Nurturing Creativity and finding your Artistic Identity with Guest Justin G Nelson

In the vibrant tapestry of content creation, carving out a niche becomes a journey unto itself, one that Justin and I have both embraced with fervor. I open up about my foray into producing original content, driven by a desire to wield the reins over my creative and financial destiny, inspired by the likes of KevOnStage and Tabitha Brown. We exchange thoughts on the liberating platforms like TikTok that have turned the tide for storytellers and creators, empowering economic self-reliance and a reshaping of our narratives. There's a special moment where we touch on the aspiration to see our work heal and uplift, especially within the black community, and the celebration of a multifaceted career that defies the traditional.

Transcript

TJ: 0:15

Hey friends, it's TJ, and you're listening to Tea with TJ, where our love for tea, conversation and self-improvement intersect. So let's take a deeper dive into my cup and let's have a chat. Hey friends, it's TJ. Welcome back to another episode of Tea with TJ, and we have back with us this week Justin G Nelson.

Justin: 0:44

Hello, thank you so.

TJ: 0:46

You were such a great guest on the previous episode so wanted to bring you back.

Justin: 0:51

Okay.

TJ: 0:53

And touch on a subject that I think is something else that I think you have a lot of experience with and can speak to tapping into your creativity. So I'm curious to know, from your perspective, how do you because you are a multi-hyphenate and content creator and performer how have you figured out a way to really kind of delve into and tap into your creative side?

Justin: 1:20

Therapy. Therapy is just like the theme of my life right now and I spent so much of like my earlier years not shining my light, I guess. And when I think of being creative, I think of being, you know, a light and in doing so, like, I've had to just really find what works for me. Like you know, going to school for music, I studied a lot of classical music and so I was able to get that, that foundation, because you know what I'm saying, belay is the foundation of dance, classical music, yadda, yadda, yadda. So, like you know, you can read music too. So, like having that as a foundation and then growing from it, it just allowed for so much more creativity. And music is kind of like to me, the root of a lot of creative stuff, like dance and acting, because from you know, one style of dance you can birth something else, and from one thing you can birth something else. So I use it in life Like one thing can birth so many opportunities.

Justin: 2:28

And even through books, like you know, we interpret things so many different ways. And I might read Green Eggs and Ham and, just like you know, ham didn't get enough love and you go. I don't think the exit and it's just your interpretation. So I take that and put it with creativity. I never what's the phrase yuck someone's yom, that whole thing like I'm listening. If you love it, I love it for you.

Justin: 2:54

I might not like it but if it brings you joy, if it brings you some sense of happiness, I'm happy for you, because we need a little more of that in this world.

TJ: 3:05

Because, yes, so I feel like I've been on this path of like really kind of tapping into my creativity and exploring other options that are outside of performance and outside of acting specifically, and during the pandemic I kind of fell in love with like voiceover work, just because I've always I've always had this interest and this year for sounds.

TJ: 3:30

I don't know where it comes from, but like I've always had this appreciation forward of like hearing someone's voice or hearing like someone sing and how people can do like different characters and all that kind of stuff and how they can affect the voice.

TJ: 3:42

When it comes to voiceover work, and the pandemic kind of pushed me into that, because theater was done, you know, so many of the performance spaces were just gone and shut down, but something like voiceover you could completely do from home, you can completely do it remotely, and so I kind of like fell into this rabbit hole of really exploring that and kind of like figuring out the business and you know how to do things and how to like use mics and the soundboard and all that stuff, stuff that I had not gone to school for necessarily, and so it kind of just opened up my mind to this whole new world of creative endeavors that existed for me. Have you found something that is like that for yourself? Like, have you found something that is performance adjacent or that allows you to be creative in a different way?

Justin: 4:33

Yes, and I attribute that to killing my inner child. I as a child listen, have you met me as a child? I love computers. I loved what? Okay, I love playing on computers. And this is gonna sound sad, but like I have a lot of friends in my neighborhood.

