Be a Legend (with Marsai Martin) – Episode 28 of Rants & Randomness

Awesomely Luvvie — April 16, 2019

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My people! Welcome to this episode of Rants & Randomness! I’m Luvvie, your side-eye sorceress, and in each episode I’m bringing you the things I’m loving, the things that I’m side-eyeing, and interviewing really interesting people.

Download Episode 28 Transcript

On this episode, I’m feeling so good about LuvvNation, I’m ranting about people not doing their due diligence in business, and spotlighting the Nigerian food truck, my favorite place to eat outside of my mama’s house. And I’m interviewing the incredible, incredible, legendary Marsai Martin, executive producer, actress, and game-changer.

Feel Good

I’m feeling so good about the launch of LuvvNation. It is a network that I have created on Mighty Networks, and it’s essentially my own version of if Facebook was only full of thoughtful people who were really funny and cared about making the world better than we found it. I launched it a couple of weeks ago as a safe space in a dumpster-fire world, honestly because it was a type of space that I needed. Because social media has been really, really stressful. You just feel like you log on to Facebook and Twitter and sometimes Instagram, you feel instantly heavy about what’s going on in the world, how people are reacting to it, and all that. And I was like, “What would it look like to have a space online, where my audience, who call themselves LuvvNation, they’ve been doing that for the last couple of years, can talk to just each other?” And it’s not creating an echo chamber, because everyone who reads and consumes my work does not just look like me or think exactly the same.

My Rant

This week’s rant is about people not doing their due diligence in business. Here’s the thing, let’s talk about intellectual property. When you are about to start a business, one of the first things you have to do is Google to make sure that there isn’t already a company of that same name that exists out there, for a couple of reasons. One, it makes it harder for you to actually brand yourself and gain market share if there’s another company doing what you want to do that’s going to be called the same thing that you want to call your company. But most importantly, if there’s already a company out there that is doing what you want to do, and then you call your company something super similar to that company, what you’re doing is infringing on their trademarks.

My Randomness

On this episode, I am spotlighting the Nigerian food truck, the Africana Mobile Kitchen in New York. If you ever go to Nigerian food truck there will be a line. It’s because his food is so good. I literally order from there every single time I’m in New York, and there’s never been anything that I’ve tasted there that has not been phenomenal. And when I spoke to him and I was like, “How do you do that?” He was like, “I care about quality control. I make sure all my chefs are using my recipes. So no matter who’s cooking it, it’s going to taste just as good.” And I want to give a shout out to him, because oftentimes in the food business especially, people don’t give Nigerians props on not just service, but taste. And he has mastered both.

My Guest: Marsai Martin

Rising star Marsai Martin at just 14 years old is already on course to be a whirlwind sensation. At the age of five, she landed her first national commercial, and shortly after relocated to LA. She was cast as Diane Johnson on ABC’s Emmy-nominated hit comedy Black-ish.

Alongside an all-star cast, the young starlet has stolen the hearts of viewers who tune in every week to see her hilarious and witty antics on the show. Her work has earned her seven NAACP Image Awards as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award. At the age of 10, she conceptualized and pitched a movie idea to Will Packer at Universal which became the upcoming feature film Little. As a star and executive producer on the film, she’s become a part of Hollywood history as the youngest person to EP a major Hollywood film.

With opportunities presenting themselves daily, Marsai is excited about uplifting diverse and young voices through her production company Genius Productions, who recently signed an overall deal with Universal. In addition to acting, she loves producing, singing, dancing, and creating her own content for social media, and she can do a mean beat with that makeup.

In this episode, we talk about being a good role model, school, and the learning curve when it comes to being the youngest in the industry.

You can follow Marsai on Instagram at @MarsaiMartin. As always, much love to the Chicago Recording Company, where I record each episode!

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Download Episode 28 Transcript