Let’s remove the flooring of discrimination towards certain social groups. These negative stereotypes may prevent people from taking action towards their dreams by making them feel disadvantaged. As you read through our interview with Clayton Rodrigues, CEO and Founder at Zothex Flooring, Cabinets and more, you will see how creating a level playing field starts with the mind. We all have a mind, the ability to think and overcome. However, most of us don’t use it. We tend to give up at the first challenge, claiming we can’t do it. The quitting mentality is pretty prominent in society today. Mindset is something everybody has, and everybody has the ability to think, regardless of their upbringing, or any other factor. You have to say… How do I get out of here? What do I do to get to the next level? You define yourself in that moment. The point where we think and try to overcome an obstacle is where we begin to create equitable circumstances. The amount of thought and effort that it takes will vary from person to person. It can take a shift in emotion for an individual to want to change, what did it take for you? When I moved to the United States from Brazil it was challenging adjusting to the language barrier and culture change. Having to relearn 17 years of my life and not knowing how to talk to people was hard. Being brought up in Brazil, there was a huge lack of opportunity for betterment and advancement in life. The country isn’t built to empower people for growth, unfortunately, to get ahead in life, you need to cheat and steal, which are things I’m not willing to do. I also had to deal with the limited mindsets of some of my country mates that were in the United States longer than me. That type of stuff wears on you. It took people rejecting me for me to change my mindset to even remotely consider having a retail store. There were people coming after me just for the sake of it because they didn’t believe that I could make it happen. The owner told me, it was almost like a little bit of an alliance saying don’t employ Clayton. For 3 months I had no job, nobody to employ me in Sacramento because they saw I was trying to have my own company. “It was just me saying to myself, how do I make this happen?” I don’t want to get too much into race here but it does play a role, right. Being a black male limits my advances. Whether in this industry or any other, I don’t receive the same treatment.
Beneath the surface of physical or mental impairment are hidden capabilities. Listen, we shot a commercial, with a gentleman with one arm, also the first D1 basketball player to ever go D1. His mindset never told him not to go play basketball, or go do this or go do that. Here is what Clayton has to say about the line where we all share equality. It's the mindset. People do have this ability, this innate desire to overcome their disability whatever that is. Kind of like this gentleman that you mentioned, he does have that want, that drive. It may not be at the exact same level, but yes there is equality in the power of having the correct mindset. People made false assumptions about me all the time based on me coming from Brazil. To this day, I’m still questioned about the ways Zothex grew as a business. I don’t expect it to go away either, I just have to ignore the negative and keep pushing through. Now there are some things that are done to you as a person, that you are not responsible for. That could be coming from a pregnant mother that drinks a lot of alcohol, her kids may have a difficulty thinking straight. It’s just going to be hard. There is damage that occurs with that. While individuals with disabilities may not have had the same level of exposure or opportunities as those without disabilities, they do still have the ability to try and overcome their challenges.
Optimism is a constructive tool to get through the downs but don’t hide behind it. It is important to protect the younger generation from the unrealistic expectations of cemented happiness. Pushing creative thinking could unlock solutions to any obstacles the youth may face that expose them to emotions such as frustration and disappointment.
We have too much negativity out there today. Not only that, but the wrong kind of happiness is being promoted. People want to feel happy all the time, right. People want to feel good all the time. That is an impossible thing to do. Being optimistic means that through the ups and downs of what you go through, you want to see the positive outcome. You want to be optimistic about what the final outcome is.
You must understand, at some point there is going to be a down. Your heartbeat goes up and down, it doesn’t stay flat. If it’s flat then you are deceased. Our heart rates are not elevated all the time because that could lead to a heart attack. We have to understand that ups and downs are going to happen.
Influencers, at times, can create unrealistic expectations on social media platforms by saying you have to be happy. Yes you do and you want to make an effort towards it, but don’t think that’s happening all the time. Kind of like in a relationship, or marriage, it’s about percentages. If you think that you are going to be 100% good in that relationship, you are absolutely wrong. You may be 70/30, or maybe even 50/50 that is grounds for divorce. If you are 60/40 you may still have problems. However, to assume that you are at 100, I don’t think it's not doable but it’s not realistic.
So, promoting the right kind of being optimistic about life and anything in general, is important. Understanding that you have to have a positive mindset even though you are going to go through tough times. It gets ugly during the downs, this is where you find who you really are.
The place where weak spots are often revealed is within trials and tribulations. How have you overcome challenges as a company using creativity and optimism?
