day you had to put on the drums, and next day you had to come and put along the bass, then the brass men have their day. And a song used to take days, sometimes weeks.

Corie 35:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pelamas here talking about some of it. Talking about the idea behind um, for instance, you have eight tracks, you had to kind of make decisions. It's not something you think about when you listen to a song at all. Yes. But you had to decide what to mix on which track, and if the kitty vocals do one track and how to bounce how much um instruments on one track, right? Exactly, exactly. Now Dano.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Yeah, now you have limitless tracks. Unlimited unlimited, you know. So it's like times really, really, really change. And I mean, I I have been around from that first song, man era to to um to record first studios in the country. Right. I mean, I have a rich history in entertainment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was around for Barbarosa. My dad used to play for Hearts for years, year after year, Edmund Hart. Right. That was the biggest man in Trinidad in those days.

Corie 36:53

Yeah, and you see, you keep saying was around, like your air wrong now, right? I want to tell people something, right? People watch a video this year with Marshall Wonzano, bringing young Angelo go on his stage. And while Angelo's singing, he passed and he mashed on some something coming up, some smoke and thing. And your name on that monitor, you will see Johnny Curaton on that monitor. Just so people understand who we're talking to, right? But that acts about spectacular again. That print that system there's a set and forget thing when you rent them because the tent used to be months long sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

Yeah, yeah. Once we put it there, we will have um song engineers working on stage and front of house, you call it. And they would just remain there every night unless the tent go out. Because you know the tents used to go out. Right, roving tents. Roving tents, then used to have clashes.

Corie 37:38

So then you're doing more work at that point in time if they trust you to set up the home base.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

No, my my my journey was really exciting, I man, because at the end of the day, I don't think that that it have another person right now living in Trinidad that that you could say achieve what I achieve in in my life span that you know I mean that that my journey then, you know, because they had a place called Country Club long time where it used to be JBs, and then had a place called Country Club, which you USM messengers bought every single weekend, country club used to have a party with blue ventures, yeah, and every single weekend country club full ram. And I saying, but all these people could come every single weekend and hear the same man, same music, uh-huh, and line up outside, and the and half of them cannot even get in.

Corie 38:46

Yeah, yeah, right?

How Party DJs Changed Radio

SPEAKER_00 38:49

It's crazy.

Corie 38:51

But is it just showing somebody quality and the quality of the time? Is that it?

SPEAKER_00 38:55

Well, boy, I mean my dad used to rehearse there, that was where his original band room or rehearsal space was country club. And it's just amazing to see that in those days we had um the big DJs in those days were fellas like Larry Goviar, Wendell Mitchell, they used to call him DJ Wendell, and um Alan Montano, and they had a group and they put it together. They used to play individually and then they put it together and they call it law. Larry, Allen, and Wendell. And they were like the the guys like what you would have called um the dream team, which would have been Chris Boyne and Stanley and Adrian Don Morning. Right. And they were the hottest men in those days. Control hottest men. They were like you cannot have a party without these three guys.

Corie 39:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then so the parties by then, it was mostly DJ driven or still bands, or it was a combination.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

You would have gotten a combination.

Corie 39:59

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

But I must say, in those days, you used to get what they were called music, music, yeah. Right. My father would play Barry Man and oh, and you wouldn't believe the kind of music they playing, but yeah.

Corie 40:13

Now that's the thing, the bands were still doing a lot, like broader. But bands DJs everybody, the brother's spectrum of music used to play as a whole.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

But you used to enjoy going out there in those days, huh? Right, yeah. Because I learned a lot about music from those days.

SPEAKER_03 40:29

Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

Right? My dad will play Whitney Houston and all those old hits. But in those days, it was the latest, right? And that's how that is how I was able to play the type of music that Pelican wanted.

Corie 40:44

Right, yeah, yeah. People write and remember Pelos. You had to be able to play.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

Well, a 12-year-old. Yeah, well, I suppose you don't even know you had a note exactly. Because I want to play, you know, the urban type of music because that's what I would have.

Corie 40:57

That's what we like.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

Like, you know, being a young person. So I got broken into all those big, big, big hits. Yeah, something in those days because of you know the country club days and etc. etc.

Corie 41:12

So if you're playing 1230, don't think you're playing Pelos. You will see mine in school. What school you went?

SPEAKER_00 41:17

Um, I went Briggs, right? Prepare in Belmont, they're now in Cascade. So I was in Briggs at that time, right?

Corie 41:24

You know, and then secondary school.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Um St. Dominic's Aveo. Nice. And uh love you in school. He was well, boy, I bought the school. Yeah.

Corie 41:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

I am now the owner of the school. So everybody was like, so you're gonna open back the school or what? You know, I said, No, no, no, no. No, it's an app.

Corie 41:45

And now we're gonna ask you every time I ask you what business any answers change in several different areas and businesses. But I like where you're going with the evolution of the rental because I think the whole thing changed from when you if if spectacular was where that thing came from, is like when the bands change and they start bringing their own song systems, the need arise now for somebody who you could do rental companies. So I suppose yourself, Balroops. Who were some of the others that came up around the same time?

SPEAKER_00 42:08

Three main men in those days were really me, Rent Am and Wellalu, who passed away. Right. Right? We started to do the main bands. Yes, Balroop was there too, but uh it was more rentamp. Oh Balroop passed all. Yeah, well, Balroop died, the original Balroop, and then um his son took over Vishnu. Right. So, you know, that the battle was passed along there. But um we we as we as we how you will call it, we evolved. Right you find that technology was moving very fast, very, very fast. For example, one of the most expensive things would have been a mixing board, which you which you call a mixing console, where all the instruments will come up and that goes in front of the stage. And I mean in those days we would have paid a few thousand US for a board, right? You know, it was one of the most expensive things. Now, to date, you have boards like a brand called Digico, and those boards are top of the line board selling for a hundred and something thousand US and more. So this business more is more like of a hobby now.

Corie 43:25

So it's not rewarding in terms of financially, you could make money doing it still.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

No, it's more like a hobby, right? Yeah, it's like racing cars, yeah.

Corie 43:35

I guess yeah, I love that. You can't make money, do it.

SPEAKER_00 43:38

But we started there, and I mean the journey helped me a lot with networking with people, and it also helped me to you know, in all the other businesses that I do, right? And and presently, I presently do, and you find that entertainment is always the the main. Framework that help you network because everybody wants to meet you, everybody wants to see who you are, everybody wants to come any party free.

Corie 44:09

Yeah, of course, of course, of course, of course.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

So they want to be a friend for more than one reason.

Corie 44:14

Carrier speaker box. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

You know, it's so funny. I just say carrier speaker box. I don't know if you remember those days, David. We used to move a gelita crates.

Corie 44:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

And it was like if I get a hole at crates, Mafia free.

