Speaker 1: Season two of the Black Tech Green Money Podcast is
Speaker 1: brought to you by Lexus, who goes all in the craft,
Speaker 1: a perfect package of style and performance with the new
Speaker 1: Lexus I S, A well appointed cabin and available track
Speaker 1: tune V six helped make the new I S V
Speaker 1: Luxury Sports to then experience Amazing at your Alexis Dealer,
Speaker 1: Afro Tech, Oakland, California. Tracy Oliver's executive producer, show runner
Speaker 1: and director for b E t S First Wives Club,
Speaker 1: writer of the movie Girls Trip, which exceeded a hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars at the box office, propelling the film career
Speaker 1: Tiffany Hattis, and she collade with Thesta Ray on Awkward
Speaker 1: Black Girl to hit YouTube show. She's on stage discussing
Speaker 1: turning Hollywood knows into box office and small screen wins,
Speaker 1: and Hollywood doesn't think audiences want to see quality content
Speaker 1: featuring black women. She's proven to them that we do
Speaker 1: all right. When I came out of film school, black
Speaker 1: women just were not on TV and lead roles, and
Speaker 1: so people were constantly telling me, if you want to work,
Speaker 1: stop writing about black women. And then that was literal
Speaker 1: advice I got from a producer was if you you're
Speaker 1: a good writer, but if you want to get hired,
Speaker 1: like you have to show that you can write non
Speaker 1: black characters because no one's making that. And I was
Speaker 1: just like, nah, I'm not doing that. So I gone
Speaker 1: to undergrad with Issa Ray and we talked about doing
Speaker 1: a web series. We talked about doing something, you know,
Speaker 1: like an awkward Black Girl, and we talked to a
Speaker 1: couple of people in the industry and they were like,
Speaker 1: there's no audience for that, it can't work, and also
Speaker 1: telling Issa she doesn't look like a star, and I
Speaker 1: knew that wasn't true. She knew that wasn't true. So
Speaker 1: we decided to just go do it. And the first
Speaker 1: couple episodes, I don't know if you guys have seen it,
Speaker 1: I mean, they look pretty boo leg they're they're cheap,
Speaker 1: and they're really you know, thrown together and kind of
Speaker 1: unprofessional looking. But it was because we had no money
Speaker 1: and no resources. But people still laugh and people still
Speaker 1: thought Issa was funny and the show had something to offer,
Speaker 1: so we just kept doing it, and then eventually we
Speaker 1: did like a It was a Kickstarter campaign and East
Speaker 1: and I thought we were going to raise ten thousand
Speaker 1: dollars and then people all over just started putting in
Speaker 1: money and then we raised over fifty with then like
Speaker 1: a week, and I just couldn't believe that so many
Speaker 1: people were clamoring for it. And that was the first
Speaker 1: time that I realized that the Hollywood gatekeepers had it
Speaker 1: all wrong. The audiences did want to see black women
Speaker 1: and women of color on TV and in movies and
Speaker 1: just in pop culture. They just they were wrong because
Speaker 1: we were seeing directly, you know, from the excitement enthusiasm
Speaker 1: peole were giving us that they wanted it. And that
Speaker 1: was kind of the big turning point for us because
Speaker 1: right after that, HBO and other places started saying, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll take a meeting with you. But that was
Speaker 1: the beginning of it. And how do we just said,
Speaker 1: you know what, you're right, we'll give it up. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that would have happened. So sometimes you
Speaker 1: have to tell people know, I'm gonna go do it
Speaker 1: and then show them there's audience. And that literally changed
Speaker 1: everything for us. I'm will Lucas, this is black Tech,
Speaker 1: Green money. I'm going to introduce you to some of
Speaker 1: the biggest names, some of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas.
Speaker 1: If you're black in building for simply using tech to
Speaker 1: secure your back, this podcast is for you. As one
Speaker 1: of Corporate America's youngest executives the Tabio, Samuels has helped
Speaker 1: some of the world's big his companies, including Walmart, Chrysler,
Speaker 1: the NBA, and Johnson and Johnson, build their brands and
Speaker 1: help them connect with consumers. Previously at Urban one, where
Speaker 1: he ran Global Grind, Hello Beautiful dot com, News one
Speaker 1: dot Com dot Com, Adam Noir dot Com and more,
Speaker 1: He's now co head of Revote Media and TV. Did
Speaker 1: his multimedia network, I asked to TiVo. With all the
Speaker 1: culture we move on social media, TV and in movies,
Speaker 1: how do we finally capitalize on us? For too long,
Speaker 1: talent in our community hasn't been paid. How do we
Speaker 1: change that? Yeah? Man, That's been something that I've been
Speaker 1: looking at for a long time. Even when I was
Speaker 1: at Urban one and Interactive One. Was actually trying to
Speaker 1: see if we could leverage Black Planet, which still exists,
Speaker 1: to be a platform for black creator creators to launch ideas,
Speaker 1: help them own them legally and do all of the
Speaker 1: things they needed to do around them legally. Before they
Speaker 1: gave him out to the world. Wasn't able to pull
Speaker 1: that off, but I think I learned a couple of
Speaker 1: things in the process. Um, it is incredibly difficult to
Speaker 1: try to trademark or capitalize off of catch phrases or hashtags.
Speaker 1: Those are things that we are doing every day in
Speaker 1: our sleep, and it's just much more difficult to monetize them.
Speaker 1: You have to really be thinking about what is the
Speaker 1: product or the end product of whatever it is that
Speaker 1: your idea that you're creating. Um, And I think you've
Speaker 1: got to really do your best to think about how
Speaker 1: you monetize it before you give it to the world.
Speaker 1: I think so often people just throw it out into
Speaker 1: the world and hope that they go viral and then
Speaker 1: try to follow up on that success. But um, it's
Speaker 1: hard to go viral once, let alone to three times.
Speaker 1: And so having a clear plan for monetization, being clear
Speaker 1: about the thing that you're about to put into the
Speaker 1: world to try to go viral. Is that just marketing
Speaker 1: for a bigger product and a bigger idea? Is it
Speaker 1: just phase one into a bigger thing that you would
Speaker 1: then follow up with. But I think people got to
Speaker 1: be pretty clear about their strategy before they launch and
Speaker 1: give things into the world. And so my recommendation would
Speaker 1: be again, it's out about the hashmart hash tag or
Speaker 1: a catch phrase. It's about real products, real ideas, UM,
Speaker 1: real thoughts UM. Thinking about those things, how do we
Speaker 1: monetize them before having a plan for monetization, before we
Speaker 1: give them to the world. Yeah, when when you look
Speaker 1: at the work you've done UM in your career, and
Speaker 1: I like to look at like what Steve Style is
Speaker 1: doing today, like you know, creating avenues where we can
Speaker 1: capitalize on our culture. UM. I get that big companies
Speaker 1: have maybe not historically, but in the last few decades
Speaker 1: seeing the value in taking advantage of us and maybe
Speaker 1: maybe it is historical, right, And but what do you
Speaker 1: think it is that we might have missed in that value?
