Deborah, with her thirty years of being an entrepreneur and creating over seven companies,
knows exactly what it means to accept the mission. When you make that
decision, when you accept the mission to become a solopreneur, to take yourself
and your talents to market, then you embrace a life of not only unlimited
possibilities, but also the unknown. It's an elixir of fear and bravery that
only someone who's taken the leap really understands. On our show, deb digs
deep with her guests to highlight what you the listener wants to know the stories,
the wise and the house to navigate the journey to success. Get ready
to hear from some of the most incredible mission takers from Generation Z to boomers.
So sit up, perk up, and get ready to be blown away.
Now here is your host, Deborah Drummage. They welcome back to Mission
Accepted. What is it going to be today? Not only do I have
a theory plule person, I know that it means it's it's got a new
self and with music with us today. But look at if this is the
first time that you landed on Mission accepted. What the heck I mean it
looked good, mission accepted. What's that all about? Well, if you
heard the intro, you know it's about people that say yes, even man
they may not have wanted to, right, It's about gumption. It's about
having an idea and inspiration and finally, maybe forcefully, because someone talks you
into it, you decided to take the leap and jump into the world of
what I call self funding as crazy entrepreneurs no matter where that lands. I
don't even think it's so much about saying yes to the mission, because you
think that's the big part. Honestly, what the heck are we don't stay
in here? Is it really as much fun as it looks like? Well,
we're going to hear that today, and you guys know that. I
think you are the best podcast audience because you are active and you share and
you help us look good and we help you look good. But honestly,
what else are you going to be today? You know that? Well,
I think you guys are going to be the groovious podcast audience by the time
you get off the show today, so you get to be groovy. Um,
I have a really cool guy that's with us today, and you guys
love music. As much as I do. I know, because you're jumping
all up and down about this. They did it tour. I'm not sure
if it's that you like music as much as I do, or that you
don't have to do the marathon. You're just like, you go, girl,
you go. So I'd like to welcome Laval to the show today to
mission accepted. And you know what, he's just dropped something pretty cool and
he's going to share with us a bit about his life. You know,
I don't know the story of why this great guy got into music. I
think that should be an interesting place to start. So Laval welcome. Meet
the mission accepted audience and audience meet mister Laval. Hello everyone, Thank you
so much for having me. Absolutely absolutely so. Look, I know that
you just dropped an album and you got some good stuff to share about that,
But what's your story? What was it about music? Or was it
music? Did that? Was that the first go to or did a rolling?
How? How did this start for you? My friend? Well,
come up as a young man. On my mom's side, everyone was musically
inclined. Rather they were playing instruments or singing, and unfortunately, on my
dad's side, it was the same thing, either you were playing a music,
you was a musician, or you was a singer, or everybody was
heavily in the music. So I guess it was just something that was born.
I was born with the gift and I did become a drummer. That
was my first love, my first passion. And then you know, I
had some cousins that were singing in the group, and that's when I discovered
that I could sing. And so I really love how they used to touch
people and people the reaction that the people would give with them singing, and
I was like, one day, I want to do that. So that
was something at an early age that you know, I wanted. I knew
I wanted to do something with music with my life. Wow, well,
how lucky you know how healcky for us? Right? I think it's interesting.
I think people other come on board. You know a lot of you
guys out there. You know Ocean because he you know, he comes on
um and does the occasional show, and you know, when he sat me
down at fifteen, and it's like I want to be an entrepreneur. I
mean, it wasn't a surprise, but it's like are you sure? You
sure? You want to do this ride, I think you should go get
a job, dude. Made a little easier, but uh, but obviously
it was for you. So going from drumming to singing, do you do
you now just solely sing or do you do you drums? Singing is pretty
much full time, that's it. I'm occasionally they still hit the jobs to
keep the chops up, but um, singing is what I do, premriny,
That's that's everything for me right now. Wow wow, So tell us
where you're from and what is it that you're you know, how long have
you been singing? I mean, obviously you've been playing in music for a
long time, but what was that decision to take it from? You know,
it's in my jeans and this is what the family does, and this
is the group that I'm in too. I'm gonna make a life out of
this. I'm gonna I'm gonna make a business out of this because that's a
really big difference. That's a different mindset, right, realizing the business of
being in music and actually you know, being in being in music. So
what's side about? Well, Lane Jones was everything, you know for me.
