Mike Messier

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back everyone to the Tron podcast. This is your host, Rashad Woods. I have a very special guest today, multi talented artist, filmmaker and all around entertainment guru, Mr. Mike Messier. Thank you so much. You also have your own film festival as well. Can't forget to do about that as well as doing art. Thank you for being on the show, sir. [00:00:19] Speaker B: Shot. And it's great to meet you and talk with you. I'm here in Jacksonville, Florida. I know you're in Detroit, which. [00:00:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:25] Speaker B: When I was a kid, my dad and my uncle took me and my cousin AJ to see the Tigers versus Toronto Blue Jays in Detroit. [00:00:33] Speaker A: Nice. Nice. [00:00:34] Speaker B: Yeah, so that was. And they, they have a big rivalry from what I understand. So. [00:00:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I'm not much of a baseball guy, but that sure is a big rivalry too. But you would. You went to the old stadium too. They have a really nice or new park that they put up in the last about 20 years ago. So you went to the old Tiger Stadium. So it's good you're familiar. I haven't been to Jacksonville. I've been to Florida, but not Jackson. [00:00:53] Speaker B: Yeah, Jacksonville is. I like Jacksonville. You know, I've been here for about six years now and I came here right before the pandemic and I enjoy the city of Jacksonville. [00:01:02] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, Florida's a beautiful state too. So I have to ask some questions, man. You have such a fascinating arc that you, that you deviated to. In addition to being in filmmaking, you won numerous awards. You're an author as well too. So how did you segue into entertainment? What, like, got your bug and decided this is what I want to do for a living? [00:01:19] Speaker B: That's a good question. I think it's just a lack of being able to do anything else, to be honest with you. And I mean, I have a joke from one of my stage plays that I was a creative writing concentration in college, so I'm qualified to be unemployed. So, I mean, I tried the day job thing and I just wasn't good at it. I mean, I sold subscriptions to theater plays and that was a thing that, you know, a lot of times, and I'm not trying to be braggadocious, but I'd be selling subscriptions to theater plays and feeling that I was a better actor or just as good as an actor. [00:01:57] Speaker A: Right. [00:01:57] Speaker B: As some of the people on the stage. And at times I felt that some of the stage plays I was writing were just as good in a different way than some of the shows on stage. And. And that's the thing that's kind of common. You know, a lot of people talk about, hey, they were in a movie theater and they saw a movie, and they're like, hey, I got a story that's better than this. Or someone's in a bookstore and they're seeing literally millions of books in a bookstore, and they're thinking, I could write something better than this. And, you know, it's. It's an interesting world, Rashad, because nowadays people, I think, are more encouraged than ever to be creative and pursue their goals. But 10, 20 years ago, and probably even more 50 years ago, it was such an exclusive party of creativity, people that were encouraged to actually pursue art for a living. And now it's opened up, the plug gates are opened up. [00:02:44] Speaker A: I think the Internet kind of democratized a lot of things. Right. Because oftentimes it was like, if you didn't have any formal training in. In that particular field, or if you weren't, if that wasn't in the bloodline, so to speak, and I'm talking kind of just generally speaking, then it wasn't something that people would say, this is what I'm going to do for a living. Because it was what you saw on screen you didn't see in your own backyard, so to speak. Right. [00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah. And even, I mean, if you think about it, you know, I always, for whatever reason, I think about the Barrymore family, you know, people. I mean, Drew Barrymore is very talented, but she's third or fourth generation at this point, and that's all she knows. Right. So. And it's. It's odd that even now, I mean, our. Our society still encourages people with certain last names to pursue things. If you're a Kardashian or whatever, you're more encouraged to share your exploits than if you're not. But like you said, democratize is kind of what leads us, you know, that I'm able to. And people can criticize things like Amazon, but with Amazon, I'm able to publish my. [00:03:44] Speaker A: Exactly. Listen, you know, and what this is, and what I found interesting about you is how many. You do a lot of short films. So, like, how did. What appeals to you? Like, I have to have so many questions about that. Like, first of all, like, who do you get? How is. How is it funded? Right. Because even making a short film is still an expensive process. [00:04:02] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, exponentially. A