Ryk St. Vincent, Rychy to some, has been in entertainment since the age of 10 with puppets he made and took to school to give shows in the fifth grade.
Since then Rychy has broadcast on 17 radio stations in 11 different cities across the United States. You can find his name on at least 12 movies, like "A Time to Kill", "Top Cop", "God's Not Dead 2" and "Faith" as well as TV commercials, theatre programs, and in the cast of several documentaries. Ryk is also a talented Jazz musician and performs regularly in the Little Rock area.
Not only is Ryk a performing artist and entertainer but he is also a talented woodworker and hand makes cabinetry and artistic storage solutions. This multi-talented modern "Renaissance Man" will talk about many aspects of his career and building a business around your creative pursuits with Kerry and her call in audience.
Ryk. St. Vincent joined Kerry to talk about building a business around your creative pursuits. Up In Your Business is a Radio Show by FlagandBanner.com
Podcast Links
Bossa Nova – Brazilian Restaurant with Live Entertainment
Antiquities – Film in production (Ashley Greene, Mary Steenburgen, Andrew West, Ryk St. Vincent and more)
UP IN YOUR BUSINESS WITH KERRY MCCOY - EPISODE 08 - RYK ST. VINCENT
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:02.1] TB: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Be sure to stay tuned till the end of the show to hear how you can get a copy of this program and other helpful documents.
Now, it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:19.3] KM: Hello, you’re listening to Kerry McCoy and it’s time for me to get all up in your business. You may be asking yourself what makes this lady qualified to do this, and I’ll tell you. Experience.
In a minute, you can email or call and ask me anything, my experience is deep and wide and my advice is free. 40 years ago with just $400, I started Arkansas Flag and Banner. Since then, it’s morphed into flagandbanner.com with sales nearing four million, that’s worth saying again, I started Arkansas Flag and Banner with just $400 and today we have sales nearing four million.
I started by selling flags door to door then went to telemarketing. Next mail order and catalog sales and today we rely heavily on the internet. In addition, over the last 40 years, I’ve navigated flag and banner through two recessions and two wars. When people find out I’m that woman who owns Arkansas Flag and Banner, they often say, “Oh I have heard about you” and began asking me business advice.
I amaze even myself with all the knowledge I’ve gained. Be prepared for the truth, it’s not always easy to hear.
For instance, you may not want to hear this. In business, there are very few overnight successes. Starting and owning a business takes persistence, perseverance and patience. When I started Arkansas Flag and Banner, I supplemented my income by waitressing.
All while I pedaled my flags door to door. After nine years, did you hear me? Nine years of working a part time job, the company had been to grow and solely support me. My first hire was a book keeper to answer the phone and handle the clerical side of my business.
My first expansion was to begin the manufacturing of custom flags. So a sowing department developed. The next decade ushered in desert storm war. Flags were scarce so a screen printing department was hardly built to meet consumer demands.
In addition to sales and manufacturing, flag and banner now has a purchasing department, a shipping department, technology department, marketing department, call center and a retail store. I spearheaded the development of everyone of this departments.
My experience is deep and wide and my advice is free, you’ll be able to call me in just a minute. But before we start taking calls, I want to introduce you to the people at the table. We have Tim Bo, our technician who will be taking your calls and pushing the buttons. Say hello Tim.
[0:03:18.0] TB: Hello Tim.
[0:02:57.3] KM: My guest today is the talented Rick Saint Vincent. AKA Richie Saint Vincent. He is a self-employed actor, musician, singer and talented woodworker. He boasts a long career in film, theater, broadcast and radio. When he is not acting or creating furniture in his workshop, you may find him crooning with an accompanist at local restaurants or parties, he is a regular at Bosa Nova on the first Thursday of every month in the Hill Crest neighborhood. In addition, Rick is a lover of the dream men ballroom and has been an active board member of the nonprofit friends of dreamland, almost since its inception in 2009.
This multi-talented, modern renaissance man is going to talk with us today about the many aspects of building a business and career around your creativity. Welcome to the table, the one, the only, Rick Saint Vincent.
[0:04:00.5] RSV: That’s crowd noise.
[0:04:06.4] KM: That’s a good imitation, I like that, I may keep that.
[0:04:08.8] RSV: I saw that on the TV, it was a little girl, the mom was going to play basketball and he says, the crowd went wild, a little girl goes – how cute. Good afternoon.
[0:04:18.6] KM: Who wants to be a Renaissance man right?
[0:04:21.8] RSV: You know what Kerry? I just spoke with Joe Fox who asked about your show down at Community Bakery and he’s asking about your show and talked to me and says, well how did you get hooked up to do the show?
[0:04:34.4] KM: He just needs to call me.
[0:04:36.6] RSV: No, not him, I’m saying, he asked me how did I get hooked up with the show today? I said well, I know Kerry from green man ballroom Flag and Banner and…
[0:04:45.2] KM: Really before that.
[0:04:46.4] RSV: Yeah, we’ve done some parties, yeah, because I used to come right past your place when I had my shop.
[0:04:49.2] KM: I’ve known you for 30 years, you probably don’t remember that.
[0:04:52.4] RSV: For 30 years.
[0:04:52.5] KM: I think it was 30 years. It was 1990 when I first met you.
[0:04:55.7] RSV: Yeah.
[0:04:56.2] KM: That’s 46 years.
[0:04:57.5] RSV: Yeah. That’s about the time I came by your place with my little dog I was walking my dog right past the Flag and Banner.
[0:05:04.3] KM: We’re going to get into that.
[0:05:05.5] RSV: We’ll get it all.
[0:05:05.6] KM: You’re losing everybody on that.
[0:05:07.2] RSV: No, I started out saying that you talked about renaissance and I’m always stepping back from that moniker because I’m always thinking, well I would love to have one thing that I can do great and make all the money like you and everybody else, you know, when you just make money.
[0:05:23.7] KM: I wish.
[0:05:24.7] RSV: Yeah but when you have to do all of these different things to survive, you learn to do these things over the years and then next thing you know, you know four or five, six different things that you do well but you haven’t made any real money off of any one of them in particular.
[0:05:39.4] KM: I was going to ask you about you doing so many different things and I think you just answered it, it’s just what you do to survive.
[0:05:46.9] RSV: It’s what you do to survive. When you talked about your business and you said that you needed to have production, you setup a production and you got silk screen and things of that nature. Same thing, I was in radio for 17 years, I did probably 17, 20 radio stations in eight different cities, six different states since 1971.
[0:06:08.1] KM: Let me just read everybody what you’ve done.
[0:06:10.7] RSV: Well, you don’t have to read it.
[0:06:11.5] KM: I have got to. I go to Google up you and like every body that I’ve ever interviewed in here that I’ve known literally for decades. I read about them and go, “Oh my gosh, I haven’t really known them.” For instance. In film, you’ve done The Old State House documentary, you’ve done a lot more documentaries than that.
