An Inspired Chat with Joe Louis of Kalamazoo

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Joe Louis. Check out our conversation below.

Joe, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What are you chasing, and what would happen if you stopped?
Out of all the questions I believe this was the most interesting one because it is the most complex question yet the most simplest of answers I believe. A lot of people are chasing a lot of things and often do stop just to chase another thing and then there are some of us that chase this thing that makes us feel as if once we stop chasing it life is over, the game ends, and we’ll die. Life may not end right-away we but our light dims out if we stop chasing. And I’m one of those people. It becomes hard to say exactly what I’m chasing but in the most simplest forms I’m chasing my higher self. I do believe if I stop this chasing of my higher self or the best version of myself and all of the things that come with being the best version of myself: that I’ll wither away and I won’t amount to anything. I’ll only be as good as the dust on the ground and that I won’t play a valuable role in society and I do believe that the game of life would be over if I were to just stop chasing my higher self without having to obtain my higher self in the chase.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
There were moments in life where a person asked me who was I who is my brand I would say “I’m Joe Louis, I’m a Producer I’m an artist I’m an engineer I’m a talent manager I’m a consultant I’m all of the things you need me to be I can make anything that you need me to be”. And this is what I thought was great branding this is what I thought would propel my business this is what I thought would give me into the entertainment industry and it did all those things however it was inauthentic branding. And the most authentic of introductions I’ve been learning to say “hi I’m Joe Louis, I’m a recording artist I’m an entertainer”. In a brand that has been rebranding for the last two years I have learned that it is not important to brand my skills rather than it is important to let people know what I plan on doing with my skill set via branding. In this transition of the last two years we’ve gone just from those two different quotes; we’ve gone from being a service base company and being in producer, engineer, manager, writer and now we are only focused on our own creativity and we are focused on our own music and that’s the new brand of Joe Louis. The Joe Louis brand is all things Joe Louis, for Joe Louis, by Joe Louis.

Okay, so here’s a deep one: Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I was unhappy when society told me who I had to be and I became joyful once the world/the universe told me not who I had to be but allowed me to see who I AM. I believe that society and people demand one thing from others, and the universe in the world will demand another thing from others. When I assumed that the world was society and that the world was people and when I listen to these people assuming they were the world; I only paid attention to those people and not myself, I did not make the my own music, I was not as creative as I should be, I looked at my art form as a money maker and not art, I turned my passion into profit. When the world told me what was needed of me and who I had to be joy came to me and never left. When the world told me that I have to be a creator of my own music, I have to be the recording artist, I need to be the live streamer, I have to be at the podcast host, I have to be the face card entertainer and I need to focus on myself as a talent… Any moment before the world told me these things of who I had to be especially moments where I wasn’t listening, those are moments that don’t matter that’s a version of me I’m choosing to not chase.

When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
I stopped hiding my pain and using it as power when I only had pain to give. Power has to come from some source, we deem “power” by a metrics of energy, if there is enough energy and something is turned on we’ll say that it has power. Even if there is some energy and the device is not turned on we would not say it has power although there is some energy within the device, just not enough to “power it on”, like having one working battery in a remote control. Power is merely enough energy to sustain certain types of action, I had so much pain that it became the source of energy for power by default. There are moments in life that we have where we realize that if we don’t keep going we won’t keep going because the pain is so great. I had to stop hiding my pain and using it as power when there was no more gas or energy in my vehicle to get me going. It felt like I had no more motivation, I had no more joy and all I had was pain and pain wouldn’t start the car but there was so much pain that there was power. The motor might not have started on the car with this energy but I started driving my car like Fred Flintstone just to get somewhere and to get it going into show and while the only energy source I may have had is pain, this pain is power, this pain will get me somewhere and I channeled it in a way to that allowed me to start and to continue moving forward. I had to stop hiding the pain because other people were showing me my own pain, I had to start using it as power because it was the only source of energy that I had. There was a moment where paying was my gratitude, pain was my peace, pain was my love, pain was my joy, pain was everything and pain was nothing. I had no choice but to transmute my pain into my power.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes the public version of me is the real me. The public version of me is not all of me, but the public version of me is the real me. I am very confident in saying that the public version of me is the real me, because part of the transition that I’ve been making over the last two years is learning how to be authentic to the public as a live streamer. Traditionally in the entertainment industry whether be film & TV or music we are taught not to be the real version of you in public and to be the character version of the brand that you’re putting together. This is a method that used to work but in this new modern era authenticity is the real currency. I have the privilege of only focusing on my own audience, my own community, my own music, and only the things that I want to do, so it is very easy to give the public a real version of me because I’m only interacting with the public that cares for the real version of me.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I would continue life, working, loving and living just as I am right now. Every day I look to make sure I am only doing things that promote legacy, and that promote the generations of my family. I take each day one day at a time, knowing that each day I made progress towards the ultimate goal. Therefore I would not stop anything I am doing because I know I am always properly working towards the ultimate goal.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: http://instagram.com/joelouis.ent/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joelouis-ent
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@joelouis.ent

  https://open.spotify.com/artist/2futB1nGBUDBpGHaqHuwG9

Image Credits
Joe Louis Entertainment, LLC