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Speaker 1: If my community turns on me, am I going to

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Speaker 1: be able to stay in business.

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Speaker 2: There's a narrative that when black businesses sell their company,

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Speaker 2: what they sold out.

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Speaker 1: A driving factor and why they want to sell is

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Speaker 1: because they're afraid.

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Speaker 2: How can we ever have generational wealth if we selling out,

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Speaker 2: we don't have anything to pass down.

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Speaker 1: Well, that's not how generational wealth is created. I don't

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Speaker 1: think they understand how hard it is to actually build

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Speaker 1: these things.

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Speaker 2: A company like Meta has billion dollar loss to where

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Speaker 2: they were actually selling people's data, and nobody actually unstall Instagram.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of mistrust in our community, some of

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Speaker 1: it earned and some of it not. We're not afforded

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Speaker 1: the ability to make the mistake.

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Speaker 3: What is your thoughts on family business the dynamics of GOVNBOG.

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Speaker 1: Certainly, one of the most rewarding things you can do

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Speaker 1: as a business owner is to build a business with

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Speaker 1: your family. And the business deserves to have the best players.

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Speaker 3: When we look out at the playing field, who gives opportunity?

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Speaker 1: Our business was built so that we could invest back

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Speaker 1: into this community. But now you've got to go compete

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Speaker 1: against laurel. How do you compete against that? When you

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Speaker 1: can't go to your local bank and get a twenty

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Speaker 1: million dollar loan. At the end of the day, it

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Speaker 1: always just comes back to capital.

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Speaker 2: All right, gush, Welcome back on Alesia and got special episode.

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Speaker 1: This is like the Mentor edition, very rare.

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Speaker 2: That's a fact.

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Speaker 1: Who's the mentor.

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Speaker 2: Obviously, so yeah, a good friend of ours, definitely in

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Speaker 2: one of our business mentors, somebody that has been very

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Speaker 2: gracious with his time and his wealth of knowledge, not

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Speaker 2: only us, but a variety of different entrepreneurs that we're

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Speaker 2: friendly with that we know Rich Lou Dennis. You may

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Speaker 2: not be familiar with him, but you're definitely familiar with

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Speaker 2: the brands that he's helped launch, invest in be a

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Speaker 2: part of. And you know, we're gonna have a great conversation.

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Speaker 2: When you think of his entrepreneurial ship journey, A lot

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Speaker 2: of people probably are familiar with the Shade butter Shade

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Speaker 2: moisture that was I think what really puts you on

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Speaker 2: the map as far as becoming a major a major

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Speaker 2: figure in entrepreneurship. And then of course essence, So you

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Speaker 2: purchased essence, you are the you, You own.

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Speaker 1: Essence yep, correct me and my family?

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Speaker 2: Yes, And then you also have New Voice Ventures. That's

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Speaker 2: New Voice fun.

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Speaker 1: New Voice is fun.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that invests in a variety of different businesses. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you've invested in Milano, right, Pinky col Yeah, Derek Hayes. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so a lot of a lot of the businesses that

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Speaker 2: our audience.

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Speaker 1: Well, Mi Milano we've invested in from a time and

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Speaker 1: mentorship perspective, the other two from a capital perspective. Okay,

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Speaker 1: And now.

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Speaker 3: I was gonna say, I feel like from two thousand obviously,

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Speaker 3: since we started to show a lot of the entrepreneurs

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Speaker 3: that we meet that have skilled one of the one

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Speaker 3: thing that they have in common is that they sat

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Speaker 3: down with you or you've invested them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. We spend a lot of time building an ecosystem

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Speaker 1: and supporting supporting that ecosystem, and then you you know,

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Speaker 1: you name it. If if they're if they're if they're

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Speaker 1: driving a business that's impacting our community, we've invested in them. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and you have an eye for it. I'll tell everybody this.

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Speaker 3: I feel like, you know, maybe our first year and

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Speaker 3: a half, we got a call like rich du Dennis

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Speaker 3: wants to have lunch.

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Speaker 1: With you, and we were like, oh, okay, okay, Uh.

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Speaker 3: And so from that that conversation, we've obviously developed a relationship.

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Speaker 3: We got a lot of insight from it. Uh And

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Speaker 3: like Rashad said, always valuable with your time.

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Speaker 1: So we appreciate you being here. Yeah, well, you know,

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Speaker 1: thank you guys, and it's it's it's been an absolute

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Speaker 1: joy getting to know you guys and watch you grow

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Speaker 1: and see the impact, see the impact that you have. Right.

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Speaker 1: My the way I look at it is my my

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Speaker 1: job is to share as much of the journey that

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Speaker 1: I've been on and what I've learned, and then help

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Speaker 1: people figure out how to not make the same mistakes

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Speaker 1: that I make. And because I'm always so far in front,

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Speaker 1: I make a tonne of So you get, you get

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Speaker 1: to watch them, and you get and you get to

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Speaker 1: learn from them.

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Speaker 2: So, yeah, this is a rare conversation, Like you don't

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Speaker 2: really speak too much publicly, you've kind of been behind

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Speaker 2: the scenes for a long time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but.

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Speaker 2: We're finally having a conversation. Yeah, it's a lot to

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Speaker 2: talk about.

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Speaker 1: So they only took us five years years five years Yeah, scouting, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: thank you, join us.

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Speaker 2: Appreciate it. So let's let's start. Let's start at the

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Speaker 2: beginning Shae Moisture.

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Speaker 1: We opened up in that journey, opened up the opportunities

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Speaker 1: for others to come through. You know, when we when

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Speaker 1: we started back in nineteen ninety one, which is many,

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Speaker 1: many many years ago, probably for many of your your

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Speaker 1: your your audience were even born, there was very little

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Speaker 1: opportunity for black brands and black owned businesses that catered

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Speaker 1: to black consumers at retail. And so we UH were

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Speaker 1: really able to pioneer that that journey with some incredible

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Speaker 1: team members and some some real insight and and understanding

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Speaker 1: of what the consumer needed, what was missing. You know,

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Speaker 1: people weren't focused on Black women. They weren't focused on

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Speaker 1: building products specifically for for her needs. And at the time,

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Speaker 1: they were primarily only building products that were sort of

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Speaker 1: like for women with perms, right, and then the maintenance

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Speaker 1: products that went along with that. And so we we

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Speaker 1: came in with a focus on natural hair and and

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Speaker 1: and natural role solutions, and and then went into retail

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Speaker 1: and transformed how retail engaged with Black women. It was

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Speaker 1: it was completely unacceptable the way that retailers were treating

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Speaker 1: Black women as consumers. And so we're very proud of

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Speaker 1: the work that we did that with people like Joel

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Speaker 1: and our barn and you know, all the creatives that

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Speaker 1: that that we're there to help along the way. But

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Speaker 1: that was the idea, was to transform the way the

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Speaker 1: retailer treated black consumers.

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Speaker 3: I'm interested. I've never asked you this, but now I'm

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Speaker 3: interested in it. We always get, you know, the feedback

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Speaker 3: you shouldn't mix family and business, And our model is like,

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Speaker 3: you know, our family works in the business and it's

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Speaker 3: worked for us because we obviously have established roles.

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Speaker 1: I wonder what your take is.

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Speaker 3: Obviously you know, we know the team and obviously your brother,

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Speaker 3: so you know, what do you what is your thoughts

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Speaker 3: on family business the dynamics of having both.

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Speaker 1: Look, I think it's it's certainly one of the most

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Speaker 1: rewarding things you can do as a business owner is

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Speaker 1: to build is to build a business with your family.

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Speaker 1: The joy of building something that is transformative and doing

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Speaker 1: with people that you care about and that care about you,

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Speaker 1: there's no there's no you know, it's a great it's

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Speaker 1: a great thing. It feels it feels really really special

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Speaker 1: when you're on the journey. But beyond that, I think

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Speaker 1: about it as it's how you build a community. So

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Speaker 1: it's it's not hey, let me have my family member

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Speaker 1: here because they're my family member. It's are you the

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Speaker 1: best or do you have the opportunity to be the

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Speaker 1: best at what you can do? Right? And that's a criteria, right,

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Speaker 1: And if you can grow and you can scale, then

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Speaker 1: we can rock. But if you can't grow in if

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Speaker 1: you can't scale, then you can't really be a part

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Speaker 1: of this. So it's not just hey, because you're a

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Speaker 1: family member, you you automatically get a free pass, you

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Speaker 1: get the opportunity, right, because if you're if you're not

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Speaker 1: able to deliver, then you're just taking up opportunity from

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Speaker 1: somebody else that can. And the business deserves to have

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Speaker 1: the best players in it in order for it to

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Speaker 1: be successful. And it's only through that can you then

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Speaker 1: leverage the business to drive impact in your community.

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Speaker 2: So we'll go through this journey as far as like

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Speaker 2: this this shade moisture because a lot of people might

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Speaker 2: not be familiar with your business journey.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: So before we bring up the speed, we got to

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Speaker 2: look back at like how you started. So you start

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Speaker 2: a company shape butter from my understanding, comes from West Africa. Right, Yes,

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Speaker 2: it's been a thing for a long time. You introduced

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Speaker 2: it to America, Are you responsible for that or no?

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Speaker 1: We are responsible for introducing it broadly and creating scale,

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Speaker 1: scale at scale. Yes, So people have been bringing shade

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Speaker 1: to this to the US since you know, forever.

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Speaker 2: But like as far as how it's shade butter is

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Speaker 2: a stable now, yes, and not just for black people anybody,

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Speaker 2: like yes, CBS, any everybody has Shade Butter. Yes, it

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Speaker 2: wasn't always like that. Yes, are you responsible for that?

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Speaker 1: We we are. We had a large role to play

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Speaker 1: in that. I can't say that. I can't say I'm

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Speaker 1: responsible for He's a humble guy, isn't. Yeah, it wasn't.

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Speaker 1: You know, shad Shade wasn't at retail when we start,

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Speaker 1: but it's brought into retail, so you're playing there wasn't

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Speaker 1: all right?

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Speaker 2: So how do you?

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Speaker 3: So?

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Speaker 2: How do you start the business and scale it to

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Speaker 2: the point where you can sell it for a lot

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Speaker 2: of money? Like that this is something that you started

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Speaker 2: up I believe in, like you know, the living room,

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Speaker 2: dining room, Like how do you how are you able

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Speaker 2: to grow it and have the distribution and have the

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Speaker 2: packaging and have ls stuff?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, as a start as a street vendor in Harlem, Right,

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Speaker 1: twenty fifth and fifth. You were selling on a street, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and twenty fifth and fifth. And the idea was, hey,

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Speaker 1: there's there's a need here again natural products. And again

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Speaker 1: remember this is nineteen ninety one, so this this wasn't

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Speaker 1: a the natural hair product movement as it came to

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Speaker 1: be known, wasn't wasn't yet known as a movement. However,

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Speaker 1: there were millions and millions of black women all across

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Speaker 1: the country that were looking for an alternative to the relaxers. Right.

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Speaker 1: Their hair was getting damaged, they were actively pursuing healthier lifestyles, right,

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Speaker 1: and there was no offering for them, right, And and

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Speaker 1: that's what we offered, right. We offered that in a

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Speaker 1: in a zip lock bag and we would sell it

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Speaker 1: by the outs, right, And from there started to supply

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Speaker 1: other vendors. But the learning was, you know, when somebody

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Speaker 1: comes to you and says, hey, you know, my grandmother

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Speaker 1: made this in South Carolina, and she used these ingredients.

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Speaker 1: She wasn't obviously using shade, but there were all the

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Speaker 1: different ingredients that they were using to make their homemade remedies, right,

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Speaker 1: and same thing, whether it's in Alabama or in Georgia

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Speaker 1: or right in Maryland and all these and so we

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Speaker 1: started to then go from just the shade, but it'll

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Speaker 1: incorporate these different ingredients for at our customer's requests. So

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Speaker 1: customer will come and say, hey, can you I like this,

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Speaker 1: but can you add some in hooba oil because I

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Speaker 1: want to accomplish this. Can you add some avocado? I

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Speaker 1: want to accomplish this, And then we'd make it up

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Speaker 1: for them and give it them said. It became really

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Speaker 1: a a lot of customization for our individual customers on

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Speaker 1: the street. And then we started to realize like, hey,

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Speaker 1: this is there's there's a real demand here and a

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Speaker 1: real need here because nobody's really thinking about what she

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Speaker 1: needs and giving it to her in the way that

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Speaker 1: she needs it right. And so that's where the that's

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Speaker 1: where the scale then came from. So we went from

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Speaker 1: selling on one table to then supplying other vendors, to

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Speaker 1: then going into beauty supply stores and then to hold foods,

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Speaker 1: and then to Macy's and then national distribution.

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Speaker 3: You have partners in the early stages, I wonder what

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Speaker 3: your strength was, right, Like, we are a company with

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Speaker 3: three founders.

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Speaker 1: Each of us have different strengths. What what was your.

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Speaker 3: Strength at this time in the brand, right? Was it

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Speaker 3: product management? Was it accounting, was it logistics?

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Speaker 1: What was you? So my my mother takes care of

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Speaker 1: the money. That's that's what my mother does. But when

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Speaker 1: we started, she she was very focused on making sure

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Speaker 1: that we made the product right right, So that was

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Speaker 1: that was her that was her thing. My partner, who

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Speaker 1: was also my college roommate, Nima, was very focused and

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Speaker 1: very gifted at figuring out how to make it and

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Speaker 1: how to make it at scale right, And so those

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Speaker 1: were the those were the beginnings, right, and then my

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Speaker 1: sister came in and took it to a whole another level,

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Speaker 1: and then we started to get in other other people

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Speaker 1: that joined along the way. That brought all these different

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Speaker 1: talents and all these and all these different skills. But

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Speaker 1: to your point, I don't know of a business where

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Speaker 1: there's one person that does it all and can do

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Speaker 1: it all and then can help that and they can

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Speaker 1: make that business scale. Most of the time, when you

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Speaker 1: have that sort of individual, it becomes very difficult for

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Speaker 1: the business to grow and scale because they have to

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Speaker 1: have their hands in everything, and that slows down, that

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Speaker 1: slows down scale that slows down decision making. It takes

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Speaker 1: away perspective, right Like, one of the things that we're

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Speaker 1: big on is diversity of thought. I want to hear

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Speaker 1: what everybody thinks about it, how I feel about it.

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Speaker 1: Let's make a decision, Let's make a decision quick, and

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Speaker 1: let's execute against that decision. But getting input from different

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Speaker 1: perspectives allows you to build things that you wouldn't as

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Speaker 1: one individual think about, which, when you come to think

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Speaker 1: about it, was really that one of the core pillars

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Speaker 1: of our success starting on a table and listening to

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Speaker 1: women telling you what they want and then going back

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Speaker 1: and figuring out how to give them what they want.

