[00:00:04] Ellington Brown: Welcome to SpeakUP! International with Rita Burke and Elton Brown!

[00:00:21] Rita Burke: SpeakUP! International exists to have conversations with individuals who we consider to be community builders, and those are individuals who contribute in significant ways to their community. Today's no exception. We are speaking with Brenda Max, Comby McGee, who is currently in Chicago. Now Brenda is the founder and owner of Scott Street Blues.

She's a lifelong fashion model and Union Carpenter. One of Brenda's biggest challenges as a woman in the trades is finding properly fitting and functional workflows. Max has brilliantly paired her expertise in both industries to create a line of clothing where the focus is fit. There's so much more that I can say about Max Comby McGee, but as we say, as we know on SpeakUP! International, the story is more authentic when it's told by the person.

And so Brenda McGee, I would certainly like to introduce you to our listeners today. Welcome! 

[00:01:46] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

[00:01:50] Ellington Brown: I hope you're enjoying summer 'cause I certainly am. 

[00:01:55] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: I am enjoying my summer. It's a little hot at times. I'm not big on, on heat. I could be in the seventies and be happy, the heat humidity's been a little bit much this summer. 

[00:02:07] Ellington Brown: Now and me, the more he the better. 

[00:02:10] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Oh no. Okay. 

[00:02:11] Ellington Brown: Exactly the exact opposite!

Your story starts with a red Tonka truck. 

[00:02:18] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: It does! 

[00:02:19] Ellington Brown: A love for fashion. Talk to us about that, please. 

[00:02:24] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: The Tonka truck came in. My brother and I are very close in age of a year and three months, and he got a red Tonka truck for Christmas. I got a baby doll in a carriage and a metal kitchen set.

Didn't like it. I wanted the red Tonka truck, and my brother was, he was really shorted and small for his age, and so I used to just beat him up and take it. And go play outside and with the red truck. And was, that's a kind of a bone of contention. He'll tell you I did not beat him up and take his truck, but I did until I couldn't beat him up anymore.

He got too big. And then fashion came in is because of the way my mother dressed. She was, one of those ladies back in the fifties and sixties that had the. She'd get the dress, then you get the matching gloves, you get the matching shoes, the hats, the whole gamut. And I just loved when she dressed up, so I would sneak into her closet.

And start pulling out outfits and putting them on. She didn't know I was doing it until she caught me one day and she was freaking out about her high heels. 'cause my little feet were sitting in the middle of her shoes and she's she's gonna break my heels. But I just, I love going in her closet and just.

Getting a chance to wear all those wonderful, beautiful clothes because we don't dress like that anymore. We don't have the matching hat and the matching shoe and the matching glove. We don't do that. There are some church women that still wear these fabulous hats and match their shoes to it and stuff, but that's a era gone by.

But that's where I got this love of fashion with watching her. And so I decided at 12 years old, be a model. And my mother thought it was funny 'cause I was such a tomboy. I played with my brother all the time. He taught me every sport there is to teach. It got a little, confrontational with him because I was actually pretty good at it.

I was good tomboy, I was good at sports and I was playing football with him one day and I didn't know I closed lined him. He told me I closed, lined him. I didn't know what it even meant. I just stuck my arm out and it hit his throat and he flipped and fell, landed on his back on the ground. And he got up yelling at me, you can't do that!

You can't close line me! You can't play anymore! And he took the ball from me and that was it. It was over. So it was like I never played football with him again. 'cause his friends were laughing. I didn't know what I did. I was just trying to stop him. The whole carpenter thing came about because I played with that, that Tonka truck so much out in my mother's garden.

I went shopping with her one day, and if you went grocery shopping with her, she picked a kid every week. Of course, we were the ones that had to run down the aisle and go get everything that she asked for. But when she got done, it was like you could go buy something out of this little toy section in the in the grocery store.

So I didn't, I got a conveyor belt. It was this little plastic thing that actually worked. And so I, I got that and she was like, are you sure? And I'm like, yep. So I made a whole construction site in her garden and that's where that really came from. I didn't even realize it was something that was in me.

It's just I like playing in the dirt. 

[00:05:38] Rita Burke: Sounds second. Really exciting. Childhood. Your mother influenced your fashion savvy and your brother talked to you about track sun's. Really exciting. I like that. Now talk to us about Scott Street Blues, please. 

[00:05:57] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Okay. That came about. I ended up becoming a carpenter at the age of 34.

I was modeling trade shows and met a gentleman by the name of Larry Cooper. Who was a consultant for Anheuser-Busch and I was modeling on the booth and we started chatting and I told him how the booth was put together and he's like, how do you know that? I said, 'cause I'm looking at it. It was something in me that I just understood.

Anything that's abstract or mechanical. And we became fast friends. So I started traveling the country with Anheuser-Busch doing their trade shows, and then I had to have some female surgery. Anybody that knows modeling does not give you insurance. You have limited amount of funds. You get paid when you work.

