Speaker 1: Wake that ass up early in the morning.
Speaker 2: Breakfast Club.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the world more dangerous morning show to Breakfast Club,
Speaker 3: charlamagea god, just hilarious. DJ VA is out, but Lauren
Speaker 3: Leros is in and we got a special guest in
Speaker 3: the building. He's got a new book out, Who Better
Speaker 3: than You, The Art of Healthy Arrogance and Dreaming Big.
Speaker 2: We'll pack your something.
Speaker 1: My brother, family, what's going on.
Speaker 2: And how you feel.
Speaker 1: I'm feeling amazing, you know, I'm up here.
Speaker 4: I'm up here with one of the most incredible platforms
Speaker 4: in media right now. Interesting time in media. You know,
Speaker 4: we media ebbs and flows. We're in an EBB right now.
Speaker 4: In the movie business, Charlamagne, you know, yeah, just you know,
Speaker 4: coming off the strikes, coming off of COVID, like the
Speaker 4: the movie industry never really recalibrated. So there's a lot
Speaker 4: of folks out there that are hurting right now, a
Speaker 4: lot of folks that.
Speaker 1: Aren't working, a lot of actors out of work, writers,
Speaker 1: and so as.
Speaker 4: A producer, you know, I'm just trying to keep people hired,
Speaker 4: trying to do what I do and create content. Most
Speaker 4: people out there, they don't realize because there's so much
Speaker 4: content out there in so many streaming services. It's like, oh,
Speaker 4: everything out there, I can see whatever I want. But
Speaker 4: actually the media companies are making a lot less. So
Speaker 4: it's an interesting time in the business man.
Speaker 1: Who better than You is the name of the book?
Speaker 5: What makes you decide to write this?
Speaker 1: Yo?
Speaker 4: You know, I have been in the movie game for
Speaker 4: almost thirty years now, and I have dealt with some
Speaker 4: of the biggest names, some of the most impressive, successful people,
Speaker 4: some of the most toxic, insecure people. And throughout that process,
Speaker 4: I have gained a set of skills that I want
Speaker 4: to share with people about how you can be successful
Speaker 4: and manifest the more full life. How you can use
Speaker 4: some of the skills that I've learned that are transferable
Speaker 4: to any industry to navigate be it. You want to
Speaker 4: start a new endeavor, you want to overcome a challenge,
Speaker 4: you want to pivot in your life. And so I'm
Speaker 4: telling stories I've never told before, stories from dealing with
Speaker 4: you know, some of my Hollywood folks. But it's really lessons, right,
Speaker 4: It's lessons about this is how you deal with people,
Speaker 4: how you position yourself to succeed, and how you have
Speaker 4: healthy arrogance. Now to be confused with toxic arrogance. Right,
Speaker 4: Toxic arrogant walks in a room and says, I'm better
Speaker 4: than everybody here. I'm gonna win cause you're gonna lose. Right,
Speaker 4: I'm better than you. Healthy arrogance walks in a room
Speaker 4: and says, okay, number one, I belong in this room.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: The most successful people feel that they don't feel like
Speaker 4: am I supposed to be here with all these important people.
Speaker 4: Healthy arrogance feels like I'm supposed to be here. However,
Speaker 4: I also have something to add to this room. This
Speaker 4: room is better because I'm in it, and I'm gonna
Speaker 4: get other people to understand how they and I have
Speaker 4: a commonality in terms.
Speaker 1: Of our goal.
Speaker 4: If you can get other people to see the value
Speaker 4: in what you're going after, then you can then get
Speaker 4: them to row in the same direction as you and
Speaker 4: work towards your own goal.
Speaker 1: That's what leadership is.
Speaker 4: Getting other people to realize that it's not me against you.
Speaker 4: If I can get you to understand that together we
Speaker 4: both benefit from working together and accomplishing things that are
Speaker 4: my goals as well as your goals, your chance for
Speaker 4: success is increased.
Speaker 3: You know, when I read about you talk about healthy
Speaker 3: ar against, so here your interviews about healthier against.
Speaker 2: It feels like you're saying you just got it. It's
Speaker 2: like a sense of worthiness, it's value.