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Speaker 2: So when you decided to sell, how did you know

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Speaker 2: it was the right time to transition?

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Speaker 1: Well, I had always been focused on building businesses to

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Speaker 1: reinvest back in our communities, right Like. That was that

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Speaker 1: was always the focus, right and so even as we

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Speaker 1: were building Shay, we were doing that at a time

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Speaker 1: when nobody else was really thinking about If you think

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Speaker 1: about the cooperatives that we had that were producing the shade,

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Speaker 1: where we went from just buying Shay to investing in

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Speaker 1: supply chain with those women in Ghana and in uh

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Speaker 1: now it's Ghana, it's Ivory Coast, it's uh sire Leon,

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Speaker 1: it's uh used to be called Ulta Vault upper volta

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Speaker 1: Uh anyway, it'll come to me. But in all these

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Speaker 1: we're in like five different countries now where we're we're

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Speaker 1: investing in their supply chain and and helping those women manufacturer, store, distribute,

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Speaker 1: so move from become from being sort of gatherers of

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Speaker 1: nuts to now producing semi finished product, improving the value

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Speaker 1: of the product that they build so that they're able

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Speaker 1: to sell out a premium. Because prior to that, what

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Speaker 1: would happen is that the women like my grandmother would

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Speaker 1: gather the gather the nuts, and then that the men

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Speaker 1: would take the nuts and they would go process the

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Speaker 1: nuts and they would make the premium on the on

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Speaker 1: the actual button. Right, we sort of say, hey, that's

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Speaker 1: not fair, that's not the way this should work. And

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Speaker 1: in Africa it's called women's gold right, and so if

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Speaker 1: it's women's gold, they should they should benefit from the

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Speaker 1: gold right. So we started to say, okay, we won't

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Speaker 1: just buy the the the finished products here. What we're

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Speaker 1: going to from from these sort of wholesalers. What we're

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Speaker 1: going to do is We're going to go to the

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Speaker 1: to the very beginning of the pyramid. We're going to

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Speaker 1: work with the women. We're going to train them. We're

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Speaker 1: going to provide equipment, We're going to provide safety, We're

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Speaker 1: going to provide infrastructure. We're going to build processing facilities.

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Speaker 1: We're going to invest in processing facilities alongside them so

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Speaker 1: that they can produce the finished product, they can store it,

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Speaker 1: they can have the capital to buy the to buy

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Speaker 1: the supply, and then we buy from them to finish,

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Speaker 1: to finish aye better. Right, And that program has now

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Speaker 1: impacted hundreds of thousands of points.

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Speaker 3: So the idea of selling right, like because alluding to

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Speaker 3: that part and I'm going to shit as well knowing

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Speaker 3: when to do it. But also I'm thinking back to

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Speaker 3: the time when it happened, when you sell, what was

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Speaker 3: the environment, right, because we're looking at now we see

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Speaker 3: companies sell. There's always critique, there's negative critique. I think

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Speaker 3: it has a lot to attribute to the lack of

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Speaker 3: education around it. I guess when you were in this process,

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Speaker 3: again knowing the time and of it, but was there

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Speaker 3: criticism at the time of yourself or like what was it?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, when we when we saw there was it was

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Speaker 1: tremendous criticism because it was it was like it was

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Speaker 1: like the first of it's the first of its of

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Speaker 1: its kind and of its size. I think before that

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Speaker 1: only BT had gotten that kind of recognition or got

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Speaker 1: gotten that kind of scale. And then the recognition around

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Speaker 1: around the exit and and there were the concerns. But

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Speaker 1: what I was alluding to and telling that story about

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Speaker 1: the supply chain was our business was built differently. Our

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Speaker 1: business was built so that we could invest back into

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Speaker 1: this community. So that was that was the first place

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Speaker 1: that we that we did that. Right, then we started

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Speaker 1: to recognize and realizing, hey, look there's all these there's

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Speaker 1: all these black women that are buying our product, right

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Speaker 1: and the same issues that those women in Africa have

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Speaker 1: are the same issues that black American women have here.

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Speaker 1: There's no access to capital for them. If they have

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Speaker 1: ideas of businesses that they want to run, there's nobody,

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Speaker 1: there's nobody providing them that capital. And remember now this

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Speaker 1: is back in the nineties, so it was even it

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Speaker 1: was even more foreign than it is today. Right, So

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Speaker 1: there was nobody, there was nobody that was really supporting

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Speaker 1: our community of women entrepreneurs in an organized way. So

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Speaker 1: we then said, Okay, what we're going to do is,

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Speaker 1: as we build this business, we're going to take ten

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Speaker 1: percent of our top line revenue against the brands that

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Speaker 1: we're putting through here, right, and we're going to invest

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Speaker 1: that back in African American women and in entrepreneurs in

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Speaker 1: their communities, right. And so that's what we started to do.

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Speaker 1: So we would go to we would go sell a

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Speaker 1: product to whatever retailer and say it was Walmart or

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Speaker 1: Target or CBS or whoever, and we say to them, Okay,

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Speaker 1: when we get on shelf, we're going to take ten

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Speaker 1: percent of this revenue. We're going to put it right

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Speaker 1: on the package so that people, no, we're going to

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Speaker 1: take tempests into this revenue, and we're going to go

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Speaker 1: invest it in these places. Right. So the first place

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Speaker 1: that we did that was around education. So we partnered

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Speaker 1: with with the Tuch School of School of Business and said, hey,

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Speaker 1: we want to build a program. They they already had

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Speaker 1: a an executive ED program, and we said, we want

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Speaker 1: to partner with you on this executive program, but we

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Speaker 1: want you to tailor it to the needs of black

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Speaker 1: women entrepreneurs, right. And so we worked with them to

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Speaker 1: develop that program. Right today, we've probably i'd lose try

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Speaker 1: to probably three four hundred women have gone through that

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Speaker 1: program today and that program still runs as we speak today.

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Speaker 1: So the idea there was, hey, we can help our

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Speaker 1: consumers and our community actually be better partners, better customers.

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Speaker 1: They can grow, they can scale, they can run their businesses,

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Speaker 1: they can do they can do these things, and so

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Speaker 1: we focus very heavily on that. But they would come

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Speaker 1: out of these programs and we all have heard this

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Speaker 1: I don't know how many times before, but they would

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Speaker 1: come out of these programs and be like, this is fantastic.

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Speaker 1: I now have the Tuck Network. I've now met all

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Speaker 1: these incredible black women that you guys have put through

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Speaker 1: this program. We have tons of ideas. My business is.

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Speaker 1: I can't wait to get back to my business. The

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Speaker 1: only problem is, now I know all this stuff. I

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Speaker 1: got no money, right, I can't go to the bank

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Speaker 1: and get the loan. All I need is twenty five

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Speaker 1: thirty thousand dollars right, And back then those numbers were

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Speaker 1: real right in helping and helping them get their businesses

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Speaker 1: off the ground. So we then started to rethink it

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Speaker 1: and say, you know this education piece. This is great, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: we're creating like a real entrepreneurial class of women here,

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Speaker 1: but they can't run their businesses because nobody will invest

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Speaker 1: in them. So we then said, okay, as the business grows,

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Speaker 1: we're going to continue to investment, not just in the education.

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Speaker 1: We're not going to take it up to invest in

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Speaker 1: them so they can run there, they can they can

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Speaker 1: develop and grow their businesses. So as we started to

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Speaker 1: do that, then we started to recognize how much greater

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Speaker 1: the need was than what it was that we even

387
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Speaker 1: thought when we started it, which then started to get

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Speaker 1: to thinking, well, we've built we've not built value in

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Speaker 1: this business, right, We've built significant value here. We need

390
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:42,960
Speaker 1: to unlock that value so we can go and continue

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Speaker 1: this work of building out an economic infrastructure for the

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Speaker 1: women in our in our in our communities. Right. And

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Speaker 1: so that's that was the impetus of that thinking. So

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00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:55,359
Speaker 1: we started to think about it that way and say, okay,

395
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Speaker 1: if we do this, that now allows us to go

396
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:04,520
Speaker 1: create twenty shame oistures, right to go to go support

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Speaker 1: twenty shame oistures, and and how many lives can that

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Speaker 1: transform and and change? And so that was that was

399
00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:21,480
Speaker 1: that was the impetus for us. It hadn't been done before,

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Speaker 1: certainly not at that scale, right, And because of the

401
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:27,439
Speaker 1: scale it was done at, it became very public. You know,

402
00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:30,359
Speaker 1: we're not we're not very public, but because of that,

403
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:34,160
Speaker 1: it became it became very public. And there were sort

404
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:37,120
Speaker 1: of three sides to it, right. It was the one

405
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Speaker 1: side of, well, you know they're selling out right, they've

406
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Speaker 1: they've they've sold out right, you build something and then

407
00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:48,520
Speaker 1: and then they sold that and and we should we

408
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:52,840
Speaker 1: should probe what that means. Right. Then the the other

409
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:57,720
Speaker 1: side of it was great, this is fantastic because we

410
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Speaker 1: don't see we don't see this. That was not as

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00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:04,200
Speaker 1: loud as the you so you saw that piece, right,

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Speaker 1: And then there was the there was the yeah, I

413
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Speaker 1: hear what you say you're gonna go do, but I

414
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Speaker 1: don't believe it. Right, This is this is marketing, this

415
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:18,199
Speaker 1: is this is this is talk. Right. And so we

416
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Speaker 1: actually did what we said we were going to do,

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Speaker 1: and we can we continue we continue to do it.

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Speaker 1: And for those that were excited and motivated and inspired

419
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Speaker 1: by it, I think we saw we saw a huge

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Speaker 1: uptake in businesses that were then thinking about hey, how

421
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Speaker 1: do we how do we become multi generational? Right? How

422
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,120
Speaker 1: do we how do we come how do we create scale? Right?

423
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Speaker 1: So here's a pathway to scale, like like Shaane Morshure

424
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,439
Speaker 1: has shown us how you can scale. And so you

425
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Speaker 1: saw then saw a ton of companies starting to do that,

426
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Speaker 1: and we can unpack that as well. And then there's

427
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:08,000
Speaker 1: still the contingent that was very skeptical, right, and and

428
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Speaker 1: and I think in a lot of ways had been

429
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Speaker 1: I had been disappointed so many times before right around

430
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:23,480
Speaker 1: products that they thought, hey, you know when when when

431
00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:25,600
Speaker 1: this company was doing this, they were focused. I mean

432
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 1: they went watering down the products. Product. Something change, something changed,

433
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Speaker 1: And that's not necessarily the case. I'm not here to

434
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Speaker 1: say that you know, things don't change over time, because

435
00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:41,199
Speaker 1: they do. But there's a there's a physiological change that

436
00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:46,160
Speaker 1: happens in the human body. Right, So when you're twenty two,

437
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 1: where your hair needs are are very different from after

438
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:53,240
Speaker 1: you've had a baby, and you know you've you've gone

439
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 1: through certain life stages and then you move on, you

440
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,199
Speaker 1: go on, and so then it's so so part of

441
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 1: that is the journey of the human being themselves to say, hey, oh, No,

442
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:04,679
Speaker 1: this changed because it's not working the way that it was.

443
00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 1: And it doesn't necessarily mean that the product change. The

444
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:11,840
Speaker 1: human changed, right, And in some cases when you do

445
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 1: sell to these companies and that in some cases, in

446
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:19,879
Speaker 1: most cases, they're finding ways to maximize their return. So

447
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 1: they're saying, Okay, were this company, we have this scale,

448
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 1: we can change this, change that, and we can, and

449
00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:29,200
Speaker 1: we can, and we can get a bigger return.

450
00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 3: We changed this ingredient might cost as much, we get

451
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:33,920
Speaker 3: more revenue if we add this one.

452
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 2: So let's have this conversation so that there's a three

453
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:42,680
Speaker 2: pound Let's have this conversation a very black and white format.

454
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 2: There's a narrative that when black businesses sell their company

455
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 2: that they've sold out, right, Yeah, and you've been you've

456
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:51,920
Speaker 2: sold the company, but you've also invested in a lot

457
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,119
Speaker 2: of companies that have been purchased.

458
00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:59,439
Speaker 1: And sold more companies. Okay, yeah, meel Mayo Mayo. That

459
00:26:59,520 --> 00:26:59,880
Speaker 1: was someuming.

460
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:02,520
Speaker 2: That was a recent one that was very you know,

461
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:07,359
Speaker 2: being on Twitter, but an incredible couple of right money,

462
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:16,359
Speaker 2: the most incredible definitely. So let's really examine this on

463
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 2: several different levels, right, Like the idea that we we

464
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:26,880
Speaker 2: can never have generational wealth because we always sell out.

465
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:31,120
Speaker 2: You don't see, that's not how generational wealth is created.

466
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 2: But I'm explaining each one, you know, all right, So

467
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 2: that's the first GOT three.

468
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,960
Speaker 1: I'm a little passionate about that. That's the pain point.

469
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:39,679
Speaker 2: That's the first one. That's the first one. That's the

470
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:42,879
Speaker 2: first critique is that how can we ever have generational

471
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:44,800
Speaker 2: wealth if we if we're selling out, we don't have

472
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 2: anything to pass down with your critiques to.

473
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:56,399
Speaker 1: That, Well, look, I think there's history is littered with

474
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:07,400
Speaker 1: black owned businesses that thought that way, waited too late

475
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:11,840
Speaker 1: to take advantage of the wealth that they had created, right,

476
00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 1: and are no longer around. Right, And they're not around

477
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:19,080
Speaker 1: for a whole host of reasons. Right. Market dynamics change.

478
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:22,040
Speaker 1: The biggest part of this, and the common thread is,

479
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:24,440
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about this hopefully a little bit later,

480
00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:29,440
Speaker 1: the grace that is not given to the black entrepreneur, right,

481
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:37,520
Speaker 1: which then takes away the opportunities that the black entrepreneur

482
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:45,760
Speaker 1: could earn. Right, So most of these companies don't have

483
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:54,520
Speaker 1: access to capital. To thirty thousand dollars, right, what about

484
00:28:54,520 --> 00:29:03,080
Speaker 1: to thirty million dollars? Right? There's probably ten fifteen black

485
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and businesses that you can that you can point

486
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 1: to that have raised more than fifty million dollars. Even

487
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 1: if that I'd be surprised, right. But the challenge with

488
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:19,480
Speaker 1: that is that, say you were building something in the

489
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 1: in the seventies, and there's plenty of examples. There were great,

490
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:32,560
Speaker 1: great brands in the seventies, Brown and Brothers, Luster Products,

491
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:37,800
Speaker 1: Johnson Products, TCB like you can go on and on right,

492
00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,640
Speaker 1: And these these brands our mothers and grandmothers grew up

493
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 1: on right. Many of them had the same idea of

494
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 1: I'm going to pass this down from one generation to

495
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:59,960
Speaker 1: the next, right, and they did that. And when demands change,

496
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:05,000
Speaker 1: when tastes change, not all kids are equipped to run businesses.

