Speaker 1: So I'm gonna tell you two stories today, and um,
Speaker 1: the topic of this particular podcast episode is something I
Speaker 1: firmly believe in, and it's about putting yourself in a
Speaker 1: position to be successful. Because so often we want to
Speaker 1: be successful and we see success, whether we see it
Speaker 1: on social media or we see it in people around us. Um,
Speaker 1: we see success, UM, and we don't always believe that
Speaker 1: that success is either possible for us. Or we might
Speaker 1: believe that it's possible for us, but we don't know
Speaker 1: what to do in order to accomplish that success that
Speaker 1: we so desire. So I'm gonna tell you two stories today,
Speaker 1: and this is these are my stories, and hopefully, UM,
Speaker 1: whenever I whenever I talk to people, you know, whether
Speaker 1: it be talks at conferences, whether it be keynote speeches
Speaker 1: or whatever, I'm really trying to give you. So if
Speaker 1: I'm telling you my story is not because my story
Speaker 1: is so great, It's because I'm hoping that there's something
Speaker 1: in my story that you can take and use for
Speaker 1: yourself in order to find your success. So the first
Speaker 1: story is a story about how I found at least
Speaker 1: the first few steps into the career that I'm in today.
Speaker 1: Because um, I'm on preface my story with this. There's
Speaker 1: a quote by Steve Jobs, and you, if you're listening
Speaker 1: to this podcast, you've heard me say this before. And
Speaker 1: it's a quote by Steve Jobs that I firmly believe in.
Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite quotes. I do have a
Speaker 1: couple of favorite quotes, but this one is among like
Speaker 1: the top three of my favorite quotes, and it says,
Speaker 1: you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only
Speaker 1: connect the dots looking backwards. And what that means for
Speaker 1: me at least I I believe know how he meant it.
Speaker 1: But what I get from that quote is this is,
Speaker 1: if you look back over your life, you will find
Speaker 1: clues that dictate your present circumstance. So if you find
Speaker 1: yourself doing a particular job and you are like really
Speaker 1: really good at doing that job, if you look back
Speaker 1: at whether you were you know, a kid, or whether
Speaker 1: you had a particular job, or whether you had certain experiences,
Speaker 1: you will find, if you look hard enough, certain instances
Speaker 1: in your life that says you will be good at
Speaker 1: this particular thing. And that's what connecting the dots means.
Speaker 1: It's not something like, you know, super highbrow. It's not like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not super deep. It's it's really a
Speaker 1: simple thing. If you look backwards, you will see things
Speaker 1: that connect to what you find yourself doing today. And
Speaker 1: it's hard to do looking forward, if not in some cases, um,
Speaker 1: very very very difficult. So we want to do certain
Speaker 1: things in the future, but we don't always know what,
Speaker 1: like and and I believe in like, like what is
Speaker 1: the divine plan for you? Like? Because if I would
Speaker 1: have told you at you know, sixteen or seventeen, what
Speaker 1: I wanted to be doing, it's not what I'm doing today.
Speaker 1: But I'm really really happy doing what I'm doing today,
Speaker 1: but it's not something I could have articulated, you know,
Speaker 1: years ago. So anyway, all right, so let's you know,
Speaker 1: we set the stage with that particularly quote. You can't
Speaker 1: connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect the
Speaker 1: dots retrospectively looking backward. All right, all right, So there
Speaker 1: was a time when I wanted to be in the
Speaker 1: music of business. I wanted to be um a producer.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a music producer and a songwriter.
Speaker 1: And so I'm from Toledo, Ohio, which is you know,
Speaker 1: if you drive fast it's like half an hour from Detroit,
Speaker 1: but if you like relatively close to the speed limit,
Speaker 1: it's like forty five minutes. It's a little bit south
Speaker 1: of Detroit. And you know, you know where it's at,
Speaker 1: Look on the map. If you don't know where's at,
Speaker 1: Google Google Map it all right. So I'm from Toledo, Ohio,
Speaker 1: not known for like a lot of things other than
Speaker 1: you know, we have i think one of the top
Speaker 1: rated like minor league baseball teams in the country, and um,
Speaker 1: very rust belt, midwestern, you know, middle class, blue collar
Speaker 1: sort of city, you know. And I wanted to be
Speaker 1: in the music business. So being an ambitious kid, you know,
Speaker 1: I've I've always been super ambitious and always like strategizing about, Okay,
Speaker 1: I know what I want to do, how do I
Speaker 1: get there. I've always been that way. It's been my
Speaker 1: life's part of my DNA. So I was thinking as
Speaker 1: a youth, like how how can I find my way
Speaker 1: to the music business in Toledo? And I found myself
Speaker 1: at a teen summit that a local radio station UM
Speaker 1: was putting on, you know, or at least the program
Speaker 1: director was on a panel at this team summit that
Speaker 1: was happening at a particular library in my hometown. And
Speaker 1: so after the team something, I almost remember what I
Speaker 1: was wearing that day, which is like super wild because
Speaker 1: I don't remember like a lot of details about like
Speaker 1: my my childhood and youth. But I remember, like almost
Speaker 1: verbatim what I was wearing a day. But it has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with the point of this story, only
Speaker 1: that it's like the good point in my life that
Speaker 1: obviously was like super critical to um what I'm doing today.
