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00:00Right now, I have Essence's own, Essence's own, that's a tongue twister, Essence's own
00:10entertainment editor, Okla Jones, who will be moderating our next interview.
00:16Please show him a lot of love.
00:19All right, all right.
00:21See, this is a man that makes you go viral in the magazine and on the website, because
00:28he's the one that gets you insta-famous, Okla.
00:33How y'all doing, New Orleans?
00:36My name is Okla Jones, and I'm a New Orleans native as well, too, so it's always good to
00:40be back home.
00:42In 2010, Nicholas Clark and Marlon Watts, two 14-year-old New Orleans natives and best friends,
00:49decided that they were going to create a business that would bring their families out of poverty.
00:53To everyone else, there were just two 8th graders that liked to skateboard and play football.
00:58But fate saw them in a completely different light.
01:01Clark and Watts' determination and work ethic continued to aspire and propel them forward.
01:07They sacrificed, hoped, prayed, and knew that their vision would one day become a reality.
01:13They began designing hoodies and t-shirts.
01:15Before they knew it, the World and Vision clothing brand was born.
01:19The success of World and Vision did exactly as they had dreamed.
01:22They were able to attend private high schools, as well as graduate from college with degrees
01:28in technology.
01:29They now use social media to advertise, drop new merch, and expand their now-billion-dollar
01:35business.
01:36Ladies and gentlemen, welcome the men, the myth, and the New Orleans legends, Nicholas Clark and
01:41Marlon Watts.
01:56How y'all doing?
01:57How y'all doing?
01:58How y'all doing, New Orleans?
02:00Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh.
02:01That's not good enough for me.
02:02I said, how y'all doing, New Orleans?
02:05Hey.
02:06That's what I'm talking about.
02:06That's what I'm talking about right there, baby.
02:08Now, that's the energy we need up here.
02:10Let's get it.
02:11So, I just want to say, being born and raised in New Orleans, I'm really proud of y'all.
02:15The city's proud of y'all.
02:16It's good to see young brothers doing good things and being successful.
02:18So, I appreciate y'all.
02:20For real.
02:20Thanks, appreciate it.
02:21All right.
02:22So, for my first question, where did the name World and Vision come from?
02:26I'll take it.
02:27So, actually, the name World and Vision comes from World Invasion.
02:32So, we actually used to call the company World Invasion when we first got started.
02:37But when we went to college, we started to, Nicholas came up with a way to spell it shorter.
02:41So, we only had the one vowel, and everybody at college would call it World and Vision.
02:46And we was like, no, it's not World and Vision, it's World and Vision.
02:50And then one day, we just looked at each other and was like, World and Vision actually sound better.
02:54And we realized that at that point, we wanted to inspire people to find their vision, and it all just stuck.
03:00And then we came up with Trust in Your Vision.
03:02And that's how we got the name.
03:04I would say we really didn't even know what we was doing.
03:07But, like, we didn't let that stop us from getting started.
03:10Like, we learned through the process.
03:12We always tell people to have a plan before they get started.
03:14But really, sometimes you just got to start.
03:16So, we really learned as we went.
03:18So, when y'all switched from World and Vision to World and Vision, was, like, the rebranding was that hard?
03:24Yeah.
03:25So, everything after that became about a vision.
03:28And from there, we was like, it been about a vision the whole time.
03:32So, it fit very, very well what we had going on.
03:36And then from there, we started to rebrand, you know, start calling it World and Vision.
03:39A lot of people that's from New Orleans actually still know it as World and Vision.
03:43And then when you say World and Vision, it's like, they'd be like, huh?
03:46I thought it was World and Vision.
03:48But really, like, from there on out, we just started calling it World and Vision.
03:51And everything became about trusting in your vision.
03:53That's dope, man.
03:55So, y'all's slogan is Made in New Orleans.
03:58What is it about New Orleans and this city that inspires y'all?
04:02I mean, honestly, there's no place like this.
04:04And we realized that once we got outside.
