Faith Meets Business: Charron Leeper's Inspirational Journey
00:00:00 hey what’s up everybody you tuned in to another episode of strategic moves I’m your host Kendal this is a place where we bring art culture politics and business all together and we do it every week right here on this channel but when I’m not shooting this podcast I am the owner of strategic resources where we specialize in political campaigns government and public relations work I’ve been doing it for over 25 years in this city and I want to make your next move a strategic move so this program gives me an opportunity to do just that I bring on some
00:00:30 of the people I met we come on we sit down we talk about some of our experiences and maybe just maybe it’s something out of it that you can get that’ll help you with your personal life or your business if this sound like something you be interested in all I need you to do is hit the like button hit the Subscribe button and the notification Bell as well so that you will know the next time this program is coming on so without that we’re going to get ready and get started today got an exciting
00:00:55 program today we have a young lady been changing the way we look at things today especially me because just this thing I got about these women wearing these bonnets out here in public and today we gonna actually talk about that bondit Latif DJ before I get into that we gon have to welcome and give a shout out to the producer and person who helped put this program together is none other than DJ true what’s happening Brother what’s good what’s good oh today is a wonderful day getting ready to get going we getting ready to kick off our new season of our podcast we bringing in new
00:01:32 guests to get us started we getting ready to kick off our new season with the radio show getting off and getting things going we added a few new people to our team today and this week is helping us to get more organized so in the future we gonna be doing some bigger and better things so I’m excited yeah yeah me too we had we just had the event we had the podcast event the four year we’ve been in this for four years now oh yeah that’s the other thing we had an event this weekend we had celebrated being on the podcast for 4 years and 19,000 subscribers 19 so congratulations to you
00:02:09 you get the you get the claps I get the claps today man that that didn’t even sound right on that one oh my God why do people do that pause pause CL we got pause on that one that shows y I’ve been on this YouTube way too much man gez but I really appreciate it we had a great time doing it we started out and it was not an easy thing and people see some of our earlier shows they could tell we grew a lot so we’re happy about all of that we yeah we definitely growing and and we had very few shows that was I don’t I believe we haven’t had terrible shows but we have
00:02:49 had our hiccups and our learning experiences but so far so good we moving in the right direction let’s hope so man we got big things to do we got good people in our Corner we bringing on very new guests and people are doing good things in the city so Sky’s The Limit Oh and we’re moving into a new location we getting uh big we gonna have 6,000 square feet throw a little party up in that joint we do with it but we got it we got it we gonna go over there and do what we do all right we going to get started today man because I got a young lady on here that I’m interested in
00:03:26 speaking with as I talked about earlier she came up with a solution for all you ladies who wear bonnets out there and for all you men who tired of seeing your woman walk around with these bonnets on I got something for y’all today that we’re going to talk to her in the next few minutes but if you just tuning in I want to welcome you back to an episode of strategic moves I’m your host K Ken da where we bring real conversations and real people making real moves this is a place where art culture politics and business it all interact and today we’re going to add something extra faith and
00:04:00 creativity today is what we’re going to talk about today my guest today is an entrepreneur Creator Powerhouse and Faith leader she’s the founder of perfect pineapple that’s what I’m talking about a luxurious head wrap for hair accessory band and her work has been featured in New York Magazine Essence and New York Fashion Week and she is a Making Waves in Cleveland Business and creative Community but beyond fashion and business shiron is a woman of Faith she is the founder of Kingdom culture worship night a powerful gathering for believers who come together and experience pure
00:04:36 authentic worship she brings people closer to God while uplifting Community through her work ladies and Gentlemen let’s give a warm welcome to shiron leaper to our program thank you glad to be here I’m glad you came on the program got to add agency 33 in there baby add agency 33 in there agency 33 is we going to start let’s do it we going to start with agency start out where it all be then we go H so you from Cleveland you grew up here you a Clevelander give us your background where you from yeah so I claim Cleveland Heights I grew up in Cleveland Heights um never thought
00:05:13 I’d leave until like around the 7th grade middle school then I started to move around so I went to I moved to Willoughby okay and went to Willoughby Middle for 8th grade and then I went to Willoughby South for nth grade then I moved again and went to Shaker Heights and played basketball throughout I started playing ball in the ninth grade and then I ended up doing like that dual enrollment program where you take your senior year classes at a community college and you earn freshman year college credits and also senior credits so I ended up going to sha High okay and playing basketball
00:05:47 there but not taking classes there okay and taking my senior year classes at tric and so then I got a full scholarship to play basketball Division One at Radford University so let’s we going to get into that cuz that takes a lot to get there you just just don’t get a D1 now you you worked hard to get there do the all that what position you played in high school I actually played a power forward yeah and I’m about 6 foot I’m like 511 in some change like almost six foot but getting to college that was a whole different Beast division one cuz those girls was big they were like 6’2 63
00:06:20 strong but it was really it was nothing but the grace of God because I started playing at night in the ninth grade okay my first sport was track and field I was just in a really good shape so that was like half the battle but I knew nothing about basketball I just was tall and I remember my mom was like we don’t get no scholarship we going to take out some student loans to go to college and I was like okay I got to get a scholarship and so so you picked basketball yeah my older sister played
00:06:44 she played for Heights MH and I just people just started telling me like you should play cuz you’re tall you could play You’re athletic you’re fast you you run track so why don’t you try basketball cuz you could actually get a scholarship to go to school and I was like okay I literally it was really that simple I was like all right try it really and started playing like in the eighth grade then really got serious in the ninth grade when I realized like this is the way that I’m going to get to college so let me give it a try did you go through all them trainers and all of