Speaker 1: So anyway, so at this team summit, the local program
Speaker 1: director for the radio station was on a panel at
Speaker 1: the library that I'm an attendance of, and I'm with
Speaker 1: a friend of mine that I was going to high
Speaker 1: school with, and we were for some reason, we're at
Speaker 1: this team summit and we were just there to hear
Speaker 1: about I don't even know what the team summing was about,
Speaker 1: but I guess it was about teen issues because it
Speaker 1: was a team summing. So the program director is talking,
Speaker 1: and in my mind at that team summit, I'm sitting
Speaker 1: like in the last row and I'm thinking, like, yo,
Speaker 1: I would want to be in the music business. And
Speaker 1: so I'm in Toledo. The closest thing to the music
Speaker 1: business is the radio station. And so this is how
Speaker 1: my mind works, and my mind has always worked this way.
Speaker 1: So I'm like putting together the pieces and so active
Speaker 1: the team something is over. I go up to the
Speaker 1: program director, who's like in the only he's the program
Speaker 1: program director of the only hip hop and R and
Speaker 1: B radio station in town. There's only one at this age.
Speaker 1: So I go up to him. I say, hey, my
Speaker 1: name's Will Lucas and I want to be in the
Speaker 1: music business. And so he says, um, well, the best
Speaker 1: thing I can tell you to do is find an
Speaker 1: internship somewhere. So a matter of fact, a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: because there was a lot of like teenagers like in
Speaker 1: line because of tea something. There's a lot of teenagers
Speaker 1: in line waiting to talk to him. And so he said,
Speaker 1: just come out to the radio station like tomorrow or
Speaker 1: whatever and we'll talk some more. Because it's a lot
Speaker 1: of teenager in line. So I go out to the
Speaker 1: radio station. Had to be the next day because that's
Speaker 1: kind of the kind of guy it was. So I
Speaker 1: go out to the radio station and he says, again,
Speaker 1: you know, we're sitting in this I guess, like a
Speaker 1: little tiny three thousand white radio station like way out
Speaker 1: of town. Like it's I mean, I think Midwestern country,
Speaker 1: like no man's land. This is like pure flyover. So
Speaker 1: like the radio station is like in like places you
Speaker 1: don't go. So, but for whatever reason, that's where the
Speaker 1: radio station was. So I'm out there, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting inside the radio station, inside the studio. And
Speaker 1: he says again, so, the best thing I can tell
Speaker 1: you to do is find an internship somewhere. And so
Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, we need an intern here
Speaker 1: at the radio station. So I'm so my internship started
Speaker 1: that day at the radio station. And so I would
Speaker 1: go out there every day after high school. I should
Speaker 1: say every day because it was like three days to
Speaker 1: the next point in this story. And so I would
Speaker 1: go out after um school for the next several days
Speaker 1: directly out to the radio station and my um Buick Riviera.
Speaker 1: I would drive out there, and I would see um
Speaker 1: about like what he wanted me to do. So three
Speaker 1: days into my internship, which I really wasn't like doing anything.
Speaker 1: I was just watching him do radio. I was watching
Speaker 1: and b on their personality. And so three days in
Speaker 1: he put me on the air with him during the
Speaker 1: five o'clock traffic jam. So mind you, he works from
Speaker 1: three pm to eight pm, like Afternoon Drive, which is
Speaker 1: like beyond the morning show is the number one radio
Speaker 1: slot for radio personality. This morning show is like the
Speaker 1: King of the Hill. Afternoon Drive is the next biggest
Speaker 1: um like time slot for radio personalities. So I go
Speaker 1: out there. I hang out with him during his shift.
Speaker 1: After I get a school obviously, so I probably make
Speaker 1: it out there like three thirty four o'clock. Um, and
Speaker 1: he puts me on the air with him during the
Speaker 1: five o'clock traffic jam my third day into my internship,
Speaker 1: and so, um, he did this five o'clock traffic jam,
Speaker 1: which is like when they do this you know mix
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm Will Lucas. I'm like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what to do, is but I'm just like hanging
Speaker 1: out with him on the air, you know, from five
Speaker 1: to eight pm when his shift is over. So I
Speaker 1: did that for a couple of days. You know, we
Speaker 1: found I'm sort of chemistry obviously because he let me
Speaker 1: continue to be on the air with him every day
Speaker 1: after five o'clock and so signs my phone and so
Speaker 1: three days into it, we're going to air, did that
Speaker 1: every day. I went through like it's so crazy to
Speaker 1: think about. I went through multiple you know, like radio names,
Speaker 1: like like because I was trying to find like what
Speaker 1: was my name going to be for the radio. His
Speaker 1: name was Charlie Mack, and I'm like, Okay, I gotta
Speaker 1: find a name for myself. So my name's Lucas. And
Speaker 1: so we was just like messing around with a bunch
Speaker 1: of names. So, you know, the at one point in
Speaker 1: my you know, early early early, like the early weeks
Speaker 1: of my radio career, my name was like night Train
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, I have no idea. So then then
Speaker 1: there was a point where, um, I remember being in
Speaker 1: the production room with him and we were talking about, Okay,
Speaker 1: what is my radio name going to be? And um
Speaker 1: so he was like, after we like probably throughout ten
Speaker 1: fifteen names. It's like roomors. Tiny's like at four by
Speaker 1: six rooms like super duperteen. So I remember he was like,
Speaker 1: whenever you figured out, let me know, brother, And I
Speaker 1: heard him say butter. He said brother, but I heard butter.
