Plate 69 - MGIXXER

Transcript for Episode

MGIXXER

[00:00:00] Trista Polo: Hey there I'm Trista polo. This is Trista'sPL8STORY Podcast, and I am super excited for this week's episode. We're going to meet Imani. She's somebody I met on clubhouse. She's from California. She's a business owner and she has some very cool thoughts on self-love and self-worth. 

[00:00:19] Trista Polo: She even gives us some great advice on leveling up your self-worth with some super easy tips. 

[00:00:26] Trista Polo: We'll start out with her plate story, of course. She got her plate in honor of her dad. So we'll hear about their relationship. And we also are going to talk about the time that she was homeless. How she made it through that, what that experience was like for her. And some of the important things she learned from that process. All throughout Imani's life, no matter what was going on, good or bad, she has never lost track of her own worth. And that is what I love most about her. She puts that into her clothing line, her business, and her relationships. And i know you're going to love getting to know her.

But first in plate story news, the state of Maine currently known for their anything goes, vanity plates will begin recalling profane plates with swear words, suggestive language and other messages considered to be inappropriate. If you follow any of the Maine focused license plate accounts on Instagram or elsewhere, you've seen examples of these plates. 

One account on Instagram, @vanity_of_maine has lots of examples including TOESCKR masturbator, which is MSTRB8R and MILF wagon, MILFWGN. Will these be recalled among the lot? Plenty of plates I've seen use the F word or some variation of it. There are estimated to be about 400 plates that will be affected by this new law. I would have guessed it was a lot more based on what is shared around the internet. 

 Well, the ride is about to come to an end. Secretary of state Shenna Bellows has spearheaded this change in law saying if it can't be set on the six o'clock news, it shouldn't be on a license plate. And since the plate is technically owned by the state, they have the authority to change their policy. 

It'll be a bit of a process to finalize the list of affected plates, recall them and reissue new ones. I actually feel badly for the people affected because I wonder are they going to get to choose new plates to replace their current ones? If they're going to get generic issued plates or have to go through the whole process again, with a new set of criteria. 

What do you think about this? Should Maine be changing a six year tradition of free speech on license plates. Leave me a comment and let me know. Now let's go meet Imani. 

[00:02:46] Trista Polo: Welcome. I am super excited to have my guest for today and we're going to jump right in Imai. Welcome to Trista's PL8STORY Podcast 

[00:02:58] Imai, Recognize Royalty: good afternoon.Thanks for having me.

[00:02:59] Trista Polo: Absolutely. Now tell me, where are you from? 

[00:03:05] Imai, Recognize Royalty: I'm from the bay area in California, so 

[00:03:08] Trista Polo: awesome. Silicon valley. Very good. And your vanity license plate, we actually met on clubhouse. So you are my official first clubhouse connection turned podcast interview, which is very exciting. So what is your vanity plate?

[00:03:27] Imai, Recognize Royalty: My vanity plate is MGIXXER. Gixxer is the nickname for the Suzuki motorcycles and the M stands for Mars or my dad's name, Marlo. So MGIXXER or on behalf of my father he always had like his name somewhere on his cars, on his motorcycles. Like he was. Definitely into those were, that was his thing. So that's why I was like inspired by that.

[00:03:55] Imai, Recognize Royalty: My dad did pass away in 2018 and I just wanted to dedicate something to to him. I do take care of my Mustang, like to the fullest extent. And now that he's not here to help me out. But I did want to do this. Like I said, like in dedication for him. 

[00:04:15] Trista Polo: That's awesome. And I'm sorry for your loss. So you, did you get the license plate after he passed? In memory of him? 

[00:04:24] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Yes. I got the license plate after he passed and it actually, it took nine months to actually physically get the license plate. So it was a journey within itself. That was a rollercoaster of like, am I ever going to get it right? It's not like I was in a rush to have it because where, where am I going to go?

[00:04:43] Imai, Recognize Royalty: It's going to be at the back of my car, but I just really wanted it once I placed the order. And they gave me a due date. I was looking forward in the mail. 

[00:04:52] Trista Polo: Yeah. And so you have it on your Mustang. Yeah. And is this you, you talked about your Mustang pretty affectionately. So are you a Mustang girl?