00:07:11 that stuff I was blessed to have somebody that I called like an aunt to my to me Denise Duncan like she is like the reason that I got a scholarship she is just I don’t know how to even describe her she is really for the heart of young athletes and she made sure like she was my coach so she put me in everybody’s basketball camp every summer like I was locked down from nth grade to 12th grade like in everybody’s basketball camp in the summer going to West Virginia staying with people I didn’t know
00:07:41 shooting camps open showcases and stuff like that I got to play with some really dope people that went off to play pro so it was a blessing I was honestly surprised at the level that I got to so quickly not having any real skill like to start off with and because I have I got four kids and three of them really play sports the my son did football and the girls did softball okay so I that’s why I ask you ain’t going to scare over there I know it was gr it was grind it was grind doing all that that was a lot of work to get there and a lot of pain that’s it took and to get a D1
00:08:18 so did you get any other schools coming after you or how did that go I did it was really cool like I had University of Massachusetts I was looking at I wanted to go Old State but because I was fresh to the game I was highly athletic but my basketball IQ was not matching up so I knew I could probably play for Ohio State but I would probably sit the bench so I was looking for an opportunity to like continue to play exactly that’s that other part about it you be happy you get those scholarships
00:08:42 but then you be like are you going to play or you just got you don’t do nothing else yes my son he had got a scholarship and he played at morehous and and the issue that he had he got red shirted and I used to be so excited because I’d be like hey man you playing this week you playing this week you traveling and and he finally broke and said dad I don’t want to travel I’m like what you mean he said I’m red shirt they not playing me he said so I got to go to the games I can’t catch up on none of my work it’s like I’m playing but I’m not playing he said I’d much rather they
00:09:12 don’t bch me let me stay home and let me do the work that’s real because just the segue as we go into the story like I always knew I wanted to be a fashion designer fashion and modeling was my first love at 16 I was super shy I was really skinny people wanted me to model professionally then but I was so like very modest and I don’t want to to see me changing clothes like I didn’t understand the gravity of if I just said yes that could have been like a full Lo career for the rest of my life
00:09:36 but I love fashion design and I been an artist since a kid sketching I used to think I would be like an impressionist painter I used to sketch in watercolor and like oil pastels and all that other stuff um and so I was like yes I get this full ride and man I could take fashion and for free that’s what the goal was and I get there and they’re like yeah we’ve never had a recruit that wants to take f that’s literally like the only major you you can’t take because of your travel schedule and I was devastated I was like you mean to tell me wow I got here the only reason I’m here
00:10:12 the only re and I got to choose something else wow and so honestly I actually called like my older sister cuz I was literally in like the admissions office and I was just stunned and I was like what do you think I should do and she was like I was like it’s between this or like graphic design and she was like I think you could make some money she was really being super practical that’s how she is and she was like I think think you could get a job as a graphic designer so I think you should try I
00:10:33 was like great again I was just like okay that’s so crazy how that moment it hurt me it still hurts for this day it still hurts for this day too but you saw how how that moment is life changing so much it’s pivotal it it it’s a pivotal moment right there because she can almost said screw them girl you want to be a designer it could have been you got to walk out of there it could have been you might have thought about it really heavy but she said hey you do what you do and that’s I got family members who that way are they would have say Hey you came cuz I would have been like
00:11:10 girl you came this far you don’t you want to be that’s me my wife and everybody they different but be goes on you end up doing graphic design I did and I did it with a bitterness too I was like I’m really going to be I was so set on being a fashion designer I was like I’m just G to take these classes I’m just GNA pass these classes I’m never going to need this this is before this is when Adobe was just coming out like all those things and I was like I’m just going to do it but then I started to really enjoy it and this is when cing was coming on the scene and I was doing animation
00:11:40 and Flash which I don’t think they even use anymore flash yeah basic HTML stuff like that and learning just the principle of design I was like this is actually interesting I ended up feeling again because I was going with the flow that’s why I feel like it was nothing but the grace of God just to get me to a college education cuz I never really wanted to be a ball player I never wanted to go overseas never wanted to play NBA but it felt like I just started to have these forced marriages like these love relationships with the things that I was actually just being diligent
00:12:10 in and started to see the value in those things so what was it about graphic design that clicked I think it was the ability to create something like to really materialize what was in my mind and communicate that also the process of like when you’re in school and you have to explain your work and you have to bring people into your world I think that’s when I started to feel that love for explaining things creatively conceptually cuz you already had it yeah cuz I always loved art you alwayss love art yeah it was just a different it came from clothing or whatever your fashion was
00:12:43 to a graphic yeah which made it a little easier because if you really didn’t want to have if you didn’t have that creative piece oh it would been nightmares it would have been cuz graphic design was a grind you in the lab late at night that’s where I developed all these bad sleeping I would be sleeping class my professors knew I used to sit in the front row and be like I’m sorry if I fall asleep but I’m here to focus i’ be knocked out in them 8 A.M classes but that’s the privilege too of being an athlete they’re like oh you we know you travel we know this and so
00:13:14 it was it was a really cool experience I college was great so let’s talk about before we get you out of college because I just want how was the basketball career so how did you did all did you play all four years and you finished out and all that so I actually so I played it was pretty good my first coach interesting good and bad I actually got injured so I actually had to get knee surgery and recover from that so I just feel like there was always these lessons of how to overcome like first is oh I got here first it was like oh can I get a scholarship God brought me through that
00:13:47 then it was like okay I get to college I can’t take what I’m supposed to that I’ve always wanted to take okay what’s the alternative then know I’m injured and it’s like I was so my knee was so bad like I couldn’t even get through practices it was SW up like the size of a watermelon I would have to tape ice and I was like I got to get draing it all the time that that’s so I had to get surgery recovered from that and understand like it got to a point with that surgery where it was like if you
