Speaker 1: Afro Tech World the Metaverse. Rosalind for Team of Golden
Speaker 1: Wood A is the sports broadcaster. A native of New
Speaker 1: York City, she played college basketball at Stanford and the
Speaker 1: Nigerian women's national basketball team. She's also surprisingly to some
Speaker 1: heavy into n f t s non funcible tokens. I'm
Speaker 1: talking with Rise and Blavity CEO Morgan Devon about what
Speaker 1: n f t s are, their significance, and what they
Speaker 1: mean the creator's long term. So, yes, there's this, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's distinctively unique. There's only one UM and this
Speaker 1: is why I like, I'll say this, certainly within n
Speaker 1: f t s, there's a lot of noise, a lot
Speaker 1: of attention to big money projects, PfP avatar projects that
Speaker 1: you're like, why is this picture selling for this amount
Speaker 1: of money. I can't say that all of this UM
Speaker 1: is going to be standing the test of time in
Speaker 1: ten years from now, in five years from now. The
Speaker 1: technology is new and exploding, and so there's a lot
Speaker 1: of noise in the midst of it. Two. But it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that the foundation of it isn't significant. And
Speaker 1: I do when I wrap my head around it, fundamentally,
Speaker 1: I do believe that it's going to be disruptive and transformational.
Speaker 1: So I'll add like why um, On top of it
Speaker 1: being one of one, it's also because it's written on blockchain, right,
Speaker 1: there's this ledger. It's a really easy way of seeing
Speaker 1: you know, transactional history of ownership of and and many
Speaker 1: other details. The blockchain don't live and people will get
Speaker 1: caught on that. So like, UM, it can tell any
Speaker 1: n f T. You can tell who has owned it,
Speaker 1: how it was, how hands were traded, what it was
Speaker 1: ever offered for, what was ever been on it for,
Speaker 1: how it was sold, dates and time. Um. So because
Speaker 1: of that, I could see the technology itself being very
Speaker 1: useful for industries like you know real estate or you
Speaker 1: know deeds and titles, and you know, there's a number
Speaker 1: of streies that it can be disruptive for. Certainly you
Speaker 1: look at the music industry. Let's go to the idea
Speaker 1: of it being like for creators, whether it's an artist
Speaker 1: or myself as a broadcaster, or a celebrity, or an
Speaker 1: athlete or as we're starting to think of ourselves, even
Speaker 1: you when you are creating anything, UM, it can eliminate middlemen,
Speaker 1: you know, and it will take you directly to your audience,
Speaker 1: to your consumer, to your fan base, and allow you
Speaker 1: to create something that Now you're creating a more engaged
Speaker 1: fan and consumer because once they buy this, they're now
Speaker 1: more invested. They have something that they own that as
Speaker 1: you rise, so does the value of their peace. So
Speaker 1: now they're sitting here super engaged with you and and
Speaker 1: invested in your rise. It also creates communities that are
Speaker 1: strong because you're tighten it together. We are all part
Speaker 1: of this n f T group, so we are now collaborative.
Speaker 1: We are working hard to build it together. So now
Speaker 1: you've got a more engaged community, You've got a better
Speaker 1: engagement between consumer and producer, fan and and creator. I
Speaker 1: feel like these are all really like important reasons for
Speaker 1: enmcies to be revolutionary. Um, and I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1: Oh and I'll say this too for artists, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure you might have heard this too, Like I think
Speaker 1: for creators, it's important because it protects you over the
Speaker 1: span of your trajectory of your career. So like let's
Speaker 1: say Bosciot or any artist at the beginning of their
Speaker 1: career was selling at a hundred bucks for a piece.
Speaker 1: You know, that's it. You never see it again as
Speaker 1: as it trades hands over the course of time, but
Speaker 1: because there are royalties built into the blockchain which can
Speaker 1: never these smart contracts hold forever, like you're constantly being
Speaker 1: protected and rewarded over the course of time and career.
Speaker 1: So I think there's a lot of things here that
Speaker 1: are exciting about the technology itself. I'm well Lucas, Mrs
Speaker 1: Black Tech, Cream Money. I'm gonna answer this you to
Speaker 1: some of the biggest names, some of the brightest minds
Speaker 1: and brilliant ideas. If you're black and building or simply
Speaker 1: using tech to secure your bag, this podcast is for you.
