We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chauncey A. McQueen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chauncey , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

I live life by my own rules. As a young kid growing up I was always told I had to act a certain way, look a certain way, in order to be successful and reach my dreams, and to some extent that is correct. But how you want to do things isn’t disrespectful and harmful to other then do what you want to do. I have tattoos and and dress a certain way, but at the end of the day I can go in a business meeting and command the room just like someone in a suit with no tattoos. We only have one life as far as we know, live it to the fullest!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m 28 years old, originally born and raised in Harlem, NY. From a young age I always knew I wanted to be in entertainment while also being an entrepreneur. I just wasn’t sure at the time to what capacity cause I always wanted to do many things and everyone I would to talk to would say either I had to pick one or the other or I shouldn’t try to focus on too many things so I always felt like I had to find one thing and just stick to that. It wasn’t until I got older and graduated high school and moved to Atlanta that I realized, you don’t have to pick one thing and just stay in that box. I met people who were actors, singers, chefs, teachers, etc.. who did multiple things, and were successful doing so, and that motivated to go after whatever it is I wanna do in life no matter what. I told myself I would probably fail, I might succeed, who knows, i can’t read the future, all I know is while I have time on this earth, I want to spend every possible moment working towards my dreams. Currently I’m an entrepreneur, actor, producer, writer, and podcast host. I have a company called Musk Labs, an all natural bath and body company, I have a podcast called How To Struggle As An Entrepreneur l, I’ve acted in a couple small projects, and I plan to produce my own scripted projects I’ve wrote myself. My main purpose in life is to not only live out my dreams but help other so the same anyway I can, because it’s not easy at all. We grow up always hearing “becoming successful takes hard work, dedication, sacrifice” and all that but you really don’t realize how hard it is until you get going on that journey., especially when your starting from the bottom, and I’m talking overdraft bank accounts, sleepless nights, depression, procrastination, judgment, no support, endless tears. That was even my driving force when creating the whole How To Struggle brand, to allow people to open up and share there journey, the good, bad, and ugly cause it’s important other people on their similar journey hear those things.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to unlearn was, stop thinking that there is only one way to accomplish things and start doing what works for you. We hear motivational speakers, and successful people say certain things all the time and us listeners can sometimes think we have to do things that way, when in reality, we all have to find what works for us as individuals. Everyone is different. Waking up at 5am may work for some, that may not necessarily work for me. So now I’ve learned to take advice and listen to people who are where I I want to be, and just try different methods until I find what works for me.

Any advice for managing a team?

Whenever you are in a leadership position and managing a team it’s highly important that you actually listen to your team, let them know you care, make them feel important, like they matter. A lot of people at times when they become leaders they forget that they may be leading a team but without the team, they wouldn’t be able to accomplish whatever it is they’re trying to get done. A happy team is a great team, appreciate your people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.howtostrugglepod.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/chaunceyamcqueen?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Other: Podcast IG: @_strugglepod

Image Credits
Nathan Pearcy