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

Zey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

Our Non Profite Shine Lite Foundation, is built to provide children from single parent households Positive Black Male Role Models. I own a transportation company and I kept encountering women, and sometimes even men struggling to raise their children alone, and struggling to survive. People especially children should not have to struggle in such a wealthy nation, or anywhere for that matter. As a father and husband I felt I had to do something to correct this very common issue. Black men in our society are often portrayed as criminals and menaces to society and some of them actually are, but not all. As a Black man in America I often encounter poor treatment and judgement from other people because of my young age and skin color, as do plenty of other black males, and it hurts to be hated for no reason. So I decided to correct these issues by creating a platform that allows Positive Black Male contributors to society to make a difference in our country and set a new narrative for our kids and misinformed citizens.

Zey, 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’m a music producer in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m originally from Cleveland, Ohio. Although I’m very well connected and experienced in the music business, music for most people is not the glits, glam, and millions of dollars and fans that people think it is. You have to create income streams for yourself or you can’t make it in this business which is why we built our Record label Thri 3 and I own/ manage a transportation company as well. It’s not easy being your own boss. It’s easy to get a job. It’s hard to invest in a vision and build something profitable from nothing. Most people struggle to maintain jobs and businesses making it hard to survive peacefully, which is also why we created our non profit to try and give back to those having a hard time. Especially the kids who suffer in the process. Life is so challenging. You have to have either extremely low standards of living or extremely high drive and discipline to live comfortably.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I’m not proud to say it, but for a short period of time I lived in my Jeep with my pregnant wife, while doing manual labor for $17 an hour to take care of us so that I could be in LA pursuing a music career. I wanted to be in the music business that bad. It’s funny because on the surface you wouldn’t even know what we were going through. I had so many amazing business opportunities on the table during that time but I eventually chose my family over my dream. My pregnant wife sleeping in my jeep was the right way to support my family. With that said, I have no regrets because most people are not strong enough to make the sacrifices and take the hard beatings in life to achieve their goals, and see the truth. Most people are too scared to try anything new or different and fail. Even though I didn’t win that time I saw what I was capable of, and how supportive my wife was.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I gave up on signing with a major in LA, to properly support my family. I went back to my hometown Cleveland. For three years I had to miss out on what I thought was living my dream. I felt like I let everyone down. Instead I chose to support my wife, daughter and grandmother who needed me, and deserved my love and support. If I had to do it again I would do it the same way, but love and support them even harder. Taking care of the people I love is ultimately all I ever wanted to achieve from success in the music business. I got to learn that you can reach your greatest dreams just to realize dreams aren’t everything, dreams are expensive, it’s easy to lose yourself, and often times dreams aren’t worth what you think they are.

Contact Info:

• Website: Thri3.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/zeychalz
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/zeychalz
• Twitter: Twitter.com/zeychalz
• Youtube: YouTube.com/zeychalz

Image Credits
Thri 3