Speaker 4: It is it is very much understanding the value to
Speaker 4: place on yourself, right, and you underste Charlotte Man because
Speaker 4: you talk about mental health a lot. We all have
Speaker 4: this drum beat in our head, right, and it can
Speaker 4: be a negative drum beat of I'm not ready, I'm
Speaker 4: not worthy, I don't have the skills, I'm not prepared.
Speaker 4: More and more you tell yourself that, the louder those
Speaker 4: voices get. But there's a confidence muscle that you can build,
Speaker 4: that you can grow by telling yourself the exact opposite
Speaker 4: that I am worthy, right, that I am prepared.
Speaker 1: But it's really about assigning value.
Speaker 4: The thing I say to people that understand, from the
Speaker 4: time you are born and to the time you leave
Speaker 4: this earth, you are building your brand.
Speaker 1: Everything you do, right. I mean, you can't make mistakes.
Speaker 4: Everybody does, but every decision you make in everything you
Speaker 4: do is building your brand, and it is telling people
Speaker 4: what value to assign to you, whether that's somebody that
Speaker 4: is looking to invest in you, looking to date you,
Speaker 4: looking to just hang out with you. You are telling them
Speaker 4: what your value is, and you have to be healthily
Speaker 4: arrogant in the way that you force other people to
Speaker 4: recognize your value.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So if you don't have nobody, does that mean
Speaker 2: you're not worth nothing?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I'm not going to say that.
Speaker 4: You mean, like a relationship, Well, that just means that
Speaker 4: you have to be sure that you're surrounding yourself with
Speaker 4: people that understand your value. It might mean that you're
Speaker 4: worth more than people want to give you credit for
Speaker 4: talking about. It might mean you're single because other people
Speaker 4: don't recognize your value and you're not willing to compromise
Speaker 4: for it.
Speaker 6: You had something to what dog will won't they?
Speaker 1: The sassiness off?
Speaker 2: God?
Speaker 1: Is that what it is? Are you with me? Your
Speaker 1: hair back?
Speaker 2: I was asking you a question because I like what
Speaker 2: you're talking about.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, well yes, absolutely so if some you know,
Speaker 4: somebody happens to be an amazing, beautiful single sister, I
Speaker 4: don't know you know the relationship status of everybody here,
Speaker 4: but let's just say present company.
Speaker 1: Why Well, because and she said you had a sassy next,
Speaker 1: so she is she is immediately the most entertaining person that.
Speaker 7: I want to ask you about imposter syndrome and when
Speaker 7: you when did that? Like, when did you get past that?
Speaker 7: Where did you deal with that at all? Yourself?
Speaker 4: Absolutely deal with everybody deals with everybody. Uh gets to
Speaker 4: a point where they feel like, Yo.
Speaker 1: Do I belong right?
Speaker 4: Do I deserve to be in the most important spaces?
Speaker 4: And I've been very, very fortunate to be in some
Speaker 4: incredible rooms with some people that are, you know, some
Speaker 4: of the most powerful people.
Speaker 1: From around the world.
Speaker 4: And as I said, what I realize is that when
Speaker 4: I walk in those rooms, I cannot question if I'm
Speaker 4: supposed to be there. I need to realize what is
Speaker 4: it that I have that nobody else in this room has?
Speaker 1: And how can I double down on that? Right?
Speaker 4: So, black man African American film AMAIC in Hollywood, not
Speaker 4: a lot of folks at my level in the rooms
Speaker 4: that I'm in. Oftentimes it's all white people in those rooms.
Speaker 4: What I choose to do instead of saying, Okay, I'm
Speaker 4: the only black person in this room.
Speaker 1: I know they're racist. I know they looking at me
Speaker 1: a certain way. I know they have a negative perception.
Speaker 4: I'm walking in the room and I'm thinking, Okay, you
Speaker 4: know what, I'm bringing something that nobody else can bring.
Speaker 4: When I talk about my perspective, when I talk about
Speaker 4: my audience, when I talk about my community, nobody else
Speaker 4: can debate me on that.
Speaker 1: I'm the only one with that lived experience.
Speaker 4: Whatever it is in the rooms and the circles that
Speaker 4: you're in, what's the unique thing that you have? And
Speaker 4: then you triple down on that that will help with
Speaker 4: that imposter syndrome. The other thing is that you have
Speaker 4: to understand, like you don't have to be somebody that's
Speaker 4: just born with like an overabundance of confidence.
