We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Deante Howard a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Deante, thanks for joining us today. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.
Yes I do. I rotate causes, mainly between local non for profits that I see can have a positive impact in my greater community but also to some larger organizations and non local organizations as well. A few organizations that I really like are; Dads Against Crime (D.A.C) they are an organization that focuses on help fathers who have lost children to violent crimes or have children who are survivors of violent crimes. They pay for therapy, they help with lawyers, they help the disenfranchised find stable work. Their general ideology is if the men in the community can be helped and treated properly then the communities are in a better position to be uplifted. The founder put it like this… if a man, woman and child were tied to a train track and there was a train coming; society teaches us look after the woman and child 1st. There is nothing bad about that, however, you will likely only have the ability, time, resources, energy, to save 2…leaving 1, the man to perish. However, if you save the man first, he can then help you and save the woman while you save the child. In the same way if we help man to be leaders, protectors, providers, builders, encouragers then that gets fed into the community to uplift everyone…also, unfortunately most violent crimes are committed by men…if we have something to guide those men properly and stay out of the street, therapy to learn to be vulnerable and how to properly understand and express emotions, then the violent crime numbers can be reduced and we can see more unity. Can’t spell community with out unity. This is a way that I can give back to my community and effect a positive change around things that I care about. For example, one donation I made was enough for 10 homeless people to be able to clean themselves at a mobile cleaning unite and provide them with a care package. That’s positive impact. Another donation was able to pay for 20 therapy sessions for survivors of traumatic events. That’s positive impact. To be able to do that from following my passion and doing something I love, my art..,that is amazing! I found my gift, I honed it, I share it with others and it allows me to give back. Winning life right there.
Deante, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am an artist and a designer. I have always loved sports and art in its many different facets. As a child , I grew up in a neighborhood that wasn’t the safest. So much so that gunshots and sirens were a common sound. Sufficient to say I felt anxiety from the dangers around me, I felt uncertain of a future with me in it and due to a lack of positive role models ( my dad was a present and active role model, but he was also in the same boat) to look up to that were able to make it out of the hood, I felt trapped. There were no sports teams outside my school in my area and the ones further out were too expensive for a single father of 4. I had a surgery on my neck at about 14 due to an illness eating away at my spinal disc, which stopped me from passing a physical my freshman year of high school, so I wrote off sports at school as being an option moving forward. I turned to art as my escape. Art allowed me to dream, to create something that didn’t exist, to reimagine something that did exist, to capture and express intangibles. Art became my voice, the way I could share how I view things when words couldn’t adequately describe, a way for me to display emotions, vibes, energy. I decided to combine my love of sports and art because athletes became that role model for me. I saw people that looked like me that came from places like I grew up, that not only made it out but changed their family legacy forever moving forward. Most importantly they did it through passion, hard work, determination and dedication…those are things everyone can possess. They are proof that I didn’t have to be trapped, that with hustle any dream can become a reality. They are evidence that, as long as I don’t give up I can accomplish anything I set out to do. That hope, that encouragement and inspiration, with all the darkness we have to combat in this world, I believe everyone should have that kind of light to hold on too. That is why I make the art I make today.
Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
I love what NFTs can be! I think the hype around them sucks away at the potential because it causes a craze and uproar with little to no information. That, in turn, causes confusion and people fear what they don’t know. That fear causes a mistrust which makes it hard for NFTs to live up to their potential. I actually have an NFT collection for my art cards and I wrote a simplified explanation in an attempt to educate those who care to know more. Check it out here: https://deecor.bigcartel.com/wtf-is-an-nft
The cliff note version is; NFT stands for non fungible token. Non fungible, means uniquely identifiable and it can’t be duplicated. A token is an item that represents something else, typical it is something that can be exchange for the thing it represents. In the case of NFTs, they are unique digital items that represent something of value. That value is know as utility and it is what makes an NFT worth something. The utility can be something as simple as a free bag of your choice of Lays potato chips from Wal-Mart to something like backstage access to any Taylor Swift concert you buy tickets for until 2028.
The problem with the hype is, there are a ton, with no utility but people are “pumping and dumping”. They user influencers to make something go viral or have a huge network and shill the NFT (shill means to buy it and sell it amoungst themselves – because transaction history can be seen so if me and 5 friends all buy from each other at higher prices you see 5 transactions where value increase and we can just give money back to each other) to pump up the price and make people think the collection is active and of value then sell it to people who buy into the hype… those people are left with an NFT that is really nothing more than a digital image… No utility, no true value.
With any new technology, there will always be people who will exploit it for their own selfish gain. NFTs are no different. Once we can get passed that and educate enough people to not fall for the okey doke, NFTs can be really powerful innovative tools for people to interact with their favorite brands and creatives. Like image a meta space with stars like Snopp and Dr.Dre and Ice Cube and they are just chilling and conversing with their fan base and do impromptu concerts and freestyles… but to access this space you have to hold a certain limited edition NFT. That kind of usage is exciting.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Social Media. Specifically Facebook. This day in age it is awesome for anyone who wants to be in the creative field because of technology. You have unprecedented access to potential clients ALL OVER THE WORLD….FROM YOUR FINGERTIPS. Not only can you access an audience that lives just about anywhere in the world, but you can be just about anywhere in the world. So I, in Kansas City can reach high fashion minded clients in New York and California and even Tokyo, without leaving my bed room. Or, even if I am in Mexico like I was for 6 months last year, I can both stay connect with my clientele from Kansas City as well as make connections with new clients. It’s wild to think about. I remember as a child, all the hoops I believed I would have to jump through to have a nationwide, let alone a global audience. Hoops which, thanks to the internet, have been mostly eliminated.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.deecor.design
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howard.d.artist/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Imajinayshun
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/deante_howard
Image Credits
All photos and mock ups are by me