00:14:11 don’t fully extend your leg like you’re not going to have full range of motion like you need to do this rehab I was like I just don’t want to do it yeah so so that was good but I did play we got a we got a coach a second coach my uh what was it my junior year I believe and she really was great and I got so you got H in your freshman year yeah I was hurt yeah freshman year so I played through it and then that offseason I got surgery okay and recovered off season to play my sophomore year and then I played my you didn’t take a break no oh yeah cuz then after I did all of that and I played
00:14:49 my junior year I just was like I don’t want to do this no more wow I was like it’s just too much I feel like I’m going to school for basketball and I’m really here to learn about this new art form called graphic design and I feel like I don’t have the time to focus do need to do I feel like I don’t have the time to focus on it and I made the hard decision to Forfeit the rest of my scholarship and so I could be a regular student I was like I don’t feel like I’m experiencing the college experience and because I knew that I didn’t necessarily want to go reiz that I wasn’t
00:15:23 looking for that to be my next I’m like I’m going to go through college experience and it’s going to be a blur is going to be about exhaustion and basketball two things that I’m not passionate about that’s correct and so I really had to make another hard decision and say hey um and it was hard because it’s like it was such a place of privilege it’s like how could I complain about oh this is too hard when people are would wish they had a full ride but I was just like this is what I got to do for me and when I did it I actually got a gold Addy award for publication design I
00:15:54 started to enter my work into competitions and really that was like my validation which was the highest student award you can get at that time for publication design and I felt like that was God’s confirmation yep you made the right decision because had you not quit you wouldn’t have had the capacity to focus on your craft and I had no idea how far like the graphic design pathway was going to take me so all things work together in the end that’s cool but it was hard I felt stupid I was like girl you about to get his money up did you stay at the same school and finish I did my coach
00:16:27 was not happy yeah they’d be mad when you do that she was not happy at all she I feel but I’m sorry I’m sorry is she still coaching I think she is involved in basketball I’m so sorry coach you were a great coach and I wish I wasn’t so burnt out by the time you came to Radford because I would have loved to play for you all four years that was cool shout out to give a shout out we just going to keep that under w we not g to shout that out she knows who she is oh she know who she is all that’s
00:16:57 cool that’s cool I’m glad you got through that and it helped shape who you are today and it help mold you to your next step so your next step after that was going into business for yourself or what did you do when you got out of school it was so I got out of school during the hardest like economic time and since the Great Depression so the 20089 so I graduated officially 2010 but because I had those credits early on I graduated in three years so I stayed at in Virginia for a year and worked
00:17:23 and then I came back home so I could walk 2010 so I technically graduated in 09 okay and then I stayed for a year and I did my commencement 2010 so when I got back to Cleveland it was just like no jobs it was like I did all of this I trained got the scholarship went through the surgery and now I’m working at FedEx office that’s the the most depressing part about students coming back to Cleveland it’s hard to find work here it was very hard and I was just like what what what did I do this for like again I’m not a fashion designer I’m not doing the thing like and I’m here asking
00:17:59 people do they want color or black and white copies wow and it wasn’t and but I’ve always been entrepreneurial and I think my mom helped fostered that and myself since a kid I used to sell these like K bows for a dollar I used to just I just I’ve always been ingenuitive and like creative and and entrepreneurial so with those skills I just noticed that there was a need when people would come into FedEx office they would ask hey do you guys do graphic design and I’d say we don’t mhm but I do and I’m like I can’t talk to you on the job if you just call me and that’s when the
00:18:33 hustle started okay and so I just started doing graphic design work for in 2010 for just different local entrepreneurs I met a lot of great people at this particular location they were real legitimate business owners that I know now today and had no idea how successful they were then so there’s people in the city that I’ve know 10 to 20 years just from meeting them at ped’s office and doing and doing work from them yeah and them seeing a spark in me a young 20 something year old like hungry for work okay and so your first thing was starting to graphic design as a freelancer yeah oh
00:19:08 and you know uh I met a guy who I’m working with now the same way and that we’ve been together for over like you say 20 years and um mdy um pretty much the same way doing some graphic design work needing some help and from there been right with us the whole time so I can see how that happened so how long did you do graphic design how long was the graphic design business and before you got that off the ground and started going fulltime with it yeah so I I did it for years and I feel like I’ve never really stopped it’s been the both end I again when you talk about love like a force
00:19:43 love relationship yes I enjoy it but I was never like oh I was just I just became good at it so I did it as a means to survival probably from the time I graduated all the way until 2015 okay I started actually designing for like local restaurants doing their menus like really actually getting bigger clients but it was just too much to manage and at that time I don’t think I had the management skills to set up processes for myself it was very much like freelance and I did the best that I could but it was just too much it was overwhelming I was getting more interest
00:20:16 than I had capacity to complete the projects so I was burnt out and then also I was getting clients who saw me as like a young 20-some wanted me to do all of this work for no money and they wanted to give me like horrible pictures and think I can make work a miracle so I was like I don’t feel appreciated like I’m not doing this y’all suck like y’all are horrible customers so I just stopped and that’s when I started to look for corporate work and got a job at a corporation a really great Corporation and then also around that time got married yeah in 2015 so yeah crazy
00:20:54 yeah I’ve lived so many lives we don’t have to go into that so you decided I’m going give up the freelance yeah I mean it was just like yes put that on a table I was burnt out and I was like I just want to go to work know what I’m doing and come home like I do not want to manage people and manage processes and manage clients but I felt like I was always getting put in management positions or leadership positions before I felt like I was ready to lead people I was like I don’t know what says this on my forehead that I’m ready to lead y’all like I got a Freel I got a I was
