SPEAKER_02 1:45

Welcome to the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today we are thrilled to have two extraordinary guests joining us, Nathan Etheridge Sr. and Dalvin Spann. Nathan Etheridge Sr. is a distinguished veteran and entrepreneur based in Columbia. Beyond his business ventures, Mr. Nate is a dedicated father of three and a proud grandfather. He is deeply passionate about supporting young entrepreneurs, lending his experience and guidance to help them succeed. Our second guest, Dalvin Spann, is a native of Columbia and a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Dvin is a multifaceted creative professional with expertise in graphic design, photography, music, and video production. He serves as a board member at the Columbia Design League and is the creative director at RESH Marketing. Dalvin is also the co-founder of Isms of Art in the Don't Mind Failure podcast. His impressive portfolio includes art exhibitions and design projects for prominent brands such as Adidas and BMW. As a father of one, Dalvin is committed to fostering creativity and collaboration within the cultural community. Man, y'all sound like some very impressive individuals to have on our podcast today. And just so everybody knows, this is our special episode for Father's Day. We like to do two special episodes each year in some Mother's Day and our Father's Day podcast. And we always like to have two individuals come on and share their experiences either as mothers or fathers. And so we are so happy to have you all here with us today. We always like to start off with just by asking how you're doing today. If we can start over here with Mr. Nate, how are you feeling today, brother? Feeling great.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

I want to thank y'all for the opportunity of uh being here with you today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

How about yourself, Mr. Span? He's looking great too, as well. Right? He's always sharp. He's always sharp. I'm always getting sharp.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

I feel good. Thank you for having me on. This is this is cool. Awesome. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

One of the things we always like to start off with, and of course, our audience knows a little bit about Mr. Nate because they have been supporting us and giving us mentorship and being behind us and what we're doing with our podcasts and the and the business that we've been trying to run here. And we thank you all so much for that. But just so that our audience that gets to know a little bit about what you would want to tell them about yourself too, we're going to give you some time here if you could just explain to our audience who you are, where you came from, and what you're up to right now. So then that way they can have some understanding.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

Okay. Yeah, well, there again. I'm Nate. And right now we're in the process of putting together the Celeb Fit studio in which we've spent since the pandemic trying to rectify and put together all the components that it takes to make it successful, not only for us, but for the community as well.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

That's correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

And it's awesome. It's an awesome thing. It's an awesome thing. And we appreciate it, appreciative of it as well. Yes, sir. And could you tell folks where you came from, who were where you were born and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_03 5:00

Well, I was born just south of here on a small town called Baseburg, Leesville. Go ahead, Basebury. Yeah, before you know, familiar with Sheila's barbecue. Yeah. Yeah, I left there early age, uh, moved into Detroit, where at that time they had what was called OJT on the job training. So I was with General Motors for a short time prior to being in the military. And after leaving the military back into South Carolina and basically been an entrepreneur since I came back. I met my wife in would have been in I think eighty seven. Since that time the marriage and four children. I know there was a correction. They mentioned that it was three children. Well, we have four children. Four. Yeah. So we have partnered in our business ventures since the beginning of pretty much of our relationship. Awesome. Now we find ourselves here about 37 years later and um enjoying working together as a team. That's beautiful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

That's beautiful. Yeah, I guess some some some relationship goals right there. Right. Most definitely. Most definitely. How about yourself, Mr. Span? And give a little a little bit of your background.

SPEAKER_04 6:36

Well, I'm born and raised Columbus Cyclone Line. I grew up up the street, actually. Oh wow. So I'm watching the evolution of O'Neill Court. Wow. A child like it really. Walking down here and everything. But um grew up the car neighbor, Trentamakers. Went to high school in Northeast, Ridgeview. Of course, you know, I went to college at Swan College Art and Design, came back, freelanced for a little bit, got a job at Rush Marketing, and I've been there for about 22 years now. Ooh, go ahead. Started from the ground up and now career director. Been career director part of about 17 years there.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

At the time there. And I worked on a range of projects from like BMW, Ports Authority. I'm done marketing stuff all over the country through the job. So did that. We started Isn't the Art in 07. The first part of it was I wanted to do a magazine at first. Oh, okay. Back in 04 with two of my friends and talked to a buddy of mine who I don't know if anybody knows who Spectack is, a rapper.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Yeah, I don't know who, yeah, I know Spec. Anybody know that? We were trying to get Spec on as a guest, yeah, man. We had to speak to him. It's just been back and forth.

SPEAKER_04 7:48

Yeah, people get nerve cool, man. The true story, man, like Spec, they weren't that Sound Familiar. Okay. And when I was in high school, you know, you walk in and Sounds familiar, he would just be freestyling.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Yeah, I heard.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

And as you walked in the store, he adds you to the freestyle. So I finally got the nerve to ask him, because I was, you know, rapping at the time, like, hey, how you do that? And so he gave me pointers. So Speck hasn't been like my idol as far as the local rap scene, but also just seeing his career and what he's done. But I'm trying to think where I was going with Speck story. Oh, I talked to his manager, JD, at the time. I was working on the logo for his life through music. Okay. And his D was like, nah, I think you need to do a website first before you do a magazine. And once you get your numbers up, then if you want to do print, do print. So I started off with Ism with that. And then eventually said and Jerry Jenkins, Sedgie Moji and Jerry Jenkins, we came together and we needed a name. And I was like, well, I got this magazine that is not your name. And this logo design, like maybe just can work hand in hand. Like, okay, we like that. And that's what started this, the variation of isn't what you see now. Like some of the interviews I wanted to do then work out one too, like in Saul Williams and everything. So this game turned to what isn't what you saw there is.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

That's dope. No, to understand the full background of it. Okay. That's it. Because like I say, because I've always known you guys. I've known you guys for a while, but I never understood like how did it all piece together?