Justin: 4:57

I grew up in Bethel Grove and it was dangerous in the streets, like I would rather stay inside of me safe and go outside and get like mug. And so I found a lot of fun on computers. And then I was a creative child. I would take, um, uh, construction paper and make things out of it, but then I got bored real easily. Then I switched to something else. But as an adult I realized that those things brought me joy. So now I've gotten into, like graphic design, I've gotten into video editing, I've gotten into web design, I've gotten into blogging, like those things that bring me joy, that I allow to lay dormant as a child, even dance Like I didn't go to school for dance, I took two ballet classes, no, I took one ballet class into modern dance classes but, everything else just came from, like those third grade uh sock hops and those um fourth grade things.

Justin: 5:57

Now I will say a lot of rejection at an early age had an impact on my creativity, because I wasn't like the most popular or I didn't have like the best clothes or the best things, like I felt like I wasn't worthy to let my light shine. And I never forget, um, it was fourth grade, fourth grade Christmas program and I had a dance solo.

Justin: 6:27

Now let me tell you, it'll be very specific, it was a little hip thrust and that was it Okay. But when I tell you they part of like the Red Sea, and I came down to the front and like boom, the audience was like Ooh, I was just like I could get used to this, like I love this, and so that sparked a lot of creativity. But you move here and you have everybody doing the same thing and I'm just like, okay, let me. Let me get back to that inner child and what brought me joy. So like that's why I started Nelson design lab to kind of honor my dad but also honor my inner child.

TJ: 7:01

So I'm curious to know. I've had a similar experience where theater was not what I grew up with. Um, I was a music kid growing up like band, and that was my thing, my original vision for my life was to be a composer and I was going to move to LA and I was going to score films and all that stuff.

TJ: 7:20

So when you move it, okay, that's, it's no longer the dream now, because I I fell into acting and I fell into musical theater and fell deeply in love, because then it merged my love of storytelling and music together. And then I realized in that discovery that I didn't know what to do, that I knew that I had a singing voice growing up, but I never really explored it, I didn't put any training into it growing up, because my thought was there's no way to make a living out of that Right.

TJ: 7:52

I knew that there was proof in the pudding of being a composer, being a musician, because there were musicians around the world and composers around the world and that was a thing that I could actually make a living out of. And so when I fell into this, this idea of theater, it really kind of like opened up my mind and rusted me into this whole other world that I had no experience with and no clue where to start or where to begin, but I knew that I loved it and it was so shiny and new and I was like I want more of this.

TJ: 8:26

And so I went to school, did all that, came to New York and I think really when I moved here is when I kind of discovered what theater actually was, and that's a whole another topic of discussion.

TJ: 8:42

But, but this, this, this love of acting and this love of theater and musical theater grew when I came here. Like it grew, you know, leaps and bounds compared to when I was younger, and so I'm curious to know from from you specifically has has that journey from being in the music world to kind of shifting into this like Dancery, performer, musical theater performer has? How has that really like impacted your impact at your life and what, what valuable lessons have you like taken from that?

Justin: 9:27

So I went to school for music education as a safety net, because I was afraid of pursuing vocal performance. Remember, in the last episode we talked about church hurt. Yeah, that happened. Because of that, I was told that my singing voice was not good enough, you know, and when I went to classical red, it's just like you're not going to get a job doing that. So I was just like, fine, I'll teach it. So I went to school for music education and I moved here and then I noticed that you know what you see on the Tony Awards and what you see on TV and things, just it's not the same. And I feel like.

TJ: 10:07

That's a very skewed view of what the industry is.

Justin: 10:11

And so being here and being in those rooms and those workshops and those classes and the dance classes and the voice lessons, you see it's an investment, yeah, and it's also an emotionally exhausting career with the amount of rejection that comes with it, but it's also rewarding at time because you're able to tap into other genres. So, like singing I know I've just recently did a rep coach session and listened to songs. I was just like this resonates with me, like why isn't this in my book?

TJ: 10:46

And even dance like I go to these auditions.

Justin: 10:50

I'm just like this isn't the Broadway. I remember from 10 years ago, like when did hip hop become the standard on Broadway? But also why everything got to have tap in it. Like can we just do a two step and get off stage? Like it's all this stuff? But I've learned to appreciate the choreographer or the music director or the composer like their creative input for these things and just realized there's more to life than what I know and I have to be open to it and flexible with this industry because it's changing, everything is changing. I mean, ai is scaring a lot of people, but it's either you get with it or you get lost behind it.

