Speaker 1: We'll luke you here Black Tech, Green Money. So pleasing
Speaker 1: to be with you here in this new season Black Tech,
Speaker 1: Green Money. It's going to be a special one because
Speaker 1: I get to talk about something that's near and dear
Speaker 1: to my heart on this episode. And this episode is
Speaker 1: really about asking permission, and you need to ask permission
Speaker 1: and doing things without permission. So but before we get
Speaker 1: into that, we're gonna talk about Afro tech News. Shout
Speaker 1: out to all the Black inventors. Lanny Smooth becomes the
Speaker 1: second person from Disney since Walt Disney himself to get
Speaker 1: inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He joined
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four class of recognized Inventors. Smooth who
Speaker 1: was making history as the first Disney imagineer to receive
Speaker 1: the honor. He's also the second person at Walt Disney
Speaker 1: Company since Walt Disney to earn the recognition. His forty
Speaker 1: five year career, he's been a theatrical technology creator, inventor,
Speaker 1: electrical engineer, scientists, and researcher. He's a mass the collection
Speaker 1: of over one hundred patents, seventy four of them created
Speaker 1: during his twenty five year stint at all Disney Company
Speaker 1: and is star shined long before he joined Disney. Graduated
Speaker 1: with a bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from
Speaker 1: Columbia University, developed multiple innovations such as video on demand technology,
Speaker 1: video conferencing technologies, and specialized in television for remote locations,
Speaker 1: just to name a few. He's been integral in creating
Speaker 1: some of the most technically advanced special effects at Disney
Speaker 1: theme parks and experiences, and if you've been some of these.
Speaker 1: Examples of his special effect technologies include the Seance Room
Speaker 1: at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. He worked on the Madame Leotas
Speaker 1: float there that I've not been there. Well, I've been there,
Speaker 1: but I've not seen this particular thing. But Madam Leota's
Speaker 1: floating in the Seience Room at Disney's Disneyland's Haunted Mansion,
Speaker 1: he worked on that. Disney Live Entertainment's Extendable Lightsaber, he
Speaker 1: worked on that. The Magic Playfloor interactive game experience on
Speaker 1: Disney's Cruise Line, he worked on that. And the Fortress
Speaker 1: Explorations adventure at Tokyo Disney c. He worked on that,
Speaker 1: and he said in a statement as a lifelong as
Speaker 1: a lifelong inventor. Let me start that over. As a
Speaker 1: lifelong inventor, I am excited, delighted, and humbled to be
Speaker 1: inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. This is
Speaker 1: he told this to Disney Parks. He said, to be
Speaker 1: included alongside my childhood hero Thomas Edison and my lifelong
Speaker 1: role model Jim West, the electreate microphone inventor who's also
Speaker 1: a black man. It's exciting and humbling, and as someone
Speaker 1: who's had the privilege of working at the Walt Disney Company,
Speaker 1: it's especially meaningful to know that Walt Disney himself is
Speaker 1: also an inductee, So big shout out to you, mister smooth.
Speaker 1: Next up, Cole Trane Curtis. If you know him, you
Speaker 1: know he's an icon for marketers like myself and he
Speaker 1: makes Afro Tech News Today. Team Epiphany the company he
Speaker 1: founded his black indigenous people of color founded marketing agency,
Speaker 1: and they've worked with people like Easter Ray, companies like
Speaker 1: American Express and more. They have been acquired by Stagwell.
Speaker 1: Kudos to you, Coltrane, he said in a statement. We're
Speaker 1: excited to become part of Stagwell and its constellation network
Speaker 1: a company that shares our values and looks to further
Speaker 1: Team epiphanies long standing commitment to aspirational marketing, embracing culture,
Speaker 1: and impacting communities of influence through our work. As previously
Speaker 1: reported by afro Tech, Curtis runs the business alongside his
Speaker 1: why and fellow managing partner, Lisa Chu. The team works
Speaker 1: to not only put culture at the forefront of the agency,
Speaker 1: but also create community impact through its efforts. Team Epiphany's
Speaker 1: clients include American Express, HBO, Max, Heineken Moore. For AMX,
Speaker 1: the company worked on the company's campaigns for its AMX
Speaker 1: one hundred for one hundred program, which invested two point
Speaker 1: five million dollars in black female entrepreneurs part of their
Speaker 1: press release and what's more, after creating launch campaigns for
Speaker 1: the Insecure Fest for Easter Ray's show Insecure, Team Epiphany
Speaker 1: went on to obtain a strategic partnership with Ray's Hooray
Speaker 1: Media in twenty twenty three. Justin Lewis, who's chair of Constellation,
Speaker 1: said in the statement, people tend to see Team Epiphany
Speaker 1: and one to compartmentalize its offerings into multicultural or experiential,
Speaker 1: but when I met the team, it became clear it
Speaker 1: me that their deep appreciation and mastery of culture is
Speaker 1: an essential ingredient for contemporary brands focused on forward looking growth.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to welcome col Train, Lisa and the entire
Speaker 1: team to the network. So much more afro tech news,
Speaker 1: but I'll do one more for today, and that is
Speaker 1: seven diverse brands will be shelved at Target stores thanks
Speaker 1: to a woman owned tech platform prioritizing diverse led startups
Speaker 1: and suppliers. This push is in part due to Diverse
Speaker 1: Powered Brands of Business to Business Global digital catalog that