SPEAKER_04 9:23

Me and Jared went to high school together. Okay. And Jared Jared grew up back in the neighborhood too. Okay. But he just moved out when he was probably in middle school. So I knew Jared as a kid. Okay. Wow. You know, then we worked together at the ground station mall. So that's our new day. And I miss Sad. Yeah, I miss Sad probably in 03. Okay. But I didn't know he knew Jared. Oh. Man. Different nodes and it was a formula, but you know, it was like, okay, yeah, this I looked up to this dude because he was like rapping and doing art and everything. And then meeting Sadlay, this is cool. Perfect. Synergy, man.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Perfect synergy. Well, we always have to start with that. We always like so now they get to know a little bit about who you all are, right? Now, moving further into talking about fatherhood, uh, this brings us to our second question. And this one for you all is perfect. Like you all the perfect people for these questions. And you'll see what I mean. So as successful professionals and entrepreneurs, how has fatherhood influenced your career and the way you approach your work? We start Mr. Nate.

SPEAKER_03 10:30

Okay, I think fatherhood has influenced me by the day-to-day routines that comes with, well, basically comes with father. There's a great responsibility as being a father. And I think if I look back, you know, from the time that I was our children were coming up, you know, I guess it affected me to the point where I always wanted to be for sure that they came first and they got the best of of everything. Because the chapters in the life as they change go so fast. And at that time it wasn't it wasn't the modern parts of what we have today. I mean, the children now had our grandson and we had a problem with the basketball hoop. Well, I meant it's like starting all over again because he was up this morning like Papa, you know, when are we going to get this done? You promised me on yesterday. Oh, man. Which we did, but we had a lot of things to do, yeah. That was going. But just the mere fact of seeing and excuse me, and being blessed to have that opportunity gives me a feeling that, well, this is a responsibility that I don't take lightly.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Is it something that was, because I'm not, I'm not yet a father, I'm ready for this next year. I'm getting ready, putting ready for this. Yeah, getting ready for this. Because my brother, he's always teasing me about this, him, him and his wife, hey, you need somebody for her to play with. And one of the things is, does it ever become, did it ever feel, especially like first child, did it ever feel overwhelming? Like, were you ever in a situation where you felt like you weren't properly prepared or had the tools necessary to be a father? And if so, like what did you do to help combat that thought in your mind? Because obviously you did a good job.

SPEAKER_03 12:38

Yeah, I'm sure maybe at at some point in time that did come. But being a team, which my wife and I were, if one kind of, if you would, not necessarily fell down on a job, but it was like both of us listening. And, you know, we was responsible to each other as well as the children. So I meant we dedicated the I guess if you will, we dedicated our time and effort to be for sure that they needs were always met and that they could be full circle.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

That's a big thing. I I like what you said, team.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Team team. And that's big. Oh, I think. That's one thing that I know I've been discussing with my wife. It's just the fact that because I know there's a lot of things that she's worried about, having children, raising them, et cetera. I'm like, hey, but we're gonna be a team. And like I told her, I'm not gonna let you fall. And I know you won't let me fall. And if we do that, I think we'll be okay. Because that's, I think that's one of the fears, especially for folks who are looking in to be parents for the first time fathers, first-time mothers, you're always worried about what happens if I don't do something right, or do I is there going to be like a redo? You're kind of worried about that type of stuff. This is what she keeps telling me, and then she's making me think about this as a father. She's like, we have to keep that thing alive by ourselves. Like once you take it, take the child home. Look, look, they used to you take that child home and you leave and go from the hospital, like, all right, it's your responsibility. You got to keep it alive. That's true. And you have multiple children. So that I always ask folks who've been through that, how do you deal with that, that thought? And I know it's not something that you want to think about, but it does pop up. And I have to ask the same thing of you, Dalvin. Like, how has fatherhood, how has it influenced your career and the way you approach your work? But specifically, like the idea and the stress of keeping a child alive, raising that child, making sure that they're prepared to go out into the world, how does that affect you? Like, how do you deal with that stress?