Corie 44:29

You know, if you just men used just wait to steal a pull up. We put up.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

Yeah, boss. I mean, right? You know how much of Mafia? It was crazy. It was crazy. Jolita crates, you know. Yeah, different. I think DJs put us some gelilo to that business.

Corie 44:48

Yeah, when DJs go on the digital lands. I'm just taking all the crates. You know? But I always remember like there was this point where everything I heard about rental for any type of event, whether it was corporate, fed or anything, it's had to be Johnny Q.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

Oh, yeah.

Corie 45:02

Deliberate for you. That was the intention, and some of how you want to build out the business.

SPEAKER_00 45:05

Yeah, yeah. Well, from networking, you find long time in those days is like everybody calling you because they know you. It was who knows who. And that is how that point in time or that era was, right?

Corie 45:21

Yeah, I know Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 45:22

Now you have your name on your speaker box and you have your truck driver with your name, and people will say, What this man doing everything, but I feel he's the man to call. I see. Right? So it changes.

Corie 45:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Long time is who knows you. Right, yeah. And yeah, your name gets cemented in them spaces. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Everybody knows you, and they call in you and say, Yeah, well, cocktail event, you know. Yeah, and you how much you will charge me, you know. I mean, I don't make money, you know. They always start the conversation like that. That's why you had to open.

Corie 45:50

Yeah. That's why you had to open. You know, so from there, what's the next business you remember investing and all getting off the ground after rental?

SPEAKER_00 45:57

My dad had a security company, right? Oh, you didn't. And um, I remember they had a contract, and the other directors could not come up with the money to um expand what was needed to meet the contract, right? Like anything like bulletproofers, firearms, you know, etc. etc. And um he and I spoke and he said, A fear should jump in here. And I um I jump in and I invested into the security business. I made a lot of changes, you know. So I built a dormitory for the security to sleep, and you know, I um I bought a property, we bought a property for the guards, you know, where the office and the guards will sleep. And um, we stopped renting, and I made a lot of changes, you know, and the company was doing well. I went and even cut on a piece of mountain that nearly um come now on the dormitory, but I fixed the problem, you know. For every problem, they have a solution, you know.

SPEAKER_01 47:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

And he was saying, you know, boy, you kind of crazy, you know. I say, well, you know, you have to be crazy to survive in business, and you have to have belly to to do business to start with. Because if you if you move, you know, in a very conservative fright and way, you would never take the risks.

SPEAKER_03 47:29

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

You would never take risks, you know. So he is uh is like a he's a negative and I'm the positive. So everything I go to do, he would say, nah, nah, nah, stay out of that, and I will go into it for spite to prove a point to him that you don't know what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, so I remember an opportunity, an opportunity came up with a bar on RPT Avenue. And um the name of the bar was what was the name of the bar boy?

Corie 48:05

They even know every bar in Arapita Avenue.

SPEAKER_00 48:07

Where Pub House is now, it was owned by the guys who had only records store took on one of them. Right? Yeah, um, anyhow. And when the guy died, his son and other people took it over, and it was not really doing as well as it should have. And I got the opportunity to take the bar. But my dad had a bar around the savannah. Um, in those days it was called Players. And when the bar was doing good, it was doing good, and then you know, like everything else in the entertainment industry, it comes with an expiry.

Corie 48:52

Yeah, it has a cycle.

SPEAKER_00 48:53

Yeah, it has a cycle, you know. And he was like, boss, we ain't going into no bar business, huh? And he was like, he he told me every single possible thing bad about going into a bar business. Yeah, all that'll go wrong, right? And I remember quietly.

Corie 49:16

Novo Sarah.

Bands Then Sound Systems Now

SPEAKER_00 49:17

Novo Sarah. That's the name. You don't know me near about that. Yeah, right. So I remember quietly cutting a deal with the owner's son. I said, look, I have the money, but um, I'll pay in two, three parts and I'll take over the bar. And um, I didn't tell my dad, right? So I went and checked a guy who was running all out. I say, an Irish guy, I say, you know, I get in this bar, I have the experience from Pelican. Um come and um jump on board with me because he was the food and beverage manager in Hyatt. They brought him here to set up and to get hired going, right? Right. So he came and he jumped on board with me. And I'm not lying to tell you, boy, from the first week we opened that pub, that pub that pub shoot off like a rocket. And now that pub is still the number one or one of the number one bars in Port of Spain, yeah, yeah. Right? And it was so amazing. Every time um I talked to my dad now about this this pub house, yeah, he's kind of like changing his story a little bit. Well, I didn't really tell him not to go in, go into it, but I just told you to be careful. He was giving guidance, you know, and he's told yeah, yeah. He's already reversed a little bit now, you know. So, you know, when I tell him I was opening the hardware, he was like, Well, I mean, I don't know what to tell you because you know I done already proved myself for the bar. Yeah, so you know, he like he like he 50-50. Now he like, well, try your hand now, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When I tell him I want to open our autopaths, place he like, um, I think you're going out to a lee here now.

Corie 51:06

You know, yeah, and ask about that too because you you I remember when I saw the hardware. Well, first thing in remember in my mind, and maybe many other people's mind, when I hear Johnny Q Hardware. My wife tells me, Johnny Q Hardware. I said, Nah, man, it's Johnny, some other letter, but not Q. I say Johnny Q and Hardware until I see the place. But it was a smaller location, right?

SPEAKER_00 51:24

It's starting in a small spot, so you started expanding the hardware based on what just well it originally was Johnny Q Hardware and Auto Parts. But that was the original, but I did not have the space. So I took another building next to Synergy, right? And I opened the auto parts. But like everything else, everybody's selling auto parts, you know, and how do you compete with all these different auto parts? So I said, you know what? Let me try my hand at different types of parts and batteries and these types of things. And I remember going to a company, I don't want to call their name, because they'll have to pay me here. Um a big conglomerate. And they had a battery that did not, it was like a no-name battery, right? And I said to them, I say, you know what? Give me that battery. And I took the battery and I came up with the whole marketing campaign with the with the um Tarzan and the Gorilla Glue and everything. And I incorporated the battery into it. And I came up with this price of 488. And I said, you know, every time somebody wants to buy a battery, you're gonna remember this 488 figure, right? And I built a campaign around it. And batteries started to fly out the door. And the company came to me and I said, Yeah now, but when I call the name of this battery, people buying it and they don't know the name. But I call in the same company other big brand names, right? Right. So I said to them, I said, Look, guys, I need to get a little more discount towards marketing, or I need to get a little marketing contribution fund. Yeah, because when you call a name, everybody who's selling that brand benefits in. Of course. And we had our little back and forth, and eventually, well, look, it didn't really work out as we planned. You know, we couldn't come to a middle ground. And I say, you know what? Let me go into my own battery business, which I did. And I took another no name and I branded it Q Power, and now we are within the top um two sellers of batteries in the country.

SPEAKER_03 53:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:44

Right? So it's like, you know, I didn't believe that the campaign would have worked, but I tested it with the local product.

