1
00:00:00,880 --> 00:00:04,920
Speaker 1: Afrotech Conference is back and return to AIDS Town, Houston, Texas,

2
00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:07,880
Speaker 1: from October twenty seven through thirty first, twenty twenty.

3
00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:08,920
Speaker 2: Five at the George R.

4
00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:10,039
Speaker 3: Brown Convention Center.

5
00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:12,840
Speaker 1: For years, Afrotech has been to go to experience for

6
00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:16,920
Speaker 1: black tech innovators, founders, engineers, creators and investors.

7
00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:18,000
Speaker 3: In twenty twenty.

8
00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:19,560
Speaker 1: Five is shaping up to be the biggest year yet,

9
00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:23,400
Speaker 1: though with fortyzery tenees expected. This year's conference will feature

10
00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:27,080
Speaker 1: five days of dynamic programming across six curator stages from

11
00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:30,400
Speaker 1: discovery to executive leadership. Join us to hear from industry

12
00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:33,199
Speaker 1: leaders at the forefront of change, learn from top ten

13
00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:35,960
Speaker 1: engineers and designers, and connect with recruiters from nearly two

14
00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:39,280
Speaker 1: hundred companies. This year, we're digging deeper into what's next

15
00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:42,640
Speaker 1: with tracks exploring AI and machine learning, mad tech and

16
00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:47,000
Speaker 1: health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech, and much more. Whether you're

17
00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:49,720
Speaker 1: launching your first startup, pivoting into a new role, or

18
00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,120
Speaker 1: scaling as an execut there's something here for you.

19
00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:54,200
Speaker 2: Tickets are moving fast to keep your.

20
00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:55,800
Speaker 1: Spot nowt at Afrotech Conference.

21
00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:57,760
Speaker 3: Dot Com will lucas here.

22
00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:00,240
Speaker 1: Black tech, green money is so good to be with

23
00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:03,240
Speaker 1: you guys for another episode. I have a special guest today.

24
00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:07,279
Speaker 1: I've been really looking forward to this interview. Roland Martin

25
00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:11,240
Speaker 1: is not just a journalist. He's a media entrepreneur, CEO,

26
00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:15,479
Speaker 1: and digital pioneer who spent decades building his own lane

27
00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:18,399
Speaker 1: in the news industry. He's best known for hosts and

28
00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:22,000
Speaker 1: managing editor of Roland Martin Unfiltered and founder of the

29
00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:26,200
Speaker 1: black Star Network. He's turned decades of experience in mainstream

30
00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:31,200
Speaker 1: media into a powerful independent platform reaching millions daily. Welcome,

31
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:31,840
Speaker 1: mister Martin.

32
00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:33,600
Speaker 2: All right, glad to be here.

33
00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:35,920
Speaker 1: It's a pleasure to have you. So I want to

34
00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:41,000
Speaker 1: start talking about your media savvy here, your entrepreneurial savvy.

35
00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:46,720
Speaker 1: You know, when you started building your own platforms, what

36
00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:49,200
Speaker 1: was the gap that you saw in the marketplace and

37
00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:51,760
Speaker 1: how did those gaps inform the strategy for how you

38
00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:52,280
Speaker 1: built it?

39
00:01:53,520 --> 00:02:02,000
Speaker 2: Well, first and foremost, if I go back to you

40
00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:06,559
Speaker 2: have multiple iterations. So the current one really was when

41
00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:11,400
Speaker 2: TV one canceled my show News one Now. And as

42
00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:14,080
Speaker 2: Alfred Niggas was telling me why he was canceling the show,

43
00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:19,120
Speaker 2: he was he was refinancing the company's debt and need

44
00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:22,360
Speaker 2: to make a number of cuts and literally asked he

45
00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:22,880
Speaker 2: was talking.

46
00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:24,720
Speaker 3: I was already planning what I was gonna do.

47
00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:30,120
Speaker 2: I saw, I already saw where we were headed in

48
00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:32,760
Speaker 2: terms of digital media. And for people have to understand,

49
00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:36,720
Speaker 2: I've always been eight to ten years ahead. And because

50
00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:40,400
Speaker 2: I'm a student of the business, studying where we were going,

51
00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:43,239
Speaker 2: I was studying cord cutting. I was seeing what was

52
00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:46,560
Speaker 2: happening with ny Or Television broadcasting cable, as well as

53
00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:50,440
Speaker 2: what was happening with ter Restaurant Radio. December twenty thousand, nineteen,

54
00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:55,560
Speaker 2: Tom Joyner was retiring and I said that, you know,

55
00:02:55,919 --> 00:02:59,040
Speaker 2: Black America is gonna be significantly hurt because we're not

56
00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:03,600
Speaker 2: going to have that major presence on the air for

57
00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:07,240
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty election. And you know, TV one offered

58
00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:09,840
Speaker 2: me a new three year contract that kept the salary

59
00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:10,800
Speaker 2: the same with three hundred and.

60
00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:12,400
Speaker 3: Thirty thousand, and I said no.

61
00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:18,079
Speaker 2: And remember my agent at the time, Mark whad say, hey, man,

62
00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:19,800
Speaker 2: let's take this deal was easy money. I said, no,

63
00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:23,440
Speaker 2: we're not because what I also understood.

64
00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:24,679
Speaker 3: Was this year was that.

65
00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:29,040
Speaker 2: They could easily pay me the twenty seven thousand, five

66
00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:31,680
Speaker 2: hundred a month and never do any type of programming.

67
00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:34,440
Speaker 2: And I kept saying, well, my concern was if we

68
00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:38,520
Speaker 2: don't do any programming, if we don't do anything, because

69
00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:41,200
Speaker 2: I had that before when I had Washington Watch, I

70
00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:44,320
Speaker 2: hosted the show. There were forty episodes a year, and

71
00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:47,400
Speaker 2: then in the contract, I was to do four primetime

72
00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,480
Speaker 2: specials and I think was paying me ten thousand a special.

73
00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:54,200
Speaker 2: So a couple of years we did it, but then

74
00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:56,480
Speaker 2: the other two years they just paid me the forty grand.

75
00:03:56,680 --> 00:04:00,920
Speaker 2: It was cheaper to pay me the actually do the production,

76
00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:05,360
Speaker 2: and so I said no to the deal because that

77
00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:07,480
Speaker 2: and that was the gap when I studied what was

78
00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:09,760
Speaker 2: happening in radio and to this day, and I don't

79
00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:13,440
Speaker 2: care what anybody says, and it's no disrespect to anybody

80
00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:16,679
Speaker 2: out there, but if you take what the Breakfast Club does,

81
00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:23,839
Speaker 2: Ricky Smiley, Di Ohegley, Steve Harvey, Erica Campbell, you put

82
00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:27,280
Speaker 2: all of these shows together, all these syndicated shows, they

83
00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:30,880
Speaker 2: do not equal the news and information that we were

84
00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:32,839
Speaker 2: getting on a daily basis from the time jour in

85
00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:36,119
Speaker 2: the morning show. And so that was what I saw,

86
00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:39,800
Speaker 2: what I understood, and then of course what then happens.

87
00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:42,680
Speaker 2: People were telling me, man, you should do a podcast. Well,

88
00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:45,560
Speaker 2: I people don't realize. I launched the first black news

89
00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:49,520
Speaker 2: source audio podcast, the Chicago Defender on two thousand and five.

90
00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:53,000
Speaker 2: I launched the first black video podcast in two thousand

91
00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:55,120
Speaker 2: and six, Black News Video Podcast two thousand and six

92
00:04:55,279 --> 00:04:58,240
Speaker 2: at the Chicago Defender. And so I saw where we were.

93
00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:01,120
Speaker 2: I was so taking all those pieces. I said, we

94
00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:03,359
Speaker 2: have to do this. And here's what was crazy. YouTube

95
00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:05,800
Speaker 2: was funding a lot of stuff, and I reached out.

96
00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:08,680
Speaker 2: I was told by the YouTube folks, black news is

97
00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:13,800
Speaker 2: not gonna work, Toby, and I went, Okay, I'm gonna

98
00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:17,360
Speaker 2: show y'all. It worked. And so here we are today,

99
00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:20,919
Speaker 2: going from and when I really focused. I had a

100
00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:23,080
Speaker 2: YouTube channel for years, but I really didn't do much

101
00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:26,160
Speaker 2: with it because we were prohibited from putting content on

102
00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:29,200
Speaker 2: the channel content up because of the TV one cable deal.

103
00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:33,760
Speaker 2: So so September August or September twenty seventeen, I had

104
00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:37,440
Speaker 2: about seventy two thousand YouTube subscribers. Again, I really did nothing.

105
00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,000
Speaker 2: We posted some stuff, but I was no focus. When

106
00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:43,159
Speaker 2: I launched in on September four, twenty eighteen, we had

107
00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:45,919
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty seven thousand subscribers. And as I

108
00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:49,080
Speaker 2: sit here, today, And I look at where we are today.

109
00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:54,040
Speaker 2: We're sitting at one point one million, eight hundred and

110
00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:57,560
Speaker 2: sixty eight thousand, one hundred and seventy and so, and

111
00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:00,680
Speaker 2: we're we're every week we're in the YouTube top one

112
00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:06,120
Speaker 2: hundred podcasts and so, and we're the only black news

113
00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:10,320
Speaker 2: show in the top one hundred. Everybody else Black is

114
00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:13,680
Speaker 2: entertainment of the sport. So YouTube was wrong.

115
00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:15,000
Speaker 3: A bunch of other.

116
00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:18,080
Speaker 2: People were wrong. So the audience was there, they simply

117
00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:22,080
Speaker 2: were not being served properly, and that was the lane.

118
00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,520
Speaker 1: Yes, that's amazing. So I think about You've mentioned a

119
00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:29,039
Speaker 1: couple risks you took there in that story, and it

120
00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:30,400
Speaker 1: sounds to me, and I want you to correct me

121
00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:31,960
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like you

122
00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,600
Speaker 1: were more you were more focused. I needed to get

123
00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:36,400
Speaker 1: this in front of as many people as possible. And

124
00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:40,400
Speaker 1: the ownership might have been secondary, but was ownership forefront?

125
00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:42,520
Speaker 2: No, it was. It was the same They want to

126
00:06:42,520 --> 00:06:43,480
Speaker 2: stay on the same level.