Speaker 1: The Shanna Spencer's founder and CEO at Quality TV, the
Speaker 1: streaming platform featuring five hundred plus undiscovered, award winning indie films, documentaries,
Speaker 1: web series and kids shows celebrating global black stories. Sean
Speaker 1: b is creator Connect the series one and two now
Speaker 1: streaming on Quality TV. I'm talking with the platform developer
Speaker 1: and content creator about the need for our ownership of
Speaker 1: the black narrative and how media constructs our worldview when
Speaker 1: it may not be what is really happening on the ground.
Speaker 1: That's one of the reasons why I started Quarly TV.
Speaker 1: It really started with me not feeling like I saw
Speaker 1: myself represented and not seeing enough stories about black life
Speaker 1: beyond black death, black suffering. I'm a former journalist and
Speaker 1: one of the things about working in daily news is
Speaker 1: you spend so much time writing these narratives. And I
Speaker 1: really started with some research to understood the correlation between
Speaker 1: in place a bias in me representation, and so when
Speaker 1: I started to Clay TV, I really wanted to use
Speaker 1: our platform to change that, and not just from an
Speaker 1: African American lands, but from a global lens, because, um,
Speaker 1: if you think about I would used to do these
Speaker 1: pitch competitions they Alwauls say, you know, we think about
Speaker 1: black fathers when you think about UM people on weal
Speaker 1: for all these negative stereotypes, UM, this media sometimes since
Speaker 1: you set as like there are no black fathers. We
Speaker 1: know black fives are more likely to be engaged with
Speaker 1: children than than any other group. We know that white
Speaker 1: black women don't represent the welfare right you know, Um,
Speaker 1: but that's kind of what we've been fed and even
Speaker 1: outside having us as a kid, I used to watch
Speaker 1: these these um like I guess commercials and you would
Speaker 1: see Africa and the only thing you would see. It
Speaker 1: would be children with flies and their faces, people poverty
Speaker 1: or or or child soldiers and and it's like a
Speaker 1: very negat view about Africa. And it wasn't until I
Speaker 1: started doing my own research and learning about, you know,
Speaker 1: but what life was like on on the continent. I
Speaker 1: was like, well, that's doesn't represent what I've seen, and
Speaker 1: I really want to change that. And it literally just
Speaker 1: started with me doing my research talk with Currencent creators
Speaker 1: single was out there and saying, we're not seeing these stories.
Speaker 1: The mainstream media is sort of packaging this view about
Speaker 1: the black experience without I would say, people who look
Speaker 1: like us green lighting those experiences are not enough of us.
Speaker 1: And so I really wanted to have a space in
Speaker 1: which we are the want to control the narrative. We
Speaker 1: give controverts like shun Being opportunity to show what it
Speaker 1: really means to be a millennial in Atlanta authentically without
Speaker 1: some of the lay stereotypes we sometimes see the mainstream media.
Speaker 1: So Sean, I want you to chime in on this too,
Speaker 1: because you know, even domestically this happens. You know, people
Speaker 1: have a perception of Atlanta that you know may not
Speaker 1: always be true. In many playing cases it might be true,
Speaker 1: but in not all cases that were fed by media.
Speaker 1: So talk to us. How about a little bit about
Speaker 1: how you introduce people to the culture of a space
Speaker 1: that you know, you develop content around. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, said Sean. Sorry, Sean, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: It's all good, All good, all good. Yeah. I mean really,
Speaker 1: with Connect, it was more so just kind of like
Speaker 1: what the Shauna just said, like showing stories that I'm
Speaker 1: not seeing myself represented, right, I didn't really see a
Speaker 1: lot of young early twenties stories about being black and
Speaker 1: being Atlanta still just trying to figure it out right
Speaker 1: and figure out what it means to balance life and
Speaker 1: work in relationships and you know, really trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what do you want to do in life? And
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I'm in Atlanta, you know, where
Speaker 1: a lot of black cultures at. Why not just show
Speaker 1: my experiences and some of my friends experiences and create
Speaker 1: a story out of that and see what it turns into,
Speaker 1: you know, for both I want both of you guys
Speaker 1: chiming this and I'll start with you audition on it. So, um,
Speaker 1: We're not monolithic right as a people, and but it
Speaker 1: can it can be additionally hard for us to accept
Speaker 1: ourselves when we our kids or others in our culture.
Speaker 1: Don't you know, have prush Usty as our favorite rapper?