Corie 53:56

Yeah, it's the confidence.

SPEAKER_00 53:58

I didn't have to look for the US currency, I didn't have to worry about the warranties because I was not the warranty center at that point in time.

SPEAKER_01 54:05

I see, I see.

SPEAKER_00 54:06

And then when when I I started to do my own my own batteries, I became my own warranty center.

SPEAKER_03 54:11

Right.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

And it's amazing that people were buying our brand, it's called Q Power, and um they didn't really care whether it was called Q Power or No Power.

Corie 54:22

Yeah, because again, random, I need a battery. Somebody tell me Johnny Q. I said, nah, not Johnny Q. I said Johnny Q is a hard way.

SPEAKER_00 54:30

Yeah, and again, it is because our name is a household name now.

Corie 54:37

And that's what you mean.

SPEAKER_00 54:39

People would not think twice to support us. You know, we had some instances where customers will come in and complain about the battery, and we know when we check the car or the vehicle, the battery is overcharging.

SPEAKER_03 54:55

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Right? And they they damage the battery. And I will tell my manager look, just replace the battery for them. Free. But we're not giving them the warranty unless they go and get the charging rate on the alternator repaired, right? And they will come with all kinds of stories because they're trying to come up with a story to say something wrong with the battery, just to get a free battery. And we would say to them, look, this is your charging rate. We know it's overcharging, but the boss say, go ahead and give it.

SPEAKER_03 55:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:29

Because I always remember uh a bank saying to me, it's easier to figure out to keep a customer than to replace a customer. And what you lose on the bend, you gain on the street.

Corie 55:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:42

So that customer would leave there very contented that they rob me.

Corie 55:49

Right? Oh, it's weird. But they will come back.

SPEAKER_00 55:52

But they will come back.

Corie 55:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:54

And you know what? At the end of the day, I prefer they leave happy than they leave sad. Yeah. Because when they leave sad, they always gonna remember you. And it's not only a battery sale you're gonna lose. You're gonna lose a hardware sale, you're gonna lose a song system rental. You're gonna lose a lot more because there's a there's a plus and a minus putting everything under one umbrella. Of course. Right? So when something does bad or doesn't go correct under one umbrella, you you could be in for the whole name could be affected.

Corie 56:29

Correct, could collapse. Yeah, of course, of course, of course.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

But I took the chance and did everything under one umbrella because I said, you know what? I aim in for the highest standards.

SPEAKER_03 56:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

And if I fail, right, failure really and truly should not be in my vocabulary. And if I do, it will be part of the journey, and I have to work harder to try to convince the people, you know, that I have I've fixed the problem and you overcome it. And I overcome it just like any other business.

Corie 56:59

Yeah, I suppose it's one of the things when you name the business after yourself. You you you you you owe yourself that to contribute to building. So I'm like, so you're very involved day to day in your businesses.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

But bigger companies than me and bigger names than me would have brought out all types of different products. And I mean, they fail, but at the end of the day, they pick up the pieces and they improve and they you know, they even come better and better and better.

SPEAKER_03 57:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:25

Because it's by having problems, is where you know how to, you know, you dissect it and you figure out how to solve the problem so that would never happen again.

Corie 57:34

Yeah, something you said I want to touch on it because when you talk about risk and starting the business, like I lecture in entrepreneurship part time, and I find that is one of the hardest things. I could explain the marketing theory and some of them things, but the idea of selling one of something. I was talking to somebody yesterday, and they were saying, you know, they're trying to perfect this thing that they have before they sell it. And my my question is, oh, you know it's perfect before you sell it. Who do you tell me if it's perfect? Now the people are trying to sell it to.

SPEAKER_00 58:02

You know, it's so ironic because I am diversifying again into other products like chemicals. No, yeah, I'm I'm the ball is rolling now, right? And um, other products, and I try I am trying to keep the household name because I think a lot of people trust us now. And um I used to use a big brand, I don't want to say any name, to clean my tents because the tent buckles after you watch it, wash it, it used to leave a rust mark from the tent being a little damp. And for nothing in the world, we could have gotten those rust marks off of the tent. And a guy came to me and he said, Boss, I want you to try this. And I tried it and it took it off. And we've been looking for a product to take that off for years. So I went to the guy, I said, Listen to me, you're willing to sell your company or you're willing to partner with us. What you want to do? Man said, boss, anything you want to do, I do it. He just like yeah, you with me, you know, and I was like, All right, let's let's get the ball rolling, you know, and that is how you you you really find a superior product. You check to see what is the needs of the product in the market, you check to see what is the failures of the products people using on the market, and then you get a product and you test it, and if that product did a good job, then you know that product you need to jump in bed with it. Right, right. So, you know, the the the degreaser was amazing that the fella brought because I started to clean my exhaust hoods and my restaurants and bars with it, and the thing was like amazing. And I say into myself, partner, where you was all the time. Yeah, you know, you have a gold miner, yeah, and you're going into it. And he he was honest with me. He said, Boss, I like uh an artist. I might be able to sing good and write good, but I'm not good at networking to get jobs, I don't know people. Somehow I can't convince the radio stations to play these songs because I don't have a big name. He says, So you have the missing piece to the puzzle. I will manufacture and you do everything else.

Corie 1:00:30

Yeah, and so are they working like that together?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:32

So, you know, we we're in conversation now, and you know, it's just amazing that sometimes you don't need to go and look for something, something will just come to you and appear on your doorstep, right?

Corie 1:00:44

Yeah, but suppose if you have if you have that, will you train the muscle from young to look for opportunities and try to explode? Yeah, we went to business school and think we're not studying all the things in U.S.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:54

Well, you school with one pass, you know, or two passes is amazing. And my mom and dad say, Boy, you in trouble, you know. He said, Because we don't know what to do with you, you know. He say you failure for you, you know. And I say, uh, that's what I think. All right, no problem.

Corie 1:01:14

You spend your whole life through Randad.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:16

And I was like, it's amazing. It's amazing of you know about you know the achievements that that it's just amazing, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Corie 1:01:27

So you can build a household name where we can even talk about some of these things today. Congrats on it and congrats in advance on what you're doing now, too. Amazing, but we come coming back to Carnival now. I know I know that Carnival still was a mainstay of your business. And no, I'm I mean, I'm surprised to hear you say that there's something that I guess the main benefit could be networking and those things. I I assume when people see your name on speakerbox, like me, I think you're making real money. Anyone ask me, I say Johnny can I make it loud money out of Carnival.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:55

My my part, my song lights, screens, etc. part now is just more of a is more like a hobby. Yeah. You know, it's more like a hobby because last year I did a lot of events, and I I probably went on one event or two. You know, this year I went on a lot more, you know, because I bought some new equipment, so I was excited to see and hear the equipment perform. You know, so I mean I got back a little more interest in it because you know, uh uh as I child with toys, and they have new toys, you're like, you know, you're excited, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:37

So I re I realized that I have to keep on buying toys to keep the interest going, you know.