short film, from my way of doing things, is a lot less in, a lot less expensive, a lot more inexpensive than a feature. Not just based on, say, if it cost me $1,000 to make a short film with a two day shoot it, that same type of setup would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for a feature. The reason why it expands so much is because if you're using actors that are, you know, people that you know or you're friendly with or even if I've auditioned people cold and become friendly with them once I've cast them, but you can get two days out of people for either no cost or little cost. But if you're trying to get three weeks out of somebody or a month. [00:04:48] Speaker A: That'S a different story. [00:04:49] Speaker B: That's a different story. And I, I pulled that off once to make a picture. But I think, I think, I mean with that process, Blood Sugar Sedase know, the reality is, buddy, I, I had a settlement from a car accident. I mean that, that film was fueled by blood money, my blood, you know what I mean? Like, so I mean I, I, that's deep. Yeah. And, and I mean I, I, I had a moment when I was in the backseat of a car after getting hit by a drunk driver that I basically had this little epiphany. Well, I guess I'm making a movie. And, and that's exactly what happened, you know, and, and it took me, I started casting and rehearsing with the actors before the settlement came through. But I was, wow, I was determined to make a movie. And the thing is, Rashad, I had, you know, two other screenplays that I really wanted to make at that time. Wrestling with Sanity and Chris and the Coffee Girl. But because I knew on a practical sense those movies were out of budget for 10 or 12 grand. [00:05:48] Speaker A: Right. [00:05:48] Speaker B: I wrote the movie script, Blood Sugar Sedase knowing that I had about 10 or 12 grand coming to me. [00:05:54] Speaker A: And what got you? [00:05:55] Speaker B: What type of movie can I make with a very small budget? So. [00:05:58] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:05:59] Speaker B: And that, that happened, you know, but as far as why making short films, I think, I think another good, a good thing about short films. And I do run a film festival. In fact now I run three film festivals now. [00:06:10] Speaker A: One of them is called Avalonia, right? [00:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah, that was the first one. So that's on its 10th season already. So that's Avalonia Short Festival, Avalonia Festival of Short Films etc. Because we do have categories for film posters and trailers and previews and stuff. And then I added in the last year all comedy Short Film fest and all horror Short film festival. And I mean even the process of learning, like, okay, I did the first film festival and it has a name that means a lot to me. Most, most people don't know what Avalonia is and what that is. It's a, it's a piece of land that drifted. [00:06:47] Speaker A: Saw that. [00:06:47] Speaker B: The ocean. Yeah. So with all short film, I'm sorry, with all comedy and all horror, those were very more specific and, and they were more tangible for people. So even running one film festival kind of brought me to the point of eight or nine years later, okay, now I know how to run a film festival more efficiently and I can run other film festivals. [00:07:10] Speaker A: Right. And so, you know, so I love the, I love the title of one of your books. It says fight or play Basketball. Every shot counts. I thought that was. Yeah, yeah, right there. Like, can you go into that book for us real quick? I'd love to know more about what that book and its contents. [00:07:22] Speaker B: Yes. So this novel, it, it is pretty solid, I think, and it's basically, you would call it a young adult coming of age. The lead character has just turned 18 a week before we meet him, Jack Scratch. He's a high school basketball star in North Providence, Rhode island, which is not known for big time basketball playing. And basically Jack has been working very hard to get a college scholarship. And along the way, his single mother gets attacked by a couple of mug. By a mugger. And she is saved by a couple of guys coming out of a boxing gym, which are Sweet Sugar Brown, who's kind of like George Foreman on a bad day. And, and so, so Sweet's a great character. Sweet is a guy that runs a boxing gym. And in the 1970s, he was kind of robbed of his world heavyweight championship run as a boxer himself. So he's got a bit of a chip on his shoulder. [00:08:14] Speaker A: Right. [00:08:15] Speaker B: And. And we discover that Sweet also might be suffering from cte, you know, from concussions. And there's another boxer who's about 28 years old named Punch Pangora, who is coming in from Slovenia looking to become a great boxer himself. Well, basically, these two gentlemen, Punch and Sweet, save Janet from. From a mugger and she, she befriends them and she introduces them to her son. The son, who's a basketball star, becomes intrigued