00:21:23 working as a temp and so I worked for I worked a a freelancer for different companies like TCP like technical consumer products I work for shertech the duct tape company out Avon like I was doing different jobs like that and specifically at that company I was working with like people twice my age who were looking to me at a point in time to lead them and I’m like you guys are senior level designers so I was working as like a project coordinator managing their processes and systems so I always got put into positions where I had to manage and project coordinate like how do
00:21:55 all these pieces come together how does your art come together with what marketing is looking to do and having a creative background not just like a fashion inclination or just an art background I was able to put pieces together and that’s I had an interest in marketing in college and that’s when all the pieces started to come together for me I was still I was doing a lot so I was still freelance modeling I was still doing a little bit of hustle work but I was looking for a job so I started as a temp at different companies until I landed my role as a graphic design like project
00:22:26 coordinator at this major company and even then I was managing it was a product based company and so it had different divisions like food and beverage and different things like that so I was man managing skus and I was managing the package design process so it’s working with regulatory and marketing and and double-checking details all things that creatives don’t like to do like how old was you then 20 yeah I was 26 26 27 25 26 27 MH that threeyear process and so I actually married at 27 yeah got married 27 so yeah so it was again I was just getting put in positions
00:23:04 to manage a lot of stuff you mentioned the fact that you modeling you slid that in there when did the modeling come in yeah what that how’d that opportunity come your way I just started shout out to Robin Buu star she had she used to have these breast cancer awareness fashion shows here in the city okay and so I started to do those and like model there and then like I said when I was 16 I got approached about being a real model for larger you say you were tall and you were yeah but I was so shy and I didn’t want to do it so I wish I did but yeah but I always that was my
00:23:37 tie to Fashion so the modeling was just keeping me connected to Fashion I loved changing in the clothes I loved becoming a different character on the runway like I just loved all of the theatrics of it and so I just did it for fun because even in early 20s and now when I look back you think for people who are in your 20s I need y’all to shut up about not having enough time there is so much more time left because even in my I was like oh my gosh I’m so old and I can’t do it anymore and it’s nah you really can you really can you really can so that was just me saying I guess
00:24:08 I missed the boat on that but I’ll just do it for fun and I’ll just stay connected to Fashion in any way that I can and her shows were a great Avenue for that so I started to do that and I just kept doing it so I was signed to do and I’ve done some work with them in the past years even like couple years ago okay so yeah it’s what kind of model you do it’s like commercial okay so like very like commercial like Joanne Fabrics um Moen uh Big Lots like I think I read something about you and Joan Fabrics do you have something going with Joan Fabrics I did a campaign with the like I’ve
00:24:42 done like several little things with them like I think when I was reading your thing I think I read you did something with your Fab maybe yeah cuz when I thought about it I or recently because they’re going out of business now and that’s what made me think about I was like wow they going out of business when I read about it so yeah that’s interesting I would love all the Fabrics that you have they probably got a big sale going I’m I’m check that out cuz we need to put in perfect pineapple RS okay that’s where it started oh hey where we go yeah good transition this what all the
00:25:13 fellas been waiting on what is the solution so let’s talk about it’s called perfect pineapple right yeah perfect pineapple is a a brand and that was something else that you came how old is perfect pineapple so I know the timeline blurs together cuz I was was doing multiple things at the same time okay that’s why I like how did that fit in it just I was just doing multiple things like I never just I’ve never been a person that just was doing one thing okay so while I was working corporate I started 2015 so by 2017 I had come up with a solution because I was a
00:25:45 loose curl natural and was just trying to figure out how to protect my curls at night if I do a great twist out like how do I keep it and that was during the height of this methodology called pineappling where you put all your curls like to the front of your head and you just tie it gently try that with a scarf that my grandmother gave me at the time that and I was like oh this actually works and I remember waking up one morning I was like oh this would be so cute if like my scarf was cute like I could like literally go to sleep and wake up and I have to do my hair
00:26:14 and go to work and I was like well let me try it yeah I was like let me try this and so I actually went to Joan Fabrics I took I cut a p like a loose pattern from the scarf that I had and went to Joan fabrics and got the right kind of fabric what I was thinking of and tried it and it worked and it was just a a two-way stretch fabric so that I could tie it any type of way that I wanted and I started to figure out not only can I pineapple it but I could wear it like this I could wear it like that I could do all these different things with this one little scarf interesting and that’s
00:26:47 how perfect pineapple started so is now perfect pineapple that’s a business you can buy it you can get it online it comes with different colors so tell what’s the deal with currently somebody hacked into my site so I’m experiencing technical difficulties with the perfect pineapple site but you can visit it and you will see the products that they’re sold out however yes it’s like a it’s a full-on business of its own it’s its own brand it’s its own business and that’s Amazon thing it’s not on Amazon yeah no and and so it’s on Shopify it’s on Shopify and and it and it’s a product that
00:27:20 you so did you have to go get that you had to good patent and all of that stuff everything yeah so I did get a I did get a patent and it took 3 years W for one of the designs the original design I was not able to patent which broke my heart but it was eligible I just didn’t have the means at the time to complete the process which which sucks but I was able to secure a patent for another design that I have yet to release so that’s good so yeah so what was that process like for the new entrepreneurs and people who come up with an idea like what you came for was that as painful as one
00:27:57 would think or would be your advice to anybody who wants to do that I would say get a patent attorney I was blessed to get a really great patent attorney who just believed in what I was doing and I told her the vision and being a creative I was able to sketch it out I have an uncle who’s an artist so I was like un can you make these drawings exactly the way that the product looks like how it looks on the head because it requires that process they need to understand exactly how it’s made how it works and you can get two variations of a patent you can get a design
00:28:27 patent or utilities so it’s are you patenting what it looks like and how it’s constructed or are you patent patenting the method mhm and yeah that’s get a patent attorney get a patent attorney and how many colors that thing come in it comes in any colors that your imagination can think of we have different lines different lines okay that’s what I was trying to get it so you do have different lines you can go pick out the different colors and styles that you want so it’s a scarf it’s essentially a scarf okay a dope scarf a dope scarf yeah okay it’s a dope scy and it looks better than