Speaker 1: You know? Or you know there are other stereotypes that
Speaker 1: we may not adhere to. So how how can we
Speaker 1: gain traction with content that may not be mainstream for
Speaker 1: black folks? You know? So? Or is that something you
Speaker 1: have to focus on? So let's say I'm into science fiction, Like,
Speaker 1: how do we create content and build business models on
Speaker 1: that content when not all of us you know, like
Speaker 1: a specific thing as a as a distribution channel. I'm asking.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because like I remember initial starting clearly TV
Speaker 1: investors with say black people only want to watch ratchet
Speaker 1: Black people, you need to partner with world start hip hop.
Speaker 1: That's the only way you'll be successful. Like, well, there
Speaker 1: is a sex of our community and me like you know,
Speaker 1: what's hip hop or Real Housewives or whatever, But it
Speaker 1: doesn't represent all of us. And so I think the
Speaker 1: beautiful thing about having a platform like Clay to be
Speaker 1: so that we're able to show different sizes of of
Speaker 1: the black experience. So give mento science fiction. There are
Speaker 1: black people love science fiction. There are black people who
Speaker 1: like documentaries. They're black people who want to see history.
Speaker 1: They want to see um historical fiction like that. There
Speaker 1: are there are so many um, there's just so so
Speaker 1: many types of stories that we can tell. And so
Speaker 1: for me, I think that I didn't really think about, like,
Speaker 1: I didn't adhere to stereotypes. I know, the type of
Speaker 1: content that I like. I know they're I know my
Speaker 1: friends and my plane members weren't monolithic any type of
Speaker 1: content that they wanted to see. And I just said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show the content that we may not see
Speaker 1: a mainstream media because mainstream me and things we don't
Speaker 1: want to watch it, right, And so, um, if you
Speaker 1: look our data documentaries sci fi, that's that's the number
Speaker 1: one arm where children's programming, right, I mean, those the
Speaker 1: type of stuff you lot sometimes don't seeing other platforms.
Speaker 1: That's what people are more likely to watch on quickly TV.
Speaker 1: And so for me, it's really important to show the
Speaker 1: dispel those myths about what black people want to watch.
Speaker 1: And I'm always excited to share that with investors, a
Speaker 1: potential investors to who all macally assume that you know,
Speaker 1: we only want to watch one type of thing. And
Speaker 1: I think the challenge for content creators is and sometimes
Speaker 1: I speak at events, they want to say, well, what
Speaker 1: does your audience want to see? Like, no, I tell them,
Speaker 1: what do you want to make? Like what you know
Speaker 1: what Sean b did right like he saw me he
Speaker 1: wanted he created something that he wanted to build, versus
Speaker 1: saying I think this is what's cool and hot right now.
Speaker 1: Everyone's watching this particular drama, So I'm gonna make something
Speaker 1: based off who I think a lot of people want
Speaker 1: to watch. And for us, a lot of the content
Speaker 1: that we end up picking on quick TV is because
Speaker 1: the creators said, I want to tell the story. The
Speaker 1: stories has been in my heart. This this is something
Speaker 1: I really wanted to see and I created, whether it
Speaker 1: was a documentary, historical fiction of some sci fi, some
Speaker 1: interesting sci thought that they created, even a horror right,
Speaker 1: And I think that's how a content creator. That's what
Speaker 1: we want to see from content creators. Yeah it Sean,
Speaker 1: you know, chime in on this because I'm interested in you,
Speaker 1: York from a perspective of a content creator, like what
Speaker 1: kind of what is it content creators like you need?
Speaker 1: Is it you know, that courage or is it that
Speaker 1: support that resources to go create that content that might
Speaker 1: play on the edges if that's what you designed to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's a couple of things, right, Like one,
Speaker 1: it's that courage, right is to take that leap of
Speaker 1: faith to just go out and make something. Because I
Speaker 1: have a very you know, pretty big production background and
Speaker 1: was always doing music videos here and there. But you know,
Speaker 1: my end goal was to always get into narrative, narrative work,
Speaker 1: into some type of scripted storytelling. And I remember it
Speaker 1: was like seventeen. I was like, all right, Sean, it's
Speaker 1: time to stop doing that, stop doing the music videos,
Speaker 1: and really just write something and just put it out there.