with boxing because two things. These guys seem to have an interest in his single mother. So being the good son that he is, he's got to make sure that these guys are legit. [00:08:54] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:08:55] Speaker B: And then the second thing is he's intrigued by the singular sport, the fight for yourself instead of correct. And so what we learn. And there's also another male figure in this story, which is coach Rick Steele. Quick, Rick Steele is Jack's Basketball coach, who, of course, wants nothing to do with boxing. He wants Jack. Because when Jack punches people, his hands get affected, which affects his basketball shot for sure. So the story becomes kind of a tug of war for Jack's future. And. [00:09:26] Speaker A: Nice. [00:09:27] Speaker B: The coach has his thing where he wants Jack to help the coach get him possibly a job as a college basketball coach. So there's all these different things going on. [00:09:38] Speaker A: Everybody's needs pulling it all at once. [00:09:41] Speaker B: Correct. And I think it's a good story, you know, And I spent basically. Where did the story come from? I wrote it first as a screenplay. [00:09:49] Speaker A: Nice. [00:09:50] Speaker B: I wrote the first five or six pages with the. With the working title of Rocky 7. [00:09:55] Speaker A: Okay. [00:09:56] Speaker B: This is before the Creed movies came out. And just as a lark, I was like, hey, I'm gonna write a Rocky sequel. And I actually started writing five or seven pages of it. And then I picked up the phone and I called Stallone's management and I said, hey. I said, hey, I'm just a. You know, our screenwriter. And I just happened to start writing what I think would be a really good sequel for a Rocky movie. Would. Would Stallone actually. Sylvester or Mr. Stallone, would he actually read this if I were to finish this? And they actually returned the call, Rashad. Which I was shocked that they even returned. [00:10:28] Speaker A: Wow. [00:10:29] Speaker B: And they were very honest. And they said, well, that's interesting. Do you have any money behind this? And I said, no. And they said, well, you know, to be honest, he probably wouldn't read it unless it had some money behind it. So I was happy to have that conversation because they were so. [00:10:43] Speaker A: That's crazy. [00:10:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And so I started. I basically went back to the first five or seven pages, and I changed Rocky. Rocky to sweet. Like, Rocky became sweet sugar brown. [00:10:52] Speaker A: Nice, nice, nice. [00:10:54] Speaker B: And. And so, you know, I made my own story, basically. And that was as a screenplay. The screenplay actually has won some awards. And then eventually, during the Pandemic, I translated this story and another one. A Distance from Avalon, from screenplays, Novels. Yeah. So that's how we got to this. And then a couple years later, I just recorded the audiobook version of Fighter Play Basketball as well. So. [00:11:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that sounds like. You know, man, that sounds like. It still sounds like a great movie to me, to be quite honest with you. Right. It almost has kind of a Bronx tale feeling to it without, you know, obviously, the. The criminal element involved in it. And that. That sometimes sounds like something I'd be very interested in watching. I hope you get a chance to make that into a movie or A television feature. Sorry about that. Yeah. We lost each other for a second. Yeah, we're good. I was like, you know, that sounds. Still sounds like a great mov. Or a. I'd be interested because it reminds me a lot of the Bronx tale a little bit, in a way. [00:11:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's a good point. And I think, you know, Providence, Rhode island, as a backdrop has been done a few times, but I don't think it's been overdone. And, you know, I. I would be the goal. Rashad is still, you know, for this story. Fighter play basketball. When I think of the mom character, for instance, I used when I first. This is how long these things take, man. When I first started writing this thing, I was thinking of Angela Bassette, you know, from. [00:12:09] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:09] Speaker B: From the Tina Turner movie, what's Love Got to Do. [00:12:12] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:12] Speaker B: You know what I mean? So. [00:12:13] Speaker A: Right, right, right. [00:12:14] Speaker B: Right now, I mean, no, if Angela Beset's great, but she's. I think she's in her 60s or even 70s. [00:12:19] Speaker A: Right. So you had to kind of shift your thought process of. That's how long this has been in your head. [00:12:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So now it's like, okay, Kerry Washington from Scandal or. [00:12:27] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:28] Speaker B: You know, someone. Or Zoe Kravitz or whoever. You know, but the. [00:12:31] Speaker A: A little more