Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gadrien Williams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gadrien , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

In the words of one of my favorite artist of all time Andre 3000, “you can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather.” Back in November of last year I was halfway finished editing my movie, “You Got It” a lot of hard work, money and sleepless nights went into the making of this movie. I knew stepping into this project was a big task, many people told me to give up, many people couldn’t understand my drive and focus so they counted me out. Yet still through all the negativity we continued, I never expected to lose my computer and hard drive. I literally fell into a depression I’m already over budget, my relationship was destroyed and now I have no planned release date for my movie. My investors, my actors and actresses everyone looking at me with they hands up, not realizing the enormous amount of stress and humiliation I felt. The thing about stress and depression is you don’t know it right off back it’s just a constant sinking feeling. After months of looking for solution’s “money” i realized that I had no need to be stressed and that sometimes shit don’t go as planned but you got to stay the course and that’s what I’m doing currently. Now we have resources to finish our product and I’m just as excited as the first day we shot the film.

Gadrien , 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?

My name is Gadrien Williams most people know me as Manny. I am the owner and lead operator of Ghetto Global Productions and Ghetto Global Media. I’m also the head editor at PGF Media. I write, direct, produce, edit and organize. I started this company A little over 12 years ago with my friend Craig Newton starting off we produced and made plenty of beats, I even gave 808 Mafia Southside his first fruity loops. Taught myself how to engineer and began putting people inside the studio, names like Myko Montana, Derek Deshon, Studio Killah and many more.What I feel makes my brand different is because I truly care about my craft and the craft of the artist. I literally Love what I do. And I love my people!

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

So me and Craig lived in the same neighborhood at one point when I was in high school. We both were very passionate about basketball, being that I was the new kid at school I wasn’t really trying to make new friends honestly. After I didn’t pursue my hoop dreams anymore I found myself lost in music, I loved everything from the beats to the story telling, I knew that I had a voice and I wanted it to be heard. I remember watching a Wu-Tang documentary and hearing The Rza talk about Fruity Loops, I had to have it. The icing on the cake was finding out that one of my favorite producers at that time “Juicy J” made all his beats off of Fruity Loops, after that I was relentless in getting the program for myself. A friend of mines named Josh was making cds, and dvds back then so I asked him if he heard of Fruity Loops, to my amazement he actually had copies for sell, I bought it and brought it to Craig and told him this was our future, I never knew I’d stop rapping and making beats and pick up a camera, all those choices back then led us to where we are now as a company. And still I strive.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

So after I did my time in prison the world had totally changed. I came home with a plan and a goal. I washed dishes, worked warehouse jobs, I even delivered sheet rock for a little second. I knew working for someone else wasn’t going to help me provide for my then 2 kids like I wanted, I still had the name Ghetto Global and I wanted the streets of Atlanta to know that we was here. So I grinder relentlessly, I refused the 9-5 lifestyle and got into this 247 grind. A lot of sleepless nights and bad deals but I wouldn’t trade none of that for anything in the world, the struggled shaped me in ways I didn’t know that I was even built for, I’m grateful for that but the struggle ain’t quite over with yet, but it’s motivating.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Ghettoglobalproductions
• Facebook: Ghettoglobalproductions
• Twitter: Iamzone6fresh
• Youtube: Ghetto Global Productions
• Other: Youvotitmovie.com coming soon GhettoGlobal.com coming soon Ghetto Global Records coming soon

Image Credits
All images are credited to Ghetto Global Productions LLC You Got It Movie Coming Soon