Speaker 1: Is it simply that we haven't owned the channels and
Speaker 1: therefore couldn't take advantage of it. Yeah. I think there's
Speaker 1: two things. One, I don't think we understand the value
Speaker 1: chain and how to capture and extract value out of
Speaker 1: that value chain. And the two I think we are
Speaker 1: often too short excited because we come from a position
Speaker 1: of lack. We will trade in UM. The bigger, long
Speaker 1: term ways to generate wealth for immediate cash. So I'll
Speaker 1: give you an example on the second one. So right
Speaker 1: now I'm in a deal negotiating with this very very young,
Speaker 1: intelligent brother, and UM put a deal on the table
Speaker 1: that says, Okay, look, we're gonna pay you this amount
Speaker 1: of money for every episode. But there's upside. I gave
Speaker 1: him upside for advertisers, gave him ownership on the back
Speaker 1: end um things that I thought could help them build
Speaker 1: wealth over the long run. Well, you know, all the
Speaker 1: big guys have now seen him, They have their eyes
Speaker 1: on him, and so they tossing him a bag. That
Speaker 1: bag is bigger than the fee I was paying him,
Speaker 1: but it does not have the upside for advertising, and
Speaker 1: it does not have ownership on the back end. Well,
Speaker 1: guess what we're gonna land. I'm gonna end up paying
Speaker 1: him cash and he's gonna miss out on all those
Speaker 1: other things because that's where his priority was. Right So,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to play that game. But in order
Speaker 1: to compete with the big guys who were just throwing
Speaker 1: him pennies to them, it's real money to me, UM,
Speaker 1: I then have to match that offer, which means taking
Speaker 1: off all of the things that would have had allowed
Speaker 1: them to have real upside and build real wealth in
Speaker 1: the in the long run. And so just the inability
Speaker 1: to kind of have that long term visioning, the inability
Speaker 1: to have that long term thinking, um, and to make
Speaker 1: a real bet on yourself. I think we missed that
Speaker 1: quite often again because we're coming from a position of
Speaker 1: black we need the money or the cash now, whatever
Speaker 1: that is. I think the other thing is again just
Speaker 1: not understanding the total value chain. So I think it's
Speaker 1: like a big Sean song right now where he talks
Speaker 1: about like, look these players who are making thirty five
Speaker 1: million dollars a year. That means that the owners somebody's
Speaker 1: making a billion in order to pay thirty five, right,
Speaker 1: And so I think that's the other key piece of
Speaker 1: it force, which is, um, we don't see the entire
Speaker 1: value chain. We just see the money we're getting. We
Speaker 1: don't see that the total value that's being created as
Speaker 1: a billion dollars, and then they're not working on ways
Speaker 1: to create, uh, ways to capture more of that billion dollars.
Speaker 1: You see people in the past did it like masterp
Speaker 1: uh so I was thinking about, right, So we have
Speaker 1: people who have who have broken out and said, you
Speaker 1: know what, I don't just want this check. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: capture more value. Um, it's those models that we need
Speaker 1: to be learning from going forward. But we're still pretty
Speaker 1: new to that game. But so to his point, and
Speaker 1: I don't know his situation, but you said this clearly
Speaker 1: clear we come from by and large, when you getting
Speaker 1: opportunities like this, perhaps you may come from a background
Speaker 1: of lack and you you can't make those long term
Speaker 1: decisions because mama got to eat right now. And so
Speaker 1: what is if I'm asking you to save the world
Speaker 1: and with this question, but like, what do we do
Speaker 1: in this community so that we can afford to think
Speaker 1: long term? Yeah? So I think there's two things. I
Speaker 1: think one of the first piece of just education, So
Speaker 1: educating ourselves on the total value chain, trying to make
Speaker 1: sure that we extract all the value that we can,
Speaker 1: understanding the difference between cash now and real wealth later,
Speaker 1: ownership like ownership and equity versus cash. I think there's
Speaker 1: an education thing, um that we absolutely should be doing
Speaker 1: for ourselves. But then also I just believe in emazing right.
Speaker 1: So people will talk about like it's it's hard to
Speaker 1: make the first million, the next million after that becomes easy.
Speaker 1: So even if you have to trade off in the
Speaker 1: short term, Okay, I'm gonna trade off that equity to
Speaker 1: get this larger cash bag because this is what my
Speaker 1: family needs in this moment right now. Having a plan
Speaker 1: for how you then take that cash and don't again
Speaker 1: go just splurge on it and buy new cars and
Speaker 1: new gear and all of that stuff. But how do
Speaker 1: you then take some of that cash and invest it
Speaker 1: in something so that you again have ownership and equity,
Speaker 1: maybe not in the thing that you created, but you
Speaker 1: have ownership and equity somewhere else real estate, stocks, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So that you can start to build wealth, which will
Speaker 1: then allow you to make real decisions in the future.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge believer like in this notion of like freedom.
Speaker 1: I want to spend my entire life being the freest
Speaker 1: version of myself, and wealth gives you freedom like no other.
Speaker 1: And so take the cash, find a way to build
Speaker 1: wealth so that you can be free and make decisions
Speaker 1: that are no longer driven by necessity and lack, but
Speaker 1: they're driven by I just don't want to do it
Speaker 1: because I don't have to, because I don't want to,
Speaker 1: you know, what I mean, like, we have to invest
Speaker 1: in ourselves and invest in our future. UM. I was
Speaker 1: listening to an interview and you talked about your experience
Speaker 1: at Global You and Detroit and I and I think
Speaker 1: a lot about We've been having these conversations in the
Speaker 1: Afro tech world. There's a world outside of Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1: But there's you know, tech and media and business happening
Speaker 1: all over the world in communities that we are in.
Speaker 1: And what what about Detroit? It's maybe more broadly the
Speaker 1: Midwest has been overlooked with regards to their contribution to
Speaker 1: the culture because I'm from Ohio. So I'm I'm from
Speaker 1: forty five minutes out of Detroit and Toledo, Ohio. And
Speaker 1: I think a lot about you know, the perspectives I
Speaker 1: saw growing up being in the Rust Belt manufacturing, automotive
Speaker 1: and etcetera. That's that's a perspective on the world right.
