Speaker 1: Hey, guys, how are your feelingist Angela Yee from the
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club, and I just want to say I'm excited
Speaker 1: to participate in this commencement speeches for the Class of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty podcast event. I know a lot of us
Speaker 1: right now are going through a lot of things. So
Speaker 1: for me to be able to talk to you and
Speaker 1: just communicate what I've been through and any kind of
Speaker 1: advice that I can give, I'm honored to be able
Speaker 1: to do that. Before I do say anything, I want
Speaker 1: to tell you that you did it. You made it
Speaker 1: across the finish line, and right now, you guys are
Speaker 1: under the most unique circumstances that I believe I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Whenever you think about your twenty twenty graduation, you're definitely
Speaker 1: going to have some of the most interesting stories to tell.
Speaker 1: And that's what I want to focus on today. Right
Speaker 1: as you figure out the next stop on your journey
Speaker 1: of life, some of you are going to continue on
Speaker 1: with formal education, some of you will join the workforce
Speaker 1: right away, some of you will take a break as
Speaker 1: you ponder what's next in life, and some of you
Speaker 1: will start to own businesses. Some of you, guys will
Speaker 1: just straight up hustle. I've done all of those things
Speaker 1: throughout the course of my career, and what I want
Speaker 1: to talk about today is just being flexible, also controlling
Speaker 1: your reactions to things that you can't control, and being proactive.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to quote Kanye West when I talk
Speaker 1: about that, being proactive, which is not something I normally do,
Speaker 1: so you know it's important now. When I first graduated,
Speaker 1: I went right back to my parents' house. They live
Speaker 1: in South Thurren's, New Jersey, and I wanted to stay there,
Speaker 1: but they got tired of me being in the house.
Speaker 1: I was broke, I was in debt. They had paid
Speaker 1: for me to go to college. I also had taken
Speaker 1: out a lot of student loans. So after less than
Speaker 1: a month, they were like, you have to get a
Speaker 1: job and you have to get a place to live.
Speaker 1: So the first thing I did was in my head,
Speaker 1: I said, I'm going to get a job working at
Speaker 1: a temp agency. I wanted to be able to pursue
Speaker 1: my career as a writer. Since I was in kindergarten,
Speaker 1: I just knew I would be a writer. I didn't
Speaker 1: even survive three days doing this temp agency job. I
Speaker 1: was opening envelopes in a quote data entry position. It
Speaker 1: was awful. I decided, let me just tap in and
Speaker 1: follow up on these internships I had done in college. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: when I was in school, I went to Wesleyan University
Speaker 1: and I did use the Career Resource Center and it
Speaker 1: was great for me to be able to link up
Speaker 1: a different people who graduated from Wesleyan who were able
Speaker 1: to get me internships. Now, one internship I did did
Speaker 1: not necessarily have to do with my college. It was
Speaker 1: through a colleague of mine and I ended up getting
Speaker 1: a job working for the Wu Tang Clan, the legendary
Speaker 1: Woutang Clan. After several years of working in the music
Speaker 1: industry and also making sure that I networked, I made
Speaker 1: sure that I went out, I formed my own relationships
Speaker 1: with people. I also developed my skills in marketing and NPR.
Speaker 1: I decided that I want to be a freelancer, and
Speaker 1: I did want to have multiple streams of income, but
Speaker 1: I also wanted to have my freedom to be able
Speaker 1: to travel if I needed to, not have to be
Speaker 1: in an office every day, and that was pretty good
Speaker 1: for me. It wasn't until I was twenty eight years
Speaker 1: old that I actually stumbled and for real stumbled into
Speaker 1: my career in radio, and that was thanks to my
Speaker 1: relationship with Paul Rosenberg. Paul is M and m's manager,
Speaker 1: and he had just started the station Shade forty five
Speaker 1: on serious satellite radio. I had actually worked with him
Speaker 1: on Eminem's clothing line, and because he saw how hard
Speaker 1: I worked and just the relationships I managed to forage
Speaker 1: and continue to keep, he said, Okay, let's try you
Speaker 1: on the radio. And it did end up working out.
Speaker 1: At first, I had to work there and not get paid.
Speaker 1: It was kind of an unpaid probation period. But because
Speaker 1: I was working like I was getting paid, and I
Speaker 1: was putting in that extra time, in those extra hours,
Speaker 1: and really humbling myself because you have to think I
Speaker 1: had already been working for almost eight years and getting
Speaker 1: paid a pretty decent amount of money to being paid nothing.
