The Voices for Voices Podcast Episode 42 with Guest, NYPD Detective, Maxine Corners

Welcome to the Voices for Voices podcast sponsored by Redwood Living

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before we get started today just wanted to do a couple quick event announcement for our viewers our

listeners and those reading through our transcript as we go live with

this episode the first ever the first annual World Voices for Voices day is

going to be held on May 25th of 2023. that's on a Thursday please check our

social media accounts Instagram and Facebook for more details on what that is going

to entail but I can tell you today it will at least entail a bonus episode of

our Voices for Voices podcast really given a day for celebration and what we

call celebrating the voice in all of us and then secondly, we are absolutely

thrilled to be able to put on our third annual a brand-new day Gala and

fundraiser and we have our save the data out there and ticket information and sponsorship information is going to be

available but please mark your calendar for Friday October 13th I saved 2023

from 6 30 to 8 30. we are going to be holding this year's event at the Leona

Ferris Lodge which is at the Silver Springs Lodge at Silver Springs Park

5027 Stow Road Stow Ohio 44224 it's going to be another

evening of music of inspiration of our sign language and interpretation and

just celebrating the story and the voice in all of us through uh

whatever our voice may be we don't have limitations we just have things that

make us different and are able to share in a valuable way to many people out

there not only in Northeast Ohio Across the Nation in the United States but

across the world as well as we have viewers and listeners and supporters and

donors coming from all over the world which is really a goal and when the

organization started a couple years ago that was a goal that I wasn't sure how

long how long it would take but we're already working towards that so thank you to everybody who has been a

part of Voices for Voices and continues to be in into the future

today I am very excited to welcome our guests from New York State

she is a New York Police Department NYPD detective a holistic nutritionist and

also a media content creator please welcome to the Voices for Voices

podcast Maxine corner thank you so much for joining us today

thank you so much for having me I am so excited to be here you bet yeah when the

opportunity came across of seeing some

information and content from your LinkedIn profile in looking a little bit deeper into your

your background obviously LinkedIn we can get a high level about individuals and for obvious

reasons we don't want to share information especially with your

line of work have to have to behave to be you know safe about that very

thrilled to have you with us to talk about everything all about you as uh

what led you into your career at the NYPD that can really talk to some of our

individuals looking for careers and then get into you know what the what the

day-to-day is like and what the what the what the type of a toll it takes on you physically mentally you know

regardless of the politics and that aside but just the job the job specifically and then we can probably step into then your

nutritionist your holistic offerings and how you work that route and

and then we can get into the content because I know that you also have been able to share through different

media Outlets about you so why don't we just take it from the start how did you

get interested in law enforcement right this it's so funny I this

story of how I started in law enforcement was just mere coincidence now

I was taking this my sister was going to take the exam for a police officer and I

just went along with her and as I was going along with her, I took the test I

passed and she did not die yes, and she decided that she did not

want to be a police officer she ended up going another route instead and my

boyfriend at the time who is not my husband because I was working at a job, but it was a department store and it

wasn't really there were no real benefits involved in it there were no uh

promotion opportunities I really didn't see myself going far in this particular

position as and then I began to talk to my boyfriend who's not my husband at the

time and he was saying you know what I think you should go for it, and I was

like I don't know and then you know with his persistent and also him helping

me along the way and telling me listen if you want to have a career

and especially if you're not sure where exactly you want to go at that time although I was 27, I really wasn't sure

what I wanted to do I did graduate from Hunter College with my bachelor’s in communications and

I knew I wanted to do something in the media, but I wasn't sure exactly what I

wanted but in my mind, it was not the police department and so as I began to go along with the

process and I became a police officer and

eventually got promoted into being a detective a second-grade detective which

is what I am doing now for 19 plus year I will be retiring soon

um within the next few months of course that would be 20 years and I would love

to say my experience in the NYPD has been completely amazing I have learned

so much from just people in the public I've learned so much from my co-workers

and I've also learned a lot about myself as well I learned that my

um my ability to deal with certain things is higher than I thought you know

because I'm able to emphasize empathize with people and feel what they're going

through and then I am there to let them know listen it's gonna be okay you know

I am here to help you so one of the reasons why people do call 911 99.9 of the times or I should say

