WEBVTT - Civic Cipher 111222 Civic Cipher Sits Down with Isaac Hayes III (Part 2) 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:01.880 So welcome back to Civic Cipher. I am your host 0:00:01.880 --> 0:00:04.840 of Ramsey's job is rams' jah. I am q Ward. 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:06.680 You are listening to Civic Cipher. 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:10.879 Yes, indeed, once again, as promised, it is time to 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:15.400 bring on our special guest, a man who is a 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:15.800 hero in. 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:18.599 Both of our books. This is Ebity Excellence, folks. Yeah, yeah, 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:20.279 so that's why we didn't need to even throw to that. 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:24.560 You know, we did mention before on the show a 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:26.640 platform called fan base, and of course we're going to 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:31.200 get into that a little bit more. But this man, 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:33.320 you know, for the biggest part of his life I'm 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:37.960 sure was associated with his famous father. Obviously he's made 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:40.760 incredible contributions to the culture that we know and love 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:41.279 and we. 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:41.920 Call hip hop. 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:48.839 But really nowadays he is making a difference, giving us 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:52.200 our voice operating in a media space, specifically a social 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:56.600 media space, and you know, we are incredibly proud of him. 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.160 He's a hero of ours, dare I say even a 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:01.520 mentor someone that we look up to. Absolutely, and he 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.480 joins us today and we are honored to have mister 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:06.720 Isaac Hayes the Third with us. 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.399 Welcome to the show, brother, thank you for having me 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:11.520 thank you for having me absolutely. 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.080 So, you know, for folks that may have missed our 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:17.840 other episode where we went in depth about fan base, 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:21.200 talk a bit about what fan base is. 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:26.520 So, fan base is the intersection of social media and 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:31.280 what I call like micro casting or micro subscriptions. It 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.160 is the first social media platform that allows you to 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.440 have a follower and a subscriber on the same page 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:42.080 via in that purchase, and that was a significant milestone 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.600 for us and technology because no other app had done it. 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:47.880 And fast forward to where we are now in twenty 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:52.520 twenty two, subscriptions are all the rage. You know, Instagram 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:56.639 is talking about subscriptions. Elon started his subscription based service 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.000 today on Twitter Blue Launch. They're giving away blue Chat 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:05.000 like it's nothing. But yeah, so it's fan base is 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.240 just that I think the world is the world is 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.200 going to open up in a way that allows people 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:12.639 to monetize their content if they so choose. So it's 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.000 free to download, free to use. You can have followers 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:16.440 and subscribers on the same page. 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:17.040 Yeah. 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.799 Yeah, So Q and I are both early adopters of 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:23.280 fan base, and Q is an early investor, yes, and 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:26.720 based as well. But one of the things that we 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:31.120 felt was really important on this show is that. 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.000 This story is a story of. 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:42.400 Black ownership, black leadership, and really telling our own stories 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.080 using our own voice. And that's one thing that I 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:48.160 really love. I know that fan base obviously exists for 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.000 all people, just like any other social media platform, but 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.200 the restrictions that are often put in place, or the 0:02:55.480 --> 0:03:00.200 undervaluing that takes place in terms of black creatives contribution 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:06.080 on the legacy sites, we'll call them your facebooks, your twitters, 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:08.400 those sorts of sites had. 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:09.440 Just gone on long enough. 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:13.320 And I understand that you know, you were inspired to 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:18.160 create fan base because of a story about I know 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:19.840 it had to do with a kid and a Spider 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:21.880 Man costume. Why don't you share that with us? 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.240 Yeah, So this this kid from Memphis, Tennessee, that my 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:30.200 hometown I was born in, went viral dancing in a 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:34.000 Spider Man costume in a game stop and I just 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:36.320 shout up a message and say congratulating Memphis, And he 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:38.440 reached back and asked him I was a manager frantically 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.240 trying to figure out how he could take eventage of 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:43.880 this moment because he got like the three hundred thousand 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:44.920 fowers pretty fast. 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:45.480 Wow. 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.480 And so I told him I don't really do artist 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.040 management like that, but I said, you know, you know, 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:52.800 he wanted to have a meeting. 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:54.400 I said, well, send me your number and I think 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:54.800 about it. 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.920 And that was like in March, right, and then fast 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:01.800 forward to I didn't really talk to him again until 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:05.000 probably the next year. Sounds crazy, but I left that 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.600 conversation was like, Yo, he's having the moment of his 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:10.480 life and doesn't know how to make money off of 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:15.680 it because there's a there's a really a very I 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:23.880 guess wild and I don't I guess risky or risky 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.680 way that people go viral and try to turn that. 