[00:05:03] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Yes, my dad's first car was a Mustang. My first car was a Mustang when I was born. My dad was driving a Mustang, so Mustangs are very near and dear to my heart. My, I did drive a Mercedes, but also I don't really like driving What do they call automatics? I drive a stick shift. So that's probably also why I have an attachment to my Mustang.

[00:05:29] Imai, Recognize Royalty: And like I said, my dad drives mustang. He loves mustangs too. So that bond that we have, we have so much in common, but even the bond of the car itself. The plate compliments 

[00:05:39] Trista Polo: the car. Yeah, absolutely. Now I'd love to hear what else you have in common with your dad? What did you get from him that is important to you to carry on inside yourself?

[00:05:52] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Yeah. Yes. It's crazy. My dad my dad has two other kids and out of all of them, like me and my dad are, we like the same sports teams. We all like sports, but like when it comes to football, we're from the bay area, my brothers and sisters, they like the Raiders and me and my dad, we liked the Dallas Cowboys.

[00:06:11] Imai, Recognize Royalty: No one likes the Dallas Cowboys. We get so much rap for it, but it's all good. It comes with it. I'm saying when it comes to basketball and me and my dad were like the only warriors fans, my siblings, they kind of like bounce around between teams, but like. Day one warriors fan. I got a Richardson Jersey.

[00:06:27] Imai, Recognize Royalty: I don't really think I'm going to hop on the bandwagon. I'm getting the Curry Jersey, but I support cause he's on our team. I love him, but like our sports team, even baseball, like were giants fans. My other siblings are A's fans. I dunno like me and my dad, I was always a daddy's girl too when I was younger.

[00:06:42] Imai, Recognize Royalty: We have a lot in common amongst, like when it comes to the things that we like, the things that we bond over. 

[00:06:49] Trista Polo: Well, how old was he when he passed? Or how old were you when he passed away? 

[00:06:54] Imai, Recognize Royalty: He was 49. I was

[00:06:57] Imai, Recognize Royalty: 25. 

[00:06:59] Trista Polo: Wow. That's young. Yeah. For both of you, you 

[00:07:06] Imai, Recognize Royalty: He'd be like super healthy. He'd be like, oh, what do you want to eat?

[00:07:08] Imai, Recognize Royalty: And I'm like, I'm a foodie, but he'd be like, I'm on a diet. I don't know why this happen, but he's an inspiration in so many ways. And when it comes to health, fitness just being a good person in general, that's my dad, everybody loved him.

[00:07:22] Trista Polo: Yeah. That's awesome. And I'm sorry that he's passed and especially so young, but you're definitely keeping him alive in your memories and in your heart. That's very clear to me. Yeah. Yeah. So what what do you do? I know that you have a brand that you're pretty passionate about. I'd love to hear a little bit about that.

[00:07:46] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Yes. My clothing brand is Recognize Royalty is a clothing brand for both men and women. And it's basically a brand to help people recognize their own self-worth just to remind people to recognize your own self-worth because we have it within us. And , there was some point in our lives where there've been younger, whether it be post puberty whenever like that, we felt like we were at our Heights. And then that may have like, someone may have put out our fire at some point, but no matter our situation that we currently may be in, or the situation that we were in the past, it's like, that's not who we are. And we as individual need to recognize that we are worthy of so much more.

[00:08:27] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Even if we have a lot, if some people may consider it a lot. You deserve even more like you deserve everything you have, especially if you've worked for it. And that's basically what the brand is about. For me, it basically started when I was homeless, living in my car. And at the time was living in a two door Mustang.

[00:08:47] Imai, Recognize Royalty: And I was still taking care of other people, but. I kind of felt some type of way about myself. I was still working. I had a full-time job, still helping other people being like my siblings. But my situation, wasn't the greatest. And I just needed to recognize my own self self-worth like, okay, I need to slow down and stop pouring from this empty cup and pour it a little more into myself and realize I'm not my situation. And I needed to somehow some way save up or do what I needed to do to get out sleeping in your car, essentially. And then that was basically me realizing like my own self worth. I am deserving of everything that I have and I should not , feel ashamed for what I have.