Speaker 1: I don't care if it's a hit, I don't care
Speaker 1: if it's trash. Like, just go out and make something
Speaker 1: because who knows where it could go. Right. So came
Speaker 1: well into Seen, came around, wrote a script and I
Speaker 1: was like, Sean, your one goal for is to make this,
Speaker 1: just make it, like, just do it. And did that
Speaker 1: and it was completely self funded by me, so you know,
Speaker 1: resources is kind of like I have this thing where
Speaker 1: I don't like to rely on people like too too much,
Speaker 1: you know, especially when it's my baby my d M,
Speaker 1: my project. I'm like, okay, you know, because I don't
Speaker 1: want to blame anybody else but myself if it fails.
Speaker 1: You know, so resources a big thing, you know, having
Speaker 1: the money to actually do that, and of course you
Speaker 1: have family members, you know, you do some go fund
Speaker 1: me here and there to have people support you, which
Speaker 1: every little bit helps, but it's really just that determination,
Speaker 1: encourage and perseverance just to keep going, um and do it.
Speaker 1: And you'll actually be surprised the amount of people that
Speaker 1: will support you when you maybe not financially, but you know,
Speaker 1: we'll encourage you to keep going and we'll actually watch
Speaker 1: your content. And once you put it out there, it's
Speaker 1: very scary, you know, because you're like, dang, what if
Speaker 1: what if? What if it's trash? You know, and um,
Speaker 1: you just have to trust in yourself and believe in
Speaker 1: God and do put your best foot forward and just say, hey,
Speaker 1: you have to start somewhere. Because I think when I
Speaker 1: was writing Connect, one thing I saw was like Game
Speaker 1: of Thrones and Insecure, Like those original scripts is not
Speaker 1: what you saw on the TV screen, right, The original
Speaker 1: scripts were completely different. You know, maybe some things are
Speaker 1: the same, but you know, you just have to trust
Speaker 1: in yourself and just put it out. And so talk
Speaker 1: to me a little bit about you know, ownership of content.
Speaker 1: We'll start with you, Deshun. So, you know, talked about
Speaker 1: how you as a platform think about you know, the
Speaker 1: social commerce, the mainstream conversation we're having about you know,
Speaker 1: being able to own what you create, right, So especially
Speaker 1: when so many artists can you know, go directly to
Speaker 1: their you know, audience as a platform, Deshne, like, how
Speaker 1: do you think about creating a space to where they
Speaker 1: can be a coordinated effort around you know, amplifying our
Speaker 1: content for us, our creds and curators to them as partners. Um.
Speaker 1: And if you see you see some of the mainstream
Speaker 1: platforms or some of the headlines you've seen many of
Speaker 1: some black creators who left I want name the platforms
Speaker 1: but didn't take certain deals because those platforms don't want
Speaker 1: to give them any cut of ownership, right. They just
Speaker 1: wanted to basically wanted to write the script and say
Speaker 1: we own it, right. And so the difference between us,
Speaker 1: like you know, the current were to owns the content,
Speaker 1: we're just getting the licensing deal to to stream it
Speaker 1: on our platform. And so the reason we do that
Speaker 1: is because we want our filmmakers to be successful, and
Speaker 1: success for us means ownership. And just like I want
Speaker 1: to own my streaming service, and I you know, we
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of investors, so own majority of
Speaker 1: my company. I think it's important for our crtoon crease
Speaker 1: so also be able to have that option to say
Speaker 1: I own this. Wherever money comes in, we that we
Speaker 1: get a big chunk of it. And so that's so
Speaker 1: important to me. And I think for a lot of
Speaker 1: counting creators who are really focusing on trying to get
Speaker 1: those deals sometimes will compromise ownership just for the sake
Speaker 1: of being on a platform. And that's kind of what
Speaker 1: really makes us different from from a lot of streaming
Speaker 1: services in which we say, no, this is your baby,
Speaker 1: you own it. Um. I know from our business perspective,
Speaker 1: it may not be what you know, A lot of
Speaker 1: platforms thinking you know, maybe smart, but I think you
Speaker 1: know because for us, we're about collective ownership, you know
Speaker 1: when it comes within the black community, and collective means
Speaker 1: sharing our wealth and and that's what we do. It
Speaker 1: collect to be sixty percent of our revenue goes to
Speaker 1: our clantent creators we pay. We pay them every single
Speaker 1: quarter faithfully, and and I show them what our six
Speaker 1: percent ever gonna looks like. They see how much we
Speaker 1: make and they can calculate, you know, they wanted to there.