My upbringing had a lot to do with it. To build a brand like this, I had to work twice as hard.
In my mind I have to think, first prove it to you and second prove it to myself. So, how do I do that? The way that I’ve done it is by going back into what I had to go through.
I remember…
“My Mom said, “I’m leaving. You are 6 years old and supposed to take care of your brother. I’m going to be gone for probably 10 minutes, so don’t let him play too rough.”
My brother was playing with a tennis ball, he threw it and ended up breaking the glass window in our house. My Mom told me it was my responsibility, even though he did it.
She made me go sell magazines to pay back for that window. Realizing that, it just made me think that there is a lot more responsibility required of me. I have to maintain a certain level of discipline, and that’s how my creativity gets started, so to speak.
That is a very interesting story.
It all goes back to discipline. If you have it, it flows through what you do. If you don’t, it doesn’t necessarily.
Does Zothex promote equality, and if so, why do you prioritize this through your business?
Yes. I just did an Instagram video the other day about the point of growing a business. The financial situation is a good outcome but it shouldn't be the sole reason.
You need the right kind of people to grow a business, period. Do what you can to provide them the best opportunities. You have traits and qualities that I don’t possess, and your ability to make things happen is better than mine in some aspects, right. I need to be able to utilize your qualities, and you can benefit from this experience.
By seeing Laron for who he is and what he can bring. By seeing Oscar and all these people for who they are. I am bringing people together, on an equal level. There’s no discrimination on whether or not there is a gender, there is a race. I want to bring everybody together, to see what they can cook together, right. What can we come up with together?
For being somebody from out of the country to come here and see how it is, and realizing, man, yeah, it can happen. I just need people that are invested in the same exact mindset that I am, then equality happens. Then, creativity happens. Then, optimism happens. Right, because they see, man I have the ability of actually being at a job where I feel recognized. A place where I feel people want me here. They feel that, right.
People who don’t show up, don’t interact, have no value, no care. I don’t want that.
So, you understand the value of being creative, and overcoming obstacles and all that. What would you say to a company or a person who is having an issue being creative? What information could you give them on having optimism to overcome their trials and tribulations? It doesn't have to be business, it could be family or anything. The way I look at overcoming trials is I think that there is no other way. I create this tunnel vision where you can't really get me out. That’s it. Eminem has this song from the movie 8 Mile where he says, “this is the only moment, you have to seize this moment. You have to get it.” For the longest time that was my song. I was still out doing labor and all this other stuff. I was like man, there is no other way, there is no other plan. People ask, what is your plan B and it’s always to make plan A work. So, I keep going back to, if anybody really wants to become something. Understand that if you persevere, if you push, if you keep driving, it will happen. Right. Now, how long does it take to happen? I can't tell you because it goes differently for everybody. It took me 18 years, if I look back, and I tell myself it will take you 18 years to own a company that will be successful, I would have been like man you must be out of your mind. You know, but, that’s how long it took to overcome all this. There’s more coming, now I’m dealing with other trials, right. Other tribulations, the way I look back, the only way for me to make this happen is to keep going at it hard. Every single day, so I'd say don't give up but also look into whether it is really for you, and does it make sense for you to persevere for you to keep knocking on the wall. If it does, tunnel vision it.
If you could rearrange the way you put the pieces together while building your brand, what would you do differently I would look for mentorship and talk to people that have made it a lot sooner. I would believe in it as a bigger, broader thing. I would believe in it as it is now. Because at first, I didn’t. At first, i just thought, Ok this is just a gig, this is me just trying to see what’s going to happen. Why didn’t you want to seek help I didn’t fully believe in it. You understand, so, when you are out there slanging floors from a 1996 GMC K1500, and you are loading that carpet, you are thinking about this, you are not thinking about having 50 employees, or 60 or 100. You are not thinking about any of that. You are not thinking about extending your brand. You are thinking about, today I’m going to be laying out some floors. That’s all you think about. Going for help at that stage didn’t mentally make sense. Now that I look back, yeah I should have probably gone to talk to somebody, maybe they would have dismissed me but ultimately, if I feel like I got help before, I would have probably got to this point sooner. I don’t know, I feel things happen for a reason but believing in myself was a very big challenge for me, from the very beginning. How do you feel we can strengthen schools with more life awareness skills and strategies, education in general Kids today need to be taught real life skills. They need to know how to negotiate and what it takes to make it on their own. Again, it goes back to how you have to be happy all the time. This is where we are weakening our system, our kids, by teaching them that. People need to go through a little bit of hell to be able to make it out. If you don't then, you got to at least be at a point where you are like man I can't do this. This is too hard. Or you got to be at a point where you are working at McDonalds, and you're there constantly and your manager is yelling at you and you're like man. If you don't have that experience you can’t come out on the other side. I have my thoughts from our own kids, I got two little boys and I’m, in my mind I already know. I want them one, cleaning up the warehouse, I want them dumping trash. I don’t want them to come here and work. I want them to go to McDonalds and Starbucks to work. I want to put them through Dutch Bros at 5am and sling coffee, for at least a year. Something different, don’t deal with Dad because Dad has a soft heart for you, on one side. I’ll be tough on them too.