Speaker 1: And I wonder what your experience was like running Global
Speaker 1: You that Detroit office and what unique value you saw
Speaker 1: the Midwest brought to the conversation. Yeah, I thought living
Speaker 1: in Detroit was amazing. Man, Like how the Detroit you get? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, they always talk about real diamonds come from
Speaker 1: cold's going through the fire. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like that is what Detroit is. Detroit's contribution to this world,
Speaker 1: whether it be music, how the motive you name it
Speaker 1: has been huge. I think, Um, we don't get to
Speaker 1: hear a lot about that story for a couple of reasons. Um. One,
Speaker 1: just the way that we function. Culture moves from the
Speaker 1: outside in, so culture we tend to we get used
Speaker 1: to culture starting in l A or New York and
Speaker 1: moving inside. Um. And so that's just the places that
Speaker 1: we look to for creativity and and and creation. Um.
Speaker 1: But I do think there's a dope creative community in
Speaker 1: Detroit that folks aren't necessarily looking at that they should be.
Speaker 1: The other thing is just where the media platforms live
Speaker 1: and exist. So again, so often those media platforms are
Speaker 1: in California and New York. People, you know, what's the
Speaker 1: black owned media company in Detroit where you can really
Speaker 1: tell the Detroit story that exists. I think that stuff
Speaker 1: is true for other places like Atlanta right now or
Speaker 1: the Bay Area right now. You know what's happened is
Speaker 1: when you and I were growing up, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: I'm older than you. Um, we when we before the Internet,
Speaker 1: each geography had such distinctness to themselves. They had distinctness
Speaker 1: in the way that they moved, they had you know,
Speaker 1: in the Bay Area they were doing Hi fi right,
Speaker 1: which nobody else was doing right. Um. In Atlanta, we
Speaker 1: had trapped and so people had different language, they had
Speaker 1: different movement, they had all of that stuff was different. Well,
Speaker 1: now with the invention of the Internet, and now that
Speaker 1: we're all here, everybody is coming to the mushy middle,
Speaker 1: and so you start to miss some of that like locality,
Speaker 1: um specific um culture that was creating at a local level.
Speaker 1: And so with nobody there telling their stories, amplifying their stories,
Speaker 1: it stays kind of hidden and missed while we all
Speaker 1: kind of gravitate to the kind of top, mushy middle.
Speaker 1: And so I think that's the biggest thing that needs
Speaker 1: to happen. Like we're seriously looking at setting up shop
Speaker 1: in Atlanta because we see it as the black Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Nobody's telling their stories, and we think there's a huge
Speaker 1: opportunity to kind of go to Atlanta um and build
Speaker 1: a dope relationship there. I see the same type of
Speaker 1: opportunity for people who could be interested in Detroit lots
Speaker 1: of dope creatives, lots of dope work, lots of dope
Speaker 1: history just waiting for someone to come in and mind
Speaker 1: it and not minded in a way that's culture voltashy,
Speaker 1: but minded in a way that then gives it back
Speaker 1: to the culture while finding ways to pour back into Detroit. So,
Speaker 1: since you um started that revolt, one of your roles
Speaker 1: was to acquire content, right, and so, UM, is it
Speaker 1: that you've found a star on YouTube, a rising talent,
Speaker 1: and you want to put money behind their vision or
Speaker 1: is it that you know, somebody went and you know,
Speaker 1: bought a bunch of cameras and you know, built a
Speaker 1: production company and they're sending you demo tapes, Like, how
Speaker 1: does that work? Yeah, we're we're we're well, we're basically
Speaker 1: open to looking at both. I will tell you that
Speaker 1: right now, I am very focused on talent centered production.
Speaker 1: That I think that you know, who's breaking through right
Speaker 1: now is not ABC, CBS, Fox, Those aren't the breakthroughs.
Speaker 1: Who's breaking through is will Smith, Hardy b uh Diddy. Right,
Speaker 1: those people have larger followings than any other cable network.
Speaker 1: They have better engagement than any other cable network. And
Speaker 1: so finding talent who can pool focus on a camera,
Speaker 1: entertain a camera, but then also bring a large engaged audience.
Speaker 1: That's really where we're looking. And so sometimes we'll find
Speaker 1: that talent and build a show around them. Sometimes that
Speaker 1: talent will already come with the show and we will collaborate.
Speaker 1: We're actually getting ready to launch this weekend. UM Jim Jones,
Speaker 1: a new weather show with Jim Jones. Jim Jones has
Speaker 1: been doing this weather show for two years right. What
Speaker 1: he doesn't have, which is what we bring, which is
Speaker 1: production capability, storytelling capability. We bring that, but Jim has
Speaker 1: an audience and he's hello good in front of a camera,
Speaker 1: and so we're gonna collaborate to make magic and so
Speaker 1: we're willing to do it that way. We're willing to
Speaker 1: start with people from scratch. The deal I'm talking about
Speaker 1: is a deal where we're literally starting from a development
Speaker 1: standpoint from scratch. So we're open to either situation. The
Speaker 1: hard part is finding super dope talent who can entertain
Speaker 1: a camera by themselves if need be, who have really
Speaker 1: large engaged audiences that will follow them where they go. UM,
Speaker 1: that's the hard part, and that's what we're focused on.
Speaker 1: How much of um. Your acquisition of content is like
Speaker 1: you know is let's say if you're if you're a
Speaker 1: music executive, It's like this person may not have sold,
Speaker 1: you know, ten thousand records out of their trunk, they
Speaker 1: may not have a bunch of hits on their Spotify,
Speaker 1: but this there's a star quality about them that I
Speaker 1: and you believe. Right, So how much of your acquisition
Speaker 1: of talent um might come without having that huge and
Speaker 1: gage audience, but there's something about this person you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta bring them over to the Revolt family. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for me, there always has to be that proofpoint of talent,
Speaker 1: of talent being able to attract an audience somehow um
Speaker 1: right now, just because it is so hard to break through.
Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is you don't have to be
Speaker 1: the New York Times. You just got to be the
Speaker 1: New York Times of your scene. Right. So we're going
Speaker 1: into Atlanta. Uh, I'm not looking for people who the
Speaker 1: whole world knows. But if Atlanta knows you, and if
Speaker 1: Atlanta show up, like if Atlanta gives you respect, then
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, we can build with this. So there
Speaker 1: still has to be a proof point that you can
Speaker 1: UM bring audiences in and engage audiences, but it just
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be on the same scale as a
Speaker 1: Google or Facebook or Netflix might be looking at. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at people who are authentic with the culture. I'm
Speaker 1: looking for people who have real relationships with the culture.