127
00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:47,400
Speaker 3: So I understood. Again, I understood, the.

128
00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:51,600
Speaker 2: Audience was there, the money was there, and this is

129
00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:53,520
Speaker 2: I mean, this is this was the literal.

130
00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:55,200
Speaker 3: Conversation I have with Mark Watts.

131
00:06:55,800 --> 00:06:59,240
Speaker 2: And again it was. This was June twenty eighteen. We

132
00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:02,000
Speaker 2: had met in March twenty eighteen. We had come off

133
00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:08,560
Speaker 2: doing the MK fiftieth anniversary of his assassination, and what

134
00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:11,000
Speaker 2: was interesting about that I'll never forget. So the show

135
00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:14,400
Speaker 2: gets canceled in December December, I think it was December nineth,

136
00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:19,400
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, and so the fiftieth was April fourth, and

137
00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:23,640
Speaker 2: we had already shot some stuff, and I was like, Hey,

138
00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:26,320
Speaker 2: I'm sending them emails, Hey are we gonna do that,

139
00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:27,920
Speaker 2: We're gonna do this, that, We're gonna We're gonna do this,

140
00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,080
Speaker 2: and we'm gonna do this, and I wasn't getting any feedback.

141
00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:33,640
Speaker 2: So I just had it on my own to spend

142
00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:36,240
Speaker 2: thirty grand of our own money, and I flew to

143
00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:39,520
Speaker 2: Stanford to interview with Clarence Jones, doctor King's attorney. I

144
00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:42,640
Speaker 2: went to had a speech in Buffalo, and then I

145
00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:44,880
Speaker 2: then went to Ithaca, New York and set out with

146
00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:47,920
Speaker 2: Dorothy Cotton. I went to Memphis to meet with Sam

147
00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:52,480
Speaker 2: Bill Lucy, and I scheduled all these different interviews and

148
00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:57,560
Speaker 2: funded them, funded them myself because I understood the importance

149
00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:00,880
Speaker 2: of the stories. But here was the other thing. I

150
00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:04,560
Speaker 2: now had that as library content. And so what then

151
00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:08,320
Speaker 2: happens is when I'm meeting with them, they're not committing

152
00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:13,080
Speaker 2: to covering stuff. So I was like, all right, and

153
00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:15,920
Speaker 2: this is what I told Mark Marcus, my fraternity brother.

154
00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:17,680
Speaker 2: We go back to when I was in high school senior,

155
00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:21,040
Speaker 2: I said to Marcus. I said, Mark, I'm forty nine

156
00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:26,480
Speaker 2: years old, I said, and I am at the peak

157
00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:28,240
Speaker 2: of this is how I looked at it, the peak

158
00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:39,800
Speaker 2: of knowledge, relationships, experience, and energy. And I said, if

159
00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:43,600
Speaker 2: I don't do this right now, I don't know. If

160
00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:46,160
Speaker 2: I said what about don't do it now, I likely

161
00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:50,840
Speaker 2: never will. And I don't know if anybody black who

162
00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:52,720
Speaker 2: is who is willing to do this.

163
00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:54,400
Speaker 3: So I have to do this.

164
00:08:55,720 --> 00:09:00,560
Speaker 2: So I understood there was a business there. I understood

165
00:09:00,559 --> 00:09:03,520
Speaker 2: that there was an audience there. But the old added,

166
00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:05,439
Speaker 2: if you build it, they will come. That it had

167
00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:09,040
Speaker 2: to happen. Somebody had to make the decision. So I didn't.

168
00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:11,640
Speaker 2: It wasn't about, hey, let's try to go people like man,

169
00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:14,720
Speaker 2: I wish you go back to seeing at MSNBC no interest,

170
00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:17,000
Speaker 2: because here was a lesson I learned even there.

171
00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:19,400
Speaker 3: And I was at the CNN.

172
00:09:19,960 --> 00:09:23,200
Speaker 2: They couldn't get anybody to interview Winnie Mandela. She was

173
00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:25,679
Speaker 2: coming to town at Birmingham, Alabama, so they came to me.

174
00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:29,160
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, sure, So I go to Birmingham

175
00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:32,480
Speaker 2: interview winning Mandela had about twenty twenty five minutes. So

176
00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:35,760
Speaker 2: a week later, I get a phone call and they go, hey,

177
00:09:36,760 --> 00:09:37,840
Speaker 2: this is the people in Atlanta.

178
00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:39,720
Speaker 3: We're looking at the interview.

179
00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:43,160
Speaker 2: Why didn't you ask her about the trial and this

180
00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:45,120
Speaker 2: and this? And I said, why the hell y'all interview?

181
00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:49,960
Speaker 2: I asked her what I wanted to ask her. I said,

182
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:52,800
Speaker 2: why the hell y'all didn't ask her? They then said,

183
00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:57,080
Speaker 2: we're not going to run the interview. I said, okay.

184
00:09:57,440 --> 00:09:59,680
Speaker 2: I went to John Klein, it was a president seeing

185
00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:02,280
Speaker 2: in you, and went to his office, said, Hey, your

186
00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:05,199
Speaker 2: folks in Atlanta ain't gonna run the Winni Mandela interview,

187
00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:07,680
Speaker 2: so can you just give it to me, give me privirige,

188
00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:09,520
Speaker 2: give it to me, and I'm gonna run it on

189
00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:10,400
Speaker 2: my TV one show.

190
00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:11,679
Speaker 3: John's like, yeah, cool.

191
00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:14,760
Speaker 2: I went to when I went to DC, we went

192
00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:18,079
Speaker 2: to the CNN bureau. They dubbed the interview over because

193
00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:21,079
Speaker 2: it was on this different tape double hand to us.

194
00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:23,120
Speaker 2: We ran it on the show and here's the deal.

195
00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:27,240
Speaker 2: March twenty eighteen, I'm in Memphis, one month before the assassin,

196
00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:32,560
Speaker 2: a commemorational assassination. Winnie Mandela dies and I'm there and

197
00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:35,559
Speaker 2: I hit my guy. I said, we're gonna restream it.

198
00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:39,720
Speaker 2: I interviewed Reverend Jesse Jackson Senior. I interviewed Randall Randall

199
00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:44,120
Speaker 2: Robinson about Winnie Mandela, and we restreamed that. The only

200
00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:49,600
Speaker 2: reason you can see my interview with Winnie Mandela was

201
00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:54,640
Speaker 2: because I had a black on media platform where I

202
00:10:54,679 --> 00:10:58,439
Speaker 2: could air it. And if I didn't have that to

203
00:10:58,679 --> 00:11:02,160
Speaker 2: this CNN, that thing will be sitting on a tap

204
00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:05,880
Speaker 2: on the shelf at CNN and no one has ever

205
00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:08,960
Speaker 2: seen it. And that's the difference when you first of

206
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:14,559
Speaker 2: all own a platform to be able to distribute a message.

207
00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:17,120
Speaker 1: Man, this this is so much there. I want to

208
00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:18,439
Speaker 1: dig in. I want to lay a little bit more

209
00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:21,319
Speaker 1: foundation first. So all right, you decide I'm going to

210
00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:24,079
Speaker 1: do this on my own for the people out there

211
00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:24,959
Speaker 1: who are saying, you know.

212
00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:27,079
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, I no no. I didn't decide

213
00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:30,360
Speaker 2: something did it on my own. I went to every

214
00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:36,400
Speaker 2: major black media company, wow, and none of it, wanted

215
00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:40,760
Speaker 2: to partner. I went to them, I understood the business.

216
00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:43,000
Speaker 2: This is this is sort of how I saw. First

217
00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:45,520
Speaker 2: of all, you gotta take it back even further. I

218
00:11:45,559 --> 00:11:49,440
Speaker 2: had the TV one show I had heard. I was

219
00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:52,760
Speaker 2: talking to people that that that that the show was

220
00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:56,960
Speaker 2: in jeopardy and I said, okay, so I silly proposal.

221
00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:59,160
Speaker 2: And so here's what happened. I was see, this is

222
00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:01,640
Speaker 2: why you have to be a student of the business.

223
00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:05,240
Speaker 2: So I'm sitting here and I'm like, okay, you know,

224
00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:07,160
Speaker 2: how can we re engineer this?

225
00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:09,600
Speaker 3: How can we look at this differently? And so remember

226
00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:10,680
Speaker 3: dish Nation.

227
00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:13,600
Speaker 2: I was sitting there and I was watching it, and

228
00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:16,000
Speaker 2: this when Ricky Spider was a part of it, and

229
00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:20,360
Speaker 2: so it was airing on TV one. But then I

230
00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:25,280
Speaker 2: saw dish Nation was online. So I went to our

231
00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:27,199
Speaker 2: affiliate person. I said, I got a question for you.

232
00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:29,960
Speaker 3: I'm curious, how is this nation?

233
00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:33,800
Speaker 2: Because I knew that we couldn't stream we had limits

234
00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:36,520
Speaker 2: of what we could stream online the eight on TV one.

235
00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:39,040
Speaker 2: I said, how are we able to do this? And

236
00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:42,880
Speaker 2: they said, oh, we have the cable rights. So you

237
00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:48,960
Speaker 2: got cable rights, got broadcast rights, you've got digital rights

238
00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:51,600
Speaker 2: and then of course international rights are separate, they said,

239
00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:54,240
Speaker 2: but we have the cable rights. That's why it's online.

240
00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:57,000
Speaker 2: And I went bingo.

241
00:12:57,120 --> 00:12:58,040
Speaker 3: So this is what I did.

242
00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:03,040
Speaker 2: I put a proposal together and I said, okay, the

243
00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:06,960
Speaker 2: problem that we have with news one now is that

244
00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:11,400
Speaker 2: it's on TV one. We're not marketing it outside the channel.

245
00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:17,960
Speaker 2: We have a loyal audience, but it's too small. And

246
00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:20,080
Speaker 2: they they were doing a million in advertising a year.

247
00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:23,080
Speaker 2: The show was costing four to five million. So I

248
00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:26,440
Speaker 2: said okay, and I knew there was a digital audience.

249
00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:29,720
Speaker 2: So the proposal I sent them was, why don't y'all

250
00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:35,319
Speaker 2: let me take ownership of the show. I'm gonna make

251
00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:39,880
Speaker 2: it a digital show. You can pay me a lot.