Then it could take 90 days to get paid. So I had to take out a loan to get the surgery, and as I'm recovering, my mother came up to take care of me. She's sitting at my desk in my little apartment, I'm on the couch and the phone rings and she starts, I was gonna get up. She's I got it. She starts talking.

She's yes, she can do that. No problem. Yep. She'll do that. Okay. All right. She gets off the phone about 10 minutes later and I'm like, who was that? Oh, that was your friend, Larry Cooper. I said, okay. And I said, what were you talking about? She said, oh, you're gonna be a carpenter. Now I'm 34 years old.

I immediately turned back into that 12-year-old girl and was like, okay, mom. I was not gonna argue with my mother about what I was getting ready to do. So in the carpentry union, you can either go through apprentice program. You can actually get your card purchased by a company that's willing to train you on the job.

You have to have a company there that's gonna train you. You have to have, a schedule and everything. I did. Larry made sure all that was set up, and that's how I became a union carpenter. And so I learned on the job and it was the trade show industry that a lot of people didn't know anything about.

And in the Carpenters, I was the only woman. There was not one other woman in the carpentry. Department down there at McCormick for trade shows and there were a few electricians. I didn't really know them or work with them, but I was basically it. That was it. And I learned real quickly that I didn't have any clothes to wear.

So I did what any woman would do. We go to the men's department, oh, they got work clothes, right? They don't fit you. I don't care how hard you try. If they fit my hips, they I, couldn't close 'em up on the waist. If they could fit my waist, I was never gonna get 'em up on my hips. And so it was like, so what do I do?

I modify, so I get some pants. Make 'em work best I could, but usually the crotch was down to my knees. The pants were under my feet 'cause I'm a tall woman so I needed them a little longer, but they were too long. And I always tell the story about being on top of a six foot ladder where I had on my coveralls and I took the jacket off 'cause I was really covered up, up top 'cause it was cold in there.

And I stepped on the pant coming down the ladder. 

[00:09:13] Ellington Brown: Ooh, 

[00:09:13] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: You're on top of a 16 foot ladder and you start going backwards. What do you do? You grab at the ladder. So I'm grabbing at the ladder. I'm sliding down. I don't want the ladder to flip. It's, shaking and stuff. And I look like a cat. I know I look like a cat trying to hang on for dear life and broke up all my nails, hurting my fingers and everything, but I just was not gonna flip over.

And so at that moment, it hit me. There's no clothes out here for us. You should make some clothing for women. This was late 94, early 95, and I actually talked to my girlfriend who helped me come up with the name and it was so simple. She lives on God Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That's where we played 90% of the time.

She said, just call it Got Street. And then we added blues for like blue jeans or blue collar work. And that's how the name came about. And. So I, I did all the legal work for it and everything, and then I started working a lot and I just didn't have time to even think about focusing on a business. I did do drawings of stuff that I wanted and stuff, but I just didn't have the time.

So it sat on the back burner for over 20 years. It just sat there, and fast forward to the pandemic. We closed down before anybody. Trade shows got shut down immediately when they found out that this virus was coming. So it was like, okay, so of course I'm like everybody else. How am I gonna pay my bills?

I got this, I got that right. And I found that at the age of 60 when I retired, that I could get full benefits early so I could retire early, but still get full benefits. So that's what I did. But then I looked at my husband and I'm like, what am I gonna do? I'm not ready to sit down. And he said how about you start that business you've been talking about forever?

So that's how we got started that and because it was the pandemic, there was a year and a half I couldn't do anything. I really didn't get started until summer of 2022 when I found a pattern maker and I was told to go find a pattern maker by a little millennial friend of mine who I've never met.

We traded during the pandemic. She was sweet as she could be. She wanted to help. And then my boomer mentality is like, who are you and why are you trying to help me? You get cynical when you get to a certain age. Let's be honest. And so she was laughing at me. She's look, I have a fashion degree that I really don't use.

'cause I realized I didn't want to be in fashion. She said, you need a pattern maker. So I found a pattern maker and Got Street Blues took its form and everything at that point. 

[00:11:50] Ellington Brown: So how did other women feel about wearing men's clothing? 

[00:11:58] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: They don't like any, 

[00:11:59] Ellington Brown: Obviously they didn't fit. Did they come to you and talk to you about the ill fitted clothing that they are wearing or is it just something that you saw as you went to work every day? 

[00:12:12] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: It's me seeing it and you knowing that they're in the same boat you're in, nobody has anything to wear.

And so some women actually made it work a little bit better than others. It depended on your size. If you were smaller, you could get into some of those men's clothes and they would fit your hip and waist. But for the majority of us with, heavier bottoms, it didn't work. So we didn't really talk about it.