00:29:00 the Bonnet I think so I think so anything look better than Bonnet and for people who want to start a business like that and getting into some of the business what was the biggest driving force you had behind you that really made you feel like you know what I’m going to do that everybody just like when you from the start of when you decided hey I want to do this and make this a thing and want to sell it how long did that process take um think it moved pretty quickly for me because it was meeting a need that I had and then also I happen to be living with my grandmother this
00:29:35 grandmother at the same time and she was going through like uh cancer and so I wanted to see how it worked for people with hair without or without hair and she was always my biggest inspiration in terms of just being a go-getter this woman traveled the world she got her Masters at 40 she was a VP for her company and so I really admired just her ability to be creative and also like her leadership as well and I was able to run some of these ideas by her and get her feedback and I think her she pushed me and I was just motivated to again just be my own boss and
00:30:18 kind of create my own path just because I think that’s just who creatives are we’re rebellious in nature so we want to forge our own path so um before we get into last part of the segment because we’ll talk about your faith and all that as it relates to right now what you’re doing now to sum it all up is you are the owner of and CEO of your company agency yeah agency so I’ll sum it up so because of all these different experiences and my roots in graphic design and marketing and just again my work experience getting put into leadership positions under trying to understand
00:30:52 how the the actual creative impacts the marketing strategy which impacts the business I’ve been just decided during the pandemic like 2020 I felt like that’s when God was bringing it back to me cuz I put that on Burner I was perfect bable okay and yes I did all the graphics and yes I made the brand and yes I created the photo shoots and I was able to do that and create this whole brand by myself because of all these other experiences my experience with fashion my experience with design and marketing so I thank God that He gave me those tools so I could create the brand itself
00:31:25 with low overhead what I didn’t understand with that brand was like inventory and supply chain okay where are you getting the fabric how cheap can you get the fabric who’s going to manufacture the fabric where you going to get it manufactured can you go to China to check out the the facility can we find overseas how much is that going to cost what’s their mqs what’s your cost of good soul that was like bro like that’s not designing a flyer that’s something totally different so I was like all right God I think I’ve reached my capacity okay I need help to get the business to
00:31:56 the next level okay and so when the pandemic hit it was like man this is really all I’m doing by that time I had quit my job at the company that I was working with I was still currently married at the time and he was an entrepreneur as well he was a barber and so we were just like trying to figure it out okay and that’s when I people started tapping me on the shoulder cuz people who I have deep Rel relationships with in the city know that I do design they knew that I had these was this multi-hyphenate creative and they be like hey shiron we trying to figure out how to do this can
00:32:28 design something real quick and I’m like sure and I saw the need and so the Lord was like yeah you should go back to that idea about an agency like you should create an agency and at the time I was 33 and also 33 has a symbolic meaning because it’s the year Jesus was crucified and it was the Fulfillment of his purpose and it was the Deliverance for everyone and so I felt like it was a full circle moment for me so I was like we can call the agency 33 and it just stuck with me and originally it was something that I was thinking him and I could do because he had a strong
00:33:00 background in marketing and just I just thought he was really smart like we could just do this but his passion wasn’t there and the Lord kept showing me that this is something I I want you to do okay not knowing what would you know happen later but so agency 33 just became the umbrella and perfect pineapple is just a brand of agency 33re and we have other brands that we’ve designed for future land like the tastemakers brand for other clients yeah other clients yeah that’s really fascinating
00:33:28 about what you do and how you got to where you are today and one of now shifting to gear about your faith because throughout this whole Pro let me talk at my microphone throughout this process we talked a lot about your faith and we talked about how you are grounded in that uh when did that start and and talk a little bit about your faith yeah I man it started when I was a a child I felt I gave my life to Christ so I’m a Christian and I gave my life to I I decided that hey I Think Jesus is real I think this is dope I I think it’s amazing that this man named Jesus like actually
00:34:06 was a human being but he was also God and he died for my sin so that like I could have like eternal life like in in Paradise like that sounds cool as a kid I was like I I really believe this and I meant it with my whole heart so I was think I was in like the first grade and I just I I went to a a really big church at the time and I just the process was like if you want to give your life to Jesus Come into the aisle come down to the Altar and I walk all the way down that altar like I want Jesus this is nice okay and then I got baptized right after that and I understood I think the key
00:34:39 is like I really understood what it meant when I got baptized that I was my old man was dying and I’m coming back new my sins are forgiven and this is my new start and so it started as a child and I have like a church kid story where really just loved God really felt his presence I think my creativity and my imagination helped with envisioning that God is with me envisioning the things that require faith and I just really leaned into it and I felt like every time that I trusted God like he came through for me and it wasn’t like a magic Genie situation it was just like during
00:35:19 hard moments during trying moments even in college like I remember one of my college roommates I man those practices used to be so hard like the I know I know like the like the morning conditioning stuff like I used to feel like I was going to die like I was like I used to come back to the doorm god thank you for keeping me cuz I didn’t pass out you know what I’m saying and I used to be so demonstrative with My Worship in the dorm she would just be watching me just sing and worship thank you Jesus and and I remember later in our later in our College year she was like and and
00:35:53 another roommate was like I just want to thank you for being so bold about your faith really because of you you really encouraged me to believe and you just never know how you’re ministering to someone else through you just being authentic and being transparent about your faith and I just have seen the fruit of believing in Jesus and what he says and seeing it play out it may not play out on the timeline that I want but he’s faithful and so it that’s my story like I’ve just seen him show up
