Career - Lamarr Wilson

0:00Friday afternoon, I found out about the death of Lamar Wilson. Lamar Wilson. Lamar Wilson. me. In fact, good friend to all of us at DTNS. I wish that I had been a better friend to him. I'm going to miss him a lot. My wife and I used to go hang out with him quite often. We even almost got him to be a fan of K-pop. He was smart, funny, generous, argumentative, and I loved all of that about him. If you didn't get to know Lamar, there's a whole internet's worth of content for you to enjoy. In our corner of the internet, he appeared on DTNS many times, including being the first person to report from CES for us on January 6, 2014.

0:38There were quadcopters and the first LG TV with webOS that he was telling us about. And he was my first repeat guest on the podcast, A Word with Tom Merritt. That second appearance was extra special. He talked about his career, how he came up, how he got interested in technology. He really loved being a mentor and teaching. So I'd like you to listen because

1:07I think you could still learn something from him.

1:17Welcome to A Word with Tom Merritt. That's me, Tom Merritt. This is the show where I get to sit down with some of the smartest, most interesting people in the world and talk about how we think, Compare our shortcuts for getting through life. We all know different things about different things, and it's good when we share that with each other. These are the kinds of conversations I've been having all my life with my grandpa Carl in his front room, my grandma Roxy in her front room. I got lots of different ways of looking at the world from them and great conversations. And it was all leading me to this moment right now.

1:47Welcome back to the front room, Lamar Wilson. It is great to be here. I'm back. Almost a year, right? Has it been almost a year to win this? I was just wondering about exactly how long. But yeah, you are our first return visitor more than a year. It was May 2022. Was it? Okay. Wow. Well, it was May when we recorded. And then I think it was released in July. So even the release date was more. It's been too long, is what I'm saying. It has been too long. But I love this podcast. I've listened to so many different people talk about their word. and I'm glad I'm able to come back to talk about another word today.

2:28Yeah. So our first word when Lamar was on before was influencer and we talked about his current career. So this time we wanted to talk about career and talk about how you got to your career now and what career has meant through your life, how you view it, specifically changing your career. Like you've had multiple careers, right? I have indeed. Multiple, many, lots. So you used to be, and I know this isn't even the first career, I guess, depending on, what would you call your first career? First career, I'll call my retail stage. That's the high school, you know, work at the grocery store, but then hate that after a month.

3:16and then go to the job I actually loved, which was working at Best Buy. That's kind of what started this. But if I had to go even before that of not getting paid, I would even go further back to my high school, what do you call it, the computer lab. You know those days. I pretty much worked the computer lab for obviously no money, but just trying to figure out what this technology thing is. And that motivated me to like want to work at a store and then we move on from there. So yeah, it's a very early starts in technology. Yeah. So you've got a career in tech and retail. We'll get to a later career in education and then your current career, which is content creation.

4:10But let's start, let's, let's start, let's, let's go chronological like okay talk a little more about the tech and the retail and and and tell us a little bit about how how you got attracted to tech in the first place and then we'll talk a little bit about how that that moved you into a career uh as far as like not wanting to stock blackberries at the grocery store but rather stock blackberries at the best buy two different There you go. Yeah. So how did you end up in that computer lab? Right. Because like you said, I think you and I were like, oh, yeah, computer lab. Makes sense. A lot of people in our audience might think that.

4:51But what led you there? Because not everybody ends up there. Yeah. So I actually started. This was around, you know, my high school career was 91 to 95. So just kind of give you 1891, 1991, just to be clear. um yes i saw i started i started in the um the computer actually in the library started in the library they had a few computers there but i was i was the uh became the school's editor of their newspaper so so you were interested in content creation i was interested in content creation yeah i actually i actually met with someone i forgot his name uh but a guy came from the trip Chicago Tribune to our school.

5:37Oh, wow. And I got to meet him. And he was a journalist. And I was like, oh, man, I would love to do this. He was a black guy, kind of very inspirational. I was at a school that kind of tailored to that. So, yeah, that's kind of where I started typing on, I don't know, Windows 3.0, maybe? Sure. 3.1, something like that. and making articles and just getting a love for tech. Obviously, there was no tech in the home. You know, at best, we had a corded phone and a color TV. And, you know, those, you know, those are part of the basics. So, you know, I didn't have a tech background from that. But I do remember my aunt had, like, a very early version of the Atari 2600.