You actually need to update this website, you’ve done The White River Kid, The Corporate Man, Height of the Sky, The Crown, Sagittarius, A Time to Kill.
[0:06:40.5] RSV: Yeah, that’s a big one.
[0:06:41.5] KM: that’s a big one, Over the Edge, Slightly Been – just to name a few. Then you did broadcast for AETN, for Alto, for Ever Bay, for Big On the Rock and then you already said it, listen to this paper of all the stuff you’ve done.
Then, you’ve been in 39 radio stations over 17 years eight cities and six states.
[0:07:02.8] RSV: Just different stuff you know?
[0:07:04.3] KM: Papa was a rolling stone, wherever he laid his hat was his home.
[0:07:10.0] RSV: Right now my hat is laying right here on the desk of KEBF.
[0:07:15.1] KM: You’re back in Little Rock?
[0:07:16.5] RSV: Yeah, actually I’m back here as a mistake in a sense. I came through leaving Virginia and I came through Little Rock to see some friends and I was headed back to Los Angeles, had been gone for maybe a year or so working on some houses in Virginia and in Atlanta for some friends.
Was driving back to Los Angeles, stopped to see some friends and somebody saw me and said, “hey man, you back in town, I need you to take a look at my house I’m building in north Little Rock.” I said “Mike, I don’t have time for that, I’m on my way back to LA.” “Come on man, just look at the plans.”
I said, “well show me the plans.”
[0:07:53.2] KM: How many years ago was that?
[0:07:54.7] RSV: 11.
[0:07:56.7] KM: You still have your house up in LA?
[0:07:59.6] RSV: No, I never had a house in LA but I keep connections in LA and I keep mailbox there so I can stay in touch with all of the folks in LA.
[0:08:08.6] KM: And you’re going back all the time I think, you’ve just been back for the jazz.
[0:08:11.9] RSV: I went back for the Long Beach Jazz Festival.
[0:08:16.0] KM: People don’t think of actors and musicians and singers as entrepreneurs but really, to me, you’re the epitome of an entrepreneur. You are your own product. You know what I’m saying? You are your own – you are an ultimate entrepreneur.
Let’s talk about how you kind of started because I’ve noticed that people that are entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs from early on. I read somewhere that in the fifth grade, you would make hand puppets, take them to school and entertain your classmates. Have you always been driven to that?
[0:08:46.6] RSV: That’s probably the beginning of it. When I was a kid, my mom worked at a hat factory in Saint Luis and would bring home remnants from all of the materials from the hats.
[0:08:56.1] KM: I did not know that.
[0:08:56.6] RSV: Then would sew this stuff together and make different items and sometimes you had enough stuff that you would make little petty coats and dresses and stuff. I was always the guy cutting out patterns at the butter field.
[0:09:10.0] KM: Very good.
[0:09:10.7] RSV: yeah, man, I know all the stuff, I know how to sew, I know how to do all the stuff, I own a sewing machine, I have a sewing machine.
[0:09:15.9] KM: Renaissance man again.
[0:09:19.0] RSV: Tim Buck said at a yard sale, I said “hey, I know how to use that, $10 okay, I’ll take it.” Used it twice.
[0:09:24.2] KM: I was about to say, you probably never turned it on. Don’t forget to oil it, you have to oil sewing machines.
[0:09:29.3] RSV: I know, I did all that stuff, I made puppets, I had 13 puppets, marionets and/or hand puppets. I took an old Motorola box and I made a stage out of it, painted it black on the inside took the material and made up little curtains and took flashlights and duct taped them up in the corners.
[0:09:47.6] KM: Fifth grade?
[0:09:48.2] RSV: In the fifth grade and I used to drag that thing three and a half blocks to school when Ms. Schwartz would ask me, “Can you come in Friday and bring your puppets for the kids” and I would say, “Yeah.” I drag that thing three blocks to school, do the puppet show, we turn out all the lights and I turn my flashlights on and I do the puppets and I would make up stuff.
When you’re on my case about going off on a tangent is because I’ve been doing that to entertain kids.
[0:10:16.9] KM: You’ve been going off on tangents.
[0:10:18.5] RSV: Yes. To go off like that and just do it for the kids and I make up stories, that’s all.
[0:10:23.7] KM: People don’t know that before we came on, I was saying, this is going to be a real testament to my skills at being a commentator because Rick will go off on a tangent forever and I’m going to have to keep you focused.
[0:10:34.0] RSV: No, well, you know what? Somebody said something to me not long ago, maybe in the last couple of years. They said, “You’re so silly.” Like that. At that particular instant, my mind was at a point where I could respond to that intellectually. I said, “Do you know what it takes to be silly?”
[0:10:50.0] KM: I know, right?
[0:10:51.6] RSV: Check this out. First of all, you have to truly hear what that person is saying.
[0:10:56.9] KM: Which no one does.
[0:10:57.8] RSV: Then you have to understand it to the point that you can find the way of flipping it around or finding the joke or finding the obtuseness of it. Then you have to be able to say that and you have to do it all in milliseconds.
[0:11:13.9] KM: Yes, they say comedians are really intelligent.
[0:11:16.0] RSV: When you think in terms of folks like Robin Williams wife was just on TV yesterday talking about his passing and you think about folks like that, the comedians, they are silly but they are so intelligent because they can hear something, understand it and flip it back in conversation.
Thank you for the complement.
[0:11:37.1] KM: You’re welcome. Rick, do you dream all the time? I mean, all of us kids I think dream about becoming famous, becoming rock stars, becoming super models or actresses but very few of us have the gumption to go and do it. In fact, I even heard somewhere that when polled, 95% of people would rather die than have to get up and make a speech.
How did you in the fifth grade overcome?
[0:12:02.5] RSV: I did exactly as I’m doing it now. I didn’t start singing until maybe 10 years ago.
[0:12:07.7] KM: Really?
[0:12:07.9] RSV: Literally. The only reason that I started singing was because people kept saying, do you sing?
[0:12:13.2] KM: Well your voice is just so good.
[0:12:14.9] RSV: “Do you sing?” I said, “No, I really don’t sing.” I was doing a show in Los Angeles in San Diego, it was a one man show, I played a little instrument called a Columba, it’s a little bumpy African instrument.
I would go out on the beach sometimes out on Blacks beach which is just above La Hoya Cove which is a nude beach. You have to wear shoes but I would always be out there with boots on and a cap and my Columba walking the beach.
[0:12:40.0] KM: That’s it?
[0:12:40.5] RSV: Yeah. Well, nobody else had. If you had on clothes on Blacks beach, you got noticed. I’m serious. The marines would come out there and had their clothes on and they’re looking at all the naked folks walking up and down the beach and everybody’s looking at, what are those idiots doing?
But if you’re naked, it’s like you just disappear.
[0:12:58.7] KM: You would bring your…
[0:13:00.6] RSV: I take my Columba out there and I would do a Columba concert which is poetry improv, stories and things like that and occasionally, I would do some Broadway type singing. You know?
