IAM933- Entrepreneur Educates on Biological and Mental Health

Desanti Carden is a musician and entrepreneur based in Houston, Texas. She founded “Tough Luck” the media company and posts regularly on her self-titled Youtube channel. Her content is focused on solo-preneurship and human optimization to educate her audience on the importance of being aware of one's biological and mental health and how it impacts executing on their dreams.

• CEO Hack: Simplified systems and writing everything down
• CEO Nugget: Focus on one thing
• CEO Defined: Being the example you want to be for people

Website: http://desanti.biz/

Instagram: instagram.com/desanticarden

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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[00:00:17.50] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:47.20] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Desanti Carden of Tough Luck. Desanti, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:55.70] – Desanti Carden

Hi. I'm so happy to be here. As I was saying, I'm very impressed with how you've streamlined podcasting. It was so smooth.

[00:01:03.20] – Gresham Harkless

Definitely. Well, no. I appreciate you, for for spending some time out. Always enjoy hearing compliments, so we'll have to have you back on because I love hearing, you know, great things about this. And what I wanted to do is just read some of the great things that you're doing as well too. DeSanti is a musician and entrepreneur based in Houston, Texas. She founded Tough Luck, the media company, and posts regularly on her self-titled YouTube channel. Her content is focused on solopreneurship and human optimization to educate her audience on the importance of being aware of one's biological and mental health and how it impacts executing on their dreams. Desansi, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:38.70] – Desanti Carden

Yes. Definitely. Hi, everyone.

[00:01:41.09] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kinda kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about how you got started. Could you take us through your CEO story so that you get started with your business?

[00:01:50.40] – Desanti Carden

Yes. So I've been, I guess, starting little businesses here and there since I was in high school. I pretty much was raised kind of hands-off, so nobody ever told me that I couldn't do something. And so I decided I wanted to be a graphic designer. So I had no idea how to use Photoshop or any programs like that, but I drew something up I took a picture of it scanned it, and traced it on another editing program, and then I created t-shirts. And then I started selling the T-shirts. And then from there, I went into, I guess, a T-shirt manufacturing career, and then I also vendors at different events. And, I got my biggest event was Van's Warped Tour. I don't know if you've ever heard of them.

Mhmm. They're not touring anymore, but, yeah, that was a pretty big deal for my merch brand. And then after I got my dream job in the t-shirt industry working for a print-on-demand shop, I ended up being a manager there. And I was very young, and I realized I didn't wanna be working for another company, even though I was doing what, you know, what was the end goal for t-shirt manufacturing or anything like that.

So then I decided to quit. And during all of that, I had other streams of income such as I was dog sitting, and then I was also doing affiliate marketing. And with the t-shirt brand, I was also growing my Instagram and social media along the way. And so I was like, I could just do this full time. And so at that time, I decided to quit my job and pursue all the other little things that I was doing.

Eventually, social media was the one that stuck, and, of course, personal branding is huge right now. And that's the one that I stuck to. Then I created my podcast, Tough Luck, which is now my media company. And we interview people just like this and entrepreneurs and creatives that inspire me because I'm still very young and I'm still learning as I go. So I love talking to others who are doing the same or have done the same. Yeah.

[00:03:56.09] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's huge. I love to kinda hear about the journey. I think so many times when we see people or we hear somebody on a podcast, we think that they just woke up yesterday and then they decided to start doing things, but there's, you know, a process that goes with that. And I and it sounds like Greg went wrong. A lot of those things and probably skills, whether it be graphic design and all the things you know you've been doing, probably overlap with some of the skills and things that you're you're doing now.

[00:04:18.69] – Desanti Carden

Yes. Definitely. Also, being a manager for another company now teaches me has taught me to be a manager for myself, and then I have a VA, and I know how to streamline things and how to write processes and make sure that everything is running how it should run because I have that experience. So everything builds up to what it is now.

[00:04:38.69] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Media company. Could you take us through a little bit more on, what you're doing, how you're serving clients, and what exactly we can listen to and find

[00:04:51.39] – Desanti Carden

there? Yes. So right now, I'm creating content. I started a series about making money online, and I'm going through all of the streams of income that I have experienced over the past couple of years or several years. So for example, the first video in this series was my four streams of income while I was in high school. And then one that I just released yesterday was my six streams of income when I first quit my job. And so right now, it's educational. So right now, we're teaching other people, how to do the same thing that I did, but then also with a focus on health and nutrition, which is the human optimization part because I'm very big on how health impacts your performance.