Corie 1:02:43

Yeah, for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:44

For me. But really and truly, when you go into retail business, you you get to realize that you know, song is not really um going to mine you for the rest of your life.

Corie 1:02:59

Yeah. Even no none of the rentals, tenth song stage, screen.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:03

No, you see, we compete with a lot of moms and pop shops. So it's difficult when you pay VAT and you pay all the taxes, pay and I s and you you employ workers, and a man storing everything under his house or his mother's house, and he just jumping and driving his own truck, and he bringing his son and his brother, right? To to come and help him build a tent.

Corie 1:03:27

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:27

And he not, and I don't want to say pay. You know, so how do you compete with that?

Corie 1:03:33

It's difficult. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really difficult. I don't think that the biggest event's gonna call the same top three companies who do it. That's not the case.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:44

Let me let's put it this way: a tent, anybody could rent a tent. Right? A toilet, a stage, etc. Anybody could do that, but the market, there's too much is saturated now, right? When it comes to song, song is not uh an easy commodity to manage, to rent, to upkeep, right? There's a lot of technical. Um you have to have a lot of technical experience. Just a wire speaker with an amplifier, you have to know the umage, you have to know how much speakers you could put on that one arm because the more speakers is the lower the umage and the arm could blow up. So it's a little more technical. And if you go out there and you you rent a tent and it has one or two little dirty spots, the people might say, you know, give me a little discount, or they might not even take it on. But go out there and let the song system break down.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:48

Yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:49

Or go out there and blow up all the equipment, or go out there and don't get the proper song, or go out there and the artists on the stage not content, you know, they're not happy, they're gonna not want to continue to perform. And you know, you ever heard he saying your next job is as good as your last job?

Corie 1:05:08

Yeah, only as good as your last performance. We got back to that.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:11

So, I mean, people was arguing and quarreling about Marshall's song this year and road marching, but Marshall, a little more technical, he don't really sing too much about jump and wave and you know these things. I mean, he's saying give them performance, and that is what people want when you're in certain industries. I'll give you an example. If I run in a food business, and today you feel in for barbecue, and I have a barbecue business, right? And I had a problem and I closed the business today because workers didn't come out, or we had a flood, or something happened, right? You as the customer would say, All right, I'll come back tomorrow or next week, right? Our line of business does not operate like that. Daughter, or you getting married tomorrow, and I do not deliver your tent or your song system or the the song system or the toilet sometime. What's gonna happen? Yeah, we're gonna have to cancel the event. So it you know, it is a different type of business, of course.

Corie 1:06:20

And it's high pressure. I don't like it for that. Events something I can't do it anymore. It's a lot of stress. Yeah, I can't do it anymore. We used to do for we used to represent like some international brands, we do Sony or Sony Ericsson and thing, and because of them, we do some events, but I find it stressful.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:36

And that is one of the reasons that I came out of the security business because manpower is very difficult to manage. So if you have a certain amount of contracts and security guards don't show up, what are you gonna do? Take the man you have in another location and cut them in half. You can't. But if I have a tent to build and somebody don't show up, I could call a partner or call one of them. And say, hey, come give me a hand. You know, I need to get this done, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So at the end of the day, you know, certain industries are very difficult to manage, and others are a lot easier. So event company is not as easy because imagine I don't show up, right? Yeah, not an option, it's not an option, and your wedding is in the morning or in the afternoon or and then is your name now because I go and cuss Johnny Q.

Corie 1:07:25

I vex like hell. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:28

And I'm not gonna say that in within this journey we didn't have our challenges. You always have challenges, yeah. You always vehicles break down. You can buy a new vehicle today, right? I remember I buy some new trucks, about eight trucks, and they had a problem, right?

Corie 1:07:46

Oh, across the line at trucks.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:48

Across the line, that brand, and then they they had to they had a recall, and the trucks was breaking on everywhere. Yeah, and you had to deliver, and you know, I bought new trucks as I said, you know, I don't want this problem, and I ended up writing the same problem. I remember we're going on your road for hearts, right? And I say, henna, I have some generators here, and I know you're getting a little old. Let me go and rent some new generators, right? I don't mind spending the money and renting it. Right. I would take my generators and rent it to events that not really if it cut off, it wouldn't have a big issue, you know? And I remember a company in Shagona's, they were the biggest generator company at the time. And they had one of the number one brands of generators. And I went on the road with six of these generators, and all of them break down.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:40

And I call any company and I saying, yeah, no, honour, what's going on here? Wow. And they're saying, well, boy, we call the factory, and it looked like there's a circuit board problem. And you know, so again, you had to fix this now. It's another time. So, you know, they come, they fly. They had luckily they had a technician on the road with us and they bypass the circuit board, and you know, it was just, you know, I'm telling you, don't matter what you do or what you try. Sometimes Murphy's law is what to go wrong will go wrong.

Corie 1:09:10

Yeah, I suppose, and your your mistakes, especially in that business, is public because um the Marshall Madness Monday Madness was the name of it. You did the whole thing this year again, you usually do. Yeah. So you and Marshall, are they have a good relationship in terms of his own?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:23

Well, Monday Madness is really my show. Oh, it is because he stopped Monday, he stopped Marshall Monday, okay, and then he moved to the Friday with um, they had another event on the Friday. I remember.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:34

I remember.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:35

And he stopped the Friday too, and I went and I approached him and I say, Hey, I want to do the Monday show. And he was like, All right, I'll work with you, and you know, and I took over the Monday Madness. And I could, well, I took over the Monday and I didn't, I call it Monday Madness.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:50

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:51

But um, I went in the Queen's Park over. The first year I didn't get to do the layout I wanted. And the second year, I cut on, you know, a whole boom it had there, and we put the stage in that area this year, and it was really nice this year. Yeah, people had a I did a special VIP area, giving people a deck, and then I put some barriers in front so they had an on the ground experience, and then they had a mix and mingle in front, and then they had a stage front area where they could have go and get the vibes.

Corie 1:10:20

Yeah, so it's not one of the biggest events in Carnival, no? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:23

The event did really good this year. Marshall gave them a show, a nice show, a performance, yeah, a concert slash party style.

Corie 1:10:31

You know? So a few things I want to ask about that event too. But what do you do that for? That you don't like headache? I'm talking about why what's like an enormous headache you went and picked up there to do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:42

It is, it is, it is, it is. And um boy, sometimes I get bored. Yeah, and I'm not lying to tell you.