Speaker 1: It was really a humbling experience for me. But I
Speaker 1: think in the end it all worked. Now I've been
Speaker 1: doing radio for sixteen years and I still haven't focused
Speaker 1: on what I set out to do, or originally that
Speaker 1: was to be a writer. Remember, Now, life will do
Speaker 1: that to you. Sometimes you have a plan and there's
Speaker 1: all these detours, there's all these dead ends, and then
Speaker 1: you have to take a whole new route. And sometimes
Speaker 1: things happen quickly, and sometimes they happen easily, and sometimes
Speaker 1: it takes years or it doesn't materialize the way that
Speaker 1: you envision that it would. You'll have to make some
Speaker 1: really important decisions. And I'm a really huge believer that
Speaker 1: whatever you chose to do, you have to represent you
Speaker 1: in the strongest way possible. Maybe you'll be doing an
Speaker 1: unpaid internship or like I did that probationary period for free.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a low paying job that you accepted, and
Speaker 1: I did have that job as a low paying job,
Speaker 1: I've had a lot of those. But if you did
Speaker 1: agree to certain terms, then you have to make sure
Speaker 1: that you show up, make sure you show out, because
Speaker 1: you never know what that position might lead to. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe you have a job that you hate, but you're
Speaker 1: making six or seven figures. I know people like that,
Speaker 1: and you still have to perform your responsibilit be on time.
Speaker 1: You still have to make sure that you do everything
Speaker 1: to the best of your ability, make sure you treat
Speaker 1: people well, because again, people don't know what you're going through,
Speaker 1: and you also never know what that position might lead to.
Speaker 1: Make sure, you don't let circumstances and negative people influence
Speaker 1: the greatness that you have. You cannot control other people's actions,
Speaker 1: but what you can control is your own reaction. One
Speaker 1: thing that really has helped me, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if everyone can do this, but I believe in the
Speaker 1: power of writing, and so what I do is I
Speaker 1: write things down when people do really effed up things
Speaker 1: to me, And somehow the story becomes funnier when I
Speaker 1: write it down, and I can even change it the
Speaker 1: way I want to change it, just to make it
Speaker 1: a comedy. Now, some people do this, and I know
Speaker 1: writers who have a kill list, and that's people that
Speaker 1: they want to get revenge on later and maybe you'll
Speaker 1: read about those in my book one day. But in
Speaker 1: the meantime, it's very therapeutic for me. You can always
Speaker 1: learn something even when things are really tragic. So when
Speaker 1: something unfortunate happens, I like to do something positive for
Speaker 1: another person. That's another way that I also shift the
Speaker 1: energy that's around me. The last thing I want to
Speaker 1: leave you with is a quote. And I told y'all
Speaker 1: I was going to quote Kanye West. That's not something
Speaker 1: I do very often, but this was during his glow
Speaker 1: on the Dark Tour, they gave out these little booklets
Speaker 1: of kanyeisms, and one thing that always has stuck out
Speaker 1: in my head to use is necessary. And if you
Speaker 1: can't be used, then you're useless. And I know we've
Speaker 1: heard that so many times and songs and quotes, and
Speaker 1: I've always been hesitant to ask for favors, and sometimes
Speaker 1: I'm even hesitant to just offer my own services. It's
Speaker 1: kind of a pride thing when you feel like you
Speaker 1: have to be independent and do everything and not need
Speaker 1: anyone's help. What I've learned is that is a waste
Speaker 1: of time and energy. Right now you're graduating, make sure
Speaker 1: you use those relationships that you made, or make sure
Speaker 1: you tap into that alumni network when you have a
Speaker 1: great pitch, when you need employment, when you're looking for
Speaker 1: an employee, when you need a mentor, or even if
Speaker 1: you just want to acknowledge that somebody has done something
Speaker 1: great and you want to shout them out. I've gotten
Speaker 1: a lot of opportunit unities from the people I came
Speaker 1: up with, and I've also helped other people get into
Speaker 1: great positions. The best thing I discovered in business is
Speaker 1: I don't have to do things alone, I can partner
Speaker 1: with other people. That's how I ended up being a
Speaker 1: co owner in the Juice bar Juices for Life, BK
Speaker 1: with styles P, who's a legendary rapper from the Locks
Speaker 1: that you should know, and djm V. I knew styles
Speaker 1: P already opened three juice bars. I knew my chance
Speaker 1: of success would be higher with somebody who already went
Speaker 1: through those mistakes that I knew I would have made.
Speaker 1: And if I try to open that juice bar alone,
Speaker 1: I might not be celebrating four years of owning a
Speaker 1: juice bar this year. When it comes to handling my business,
Speaker 1: there's no way that I could do everything I do.
Speaker 1: You know the Breakfast Club Morning Show. I also have
Speaker 1: my podcast lip Service, I have all my bookings, I
Speaker 1: do a lot of charity events. I'm on the board
Speaker 1: for different organizations, and I still do have a life
Speaker 1: outside of work. And the way I'm able to maintain
Speaker 1: that is I have people who are in positions where
Speaker 1: they can help me. So link up with people. Make
Speaker 1: sure you show that same love back to You can't
Speaker 1: just always take and not give. And remember that you
Speaker 1: guys are the visionaries of twenty twenty and In the
Speaker 1: times that we're in, you guys are definitely the ones
Speaker 1: who are leading the way. Twenty twenty might be one
Speaker 1: of the most important years that I've ever experienced, from
Speaker 1: this coronavirus pandemic to the upcoming elections and everything else
Speaker 1: in between. So right now, you guys, all eyes are
Speaker 1: on you, and I know y'all are up for the challenge.
Speaker 1: So congratulations again to the class of twenty twenty.