SPEAKER_04 14:43

It's funny, though, it's been a conversation with my oldest son, you know. But thinking back, like a lot of my approach was remembering what I felt at certain ages. And when I found out I was having my first child, I was like, okay, what did my parents do great? Say that. Was what did they do good? But I took it personal. But I really needed to hear, yeah, okay, that was great too, put over here. Okay, what was it that they were learning on the job or what to do right with me? Okay, let me not do that. And at what age was I feeling a certain way. And then I had to think about with my learning my parents' history, when a lot of times when when people go through certain traumas in their life, at a certain age, they do it to you. At that age. Gotcha. So once I learned their history, when I had my son like, okay, I know what my triggers was, were at those particular ages. Let me be mindful first and let me learn how to listen. So my son was a talker. And whatever I said, I mean, to this day, he does what he's gonna do. What I tell him. But from a child, that was his thing. It was like, you know what, just hear him out. And it made me, it I grew up with him, you know. Gotcha. It sped me up, it made me think about okay, I don't want to be in a job, but no, I got to provide until I do certain things, I need to make sure that they have their stuff in place. Uh-huh. And so when I had my twins, you know, two years later after him, you know, it was about when I left work, I worked, I say I worked two minutes, I got up from the wire. Okay. So when the guy's like, oh, it's two minutes. You serve jail, two minutes. When you can come in, the minute you come out. Yep. So when I go to when the workers like, okay, I walk in this door, uh-huh, whatever's outside, you can't worry about. When I walk out the door, whatever's here, I gotta let it go. Because by the time I get home, I can't give my kids my frustrations at work. Oh, my Lord, thank you. Yeah. You know, because that's what a lot of us do. Yes. The man at work is giving you hell, so you go home and take it out. So by the time I got home and walked in the door, it was okay, what do you need? And giving them total attention.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

So Yeah. That's a good point. I gotta ask Miss Nate about that. Because especially since we're talking about, you know, your professional life and et cetera, that point he just made about separating work from life. And I always tell my wife this: whenever I go to work, I'm gonna do my work stuff, et cetera. When I come home, I'm not bringing any of that stuff to you. I'm gonna treat you better than I treated the man at work. And she said, for real? I say yes, every time. I don't care what happened to me and then when I come home, it's a different person, me and you were separate. So, Miss Nate, could you explain, especially, because I always listen to what you say, Miss Nate. I always like bothering you by questions about this, but growing up in the time you grew up at, and especially not to put too much harp on this, but you had a different experience, specifically racially, social, and economically than we did. How did you divide what was going on with your professional life and then coming home and then not bringing that stress home? Like, were you a like how did you manage that? How were you able to work those lanes without, you know, letting them blend?

SPEAKER_03 18:12

Yeah, well, I think what happened to me there again when the way we were set up, as I mentioned as a team.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:23

Uh we were both in the same, we've been fortunate enough to have our offices together from the beginning time of it. Uh-huh. We moved uh into Broad River Road. I had an office downstairs, and she was upstairs. Oh, okay. Our communication was never far-fetched or far away. We were always able to, I guess, if you will, communicate on the job together. Okay. It wasn't a phone call or anything like that. It was a personal and person talk about what we would do. And many times when it was time to get the children, well, I was off and running to pick them up while she was still at work. We had um a situation sometimes where we had so much going on, like you may be referring to, that I would even have to not have to. But I did, as you was mentioning with you and your wife. Yeah. I found myself having to feed my wife during lunch. Just busy. Yeah is what and fortunate to be that way. But you know, then you know it would be my time to go and pick the children up. And generally, you know, like after four o'clock, that kind of thing, I may go back to the office and then I may just go home and I'm there with them because any homework or any things that they needed to do at home, I would also prepare dinner. So when my wife got home and we all and it was a routine that we all could sit down and have dinner in the evening together.

unknown 20:16

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Which uh I try to now do the same thing with the grands, but they How important, how important look, I kinda like that. How important for you was the coming together at the end of the day and commuting as a family?

SPEAKER_03 20:29

It was very important because there again, as I said, we then after my wife was home, then we all were, you know, pretty you know, together and we needed to look into what their day had been like. Yeah. And, you know, of course, I would have had that conversation some with them, but basically she had to get the ear full too. So how we knew how to, you know, if we needed to start the next day because uh there comes there are a lot of responsibilities when, you know, you have three three children in school. Yeah. I mean, you gotta cater to every whim and what somebody said to you if the teacher, you know, if or if even if I got a phone call, I would always drop whatever I'm doing.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

And I didn't want to talk on the phone about it, I would go to the school. And I meant they got to the point where they knew that if you needed Mr. Athletes, if anything happened with the children, you know, I get that phone call. But be there. At the same time, he's gonna show up.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Yeah. That's dope. Yeah. I was from like a black male's uh perspective. If your father, if they're able to show up at the school when you need them, oh, it makes you feel better.

SPEAKER_03 21:51

Yeah, really.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Oh, it makes you feel better. Because my dad, he showed up to school before when I needed him at school. Yeah. And or say we had a little issue with something at a bus stop or something like that, right? And when your father actually shows up, especially as a black man, you're like, yeah, I'm good now. I'm real good. It gives you a confidence, right? You're like, my father cares, right? So when they show up, that makes a big difference. I know my wife and I were contemplating right now with having children. She's like, hey, if you can, would you be able to work from home? And that's something I'm thinking about right now, so that I'd be able to help assist in raising children. Because right now she works at an insurance company. They have to work in the building. I actually, with what I do, I actually can find flexibility to be able to do it from home, right? Especially if I can switch on certain job aspects. This is something I'm thinking about just so I could be, just so I could be available for the children. Like you said, to be able to say, you know what, I'm gonna put this down, I'm gonna go to their school or be available for that. Because I know she wants me to do, she wants to see if I can teach children from home for the first couple of years. And I was like, all right, you gotta give me some time to think about that one. I don't think it's a little difficult because I'd have to do everything from the house. I'll think about it. But if I can at least be able to work from home, it'd give me that chance as a father to be available more so than I would if I was in a working at uh a corporate office or something like that. And I do want to pose that that back on that question to you, just being available as a father for your children at a women of call. Could you explain about how important that is?