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.160 Into a business. It's inefficient, you know what I'm saying. 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.680 You go viral, you try to turn them into a business, 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:34.039 hopefully end up on Loving hip hop or you know, 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:38.200 you get brand endorsements or something like that. So I said, 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:40.840 people need to be able to subscribe to him like 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:43.680 you subscribe to Netflix, because people need to be able 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:46.520 to learn how to dance like him. And so that 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:48.279 was the birth of fan base, where I was like, Wow, 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.760 you can have followers and subscribers on the same page. 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:52.240 That's it. That's the idea. 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:54.720 I can follow you but if I want, you can 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:56.880 post content and I can subscribe to you. And then 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:58.920 that was the idea that kicked it off. 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.080 Sure, sure, you know it's incredible. 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.960 I've seen you talking about the inefficiencies and the lack 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.560 of equity with regards to credit, attention and financial gain 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.880 to black creators, you know, on those legacy apps, on 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.960 the tiktoks and the Instagram, these these businesses that we've 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.400 made that we've grown the evaluation for we're the reason 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:20.880 that these places are cool. They take the culture, they 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:22.680 take the ideas, and then they profit from it and 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.560 we don't. I watched you take kind of the frustration 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.480 of that the idea that you just said you came 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.240 up with with this young man, young Memphis, and turn 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:33.840 it into something that's living and breathing. Like we're looking 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.440 at you. Our listeners can't see it, but you're sitting 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.240 in the headquarters of fan base. I don't know if 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:42.440 it's as incredible to you as it is to us, 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:45.680 because I remember when it was an idea and then 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.600 you let us all invest in it. And I remember 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:51.479 I had a conversation with my mom and when I 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:53.600 told her what it was about, she was so excited 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:55.960 my mother from making Georgia, you know what I mean, 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.080 having a conversation with her son about black tech and 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.000 essentially creating our own capital. It really really blew her away. 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:04.880 How has that experience felt for you? 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:08.719 It's a surreal experience. It's the joy and honor of 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:12.080 my life to be able to build something like this. 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.520 It was unexpected. I was, you know, I was managing 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.920 my dad's estate and still doing music from here, you know, 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.040 from time to time. But I've always loved social media 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:23.240 and I've been able to use it in a way 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:27.799 to effectively communicate to the masses. What I recognize, which 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.440 isn't a bad thing, is that social media is kind 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.440 of like a shared experience between people where we mimic 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.320 each other. You know, you do the dance, I do 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:39.680 the jams. You do the challenge, I do the challenge. 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:47.359 Advertising is the part of social media that that's messed 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:49.599 up for the black community. And I'm gonna tell you 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:53.560 why not not making this about race, But the overall 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.560 goal of a platform like a TikTok or an Instagram 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:02.080 is to generate ad revenue. So therefore, as many eyeballs 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.440 on content that they can run ads in between, it's 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:08.160 beneficial to their business. So therefore, it behoo's any of 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.239 these platforms to have very very famous white creators because 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.080 that is a larger audience of advertising that they can 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.600 serve to rather than very very famous black creators. So 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.680 what happens is our community creates the trends and the 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:26.960 culture and the dances, and then these other creators duplicate them, 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.080 which is not a problem at all because it's just 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:33.080 we copy each other, but to the benefit of the platform. 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:36.040 And then the creator that copies they see all the 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:40.440 rewards and the benefit of you know, the financial gain 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:42.960 from doing that, and the originators get left in the dust. 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.120 So this has been a great process for me to 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:49.960 start from something that's in my head that I feel 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:53.840 like I can help our community and help everyone monetized, 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.040 but especially the people that are underserved from it. Coming 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.000 from an idea to building it and it actually works 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.280 because you know, the first thing that I guess, there's 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.880 there's a there's an assumption in black tech, like or 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:08.840 technology sometimes like we build it. 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:12.080 Do do it work? The log on? Does it crash? Like? 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:12.680 Does it you know? 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:14.880 It's like you know, and fan base is a really 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:19.000 solid solid product built by an amazing team. So I'm 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.160 fortunate to have them and love working with them. 