100 of the times is for help right because that's what that we're there to do and I go out there and I put 100 each

and every day in my job and I can absolutely tell you without a shadow of a doubt that I love doing what I do

absolutely love it you know it's the times when you help someone especially

if someone has a child and they want you to come and just speak to that child to let them know that listen I am from this

community look at me look what I have accomplished in my life you too can

accomplish that you just have to stay on the right path, and you can do it and then sometimes I'll see people that I've

actually worked with and helped and they'll come to me, and they'll say oh wow like thank you so much for helping

me thank you so much for talking to my son or my daughter or they'll come up to

you and they'll say hey my daughter something simple like my daughter wants to be a police officer she's never seen

a police officer and where we're from you know and then they want to take a picture with you and just that just them

seeing someone that looks exactly like them a female that's a police officer that they've never seen and where

they're from and that gives them the opportunity to say you know what I too can accomplish this as well

which I absolutely love you know how does that

how does that make you feel when you are in those instances where you are able to help with you know whether it's uh

just you know speaking with it with a child and sharing information uh

that you know we're here to help and yes you can continue to go forward

and you know go ahead and you know chase your dreams it's still you're still able to dream and go after that how do those

instances just make you feel from like an emotional side you know when I speak to someone from an

emotional side I feel I feel happy it makes me feel happy inside like I feel

like I am accomplishing something you know I'm just I'm just not just there I

am helping as well and I would like to think that what I'm doing or what I'm saying to that person has made a

difference in their lives or will make a difference in their lives and so that makes me feel very happy and

accomplished you know especially like now in my career it means a lot more

because when I was younger in my career, I didn't really appreciate all the help that I was given to people but now that

I can actually like sit back and have someone tell me wow thank you so much

officer I really needed that thank you for talking to me thank you for

explaining this situation to me I understand now and because of you I have

changed you know that makes me feel really good inside warm and fuzzy yeah

nothing I absolutely love it I'm telling you I love it you know especially like

working in a city like New York City police department and to have someone come up to you and tell you like thank

you thank you for what you're doing or thank you for just helping the community thank you so much that means a

lot that means a lot you know so I love it yeah and I can't believe I got

this far without thanking you for your service and all that you've done up until now and

to finish out your career and be able to retire what do you

had mentioned that you found yourself being able to handle whatever those situations are better than you

thought are there things that you look back maybe in your life that may have

may prepared you for it just at like a high level of like okay well I didn't

realize this at the time but maybe a particular set of circumstances or a

thing that happened to you or does somebody that you're like oh wow I was able to do that at a at a younger age

and so now that I in the in the police force that you're able to actually continue that

and kind of surprise yourself maybe a little bit like you said right you know what absolutely because

working in the department store and dealing with customers who are upset at

you because they want to return something and then there's nothing that you can do to help them let's say they

don't have a receipt or something like that there's nothing that you can do right so that without thinking knowing

that that was preparing me for this job as a police officer because I have to

learn to listen listening is so important and we don't think about how

important it is to listen to someone and what I also realized is sometimes people will come to you they'll be upset but

then what I learn is like they're not really upset at you they're upset at the situation they're upset that they've

been waiting here for 20 minutes and now you come so now that you're there they're taking it out on you but they're

really upset at the situation they're not really mad at you and then I have to separate myself from the situation and

now I am there in a sense where I have to say to myself okay this person is not

mad at me they're mad at a situation that they're going through right now and so by not taking it personally and

thinking that that person is personally attacking me I am able to better analyze

better understand better emphasize and give better directions and answer

their questions in a better way without feeling like overwhelmed or without feeling like this

person is attacking me you know so I can't feel like someone is attacking me

even if they are attacking me with words, I still have to remain calm and just

realizing that okay this person is already upset now I'm here and then they're still upset I just have to

de-escalate is the word I should be using this de-escalated and don't make it worse than what it is so if I go in

there and I am yelling and screaming at that person then I realize that's just gonna escalate the situation, so I try to

go in and de-escalate and not taking it not taking it personal so from working

at the department stores and all those jobs have prepared me now for this

opportunity that that I that I became a police officer and a detective at that

and sometimes in life I realized that you don't you don't

see that life is preparing you for something else you never understand the reasons why you are thrown in some

situations and at the time the situation may seem like oh my God this is so bad

this is horrible I can't wait to be, but I can't wait for it to be over but then you realize like oh now I see now I

see what's going on now I see why this happened because if this didn't happen I

wouldn't have learned to deal with this situation whatever that situation is right so that's pretty much just

preparing being prepared I just used all my experiences that I had

um working in those believe it or not like I said the stores the department stores people coming at you they're very upset there's something that they don't

like and that really helps a lot along with the training in the police department has really helped me a lot as

well I'm glad you mentioned all those experiences that they prepared you no matter what they were it didn't have

to be experience that was directly related to law enforcement to give you

you know those transferable skills that you were gaining those throughout your life leading up into that point and