[00:09:31] Imai, Recognize Royalty: I should not feel guilty for what I have. I've worked hard for what I have. And my siblings are also something I worked for and towards, so I feel like that is also rewarding to see when they're flourishing, when they're just being grown adults. I just love to see that. And yeah, I wanted to be able to teach people to be able to get out of their situations no matter what the situation may be whether they don't have support, whether they think they don't have support, there's always help. So on recognizeroyalty.us there's resources for anything when it comes to, if you want to start your own business, there's multiple groups doing that. Maybe you want to become, you want to become a part of the music industry, but there's a lot of , people doubting you or saying , no, there's too, maybe it's too saturated.

[00:10:20] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Like there's people on the website, who can help resources when it comes to where to go to, if you need help on how to be safe during protests how to be aware of them and all of that and even housing. My situation was a housing situation. So anyone going through that there's also resources on there.

[00:10:38] Imai, Recognize Royalty: So that's basically where the brand stems from and the goal is to get more people to realize their own self worth. We are not our situation and to just uplifting. 

[00:10:51] Trista Polo: Well, I love that message. And you know, when I saw your brand on Instagram with the royalty, I didn't get the connection right away. But then when you said it was like, we could recognize the royalty in ourselves and each of us, I thought, boy, that is awesome.

[00:11:07] Trista Polo: Now I have to ask you, I'm just thinking about , Maslow's Hierarchy the very first basic thing you need is shelter and food and safety. And it's only when you get to the very tippy top that you actually become what's called self actualized where you can believe, I am worthy. I am able to be everything I can be.

[00:11:31] Trista Polo: The fact that you were able to see that, that you are bigger than your situation, that you are not to be judged by where you live, but who you are in your heart, all of that, that you went through to get to that, knowing in that situation of not having a place to live, that seems very unusual to me.

[00:11:51] Trista Polo: So I would love to know how did you really get to know that when your situation was the way it was. You could still know inside that there was worth for you in there and that you were going to make it out of that and be able to create something so powerful, like a clothing brand and a fashion icon statement.

[00:12:10] Trista Polo: Okay. Yeah. 

[00:12:11] Imai, Recognize Royalty: I actually always wanted to have my own clothing lines since I was in third grade. This is my third attempt at it, honestly. But as far as recognizing it in my situation, , I mean, when. You live in a very confined or small area. There's a lot of time to yourself basically.

[00:12:30] Imai, Recognize Royalty: And you can use that time to kind of dwell on the situation. You can use that time to cry, let it out, do what you gotta do. But hopefully majority of that time is spent thinking , how am I going to get out of this situation? And it was a lot of times. Okay. I'm college educated. I have a full time job that was always there, but I have a full-time job.

[00:12:49] Imai, Recognize Royalty: I'm college educated. I need to find a way out of this. And I know there is a way out of this. This is not my forever situation. So it was just realizing that. Constantly reminding myself that even at the end of the day, you can tell yourself. And people can tell you to say that, but it's kind of like easier said than done.

[00:13:07] Imai, Recognize Royalty: It's kind of just an affirmation. So it's like going out there and finding the resources. I'm going through a situation right now where I'm utilizing resources, but you're still not getting the help that you need. And that's the situation that some people are in. Even when they hear that, oh, Mani was homeless.

[00:13:23] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Like, oh, Mani, where's your family. You have family. It must've been a choice for you to be homeless. That's not everyone's situation. But you can't think about what everybody else thinks at the same time. But at the end of the day, I had to realize I had to look at it for myself. I couldn't look at it from everyone else's perspective. And it was like, you have so much going for you. So just get up and do it yourself kind of thing. But yeah, definitely utilizing resources, which is why Royalty provides resources, because those resources were not easy to find.

[00:13:53] Imai, Recognize Royalty: And there was a lot like where I live in San Jose, there was a lot of homeless people. People are getting evicted every single day. So if the resources are hard to find or help, if you're reaching out and it's going to take three to five business days to hear a response, things don't happen right away. Again, that's where I came from is , realizing this is not my forever situation.

[00:14:17] Imai, Recognize Royalty: I'm like, I'm gonna find something some way to get out of it. And I want to help other peoples do the same. 