252
00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:42,800
Speaker 2: So it was costing you five you can pay me

253
00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:47,319
Speaker 2: a licensing fee of three point five three or two

254
00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:51,880
Speaker 2: point five million. I will produce the show, and we

255
00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:56,359
Speaker 2: have a partnership where we're able to sell the digital

256
00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:01,320
Speaker 2: sell piece. You already have the infrastructure, and then that

257
00:14:01,360 --> 00:14:05,000
Speaker 2: can be a rev share. They never responded to the proposal.

258
00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:08,840
Speaker 2: The show gets canceled. When I decided to launch this,

259
00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:11,959
Speaker 2: I gave them another proposal, why don't you I got

260
00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:15,480
Speaker 2: to Radio one why don't you partner with me with

261
00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:20,880
Speaker 2: what I'm launching. I said, you can invest five hundred thousand,

262
00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:24,000
Speaker 2: and this is what I'm gonna do. This is what

263
00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:26,800
Speaker 2: I'm gonna deliver. We could do a repshure on the advertising,

264
00:14:27,280 --> 00:14:30,880
Speaker 2: no interest. I talked to Black Enterprise. I talked to

265
00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:34,960
Speaker 2: Rich Dennis over at Essence, I remember Morgan. I had

266
00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:38,240
Speaker 2: a conversation at Blavity, I remember, and it was just,

267
00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:40,800
Speaker 2: but it was just. And I talked to numerous people

268
00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:45,360
Speaker 2: because I understood all of these entities already had the

269
00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:50,000
Speaker 2: AD infrastructure, they had the AD infrastructure that back in infrastructure,

270
00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:52,280
Speaker 2: and that none of them were even doing what I

271
00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:55,640
Speaker 2: was doing. So my own deal was, this is the

272
00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:59,120
Speaker 2: value add proposition. You need to be able to sell

273
00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:02,600
Speaker 2: more unit and so here's how we can utilie streaming.

274
00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:05,960
Speaker 2: Nobody wanted to partner, so I said, okay, I'm gonna

275
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:08,200
Speaker 2: do it, and I went ahead and did it myself.

276
00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:11,880
Speaker 2: But I wasn't but I was trying to find a

277
00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:15,160
Speaker 2: black media partner and no one wanted to and so

278
00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:16,960
Speaker 2: I said, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and do it,

279
00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:18,920
Speaker 2: and that's what we did.

280
00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:21,920
Speaker 1: So I've seen you in person and I loved this.

281
00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:23,720
Speaker 1: You told this story last time. I saw you at

282
00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:26,840
Speaker 1: the University of Toledo doing the talk last year, and

283
00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:28,800
Speaker 1: you talked about the bag that you carry with.

284
00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:29,680
Speaker 2: You everywhere you go.

285
00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:33,800
Speaker 1: And then that bag is your age six zoom recorder

286
00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:37,120
Speaker 1: or whatever zoom recorder, you have, your cameras and your

287
00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:40,440
Speaker 1: et cetera. And there are so many people who still

288
00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:44,360
Speaker 1: today believe that they need all this equipment to put

289
00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:47,440
Speaker 1: out content. Can you talk about the first of thinking

290
00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:49,760
Speaker 1: and then the actual equipment you need.

291
00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:58,680
Speaker 2: Well, again, the problem for so many people is the

292
00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:02,000
Speaker 2: problem for so many people is that they don't understand

293
00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:03,320
Speaker 2: the infrastructure.

294
00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:04,400
Speaker 3: We're gonna do something.

295
00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:07,280
Speaker 2: Okay, we're gonna do something right here, So just give

296
00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:10,160
Speaker 2: me one second, because I need to just give you

297
00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:10,880
Speaker 2: one second.

298
00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:12,720
Speaker 3: All right, perfect, all right.

299
00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:16,200
Speaker 2: So you just said, you just asked the question about

300
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:20,600
Speaker 2: in terms of, okay, how we do this thing, how

301
00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:23,080
Speaker 2: it's done, and a lot of people don't understand. So

302
00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:28,720
Speaker 2: here's a perfect example. Yesterday yesterday I.

303
00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:31,160
Speaker 3: Was I was doing a show.

304
00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:34,880
Speaker 2: I was in Dallas, and it's a golf tournament that

305
00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:38,520
Speaker 2: a golf tournament that Nancy Liveran Klein has and so

306
00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:41,320
Speaker 2: I was invited to play in it. But here's the

307
00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:44,160
Speaker 2: whole deal. I'm doing it, but I'm also on the road.

308
00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:49,680
Speaker 2: I'm also you know, traveling, So I'm like, okay, the

309
00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:52,200
Speaker 2: golf because we had a storm. Normally I would have

310
00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:54,920
Speaker 2: done the show for my hotel room. A storm hit Dallas,

311
00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:57,400
Speaker 2: so the golf tournament didn't start at nine, it started

312
00:16:57,440 --> 00:17:00,520
Speaker 2: at eleven. I was damn So we ended up happening

313
00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:05,480
Speaker 2: was I had to do the show from the course

314
00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:08,600
Speaker 2: because I couldn't get We finished at four fifteen. So

315
00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:13,840
Speaker 2: as a result, by having what you just described.

316
00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:16,199
Speaker 3: Then this is what that looked like.

317
00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:22,000
Speaker 2: This is the literal setup right here where you see

318
00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:26,320
Speaker 2: right there, the four lights, the return monitor, you see,

319
00:17:26,320 --> 00:17:30,560
Speaker 2: the live you you see you see right there, and

320
00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:35,200
Speaker 2: again golf, the golf course is my back drop you're seeing.

321
00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:36,080
Speaker 2: That's the whole.

322
00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:36,680
Speaker 3: Setup right there.

323
00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:40,320
Speaker 2: All of that stuff is in literally a twenty two

324
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:45,639
Speaker 2: inch carry ons and so and because again what you

325
00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:49,200
Speaker 2: have to understand is you have to think. You have

326
00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:55,480
Speaker 2: to think efficient, you have to think, Okay, it's just me,

327
00:17:56,119 --> 00:17:59,200
Speaker 2: and so how can I distill this thing down? How

328
00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:02,480
Speaker 2: can I be as small as possible? How can I

329
00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:06,960
Speaker 2: be able to do this, and so you'll see right here,

330
00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:09,920
Speaker 2: I was in Wisconsin. This is the look in a

331
00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:13,439
Speaker 2: hotel room. I carry four LED lights. A lot of

332
00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:16,960
Speaker 2: times when you're traveling, the walls are bare. Luckily you

333
00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:19,879
Speaker 2: got you got color in this room. Normally sometimes hotel

334
00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:23,040
Speaker 2: rooms got white walls. Well guess what I bounced. I

335
00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:27,320
Speaker 2: bounced that the I bounced the light off of the wall.

336
00:18:27,359 --> 00:18:29,280
Speaker 2: And now all of a sudden, I've given the show color.

337
00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:32,760
Speaker 2: And so that's four twenty five LED lights. They fit

338
00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:37,120
Speaker 2: in an Amazon eight inch Neil prem bag. Boom right there,

339
00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:40,560
Speaker 2: they fit right in. And so again it's it's when

340
00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:43,200
Speaker 2: you're when you when you're thinking. I was up about

341
00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:47,240
Speaker 2: three weeks ago. I had a keynote speech in Milwaukee.

342
00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:51,199
Speaker 2: Uh and the problem was the noon speech. I couldn't

343
00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:53,200
Speaker 2: fly out to get back to the studio in time.

344
00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:55,679
Speaker 2: So and I did this last year, so this was

345
00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:58,680
Speaker 2: the first time. And I said, Okay, drive me to Chicago.

346
00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:01,960
Speaker 2: I'm gonna kick a nine pm flight back to d C.

347
00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:06,800
Speaker 2: I'll do my show from Chicago or hair airport. Now

348
00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:10,200
Speaker 2: somebody's like, hell, yep, you're gonna do the show from

349
00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,840
Speaker 2: the airport. So this happened so I find you a

350
00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:18,760
Speaker 2: spot in the airport. Same setup. So I got portable power,

351
00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:21,200
Speaker 2: I got my four lights, I got my camera, I

352
00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:26,399
Speaker 2: got my live view, my return minderhites in the corner.

353
00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:29,240
Speaker 2: I got my Omni. I got my omni charged. You

354
00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:32,159
Speaker 2: see a teleprompter there, you see the live view. You

355
00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:34,960
Speaker 2: see my portable power. Because I wasn't trying to run

356
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:39,000
Speaker 2: extension cords all over the place. So when you understand

357
00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:45,000
Speaker 2: how the technology works, then you understand how you can move.

358
00:19:45,119 --> 00:19:49,080
Speaker 2: And again you're not trying to sit here and uh

359
00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:51,240
Speaker 2: be crazy with it. And so I know somebody's sitting

360
00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:53,159
Speaker 2: there going, man, you're caring a lot. No, this is

361
00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:55,960
Speaker 2: literally it right here. This is one half of the

362
00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,439
Speaker 2: twin and two inch carry on and this is the

363
00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:01,480
Speaker 2: other side of the twin two inch carery on. Everything

364
00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:06,440
Speaker 2: that I need to broadcast is in that bag. So

365
00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:09,119
Speaker 2: the whole thinking for me is constantly. So let's just

366
00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:12,400
Speaker 2: take audio. Well, I used to have the Lively microphone,

367
00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:15,480
Speaker 2: the XLR come from the camera. Well guess what DJI

368
00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:18,680
Speaker 2: comes up with their wireless microphones. Now I'm wireless. Now

369
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:20,760
Speaker 2: I can plug it straight in. Now I'm not dealing

370
00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:24,119
Speaker 2: with frequencies now not running but a cable. Plus that

371
00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:28,640
Speaker 2: microphone has like a hundred foot range. My cable can't

372
00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:34,800
Speaker 2: do that. So how my brain works, I'm constantly trying

373
00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:40,000
Speaker 2: to think of, Okay, how more efficient, how smaller can

374
00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:42,320
Speaker 2: you be? And so even as I'm sitting right here,

375
00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:43,800
Speaker 2: the reason I'm able to show you what I'm showing,

376
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:45,480
Speaker 2: I have an ATM Mini switcher.

377
00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:47,280
Speaker 3: Well I can.