04:06A lot of people from our city only stay in our city.
04:10And we actually were fortunate enough to have chances to travel a lot in college
04:14and sell our merchandise in different areas.
04:16And when we noticed that, it's no place like New Orleans.
04:19New Orleans is so unique with the culture, with the people, with the accent.
04:24Everybody would be like, I know you're from New Orleans.
04:26I hear it.
04:26So, we are very unique individuals.
04:29And now, we're getting to put our brand on a bigger stage
04:32and show what Down South and New Orleans is all about.
04:35Because we're normally not known for fashion here.
04:38But now, World and Vision is breaking that ground
04:41and creating blueprints for the next brands to come out and grow from down here.
04:46What you got, Nick?
04:46You got something, too?
04:47Nah, I was just going to say it's just, it's nothing like this.
04:50Like, honestly, everywhere we go, like Marlon just said,
04:53like, we got a YouTube channel, right?
04:55Somebody just commented on it and said,
04:56y'all need to learn how to speak English.
04:58Like, so, really, we just want to inspire people from where we come from, too.
05:03Because people need somebody to look up to
05:07to show them that there's other ways to do things out here.
05:10So, really, we just want to set that blueprint
05:11for people that's coming up, like, that's from where we're from
05:14that they could do something like this, too.
05:17For sure, man. For sure.
05:18So, going back to the YouTube,
05:21you guys are really savvy on social media.
05:23Are you guys planning to expand into tech as well,
05:26the tech space, or just keep it fashion?
05:29All right.
05:29So, right now, it's about fashion, for sure.
05:32But also, it's about, like we're saying,
05:35setting that blueprint for other brands to come.
05:38So, we also do digital.
05:40We have digital courses where we teach people how to start brands.
05:43Like, we have our YouTube channel where you can go get free game.
05:46So, really, we want to also educate people, too.
05:49So, it's about fashion, but we also want to share the knowledge
05:51and share the vision so they can learn from, you know,
05:54the mistakes that we made so they don't have to make them same mistakes.
05:56So, we might not be into the tech space as much,
05:59but we are in the educational space as well as the fashion space.
06:04Yeah, and clothes is just a...
06:05Clothes is that hook.
06:06All young people want to be fresh.
06:08We want to be cool.
06:09We want to look good.
06:10So, the clothes is that initial investment
06:14that we make in our community
06:15to now get this young person to listen.
06:19So, that's the first thing.
06:20You have to get them to start listening.
06:22And what we realize is that you can't just go straight at them with,
06:26you need to start investing in stocks.
06:27You need to start investing in real estate.
06:29You got to give them things that's familiar.
06:31We go play sports with some of the kids
06:33because that relates to them.
06:34And they see us playing sports with them,
06:36and now they're like, dang, he's just like me.
06:38Now, I can tell you about, all right,
06:40you need to be an entrepreneur.
06:41You need to realize that you're a brand.
06:43You need to go open up a brokerage account.
06:45You need to invest in real estate.
06:47You need to figure out how you want to position yourself with ownership
06:51because with the power of the Internet now,
06:53everybody is their own brand.
06:55And now you have the ability to monetize yourself,
06:57monetize your skills, monetize what you do,
07:00and choose to tap into that market.
07:02Y'all heard that?
07:03Big facts.
07:04Y'all heard that?
07:05Yeah.
07:06Yeah.
07:06So, knowing what you know now,
07:09what advice would you give y'all for to yourself?
07:12I'm going to take Marlins because he always say this.
07:14So, I'm going to say what he usually say because I like it so much.
07:17Invest.
07:18Like, I would have invested so much when I was younger.
07:21And not saying, like, invest financially.
07:23I'm saying invest in general.
07:25It could be financially.
07:26It could be time into something that you really value now.
07:29Just investing in anything.
07:31It could be a specific person.
07:33It could be school, whatever it is.
07:35But just start right away.
07:37Like, the minute you realize something that you want to do,
07:39do it right away and start investing that time into it.