Speaker 1: helps buyers connect with diverse supplies and brands. According to
Speaker 1: his website, the efforts have led to victories for the
Speaker 1: new business owners. According to a news release, thirteen suppliers
Speaker 1: to partner a pitch competition moderated by Diverse Powered Brands
Speaker 1: in last year at Target headquarters in Minneapolis, and suppliers
Speaker 1: were able to pitch Target's wine team while founders interacted
Speaker 1: with the executives from several wine distribution companies. And among
Speaker 1: the companies who will be on this shelf soon is
Speaker 1: Boyd Crew Wines, which has been talked about an afrotech
Speaker 1: before it is a story on afrotech dot com entitled
Speaker 1: the Boyds are behind the first Black family owned wine
Speaker 1: company in Maryland, So check that story out on afrotech
Speaker 1: dot com. It created out of a deep desire to
Speaker 1: honor their families legacy. Matthew and jon El Boyd created
Speaker 1: Boyd Crew Wines, which is a family owned winery crafting
Speaker 1: locally made wines. Were also fostering community and connection. Jon
Speaker 1: El said in the statement, as the old saying gohs,
Speaker 1: representation matters, and although when considering entering the wine industry
Speaker 1: and starting our own winery, we noticed there was a
Speaker 1: lack of diversity, it was the innovation and history of
Speaker 1: what our ancestors were able to accomplish and what that
Speaker 1: stood for that gave us the faith and the courage
Speaker 1: to move forward and launch our own wine company. They're
Speaker 1: Wine reopened in twenty twenty three, and they said their
Speaker 1: ultimate goal is to own and operate a standalone vineyard
Speaker 1: with a community marketplace incubator for entrepreneurs and small businesses
Speaker 1: who are just starting their business. So salute to you
Speaker 1: and you guys, go look for them on a target
Speaker 1: shelf soon. That's Shaffro Tech News, Black Tech green Money
Speaker 1: will Lucas here another exciting episode. I'm excited about this
Speaker 1: one because I could do by virtue of tell you
Speaker 1: my story hopefully inspire you to take bigger steps in
Speaker 1: your journey without the things that hold you back today.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to tell you two different stories today. One,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you the story of afro Tech,
Speaker 1: how I found my way at afro Tech. I've told
Speaker 1: pieces of your story on previous episodes, but today I'm
Speaker 1: going to tell it from like a slightly different perspective.
Speaker 1: And I want to tell you the story of my
Speaker 1: marketing company Creatio, which I was actually when I was
Speaker 1: looking at the Afrotech News that I was going to
Speaker 1: do today, it was so fitting to talk about what
Speaker 1: col Trane Curtis did in the Afrotech News segment previous
Speaker 1: to get into this section right here, because Cold Train
Speaker 1: is such an inspiration to people like myself. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about two stories for my life and
Speaker 1: give you, hopefully fodder to feed the spirit inside you
Speaker 1: of going without permission. Okay, so the first one, let's
Speaker 1: see I'll do I'll do Creatio first because that one
Speaker 1: came first in my life. So Creatio is a full
Speaker 1: service marketing production technology agency. We do everything from video production,
Speaker 1: website development, communication, strategy design, more and we're situated in
Speaker 1: Northwest Ohio and in my region, I have the only
Speaker 1: full service agency that's run by a black person, that's
Speaker 1: run by a minority. So we lean into that particular
Speaker 1: niche and because we own it, there is no other
Speaker 1: person doing it in our region. And so I'm like,
Speaker 1: if I'm going to be the only person doing this,
Speaker 1: and I'm the only minority that's doing this, then i
Speaker 1: have a particular value proposition, a competitive advantage that every
Speaker 1: other marketing company in the region does not have. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to lean into the things that make us special. Well,
Speaker 1: my company I started because I got an idea and
Speaker 1: it's in sort of a way, well, it's truly a
Speaker 1: way that if you're just paying attention to the way
Speaker 1: that your life works, you will pay attention. I've given
Speaker 1: you this quote before because it is my favorite quote.
Speaker 1: It's that Steve Jobs quote, and it says, you can't
Speaker 1: connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect the
Speaker 1: dots looking backward. And what I get from that and
Speaker 1: it's necessary to set this foundation, as I tell my
Speaker 1: story is when you're in certain times of your life,
Speaker 1: you may not always appreciate in the moment or understand
Speaker 1: why in the moment you're doing the thing that you're
Speaker 1: doing now, whether that is why am I in this
Speaker 1: particular relationship, Why am I working at this particular job,
Speaker 1: Why am I working this particular function at this particular job,
Speaker 1: Why am I taking this class, et cetera, et cetera,
Speaker 1: And you feel in the blank. And so I got
Speaker 1: my idea for what we do at Creatio, not intentionally
Speaker 1: on my part, but it was by virtue of the
Speaker 1: dots connecting for me. And so I was wanting to
Speaker 1: be in the music business growing up. I told you guys,
Speaker 1: it's part of my story. Before I wanted to be
Speaker 1: in the music business, I didn't necessarily want to be
Speaker 1: an artist, because that wasn't my gift. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a songwriter, a producer. I wanted to be the
Speaker 1: person behind the scenes helping the person make amazing music.