Nobody came to me about it or anything. I just knew it was a need. I think that's where most things end up being successful because there's a need for them.

[00:12:50] Rita Burke: You found your niche as they would say today, and a marriage of two passions amazing! So talk to us what's involved in being a union carpenter. 

[00:13:03] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: I'll tell you this it's not for the meek. I realized quickly that I had invaded a very male space. There were some men who welcomed me.

There were others who just absolutely despised that I was there, and then there was the ones who just didn't care. I was like, I don't care about her. So when I first started, the first show I did, the booth became a, it was like I was on display. Guys were coming by just in droves and stopping and looking and pointing, and it was just kind, it got crazy.

I'm not a bad looking chick, but good grief. It was out of control. So Larry actually stopped working the booth. He had a conversation with the guys who I was, what I was there for. This is what's gonna happen and this is what's not gonna happen. And now I suggest we all get back to work. So he always protected me from any of the guys who either didn't like me or the ones who wanted to date me.

'cause yes, I got a lot of offers, got a lot of offers, got a lot of marriage offers too. And I was like, no thank you, but it. It's not, it's one of those things that I had to learn quickly what battles to fight. I wasn't gonna win 'em all. And then I also realized I could never, ever show my emotions in front of these guys.

I would be taken advantage of if I cried or got upset or whatever. They would steamroll over me if I allowed that. So the one or two times that I did cry, I went into the women's bathroom and went into a stall and just, in my t-shirt balling my eyes out and got it together. And then I came back out.

But never did I cry in front of him. And then I learned, and I'm gonna tell you this, I had a very foul mouth. I learned from my mother. She was good at cursing and I learned it from her and I said, okay maybe this is the time to actually use it. And something happened and all these things just came outta my mouth and I'm very loud.

We're like the original loud families. Saturday Night Live, I think they took that whole thing from my family. 'cause we all talk very loud and. So the whole kind of the whole booth stopped, the floor stopped and everybody was like, holy cow, what did this woman just say? And so I found if I defended myself in that way, I didn't have any issues with these guys 'cause they knew.

No, she gonna come at you. She's gonna come at you. And so don't mess with her. And then, some guys, tried it anyway. Or there were guys who came from out of town working, didn't know me, thought they could roll over me. And then when I moved up into the steward position. There had never been a black person, an African American, let alone a woman in that position.

It was a very coveted spot. I didn't realize how coveted it was. Until I got it. And of course being a woman, I was accused of sleeping with the president of my local, the ba. And I'm like, I'm not doing two jobs. That's a job sleeping with somebody's job. I'm not doing two jobs. I got one job.

I'm not doing two. So guess what? No, that didn't happen. And. So I used to invite them. Why don't we call him and have a conversation about you thinking I slept with him to get this job, and then it would be, oh my God, no. Oh my God, no. Yeah, because you guys just assumed because I'm a woman, that's what I'm doing.

No, I actually know my job. I know my job, and I did, I learned my job as well as I could to do it to the best of my ability. So there was no question about. Can she do her job? And I never used my feminine stuff, crying or, oh my God, could you help me do this? Whatever. I just did my job. I lifted what they lifted and I was grateful that they gave me that position.

'cause I could ride around on a scooter and check other jobs to make sure nobody was doing our work and make sure we weren't doing anybody else's work. That was my job. And to stop exhibitors from doing. Work in their booth because at the time in 1999, they could not touch anything in their booth. They had to have union labor.

It has now since changed. They give them some leeway up to a certain size booth, but. I had to go in and stop, tell exhibitors, you can't do this. I know it's your stuff, but you can't do this. And so it was a confrontational job, which was a good thing because I'm a confrontational kind of girl, so I didn't have a issue with that.

But it was one of these positions that, it can be stressful all day arguing with people all day. And trying to find that release valve of how you decompress when you get from work and stuff. Yeah, so I, either go to the gym, I'd go shopping, I would do something. And I can tell you this, as a woman who has had many jobs, that this job really afforded me a wonderful lifestyle.

I didn't have to worry about health insurance anymore. I didn't have to worry about how are my bills gonna get paid. I was able to purchase a beautiful condo at the time. I had a couple of cars, and then I was able to buy a house and, and still have the condo. So it really gave me a great lifestyle.

It gave me more confident confidence to be who I am. But it also made me realize other women need to do this. 

[00:18:41] Ellington Brown: I wanna switch to design and innovation. Now you the pants. I guess is what they're called. It is the flagship item. Yes. So what makes it different from other work pants currently on the market?

Is it the material? Is it the fit, the colors?

[00:19:00] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Here's what it is. Everything I wanted on apparel, work pants, I put on this pair of pants, it is now I'm finding out so complicated that I'm having trouble getting a manufacturer to make it the way I want it to be made. So how about that one? That's amazing in itself to me because I don't wanna go outside the country, but there are elements on this pants that a place for your keys, a place for your tape measures.