SPEAKER_04 23:24

Yeah, the cool thing, I I think and part of the reason why I stayed at, you know, working at the office so said office or No, you're good.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

You're good.

SPEAKER_04 23:34

I stayed working at the office so long was because I had the flexibility. I can bring my kids in. Oh. You know, if I needed to work home, I can work home. So it was always the option. I mean To this day, the owner comes, hey, how the kids doing? How's cool? Oh, yeah, yeah. What are they doing now? You know, so they was always around, and even in the art scene, while I was doing stuff a lot more in Main Street and different things, a lot of times people didn't realize my kids were running around together there. They grew up in the art scene. Okay. What made me kind of peel back was that we'd be there so much, and then that we get home from first Thursday, I'm doing homework till midnight.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

I'm like, this is not fair anymore.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

I gotcha. I gotcha. So and it was getting to the point in age where they were getting to their things, they like the activities and things. But it was important. My my father, he worked a lot, but he was at school, even with the grandkids, he comes to school.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

What kind of work did he do, if you don't mind?

SPEAKER_04 24:36

Yeah, he worked for um Southern Railroad. He was a yard manager. So he started off a lot of times he'd be on the road until he got a position to be in the tower here. But when he was here and off, he was around. You know, he'd pop up to school, hang out. I mean, the kids love him now because he goes on the playground, plays, you know, and gets down with him and stuff like that. And the school that my youngest daughter is at, the oldest one went, they went there to elementary school. So people are used to see him over 19 years. Wow. You know. Wow. So he's still, you know, moving and playing with him and everything. So I took that example because I was like, okay, he was a man's man, but he could still get down. He was around. Yeah. You know, neighborhood guys, when they come back, they're like, oh, your father was near that butt cut, and you know, took us to Boy Scout. Yeah. So when I got older and looked back when they come, like, you know, the best time of my life was when your dad did this. It makes you look like, look back at, okay, I looked at all the tough stuff. Yeah. But they were looking at all the fatherhood, fatherly things that he did for the neighborhood. So try to just do the same in my kids, man. And keep them around and let them see what I was doing.

unknown 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

And so they needed to know who you are. Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense too, because that's one of the things I know personally that I've been trying to do a lot in my daughter's life. So a couple months ago, we got really involved with the YMCA because they had direct leagues. And one of the things I always noticed was there were never any volunteer coaches for any of the little kids to run around. And they would have no volunteer coaches. And so, and I would just like, okay, I'll volunteer, you know. And it was neat because not only did I get a chance to spend time with her, because that we did volleyball, oh not volleyball, we did basketball, we did soccer. But the awesome thing about it was, of course, I was her coach, but just being able to see just my presence out there and then seeing how it impacts other kids too. And then a lot of parents really just appreciated that. And it was neat because of the fact that I not that I would run out of my way to not, I guess, display nepotism, but I really tried to treat everyone fairly. Yep. And you know, that's one of the things that I was getting from a lot of comments I would get from the parents. It was just like, hey, you really helped my son, you know, gain more confidence. And they're really excited about coming out here and playing. I can see the growth. And I remember I was getting gift cards. You know, I was getting cards about. I even got a gift card. Yeah. I got like a Chick-fil-A gift card. That was all that was like one of the coolest little gifts I had. Yeah. Of course, me and Savannah ate it up, obviously. But but it was just neat to see the impact. And like you said, there is a difference. Like people do notice that when you are involved in your child's life, but also you're involved with the community as a whole, especially connected with younger other younger people.

SPEAKER_04 27:21

Mr. Difference, man. Like, I took it personal because my dad didn't give me special treatment when I was younger. Yeah. Yeah. But when I got older, like one guy, he got a jail like last year for 20 years. He came like, yo, the the one about the butt cutting, like dad. And his father was there. Wow. His father taught us how to hunt and do stuff. And but it was that impact. He kind of, yo, your father made an impact.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:46

And so when he showed my daughter, I'm like, okay, what's the dude here? But he can't he came to thank him.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:52

You know, so I look back and like, you know what? Yeah, I ain't get special treatment, but he was fair to everybody. To every. People who needed more attention.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:01

He gave them more attention. And I had the value of having him home at the time. Watching how he handled things. And that helped a long way for me with my kids, you know.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

So I I think that's really cool. We had an episode where we actually had a father and a son on it. And that's one of the points that was made by the father, and I mean by the son to the father, was that, hey, like I understand why my father goes out of the way to make sure that some of these other children get a little bit more attention because I have them at home. A lot of these, they may not even have fathers or they don't have father figures, male figures in their life to show them the proper way to do things. And so he'll go out of his way to make sure that, you know, they're getting this too, because hey, when we get back home, you're gonna keep getting the same too. They're getting this probably three times a week. And so there's some impetus that comes to that. But I think that's something we took for granted too.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

We did. I'm growing up, especially the older we got. Because like I said, for the most part, our father, we always had our father in our lives. Yeah. Especially probably from about especially our teenage.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Oh, all the those important male years from the 12 up.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