Speaker 1: You know, we keep open books. We want to be
Speaker 1: very transparent with our counting creators about you know, the
Speaker 1: health of our company. And as we grow, they they grown.
Speaker 1: And I think that's like one of the greatest things
Speaker 1: about you know, the deals with qually TV is just
Speaker 1: that you are having that ownership. You are able to
Speaker 1: see that data and your content is literally out there
Speaker 1: for the entire world to see. Right, It's not just
Speaker 1: on you know Netflix, were just cool or whatever, but
Speaker 1: you know where it's a specifically black owned um streaming
Speaker 1: platform for a lot of black content creators. Like when
Speaker 1: I'm telling people, oh yeah, Connected on quaily TV, you know,
Speaker 1: go check out Connect, but there are so many other
Speaker 1: types of stories that are on this platform to support
Speaker 1: black artists, you know. Yeah, that's that's That's exactly where
Speaker 1: I wanted to go. So the shoan I was wanting
Speaker 1: to talk to you about like the engineering of this.
Speaker 1: So like if the best way I can give a
Speaker 1: parallel here is like, if I'm you know, on tiktoking
Speaker 1: and I'm getting a lot of views, They're going to
Speaker 1: suggest me as you know somebody, other people who don't
Speaker 1: follow me should follow the same thing with you know,
Speaker 1: other platforms. How does it work on quiately where if
Speaker 1: I'm if I've created good good intin I'm showing and
Speaker 1: how does how do people find shown if they didn't
Speaker 1: come looking for song? So um, for us, we do
Speaker 1: like social media average supposed to me advertising, and we
Speaker 1: also we have recommendations on the website. I will say
Speaker 1: that what makes us different from other platforms that we
Speaker 1: don't necessarily on an algorithm for people to find content,
Speaker 1: because to me, that is we we're talking. What I'm
Speaker 1: trying to I don't want to like people on other platforms,
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to say in a way it's not
Speaker 1: like trying to like, you know, a sociape others. But
Speaker 1: when earlier on I started Play to Be, I talked
Speaker 1: with filmmakers and said, you know what's in the pain
Speaker 1: points you're hearing or seeing or or having on other platforms.
Speaker 1: Number one was an algorithm, right, And so we know
Speaker 1: that we really on an algorithm to find certain content
Speaker 1: on these other platforms. But if it could be a
Speaker 1: really great film, it's so won didn't watch it, The
Speaker 1: algorithm won't won't find it, and people want to the film.
Speaker 1: So our approach is very different. We don't have hierarchy,
Speaker 1: we don't show poportism. All of our filmmakers are promoted
Speaker 1: equally on the platform. We actually have like a little
Speaker 1: spreadsheet and in schedule and and the rotation schedule. Okay,
Speaker 1: this film was was promoted this day, and so we're
Speaker 1: gonna make sure through from now so like everyone gets
Speaker 1: seen on what is on social media, whether it's there
Speaker 1: are emails, so that everyone who's added to the platform
Speaker 1: gets noticed in their emails, so that everyone seems so
Speaker 1: they are. We have some called coolly creators in which
Speaker 1: we promote them on like our social media channels, we
Speaker 1: have podcasts and blogs. We do everything we can to
Speaker 1: promote our continent creators outside of an algorithm. We even
Speaker 1: take a step further awhere. You know, one of the
Speaker 1: things we learned from our content creators. We used to
Speaker 1: have our continent out for order, like by our titles.
Speaker 1: We changed that because we started to learn the customers
Speaker 1: are lazy they're gonna get through like effort, g H.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go to like the you know, Sean Baby
Speaker 1: cool his his connect right, some of films with the
Speaker 1: teasing and all that, like, people will not take the
Speaker 1: time to scroll. And so what we do every month
Speaker 1: we rotate all titles, so people don't always see the
Speaker 1: same thing when they first go to our title section.
Speaker 1: So we're very conscious about making sure everyone's seeing that.