Speaker 1: So my first radio name, my first official radio name,
Speaker 1: was butter because when he said whenever you figured out,
Speaker 1: let me know, butter, I heard Butter. He said, brother,
Speaker 1: so Butter, it was so my name on the radio.
Speaker 1: My first name on the radio was Butter, and that's
Speaker 1: what they called me for years UM in my radio career.
Speaker 1: So six months after Um doing the five o'clock traffic
Speaker 1: jam with him, he put me UM in this Saturday
Speaker 1: I gave. I got a Saturday night show. I was
Speaker 1: eighteen years old doing radio on the Saturday night UM
Speaker 1: in my hometown six to ten every Saturday night. And
Speaker 1: I had the number one radio show in the city
Speaker 1: on Saturday nights in Toledo. And mind you this particular
Speaker 1: radio station, and this for some some of you guys
Speaker 1: like you, this will mean nothing. So I'll try to
Speaker 1: make it like parallel or something that will make sense
Speaker 1: to you. This is this is a three thousand watt
Speaker 1: radio station. The biggest radio stations in town have a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand watts or more. So think of you know,
Speaker 1: like this. Let's say we're talking about cars, and so
Speaker 1: I am driving a UM A Nova, like a Honda Civic,
Speaker 1: like a Priest. I am driving one of those, and
Speaker 1: the biggest dogs in town. The biggest radio stations have
Speaker 1: like Dodge Rams F one fifties or you get. So
Speaker 1: we are in the tiniest situation in town, the bottom
Speaker 1: of the totem pole with regards to the power of
Speaker 1: the radio sate radio tower that this particular radio station has.
Speaker 1: So anyway, um, I'm doing these Saturday night shows, but
Speaker 1: I have the number one show in the city. I'm
Speaker 1: like eighteen years old. And so he remember he was
Speaker 1: on the afternoon drive. Six months after I had the
Speaker 1: Saturday night show, they moved him to the morning show
Speaker 1: and I got his afternoon drive show. So I was eighteen,
Speaker 1: just about to turn nineteen, and I'm doing drivetime radio
Speaker 1: in my hometown three to eight. And so by this
Speaker 1: time I had graduated. So I'm doing three o'clock to
Speaker 1: a p m. Monday through Friday. And so I had
Speaker 1: the number one show in my demographic because I was
Speaker 1: My job was to target eighteen to twenty four. Eighteen
Speaker 1: is four years old people who are in the listening audience,
Speaker 1: because that was a coveted demographic of people who listened
Speaker 1: to the radio because they spend money. So advertisers want
Speaker 1: to target that demographic. And so I'm doing that. And
Speaker 1: so suffice it to say, like all of those skills
Speaker 1: that I learned. Again, I didn't want to do right.
Speaker 1: I never wanted to do right. Yo, Like, don't forget
Speaker 1: that point in the story. I happened to be good
Speaker 1: at something. I learned very quickly, how to be engaging.
Speaker 1: I learned very quickly. How to build production skills. I
Speaker 1: learned very quickly, you know, how to um make things
Speaker 1: sound a particular way to make people want to listen
Speaker 1: to it, and just creating engaging content. And so I
Speaker 1: did this very early in my career with the intent
Speaker 1: of finding my way into the music business. And so
Speaker 1: story number one, the whole like crux of this conversation
Speaker 1: is talking about how I thought I was doing this
Speaker 1: particular thing to get to what I wanted, But there
Speaker 1: was another plan for my life, and so I found
Speaker 1: if you look at what I'm doing today, I have
Speaker 1: a podcast that's her all around the world because and
Speaker 1: I'm able to do this. I produced this podcast, I
Speaker 1: do the booking for this podcast. I obviously record myself.
Speaker 1: I'm in my basement right now recording this podcast. And
Speaker 1: I'm doing all of these things with the skills I
Speaker 1: learned at seventeen and eighteen years old, having taken an
Speaker 1: internship with the intent of being a music producer and songwriter.
Speaker 1: I couldn't have scripted this. I could not have scripted
Speaker 1: this because I was doing it with a particular intent.
Speaker 1: But I did it well because I knew if I
Speaker 1: did it well, it would put me in position. It's
Speaker 1: just a different position that I thought I would be in.
Speaker 1: But I'm living a dream today. I'm living a dream
Speaker 1: that I didn't know I had. But it's a better
Speaker 1: dream than the one I thought I had. Story number one,
Speaker 1: Story number two, let's talk about it. So Afro Tech
Speaker 1: and so I'm doing podcasts. So, oh, I gotta see
Speaker 1: this thing about podcasts. Man, I've slipped into the podcast game.