There's extra pockets. There's just pockets that are deep enough that you won't lose something by the end of the day. And I'm sure Rita knows this. Women's jeans have a two inch pocket in the front. It is tiny Elton, you're laughing at me, but I'm telling you it's two inches. I could put a Chapstick in there in the morning and I would've lost it before the end of the day 'cause it would've squeezed its way out.

So I made these really deep. Front pockets. I made some extra pockets on the side. I made bigger back pockets that are double fabric, so they're reinforced. 'cause a lot of the electricians and plumbers who don't wear tool belts like a carpenter, they put that stuff in their back pockets when they're going to do something and they would always punch a hole in it.

So guess what? Now you don't have to. And the electricians, I went around to some of my old coworkers and say, Hey, what do you think I need to do? Look at this. Tell me what you think. And they all said, make bigger back pockets. So that's what I did. So there's elements that you don't see on anybody else's pants.

And there're cut more like a dress pant would be cut. There are some work pants that have come out by a couple of companies for women, but they're narrow and they feel like more like leggings. They're tight to your legs. I don't want something tight on my legs when I'm working. I wanna be comfortable because I'm bending over all day.

And so I found when I did that, all the women were like, oh my God, these feel so much better. They're comfortable. And I did not add stretch. That is a big deal right now because women want stretch because one, they can shimmy them, them behinds into a smaller size. We all like smaller sizes. We know, women have a psychological thing about the size of their clothing, so doing that allows them to go on a smaller size, but your pants not comfortable.

You're not comfortable all day and we know after you eat or drink something you bloat a little bit and then the waist gets tighter, the tummy gets tighter, and then you know when you got a little bit more tummy than most, you wanna be able to camouflage that a bit. So that's how we cut the pants. We cut it for a woman's body.

And like I said, I'm finding, trying to find a manufacturer has been an issue and so now I just decided I'm gonna make 'em myself. 

[00:22:02] Rita Burke: Sounds to me as if you were first out of the block with garments for women who were in the trade, particularly carpenters. Am I hearing now then Brenda, that you've got some competition?

[00:22:16] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Yes. Yes. There, there's competition now. There's a couple of companies. One is Dovetail. They're actually a wonderful company. It was created by two women three women. Two were landscapers and one was, had been in the apparel industry and they came up with this product. The only reason I don't wear them is 'cause they're too narrow for my legs.

I don't like that fit. A lot of women wear them. Then you have, Carhartt did a women's division and. For me, I don't know if the fit is really good. It's, I see women in 'em, some like 'em, some don't. It's you're not gonna be for everybody and it looks like a lot of their tops and stuff are just the smaller version of the men's stuff because that's what they do really well is the men's things.

So yeah, there's some competition there, but I'm okay with that. It's always good to have healthy competition. It keeps you on your toes, right? And so I'll be the competition when I come in, when I hit the market, and then they'll take notice and be like, oh, okay, this is what she's doing, so maybe we can change this or change that.

And I, I don't believe in a work market that you should have, 40 different styles. I don't believe that. I think it's ridiculous. We're talking about work. Let's have a few styles and let's change the fabrics, let's change the colors and, and keep moving. That's how I look at it. 

[00:23:48] Ellington Brown: I wanna go back to the pandemic. Something that you mentioned and that was the turning point for a lot of people. So how did it influence your decision to launch the pants? 

[00:24:05] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Because I knew since I retired, I put the papers in, actually my husband put 'em in for me. He was gonna make sure I retired 'cause he was retired.

So I. I just realized I have nothing else to do. And then it was like, when he said that to me, it was like, ding ding. You've been wanting to do this. And I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I always had this spirit of doing my own business, of doing my own thing. And when you're modeling, you're like a independent contractor.

You're not owned by anybody. So you're, you're fighting to get jobs and whatever. I believe, and this is just my belief is that if you went into that pandemic and you came out the same person you were, then you missed an opportunity to grow as a person because that gave everybody pause. To say, who am I?

What am I doing? What am I supposed to be doing? The universe, talks to us all the time, right? Hey, what, you can grow as a person. Look at what's going on. And so that gave everybody an opportunity to change their lives, to change their. Their trajectory and how they were gonna end, end up living their lives.

So that was my thing, was don't come out of this the same person you were when you went in and that, do you know, that is what really pushed me to do Gods street. 

[00:25:33] Rita Burke: Do you know Brenda? Oh. Perhaps one of the questions that we should be asking our guests on this podcast is how has the. How has COVID changed you?

How has it helped you to grow and to actualize? Very interesting. I like what you said there. I like that. 'cause you are correct. You are correct. I feel that way myself. You shouldn't come out of the out the pandemic, the same person is when it started. Amazing statement. I like that. So talk to us and talk to us about the best piece of advice you've ever been given.