But when I started seeing the reaction of people, you know, just
being happy and enjoying themselves. You know, I'm a very curing person if
you know, people don't know, and I love to see others happy and
smiling. So to know that through singing you could put a smile on someone's
face and just to see them happy, that's where the transition for me really
took place. Where, you know, once I tried it and I got
the reaction that I did, I was like, Wow, I may have
that safe thing, you know, because I've been in the background so long
being to follow. I was watching and learning. So when I did get
my chance to actually do it, it was a thing of starting and I
never wanted to stop, you know, I just it was something that made
me feel good inside knowing I put a smile, or I've changed somebody to
stop process, or somebody came in one way and left a happy person that
really like it was everything to me. So the more I was getting that
kind of feedback, the more in my drive for what I do was just
getting stronger and stronger. Wow, and you said that your cousins were singing,
So your first kind of professional play in music was it you joined their
band or you started your own band or what was your first Like, hey,
I'm a professional musician and we're doing this now. Yeah, it was
it was my cousins. They had a band and one of the cousins couldn't
make rehearsals. So I had the opportunity to step in. But I stepped
in playing drums. It wasn't singing. So the cousin that couldn't make it,
he actually played drums and sing at the same time. So I kind
of got like the full course meal all at once, you know. So
and I was able to handle it. And the cousin that that mis rehearsal,
he kind of sing in a high key, and so they what they
thought was a joke, you know. They was like, we know he
can't sing that high and keep timing with drums at the same time. Unfortunately,
I was able to do it because the high note he was doing it
was like natural for me. And so we sang for about thirty or forty
minutes straight and I never, you know, never bogged out. I was
I was strolling the whole way through. And my cousin was like, we
didn't think you was gonna be able to do it, but you really got
a nice voice. You might need to. We know you love journals,
but you may need for sustining because you got something special. And so that
was really my really my start, you know, my cousin giving me that
encouragement and giving me that opportunity. So that was and then and that was
something that I watched him do so long to where I had it in my
head if I had an opportunity, I was going to seize the moment.
And so I took. I took the moment and and and gave my best
with it. So this is part of my results of it. You know,
that's a great that's a great tub. That's a great book if you
ever read it one day. Seize the moment. You know, you seize
the moment. Seize the moment. That's that's pretty great. Um. So
do you remember your first kind of paying gig, you know what I mean,
when you got paid to play? Yeah? I do, I remember
it. Um we uh stole from doing that. I started my own little
band and we we were gig at this like a blues and jazz district,
and so we started our own little thing and so we kind of went from
doing it for gaining fans and stuff. We never We didn't look at it
as money at the time. We were just a group of guys that did
it because the passion and what we enjoyed doing. And after doing it so
long, the guys was like, man, you guys, we want to
give you guys this amount of money. So it meant a lot, and
once we got that first check, it was like wow, we didn't know
we could, you know, because once again we were doing it for the
passion and the love. We wasn't doing it for the money. But when
the money came, it just pushed us to a whole other level. And
then it let us know that you can do your dreams and successfully successfully get
financially paid doing what you love doing at the same time. So it was
it was a great feeling. Well, if you met somebody or have you
heard of somebody, or if you were to say to somebody that is kind
of in that space where you know they're playing but their desires to really go
full time and have this be something that they revenue generate from, and they
could go because there's so many I mean, I know, right, there's
so many people that play music that are still working this job or a side
gig job or a something job to kind of make it, to make it
work. What was it for you or what kind of advice is it?