00:36:22 for me in the worst moments like I’ve been through a lot of like emotional like struggles and he’s kept me and there’s no reason why I should be confident or still pursuing some of the things I’m pursuing based on the way that I feel like I’ve struggled mentally yeah that’s really good and and it’s just so amazing that I’ve run into more and more younger people who has that kind of testimony and saying it so that’s really good because I hang out with a another group of pastors and they older pastors and everything and all they talk about now is you you know I’m always on them
00:36:58 oh yeah your church is just people ain’t coming there no more past you y having a hard time but it it’s really good to hear people like you and in your age bracket and others who have that fulfillment and still believe in that and that’s really great and we in the end times if y’all don’t know yeah we are if y’all ain’t seen try Jesus cuz you going to need we going to need them oh they going to need them it’s more like you say now than ever now than ever so let’s talk about this it’s called the kingdom Culture worship night so the official name that’s what
00:37:32 I should have been talking like I said yesterday I was so compated on the show I was like I can’t get her because I had a nice title for you all around everything I couldn’t get none of that right yesterday so today tell me about and and Zeke was the one he said y’all didn’t talk about that I said no not at all he said that’s what you supposed to talk about so I really wanted to spend a little time on that so just tell me about that what is that all about yeah so Kingdom culture is the organ gation and I’m in the process of making it a 501c3 I’m still just toying around
00:38:03 with what the structure is going to be but it is incorporated to become a nonprofit and it’s really just an organization whose mission is to reclaim culture for the kingdom of God because as a creative I understand and the Bible says that God spoke everything into existence he said it and then it was he is an a creative and so the Sonic the sonics of this world the artart the movements understands all of that and it perverted in the culture that we praise every day like that is a perverted version of what was really praised what was really worshiped unto God what was
00:38:41 really created by God and so our mission is to reclaim that if you got a rap song Why Can’t We rap about Jesus if you have a R&B song Why Can’t We Sing to about Jesus and and I think also as like a younger believer this is something that I was struggling with in my early 20s okay I love the Lord but if I want to have a good time where do I go like in my early 20s like I used to feel so convicted in college even though it was fun everybody used to has their drunken stories has their kicking nights but but I used to come home convicted for real it was like I was
00:39:12 a double agent I had to gear myself up to be like no it’s fine we’re gonna go to the club we’re but I was really a Church Girl and I was like Jesus I’m sorry they was cussing in the club I got the feeling like I wanted to do some things that I know that you don’t want me to do and I was tired of having that like Duality inside of me but it was like where do I go though who’s providing the solution M if I don’t want to go to the club don’t wor about that okay then where do I go it’s back in the day but I just never you be years yeah that’s what I felt like because I could
00:39:58 Would Imagine A lot of people with that and and there isn’t but here’s the thing about God being a redeemer of time because that’s exactly what I thought I thought that when I first got married I was I used to share my ex-husband I was like we should do I it was still something bubbling up inside of me and this is 2015 the joyful when CRA on the about five good rappers got K like the Caleb Gordon right now jeans it wasn’t cool it was like it still a trail play in situation and but I just it wasn’t I was a
00:40:36 season where I don’t think I was in alignment with God and so I just didn’t execute on it I didn’t feel like I had the capacity it was just a lot going on but after coming out of that season now hearing God tap me on the shoulder I was like I’m already doing 5,000 things people already think I do a thousand things so I that whole like saying jack of all trades master of none but the full thing is is better than being a master of one and I never heard that until recently but it used to haunt me like okay I need to be corporate I need to just do one thing really good and I
00:41:06 just need to be like excellent at that and then once I’m like perfect at that then I can move on but the pandemic really showed us all that it was like that’s about the survival of how many things can you do like you are only this like you don’t have the modalities or the mobility to do to survive right and I was so grateful that I was wired the way that I was wired at the time but for a long time I fought that identity and felt like I was a failure because I had several interests that were very similar but they were different they were all in the same Lane so from that perspective
00:41:45 I had a linear Focus but there were several things that I was equally good at and equally passionate about and I never felt like that was okay until I was like you know what but that’s okay you said the the thing that most people don’t even catch and that was like you say Jack of all trades and a master of none still often better than the master one and most people always stop and don’t they just stop jack of all trades but and that’s how I am I can do a whole bunch of stuff I tell people that all the time and I really put the pressure on just brothers I go there especially young men
00:42:21 I just grew up in an era that everything that breaks in my house I fix everything everything if it’s broke from a door being broke if I have a two set like a whole two set drills everything I fix stuff I Break Stuff fixing stuff I break stuff then I get to the point where I just don’t want to fix I’ll call somebody to fix it but I do that and a lot of people just don’t and a lot of it wasn’t because I just wanted to it was just out of necessity didn’t have it was a time I couldn’t call nobody I had to figure it out or I had to do it myself so I think being a jack of all trades
00:42:56 is always good having yourself being able to do it um teaching myself how to do this podcasting stuff was something because as I said in the beginning I just woke up one day and said I wanted to podcast and I I didn’t have no sense of how microphone work how lighting work how video works or any of that stuff editing never did any of that stuff amazing and and just got into it and just kept at it till I got it and still learning every day just like you I every day oh I didn’t know that yeah picked up something new how to make your business better and that’s good I I want to
00:43:32 stay on the faith thing cuz I just ramble a lot I really how what’s Mak your program the culture night different than traditional church because absolutely I was get there so we so that’s the organization we’re reclaiming the kingdom the the culture for the kingdom of God and so we’re doing that by solving that problem and I was saying when God tapped me on the shoulder to do that and we started it last year I started last year I felt like it was too late I was like do you really want me to do this like I’m already doing a lot of different things this that’s how we got on