Speaker 1: I will particularly write R and B songs. I could
Speaker 1: write rock songs, things like this. I could produce R
Speaker 1: and B beats, hip hop beats, etc. And I thought
Speaker 1: it was pretty good at it, but The point in
Speaker 1: telling you that part is that I'm from Toledo, Ohio,
Speaker 1: and in Toledo there's not a music industry scene necessarily,
Speaker 1: or at least the scene as we consider the music
Speaker 1: industry to be. There is no scene for the music
Speaker 1: business in Toledo if you want to be signed by
Speaker 1: a record label or there's no record labels on the corner,
Speaker 1: you know, and there's not a lot of studios, etc.
Speaker 1: And so me, being a very ambitious teenager, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, well, look well I live intele Ohio, not
Speaker 1: moving yet, So what is how close can I get
Speaker 1: to the music industry from where I'm at? And I've said,
Speaker 1: you know, well, the radio is pretty close. And mind
Speaker 1: you like this. This is years after having asked myself
Speaker 1: that question first, which is why I learned how to
Speaker 1: play the drums, because I was like, you know, I
Speaker 1: wanted to be in the music business one day, let
Speaker 1: me start learning some instruments. And so I started playing
Speaker 1: the drums in church. But I wanted to give you
Speaker 1: that so later in my teenage years, I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: the radio is the closest thing to the music business here,
Speaker 1: And so I went to a teen summit which was
Speaker 1: at least I'm not sure if it was produced by
Speaker 1: or hosted by, but there was a program director from
Speaker 1: a local radio station on the panel at this teen summit.
Speaker 1: And this is before I graduated from high school. So
Speaker 1: this program director is on stage at this teen Summit.
Speaker 1: I'm there with a friend of mine and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: here's my chance, because I want to be in the
Speaker 1: music business and he's in the radio, and I've already
Speaker 1: determined that the radio is the best way for me
Speaker 1: to find my way into the industry. And so at
Speaker 1: the end of the teen Summit event, which was at
Speaker 1: a local library, I walked up to him and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, my name is Will Lucas, and I want
Speaker 1: to be in the music business. You know me me
Speaker 1: as sixteen, seventeen year old kid, and I'm just like,
Speaker 1: I don't you know how to make that sound any
Speaker 1: you know, more professional or whatever. It's just like, this
Speaker 1: is what I want, you know, tell me what to do.
Speaker 1: And so at the end of that conversation he was like,
Speaker 1: you know, well number one, there was like a bunch
Speaker 1: of other people in line waiting to talk to him,
Speaker 1: and so I'm like, one of ten kids at the
Speaker 1: time waiting to talk to him and get some of
Speaker 1: his attention. And so he's like, you know, the best
Speaker 1: thing I can tell you to do is find an
Speaker 1: internship somewhere. As a matter of fact, just come out
Speaker 1: to the radio station and we'll talk some more. Because
Speaker 1: again there was other students' kids. They're waiting to talk
Speaker 1: to him. So he's like, just come out to the
Speaker 1: radio station, we'll talk some more and I can spend
Speaker 1: some more time with you. So that next day, because
Speaker 1: that's just the kind of person that was in him,
Speaker 1: next day, I drove out to the radio station, which
Speaker 1: was like in this one of the suburbs of Toledo.
Speaker 1: It was out in the country. So I drove out
Speaker 1: there after going to school. That they drove out because
Speaker 1: he had the afternoon drive radio program, so he was
Speaker 1: on the air from three to eight. So I got
Speaker 1: out of school at like three and then drove out
Speaker 1: there to talk to them. So I like, I get
Speaker 1: out there and he's like, you know again we number one.
Speaker 1: He gave me this catalog which is like this old
Speaker 1: musician's friend catalog, which are these catalogs of instruments, keyboards,
Speaker 1: you know, processors, beat machines, and et cetera. He gives
Speaker 1: me this catalog and he's like, you know here. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, thank you. I didn't have the
Speaker 1: money to buy none of that stuff anyway, So it
Speaker 1: was strange that he gave him me. At least I
Speaker 1: thought it was strange. It was the fleeting thought. But
Speaker 1: so it gives me this catalog and it's like, you
Speaker 1: know again, the best thing I can tell you to
Speaker 1: do is find an internship somewhere. Matter of fact, we
Speaker 1: need to intern here. And so my internship at the
Speaker 1: radio station started that day and so three days. So
Speaker 1: every day after going to school, I would get in
Speaker 1: the car and drive out to the radio station immediately
Speaker 1: after school. Three days into that internship. Because I don't
Speaker 1: even it wasn't even like a structured internship. I would
Speaker 1: just hang out with him and learn what he was doing.
Speaker 1: And so I would go out there. Three days after
Speaker 1: doing that, he put me on the air with him,
Speaker 1: like on a whim during the five o'clock traffic jam,
Speaker 1: because again he was on from three to eight, So
Speaker 1: at five o'clock he puts me on the air with them.