6:28So you remember. So if you want to really go back to tech times, you go back to when I was very young, four or five years old, figuring out Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. I mean, we can go way back, Tom. Yeah. I mean, I think this is one of the reasons you and I bond so much is we have that similar history of having technology and content creation in our DNA from an early age. So you wanted to write. You wanted to get your words in front of people. And then you found that the way you were doing that was this computer. Take us from there. How did that turn into, well, maybe I want to learn more about these computer things?

7:12Yeah. So, yeah, I was an editor of the school newspaper. Then I did the sports column, which is interesting. So I got to travel with the basketball team and they were doing all that. It's hard to remember a specific transition. I do remember my senior year, I was burned out from having all these honor classes before. By my senior year, I was 16. My birthday is in October. So I literally started at 16 years old in senior year. And I was just burned out. I had enough credits to graduate, but they wouldn't let me. You were way ahead of the game, but they're like, you're not 18. We're not letting you graduate.

7:53Yeah. So I talked to my mom and I was like, look, I'm burned out. as it can. They have this work-study program. I was like, this would be great for me. I can get a job. I could be at school. I would leave school at 1030. In the morning. In the morning and then go home, rest and go to work. I was like, this is kind of what I need right now. She was very gung-ho about it because she gave me the freedom to choose. My career counselor didn't like that, but I was like, I have all my credits. Come on, give me a break. So, so I, so I love, so we had a marketing class and although I don't think the marketing teacher was very good, I devoured the marketing book.

8:36I really, I, you know, this was my first entry into what marketing was and, and sales. And I, and I just love the idea of, of working with people, but also teaching myself at the same time. Cause I would already done things like this in the school. I was, I was teaching kids around junior year how to, you know, do the, what's it called? The pre, pre ACTs or pre essay software, the pre essay PSAT. Yeah. I wasn't, I was in charge of that because no one knew how to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I was kind of like the, the teacher for that, you know, using, using air quotes, even though the, you know, we did have a actual computer teacher.

9:15He let me kind of be in charge of things like that. So senior year, I, I, I remember my first job is at a grocery store. If you're from Chicago, it was called Jewel, Jewel Osco. And I was just, you know, a bagger and cart getter. And I hated it. And so, but there was a Best Buy that was about a mile away. And I knew about it. And I see commercials. I'm like, I want to work there. And I remember going one time, I was like, oh, my God, this place is beautiful. It's just bright. And I saw computers. I saw TVs and all the CDs And I was like yeah This is my place so I went to This is actually a really good story so I went there one week I put an Application in and I Said hey is there you know you all have any positions Open and the hiring manager I forgot his name but he was like no there's No position sorry I'm like okay So the next Thursday Because I happened to be off on Thursdays Next Thursday I go back to the store Like hey Lamar here again Looking forward you know jobs and same guy was like yeah i told you last week yeah we don't have any any position so i looked around the store hung out then left third week hey i'm i'm back i'm back here again and now he's like he's a little bit more irritated he's like dude i told you i don't have any positions for you there's nothing you could you know like he didn't say leave me alone but he was very close he's like my answer isn't changing yeah yeah week four he sees me walk in the door because i was i was not giving up.

10:48Yeah. And he, I saw him give the biggest side behind the customer service desk. He was just like, Oh, this guy again. I come up and I was like, I was like, happy, happy cheer. Hey, it's Lamar. I'm looking, you know, he's like, look, man, you've been coming here for four weeks and I've been telling you the same thing. And I was like, I know, but I really want to work here. And he just stared me down for like 20 seconds, like the longest seconds of my life. And then he looked at me and he's like, get over here and do an interview. you wore him down. I wore him down. Not only did I get the job, but he put me on a sale floor immediately.

11:26And he didn't have a job, but he gave you a job. He gave me a job. So, so he's saying like, we don't have any jobs, but you were, you like forced him to be like, fine, I'll make, I'll make one for you. That's amazing. Yeah. I knew I wanted to work there. So he was like, he put me on the floor that day. I called my mom. I was like, mom, I'm going to be late. I have a job. That's amazing. Yeah. So that started, you know, he put me right in the computer department. That's where I wanted to be. Yeah. And from there, yeah, you know, that was my road to where I am now. So what made you be that persistent, right?

12:02Because obviously the grocery store was the opposite effect. You didn't try hard to get a job at a grocery store because it was your dream. No one tries hard to do it. was that made you because that's very un-teenager like behavior to be that persistent. What do you think it was that overcame that and said, no, this is special. I'm going to hammer it. I'm going to keep coming back. Yeah, that's such a good question. I think about it often even now. When I tell people the story and I just, Tom, I think I just knew. I knew I was supposed to be there. I wanted to be there. I felt like my education was going to benefit from me being there.