modern. Right. Yeah. Which is perfectly understandable based upon, you know, the time frame of when this actually came to paper. Right. So this is who you had in mind. This is how long it took to flesh the characters out, which is amazing. Did you have any formal training at all, by any chance, or did you just, like. It didn't seem like you did, so you just kind of just said, this is what I'm going to do, and this is how I'm going to perfect my craft. [00:12:49] Speaker B: Well, I did take a screenwriting class. You know, I. I graduated from college, from Rhode Island College. I started it in Greensboro, North Carolina, in college. And I did. I did get a creative writing concentration, you know, which, I mean, we could go the whole thing about that. But as far as screenwriting goes, I took a class with a gentleman named Christopher Mensell at the University of Rhode Island. And then I think I took another class. And this was just as an adult education. This was not for credit. You know what I mean? And. [00:13:17] Speaker A: Right. [00:13:18] Speaker B: I read so many screenwriting books over maybe five or six years. You know, there's some. Some famous ones like Save the Cat by Blake Snyder and Robert McKee and Sid Field. And I mean, I would. I would say that I. I did do the education In a sense that I self educated. I mean, I didn't go to a. [00:13:36] Speaker A: Right. [00:13:37] Speaker B: I don't even know if there's an actual college for screenwriting per se. I know that there's film schools, but, you know, I did put some time into the class because I think there's something to be learned from either home study or. Or. And I'll tell you this, I mean, there's things like masterclass.com and there's even YouTube videos where there really is a lot of information out there. The key is you just got to put the time into learning. [00:13:58] Speaker A: You have to put the work in to do it. No doubt. Absolutely right. I mean, that's the crazy part about information now as a whole. Not to deviate too quickly, but I mean, find something reputable, find something you want to pursue and look into and put in the work to learn it. Right. I mean, people can fix household items, you know, on any. On a small level, to a large level, if you're willing to watch that YouTube video, you know, just ultimately it's up to the individual. I did have some questions real quick. Like, you also have like photography, best art and things like that. And so you're also a prolific actor as well too, in a number of different films as well too. And you've worked with a number of large names. How did. And you have number of IMDb credits. That's awesome. So how did you seg. How do you handle all this? Nice. [00:15:01] Speaker B: And as far as the. I mean, there is a little bit of internal struggle, to be honest with you. Because it's like, for instance, I got into painting in the last couple of years and now I find that a lot of times I'd rather be painting than writing, you know. [00:15:16] Speaker A: Right, right. Nice work. Nice work. [00:15:18] Speaker B: Thank you. And I find that the painting. [00:15:21] Speaker A: Nice. Is really cool. Really. [00:15:23] Speaker B: Thank you. I find that. I find. I find that with painting, the good thing is there's a lack of collaboration, like with filmmaking especially. We talked about, you know, that movie Blood Sugar said Ace. I mean, I literally, as the kids say, had $8 in my checking account at one point making that move. You know what I mean? Because. Because any filmmaker who sell funds will tell you it's a good way to go broke pretty quick. [00:15:47] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:15:48] Speaker B: And. But with. With the painting, if I buy some acrylic paints from Amazon or Temu or Michael's or wherever and I buy some canvas boards, I can paint pretty happily and I can even. I've been selling some of these things at vending shows. And stuff and. [00:16:04] Speaker A: Nice, nice. [00:16:04] Speaker B: So I do struggle sometimes, to be honest with you, with. Now that I've learned that the painting has such a quick turnover that it's like, wow, do I really want to sit here for four or five hours in front of a screenplay that. [00:16:16] Speaker A: Right. [00:16:16] Speaker B: That I've already tweaked 30 or 40 times and now I'm tweaking at the 50th time. And I mean, that is a struggle, to be honest with you. [00:16:23] Speaker A: Well, I know David lynch was a prolific painter as well too. So people just. On the paintings that you've done and the work that you did, I'm like, this guy has to be somewhat of an admirer of David lynch. Right? Because it just seems like that artistic, you know, perspective brings out multiple avenues in people. [00:16:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I think he just passed away this like a couple of months. [00:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Really tragic. You know, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Driver, two of my favorite movies of all time. You know, they're