[0:13:13.6] KM: What motivated you to do that? What is your motivation and did you make any money doing it or was it just for joy.
[0:13:19.5] RSV: No, I did it for joy but I did do some of the college circuits during the black history month and played it Loyola, Mary Mount college in LA city college and several places in Los Angeles and San Diego, I would go to the clubs and if somebody was taking a break, I would say, “hey man, can I go up and do something for the 10 minutes that you guys are going to be on break?”
[0:13:39.3] KM: What would you do?
[0:13:40.7] RSV: I would go up and I would do characters, I got an old man Otis that I used to do and I would do poetry and it would just be a moment where you would just go off into something that was unusual.
[0:13:52.8] KM: I love that.
[0:13:53.3] RSV: You know.
[0:13:53.8] KM: Listen people, you are listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy and my friend Rick Saint Vincent.
[0:14:00.7] RSV: No forget, Old man Otis is here too.
[0:14:04.6] KM: Old man Otis is here.
[0:14:05.3] RSV: you didn’t even mention me and I’ve been sitting here five minutes. How are you doing Kerry?
[0:14:11.8] KM: I’m fine Mr. Otis, how old are you?
[0:14:14.4] RSV: I’m thinking I’m a hundred, no, 104 I think.
[0:14:22.8] KM: I don’t even know what year you were born in. What year would that make you born?
[0:14:26.8] RSV: I’m not sure.
[0:14:27.7] KM: 1904.
[0:14:29.8] RSV: Yeah.
[0:14:30.1] KM: No, 1914. Okay, I’m here with Mr. Otis, Rick Saint Vincent and I’m Kerry McCoy on KABF, this is a mentoring show for small business owners. My inspiring guest today is a self-employed actor, singer and craftsman. If you’ve got questions or comments for either of us or for Mr. Otis. Call us at.
[0:14:56.0] TB: 501-433-0088.
[0:15:00.1] KM: That’s again?
[0:15:01.3] TB: 501-433-0088.
[0:15:04.0] KM: Or you can email me questions with an S.
[0:15:12.0] KM: Rick, how does somebody like you who is just full of creativity that is just, they just cannot not create. How do they get started?
[0:15:20.5] RSV: The way I got started in this endeavor that I’m involved with now for the last 38 years in terms of cabinetry was I was working at Tail KY.
[0:15:29.0] KM: I remember that school. That’s still around, the block dot on your doll, I love that stage.
[0:15:33.6] RSV: They were FD prospect building back in 83 when I came here from Jackson Mississippi during radio. Actually I was in Jackson Mississippi working the shift that Paul Tod was working before I got there and Paul was here.
[0:15:47.9] KM: You were a radio disk jockey?
[0:15:48.8] RSV: Radio disk jockey, came here with Dave and I was doing morning drive and he was doing evening drive and then things got murky at the radio station and they started letting folks go so before they came to me with the pink slip, I just quit and they told me, “Well you can’t quit.”
I said, “Yes I can.”
[0:16:05.1] KM: Why were they letting people go?
[0:16:06.8] RSV: They were letting people go because at that time, they were trying to reorganize the station.
[0:16:11.4] KM: Radio stations always struggle.
[0:16:12.8] RSV: Yeah. I quit that job in October and ran into a guy whose father had a furniture manufacturing plant down here on Base of Cantrol. Joe Blankship. He says, “Hey man, I‘m going to stop by and look and see if there is any transients in our place.”
Because transients would break in there and sleep. We stopped there and I saw all this lumber and I had just quit the job and he says, I said to him, I said “hey man, what are you going to do with all this lumber?”
He says, “most of it is just going to rot away, we don’t do anything with it?” I said, “well can I have some?” He says “yeah.” I took a truck, went down in and filled that truck up and took it back out to greenwood forest apartments out here on greenwood.
[0:16:55.3] KM: Yeah green mountain.
[0:16:57.4] RSV: Took that lumber in there, called some folks up in Memphis, told them if I could build a cabinet that they were asking about a couple of months ahead of that and they said “yeah, sure,” did a cabinet for a lady there, $1,200, paid my rent and that was the beginning. Next thing you know…
[0:17:12.7] KM: How old were you?
[0:17:14.2] RSV: That was in 83 so I would have been 33.
[0:17:18.1] KM: I hear this all the time, it was a necessity and you saw an opportunity and it seems to me that most business entrepreneurs like yourself just see opportunities and take advantage of them.
[0:17:30.9] RSV: That’s typical of us if we go back to our hunter, gatherer mentality. We’ve gotten away from that. We’ve gotten away from that as human beings, we’ve gotten away from that.
This is a part of our problem I think. I don’t want to get philosophical, I’m just thinking that we have always been people who were capable of living on this planet and we didn’t need Walmart and we don’t need – we didn’t need the internet, we didn’t need a lot of things that we have now, we didn’t need.
We’ve lost that.
[0:18:02.6] KM: Yeah.
[0:18:02.7] RSV: We’ve lost that.
[0:18:04.1] KM: You’re a scrapper, there’s no doubt. Even though – no pun intended because you picked up scraps in Maine but you are a scrapper, you see opportunities everywhere I think. Did you even know you could do woodwork?
[0:18:16.3] RSV: I knew that I used to tinker with all kind of stuff. When I was about seven…
[0:18:19.5] KM: You could sew, you can sing, you can disk jockey, now you’re doing wood work?
[0:18:23.4] RSV: Well, I’ve done all kind of – I can wield, do a little bit of glass work, I would love to learn how to blow glass you know, and make lamps and stuff, who is the guy that does the lamps? What is it? He does beautiful chandeliers.
[0:18:44.2] KM: Yeah, I went to his exhibit at the art center, real famous, starts with P I think.
[0:18:48.0] RSV: I love that stuff. I can’t remember now anyway because of my age you know.
[0:18:53.3] KM: It’s gone.
[0:18:53.8] RSV: Yeah.
[0:18:55.6] KM: That would be wonderful. There’s a local artist here that also mimics his style a little bit but you did do a little bit of work with wood before, so you kind of knew – you recognized it was nice wood because you have a creative eye and you said, “This is beautiful wood.”
[0:19:11.6] RSV: I made – look, when I was a teenager, I’m thinking around 14, I made a go cart out of a kitchen chair and a brigs and Stratton trim motor that used to trim the lawns.
[0:19:25.5] KM: What?
[0:19:27.5] RSV: Yeah, I put that thing on a chassis, my neighbor Mr. Brown who I love dearly in any life that we ever show up in, Mr. Brown find me and…
[0:19:38.8] KM: In your next life, I want to do with next door neighbors with Mr. Brown again?
[0:19:43.0] RSV: I made this little go cart. Actually, it was just a chair with three wheels and I got on that thing and a friend of mine in his car who drove on the side of me and we got that thing up to 30 miles an hour. Now, imagine going down a street at 30 miles an hour.