07:43Well, since Nick stole mine, I'm just going to go.
07:46I'm going to go with my second best.
07:47And it's going to be environment.
07:49Your environment is key.
07:51Who you keep around you, what you listen to,
07:54who telling you you can't do it, who telling you you can do it.
07:57We say all the time, if you want to be a lawyer,
08:00don't go ask a doctor.
08:01Even though they may love you,
08:03they can't tell you exactly what a lawyer do on day-to-day basis.
08:07So you're not going to truly get what a lawyer does
08:09unless you go ask a lawyer and walk in their shoes.
08:13So if you want to be a business owner,
08:14you need to connect with other entrepreneurs.
08:16You need to put yourself inside communities.
08:18With the power of the Internet now,
08:20you can join communities with people from New York, Carolina, Cali, New Orleans.
08:27Anywhere you want, you can join these communities.
08:30And people are now sharing information.
08:32People are now just becoming more together.
08:36And you having a team is what's going to ultimately get you where you need to be.
08:40So environment is going to be key.
08:42I'm going to stay alive one the next time.
08:46All right.
08:46So y'all business has been, what, like 12 years y'all been in business?
08:49Yep.
08:49Okay.
08:50So what's y'all next vision?
08:54Honestly, it's stepping into more of what Nicholas is talking about.
08:57So recently we just created two more businesses.
09:00One, we're in the process of creating a nonprofit,
09:04which we call the Vision Foundation.
09:06We do so much stuff in the community already,
09:08but we don't have nothing that it's tied to.
09:10We're just doing it out of the goodness of our heart.
09:12But creating a lane and an avenue and a business for that
09:15so that way we can pull other people into helping and doing what we do too.
09:20And then it's going to be what Nicholas also talked about, the activate your vision.
09:23We are just touching the tip of the iceberg with the amount of information,
09:28the amount of community that we're going to be able to build
09:30with that activate your vision platform.
09:32It's because it can reach everybody in any place of the world.
09:36It's not just about having a T-shirt, but it's about doing live classes.
09:40It's about having that community.
09:41It's about getting knowledge through e-books and e-learning.
09:44So that way, once you go out into the world,
09:48you can navigate and you can position yourself to receive.
09:52Everybody isn't set up to receive, and that's what we just want to teach you.
09:57We want to teach you because that's the reason why you're not receiving,
10:00because your vehicle isn't set up.
10:02And once you get that vehicle set up, the sky's the limit.
10:06Facts.
10:06And I say, like, we don't know exactly where we're going to be at in the next 10 years,
10:10but really we want to enjoy the process, right?
10:12We want to keep learning.
10:13Every day we learn something, so we may transition to something else, you know,
10:17tomorrow or a week from now.
10:18But really we want to just keep enjoying the process and keep having fun with what we're doing
10:22so we can just keep growing the brand.
10:23So I appreciate you guys for joining me.
10:27So let everybody know where they can find y'all on social and y'all brand on social, too.
10:31Well, one, if anybody want to come support us and shop with us, we have a boot here today.
10:37It's going to be in the marketplace right across from the Target on the end.
10:42It's $4,308.
10:44You can come and shop with our boot.
10:46We have T-shirts for $20, shorts for $30, hats and socks for $10.
10:50So very, very affordable.
10:52Come get your drip.
10:54And if you want to follow us on social, you can follow us at World Envision.
10:58That's W-R-L-D-I-N-V-S-N.
11:02Once again, that's W-R-L-D-I-N-V-S-N.
11:07And you can follow us and you can also shop at www.worldenvision.com.
11:12And honestly, I just want to say thank you to everybody that came out and everybody that's supporting this.
11:17We need this type of event.
11:18We need these type of conferences.
11:19We need people to be on stage to continue to give this type of information and knowledge.
11:24And for one, y'all being here receiving it.
11:27Thank y'all so much.
11:28Appreciate y'all.
11:29Thank y'all.
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