[00:26:13] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: My mother was a, she was a different kind of mom. Now I grew up in an interracial household. My mother was white German descent. My father was African American, but with American Indi in Indian descent. So my mother had this thing of do what it is that you want to do, and me being her. Her loudest child.

I was number four, so I felt like I had to really project to get noticed because I had three siblings in front of me and that middle one. The third one was my brother. He was the only boy in the family. There were two girls on either side of him, so he got to do things that the girls couldn't do. And then my two older sisters did things that I couldn't do.

And so it was an interesting thing that she said, do what you wanna do. Don't let anyone tell you what you can or can't do. She was even like that with religion. She was upset when she found out that the church decided to baptize us without her permission, I had never heard my mother go as bananas as she did to a reverend and his wife.

And when I say I learned my bad language from my mother, she didn't care. I wanted to give my children the chance to choose what religion they wanted to be. I sent them to your church to learn, but not for you to just decide that this is the religion they should be. So she used that philosophy through our lives.

You get to do and choose what it is you want to be. And if you're loud, it's okay being a girl, Rita, you may know this, that they don't like us to talk loudly, right? It was always sh this and sh that. So she allowed me that freedom. To be who I was. And so by allowing me that and saying, be who it is you are and do what you wanna do, really made me realize that some of the suppression that I got as I was growing up and being becoming a young woman was that women didn't get to do what guys got to do.

Even though we were better at whatever it was we were doing, right? I took welding classes, I took metal shop, I took architectural drawing because that's what I like to do, and I was better than most of the guys. But I still got pushed to the back because I was a girl and we're talking about the seventies, the early seventies.

And so it was, and I realized my mother's advice holds true to this day. Be who you are and do what you wanna do. Don't you don't let anybody stop you. And that carried over into two bouts of cancer that I had. It was like, okay, I had my moment of crying. Then I looked at the doctor and now how do we fix this?

Because then I had to keep moving, right? I got things to do. The universe was telling me I got things to do, so how do I keep moving? And so it was just that spirit of my mother telling me, be who you are and do what you want to do. 

[00:29:34] Rita Burke: I like your mother. I know it's Elton's turn to ask a question, but I'm gonna cheat a little bit if you allow me.

Okay. I like your mom, even though I don't know her or I haven't met her, but I really believe in the philosophy of if you don't know who you are, people are gonna tell you. And you'll have to buy into that. So it sounds to me as if that's what she was teaching you. Yeah. And I applaud her because obviously you have been the winner because of that philosophy. 

[00:30:03] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Yes. There were some things she did, she was afraid. I was one of those kids that would travel. I went to Italy at 23 not knowing anything about modeling and all that stuff over there. She was terrified. My dad was terrified and it didn't work out for me, and I was, at the time, I was disappointed, but then now that I look back on it, that's not what I was supposed to be doing.

 Sometimes the universe shuts that door. Because that's not the direction you're supposed to be going in. And you realize it's not a fail, it's a redirection. And it only took me 65 years to realize that.

So it's, those are part of the learning process, my husband always says, keep living. You'll understand, just keep living. 

[00:30:53] Ellington Brown: I can't think of a better piece of advice. Short and sweet and definitely to the point and speaking of advice, if you could give, I'm stealing part of this is Rita's question that she asked, but I'm stealing it.

If you could give one piece of advice to a young girl. Who loves both fashion and power tools. What would it be? 

[00:31:22] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: It's very simple. You just go ahead and you do it no matter what. No matter what anyone says to you, you just go ahead and do it. I don't If you wanna be a fashion designer, do it. If you wanna be a carpenter or electrician or a plumber, go do it.

I highly suggest being a plumber. They always need it. Always need it. Be a plumber, right? So you just go ahead and you go do it. You don't let anybody deter you, stop you, whatever, from what it is that you wanna do, and just go ahead and do it and when you do it, make sure you do it to the best of your ability, learn everything you can about that whole trade or that whole fashion thing. Learn everything you can. I didn't just model, I had a girlfriend, Maryanne Davis, who was a fashion designer and we were best friends and she drug me to the fabric store every week, three or four times a week, I learn more about fabrics.

From hanging out with her. 'cause I'm like, what's this? What's that? What's, at first it was boring, but when she started to teach me and show me how it stretched this way, that way, this is why it's called this or that, I started learning and didn't even realize that down the road that this was gonna be so beneficial to me.

Because now I understand why stretch in pants don't work. I understand, what a rigid fabric is versus a washed fabric, all that kind of stuff. So it's really interesting that all these things snowballed because I learned and didn't even realize I was learning. The woman I worked with at the apparel center, she actually, her help didn't come in one day and I started selling the clothes I was wearing to her customers to put in their stores.

That was another aspect of the fashion industry that I didn't know about, but I actually got good at it 'cause I could describe things. I could tell you what a scene was. I could tell you how this bias cut did this and that. So that, again, was learning. And so then when I got into the carpentry part of it, I was offered a part a job in the building, in the carpenter shop, and I learned how to make cabinets.