Speaker 1: It's something that you can build, but you do have to.
Speaker 4: Build it by putting a success with a success with
Speaker 4: a success, right Like just like a bog said, check
Speaker 4: with a check with the check, you gotta build the successes.
Speaker 4: And sometimes to do that you gotta come back and
Speaker 4: not say, Okay, my first success has to be so big, right,
Speaker 4: just accomplish something. I call it fabricating momental. I believe
Speaker 4: that sometimes we get stuck on the first wrung, the
Speaker 4: very first thing I'm trying to get started.
Speaker 1: I don't have any money, I don't know people, don't
Speaker 1: have a network.
Speaker 4: That's okay, right, theyn't make the first thing you're trying
Speaker 4: to do to climb the mountain, right, that's a lot.
Speaker 4: That's a momentous task. Make the first thing by the
Speaker 4: shoes hiking boost, then buy a rope, then drive by
Speaker 4: the mountain and look at it. Well, you know you've
Speaker 4: done three things, right, Get started. Do something that helps
Speaker 4: to build that confidence we all need that.
Speaker 7: You have a chapter in the book. I think it's
Speaker 7: chapter twenty Yeah, chapter twenty one. All you need is
Speaker 7: one white guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, get into.
Speaker 7: That chapter a little bit because I know you just
Speaker 7: mentioned being the only in the room and kind of
Speaker 7: dealing with that, like talk to us a bit of
Speaker 7: putting that chapter in why and kind of what your
Speaker 7: experience has been and why you titled it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the chapter. Sometimes all you need is one white guy.
Speaker 4: And it's actually the irony of it is that I'm
Speaker 4: saying that what you need is an advocate.
Speaker 1: Right, everybody does nobody.
Speaker 4: I don't care who they are, how successful they are,
Speaker 4: nobody does it by themselves. What I'm saying is that
Speaker 4: your person may not be white, may not be a guy.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: And so when I came into Hollywood, there was a
Speaker 4: white executive.
Speaker 1: It was a white gay executive.
Speaker 4: He used to tell me that he felt like he
Speaker 4: was trapped in the body of a black woman. I said, okay,
Speaker 4: his name is Clint Culpepper. I said, Clint, first of all,
Speaker 4: don't tell nobody else that secutive all. I can get
Speaker 4: you some therapy to unpack that. But he was somebody
Speaker 4: that was an advocate. He was He didn't play spakies,
Speaker 4: he didn't know. He didn't go to fam you or
Speaker 4: nothing like that. But what I said was, you know,
Speaker 4: he wanted to make movies that were aimed at African
Speaker 4: American culture, and I was interested in be an African
Speaker 4: American storyteller. I made him look good to the studio
Speaker 4: and so he then in turn gave me more power
Speaker 4: and more movies. Remember that advocacy is a two way street.
Speaker 4: Oftentimes we have our hands out. I need somebody to
Speaker 4: help me. What can you do for me? The best
Speaker 4: way to get help and the best way to find
Speaker 4: your advocate? Right your quote unquote one white guy. I
Speaker 4: don't care what it looked like. It could look like
Speaker 4: Charlotte Mann, could look like just it doesn't matter. The
Speaker 4: point is to get that one person you gotta add
Speaker 4: value to them, make them look smart, figure out what
Speaker 4: it is that they need, and then once you were
Speaker 4: able to help them, they're gonna want to continue to
Speaker 4: help you.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: This guy wanted to make movies that were similar to
Speaker 4: the ones I made. I made them look smart because
Speaker 4: I was able to make them for a certain number
Speaker 4: and they overperformed in terms of their budget.
Speaker 1: And so we made a bunch of movies together. Right.
Speaker 4: But you gotta figure out that person that you need.
Speaker 4: You gotta find that one person. Nobody does it by themselves,
Speaker 4: and whatever that person is, figure out how you can
Speaker 4: add value to their lives.
Speaker 1: Don't just think about what can you do for me?
Speaker 1: What can you do for me? No, that's not how
Speaker 1: the people at the top level think.