Speaker 1: Three days in and he's like you know, something to
Speaker 1: the effect of like, hey, I'm out here. You know, well,
Speaker 1: Lucas is in the studio with me, and we just
Speaker 1: jamming for thirty minutes, which was the five o'clock traffic jam,
Speaker 1: and so then I would come off the air. No,
Speaker 1: I stayed on the air with him until eight o'clock
Speaker 1: I would finish the show. And so I was on
Speaker 1: every day after that, starting at five o'clock, because I
Speaker 1: guess the chemistry was just really good until it's like
Speaker 1: he's kept putting me on. Six months after that, they
Speaker 1: gave me a Saturday night show on that station. I
Speaker 1: was doing six to ten on Saturday nights, and it
Speaker 1: happened to be pretty good at it because I was
Speaker 1: beating all the big radio stations in town on Saturday nights.
Speaker 1: And then six months after that he went to the
Speaker 1: morning show and they gave me his drive time radio show.
Speaker 1: But this story is not about me in the radio.
Speaker 1: I just got to set a bed for the story
Speaker 1: I actually want to talk about, and that is creatio.
Speaker 1: And so again, I did not get into radio to
Speaker 1: be in radio. I got into radio to be in
Speaker 1: the music business. But I told you this. My favorite
Speaker 1: quote from Steve Jobs about connecting the dots right, so
Speaker 1: you know, keep that in your head. So I am
Speaker 1: walking through a clothing store in my hometown. This is
Speaker 1: after I had been on the radio maybe three years
Speaker 1: or so. So I'm walking through a clothing store and
Speaker 1: they're playing it's like a hood clothing store, so they
Speaker 1: sell stuff very inexpensively. It's in the part of town,
Speaker 1: in the inner city, et cetera. So I'm walking through
Speaker 1: the clothing store at this time, I had had, you know,
Speaker 1: two or three years of radio experience under my belt.
Speaker 1: And this clothing store is playing FM radio over their
Speaker 1: sound system as there in store music, so inevitably the
Speaker 1: commercials come on and so you can hear it, like
Speaker 1: on all the speakers in the store can hear the
Speaker 1: commercials just like you can hear the music. And so
Speaker 1: one of their competitors came on another clothing stores commercial
Speaker 1: came on over the air inside the store that I'm
Speaker 1: standing in, and I'm at the time, if I recall,
Speaker 1: I was like the only person shopping at that time.
Speaker 1: And it was a big store too, and so it's
Speaker 1: like fifteen thousand square feet and so I'm the only
Speaker 1: person in the store. At this particular moment and that
Speaker 1: these commercials come on and one of their competitors come on,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking at the I'm looking at the speaker.
Speaker 1: I'm looking up at the roof the ceiling looking at
Speaker 1: a speaker like I can't believe what I'm hearing because
Speaker 1: it makes no sense. Why are they allowing another clothing
Speaker 1: store to get airtime in their clothing store. It doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense to me. And so in that moment, I'm like,
Speaker 1: they need their own radio station that just talks about them.
Speaker 1: And so this light bulb goes off like, hey, I
Speaker 1: can build that. Because I had just had three years
Speaker 1: so far of radio experience, I know how to make
Speaker 1: a radio program. And so one of my mentors at
Speaker 1: the time owned six McDonald's and I would DJ for
Speaker 1: him because he also like hosted Wednesday night skate. I
Speaker 1: think he still does in town. It's like forever ago,
Speaker 1: but he was at least back then I think he
Speaker 1: still does. Was the host of skating in our town
Speaker 1: every Wednesday night, and so I DJ for him, and
Speaker 1: so I went to skate. I went to DJ for
Speaker 1: our skating that next Wednesday night, and I'm like glug
Speaker 1: Glenn I got this idea, like, I want to build
Speaker 1: these radio stations, these custom radio stations for brands, Like
Speaker 1: the same music that you would listen to on the radio,
Speaker 1: same music that's tailored for the audience that's going to
Speaker 1: be in your store. But when the radio DJ comes on,
Speaker 1: in between the songs, they're talking about that busines. So
Speaker 1: imagine you know, me being like in it was called
Speaker 1: VIP Clothing store, so imagine me it's called VIP Sports.
Speaker 1: So imagine me being in VIP Sports. And in between
Speaker 1: the songs, DJ comes on, like, yo, welcome to VIP Sports.
Speaker 1: That was the latest song from this particular artist. Hey
Speaker 1: make sure you check out in Asle two. We've got
Speaker 1: a sale on hoodies and all backpacks are twenty five
Speaker 1: percent off. Here's the latest song from this other artist.
Speaker 1: You're listening to VIV Sports Radio. So that was the idea.
Speaker 1: And so what I wanted to do was build this thing.
Speaker 1: And at this time it's just an idea. But when
Speaker 1: I told my mentor, Glenn, he's like his eyes got
Speaker 1: big and he's like do it, and that's all he said.
Speaker 1: And Glenn was not the kind of guy to just
Speaker 1: have that particular kind of response to something. But then
Speaker 1: he wasn't gonna like easily encourage you to go do
Speaker 1: something that he didn't think had any merit. And so
Speaker 1: him's you know, being looking at me to he was
Speaker 1: looking at me and just like do it made it?