11 up. Yeah. He was there. And we were just like, we thought that was normal. Like your dad's supposed, like I told you, Ms. Like, we have a problem at the bus stop. You show up to the bus stop. Ain't no problem at the bus stop no more. Yeah, school, we had a problem at school, showed up to the school, ain't no problem at school. We just thought that was normal. That's how everything was supposed to operate. But we grew up with people, this one child in particular's name was Pork and Beans. Pork and Beans ain't had no father at home. He ain't had, like, he we knew he didn't. His sister's name was Wednesday, but we called a paper, right? And they didn't have any of that at home. And I could tell, like, they were so out of sorts that a lot of things that I saw them dealing with, I'll look at them and I'll look at us. And I'm like, well, we're in the same place. Like we're growing up the same around the same folks. Why are you acting like this? I'm at they ain't have no parents and they have a father at home. And so, like, for him to find male tutelage, he had to go to the to the guys that are on the street or that was on the block. And it leads you a totally different path than you do when you actually have proper male role models or a father around to assist you. But I wanted to ask this question now, Miss Nate. What did your father do for work? What did what was?

SPEAKER_03 30:09

Well, my father was the owner of businesses. He had restaurants. Oh, wow. And he was this great barbecue cooking man. Yeah. Oh. Unfortunately, I lost him when I was about three or four. Oh. So I didn't I grew up without a father. Yeah. But I had a lot of influence from my uncles. Ah, there we go. That my mother's uh brothers and my grandmother was in the house. And she was like very stern. So everything had to be straight pretty much all the time. So we we got I would say some of the best lessons that would include like Sunday school every Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

You know, and to be for sure, you know, that everybody in a sense was rewarded. They used to have, I don't think they probably have them anymore. You get a little box of animal cookies that you would get.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

Yeah, yeah, that was the way that was the best thing.

SPEAKER_03 31:21

They were doing well. So spinoff with me was pretty much the same thing with our children. You know, they were second ancestry, they grew up in the church, they were on the choir, yeah, you know, from when they were really small and old enough to do so, we made sure of that. And that they were in the church every Sunday. I for about fifteen years even drove a senior citizen bus for the church. Oh wow. And I would be for sure that they would always be on there on Sunday so that they could help out see how to give back. And my wife, she was always there with us. So she would be on the bus and she would be on the bus with us, and so would the children and the elderly, you know. Yeah. So we was always giving those type of examples. Even now, the children that grew up with our children, they still, when I see them, they give the respect and they respond as Mr. Athers, oh you was man. Um I wanted to be just like you. And I you know. So it was I felt it a part of the responsibility in giving back to be there for them as well.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

And I think that's one of the things I know, and this is one of the reasons why I'm like, man, I want I want to be a father, I want children, because like it's fun to be able to be able to be a part of that community. Yeah. And if you don't have a child yet, it's not the same as when you do have a child. It gives you a little bit more leeway to do things like, yeah, I'm uncle at this time, I'm uncle man. And so I can go and do my uncle man things and assist and whatnot. But like always, TK, because he's a father, right? I'm like, there's certain areas and places that you can go and be an assistance that I cannot at this moment. It doesn't feel like proper. I have to wait until I could do so. Until I'm laughing at you. But I'm waiting for it, right? Because I like to assist folks and be out in the community. And we were raised in that same way. Like we used, Kevin tell you, man, we used to do door-to-do with church in the summer to go and pray for people, et cetera. We used to do the revivals and everything. They used to teach these calls to Staggers brothers. We were a duo. We'd go work churches. Like we used to work churches. We'd go out to the churches to work churches. And people like, oh, we bring the staggers brothers in. Oh, it's only a good service. And uh, we would always be out in the community. We learned early on why philanthropy is important, why it's good to be involved with people in the community. And like you were saying, our grandmother, she actually taught us a lot of these things. Like we would have to get up and get our have our clothes ready on Saturday because we ain't working on Sunday. So food would be cooked on Sunday, everything would be ready before we went to sleep. She would let us stay up late and watch Showtime at the Apollo. If we was good, we did everything, and then we go to sleep, get up in the morning, do our church thing, make sure everything was handled where it was supposed to be. Clothes ironed before school, um, everything had to be washed in a certain place. And now we understood why our dad taught us that, because that's his mama. So I understood where it came from, why certain things had to be a certain way, right? But that discipline that came along with that was important. I think it's good. It's so good. And if you see a man who was trained properly, bought up the right way, when they become a father, it gets passed on. And I think that's something important. But I want to go on to this next question so we're good on time. This is a great question. In your journeys as fathers, what have been some of the most rewarding and challenging moments? And how has how have these experiences impacted your views on leadership, mentorship, and supporting the next generation, both within your family and in the broader community? And I think this is something, I mean, this is in y'all's blood. Y'all have been talking about this the entire time. So I think it's a perfect question. But just to help get a good close on this, if you can explain about some of your rewarding and especially the challenging moments that you may have faced, if you give us one or two of each, just so our folks can understand, you know, everything's not perfect, and there are gonna be some challenges that you deal with. But how have those impacted your views going forward for leadership, mentorship, and and supporting folks moving forward? Don't start missing eight.