497
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,400
Speaker 1: Just because I had this child doesn't mean that this

498
00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:11,000
Speaker 1: child can now do the things that I did. And

499
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 1: is it even fair to put that burden on a

500
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 1: kid whose true calling may have been to be a doctor, right,

501
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 1: or to play a sport or to But now you

502
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 1: have to be tied to this business because we created

503
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 1: and this is how the family survives. Right. Many of

504
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:35,959
Speaker 1: those businesses made it from one generation into the second

505
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 1: generation and then failed, right, Not necessarily not just because hey,

506
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 1: the second generation can do it. But it's a multitude

507
00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 1: of things. Let's say the second generation was exceptionally running

508
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:52,720
Speaker 1: the business. Right. Now you've built a business and this

509
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,400
Speaker 1: was one of the things that kept me up at night.

510
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 1: Now you've built a business that's gone and taken share

511
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:06,480
Speaker 1: away from a multinational corporation that believes that they own

512
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:11,640
Speaker 1: that shelf space, right, and who's who's who's whose infrastructure

513
00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:14,960
Speaker 1: is set up to compete to maintain that shelf space

514
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:20,080
Speaker 1: against competitors that have the same scale, in the same reach, right,

515
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: that have the same resources, the same the same paths

516
00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:27,959
Speaker 1: to market. Right. That's how they're set up. I'm not

517
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:30,560
Speaker 1: saying they sit down and think, oh, here's this small brand,

518
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: let me go kill it. But their machine is built

519
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:38,160
Speaker 1: to either eat or kill anything that comes on that

520
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 1: on that shelf space. So now I'm generation two. I've

521
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:47,320
Speaker 1: now broken in. We'll use a brand like RS organic

522
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 1: Roots Stimulator. Perfect example. Organic Roots Stimulator came out of

523
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:58,880
Speaker 1: soft Sheen Carson and Softing Carson built a beautiful brand.

524
00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 1: They actually sold that brand to Laurel. They were one

525
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:04,240
Speaker 1: of the first ones to sell to Lrel. I mean

526
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:11,120
Speaker 1: is to sell to a multinational, right, and the Sun

527
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 1: started up a second brand called RS Organic Root Stimulator, right,

528
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:23,600
Speaker 1: and it took off. Right. So Gary obviously highly one

529
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,680
Speaker 1: of the most competent people I've ever met. Right, But

530
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:35,600
Speaker 1: now you've got to go compete against Laoreel who owns Softsheet, right,

531
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:39,880
Speaker 1: or you've got to go compete against Panteen, Or you

532
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:43,200
Speaker 1: got to go and compete against Cream of Nature or

533
00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: Revlon or whomever it is. Right. And they have access

534
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 1: to capital, they have the infrastructure to produce at scale.

535
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:56,120
Speaker 1: They've been doing it for you know, forty fifty some

536
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:58,239
Speaker 1: of them one hundreds of years. If you look at

537
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:01,160
Speaker 1: a p ANDNG, it's like hundreds of years. And so

538
00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:04,360
Speaker 1: how do you compete against that when you can't go

539
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:09,560
Speaker 1: to your local bank and get a twenty million dollar loan, right,

540
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:14,400
Speaker 1: or go to a fund and get a fifty million

541
00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:19,240
Speaker 1: dollar investment to go scale a business like that, Right,

542
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:25,040
Speaker 1: So you run into these structural challenges. Right. So you

543
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:27,680
Speaker 1: have two things. You have, Hey, does the next generation

544
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 1: actually want to do it? And if the next generation

545
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:32,720
Speaker 1: can actually do it, are they going to have access

546
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:35,360
Speaker 1: to the resources in the capitol to do it? And

547
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:39,440
Speaker 1: when you come from our community. If you've built a

548
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:42,400
Speaker 1: business that's doing ten million dollars a year, twenty million

549
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:46,120
Speaker 1: dollars a year, thirty million dollars a year, that oftentimes

550
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:49,360
Speaker 1: is probably the largest black owned business in your neighborhood,

551
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:54,239
Speaker 1: in your community, maybe even in your state. Right. And

552
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:56,840
Speaker 1: so as a community we look at it and say, wow,

553
00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:59,800
Speaker 1: they're doing so well, and they're so you know, they

554
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 1: they've gotten so big. But to the broader marketplace, that says, hey,

555
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: you guys have unlocked something here that is taking away

556
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 1: shelf space from my business. I need to either acquire it,

557
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:15,000
Speaker 1: or I need to knock it off, or I somehow

558
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:19,360
Speaker 1: need to compete against it, because that's how we survive.

559
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:23,440
Speaker 1: And so you end up now in an environment where

560
00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:28,239
Speaker 1: you may be a big fish in our world, but

561
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:31,000
Speaker 1: when you hit the when you hit the larger world,

562
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: it's it's a much it's a much different game, and

563
00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 1: it becomes much much harder for these companies, for our

564
00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:42,040
Speaker 1: companies to compete. And then the other problem that we

565
00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:48,759
Speaker 1: have is talent. Right, So, if you think about what

566
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 1: it takes to become a an executive inside of a

567
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:03,839
Speaker 1: of a corporation, right, the investment in your education, right,

568
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 1: the student loans that you have, the uh, the investment

569
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 1: in self development, the things that you have to go

570
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:17,840
Speaker 1: through in those in those organizations, because many places you

571
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:21,319
Speaker 1: don't feel a sense of belonging, you don't have the

572
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:25,520
Speaker 1: same levels of mentorship, it's not the same access to

573
00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:28,359
Speaker 1: to getting pulled up. So you're you're you're clawing your

574
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 1: way up every day. Right, you have to be, as

575
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:32,759
Speaker 1: our parents used to tell us, you got to be

576
00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:35,480
Speaker 1: six times as good as the next guy just to

577
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:38,800
Speaker 1: get to first base, right, Like, you've got to literally

578
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 1: be that much better. Right. And then you think, well,

579
00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:48,680
Speaker 1: I'd love to go work for a block owned business, right,

580
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:53,439
Speaker 1: And you stop to think about it and realize, hey, yeah,

581
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:56,680
Speaker 1: that business may not be able to get the capital

582
00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:58,239
Speaker 1: that is going to take to get from point A

583
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 1: to point B. So now what I've done is I've

584
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 1: I'm going to take a risk on all that I've

585
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:11,759
Speaker 1: built here, on all of the uh the cost of

586
00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:15,279
Speaker 1: my education. Right, I now have two kids that I've

587
00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:18,799
Speaker 1: got to put through through college or or or other

588
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:25,120
Speaker 1: other sort of familiar obligations. And so then the really

589
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:29,080
Speaker 1: great talent starts to think, well, that's just too much

590
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:31,680
Speaker 1: of a risk because I don't know if that company

591
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:34,799
Speaker 1: can survive, right, I don't know if they can get

592
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 1: the capital that they need. And we're seeing that all

593
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:40,799
Speaker 1: around us today. Right, So that's that's that's that's the

594
00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:43,799
Speaker 1: other thing that goes into that into that mindset when

595
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:46,239
Speaker 1: you talk about going from one generation to the next, right,

596
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:49,440
Speaker 1: it's like how do how do you do it? And

597
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:52,520
Speaker 1: there's a reason that so few are able to do it?

598
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:58,080
Speaker 2: So and then also talk about like how public opendon

599
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:02,400
Speaker 2: can actually sway even the future valuations of a company,

600
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:05,719
Speaker 2: Like if somebody's getting targeted on Twitter, like the next

601
00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:09,719
Speaker 2: person that sells their company, the company that purchases that

602
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:12,160
Speaker 2: is going to say, Okay, well I'm gonna have to

603
00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:14,359
Speaker 2: buy it at a discount because I know that there's

604
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 2: gonna be backlash. Yeah, right, So that's actually hurting black founders.

605
00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:21,520
Speaker 2: It hurts, It hurts trumental.

606
00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 1: It doesn't just hurt black founders, it hurts the black

607
00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:29,360
Speaker 1: community period because I think what we don't we don't

608
00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:35,000
Speaker 1: truly one of the things to really appreciate and understand

609
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:39,560
Speaker 1: is what impact can a business or does a business

610
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:47,000
Speaker 1: like Mael have on their community in Indiana? Right, the

611
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:50,320
Speaker 1: jobs that they provide. And it's not just the jobs

612
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:54,440
Speaker 1: that they provide, and and and and the income that

613
00:37:54,520 --> 00:37:56,719
Speaker 1: they make, but it's also that you're in a safe,

614
00:37:56,719 --> 00:38:01,640
Speaker 1: comfortable environment to work in, right, And that is that

615
00:38:01,719 --> 00:38:07,000
Speaker 1: is priceless, Right. But I think what to getting back

616
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:13,480
Speaker 1: to your point, I think today many entrepreneurs a driving

617
00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:20,279
Speaker 1: factor and why they want to sell is because they're afraid, right,

618
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:23,440
Speaker 1: They're afraid the things that I just talk about. Am

619
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:26,320
Speaker 1: I going to be able to get the capital to continue?

620
00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:29,600
Speaker 1: Am I going to be Is the market going to

621
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:32,160
Speaker 1: change on me? And I'm not going to be able

622
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:34,560
Speaker 1: to react? Am I going to be able to get

623
00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:38,960
Speaker 1: the type of talent support that I need to run this?

624
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:43,279
Speaker 1: And more than anything else, if my community turns on me,

625
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:46,600
Speaker 1: am I going to be able to stay in business? Right?

626
00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:50,800
Speaker 1: And recently we've seen examples of where the community turns

627
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:55,200
Speaker 1: and the business can't recover or the individual can't recover,

628
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:59,680
Speaker 1: therefore the business can't recover, right, And so I think

629
00:38:59,719 --> 00:39:02,480
Speaker 1: you you put those you put those factors in there,

630
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,920
Speaker 1: and it's a very very it's a very very harsh

631
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:10,759
Speaker 1: environment for black entrepreneurs, right because the places that you

632
00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:15,600
Speaker 1: should find comfort oftentimes you don't you don't get that comfort, right,

633
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:18,160
Speaker 1: you don't get that grace, you don't get that you

634
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:22,160
Speaker 1: don't get that forgiveness, right, and you don't have the

635
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:26,520
Speaker 1: access to the things that can help solve the problem. Right.

636
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 1: So it's it's a double it's a double edged sword.

637
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:31,480
Speaker 1: But I believe a lot of I mean, when we

638
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:34,359
Speaker 1: I give you the reasons why we did what we did,

639
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:39,799
Speaker 1: and we caught a lot of backlash for for selling, right,

640
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:43,600
Speaker 1: and when we were selling the business, were very clear

641
00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:50,400
Speaker 1: and saying we're going to unlock wealth to invest in

642
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:53,560
Speaker 1: in in black businesses. And I think to date we've

643
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 1: probably invested more in black businesses than just about any

644
00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:01,000
Speaker 1: fund out there. There you're up there.

645
00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:05,759
Speaker 3: I mean, the fear sounds like it comes from the

646
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:10,880
Speaker 3: grace conversation, right, or the lack thereof grace conversation, because

647
00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:14,480
Speaker 3: we're not afforded the ability to make a mistake because

648
00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:17,680
Speaker 3: of that, if we do, what will happen? Right, or

649
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:20,840
Speaker 3: I might sell because I'm at the point where I

650
00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:22,600
Speaker 3: haven't made the mistake. So let me get out while

651
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:25,520
Speaker 3: in my head, Yeah, what what I mean, You've You've

652
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:28,400
Speaker 3: invested in a lot of businesses you've seen them not

653
00:40:28,480 --> 00:40:30,799
Speaker 3: be afforded that lack of grace. What do you say

654
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:35,399
Speaker 3: to both populations, the people who are not extending it

655
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:37,799
Speaker 3: into the entrepreneur who's actually living in it.

656
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:44,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, I think I think it's where we're getting

657
00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:49,680
Speaker 1: to a place in our society where we're forgetting that

658
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:52,920
Speaker 1: the only way our ancestors got through this environment was

659
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:56,759
Speaker 1: by loving each other, right, and and that's the only way.

660
00:40:56,880 --> 00:40:59,759
Speaker 1: That's that's and that's that's what we need to that's

661
00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:02,879
Speaker 1: what we need to stick with, right. It's we can

662
00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:11,319
Speaker 1: be we can be critical, right, especially if that is

663
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:15,279
Speaker 1: to help you get better. There's there's no there's no

664
00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:19,560
Speaker 1: I mean I take it all the time. I enjoy

665
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:22,719
Speaker 1: learning and saying hey, oh I missed that, Oh we

666
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:25,160
Speaker 1: could have done that better, Oh we should do this.

667
00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:31,120
Speaker 1: This is differently, right, That's different from when there's sort

668
00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:35,319
Speaker 1: of this it's it's so venomous that you can't see

669
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:38,640
Speaker 1: past it that that you then the message gets lost, right,

670
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:40,880
Speaker 1: and now it's it's it's fight or flight, and you

671
00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:43,520
Speaker 1: get you get defensive and and you lose it. I

672
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:46,239
Speaker 1: think that there's a way for us to help each

673
00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:53,640
Speaker 1: other get better through through love and care and hard conversations. Right,

674
00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:57,640
Speaker 1: You've got to have the hard conversations, but it's not

675
00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:02,239
Speaker 1: always this sort of black and white thing, right. So

676
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:05,520
Speaker 1: that so that's that's that's the way that there's like.

677
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,000
Speaker 3: I guess it's a reconciliation moment, right, Like there must

678
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:14,680
Speaker 3: be internal healing because the criticism a lot of times, yeah,

679
00:42:14,719 --> 00:42:16,359
Speaker 3: it can be fair and you can learn from it,

680
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:19,719
Speaker 3: but when it's vile and there's no idea of hey,

681
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:23,520
Speaker 3: if that gets torn down, you know, there's not not

682
00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:24,759
Speaker 3: anything coming after it.

683
00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't do you.

684
00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:28,239
Speaker 3: I mean, I feel like that's not part of the

685
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:32,319
Speaker 3: consciousness of that population that is creating that.

686
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:37,360
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts? I mean, I I think it's

687
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:40,600
Speaker 1: I think for people that say that or that that

688
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:44,720
Speaker 1: that behave that way, I don't think they understand how

689
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:51,279
Speaker 1: hard it is to actually build these things, right, And

690
00:42:53,719 --> 00:42:58,799
Speaker 1: even if they understand how hard it is to build it,

691
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:03,160
Speaker 1: it is it is imperative that you still try to

692
00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:08,160
Speaker 1: preserve what it is that's been built. Right. There's you

693
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:10,720
Speaker 1: don't need to burn this down to go build something else.