[0:20:00.0] KM: In a kitchen chair with a lawn mower?
[0:20:02.6] RSV: On a kitchen chair.
[0:20:03.6] KM: With a lawn mower motor.
[0:20:05.0] RSV: Foolishness is a good word to bring into this conversation right now.
[0:20:08.9] KM: Youthful.
[0:20:10.3] RSV: Yeah. I took that thing and for many years since I was a kid, I took that thing and I rebuilt that seven times and in 78, I literally had a business in San Diego called Scooter Ads and anybody who has lived in San Diego in 78 and 80 will know of Scooter Ads because I had taken that same fork for the front wheel, that never changed but everything else evolved around it and I wound up with a 780 pound vehicle that I would drive all around San Diego, Chula Vista.
[0:20:50.2] KM: What does that have to do with scooter ville?
[0:20:51.7] RSV: It was called Scooter Ads, it was in advertising. When you talked about turning something into something, the people that I had working on that, Nelson Bashir at that time was the national go cart champion. Robert Kiter was the oppose to the hotel del Coronado and John of I got to call his name.
He was jack Custoe’s underwater wielder. One of Jack Custoe’s underwater wielder who had a small shop over near market in San Diego where he makes stainless steel railing for yachts.
[0:21:23.8] KM: He was there, they were all working on your what do you call it?
[0:21:26.8] RSV: On this little Scooter Ad thing. Everybody that saw it thought it was a Cushman and they would come up and they said, “where did you get that from?” I said, “I built it.” Now, nobody believed it.
[0:21:37.5] KM: You built this thing and you went to them and said hey, you want me to ride around and sell ads for you? See, there’s more creative entrepreneurship. There’s money everywhere if you’re creative enough.
[0:21:45.0] RSV: I did ads with Ted Gienolis, the San Diego Chicken, I did ads with the Charger games, I did ads for the San Diego Ballet, ads for Sea World, Rach Crock was there once with over red backer. We did some ads for some stuff that they would do and I drove this thing all around San Diego during that time.
[0:22:06.5] KM: They knew you.
[0:22:08.1] RSV: They had to have seen it.
[0:22:08.4] KM: Should we say you’re lucky to be alive?
[0:22:11.8] RSV: Maybe twice, there was two times, it turned over, I was going too fast.
[0:22:14.9] KM: How fast would it go?
[0:22:15.9] RSV: it would go 40 miles an hour and it would drive three days on two gallons of gas.
[0:22:20.8] KM: I have one word for you. Cool Cat. You are a cool cat.
[0:22:25.4] RSV: I’ve done enough things that I can hang out with cats so maybe they think I’m cool.
[0:22:28.9] KM: You are – I mean, renaissance man isn’t even a big enough word for you. I’m trying to piece together your colorful life. You graduated from high school, did you go to college?
[0:22:43.1] RSV: Actually, correcting people.
[0:22:45.3] KM: You graduated from high school a puppeteer.
[0:22:48.3] RSV: No, I never graduated from high school. Let me tell you…
[0:22:51.2] KM: that happens all the time.
[0:22:52.2] RSV: Quick story. I’m in high school, a guy in high school who had hit me in the jaw, broke my jaw over a girl who I wound up marrying, my first wife. This guy fractured my jaw.
[0:23:05.9] KM: But you got the girl?
[0:23:07.7] RSV: I literally built a zip gun, you’re not from the neighborhood who would know what that means.
[0:23:11.7] KM: No, I have no idea what that means.
[0:23:14.4] RSV: I built a zip gun that looked like back in that day, would look like a rainbow handkerchief because I covered it in rainbow handkerchief. You couldn’t tell.
[0:23:23.8] KM: Concealed weapon.
[0:23:24.5] RSV: It was concealed weapon yeah. I gave it to a guy named Nathaniel. They put me out of high school twice because I was working nights, I was married, working nights.
[0:23:34.0] KM: In high school?
[0:23:35.0] RSV: Yeah.
[0:23:35.4] KM: You have lived a million lives. What were you doing working nights?
[0:23:38.6] RSV: I was working nights because I was married and had a child.
[0:23:41.6] KM: My gosh, what were you doing at nights? Singing?
[0:23:44.9] RSV: No, I was working at general electric apparatus.
[0:23:49.3] KM: On assembly line?
[0:23:50.2] RSV: No, it was a repair place for field generators and large synchronous motors and all that kind of stuff.
[0:23:58.4] KM: You have almost an engineering background? Engineering is very creative.
[0:24:04.9] RSV: I see myself as somewhat of a bootleg engineer, I didn’t go to school for it.
[0:24:09.5] KM: Did you ever feature a degree?
[0:24:11.6] RSV: No, I never wanted the degree.
[0:24:15.4] KM: No, you don’t need it.
[0:24:15.8] RSV: I didn’t ever. Ms. Hudson who I knew from the sixth grade…
[0:24:19.7] KM: You’re an inspiration to a lot of people listening right now.
[0:24:22.7] RSV: Ms. Hudson said this to me and I never forgot it. She didn’t say it to me, she said it to the class at sixth grade. She says, I’m going to save those who want to be saved and my ears perked up, I’m telling you, they opened up and I thought wow, I want to be saved because the neighborhood that I grew up in.
I found a dead body once.
[0:24:42.1] KM: Was it in Little Rock?
[0:24:44.0] RSV: No, in Saint Luis. I’ve seen people killed literally in front of me. I saw a guy get shot off the back of a car arguing with somebody.
[0:24:53.7] KM: It still upsets you, I can see it in your eyes.
[0:24:55.3] RSV: Well, what upsets me is that nothing’s really changed over this years and I’m 66 years old now and not a whole lot has changed. We placate ourselves believing that we’ve moved forward but we still haven’t shaken the baggage that we carry, a lot of us.
[0:25:12.2] KM: She said you wanted to be saved?
[0:25:13.2] RSV: She said yeah, she says, I’m going to save those who wants to be saved and so my hand went up and from that day forward, I never thought about grades, I thought about influencing.
[0:25:24.6] KM: What grade was that? That was in the sixth grade.
[0:25:27.6] RSV: I never thought about grades as far as getting an A or getting a B or anything like that. I said, “I want to know what I know.” She would always ask me, she says, “how did you come to that conclusion?” She says “okay, I understand. Even though you didn’t do it do it right, you were thinking, that’s more than most of these people in this class.”
[0:25:48.7] KM: Her equation to being saved is to be a critical thinker.
[0:25:52.2] RSV: To think, to think about what’s going on, to pay attention.
[0:25:55.5] KM: You are absolutely a critical thinker. Some people only think one step, some people think two or three steps down the line. I mean, you built that cart and you thought you could use that cart like you just said at the very beginning in the show, you learned to listen and you learned to react to listening.
You’ve seen needs and you learned to react to needs.