Speaker 1: So I've talked about this, maybe not on this podcast,
Speaker 1: but the one I'm about to tell you about. So
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago had to be what like
Speaker 1: five years ago? Now, um, this is before. This is
Speaker 1: pre me being involved with afro Tech. So I'm talking
Speaker 1: to a friend of mine. He's an advisor. He's a
Speaker 1: white guy. He's an advisor to a startup that I'm founding.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get going at this particular stage. And
Speaker 1: he comes to me and he says, you know, what
Speaker 1: would it take you Remember he's a white guy. He says,
Speaker 1: what would it take to get more black kids interested
Speaker 1: in tech? And I said, well, they need to see
Speaker 1: a black Mark Zuckerberg, like somebody who looks like them
Speaker 1: and is realizing success. And because that's what I believed
Speaker 1: in that moment. And at the end of that conversation,
Speaker 1: I kicked myself because I'm like, yo, like, we have
Speaker 1: super successful black people in tech, we just don't know
Speaker 1: who they are. And so I went and after that podcast,
Speaker 1: after that conversation, I went and I'm I'm thinking to myself, like,
Speaker 1: what can I do to be part of the conversation
Speaker 1: of elevating the names of black technologists? What can I
Speaker 1: do to be a part of the conversation of making
Speaker 1: sure that we have representation? So I said, Yo, I
Speaker 1: did radio for all these years. I did radios, Leado,
Speaker 1: I did radio and Detroit. I know how to do this.
Speaker 1: And so I'm like, I'm gonna put together I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do a podcast and it's called Today. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of jumping ahead and the story, but just for
Speaker 1: to save the time, I did. This podcast is called
Speaker 1: of ten podcast. It was white. I was only gonna
Speaker 1: do ten episodes. That's why it's called of ten podcasts.
Speaker 1: One of ten, two of ten, three of ten. You
Speaker 1: guys are smart. Thank you for following on. So I
Speaker 1: did this podcast called of ten podcast. It's still in
Speaker 1: my iTunes, you can find it today. And the point
Speaker 1: was to highlight these super successful black people in tech,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to share their stories, and so I
Speaker 1: did this podcast. I was only intending to do ten episodes. Again,
Speaker 1: it's called of ten podcasts, and that was gonna be it.
Speaker 1: So I did these ten episodes. I had like fantastic
Speaker 1: people on there. I mean like Crime de La Crime,
Speaker 1: people who were at the top of the game in
Speaker 1: these this podcast, in this season of black technology. So
Speaker 1: I'm like the first episode was like my my guy
Speaker 1: who's a friend of mine, mcin Day at the egg Bow.
Speaker 1: He was like one of the lead engineers at Facebook,
Speaker 1: friends with Mark Zuckerberg. I mean, this guy's he's fantastic
Speaker 1: and he's he's actually founder of um deaf Color. He's
Speaker 1: founder of Deaf Color. I was about to google it,
Speaker 1: so sorry for the falls there. I was about to
Speaker 1: google it, but he just came to me. He's founder
Speaker 1: of deaf color like a black um kind of cohort
Speaker 1: or collective of black engineers in Silicon Valley. So, um
Speaker 1: my guy mackind So he was the first episode that
Speaker 1: I had, and I had like a run of ten
Speaker 1: episod so olds phenomenal people who were in this podcast
Speaker 1: that I did. And I'm a nobody, Like I'm a
Speaker 1: guy in Toledo and in his basement doing this podcast.
Speaker 1: And people are saying, yes, I will do your show.
Speaker 1: And so I'll save another day to talk about how
Speaker 1: to get great people for your podcast, but for tonight
Speaker 1: we'll talk about, you know, putting yourself in the position
Speaker 1: to be successful. So did this podcast called often podcasts
Speaker 1: fantastic series of um highly successful black technologists put it
Speaker 1: out and you know Twitter is like yo, people on Twitter,
Speaker 1: not tweater, not actual Twitter people on Twitter. We're like, yo,
Speaker 1: fantastic run UM episode six. I love that episode fire
Speaker 1: Remember when he said this episode like seven? She said that,
Speaker 1: and I was like bars, So it was like it's
Speaker 1: fantastic run. When is your next season? And I'm like
Speaker 1: there is no next season? Like this is it? Like
Speaker 1: I'm I'm working on other things. I did this to
Speaker 1: contribute to the conversation, like I was intending to do
Speaker 1: several several seasons, but I did it, and like, this
Speaker 1: is like a gift to the world. I didn't even
Speaker 1: have any sponsors for this, Like I did it because
Speaker 1: I wanted to contribute to the conversation. So like we're
Speaker 1: five we were five seasons in. I'm kind of jumping
Speaker 1: ahead of the story, but we did more seasons. But
Speaker 1: the point is, after that first season of of Tim Podcast, Um,
Speaker 1: I heard about this thing called afro Tech and I'm like,
Speaker 1: how did I not know? It was the first year
Speaker 1: of afro Tech, And I'm like, how did I not
Speaker 1: know that this conference happened? Because half the people I
Speaker 1: interviewed on the of Tim podcast podcast we're on the
Speaker 1: stage of the first afro Tech and I said, I'm
Speaker 1: never gonna miss another afro Tech. I'm never gonna miss
Speaker 1: another one. And so I knew then, like I was sold,
Speaker 1: Like I didn't I had. I didn't go to the
Speaker 1: conference that year because I didn't know about it, but
Speaker 1: I saw pictures and I'm like, yep, this is my thing.