Grabbing a business coach? Is it getting an agent? Is it you know,
asking to get paid? Because lots of musicians don't, you know,
there's this thing about asking, like what kind of advice would you give somebody
out there if they were, you know, really looking to make a make
a go of this and make a life of it, like a you know,
past the hobby stage. For me, I would say, of course,
you anything you do in life being successful, you know you you want
to be financially taking care of But with this particular business, it's really about
the passion the love you have for something. Because what we see on TV
and what we see on social media is not reality. So it takes a
moment before the money actually come. But if you're doing it because this is
your passion and your dream and this is something that you're really dedicated to,
eventually the money will come. My uncle used to tell me all the time
I was a lot younger. He used to say, they can't keep inviting
you to dinner without giving you a plate. And I didn't understand that until
I got older, and basically what he was telling me, if I keep
putting in the work, and I keep putting in the dedication, the drive,
the consistency, eventually I'll get a play, you know, meaning I'll
get I earned my keep, you know, the money will come. So
that was that was kind of my outlook on it. I didn't get into
it to be like I said, paid. I got into it because I
love making people happy and then finding out that you can make some good money.
But once again, that don't come overnight. That's that's a process.
Absolutely, touche touche. So look, I'm excited. Oh my gosh,
tell us about the tell us but I'll let you and eunce the name of
this album. Tell us what's special about this album? You know, little
Bird told me that you got a pretty cool song on there. We want
people to tune in, we want people to listen, So tell us,
tell us what happened? What's going on. Well, I'm really exciting.
We've dropped my sophomore album. My first, my freshman album was Lavelle.
My journey continues, and then June ninth, we just dropped Promised to Love
and it's going very well. We do have some nice, nice features on
there. We have Raheem Divine, we have Anthony Hamilton, we have a
Scarti Cortez. Then we have my good brothers after seven and we have a
very very special song hitting radio worldwide July twenty fourth, titled Always and Always.
It's one of those songs that it takes you back to the Temptation days
to the present time now where songs had meaning, passion, substance bridges.
It has everything that you you used to listen to in music, that that
drove you to music. Um, it has those potentials. So I'm very
excited about this song. I feel like it's going to do very well and
it's going to actually help a lot of relationships. It's going to help people
in general just that that love music. So I'm excited about it. Awesome.
Um so where can people like to you? You've you've dropped, so
you're live right now with your with your album right out right now. Where
are you playing? So people can everywhere on all streaming platforms no matter where
you go. You just type in la vel l E V E L L
E promise to love and I'll pop up Apple Music title, Uh, Spotify,
Amazon, You're everywhere. I gotta ask, promise to love? Where
did that come from? What problem to love? Me and my Roade guy,
Ricky Taylor, we was riding and we were talking about love and what
I stand for, and he was like, I was like, man,
what you think about probmise to love? And he was like, well,
tell me the meaning of it. And I was like, no, matter
what we go through, I promised to love. I promised to give the
fans all of me. I promised to I vow to keep pushing love because
in this day and time, it's so much music out there, but a
lot of the music is dark. It's it's it's this, it's not that.
And and I want to get back to a place where we can respect
the ladies, where we can help young men be better men. Um,
like I said earlier, a lot of social media and a lot of things
that people see, uh, it's not really reality. So I just promised
to love and vow to give them all of me and share love at the
same time. Oh, I'm sold. No, really, that's uh,
that's you know. I I for some reason, I've never really asked anybody
that question. I don't know, you know, I just you know,
you get told you do, right, I think you get that. Yeah.
Um, And I was like, ask him about the album. I
asked him about the cover and asked him about what that's about. So that's
really great. I think it's profound as a things brave. I think it's
great to call it out a little bit, right, social media is not
real and uh, and that there are things that we need to be listening
to more often that make us better people. Right, That's right, I
mean, And at the end of the day, that's that's what it's about.