Speaker 1: And if you can prove that the culture will move
Speaker 1: when you show up, then those are the type of
Speaker 1: people I want to be in business with. Season two
Speaker 1: of the Black Tech Green Money Podcast is brought to
Speaker 1: you by Lexus in the new Lexus I S with
Speaker 1: an available track tune, visa sending, and responsive handling. The
Speaker 1: new I S went all in to deliver you style
Speaker 1: and performance. See how when you experience amazing at you,
Speaker 1: Alexis Dealer. You've seen the news. We're cutting the court
Speaker 1: all across America. You can get Netflix, Hulu, Amazon all
Speaker 1: without a cable provider. But Revolt TV is on cable.
Speaker 1: Puff that in the top of You'll have to see
Speaker 1: something We're missing. There's got to be a strategy there,
Speaker 1: and I'm curious the Tavo speaks on it. So the
Speaker 1: way that I would say it is UM broadcast is
Speaker 1: the past time now and streaming is the future. And
Speaker 1: so you know. You see, we just did a deal
Speaker 1: with Comcast to broaden our distribution. So UM, the linear
Speaker 1: space for us is a very real space. We will
Speaker 1: continue to program in that space and deliver for people
Speaker 1: on the big screen in their homes. But without question,
Speaker 1: we know that the future is streaming. The future is
Speaker 1: programming to mobile phones and tablets. Every time we talk
Speaker 1: to our audience, Jen Y gen Z and we tell
Speaker 1: them that we're working on things longer than ten minutes,
Speaker 1: their nose turn up and they get frush, right, So
Speaker 1: it's it's it's, it's, it's it's for us. It will
Speaker 1: actually end up being quite a different product that we
Speaker 1: end up UM producing for streaming. UM for linear, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at thirty minute, sixty minute, ninety minute shows. For digital,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at being best in the world at premium
Speaker 1: short form video because that's what you know, why gen
Speaker 1: Z wants, and so we have to do both, UM,
Speaker 1: and that's why it's important for us to do deals
Speaker 1: like the Comcast deal, because it gives us the revenue
Speaker 1: to them begin to program in these different ways, in
Speaker 1: these different formats, because the audience is looking for something
Speaker 1: different in each space. So I guess more fundamental questions
Speaker 1: is how big can a black network get? Right? This
Speaker 1: is so this you are unapologetically hip hop, right, so, um,
Speaker 1: what does the role map look like for a Revolt
Speaker 1: to be the next CBS? Right, and not to say
Speaker 1: that like what is to be that big? I mean like, yeah,
Speaker 1: what is it? How big can this? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I think it's really difficult. My real answers, I
Speaker 1: think it's really difficult for a black network to scale. Um,
Speaker 1: I've said this before, but ultimately it's the game is
Speaker 1: not built for us to succeed. So if you are
Speaker 1: a black network focused on black audiences, it means that
Speaker 1: the content that you create is for fifteen percent of
Speaker 1: the world, right cent of the US, which is tough
Speaker 1: because you're up against CBS, ABC who are creating content
Speaker 1: for a hundred percent of the US. And the business
Speaker 1: problem is that even though we are both focused on
Speaker 1: reaching different sized audiences, the cost of creating content for
Speaker 1: those audiences doesn't change. So a good movie on TV
Speaker 1: for CBS is gonna cost the same amount of money
Speaker 1: that a good for CBS who's going out there a
Speaker 1: hundred percent of the US is gonna cost me the
Speaker 1: exact same amount of money who might only be going
Speaker 1: after fifteen percent of the US, right, and so just
Speaker 1: their period, I think the black business model breaks. And
Speaker 1: so what I been saying and what we are doing
Speaker 1: and what I've done is all of my previous companies
Speaker 1: is you have to do it in a way that
Speaker 1: skills for me. That answer is you do it all
Speaker 1: the big mainstream companies are doing. We all see that
Speaker 1: black folks are tuning into live black food. Folks consume
Speaker 1: more content than everybody else, and the world consumes our
Speaker 1: corner of view. And so you create content for Black America,
Speaker 1: or you create content that is rooted in black culture,
Speaker 1: but you have to create it for everybody. Meaning the
Speaker 1: DJ is black, the first hundred people into the party
Speaker 1: probably gonna be black. But you open to everybody coming
Speaker 1: because that's the only way that you get scaled, that's
Speaker 1: the only way that you get numbers, that's the only
Speaker 1: way that you can really compete. And so I have
Speaker 1: significant concerns for um black media companies who are focused
Speaker 1: on black only because I think the game is rigged
Speaker 1: and it's not necessarily built for us. The beauty of
Speaker 1: revolt is again we are based on hip hop, right,
Speaker 1: so our design target we talked about is being young, gifted,
Speaker 1: and black. But we know that hip hop is the
Speaker 1: number one thing being consumed across the world, and so
Speaker 1: we can program to this audience but invite the world in.
Speaker 1: That's how we will get scale, That's how we will
Speaker 1: get numbers. That is the only way we will even
Speaker 1: get close to being to someone like a CBS or
Speaker 1: an MTV or some of those other folks. So you,
Speaker 1: Revolt has seen to share successes and obviously is growing
Speaker 1: quickly with the new Comcast Exfinity deal, um to be
Speaker 1: sort of a mainstream network, and you kind of clarify
Speaker 1: what the target is. And when I mean mainstream, I
Speaker 1: mean that's probably that's how do we grow that? Right? Um?
Speaker 1: Does it take having like what Netflix had was the
Speaker 1: Orange is the New Black that helped Netflix scale? Like,
Speaker 1: what does it take content wise for Revolt to have that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think we we I think we need breakout content.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to separate it from a show perspective.
Speaker 1: I think that if you're an independent network, meaning you
Speaker 1: are not housed inside of and be the Universal or
Speaker 1: Viacom CBS, if you are out here by yourself, Um,
Speaker 1: it is lonely, and it is difficult because again, you know,
Speaker 1: when you compete against Viacom, CBS, they're aggregating ten networks
Speaker 1: and you're you've got one. You're bringing one to the party, right,
Speaker 1: so and everything. It's like you've got the water gun
Speaker 1: and you're up against like these um, major nuclear weapons.