Speaker 1: I'm never gonna miss another one. I'm here when until
Speaker 1: they stopped doing it. I knew that the first moment
Speaker 1: I heard about afro Tech. So obviously I go to
Speaker 1: the second year of afro Tech and I knew, I
Speaker 1: absolutely knew I was gonna have a life changing experience.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I knew it, I just knew it.
Speaker 1: And so again, I'm a content creator, so I said,
Speaker 1: you know what, I know, I'm gonna have fantastic experience.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna vlog every day of this conference. So I'm
Speaker 1: taking my camera and I'm gonna record, not with the
Speaker 1: intent of like putting out, you know, like a bunch
Speaker 1: of content, but I'm just gonna record, put a bookmark
Speaker 1: there because we're gonna come back to that. I planned
Speaker 1: on doing a video, and I said, I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: out a video about my experience going to the first
Speaker 1: to my first afro Tech, which is the second afro
Speaker 1: Tech that ever happened. And so I was know it's
Speaker 1: gonna have a good time. So I did it. So
Speaker 1: I took my camera recorded everything about my trip to
Speaker 1: getting on an airplane, matter of fact, getting in the car,
Speaker 1: on the way to the airport, getting to the airport,
Speaker 1: sitting in the airport, landing in San Francisco, first day
Speaker 1: vibes like the whole situation, and I said, um, and
Speaker 1: remember I did this up Tim podcast. I was still
Speaker 1: doing the podcast at this moment, so I'm so I
Speaker 1: took and I come from radio, so as I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: the dots are connected, I come from radio, and I
Speaker 1: have this podcast that is called The of Tim Podcast,
Speaker 1: which is a tech based podcast at this time, so
Speaker 1: coming from radio, I'm a DJ. I do club nights.
Speaker 1: So I said, I'm gonna print flyers to take with
Speaker 1: me to AFRO Tech. And on these flyers, it's not
Speaker 1: a club night, it is promoting my podcast. So everybody,
Speaker 1: because I saw who was going to be speaking on
Speaker 1: stage because it was on the website, So I said, everybody,
Speaker 1: who's gonna be speaking on stage, I'm printing flyers about
Speaker 1: my podcast with their faces on and saying, Hey, if
Speaker 1: you like Jessica Matthews Uncharted Play Present Day, Uncharted Power,
Speaker 1: check out my podcast because she's on my podcast. Hey,
Speaker 1: if you like Paul Judge, several companies, a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of patents, a whole bunch of money, a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of night's clothes. If you like Paul Judge and you
Speaker 1: and he's gonna be probably in the conversation because I
Speaker 1: think he's on stage, but he's gonna be in the
Speaker 1: conversation at Afrotech. He's on my podcast. You should check
Speaker 1: out on podcast. Here's a flyer, here's the link to
Speaker 1: go get it subscribed today. So I took this. Um,
Speaker 1: these flyers probably printed five dred flyers, and I'm recording video.
Speaker 1: So I'm the only person there. I'm the only person
Speaker 1: there at the second afro Tech who's passing out flyers
Speaker 1: for anything, because there's not even club people passing out
Speaker 1: flyers for the parties at night. There's only me passing
Speaker 1: out flyers and people like, yo, where the party at?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, no, not a party, it's a podcast.
Speaker 1: So I'm doing that. So people all over the situation are,
Speaker 1: you know, taking my flyers because anything gets they're about
Speaker 1: to get turned out that night, but they're about to subscribe.
Speaker 1: They don't even know it yet. So I do that.
Speaker 1: So I'm sudden the stage for something here, all right.
Speaker 1: So I'm recording every day and I'm passing out flyers.
Speaker 1: I decide the first night sitting in a friend of
Speaker 1: mine's apartment, um because he left because he said, you
Speaker 1: know what, you don't have to get a hotel coming
Speaker 1: to San Francisco. I'm out of town. You just had
Speaker 1: keys to my my place. So he let me stay
Speaker 1: in this house, in this um department or whatever. He
Speaker 1: was a basement in San Francisco um, but it was
Speaker 1: somebody's basement, but he made an apartment or they made department.
Speaker 1: He's written it way to a new weeks right now.
Speaker 1: So he let me stay there. He was not in town,
Speaker 1: so he's like, you can stay at my place while
Speaker 1: you're there. No reason for you to get a hotel.
Speaker 1: So I said, you know what, I'm not at I'm
Speaker 1: not at one of the parties. I'm gonna go back
Speaker 1: to the place and edit the video that I recorded.