694
00:43:11,239 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 1: I look around at other communities, I look around in

695
00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:18,040
Speaker 1: other places. That's not what I see happening, right, And

696
00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:22,280
Speaker 1: so it used to be that we could take comfort

697
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:27,400
Speaker 1: and solace, we can retreat back inside, get our strength,

698
00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:30,400
Speaker 1: and then go back out and fight. Right, if we

699
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:34,640
Speaker 1: get to a place of where, you know, there's nowhere

700
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:37,439
Speaker 1: for me to retreat, right, there's there's no where, there's

701
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:39,879
Speaker 1: nowhere to take solace, there's no way to regroup, there's

702
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:43,920
Speaker 1: no way to to recuperate. Right, there's no safe environment.

703
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 1: Because the community that I've built is Look, I've I've

704
00:43:48,239 --> 00:43:51,399
Speaker 1: met tons of entrepreneurs, We've invested in tons of them.

705
00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:54,239
Speaker 1: We spend a ton of time with them, like like

706
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:57,280
Speaker 1: we do with each other, talking about hard things, talking

707
00:43:57,280 --> 00:43:59,839
Speaker 1: about challenges, how do we work together, how do we

708
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:02,319
Speaker 1: how do we figure this out? How do we how

709
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:05,359
Speaker 1: do we move forward? If that's not what we're fostering,

710
00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 1: then we've got no chance.

711
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:12,400
Speaker 2: So but yeah, more like let's let's break this down

712
00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:13,960
Speaker 2: a little bit more as far as the grace that

713
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:17,680
Speaker 2: black businesses are not given because a company like Meta,

714
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:20,600
Speaker 2: you know, has billion dollar lossuit where they were actually

715
00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:27,239
Speaker 2: selling people's data and nobody actually unstalled Instagram, Yeah, or

716
00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:31,440
Speaker 2: you know Apple, you know has glitches every single iPhone

717
00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:34,239
Speaker 2: that comes out right and purposely messed it up. As

718
00:44:34,239 --> 00:44:37,000
Speaker 2: far as for Android users, there's not a mass to

719
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:40,560
Speaker 2: get rid of iPhones. When Mercedes Benz has a recall,

720
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:45,000
Speaker 2: nobody stops buying Mercedes bins. But it's like a T

721
00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:49,560
Speaker 2: shirt comes three weeks late, and it's like you make

722
00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:53,160
Speaker 2: a TikTok video to actually bash the company and say

723
00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:54,839
Speaker 2: how poor And this is why you don't buy from

724
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:58,560
Speaker 2: black businesses because black people don't know how to handle

725
00:44:58,719 --> 00:45:07,280
Speaker 2: business the right way. So like explain that, because that's

726
00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:10,800
Speaker 2: that's the level of not only grace that's not given,

727
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:16,400
Speaker 2: but it's it's it's campaigns that's run out of the

728
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:20,520
Speaker 2: enjoyment of seeing people fail when that same energy is

729
00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:26,280
Speaker 2: never put into organizations and companies that have historically made

730
00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:30,080
Speaker 2: ten times worse of a of a of a blunder,

731
00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:35,479
Speaker 2: yeah than somebody mismanaging, you know, things on a small

732
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:36,120
Speaker 2: business level.

733
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,759
Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I I don't know what the solution is,

734
00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:47,960
Speaker 1: but I can tell you there's a lot of mistrust

735
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:54,560
Speaker 1: in our community, and some of it earned and some

736
00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:59,240
Speaker 1: of it not right. But the way that I choose

737
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:03,000
Speaker 1: to live, and I I think the way that is

738
00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:07,560
Speaker 1: grace is that word is that word grace because the

739
00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:12,920
Speaker 1: challenges that those businesses are facing and those individuals that

740
00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 1: are running those businesses are facing just to get that

741
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:20,439
Speaker 1: product on the market that you're so proud to see

742
00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:22,319
Speaker 1: when you see it, like when you see that T

743
00:46:22,480 --> 00:46:25,600
Speaker 1: shirt or you see that dress, or you see that scar,

744
00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:29,200
Speaker 1: or you see that shampoo or that like the pride

745
00:46:29,200 --> 00:46:31,640
Speaker 1: that you feel because you know how hard it is

746
00:46:31,719 --> 00:46:36,640
Speaker 1: to get it there. Right, the grace has to be

747
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:40,080
Speaker 1: come in to help us sustain it, you know, it

748
00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:42,920
Speaker 1: has to come in to help us pick it up

749
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,520
Speaker 1: and grow it right, and not when it becomes successful.

750
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:50,120
Speaker 1: You know, just because somebody's business gets successful doesn't mean

751
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:52,880
Speaker 1: that they stop caring about the people that they've always

752
00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:55,680
Speaker 1: cared about. Doesn't mean that they stop wanting to solve

753
00:46:55,719 --> 00:47:01,360
Speaker 1: the problems that they're solving right now, dealing at a

754
00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:03,920
Speaker 1: whole other level, what a whole other set of problems

755
00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:08,000
Speaker 1: that they haven't dealt with before, and that they may

756
00:47:08,040 --> 00:47:10,560
Speaker 1: not have a network around them that has dealt with

757
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:13,640
Speaker 1: it before, So they may not have the good fortune

758
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 1: of you being able to pick up the phone and

759
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:18,759
Speaker 1: call me and say, hey, rich here's what I'm dealing with.

760
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:20,920
Speaker 1: How do we how have you solved it right? How

761
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:23,440
Speaker 1: do you get to it? They may not have that

762
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:26,560
Speaker 1: around them, right, They may not have that person in

763
00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:31,320
Speaker 1: their organization that has run a business like this somewhere

764
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:33,520
Speaker 1: else and has that expertise because of what I said

765
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:36,680
Speaker 1: earlier is the risk of people coming over and that

766
00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:40,080
Speaker 1: gets that becomes a very lonely place, right. So now

767
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:44,399
Speaker 1: you're seeing women saying and men saying, hey, you know what,

768
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:47,879
Speaker 1: I'm just going to shut it down. I'm just I'm

769
00:47:47,920 --> 00:47:51,200
Speaker 1: just gonna pause right because I can't. I can't do it.

770
00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:58,440
Speaker 1: And that's not what our community wants. That's very detrimental

771
00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:02,000
Speaker 1: to our to our community actually out of time where

772
00:48:02,640 --> 00:48:08,520
Speaker 1: we're under pressure from. So like we're talking about unemployment

773
00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:12,759
Speaker 1: rate is seven point seven percent for black people right now, right,

774
00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:18,480
Speaker 1: that's double right, what it is for the white community.

775
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:24,960
Speaker 1: Right six hundred seven hundred thousand women losing their jobs,

776
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:28,760
Speaker 1: are being displaced from their jobs. That's real economic pressure

777
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:33,320
Speaker 1: that we're feeling. Right between the unemployment, the direct loss

778
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:36,560
Speaker 1: of DII means that the contracts that you were able

779
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:39,360
Speaker 1: to go bid for on a on a on a

780
00:48:39,480 --> 00:48:41,960
Speaker 1: more even playing field, you can no longer bid for

781
00:48:42,080 --> 00:48:44,080
Speaker 1: in a more even playing field. And that's got nothing

782
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:46,239
Speaker 1: to do with race. It's got to do with economics.

783
00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:49,720
Speaker 1: If I don't have the capital to put the presentation together,

784
00:48:50,760 --> 00:48:54,120
Speaker 1: to drive the programs to build the infrastructure, I'm not

785
00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:55,600
Speaker 1: going to be able to I'm not going to be

786
00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:58,399
Speaker 1: able to win that. Right. Then you add in their

787
00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:01,840
Speaker 1: you know, healthcare, right, and the cost of what that is.

788
00:49:01,920 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 1: So you take a population that has a high unemployment

789
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:11,120
Speaker 1: rate that's now losing its businesses. You add in that

790
00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:17,319
Speaker 1: we're disproportionately impacted by these health issues. Right. So now

791
00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:20,279
Speaker 1: you know every time I got is going to just

792
00:49:20,640 --> 00:49:22,879
Speaker 1: helping me stay alive or taking care of my mother,

793
00:49:23,040 --> 00:49:25,360
Speaker 1: or taking care of my father. And you start to

794
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:29,040
Speaker 1: add these things together, and we're ending up in a

795
00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:33,200
Speaker 1: place of extreme economic destabilization.

796
00:49:33,760 --> 00:49:33,880
Speaker 3: Right.

797
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:37,719
Speaker 1: And so all of that coming together puts a lot

798
00:49:37,800 --> 00:49:40,960
Speaker 1: of pressure not just on not just on the business,

799
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:42,000
Speaker 1: but on the individuals.

800
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:49,480
Speaker 3: Is that forecast a population that is predominantly going to

801
00:49:49,560 --> 00:49:53,640
Speaker 3: shy away from entrepreneurship careers. We had a conversation about

802
00:49:53,640 --> 00:49:56,080
Speaker 3: AI and the impact that it's going to happen. How

803
00:49:56,320 --> 00:49:58,080
Speaker 3: at some point everybody's going to have to have an

804
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:02,880
Speaker 3: entrepreneurial journey based on that, it feels like, No, that

805
00:50:03,080 --> 00:50:05,279
Speaker 3: doesn't seem like it's going to be the path. In fact,

806
00:50:05,520 --> 00:50:07,480
Speaker 3: there's going to be more of us that are going

807
00:50:07,560 --> 00:50:10,480
Speaker 3: to be employees after employee after employee.

808
00:50:10,719 --> 00:50:14,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean that's that's where we're headed unless

809
00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:18,400
Speaker 1: we course correct, right, and we've got a course correct

810
00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:23,080
Speaker 1: internally right amongst ourselves and within our community, so that

811
00:50:23,239 --> 00:50:26,520
Speaker 1: we can go out right and go and go fight

812
00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:28,600
Speaker 1: for these things to go go out and fight to

813
00:50:28,640 --> 00:50:30,600
Speaker 1: get the capitol, go out and fight to get the

814
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:33,359
Speaker 1: shelf space, go out and fight right like we've we've

815
00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:37,000
Speaker 1: got to fix that internally. And quite frankly, you know,

816
00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:45,880
Speaker 1: I don't believe that this is an overwhelming part of

817
00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:48,160
Speaker 1: our community. I think it's a small part of it,

818
00:50:48,239 --> 00:50:50,640
Speaker 1: But I think it's a loud part, right, and so

819
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:54,440
Speaker 1: it becomes something that you you you can't get away from.

820
00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:58,480
Speaker 1: But there's also lessons to be learned in there, right.

821
00:50:58,560 --> 00:51:01,160
Speaker 1: It's it's not to say, hey that these things don't matter,

822
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:03,279
Speaker 1: that there's lessons to be learned in there.

823
00:51:03,920 --> 00:51:06,800
Speaker 2: Well, it's the vocal, vocal minority of us, yeah, but

824
00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:09,520
Speaker 2: I mean as far as the but it's it's harmful

825
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:15,080
Speaker 2: no for sure. Even that, yeah, mentioned the more employees.

826
00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:17,320
Speaker 2: I don't know if we're can have more employees because unemployment.

827
00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:21,960
Speaker 2: To talk about that, talk about the disproportion as far

828
00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:26,600
Speaker 2: as black unemployment white unemployment, how alarming that is? How

829
00:51:26,800 --> 00:51:28,400
Speaker 2: you know your thoughts on that?

830
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:32,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I mean it's it's the gap is growing

831
00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:36,640
Speaker 1: wider right right now, it's it's two x plus, right,

832
00:51:36,719 --> 00:51:38,520
Speaker 1: and that that gap is growing wider.

833
00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:41,239
Speaker 2: So there's two times more black people that's unemployed than

834
00:51:41,280 --> 00:51:44,239
Speaker 2: white people as a percentage. Yet as a percentage, it's

835
00:51:44,280 --> 00:51:45,680
Speaker 2: like eight percent of black people.

836
00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:49,880
Speaker 1: It's seven point seven, seven point seven, seven point eight

837
00:51:49,960 --> 00:51:51,759
Speaker 1: depending on what they a round it to eight.

838
00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:54,839
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's like four percent of white people three

839
00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:56,360
Speaker 2: point three point something.

840
00:51:56,760 --> 00:51:56,960
Speaker 1: Yeah.

841
00:51:57,320 --> 00:52:00,680
Speaker 2: So black unemployment is two times that of white people. Yeah,

842
00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:01,680
Speaker 2: and it's growing.

843
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:04,000
Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's higher than every other group too. It's

844
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:07,000
Speaker 1: higher than Latinas, it's higher than Asians.

845
00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:12,080
Speaker 2: Why is that? Because we know that per capita, black

846
00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:13,760
Speaker 2: women have the most college degrees.

847
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:19,359
Speaker 1: So why they have the most college degrees, but they

848
00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:24,840
Speaker 1: don't have an equal proportion of the opportunities right right, So,

849
00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:29,319
Speaker 1: and and for many that are in jobs, they're really underemployed, right,

850
00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:33,160
Speaker 1: So they're not necessarily leveraging all it is that their

851
00:52:33,239 --> 00:52:35,440
Speaker 1: degrees give them all. It is that their experience give

852
00:52:35,480 --> 00:52:38,319
Speaker 1: them because they're now having to accept jobs that are

853
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:41,560
Speaker 1: not necessarily on par with what their experience or their

854
00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:44,520
Speaker 1: expertise is. So it's it's not just the it's not

855
00:52:44,680 --> 00:52:48,560
Speaker 1: just the rate of unemployment, but it's also the rate

856
00:52:49,160 --> 00:52:50,320
Speaker 1: of underemployment.

857
00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:54,799
Speaker 2: So how do we because in black men are losing

858
00:52:54,880 --> 00:52:59,000
Speaker 2: jobs that rapid rate. Also similarly, so education is not

859
00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:01,680
Speaker 2: dance obviously to solve this problem.

860
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:11,359
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know, right, I think education. Look,

861
00:53:11,440 --> 00:53:15,960
Speaker 1: I grew up in a world where everything was education, education, education, Right.

862
00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:18,520
Speaker 1: We now live in a world where you can certainly

863
00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:21,800
Speaker 1: do tons of things without having to have all of

864
00:53:21,880 --> 00:53:26,800
Speaker 1: the rigor of the educational structure and the costs of

865
00:53:26,880 --> 00:53:29,440
Speaker 1: the educational structure that we had. And you talk about

866
00:53:29,560 --> 00:53:31,880
Speaker 1: you know, you said you guys were talking about AI. Right,

867
00:53:32,320 --> 00:53:34,680
Speaker 1: you talk about AI and what that's going to level.