378
00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:48,840
Speaker 2: Also now this is a little bit more equipment and

379
00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:50,240
Speaker 2: so it can't fit in the bag, so I got

380
00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:52,800
Speaker 2: to have it through my backpack. But I have another

381
00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:55,200
Speaker 2: ATM Minute switcher. So a lot of times when I'm

382
00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:59,040
Speaker 2: on the road, I may not have time. I shot

383
00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:01,520
Speaker 2: some video I can't uploaded to the to the to

384
00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:04,119
Speaker 2: the to drop box and my staff can download it.

385
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:07,439
Speaker 2: But if I have my switcher with me, boom, just

386
00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:09,840
Speaker 2: what I just did here, I can play my video

387
00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:12,520
Speaker 2: right there from the phone or from my iPad. I

388
00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:16,119
Speaker 2: can show the photo. I pull up live tweets on

389
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:19,879
Speaker 2: the show as well, because I'm basically I'm sitting here coordinating.

390
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:24,080
Speaker 2: So when you understand, when you understand technology, and when

391
00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:26,480
Speaker 2: you just step back and now it's a question of okay,

392
00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:30,280
Speaker 2: just the different pieces. So for me, it's how can

393
00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:35,560
Speaker 2: you be small, nimble, efficient, And so that's that same

394
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:38,040
Speaker 2: portable suitcase. It goes wherever I go. But I gave

395
00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:39,719
Speaker 2: a speech in Indianapolis on Sunday.

396
00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:40,440
Speaker 3: I was at church.

397
00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:42,600
Speaker 2: I said, Hey, are y'all live streaming this? No?

398
00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:44,600
Speaker 3: Are y'all recording this? Yes?

399
00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:47,080
Speaker 2: I got to the place I said, we look at

400
00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:48,679
Speaker 2: your camera. You got a SDI out? You do?

401
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:49,160
Speaker 3: Okay?

402
00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:51,920
Speaker 2: Cool? I need an SDI out. I set my live streaming,

403
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:55,119
Speaker 2: my live U box up, didn't have to put my

404
00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:59,040
Speaker 2: camera up, connect it. I then live stream my speech

405
00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:03,320
Speaker 2: from very event and again ulize in their equipment. I've

406
00:22:03,359 --> 00:22:07,120
Speaker 2: done that numerous times, and so that so when you

407
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:09,560
Speaker 2: understand people got to realize I want to communications high

408
00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:13,120
Speaker 2: school Jackcad's high school, Magic school Communications. So I learned

409
00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:16,160
Speaker 2: behind the camera. I didn't I didn't.

410
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:17,359
Speaker 3: Even want to do in front of the camera.

411
00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:21,280
Speaker 2: By learn behind the camera how all the pieces work.

412
00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:26,640
Speaker 2: And so once you do that, now you understand the technology.

413
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:30,200
Speaker 2: Now you understand just you know sort of how these

414
00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:32,720
Speaker 2: things work. And so then when you begin to realize

415
00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,240
Speaker 2: and it's just some basic things that people don't even understand.

416
00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:39,440
Speaker 2: So even if we're we were testing something in our studio.

417
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:42,440
Speaker 2: So you take, you give an example, you just take.

418
00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:45,520
Speaker 2: So this is the iPhone and we had this, we

419
00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:48,320
Speaker 2: had I think a Holly Land connected because we wanted

420
00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:51,000
Speaker 2: to be able to use the phone to to do

421
00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 2: for the cinematic Look, well, the problem is we was like, okay, fine,

422
00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:57,879
Speaker 2: well this this is the problem here, uh with the iPhone,

423
00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:01,080
Speaker 2: So all the markings are still on here. Then we

424
00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:04,320
Speaker 2: realize with the black Magic app, you can actually remove

425
00:23:04,359 --> 00:23:07,679
Speaker 2: the markings. Now you can do something different. So I

426
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:09,960
Speaker 2: am in a constant and this is people don't understand.

427
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,920
Speaker 2: And people stop me and they say, man, I can't

428
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:15,440
Speaker 2: believe you don't have somebody who's not doing that stuff.

429
00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:16,840
Speaker 2: I said, why in the hell am I see? This

430
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:20,680
Speaker 2: is all so people dont understand business. Why am I

431
00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 2: gonna pay somebody the daily rate, a plane ticket, a

432
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:31,840
Speaker 2: hotel room, per diem to set my equipment up and

433
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:33,280
Speaker 2: it takes me fifteen minutes.

434
00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 3: That's just dumb business.

435
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:39,879
Speaker 2: So if I'm traveling by myself, I don't need to

436
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:43,879
Speaker 2: travel somebody with me to set my camera up. I

437
00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:46,760
Speaker 2: can do it. So and I travel a lot, so

438
00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:53,240
Speaker 2: that's an added expense. So I am constantly trying to learn.

439
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:57,720
Speaker 2: I am constantly trying to see what's the next thing,

440
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:00,960
Speaker 2: what's the next what can we do next? How does

441
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,600
Speaker 2: this work? And I'm looking at pieces of equipment. I'm

442
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:06,080
Speaker 2: looking at lights and cameras and all you and all

443
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:06,879
Speaker 2: sorts of things.

444
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:08,879
Speaker 3: You know, I love. I did a whole video.

445
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:13,600
Speaker 2: I did a whole video on YouTube and people can

446
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:14,320
Speaker 2: actually check it out.

447
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 3: What do I call it?

448
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:17,959
Speaker 2: Because it was called content creator must Have? And so

449
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:20,720
Speaker 2: I did this video because people and you know people,

450
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:23,600
Speaker 2: they hit me for John O'Brien, my buddy.

451
00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:25,679
Speaker 3: John's always like, Roland, you should.

452
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 2: Do a masterclass. Charge people, Like now, I want to

453
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,639
Speaker 2: do that, I said, because I'm not interested in just

454
00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:32,480
Speaker 2: now I got to sit here and sign people up,

455
00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:33,880
Speaker 2: and I'm like, that's boring.

456
00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:34,639
Speaker 3: As hell, John, I'm not doing that.

457
00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,360
Speaker 2: But I did this, and I did this whole thing

458
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:43,200
Speaker 2: because I just needed people to understand how these things work.

459
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:44,640
Speaker 3: And so this is it right here.

460
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:48,239
Speaker 2: I just sat on my kitchen table and I just

461
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:54,560
Speaker 2: went through the DJ Neo, the DJI camera, the DJ

462
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:58,119
Speaker 2: Neo drone and could do this because there are a

463
00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 2: lot of people they're trying to figure it out and man,

464
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,240
Speaker 2: I've done it. I got so much equipment I got.

465
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:06,240
Speaker 2: I got hell, I got an FPV drama but I

466
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:08,680
Speaker 2: haven't even used yet. But I got all this sort

467
00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:11,280
Speaker 2: of But it's the knowledge, and I just think it's

468
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:16,280
Speaker 2: stupid to have knowledge and have expertise and you don't

469
00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:20,040
Speaker 2: share it because okay, what's the whole purpose of in

470
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 2: hoarding it? This makes no sense, But that's just how

471
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,680
Speaker 2: I work. I am every day. I'm sitting here looking

472
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:28,760
Speaker 2: at this and testing this, and I'm like, you know,

473
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:30,800
Speaker 2: all this sort of stuff like this here. So if

474
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:32,480
Speaker 2: I was doing my show, I got I got a

475
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:34,600
Speaker 2: pair of tailer prompter right here, I got the remote

476
00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:36,640
Speaker 2: control right here, and I had one for the road.

477
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:39,560
Speaker 2: I literally could have my tail prompter loaded. And now

478
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:43,200
Speaker 2: now now I'm on the road and I'm handling my business.

479
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:47,640
Speaker 2: But that's what that's called, being though a student of

480
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:52,960
Speaker 2: your craft, and that ties into the business of your

481
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:57,239
Speaker 2: craft because that also impacts your bottom line. If I

482
00:25:57,359 --> 00:26:02,080
Speaker 2: had to pay somebody to roll with me, I would

483
00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:07,600
Speaker 2: probably be spending another another one hundred thousand plus dollars

484
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:11,439
Speaker 2: a year if I had to have somebody travel with

485
00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:15,240
Speaker 2: me to set my stuff up with all the speeches

486
00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:17,840
Speaker 2: and stuff that I give and that that's just and

487
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 2: so by me being able to do it, I'm saving

488
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:26,680
Speaker 2: my business one hundred grande minimum. Man.

489
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:29,479
Speaker 1: So for anybody who's listening to this and not watching,

490
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:32,560
Speaker 1: you have to go through the YouTube video and see

491
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:35,800
Speaker 1: what we just saw. I highly admonished you to go

492
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:38,840
Speaker 1: look at those visuals right there. That was very inspiring.

493
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 1: So this is this a quote I found from you

494
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:43,879
Speaker 1: where you said the most important thing we have in

495
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:47,560
Speaker 1: black on media is authenticity and trust. We are perceived

496
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 1: that we're perceived differently. They see us as family. So

497
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:52,919
Speaker 1: I want you to talk about what you mean by

498
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: particularly that last line they see us as family. What

499
00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:57,719
Speaker 1: does that mean? How did you learn that? And what

500
00:26:57,760 --> 00:26:58,879
Speaker 1: implications does it happen?

501
00:26:58,880 --> 00:26:59,879
Speaker 3: But that's our history.

502
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're again, if you're a student of

503
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:04,800
Speaker 2: your business, you know. The first newspaper was mar was

504
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:08,760
Speaker 2: Freedom's Journal on March sixteenth, eighteen twenty seven, and in

505
00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:11,440
Speaker 2: the third paragraph of their front page editorial, it said,

506
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,720
Speaker 2: in the third pair, we wish to plead our own

507
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 2: cause to long have other spoken for us. That's the

508
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 2: mantra of the black press. When you start talking about

509
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 2: Martin Delaney, when you start talking about Frederick Douglass, when

510
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,320
Speaker 2: you start talking about Outa b. Wells Barnett, when we

511
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 2: talk about the Little Rock Nine, people don't understand. First

512
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:32,040
Speaker 2: of all, Daisy Bates later on the Black Newspaper, but

513
00:27:32,119 --> 00:27:34,720
Speaker 2: when they were sitting here involved in the planning of that,

514
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 2: the black media, black on media was actually in the

515
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 2: room like they were in the strategy sessions. Doctor King

516
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:45,640
Speaker 2: before Time Magazine and New York Times and NBC were

517
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 2: covering him, he had a column in Ebony. He was

518
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,639
Speaker 2: always in Jet And so there's always been this different

519
00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:55,639
Speaker 2: relationship that African Americans have had with black on media

520
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 2: because we're there when everybody else saint there. I mean

521
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:00,960
Speaker 2: even now, I can't even tell you how many times

522
00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:05,280
Speaker 2: we travel around this country and when we're going places

523
00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 2: and we're visiting places, and man, ain't nobody there, local media,

524
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 2: local mainstream. Ain't there a lot of black people, not

525
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:17,879
Speaker 2: black media not there. We're the only ones. Bishop Barbara

526
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 2: had a huge event uh in DC a couple of

527
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:26,480
Speaker 2: years ago, and man uh, they had these risers and

528
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 2: was all this press space for the people came that

529
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:34,720
Speaker 2: was it. There were small media islands ABC, NBC, CBS,

530
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:37,320
Speaker 2: MSNBC scene in Fox News.