I'm sure even when you were going for your bachelor's you know being in those situations of being in groups of people

just not trying to take things personally and just you know working with them to get the project finished

just so you could continue on and as an instructor that's one thing that I try to instill a

little bit to my students as well you know just because you're a student doesn't mean you're not gaining the skills a lot of the skills you have that

you're gaining working as a team’s doing projects presenting speaking those

are all things you can go to an interview and speak to those that know how much time and energy you

put into that that's up to them but the actual experience themselves they're given those opportunities so what

would you say if you know somebody's watching many Somebody's Watching

listening interested in law enforcement might not be what would be

some things you would share with them the positives that you touch on

a little bit but to maybe help somebody along in into that point of what do I

need to do to go ahead to be a police officer you know not handle a weapon

well I don't like guns or what are some of the things that might be helpful to individuals that you know might be

going through that that same path just like you Maxine right you know what as far as like

handling weapons that's something that you will learn in the police academy so

that would not be an issue at all and like I said life gives you challenges

and there's nothing that you can't overcome if you have a dream, and you want to accomplish it whatever

it may be law enforcement doctors nurse a garbage person whatever the whatever

it is that you want to accomplish you cannot be held back because you're

scared you know you can't be afraid because you're scared of what's going to

happen you just have to go right in and do it because look at me I would have never thought that I am here now almost

ready to retire NYPD you know second grade and it's

amazing that's what I'm saying like, and I do have to give my husband credit because how do you not pushed me and say

listen you can do this right so sometimes you do need that person also in your life to let you know that you

can do it right even when you're doubting yourself you can do it and then you have to start believing that you can

do it and once you believe that you can do it and then you put your mind to it and then you just you just do it you

know like the commercial yeah and I mean in the NYPD not just one

of the top agencies in the United States but I mean really in the world I mean that's it's well known across the world

so again you you're accomplishing a dream and you're being able to share

kind of that mentorship experience with others just like with us

today and those experiences that you continue to have with you know children or families de-escal day it is just

talking through situations with them and I think that's so awesome uh

because there is a lot of positive things happening and that's what I think we

just continue to need that we need people to continue to your point of

helping us along to help guys so something was in your husband that says you know I need the support yes

anyone could be a stranger you know look at you and what you're doing this is this is so great you know you're

bringing all this awareness mental health you're helping people I think that's amazing you know and not for

profit that's even better so I think this is this is great so you don't have to be a police officer you it could just

be anyone on the street that could influence you know so I just think it's just it's just it's just great

it's just great right yeah maybe we could now transition into the

uh the nutrition side and how you got interested just in in that industry that

field what kind of brought you into that and how and I think helping

people was a big part of it just it right it's the same thing like with the being a detective just a different way

of helping people so maybe you know they're individuals out there that have the same interests that that

you have and had so would you be able to share a little bit about that sure you know Growing up in a

Caribbean household and we eat these really Sometimes good sometimes

really unhealthy Foods most of which are fried, and I saw my mom develop

diabetes and high blood pressure and

I wanted to help I said what can I do to help someone else to help them get

healthier to let them know that there's other Alternatives like oil you can change your oil out

something simple like that you can go from white rice to brown rice you can

start having quinoa there's all these other options that you have because For

Me growing up I didn't know that in my head there was only one option and that

was just rice or potatoes and then we had a lot of starchy food as well which you know start your food especially if

you have diabetes that's no-good right and that's all I grew up eating so I

wanted to find a way to help people and what

better way than to become a holistic nutritionist and to spread the word about health how important it is because

to me your body is like a well-oiled machine right it's like a car if you don't take care of your car, you know

you take care of your car I should say take care of your car better than you take care of your body right you take your car you get it washed you get it