I can laminate anything. Elton, I could laminate the top of your head. That's how good I got at it. Okay? They were so surprised that no, she's a quick learner. We like her. I learned how to use a drill press. I learned how to use the table saw, so I made sure that I learned how to do everything that those guys could do.

[00:33:59] Rita Burke: Never run away. Never run away from anything. 

[00:34:02] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Never 

[00:34:03] Rita Burke: On SpeakUP! International. We seek to educate, inspire, and inform. And today there's no question that we are doing those things with Brenda Maxx Cumby McKee, who is in Chicago. So Brenda, historically and traditionally the trades were predominantly male. You know that. I know that. Are you seeing a change in the other direction? 

[00:34:33] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Yes, and I am I was actually a little jealous about it, Rita, because I didn't have any women to go run and talk to when things were bad. Now we have women. They ended up making a a committee called Sisters in the Brotherhood, and these young women who have gotten into the trades, I am, so I'm just.

So proud of them that they get together and talk about some of the challenges that they have as women. They talk about the things that they want to do as women. How can they achieve these things? They're teaching in the schools now. They are. You may have one or two, years ago, but now you've got all these women who are doing these wonderful things and they're teaching scaffolding and they're getting their certifications.

We now have women getting certifications as welders, as divers. The divers go down and they actually do underwater welding and stuff, which I just find incredible. And that was just, it just didn't exist when I was coming through. So yeah, I'm a little bit jealous, but there's 1.4 million womens in the trade.

They're expecting that to jump by another 10% by 2030. So we're talking another five years. And it's hard to get the statistics. Forth because they don't really, follow. And then you have a ton of women behind the scenes who are in these offices with these construction companies, and they're the ones running those sites.

It's not the men that own the companies. It's these women who are sitting at these desks who are doing the numbers, who were, saying, Hey, this was, this area has to be checked on. And they get out of their their offices and they go on those job sites and they start looking at stuff.

So those women need clothes too. You don't wanna wear your office clothes out on a job site. You just don't. So give 'em something to change into. And so I'm really proud to say that not only with the traits themselves that women are joining, and I think it's wonderful because they're finding out, Hey, now I can support my family.

I can support my family. I don't have to depend on being married because we know there's a lot of single moms out here. So they're able to take care of themselves. They're able to take care of their children and give 'em a good life. And then you have. The women in the office, which is higher than the women on the job site, but we're starting to see these women own the construction companies.

There is a company here in Chicago called McKissack and McKissack, and it is run by Darrell McKissack, who her great-grandfather started in construction. Her dad was in construction, her grandfather was in construction. Now her and her sister started a construction. One's in New York or DC and she's here, and they're in Dallas.

They're everywhere. So you're starting to get more women owning these construction sites and they're doing billion dollar buildings! 

[00:37:38] Rita Burke: So it's women are bold and brazen, and pushing it, are they? And that is absolutely beautiful. Yeah, beautiful. Pushing. Pushing the envelope. 

[00:37:49] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: You're gonna see, you're gonna see even more growth in the construction industry with women.

And then let's not leave out, and I, I talk about construction because that's what I was in. But let's talk about, there's over 18,000 women mechanics, auto mechanics. There's thousands of them, hundreds of thousands. Then you have, other things that women do in non-traditional jobs, that they're some type of factory worker that they need clothes.

And these women are realizing, sitting in an office all day in a pair of high heels is, it's nice, but it doesn't always pay the bills the way you want. And what I loved about my job is that when I got done that day, I could see what I did. I actually saw some progress on the job, and so every day was different, and I love that about my job.

Every day was different. I could see what I did and I would go home with this. This sense of pride that I did something, right. I built something with my hands, and so I, I believe women are doing that. There's a wonderful woman up in New York named Judaline Cassidy, she started a nonprofit called Tools in ti, she takes young girls, these little young girls, she's a plumber and she takes them in the summer and she does all these wonderful things.

They learn how to do plumbing, they learn how to do electrical. They learn, and these little girls are excited and it's just amazing to watch. I didn't have that coming up, even though I was good at mechanics, I didn't have that coming up. The only thing I scored a hundred on a aptitude test was mechanical, but I still wasn't afforded those things.

And so I'm excited to see these women in the trades and give back to the young girls and say, Hey, you can do this too. 

[00:39:46] Ellington Brown: So what can we expect from got street blues? 

[00:39:51] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Lemme tell you what, 

[00:39:52] Ellington Brown: After the pants. Now. So what, 

[00:39:54] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: lemme tell you what you can expect, Elton. I have. An entire business plan that will turn up the apparel industry on its butt because it's broken.