00:44:03 the whole Jack ball train that was God showing me his grace my Tim is perfect I can hold off a demographic of people that just need to hear your voice and what I want to cre through you it doesn’t matter who else is doing all those other things there is there is a tribe and a lane and a and a population that par to a specific voice but I still want you to prod this in the earth and so it was really an Obed step because it’s not like it’s something that’s generating income right now honestly like I use like my tithe to pay for the stuff for it and that was even a blessing in and
00:44:40 of itself that like God you’ve provided for me in a such a way that I’m able to use my timee and some donations from some faithful um people who helped start it um to produce these events so what makes it different from traditional church is that number one I am not a pastor okay number two is it’s just a gathering it’s a fun event it’s for you to come H have conscious free fun so what we do I heard I saw it on the flyer so we have the house party series it’s going to be more different EV more events that we plan to have that are produced by Kingdom culture okay right now
00:45:16 we’re just digging our heels into the house party event so it’s hearkening back to the 90s where you just come and you just kick it so we have vendors that are selling like Christian merch really dope merch now this is coming up in March so it’s coming up in April in April April April 12th is our Oney year anniversary and so we’re excited we’re putting all the pieces together now so pray for you have a location and everything yet yeah creative space so we’re partnering with creative space and we creative space is in willowwick willowwick Ohio um Asia Asia child just was
00:45:47 crazy yeah she you you sitting here talking to me right yeah and I’m sitting here thinking this is what I was thinking I was like you know what I want to do a panel discussion I think her in Asia on panel I was just sitting thinking cuz I did oh yeah I was just sitting there thinking like I could put because we were talking about doing a woman next month is women’s month yeah and I was just why you talking my mind is going 100 miles an hour and I’m sitting like you know what her and Asia and I get one or two more women I think I could bring them back for my women month because
00:46:21 cuz you talking in the same vein she talks yeah you remind me a lot that’s why when you see talk I’m like boy sound like that’s my dog oh that’s right okay okay oh so you going to Asia spot we partner with them so all of our house party events are at her space okay okay and yeah and so it’s vendors so you get to shop get to mingle we have a DJ like curate a DJ set we have talent and artist rappers so we’ve had we’ve had CHR Jr he’s now going to be like performing we’ve had God-fearing and we’ve had some underground artists that come from the local and surrounding area
00:46:57 that are really talented that get to perform we had a cipher the first time it was super dope okay and then at the end we do have a worship set because we never want to let the entertainment get in get ahead of God this is a space for you to come as you are and pray anybody can come yeah and prayerfully not leave as you are it’s if you’re curious about God if you want to have conversations about God if you want to experience something different this is the place for you so it’s not what do you call it like a society or an LST like you just got to be Christian no come as
00:47:29 you are and encounter love cuz God Is Love by definition like encounter God in the way that you need to and the goal is we connect with local churches because we are not a church we want to make sure like if you experience Deliverance which we had on the first night we had a a young man experience like real deliverance from some stuff it’s okay now I can point you in a direction to be discipled okay by a Pastor by in a body of that can support you so is is this so our goal is to be a bridge to healthy churches this supported by mainly younger folks and when I say that I I
00:48:10 can tell I’m 57 I want to be young forever it’s right but but that’s why I we need that so it’s mainly a younger movement on this end so we just naturally attract like Millennials that’s where I’m getting at okay yeah but we’ve been attracting like Millennials and gen Z like it’s just becoming this like smage board that’s interesting it’s open my my 70-year-old uncle came kicking it but we really need to get to the younger ones so I’m really excited about that and we talk about that quite often um especially like last year with a bunch of Endeavors and things initiatives we
00:48:42 were doing and and it was funny we was doing the thing with men trying to get men involved and all of that every time we do the events I come out be like boy we do a great job getting all these old men together but we can’t get no young guys in here so every time I hear you guys doing anything along those lines I think it’s awesome and any way that we can support please let me know what you need please let me know what you need say hey man we need this we’re trying to do something and that’s why we’re here to help support those kind of things and if it’s
00:49:11 something we can do with the radio station which is another if you want to say Hey you want the radio station to come out and they can do a live remote from there to get people there and go live on the radio to let know people know this we can do all of that for you and we want to open that up for you and extend that to you cuz I like you I think you’re doing good stuff thank you it never ceased to amaze me they bring people on and I be Weir I don’t know what we going to talk about but Zeke pulled you out in the last 10 minutes before you walk there he said man she talks about this
00:49:41 thing and I said I’m very interested in that so that was very good DJ you got something for Miss shiron before we let her do her closing yes how do you feel that people are responding to the kingdom culture and a lot of time times people might look at you and then be be surprised that you’re following Jesus you’re following Faith but along with being a a Savvy entrepreneur and create creative so how does that mix do you bump heads with people that are not in the faith and doing the same thing creatively oh absolutely I think that creatives sometimes they use
00:50:27 different mediums to tap into their creativity so I think in the realm of art marketing advertising entertainment like being around event curation you always encounter people who subscribe to different practices of spirituality mhm more and they tend to be more spiritual people like whether it’s like my crystals or I believe in this I believe in the universe I believe I have all types of stuff and I think that I think I’m learning that God has called me to this this demographic and there’s
00:50:59 just there’s a lot of warfare in the demographic because there’s a lot of openness to open you up to ideas to tap into the creativity there’s a lot of there’s less restraint cor and so you’re more of an open door to spiritual things that’s and based on my belief there only two Realms it’s the Kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom of hell and so if it’s not the kingdom of heaven then we know what it’s coming from and so I do feel that and I’m navigating that and I I just feel like God is confirming that I’m called to that and what’s good about that is that you have the sense