polished you do all these things but then when it comes to our body our minds

we don't take care of it we just don't you know now I'm not saying that you

can't go out and enjoy whatever you considered enjoying a specific kind of food that you love but you also have to

incorporate a healthy version as well and you can still enjoy because you know

I have a lot of clients that would say to me oh but, but I love this food and I can't have anything else and then

to them it's only because they haven't had other options and they also haven't

learned another way of cooking they only know frying and I have to say listen to you can sauté you know you can boil there's

so many different ways you can Grill there's so many different ways that you can cook and make it healthier it

doesn't always have to be fried and fried and fried there's many different

ways that you can cook the same food that you enjoy and make it healthier so

that's what I try to do I try to say okay here you are you're having this particular food and

you want to make it better sometimes like I said it's just changing out the oil

um add different spices Curry things like that a little turmeric you know those spices are great as well they are

anti-inflammatory especially when we're talking about turmeric so stuff like that, I try to let people know that

there's different spices that you can use as well and then you don't have to use a lot of these chemicals like the

MSG you have to be careful I speak to them about reading your nutrition facts

labels you know yes, I found that a lot of people don't understand how to

read the labels right because yeah, it's a lot of information yeah and it

really does get confusing right because when you look at a label and it says uh

200 calories and take for example a bag of chips right you would look at it and

it would say 200 calories and then you're thinking to yourself oh okay I eat this bag of chips it's 200 calories

but if you read the fine prints, it said 10 chips yeah you gotta start

multiplying yes and the servant size is four serving so

eat in this bag you multiply that by far you know so you're gonna do two

four six eight you're eating 800 calories not 200 calories so a lot of

stuff that that you also have to educate people in, and I also have to educate them in how to read the nutrition facts

label which is very important especially when it comes to nutrition you have to know, and I do notice though

a lot now that I don't know if you noticed let me know that on the back of

most of the products now you have to scan to see the ingredients yeah, they want you to

take that extra step I store they looked, and I was like what is

this oh wow you have to scan that's interesting so to me that's actually new a lot of the products are starting to

come out with where you have to scan with a phone to read and a lot of older people I would say are not really

understanding now they have to first it takes forever to learn how to use the phone you know I have a lot of family

members have difficulty understanding that now you have to give them a phone and then they have to scan it, so I mean

the whole thing is like but it's a process right like anything else you have to learn one step at a time so

that's where we are so how do you Market your business and

what you do how when you got started in in this particular industry how uh

you know going from being able to help your family and then looking outward of

how you can help other people as well so for somebody that might be looking to

get into a business what where you don't have to share any Trade Secrets but just you know at a high level if somebody's

interested what they could do absolutely you know what it it's not complicated I'm gonna tell you that

everything takes time right there is no overnight success right the

challenge is it's how long it takes you to get there and once you're there that's your reward, so I am going to say

for me I started out just you know I took my test I became the holistic

nutritionist and I said to myself okay now where do I go from here, I started looking at YouTube right and I said ah

what better way to Market myself than to open a YouTube channel yeah and I

started opening my YouTube channel and I started talking about just health and

fitness and mental health and everything because it all has to do you know comes

together and once I open up my YouTube channel, I just started cooking I started talking

to an audience and I now I have to say I'm very happy I have over 12 000

subscribers on my Maxine's Corner YouTube channel awesome congratulations on that that's huge yes and like I said

it wasn't an overnight thing it took time and then I said oh let me go to

Instagram right and then I went on to Instagram and there I have 13 000

followers and like I said it wasn't something that happened overnight, and the world has changed so much

changed so much that it is so much easier now to get out there

meaning with social media it's much easier and had it not been for YouTube

or probably Instagram it would take me a little longer you know but that has

helped me a lot and the fact that I love what I'm doing right so the first thing is you have to love what you're doing

because like I was saying before the reward is not going to be as soon as you start because I realized that a lot of

people they want to get rewarded right away it's kind of like well why isn't

happening right now why can't I see the results right now and I try to say listen what you're going through right

now that's the challenges that's what's gonna make you strong and then

when you get to where you are that's the reward that's it right there right so it's not something that

happened overnight it took me years and I'm still not where I want to be yet right so it's a process it's a

process but you have to love what you want to do you have to be persistent and you can't be in it for the money

this is why I said you have yes because if you're there for the money you're gonna cry you're gonna say why