Teaching youth how to channel their energy to push through real life situations
They have to understand that right. I came to this country working with my Dad on flooring. We would leave Sacramento at 6am and do 3-4 apartments out in Richmond and then come back at 3 in the morning. The whole day from 6am to 3am, come back, sleep for an hour. Go to the shop, pick up another 3-4 apartments and go back to do it again. For 3 months. No sleep, I’m 17 years old, if I didn’t go through that I couldn’t look back and say yeah I went through some hell.
The lack of sleep alone, I mean sure I’m 17 so I do have a lot of energy but you have to understand, if that wasn’t channeled correctly, Would this happen? That energy, it could go anywhere. So kids need to go through some hell, they have to have some real life skills. We protect a lot and it’s understandable. Laron, you're a Dad, I'm a Dad. You don’t want to see your kids suffer. You show me what you do with your kids, and I’m very impressed because that is the way of teaching them how to endure stuff. In the future you're not going to be here, you will be gone. How do they think for themselves? What do they do? I think our educational system is very flawed and it's failing hard.
Real life skills is where it’s at.
Opening up about how much creativity and optimism is important to our generation is huge. Often not stressed enough.
I believe without creativity we wouldn't have as many great inventions that we do so I feel it is very important to promote creativity and optimism.
Growing your mind during times of stress or anger or depression is extremely hard. Sometimes we are so stuck in the moment of what’s happening to us, instead of thinking that it’s happening for us. One of the biggest trials was starting a business during Covid. There was a lot of uncertainty if the world would open back up, but through faith and belief I was able to be creative during the pandemic and learn new skills like editing and content creation.
Well Rothstein, we know you by your stage name. Tell us a little about yourself and what exactly it is you do in a nutshell. What team do you have surrounding yourself in regards to the functions of your brand and entity’s?
My Name is Stanley Harris and I am the CEO of Casino Gang Records and Rothstein School Of Beatz and on my board is: Jackie Bush: PR and Strategic partnerships ,Dr. Doc Horton: Business and Marketing,
Dr. Clinton Robinson III: Education and Leadership, Salima Ramos: Director of Admissions
, Arjuna Arthur: Head Of A &R
Having like minded people around you is one of the most important things you can have in a strong foundation. They will go based off how you view the world, your beliefs and morals as a person. In your industry, do you believe equality of opportunity is available to whomever pursues a similar path as you.
I believe all art is subjective to whoever enjoys what the creative created. I know we have to categorize music in different genres but I believe we all have a space for different types of listeners.
It’s not easy to overcome hurdles that are personally affecting you. It interferes with your creative process. It interferes with your motion. There are ways to break through that funk however. Life can be tough at times, but so are you! It's not easy, but we all have to make that decision. It’s hard to stay creative, it’s work!
It is hard to stay creative because the internet causes everything to move fast and you don't want to be doing 2012 marketing and promotions in a 2023 world. Nowadays you have to use social media by doing reels to get seen by your followers so you have to keep changing with the times.
Finding people who will share not only to our younger generation but also reaching the minds and spirits of any age demographic is EvenRights main desire. To spread an equality mind set, even if your circumstances put you behind the eight ball. Your subconscious mind is your most valuable asset.
I have always stated my stance on equality which is that we all are made by God and no one person is better than the next so lets equally support and build each other up instead of always going by what we see.
If there were three things you could have done differently, earlier, or better while building your brand, what would it have been? Have more capital instead of self financing, bring in experts to assess my business before opening, and intern with a company that was already in business.
Sometimes we can be stubborn as adults. We’re talking about seasoned adults who have experienced a good amount of life. With wisdom, but still sometimes we carry traits that give us one sided opinions on a lot of things. Taking the time now to cater to a primarily adult audience. What can we teach our adult audience to do in order to be examples of equality for our youth?