[0:26:14.6] RSV: My son tells me, he says, “Dad, you do too much for people.”
[0:26:19.0] KM: That’s impossible.
[0:26:22.0] RSV: Just like telling a rabbit not to hop isn’t it?
[0:26:24.3] KM: Well, I don’t think there’s a religion in the world that doesn’t say you should – the true happiness comes from serving other so you’re going to have to teach your son that I guess.
You didn’t graduate from high school.
[0:26:35.2] RSV: No, but I’ve gone to business colleges and city colleges.
[0:26:37.2] KM: I was going to say, I saw that, yeah, you did a lot of volt tech kind of school work.
[0:26:41.2] RSV: here’s the deal about education and this is what we miss. Education should be and should always be giving people the ability to solve problems. Not how much you can read or how many books you’ve amassed in your library or how quick you can do a formula in math but can you solve a problem?
I’ve got problems right now that I’m trying to solve so don’t think that I’m over the hump. Education is about thinking about your environment, what’s happening and then solving that problem and in order to do that, you got to be able to along with people like I always say. I believe everybody is absolutely right about what they believe.
Now, my job is can I get along with them?
[0:27:27.1] KM: Wow.
[0:27:27.2] RSV: A whole other way of looking at it.
[0:27:28.9] KM: It certainly is, I love that, I might have to write that down, that’s a tweetable moment. A tweetable comment. You’re listening to Up in your business with Kerry McCoy on KABF, this is a mentoring show for small business owners or for those who dream of owning a small business.
My inspiring guest today is self-employed Rick Saint Vincent. He’s an actor, singer, puppeteer and craftsman and if you’ve got questions for either of us or for Mr. Otis, 104 years old.
[0:27:57.9] RSV: Yeah.
[0:27:58.4] KM: Call in and we’ll answer your questions and the number to call is?
[0:28:03.4] TB: 501-433-0088.
[0:28:06.8] OTIS: And say that again son?
[0:28:11.2] TB: 501.
[0:28:12.0] OTIS: Let me write that, 501.
[0:28:14.7] TB: 433.
[0:28:15.7] OTIS: 433, uh-huh.
[0:28:18.3] TB: 0088.
[0:28:20.3] OTIS: That’s a zero like that’s a number, okay. 0088.
[0:28:25.9] TB: That’s correct.
[0:28:26.7] OTIS: I appreciate you son, thank you.
[0:28:34.8] KM: If you want to hire Rick to sing also, I have to tell everybody. We haven’t even gotten to your singing career which was fabulous. I was with you last night while you were singing at Bossa Nova and you’ve got another gig while I was down there.
[0:28:46.4] RSV: I got a gig because of you.
[0:28:48.6] KM: Oh good.
[0:28:49.6] RSV: Because of you, Kerry showed up, I’m sitting there looking at the lady who’s about to discern whether or not we’re going to get the gig or not. She shows up, gives me a hug and a slobbery kiss. All of my neck just got all wet.
[0:29:04.9] KM: He’s so full of it.
[0:29:07.7] RSV: But at any rate in that moment though she says, “Yeah, we’re going to do it. Chris and I will be at Dizzies” unbelievable.
[0:29:13.9] KM: That’s good nice.
[0:29:14.5] RSV: Unbelievable and you talk about somebody cool. Now I take my cool lessons from Chris.
[0:29:19.3] KM: So I told Chris that we were auctioning off you and him at the Dancing into Dreamland event on November the 18th.
[0:29:28.1] RSV: That’s November the 18th where the folks –
[0:29:30.8] KM: And he didn’t say okay.
[0:29:32.0] RSV: What? Well, I’ll have to work that out with him because you know Chris is a much more professional than I.
[0:29:37.9] KM: Well I am auctioning you two gentleman off together for a party to benefit the Dreamland Ballroom. We’re trying to get an elevator. We don’t even need to talk about that yet. This show is flying by nut wood. We’ve only got 20 minutes left and I just have so much to talk to you about. So I’d love to talk about the Dreamland Ballroom but I think people want to know about you, the man and how you got into singing and how do other people get into singing. Singing is like how the soul talks to you. It’s like the language of the soul to me.
[0:30:09.6] RSV: I saw something that was worth reading earlier today and they talked about talking and it said “singing is just the next step just above talking” where the elongated vowels and the elongated end of the words get stretched out and singing for me, I don’t know if you ever saw the little thing that I put on the bottom of my stuff that says I sing songs with the words that matter?
[0:30:34.0] KM: You do. Frank Sinatra.
[0:30:35.3] RSV: Well, hey I just added the song –
[0:30:38.6] KM: You’re a crooner.
[0:30:39.7] RSV: I just added that song called River Man I sang last night.
[0:30:45.1] KM: Was that the last song at the very end? That last song was really good. What’s your favorite song to sing? Which song –
[0:30:50.0] RSV: Right now River Man, right now.
[0:30:52.5] KM: Because it’s your brand new and you’re in love with it.
[0:30:53.6] RSV: Yeah, I’m in love with it right now.
[0:30:55.4] KM: Can you sing any of it? Can you even get the tune in there?
[0:30:55.9] RSV: “Betty came by on her way said she had a word to say about things today and fallen leaves said she hadn’t heard the news, hadn’t had a time to choose. A way to lose but she believed, got to go see the River Man, going to tell him all I can about the plan for like time. If he tells me all he knows about the way his river flows and all night shows in summer time”.
[0:31:45.7] KM: Beautiful.
[0:31:47.7] RSV: And it’s about a woman who’s not just all there upstairs you know? But we know people like these in our lives and they’re not – all the knives are not in the drawer, all the silverware’s not shined, all the bulbs aren’t turned in, you know what I’m saying? But we know these people and we have an endearing compassion for them and that’s what this song is about. This woman named Betty.
[0:32:12.8] KM: I think you live next door to Ofedus what’s his name? Who do you live next door to? I bet you’re – I hope he is not listening. He’s going to get mad at me.
[0:32:19.6] RSV: I’m glad you mispronounced his name because I’m not going to say it.
[0:32:24.3] KM: I like him a lot though.
[0:32:25.8] RSV: I like him, I love this deck. He’s my buddy.
[0:32:27.9] KM: I know, I know he is. That was really lovely, you know there are so many people that sing beautiful in the world but they’re shy about sharing it. One of the things I really like about you is that you will belt out a song at the drop of a hat.
[0:32:44.9] RSV: Just to get over fear.
[0:32:46.9] KM: That is a language of the soul too and I really think it’s a gift. Anytime, everybody listening can relate to this but anytime that you are – all of us go through hard times and every time you are in a dark place and you’re soul searching, you can hear a song in the radio and that song will speak to some place in you that you cannot describe. There’s no words for it.
[0:33:09.9] RSV: There’s no words for it but hopefully the words in the song matter and that’s what tells you to go ahead and move on it. Yeah, move on it.
[0:33:17.1] KM: Yeah so when you are singing for Dizzies is it an early night?