Speaker 1: I remember, I think the first the first Apple Tech
Speaker 1: I went to was like a Thursday, Friday, Saturday. It
Speaker 1: could be Friday, Saturday, Satnday. I don't remember too many
Speaker 1: details that are not helpful to the story. So I
Speaker 1: record all day Thursday, record all day, and I'll get
Speaker 1: back to the room and I'm like, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: do like a big video. I'm gonna do a video
Speaker 1: every day. So I record. I edited down all the
Speaker 1: video from that Thursday and edited down real quick. It
Speaker 1: might have been I could look on Google right now
Speaker 1: or YouTube. I'm not gonna but I edit all the
Speaker 1: video down from that Thursday. Might have been five minutes long,
Speaker 1: might have been ten, and I don't remember. You can
Speaker 1: find it because it's still on YouTube right now afro Tech.
Speaker 1: You can go see it and it might have been
Speaker 1: five minutes long. But it was the video that I
Speaker 1: took from that day and it was like my experience,
Speaker 1: my journey of being at the first afro Tech for
Speaker 1: my for myself, and edited the video down, put it
Speaker 1: up on YouTube that night. So on Friday, I'm walking
Speaker 1: into the conference and people are like, yo, I saw
Speaker 1: your video from yesterday? How would you do that? Because
Speaker 1: that was yesterday? Like nobody this is seen nobody, Like
Speaker 1: this is no TikTok, there's no Instagram stories, there's none
Speaker 1: of that. Like nobody puts out video that fast and
Speaker 1: quality video edited, like not just like hit record and
Speaker 1: just play some stuff. Like I edited the videos that night,
Speaker 1: a bunch of video edited that night, put it up
Speaker 1: on YouTube Friday. People like, yo, fire video, I saw
Speaker 1: your stuff from yesterday? How did you do that? Whatever.
Speaker 1: I did the same thing all day Friday. I recorded
Speaker 1: all day Friday, edited it when I got back to
Speaker 1: um my Guy's place, put it up on YouTube Saturday.
Speaker 1: People like, oh my god, how are you doing this?
Speaker 1: You are here, but then you on YouTube from being
Speaker 1: here fast how so I'm like, this is what I do.
Speaker 1: So did that every day at the conference. Put it
Speaker 1: on YouTube asap, not playing around what I didn't know
Speaker 1: what was What I didn't know what was happening was
Speaker 1: I was building a name and reputation for myself as
Speaker 1: being a content creator in this scene of black technology.
Speaker 1: I had no clue. All I knew was I went
Speaker 1: with the intent of giving people black technologists. Specifically. I
Speaker 1: wanted to give people FOMO. For what reason, I don't know,
Speaker 1: because I've never been an afro tech before. I just
Speaker 1: knew that. I said, I'm never gonna miss another afro tech.
Speaker 1: This is my first year going. I'm never gonna miss
Speaker 1: another afro Tech. But I want to make sure anybody
Speaker 1: who should be here never misses another appro tech. I
Speaker 1: want to give you FOMO like you missed out. I
Speaker 1: had no idea what it was gonna be like. It
Speaker 1: could have been like, ah, smoking mirrors. I had no idea,
Speaker 1: but I knew in my heart of hearts that this
Speaker 1: was gonna be a life changing experience. So I edited
Speaker 1: the video, put it up fast, built a name for myself.
Speaker 1: Didn't even know I was building a name for myself.
Speaker 1: So I went to the next Afro Tech, which would
Speaker 1: have been eighten, and I took my wife because I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: you've got to see this thing. Like there are thousands
Speaker 1: of black people in San Francisco, and there ain't that
Speaker 1: many black people in San Francisco, So I'm sure the
Speaker 1: airport was like security, because why are all these black
Speaker 1: people coming to Savings? Like why all of it? Why?
Speaker 1: Why why are they here? Um? But we're all like
Speaker 1: pulling up in San Francisco. So I took my wife
Speaker 1: and I said, you've got to see this thing. It's
Speaker 1: like thousands of black people, all of them are in tech,
Speaker 1: and they all talking about tech, and they're talking about
Speaker 1: building million dollars, billion dollar, trillion dollar companies. They're all
Speaker 1: talking about algorithms, they're all talking about crypto, they're all
Speaker 1: talking about like strange stuff to most people. You've got
Speaker 1: to come see it. So I took her and I
Speaker 1: didn't record this year, and so this is when I
Speaker 1: knew that I was building a name for myself because
Speaker 1: everywhere I went, people was like, where's your camera? And
Speaker 1: so I'm like, oh, y'all really like on that? Like
Speaker 1: I didn't not. I didn't realize people were looking for
Speaker 1: me to be recording. And so this year I'm specifically
Speaker 1: talking about the first time I realized that people wanted
Speaker 1: what I was doing. Because you see the comments, like,
Speaker 1: you see the likes, you see the shares, but you
Speaker 1: don't really like see people and you didn't you don't
Speaker 1: really know that those likes were clicked by a person.
Speaker 1: I mean content creators know what I'm talking about. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize people would miss it. But I was
Speaker 1: putting out all this content about tech, putting out all
Speaker 1: this content on my podcast, putting out these videos about
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship and business, which you can still find on my
Speaker 1: on my YouTube page. UM, and I remember being back home. UM. Actually,
Speaker 1: let me tell this first floor duck out of here
Speaker 1: because this is an important part of the story. And
Speaker 1: so because I'm like a big believer in UM, like
Speaker 1: you gotta see yourself there, representation is so important and
Speaker 1: sometimes when you don't have an ecosystem around you, it's
Speaker 1: hard to have that reputation in this and being an
Speaker 1: afro Tech season right now, we're like a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks from afro Tech. This is why this particular epis
Speaker 1: so it's so important and why you cannot not be there.