Speaker 1: That's super important to us. So did you like when
Speaker 1: you started this company, because you have a two sided
Speaker 1: ecosystem or marketplace or I should say, it's like you
Speaker 1: gotta have the viewers in order to get the Shawn Bees,
Speaker 1: and you gotta have the Sean Bees in order to
Speaker 1: get the viewers, right. And so how in the early
Speaker 1: days of starting a platform like this where you have
Speaker 1: this two sided marketplace where nothing works without the other,
Speaker 1: you know, how do you get those early buy ins
Speaker 1: on from both parties? Oh my god, I didn't know
Speaker 1: how I was gonna get anyone right and so and
Speaker 1: and also like my broadcasts and journalism, I didn't start
Speaker 1: out in film or television or distribution, you know what
Speaker 1: I was doing. And so I actually just started talking
Speaker 1: with filmmakers. That was like the first thing I wanted
Speaker 1: to do because if I'm building a streaming service that
Speaker 1: I know would have these authentic stories that people can't
Speaker 1: find anywhere else, and I want to get the customers
Speaker 1: I need the first talk to amazing filmmakers and started
Speaker 1: literally spent six months talking with filmmakers from around the
Speaker 1: world asking them what they wanted to see if they
Speaker 1: had a platform, UM, and then start asking them for
Speaker 1: their content, and then they didn't know me from Adam,
Speaker 1: like um, and they're from there. That's why I started
Speaker 1: talking with potential customers about what do you want to
Speaker 1: see in the streaming service, what type of a black
Speaker 1: Gog streaming service like? And then basically marrying it two
Speaker 1: together and coming up with the first crop of stories
Speaker 1: for the platform. We want to start beta and we don't.
Speaker 1: We had like thirty eight great filmmakers who were nice
Speaker 1: enough to give us a content. We didn't know whether
Speaker 1: or not we're gonna be successful, but we just really
Speaker 1: wanted to test the wires out with these really unique stories,
Speaker 1: and that's pretty much how it got started. I think
Speaker 1: for any company, right, I think that's the best way
Speaker 1: the way they go, right, you, you talk to customers
Speaker 1: potential customers and say what do you want to see?
Speaker 1: And that's kind of how we got started. So Sean,
Speaker 1: I want to ask you this same question, like from
Speaker 1: she says she went out and talked to you know,
Speaker 1: all these content creators, and you know some of them
Speaker 1: bought in from your perspective as one of those people
Speaker 1: developing content, Like, I guess the alternatives for you if
Speaker 1: if it doesn't get to one of those other platforms
Speaker 1: that you know we won't name, you know, I guess
Speaker 1: it's putting it up on like a YouTube or like
Speaker 1: a video or like. So like for you, what is
Speaker 1: the value proposition? I would say, Like one of the
Speaker 1: biggest things is that you're getting paid off of this. Right,
Speaker 1: you don't have to really worry about getting ten thousand,
Speaker 1: one k views on YouTube before making a dime. Right,
Speaker 1: you want you want for your end game. You want
Speaker 1: to be on the streaming platform and that's something that
Speaker 1: Deshawna has already created where it can reach p bowl
Speaker 1: all across the globe and still get paid for it.
Speaker 1: Because while you're getting paid for it, one, you know,
Speaker 1: we all have bills, so you can pay off those bills.
Speaker 1: But then also you can use some of that money
Speaker 1: to fund your next project that you hopefully then gets
Speaker 1: you on quately TV again. And then you know, you
Speaker 1: just kind of create that cycle, um where that's money
Speaker 1: in your pocket and money and the Shawness project product pocket,
Speaker 1: so that eventually, you know, we can make a huge
Speaker 1: quately TV original that you know just goes crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: as I think about, you know, one of the biggest platforms,
Speaker 1: I'm named the show, but I won't talk about the platform.
Speaker 1: It's already come up. But you know, one of the
Speaker 1: ways it broke out in recent years was the show
Speaker 1: like Orange is the New Black. Like that was a
Speaker 1: show that helped people get aware that there was this
Speaker 1: thing out there that can subscribe to watch shows. And
Speaker 1: so I guess my question for you, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: what are some of the challenges you face with attracting
Speaker 1: attention from you know, viewers. You know, when we live
Speaker 1: in an attention economy, everybody's fighting for attention. Is it
Speaker 1: purely about acquiring viewers like users of your platform de shine,
Speaker 1: or is it about simply creating content that might break
Speaker 1: through the noise? So are you looking for that one
Speaker 1: show that just like blows everything out the water and
Speaker 1: now there's millions of eyeballs looking for where the heck
Speaker 1: did that thing come from? Finding customers is challenging, especially
Speaker 1: in the early days, because people either people don't know
Speaker 1: who you are, they don't know you exist. Um, and
Speaker 1: that I was then expectation for customers is super high,
Speaker 1: right Um. The major streaming service, the first one you
Speaker 1: know you mentioned, We'll say the name your Netflix, right, Um.