SPEAKER_03 35:30

Yeah, I think for me, it's been what I had pretty much we talked about earlier, what I had gained growing up myself. I saw that coming back with being able to bond and have a good bond with all the children to be for sure that they were secure and to have what they need. That to me was was a reward to me to see that development and to see them go through the different chapters of growth and the different chapters in their lives. You know, from elementary school and high school, middle school. I mean, each one brought on a new challenge. And you know, it I guess it makes you it gives you a feeling of uh importance too because you can see there again, you can see what you're putting into your child. And to see that developing is uh was rewarding enough for me. That's the things that I would uh always look for and even till today. I mean, I expect I guess they still say I expect much, but I do, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

I expect to continue to see growth.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Yeah, yeah, but you know, we put a lot there, of course. Yeah, you know, that was our responsibility to do so. But I can say one of the things that just one of them that you know, I don't say that they're God fearing children now, but they do have that respect and they know that that comes should come first. You know, I I think that probably one of the most rewarding things and especially for my boys was that I was I was at a point with them growing up that I impressed upon them that they never wanted to have any type of record or anything that it seemed as though they was headed in that direction or the wrong way. Yeah. But then, you know, we mixed that real quick. You know, so now I'm able to say that you know, through my wife and I guided, all of them free of records, they don't have any records of any kind and doing well. That's awesome. Yeah, so that's reward of plenty for me.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Hey man, you did a good job, man. You did a good job. Shoot, now that's easy. They try to get you for anything. So that's what I'm saying. You did a great job. I forget what the stat is, there's a statistic about it, but specifically in our community, it doesn't matter. You look in the US in general, because we incarcerate the most people in the world, right? But you're talking about like especially men between the age of 18 and 25, you can't get out of it. It's almost hard to avoid like this guy right here, my older brother, this man's spotless, man. This man don't do nothing wrong, right? They try to get him. Yeah, oh you already put a old chick. Yeah, they try to get him, yeah. Right. So that's what I tell people like if you can avoid that, please do. It just makes it easier moving to life. So and if you can um press upon your children the things they need, oh, even better, even better. So that's awesome. How about you, Mr.

SPEAKER_04 38:57

Spain? That's something I didn't think about that. But else that's major. I think for me, like the the part of that hurts when your kids, when you see their innocence go away through like heartbreak, was like something at school, or that's when I was like, okay, all right, now the reality is here. Yeah. Right. So how do we deal with reality? Now that they understand what life is, like that first moment is when life hits somebody. Okay. And so it's just through conversation, like having thing like once a month, I try to sit down with everybody together, all individuals. Like, hey, what's going on? What's going on in your life? Like for real, don't lie to me. You know, and for the most part, the thing I love, my kids talk to me. My oldest son tells me a lot. Like, brother, you share a lot. Too much. Okay, all right, man. Okay. All right. But it's good, it's good. The success, I think y'all might know it. Like, me and him did an album together last year. Yeah. Because he's into music and he was doing stuff. I'm like, well, let's work on a project. Let's see, see what we can do together. Um, so seeing him in music, see him, he's like a dope mechanic. He works on my cars. Wow. Uh family members' cars and stuff. So um that's been fun. My other son's gotten into track and he's pretty good at track. So seeing that success. And my daughter's been a great student all throughout school. Like, I never had any issue. Wow. And so now I'm just working on the youngest one, getting it, seeing what she's gonna do.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:35

But now they they they've been good kids, especially the boys, keep them out of trouble. Yeah. Was just me telling, like, hey, at this age, man, this is what was going on. Yeah. Like, hey, you can do it this way, or you can do it this way. I grew up in this neighborhood, I can tell you counts of stories, things I had to get out of, but I don't have a record. You know? And a lot of that was I can tell you situation when you know what? I'm going home. Bro, I'm going home. Like, you're not gonna bully me into doing what I want what you want me to do. Like, it don't work like that. Yep. So they grew up in the same area, and none of them, they they've been cool. No record, no true, no problems.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

I think at this point, Mr. Nick's saying that's what's cool. Like, you teach them to be able to think with their own minds, not to follow the like not be the leader, don't don't follow the leader.

SPEAKER_04 41:27

I mean, when you had that, see that moment where I remember clearly when the moment I realized, like, okay, oh, this is what following people looks like. Oh, I'm cool. Yeah, I'm cool with that. It was, it was, it was just the artist situation, but like my best friend was the cool kid. Yeah, yeah. And I watched people how they was moving in middle school. I'm like, oh, we grew up together. Or y'all trying to, oh, let me be mindful of that. Yeah. That's kept me out a lot of situations, man, growing up. And so I just try to tell them, hey, you know, just be be an individual, you know, and just know how to walk away, know when to walk away, know when that's not being a punk.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

That's sexy.

SPEAKER_04 42:04

That's being true to yourself. Yeah. You know, and you find out the truth later on. And you gotta be having that moment. You might feel like it's bad, but later on, you get it.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Yeah. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact, especially growing up, before you become a teenager, your influence is from your family. Yeah. Right? And so it's really that's like the time, the place to really instill the values that you want your child to have moving forward. But once they hit, they start to cross that threshold of becoming like an adolescent, that's when all of a sudden that inf that's when that balance shifts, right? It opens them up. Because right now, their peers are gonna have a now, their peers can have an influence. And it's like, what do you do as a parent to help them to remember their values, what you instill to them up front?