TJ: 11:30

I agree and I feel like that's it with this whole idea of AI taking creativity from the human. I don't necessarily agree with it because I feel like it has allowed a lot of mediums to use it in a way to to let you be more creative.

Justin: 11:50

Like.

TJ: 11:50

I'm not. I'm not a visual artist, but I can describe something in a way that I can see in my head, yes, but I have. No, I don't have the means or the technique or the talent to necessarily draw it out. But in using something like mid journey, I can create something with just using my words, and so I feel like I agree in that that there there is space for it, but I understand why people are so apprehensive about using it.

Justin: 12:18

Yeah, but no, like I appreciate AI, because I appreciate it, at times Some people become lazy and depend heavily on it, on it, but other people know how to use it for its enhancements. And so, when it comes to creativity and this industry and being a performer, it's just a matter of being flexible and being open and not defensive, because I can be super defensive when it comes to an audition or a cut or feedback, but it's it's for the higher purpose and like again, not yucking someone's yam, just like OK, like I've never looked at it that way, let me take a step back, let me process it and let me get back to you.

TJ: 12:58

So how do you pivot like an end with all that being said, how do you pivot with and adjusting to other ways to be creative or other ideas, knowing that, in the industry that we work in, the creativity is there, but it's limited to a singular idea?

Justin: 13:18

Create your own stuff. That's how I deal with it. If I don't see it and it ain't making me happy and I know behind the scenes it's only got to do with money politics and putting some money in somebody else's pocket Not mine I'm going to create my own stuff. I'm just going to go home, I'm going to cry about it and I'm going to put on my little camera and just create. Like I appreciate a lot of the content creators now on TikTok who are saying don't, don't, don't tag SNL on my stuff or don't try to pitch me to these brands because at the end of the day, they're making money off my creativity. Like, I want my own rights, my own money and I think that's why Kev on stage has a huge like I respect him so much as an artist because he was just like I'm going to create my own stuff and I'm just like, hmm, and he did, and now he's a host for something I don't remember.

Justin: 14:08

Tabitha Brown same thing. Like she really created home, home thing. And Tabitha is a multi hyphenate Key, key Palmer. Like she, she's been in the industry her whole life, so don't get me wrong. But she keeps a bag and she finds other ways to pull pour into her creativity, because she's going to keep a check.

TJ: 14:29

Yeah, yeah, I feel like that that's content creation within itself has kind of taken off over the past few years, and I was. I will admit that I was very against it in the beginning because I grew up in a world where it didn't exist and was tethered to this very traditional idea of how to be creative. But I've realized in the time that I have, as I've become a content creator, essentially the freedom that exists in that, in in the, the amount of spaces that you can inhabit from the back of your phone, essentially is leaps and bounds more than the traditional trajectory of, say, an actor or musician or a writer. And so, as as a content creator, as well.

TJ: 15:18

I'm curious to know what is your in a perfect world like? What is your vision for yourself when it comes to, like content creation?

Justin: 15:29

You know I want for earthy and culture like I want to out my always fine tuning the purpose or the vision and mission for it, but, like, through my content, I want people to feel safe, feel seen, people to heal, because our community, the black community, we carry so much trauma and we carry so much like I don't want to say darkness, but like it's always something heavy, and I just want to create a space for people to just leave it there and just focus on the joy, focus on the peace, focus on the happiness that comes, because so much of our stories are rooted in trauma, pain, something, and so, with earthy and culture, like I want to be able to heal through eating, heal through yoga, heal through these things, and I hope, you know, over the next couple of years, I'm able to create more content centered around like plant based healing, holistic medicine or holistic treatment and wellness, so that people can heal in this life.

Justin: 16:35

And like I'm always focused on, like, do what you can in this life, whether it's creativity or just you know whatever just heal in this life.

TJ: 16:47

I feel like I've come to this place in my life now because I've shifted my or pivoted into these other ideas of how to be creative in my life.

TJ: 16:59

I feel like I've had this moment recently, in the past two years, where I realized that what I signed up for when it came to performance and acting and musical theater is that I was giving voice to other people's stories and I was not and I wasn't necessarily aligned with telling my own stories or stories that are similar to my background, and I think that that realization out of the pandemic and in the past few years has really been kind of like at the forefront of my mind in creating this podcast and, you know, becoming a content creator is that I want to give voice to one, to my story specifically.