Don’t be afraid to take the time to understand what the youth like so you can build rapport and show that you are interested in them instead of always trying to talk down to them.
Do you believe in the right to bear arms & how important do you think it is to be able to do so?
I believe every legal, law-abiding citizen should be able to protect themselves and bear arms, but we need more education on how to safely store guns so kids are not able to access them. As well as training people to de-escalate situations while carrying a gun.
Taking the guns out of peoples hands is not the way to go in our society today. Guns help save peoples lives, however misuse of any weapon can be devastating to our society. Do you think educational tutorials for police officers of how equality, creativity and optimism may be able to help better their decision making they are forced to make in the field.
Yes I believe training officers how to make a logical decision while under pressure is vital because we have seen many situations go bad due to poor decision making or prejudices.
Now jumping back into our school district, what are ways where we can improve. Starting young is there anything more that we can be teaching our younger generation. To get them ahead in the way they think; their mindsets. We know there are plenty of prestigious schools, however for the schools who don’t have the upper financial support, how can we strengthen the curriculum with more life awareness skills and strategies?
We need to teach more credit education as well as life skills such as how to change a tire or how to build a house or even how to cook so we can stop eating out so much as a country. It is good to memorize the periodic table but I'm not using that in my day to day life.
We sometimes look at prison as a bad thing. For a majority of people, it’s actually something that really benefited them. Sometimes prison can be glorified as well and our younger generation should not glorify anything that has not rehabilitated their mental state of mind for the better. However, would you support the bill to eliminate private prisons?
I believe if there are going to be private prisons, it should really give the people mental health support and counseling to help understand why people make the decisions they do, and how they can make better choices if they are able to return back to society. But if they are going to be just as bad as the others then they need to close.
EvenRights is a platform where finding people from all walks of life, age, race and location demographics and even financial boundaries are what we seek to find as many different answers as we can. We asked Music Artist Saura how do you feel creativity and optimism is important to our generation? Creativity is the starting point of all great things in life. It doesn’t matter what you do or what you specialize in, there is a common ground that all ‘creatives’ have and it sparks a wildfire of imagination. Optimism is as important now as it has been since time began. The difference between the average person and the dreamer is optimism, it’s the way they think, it’s the driving force inside them which allows for thoughts to become actions - this should not be lost with time.
Now not everyone will see eye to eye, but we can all agree to have an opinion. We can all agree to have a decision, we can all agree to have the traits of creativity and optimism. We can all agree that we were brought into this world from a woman. Everyone has their own ways of dealing with issues or hurdles in life. Its important to EvenRights that we get out as many examples of overcoming issues and trials of tribulations.
Saura, how have you overcome a trial and tribulation as an artist using creativity and optimism? The field of music is one of the most saturated places to work/live in. It is one of the most tiring places to be in. If you really want something, I believe the journey will drain you, but what keeps you going is the little wins along the way, I view these as little deposits of energy to keep me going. I have lost my way so many times (mentally) as an artist due to the questions of ‘is this really even worth it?’, ‘will anyone actually listen to me?’, ‘how do I know i’m not just wasting my time here?’ constantly staring me in the face. This is where optimism and belief in your creativity to just do that performance, just go to the studio, just write that song, just contact that DJ for that chance to get radio play really comes in need.
It's such a way of life that you need to master when you are mentally in the mind set of treating others how you want to be treated . Doing good business even with the person spending the least amount of money with you. Respecting the janitor as you would the CEO. Never judging anyone from their skin color, sex or religion. At times it is easy to forget, but in order to push our young generation to better opportunity's or even an abundance of resources, it starts with the belief of respect and equality. What are your beliefs of how we can all be characterized as equal, being we all have the trait of being creative and optimistic. I agree - I believe that every human has the ability to harness these two attributes as they are human traits. They do not come as naturally to some as others and this is why I believe that not everybody is a ‘creative’. There are certain people that want to be the forward force of constant change and progression in a specific industry, be it fashion, music, cinematography, acting, poetry, nature, art, etc. They are all different but alike as creativity is at the root of them all.