Corie 1:10:51

So it's a challenge.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:52

And I like challenges. I mean two or three of the years I produced Sukamona, and that was like the biggest years more or less of Sukamona. And I gained a lot of experience from producing that Sukamona. I did the song, the stage, the roof, you know. Um I learned a lot, a lot from William Monroe, right? And his team, and then you know, I start I started to take over more and more and got get more involved in the soccer monarch. And you know, it was like a richer situation where blacks would have come to me and say, I'm not taking part in this no more, you know, because how much time is Marshall going? And I said to blacks and the other artists, because it was coming at me one after the next, I say, guys, ladies, you know, in fairness, Marshall always winning because he always has a good performance and he he does a lot of he had the rocket man, it's a whole show, it's a whole show, and all the rest artists will just come on stage and bring some dancers in costumes. Of course. You all need to step up your game, and they would say, Well, he has the money, yeah, and I would say so. You can get a sponsor to sponsor some part of your show or multiple sponsors, right? Right to raise the bar of your show to give Marshall competition, you know. And I mean, when I hear people fighting Marshall, they don't really know the journey and the experience and the fight on that Marshall went through too.

Corie 1:12:41

Of course, yeah. He talked about some of it here. He talked about some of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:44

I mean, because they hardly have artists that are still a wrong that took part in soccer monarch. Yeah, of course. I mean, they would have had what Bongy, I don't think he's sure Voice now.

Corie 1:12:56

Voice might have come out just after the Sokamonarch Hedy.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:59

Kess was there because he won, he won one yeah. Um Destro was there.

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Corie 1:13:06

Yeah, Destro was in the mix, but right. In terms of what you're talking about in terms of that show, like as a patron of Sokamonar in them times, Marshall was going over the top. Bungie was definitely doing something. You know, it had a few, Fayanne too, who used to put you could have depended on them for a show. Show only on the stage, and I'm not sure that many other artists had done a lot of but if you watch Fayanne on our stage, Fayanne was in those days and still is a giant excellent performance, giant, a giant. She can move across. I feel people forget. I hear people talk about Fayanne now. I was in the oval when she was doing Silver Surface and them thing and pose raising. I don't know if people, but we forget, you know, it's the same thing saying about Marshall. We used to talk about Marshall like he just now come out and the things he's doing now, new. But um trailer.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:54

She was in a band with Naya George. I remember Invasion. Invasion, Invasion was an amazing band. Yeah, they used to play like a DJ in our party. They forget what Invasion does.

Corie 1:14:04

Invasion changed the band, especially that time, because it would have been after the real head of the big bands by Invasion character level. She and Naya. She and Naya.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:13

People, people, you know, they talk about these artists, but man, I am telling you, I was there for the full nine yards.

Corie 1:14:21

This is why I'm glad you came because the truth is that social media could rewrite some of these things in a dread. When you when you hear them talking now, it's like they talk about Bungie and feel like they're now born. It's a little wild. But going back to Monday Madness, there was one part of the concept that saw Fact Rec.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:36

Um voice, um made history by Winning International Superman three consecutive times, 16, 17, and 18.

Corie 1:14:45

Oh, yeah, but for voice, voice, voice will never come here.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:50

So that is a very interesting point, right? Because voice now um he travel in the journey. I suppose he travel in the journey. Yeah. So one day Marshall will say, I am done, I'm retired. And voice would say, You all can't fight me because the experience I have. Yeah, and you're right, second to none.

Corie 1:15:13

You're right, you're right, you're right. I hear you. And you see, we need people who tell the rest of the story because believe it, young people will come then and say voice had it easy and he gets true in life.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:24

And voice is a really good solo. Yeah, yeah, and he he he he um he he worked very hard.

Corie 1:15:30

Yeah, and he's a superstar. He's a people person, really nice guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:36

And I and and whatever he gets, you know, in his sense of whatever he achieved, he deserves it because he really worked for what he has.

Corie 1:15:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:46

You know, as a matter of fact, my give back after all these years is a band called Evolution I put together. And evolution, all the people in that band is between 20 20 years and 26 years. So the youngest band in the country right now. When I came out with that band, I said this is my give back to the entertainment industry. I remember when the band came out, nobody wanted to work with the band. All the big name artists was like, nah, these youths, these artists are too young, they're too young. And after the first artist came, and the second artist came, and the third artist, and after the first year, and we went to the second year, they were like, nah, nah nah, these youths really have it, and all the big names they're back. Oh, nice, nice, and it's like amazing to see them working with all the big name artists, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Corie 1:16:50

Whoever thought that would have happened, yeah, because the band thing almost didn't know it hardly see them.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:55

Let me tell you, in in Monday Madness, the first year, I use Evolution to back the artists before Marshall. And I use A Team to back the artists after Marshall. This year, Evolution back every single artist. Yeah, serious. Every don't every single artist.

Corie 1:17:17

Yeah, and it's one of the events I hear people come out of, which trained like to say, if it has anything wrong, people will go complain about it. But people say the event was amazing this year.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:26

Yeah, and the the lead singer of the band is a guy called Michael Jacktio. Right. And um, he is Alicia Jacktio's son from Los Alumnos. Jagasar? Jagasar, sorry, right? Jagasar and um I don't know, yeah. Nobody named Jacktio, anyhow. Um actually, I think his name is Michael Jagas. No, his name is Jacktio, anyhow. I will check it. Yeah, they will factor it. Yeah, and yeah, because I always call it Michael, so it was like you can't remember your own phone number because you don't call your own phone number, yeah. So um, you know, he has a wealth of experience. He plays pan, bass guitar, congress, Michael Jack Dio, yeah, right? And his mom is Alicia Jagasa. So I had the final went on. Sometimes the hospital is programmed.

Corie 1:18:20

Happened to me.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:22

So um he's a multi-talented musician. And we just did a uh calypso competition for one of the top banks, and they scored the music for the contestants. And I remember the the people in charge came to me and say, these guys are amazing. They could write and score music, and yeah, you know, they they they analyzed, they they really impressed me.

Corie 1:18:52

I feel the thing will change with that age group, you talk about it. See them young 20s one thing, and them them take over, you think will be nice?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:58

No, they're starting, you know. I mean, they now have a few gigs outside of Trinidad and now working on some work permits to them.

Corie 1:19:06

So you think that is also the love too? Because you say that's not a thing you can't do that to make a whole bunch of money.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:10

I haven't made a cent on them yet. And um, that is my gift back because if I die any morning, I want to at least show that I gave back to the to the entertainment industry. Yeah. And I also have some plans for them that I want to bring back uh something like the Synergy Soccer star competition, something like that. I want to bring back um something like what Amar did with the Kiske the Caravan, you know, and I have a lot of plans in place for them.

Corie 1:19:48

That's good. I feel like some of that is missing. There are spaces for youths.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:51

We we need some but they operate in my um band room and studio. I have my own studio, yeah, right, where Marshall used to rehearse and things. So they they um they're lucky that they they got to utilize, and that that is where they are housed right now.

Corie 1:20:09

It's nice. We had to go and see them, David. I want to see them youth on them, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:11

So I have them learning how to record their own music, and I want to create that kind of kiskity caravan days because it have nothing like that. No, for too long. Robert took all these guys as a Romari being interviewed the other day. And I mean, we need to bring back those days. Yeah, them things should be staple. Grand time.