[0:33:22.7] RSV: I’ve got to call and find out exactly what the time is going to be but I would imagine if you got there at seven-ish, it’s going to be either just as we start or right in the middle of it. So seven-ish would be a good time to show up.
[0:33:37.4] KM: What I love about your music is, it’s word heavy. I love that about you. It does have great lyrics but you can also – it’s easy listening so you can have –
[0:33:46.6] RSV: You can have a conversation. You know here’s the thing, when I am there or when I am anywhere singing I’m always, to me, my thing is I am the ocean that supports the boat that has the party that you are with.
[0:34:05.1] KM: Whoa! There’s another tweetable moment. “I am the ocean that has the boat” –
[0:34:09.9] RSV: That supports the boat that has the party that you are with, you’re with your party on a boat. I am just the ocean trying to keep you afloat trying to give you some evening, you know? Just take it easy.
[0:34:20.7] KM: So out of all the things that you do which one makes you the most money? Which one supports you? The Cabinetry?
[0:34:27.8] RSV: The Cabinetry. You know I did Mosaic Templars, I did all of the cabinetry over there.
[0:34:31.1] KM: Oh it’s beautiful.
[0:34:31.7] RSV: That’s a year and a half worth of work and most people don’t even know that I did that but if you go in there and you touch any one of the 53 different doors and windows and those flipping doors those rotating doors, the reception and all the retail area and the kitchen, classrooms and the trims and the base, a lot of wood.
[0:34:59.0] KM: So I know –
[0:35:00.0] RSV: I’d like to meet the trees that that wood came from and say I’m sorry.
[0:35:06.3] KM: Oh so you like to work alone also.
[0:35:11.3] RSV: It’s therapeutic.
[0:35:12.7] KM: Well I know that we’ve talked about this because you have hired people before you don’t like the way they do stuff.
[0:35:18.3] RSV: Oh this goes back to education and you get this too with your job and what you do and everybody does. I talked to Joe this morning about the same thing.
[0:35:27.0] KM: Joe Fox at Community Bakery.
[0:35:28.5] RSV: People come to work for me and I say, “Okay this is what we need to do. We need to cut this at this length, we need to do this to width, we need to process it in this way” and then they say why and this is because that’s what needs to be done in order that it turns out like this drawing with these measurements and this finish on it. Then they say, “Well I should be able to do it that way or this way” I say, “Look if you go to work at McDonalds where they sell hamburgers for 99 cents, they’re going to put you in a situation where you have to learn how to do that hamburger their way”. Here is where you put the napkin, this is how you fold aluminum foil, wrap it around it.
[0:36:13.1] KM: This is where the pickle goes, this how much ketchup, this is how much mayo and mustard.
[0:36:16.1] RSV: Yeah, I don’t care where you go to work. If you go to work for somebody –
[0:36:20.2] KM: Follow instructions.
[0:36:21.4] RSV: Somebody has something to tell you about their work and once I consummate a contract with an individual or a company then I am at that instant I’m working for that contract. I am a worker just like you are a worker and I’ve got to do it a certain way because my name is on it and my reputation is on it. So I can’t let it go out of the shop looking any kind of way. I had yet to have any customer that I know of who is dissatisfied or unpleased with my work.
[0:36:53.7] KM: It’s beautiful.
[0:36:55.3] RSV: Okay, so I am not going to impune myself with turning out shatty work. It doesn’t make sense if you don’t have money and all you have is your reputation then you have to protect that. So all of my workers you know –
[0:37:09.9] KM: So you don’t feel like people can live up to your standards that work for you?
[0:37:13.3] RSV: No, they say that I’m picky and I’m too much of this or too much of that but it’s like look, this is my name on this. I’m saying that I’ve got to turn out something that somebody will go, “Okay I like that”.
[0:37:27.7] KM: What is the name of your woodworking company?
[0:37:29.5] RSV: It’s ST. Vincent Koncepts with a K.
[0:37:31.6] KM: So if somebody wants you to do some cabinetry work, I can definitely put a link and you probably have it on upyourbusiness.org and it’s also on Flag and Banner so they can find you but if they wanted to find you to contract you to do something how would they do it?
[0:37:48.3] RSV: Well, they can call my – I am not going to give up my number because that’s just going to inundate me with phone calls.
[0:37:55.2] KM: You hope it does.
[0:37:57.0] RSV: Go through Kerry because I’ve taken my website off. I’m trying to find a better website. I used to have a website.
[0:38:03.4] KM: You’re all over the website but I don’t know your phone number or how to contact you but there is a wealth of information about you because you’ve done so much.
[0:38:11.2] RSV: I’m talking to a lady in France right now, Isabelle Azi. I’m talking to her right now about doing my website because she just did hers and I know her from here. One of her people is in jail here incarcerated here on death row.
[0:38:28.4] KM: One of her people?
[0:38:29.6] RSV: One of them.
[0:38:29.9] KM: Relatives?
[0:38:30.9] RSV: I don’t want to get too deep with it but at any rate he’s incarcerated here down at Barner and I had sang for his fund raises a couple of times and she’s an artist also so I sang for her and for him and I’m going to try to see if I can get her to do my website with just a different fresh mindset.
[0:38:50.1] KM: Let me tell you about websites. You have got a legacy you don’t realize it but you have a long amount of history connected to your website. If you bring it down and change your url, your names that are in there up there, your address you are going to lose so much organic. You can change the page what it looks like but you cannot change –
[0:39:18.8] RSV: The URL?
[0:39:19.7] KM: None of it. None of those landing pages and URL’s. I almost bankrupted Arkansas Flag and Banner by doing that in 2012. I did a brand new website, the person I had doing it didn’t do a good job and it –
[0:39:33.0] RSV: We’re you able to retrieve all of that by way of redirecting it to the new?
[0:39:38.3] KM: You can redirect it, Google knows you’re going to redirect it. It is not optimum but it absolutely the best thing and don’t redirect them to your front landing page. If this page is your page that’s about how to contact you then make sure you redirect the how to contact you page to the new how to contact you page. So be very page specific, don’t just – my guy just took every page I have which was, I had 20,000 products.
I don’t even know how many pages were on my website and he just directed them all to the home page and that will bankrupt you. You will lose everything so make sure every –
[0:40:15.1] RSV: Well I learned something today. I’m glad I met you.
[0:40:16.7] KM: I hope all my listeners are learning something today, building a new website you have to do it because they keep changing technology and you just have to keep doing it and all the websites are now going to become mobile friendly and there’s really not a patch to that, you really do end up having to make a new website but you’ve got to be very careful and sensitive to all the history that you have attached to that old website and make sure you talk to the right people. Don’t just turn it off and start a new one. How long have you had that website?
[0:40:45.8] RSV: Well the one that I am speaking of I had it up for maybe two or three years but I haven’t had it up for the last two or three years.
[0:40:53.9] KM: Why would you take it down?