868
00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:37,440
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, it always just comes

869
00:53:37,480 --> 00:53:42,600
Speaker 1: back to capital, Right, That's the thing is, it's I

870
00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:44,399
Speaker 1: can be the smartest guy in the world, the best

871
00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:47,120
Speaker 1: business guy in the world, if I can't get access

872
00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:51,239
Speaker 1: to capital to build a business, I'm just not going

873
00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:53,239
Speaker 1: to be able to do it right. Or I'm going

874
00:53:53,320 --> 00:53:56,040
Speaker 1: to be able to build a fraction of what it

875
00:53:56,239 --> 00:53:58,800
Speaker 1: is that I could build. And what's going to happen

876
00:53:59,280 --> 00:54:01,920
Speaker 1: is somebody else is going to see that fraction and

877
00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:05,279
Speaker 1: they're going to go build something that goes to the mood.

878
00:54:05,560 --> 00:54:10,560
Speaker 1: So it boils back down to capital. Right, It's the

879
00:54:10,640 --> 00:54:14,239
Speaker 1: economics of it. And if you think about it, I

880
00:54:14,280 --> 00:54:16,920
Speaker 1: think like stats are like twenty twenty one, it was

881
00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:23,440
Speaker 1: like one point two percent of capital went to went

882
00:54:23,520 --> 00:54:29,880
Speaker 1: to black businesses. Right today it's zero point three percent. Right.

883
00:54:30,480 --> 00:54:34,560
Speaker 1: That's a period of five years, right, And that is

884
00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:40,759
Speaker 1: a dramatic decline on an already tiny number. If we're

885
00:54:40,880 --> 00:54:44,920
Speaker 1: thirteen fourteen percent of the population, right, and the investments

886
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:48,719
Speaker 1: that come our way are less than one percent of

887
00:54:48,880 --> 00:54:51,400
Speaker 1: the of the of the funds that are that are

888
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:54,960
Speaker 1: being invested, then we're not going to be able to

889
00:54:55,040 --> 00:54:58,560
Speaker 1: build these businesses. And then the few that we do build,

890
00:54:59,000 --> 00:55:01,400
Speaker 1: we have to make sure. So it's.

891
00:55:02,920 --> 00:55:06,120
Speaker 3: It's alarming. It is alarming, right, And somebody might hear

892
00:55:06,239 --> 00:55:08,480
Speaker 3: was point four and now it's point three. It's one

893
00:55:08,560 --> 00:55:11,040
Speaker 3: basis point. But we're talking like in terms of billions

894
00:55:11,080 --> 00:55:15,280
Speaker 3: and millions of dollars that go to to black founders.

895
00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:18,520
Speaker 3: I think the piece, the capital piece, is important. I

896
00:55:18,600 --> 00:55:21,680
Speaker 3: think the opportunity piece is equally is important. Right, Like

897
00:55:21,760 --> 00:55:24,879
Speaker 3: the capital buys opportunity, it buys opportunity, which what I'm saying,

898
00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:27,760
Speaker 3: which is why when we look out at the playing field,

899
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:29,160
Speaker 3: who gives opportunity?

900
00:55:29,840 --> 00:55:30,000
Speaker 2: Right?

901
00:55:30,160 --> 00:55:33,000
Speaker 3: And if we attack places that give opportunity, then we

902
00:55:33,160 --> 00:55:36,879
Speaker 3: have none. Obviously, you guys have essence. We invest fast.

903
00:55:37,120 --> 00:55:41,040
Speaker 3: These are structural opportunities. We're bringing people together to create opportunities.

904
00:55:41,440 --> 00:55:45,600
Speaker 3: Talk about being mindful of losing spaces because you even

905
00:55:45,600 --> 00:55:48,839
Speaker 3: gave us education. On look, this institution is no longer here.

906
00:55:48,920 --> 00:55:51,920
Speaker 3: This institution is no longer here. We're losing them fast.

907
00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:55,080
Speaker 3: We're losing them fast. You know, when I was coming up.

908
00:55:57,400 --> 00:56:01,480
Speaker 1: There were there was no greater holy grail in the

909
00:56:01,560 --> 00:56:07,359
Speaker 1: beauty world than Browner Brothers, no greater holy girl. Right

910
00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:13,000
Speaker 1: for I think brown and Brothers. Speaking of multi I

911
00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:17,160
Speaker 1: think Brown Brothers is in its third generation of operation now, right.

912
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:23,319
Speaker 1: And I just saw online on social maybe two weeks

913
00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:26,640
Speaker 1: ago that the Browner brother Hare Show is not happening

914
00:56:26,719 --> 00:56:35,600
Speaker 1: this year. That every hair stylist, every every black makeup artist,

915
00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:44,880
Speaker 1: every designer, every that came out of the black community

916
00:56:45,120 --> 00:56:51,879
Speaker 1: in the seventies, eighties, nineties, two thousands, Brown and brother

917
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:54,200
Speaker 1: was where they got their start. Browner Brothers is where

918
00:56:54,239 --> 00:56:57,360
Speaker 1: they got access to customers. Brown That's that's where they

919
00:56:57,440 --> 00:57:02,560
Speaker 1: got their start. Right. For that to be happening is

920
00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:13,680
Speaker 1: devastating to us culturally and socially and historically. Right, there

921
00:57:13,719 --> 00:57:16,920
Speaker 1: are going to be people who never heard of it,

922
00:57:17,600 --> 00:57:25,240
Speaker 1: who never missed it, who never but that grounding that

923
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:29,680
Speaker 1: we had as a community is not happening this year. Right.

924
00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:33,760
Speaker 1: And then there's you know, carl Fest last year, and

925
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:36,000
Speaker 1: you can go, you can go up and down, up

926
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:42,840
Speaker 1: and down the list the losing these businesses, losing these institutions,

927
00:57:43,280 --> 00:57:45,600
Speaker 1: and there's a mindset that can be, Yeah, business is business.

928
00:57:45,680 --> 00:57:50,160
Speaker 1: It's not performing, it's not doing these things. No argument here,

929
00:57:50,560 --> 00:57:52,760
Speaker 1: But the fact that we're in this place of where

930
00:57:53,520 --> 00:57:57,520
Speaker 1: the things that we are culturally connected to are being

931
00:57:57,640 --> 00:58:01,480
Speaker 1: lost is something that we've we've got to do something about.

932
00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:03,240
Speaker 1: So let's have this conversation.

933
00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:10,000
Speaker 2: Essence Fest last year gotta got some negative backlash, do

934
00:58:10,120 --> 00:58:14,120
Speaker 2: you think that that backlash was warranted. How how do

935
00:58:14,200 --> 00:58:17,560
Speaker 2: you as a leader address that? What changes were made?

936
00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:20,000
Speaker 2: What's the roadmap moving forward?

937
00:58:21,040 --> 00:58:25,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, So look, when you're when you're building a business,

938
00:58:25,240 --> 00:58:27,840
Speaker 1: and I've said this and we continue to do that,

939
00:58:29,920 --> 00:58:33,160
Speaker 1: when there's backlash, there's always some reason for it. Right,

940
00:58:33,360 --> 00:58:36,440
Speaker 1: It's it's it's not it's not now. The scale that

941
00:58:36,520 --> 00:58:40,000
Speaker 1: it gets, how it gets, you know, the way that

942
00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:43,560
Speaker 1: it travels, the misinformation that may come with that or

943
00:58:43,640 --> 00:58:46,120
Speaker 1: not come with that. You know, those those can be

944
00:58:46,200 --> 00:58:50,520
Speaker 1: dealt with individually. But to just say hey, no, there

945
00:58:50,600 --> 00:58:54,240
Speaker 1: was that's that's not That's not the way to think

946
00:58:54,240 --> 00:58:56,160
Speaker 1: about it. Is not the way that that we think

947
00:58:56,200 --> 00:59:01,280
Speaker 1: about it. I think there were there were some structural

948
00:59:02,520 --> 00:59:07,560
Speaker 1: challenges in terms of transitioning and building for growth. Because

949
00:59:07,600 --> 00:59:09,920
Speaker 1: it's the same thing that we're talking about earlier. Is

950
00:59:10,520 --> 00:59:13,920
Speaker 1: if you know, essence is the Essence is really the

951
00:59:14,040 --> 00:59:21,240
Speaker 1: only black owned platform, the essence of scale. Right, that's

952
00:59:21,320 --> 00:59:26,120
Speaker 1: the only independent one. Right, It's it's either live nation

953
00:59:26,480 --> 00:59:30,240
Speaker 1: or ag or I mean, you guys know this. So

954
00:59:30,680 --> 00:59:33,600
Speaker 1: it's it's what we have left and and and what

955
00:59:33,880 --> 00:59:39,160
Speaker 1: is extremely important is that it is the home and

956
00:59:39,280 --> 00:59:43,960
Speaker 1: it's the place that we can come to and love

957
00:59:44,040 --> 00:59:46,440
Speaker 1: on each other, right, and be with each other and

958
00:59:46,680 --> 00:59:49,200
Speaker 1: and and and enjoy being with each other, and we

959
00:59:49,320 --> 00:59:52,600
Speaker 1: can develop and we can grow. And that's that's why,

960
00:59:53,000 --> 00:59:56,800
Speaker 1: you know, the essence festival of culture. Right. So we're

961
00:59:57,200 --> 00:59:59,920
Speaker 1: highly focused on the music. The music is still incredible,

962
01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:04,800
Speaker 1: it's still still great. Three nights of incredible music. But

963
01:00:04,880 --> 01:00:07,800
Speaker 1: then there's also the cultural aspects that are now in

964
01:00:07,960 --> 01:00:13,200
Speaker 1: the festival. The Food and Wine Festival. Come and experience

965
01:00:13,880 --> 01:00:20,280
Speaker 1: black chefs, black owned vineyards and and and and and

966
01:00:21,360 --> 01:00:24,520
Speaker 1: spirits right and and come and get that whole experience.

967
01:00:24,640 --> 01:00:29,040
Speaker 1: There's the Film Festival now where you come in. We

968
01:00:29,240 --> 01:00:33,680
Speaker 1: had over six hundred submissions last year. We're on pace

969
01:00:33,800 --> 01:00:36,880
Speaker 1: to get that same amount of submissions this year. Come

970
01:00:36,960 --> 01:00:41,640
Speaker 1: and support the directors in our community, the filmmakers that

971
01:00:42,040 --> 01:00:45,720
Speaker 1: all of and especially as Ai comes in, what's the

972
01:00:45,840 --> 01:00:49,320
Speaker 1: new model going to be? So you get you get

973
01:00:49,400 --> 01:00:54,040
Speaker 1: all of that right. Then there's the Book and Author Festival.

974
01:00:54,600 --> 01:00:57,480
Speaker 1: You know, I think we had almost sixty authors last

975
01:00:57,560 --> 01:01:01,640
Speaker 1: year doing signings and panels and and discussing their books

976
01:01:01,720 --> 01:01:04,200
Speaker 1: and and and and and all it like so and

977
01:01:04,280 --> 01:01:06,160
Speaker 1: then it goes it goes on and on and on.

978
01:01:06,240 --> 01:01:10,240
Speaker 1: There's beauty con where there's all the celebration of our beauty, right,

979
01:01:10,360 --> 01:01:16,680
Speaker 1: whether it's the brands and the products, the hairstyles, the uh,

980
01:01:16,960 --> 01:01:22,440
Speaker 1: the master classes, the like, all of that. Right. So

981
01:01:22,600 --> 01:01:27,160
Speaker 1: the idea is to continue to bring to our community

982
01:01:28,800 --> 01:01:31,880
Speaker 1: the things that are that are most important to us,

983
01:01:31,960 --> 01:01:34,960
Speaker 1: that that are that are grounding us, that we that

984
01:01:35,080 --> 01:01:37,600
Speaker 1: we're building on them, that we're driving, and then for

985
01:01:37,760 --> 01:01:40,720
Speaker 1: us to take ownership of that because that's that's another

986
01:01:40,880 --> 01:01:43,280
Speaker 1: big part of this is you know a lot of

987
01:01:43,320 --> 01:01:46,560
Speaker 1: people talk about our culture, right, but we're not always

988
01:01:46,600 --> 01:01:48,880
Speaker 1: the ones that monetize that culture. We're not the ones

989
01:01:48,920 --> 01:01:52,880
Speaker 1: that benefit from it economically. So creating an environment where

990
01:01:53,680 --> 01:01:58,440
Speaker 1: that can happen is extremely important. And so that's the vision,

991
01:01:58,840 --> 01:02:02,240
Speaker 1: right the vision, the vision is to really take all

992
01:02:02,320 --> 01:02:06,240
Speaker 1: of these pillars and provide them back to our community

993
01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:09,360
Speaker 1: or give our community an opportunity to platform themselves on there.

994
01:02:09,400 --> 01:02:14,000
Speaker 1: So you have all the the the professors, you have

995
01:02:14,120 --> 01:02:17,200
Speaker 1: all you have, all the educators, you have, all the entertainers,

996
01:02:17,280 --> 01:02:20,520
Speaker 1: you have, all the all of these different genres, the entrepreneurs.

997
01:02:20,680 --> 01:02:23,960
Speaker 1: You know, we we we've done over a million dollars

998
01:02:24,160 --> 01:02:30,960
Speaker 1: in in pitch competition grants, right, So investing in businesses there.

999
01:02:31,080 --> 01:02:35,920
Speaker 1: We have over four hundred black owned businesses that are

1000
01:02:36,560 --> 01:02:39,520
Speaker 1: that are there, that are selling their products, that are

1001
01:02:39,680 --> 01:02:43,080
Speaker 1: that are getting exposure to almost you know, the convention

1002
01:02:43,280 --> 01:02:46,720
Speaker 1: center will have somewhere between forty and fifty thousand people

1003
01:02:46,840 --> 01:02:50,000
Speaker 1: come through come through every day, and we provide all

1004
01:02:50,080 --> 01:02:53,280
Speaker 1: of that free right. So you know, any of these

1005
01:02:53,400 --> 01:02:58,400
Speaker 1: other experiences there are some some charge of general admissions

1006
01:02:59,320 --> 01:03:03,040
Speaker 1: for the entire higher Convention Center is free, right. And

1007
01:03:03,320 --> 01:03:06,600
Speaker 1: it's I'm not talking about We're not talking about having

1008
01:03:07,080 --> 01:03:12,640
Speaker 1: you know, like we're having top tier UH guests that

1009
01:03:12,800 --> 01:03:17,200
Speaker 1: are teaching classes, that are talking on panels, that are

1010
01:03:17,600 --> 01:03:20,360
Speaker 1: that are signing books, that are giving lectures that are

1011
01:03:20,720 --> 01:03:23,439
Speaker 1: you know, last year we had Katanji Brown Jackson doing

1012
01:03:23,480 --> 01:03:30,360
Speaker 1: a lecture. We had uh Oprah two years ago, we've

1013
01:03:30,400 --> 01:03:35,000
Speaker 1: had Kamala Harris, we have so so it's it's this

1014
01:03:35,200 --> 01:03:41,520
Speaker 1: idea of continuously giving back and reinvesting in our community,

1015
01:03:41,760 --> 01:03:46,920
Speaker 1: especially around our cultural anchors. You announced, did you know

1016
01:03:47,040 --> 01:03:49,080
Speaker 1: we had all of that? Well, I know.