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.360 Yes, sir, So one of the things that I know 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.040 is very frustrating for any content creators. 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:29.360 Uh. 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.400 And you know we're we're focusing on you know, black creators, 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:34.120 which you know Q and I are with the show 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:38.680 Civic Cipher is trying to best the algorithm. Now, this 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.280 show exists on radio stations, but obviously we have to 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:46.520 play the social media game as well, and these algorithms, 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:51.080 there's sometimes sometimes they help out. Obviously in recent you know, 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:55.480 uh weeks, we've seen the benefit of that, but there 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.000 were years of toiling in the dark, and had not 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:02.800 a fortuitous series of events happened, we may still be 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:07.680 toiling in the dark with respect to social media. And 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.720 I think that fan base has kind of addressed the 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.839 algorithm issue with some of these legacy platforms as well. 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:15.080 So can you speak to that as well. 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.320 Yeah, so it's not necessarily an issue. It is the 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:23.479 design and function of our platforms that are built off advertising. 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:24.600 Right. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:28.680 So what that means is is, and I say this 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.480 all the time when I ask this question and the 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:33.360 light bulb goes off in your head, and sometimes you 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:35.280 know something is so simple that you don't think about it. 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.600 When you think about it, you're like, yeah, it makes sense. 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.200 I tell people, why would Instagram let you reach a 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.800 million people when they're about to charge Target and Walmart 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:46.600 to reach a million people through ads? 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:47.640 Wow? 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:49.920 Because if you could reach a million people through ad 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.199 through your generic posts, the posts that you make, and 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:55.480 Walmart and Target would just come and pay you and 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.560 they would never run ads on Instagram. So for that 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:02.280 very reason, they have to suppress everybody's content down to 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.640 a level that allows them to make money from these brands. 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.320 So someone like Kim Kardashian that has three hundred and 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:14.200 thirty million followers, that's three times the visibility and the 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:17.400 viewership of the super Bowl. The super Bowl only comes 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:19.960 on one day a year for four hours, and they 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.200 charge seven million dollars for a commercial. So if Kim 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.920 Kardashian could reach three hundred million people twenty four hours 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.560 a day, seven days a week, she could charge twenty 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:32.640 one million dollars a post and never have to do 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:34.680 anything again for the rest of her life because she 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:38.320 has more visibility and reach than major network television stations. 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.000 Take the word following and turn it into viewership and 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:43.040 then it all makes sense, like, oh, she has three 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.760 hundred million viewers. Wow, that is insane. That's an insane 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.280 amount of that. That's the population of the United States 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.160 of America at the click of a button going live. 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.080 Three hundred million people posting a photo, three hundred million 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.679 people posting a video, three hundred million people. 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:58.640 That's insane. 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:02.920 So that is why the algorithm, that's why content is suppressed, 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.320 because nobody would ever run ads. I mean it's like 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:08.559 you would brands would be able to reach the exact 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:10.520 demographic that they want to reach it. But I know 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:14.079 somebody has twenty million followers that's seventeen years old, that's black, 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:16.839 that likes video games and Oreo cookies. I'm going to 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.440 go on his page. But they have to go through 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.120 Facebook and Instagram to figure all that kind of stuff out, 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:24.800 and that's how they do it. So we don't do 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:26.880 that at fan Base. I want to lift the veil 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:33.800 of suppression off because I'm more focused on subscription than ads, 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:37.360 and because subscription is the future of what social media 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:38.800 is going to be, and. 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:45.720 I think that that's very important. Having a black man 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:55.720 give his black insight to a business and being able 0:11:55.760 --> 0:12:01.120 to create something that speaks to maybe needs is a 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:04.640 strong word, but sort of the shortcomings that we find 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.520 in our black communities, that is able to address that. 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.040 And I think that the bigger picture here is that 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.080 black ownership really matters. I think this is what I 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:14.960 want our listeners to take away from it. When we 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:18.480 say support black businesses, We're not just talking to Black people. 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:23.040 We're talking to all people because ideas like this deserve 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.439 to exist, because there are white creators that would benefit 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:30.240 from this same business model as well. Absolutely so, in 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.080 your own words, I want you to speak, because you've 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.000 built something from the ground up, speak to the importance 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:40.840 of black ownership, black thought, black entrepreneurship, you know, black leadership, 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.800 those things that obviously are very important and instrumental in 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:45.160 getting this endeavor off the ground. 