Corie 1:20:30

That was that day. That was that time.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:32

That was the days. I mean, the the youths of today really do not know.

Corie 1:20:35

They don't understand, they don't know, like you know, something Marshall said here. I think people miss, right? Marshall was talking about how in the from the late 80s to the early 90s, he finally was sung in all, and he was saying that he was listening to Amar's squad with the Kiss Kiddy and thing, how youthful and fresh and thing they were songing, and that's what makes him go and create big truck trick. And I'll say them sit down and do blue, really just trends for the music to song youthful and fresh and and and cool again.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:01

And we're missing, we're missing some of the and again, you know, it comes back to like in the days when I tell everybody had their own song system.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:08

I guess.

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SPEAKER_00 1:21:09

If you don't have a reason to wake up in the morning, you wanna stay home and sleep because no competition, yeah, your brain don't need to go to work.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:18

Yeah, of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:19

So I really like how Robert Hammer came with this big international studio, change his song, change, you know, the style of music. I mean, kudos to Robert. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm just saying that we lack these things. Let me tell you, these artists, these young artists today, they they just don't have the opportunities, boy. Yeah, and when they have a good song, it's a problem to get it played, it's a problem to get work, they can't get stages. Correct, they don't have no management. The people who manage in them, some have the connection, some don't. You know?

SPEAKER_03 1:21:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:58

And we we we lack the government of today and the past and the future governments need to understand that entertainment is like goal.

Corie 1:22:10

You feel it's something that governments pay attention. Use a man close to this thing because you're doing it for a long time. So maybe it's a good place for us to go because you feel but the oil and gas thing is just ignored, or what is about entertainment that it's become so simple.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:24

I don't get involved in the politicking, right? Right. But we need to open the door and peep inside now. And we need to realize look, US currency is our problem. The oil and gas industry, everybody have oil, everybody have, you know, everything now.

Corie 1:22:39

Yeah, everybody have oil except us. We nearly have.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:42

We have tourism. Why are we not utilizing tourism to gain US and to bring recognition to the country? I had some family here a few weeks ago, and I carried them to Maracas, and they were frightened when they saw these people with these tents all over and nine people walking up to them and saying, Mom, mom, sister, imagine that my boy. Yeah, um, um, I will rent you this, and um, you want a table, a chair, you want a table, you want a umbrella.

Corie 1:23:11

It's a whole new world, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:12

And you know, I don't mind the guys and them hustling, but I just think it needs to have a system, yeah, yeah, right?

Corie 1:23:18

Because sometimes you scare the people, and it needs to have an aesthetic because it makes the beach look. I mean, when I need to go on the beach and relax and say, I'm glad to rent the little chair, but we could do it nicer, we could make the place look nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:29

I mean, I I support them, I rent from them, yeah.

Corie 1:23:31

Me too, but I find it could look a little nicer. You didn't rental business because I don't know. You can rent some chairs and some tent the way some of them chairs.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:39

So I don't mind giving the guys, you know, a little support, yeah, but they they need to have some kind of standards and systems in place. So at the end of the day, the government have a goal mine, right? You think about bacon shack, doubles, you think about all the waterfalls, you know, and think about down the islands and all the you know different things that we have, yeah. You know, I tell you, let me tell you, I've never been to the pitch lake. And I went to do an event there called Bedrock. And while I drive in there, I see him sitting parts, and I say, Wow boy, how come I never came here and I live in Trinidad?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:20

Yeah, of course, of course, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:22

I went my wife twists my hand because I had some family here to go in the bird sanctuary and to go in the Carney swamp, and it was amazing, it was totally amazing, but we don't utilize these things, yeah. We don't market it, we don't market it. And I am telling you, carnival is our experience second to none. Because I don't know if you realize, right? And I don't know what is your reason. Don't shoot the messenger. A lot of the Caribbean music do not really play in Trinidad. Yeah, like I don't really hear much Bajan music like long time when we had Edwin Yearwood and you know Rupee and all of them. I don't really hear St. Lucia music, I don't really hear Antigua. And now I hear Greenland and Dominica mostly.

Corie 1:25:10

Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:11

And the Caribbean need to come together as one where we could integrate their music with ours and market the Caribbean. So I think that we have a problem and we're not addressing the problem.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:27

Because our artists need to go there and their artists need to come here. And I think it's the networking is not there, and I think we need to get the media involved because we should be sending media up there to cover, and vice versa.

Corie 1:25:45

But I'd actually listen because use the marketing, you come up with this gorilla thing, you come up with Tarzan, you think it's something you're willing to do?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:53

Because if you're in them spaces in tourism, um, I do a lot of the carnivals in the Caribbean, right? As a matter of fact, I am now getting involved in Caribana. Right. Because if you talk to the mass bands in Caribana, Caribana have some issues and they're trying to iron it out. So, for example, we enjoy a luxury of silver and alcohol on the streets here. Alright, and caribana does they do not enjoy the luxury of silver. Yeah, sober. Right? And that is an issue. That is an issue, and then we have other issues where they have other issues where we have security here with root men to keep the paid mass corridors within an area, right? And carry banana have a little safety issue where people could storm the band. So I have been um consulting them and I give them a few ideas up to yesterday. Actually, one of the bands just offered me shares, which I consider and taking. Yeah, come about because consultants come at a flat fee. But you want to see when you grow, you grow, you grow with them. But as I told them yesterday, I will help anybody. I'm a businessman, and at the end of the day, the first thing you need to do is you need to be willing to listen. And once you listen, you have to be able to want to take these steps to improve it. You know, you can tell somebody the same thing over and over, right? And they're not listening, and they're doing the same thing and getting the same result, and they come in complaining to you and say nobody don't help them. Yeah, you know, like but but I thought we discussed we take a different avenue so you can try and get a different result. Of course, of course. And I said to the three people yesterday, the guys, I said, Look, if you don't intend to want to listen and to try different things, I am not God. But I think that the experience I have and the the wealth of experience I have and the things that I can bring to the table, I think that um it will benefit you all in a big way. And they were like, Okay, well let's say it. I said, No, no, no, hold on, hold on, hold on. We're not going down that avenue yet until we know what is the business arrangement.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:26

Right, of course, of course.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:27

Because you can take the ideas and run with it. So what I said is, look, the guys are like family to me though, right? They're like a like a them, uh they and my mom are like family, okay, you know. So I said, look, this is what I am proposing. And they were like, What? We never even thought about that. You know, so I propose priming up the people I will be for. Oh, okay, right. You know, yeah, I propose ending, you know, I propose things like um getting the caribana committee to contribute some form of money instead of paying private security on your route. Oh, contribute a percentage to them to the bands, to the bands to get private security. So, you know, yesterday I was calling all around to get a little advice with how much people is put the whole rope on your road, and I have a self-chying to get a little information, yeah.