really, really well made. They're just incredible. They're just incredible. For people who would want to get into the entertainment field that you have. What is your advice to people? Still there, brother, how you doing? [00:17:00] Speaker B: Apologize. I don't know if these connection issues are on my end or, or not. [00:17:04] Speaker A: But in any event, these software platforms are funny, man. And they all claim to be the best and top notch and unfortunately they can strike you with lightning at the least unexpected time. So if it's me, I apologize. I haven't seen anything on my. And it's not like you can like wire it and make it work in a certain manner. Right. You're kind of stuck behind. But I'll make sure it's edited and cleaned up. But I just wanted to see like, what advice do you have for people who are trying to break into your line of work? You know, whether writing, film festival producing and things of that nature. [00:17:39] Speaker B: It's a good question. I mean, I would probably go back to the thing. Like I said, I think, I think education is always a good thing. And I think that, you know, some. A book that I like is Lawrence G. Bolt, Zen and the Art of Making a Living. And I guess I should promote my own book because I do have one for sure. Art and War of Making Low Budget and Independent Films by Mike Messier is available on Amazon. So I do. [00:18:05] Speaker A: Nice. [00:18:06] Speaker B: Yeah, so I did write a book about my level of experience or trying to at least share what I knew at the time. You know what I mean? I think, I think the biggest thing there's so many things to say, but I think at different stages, for instance, when you're young, when you're a teenager or 20s or you know, whatever one considers to be young, I think it's important to just try everything at the same time. Don't take that to the point of, oh, I'll try being an only fans model. And you know what I mean, like, because I think that's such a temptation now and people could say, you know, well, Mike Messier said try anything. So I tried, you know, this thing with a donkey. [00:18:44] Speaker A: You still have to have a level of self control, you know, just, you know, you know you better than anybody else. So you'll find out what you're willing to tolerate and what you're not willing to tolerate. This is not a slam on me if tell them. I don't tell people what to do. Right, right. But to your point, like, you know what you want to dive into, do your research, but while you have the availability to do it, you know, make sure you make it count. [00:19:06] Speaker B: And I've, I've known people, you know, actresses that have kind of done stuff and then they regret it, you know, and it may not even be because, oh my God, somebody saw it on the Internet, but just they don't feel good about whatever they did. [00:19:18] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:19] Speaker B: And that's not just about R rated or X rated material. That's about, you know, anything, life choices. Right. So I think there's a thing where there's a balance between and trying different projects and working with. And also if you have a feeling that hey, this project's not for me or I'm not going to be proud to show this thing to people, then you don't have to do it. You know, I think that's a lesson that I wish maybe I had learned earlier and share that with other people that if you are in a community like I used to live in Providence, Rhode island that had a film scene, independent film scene, but a lot of times the projects were not that good. People would line up to audition for, you know, what I would call a backyard caro syrup horror movie. Like, okay, we're gonna get in the backyard and throw karo syrup and red color dye on ourselves for a weekend and call it a movie. And people would be so happy to do stuff like that, but then they wouldn't. Yeah, they wouldn't feel good about it afterwards even if the thing got made. So my question is, are, are you so desperate for someone else to put you in front of the camera when we, you and I Both are in front of a camera right now and everybody's got a smartphone. And. Yeah, yeah, I guess the biggest. I mean, the simplest thing I can say is with the power of your smartphone or laptop camera, you can make content on your own now that everybody could, but not everybody does. And it's like, well, why don't they? Well, I mean, I guess they don't want to put the time in or they don't feel empowered that they can either ad lib or write their own material. But we've seen people with seemingly not a lot of natural talent make themselves stars. I think of a guy like Logan Paul, who I don't find him to be terribly interesting, but now he's a top pro wrestler because he's really good at wrestling. But as far as being a YouTube guy, I found him very boring. But he was able to parlay that YouTube exposure into, like, find his niche in the world, which is he's a 220 pound guy who could bounce around the ring and. [00:21:16] Speaker A: Exactly, you know. Exactly. [00:21:18] Speaker