531
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:38,280
Speaker 3: None of them were there.

532
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:43,080
Speaker 2: And and so those things happen on a regular basis,

533
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 2: and so you know, when you when you were there

534
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 2: for your people. Tom Joyna always talked about this here

535
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:53,080
Speaker 2: and I've always heard the same thing. I totally agree

536
00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:57,240
Speaker 2: with him that when you're there for your people, they're

537
00:28:57,280 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 2: going to be there for you.

538
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 3: When you're showing up.

539
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:01,560
Speaker 2: So you know, one of the things I remember, we

540
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:05,240
Speaker 2: was in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Brother had been shot

541
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:08,000
Speaker 2: and killed by the cops. Uh, and all it was

542
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,240
Speaker 2: jam packed. I mean, all this media is out there.

543
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 2: They're all out there and being Ben Crump is holding

544
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:17,360
Speaker 2: the news conference, uh and uh everybody is sitting here

545
00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 2: covering it. Man. It was crazy. And so what happened

546
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:26,600
Speaker 2: when when uh we was time for the news conference.

547
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 2: It was too funny, Man, it was time for the

548
00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:35,680
Speaker 2: news conference. Ben Crump was doing questions, and when it

549
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:43,240
Speaker 2: came time to questions, he went first question Roland. Yeah, Roland,

550
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 2: we've had and so I got and then it was

551
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,000
Speaker 2: kind of like you're done.

552
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:49,640
Speaker 3: Then he went to everybody else.

553
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 2: Those things have happened to other places a lot, but

554
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 2: there are some black folk who don't do that. There's

555
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:58,360
Speaker 2: some black folks who they believed in white validation. And

556
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 2: I remind these we gonna be here when they never

557
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:06,120
Speaker 2: show up, So don't all of a sudden try to

558
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 2: treat them special because they rolled up in here, because

559
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:13,280
Speaker 2: we know who was here being has had clients that

560
00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:18,880
Speaker 2: when because he's had clients where they said no, no, no, Ben,

561
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:23,920
Speaker 2: our first interview is going to be on Rolling Mark unfiltered.

562
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 2: Now these are clients who did not want to be

563
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:29,240
Speaker 2: a part of this exclusive for turning sorority of having

564
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 2: family members killed. But on multiple occasions they said, no, Ben,

565
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:37,560
Speaker 2: we're gonna do Rolland first because he covers this stuff

566
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 2: every day. And so that's what that means. And so

567
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:46,160
Speaker 2: that's been our history. The black press, black on media

568
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:50,200
Speaker 2: has served that role. The problem is what we have seen.

569
00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 2: We have seen this dramatic degradation and decrease in our

570
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:02,440
Speaker 2: impact again in a lot of black people at the

571
00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:05,240
Speaker 2: end of the Civil rights movement early seventies, when white

572
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 2: media starts hiring black people, we all of a sudden,

573
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,680
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, now they're covering us, so now we're

574
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:14,400
Speaker 2: gonna go to them. So in many cases, the consumer

575
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 2: abandoned black on media. Now when that was happening, Black

576
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,480
Speaker 2: on media was not adjusting to what was going on,

577
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,800
Speaker 2: and so then they aided their own demise. And I've

578
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 2: long said we're living in the period right now where

579
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:30,680
Speaker 2: we will rule the day if we don't have black

580
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:34,040
Speaker 2: on media, because there's so many stories. I mean, I

581
00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:36,680
Speaker 2: can't even tell you. There's stuff that I do every

582
00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:41,000
Speaker 2: single day, small stuff, big stuff, don't even get touched.

583
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 2: We've done stuff that three, four or five weeks later,

584
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 2: it'll show up on MSNBC or CNN. But here's what

585
00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:53,520
Speaker 2: pisces me off. What pisces me off. Recye Kobert talked

586
00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 2: about this all the time.

587
00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:58,880
Speaker 4: You'll get black folks who then will grab that clip

588
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 4: because it was on MSNBC or a lot of primary

589
00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 4: black people who grabbed that clip and posted on their

590
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:08,560
Speaker 4: Instagram page and posted on their Twitter page.

591
00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 2: And I'm going, but we five weeks ago, four weeks

592
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:17,959
Speaker 2: and a free weeks ago. So again, those things happened.

593
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:22,320
Speaker 2: But I believe what my responsibility as a black on

594
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:30,080
Speaker 2: media owner, My responsibility is to give black people high

595
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 2: quality content that is relevant, that looks good. I was

596
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:36,720
Speaker 2: at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center party and Gampbell

597
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:37,240
Speaker 2: had this thing.

598
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:39,400
Speaker 3: It was a panel, and I was sitting on the panel.

599
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:41,640
Speaker 2: And his brother it was kicking. Pree was over here

600
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 2: and his brother was here. His brother here owned a

601
00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 2: barbershop salon in Cincinnati. And this exactly is this truth

602
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 2: through what that he goes. He goes, y'all we have

603
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:57,320
Speaker 2: got here. This is that National undergro Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Y'all, man,

604
00:32:57,480 --> 00:32:59,440
Speaker 2: we got to support Roland Martin.

605
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:00,719
Speaker 3: This where he messed up.

606
00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:05,160
Speaker 2: He goes, not now, y'all, it's not gonna look as

607
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:06,080
Speaker 2: good as CNN.

608
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:08,840
Speaker 3: I said, Wait a fucking minute.

609
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:13,280
Speaker 2: Oh wow, He goes, no, no, no, no, bro. I said, no, no, no,

610
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:16,959
Speaker 2: no no. I said, I need you to understand what

611
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:22,760
Speaker 2: you just said. What you just said is that we

612
00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 2: from a look, we are second class. Mm hmm.

613
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:30,200
Speaker 3: I said, And let me be real clear.

614
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 2: I don't have the billion dollars in profit that CNN has.

615
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:40,120
Speaker 2: I said, but my robotic cameras are four K I said,

616
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:44,000
Speaker 2: I got high quality lights. I said, don't you ever

617
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:50,480
Speaker 2: say that I don't look as good as CNN. Man.

618
00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 3: That was wild.

619
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 2: That is a that is a brother. When I had

620
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:57,200
Speaker 2: when I have my TV one show, this is this is.

621
00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:00,440
Speaker 2: A brother said to me, this is I had. A

622
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:03,800
Speaker 2: brother said this, his sister said it. Brother said, man,

623
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:05,800
Speaker 2: where you gonna get you your own show? And I

624
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:10,799
Speaker 2: was like, I am on five days a week.

625
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:11,959
Speaker 3: He goes.

626
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,880
Speaker 2: He said no, no, no, no, no, I know about

627
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:18,719
Speaker 2: your TV one show. He said, I mean a real show.

628
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:20,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, come on, come on.

629
00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:23,680
Speaker 2: He said, come on CNN or one of these networks.

630
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:30,320
Speaker 2: I said not again. I was like, I can cuss

631
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:35,359
Speaker 2: him out or I can educate him. So here's what

632
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:37,479
Speaker 2: I said. I said, brother, let me ask you a question.

633
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:41,960
Speaker 2: I said, are you aware that when Brian Williams comes

634
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,399
Speaker 2: to NB comes to DC, he sits in the same

635
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 2: chair I do.

636
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:47,160
Speaker 3: And he looked at me.

637
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:51,719
Speaker 2: I said, there's the plexiglass table to the left, and

638
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:56,200
Speaker 2: there's a bristle brush on the bottom shelf, and there's

639
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 2: another brush on the top shelf that white people use

640
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:02,359
Speaker 2: to calm their hair. I said, bristol brushes. Mind, he's

641
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:05,239
Speaker 2: still now he looking at me. I said, you need

642
00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:08,800
Speaker 2: to be aware, I said, the set, the walls, the camera.

643
00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:13,240
Speaker 2: I said, oh, you didn't realize we contract.

644
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,320
Speaker 3: The studio from NBC. News channel.

645
00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:19,319
Speaker 2: I said, when Brian Williams comes here, they send the

646
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:22,120
Speaker 2: signal down the fiber optic lines to New York.

647
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:24,400
Speaker 3: We send ours to Denver.

648
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:32,120
Speaker 2: I said, same studio, same cameras, same lights, same background,

649
00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:37,200
Speaker 2: same fiber optics. I said, but you said my show

650
00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:40,239
Speaker 2: is not real. So what you were telling me is

651
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:45,160
Speaker 2: because it airs on a black network, you don't think

652
00:35:45,239 --> 00:35:50,799
Speaker 2: it's a real show. Brother that he was, He was apologetic.

653
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 2: I said this, and this is the power of white supremacy.

654
00:35:55,239 --> 00:36:00,400
Speaker 2: The power of white supremacy is that it will dictate to.

655
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:04,719
Speaker 3: Black people that what is ours.

656
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:14,000
Speaker 2: We instinctively, we automatically off the jump. We think it's

657
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 2: second rate, it's second class, it's not good enough, and

658
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 2: a white man's ice is colder.

659
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:23,480
Speaker 3: And that that is.

660
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:26,479
Speaker 2: That is the power, that is the legacy of white

661
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:30,280
Speaker 2: supremacy and why it still has a hold on black people.

662
00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:31,600
Speaker 3: And we mustn't.

663
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:34,280
Speaker 2: I and John o'brown always says, black people we need

664
00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:36,680
Speaker 2: He said, we need, we need to reboot.

665
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 3: I say no. He says, no, we need a software upgrade.