TJ: 17:44

Yes, because I do believe that everyone's story is very unique and very specific and I love it and completely of value, yes, but then also to give room and space and appreciation for other people's stories were similar, mm-hmm, or, if not necessarily similar, of a similar trajectory and can I just point out, like something you mentioned a Lot of times, I'm always talking to our friends.

Justin: 18:07

Just like you know, we grew up or society has in a way groomed us to think we can only do one thing. Mm-hmm, you get a nine to five and that's it you you're gonna go to work, you're gonna come home, you're gonna take care of your kids and you're gonna do it again for the rest of your life, until you retire.

Justin: 18:22

Yeah, that ain't fun, mm-hmm, especially when the other people on the other side of the table that chillin, they, they, they, traveling the seven seas, you know that live in their life, because I am grinding to make sure their company stays afloat and so that don't bring me joy and that that hinders our creativity. Yeah, by sticking to a one-track mind in a way. You know, like you go to high school, you go to college, you go da, da, da, da, da, that's it, which is interesting, because I feel like the essence of creativity is not that like.

TJ: 18:54

I feel like the essence of creativity is to be More than just one thing. Yes, right, most of the great artists that exist in the world are not Restricted to one singular idea when it comes to their work.

Justin: 19:06

Oh yes.

TJ: 19:07

Yeah.

Justin: 19:09

And that's why I'm always just like I'm gonna embrace this multi hyphen is. But like I do again, I have to kind of restructure things sometimes but I know at the end of the day I just can't do one thing yeah.

TJ: 19:21

I be miserable. Yeah, and I think that realization of reopening yourself up to Allow yourself because, I also feel like we've. Sometimes we forget to give permission to ourselves To walk into these other ideas and we're like, oh no, but I've done it this way, mm-hmm, or I was quote unquote supposed to do it this way, so I have to stick to this and I have to see this through, mm-hmm. But I'm like both things can be true. Yes, right.

TJ: 19:47

You can be really great at something, but also really good at something, or even not. If, if you're not necessarily great at something else, mm-hmm, something else may have be, may be of interest to you. Yeah, that is worth exploring, yes, and to give yourself time, space and energy to explore, that, I think is, is very, very valuable.

Justin: 20:06

But sometimes, sometimes on the other side of the door, we met with imposter syndrome, yeah, and we feel that we're not good enough for it. And then we let depression or fear or guilt or doubt like creep into this room when it wasn't there to begin with, like we were. We open that joy with the door with so much passion and happiness and then, once we got it, just like, oh, this is a lot of work, like I didn't realize it.

TJ: 20:31

Let's do it.

Justin: 20:32

Yeah, just give yourself permission to be yeah, that's it.

TJ: 20:34

So, as a creative, how do you deal with this idea of imposter syndrome?

Justin: 20:39

I'm sorry. What? Listen, okay, therapy, um, I it's it. It comes and goes. I would not lie, I would not get on this podcast and say that I'm a perfect Peter. I am not. There are days that I get numb from imposter syndrome Because I, if I will say, there are times I look at the likes or the views or the shares, just like why am I doing this? Yeah, like no one wants to see this stuff, I'm just sell these microphones. If you don't just like no, like you're gonna be happy, and like I've had brands reach out Say, hey, can we use his video? My, sure, like, hey, it's mine. And so it's just again like the bigger purpose, the bigger Mission for what I do is just to, you know, advocate for mental health and for people to heal and be happy. And so it might not take off the way I wanted to, but I know that I am worthy of the space that I want to take up and I might do it. No, it's my space, not the website, but like my space space, yes, mm-hmm, okay, great.

TJ: 21:47

So with this, so with this idea of being a multi-hyphenate, Mm-hmm and having all of these creative outlets, do you ever feel like one is Kind of held in high regard over the other? Do you feel like they're all on any cool playing field like what is? What is your process?

Justin: 22:06

So it's funny, you accent. I'm always Like shuffling around what's important, and it was just I think last week or a couple of weeks ago I was just like I have to make one a priority and everything else with Eden food. So right now I've made performance.