SPEAKER_04 42:52

And the crazy part, like, so my father's a pastor, he became pastor later on, but they allowed us, my sister was always into other religion and everything. So they allowed us to go to different things. Oh, wow. But we just had to go to church still on Sunday. Yeah. But so our range from going to study groups, you know, her going, watching Farrakhan, listen to Farrakhan, going to like we got a range. Now I appreciate them for allowing us to explore. Because you can I can sit in a conversation and be okay. Yeah, because they wasn't hitting us with this one thing. You know, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:33

That's dope, man. That's that's interesting because you don't get to get to see a lot of that. That's how our family was. That's yeah, yeah. We got the same, we get to get everything.

SPEAKER_04 43:41

Yeah, we got everything.

SPEAKER_02 43:43

So then when we sit down, we can talk and communicate with everybody, anything. And I I know one of the things that came from because my father, he's actually the youngest of the children. And so he has an older sister, Mar Aunt Tina. And you gotta imagine, like, this is like a 12-year age? It's more than that. 15?

SPEAKER_01 44:00

It's about it's at least, it's at least pride about.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

I know it's more than it's about 15. No, it's more than that.

SPEAKER_01 44:07

It's more than 15? Yes, about 16, 17.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

Okay, I knew it was up there. And you should see, it's so funny when they're together, right? Because you can tell he's a little brother, right? It's his older sister, right? But because of that, the the in-between, so all the family, you had to realize there had to be, and most of the day they grew up in New Haven. And so there's this interesting educational setup where you have to learn a bunch of different things. Because, for instance, like he grew up with stuff going back from the 50s all the way up through the 70s, and you had to put all that stuff together. So, us being the youngest of those of that generation, we got to get everything. So, all the tapes. They had all the tapes of all the speeches and the people talking and et cetera. And we were kids, they're like, What are y'all watching on these VHS tapes, right? We know, yeah, like, what is this stuff, right? But we got exposed to all of that. And the men, the big thing was they wanted you to be knowledgeable because with knowledge, you get power, right? And they wanted us to be able to make the better best decisions that we could, especially from the sense of they still believed, and you remember, coming from a different generation, they still believed in the fact that the community raises the children. So, yes, we have a father, but I like what you said earlier about the uncles coming into so we had very strong uncles, and the uncles had their opinions, and they would tell us stuff and give us stories and knowledge on the experiences and things that they went through so that we wouldn't make the same mistakes that they made before. That's the one reason why we all we stayed out of trouble because they told us about what happens when you run in the street. They told us about what happens when you get caught up in vices, when you don't focus on doing what you need to do to build yourself up as an individual from the inside out. And so, like, we're like, all right, we have to be. Better because you all bought us this information. And so when they see us, they expect more. And I think that's a good thing to do. And I don't think they ever did it to us. I don't know, Kevin, maybe different on this. I don't think they ever did it to us in a way in which we felt stressed about it.

SPEAKER_01 45:59

No, no, no. It's just part of the culture. It's just part of growing up. And I think that's even in our relationship now, my brother and I, and even our other brothers as well. That's how we are with you know with our kids. Yeah. So like I said, Savannah gets as much influence from me as she does from her uncle. You know, so it's not- I get her hyped up though. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:23

Man, my wife, she be cooking and making stuff, man, so she gets to test everything.

SPEAKER_00 46:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:27

She gets all the cookies and cakes and pies. And we get her special lollipops. We stopped doing that. But yeah, what I told them to be good to stop doing that and sending her back all sugar. But yeah, we just said that just to chime in on what you're all saying, that we do agree with that. And that makes so much sense. I think for the folks who are listening to this podcast, especially with being a Father's Day episode, it's good to hear the different experiences, but to understand that, hey, the things that you're doing and you're seeing this stuff is normal. A lot of people think that they may think things are not congruent from person to person, but you're going to see a lot of overlap. And so just to wrap up, just to wrap up, before Tomari beats me up, I must ask you, gentlemen, and we'll start with Dalvin. We'll finish with Mr. Nate on this one. What current projects are you working on? And what can we expect from you in the future?

SPEAKER_04 47:13

Ooh, I'm doing too much sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Hey, that's all.

SPEAKER_04 47:16

I'm working on like a music project. Me and my son are talking about doing another one. Awesome. So those two things. The first one was me and my wife working on something. Trying to think of what else. Of course, the stuff that we do.

SPEAKER_02 47:29

It's a shameless plug.

SPEAKER_04 47:31

So plug, plug, plug away. Yeah, don't mind fair. We got some episodes coming up. And so we know line that up and just trying to do community work, man. Trying to figure out how to work in different areas. And every time I back away, I get pulled back into something. So but the kids being older, and it's a nice gap between the younger with the older ones. I think right now they I'm trying to get them, the other two situated far as college. Yeah. And now I'm kind of getting back out there. So I just had work at Spoleto. Yeah. You know, stuff like that. So right now that's that's cool. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

You know what you gotta do? What? We live in the 22nd generation or 21st century. You have to drop your TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, socials.

SPEAKER_04 48:16

So we gotta do it nowadays. You gotta do it. We got TikTok, man. I was spent too much time just watching stuff. See, this is amazing. Do you have a TikTok? I got rid of it.

SPEAKER_02 48:26

Oh wow. Well, tell them about your other social.