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:47.560 Well, one of the things that I'll say is being 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:53.600 black is probably the biggest gift that a person on 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.560 this planet could have being an African American person. And 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.640 I know, you know, I've had conversations about the lineage 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.400 and the legacy in the in the heritage of black people, 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.440 but African american Ism, as I call it, is the 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:10.880 hottest ish on the planet, like it is the hottest 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:16.160 thing on the globe. You it is literally impossible for 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:22.520 you to market and promote anything as being cool. Not sentimental, exciting, 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.960 or adventurous, but cool without the assistance of black people. 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.720 You need our music, you need our slang, you need 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.960 our dance, you need our fashion, You need one of 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:38.079 our top artisans, one of our top you know, musicians 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:42.559 to sell cool and cool is what sells things. So 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:47.240 being black is like we are the cool of the world, 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.720 as I say it, And so what comes with that 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:59.280 is innovation, and so we innovate industries, we freestyle infrastructures 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:01.680 off the top of our head, and don't understand that 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.680 we're actually doing those things. I've said this a bunch 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.960 of times before. Shout out to Graham Master Flash. I 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:09.920 had a chance to talk to him about a month ago, 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.800 and I always tell people I use him as an example, 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.439 and I say, look, man, the first time you DJed 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.560 on two turntables and a mixer, someone should have pulled 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:21.760 you to the side and said, do not show an 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:25.680 mffort what you just showed me. Let's go figure out 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:29.480 how to make turntables and mixers. Because everybody that's going 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.960 to do this is going to need turntables and mixers 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:35.760 so you can innovate, you can. So he created DJ 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.240 culture to the point now that his innovation is in 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:45.120 one device, one piece of hardware that pioneer cells. So 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:49.360 Serato and Techniques and pioneer owned DJ culture when it 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.360 should be owned by all those original DJs. All those 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.560 guys should be billionaires just sitting back in their sixties 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.760 chilling like, yo, we invented this and we we innovate 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.840 that culture. The same thing with mobile cultures, like we 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:04.000 we're the ones that did TVs in the headrests. You 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.120 see Maybox with those rims led lights in the ceilings, 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.520 really amazing sound systems. But we don't own a Ford, 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.840 we don't own Chrysler, we don't own Mercedes, we don't 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:15.480 own any of the automobile companies. 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:17.960 And then you get to social media. 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.880 We give our dances to TikTok, our clapbacks to Twitter, 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:24.960 you know, our skits to Instagram, but we don't actually 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:27.880 own the infrastructure of any of these things that we make. 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:30.920 And so it's it's time that there is a black 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:35.920 owned social media company that a social media platform that 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:39.560 serves the benefit of all users, because given the current 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.720 construct of social media, it's an exploited relationship. They let 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.640 some people through. There's some stars that make it, you know, 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.080 Cobby Lame. Shout out to Cobby Lame, and the people 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.600 that you know become household names off social media. 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.880 But as a whole, there are billions and billions. 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.880 Of dollars in ad revenue being created, and none of 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.760 that is ever finding way back to the Black community, 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:02.720 not time of it. 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:05.640 So rams is mentioned earlier that I'm an early investor 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:09.480 in fan Base. Now you know that there's a reason 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:12.680 why you and I weren't invited to invest in Twitter 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.800 and Instagram and Facebook. The fact that I'm an investor 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:18.960 in fan base is a really really cool thing that 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:23.120 I'm ridiculously proud of. Kind of explain why the way 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:27.400 that you're even you know, generating revenue and raising money 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.240 is so much different than the way other tech companies 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.680 did their startup and their and their seed rounds. 