Speaker 1: Gave me validation that it was something and if I
Speaker 1: can make it something real, it could be something real.
Speaker 1: So I go and I go to the studio, back
Speaker 1: to the radio station, and I put together like this
Speaker 1: demo of what it could sound like in a McDonald's restaurant,
Speaker 1: because again he had six McDonald's that he owned. And
Speaker 1: so I'm like, like, if I build this, like, would
Speaker 1: you let me test it in one of your restaurants?
Speaker 1: And so he gave me one restaurant I could test
Speaker 1: it in. And what's interesting about what this particular restaurant
Speaker 1: he allowed me to test this in. And this is
Speaker 1: the actual point of this story to pay attention here.
Speaker 1: So I go to this McDonald's restaurant Number one. I
Speaker 1: didn't know how to stream over the internet. This is
Speaker 1: you know, mid this is like not two thousand, but
Speaker 1: it's not quite twenty ten, so it's it's mid two thousands,
Speaker 1: and so I didn't know how to stream. At the time,
Speaker 1: streaming was not like a huge thing back then. And
Speaker 1: so I'm like, I'm gonna just burn a CD of
Speaker 1: a radio program and I'm going to produce that and
Speaker 1: then put it in his store. So I produced this thing.
Speaker 1: The store doesn't have a CD player, so I find
Speaker 1: a and I needed it to loop, and so I
Speaker 1: didn't really know what I was doing. So I bought
Speaker 1: a mini computer. It was a mini PC, and I
Speaker 1: just programmed it to just loop continuously this one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty minute, ninety minute whatever it was CD, just
Speaker 1: on a loop. And so I'm all ready to go.
Speaker 1: I get to the store and the store does not
Speaker 1: have speakers in the lobby area, and you have to
Speaker 1: sit the actual media console, the hardware, the DVD player
Speaker 1: or the CD player or in my case, the computer
Speaker 1: in the back office. And so I've got to figure
Speaker 1: out I've never run by this time, I had never
Speaker 1: run any type of wires. Was like, I was a
Speaker 1: very like interesting kid in the fact that I would
Speaker 1: play with electronics, but I really I knew enough to
Speaker 1: figure it out, but I had never done it. I
Speaker 1: had never had any experience doing it, especially not in
Speaker 1: a commercial environment. It has its own city code and
Speaker 1: et cetera and laws, and so I've got to figure
Speaker 1: out number one, what to buy speakers, wise to get
Speaker 1: it appropriately designed for this restaurant, having never done this before.
Speaker 1: Got to figure out how to get speaker wire from
Speaker 1: the back of the restaurant to the front of the
Speaker 1: restaurant where the speakers are, having never done that before.
Speaker 1: And also the CD player or the PC in my condition,
Speaker 1: how to get that to work. And so the challenge
Speaker 1: on top of this was there was no ceiling tile
Speaker 1: between the back office and the front of the restaurant.
Speaker 1: It's drywall, so I can't run the speaker wire above
Speaker 1: the ceiling to make it look appropriate and to be
Speaker 1: safe like your kid. You can't just run speaker wire
Speaker 1: without a conduit like you're supposed to put it in
Speaker 1: something to protect it that I know now. I didn't
Speaker 1: know this then. I knew what I was about to do,
Speaker 1: which I'm about to tell you wasn't like the way
Speaker 1: to do it, but it was all I knew. And
Speaker 1: so I had this speaker wire which was not even
Speaker 1: it was car speaker wire, like it was not even
Speaker 1: commercial speaker wire. It was not because commercial with speaker wire.
Speaker 1: I'm about to get way too technical for a second,
Speaker 1: but commercial commercial speaker wire is wrapped in this gray cabling.
Speaker 1: The speaker wire I was using is for guys and
Speaker 1: guys who would notice. It's this transparent and you can
Speaker 1: see the copper on the inside of it, and that's
Speaker 1: what you're using cars. So the speaker wire I'm using
Speaker 1: is the stuff that you're using cars. I didn't know
Speaker 1: this at the time. I just knew speaker wire or
Speaker 1: speaker wire. To make it worse again, I didn't have
Speaker 1: a way to get it from the office in the
Speaker 1: back to the front the lobby, and so I'm like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: and I've got to go through a commercial kitchen to
Speaker 1: do this, which you also have to be doubly safe
Speaker 1: because it's all kinds of fire issues back there, fire
Speaker 1: protection and fire prevention issues back there. But I didn't
Speaker 1: know any of this stuff at this time, and so
Speaker 1: all I know is I got to get the music
Speaker 1: from the back of the store to the front of
Speaker 1: the door. And so I take a staple gun and
Speaker 1: I staple this speaker wire to the dry wall through
Speaker 1: the kitchen from the back of the restaurant to the
Speaker 1: front of the restaurant, clearly visible to anybody who walked through.