Speaker 1: Um crap. I just actually lost what was what was
Speaker 1: the fourth question? Do I need content? I got? I
Speaker 1: got you, I got you. UM. So, I think if
Speaker 1: you are an independent network, the key game that you're
Speaker 1: playing is actually more about being a brand. It's about
Speaker 1: building an identity feed. It is less about being a network,
Speaker 1: but it's more about building a brand that audiences will
Speaker 1: fall in love with and attached to, and then creating
Speaker 1: multiple ways to monetize that brand, from merch, two events,
Speaker 1: to content, to experiences, all of those things. So for us,
Speaker 1: do I think it's about a hit show. I think
Speaker 1: it could be a hit show, But for me, it's
Speaker 1: really more about having hit moments as a brand, showing up, UM,
Speaker 1: showing up in culture in a big way, UM, and
Speaker 1: in a way that audiences can see kind of what
Speaker 1: our brand value is, what our brand proposition is, and
Speaker 1: how we stand for and represent the culture. So I
Speaker 1: think those things will come from stuff like the Revolts
Speaker 1: Summit that we're getting ready to have at the end
Speaker 1: of October. Is that a hit show? No, but it
Speaker 1: will absolutely be a hit moment for us, and that
Speaker 1: will help the brand grow. I like what you're saying
Speaker 1: about branding because I think about um, this mixed with
Speaker 1: mixed in with what we're talking about with the masterp
Speaker 1: and what Big Sean wrapped about, and and like, there's
Speaker 1: somebody else. If I'm making this much, there's somebody else
Speaker 1: making ten times that, twenty times at a hundred times that, right,
Speaker 1: and so where is the space in media then media
Speaker 1: slash technology for entrepreneurialism because I think about um with
Speaker 1: what you're saying to the guy who you know didn't
Speaker 1: take that or may not take the deal that's just
Speaker 1: about future growth opportunity, but just wants to cash upfront.
Speaker 1: I think about people like Ryan Leslie who dropped the album.
Speaker 1: He's a hundred dollars and when he saw two thousand
Speaker 1: of them, he got two hundred racks in the bank
Speaker 1: now and and so, but he wasn't trying to serve,
Speaker 1: you know, a global autor. He wanted his die hard fans,
Speaker 1: the people who believed, who will pull out their TechBook,
Speaker 1: pull out their cry to credit card, pull out their
Speaker 1: cash app for a hundred dollar Ryan Leslie album. And
Speaker 1: he's got two hundred thousand dollars in the bank because
Speaker 1: he only two copies. And so where is the space
Speaker 1: in video production for that type of entrepreneurialism? Mm hmm,
Speaker 1: that's a good question. Um, So let me think about that.
Speaker 1: I mean, so right now, I think in general, content creators,
Speaker 1: specifically black content creators, are having a real moment again
Speaker 1: the recognition that everybody from Netflix to f X to
Speaker 1: ABC sees value in our stories, which means the market
Speaker 1: for black stories is larger than it's ever been before.
Speaker 1: And so I think if you're not in my position,
Speaker 1: and you're not tied down to feeding um A network
Speaker 1: seven three sixty five, but you have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: sit back, curate, make dope stories. I think the opportunity
Speaker 1: to sell those stories to all of the buyers in
Speaker 1: the marketplace and create real competition there is a is
Speaker 1: a very very real thing. I think the digital game
Speaker 1: is is tough, man, It's tough. Um, if you're a company.
Speaker 1: I think it's super tough if you're an individual. UM.
Speaker 1: It takes so much typically to win if you're just
Speaker 1: playing this digital game. And so for me, where I
Speaker 1: think the real winners are gonna be our UM content
Speaker 1: creators and talent. Like, as the world becomes more multicultural, UM,
Speaker 1: they're always going to be looking for more black and
Speaker 1: brown talent to feel their movies there, their their TV shows, etcetera.
Speaker 1: And so those people who can be people who are
Speaker 1: building companies around multicultural talent, building companies around creating dope
Speaker 1: stories that can be sold to anybody, not just one person.
Speaker 1: I think those are two of the ways that I
Speaker 1: think that they're real opportuny in these And then again,
Speaker 1: like there's this thing that like we're trying to do
Speaker 1: as well, which is just recognizing that even content in
Speaker 1: and of itself is just good marketing. And so how
Speaker 1: do you create super dope content but that becomes ike
Speaker 1: and you can build entire worlds around. So again, how
Speaker 1: do I create content where I can then turn them
Speaker 1: into events and merch and all of those things. I
Speaker 1: think people who have that type of vision and understanding
Speaker 1: UM have a huge opportunity UM in this world as well.
Speaker 1: You know, you got me thinking about, um, what Ray
Speaker 1: did with her show on YouTube before it was picked
Speaker 1: up by a Netflix. And I don't know her whole
Speaker 1: production story, but I'm would I imagine from the outside
Speaker 1: looking in you might know more, not do, but please
Speaker 1: do fill me in. But I think about somebody who
Speaker 1: probably had two or three friends. One of them's got
Speaker 1: a camera, one of them has got a little bit
Speaker 1: of money or whatever, you know, to help her get lighting.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but she put this show together around
Speaker 1: her talent, put it on YouTube, marketed it and however
Speaker 1: she marketed it and built a following. Is is the
Speaker 1: growth of black networks like Revolt? How important is the
Speaker 1: growth of black networks like Revolt to being able to
Speaker 1: create more opportunities for the next Rays? Yeah? I mean
Speaker 1: for us, we would say we're betting everything on that
Speaker 1: that um, that that should be our competitive advantage. That
Speaker 1: Netflix is dope and as great as they are, and
Speaker 1: all the content that they're making, they don't know our
Speaker 1: community like we do. They're not touching creators in the
Speaker 1: community like we are. And so you see, like people
Speaker 1: tend to have this kind of strategy that's like let
Speaker 1: me find one black person and give them ten shows, right, UM,
Speaker 1: so go ahead. Like so, we we're banking on the
Speaker 1: Obama's will continue to get shows like Netflix. The Abra
Speaker 1: Duvenaise and the Saunders will continue to get opportunities in Netflix.