SPEAKER_04 48:29

So I'm on I'm on IG. I think you can follow either Isms of Art, uh huh. IG or Dalvin Span. I kind of work on both.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

That's the one I was on, the Dalvin Span. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:41

But if anybody I run both, so they respond that way either way. Either way. Gotcha. I'm getting it. Okay. Facebook, uh-huh, isms are dalvinspan. And I have a website, dalvinspan.com. Exactly. We have isms of art.com. I'm gonna do a much on Dalvin Span like I should, but I gotta update it now. Okay. And probably put my current thing. So that's that's kind of where I'm at. You can find me there. You probably can hit me more on um Instagram. Just by Facebook, same thing with so I get on there, it's like two hours later, dangerous. I put check out a website and do some work. So I go on there and go off. Get off of it. So I don't want to spawn on Facebook. That's like personal. Okay. I try to stay off of it.

SPEAKER_02 49:25

Yeah. So yeah. I don't blame you. I get up there, I get stuck looking at cat videos, and I send a bunch of stuff to my cat videos and it's a puppet. There's a puppet that acts like a little kid, and the grandmama be talking, yelling at him. I send those knees off and say, Where are you getting this stuff from? I need to stop.

SPEAKER_04 49:40

Yeah, and it gets caught in your feet. Yes. And that's a cartoon frog and doing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:47

So I know what you mean. Yeah. Yeah. I tell my wife, I've been looking at some boring stuff. She be like, all your stuff is so boring. This is cats and cartoons. I got the I got the nicest feet. That's where I live. So I mean I just let her run through my phone because this is all kinds of stuff kids are like. How can people find you? What do you have going on? And I know y'all have an event today, so we're gonna hurry up and get out of your way.

SPEAKER_03 50:05

Yeah, well, that's at four, but at the same time. Our projects have been ongoing.

SPEAKER_00 50:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:13

Perhaps I would say last 20 years. And now we're developing more of the office suites. Yeah. Um and what I find there is that we have the opportunity to give a lot of young people opportunities when they're first out of school and what they go through. And especially in the salon industry, and it basically is property management. We uh this time we have 63 suites that uh that we lease and basically to uh young entrepreneurs is who we uh give an opportunity. It doesn't cost them much money to start up their business, it's basically uh small down payment. Yeah, and then they are going to name their own business and they go down to the county and get a business license. Exactly. They're already in business. So we try to influence and try to help they'll gain young people to start their own businesses and we're working on a project on Main Street now where we're revising uh one of the well one of our first um buildings that we purchased back in '96. And it's like in a historic area. So the workers of it, the construction and everything is going on in there. So we started last week at a point where we could show the suit and the painting, that part of it had pretty much been done. So we were able to show and we had an interesting candidate that came in and she looked at the whole building and she said that she may have been interested in the whole building. It was like it's a lot of square footage.

SPEAKER_02 52:17

Why? What's you gonna put in there?

SPEAKER_03 52:19

Yeah, that was my mind as well. But the answer was she wanted to put her business in there and she wanted to live there as well. Oh wow. So that was a little far far reach from what we had been done in at Rose Commercial Property. So I will continue, God blessed, to you know, move forward on projects such as that. And that there again, like I said, that in the future we can help young people to get off on a good start.

SPEAKER_02 52:59

If they are interested in those properties, a rental, or at least, could you explain how they could get in contact with that?

SPEAKER_03 53:06

Yeah, sure. Either my wife, Judy, or myself. Judy at 803-665-5262, and my Nathan Ether, 803-665-52.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

Awesome. Awesome. I think that's important because like you said, a lot of folks come out. School don't know where to go, where to start for business. And I know that's one of the talks we've always had with you, man. And I'm telling you, man, you all are phenomenal. I know we talked about this at our podcast event that we did at the library, and you know, your wife was out there and she was giving us the most promotion. We appreciate it. She's awesome. Oh, she's so awesome. But we were telling folks that uh a lot of uh young folks, specifically millennials, we don't feel like we have a proper connection with our elders, which we should have. We should have, right? And so we don't get a lot of the training and the two the tools that we need to move forward in what we need to do. So when we have folks out in the community who are doing the work like you all are doing, you must be applauded for it. And we want to make sure that you get your flowers. Yeah, so awesome. And we appreciate y'all for that. But I know we do want to wrap up this episode. We want to thank you all for being our guest on this Father's Day episode, this special episode. And we will make sure that it's out for the weekend on Father's Day so everybody can listen to it and hear you all's experiences just with being fathers as entrepreneurs and et cetera. Of course, my name, I'm DJ and What? I'm here with my brother, Skip. You got Skip on it. And of course, our In the background, we have Tamaya and our esteemed guest. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Also in the back, we have Savannah in the back. She's been walking around, got a little chit. She got a little something she wants to eat right now. You want to say something, Savannah? Want to say something, Savannah? You want to talk, Savannah? Oh, I shouldn't want to talk to the first time. This is the first time, right? And then, of course, our esteemed guest, Mr. Nathan Edrit Etheridge and Mr. Dallin Span. Thank you. We appreciate you all today. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to sit with us. And this is another episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Uh, make sure that you tell somebody next to you that you love them, that you appreciate and cherish them. And until the next episode, peace. Peace.