12:45And I just, you know, once I went into that story that one time, I was like, yeah, I'm going to work here. And, you know, it goes back to one of those things when you, you know, you're going to do something, you just, you just, yeah. Because you could have been happy with the computer lab. You had access to computers. It's not like, like you didn't have any, like there was something else about the Best Buy, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, the Best Buy was, now remember, this is 94. So this is even before the explosion of computers when Windows 95 came out. But it was the beginning of it. I felt the inklings.

13:21It's hard to say I knew in a year this was going to happen. But I knew something special was happening. And so many new products were coming out, even in the TV department, even in the audio department. And I just wanted to learn about new things. I didn't have new things at home. You know, I didn't grow up with new things So, you know And I took the manuals home Like a new computer would come A compact would bring a new computer in I would take the manual home Read it, study it And so when I'm, you know, on the sales floor The next day, I knew everything about the computer That's just kind of how I was as a student You were that into it I was really that into it I'm guessing you didn't take the manual From the grocery store home there was no manual how to how to box things no that that job was a month and and i'm glad i did it i there were some skills i've definitely learned sure uh like even now i know how to put my groceries in properly put the boxes on the end and put fill in the middle i know how to do all that now because they make you do it now yeah yeah but uh no the best buy was the greatest start to my career and whatever that, whatever that career, you know, I didn't know where that was going to go.

14:40I just knew it was important. Something told me it was vital. Well, it's something you were into. You got, you didn't have it at home. You had some access to it at school, but that access never changed. It was always the same row of computers every day. I can see why Best Buy would be like, when the new thing comes, it's here. And it's always, And it's always changing all the time. Absolutely. And so, you know, I just absorbed myself in not only the computer, like I said, the TV department. I worked in there. I wanted to learn audio. I did cashiering. I wanted to be so invaluable that, you know, like if, you know, they couldn't get rid of me.

15:20I just knew everything. But it wasn't mainly because of that reason. I just loved the stuff. I loved being part of this. Again, I didn't know what was going to happen with Windows 95 and the explosion, but I felt something was coming. I felt I see more and more people coming. I'm like, something's big is about to happen here with technology. We're going to be able to afford these things in our houses soon. Yeah. It was already happening. People were buying them. And so it was just kind of an honor to be part of that. Now, you would think if you didn't know Lamar's story, if I hadn't already spoiled you earlier in this episode, that he might have ended up going to become CEO of Best Buy or more likely like go into technology and work in products or product marketing even or something like that.

16:12But you ended up becoming a teacher. Take us on that journey. How did you go from being near the new every day to a classroom full of kids? Yeah. And just a preference, I wasn't able to come an official, what do you call it, registered teacher, but I'll explain why. But yeah, it was weird. So I moved to Seattle. I'm going to school there. My family decided when I graduated to go to – they wanted to move to Seattle. So I ended up there, and I said, great, I can go to school here. You're taking college classes there? Yeah, yeah. So yeah, going to school, just general. I didn't really know. Again, at that time, I was working at Office Depot.

16:56Then this was the busiest Office Depot in the country, and I was working in the computer department. So same thing. And now Windows 95 is out. And now everything – yeah, now the explosion is happening. So I'm doing that. I'm taking classes. But I still have some free time, and I needed some more money and things. So my apartment complex had a cabana area where we can go for – they had kids could go there. You had a swimming pool. They had a basketball court. So I would go hang out. I'm 19 at this time. I'm hanging out over there. And one of them came up to me. It's like, man, you're really good at working with kids.

17:33You want a job here when you got some free time. Seven bucks an hour, we take it off your rent. In the complex. So that's kind of cool. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's interesting. I, prior to that, could not stand kids. Because I'm an only child. Like, you know, this episode can get interesting. Yeah. I had really no interest. But I was like, money off my rent. I was still with my parents. I was like, oh, they were like that. Yeah. So I did it. And I ended up, you know, like running programs there and things. And one of the ladies that worked there was like, hey, this, you know, you know, the school district here is looking for subs.

18:17I know you're not a, obviously I'm still in school, but they were looking for like subs for assistance, teacher assistance. And I was like, well, that's better money than what I, you know, was doing at, at office Depot. So I was like, all right, I'll give it a, give it a shot. And so that's how I got into the school system. Okay. So it was your technology that led you to help the kids. It was your love of technology, your knowledge. And then that led to you getting into the school system. Yeah. Yeah. I got into the school system. Now at this point, I'm still like, I'm like, I'm confused. I'm like, I like tech, but I'm starting to like this thing that I said I wouldn't like.