Speaker 1: All right, So I took my wife. I told you
Speaker 1: all eighteen and at the end of the conference, on
Speaker 1: the way home, I'm like, we're in the airport and
Speaker 1: I'm like, it wasn't that fantastic, Like that was like
Speaker 1: thousands of people black people and we all intech doing
Speaker 1: this thing. And she's like, yeah, it's beautiful, fantastic conference.
Speaker 1: That was amazing. You should not come back unless you
Speaker 1: on stage. I'm like, oh, how I'm gonna get on stage?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm like I don't understand, like because
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, like the people that I'm looking at on
Speaker 1: stage are people who should be on stage, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like the people who are on that
Speaker 1: stage like doing things like you know, because you know,
Speaker 1: you know how it is, like you just feel like
Speaker 1: you know everybody's got it, but like you're trying to
Speaker 1: qualify yourself and it's difficult to do that. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: how am I gonna get on that stage? Do you
Speaker 1: see that credentials? Do you see their resumes? Do you
Speaker 1: see the money they raised? Do you see the exit
Speaker 1: you know bag? Do you see like all of that?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I don't know how I'm getting on
Speaker 1: that stage. But you know, I'm talking to my wife.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I challenge accepted, Like, I don't know how
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. I got a podcast, I got
Speaker 1: a couple startups. I got one, two, three, five, six
Speaker 1: that failed, but I'm gonna figure it out. So that's
Speaker 1: obviously November. So I said this want to do. I'm
Speaker 1: a big believer in vision boards because like you need
Speaker 1: to see it. So I put a picture. I still
Speaker 1: have the picture because I took it down off my
Speaker 1: vision board. UM, but it was a picture I found
Speaker 1: on Google. I just google afro Tech and I found
Speaker 1: a picture at our bay. Um. He's a um a
Speaker 1: designer for like video games black Dude, and he spoke
Speaker 1: at afro Tech that year. So I found this picture
Speaker 1: because it was in particularly that I was looking for
Speaker 1: a picture. I't war speaking to afro Tech. I just
Speaker 1: googled Afro Tech and I looked for pictures and that
Speaker 1: was the picture I chose. So I took this picture
Speaker 1: of our on stage and I put it on my
Speaker 1: vision board. So you gotta remember, every single day, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at this picture and others um about, you know,
Speaker 1: what I want to bring into my life. And so
Speaker 1: I put this picture on my vision board and I'm
Speaker 1: looking at it every day. And I said, the next
Speaker 1: time that they opened up a call for speakers, I'm
Speaker 1: going to apply. I don't know if I'm getting on stage,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna apply. I gotta a drink. So I
Speaker 1: take um this picture, put it on my vision board.
Speaker 1: I see it every day. I said, next year, when
Speaker 1: they opened up call speakers, I'm gonna apply. I don't
Speaker 1: know I'm getting on but you know, I gotta do
Speaker 1: what I gotta do. So around the time that they
Speaker 1: make the call for speakers just had to be like February, March,
Speaker 1: April May. I don't know somewhere around there, but it's
Speaker 1: around that season. I'm driving down. I remember exactly where
Speaker 1: I was, And y'all don't live where I live, so
Speaker 1: I won't give you like exactly you know, Uh, coordinates,
Speaker 1: but I remember exactly where I was, and I'm sitting
Speaker 1: at a red light and I get an email from
Speaker 1: somebody who works for Blavity, which owns afro Tag. Obviously
Speaker 1: if you didn't know that, Yeah, Blavity is like the
Speaker 1: black BuzzFeed, Like it's the biggest black millennial website in
Speaker 1: the world. Um Chatham Morgan too born. So I'm I'm
Speaker 1: sitting there and I get an email from somebody at
Speaker 1: Bravity saying, hey, um, my name's Da Da Da. And
Speaker 1: I was talking to Morgan because we're going on or
Speaker 1: going in a new direction for afro Tag, and Morgan said,
Speaker 1: we should talk to you about running it. And I'm
Speaker 1: like you, I don't, what like, hold on, You're going
Speaker 1: in a new direction for afro Tech and you want
Speaker 1: me to run it. The guy who says, how in
Speaker 1: the world am I going to get on this stage?
Speaker 1: How like I don't feel qualified? Is what I was
Speaker 1: really saying to myself. I didn't. I never cognitively said
Speaker 1: that to myself, but that's what I was saying along
Speaker 1: the whole line of thinking, if you if you look back,
Speaker 1: if you get rewind, that's what's happening in my story.