1017
01:03:50,680 --> 01:03:52,560
Speaker 3: The world knows you announced, and this is something that

1018
01:03:52,680 --> 01:03:56,080
Speaker 3: the world knows, but even I was confused to what

1019
01:03:56,280 --> 01:03:59,160
Speaker 3: it really meant Tianna Taylor, who's having an incredible year

1020
01:03:59,480 --> 01:04:02,680
Speaker 3: Golden Globe, want to I mean obviously musician events, all

1021
01:04:02,720 --> 01:04:03,120
Speaker 3: the things.

1022
01:04:03,480 --> 01:04:05,040
Speaker 1: It's super talented and credible.

1023
01:04:05,280 --> 01:04:10,040
Speaker 3: The chief curator of Yeah, of the entire event, explain

1024
01:04:10,160 --> 01:04:12,880
Speaker 3: what that means, because I'm like, I don't rich runs it.

1025
01:04:12,960 --> 01:04:15,880
Speaker 1: So what does what does this mean? Yeah? Yeah, Well

1026
01:04:16,760 --> 01:04:20,200
Speaker 1: so the first thing is I don't run it. There's

1027
01:04:20,200 --> 01:04:24,600
Speaker 1: an incredible team that does that. But what it means is,

1028
01:04:25,400 --> 01:04:27,320
Speaker 1: so if you think about the future of me and

1029
01:04:27,400 --> 01:04:30,680
Speaker 1: we should talk about this, what's the future of media? Right, Like,

1030
01:04:30,800 --> 01:04:35,120
Speaker 1: what's what's the future and how do brands legacy brands

1031
01:04:35,160 --> 01:04:38,640
Speaker 1: that have served our community all these years. Essence is

1032
01:04:38,720 --> 01:04:41,919
Speaker 1: going to be fifty seven to fifty eight years old

1033
01:04:42,520 --> 01:04:46,919
Speaker 1: this year, right, How's how does what has to happen

1034
01:04:46,960 --> 01:04:50,680
Speaker 1: for Essens to be here another fifty years? Right? In

1035
01:04:50,800 --> 01:04:56,320
Speaker 1: an environment where everything's changed, right that that you know,

1036
01:04:57,080 --> 01:05:02,960
Speaker 1: the facebooks, the instagrams, tiktoks, the that's the destination of

1037
01:05:03,080 --> 01:05:06,680
Speaker 1: choice today, right, That's where that's where everybody is going.

1038
01:05:06,760 --> 01:05:10,080
Speaker 1: We don't own any of that, Right. We create the

1039
01:05:10,160 --> 01:05:13,640
Speaker 1: content for it, right, we make it hot, but we

1040
01:05:13,800 --> 01:05:18,880
Speaker 1: don't monetize it. Let me rephrase that proportionately, we don't.

1041
01:05:19,040 --> 01:05:23,360
Speaker 1: So you can monetize YouTube, you can monetize Instagram, you

1042
01:05:23,440 --> 01:05:26,400
Speaker 1: can do that. As a creator, you absolutely can. But

1043
01:05:26,560 --> 01:05:29,040
Speaker 1: as far as the ownership and the wealth that gets created,

1044
01:05:29,400 --> 01:05:31,800
Speaker 1: and then the other thing, going back to your your

1045
01:05:31,880 --> 01:05:37,760
Speaker 1: earlier question is they build it, they sell it, they

1046
01:05:37,880 --> 01:05:42,120
Speaker 1: trade it, they take it public. Right, They're free to

1047
01:05:42,240 --> 01:05:46,240
Speaker 1: do that, right, which means they can then take a

1048
01:05:46,320 --> 01:05:52,160
Speaker 1: look at what's happening now with and I admire the

1049
01:05:52,760 --> 01:06:00,720
Speaker 1: business acumen and the and the skill here of David Ellison. Yeah,

1050
01:06:01,240 --> 01:06:07,640
Speaker 1: second generation. Right, his father created enormous wealth right invested

1051
01:06:07,720 --> 01:06:12,040
Speaker 1: in him in a small business called Skuidance. He proved

1052
01:06:12,120 --> 01:06:15,640
Speaker 1: himself there, right, or did what he did there, earned

1053
01:06:15,720 --> 01:06:19,800
Speaker 1: his father's trust, in some other people's trust, and then

1054
01:06:19,920 --> 01:06:27,840
Speaker 1: now Paramount, then next thing, Warner Brothers. Right, they're able

1055
01:06:27,920 --> 01:06:33,920
Speaker 1: to do that because his father was able to capture

1056
01:06:33,960 --> 01:06:39,520
Speaker 1: that wealth in oracle right, release it and move it forward.

1057
01:06:40,120 --> 01:06:42,840
Speaker 1: That's where we have to get to, because that's when

1058
01:06:43,160 --> 01:06:45,840
Speaker 1: we'll be able to When you talk about true generational wealth,

1059
01:06:46,280 --> 01:06:48,160
Speaker 1: it's not just I build it and I give it

1060
01:06:48,240 --> 01:06:50,640
Speaker 1: to my kids. It's I build it and I put

1061
01:06:50,720 --> 01:06:53,720
Speaker 1: my kids in position to go build too, right. So

1062
01:06:53,840 --> 01:06:56,320
Speaker 1: now they go build, they go build the next thing, right,

1063
01:06:56,720 --> 01:06:58,960
Speaker 1: another and I know we're going back. Was another model

1064
01:06:59,000 --> 01:07:01,200
Speaker 1: that I'd love and talk about this all the time

1065
01:07:02,200 --> 01:07:08,600
Speaker 1: is the Walmart model. Sam Walton builds an incredible business, decided, Hey,

1066
01:07:09,000 --> 01:07:12,080
Speaker 1: my kids for whatever reason, are not going to run

1067
01:07:12,120 --> 01:07:15,040
Speaker 1: this business. Right. I'm going to go out and get

1068
01:07:15,160 --> 01:07:17,840
Speaker 1: the best team that I can right. I'm going to

1069
01:07:17,880 --> 01:07:23,280
Speaker 1: put the best financial financial infrastructure together, right, and we're

1070
01:07:23,320 --> 01:07:27,680
Speaker 1: going to continue to rock. But my kids now get

1071
01:07:27,960 --> 01:07:30,000
Speaker 1: like they're like in the top ten of richest people

1072
01:07:30,040 --> 01:07:34,960
Speaker 1: in the world. Right. There's different ways to do this.

1073
01:07:35,360 --> 01:07:38,480
Speaker 1: We just as a community haven't had and for a

1074
01:07:38,520 --> 01:07:40,200
Speaker 1: whole host of reasons, and I think we all know

1075
01:07:40,320 --> 01:07:42,840
Speaker 1: what those reasons are, haven't had the opportunity to do

1076
01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:46,680
Speaker 1: those types of spectacular things right. And so it's going

1077
01:07:46,800 --> 01:07:49,400
Speaker 1: to take one of us, two of us, five of us,

1078
01:07:49,520 --> 01:07:53,160
Speaker 1: ten of us doing it, doing a consistently over a

1079
01:07:53,200 --> 01:07:55,880
Speaker 1: period of time for it to become natural to us

1080
01:07:56,160 --> 01:07:57,960
Speaker 1: and for us and for us to understand it. Do

1081
01:07:58,040 --> 01:07:59,479
Speaker 1: you think we're at that inflection point.

1082
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:02,280
Speaker 3: I'll talk about this all the time about having grace

1083
01:08:03,000 --> 01:08:07,960
Speaker 3: and black wealth transforming over the past ten, fifteen, twenty years. Well,

1084
01:08:07,960 --> 01:08:10,800
Speaker 3: you have more black billionaires. We don't know what second

1085
01:08:10,880 --> 01:08:13,280
Speaker 3: rate generation looks like because we haven't gotten it yet.

1086
01:08:13,560 --> 01:08:15,720
Speaker 3: Most of them are well pretty much all of them

1087
01:08:16,040 --> 01:08:18,960
Speaker 3: are first generation. So what do you they're all first generation.

1088
01:08:19,080 --> 01:08:21,799
Speaker 3: Do you feel like we're here now at that inflection, like, Okay,

1089
01:08:22,360 --> 01:08:25,160
Speaker 3: let's plan to build so that your kids can build

1090
01:08:25,200 --> 01:08:25,880
Speaker 3: and so we can help.

1091
01:08:27,200 --> 01:08:31,120
Speaker 1: I think everybody's thinking that way. The next step is

1092
01:08:31,200 --> 01:08:36,880
Speaker 1: going to be instituting the infrastructure that enables it to happen, right,

1093
01:08:38,200 --> 01:08:41,120
Speaker 1: And that's that's a hard thing to do, and that's

1094
01:08:41,400 --> 01:08:43,960
Speaker 1: not one person can do that. It's going to take

1095
01:08:44,120 --> 01:08:47,360
Speaker 1: you know, twenty thirty forty fifty sixty one hundred people

1096
01:08:47,840 --> 01:08:52,600
Speaker 1: thinking similarly and doing that right. Like I said, from

1097
01:08:52,800 --> 01:08:56,240
Speaker 1: our perspective, it was, Hey, when we unlock this, we're

1098
01:08:56,320 --> 01:09:01,160
Speaker 1: going to go invest in the best black businesses and

1099
01:09:01,280 --> 01:09:03,400
Speaker 1: black business minds that we can't and we're going to

1100
01:09:03,479 --> 01:09:05,760
Speaker 1: try to provide them infrastructure. We're going to try to

1101
01:09:05,840 --> 01:09:08,439
Speaker 1: provide them capital, We're going to try to provide them access.

1102
01:09:08,880 --> 01:09:11,240
Speaker 1: And we've done that and so now you have the

1103
01:09:11,840 --> 01:09:15,320
Speaker 1: maels of the world. Right, you have the honeypots of

1104
01:09:15,400 --> 01:09:18,040
Speaker 1: the world. You have the Big Dave cheese steaks of

1105
01:09:18,120 --> 01:09:22,519
Speaker 1: the world. Derek is right, you have the money points

1106
01:09:22,560 --> 01:09:24,559
Speaker 1: of the world, you have the caribe of the world.

1107
01:09:24,640 --> 01:09:27,759
Speaker 1: You have and I could rattle off thirty or forty

1108
01:09:27,800 --> 01:09:34,080
Speaker 1: of them. Right, That's how you start to build infrastructure, right.

1109
01:09:34,240 --> 01:09:36,599
Speaker 1: But you've got to invest in it, and it takes time.

1110
01:09:37,040 --> 01:09:39,320
Speaker 1: And I think these other people that are doing these

1111
01:09:39,400 --> 01:09:43,479
Speaker 1: incredible things too are thinking similarly, right, But I don't

1112
01:09:43,520 --> 01:09:46,040
Speaker 1: know that this next generation is going to be where

1113
01:09:46,120 --> 01:09:49,360
Speaker 1: it's already. And then the other thing is everything that

1114
01:09:49,439 --> 01:09:53,599
Speaker 1: we knew about business is out the window. It's nothing

1115
01:09:53,640 --> 01:09:56,280
Speaker 1: that you knew about business five years ago that you

1116
01:09:56,360 --> 01:10:00,559
Speaker 1: should be relying on today because it's all gone. Right.

1117
01:10:00,880 --> 01:10:04,800
Speaker 1: If I were to tell you five years ago that

1118
01:10:05,360 --> 01:10:10,320
Speaker 1: sky Dance would own Warner Brothers, right, or that twenty

1119
01:10:10,400 --> 01:10:15,200
Speaker 1: years ago that Amazon would own what's the studio they

1120
01:10:15,280 --> 01:10:24,080
Speaker 1: know they own they owned one of the large MGM, Yes, right, MGM,

1121
01:10:24,840 --> 01:10:28,479
Speaker 1: as well as owning Whole Foods. Yes, I had told

1122
01:10:28,479 --> 01:10:31,760
Speaker 1: you that Amazon was going Whole Foods. If I had

1123
01:10:31,840 --> 01:10:35,439
Speaker 1: told you that Navidia would be what it is today,

1124
01:10:36,160 --> 01:10:39,920
Speaker 1: and IBM would be where it is today, you would

1125
01:10:39,960 --> 01:10:41,880
Speaker 1: have been like, you're crazy. You wouldn't be sitting here

1126
01:10:42,160 --> 01:10:46,360
Speaker 1: exactly right. So the point is, like everything that we know,

1127
01:10:47,200 --> 01:10:49,439
Speaker 1: we have to we have to be thinking differently and

1128
01:10:49,520 --> 01:10:51,560
Speaker 1: we have to throw it out and start over. So

1129
01:10:52,000 --> 01:10:54,639
Speaker 1: part of what's good about that is that our people

1130
01:10:54,680 --> 01:10:58,320
Speaker 1: are thinking about the future. You're now building infrastructure on

1131
01:10:58,439 --> 01:11:02,120
Speaker 1: new technology and new thinking, right, So that's good. The

1132
01:11:02,240 --> 01:11:04,960
Speaker 1: part that is going to be hard is that those

1133
01:11:05,000 --> 01:11:09,760
Speaker 1: people have already hit escape velocity. Right, They've already done it,

1134
01:11:09,840 --> 01:11:11,400
Speaker 1: and they're now on to the next thing. When you

1135
01:11:11,479 --> 01:11:14,080
Speaker 1: talk about the black billionaires that exist, or even the

1136
01:11:14,160 --> 01:11:17,439
Speaker 1: black millionaires that exist, what we should be concerned about.

1137
01:11:17,479 --> 01:11:22,680
Speaker 1: What I remain concerned about is the black woman who

1138
01:11:23,640 --> 01:11:28,880
Speaker 1: graduated Spelman seven years ago has gone out and gotten

1139
01:11:28,960 --> 01:11:34,519
Speaker 1: some experience at a at Pfizer and now has an

1140
01:11:34,600 --> 01:11:39,240
Speaker 1: idea on the next miracle drug, and that she gets

1141
01:11:39,240 --> 01:11:42,280
Speaker 1: an opportunity to bring that idea to life. Right, That's

1142
01:11:42,960 --> 01:11:46,600
Speaker 1: That's where I'm concerned, and that's where I think we

1143
01:11:46,800 --> 01:11:49,760
Speaker 1: really need to build the infrastructure so that that can

1144
01:11:49,840 --> 01:11:51,639
Speaker 1: happen at scale. We got to business.

1145
01:11:51,640 --> 01:11:54,720
Speaker 3: I'll never let you get to tell us what tis

1146
01:11:54,720 --> 01:11:59,040
Speaker 3: a business does that I get excited about that.