[00:14:24] Trista Polo: Well, I really acknowledge you for always knowing inside what your worth was. You've mentioned a few times that you had a full-time job . Did they know that you did not have a house while you were working? 

[00:14:37] Imai, Recognize Royalty: No, my job did not know because when when you apply for a job, you need to put an address on there. So of course I had my previous address, it's not like they're going to mail anything for you to sign. , so they don't know that I was homeless, but I had I had a full-time job. So my even , my brother would be like, well, if you're a homeless, then why do you have a gym membership? Well, where do you expect me to shower? There are things you still have to set. You still have to live on a budget. And at least I had some sort of budget working, but it was like that budget was still like having that gym membership so I can have somewhere to shower having to that budget to pay my phone bill.

[00:15:19] Imai, Recognize Royalty: I also needed a hotspot to use my laptop to get my homework done. So there was still expenses that you have when you're homeless. It's not like being homeless is free.

[00:15:28] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Like we still need to eat. And at the same time I was feeding my siblings. So there's a lot that goes into. And no, my job did not know because I was still getting things done. I was still coming to work, looking cute every single day. That's what it was. Wow. 

[00:15:45] Trista Polo: I really just can't even imagine. And you're saying that you also took care of your siblings during this whole situation.

[00:15:52] Trista Polo: It sounds like you really take personal ownership of their wellbeing. Were you solely responsible for them or they weren't living with you? 

[00:16:02] Imai, Recognize Royalty: No, they weren't living with me and they were not my responsibility but I did my part in taking care of them. Like anything that they needed. I was there, whether it been food, financial or trip to the doctors, I was always just a phone call. 

[00:16:19] Trista Polo: That's awesome. So they always knew that you had their back no matter what, which is really that's really important. So now you are building your brand.

[00:16:30] Trista Polo: You're still living in the bay area and you're doing a lot to grow. What kinds of things are you doing to grow your brand and really get it out there so people have access to the resources, but can also look super cute in what you're offering as well. 

[00:16:45] Imai, Recognize Royalty: So in the in San Jose and particularly I have my pop-up shops and that's where people can come in live and kind of see what I've been working on when it comes to products.

[00:16:55] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Sometimes there'll be early releases at the popup that I just haven't released on the website. And that's when people can kind of like, get that personal stylist experience. There's always pieces to where it's like, but how do I wear it?

[00:17:07] Imai, Recognize Royalty: How I perceive royalty, how I would like other people to look at it as well is clothing it's supposed to express how you feel, however you are. If you need to, if you can't decide between some colors. Just need to put all of them on, like it's fine. Tomorrow is a new day and you will have a new color palette.

[00:17:26] Imai, Recognize Royalty: I've also done it in Hayward as well. The pop up events, but since the new normal I basically been advertising mainly on instagram and the email subscribers, they get the early they're the first people to know when product is released. So that hype is still there for people. And then Instagram also knows eventually, but mainly through social media and email subscribers as far as resources that is also released first to the email subscribers.

[00:17:58] Imai, Recognize Royalty: But. Even interacting with people through social media connecting with them. The activists that I met was through social media, but she's an activist here in my city, in San Jose. It turns out she's not even from here, but she has done so much for our city. She has stood up for our city. She has stopped so many evictions happening in our city.

[00:18:16] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Like she has contributed so much that I was like, people need to know about her. She has ways of like how to keep you safe during the protest. Like how can I be involved? Not necessarily be front and center. So these are, this is information that people need to know. This is information that people in my city in particular, because of what we're going through need to know.

[00:18:39] Trista Polo: Wow. That's really great. So you talk about a lot about your brand being about self-worth and self worth is super important to me as well. In fact, I have a self-worth assessment and mini course on my website because I wanted to pay forward a lot of the resources that I've learned, the tools that I've learned.

[00:19:00] Trista Polo: It sounds to me like you have an innate understanding of your own worth like that. You always knew you were worth something even in your lowest moments in life. And I will tell you that I am the opposite of that. I have always questioned my worth until just a few years ago, and I've done a lot of work to really accept my value.

[00:19:27] Trista Polo: Life's a lot harder when you don't believe you deserve good things.

