Dare Mighty Things. TM Smith

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СКАЧАТЬ the best spoken-word and music showcase in LA. Actually, it’s one of the best in the country,” Sekou explained. “So, I drive up, jump out of my car, run in. The guy is like, ‘Where the hell have you been? You’re on in 15 minutes. You’ve been freaking me out.’”

      Sekou went on to wow the crowd and, after the show, sell out of his CDs to fans on the street. “I’ll never forget when the crowd dispersed. I was just standing there in the darkness, looking up in the sky, and I just thought, ‘Wow, I can do this.’”

      In the coming months Sekou embarked on a national tour called “The Underground Poet’s Railroad” and was named one of the top poets in the country. “I did a national tour where we registered a million people to vote. It really felt like God was saying, ‘What took you so long? I’ve been holding your blessings. My arms have been getting heavy and tired, waiting for you to come and get your stuff. Here, take it.’ I think that’s the point. You have to be bold enough, daring enough, risk-taking enough, disruptive enough and playful enough to believe in yourself enough to say, ‘That is there. That is there for me. And maybe this wasn’t the perfect route to take, or maybe I hit this doorway and I got blocked and I ran into a detour.’ So just recalculate your route. You gotta ‘Waze’ it.”

      But there was more in store for Sekou. He was certain he hadn’t yet reached his full potential and believed in his heart that there was more runway to explore. And he had to have another difficult conversation with himself. He had to be sure he was willing to make the necessary sacrifices that lie ahead.

      “I call it my joyful challenge. Because being an entrepreneur is always a joy and it’s always a challenge. The joy is what gets me to the challenge and the conquering of the challenge is what brings the joy. So the big question I had to ask myself was if I was willing to make my art my commodity.”

      Sekou understood that by being paid to perform and entertain he was expressing himself. And people were enjoying that expression. But what if he was being paid by a client to express their point of view? Could he make that happen?

       Just do it

      It didn’t take long for him to find out. And he didn’t start with a local chamber of commerce client. Nope, he started with one of the most well-known global brands—Nike. In 2005, the shoe giant was introducing a line of clothing called “Battlegrounds.” The launch was going to be massive, with a feature film release and partnership with MTV. And Nike was looking for someone to create an impactful spoken message for this big reveal.

      “I submitted this poem that was kind of a ‘Braveheart’ meets the street speech, and I was thrilled to be chosen for it!” Sekou says, laughing. “So, they paid me to write 12 or 13 poems and I ended up narrating all of the poems as part of the film.” Following the success of that work, Nike asked Sekou to narrate for a TV commercial that Nike ran for the film and was then invited to present his work in person to the leadership team at Nike world HQ in Portland.

      As Sekou begins to retell this story, you can literally feel his energy rise. His eyes light up and his hands are more animated while his voice takes on a much deeper timber. “Nike brought me to the campus to deliver a special piece I had written. They put me in a room with a bunch of Nike executives...and when my turn comes up and I jump up from backstage, I’m screaming, ‘I want soldiers!’ I go into this whole piece and everybody was like, ‘What the hell is happening?!’” Sekou explained with a big smile on his face.

      “I made the Battleground team look great and they loved it, the executives loved it, the client loved it, and the light bulb went off. I loved doing this and I was having fun.”

       Turning point—define his space

      This was also the moment when he began to reevaluate his value to the clients and also stand up for himself. “I saw that I was able to bring a greater value. If I can capture the whole essence of a three-day meeting in these five to ten minutes—then I could bring more value and should be compensated for that.

      “There was a disconnect, because I was being paid like an afterthought. I realized, ‘I gotta own this myself.’ There’s a perception of spoken-word poetry, but there’s a differentiation between that and what I was delivering.” This gave Sekou the confidence to redefine his artistry as a unique category called “poetic voice” and he began to tear down the walls of separation that existed between his artist world and business world. “I wanted to tell the world that ‘poetic voice’ is what I’m doing and I want you all to meet each other. To bring the fans of my poetry, and the clients of my business work together. Here’s who I am: Come holler at me.”

      Sekou set out to demonstrate that difference for his audience. He understood that spoken-word poetry was his biggest asset as well as his biggest stumbling block. People had preconceived notions about poetry, and he was finding it wasn’t always positive. “I realized I needed to change that paradigm. I needed to create a new language and new brand elements, and original marketing. I needed to put a new language and a new perceived value in the world’s mouth and in their mind.”

      Today, Sekou feels like he has absolutely arrived. He’s been a full-time poet for 15 years and hasn’t looked back. “I have been able to pay my dues and pay for my own apartment and cover my bills. And then ultimately as I began to build my business, and my company and my revenue, you know, I paid for my first home through poetry. I proposed to my wife and bought her a ring with poetry. You know, I’m going to raise my kids on poetry.”

      The two personas that Sekou found most impactful on his journey are:

      THE RULEBREAKER

      It's easy to see that Sekou redefined the rules of the game so it fit his style best. He was able to see that if he kept playing by the rules of using music and a beat to present his words, his real talent would be hidden. And instead of giving up, he broke the rules and took the stage out of frustration and offered his vision of what it could look like. It was a huge gamble, because it could have fallen flat. But it didn't, it was the break he needed to start his own path. While that path was revealing itself, Sekou was still trying to determine what would be best for him. "Going to those open mics caused me to actually fall in love with something that I didn't even know existed. I realized that I wasn't just falling in love with the art form, but I'm falling in love with the possibility of what I can create, which means that I'm opening myself up to a world of unknowns, with no model and nothing to follow."

      THE ADVENTURER

      From the beginning of Sekou's journey he was convinced of a few fundamental strengths that he would remain focused on. First, his love of music drove him toward the hip-hop genre. Second, his passion for entertaining and theatre allowed him to remain zeroed in on the delivery of his message. Finally, the family history of entrepreneurialism allowed him to adjust as his journey continued. The main thing Sekou had going for him was being committed. "I remind myself to keep your eyes on the prize and your perspective wide." Sekou is fiercely focused and locked onto a goal. “You'll never get through the darkness. You'll never get through the hard times. You'll never get through the naysayers telling you you're crazy for quitting your job to become a full-time poet. Whatever your version of that is that the world is telling you, no, you'll never get through that if you're not tenacious."

      Sekou was not going to let the record label rejection deter him from his goals. Throughout all his rejections from the labels, he stayed true to his ideals and what he felt was right. "I was going to be an artist and was going to make a living off my art. And record labels couldn’t see that, their bad. I'll build СКАЧАТЬ