[00:05:34.19] – Gresham Harkless

Mhmm. Yeah. Appreciate that. And, you know, when I was reading that bio, I I felt like it was very, very timely, especially now because I think so many times we're not checking in with ourselves, making sure our cup is full. We sometimes realize that that impacts us, from our health and our mental standpoint, but it also affects our ability to be able to reach our goals because if we don't take care of ourselves, then it's hard to be able to reach and take care of those goals.

[00:05:58.89] – Desanti Carden

Yes. Definitely. And so the name tough luck derives from the quotes, the world owes you nothing. It was here first by Mark Twain. And so means that life is kind of like, well, tough luck. You have to do things on your own and figure it out. And a lot of my content is on teaching people how to have that mindset and also tangible things, like step-by-step things on how to do this or different, streams of income and or side hustle ideas so they can also own their life.

[00:06:31.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I don't know. You know, correct me if I'm wrong. It kinda sounds like you talked about in your story and the way you got started with everything and how you weren't necessarily told, you know, how to do this in this way. It sounds like that's something that you're helping to empower others with that ability to be able to figure out exactly how they wanna do what they wanna do, and, of course, you know, learn as much as possible from you and all the awesome content that you're creating, but just, I guess, tap into that mindset of you don't have to necessarily go this way because everybody else has gone this way and you've taught yourself to do this way.

[00:07:02.39] – Desanti Carden

Yes. Exactly. Everyone right now, especially as adults, has so many limiting beliefs that they were raised a certain way or told that they had to follow a certain system or go to college and that just clouds all of their dreams and aspirations. And I was blessed to not really, and I had to turn my narrative around because at first, I was like, oh my god. My childhood was so bad. Like, I have all you know? But I had to switch that around and be like, if it wasn't for that, I would not have had such drive to make something out of myself. And so now I wanna teach others that they can do anything that that they set their mind to no matter how many resources they think they don't have.

[00:07:44.10] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And it's when you start to tap into that creativity. And I remember hearing somebody say, you know, you don't need to increase your resources. You need to increase your resourcefulness and be able to kinda tap into your ability to be able to find a way. And as you said, kinda flip that switch or maybe even take a different perspective and understand the things that we think are limiting us are sometimes empowering us and giving us that ability to be even bigger and better than what we thought we could be.

[00:08:09.19] – Desanti Carden

Yes. Definitely. Reframing, I guess, looking inward and then approaching it a different way.

[00:08:17.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And so, I want to ask you, and you might have already touched on this for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself, your business, or a combination of both, but what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:08:29.19] – Desanti Carden

I would say what we just spoke about, is my resourcefulness. I feel like every single business that I've started, I have had little to nobody starting it. All I had was the Internet and my brain, and I feel like because also I've lost so much with so many failed businesses in the past years now I don't have that to scare me. So anything that I look at, I'm not really like, oh, where is it gonna go? Because I know what I'm capable of, and I've already lost so much that it doesn't hurt me anymore. Yeah.

[00:09:01.20] – Gresham Harkless

That's extremely powerful. It's so funny that you say that because I almost believe that I've learned more from the mistakes that I made. And I think the biggest thing that sometimes you kinda learn is that it's never as bad as you think it's going to be. And I think sometimes when I fail at things, you think the world's gonna end, and I'm never gonna be able to start again. But sometimes when you come out of those things and you know, maybe things don't go the way you want them to go, but you get those lessons and all that information on how to do things better, you realize that taking a chance, going for things, trying things is not the bad thing. It's a gift in and of itself.

[00:09:34.79] – Desanti Carden

Yeah. Yeah. I've learned a lot, especially since my rough upbringing. I've gone hungry. I've slept in my car. And so going through all of that has made me fearless in all these different approaches. And also kind of not being scared to look a certain way in front of people, and you have to stop caring about what others think of you and kind of laugh. You know, because everything that offends you or, like, everything that other people perceive of you is just from an insecurity. And so whenever you can laugh at yourself and love yourself, which it all stems from, then it's just a lot easier to try new things because you won't care.

[00:10:13.70] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. I truly believe that's power and gold to be able to laugh at yourself because I think so many times we're making decisions and doing things based on external things rather than, you know, being okay with ourselves, having that power, having that self-appreciation, for each for ourselves. And so, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:10:40.60] – Desanti Carden

Systems. Writing everything down, but simplified systems. So for example, whenever I go through what I need to do in the day, I write everything down. And then the first thing I do is figure out what I can cross off that doesn't need to be done right then. So I've actually been following the concept of minimum minimalism for the past two years, and it has completely changed how I work, and everything building a process for everything, even eating and sleeping and habits, simplifying everything and systemizing it to where whenever you're having a bad mental day, you fall back on the system. And then, you know, it's just better that way. It gives you that to fall back on as opposed to leading with emotion. You just have that to guide you.