00:51:34 to be able to identify it see it’s the people who walk around and bump into that [ __ ] all the time and they wonder why they keep failing or why this keep happening to me and that it’s because it’s not unveil so you have the privilege of knowing when somebody’s not right or somebody’s good just like I knew the Holy Spirit you you were right when we did it in talking just like when I saying thinking challenging Asia out of it man she sounds so much like Asia childish and that and when I taught to Asia was the same way didn’t expect her to be so spiritual in everything that she
00:52:09 was doing and and her business is founded off of that spirituality just like yours are and that’s why I find you guys remarkable I always say I want to bring on interesting people so you made the interesting meter so excited yes you did you made the meter and let me ask you this real quick too cuz now it’s popular to come up somewhere I want to thank God for this want to thank God for that right how do you decipher who’s really got a heart for God versus I’m just saying I want to thank God but they could be worshiping or practicing anything spiritual spiritually yeah so the Bible
00:52:51 talks about I think it’s John 15:5 where it says you’ll know it talks about being connected to the Vine and God being Jesus being the vine and God being the vine dresser and whoever produces good fruit he continues to prune and those who do not produce good fruit they’re tossed away and thrown into the fire the way that you know is by people’s Fruit by their actions by by how what they do how they present like you will know a tree by its fruit you’ll know a apple tree CU it’s producing apples you’ll know if it’s rotten if the apples are rotten if they’re bitter and I think when we
00:53:24 could just use like celebrities for in CU there’s a lot going on in the entertainment industry there’s a lot of deception there’s a lot of covert stuff if your music and what you’re producing is your fruit so to get up there and thank God they may be thanking a God but they’re not thanking the most high God Yahweh yeshu like Elohim Yeshua Jesus like they’re not thanking that God and so they’re standing in their truth of I want to thank a God I want to thank my God and they just makes say God blanketed because that’s well accepted but you will know by the fruit that they produce
00:54:00 what God they’re thinking that’s awesome zek you got something you want to ask y that’s dope keep it going y’all got me in my Jesus bag we can be here all day cuz people need to hear this the goal is to make disciples like people need to know that there is hope that like you don’t have to be afraid about all the stuff that’s happening in the news that’s a sign of the end times God said that’s going to happen but being a believer and understanding that Jesus Christ like literally paid the price and he reconciled all of this that if you believe in Christ you are kept and that
00:54:37 your eternity is secure and that you have access to Authority and power to navigate this world that far surpasses witchcraft that far surpasses the power of the prince of the pair of this air that is what I want people to know and that’s what I’m endeavoring to find out and continue to grow in like we have an Escape Route we don’t have to be fearful and people really need to see people like you talking about it cuz look cool you’re fashionable you did this you did that and people always think that oh I’mma get stuck in the Box because I believe in Jesus or I I go to church or
00:55:17 I do this or just don’t talk about it yeah there’s a lot of them who probably feel the exact same way you do go to church and everything but they just don’t talk about it so therefore you wouldn’t know and like I said when um interviewing you yesterday on the radio it was all about okay let me get through the stuff that she did and when we was talking to Zeke today we was going through just the difference and the clients and I said I was trying to find something he said you didn’t talk about Kingdom worship and I said no what is that then I started looking at that and I said okay now
00:55:49 this is what I wanted to talk about this is kind of balance off cuz I’m like okay we know she did that and she did what is the balance what’s the as they in this what’s the hook all right so now in your case the hook is your spirituality it’s your faith it’s who you are is help what makes now I’m like now I got a complete story now I can sit back and we can make a complete story out of it and and I really appreciate you coming on and sharing that with us I I want to make sure that we give you
00:56:18 this as a tool to help you in your business but what we do before we end all projects that camera right there belongs to you hey everybody I’m shiron Alexandria leaper also known as freely see on Instagram I am here with on the Strategic Move podcast with Ken da I just want to give a shout out to Kingdom culture we are having our one-year anniversary event April 12th is something you do not want to miss be in the building it’s going to be an amazing time and I also want you to just check us out my agency 33 on Instagram it’s agency 33 and the website is www. agcy 33.com just tap in
00:56:59 with me hey everybody Kingdom culture is coming April 12th at creative space doors are going to open at 700 it’s going to be from 8: to 11:30 we’re going to have musical guests we’re going to have worship we’re going to have a DJ set food mocktails vendors all of the things that you have experienced at every other Kingdom culture plus more so definitely go on to event bright grab your ticket tickets are live right now again it’s going to be April 12 at creative space in Willowick you don’t want to miss it hey everybody this is shiron Alexandria leaper AKA freely see and I’m
00:57:36 excited to tell you about my businesses and all the things happening with me first I want you to check out agency 33 it’s agency 33 on Instagram and you can find us on the web at agency3 3.com it’s a full service design and marketing agency here to serve you and all your creative needs also I want you to check out perfect pineapple it’s a head wrap and hair accessory company that I founded in 2017 so go ahead and go to www. perfect pineapple wraps to check out what we have available and then find us on Instagram at perfect pineapple rap Cleveland today conversation remind
00:58:15 us of the one powerful truth faith creativity and business are all connected when we walk in our purpose doors open when we remain faithful our vision grow Rose Chiron leaper is proof of that if we all take every if we’re going to take anything from this conversation let it be this your creativity is your gift your faith is your foundation and your dreams are all valid when we step into the truth we don’t just create business we create a movement so I want everybody to continue to listen to what we’re doing here on our podcast everybody I want to thank you
00:58:50 guys for watching strategic moves with kendow I have shiron leaper who is on our program we want to thank you for coming on our prog program today we she has uh everything you want to know about shiron leapa will be in her description in the video so we’ll leave her website or how you can get in contact with her how you can find out more about the program she’s doing which is called Kingdom Culture worship night which is a really big event we want people to check that out as well as she has a an accessory that she is the founder of and it is called the P perfect pineapple hair
00:59:25 accessory and tell us buy one get one free hurry up and get them hurry up and get them hurry up and get them I just messing with you please check her out she all her stuff will be in the links in the description please check her out and please buy her buy some of her accessories and look at what she’s doing as a business until next time we want to thank everybody for watching our program peace