666
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:45,719
Speaker 2: I said, no, black people need to be completely reprogrammed,

667
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:50,720
Speaker 2: because we start off we haven't even opened our mouths yet.

668
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:54,600
Speaker 2: And we automatically say, oh, he's black, she's black, and

669
00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:59,120
Speaker 2: they own it second class, second rate, not good enough

670
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 2: quality that saying actively black has dealt with this as

671
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:05,560
Speaker 2: show me a black company.

672
00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:06,600
Speaker 3: They've had to confront.

673
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 2: But that's the conditioning of the mind of black people,

674
00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:13,560
Speaker 2: and that is a result of white supremacy.

675
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:18,040
Speaker 1: Wow. So I've so I've been podcasting in radio long

676
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:21,320
Speaker 1: enough to see players become owners and you think about

677
00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:24,719
Speaker 1: your and it's unfortunate because you're the only person I

678
00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 1: think about in this class. And that is the the

679
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:29,080
Speaker 1: Glenn Becks who get fired and then going to start

680
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:32,400
Speaker 1: their own network. And it's then the Tucker Carlstons who

681
00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:33,960
Speaker 1: get fired and then go start and you are the

682
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,120
Speaker 1: only you know, number one black, but number one more

683
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 1: progressive person that I think about, Like, you own your

684
00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:43,400
Speaker 1: stuff and you get to put other people on your platform.

685
00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:47,279
Speaker 1: And so going a level deeper on that, thinking that

686
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 1: you shared some of those brothers that presented you with

687
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:54,200
Speaker 1: how what can you share? Like the economics and Okay,

688
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:55,799
Speaker 1: I got a job, I got a contract with the

689
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 1: CNN or a Fox or but I own this and

690
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:00,440
Speaker 1: the economics are just different.

691
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:04,320
Speaker 3: Okay. So so even when I was there.

692
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:08,239
Speaker 2: I was never so when I was at SO, I

693
00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:11,640
Speaker 2: was at TV one Tom Join the Morning the Show,

694
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:16,960
Speaker 2: seeing in at the same time. And I wasn't an

695
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:21,520
Speaker 2: employee of none of either one of them. I had

696
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:25,480
Speaker 2: a media company. I was.

697
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:26,759
Speaker 3: It was ten ninety nine.

698
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:28,919
Speaker 2: And let me explain that is and I've given I've

699
00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:33,160
Speaker 2: given these I've given these lectures and classes around the world.

700
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:37,160
Speaker 2: The concept is the concept that you have to.

701
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 3: Have when you are a quote.

702
00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:44,360
Speaker 2: An employee is me ink, is me ink, So whatever

703
00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:46,080
Speaker 2: your name is, to put ink.

704
00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:48,880
Speaker 3: On the e, you are a walking, talking corporation.

705
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:53,440
Speaker 2: So I didn't even so when I was an employee,

706
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:57,959
Speaker 2: I didn't consider myself to be an employee. I saw

707
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 2: myself as a vendor and they were the client. So

708
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:06,359
Speaker 2: when you apply for a job, it's no different than

709
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:10,719
Speaker 2: when you respond to an RFP, a request for proposal.

710
00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:13,560
Speaker 2: When you apply for a job, you say I can

711
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:16,120
Speaker 2: do that job, and you go in you interview. Well,

712
00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:19,279
Speaker 2: RFP is the exact same process. And guess what you

713
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:21,600
Speaker 2: get hired for the job. Well, if you get hired

714
00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:24,440
Speaker 2: for the RFP, they the client. You're the vendor. Your

715
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:27,640
Speaker 2: job is to deliver a service. If they like the service.

716
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:31,040
Speaker 2: They continue the vendor client relationship. The same thing happens

717
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:33,680
Speaker 2: when you're an employee. The difference is that when you

718
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:36,760
Speaker 2: are quote an employee, but you put your see yourself

719
00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:42,719
Speaker 2: as as Kim Inc. Or as Dewan Inc. Or whatever is,

720
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 2: you now are looking at the landscape totally different. So

721
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:50,200
Speaker 2: when I worked at the Fort Worth Star Telegram, I

722
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:53,160
Speaker 2: wanted my own equipment. Well why did I want my

723
00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:58,359
Speaker 2: own equipment? Because if anything happened with the job, then

724
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 2: I already have my own phone, my own laptop. I

725
00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:07,200
Speaker 2: had my own stuff. So when I went to the

726
00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:10,600
Speaker 2: Dallas Become newsrok in the morning anchor the KD Radio,

727
00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:12,719
Speaker 2: there were times when I was requesting stuff and they

728
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:14,840
Speaker 2: were slow to buy. So finally was like, you know what,

729
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:17,040
Speaker 2: damn that, because here's the other deal. If I bought it,

730
00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:19,200
Speaker 2: it's also a tax right off, and then if I leave,

731
00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 2: it goes with me. So when I took over Dallas Weekly,

732
00:40:21,719 --> 00:40:23,360
Speaker 2: I remember when I left. I mean, guess what the

733
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:26,080
Speaker 2: scam came with me. The printer came with me, the

734
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 2: kode Ac DC two ten digital camera came with me.

735
00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:32,279
Speaker 2: All my stuff came with me. And what that then?

736
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:35,479
Speaker 2: Did is if anything happens, and whether I quit, whether

737
00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:38,400
Speaker 2: I resigned, was I got fired. I had the tools

738
00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:42,000
Speaker 2: of my craft to now be able to freelance, because

739
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:44,839
Speaker 2: there's nothing worse than losing an opportunity, losing a job.

740
00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:47,600
Speaker 2: And then now you're like, damn, I don't have a laptop,

741
00:40:47,719 --> 00:40:49,960
Speaker 2: I don't have a camera, I don't have my own stuff.

742
00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:52,279
Speaker 2: So now I'm trying to figure it all out. And

743
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:55,840
Speaker 2: so even when I was at SO, when I was there,

744
00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:58,000
Speaker 2: when I was at CNN, when I was at TV,

745
00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:01,040
Speaker 2: I remember when they told me so. I joined in

746
00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:05,480
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, So two thousand and nine I

747
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:09,880
Speaker 2: knew I had There was an ad agency they wrapped

748
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 2: Southwest Airlines. My man said, if seeing it gives your

749
00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 2: own show, I'm gonna be the main sponsor. So I

750
00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:19,560
Speaker 2: came to the table with my own sponsor. Dude, they

751
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:20,879
Speaker 2: would freak the hell out.

752
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 3: They never experienced that.

753
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:25,200
Speaker 2: So then all of a sudden they decided, well, we're

754
00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:27,920
Speaker 2: not gonna do a show. And so I remember walking

755
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:30,960
Speaker 2: out of John Klein's office and I was one hundred

756
00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:34,200
Speaker 2: feet out. I called Jonathan Rogers. They're not doing Jonathan said, well,

757
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:36,920
Speaker 2: they're gonna launch your show. They're not gonn launch the show.

758
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:39,360
Speaker 2: We'renna launch a show that was in May. We're announced

759
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:42,799
Speaker 2: it at July fourth at Essence Festival. But here was

760
00:41:42,840 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 2: the thing you fast forward That was two thousand and nine,

761
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 2: twenty twelve. I saw what was going on. No after

762
00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 2: that or nine, I said, oh, they are never gonna

763
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:56,600
Speaker 2: give me my own show At CNN, I said, CNN

764
00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 2: has now become my personal venture capitalist.

765
00:41:59,280 --> 00:41:59,960
Speaker 3: So let me explain.

766
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:03,640
Speaker 2: So here i am as a contributor at CNN. I'm

767
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:07,360
Speaker 2: getting paid two hundred and eighty three thousand dollars. Okay,

768
00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:11,880
Speaker 2: So I said, okay, CNN is gonna start funding my

769
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:16,239
Speaker 2: other stuff. So CNN is April twenty thirteen. I had

770
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:19,040
Speaker 2: the same thing at TV one. I knew what I

771
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:21,440
Speaker 2: wanted to do. I knew my vision was bigger than

772
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:23,839
Speaker 2: the folks at TV one. They were slow, they were

773
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:27,359
Speaker 2: not moving. So I started buying my own equipment. I

774
00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:29,360
Speaker 2: was doing that when I was at CNN, even before,

775
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:31,400
Speaker 2: so going back to Dallas Weekly, going back to the

776
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:34,800
Speaker 2: Fort Worth Telegram. So since the second job of my career,

777
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 2: I've been buying my own equipment. So I started buying

778
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:41,000
Speaker 2: my own stuff. So bought this camera, I bought this light,

779
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:44,040
Speaker 2: I bought this mic. I said, now I'm just adding

780
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:44,759
Speaker 2: stuff to it.

781
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:45,919
Speaker 3: So check this out.

782
00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:48,200
Speaker 2: We're at TV one, and every time we had to

783
00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:50,560
Speaker 2: shoot anything in the city out we had to go

784
00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:53,320
Speaker 2: through this outside production company. Well, there was some small

785
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:55,360
Speaker 2: stuff that we needed to shoot. I was like, damn,

786
00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:58,160
Speaker 2: So I said, okay, I bought my own about three

787
00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:00,880
Speaker 2: can I bought my cannon XA twenty five. So I

788
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 2: then went, Okay, here's what we're gonna do. I said,

789
00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:08,719
Speaker 2: when we I said, if we shoot, I said, I'm

790
00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:13,560
Speaker 2: gonna let y'all use my equipment. But so I'm not

791
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:17,800
Speaker 2: gonna charge you a kit fee. But if my equipment

792
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:19,759
Speaker 2: is used, I gotta co.

793
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:20,600
Speaker 3: Own the content.

794
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,600
Speaker 2: Now, the person listening or watching him may go, man,

795
00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:27,799
Speaker 2: why the hell would you not charge them? Because the

796
00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:33,040
Speaker 2: content was more valuable than the kit feed. Because the

797
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:37,160
Speaker 2: content now goes in my library, I can use that

798
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:40,920
Speaker 2: in perpetuity. So all of a sudden, I'm sitting here.

799
00:43:41,239 --> 00:43:44,239
Speaker 2: So if you watch My Frankie Beverly and mais my

800
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:48,920
Speaker 2: Frankie Beverly Mays special at TV one, every piece of

801
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:52,839
Speaker 2: b roll and every photo and that special came from

802
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:57,000
Speaker 2: my personal archives. I co own that content, so I

803
00:43:57,040 --> 00:43:59,759
Speaker 2: can restream that sucker as many times as I want to.