[0:40:55.0] RSV: I took it down because it was too cumbersome and it was a long in terms of –
[0:41:00.6] KM: Does it matter? Is it better to have something than nothing?
[0:41:03.6] RSV: It is better to have something than nothing.
[0:41:05.5] KM: This is why you can’t get rich Rick, this is what you and I have argued all the time. You are so creative. If it’s not perfect, we’re not going to put it up. I’m like, “No!” just look I wish I can’t say it.
[0:41:16.1] RSV: What I need to do is I need to run into somebody with some disposable money. Somebody who can say, “Look guy, you show me something in the next six months and I’m going to put some money up and get you another six months” you show me something good.
[0:41:29.3] KM: You need a patron like Mozart had a patron.
[0:41:30.0] RSV: Yeah, yeah but maybe I just need a better push up bra. You know where I can get some of those folks out there?
[0:41:37.5] KM: You’re about to be due for a bra. All right, you are listening to Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy on KABF. This is a mentoring show for small business owners or for those who dream of owning a small business. My inspiring guest today is self-employed Rick Saint Vincent. He’s an actor, singer and a craftsman. If you’ve got questions or comments for either of us call –
[0:42:02.2] TB: 501-433-0088.
[0:42:05.7] KM: Again.
[0:42:06.9] TB: That number is 501-433-0088.
[0:42:11.8] KM: There are so many people in the world that dream about being like you and I have known you forever and I know that you are always scrapping and –
[0:42:20.7] RSV: And I keep saying the same thing. David Hill who work for the VA in San Diego, David Hill back in ’79 or so when I was there in San Diego said, “Man I wish I could do what you do” and I said, “David I wish I could do what you’re doing. You have a job, you pay your bills, you have a wife and two kids and you drive a Carmendia” and I just thought he was cool and he was looking amazing. No you’re cool and I am thinking you know –
[0:42:46.8] KM: I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. I think we have a caller. Hello, you are listening to Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy and my guest Rick Saint Vincent. What is your question today?
[0:42:57.0] MR. SMOOTH: Well first I want to say you are definitely up in his business.
[0:43:02.0] KM: Thanks.
[0:43:03.2] MR. SMOOTH: Up in his business, I want to give a shout out to the man Rick Saint Vincent.
[0:43:07.0] RSV: I know that voice.
[0:43:07.8] MR. SMOOTH: The crooner all over the town, he knows how to scat, he knows how to do it and he does great cabinetry work so I wanted to make sure I give a shout out since I was listening and also thank you for having him on your show.
[0:43:20.2] KM: You’re welcome. He is wrinkling his forehead trying to figure it out.
[0:43:25.2] MR. SMOOTH: This is Mr. Smooth of Washington.
[0:43:28.3] RSV: Oh you sound a little different when you are on that side of the microphone to mark this.
[0:43:34.8] KM: He’s got a smooth voice too, thanks for calling Smooth.
[0:43:37.7] MR. SMOOTH: Oh my pleasure, you all have a great day.
[0:43:39.8] RSV: All right man, much love.
[0:43:40.6] KM: So you came back to Little Rock 11 years ago.
[0:43:44.9] RSV: To visit.
[0:43:46.4] KM: So you told me the one that makes you the most money is the woodworking but which one do you love the most?
[0:43:51.0] RSV: I love the woodworking and –
[0:43:53.0] KM: Could you even draw?
[0:43:54.1] RSV: I have to draw in order to do the woodworking and I’ll tell you theater, theater is so consuming but theater allows me to do a little bit of everything. I was a set designer in San Diego at the educational cultural complex and I was the set designer during the time that James Avery who was the father in the fresh prints was there. So James Avery and Assa Briggs and several of the folks that had gone on to do other things, we were all hanging out together.
They came to me once after a set and said, “Look we are getting to do this August Wilson play and we need to do somebody to do this character” and I said, “Okay I’ll do it” because it was a very small role, did that and then that became a repetitive thing now to another character, do this character, be in this play and I was like, “Look I can’t do sets and do that at the same time” but what I realized after a while was that as in theater, I can do woodworking, I can sing, I can do acting, I can do all of that.
[0:45:00.2] KM: You haven’t done much theater when I look at your thing or either your website is not in play.
[0:45:03.3] RSV: Well I had to get away from theater because it will suck up your time.
[0:45:06.5] KM: I don’t know how those people do that every night.
[0:45:08.2] RSV: Yeah, it will just suck up your time but I love theater. I did Fences here twice, two runs here for fences and I’ve written two plays. I’ve got a playwright now that I’ve written three years ago.
[0:45:21.0] KM: You just finished a documentary about the most interesting guy I watched, I never knew that guy.
[0:45:24.6] RSV: Alfonso Trent, yeah.
[0:45:25.7] KM: I never even knew that guy existed.
[0:45:29.1] RSV: Well Alfonso Trent was an orchestra leader and during the time that he was on the planet, he grew up in the time that all these other guys grew up so Count Basey, Billy Goodman, Duke Ellington and all these guys, Jimmy Lunsford all these cats were all in different areas of the country during this time and Alfonso Trent was in the mid-south being one of the territory bands down in the mid-south but he was phenomenal and people stole his music. They stole his lyrics, there was a group in Memphis called TNT which stood for Trent Number Two.
[0:46:08.0] KM: Oh yeah?
[0:46:08.7] RSV: Yeah and they were playing all of his music but they were playing it as a combo group in Tennessee. I play John Felding who is the singer for Alfonso Trent and the story starts in 1924 actually right here in Little Rock Overture College where he had formed a band with some guys and started their band then left here and went to Dallas. Left Dallas and it just sprung out all over the United States but that is a documentary that I am so proud of right now. It is unbelievable.
[0:46:42.0] KM: It is a one man show. If anybody gets to see it, it is just you talking and Rick you killed it.
[0:46:48.6] RSV: It’s actually about 22 pages of script.
[0:46:54.7] KM: How did you learn all of that?
[0:46:56.7] RSV: I took a year to learn. It was 17 pages by the time I got through, I literally learned for Batem.
[0:47:03.7] KM: Did you get paid for doing it or was it a labor of love?
[0:47:05.6] RSV: It was a labor of love but I did get paid but the pay didn’t come close to the labor of love.
[0:47:12.9] KM: A year’s worth of work and is it ever going to be released?
[0:47:16.0] RSV: Well it’s out on DVD. It’s on DVD right now.
[0:47:18.4] KM: But who can ever find it? I mean you hadn’t given it to me, I would have known about it.
[0:47:21.7] RSV: If you look Alfonso Trent, I am not sure what the production company is going to do right now. I did send a couple of copies to friends who work at the Lincoln Center. I know people who know Bradford Marcellus and Whitney Marcellus right here in Little Rock because they all grew up together and played together in New Orleans and so they are people here in Little Rock that know the Marcellus’s and so I’ve got a couple of copies out here and there for people to look.