Speaker 1: In the middle of the aisle, where in between the
Speaker 1: grill and fry station, you look up and you can
Speaker 1: see naked speaker wire running through this McDonald's restaurant. I
Speaker 1: didn't know no other way. All I knew was I
Speaker 1: was trying to get music to play, and so put
Speaker 1: a book marked there because that's story number one. Story
Speaker 1: number two was right here. So I went to afrotech,
Speaker 1: my first afrotech in twenty seventeen. And again, if you're
Speaker 1: listening of this podcast, you've heard this part of the story.
Speaker 1: So I went to afrotech in twenty seventeen. I started
Speaker 1: my first podcast in twenty sixteen, and it's called of
Speaker 1: ten Podcasts. It's still on iTunes. If you go look
Speaker 1: for it, you will hear the Will Lucas of eight
Speaker 1: years ago. You will hear those podcast episodes and I'm
Speaker 1: talking to black technologists. And at the end of the
Speaker 1: first season of ofp ten Podcasts, I had heard about
Speaker 1: this thing called afrotech, and I was like, how did
Speaker 1: I not know that this thing happened? Because everybody I
Speaker 1: had interviewed on my podcast of ten podcasts. The first
Speaker 1: season was on stage at the first AFRO Tech and
Speaker 1: I'm like, how did I miss this thing? And so
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm never going to miss another Afrotech And
Speaker 1: so as twenty seventeen approaches, I positioned myself to go.
Speaker 1: And I also knew at the time, like there was
Speaker 1: no real home for black technologists. There was like no
Speaker 1: homecoming for us, and so I knew I was going
Speaker 1: to have a remarkable time because we were not on
Speaker 1: the cover of tech Crunch back then, like we were
Speaker 1: not getting placed in YC Y Combinator back then, and
Speaker 1: so black people were very way more underrepresented in technology
Speaker 1: back when Afrotech started. And so I'm like, I know,
Speaker 1: I'm going to have a remarkable time. So and I
Speaker 1: got this radio background, all the things I'm going to go,
Speaker 1: and I got this podcast. I'm gonna go, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna vlog every day of this conference. And since I
Speaker 1: got this podcast, I'm also gonna pass out flyers like
Speaker 1: club flyers, but instead of being club flyers their podcasts advertisements,
Speaker 1: they're like podcast flyers to let people know I got
Speaker 1: a podcast, and here are the people that are on it.
Speaker 1: Because it's the same people that's at on stage at
Speaker 1: this conference. So I'm walking around with like you've seen
Speaker 1: like a selfie stick like this is. I didn't even
Speaker 1: have a selfie stick. I'm just walking around with a
Speaker 1: camera looking at myself, you know, selfie talking to the
Speaker 1: camera all day long at afro Tech twenty seventeen. And
Speaker 1: so I'm like, I need to get this content out
Speaker 1: quickly because my whole intent was to give people FOMO
Speaker 1: because I knew I was gonna have a good time.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, if I'm going to have a good time,
Speaker 1: I want the world to know that they missed out
Speaker 1: on this afro Tech. So I would record all day
Speaker 1: and if I recall, afro Tech twenty seventeen was like
Speaker 1: three days long. It was like all day Thursday, all
Speaker 1: day Friday, all day maybe partial of the day Saturday.
Speaker 1: So I get there probably Wednesday night, and I've logged
Speaker 1: my experience going to the airport, being at afro Tech
Speaker 1: all day Thursday, and I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna edit
Speaker 1: this video in my hotel room tonight. And so Thursday,
Speaker 1: I edit the video that night and I publish it
Speaker 1: to YouTube that night. And so Friday, a few people
Speaker 1: walk up to me like, yo, I saw your video
Speaker 1: from yesterday. That was pretty sweet. So I do the
Speaker 1: same thing Friday. But my intent, Remember, it's just to
Speaker 1: get people, fomo, That's all my intent is. And so
Speaker 1: all day Friday, I record, walk around with a camera
Speaker 1: and edit the video that night in my hotel room
Speaker 1: and I publish it to YouTube that night. So Saturday
Speaker 1: I will around and way more people are like, yo,
Speaker 1: I saw your video from yesterday, and the one before
Speaker 1: the day before that, like that's doe, Like how are
Speaker 1: you doing this that fast? And so unintentionally I was
Speaker 1: building a name for myself because again I was trying
Speaker 1: to get people from mo but I was becoming the
Speaker 1: Will Lucas who does this podcast today and I didn't.
Speaker 1: But that was not the intent. I knew. I wanted
Speaker 1: to contribute something to the conversation and contribute something to
Speaker 1: the culture. And so in my innocence of doing that,
Speaker 1: I was doing the work. So today these blessings are apparent.