Speaker 1: They basically create this bar for for all of us
Speaker 1: to try to reach. And when I tell people like um, Netflix,
Speaker 1: like you saying both right like super fast, Like I'm
Speaker 1: we're running slower than than the saying, but we can
Speaker 1: still be in the game. We may, you know, not
Speaker 1: the first place, but we can still we can have
Speaker 1: our niche in the market. And so Um, for me,
Speaker 1: getting customers is all about having amazing content like number one.
Speaker 1: I think that the approach and Netflix took initially with
Speaker 1: having like Orange. I think that had too like original
Speaker 1: shows like Orange, New Black and Breaking is a breaking back.
Speaker 1: Now Breaking Bad was on a m C. That was
Speaker 1: that was the one that was the breakout show. It
Speaker 1: was um the show the the Washington d C show.
Speaker 1: I can't think of it right now. House the Cards, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was it. They didn't have you know, Tiger King.
Speaker 1: It was literally those two shows. But they were really
Speaker 1: amazing shows and so um for us, you know, I
Speaker 1: think that's important. Like our goal is not to you
Speaker 1: saying vote and try to have a million shows out
Speaker 1: the bat, but really like having and connected and having
Speaker 1: another really amazing original series that we can really build
Speaker 1: the build a business auta while also at the same
Speaker 1: time still having a space for a kind t creators
Speaker 1: who have been the festivals, who have won awards, they
Speaker 1: have a home for their films because I think the
Speaker 1: challenge that a lot of black creaders are having is
Speaker 1: the big players start spending billions of dollars pretty much
Speaker 1: of programming that Now, if you have an ideal for
Speaker 1: a show, or I have an ideal for a film,
Speaker 1: there's been a festival, they're not coming for it because
Speaker 1: they're spending so much their type of energy making their
Speaker 1: own content. And if they do acquire it, they're not
Speaker 1: promoting it because they spent maybe fifty million dollars on
Speaker 1: something else, you know, and they're gonna promote what they
Speaker 1: spent their money on. And so, UM, I think for us,
Speaker 1: as long as we're making sure we're refreshing our content,
Speaker 1: being fresh, being um authentic, I think that's that will
Speaker 1: set us apart. But yeah, you're actually right. We are
Speaker 1: in time where people are looking for the one hit
Speaker 1: show they're gonna come back to. But also at the
Speaker 1: same time, you know, with this um having one hit
Speaker 1: show with all bac with me, you're gonna it's gonna
Speaker 1: be super success. You And there's someone who has a
Speaker 1: dreaming service who's done a lot of research. You look
Speaker 1: at HBO Max or HBO for instance, once Game of
Speaker 1: Thrones left, it holds or of their customers overnight, like
Speaker 1: people like I'm like one of those as soon as
Speaker 1: the show is like okay, and that's why Netflix, oh
Speaker 1: oh snap, okay, we just can't have Orange New Black,
Speaker 1: House of Car personally had this this you know, meal
Speaker 1: of content. UM. And so I'm very mindful that before
Speaker 1: we you know, start really having originals like that, we
Speaker 1: want to be do want to make sure that we're
Speaker 1: able to have something lined up that people just don't like. Okay,
Speaker 1: Well that ended back quickly like no. But also the
Speaker 1: same time too, like we're looking beyond this content. We
Speaker 1: want to really build community around our platform, so you know,
Speaker 1: events in gamification and a lot of chats and all
Speaker 1: these different things. Loyalty like creating, like loyalty programs and
Speaker 1: stuff like that to keep people engaged so they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I stick around for the next show, I'll get
Speaker 1: a free shirt, or I'll give your p access to
Speaker 1: a film festival. Things like that, to keep people engaged
Speaker 1: where it's not all about the next project or something
Speaker 1: that's transactional, you know. Sean, she said something that I
Speaker 1: thought was super important. I want to ask you from
Speaker 1: the position of a content creator, and she she mentioned,
Speaker 1: like you don't have to necessarily be the fast like
Speaker 1: the you say bolt to have a thriving you know business,
Speaker 1: and I think so often in our culture, particularly when
Speaker 1: you're talking about startups, but in general, you know, what
Speaker 1: Instagram is such has done is make is make you
Speaker 1: if you're not the number one person and you can't
Speaker 1: build a life, So you don't necessarily have to be
Speaker 1: your yourself. You don't have to be you know, rescupes
Speaker 1: like John Singleton to have a really good life. As
Speaker 1: a content creator, you can make you know, a couple
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars a year, a million dollars a years, whatever,
Speaker 1: and not have that big blockbuster thing, but still looks
Speaker 1: a really good life being a content creator. So I
Speaker 1: wanted you to speak from the perspective of you know,
Speaker 1: what are you chasing when when you are trying to
Speaker 1: develop content. Is it more so about the purity of
Speaker 1: getting your story out or is it you are trying
Speaker 1: to be you know that I'm just trying to like
Speaker 1: to her earlier point, they said, well, what is your
Speaker 1: audience want? Like, no, what do you want to make? Like?