[00:11:29.10] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that's huge, and I love, you know, that minimalistic approach especially too, because I think so many times we think about it, about having less stuff, but it translates into so many different aspects of our life and our business. And I think when you can, you know, drill down and understand the steps by which you're taking to get to a goal, it also allows you to kinda look at those steps because so many times we don't realize that we've adopted habits, and we don't sometimes even know where we got them from. But to look down and look at those processes and all those things to understand, like, is this getting me to where I wanna be? I think it gives us, again, more power and more, I guess, quote, unquote control over those things and how we can increase our likelihood of being successful.

[00:12:10.39] – Desanti Carden

Yes. Another thing that changed the way I work was, for about a week, I wrote down everything that I did every thirty minutes or an hour, or I wrote down what I was doing and then a timestamp with it. And then I would reflect on it the day and at the end of the day and see, okay, what is helping me reach my goals and what was unnecessary. And I was very surprised to see how much time I was spending doing certain things that weren't benefiting me.

[00:12:38.89] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And it's so many times we don't realize, you know, we're, sometimes in autopilot or even distracted from those things. And I think one of the things that I think I found some time tracker or something like that, and you realize, like, how much time you're spending on certain things. And when you start to look at that, you can make those tweaks and changes, which is where I think the power comes from to help you get closer to doing the things that can help you reach whatever those goals might be.

[00:13:01.70] – Desanti Carden

Yes. Definitely.

[00:13:03.79] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

[00:13:16.29] – Desanti Carden

I would tell myself and I tell other people and myself because I'm very spread out and I have, like, twenty things going on at once, and I just wanna be working on the next project. But something I'm pledging to this year for myself is to focus on one thing. And there's a book called One Thing. I forgot who it was by, but I bought it. Yeah. You are about to read that. Someone recommended it to me. But because I'm so, like, at this point in my career, I'm like, that's it. I need to focus on one thing because I'm not growing at the rate that I want to. And it's probably because I'm, like, focused on music and then on the podcast and then YouTube and all these different things. And so this year is just going to be for tough luck, and that's it. And that's what I'm telling other people that are starting social media, and, I talk to a lot of people that wanna be content creators as well, and I'm

[00:14:08.50] – Gresham Harkless

Appreciate that, and I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So, D'Sante, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:14:20.00] – Desanti Carden

Being a CEO is being the example that you want to be for people, I think. Like, whenever you visualize the person you want to be, I think that it's that, but knowing that you want other people to look up to that leadership figure.

[00:14:38.89] – Gresham Harkless

Nice.

[00:14:39.50] – Desanti Carden

Like, when I think of myself as a CEO, I think of who's the person that I wanna be and who's the person that I want to be. A good example for my peers.

[00:14:48.60] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Yeah. I think Matthew McConaughey has this. I think he won an Oscar or something like that. He has a speech where he talks about his hero himself five years from now. And if he knows that he's going to become that person, he has to start acting like that person.

So he starts to take those actions towards doing that. And then, you know, in five years, you ask him, like, who's his, his his hero? Did he reach that hero's level status? And, no, he didn't because he has another five minutes of that person. Exactly. So when you start to tap into that, you get more present in terms of the process, you get more present in terms of all the awesome things that you're doing, but you're also setting that standard, setting that example for so many people that are looking, at you and mentioning you potentially in the podcast. So, appreciate that definition. I wanted to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best people can get ahold of you.

[00:15:41.70] – Desanti Carden

Follow me and message me on Instagram. I love talking to people on Instagram. Or YouTube. YouTube has a lot of good content, that everyone that's an aspiring entrepreneur could learn a lot from, especially the young ones. My audience is mostly, like, early twenties and younger, I would say. And so, yeah.

[00:16:05.10] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Younger.

[00:16:06.60] – Desanti Carden

Follow me on YouTube.

[00:16:07.00] – Gresham Harkless

Your handle?

[00:16:08.20] – Desanti Carden

My handle is at Dessanti Carden.

[00:16:10.79] – Gresham Harkless

Okay. Awesome. First and last name. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Well, we'll have those links and information in the show notes as well too, but appreciate you, Desanti, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:20.39] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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