804
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:02,400
Speaker 2: I don't have to ask TV one for permission to

805
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:06,400
Speaker 2: do that. So I was thinking ahead of understanding, and

806
00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:10,600
Speaker 2: so as I'm building this thing, now, now I'm acquire

807
00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:13,960
Speaker 2: my equipment. So they canceled my show. Deceit Bey twenty seventeen,

808
00:44:14,239 --> 00:44:16,239
Speaker 2: January thirtieth. We do a thing called the State of

809
00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:18,239
Speaker 2: Our re Union. I call a Black church in DC.

810
00:44:18,680 --> 00:44:21,520
Speaker 2: Within thirty seconds the past that said yes. So when

811
00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:25,040
Speaker 2: we do it, guess what. I already have my cameras,

812
00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:28,400
Speaker 2: I already have my lights, I already had my switcher.

813
00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:30,239
Speaker 2: It was a couple of things that had to buy.

814
00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:34,560
Speaker 2: But I wasn't trying to go rent some stuff because

815
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:41,840
Speaker 2: for five and six years I had been methodically buying, buying, buying, buying,

816
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:45,400
Speaker 2: And so that's the mentality that you have to have

817
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:49,160
Speaker 2: when you're doing stuff because and so now your focus

818
00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:52,879
Speaker 2: is different. Now you see things differently. Now when you're there,

819
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:54,960
Speaker 2: you're like, Okay, how much is this and how much

820
00:44:55,040 --> 00:44:56,040
Speaker 2: is that? The other thing?

821
00:44:56,080 --> 00:44:56,560
Speaker 3: Is this here?

822
00:44:56,920 --> 00:45:00,600
Speaker 2: I think when I buy equipment, I'm thinking multi purpose,

823
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:03,640
Speaker 2: not single purpose, but if I get that I can

824
00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:05,399
Speaker 2: do this, I can do this, I can do this,

825
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:07,759
Speaker 2: I can do this, not a purpose make now the

826
00:45:07,800 --> 00:45:11,360
Speaker 2: purchase makes some sense. And so that's the problem for

827
00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:11,920
Speaker 2: a lot.

828
00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:13,799
Speaker 3: Of people who don't understand.

829
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:18,200
Speaker 2: When you make the shift to owning, you now have

830
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:20,920
Speaker 2: to think completely different. And you also have.

831
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:23,560
Speaker 3: To learn to tell yourself no. People gonna.

832
00:45:23,680 --> 00:45:26,560
Speaker 2: People came to me and they were like, oh, man, man, man, listen,

833
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:29,480
Speaker 2: and that can is see three hundred. Oh yes, that's

834
00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:31,840
Speaker 2: an amazing camera, but the body and the lens is

835
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:35,719
Speaker 2: twenty thousand dollars. I need three cameras, I said, And

836
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:37,560
Speaker 2: I don't have I don't have twenty grand to buy

837
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:38,320
Speaker 2: three cameras.

838
00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:40,520
Speaker 3: So you gotta learn how to tell yourself no.

839
00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:44,040
Speaker 2: So I started our remote equipment with three Canon x

840
00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:45,080
Speaker 2: A twenty fives.

841
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 3: Gave me HD had two xl xl R outlets.

842
00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:52,000
Speaker 2: It gave me everything I needed had had SD I

843
00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:55,880
Speaker 2: out give me everything I needed to broadcast. Now what

844
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:57,120
Speaker 2: happened to two? What happened?

845
00:45:57,280 --> 00:45:58,000
Speaker 3: Three years later?

846
00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:01,160
Speaker 2: I bought three can and see three hundred whatever. Six

847
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:03,920
Speaker 2: months later I bought two more cannonsy three hundreds. So

848
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:07,320
Speaker 2: today IWN five cannon SY three hundreds, a cannon CY seventy,

849
00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 2: a cannon SY eighty two, black magic cameras, and also

850
00:46:11,239 --> 00:46:15,960
Speaker 2: a Canon D ninety. So I had to tell folk, no,

851
00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:21,280
Speaker 2: at the beginning stages to build to a certain level.

852
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:23,279
Speaker 3: And that's the other thing a lot of us do.

853
00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:26,759
Speaker 2: Many of us. We want to come out flossing. We

854
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:29,759
Speaker 2: want to come out oh man, were looking good. We

855
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:32,200
Speaker 2: want to come out on all this stuff. Listen, that

856
00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:36,480
Speaker 2: stuff don't mean a damn thing. If you in business

857
00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:39,920
Speaker 2: for one year, all you said, oh man, we had

858
00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:45,239
Speaker 2: a great one year run. I'd rather say now we

859
00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 2: ad a ten, twenty thirty forty year run. Yeah. And

860
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:50,960
Speaker 2: that's how your thinking has to be different.

861
00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:54,200
Speaker 1: And there's so much more I wanted to get to.

862
00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:56,480
Speaker 1: I would do one last question and then I'll let

863
00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:59,440
Speaker 1: you go out this. I'll put to the two questions

864
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:00,880
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask into one. I think I can

865
00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:03,120
Speaker 1: do that. So I I was at dinner a couple

866
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:07,799
Speaker 1: of nights ago with some very established brothers black man physicians, attorneys, etc.

867
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:11,480
Speaker 1: And I remember one of them saying that they were

868
00:47:11,520 --> 00:47:14,959
Speaker 1: advising their son to not be vocal about what's going

869
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:18,480
Speaker 1: on in this landscape. And the other. Another one at

870
00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:20,160
Speaker 1: the table was like, well, this is how they need

871
00:47:20,200 --> 00:47:22,000
Speaker 1: to be vocal. We need our young people to be vocal,

872
00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:25,440
Speaker 1: because revolutions have always started with young people. And so

873
00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:28,440
Speaker 1: I'm going to pair that question, what's your thoughts on that?

874
00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:31,719
Speaker 1: How should we be showing up today with this landscape

875
00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:33,640
Speaker 1: that we live in? And I'm going to pair that

876
00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:37,760
Speaker 1: with what advice would you give to someone who wants

877
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:41,960
Speaker 1: to build their own media platform, particularly for our community.

878
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:49,760
Speaker 2: So the first thing is how much you are vocal

879
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:54,560
Speaker 2: is based upon what you doing. There were people who

880
00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 2: were saying to were people who were critical of Dying

881
00:47:59,160 --> 00:48:06,360
Speaker 2: Carroll and other African Americans in Hollywood. Hat the King said, stop,

882
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:11,759
Speaker 2: Diane Carroll and Sydney Poitier are serving a purpose for

883
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:12,719
Speaker 2: our community.

884
00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:15,279
Speaker 3: Let them keep doing what they are doing.

885
00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:22,120
Speaker 2: Diane Carrol was hosting private fundraisers at her New York

886
00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:27,160
Speaker 2: apartment and in LA that was funding the movement. Diane

887
00:48:27,239 --> 00:48:32,120
Speaker 2: Carroll wasn't on the front lines like Dick Gregory was,

888
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:36,959
Speaker 2: like Harrabella Fonte was. Dick Gregory at his height gave

889
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:40,240
Speaker 2: up making millions of dollars a year to go towards

890
00:48:40,239 --> 00:48:44,640
Speaker 2: the movement that was his personal decision. Harrabella Fonte, Mister

891
00:48:44,719 --> 00:48:47,520
Speaker 2: B loved him dearly. We were friends for twelve years,

892
00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:49,440
Speaker 2: last twelve years of his life. We would talk all

893
00:48:49,480 --> 00:48:52,520
Speaker 2: the time and texting and have lunch and dinner. This

894
00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:54,439
Speaker 2: is what he wrote in his own book. He said

895
00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:57,960
Speaker 2: he saw how the federal government broke Paul Ropson by

896
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 2: snatching his passport, preventing him from earning a living. He said,

897
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:06,120
Speaker 2: and he died. He died, you know, almost broke. Mister

898
00:49:06,160 --> 00:49:09,360
Speaker 2: B said, I wasn't going to do that. So he

899
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:13,080
Speaker 2: structured his business where he owned his content.

900
00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 3: So therefore the federal.

901
00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:18,200
Speaker 2: Government couldn't do the mister be what they did to

902
00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:21,879
Speaker 2: Paul Rosen, So he learned from it. So I would

903
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:25,799
Speaker 2: say to a person, first and foremost, if you have

904
00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:30,560
Speaker 2: a job where speaking out and speaking out happens on

905
00:49:30,680 --> 00:49:33,600
Speaker 2: different levels, Okay, I think there are a lot of

906
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:37,399
Speaker 2: people who are speaking out who should shut up. Don't

907
00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:41,920
Speaker 2: let me just be real, coully clear, because your job

908
00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:47,120
Speaker 2: may not allow those things, but you can help the

909
00:49:47,320 --> 00:49:52,080
Speaker 2: movement in other ways. See, everybody is not supposed to

910
00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:56,120
Speaker 2: speak out. Everybody is not supposed to march. Everybody's not

911
00:49:56,160 --> 00:49:58,760
Speaker 2: supposed to be in front. What you have to figure

912
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:03,319
Speaker 2: out is, Okay, how can I be of value to

913
00:50:03,560 --> 00:50:07,920
Speaker 2: the cause, and being of value, maybe you might be

914
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:12,360
Speaker 2: an inside player in your corporation and you let those

915
00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:16,160
Speaker 2: externally do what they do. People tell me, man, you

916
00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:19,960
Speaker 2: ain't an activists. I'm not. I'm a journalist because somebody

917
00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:23,520
Speaker 2: gotta cover what the activists do. See that's what people

918
00:50:23,520 --> 00:50:27,439
Speaker 2: don't understand. And so you have to decide what role

919
00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:31,120
Speaker 2: do I play. Some folks could just say, man, I'm

920
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:33,920
Speaker 2: gonna go do my job, but I'm a fund of stuff.

921
00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:36,160
Speaker 2: Other folks to say, you know what, I'm gonna do

922
00:50:36,239 --> 00:50:39,239
Speaker 2: my job. I'm gonna make phone calls, and so your

923
00:50:39,360 --> 00:50:42,440
Speaker 2: role can be different. The last piece is this, when

924
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:44,840
Speaker 2: you're talking about that's somebody out there. They want to

925
00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:46,480
Speaker 2: be an owner. And I get this all the time.