Speaker 2: Did he get out your way? Did he let you create?
Speaker 1: He absolutely did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it became a very semiotic relationship.
Speaker 1: It was a two way street.
Speaker 4: Right, So he was He went out and got financing
Speaker 4: from Sony Pictures for the movie.
Speaker 1: Some of the early like if you look at My
Speaker 1: Think like a Man's No.
Speaker 4: Good Deeds, Obsessed Takers. Anybody remembers those movies? Those are
Speaker 4: all movies that don't pen Number.
Speaker 2: One at the box office.
Speaker 4: Those are movies that I made when I was at
Speaker 4: Sony Pictures, and these are movies that he financed. But
Speaker 4: our very first one he gave it was called The
Speaker 4: Gospel right, the Gospels gospel music movie. It had started yourself.
Speaker 4: It was Interest's first movie off the wire. Boris Kojo
Speaker 4: had all the gospel stars in it, from you know,
Speaker 4: Kirk Franklin, Elina Adams, Fred Hamill, everybody, and he gave
Speaker 4: me a budget to go out and do that movie
Speaker 4: totally on my own. I did not go spend the
Speaker 4: money frivolously, and I did not go spend the money
Speaker 4: and not return it. I went out spent that money
Speaker 4: on a three million dollar movie and it made fifteen
Speaker 4: million dollars. It's not all the money in the world,
Speaker 4: but that's five times what they spent on it. So
Speaker 4: he looked good at the studio, and so they said, oh,
Speaker 4: that's great. Who is this guy that you're working with.
Speaker 4: Clinty said, oh, yeah, that's my guy. We want to
Speaker 4: make something else, and he continued to feed me as
Speaker 4: I continue to make him look good.
Speaker 5: Now, your book is motivational and inspirational, right, but it
Speaker 5: leans on comedy too. You love comedy. Because the interesting
Speaker 5: thing is the back the quotes you got quick quotes
Speaker 5: from Kevin.
Speaker 1: Kerry Washing.
Speaker 2: What made you do that?
Speaker 4: It just quote is that I did not authorize Will
Speaker 4: Packard to use my name in this book, and he
Speaker 4: did it anyway, And that tells you all you need
Speaker 4: to know about Will Packard.
Speaker 1: That's one hundred percent truth.
Speaker 4: All those quotes are truth because I come with Kevin
Speaker 4: pretty hard and uh. And so he said, you know what,
Speaker 4: I don't have to like this and I don't have
Speaker 4: to laugh at it. So if you look at the quotes,
Speaker 4: I reached out on my industry friends and I said,
Speaker 4: just be honest.
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey's quote is by my book first and then
Speaker 1: by Will. That's hilarious, you know what I'm saying. That's
Speaker 1: very much how Steve as.
Speaker 4: But you know, for me, it is a lot of
Speaker 4: it is told through humor, it's told through comedy.
Speaker 1: I have had an incredible career. I look back and
Speaker 1: I can't believe it's been thirty years in the game.
Speaker 1: I can't believe.
Speaker 4: I've had the success I've had. That is because of
Speaker 4: the people listening to the show. It's because of you all.
Speaker 4: Let me come on the show. It's because of the
Speaker 4: support of the audience. But the reality is that I
Speaker 4: have been through some shit, man, and so telling it
Speaker 4: now I can look back with levity and with light.
Speaker 4: And now I'm saying, Okay, learn from what I went through.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, Learn from that moment when
Speaker 4: Kevin Hart left me on the set of Ride Alone
Speaker 4: to go shoot a stand up special and almost sunk
Speaker 4: the whole movie.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: I don't want to hear you talk bad about Kevin
Speaker 3: no moore after reading chapter twenty two.
Speaker 1: What'sh's chapter?
Speaker 2: If all those fails open the fruits then benefits of feelings? Yes,
Speaker 2: And I don't want to give it all the way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I'll just say, you got into Jamaica with
Speaker 3: an inspired passport.
Speaker 1: I snuck into a foreign country and you called.
Speaker 2: Shaley to fix that problem for you.
Speaker 3: Going into a country with an expired passport felssness is criminal.
Speaker 1: It was not the smartest thing I've ever done. It criminal.