It's a broken system. A lot of people are moving into what they would call merchandise on demand, and that is you ordering my pant and then I make the pant for you. Instead of having, companies buy all this stuff, have all these pants sitting in their warehouse and waiting for somebody to purchase them, because that's a lot of money for a startup.

So if you do it merchandise on demand, then guess what? You're not spending this big money upfront. You're getting the trust of your customers, especially if you're concentrating on that fit. And Rita, you and I know this fit is important, but it's one of the areas that the apparel industry just doesn't seem to get because fast fashion has taken over the industry.

And then my vision is to have my own manufacturing. Where I can hire women who wanna work, but guess what? They can't because they got kids. You wanna know how you solve that problem. You put a daycare with your business, how the logistics work, I can't tell you right off, yes, some of their pay will have to pay for the daycare, but guess what?

That woman doesn't have to worry about. Where's my kid gonna be? What do I do with my kid? You don't have to worry about what you're gonna do with your kid 'cause your kid's here on your job. So when you take a break, you can go visit your kid. When you take lunch, you can go visit your kid. If you have to work late, we'll have extended hours.

So your kid is still taken care of. Right Then I want to do, because that offers an, excuse me, I'm gonna go back a little bit. That offers women who can only work part-time 'cause they may have older children. The opportunity to work, all women don't wanna sit at home. All women do wanna, go do something and be independent.

And when you're in domestic violence, situations and things like that, these women need somewhere to go and somebody needs to help them realize that you can work and still your kids are still taken care of. But then I wanna extend that out. I wanna extend it out to afterschool programs for the older kids, because what if she does work the.

Late that night and she's got, some younger, younger teenagers coming home. And what do you do with them? You getting them some place to go? I had a community center that I used to go to. Nobody does that anymore. It's like all those things got forgotten. So sometimes I like to tell these young people, you hate us, boomers.

You tell me that I'm in your way. I need to retire and I need to go away. But guess what? I have some things that would make life a lot easier for you. Your mama, your daddy, your brothers, your sisters. Just let me do my thing, right? So I believe the apparel industry, you don't have to be union to be apparel.

You just need to pay your employees a decent wage, right? 

[00:43:00] Rita Burke: So you know, Brenda way, way back, somewhere in history in the world, it was a woman that broke the first rule. And look where we are today. So women continue to push the envelope and break all of their rules. Yeah. My next question though, I'm not sure if it's still relevant because I think you've alluded to it as you as we had our conversation, but I still push it out and see what you think.

Would you say you can remember a time when you had to say enough? 

[00:43:36] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Oh God, yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it even came with a job of modeling and carpentry where I just say on modeling, you're supposed to be seen not heard and you have people just talking to you like, like I always said, model model is synonymous with stupid to most people.

They think you're pretty and don't say anything else. Don't talk to me. And it's like we don't have a brain cell and people talking down to you to the point where you just finally say, I don't care if you fire me or not, you're not gonna talk to me like that. And that is the same exact thing that I had on the job with carpentry, is what I would get if we ran into say, a problem of putting something together.

I would say, Hey, why don't we try this. I would get these stares, like nobody would say anything. The men wouldn't say anything. And then some guy would repeat what I just said and change a couple of words, and then they were all like, oh yeah, that's brilliant. But all I remember is one day I blew up.

It was the auto show. I was working on the Ford booth and I called everybody, every kinda SOBI could think of and how dare you say yes to him when he just repeated what I said. And you looked at me, you were like a deer in headlights, like you didn't understand anything that came outta my mouth. And so this guy was eating boiled eggs of all things stinking of the, and I took one of the boiled eggs and just threw it at him and walked off the booth.

That's when I had enough and said I was not gonna allow anybody to take my ideas or my thoughts. And I saw this word one day, it's called, he repeated, repeated, except you just put the HE instead of the re. That's what men do to us. Elton, I hope you don't do it. 

[00:45:45] Ellington Brown: No. I wouldn't do such a thing.

Rita would definitely wash my mouth out with soap. 

[00:45:52] Rita Burke: I would throw the egg at him!

[00:45:57] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: But yeah, that, those were the two times I just it was just too much. It became too much. You just don't treat people any old kind of way because of their position or their gender. You allow people to be who they are. 

[00:46:11] Rita Burke: But you'll fine. Brenda, you said about modeling being synonymous with stupidity.

What I'm finding is that gray hair is taking that place. You've got gray hair. Yeah, you are. As stupid as they come. As they go you left out of conversations because you don't know anything. You don't understand anything. And I certainly sometimes I remain silent, but other times I will not allow it.

I'll throw the egg 

[00:46:39] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: And sometimes you do have to throw that egg. It's just, it's maddening, you don't get to the point that you get gray hair or, stripes on your face or whatever without some wisdom. So don't dismiss me. I have had battles on social media with younger people who think the boomers have caused their whole lives to just be a mess.