Speaker 1: So I'm the brand manager Afrotech today. All right, So
Speaker 1: let me actually it makes sense to tell you just
Speaker 1: one minute on that. And so I took my wife
Speaker 1: with me in twenty eighteen, I'm like, you've got to
Speaker 1: see this conference. This is the most remarkable thing. You
Speaker 1: got to see all these black people in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: So I took my wife to two eighteen. I did
Speaker 1: not vlog that year, but at the end of that
Speaker 1: conference of twenty eighteen, she's like, that was remarkable. I'm like,
Speaker 1: wasn't it remarkable? That was remarkable. You should not come
Speaker 1: back unless you're on stage. And I'm like, how am
Speaker 1: I gonna get on this stage? Did you see the
Speaker 1: people on that stage? How am I going to get
Speaker 1: on that stage? But I'm like, challenge accepted. I don't
Speaker 1: know how I'm gonna do it, because if people on
Speaker 1: that stage are doing it, I don't know how I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get on that stage. But if you say I
Speaker 1: should be on that stage, I want to figure out
Speaker 1: how to be on that stage. And so I found
Speaker 1: a photo of somebody else, I think it was an
Speaker 1: war bay I would find. I found a photo of
Speaker 1: an war on the Afro Tech stage and I put
Speaker 1: it on my vision board. And so every day from
Speaker 1: December to March April, because there's a reason that it stopped.
Speaker 1: In March April, I was wake up and I would
Speaker 1: see this picture that one day I'm going to get
Speaker 1: on this afro Tech stage and this next time they
Speaker 1: open up a call for speakers, I'm going to apply.
Speaker 1: And so they open up a call for speakers in
Speaker 1: like February March. And so around that time I told
Speaker 1: you guys this story before I get an email and
Speaker 1: it says, hey, my name is and I'll work for
Speaker 1: and we're going in a new direction for afro Tech.
Speaker 1: And Morgan Debon, who's the CEO of Blavity, says we
Speaker 1: should talk to you about running it. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I cannot believe what I'm reading right now. This is
Speaker 1: an email. I'm sitting at a red light in Toledo,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm being asked to have a conversation
Speaker 1: about running afro Tech as the brand man mis year.
Speaker 1: And so I'm like, I went from just trying to
Speaker 1: figure out a way to get five minutes on stage
Speaker 1: to being a part of the conversation about running afro Tech.
Speaker 1: Now to culminate these two stories, the reason I told
Speaker 1: these two stories is because you, my friend, are waiting
Speaker 1: for somebody to tell you when it's time to go,
Speaker 1: when it's time to do the thing, and that's a mistake.
Speaker 1: We're waiting for you to get tired enough of being
Speaker 1: tired in the role that you're in, or in the
Speaker 1: role or not in the role that you want to
Speaker 1: be in. We're waiting for you to get tired of that,
Speaker 1: tired enough that you do something about it. Because there
Speaker 1: is nobody coming to save you. There is nobody coming
Speaker 1: to tap you on the shoulder and say it's go time.
Speaker 1: So because there's nobody coming to do that, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say it it's go time. So whether or not you
Speaker 1: decide to go it is completely up to you. But
Speaker 1: I'm telling you the only way to go is to
Speaker 1: take the limits off yourself dream again and do something.
Speaker 1: When I was doing creatio stapling speaker car speaker wire
Speaker 1: to a commercial kitchen's roof ceiling that was not legal.
Speaker 1: Number one, I'm not telling me you do something that's illegal.
Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is in my innocence, I'm like,
Speaker 1: let's go, LFG like we just going because I'm going
Speaker 1: to figure this thing out. All I know to do
Speaker 1: is what I know to do, and I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: what I know to do until I know to do better.
Speaker 1: But what I know to do I'm want to do it.
Speaker 1: That's the only difference between people who make it and
Speaker 1: people who don't go. Regardless. When I was going to
Speaker 1: Afrotech twenty seventeen, and the thing about like doing this,
Speaker 1: like going without permission. Sometimes people go and it's innocent,
Speaker 1: like they don't even know that there being ambitious. They
Speaker 1: just go. But it's still ambitious. So when I went
Speaker 1: to twenty seventeen, my whole point was to contribute to
Speaker 1: the conversation. I wasn't going to be the brand manager
Speaker 1: of Afrotech. I didn't even know what the experience was
Speaker 1: going to be. Like, I had never been to Afrotech.
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to, you know, develop a name for myself.
Speaker 1: That happened because I was doing the work period and
Speaker 1: it was honest and it was authentic. But I went
Speaker 1: and I didn't ask permission for somebody to let me record.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know if you could bring a camera,
Speaker 1: you know, and start set up shop. You know. I'm
Speaker 1: just out here recording y'all footage. I'm recording, taking clips.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna publish it to my YouTube. I don't even
Speaker 1: know if that's allowed, But not an ass I'm just
Speaker 1: doing it. I'm showing up, I'm recording, I'm publishing YouTube.
Speaker 1: Come see me. It's still on These videos are still
Speaker 1: on YouTube. If you Google, or if you go to
Speaker 1: YouTube and you start Will Lucas afrotech, you will see
Speaker 1: these videos. And they were done with innocence. Stapling speaker
Speaker 1: wire to the ceiling of a McDonald's kitchen was done
Speaker 1: from innocence, but also ambition and also like, look, nobody's
Speaker 1: gonna give me a playbook on how to be successful.
Speaker 1: I've got to figure it out for myself and write
Speaker 1: the playbook for my story. Nobody was gonna give me
Speaker 1: a playbook and say, here's what you do. You go
Speaker 1: to afro Tech. You find a big conference to go
Speaker 1: to afrotext, the one you take a video camera and
Speaker 1: you go record every day and also make You're not
Speaker 1: just recording every day. You also go into your hotel
Speaker 1: room every night and you're gonna edit the video that night,
Speaker 1: publish it that night, and then walk around the next day.