926
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:48,359
Speaker 2: People young people going to me and they say, man,

927
00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:50,360
Speaker 2: I want to do what you do, and this is

928
00:50:50,360 --> 00:50:53,680
Speaker 2: exactly what I say, But do you want to do

929
00:50:53,719 --> 00:50:54,359
Speaker 2: what I do?

930
00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:56,319
Speaker 3: Then they look at me.

931
00:50:57,480 --> 00:50:59,000
Speaker 2: I say, when you say you want to do what

932
00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:03,600
Speaker 2: I do? Ninety nine percent What that means is they

933
00:51:03,640 --> 00:51:06,920
Speaker 2: want the selfish, They want to be recognized, they want

934
00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:08,879
Speaker 2: to be able to call celebrities.

935
00:51:08,320 --> 00:51:09,280
Speaker 3: On their cell phones.

936
00:51:09,600 --> 00:51:14,560
Speaker 2: I said, But the work made that happen. The work

937
00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:18,440
Speaker 2: that I put in made that happen. I'm like, you

938
00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:22,360
Speaker 2: can't want You can't want what I do or do

939
00:51:22,480 --> 00:51:25,120
Speaker 2: what I do if you don't want to put in

940
00:51:25,239 --> 00:51:28,480
Speaker 2: the work that I put in. So that's the work ethic.

941
00:51:28,920 --> 00:51:33,880
Speaker 2: That's knowing your business. That's an understanding and studying your craft.

942
00:51:34,040 --> 00:51:36,319
Speaker 2: That's sitting here saying, man, let me learn this to

943
00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:40,279
Speaker 2: let me learn three point lighting, let me understand what's

944
00:51:40,320 --> 00:51:43,759
Speaker 2: too much headroom in a shot, Let me understand how

945
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:46,400
Speaker 2: this camera works. I'm sitting here, man, this camera that

946
00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:48,440
Speaker 2: I'm sitting here right now, this is like a fifteen

947
00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:51,200
Speaker 2: year old Sony camera that steals spot on. They gonna

948
00:51:51,200 --> 00:51:53,160
Speaker 2: tell you. So when I got this camera, this is

949
00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:56,160
Speaker 2: what I set the camera down and I grabbed the manual,

950
00:51:56,440 --> 00:51:59,200
Speaker 2: which is like foreign to a whole bunch of millennials

951
00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:01,879
Speaker 2: gen Z and Jedia because folks want to be able

952
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:05,080
Speaker 2: to google everything or go to YouTube. But you can't

953
00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:07,439
Speaker 2: do that. You know why, because when you out there

954
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:09,440
Speaker 2: in the field and all of a sudden, that sucker

955
00:52:09,480 --> 00:52:12,360
Speaker 2: don't work and you got one bar on your phone.

956
00:52:12,040 --> 00:52:12,920
Speaker 3: You can't YouTube.

957
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:16,840
Speaker 2: And so if you don't have an intimate relationship with

958
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:19,960
Speaker 2: that camera where you understand, why am I not getting

959
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:21,680
Speaker 2: audio what's happening here?

960
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:23,360
Speaker 3: Because you didn't read the manual?

961
00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:26,680
Speaker 2: And so so still, even to this day, I get

962
00:52:26,719 --> 00:52:29,440
Speaker 2: a piece of equipment, I'm sitting here looking at it

963
00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:33,600
Speaker 2: learning this people what can all do? And so I'm learning,

964
00:52:33,680 --> 00:52:36,759
Speaker 2: I'm learning, I'm learning. Maya Angelou said, well, she did

965
00:52:36,800 --> 00:52:38,720
Speaker 2: the interview that she said, asked her and she said,

966
00:52:39,160 --> 00:52:43,320
Speaker 2: I don't call myself a Christian because she says, because

967
00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:47,200
Speaker 2: if I do, that means I've learned everything I need.

968
00:52:46,960 --> 00:52:49,319
Speaker 3: To know what it means to be a Christian, she said.

969
00:52:49,680 --> 00:52:52,560
Speaker 2: And she said, so, I'm constantly learning and evolving, and

970
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:55,560
Speaker 2: it's sort of the same thing. I will never ever

971
00:52:56,719 --> 00:53:02,239
Speaker 2: learn everything I need to know about this business in

972
00:53:02,280 --> 00:53:04,480
Speaker 2: front of the camera and behind in the business. But

973
00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:08,319
Speaker 2: my goal every day is to learn something today that

974
00:53:08,400 --> 00:53:12,000
Speaker 2: I didn't know yesterday that I can apply tomorrow. And

975
00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:14,480
Speaker 2: that's what people need to do. There are too many

976
00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:18,800
Speaker 2: people who love the content. Man, content's easy.

977
00:53:19,680 --> 00:53:21,720
Speaker 3: My wife always tells me, she said, you gotta.

978
00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:24,360
Speaker 2: Stop saying that. But no, it's a plethora of content.

979
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:27,600
Speaker 2: The issue is how do you monetize it, which now

980
00:53:27,680 --> 00:53:31,560
Speaker 2: means the business of the business, And so that's what

981
00:53:31,600 --> 00:53:33,759
Speaker 2: people have to do. And I just think too many

982
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:36,160
Speaker 2: people And I just give you this last example. I

983
00:53:36,239 --> 00:53:40,640
Speaker 2: lost you twenty eighteen. These white guys with the recount

984
00:53:40,920 --> 00:53:46,440
Speaker 2: did the same Holoman some other cats. They raised thirty

985
00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:53,839
Speaker 2: two million dollars. They shut down in December twenty twenty two.

986
00:53:53,920 --> 00:53:56,320
Speaker 2: They sold a Twitter handle for pennies on the dollar.

987
00:53:56,760 --> 00:54:00,120
Speaker 2: They raised thirty two million dollars and in five years

988
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:03,800
Speaker 2: they never figured out their business plan and the only

989
00:54:03,960 --> 00:54:07,880
Speaker 2: asset they had was a three hundred thousand person Twitter handle.

990
00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:12,080
Speaker 2: That's all they had. I launched this business the same

991
00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:15,479
Speaker 2: year with three hundred and fifty thousand of my own

992
00:54:15,560 --> 00:54:19,280
Speaker 2: money and one sponsor that was two hundred fifty thousand dollars,

993
00:54:19,800 --> 00:54:22,080
Speaker 2: and have grown it and we're still here seven years later.

994
00:54:22,880 --> 00:54:27,399
Speaker 2: Because I yes, I loved the content. I love all

995
00:54:27,440 --> 00:54:31,120
Speaker 2: of that. But if I did not study the business model,

996
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:33,960
Speaker 2: if I did not pay attention to the out the

997
00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:37,400
Speaker 2: money coming in and the money going out, if I

998
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:41,080
Speaker 2: spent money on stupid stuff that did not yield a return,

999
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:45,840
Speaker 2: if I was not telling myself no, or telling staff no,

1000
00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:48,760
Speaker 2: we can't afford that right now, then we wouldn't still

1001
00:54:48,760 --> 00:54:52,000
Speaker 2: be here. That's the greatest lesson that people have to learn.

1002
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:55,040
Speaker 2: You have to study your business.

1003
00:54:56,040 --> 00:55:00,000
Speaker 1: Afrotech Conference is back and returned to as Town, Houston, Texas,

1004
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:03,040
Speaker 1: from October twenty seven through thirty first, twenty twenty.

1005
00:55:02,800 --> 00:55:04,080
Speaker 2: Five the George R.

1006
00:55:04,120 --> 00:55:05,200
Speaker 3: Brown Convention Center.

1007
00:55:05,560 --> 00:55:07,960
Speaker 1: For years, afro Tech has been to go to experience

1008
00:55:07,960 --> 00:55:12,080
Speaker 1: for black tech innovators, founders, engineers, creators, investors.

1009
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:13,160
Speaker 3: In twenty twenty.

1010
00:55:12,880 --> 00:55:14,720
Speaker 1: Five is shaping up to be the biggest year yet,

1011
00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:18,560
Speaker 1: though with fortyzery attendees expected. This year's conference will feature

1012
00:55:18,600 --> 00:55:22,239
Speaker 1: five days of dynamic programming across six curator stages from

1013
00:55:22,280 --> 00:55:25,560
Speaker 1: discovery to executive leadership. Join us to hear from industry

1014
00:55:25,600 --> 00:55:28,359
Speaker 1: leaders at the forefront of change, learn from top ten

1015
00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:31,040
Speaker 1: engineers and designers, and connect with recruiters from nearly two

1016
00:55:31,160 --> 00:55:34,440
Speaker 1: hundred companies. This year, we're digging deeper into what's next

1017
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:37,759
Speaker 1: with tracks exploring AI and machine learning, mad tech and

1018
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:42,160
Speaker 1: health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech, and much more. Whether you're

1019
00:55:42,200 --> 00:55:44,880
Speaker 1: launching your first startup, pivoting into a new role, or

1020
00:55:44,920 --> 00:55:47,880
Speaker 1: scaling as an execut there's something here for you. Tickets

1021
00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:50,560
Speaker 1: and moving fast to keep your spot now at Afrotech

1022
00:55:50,560 --> 00:55:53,600
Speaker 1: conference dot com. Black Tech Green Money is a production

1023
00:55:53,680 --> 00:55:56,800
Speaker 1: to Blavity, afro Tech and the Black Effect podcast Networking

1024
00:55:56,880 --> 00:56:00,560
Speaker 1: Night Hire Media. It's produced by Morgan Debaun and me Lucas,

1025
00:56:00,880 --> 00:56:03,919
Speaker 1: with the additional production support by Kate McDonald, Sarah Ergan,

1026
00:56:04,040 --> 00:56:07,160
Speaker 1: and Jaden McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Lovebeach.

1027
00:56:07,440 --> 00:56:09,320
Speaker 1: Learn more about my guests and other tech. Destructor is

1028
00:56:09,320 --> 00:56:12,400
Speaker 1: an innovators at afrotech dot com. The video version of

1029
00:56:12,480 --> 00:56:15,080
Speaker 1: this episode will drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube,

1030
00:56:15,120 --> 00:56:18,480
Speaker 1: So tap in, enjoy your Black Tech Green Money, share

1031
00:56:18,560 --> 00:56:22,080
Speaker 1: us to somebody, go get your money. Peace in love,