No, it's not. You were given too much. Your parents gave you too much. The boomers gave their kids too much. Gen X really gave the millennials too much, and it's now you got Gen Z sitting here why aren't you giving it to me? Because people are starting to realize they really made a mess of these little human beings and they forget that these little human beings have to grow up into big human beings and that behavior comes with them.

And so I'm hoping and praying that we get back to the. The respect of who's ever in front of you, because I noticed when I started with carpentry, the older men on the booth that I worked with were slowly being phased out, and it really broke their hearts. They're like, they're not hiring me anymore.

They weren't old. They were in their fifties. They just wanted somebody younger than they could control more, because these older guys, you couldn't do that to them. So they got dismissed and they got pushed out. And as I tell these younger people, if you keep living it, eventually you are gonna be me. And then you're gonna understand exactly why I feel the way I feel.

And I think that's one of the big life lessons that young people need to learn. 

[00:48:21] Rita Burke: I think this conversation will go viral. I promise you. 

[00:48:27] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: I hope so because I think people need to hear that older people are the wisdom and they need to hear. You don't have to heed it. And my mother said that to me.

I'll give you advice. You don't have to heed it, but I just hope you hear it right, because when I found that I didn't heed her advice. Whatever happened, I went back to the conversation and understood why she said what she said, right? So she gave me that opportunity and that's part of allowing me to be who I am.

I get to make those decisions and sometimes they weren't the best decisions. So I think we'll find that with these younger people, they're gonna be making very poor decisions. So if I can be that person to take the apparel industry in another direction and change it from what it's been and what it is, then I believe that's why the universe wanted me here. 

[00:49:29] Ellington Brown: It appears that the universe has definitely set a path for you. And going in the direction that you want to go in, not what someone's telling you to do. And I think that's what this entire conversation has been about women being secure. Not only emotionally, but financially.

And the, it can be done as simple as cutting a pair of pants to fit a woman. And you know that in itself, I know how I feel when I get dressed and I, it's elevating. So for a woman to have work clothes that are designed for her must make her feel good. 

[00:50:17] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Absolutely. 

[00:50:17] Ellington Brown: This made you feel good.

[00:50:19] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Hey, look, when I'm dressed and I like the way everything fits me and I like the colors and everything. I feel amazing. I feel so empowered that nobody could stop me from doing anything. Why can't a woman feel like that walking on a job site? Yeah, she can do that. We, and we're planning on making sure she feels that way when she goes on a job site.

I think that you are doing a wonderful job and we are so glad that we had an opportunity to talk to you. It was definitely worth the wait, and I really appreciate the fact that you even said yes. To visit visiting. SpeakUP! International. We love individuals like you who provide stories that are inspiring and your story definitely is.

And I would definitely believe what Rita said when she said this is going to go viral. And I do think the same as Rita. Rita, do you have anything you wanna add to this before we close? 

[00:51:25] Rita Burke: Yes, thanks for asking. At the top of the show, you asked Brenda if she had a book, so I'm going to throw this out to Brenda right now.

That. I hope it's in the coming, Miss Brenda Max Cumby McGee because you've got a story and a half to tell. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Come again, particularly when that book is ready. 

[00:51:55] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Absolutely! 

[00:51:56] Ellington Brown: We're gonna send you emails every month asking you, is the book ready?

[00:52:00] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: I'm gonna I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you this little tidbit 'cause I don't tell many people, but there is one in the works.

[00:52:07] Ellington Brown: Ah, I knew it! 

[00:52:10] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: I, and it's not just my story. So there's one in the works. 

[00:52:14] Rita Burke: Beautiful! 

[00:52:15] Ellington Brown: I knew it. I just knew it. I could smell the pages. I tell you, I, I knew there was a book in there somewhere. Okay. You have a great afternoon. Thank you again for for being with us. Thank you, Rita, for being your.

Charming self, and we will talk to you soon. Oh, by the way as soon as the video is ready. You will receive an email from us 

[00:52:44] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Wonderful. 

[00:52:45] Ellington Brown: And it'll tell you where the link, give you the link where it is. 

[00:52:47] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Okay. 

[00:52:48] Ellington Brown: And you can do whatever you want with it. 

[00:52:50] Brenda (Maxx) Cumby McGee: Alright, great. Thank you so much. I enjoyed this.

This was a wonderful conversation and it wasn't just about my story growing up and stuff. Thank you for asking those questions because I think they're important. That I get those out instead of just telling you know, how I grew up and how God streak started. So thank you. I appreciate it!

[00:53:11] Ellington Brown: Thank you for tuning into SpeakUP! International! If you wish to contact our guest, Ms. Brenda Crumby McGee, please be prepared to submit your name, your email address, and the reason why you wish to contact Ms. McGee at https://gottstreetblues.com/ 

Ms. McGee has other social media accounts you can use to contact her that will be listed in the description section on Spotify and other social media platforms. 

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