Speaker 4: I just started shout out to Sheila, it was you
Speaker 4: know what the point of that when you read that.
Speaker 1: Chapter, sir, sometimes you can get away with cris No
Speaker 1: that is not the point of it, and that is
Speaker 1: not what it was. It was the fact that I
Speaker 1: was first.
Speaker 4: It was one of my first dates with this new
Speaker 4: woman that I had met, and met this amazing woman
Speaker 4: named Heather and sneak.
Speaker 3: Into the contr.
Speaker 1: You know what it was.
Speaker 4: Just we got to the counter and my passport was expired.
Speaker 4: Because with a passport, you know, it's like seven eight
Speaker 4: years or something. Right, that's good, but that's also the problem.
Speaker 4: You don't think about it. I got to that counter
Speaker 4: and they said my passport was inspired. This is my
Speaker 4: first trip out of town, and I'm trying to be impressive,
Speaker 4: and she looking.
Speaker 1: At me like, oh, I'm with that guy.
Speaker 4: I'm with the guy that don't even have an acting
Speaker 4: passport and don't check this stuff out and you.
Speaker 1: Will pack it o what.
Speaker 4: So I was like, I got to figure this out,
Speaker 4: so I do tell the story about how I snuck in.
Speaker 4: The bad thing was that I was able to get
Speaker 4: out of America and I didn't think about the fact
Speaker 4: that once I got into the country, my passport was
Speaker 4: still expired and I would have preferred to be in
Speaker 4: American jail versus a Jamaican jail. So I kind of
Speaker 4: didn't think it all the way through. But here's the point.
Speaker 4: We all have situations, right, life is hard where we
Speaker 4: have to then decide after we are in a situation
Speaker 4: that we can't control. So once I got into Jamaica,
Speaker 4: I was there, I had the best vacation ever because
Speaker 4: at that point, you gotta go hard. So I encourage people, right,
Speaker 4: there are times when you get into a situation that
Speaker 4: you just got to say, you know what, there's nothing
Speaker 4: I can do but live my life to the fullest
Speaker 4: in this moment. Don't stress about it. Don't get anxiety
Speaker 4: about it once you're in it. Once I was in
Speaker 4: Jamaica and I snuck in, I knew I might go
Speaker 4: to jail. I said, Yo, I'm gonna have a good
Speaker 4: ass time.
Speaker 5: You had to go hard because her group chats. You
Speaker 5: ain't wanted to tell her friends, but.
Speaker 1: I locked that down after she's my wife. Now that Heather,
Speaker 1: she is here with me right now, did you tell
Speaker 1: your friend? Yes, whether you were.
Speaker 2: An accomplished I just want you to know that you can.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he Heather, definitely.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: She had to flirt with the Jamaican dude. Help was
Speaker 4: get into the country. I don't want to say yeah, no.
Speaker 1: No, I did. I definitely.
Speaker 4: I definitely threw my wife out there. It's not one
Speaker 4: of my proudest moments. I said, you gotta do what
Speaker 4: you gotta do.
Speaker 3: When keV wanted to go do his stand up and
Speaker 3: go to the party, yes, we hear that it was.
Speaker 4: Completely irresponsible to do. Not try to defend that. Man,
Speaker 4: he was irresponsible. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Speaker 1: It the biggest movies our careers, and he overbooked himself.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, that was the biggest.
Speaker 7: Moment of your career.
Speaker 1: Like with the Heather you fifteen years later.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: It was, and it panned out.
Speaker 4: And one thing I would say about keV, if anything,
Speaker 4: he works too hard, right, it wasn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't malicious in what he did. He overbooked because
Speaker 1: he does work too hard. And that's the other thing.
Speaker 4: The most successful people who have accomplished things that you
Speaker 4: may look and say, how do I get there? The
Speaker 4: only difference between them and you is just that they
Speaker 4: haven't stopped.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 4: They just keep going. They've made all kinds of mistakes, right,
Speaker 4: They've had to pivot. And I always say giving up
Speaker 4: and quitting her two different things.
Speaker 1: Never ever ever give up.
Speaker 4: But you can quit, right. You might be doing something
Speaker 4: the wrong way. You might need to quit. Everybody I
Speaker 4: know that's really successful has quit doing something some way
Speaker 4: and pivot it. The power of the pivot I will give.