18:57And then family in Chicago, like I had a, I'm a tragedy, but like I had to end up working my way back to Chicago. So my grandma got really sick at the time. So I wasn't able to finish the schooling to be like a registered teacher. But when I got back to Chicago, I did get hired at a school and I started as an assistant. But because I was I don't want to be bragging. That was so good at it. Hey, you're good. You're good. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. They gave me they gave me control of a classroom. And we just had a it was a certified teacher in there because legally you have to have a certified teacher.

19:38but it was like an older teacher who, I guess I could say now it's been 20 some years. Yeah. She just wasn't, she wasn't interested in being a teacher and we could, she was just there. She was happy to let you run the class. Yeah. So, yeah. So I ran the class. So those, those kids in my, in their opinion, in my opinion, are my kids. Sure. You know, so classroom of 40 kids and I'm running that. And I did that for about a year. Yeah. About two years. then I noticed and this is where the technology parts come in because I'm again I'm still a tech guy I'm like man our school doesn't have a website but I'm noticing other schools on now we're on the south side of Chicago on the north side had websites and had technology and things and well you know this is I'm in urban areas all black school on the south side of Chicago you know and And I was like, man, we just don't have computers in the classroom.

20:34So I remember bringing my – oh, God, what was it? An e-machine or something? I remember bringing my desktop from home into my classroom so the kids would have a computer so they would know what one is like. And then I got a laptop for myself to start putting grades in. And that was even a novelty. Were you missing working at the Office Depot Best Buy? yes but i felt there was a bigger calling here yeah yeah okay you know you could you could say you could justify like but i can take what i know from those and and help people yeah yeah yeah i felt like i was actually helping on the ground i was helping you know uh families i was helping kids and uh and you know like you know yes with education obviously but but me having that strength the technology I thought was, was going to be very important.

21:25So yeah, I was the first teacher to have a computer in my classroom. And, you know, so getting the kids to learn that eventually I volunteered to do the school's website. I'm like, we need a website. I just told my principal, I said, we need a website. He's like, cool. Yeah. We have the, here's the, you know, the service, but you know, here's the information you need, go at it, have fun. And so I made the school's website and then from there he's like well since you made this website we have this you know we need a school newsletter uh-huh and so and then i became in charge of the school newsletter like an email newsletter or print newsletter it was print newsletter okay so using the computer to print it up and so so i learned microsoft publisher and you know all of that so i started you know start getting all these skills and then there came a point where he was he i was talking We had to talk for about four hours.

22:19And I was like, look, this is what I feel like the school needs. We don't have any laptops. We don't have any. These kids, I said, our kids are already behind. And look what's happening on the north side. Look what's happening on all these other schools. They're so far ahead. Our kids deserve this stuff, too. So he's like, well, I need a tech coordinator to coordinate this. Do you want to do that? And I was like, yeah. I was like, I'm not certified to run a classroom forever. anyway. But you could vary what your two strengths are. That's amazing. Yeah. So I was like, yeah, I'll become a tech coordinator.

22:55Paid more. But even more importantly, it gave me exactly what I needed at the time. I was in charge of tech at the school with a few hundred kids and I had my own office. And so I started working with the teachers and staff development on things they need to know. Because at this time, this is 2003, Tom, and And you remember the teachers, the green grade book, the old written. They were very used to that. And we were moving towards electronic. And the teachers were fighting it at every angle. The kids were never the issue. It was always the adults, especially some of the older ones who just weren't ready.

23:38So my job was to break it down, make it simple for them. And where did I get that experience for working with people who don't know what they want or know what they need, but they know they have to use it? Best Buy and Alphonse Depot. The connection was there. So I was in charge of teaching the teachers, making it easy for them, breaking it down so they could feel comfortable with it. If they feel comfortable, they can now teach their kids and feel comfortable. And so from there, we got laptop carts for each floor. I was in charge of that. And, you know, like I said, we continue doing the website.

24:15And yeah, so and we even upgraded our Wi-Fi. Like, dude, we were on 802.11.B for the longest. Like, that's how much they didn't care about our school. And so we got it up. We got it to the faster G wireless and comparable with everyone else. And now the kids, like, are happy to be in school because they didn't have computers at home. They didn't have Wi-Fi at home, but now they had their fingertips to the world and school. So now they want to be there even more. So attendance skyrocketed and good things started happening. So again, we're at a point where if you don't know Lamar's story, you might think, oh, okay, so he didn't become CEO of Best Buy.