why am I not making money right and then you're not going to want to do it because you don't love it see I enjoy

what I do so when I was doing it, I was just doing it because I love it you know anything other than that is just the

icing so for me I would say the first thing I would say to anyone is if you're

gonna, do it do it because you love it not because you think that you're going to get rich and famous because that's

that's probably I don't know that that probably won't come but you will do it because it's something that you love to do and you

want to spread the word about health and fitness because you care you know but if you're doing it for the wrong reasons

that's not going to work not gonna work at all I'm so happy you brought that up because I found it in my

life the same thing with I guess

in my instance that I was trying to attach everything to money what I would do like okay I'm doing this so what dollar amount this goes with this and uh

you know we just gotta if I'm doing something there has to be a dollar amount assigned to it and I was

neglecting now in my mental health adjustment emotions and not accepting things and so now the with

with having this non-profit it's I say one of the first times of my life and I'm 41 that yeah, I am emotionally and

passionate about what I'm doing so yeah like do we want to make money do we want to you know progress and

in all those ways but at the end of the day if like what gets you to wake up

in the morning and if it's like oh well I'm not getting that those dollars today well why am I gonna have to wait six

months well you might have to wait six months to even plan to do something and then you gotta Market that opportunity

and hope that not hope in some instances, but you know share that with people and

hope that it catches on and it touches the right people, and it wasn't until I was bought in

emotionally to what I was doing that I found I guess a little bit greater piece with just myself just in the

day-to-day like okay am I am I happy with what I'm doing or working work for the corporation for because I need

the paycheck and so I'm very lucky in in my position where

with my wife that she has been supportive in that where and even talking with my psychiatrist he said you

know if you want to be in things for money there are certain things you have to do but if you want to do things

because you love it you know that that's really where you're going to get the most satisfaction and that's going to

keep you going day after day instead of oh my gosh yeah, they're gonna be days that are not good but they're not going

to be all good but that just why should I continue doing this and you're like and you're probably well I'm making this

video and I'm doing these things, and this is going to get put out there and then it's going to be a consistent content and then the followers are going

to see it then they might share it and then things just start happening in the background yeah

that you're not enjoying it too you know if you're just throwing it out there and you know I'm just doing this for the

money people can see that people can read they can see that oh this person is not really interested in

what they're doing they're just doing it for the money you know and then like I said like you have to love it because

there's gonna come times when the money may not be there, so it has to be something that you love and like you

said you found peace once you realize like oh, I'm doing this non-profit I love it this is what I love to do and I'm

enjoying it I'm doing it and I'm enjoying it and I'm not putting myself through the whole oh how much is this

going to work how many views do I have you know because a lot of people are all about the views you can do a wonderful

video and then you may get 10 views and you know in your head that that video is

gonna make a million views I'm exaggerating the numbers you know what I mean yeah because you put so much work

into it this is why you have to do it because you love it because this has happened to me many times you know do

videos I'm cooking I'm like yes this is a wonderful recipe and then it's like okay but you're doing it because

you love it that has to be it has to be the love so it all boils down for me

in doing something that you love whatever it may be you have to choose what you love to do because in life

you're not going to be happy if you don't love what you're doing right so that that's I would

say that's the number one thing what do you think I totally I totally agree and on the kind of social media

upfront I just had the discussion with my class that wrapped up and we went through a simulation where they have

to schedule posts and had to be certain products at certain

times and anyways a long story short is they learned that just because they

again just because they put the video together just because they made the post and they have maybe a thousand followers

they thought that they were going to get at least a thousand people are going to see it right I said that's that that's

not necessarily the case I'm like it took me like 40 years like I'm literally just like finding and out and

here I'm an instructor and I should already know this it’s true absolutely yeah and so

that's where the passion comes in if whether five people see it and it's all family or whether that blows up and the

right person sees it shares it to their followers and that was one of the we went around at the end of the class

and said you know what was one of the big takeaways you had and probably 50 of the students now whether they said it

just because they were looking for a cop-out to what they were saying like I don't want to think of something original, but they said I didn't

realize this that I thought that when I was making a post that all my followers were seeing it and so I think

whatever that thing is that hopefully that teaches the students just to

understand that okay like it might be fun and like yeah, I'm putting my post I'm putting this video together yeah but