You know, we have our youth, We have young ladies and young
men listening to us. So I think as artists and as people, we
can help change our generation. Or we can get back to love where it's
you can let people know it's it's cool to be loved, it's cool to
show love. It's it's cool to look for love, you know, versus
being disrespected, you know, all the other negative things. Yeah, yeah,
absolutely, I know it's really changed, right, it's really changed.
Yeah. I was talking with that yesterday to a friend. I was like,
now, I'm not gonna you know, I'm not gonna go I'm not
going to date myself because I don't think manners are a certain culture or a
certain time frame in life. I think just respect. I've always said when
my when my daughter was dating, i would sit her down with her boyfriend
and I'm like, I got two rules. One I'll keep to another show.
This show, I'll tell you the rule was respect and respect out.
Respect and respect out. You may not be sitting here twenty years later,
the teenage sweetheart story. Respect and respect out, none of this disson what's
this? What's what's this? What's this thing about not calling somebody again?
What? Like not? It's not working out for me? Okay? You
know, like what there's just really it's a different play. And I'm like,
I don't think it's a generational thing. I just think it's like where
where did that? Where did that shift happen? Anyways, I really appreciate,
I really appreciate. I think that's great. Um okay, so everybody,
you can go everywhere and listen to this music and July so July did
you say July twelve, July twenty four, July twenty four? So now
where are people going to go to hear this? It's just going to can
they go to their your site is it going to just drop all over the
channels, like is there some kind of a well. The good thing about
this right now you can actually go and stream download the song right now.
It's it's out to the world right now. It's just hitting radio worldwide on
the twenty fourth of July, So if you're listening and you're tuning in,
you could go check out always Laville featured after seven. You can go take
it out right now. Ooh, that's well, you know what we're gonna
do after the show. That's great. It's like, oh, we gotta
wait, We're gonna want to wait, yeah, yeah, all right right
now. So you know, here's interesting. I don't want to ask you
what's next because right now you're in the middle of something pretty cool and you're
obviously doing the distance, right so you're gonna be back to the show.
You're gonna be telling us what's happening next. You're gonna be like, you
know, where are you live? I mean, I've been on you know,
we're going to be putting in the show notes your site and all the
places to go and see and be able to hear you sing and all that
stuff. So I don't want to tell you ask you know where you're going
next, unless there's something that you've got that you want to share and kind
of drop here and I'll actually ask you that is there anything else that you
want to share before I ask you an interesting question? Um, I just
want to just share that, you know, go follow me, Go follow
me on all platforms. That's just the very casey and and stay in tune
with what's coming for me right now. And it's really about the fans.
So we're we are in talk of how we could really get out and impact
the fans. So they put a face with the songs. And because I
believe that the more you incorporate your fans and what you're doing, the better
off it is. Frankie, I had a one of my mentors. He
said, Lavelle, don't worry about being famous, because famous come and goes,
but worry about pleasing your fans. Your fans will keep you working for
a lifetime. So for me, learning at an early age, get the
fans on your side and everything else that happened. So I want the fans
to know more of Lavelle, know what kind of guy Lavelle is, and
what Lavelle stands for and that's that's what's very important for us right now.
I love that. I love that. As a human I love that,
And I was gonna say that, right. It's like I was like,
you've you know, with what we've shared today, it's a very humanized approached
too, but a particular industry that's very that could be very glad based,
right. I mean, you know, we talked to us singers all the
time and it's nice. You know, we get to have these conversations that
are kind of real. And I was sharing with you earlier, you know,
Kathy who was like the you know, first rock and roll chick in
the UK and all that kind of stuff, and the conversations are real.
And then when people flip to that, hey I gotta be and there's there's
musicians like you that just flip to hey here, I am right. It's
like that that humanness, right, And I absolutely I have great respect for
that. So outside of your career and outside of where you're going to go,
because that's obviously destined and we can see where that's going to happen.