Corie 1:29:29

Because one thing you're gonna figure it's all just go along with it.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:31

Yeah, yeah, man. So the guys that want to call the name, but it's the biggest band, and they're like in their mind, you know, you can hear in their voice, why you want to know all of this? You bringing all tabana, you know, and that's why it's not functional. So don't get too too panic, you know. So it was just really funny yesterday, you know, how I was like calling to to to like investigate.

Corie 1:29:56

Yeah, but that's good though. That's good, that's good, that's good. Like plenty decades of work you're talking about and impact in several spaces. And congrats on the work that you're planning to do with the youths too, because that that's important. Before David started giving signals and thing, right? It's something that is usually asked people. I hear people who are frontline in entertainment, for instance. A lot of them, the soaker artists, the Calypsonians, a lot of the complaints is that if you talk about it with Marshall, and I hear them starting to say that now, where you're put in decades of work and you feel underappreciated by people. What's your thoughts on it? How you feel about the way people see you and your legacy?

Monday Madness Soca Monarch And Youth Band

SPEAKER_00 1:30:30

It comes back to what we have is our goal mine, right? And it's like any other business, nobody really knew what you had to do to reach where you're reach. The difference with what Marshall is doing is he entertaining people and entertainment have a lot of fight within the entertainment industry, it's a lot better now, to be honest, right? And um I don't I personally don't think that the man on the street wants to know what you had to do to reach where you reached, they just want to see the end result. It's like a businessman. I put you to run a business, don't tell me what the bottom line, what you had to do to make the bottom line look like the bottom line. Make sure the bottom line looking good, right? Right now, I agree with Marshall to a certain extent that at the end of the day he did a lot for the country, did a lot for the culture, a lot for the entertainment. But I also think that people come and they want to honor you after the fact, and it's not a good thing because this is not a regular eight or four business that that you did a lot to achieve. This is what you did to put the country on the map. You open the door to a line of business, which is soccer, carnival, etc. Things that the whole country could benefit from. Not a businessman just selling chicken and a poultry, you know. And yes, I agree to him that I agree with him, sorry, that um that the the artists and the entertainers should get a little more recognition and a little more support financially, and probably some tax breaks and you know, different things because promoters do their part. You know, the government of today needs to realize people don't fly down to Trinidad to fill the hotels and fill the seats and the planes because the government comes to see no parliamentary hearing. Correct. And I don't know when they're going to realize that we the promoters are the ones who fill the hotels, the the airplanes, the aeroplanes. We fill the we we we book all the car rentals, the the the biggest, what you will call um the most amount of people Trinidad ever sees Carnival. Yeah, they go and they buy clothes, they buy food on the street, they go to restaurants, they bring U.S. currency.

Corie 1:33:18

Unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:19

They take videos, they go back out and show everybody what they did in Trinidad.

Corie 1:33:23

Yeah, so they sell it for you for next year and the year afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:25

And when would the governments realize, and I say governments because the past, present, and future realize that we have a product and y'all are not supporting it. This year was a really hard carnival.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:41

Because people, it took them a good while to get into the carnival.

Corie 1:33:46

Yeah, I think initially there was no carnival and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:50

The venue problems, the increase in the alcohol. Yeah, I don't even know if moving forward, all inclusive's gonna continue because it's just out of people's reach. You know, the prices, yeah, of course, the alcohol is out of people's reach. Yeah, and I understand that the government need to find money, but you also need to spend money to make money.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:13

Of course. Of course.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:15

I mean, a hotel, apparently, a hotel could do a renovation and get back money in a grant. But who for any hotel is we the promoters?

Corie 1:34:25

Yeah, we need about five minutes because we have to talk about this here. Right? I'd ask you when you bring up the venue thing, for instance, it happened as a layman, right? As a fetter. The way I feel I affected when a venue closes that I just accustomed going there and those types of things. But um, I had Judson here, maybe a few other promoters who was talking about it. When you see that happen from then, I guess you will see the ripple effect of that before the average person. Who is it thinking when you hear that some venues or the biggest venues not available?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:55

You know, because you use the stadium before, for I don't have any issues with the government wanting to implement things because we have to do our balance and act in everything we do, and noise pollution is our problem. Let's be realistic, right? Right, but the people who complaining, they once were hard fetter in all the venues sat in night after night, right? So let's be realistic. We have to give the youth of today their turn. I'm not saying that we cannot work on the noise levels because we have to find a balance, right? But at the end of the day, what I am in disagreement with is you take a venue and you didn't have an alternative, yeah, and you took it in a short space at time. Yeah, just before the Christmas, right? And I mean, I'm gonna explain something to you, and tell me if I'm wrong. You're accustomed to sleeping in your house and in your bed, right? And you set up your room and your bed to be comfortable every night. So when you reach home, you could fall asleep easy, right? Right, right. Even how the AC blowing on your excessor, right? When you go to another country and they put and you and you rent or they put you in a hotel, in the first day, you can't drop asleep. You can't drop asleep, right? So when you take a venue that that a promoter accustomed setting up a certain way and you made it as comfortable as possible to get the best results, right? You know, having this man or this woman have to go and start all over again, right? Uh you know, are we thinking about these things?

Corie 1:36:45

From your experience and you in the industry, you're consulted before things like this happen. You you got any in closing.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:52

I mean, again, I'm not politician, right? Sure, sure. Um, I think one of the downfalls is that we needed proper consultation. I'm not saying that it we did not have, but I'm just saying that we needed to have proper and more dialogue to try to figure out when, where, and how to go. Because, and on top of that, I also think that these venues should have been in place during the year, so we could have had one or two events to see if it would have had parking problems, you know, if we could have got into the venue easy, or it's too much traffic with the one way and one way out. You know, so that we could have evaluated the venue to figure out if it would have been conducive to carnivos. Yeah, the logistics, right? You know, and these things didn't really work out like that. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to toot my own horn, but with the wealth of experience that I have, I wouldn't mind sitting on with the government creating venues, saying, Look, we need a grass area for events like picnic, you know, we need a paved area for events like stink and dirty because it's paint, right? We need um, you know, certain types of venues for certain different types of events, yeah, right? We need to be in certain areas because Chakaramas is a good area because you don't have problems with noise levels, but the best area is behind movie tongue because you could face the music to the sea, you know.

Corie 1:38:36

I hear somebody else saying that, but wouldn't it not affect the people like who beyond Westmoreland thing, like Rivera and then well, boss or somebody must get affected.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:43

You know, anywhere you go, I guess you're gonna affect somebody, right? But you need to minimize who and how much people are going to be affected.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:53

So you're not gonna have as much problems if you went behind movie tongue because you could cut a road, numerous roads leading today, very cost effective. Whereas the government is not going to spend money to cut no cause.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:08

We are to go shakaramus.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:09

To go shakaram us, right? Because there's a lot more money.