Speaker 1: And meanwhile you're also taking flyers and everybody you interviewed
Speaker 1: on your podcast, and you're gonna go Kinko's fedexx office
Speaker 1: and print them and then you're gonna print them. You're
Speaker 1: gonna print five hundred copies, and then you're gonna go
Speaker 1: to AFRO Tech, you go on video camera, you gonna
Speaker 1: edit that night, you're gonna publish the YouTube that I
Speaker 1: also walk around with five hundred flyers talking about your podcast.
Speaker 1: And then also that as also also there was no playbook.
Speaker 1: I was just doing stuff in furtherance and hopeful furtherance
Speaker 1: of the mission, which was to contribute to the conversation
Speaker 1: with creatiol. The mission was to figure out how to
Speaker 1: make a business be said, to know how. There was
Speaker 1: no playbook for my story. You can get clues and
Speaker 1: tidbits and advice and etcetera from other people and books
Speaker 1: and podcasts and etcetera. And I think you should. But
Speaker 1: you also just have to learn by movement, get active,
Speaker 1: get about it like you gotta just go, and you
Speaker 1: got to figure it out along the way. Well, too
Speaker 1: many of us wait for is the permission number one?
Speaker 1: And to have certainty that the destination we plug into
Speaker 1: navigation is the place we're going to arrive at. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you the destination is the goal, but the place
Speaker 1: where you will actually land up will be better than
Speaker 1: you could have imagined because you don't even know what
Speaker 1: opportunities are available to you. We have a limited view
Speaker 1: of what our opportunities are. But when you get about it,
Speaker 1: and when you get active, a world opens up to
Speaker 1: you things that you had not even imagined you wanted
Speaker 1: to do. As you learn and as you grow, as
Speaker 1: you see more things, as you get more experiences, as
Speaker 1: you meet more people, your desires will change. They will
Speaker 1: get bigger. The scope of things that become at your
Speaker 1: grasp get enhanced. But none of this happens if you
Speaker 1: sitting there in your car on your way to a
Speaker 1: job that you hate, with people you don't even want
Speaker 1: to be that don't actually pour into your life. If
Speaker 1: you're sitting there waiting for something to happen, something will
Speaker 1: happen because you know, I firmly believe some people jump
Speaker 1: and some people are pushed. Firmly believe that something will happen.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying is what you want to happen, you
Speaker 1: can actually get about it. There is no playbook, there
Speaker 1: is no prescribed way you're going to find your success.
Speaker 1: The only objective is to get active in doing the
Speaker 1: work that you know to do. Don't stay focused on
Speaker 1: the big goal, the big dream. Yeah, write it down,
Speaker 1: have a picture of it, keep it, you know in
Speaker 1: your mind when you wake up in the morning and
Speaker 1: have a visual of it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: But the only thing you need to focus on is
Speaker 1: what to do next, Not what to do ten steps
Speaker 1: from now, not what to do one hundred steps from now,
Speaker 1: Not what you're gonna do when you got this big company,
Speaker 1: when you live in this big influencer's dream, when you're
Speaker 1: the CEO of this big foundation, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: The only thing that matters is the very next step.
Speaker 1: That next step could be as simple as sending an
Speaker 1: email to somebody who could be key key contact for
Speaker 1: your thing. That next step could be going to your
Speaker 1: state's website to find out if they have dollars or
Speaker 1: training programs to support retraining for people who have worked
Speaker 1: in certain jobs and now need to figure out how
Speaker 1: to do coding and software development and AI and etc.
Speaker 1: Many states have programs for this, many universities. Maybe your
Speaker 1: next step is going to your local university community college's
Speaker 1: website to figure out if they have training program certificate
Speaker 1: programs to help you figure out how to do AI,
Speaker 1: or do software development, or build a website, or do
Speaker 1: video production intro to video production. Maybe your next step
Speaker 1: is just going to the website and seeing if you
Speaker 1: can apply for a class, not figuring out how you're
Speaker 1: gonna pay for it. The next step is just figuring
Speaker 1: out what's available to you, and then once you know
Speaker 1: what's available to you, then the next step changes. It's
Speaker 1: actually writing an application and submitting it to the school.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's applying for financial aid. Whatever it may be,
Speaker 1: the next step is the only thing you should be
Speaker 1: thinking about, is the point? What is the next step?
Speaker 1: Too many of us are waiting for somebody to tell
Speaker 1: us the steps. When I'm saying, just get active, Just
Speaker 1: get around the conversation, Just get around people who are
Speaker 1: doing things, and the next step will become a parent.
Speaker 1: Start listening to the right things, get around the right people,
Speaker 1: Consume things that help you stay far focused on your dream.
Speaker 1: It's possible. I don't care what you're dreaming about, the
Speaker 1: thing that you've been delaying, the thing that you've been
Speaker 1: discouraged about. Get active, stop waiting for permission. The answers
Speaker 1: are found when you get in motion. If you got
Speaker 1: something out of this episode, Share with somebody I appreciate it,