Speaker 1: How do you think about that? From the content creator
Speaker 1: standpoint yourself? Yeah, that's a that's a great question, I
Speaker 1: would say for me, of course, you want your story
Speaker 1: to get out there, um, and you want people to
Speaker 1: you know, take something away from it. But one thing
Speaker 1: that's big for me is really impacting the next generation
Speaker 1: and telling them that they can control their narrative and
Speaker 1: that they can see me, some regular guy from Atlanta
Speaker 1: who created something, and that they can do the same thing,
Speaker 1: and that they can tell their story, and that their
Speaker 1: story doesn't have to be black trauma, doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be you know, gang banging or something like that, or
Speaker 1: an athlete that they can show, you know, being a
Speaker 1: black millennial, or you know, a young black person in
Speaker 1: their certain city achieving. They want to be a doctor,
Speaker 1: they want to be a lawyer. Oh I'm struggling to
Speaker 1: pass the bar. Things like that, and showing those different
Speaker 1: types of story stories, you know, and like you brought
Speaker 1: up the Monolith earlier to show that, you know, that
Speaker 1: these kids can do sci fi if they want to,
Speaker 1: and not just you know, sidlo them into one lane,
Speaker 1: but that there are so many lanes that they can
Speaker 1: get into. So that's another thing that I think about
Speaker 1: when I'm creating these stories, because I want my characters
Speaker 1: to have to be multifaceted, you know, and to have
Speaker 1: all these different layers so that a little kid who's
Speaker 1: seven or eight, nine to ten seeing that character like, oh,
Speaker 1: that character actually resonates with me, and I want to
Speaker 1: now create something based off of the character I saw
Speaker 1: in Connect or whatever it may be. Yeah, So people
Speaker 1: want to learn more about quality TV. The show where
Speaker 1: do I go? What do if I have an Apple TV? Like, Like,
Speaker 1: what do I do? So you can go to the website,
Speaker 1: let me get Uh. We have plenty of shirts too,
Speaker 1: on the website. But if k w e l I
Speaker 1: dot TV, if you are on any of our apps
Speaker 1: or any apps like Apple TV, Real Cool, Amazon Firestick
Speaker 1: and Joy TV, I U school Play French or just
Speaker 1: typing k w E l I t V, and you
Speaker 1: can sell our della Are app. And we're also on
Speaker 1: social media Facebook, Instagram, uh, Twitter, we have a TikTok account.
Speaker 1: We haven't quite uh posted there yet, but that's the future. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Sean, people want to learn more about you and
Speaker 1: your work and what you're working on, like how people
Speaker 1: are more about Absolutely you can follow me at Shawn
Speaker 1: Bartley on Instagram and then at Underscore Sean Bartley on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, come come find me. Let's chat. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about what projects you have going on. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: if you need any advice or anything like that, and
Speaker 1: um yeah, let's chat. We're talking black content. Appreciate you guys, Sean,
Speaker 1: Sean B. Really appreciate you guys spending time with us.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you. Thanks for the opportunity. Come right. Black Tech
Speaker 1: Green Money is a production of blackt the Afro Tech
Speaker 1: Black Effect podcast Network, and Ihearted Media. It's produced by
Speaker 1: Morgan Dabon and me Will Lucas, but this now production
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Speaker 1: to Michael Davis, Sadam Sims and the car savon Jan
Speaker 1: you know like the wine. Yes, that's his real name.
Speaker 1: Learn more about my guests and other tech This That
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