Corie 1:39:14

You see, I'm gonna end up talking to you all day, you know, because I'm not politic either, right? But let me put myself in the position of if I was to become minister tomorrow. I am not maybe I too shy, you know, because I'm not confident enough to make decisions like those without talking to somebody like you or Hoppy or Adrian or whoever, whoever the people are who I want to talk to the people at the biggest events first before I make a decision like that. Let me put it like that because I wouldn't the simple thing you say there that pink nick need grass and this one, I can't think of that, you know. Or if I figure out how to think about that, it would take me 10 years when I could just ask somebody who do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:47

Well, you have to remember I wear many hats, right? So I wear a supplier hat, I wear a promoter hat, I wear uh musician hat in the sense of a band, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:39:58

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:59

And I am one of the biggest, or if not the biggest, common denominator between promoters. I do all tribe group work, right? I work for Hoppy and M. I do work with agents, so I work with Farmhouse, I work with Coco Devil, so I am the biggest common denominator between any promoter and artists, and you name it, you know.

Corie 1:40:22

Yeah, so you might be a good man to talk to if you want to do this thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:25

You know, I know the problems that they face, understand. You know, because it had only yesterday I was talking to one of the big promoters, and they were saying, Well, you know, we had three events on this particular day down in this venue in this area, and it caused a problem with the suppliers reaching down. I didn't think about that. I only think about fetters, and that particular event didn't get the toilets with electricity and water. And they had a problem with the venue, not the venue fall because the venue running their normal eight or four business, but the venue said to them, Look, you cannot come in and shut down my business for weeks to set up your event. We're only giving you X amount of days, right? So it's not even to say that we could have gone there a week to two weeks in advance and set up, right?

Corie 1:41:16

So the logistics was almost it was almost impossible because you must want to blow up blood vessel because from the time you hear certain venues go on, you've seen all these problems one time.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:26

I don't like the promoters really had it hard. Then we had the situation with the war, of course, right? Right? Where everybody was like, nah, I'm not coming to an eye because I frightened, you know, and um a lot of people only decided in the latter half to come because I heard the fares went down. That's another problem. We have the highest fares, right? Drink carnival, the highest hotel rates, and you know, when would the people realize that we need to deal with these issues?

Corie 1:42:00

Yeah, they're run to election. I think there is a solution.

Tourism Venues And Government Support

SPEAKER_00 1:42:03

No, I don't get involved in politics because politics is a dangerous game, yeah, and um I think that you become victimized. And if you're seen as being on your wrong side when you speak out, because I have seen, I saw this year, a lot of good initiatives. I mean, I don't want to talk about it because they want to new, right? Where people brought in a lot of tourists. I talk about any hundreds, and they were victimized because they were saying, We don't think you are um, we don't think that you uh how to put it in that they're not aligned correct, correct, right? And the people were saying, No, how you could say that I only did this, you know, during that period because I was testing it. Of course, you know, so you can't say that I am aligned with that party because I was testing it, yeah, you know, at the end of the day, I have to make sure it could work, and timing is everything in business, it's fair. Timing, location, any business you're going to, everything is important. You could open any back or go out back, and nobody comes in to buy anything from you.

Corie 1:43:17

Well, it's the same thing as everybody had any beginning, it's not different than any other business.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:20

So you cannot say to people, I'm not saying that that happened this year, don't get me wrong. I with you. But what I'm saying is that that is the first thing that happens.

Corie 1:43:32

Well, it's the truth about our history. They are like if you've seen us on one side or the other, you're treated as such. I think that's the reality historically.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:40

That's wrong because I think the government needs to invest in the youths, and we need to do programs, and we need to encourage corporate TNT to spend money behind youth development, behind mass. How could we be the mecca of carnival, right? And we don't manufacture our own costumes here.

Corie 1:44:04

Yeah, I was just reading an article about the code. Can you answer the question? I was just reading an article about that today. Costumes coming in full, fully assembled. We're not creating work, we're not creating factories, we're not even creating because I think we have opportunities to teach it to other countries as a form of getting more people to come here.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:23

We also have opportunities. I work with St. Lucia and a lot of the Caribbean islands, right? And when I talk to the band leaders there, they import from China too. Yeah, so we can have whole export markets, yeah, business if we do things the way it needs to be done. And that's what I'm saying. I am willing to consult and to get involved with anyone who is willing. It could be the private sector, it could be the government, right? Because we need to set things straight.

Corie 1:44:56

Yeah, to bring your own expertise. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:59

We need to fix these things.

Corie 1:45:00

Of course, of course. David, give me one more question. Sorry, one more. Because the you know what always was just from a business standpoint, I can understand. You have all inclusive sections in Monday Madness, for instance. Or let's assume I sell costumes in August for a ban and I sell it at 5,000, and the price alcohol goes up. So the the entrepreneur just had to absorb that or happen.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:20

Yes, that's what happened this year. Okay, and again, consultation.

Corie 1:45:24

Yeah, that's what I mean. That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:26

And everybody says, Gooch, I have thousands of people and bless. But you don't really know.

Corie 1:45:31

Yeah, because I get at that to know. I get at concert, all the fellas costumers sell by 5,000 and say all the fellas multi-million.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:37

And you don't really know what they had to do to survive for this for this year, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's what I'm saying. You know, we need to revamp. One of the things I was really, really upset about this year was I was in a particular band that I worked for, and every minute somebody crossed any band. You mean to tell me after all these years?

Corie 1:45:59

Oh, you mean the logistics on your route?

SPEAKER_00 1:46:00

Yeah, we cannot have one route in our oval or you know, however, whatever route you want to, however, you want to do it. And all the bands like Caribana and Labor, they're coming down in a line, right? And no band permitted to cross in the middle.

Corie 1:46:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where the action is.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:17

Right. You mean to to to today's date, we cannot figure that out.

Corie 1:46:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:21

I was looking for a particular band, right? And I could not find the band. And yes, it had an app to find them. And I was like trying to message one of my family, and they didn't even have no signal.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:32

Yeah, of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:33

Because there's too much people congregating in the same place.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:36

And what I'm saying to you, we are the mecha of carnival, and you still have a band fighting with a band, cutting and cross cutting across our band and taking about 45 minutes to the masquerade stand up here there saying, Yeah, what is this? Please hurry. Please hurry.

Corie 1:46:52

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:52

A good way to get people to go to the we need consultation, we need to fix these problems, yeah. And we need to be open-minded. Fair, fair.

Corie 1:47:01

Well, I appreciate you coming to do some of that consultation today. This is a great conversation. I want to open the invitation for you to come back anytime to talk about it. Well, we can go for Monterrey. Let me tell you something. When I tell people Johnny Peter, they just say Johnny talking about it. So I appreciate it, man. Thank you, Million. I appreciate your commentary. Yes, man. This was a pleasure. A pleasure, a pleasure.