[0:47:50.6] KM: I don’t understand this business. Will you get royalties if it goes out?
[0:47:54.0] RSV: No, it is a bio.
[0:47:55.6] KM: So you’re just done. Well I just think that you did such a good job. I thought ATN needs to be telling the story at least in Arkansas. This is a really special guy.
[0:48:03.8] RSV: Well I am trying to get it to ATN earlier before we got here with Kells Ron Robinson, Big John Miller. I remember I talked to him about presenting it over there but I want to write the show for it and I just showed the documentary. I want to write a show around it and have it presented over there.
[0:48:21.7] KM: What are you most proud of? Of all the stuff that you’ve done which is five lives and one –
[0:48:25.1] RSV: Meeting you.
[0:48:27.3] KM: Of course but seriously, all the stuff –
[0:48:29.7] RSV: What’s wrong? Why was that bad? Why would that be a joke? No I’m serious.
[0:48:33.4] KM: Because it is and you know it is.
[0:48:35.0] RSV: I don’t know many people who have done what you’ve done. I’m serious. Somebody who would say, “Okay I’m going to start at zero and then I am going to take and do something with it”.
[0:48:44.9] KM: You, you’re one just like me. Every entrepreneur that I have seen to interview is just like us. They’re just crazy ambitious, they see an opportunity and they just go with it. Thank you Rick, that’s very sweet. You’ve got a new show coming up, you’re working on something right now. What are you working on?
[0:49:02.5] RSV: I’m working on a movie. I’ll go film for one day Monday with this movie called Antiquities.
[0:49:09.4] KM: Antiques?
[0:49:10.8] RSV: Well no, it’s called Antiquities because the character that is the star of the movie gets a job at an antique shop. His father passes away, he goes back to try to find out something about his father, he winds up with this job.
[0:49:21.5] KM: Did you audition for it?
[0:49:23.3] RSV: Yeah, I went through the audition process for it.
[0:49:25.9] KM: Someone is a budding actor. Where do you go to audition? Did you read it on the paper? How do you find out about the audition?
[0:49:29.7] RSV: Well I got people who call me. I’ve got an agent over here at The Agency. Sarah Taket at The Agency, I spoke with her.
[0:49:34.6] KM: That’s somebody I need to have on Sarah Taket.
[0:49:36.2] RSV: Yeah, get her on here or the CEO or either one of them, get them both over here but I’ll be doing that Monday. I’m playing Coach McGee.
[0:49:44.1] KM: Are you a mean coach or a nice coach?
[0:49:46.1] RSV: I’m a nice one. Do you see all these extra hair on my face?
[0:49:49.0] KM: I know, you got your own costume.
[0:49:50.7] RSV: Well I am letting my hair grow because I’ve got to look sort of gruff for this.
[0:49:55.2] KM: You look scruffy.
[0:49:56.0] RSV: Yeah, that’s what I am trying to get to that, scruffy look.
[0:49:57.7] KM: Well you’re there.
[0:50:00.8] RSV: I don’t have flies around me so don’t think I am that scruffy okay? But I’m a little scruffed up.
[0:50:05.7] KM: You look good. Listen, I met you 30 years ago. You were so, you still are, you’re so handsome, so well-spoken as everybody has learned, so talented. You had a handsome dog too back then.
[0:50:15.4] RSV: Oh yeah, India. I had that dog for 11 years.
[0:50:18.0] KM: We could talk for 30 more minutes. I’m serious, we really could but Rick you are on the board of Dancing into Dreamland. It’s November the 18th. If anybody wants to see either of us, they can come out into Dancing into Dreamland. It’s the only fund raiser that you and I have for Dreamland to raise money for an elevator.
[0:50:35.0] RSV: And if they don’t want to see either of us, they can come and be amongst 200 or 300 people who are all also cool.
[0:50:42.2] KM: They are cool. It’s a really great group of people and it’s not late night which is what I like about it so much too. People are always saying, “What are you trying to do?” I’m like, “We’re trying to get an elevator because event centers just don’t make any money” and it’s a really great place.
[0:50:56.7] RSV: Well it’s got spirit that so many people have gone through that place and it’s like a special place in the forest where you could go and say, “Wow this is neat!”
[0:51:09.2] KM: I know, so how do people get in touch with you just go to upyourbusiness.org and find me and I’ll have a link to you?
[0:51:15.7] RSV: Yeah, for now. I am working on websites and I’m working on a lot of the stuff. People keep saying I need to get a Little Rock phone number but I’ve had this number for a long time.
[0:51:22.1] KM: So this is what you got.
[0:51:22.5] RSV: This is what I got.
[0:51:23.8] KM: It’s a cigar and you know what you get that for? For birthing so many businesses.
[0:51:31.6] RSV: Well you know what I did with it, I had a cigar - Okay, okay because this is Little Rock isn’t it? Yeah, all right. You need to back up son let alone step on my property, you’re going down the road if you want to now. Okay.
[0:51:47.1] KM: So anyway, there’s your cigar. Smoke it and think about what a success you’ve been and all the businesses you’ve birthed.
[0:51:53.4] RSV: I appreciate it.
[0:51:54.0] KM: You’re welcome. Thank you to the Renaissance man, Rick Saint Vincent. This cigar that I just gave him came from the Humidor Room at Colonial Wine and Spirits on Malcom Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. My guest next week will be a father-son duo. I could have spoken with each of them individually for they’re both entrepreneurs extraordinaire on their own right but I thought it might be fun to analyze personalities of entrepreneurs within a family.
Is it nature or nurture? Father Eric Hargett started a successful insurance company hub international that he recently sold to deal advises. That would be fun to hear about his ex-strategy and his son, Ryan Hargett started Chef Shuttle which we all heard of and used. I look forward to hearing how this 20 something not only came up with the idea of Chef Shuttle but had the ambition and the guts to execute his idea. This is where the rubber meets the pavements for all of us big dreamers.
To see a list of upcoming guest, you can visit upyourbusiness.org. You can also get in touch with Rick that way but you can go there and see our schedule of guests for November and December. If you have a great entrepreneurial story you would love to share, I would love to hear from you. Send a brief bio and your contact info to questions@upyourbusiness.org and someone will be in touch and finally, to our listeners, thank you for spending time with me and my guest Rick Saint Vincent.
If you think this program has been about you, you’re right but it’s also been about me. Thank you for letting me fulfill my destiny. My hope today is that you’ve learned or heard something that’s been inspiring or enlightening and then it, whatever it is will help you up your business, your independence or your life. I am Kerry McCoy, be brave and keep it up.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:53:45.8] TB: You’ve been listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Want to hear today’s program again or want someone else to benefit from it? Jot this down. Within 48 hours the podcast will be available at flagandbanner.com. Click the tab labeled “Radio Show”, there you’ll find today’s segments with links to resources you heard discussed on this program. Kerry’s goal: to help you live the American Dream.