24:58I guess he becomes head of computers in Chicago, right? But that's not where your story goes. You are who you are now, a content creator. You you're known for doing YouTube. You do tick tock. You do shorts. Now take us now connect these dots, right? Like we've connected the best buy to the education. How did you go from what sounds like you're, you're doing good. You're, you're, you're, you're, you've got a, not a sinecure or anything, but you've got a stable position. How did you go from that to where you are now? Early 2006, my principal, he's a younger principal. He's older than me, But, you know, so I'm 28 at this time and he comes up to me, he brings me to his office and literally sits me down and says, well, this most serious face ever.

25:46You need to leave. Oh, and I's like, excuse me. And I was like, are you firing me? He said, no, but you need to leave. And I was like, what do you mean? And and well, he started explaining. He's like, look, man, he said, I've been bragging about our school where we go to other other principal meetings. and I'm realizing all these schools want someone like you and they don't have anybody like you. I remember a couple of schools asked me to come out to do something in their school, which I'm not technically supposed to do because I'm not employed by them, but as a favor, I would go out to a couple of schools here and there and help them out.

26:28But once he heard about that and once he got feedback from his principal meetings, he's like, you need to leave. He's like, this is not big enough for you. And I've never had anybody tell me that before. That was like, I was like, wow. Yeah. Not that you need to leave. I don't like you. Not you need to leave. You're screwing up. It's not you need to leave. You're too good for this. Yeah. It's like you could do better on a larger scale. They actually told me this in 2005. So I started planning. I formed a business on the side. And I got everything ready. So he told me, he's like, hey, when you whenever you leave and you're officially not an employee, he said, I can I can have you come in as a consultant to the principals and you sell your services.

27:17You know, how are you going to do it? So you'll still be working with them just on your own. Yeah. So, yeah. So I created a company. I created a consulting company. And so I left in April 2006 before the school year ended. So I can get the principals before their budgets are at the meeting. It was great. I convinced what at the time, 15 principals that they needed websites, 15 out of 25 I talked to, websites and staff development services for their teachers. So I was my first year of my business. I left the school, but I was busy. And my school hired me as well to continue there. So that happened.

28:01Then we accelerated a little bit. I end up being, now that I'm working with 20 plus schools, the district gets wind of me. And so there's a federal grant for technology and education. I get attached to that. Then we go to about 2000, and this is where it gets fun. We go to 2008 and one of the district heads says to me, hey, do you know anything about video? Because we credit this federal grant. We need someone to, we don't no one knows video cameras we need someone to take uh record you know video for these different lessons so we can submit it to the you know for the federal grant and i was like i don't know video but i will learn uh-huh bought a camera and then and then during the during the 2008 christmas holiday this was around the holiday uh i opened up a youtube channel i was like well let me, let me, let me just test some things.

28:57I was not thinking about an audience. I was thinking about - It was that principal's fault. That's who did it right there. Yeah. I was like, I'm just going to upload a couple of skits or a couple of things. I'm testing this camera. I'm testing this camera. I'm not even thinking about myself being a creator. Yeah. Then I start seeing comments. I'm like, what are, what? People found these? What was the first video you did? Was it just - Oh, this, it was a skit. I'll never forget. I made a skit about unboxing. What was it? Tony Little's little roll-on machine. I forgot what that's called. Yeah. So I bought the exercise machine.

29:35You did it on boxing. That was your first video? My first video. Wow. I didn't even think about that until now. Yeah. My first video was an unboxing slash skit of me building this machine. And it was funny because I was eating a pizza during it. And I'm supposed to be building a machine to work out. Is that still up? No, it's not. My first 13 videos got lost. Yeah. So I don't have them anymore. But I remember that. Was it an account change thing or you just took them down? I had temporarily closed the account for a reason. But I was told that if I open it back up, they'll still be there. And they weren't.

30:14And they weren't. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But that was for a technical reason. later down the line yeah but but so i'm now it's 2009 and i go back to the district and say hey i know i bought this sony camera i know how to use it now i didn't tell them i was on youtube because they were very anti-youtube the school district especially in those early days the way people are about tiktok now they were about you yeah yeah they blocked it whatever so i just said i have i know it so they gave me a an additional funding so it's funny i was getting paid to do video you know in 2009 when youtube wasn't even paying me it wasn't gonna pay through them i was getting paid through the district and i was training myself even more by being on youtube it was the weirdest thing and and so that's what kind of started the content thing so so your YouTube content started as I just need to learn how it works, but was appealing at the right moment at the right time to people who wanted things on YouTube.