Justin: 22:23

Mm-hmm back been because that's what I moved to New York, or I can be a graphic designer for me to wear, but I moved to New York for performance and I need, I needed to be reminded of that and just go okay, this is the focus. Everything else will trickle down into that, and something that the entertainment fund has started recently with their Classes and workshops that they offer. They were just like we, you all have to have like multiple streams of income, mm-hmm. I was like yes, and then we just like so, figure out a way to do it. And so that's why I was just like, oh, okay, well, that makes sense, I'm doing that now, but I needed to stop and say performance. We will be the main thing and everything else would feed into it, but content creation, in a way, is perform it.

Justin: 23:06

Yeah and so what I do for earth, in culture, in Nelson design lab Comes from me being a performer. So yeah, I just make performance the main thing now.

TJ: 23:15

And then everything else beats into it interesting because I feel like I've gotten to this place where I'm holding space for all of the things, and I agree that like they kind of feed into each other, because my my interest and journey into voiceover work Came out of my love for like singing and then on stage and using my voice in that way, and so, even though it's slightly different and slightly nuanced, I feel like it. It feeds that side of me that I would want to be on the stage singing.

TJ: 23:47

To use my voice to create content, to give a voice to a character or to do a commercial or any of those kinds of things, to still use that instrument, so to speak.

TJ: 23:58

And so I've, I've, I've found over time that, like this podcast, for example, even in the absence of not having voiceover work, it still gives me the, it's still feeding the hunger of like wanting to do something behind a mic, mm-hmm, and, and to use that skill and that technique in a certain kind of way. Yes, so, as as a content creator, do you ever feel like you have to censor yourself?

Justin: 24:30

I censor myself only because I don't want that one thing to become my brand or to become what I'm known for, and so I always have to make sure I don't wanna say keep it safe or keep it PG, but I always have to make sure it is something that, if it goes viral, I would not be ashamed for or 14 years from now and someone's not digging on Twitter just like. Well, you know what you see in a twin, I know what I see it.

TJ: 24:55

Cause I typed it.

Justin: 24:55

You wanna be proud of your writing Right, so I wanna be proud of it.

Justin: 24:57

However, thanks for like Patreon you know, you can say some things behind the wall, but I'm not there in my life. So here we are. But yeah, I always try to remember who I'm representing. You know, outside of myself I still you know my mom and Jesus Christ, and so other than that, I'm just like. No, like I would talk about certain topics, like during the pandemic I discovered right before the pandemic, I discovered Tantric Yoga, and so a lot of that has helped with being creative. But I can't go into detail about Tantric Yoga because then people will only hear one specific part of it and it's just like oh, tim, we're not talking about it.

Justin: 25:38

Because, I don't think you have the mental capacity to deal with everything that deals with Tantric Yoga, so I just don't.

TJ: 25:44

Yeah, yeah. So, with that being said, do you feel like you in because, ultimately, in content creation and being a forward facing public presence, do you ever feel like you have to kind of quote unquote, protect your brand with that? You as an actor is different than you as a content creator right.

TJ: 26:05

Those are very two specific views and so if someone goes to, say, your Instagram or your website and sees other content there that is not actor focus or actor forward, do you ever feel like you have to kind of like adjust that so that you are still viewed as an actor first?

Justin: 26:29

Yes, and that's why I don't post it to my website. It goes to my stories and it deletes in 24 hours Only because you never know who's looking at what and I don't want that to be the day to say why he posted about that I don't know.

Justin: 26:44

We don't want him representing his brand, but I'm also human, so I'm going to post things that might be deemed inappropriate or not professional. But like, let me live, like, get off my back. If you can't handle those small things, we don't need to work together. I am not your ideal client, you know, not my ideal customers, so I get that.

TJ: 27:02

Yeah, I feel like there's in the creative world, in more so in TV and film than I feel like theater specifically. But I feel like in the creative world there's always this level of censorship and I'm using that term not necessarily in a negative way, but I feel like there's always this idea that I have to protect the brand that is the actor because I'm not allowed to. This is going to sound crazy. I'm not allowed to be human.

Justin: 27:31

And that's the thing about social media. You still have control about what you post, who you follow, what you engage with and certain things I just don't post on social media.

TJ: 27:41

And I'm just like.

Justin: 27:41

No, I would rather keep that part, that part of my human self to myself. Like I don't think social media deserves all of it.