Often times people see the end result and want just that. Not everyone is willing to accept the challenges that come with the goal they want to achieve. Its important to know that we all have our own cross to carry. We can all have our own accomplishments and our own success if we accept the accountability you must have any goal . How hard is it to stay creative and what would you say to somebody experiencing this same issue. Being creative and staying creative are two separate things entirely. It’s easy for someone to start a task, but to ensure the goal is met requires determination and passion. My best advice to anyone reading this who may one day find it hard to stay on the path is to remember when and why you started. The ‘when’ will show you that you’re either being too hard on yourself because you haven’t allowed yourself to mature and blossom into something great yet, or it will show you how much you have done already. The ‘why’ is the most important as it allows you to reconnect with your younger and former-self, the dreamer, the aspirational individual who wasn’t phased by the competition and decided to go for it anyway. The answer to both of these questions should be celebrated regularly.
It never stops here. it starts with us embedding this way of thinking in our DNA. At least that's the goal for EvenRights, to have people take away jewels to apply to their everyday life. Will equality be something your brand will promote after this publication ? Equality should have always been the staple of society. My branding as an artist is ‘SweetSavage’ and this demonstrates the balance between two opposites. Whether it be light and dark, good and bad or love and hate, it is the apparent oxymoron of life that every human faces at some point. My music is geared to strike a balance between the two and to allow them to co-exist. For example, not every bad action has bad intentions and so it could have been done for a good reason - it is the ability to understand this which will allow individuals to better communicate and grow. Taking my branding as an example of my outlook on life, it all starts with the willingness to understand one another and then applying this in everyday situations to find the equilibrium which will lead us to a harmonious life as equals.
After speaking with Ang Amaya publicist for Saura it was apparent his team was extremely well thought out and had a natural chemistry. Good structure is the outcome of great results. His main Dj being the well known Dj Ice Mike , main recording engineer Levelle London, main producer AndImRightHere and his main sponsor
House of Kings.
Its safe to say his team has the compacity to accomplish moving mountains I have a relatively small team but there is a whole lot of work that gets done and that is a credit to the hard work that goes into my brand every day. From exposure, to radio play, to sponsorships from great individuals and businesses who believe in my vision, it is amazing to know that I can touch the hearts of many who feel comfortable enough to pack a bag and join me on my journey if the values I display match their own. There are always things we can do better in the future . Understanding your craft and perfecting it until you cant get it wrong is what separate's the professionals from the armatures If there were three things you could have done different, earlier , or better while building your brand . What would it have been? It would be to act as a professional from early stages. There is a lot of competition and only the fierce will survive. The aim is for people to take you seriously and this can only happen if you believe in yourself and so it needs to look like that. There is a fine line between cockiness and confidence, this is something I’ve always understood and been good at living in the middle of. I have always known that I’ve had a talent, I was just too modest in thinking that I wasn’t ready to trial this or to attempt that, and in doing that I have let a few opportunities pass me by, but the truth is, nobody is going to take the step for you. It has to be you and it has to be now!
Taking the time to cater to a primarily adult audience. What can we teach our adult audience to do in order to be examples of equality for our youth. I would say that as adults have lived more life than the youth and have a better grasp on how things have been and how they have now progressed, they should do more to celebrate these changes and point out the injustices as much as possible. Children grow up to be like their parent most times, this means that they believe you to be right in every instance because why would you lie to them? There is a power in ensuring that the knowledge instilled in a child is correct and just, as this will follow them for life. The truth is, I believe that the youth are the only ones that can truly change the world.
Do you believe in the right to bear arms & how important do you think it is to be able to do so in this day and age. I will never believe this is ok and I will never believe in the need to do so, whether it be for defense or attack. The whole existence of arms gave an unfair advantage to those that wielded swords/shields and spears and since this time, the nature of arms hasn’t changed as it is still typically the disadvantaged that suffer. I’m from London where bearing arms is illegal (even though the gun crime here is still insane) but I couldn’t imagine walking outside knowing that anyone and everyone is allowed to have a gun ‘just incase’.
How can we strengthen the curriculum of schools with more life awareness skills and strategies . I'm a huge advocate of introducing basic but essential lessons to the school curriculum WORLDWIDE. This would include; budgeting lessons, understanding tax, living away from home and the struggles that you may face, the importance of savings/how to save money, what career progression in a workplace could look like (with an estimated timescale included), techniques on how to negotiate, increased awareness of sexual health, understanding what cultural ignorance is and how to avoid it (perhaps more long-haul school trips to different countries), understanding what equality is and how your generation can help, etc. These are just a few examples but I believe that all of the above was not taught to me in great detail and I had to just learn once I was in these situations which I should have and could have been better prepared for.