Speaker 1: We are the people who are going to be betting
Speaker 1: on the little guys. We're going to be betting on
Speaker 1: the people who again aren't on the scene of the
Speaker 1: New York Times, but they're on the version of the
Speaker 1: New York Times for Atlanta, but in New York Times
Speaker 1: for the Bay Area. And UM that's one our strategy,
Speaker 1: which is that we see ourselves as being a platform
Speaker 1: for hip hop voices. We do not believe that the
Speaker 1: best ideas will always come for a revote. We know
Speaker 1: that black genius is amazing all across this world, and
Speaker 1: so we are absolutely betting on um black and brown
Speaker 1: creators who are doing dope work who have not yet
Speaker 1: been seen, and we want again bring what we bring
Speaker 1: a little bit more resources, production capability, storytelling capability, and
Speaker 1: then rise to the top together. That is very much
Speaker 1: a key part of our strategy. UM. I was listening
Speaker 1: to uh an interview you did, and I'm gonna paraphrase
Speaker 1: a quote that you had. You talked it's about marketing
Speaker 1: and agencies, and you talked about general marketing agencies you know,
Speaker 1: shouldn't do UM or in your opinion, shouldn't do like
Speaker 1: perspective work. Like you know, if if you've got a
Speaker 1: general marketing agency, maybe they shouldn't be dabbling in just
Speaker 1: Hispanic marketing or black marketing. But the niche agencies, those
Speaker 1: ones that do focus on I have UM to reposition
Speaker 1: themselves often times to win. Can you talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the opportunity, especially these days when you know
Speaker 1: black culture is for all of you know, the ills
Speaker 1: that we take on from the world. We have platforms
Speaker 1: now like like afro tech, we have these platforms to
Speaker 1: where you know, not only are we are you making money,
Speaker 1: but you know you're being recognized in etet of for
Speaker 1: your work. How can marketing agencies black focused companies like
Speaker 1: Revolt is Washington black but hip hop focused UM companies,
Speaker 1: how can they create opportunities for themselves when it is
Speaker 1: typically those general market agencies who can come in with
Speaker 1: the entire tool kit, right, but we focused on our perspective. Yeah,
Speaker 1: is it that you just lean into your perspective. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I mean the big thing you have to do is
Speaker 1: to be able to get to the top of those
Speaker 1: companies to help them understand the flaw on their decision
Speaker 1: making that in essence, that what they're doing is calling
Speaker 1: on B B d O or calling on UM D
Speaker 1: dB to do work that is black and it's just
Speaker 1: not in their wheelhouse. But I'll go in there and say, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: let's take a step back. Let's look at someone who
Speaker 1: has to move product across the entire world. Let's take
Speaker 1: Walt Disney. Right, when Disney knew they had to create
Speaker 1: a black movie, what did they do? Did they go
Speaker 1: to DDB, Did they go to B B D O? No,
Speaker 1: they went to Ryan Coogler? Right, one black man and
Speaker 1: guess what Ryan did you know? People get worried like, well,
Speaker 1: Ryan is only one person or voters only none? No,
Speaker 1: but we're in the culture. We know all of these
Speaker 1: people that you don't know. You can't find black creative
Speaker 1: directors and black you know who is it? The CEO
Speaker 1: of Wells Fargo this week talking about he couldn't find
Speaker 1: black talent. Right, y'all can't find black talent. They're all
Speaker 1: calling me or they're all my friends, or I'm hanging
Speaker 1: out with all of them. Right, So you put one
Speaker 1: Ryan Coogler in the machine. Ryan Coogler brings um Sherry,
Speaker 1: what's my girl's Sherry's name? Who played Michael B. Jordan's
Speaker 1: are yeah right, Sherry? Right? He will bring all of
Speaker 1: those people to the table. You have to get to
Speaker 1: the people at the top who are making those decisions
Speaker 1: to help them understand the flaws and their decision making.
Speaker 1: And then the other thing that I try to tell
Speaker 1: brands all the time is ultimately, like the research process
Speaker 1: is broken because if white folks account for sixty to
Speaker 1: seventy percent of the research, guess how all the research
Speaker 1: is gonna skew towards white folks. Right, we all know
Speaker 1: that culture never moves from the middle. Culture always starts
Speaker 1: from the edges. If you are looking to go with
Speaker 1: where culture is going, see where culture is going to
Speaker 1: be a part of that way as opposed to the
Speaker 1: wave that's already left, you have to start with the
Speaker 1: people on the edges. It's those conversations with the people
Speaker 1: of top who didn't get it before, but in the
Speaker 1: era George Floyd, they're catching it more now. Than ever.
Speaker 1: But it's those conversations to have to make them break convention, right,
Speaker 1: because I don't think people are doing things to be
Speaker 1: racist on purpose, or they're literally just doing what is
Speaker 1: easy and normal. It's the same thing that they've done.
Speaker 1: I got a new product launch called d dB, Right,
Speaker 1: I gotta get this TV ill called d dB. Someone
Speaker 1: has to break that convention and get them off of
Speaker 1: autopilot and help them understand the opportunity that they're leaving
Speaker 1: on the table. That's that's good. And I love that
Speaker 1: you tied it to the moment, and I want you
Speaker 1: to go deeper. This is how important is this moment
Speaker 1: the in the in the age of COVID, the age
Speaker 1: of Brianna Taylor and the age of George Floyd. And
Speaker 1: you've got these companies now, and said, you know what,
Speaker 1: we haven't paid enough attention to you know, this demographic
Speaker 1: of people, these black voices, these black creatives, these black talent,
Speaker 1: black executive you know perspectives. How important is it for
Speaker 1: us to not let this moment slip by? Because I
Speaker 1: do believe you know, I always use this Roman Manual
Speaker 1: quote back from two thousand and eight, and he said,
Speaker 1: and I don't even know if he's the first person
Speaker 1: to say it, but you know, I'm never letting the
Speaker 1: Great Crisis go to waste. It's an opportunity to do
Speaker 1: things otherwise you wouldn't have been able to do. And
Speaker 1: while we've seen our fair share will probably exorbiting amount
Speaker 1: of crisis, how important is it for us to take
Speaker 1: advantage of this moment where we do have the ears
Speaker 1: It is for me, it is now or never, brother,
Speaker 1: And I also don't believe that this moment is going
Speaker 1: to be around forever. Um. As much hope and optimism
Speaker 1: as I have, I think there's probably like a pretty
Speaker 1: significant like window on it. And so I'm kind of
Speaker 1: telling my team, like, look, you got three to nine
Speaker 1: months to run through every door that you can, and
Speaker 1: at the end of that three to nine months, whatever
Speaker 1: we're left with is probably what we're gonna be left with.
Speaker 1: If you can get opportunities for multi year contracts so
Speaker 1: that people can't back out of it later, even better.
Speaker 1: But right now I am seeing specifically in corporate America. Um, yes,
Speaker 1: they're superficial activism and people just making statements to make
Speaker 1: statements so that they can look cool. But I am
Speaker 1: seeing countless brands who are serious about this, who have
Speaker 1: woken up to this. I was on the call maybe
Speaker 1: last week with a fortune tin brand and listening to
Speaker 1: them tell me how important it was to support black media.
Speaker 1: And they're understanding that they can't hold black media to
Speaker 1: the same KPIs as UM, CBS and Viacom and NBC
Speaker 1: Universal because of the size different, but that they needed
Speaker 1: to be investing in black and what I call it, Like,
Speaker 1: I think investing in black media is a revolutionary act.
Speaker 1: So here at CMO at a Fortune tin company talking
Speaker 1: to me about her understanding that buying black media was
Speaker 1: a revolutionary act. Brother, I've been in this game and
Speaker 1: this since two thousand six and have never heard that right. So, Um,
Speaker 1: this moment is different. This moment is unique. We are
Speaker 1: absolutely seeing the benefit of this moment um at Revolt
Speaker 1: as we are pushing brands to and holding them accountable
Speaker 1: for the statements that they are putting out into the streets.