[00:19:32] Trista Polo: Everything is harder. So I really resonate with the message behind your brand. What advice would you give someone who is really working on their self worth and really wants to have that innate understanding and knowledge that they are worthy. What would you recommend 

[00:19:52] Imai, Recognize Royalty: all of these people that we look up to or aspire to be, or see on social media... we may not even know them and we believe that they live this great life. It's like, why can't you believe that you can live a great life? Why can't you believe that you can reach these goals and same for myself. I can do that. All these places that I've seen, these people go to, I can go there too.

[00:20:20] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Like, why can't we? And if you don't believe that, then you're going to be what you think, because you are what you put, what you put the most energy into is what's going to become. Why put so much energy into other people when we can be putting that energy into ourselves. So it's just reflecting on ourselves.

[00:20:45] Imai, Recognize Royalty: The advice that I would give is to stop pouring energy into other people and pour it back into yourself. Stop seeking validation. If you like it, then who cares if anybody does then just love it? Yeah, because we give everything that we give on even the advice that we give, we should be giving ourself the compliments that we get, we should be giving ourselves as well.

[00:21:09] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Yeah, just all that energy point to somebody else. Don't forget to pour that back into yourself. 

[00:21:16] Trista Polo: Yeah, you're absolutely right. In fact, one of the things I'm thinking about from what you just said is love yourself first, because you can't love anybody else more than you love yourself. And so you've got to look in the mirror and really love who you are first.

[00:21:34] Trista Polo: And one thing you said that really also resonated for me is have opinions and own your opinions, like really own, whatever I believe is the right thing. Because I believe it. So it's the right thing for me and just really own that. So you said it in a different way, but that's kind of what I extrapolated from what you said.

[00:21:57] Trista Polo: And I was like, yeah, that really is a good place to start. I like blue own that just really own that you like blue. Or own that you love Mexican food, start small, just own your opinions about things and try on what that feels like. And you can grow it from there. So I think that's great advice.

[00:22:20] Trista Polo: That's really, 

[00:22:21] Imai, Recognize Royalty: like you said, own it. Like my hair is purple. My hair has always been purple. I am over 25 years old and my hair is still purple. So even when it comes, they ask for different colors. No, this is me. , this is what comes with me. My work ethic is not going to change, going to be any better, I should say if it was a different color. But as going back to even pouring from an empty cup, we cannot continue to that. We need to even have boundaries and fill up our own cup to be able to pour into others. Don't get me wrong. I still help my siblings a hundred percent, but sometimes with some of them, I have to set those boundaries, whether it be for my mental health or just giving that space in order for me to grow.

[00:23:06] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Because when I'm at the level that I'm headed towards, then I can be able to give back to them even more. So you gotta sacrifice a little bit sometimes to get to where you're. 

[00:23:20] Trista Polo: Yeah, for sure. That's great advice. So we'll have your website on the show notes and people will have access to your Instagram and we'll make sure to put how to connect and follow you on clubhouse for people on that app. And I just really appreciate you coming on and sharing your story. I really am very inspired by everything that you've yourself through and pulled yourself up from and what you're creating and then giving back

[00:23:45] Imai, Recognize Royalty: thank you so much for having me and for hearing my plate story, creating this plate. I didn't think anybody would ask about it or no story behind it, but clearly there is, and I'm so excited that I got to share that. 

[00:23:59] Trista Polo: Me too. Thank you so much for being on.

[00:24:02] Trista Polo: I really enjoyed having you as a guest and I look forward to seeing all the wonderful things that you will create and continue to build with your recognized royalty. 

[00:24:15] Imai, Recognize Royalty: Thank you for having me. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do this. And I really appreciate this. 

[00:24:21] Trista Polo: Thank you again. Some you're welcome.

[00:24:24] Trista Polo: Have a great day when you do.

Thanks for listening. Please subscribe to Trista's plate story podcast, share it, or leave a review. If you would like to nominate a license plate to be featured in a future episode or you have an interesting plate story news item to share with me, leave us a comment or visit plate story.com. That's P L number 8. story.com and give me all the details. 

This is Trista polo wishing you well on the road to your next adventure.