B: I guess I just say that, like, people got to find themselves. But define yourself. I never thought of that before, but instead of letting some other local film producer or local whoever define you as an actor or as a talent, define yourself first. [00:21:32] Speaker A: Yeah, that's really good advice. And you know, again, you know, the Internet's helped a lot of people out that normally wouldn't have had an opportunity to do things like that. Now, I saw you won a couple obviously different awards, some from Toronto, some from India as well, too. So as this opportunity that you've opened up for yourself allowed you to go like, places that normally you haven't been. Did you actually go in person for these awards? [00:21:52] Speaker B: The farthest I've really gone is Texas, to be honest. [00:21:55] Speaker A: Okay. [00:21:55] Speaker B: Like, I went the Austin Revolution Film Festival. I went there in 2024. They played my silent film, Disregard it, got nominated for a couple of awards. My buddy Jose Gonzalez got nominated for the best actor. I've gone to Texas, I've gone to other states. I haven't gone to other countries. [00:22:14] Speaker A: A lot of. [00:22:15] Speaker B: A lot of times with film festivals, most 99.99 times, if you get nominated for an award or they select your film, you don't actually have to attend in person. [00:22:25] Speaker A: I did not know that. Okay. I did not know that. [00:22:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So for instance, I run three film festivals now, and they're out of Florida, Jacksonville. But the people that actually show up, the filmmakers that get selected that show up are typically within. You know, I've had people come From South Carolina to Florida, but. [00:22:43] Speaker A: Right. [00:22:43] Speaker B: That's a day's drive. As opposed. I wouldn't, I wouldn't even encourage anyone from Italy or from Japan to come. [00:22:50] Speaker A: Got it. [00:22:51] Speaker B: Not, not just for my festival. If you're coming anyway, by all means. But at some point you have to just be realistic with people. Like, you know, a film festival may be anywhere from five hours to two or three days of networking and handshaking and everybody enjoying each other's company. But can you really, you know, say that that's worth five or six thousand dollars exactly? Okay, probably. [00:23:14] Speaker A: Yeah. I just was curious. [00:23:15] Speaker B: Yeah. But I've got, like I said, I've gone to for the Texas festivals, this guy named Jamie runs a couple of them, him and his wife. And I went to San Angelo Te, basically to see my 40 minute movie that I'd seen 100 times before. [00:23:28] Speaker A: But it's still a support deal that you're there. [00:23:30] Speaker B: Yeah. And what would I have ever gone to San Angelo, Texas, if I hadn't had a film and a festival in San Angelo, Texas? Probably. [00:23:38] Speaker A: Right. [00:23:38] Speaker B: So, you know, I think people just have to kind of weigh that, like, is it worth me going out to this city that I've never been before beyond just the festival? Am I going to see something new that I haven't seen? [00:23:50] Speaker A: Got it. Yeah. I just was curious how those operate, like, you know, the size and scope of it, if it was in person, virtual, etc. So, you know, I would love to continue this conversation with you because I think you have a wonderful story to tell and there's a lot that I didn't get a chance to get into and sometimes we're constrained by time. But your background and your prolific acting work is so, it's so fascinating and I love that, that book and I would love to see, you know, it on Netflix or Amazon or in a major theater, because I think a story like that is so original and people. And it resonates with a lot of people, too. So. Mike Messier, like, I want to keep, I want to keep the dialogue with you, brother. [00:24:25] Speaker B: I'll be happy to come on anytime, Rashad. And I, I really wish you luck with this tro. Believe the reality of nothing. Is that correct? [00:24:33] Speaker A: The randomness, but close. Yeah. It's called the randomness of nothing. Right. Like, so I'm not a filmmaker, I'm not a baker. Right. But I'm a guy that likes to know a lot of stuff. So that's why I created the Randomness of Nothing, so I could talk to people like you. [00:24:45] Speaker B: Well, I think it's great. And I think, man, I think you are a really good presence here, and I'm happy to come on the Randomness of Nothing podcast in the future. My apologies for botching that the first time. [00:24:56] Speaker A: But, dude, this is. This is casual. This is all about normal conversation. And I hope to talk to you a lot more, because, to be honest with you, man, I'd like to pick your head a little bit further. So, best of wishes. I love the work that you do. This is Mike Messier, Rashad Wood, signing off on the Tri Podcast. Much success to you, brother. [00:25:11] Speaker B: Thank you, Rashad. Have a great day. Thanks, everybody. [00:25:14] Speaker A: Of course. [00:25:14] Speaker B: But.