Speaker 1: I would say that there are many of them who
Speaker 1: are stepping up. Um, Cash, App, Nike, Comcast, you know
Speaker 1: we do the Revote summer with a T and T like.
Speaker 1: There's definitely brands who are getting it so anyways, um
Speaker 1: less than the Ramma like kind of the short summer is.
Speaker 1: I think this is an amazing moment. I've never seen
Speaker 1: anything like it. No one can tell me that things
Speaker 1: aren't changing, because this moment feels so different. I'm watching it,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling it. It's showing up in the culture, it's
Speaker 1: showing up in the numbers, um and it's not everybody,
Speaker 1: but it definitely exists. And now is the time. It's like,
Speaker 1: keep your foot on their necks, keep going because when
Speaker 1: the door shuts, who knows when we get another civil
Speaker 1: rights moment like this again. Yeah. So, a lot of
Speaker 1: the companies you've worked with, like you know, the Walmarts
Speaker 1: and McDonald's, et cetera, have very well known brands, right,
Speaker 1: and so defined for me like brand building for companies
Speaker 1: that already have very well known brands and so and
Speaker 1: how do you build the skills with today's tools, with
Speaker 1: an eye for what was coming for brands like that,
Speaker 1: how is it that you position them for the future? Yeah? So, um,
Speaker 1: you know business school you learn all these like brand
Speaker 1: architectures and it's like twenty things. You gotta have brand
Speaker 1: personality and brand voice and all of these things I
Speaker 1: think over my years in the game, I've kind of
Speaker 1: boiled branding down to like three or four things, plus
Speaker 1: a few key strategic bets. So what are those things?
Speaker 1: I think every brand has to be clear on. I
Speaker 1: think you have to be clear on who you are,
Speaker 1: what you do, why you do it, and how you
Speaker 1: do it those four things, and then those four things,
Speaker 1: at least one of them needs to be fundamentally different
Speaker 1: from everybody else. So Apple and Microsoft can both make computers,
Speaker 1: but if the how Microsoft does it is they approach
Speaker 1: everything from a creative and a visual standpoint. If the
Speaker 1: why they do it because we want everybody to think differently,
Speaker 1: If those pieces are different, then you can build a
Speaker 1: brand that's fundamentally different even though you're in the same space.
Speaker 1: And so I think you have to nail those four pieces.
Speaker 1: You have to make sure that at least one or
Speaker 1: two of those things are fundamentally different from anybody else
Speaker 1: in your category that you're competing with. And then from there,
Speaker 1: I just think you gotta look around and find the
Speaker 1: smart bets that will help make the brand difference. So
Speaker 1: for us, it's not just who we serve. Who we
Speaker 1: serve is what we call them is Jim hip hop, right,
Speaker 1: all these young folks who are in love with hip
Speaker 1: hop music, the genre, the lifestyle. But what's different about
Speaker 1: our brand is our design target is young, black and gifted.
Speaker 1: That design target means I'm creating content that no other
Speaker 1: hip hop company is world starting making this boler alert
Speaker 1: Like they're not giving people access to the summit to
Speaker 1: meet executives and to to get workshops on how to
Speaker 1: um how to make a dope sixteen or how to
Speaker 1: make it, how to produce a dope beat. They're not
Speaker 1: getting opportunities to meet with executives from those other companies.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying anything is bad over that. I'm saying
Speaker 1: we are making a strategic bet to program to someone
Speaker 1: different than they are, which means the content and the
Speaker 1: work that comes out. So it's not about who we are. Um,
Speaker 1: It's not about what we do while we do it
Speaker 1: or how we do it, even though there's some differences there,
Speaker 1: but that one bet is such a key differentiator for
Speaker 1: us in terms of building our brands. So anyways, I
Speaker 1: think those are kind of the key components. And then
Speaker 1: the last pieces, just to say, screw words. It's all
Speaker 1: about actions, right, So you know, the old way was
Speaker 1: you just had a whole bunch of things on paper,
Speaker 1: and you just try to make sure you're communicating those
Speaker 1: ideas consistently. Um. Today the world can see everything. Everything
Speaker 1: is transparent, there are no sidelines. You were in the game,
Speaker 1: whether you say you were in the game or not.
Speaker 1: You're either team Trump or not Team Trump. Whether you
Speaker 1: say it or not, people are gonna go look up
Speaker 1: the CEO and see whether you gave money you know
Speaker 1: what I mean to Trump or not. So you just
Speaker 1: also have to recognize that the game is based on
Speaker 1: actions that UM, you're trying to be as thoughtful and
Speaker 1: um and intentional and purposeful about those actions as possible.
Speaker 1: And then just recognizing that there are no sidelines. There's
Speaker 1: nothing that is off limits. People are making decisions about
Speaker 1: the brands they want to support who align with their values,
Speaker 1: and if your behaviors and actions don't match that, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be really difficult to win those audiences. One last thing,
Speaker 1: which is you also can't win everybody, So you have
Speaker 1: to be very comfortable if you are not Team Trump,
Speaker 1: you have to be very comfortable losing all of the
Speaker 1: Trump supporters. Right. That's how brands get made. They are
Speaker 1: literally the stay. They are pieces of our identity, and
Speaker 1: so you have to be willing to walk away from
Speaker 1: some people in order to get me to put your
Speaker 1: shirt on my chest. Um. I think those are all
Speaker 1: key pieces. Season two of the Black Tech, Green Money
Speaker 1: Podcast is brought to you by Lexus with connected tech
Speaker 1: Lexus Safety System plus two point five and luxuriously appointed cabin.
Speaker 1: The new Lexus I S is all in on style
Speaker 1: and performance. See how when you experience amazing how your
Speaker 1: Lexus dealer before those up and coming young black executives
Speaker 1: who will be watching this and listening to this, and
Speaker 1: you know they see the kind of journey you took
Speaker 1: and met a lot of a lot of favor in
Speaker 1: your your walk. You know, your executive very young. Um.
Speaker 1: And what can we learn about your journey that those
Speaker 1: folks who would be you know in one day and
Speaker 1: choose like yours, um, that they can apply to their
Speaker 1: own walk. Yeah. Um. So the first thing I'll say,
Speaker 1: but I'll keep it short, which is just um faith
Speaker 1: and my faith in God. Um. I'm absolutely here because
Speaker 1: I don't believe that any man ever controls my destiny.
Speaker 1: And so no matter how funky things might look around
Speaker 1: me and my current situation. Faith in a higher power
Speaker 1: always helps me, UM, move and progress. And people say
Speaker 1: favor ain't fair. I believe it to its truth, favor
Speaker 1: and fair, which is why I am or I am um.