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:38.040 So let's talk about accredited investors. That is a term 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:42.040 given to wealthy people that meet a qualification to invest 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:45.760 in early stage companies. It's a law, It was a 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.400 law made by rich people to give them the opportunity 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.680 to have the early access to the best investments. So 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:55.200 the qualifications of being an accredited investor is you have 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.880 to have a network in excess of a million dollars 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:01.600 might as your house, or over two hundred thousand dollars 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.800 a year for two consecutive years. The average American salary 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.639 is about forty seven thousand dollars. Now, mind you this 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.320 this law was put into effect in like nineteen thirty three, 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:12.679 So I don't care what color you were. This was 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:17.080 really about wealth versus poverty. So all the companies that 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.800 you've seen throughout you know, American history, the ibms, the Microsoft's, 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:25.280 the Apples of the world, the facebooks of the world 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:30.439 were all invested. Uber were all funded by angel investors 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.440 who are credited. So I use an example of a 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.720 guy named Oron Michaels. He put five thousand dollars into 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:42.000 Uber in twenty ten, five thousand dollars, cool money. When 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.160 the when an Uber iPod in twenty nineteen. Nine years later, 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:49.280 his five thousand dollars was worth twenty four million dollars. Now, 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.080 I'm not trying to be funny, but like I could 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.160 get ten of my friends together, we put five hundred 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:55.760 dollars a piece and walk away with two point four 0:17:55.800 --> 0:18:00.520 million dollars in nine years. Right, But the IRA and 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.080 all of that is, you don't have to be accredited 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:05.560 to buy five thousand dollars worth of lottery tickets to 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:09.240 win a two billion dollar powerball jackpot, how very much 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:11.320 money they made. You don't have to be accredited to 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.040 go to Vegas and put five thousand dollars on a 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.680 crap table or blackjack. But I can't put five thousand 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:21.399 dollars into Facebook over all of these companies. So shout 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.159 out to Congress at the time in Barack Obama creating 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.320 this law called the Jobs Act that allows any person 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:31.280 to invest in an early stage startup. So any company 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:34.200 can raise up to five million dollars in a calendar year, 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.720 and the accredited industry rule is wiped out. It doesn't matter, 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.399 It doesn't matter, your network, it didn't matter. So I 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.720 got introduced to start Engine through a colleague of mine, 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:46.639 a good friend of mine, and she said, you need 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:49.560 to go to start Engine because fan base is a 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:53.840 people's product. And when you think about social media, the 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.520 users generally, you know, effect the value of the startup. 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:58.280 No users no startup. 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:00.840 Everybody left Instagram to day be where zero dollars and zero cents, 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.840 clubhouse zero dollars and zero cents, TikTok, same thing. So 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:06.840 who better than to give opportunity in owning a platform 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.040 than the people that actually use it. So I got 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.879 accepted the start Engine. Only two percent of people that 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:16.880 apply to equity crowdfund and get accepted. I got accepted, 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.560 learned a lot more about my business going through that process, 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:22.480 and my initial goes to raise one million and I 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:26.640 wound up raising three point four million in the first 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:30.520 round that I did, which was amazing. And then I 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:33.480 launched a second round about a year ago and I 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:38.840 raised two point six million dollars and I just launched 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:42.240 the final This is the last one. I'm doing the 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.960 final round to invest in fan Base, and we've already 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:49.439 raised about nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars in five weeks. 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.639 So I tell everybody that wants to own part of 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:56.719 the future of social media, in the future, the future 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:00.000 tech giant of social media, you can invest in fans 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.160 Base and have ownership in this platform and use it 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.400 by going to start Engine, dot com slash fan Base 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:08.840 and investing now the minimum to invest is two hundred 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.560 and forty five bucks. That's a price. That's the price 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:13.640 of a pair of jays. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:16.440 That's a that's a state incredible, that's a stake dinner, Ruth, 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:18.640 Chris to get you some equity and a startup that 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.679 has an upside and a very very bright future that 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.360 we're working hard to continue to scale. And so I've 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:27.320 done these three rounds to get people the opportunity to 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:31.320 have equity in the company. But like now, we have 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:33.600 to move to that level where we do let institutional 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:35.840 investors in because they cut the checks that are big. 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:36.280 They cut the. 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:39.040 Twenty million dollar checks, the forty million dollar checks in 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:42.119 one one fail swoop, and that's how you scale faster. 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:45.240 Yes, sir, so I invested in round one and two. 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:49.280 Rams Is said, do not close round three until you 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.000 let him invest. And I'm about to invest for the 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:52.640 third time. 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.120 You better hurry up for this round closed. I gotta 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:55.840 don't worry about it. 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:59.199 Because was what happens is when I do amazing programs 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.199 like these, we see a spike in investment. Okay, so 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.360 you know, like one time at one time, like when 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:11.119 I did the Breakfast Club. I raised probably two million 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.080 dollars in like in twenty four hours. 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:15.399 Wow, So it was like that fast because it just 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:16.040 went viral. 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:18.679