TJ: 27:50

Yeah, so what do you with that being said, what do you protect for yourself, or what do you keep for yourself?

Justin: 27:58

I'm more vocal now about my mental health journey but like things when I say with Tantric Yoga and how it has helped heal a lot of childhood wounds and stuff, I don't talk about that on social media because Tantric Yoga has then become more commercial and I'm just like that's not the Tantric Eye Study, so I'm not going to talk about it because it'll turn into this big thing and I'm just like don't even worry about it.

TJ: 28:21

I feel like I've kept close to the chest my spirituality because and we said this in a previous episode we grew up very much in the church and like have similar backgrounds.

TJ: 28:33

but I've evolved and I feel like to express the evolution publicly can be quote, unquote, damaging in a way, and so I've chosen to keep that aspect of my life to myself, close to the chest, because I feel like it's irrelevant to the work that I'm doing that if something comes up to where I have to play a certain character or I'm put in a position that revolves around religion or spirituality or whatever, we can have a discussion about it then. But I try really hard to keep that away from my performance, life yeah.

TJ: 29:09

So, in this idea of tapping into your creativity, what are some of your structures or things that you have set in place to kind of feed that and to motivate you, because I feel like Oftentimes I feel like artists specifically we can get into a slump and it becomes really hard to be creative, even though we want to be creative. So what do you do to kind of like help you get out of rut, or to help feed the creativity or channel the energy to be creative?

Justin: 29:44

So I do honor the moon cycle. So, like if there's a new moon, blue moon, Mercury, retrograde, like those periods. I do honor those and I will figure out where in my natal chart it is causing me some blockage or some releasing.

Justin: 30:00

And I honor that. I also do shadow work. If I partake in the herbal essence we don't know, and I will let myself rest and my mind goes and I just start writing stuff down. I have a note page full of thoughts and I will go back to it and I'm just like this is where I need to create from.

Justin: 30:26

Cause again my creativity is healing my inner child, and so it was. I mean I could I can pull out the phone now and show you, but it was some things and I'll talk to my therapist about it and I would talk to other people about it. But, like those things that need to be healed, become a creative outlet for me to create so that I can heal it, create so I can honor it, create so I can release it. So those are my ways of tapping back into creativity, Also like things that are trending you know if it's trending, I'm like let me try and like I don't like it.

Justin: 30:59

And if I don't like it I ain't gotta keep doing it, so I'm fine with it. So it took me a while to even start a podcast and I was just like, no, this is not my ministry, but I was going about it the wrong way. Yeah, exactly.

TJ: 31:10

Okay With. I do believe that creativity and art has the power to heal and has the power to shift and transform us as individuals. What has been like the most transformative moment for you when it comes to being creative?

Justin: 31:27

I would say the most transformative performance was a chorus line. And listen, we were at theater Memphis and I was Richie, and we got to that last scene, second to last scene, where they talked about one of the characters. He like sprang his ankle and we, just, we all collected. Who would like it could be us, like any one of us? Because, springer, in our career, our career as an artist or creative or performer, would be over.

Justin: 31:59

And I was just like oh we cried I mean, we cried like some babies in the room and it just made us appreciate art more and more. So, being on stage and having that like that moment to escape from, like Justin, but like create a character, I was just like, yes, like this is why I do that, even as Mayor Munchkin, I was like what am I? A little short, simple, if I'm gonna say it, but it was fun to just be funny and to be, you know, a character. And then, like even now, with content creation, I'm just like I'm being myself, but it's fun, like I'm not taking it so serious, like I'm just turning the camera on being myself, sharing it with people I would probably never meet in my life. And just being put the wrong way, like I made one reel recently and I think it's at 58.7 K views. I wish it would stop.

TJ: 32:55

I was excited in notifications.

Justin: 32:57

I'm just like it's the whole dream girl thing and I was just like, okay, this was fun while it lasted, but it was funny and I appreciated it. So I just I don't know. There are moments where I'm all in, I'm just like yes, in moments I'm just like.

TJ: 33:11

I'm gonna go to sleep. No, I think I told you about this, but I did a show called Murder Ballad a few years ago yeah, I think it's been three or four years now and it was a four person musical. It's rock musical and I am not necessarily partial to rock musicals just because I don't believe that I have a rock voice. I have a very contemporary storyteller pad, or song type of voice.