And I usually ask a couple of questions to let people in on someone's humanness,
but clearly you show up that way anyways. But I think it's really
cool when we put things out in the universe, whatever your belief is on
that, and you you kind of make a claim and make a statement,
and then you just let it come back to you whenever. However, and
I think you get that doesn't necessarily have to be about your career. But
there's a lot of listeners. We have a lot of listeners and a lot
of viewers. Which is why I'd like to have a podcast where people can
see you, because it is seeing who you are. If you're driving,
just keep driving. You can watch later right in your on your bucket list,
you know, your bucket list of things to do. I always say,
like I've got like these dream boards and things that i want to accomplish.
Let's put something out there that you would like to achieve. See,
experience could be nothing to do with your career, could be something to do
with your career. But is there anything that we can kind of put out
there to the void of listeners that you'd like to you'd like to chuck off.
I think for me, the biggest thing that I really want to accomplish
is really becoming that household artists that people know I'm as authenticist can be,
and when I say things like I promised to love, I want them to
know and feel that that's genuine and that's from my heart that I promise to
love. That's that's everything for me, standing for what I believe in and
rather that's talking to someone a little longer than usual, or signing a picture
or taking a picture, or just being there for somebody, that's who I
am. So once again, like I said, I believe the financial part
of it will come. I just want to see pat people happy along the
way that's grooving. So we're down to the last question that I ask everybody,
And this is going to be interesting for you because it's an interesting question
about music, and you know, feel free to say yours, but maybe
I would side of your music because that's obviously gonna go with you to this
private island, because where you go, you follow, right, So um,
I always ask people, and my show's not about necessarily about music,
but I think it's just one of the most powerful healing you know, act
vibrations access that we have. So I say to people, if you're on
your way to a desert island and it was you and you and you know,
you had this little suitcase, and in this suitcase you had room for
one album. What album would you take with you that you could not imagine
not listening to for the rest of your days? And just one? I'm
sorry you saying that again. So you're on your way to a desert island
and you're and it's just you and you. You're you're going to desert island.
You're not coming back. You've got a suitcase and in that suitcase you've
got room for one album. You can only take one with you. What
album are you taking with you to that desert island? I know it's a
duck one. That's a really tough one. I know it's even growing.
You're in music, right, it's that, you know what it's that it's
the song that you couldn't ever imagine not listening to again. M M probably
Frankie Beverly amays we are one all right, yeah, all right, good
choice, good choice, all right, my friend. It has been a
pleasure to have you on mission accepted. Thank you so much for sharing who
you are and what you do with us today. And look, you groovy
listeners out there, if you want to be sitting with Laval sitting. You
know what to do. This is not difficult. It's deb at deb Drummond
dot com. So if you want to come onto the show and figure out
what that's all about, you know where it is. And you guys know
what I'm going to say. How am I not going to say it?
Get over to they did It tour dot CA. We're doing a huge look
at I'm I'm doing the walking and so you guys need to be a doing
and the talking. Look, we've got a couple of things. We've got
a Facebook group that if you know anyone in the music industry, and it's
not just about being in the band. It can be owning a record story,
it can be whatever it has to do with music, anything, producing,
agenting, whatever, go ahead and put yourself on there. It's a
free group. Put your show on there, put your songs on there,
put your gig on there. Start making. It's a it's a Facebook group
that's going to go well beyond this walk in Ireland in twenty twenty four.
And look, ninety percent of musicians are scrimping on the rand part. It's
a really it can be really tough out there. People you know, get
music and take it for free. So let us help you clear your music
karma. If you've ever listened to a song and not paid for it,
just just donate. Today did a tour dot CA and we are going to
take those funds and we are going to find unison that takes care of musicians
that need support emotionally and financially. Alicia Key, she is the music.
So it's got these pods all over the world helping women get into the music
industry and then some including what we're going to be doing in Ireland. So
I'll just help you hear a little bit of karma. Just go over there.
If it is the right time for you, then just go make a
donation. If you have any questions about that, email where to reach us.
We just so appreciate you. We appreciate your shark, We appreciate you
being our fans as well. Said well, so much for being with us
today and you guys until next week, be healthy and stay Ruby back for now.