31:21That's what a coincidence. It's very weird. Yeah. And I wasn't even thinking about being a creator per se myself. I was just like, okay, how does this editing work? Then I started learning about vlogs. Okay. you know if we have somebody who wants to do this i could show them how to do this on the yeah in a school district and i i feel like i was one of the people to help break break them down about youtube not being so dangerous because they eventually saw my my account and it's like okay this isn't so bad yeah yeah and so here's the here's the transition so around 2011 uh as you know what school districts or uh administrations change sure you know different different ceo different mayor came in superintendent mayor yeah yeah so we had a set of superintendent we had a ceo so different i saw the writing on the wall i saw our grant was ending number one we've done it for five years so i saw that ending i saw the administration change and it's like yeah this is gonna this is coming to an end it's not a bad thing i still have my other other clients that i was doing websites and things for but i just knew it was ending and i was two years into this YouTube thing and I got kind of good at it.

32:33And I was like, is this possible? This could be a, I saw other people like making it a business. I was like, can I make this? I'm making okay money on it at this point. And I was like, can I make this a business? And so 2012, dude, I made the leap of faith. And I was like, you know, I ended my business because it was winding down anyway. And I moved to Los Angeles and, you know, it wasn't, you know, people usually think of moving to Los Angeles as you're moving for becoming an actor. You need to be close to this. I wasn't moving for those reasons. I was moving to start fresh somewhere. And Los Angeles was where most of my internet friends were.

33:13And most of my internet friends were in Seattle. I probably would have moved back there. But it just so happens that I moved here, got with the YouTube network and then from there on, here I am still 11 years later still here making content and it's it's it's a weird transition but you can only see it in hindsight right that all the connections you can't see the you can't see the connections at the time but i look back from you know the first retail job and to the education how the way i do my videos now i'm i'm education is always in the front of my mind but i know i can't teach at people so i use entertainment like i did the classroom as a way to to to teach them or to educate them about different products or or whatever and so it's all connected it's funny i wanted to be a journalist i didn't get to be but or did i or did you yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah still got you know not a journalist with a capital j you know but yeah but media but communication I got into communications and media.

34:23There was a time I wanted to be a lawyer. Now, I'm stretching that one a little bit. But because I got into all these contracts and things and working with brands, I learned I had to read contracts before I got representation. So I learned. I taught myself that. So it's a little bit of everything I kind of wanted to do, except the firefighter thing when you're five. I wasn't able to. Yeah. I had things like being a ranger and an astronaut. Yeah, those are different. There's a line at some point where the good ones go away. Well, you got to write about space. There you go. Yeah. You got to fulfill that.

35:00There is a theme to all of the stories you told. And I picked up on three things that even though it feels like you had so many different career paths and career changes, you always enjoyed communicating with people. And that really stuck out to me when you talked about how you didn't really like kids, but when you found out you could communicate with them and be effective, you're like, yeah, okay, let's do that. You didn't emphasize this as much, but I know you well enough to know you also like to entertain. You like to be funny and have fun and make people laugh and have people receive your communication with a smile versus you're not the serious lecture type.

35:45You're like, let's have fun. So you like to have fun with your content and you like keeping up on the new, which is why you were into Best Buy instead of just sticking with the computer lab because it wasn't the internals of the computer. It was like, what can it do next? What's the new one going to be? How does it work? I want to see all that stuff. And it feels to me, and you tell me if this tracks with you, that communicating in a fun way about what's new kind of is your career. It is. it is again uh hindsight right you know you don't see it at the time but to work in retail to work in sales and marketing period uh i felt i had to be you know i i knew my stuff but you also have to you know you have a 60 year old grandma come in and i'm not saying it's an offensive way at all this has happened where they just don't know this is 94 95 they don't know what they want but they want to talk to their kid who's in the military or their grandson they want to talk to their grandkids you know how how do i break this down you know what the computer is and why they can benefit from it and also you know have them you know because they're coming in stressed they know they need this they see these prices they're nervous how do i break them down in a way how do i my friendly entertaining so they you know they don't see me as the enemy that's just sales 101, but I actually cared.