TJ: 33:35

And that experience really kind of shifted one. It shifted my idea of who I am as a former, who I am capable of, but it also put me in a place where, in telling that story, I played the character Tom. Just a brief description the show is a love triangle gone wrong and ends in a murder. So it then becomes like a murder mystery type of thing where you're trying to figure out throughout the show who was the person that killed Tom. And so there was a moment in the show I think it was the second night- that we did the performance.

TJ: 34:12

There's a moment in the show where Tom has like lost everything.

TJ: 34:17

He's lost this woman that he was in love with. He finds out that she's pregnant, the child is not his yeah, and he is confronting her and the new lover with the child and he breaks. He like literally breaks down. There's the song, is literally him like watching them and like watching them become a family and all this stuff and he has this whole breakdown moment. And it was the second performance. I did it and came out of the show and was like I didn't know that I was capable of that, Like I tapped into something that I didn't know that I had. And those are the moments, when it comes to being creative, that I'm like I love. This is why I love it.

TJ: 34:57

Because, it's always changing, it's always surprising me, it's always evolving and sometimes you'll surprise yourself. Do you feel like you've had one of those moments, outside of the Richie thing, where you've surprised yourself in something that you've done creatively, whether it be performance or content creation?

Justin: 35:16

A lot of moments I know, one of which I can't even with your story. I wasn't a big fan of Shakespeare. I was just like, who can do Shakespeare? I did a comedy of errors, baby. You can tell me none. I was on stage living and I had a lot, but it was just being in the moment and grossing the characters and I was just like I could do this I can do. Shakespeare.

TJ: 35:36

I haven't done my resume now.

Justin: 35:37

So that was one thing creating commercial videos and getting responses from people. I was playing around.

TJ: 35:49

I don't know what I was doing.

Justin: 35:50

And I created it and I pressed play and I ran after church. I was like I don't wanna hear anyone talk about.

Justin: 35:56

I'm like yeah, and people are like you did that. You know, just like, yeah, I did that. I was like you're so good. I was just like, oh, thank you. But it felt I liked that. That's when I felt like I'm really doing this, I'm really on in it. But as far as performances, I know that comedy of errors was one. I know color purple was heavy for me because I think my father had just passed and we got to that last scene and mind you the whole cast.

Justin: 36:20

We just broke down crying on this, that one moment, like a grand or something, I'm just like oh. I didn't even be emotional. I was a wreck. What else Mary Poppins got me? Oh well, I was the. Anything can happen if you let it. I was living in that moment. So it's just like those moments of joy that I got just being a performer, it's just like I'm proud to do this and I'm happy to be here. I love that.

TJ: 36:48

So thank you for joining us on another episode of Teeboot TJ and, as before, I like to end with three questions.

Justin: 36:56

So get ready.

TJ: 36:59

If you could tell your younger self anything, what would you tell?

Justin: 37:03

You gonna make me cry. Oh God, let's see If I can tell little Justin it's gonna be okay, it's gonna work out, yes.

TJ: 37:16

I love that. What would you say was the pivotal moment for you as an artist?

Justin: 37:24

The pandemic. I know it was the best time of my life.

TJ: 37:29

Yes, why.

Justin: 37:31

It just allowed me to tap into more creative things, like I had allowed so many things that I do just to lie dormant or become like a survival thing, and didn't find the joy in it. I just saw the money that came out of it, and now I'm just like I find joy in doing this.

TJ: 37:46

Thanks, pandemic. I love that. I feel like I discovered a lot during the pandemic. And then, finally, what would you say has been the most healing experience so creative?

Justin: 37:59

The most healing experience as a creative, I think, the rejection. I know it's like counter whatever. But the rejection allowed me to go. It kind of punched me and it was just like why are you doing this? Get back in the game. But like, learn the lesson and don't do it again. And so the rejection kind of helped shape me to who I am.

TJ: 38:26

Gotcha. I love that, so I don't let no friends. I'll see you next week and that's our show. Friends, thanks for joining us on Tea with TJ. Please rate, review and subscribe, and you can find us on Instagram at tea with TJ podcast. And, as always, stay kind, keep sipping and remember we're here. So good night as well. Do it and I'll see you next week. I'll see you next week.