it doesn't necessarily always equate to the most views most shares most likes

the money now it can and but the report it take it takes time and there's

going to be those days that are dry where like you said you're going through and showing a recipe you're

taking your time like no matter what like yeah even if the money like isn't but you know like there's not a dollar

amount tied to a specific video at that time it's still your time like you're taking your time you're your

video everything you're the you're the Creator you're the director you're the

producer you're lighting everything it's all you and yes, you're right it does take time and you you're gonna say

you have to edit you know edit takes time as well so people will see you, they

see what you do they see what I do and maybe you make it look easy we may look

it may look easy, but they don't realize the work that goes into it you know it's

it's a lot of work this is why you know like we both said and like you said to your student

you have to love what you do you have to love what you do you know sure

then I don't know, and I think this this really dovetails nicely into your

content Creation with media with what you're doing, and I'll let you

get to where you know the next steps for you after retirement like what that looks like for you but how

did the media and content creation did it come easy to you was it the

the nutrition holistic side that that opened that up or how did all that come

about and just an interest to you well I've always loved

uh the media obviously my major was communication, so I knew I wanted to do something in

that field right I was also on my College radio oh awesome

w-hts we're on to college speaks right so I still remember it so right it's a

College radio but I knew then once I was doing that that I was destined like

that's what I love to do right I love speaking I love listening and I love

giving out information so to me I knew that that was something that I

absolutely wanted to do and I wanted everyone to understand what I loved and

I wanted to just share the information with them to if I could reach a

broader audience and then explain them know but even if one person even if I get to one person you know to me I

I've accomplished something you know I've had people that write to me, and they said oh wow Maxine thanks for this

recipe I gave it to my mother who's diabetic and she really loves it you know yeah just to me just that one

comment I said you know I'm sure there's many more comments that's not too good and that's something that you have to

prepare yourself you know you know also in the police department to say something like you have to have big skin

on social media you must have thick skin there is no way

about it I have done recipes where someone will write me, and they would tell me the way I should have made the

recipe right they told me the way they think I

should have done it so that's something else also that that you have to understand with social media that you

must have thick skin and you have to prepare yourself for that and I would

like people to know that whatever you're doing right now that's preparing you for whatever you want to accomplish in life so just I would say just keep doing what

you're doing and just do one step at a time and don't be afraid of social media it's just you in your room in your house

by yourself speaking to the camera there's no one there it's you get the

chance to re-record to re-edit to do it to make it perfect for you

right and that's right it won't matter what someone else is saying you know because everyone is not going to love

your content everyone is not going to be happy to see you and you know social media

um I want to get too much into it, but it builds you up right just to pull you

back down right and that's what I've noticed so yes in a sense this is why I said you

must have thick skin but I would say one of the best way to start is social media

right open up a YouTube channel you know a business page that that's one of

the best way to do it and just start doing what you love it could be playing guitar it could be teaching people how

to speak another language whatever it is that you enjoy doing and you want to share it with the world just go ahead

and do it you know do it because you love it not because you're trying to make money because that will happen

eventually because you love doing what you're doing you know, and you will see the rewards so I would say just start

start out little start out with a little Channel and start putting content up so people you could get yourself out

there because that's the best way now volunteer maybe to do speeches but if you're a person that you don't like

doing speeches or anything like that then like I said it's you your cell phone you don't have to go out and buy

all these crazy equipment you don't need that if you have a cell phone that has Wi-Fi that's all you and you just do

your video that's it and then and then you start you get yourself out there you have to get yourself out there and

social media right now is one of the best ways to get started and you have to be knowledgeable also of what you're

doing you know you can't just do something just because someone else is doing it and you feel like oh okay, I'm

just gonna do that because I realize that how many people are doing podcasts

how many people are doing nutrition you know there's so many people doing this

stuff but you can't worry about other people you have to do it because you love it and then that's it you will see

the reward in that and you just start off one step at a time small steps and

you will see the rewards eventually yes and that's why I try to share and

and take in that even these people to if somebody wants to judge

success by wealth or whatever that measuring stick is that those individuals they started small too I

mean maybe when they grew up there wasn't the social media, but they had to find what worked for them and they

started small apple didn't start producing you know millions of devices the first day they started in

organizations they, they don't always start when somebody's in 21 22 23

sometimes they to your point go through they go through life they go through situations that's preparing them and