37:13Some use those tactics and they don't care. It's just to get to sale, right? But that could not happen at the school. Kids would see right through you if you were phony. But the same tactics. I had kids who did not want to be there. We're talking about kids who the prior years had attendance issues, poor grades. I had fourth graders who were reading at kindergarten first grade level uh because of you know poor quality of education the year before i get them and i'm really trying not to brag i'm trying to make the point but i i i get them and i i'm utilizing this entertaining get education thing and and you know by end of the year you know they're reading at fifth and sixth grade levels and i had jumped them up uh because and i don't take you know i'm gonna take full credit for that i mean that was these them but my thing was applying what I learned from retail to how to work with people to the school.

38:12And then I had to apply that to convince principals to hire me and then convince these teachers who don't want to sit there at a staff development being told that they need to learn something. So I had to learn how to communicate really well in that sense, too. Well, let's bring it to the present then to kind of come full circle. what was a challenge in the beginning was you're too young i don't have a job uh now it's the opposite channel challenge you you took this journey to get to content creation and you show up as someone who is not the the young 20 something tiktoker right you're no i'm 31 at the time yeah Yeah, you're not slotting in against these younger folks as someone who's of age with them.

39:10What advantages and disadvantages do you think you had because of who you were when you arrived in that space? Yeah, that's a really good question. I'd say advantages would be life experience, obviously. life experience with tech and retail education, even working with corporate people also I think storytelling based on those experiences being able to there's a difference between the experience that I had and that a 19 year old starting their tech YouTube has and I'm not taking anything away from them but there's just different life experiences yeah, you've got more life behind you yeah Yeah. And then I'll just say, just kind of in tune with that, marketing skills.

39:59I just had the marketing skills on how to be entertaining yet trustworthy. Because you could just be entertaining and be slapstick or whatever, and people still don't trust you. Yeah. You know, so how do you how do you entertain but still bring it home? You know, that that this is a beneficial thing for them. And so I think those are my advantages being starting in this thing as 31, where, again, most of not most, not all of them, but that good chunk of people are like 14 sitting in their in their bedroom. Yeah. Vlogging as well. And, you know, obviously, you know, shooting past me or whatever, because they're the demographic at the time for that kind of content.

40:43And when you're that age, you have more energy, you have more enthusiasm, you have more creativity than you do as you get older. So you have to know yourself, which you do, to be able to say, OK, I'm not going to match them on energy. I'm not 14 anymore, but I can use my experience. Yeah. And then some of the disadvantages, obviously, the comments, too old to be here. Why are you here, old man? Those are more funny. Because obviously, older people started getting on YouTube and things. But I think some other advantages, disadvantages that I have that young people have as an advantage, some of the younger people are able to move quicker and iterate quicker.

41:32Sure. They don't come with the baggage that I come with, with the self-doubt. But I know this will work because I remember five years ago that this didn't, you know, they just make the content. And I admire that. And I know I have baggage to get rid of, to move forward. And also, I think one more disadvantage was, you know, there's sometimes, not always, sometimes a feeling of not belonging. I think that was early on where I was just like, am I supposed to be doing this? You know, am I slotting in right? Is this weird? You know, and I'm going to be honest, seeing you early on. I remember I listened to you in my car prior to that and, you know, for your previous radio shows.

42:21But to see you online and see other peers online doing obviously better shows than what I was doing in a tech sense. But that gave me a lot of confidence. Yeah, it's good to have old people doing that. I didn't say that, but that is exactly what I was thinking. I embrace it. You know, well, it's thank you. That is very kind words of you to say. And but even though it's about me, I will still agree that it is good to see other people doing what you want to do in the way you want to do it. Right. It's we talk a lot in society right now about seeing people who look like you. And that is incredibly important.

43:09But it's also seeing people who think like you and act like you and have experiences like you as well, in addition to that. So that's an interesting addition to that conversation, I think. Yeah. And seeing young people who initially was just starting out, like Marquez, MKB, and we attached right when I was bigger than him. And seeing him grow and explode was amazing for me. I was like, go, go, go. Again, someone looks like me. I remember looking up to people like Soldier Knows Best. you know just so yeah i did experience that wow there's someone who looks like me who's doing this yeah and doing it well but also young people who think like me and and and have the have the life life experience or similar life experience to me was also very important so as well as people who make you feel young like me you do make me feel young by about six years or so well the first time we had you on you said you were nervous were you still nervous i hope you weren't nervous i was not nervous at all this time okay good good yeah that yeah well that one was me telling a that was that was a more difficult story to tell because that that's more of a wow you left this yeah you left a successful thing what yeah yeah yeah and if you haven't listen to that episode.