Speaker 1: So I just want to acknowledge that because I'm trying
Speaker 1: to do a better job at that. Other things that
Speaker 1: I would say is, um, I never got a job
Speaker 1: applying through a black box. All of my jobs to
Speaker 1: come through relationships. UM. I think a lot of times
Speaker 1: black people feel like we have to earn stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: that there's this thing called a meritocracy, and we need
Speaker 1: to make sure that we earned it in the right way.
Speaker 1: What I will say is I don't never feel like
Speaker 1: I need to earn any open door. Um. White people
Speaker 1: have been getting jobs they didn't deserve for a very
Speaker 1: long time. I look at President Trump right now and
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, this is the quintessential subpar white man
Speaker 1: who has the highest ranking job in the right. Like
Speaker 1: who worried about how he got it? So anyways, my
Speaker 1: rule has always been leverage my network, leverage my relationships
Speaker 1: to get in the door. Guess what, Once I'm in
Speaker 1: the door, I gotta perform right that's on me. But
Speaker 1: I care less how I actually get into the door,
Speaker 1: as long as it's being done with integrity, um, and
Speaker 1: with with with with solid character. So that's one. The
Speaker 1: other thing is, um, what's the quote about luck is
Speaker 1: preparation times opportunity. UM. So that's very That's been very,
Speaker 1: very true in my career. You know when I first
Speaker 1: started getting like this kind of like meteoric rises, um
Speaker 1: less than a year global hue. Um, it's I'm running
Speaker 1: the Navy business. The woman who's running the Walmart business
Speaker 1: is really like the number two in the office. So uh,
Speaker 1: we hire my boss, hires a president to come in
Speaker 1: over that office. This woman spends two days with this
Speaker 1: man and quits. She comes back and tells out, like
Speaker 1: I refused to work with him, I won't be here.
Speaker 1: I'm out. What did that do? Um? It threw them
Speaker 1: in the chaos. So that actually goes to one of
Speaker 1: your earlier comments earlier don commanus to say all this
Speaker 1: all the time, chaos creates opportunity. So when they lose
Speaker 1: the number two in Detroit, guess what they do. They
Speaker 1: take the top three next level and they promote them
Speaker 1: all a level. So we were all supervisors. So they
Speaker 1: got promoted from supervisor to director. But for me, because
Speaker 1: I've been ready, because I've been performing, I grew to
Speaker 1: the U. S. Navy account and less than a year,
Speaker 1: right my first year that they promoted me two levels.
Speaker 1: So I go from supervisor to group account director overseeing.
Speaker 1: Oh dude, you can't make that up. I can't write that.
Speaker 1: I couldn't have planned it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like steady performance, UM, steady preparation, UM, steady faith. Just
Speaker 1: had me ready for the opportunity when it came. So
Speaker 1: that's the other piece that I would say, yeah, if
Speaker 1: finally so I would be remiss if I didn't talk
Speaker 1: about this. So you came in to revolt as CEO,
Speaker 1: UM had a content. A few weeks later, CEO departs
Speaker 1: and you get named co head. So you came in
Speaker 1: and literally a couple of weeks like yo, like okay,
Speaker 1: you demand that you and you and you you y'all
Speaker 1: a minute, you know, y'all y'all to once right. UM,
Speaker 1: And I do believe, like you know, there's like there's
Speaker 1: there's a thing about God clearing the way for you
Speaker 1: and I and but I believe to that when you
Speaker 1: get those opportunities where he clears away, it's up to
Speaker 1: you to grow into it, right, And so like if
Speaker 1: he just put you somewhere, you are already prepared for it,
Speaker 1: and it's not it's nothing. I mean, because you are
Speaker 1: already prepared for that. Let me do something that you're
Speaker 1: not prepared for. Let me do something that takes you
Speaker 1: to the next level. How do you when you get
Speaker 1: those types of opportunities, when you get stretched, then build
Speaker 1: the skills, you know, jumping off and then building the
Speaker 1: wings on the way down. How do you do that?
Speaker 1: How do you that successfully? Because you've done it in
Speaker 1: a couple of times. Yeah. Um, there's so many ways
Speaker 1: that I'm thinking about how I want to answer this,
Speaker 1: but the most direct way to do it. So my
Speaker 1: strategy has always been knowing I am good at and
Speaker 1: great at um and make sure that while I am learning,
Speaker 1: I am absolutely killing the things that I'm great at.
Speaker 1: So for example, UM, when I was at Johnson and Johnson,
Speaker 1: I left the client side and went to the agency
Speaker 1: side where Johnson and Johnson, I learned strategy. I learned
Speaker 1: how clients think, which no one on the agency side knew. Well,
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to produce a TV commercial, doesn't
Speaker 1: know how to produce radio. I didn't have to produce
Speaker 1: any of those things. But what I could do is
Speaker 1: come in, develop strategy, translate um client needs more clearly
Speaker 1: and directly while learning that side of the business. Me
Speaker 1: doing what I was good at allowed us to grow
Speaker 1: the business in one year while I was still learning
Speaker 1: the other side. Right, I left the agency side and
Speaker 1: went to the media. Started in no media, but from
Speaker 1: agency side I learned ideas, the power strategic thinking. So
Speaker 1: now I'm jumping into media, which is spots and dots.
Speaker 1: But they need big ideas to grow. They need big
Speaker 1: ideas in order to be b et and all of
Speaker 1: the other competitions. So I'm bringing that while I'm learning media.
Speaker 1: Here ever voted a little bit of the same. It's
Speaker 1: you know, I think I have a solid understanding of
Speaker 1: how a total media company and machine works that I'm
Speaker 1: able to to to deliver on. I have an understanding
Speaker 1: of digital that I'm under that I'm able to deliver
Speaker 1: on while I'm learning pieces that I was touching but
Speaker 1: not running when I was an urban one. Right, So, um,
Speaker 1: I was close to linear, but I wasn't running linear, right,
Speaker 1: so I'm trying to make sure I can demonstrate value
Speaker 1: in the places where I know God has given me
Speaker 1: gifts and expertise, while I am very open and transparent
Speaker 1: about what I don't know, but trying to learn that
Speaker 1: side as quickly as humanly possible. Black Tag Green Money
Speaker 1: is the production to Black They. Afro Tech is produced
Speaker 1: by Morgan Dabon and me Will Lucas, with additional production
Speaker 1: support by Love Beat Your Raven ear Born. Special thank
Speaker 1: you to Michael David's and c and Car savan Yan
Speaker 1: you know like the Wine. Yes that's his real name.
Speaker 1: Learn more about my guests and other technis represent innovators
Speaker 1: at afro tech dot com. Go get your money, peace
Speaker 1: and love,