then at whatever point that is that they have the opportunity to do that thing that they love if they're 50 60 70

whatever that is that's what they love to do and so all those experiences

uh led up to them but they had the they had to start they had to take that first step and I think sometimes it's

hard to see that it's not a straight path it's not right like once I get

started like I'm gonna start out with one follower then the next day because I'm these students they come in and say

well for this marketing plan we're gonna gain a thousand followers in a month and

and I'm thinking maybe that's possible, but you have to have a plan about it it's not just because in your head that

you're equating that with gaining momentum and moving forward so

be well known or whatever that may be and that's something I've had to uh

think of to your point about the YouTube channel of as I was thinking to myself

I was like oh well I don't know I don’t really want to do that like that's not for me, but you have to there are

certain ways that not only on the mobile devices but in the households that's you know with the TVs you know

that's one of the ways YouTube TV that's one of the ways so you got to look at that market and yeah and say

okay I need to I need to just start, and I think that's the point start with

something you're passionate about the money that will come down the road it will show with your work with their

work and that's huge what would you what would you say I guess what

are the what are the next steps like what you know people look into you and your social media and we'll get to like

all your handles and that and sharing that but what do you see yourself doing in the next five and ten years

once you kind of you turn that page and retire from the NYPD

ah you know what that's a great question [Laughter]

I have to like really to sit down but I know I definitely want to continue

doing what I love which is what I'm doing right now

um and just spread the word about health and wellness to people and let them know

I want to get out there more and just speak to people in person I'll have that

time to go out and do guest speaking and let people know how it is to get

healthy and you know just talk to them about mental health what's going on in their lives because all this intertwine

with each other right because to me especially what’s coming next will

be explaining to people about foods and your mental health how that

could affect your mental health as well you know so I want to go out there

and let people know about more about life about how you can

accomplish it I could accomplish what you can accomplish so to be more of a motivational speaker I would say that's

something that I would love to accomplish to go out and speak to people go to the schools speak to young kids

you know especially with the background that I have I would love to go out and do more of that because there's so many

times I've had opportunities to where someone have asked to do something and because of my schedule right yeah

right you know yes, I have to say no so now being retired I'll be able to say

you know what yes, I can come to the school and yes, I can speak to the kids and yes, I can do this yes, I can go live

more on the social media and speak to people and let them know

um just even just talk communicate with people more so that's what I love to do I love to expand my brand in that way

and I just love it you know it's something that I enjoy doing I just want to spread the word more and I'll have

more time to do that so I just want to expand my brand pretty much yes, I I'm

excited you're going to continue on that because that continues on like you said

that's your brand so whether you're in college a department store or NYPD the

the speaking the YouTube the nutrition all these things kind of

go together and so when you do go give a speech and you talk, you're able to

leverage all those pieces that you learned over the years and if you want to been given those opportunities which

might have seemed at the time like right why am I doing this right this is this

is driving me nuts everybody why are these people doing that and they're saying oh my gosh because I did that you

can start integrating that in your in your stores which I'm sure you've already done and that's building and

continuing to build your brand so how important before we get to

the handles how important is your brand just as an individual because my students some of them throughout the

nine years I've been teaching they think that oh well you have to be you know a LeBron James you have to be somebody

that's Ultra Uber successful and like oh that's their brand but everybody I think

has a brain right and that dictates what you can do and what you what you want to

do so how important that is that to anybody really, I would say your brand

is very important because your brand is you right you are your brand

so whatever you do that's your brand so to me your brand could be anything

right let’s say I'm good at swimming and if

that's what I want to make my brand I'm gonna start going out speaking to

people about swimming how can you swim faster can you now stay under the water

longer can you go like this faster you know certain tips and tricks that you

can use as a swimmer and that's your brand if that's what you want it to be, and your brand could be many different

things like you just said I am a detective you're doing a podcast

you're a teacher as well that's also a part of your brand your brand doesn't

have to be just one thing you can use all the experience and everything that

you have and put it all together it could be how mental health affects you

as a worker in a department store how does swimming make you feel after how do

you feel after you finish swimming so your brand could start out at as one

thing and you it may take you into a different direction you know so for me

let's say my brand on my Maxine's corner I am doing cooking right I'm

doing Health cooking and then I do the

television right and then when I go when I do that, we do Tick Tock trends foods

that are trending on Tick Tock right so although it still has to do with food as

you may see that also took me in a different direction you know I am cooking food on YouTube I am talking