Speaker 1: I'm telling myself you aren't worthy of that. So I'm
Speaker 1: sitting at this red light, get this email saying we're
Speaker 1: going in a new direction for afro Tech, and Morgan
Speaker 1: says we should talk to you. Do you have time
Speaker 1: to talk? And I'm like, oh my god, this this
Speaker 1: is the thing because you gotta realize I come from
Speaker 1: radio and um so I've seen a lot of celebrities,
Speaker 1: some of the biggest celebrities in the world, been to
Speaker 1: all the concerts, all the things. So like celebrities don't
Speaker 1: improbamly like black Tech. People like winners are like, that's
Speaker 1: my rock star too, that's me. So when I walk
Speaker 1: in the room and I'm hanging out with Dave south Hunt,
Speaker 1: you know from Squire, or I'm with Rodney Williams, or
Speaker 1: I'm with you know, Morgan, or I'm with Jessica Matthews,
Speaker 1: or I'm with whoever like Paul Judge, Bryan Glover, Like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm with these people. Those are my rock stars. And
Speaker 1: so you're asking me to steer the ship of the
Speaker 1: most important thing to me, the thing that makes my
Speaker 1: eyes glitter, like you're asking me to run it. And
Speaker 1: so I'm trying to figure out how I'm getting on
Speaker 1: the stage to give a two minute talk and you're
Speaker 1: asking me to there the ship of the brand. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to tell you all, like, I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: about I'm not saying that to glorify me. What I'm
Speaker 1: saying is, if you look back at the things that
Speaker 1: I did before getting that email, it's set me up
Speaker 1: to get that email. So don't despise small beginnings, like
Speaker 1: there are things that you are doing today that puts
Speaker 1: you in a position if you're diligent, if you treat
Speaker 1: it with respect, if you get the education you're supposed
Speaker 1: to get out of it, if you don't take it
Speaker 1: for granted, if you actually do the work, if you
Speaker 1: do it with integrity, if you don't cut corners, but
Speaker 1: you learn the lesson, if you go all in, if
Speaker 1: you disciplined. I was putting out content when nobody was
Speaker 1: paying me. I was putting out content because I loved
Speaker 1: the content. I wanted to hear the stories. And so
Speaker 1: now the people that I interviewed a lot of these
Speaker 1: like may my friends now then on people like I
Speaker 1: text with him, I talked to him when I see him,
Speaker 1: it's what up we get a drink, we got to eat,
Speaker 1: we hang out. The people who are like my rock stars,
Speaker 1: those are the people that you know. I can rub shoulders,
Speaker 1: where I can stand next to, I can sit beside,
Speaker 1: and we're all good. I'm getting the bag, they're getting
Speaker 1: the bag, and we all get in the bag. Because
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that at the moment. But again, you
Speaker 1: can't connect the dots looking forward. So when I was
Speaker 1: doing the podcast, I thought I was doing it for
Speaker 1: X week reason. I thought I was doing it for
Speaker 1: reason X. But reason why why was around the corner
Speaker 1: and I didn't even know it. But I treated it
Speaker 1: with respect because I gave to the community. I wanted
Speaker 1: you all to have something that didn't exist before. I
Speaker 1: wanted you all to see yourselves in the people that
Speaker 1: I represented put on the platform. Gave a pedestal to
Speaker 1: uplifted on that podcast, which put me in a position
Speaker 1: to touch more people. I couldn't have I couldn't have
Speaker 1: scripted that out. I couldn't have dictated how it was
Speaker 1: gonna happen. So today I sit in a position, you know,
Speaker 1: a privileged position, A position I worked for, a position
Speaker 1: of honor, a position to be able to serve you,
Speaker 1: and that's really what it's all about. But I did
Speaker 1: that work, and what I do this work for continually
Speaker 1: is to show you that you do this work. These
Speaker 1: are the rewards because the stories that we highlight on
Speaker 1: this podcast, the stories that you will see at afro Teche,
Speaker 1: the people that you're gonna meet at this conference coming up,
Speaker 1: which I mean I did the whole podcast just now
Speaker 1: trying to get you to see why you need to
Speaker 1: be there. You can't miss this. You cannot miss this.
Speaker 1: It's virtual. So what this this virtual world that afro
Speaker 1: Tech bills is like, it is This ain't zoom family,
Speaker 1: This ain't go to meeting. You can build the whole
Speaker 1: world for y'all. And you meet people from all across
Speaker 1: the world. There's people I met last year from Tanzania,
Speaker 1: as people I met last year from the UK. There's
Speaker 1: people I met last year from all from Tennessee, as
Speaker 1: people I met from all over the world. And they
Speaker 1: all look like I mean, they all pretty for the
Speaker 1: most part, look like us. And they're trying to do
Speaker 1: the thing, and they're doing the thing. They want to
Speaker 1: hire you, they want to fund you, they want to
Speaker 1: buy your stuff, and they're at this conference. So that's
Speaker 1: my story. I hope you got something out of that. UM.
Speaker 1: You never really know why you're doing what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You might think you know why you're doing what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You might have real intentions on the reasons that you're
Speaker 1: doing specific things that you're doing, but sometimes they don't
Speaker 1: work out like you planned. That's just a fact. Sometimes
Speaker 1: the outcome isn't something that you prescribed. But if you're
Speaker 1: in there and you're doing the work, there will be
Speaker 1: opportunities that open up to you that you could not
Speaker 1: have asked for, that you couldn't have imagined would be
Speaker 1: possible for you put yourself in a position to be successful.
Speaker 1: That's my story for today. I hope you'll enjoyed this episode.