Today we’d like to introduce you to Peter Dao, Darrence Griffin and Joseph Knighten.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Griff and I (Peter) connected through training at F45-Dallas Arena. We were both trainers that offered advice and motivation to our members after class as a way to wind down before they headed out of those doors. It was refreshing being able to identify with someone that was like-minded in the mental approach of training.
Joe joined the team later so my growth and connection with him have grown to a greater extent since we started to Speak The F*ck Up. He had previously been recording a podcast of his own, which, ha, let’s say was a wild one. But, with that, I knew his style was perfect for tying everything in. When the idea was presented to Griff and Joe, no one hesitated at all.
Each of us has had an unique upbringing that allows us to converse openly, share from our perspectives, and give insight on anything and everything that comes to mind–whether it be current events, controversial or social, lively conversations, and questions that we may have within our own life experiences.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has been relatively smooth because of the team and those we have beside us. We all have invested the same amount of work and care into Speak TF Up. We’ve experienced “minor” setbacks – like trouble uploading our podcast to a few streaming services, and maybe one or two episodes, so bad that they’ll never see the light of day!
One of the biggest challenges is navigating our own words. We all are witness to “Cancel Culture”, so it is essential that we phrase things the right way; otherwise, everything can come crashing down around Speak TF Up. We see this often in clips that go viral, and if we do go viral, we want it to be intentional. Nowadays, we are shown extracted soundbites from full conversations, coupled with misleading captions. Honestly, that’s the perfect recipe for disaster as we’ve damn near been conditioned to not research further into the context of what has been shared.
Deciding show topics at times can be challenging, and the constantly lingering question of, “Are we doing it the right way?” The reality is, we are learning as we go. The best thing we can do is to do it our way. We are navigating the unknown. When we started this podcast, we knew there wasn’t a blueprint for how things needed to be done. We just knew that once the ball started to roll, we would have to remain consistent and continue to establish ourselves as we produced content for our viewers. We knew we couldn’t mirror someone else’s style and expect success in what we do, so there’s also the challenge of reinventing the wheel for our purposes with our audience in mind.
Please tell us more about your work. What do you guys do? What do you specialize in? What sets you apart from competition?
While we like to emphasize Speak The F*ck Up is for everyone, we’ve also realized men needed an outlet to be able to express what’s buried in our minds. Men have a great deal to say when it comes to divulging our emotional thoughts, but that’s often been suppressed by societal norms. More frequently, men are not given the opportunity to openly discuss things that we have questions about or even afforded the chance to candidly share our thoughts on various topics because it could appear as less masculine or taboo for men to weigh in on. Some men don’t have or take the opportunity to divulge in deep conversations with their significant other, and we, as men, don’t have a mainstream entertainment medium dedicated to us (i.e. “The View”, but for men). With that in mind, we wanted to let our audience see our vulnerability as men and to spark discussion across the spectrum in a truthful, comedic, and informative way.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
There are three things we feel that contribute heavily to our successes – consistency, patience, and relationships. Our main objective is to bring you all the episodes on a weekly cadence and we have to juggle quite a bit to deliver this expectation. However, as much of a challenge as it can be, we definitely pride ourselves on the progress of this podcast experience and look forward to Thursdays so we can share with you all the fruits of our labor.
Patience definitely comes into play with our content since we strive to make every episode great and put 110% into each installment. The reality is that there are moments where we might not feel like the quality is at a standard that we have set for ourselves, but that’s the beauty in this journey. It will always be a work in progress and there will always be ways to improve ourselves and Speak TF Up. We’re always open to learning and taking feedback from our viewers to expand on ways to make our conversations more engaging and entertaining.
The most important part of this entire experience are the relationships that we are able to cultivate not only together as a unit, but with those that tune into our show and the guests that have believed in us enough to join us on the panel. We have been overwhelmed by the love and encouragement and do not take for granted the support we have been receiving. We’re going to do our best to give it back tenfold. Until the next time, catch us on Speak TF Up!
Contact Info:
- Email: speaktfup100@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speak.tfup/
Image Credit:
Andrew Nguyen
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