1147
01:12:03,000 --> 01:12:05,240
Speaker 1: Tiana is one of the most incredible human beings I've

1148
01:12:05,240 --> 01:12:12,080
Speaker 1: ever absolutely right, and and she has been a part

1149
01:12:12,160 --> 01:12:15,599
Speaker 1: of the Essence journey, or Essence has been a part

1150
01:12:15,640 --> 01:12:19,840
Speaker 1: of her journey from Jump right over the over the years.

1151
01:12:20,000 --> 01:12:24,080
Speaker 1: Lots of love, lots of support, and everybody at Essence

1152
01:12:24,160 --> 01:12:27,000
Speaker 1: is so proud of the journey that she's that she's

1153
01:12:27,080 --> 01:12:30,479
Speaker 1: come on. And as we think about what the future

1154
01:12:30,560 --> 01:12:32,559
Speaker 1: is going to look like, when we think about, hey,

1155
01:12:32,760 --> 01:12:37,640
Speaker 1: we've got this brand that means so much to so

1156
01:12:37,800 --> 01:12:41,040
Speaker 1: many people, right, who are the people though that truly

1157
01:12:41,160 --> 01:12:45,120
Speaker 1: embodies the brand, it's Tiana, right. And so to say

1158
01:12:45,840 --> 01:12:50,120
Speaker 1: we're now turning this platform over to our community, right,

1159
01:12:50,320 --> 01:12:54,360
Speaker 1: We we're building infrastructure so that people can be successful

1160
01:12:54,840 --> 01:12:58,160
Speaker 1: on this infrastructure. They can bring scale to this. To

1161
01:12:58,280 --> 01:13:01,320
Speaker 1: this infrastructure, we can leve rich the scale that we

1162
01:13:01,479 --> 01:13:04,400
Speaker 1: have as a media company. If you compare Essence to

1163
01:13:04,520 --> 01:13:07,800
Speaker 1: the to the giants, we're nothing, right, But if you

1164
01:13:07,880 --> 01:13:11,439
Speaker 1: compare us to our community, we're it. Right. So to

1165
01:13:11,560 --> 01:13:14,479
Speaker 1: be able to take the infrastructure that we have and

1166
01:13:14,640 --> 01:13:20,360
Speaker 1: now put people on our platform, people that can take

1167
01:13:20,439 --> 01:13:22,720
Speaker 1: it to the next level that can that can that

1168
01:13:22,840 --> 01:13:25,120
Speaker 1: can drive it. I'm not saying that, you know, I'm

1169
01:13:25,160 --> 01:13:27,680
Speaker 1: not putting that pressure on Tiana. That's that's what it is.

1170
01:13:27,760 --> 01:13:31,120
Speaker 1: That's that's the vision that we have. Right, and now

1171
01:13:31,720 --> 01:13:34,040
Speaker 1: for Tiana is to come in and take a look

1172
01:13:34,040 --> 01:13:36,920
Speaker 1: at the festival. How do we make it better? Right,

1173
01:13:37,040 --> 01:13:39,519
Speaker 1: Let's get let's get different, a first set of eyes

1174
01:13:39,560 --> 01:13:44,120
Speaker 1: on it, right, help us make it better? Right? Everything

1175
01:13:44,200 --> 01:13:48,439
Speaker 1: from how it looks to how it feels, to what

1176
01:13:48,600 --> 01:13:53,280
Speaker 1: the themes are to to what should what should the

1177
01:13:53,320 --> 01:13:57,439
Speaker 1: place smell like? What should it feel like? Right? And

1178
01:13:57,600 --> 01:14:01,000
Speaker 1: we're not asking her to do it all on on

1179
01:14:01,160 --> 01:14:05,000
Speaker 1: our own, like, hey, come right, it's there's an infrastructure here,

1180
01:14:05,280 --> 01:14:09,120
Speaker 1: there's teams here, she's got a great company and aunties. Right,

1181
01:14:09,280 --> 01:14:11,920
Speaker 1: She's done this time and time again. Is not like

1182
01:14:12,160 --> 01:14:15,479
Speaker 1: she hasn't done it right, but now she gets an

1183
01:14:15,479 --> 01:14:18,360
Speaker 1: opportunity to do it for something that she cares about,

1184
01:14:18,400 --> 01:14:22,160
Speaker 1: something that she she got an opportunity to be a

1185
01:14:22,240 --> 01:14:24,960
Speaker 1: part of from early on in her career. And we're extreme,

1186
01:14:25,080 --> 01:14:27,600
Speaker 1: we're extremely proud of it. And and so even some

1187
01:14:27,720 --> 01:14:30,280
Speaker 1: of these conversations that we're having is like she and

1188
01:14:30,360 --> 01:14:33,679
Speaker 1: I had to have like a real hard conversations because

1189
01:14:33,720 --> 01:14:36,800
Speaker 1: she wanted to make sure, Hey, what am I getting into? Right?

1190
01:14:36,920 --> 01:14:39,320
Speaker 1: Are you? Are you guys really serious about this? What

1191
01:14:39,560 --> 01:14:42,120
Speaker 1: is the what is the what is the plan, what

1192
01:14:42,280 --> 01:14:44,400
Speaker 1: is the path, what is the what's the journey going

1193
01:14:44,479 --> 01:14:48,080
Speaker 1: to look like? And so so we had those conversations

1194
01:14:48,160 --> 01:14:51,080
Speaker 1: because I think the other thing in business and and

1195
01:14:51,280 --> 01:14:55,040
Speaker 1: and like with family is if you shy away from

1196
01:14:55,120 --> 01:15:00,519
Speaker 1: the hard conversations, you're never going to be successful because

1197
01:15:00,600 --> 01:15:04,120
Speaker 1: eventually they will pop up in some other way. Right,

1198
01:15:04,640 --> 01:15:08,040
Speaker 1: So we had we had some great conversations and we're like, Okay,

1199
01:15:08,920 --> 01:15:12,120
Speaker 1: let's let's go. Our community deserves us. So we're excited.

1200
01:15:12,200 --> 01:15:15,519
Speaker 1: We're excited for her to be doing this. She's you know,

1201
01:15:15,600 --> 01:15:20,320
Speaker 1: we're going to have other folks join uh in these

1202
01:15:20,360 --> 01:15:24,799
Speaker 1: different capacities like the book festival, Like let's get somebody

1203
01:15:24,840 --> 01:15:29,680
Speaker 1: who's really transformed the book industry, like like the the

1204
01:15:30,080 --> 01:15:35,479
Speaker 1: the way we think about literature, the way we think

1205
01:15:35,520 --> 01:15:38,680
Speaker 1: about community, the way we own community. Let's let's have

1206
01:15:38,960 --> 01:15:41,960
Speaker 1: let's have somebody that can that can think about that

1207
01:15:42,080 --> 01:15:46,719
Speaker 1: as well, right, and then connect with with the vision

1208
01:15:47,040 --> 01:15:50,040
Speaker 1: and the mission and all those things. So we're we're

1209
01:15:50,080 --> 01:15:51,920
Speaker 1: excited about it. And you'll see that same thing with

1210
01:15:52,160 --> 01:15:55,280
Speaker 1: with with beauty con on the beauty side. I mean

1211
01:15:55,360 --> 01:15:57,240
Speaker 1: this mic right up in your face. I'm not used

1212
01:15:57,240 --> 01:15:59,599
Speaker 1: to this, you know, I like to talk, but damn

1213
01:15:59,680 --> 01:16:04,880
Speaker 1: you so. So it's it's really getting into all of

1214
01:16:04,960 --> 01:16:08,280
Speaker 1: these things that we call cultural pillars and making sure

1215
01:16:08,439 --> 01:16:11,760
Speaker 1: that we have fresh minds on them, that we have

1216
01:16:12,200 --> 01:16:15,919
Speaker 1: people that are actually moving the culture, that are impacting

1217
01:16:15,960 --> 01:16:19,800
Speaker 1: the culture a part of developing it for our community, right,

1218
01:16:19,920 --> 01:16:21,719
Speaker 1: because that's super, super important.

1219
01:16:22,880 --> 01:16:30,080
Speaker 2: There was a conversation about critique of Africans and African

1220
01:16:30,160 --> 01:16:36,800
Speaker 2: Americans and the infrastructure of Essence being African driven and

1221
01:16:37,040 --> 01:16:40,439
Speaker 2: the audience being African American, and that was a that

1222
01:16:40,640 --> 01:16:44,599
Speaker 2: was a critique on Essence Fest last year. Yeah, what's

1223
01:16:44,640 --> 01:16:45,320
Speaker 2: your thoughts on that?

1224
01:16:45,760 --> 01:16:49,439
Speaker 1: Well, that's not true, right, that the infrastructure is not

1225
01:16:49,760 --> 01:16:54,960
Speaker 1: African driven. The infrastructure is black driven. Right. It is

1226
01:16:55,200 --> 01:17:00,280
Speaker 1: it is it is focused on serving black women, right,

1227
01:17:00,880 --> 01:17:07,519
Speaker 1: which are overwhelmingly Black American women. Right. And we are

1228
01:17:07,640 --> 01:17:12,320
Speaker 1: focused though on our culture broadly, right, because I think

1229
01:17:13,000 --> 01:17:18,080
Speaker 1: that the notions of separation makes us smaller, right, The

1230
01:17:18,240 --> 01:17:22,280
Speaker 1: idea of expanding how we think about each other, the

1231
01:17:22,400 --> 01:17:24,200
Speaker 1: things we can do to each other is what's going

1232
01:17:24,280 --> 01:17:27,639
Speaker 1: to open up those opportunities and those broader, those broader

1233
01:17:27,720 --> 01:17:32,400
Speaker 1: opportunities that we talk about. So it's not it's not, hey,

1234
01:17:32,479 --> 01:17:36,840
Speaker 1: we're we're we're focused on African now with effoc that's

1235
01:17:37,040 --> 01:17:41,479
Speaker 1: that's nothing could be nothing could be further from the truth. Right.

1236
01:17:41,680 --> 01:17:47,519
Speaker 1: The organization, the structures that we've built, the teams that

1237
01:17:47,840 --> 01:17:52,080
Speaker 1: like everything is in service of this vision of how

1238
01:17:52,160 --> 01:17:55,160
Speaker 1: do we put Black people in the best light we

1239
01:17:55,320 --> 01:17:58,200
Speaker 1: possibly can on this planet and how do we give

1240
01:17:58,240 --> 01:18:02,960
Speaker 1: them the maximum opportun tunity that we can, leveraging this

1241
01:18:03,160 --> 01:18:10,840
Speaker 1: platform and leveraging this infrastructure. So we're highly highly, highly

1242
01:18:10,920 --> 01:18:14,360
Speaker 1: highly focused on that, right. And the thing that you know,

1243
01:18:14,640 --> 01:18:19,519
Speaker 1: if you think about when Essence again you go back

1244
01:18:19,560 --> 01:18:23,639
Speaker 1: to when Essence was formed, right fifty seven years ago,

1245
01:18:27,400 --> 01:18:31,640
Speaker 1: that's a lot of generations that Essence has served, and

1246
01:18:32,000 --> 01:18:35,320
Speaker 1: every time a new generation comes in, there's a new

1247
01:18:35,439 --> 01:18:40,639
Speaker 1: set of needs. We've got to create space for our children,

1248
01:18:41,720 --> 01:18:45,360
Speaker 1: right and for their children. Because again, when you talk

1249
01:18:45,400 --> 01:18:50,920
Speaker 1: about this generational thing, if we're only serving the people

1250
01:18:51,040 --> 01:18:55,040
Speaker 1: that started with Essence, then we won't be here in

1251
01:18:55,120 --> 01:19:00,599
Speaker 1: another ten years. Right. But if we're serving the people

1252
01:19:00,680 --> 01:19:03,720
Speaker 1: that started with essence, and we're doing that deeply. We're

1253
01:19:03,800 --> 01:19:07,200
Speaker 1: providing her everything that she needs there, but we're also

1254
01:19:07,360 --> 01:19:10,440
Speaker 1: serving her granddaughter in some cases now her great granddaughter,

1255
01:19:10,880 --> 01:19:13,599
Speaker 1: and we're providing her what she needs. Then there's one

1256
01:19:13,640 --> 01:19:16,160
Speaker 1: place for them that canvene. There's no other place like

1257
01:19:16,240 --> 01:19:20,920
Speaker 1: that on Earth. There's no other place for four generations

1258
01:19:21,479 --> 01:19:25,120
Speaker 1: of black women to go and be with each other

1259
01:19:25,280 --> 01:19:27,360
Speaker 1: and fellowship with each other, and love on each other,

1260
01:19:27,439 --> 01:19:29,960
Speaker 1: and party with each other, and eat together and travel

1261
01:19:30,040 --> 01:19:33,280
Speaker 1: together and go all over and do it in mass

1262
01:19:34,120 --> 01:19:37,000
Speaker 1: You can do it as a family, yeah right, you

1263
01:19:37,120 --> 01:19:39,920
Speaker 1: can do it as a family reunion, But can you

1264
01:19:40,000 --> 01:19:42,519
Speaker 1: do it with four hundred thousand people that have the

1265
01:19:42,640 --> 01:19:47,840
Speaker 1: same sort of zest for you as a human being.

1266
01:19:49,080 --> 01:19:50,000
Speaker 1: That's the place to do it.

1267
01:19:51,520 --> 01:19:53,880
Speaker 3: I mean, it brings me to the point of the

1268
01:19:53,960 --> 01:19:59,000
Speaker 3: economic impact, right, Like when people think New Orleans, especially

1269
01:19:59,080 --> 01:20:02,720
Speaker 3: people who are New Orleans, it's a part of the fabric, right,

1270
01:20:02,840 --> 01:20:04,719
Speaker 3: Like I yes, they had the Super Bowl a year.

1271
01:20:04,600 --> 01:20:06,120
Speaker 1: Ago, and it was like, oh, that's a huge that

1272
01:20:06,479 --> 01:20:09,280
Speaker 1: every ten years. Only every ten years, you're there every year.

1273
01:20:09,840 --> 01:20:13,280
Speaker 3: People understand like, yes, there's vendors there, but the amount

1274
01:20:13,280 --> 01:20:15,759
Speaker 3: of people that you're employing the local businesses to travel

1275
01:20:15,760 --> 01:20:18,920
Speaker 3: at the hotel. Talk about the economic impact because obviously

1276
01:20:19,000 --> 01:20:23,600
Speaker 3: we have an event. People can completely not understand that discounted,

1277
01:20:24,680 --> 01:20:28,040
Speaker 3: not really appreciated, unpacked that from them.