still about health and wellness but the Tik Tok Trends I hope I'm saying is it

tick tock tick tock yeah okay right

so that the foods that are that are trending on Tik Tok right yeah are not

always healthy right but this is what's trending there's Oreo cookies with bacon

around it right oh yeah that I am showing on television that's

what I'm bringing to them right because that's what's trending so

I would say Don't just look like this right just don't think because your

Trend could be broad you could be going in One Direction and then life has a way of taking you in another Direction but

that's okay that's okay it's okay to go with the flow right so your brand but at

the end of the day you also still have to remember your brand is you don't want to vary too far off from your brand

as well because at the end of the day I'm still talking about food right though some of those Foods may not be as

healthy but those are the trend that's happening right now so that's what I'm talking about whatever is trending so

just for everyone to know that your brand could take you in different directions and that's okay

right as long as you're staying true to yourself at the end of the day when it comes to your brand that's what's

important don't do something that you feel that's not a part of your brand because I've had many opportunities to

do things and to me I say no because it's not a part of my brand, so you make

that decision and what you want to be a part of your brand right like you said LeBron James played basketball

but now he's doing acting yes right would you say acting is not a part of

his brand you know yeah that's right, so you just have to just go with it

sometimes it takes you in a different direction like I said I do the health and fitness and then when I go on the

television and I do the trick tock and okay it's the tick tock it's tick tock

yeah, yeah okay

sometimes whatever is trending it's not always what's trending it's not always healthy but then I still I still tell

people about it because you know no one is going to be healthy a hundred percent I'm just giving them option like okay

I'm not saying that you can't have French fries you know okay maybe you can swap it out sometimes for sweet potato

fries I'm giving you options, but you can still enjoy your French fries I'm just saying that you're not gonna have French

fries every single day right so you can still enjoy the foods that you love but

just tweak it a little bit sometimes so that like I said so just using LeBron

also as an example that he's doing basketball but he's also an actor as well you know so don't just think that

your brand has to be one specific thing your brand could take you in different direction directions

and it's up to you to decide what you want to do with your brand and where you want to take your brand so that's

something to think about as well and we’re at the end of our time

together but before we go, I want to share with everybody how they can

learn more about you what you do follow you tuned in so if you could share

all that information because that'll go in our show notes as well right so yeah okay well you know Maxine's corner it's

m-a-x-i-n-e-s corner all one word on all social media platforms

um Instagram YouTube you know you can find me there doing recipes and also

um sharing recipes on Instagram as well Maxine's corner all one word yes make it

make it easy I know you got started so you just go right across the board if you're doing you want people to it'd be

easy for people to know like oh I'm watching her on YouTube and then I check out her Instagram is there a number in

there a letter it's all the same oh my god well I just want to give a huge

thank you for your time for again your service to New York City the country

the world and I want to wish you the best of luck in everything you're

doing because like you said if no matter what your brand and what you get into as

long as you're true to yourself and what you want to do and that makes you feel good and it's not always it's not

attached to a paycheck that somebody's going to be happier more times than not

and I think that by you sharing that is awesome because you're

background and what you're doing and how you're doing it and how you got started I think it's just phenomenal that and

and by you know you closing on not everything's a straight line that there might be some zigs and zags to it but as

long as you're staying true to yourself that that's what's important so Maxine, we want to thank you for joining us

today on the Voices for Voices podcast and wish you again all the best

all the luck congratulations coming up on your retirement that's phenomenal that's awesome to hear and

that you love it that's it's even better yeah thank you thank you so much for having me it was it was great it was

wonderful yes absolutely so we want to thank you as well our

audience our listeners our viewers those to checking us out on our transcript no matter what platform

we're on we want to thank Our Guest again Max he corn our first pen

and so much of her time with us today I hope she has inspired you the way she

is inspiring me to continue to go after your dreams my dreams that we can

continue to dream that dreams are still possible so until next time I'm

Justin Alan Hayes and I hope you have a great day and be a voice for yourself or

somebody in need [Music] [Applause]

[Music] thank you

Please donate to Voices for Voices, a 501c3 nonprofit charity today at: https://www.voicesforvoices.org/shop/p/donate

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