44:40It does kind of complete. This is almost the prequel to that episode in a way, right? This is the prequel. Yeah. So you might want to go check that out. That word was influencer. And as we mentioned earlier, that came out in July 2022. Well, you've already told us some of the this or that, but you want to play again? I got some new questions mixed in this time. Maybe you've changed your answers on some of them. Let's do it. All right. I can't wait. I'm going to start off with, for folks who are new to the show, I should say this or that. The game is, I will give Lamar two options. I give all our guests two options, the word game.

45:14And then just tell me which of the two options they would pick and why. The first this or that is Mario or Princess Peach? Mario. I was trying to come up with something that could take away from Mario, but there isn't. There isn't. Could anything take away from Mario for you? No, nothing could take away from Mario. Yeah. He's the OG. I thought about Link. I thought about... I don't know what I thought about. Yeah. It still will come back tomorrow for me. I'm very much into the OG guy. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to think of a name like Kathy Ireland or something, but no. How old are we, Tom? I know, right?

45:55I was like, what's a more modern reference, Tom? Dell or Gateway?

46:04Dell, because I had more experience with them in the schools. That's what I bought. I bought hundreds of Dells. So, yeah. Actually, never owned a gateway. Never ever touched one, honestly. I think I owned one gateway once briefly, but I've had multiple Dells. So I'm kind of the same boat there. The classic, Faster Slow Zombies. Yeah. So I'm still going to stay with the slow ones. You want to get away. I want to be able to get away. I don't. Yeah. They don't need to be fast. Yeah. I don't know who would choose to fast. I'm really curious about the guests who choose fast. I'm going to ditch the crepes question and go just with a more broad, salty or sweet?

46:46As I've gotten older, I'm moving more towards the salty. I know you'd be like, Lamar, your blood pressure. I'm not going to lie. That is bad for your blood pressure. but the sugar is worse for your blood pressure i think yeah because it has more widespread yeah yeah you can keep the salty treats at a blood pressure safe level right yeah yeah but sweet is yeah you're just gonna go crazy yeah yeah all right um this one i want to i want to make sure i say music wise i'm not talking about personality personal life music wise michael or janet michael yeah michael i love janet but that's not a competition to me personnel no i'm not even exactly uh dogs or cats still a cat guy still a cat guy all right yeah sega or 3do i don't know what a 3do is oh really okay yeah no that that's like i've heard of it yeah i've I just don't know.

47:52You have no experience. See, the people who do know 3DO, they're like, oh, 3DO. But then if you never lived in the 3DO world, then yeah, you're Sonic all day long. Hot or cold?

48:08In what context? Or just in general? Food or temperature? Would you rather be hot or would you rather be cold? I mean, obviously, you'd rather be right in between. But if it's going to lay in one way. Yeah. I'll go with the hot. Coming from Chicago, I can't do that anymore. Just that freezing cold. That freezing cold. Man, I'm right there with you. Yeah. Yeah. I know we're from other opposite ends of the state of Illinois, but that is one that I think works statewide. And then finally, Hello Kitty or Scottie Pippen? I knew you could. Oh, my God. Funko Pops. Okay. Very good reference. I want to go with Scottie Pippen on this one.

48:49Really? Hello Kitty is right there. I mean, how is your Hello Kitty Funko Pop after taking a dive across the room in your latest video? It's still intact and it's going to be given to you later today. It's already in the back ready to go. That's a promise and a threat. Yeah, exactly. Well, Lamar, this was fantastic. Thank you for sharing your story with us. I really, really appreciate it. Thank you for coming back again. And being a repeat guest, I can't tell you how much it means to me. No, it's such an honor. I really love this series that you do. I remember when you were workshopping this and just a seat of, you know, listen to all the different interviews.

49:34You know, it's Rob being one of my favorite ones. Yeah, it was a good one. But yeah, all of them just have such a different perspective of life. And so keep this series going. There's so many words out there and so many people with their perspectives on how to talk about that word. Yeah. No, thank you, man. I appreciate that. And just know that we do want to have repeat guests on, but that doesn't mean we've run out of ideas or anything. It's more like people like Lamar where we have more to talk about. So we're going to do that and continue to bring new people on as well. thanks to our producer Anthony Lemos thank you for listening to this show telling your friends about it you can get an ad-free version of this show with a cast plus click on access exclusive content at a word podcast.com that's a word podcast.com and we'll have a word with you next time