We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lloyd Powell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lloyd, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Right now the most meaningful project to me is my Youtube show and podcast called Pie Tales. This is a platform for creatives, entrepreneurs, and anyone with a story to share their experiences with the world. The idea came to me after graduating college. I was able to reconnect with my hometown friends, many I’ve known since childhood. Each had a unique prospective shaped from years of introspection and experience. Some had businesses. Many were pursuing careers that they were passionate about. Others were still figuring life out. I thought, “why not create a space for my friends to share their experience?!” So I did.

This project is important to me because the viewer can learn from and relate to my guests. I have had guests in the medical field, agriculture industry, and educators. Guests are able to promote their business to the viewers. This podcast has already allowed guests and viewers to network with one another. Viewers have discovered new people to work with. Viewers are also able to learn about perspectives from people that are different from them. In one case, a teacher was watching and learned more about what her former student went through while in school. Pie Tales is a platform used to shine light on the amazing minds and works of my peers.

Lloyd, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Right now I am in the tech field. I have always worked towards a career in tech my whole life. This means that I spent a lot of time studying math and technology. However, I have always been very artist as well. Over the years, I have simultaneously released projects that have allowed me to be more creative. For instance, I was able to combine tech and art when I released an app on the App Store back in college. My desire to create made me seek every opportunity to do so in my free time.

My show, Pie Tales, is important to me because it allows me to pour all my creativity into one brand. With this one project I am able to do video editing, graphic designing, interior designing, animation, and much more because it is my own creation. I have complete creative freedom and the ability to bring whatever idea I may have to fruition.

I am also a leader. In high school I was in a few leadership clubs in my city. I was the co-founder of the African American culture club in my high school. This show is another example of how I am able to bring people together for a greater purpose. Each guest has at least one quality that I want them to share because I believe other people could learn from it.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think that society can best support artists by sharing the art that they appreciate. Reposts are so important because it exposes to the artists to a new potential fan, supporter, and customer. Artists are going to do their art regardless of any incentive. However, when your art starts to create new opportunities for you, you are able to put more time and attention into your craft. The ecosystem thrives when artists are able to have their work seen by more people.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Non-creatives struggle to understand the amount of time and money that it takes to produce art or content. Nothing is free, not even the time it takes to work. When working with video, you have to think about the camera, the computer, the external hard drives, microphones, and headsets. I am a one man team so I have to be proficient at using all these things. I am also responsible for replacing and upgrading these items. I create my own set so I have to gather props and design a scene that looks aesthetically pleasing. I also provide dessert for my show because that is part of it. Desserts for two people is an additional cost. I don’t expect people to understand all of the behind the scenes things. I actually prefer that the quality of my content be so good that they don’t even know that it is just one person behind the whole production.

Contact Info:

• Website: pietales.com
• Instagram: @pietales
• Facebook: @pietales
• Twitter: @pietales
• Youtube: @pietales
• Other: TikTok: @pietales Apple Podcasts: Pie Tales Spotify: Pie Tales