1278
01:20:29,680 --> 01:20:34,519
Speaker 1: Wow, that's a big one. It's big. It's big because

1279
01:20:35,320 --> 01:20:46,600
Speaker 1: it is. I think of things in terms of infrastructure,

1280
01:20:48,640 --> 01:21:02,000
Speaker 1: flywheel and scale. Right. The infrastructure that we continue to

1281
01:21:02,120 --> 01:21:09,080
Speaker 1: build allows this flywheel to happen every year, right. And

1282
01:21:11,120 --> 01:21:16,719
Speaker 1: what the flywheel does is millions and millions of dollars

1283
01:21:17,760 --> 01:21:34,680
Speaker 1: directly into jobs during that week period, right, Talent, security, transportation,

1284
01:21:36,000 --> 01:21:41,040
Speaker 1: those are all those are all black businesses, right, or

1285
01:21:41,320 --> 01:21:44,679
Speaker 1: employees that work for a business that gets paid because

1286
01:21:44,840 --> 01:21:48,000
Speaker 1: essence is there and essence is investing in them. Right.

1287
01:21:49,479 --> 01:21:54,000
Speaker 1: So the scale of it, right, then the work is

1288
01:21:54,040 --> 01:21:56,280
Speaker 1: in the hotel. It's like you go to New Orleans

1289
01:21:56,360 --> 01:21:59,439
Speaker 1: and New Orleans is a black city, Like people say

1290
01:21:59,439 --> 01:22:01,960
Speaker 1: Atlanta's a black city. Yes, Atlanta is a black city,

1291
01:22:02,000 --> 01:22:08,680
Speaker 1: but it's not black light in terms of the population distribution. Right.

1292
01:22:09,280 --> 01:22:16,240
Speaker 1: And so you're bringing Super Bowl type economics every year, right,

1293
01:22:16,720 --> 01:22:19,519
Speaker 1: And we're not the super Bowl, We're not the NFL, right,

1294
01:22:19,680 --> 01:22:23,000
Speaker 1: we are we are a small to medium sized business.

1295
01:22:23,760 --> 01:22:25,920
Speaker 1: When you compare to the rest of the world, like

1296
01:22:25,920 --> 01:22:28,080
Speaker 1: I say, if you said, hey, in black media, yes

1297
01:22:28,240 --> 01:22:31,040
Speaker 1: we have some left. But if you compare to the

1298
01:22:31,080 --> 01:22:36,200
Speaker 1: people that we compete against, because our competitors are Live Nation, right,

1299
01:22:36,360 --> 01:22:41,040
Speaker 1: our competitors are are Aeg. Our competitors are Conde Nast

1300
01:22:41,200 --> 01:22:45,240
Speaker 1: and Vogue and right, we're competing with Vogue to get

1301
01:22:45,280 --> 01:22:48,960
Speaker 1: people on our cover. Right, we're not competing in fact

1302
01:22:49,600 --> 01:22:55,320
Speaker 1: can Unfortunately we're the only ones left. Right, We're the

1303
01:22:55,439 --> 01:22:57,439
Speaker 1: only ones left if you, if you and we have

1304
01:22:57,479 --> 01:23:02,400
Speaker 1: an incredible issue coming out for Festival, which would be

1305
01:23:02,400 --> 01:23:06,000
Speaker 1: our first one this year, and it's a double issue

1306
01:23:06,040 --> 01:23:09,280
Speaker 1: and we're going hard at it. But we're the only

1307
01:23:09,360 --> 01:23:11,519
Speaker 1: ones of magazine, of magazine.

1308
01:23:11,520 --> 01:23:12,840
Speaker 2: Are you still doing magazine.

1309
01:23:12,640 --> 01:23:14,719
Speaker 1: It's just digital? No, we're doing We're still doing Magazi,

1310
01:23:14,720 --> 01:23:16,719
Speaker 1: physical magazine, still doing physical magazine.

1311
01:23:16,760 --> 01:23:18,880
Speaker 2: Does it even make sense to do physical magazines anymore?

1312
01:23:19,600 --> 01:23:23,960
Speaker 1: Economically it may not, but culturally it does, right because

1313
01:23:24,200 --> 01:23:26,519
Speaker 1: where else do our women see themselves on their on

1314
01:23:26,560 --> 01:23:29,719
Speaker 1: the on the cover, on the newsstand on a regular basis?

1315
01:23:30,040 --> 01:23:34,000
Speaker 1: Where do our daughters see themselves in a physical space?

1316
01:23:34,120 --> 01:23:36,680
Speaker 1: And now with with Ai coming. Lord knows what they're

1317
01:23:36,720 --> 01:23:40,040
Speaker 1: going to be seeing, right, So where where else is that?

1318
01:23:40,160 --> 01:23:43,080
Speaker 1: So it becomes extremely important. This is a place where

1319
01:23:43,280 --> 01:23:46,560
Speaker 1: partners are saying, oh, we don't, we don't. We're not

1320
01:23:46,680 --> 01:23:52,840
Speaker 1: advertising in in magazines anymore. Right, We're we're only now

1321
01:23:52,960 --> 01:23:56,000
Speaker 1: doing digital, right, We're only doing we're only doing social

1322
01:23:56,680 --> 01:24:03,880
Speaker 1: So as a cultural artific do we just let that go? Right?

1323
01:24:04,920 --> 01:24:09,920
Speaker 1: That's why we need the support because we need our

1324
01:24:10,000 --> 01:24:14,360
Speaker 1: daughters need to see themselves physically, right, they need to

1325
01:24:14,800 --> 01:24:16,680
Speaker 1: as much as even as they say, you know, now

1326
01:24:16,960 --> 01:24:18,760
Speaker 1: all the kids are on the phones, but every once

1327
01:24:18,760 --> 01:24:21,680
Speaker 1: in a while, that kid wants to go outside and play, right,

1328
01:24:21,840 --> 01:24:24,080
Speaker 1: they want to go run around, right, they want to go.

1329
01:24:24,600 --> 01:24:27,920
Speaker 1: We have we have to be there for our kids, right.

1330
01:24:28,360 --> 01:24:31,920
Speaker 1: This has to be here two generations, three generations, five

1331
01:24:32,000 --> 01:24:36,519
Speaker 1: generations from now. So that becomes extremely important. So that

1332
01:24:36,640 --> 01:24:39,479
Speaker 1: means we've got to make money in other places in

1333
01:24:39,680 --> 01:24:42,720
Speaker 1: order to make sure that that that that happens. Right.

1334
01:24:43,400 --> 01:24:49,639
Speaker 1: When when a young black star is coming up, who's

1335
01:24:49,680 --> 01:24:52,880
Speaker 1: going to cover her? She's only going to get covered

1336
01:24:53,439 --> 01:24:56,320
Speaker 1: once she's hit it big, But who's going to put

1337
01:24:56,320 --> 01:24:59,320
Speaker 1: her in front of her community? Right? How is she

1338
01:24:59,439 --> 01:25:02,240
Speaker 1: going to learn her community? How's our community going to

1339
01:25:02,360 --> 01:25:06,280
Speaker 1: learn her? We saw three weeks ago, four weeks ago

1340
01:25:07,479 --> 01:25:15,040
Speaker 1: the BAFTA Awards. Right, as long as we're in somebody

1341
01:25:15,120 --> 01:25:19,600
Speaker 1: else's space, those things are bound to happen. We just

1342
01:25:19,640 --> 01:25:23,280
Speaker 1: did Black Women in Hollywood the ninth nineteenth one, right,

1343
01:25:23,400 --> 01:25:26,360
Speaker 1: nineteen years. We've been doing it to celebrate our women

1344
01:25:26,800 --> 01:25:31,200
Speaker 1: who don't get the same recognition. And even when they

1345
01:25:31,240 --> 01:25:35,280
Speaker 1: get the recognition, they don't get the time. Right, it's

1346
01:25:35,320 --> 01:25:39,080
Speaker 1: not consistent. Right, So you have a black woman in

1347
01:25:39,160 --> 01:25:44,320
Speaker 1: Hollywood that's there expressedly to make sure that she gets

1348
01:25:44,360 --> 01:25:47,559
Speaker 1: the time, that they get, the that they get to shine,

1349
01:25:47,600 --> 01:25:51,400
Speaker 1: that they're that they're the focal point. Right. So I'm

1350
01:25:51,479 --> 01:25:55,000
Speaker 1: very passionate about this stuff because it is what it

1351
01:25:55,160 --> 01:25:58,120
Speaker 1: is that we have to do in order to live

1352
01:25:58,240 --> 01:26:01,200
Speaker 1: up to why God put us here. Yeah, all right,

1353
01:26:01,240 --> 01:26:04,240
Speaker 1: it's a great room to be into. Amazing. We have

1354
01:26:04,320 --> 01:26:08,040
Speaker 1: the privilegs. Well I appreciate them, but I don't. I

1355
01:26:08,080 --> 01:26:10,320
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't. We we we slummed that year.

1356
01:26:15,120 --> 01:26:18,240
Speaker 1: But it's it's an incredible thing, right and and and

1357
01:26:18,479 --> 01:26:21,160
Speaker 1: and we need that. And then we have we have

1358
01:26:21,280 --> 01:26:25,160
Speaker 1: black women in music at festival this year, so that

1359
01:26:25,240 --> 01:26:29,479
Speaker 1: we're we're celebrating the women that are that are driving music, right.

1360
01:26:29,520 --> 01:26:33,599
Speaker 1: And it's not just the the the women that are

1361
01:26:33,920 --> 01:26:36,840
Speaker 1: the incredible women that are performing music, but there's all

1362
01:26:36,880 --> 01:26:39,880
Speaker 1: of these women that are actually making it possible for

1363
01:26:40,200 --> 01:26:43,680
Speaker 1: music to remain true to our community and true to

1364
01:26:43,760 --> 01:26:46,800
Speaker 1: our culture, right. And and they're they're in, they're behind

1365
01:26:46,840 --> 01:26:50,320
Speaker 1: the scenes driving this stuff and they're doing big deals. Man.

1366
01:26:50,640 --> 01:26:52,760
Speaker 1: You know, the the women and the music and the

1367
01:26:52,840 --> 01:26:55,400
Speaker 1: ones that are hitting are hitting. Boy, you know they're

1368
01:26:55,439 --> 01:26:58,280
Speaker 1: they're they're they're they're really running. So to be able

1369
01:26:58,320 --> 01:27:00,240
Speaker 1: to to be able to celebrate them and be to

1370
01:27:00,320 --> 01:27:05,280
Speaker 1: give them that platform, right to give them to be

1371
01:27:05,320 --> 01:27:08,679
Speaker 1: able to create an environment where that love and joy

1372
01:27:09,280 --> 01:27:12,960
Speaker 1: can be can can be like harnessed right. And and

1373
01:27:13,080 --> 01:27:15,439
Speaker 1: then you leave there in your soul motor even for

1374
01:27:15,560 --> 01:27:18,360
Speaker 1: you right, for you guys, for me, when I walk

1375
01:27:18,400 --> 01:27:21,200
Speaker 1: out of that room, I can do anything. You know,

1376
01:27:22,360 --> 01:27:25,320
Speaker 1: that's true. We could do anything surround us with black women.

1377
01:27:26,600 --> 01:27:30,000
Speaker 2: Well, why thank you for coming. Definitely I think you

1378
01:27:30,080 --> 01:27:33,040
Speaker 2: shed a lot of light and a lot of wisdom.

1379
01:27:33,360 --> 01:27:34,320
Speaker 1: So thank you, guys.

1380
01:27:34,320 --> 01:27:36,559
Speaker 2: I appreciate When is that since best August I mean.

1381
01:27:36,920 --> 01:27:41,639
Speaker 1: July July fourth weekend July fourth, July third, fourth, and fifth,

1382
01:27:42,560 --> 01:27:45,880
Speaker 1: and we may you heard it, we may extend a

1383
01:27:45,960 --> 01:27:51,240
Speaker 1: day on Monday. We're not sure yet. It's it's the

1384
01:27:51,920 --> 01:27:56,120
Speaker 1: demand has been it has been extremely high. So we're

1385
01:27:56,200 --> 01:27:58,680
Speaker 1: trying to figure out do we do that or do

1386
01:27:58,800 --> 01:28:02,599
Speaker 1: we sit tight and then do that next year. Probably

1387
01:28:02,800 --> 01:28:05,400
Speaker 1: we'll see, but I think let's get it right this year.

1388
01:28:06,000 --> 01:28:09,320
Speaker 1: Let's get it right this year. Let's let's make sure

1389
01:28:09,360 --> 01:28:12,080
Speaker 1: all the all the bugs that we had, make sure

1390
01:28:12,080 --> 01:28:15,720
Speaker 1: all the issues are resolved, and then and then we

1391
01:28:15,840 --> 01:28:19,519
Speaker 1: can start to expand further again. But it's it's an

1392
01:28:19,520 --> 01:28:24,040
Speaker 1: exciting time and I'm really excited about about Tiana and

1393
01:28:24,640 --> 01:28:27,400
Speaker 1: what she's going to be able to to do for

1394
01:28:27,479 --> 01:28:30,080
Speaker 1: her community and help us deliver. I think I think

1395
01:28:30,120 --> 01:28:35,439
Speaker 1: that's going to be out of this world. Yeah, well,

1396
01:28:35,640 --> 01:28:37,519
Speaker 1: I like I like to think that we called it

1397
01:28:38,439 --> 01:28:41,760
Speaker 1: because we were honoring her last year, right, So we

1398
01:28:41,880 --> 01:28:45,360
Speaker 1: honored her Black Women in Hollywood for for what she

1399
01:28:45,479 --> 01:28:51,840
Speaker 1: had been doing. Yeah, well no, actually it wasn't. That

1400
01:28:51,960 --> 01:28:54,439
Speaker 1: was the kickoff for her. Yeah, yeah, her, yeah, yeah

1401
01:28:54,479 --> 01:28:57,360
Speaker 1: yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. I met her at Black

1402
01:28:57,400 --> 01:29:01,280
Speaker 1: Women in Hollywood. Oh really yeah. And and the other

1403
01:29:01,360 --> 01:29:03,200
Speaker 1: thing is, you know, to see that room, man, and

1404
01:29:03,320 --> 01:29:06,120
Speaker 1: to see those women loving on each other and protecting

1405
01:29:06,160 --> 01:29:09,240
Speaker 1: each other, it's it's really special. And then it's it's

1406
01:29:09,320 --> 01:29:11,599
Speaker 1: the same thing at It's the same thing at festival,

1407
01:29:11,800 --> 01:29:13,680
Speaker 1: right and I and I think a lot of it

1408
01:29:14,160 --> 01:29:17,840
Speaker 1: is people don't want to lose that, and they're they're

1409
01:29:17,960 --> 01:29:21,200
Speaker 1: concerned also, like all with all that's going on in

1410
01:29:21,280 --> 01:29:24,439
Speaker 1: the world, is is is just going to be here

1411
01:29:24,680 --> 01:29:26,559
Speaker 1: all right? And I'm here to tell you it's gonna

1412
01:29:26,600 --> 01:29:29,280
Speaker 1: be here all right.

1413
01:29:29,800 --> 01:29:30,280
Speaker 3: Do you have it?

1414
01:29:30,439 --> 01:29:32,800
Speaker 2: And I will see you guys next week, please please,