Speaker 3: I want to get to the audit to pivot, but
Speaker 3: first I want to ask you about the chapter that says,
Speaker 3: stay in your lane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just just make it wide, lean into your thing?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 3: How does one avoid being typecasted by leaning into their thing?
Speaker 2: And when do you know the pivot?
Speaker 1: Yeah? You know it.
Speaker 4: The whole point of that chapter is about when you
Speaker 4: have something that you do really really well, because many
Speaker 4: times people are afraid of being locked into something that
Speaker 4: people will think that's all I can do. Right, But
Speaker 4: if you do that thing, and you do it really
Speaker 4: really well, do not stop.
Speaker 1: Okay, don't stop.
Speaker 4: The most successful people have a thing that they do
Speaker 4: and they do it well. Then they use the ability
Speaker 4: to be successful in a lane to go out and
Speaker 4: do something else. I'm only able to write this book
Speaker 4: with a major publisher because I've been very successful in
Speaker 4: a particular medium. Right now, I'm able to go and
Speaker 4: do other things. So don't worry worry about that. Oh well,
Speaker 4: I can do so much other stuff. What's the thing
Speaker 4: you do really well?
Speaker 1: Do that?
Speaker 4: Triple down on that, be the best person in that
Speaker 4: particular field.
Speaker 1: And by the way, find your passion within that.
Speaker 4: Right, too many times people are telling me, well, I'm
Speaker 4: not passionate about something. I gotta wait to find my
Speaker 4: passion and before I go out, and you know, work
Speaker 4: really hard, and I'm telling you you're building your brand
Speaker 4: from day one.
Speaker 1: Work hard today.
Speaker 4: I didn't have a passion to be a filmmaker, I
Speaker 4: will admit that, but I was.
Speaker 1: I did not. That was not my dream growing up.
Speaker 4: But I found that I was really good at knowing
Speaker 4: how to hire actors and raise money and self distribute.
Speaker 4: And then I found the passion in storytelling later. So
Speaker 4: I found the thing I was really really good at,
Speaker 4: and then I found my passion within it.
Speaker 1: I encourage people to do that.
Speaker 4: Don't worry about being typecast. Stay in your lane, but
Speaker 4: you can make it wide right. I'm not trying to
Speaker 4: pigeonhole you, and I'm not trying to limit what you
Speaker 4: can do, but stay in your lane. Too often we
Speaker 4: are trying to do too much, and now you can't
Speaker 4: be the person that's doing everything the best.
Speaker 1: That is just not how humans work. What's the thing
Speaker 1: you do well?
Speaker 2: Triple down on that so you don't pivot.
Speaker 3: So once you've leaned into your thing and you find
Speaker 3: that thing, there's never a pivot from that thing.
Speaker 1: It can be a pivot where you use that thing.
Speaker 4: You use your ability, you use your brand, you use
Speaker 4: the fact that you have got credibility in a particular space,
Speaker 4: you have done the exact same thing. You use the
Speaker 4: fact that you have credibility in one lane in order
Speaker 4: to then expand your lane. Right, But it should still
Speaker 4: all be about this is the thing that I do.
Speaker 4: That's why I say stay in your lane, but make
Speaker 4: your lane wide.
Speaker 7: Is there ever a time where like you're because I
Speaker 7: mean looking, I remember when you told the story about
Speaker 7: Kevin and with the last time you guys were here,
Speaker 7: and now I'm seeing in context of this book of
Speaker 7: like who better than you? And I feel like in
Speaker 7: that moment he had the arrogance to be like, I
Speaker 7: can do both of these. I'm going to be fine
Speaker 7: and it's all going to work out. But things like
Speaker 7: that can kind of get pretty tricky because what if
Speaker 7: it hadn't have worked out whatever a moment where you
Speaker 7: have to tell somebody who's coming see you for this
Speaker 7: type of who better than you at vice sight? Maybe
Speaker 7: this is not it for you right now. Maybe there's
Speaker 7: someone better than you right now, but that doesn't mean
Speaker 7: later you might not be able to have that who
Speaker 7: better than you.
Speaker 4: Eric, you have to be honest with yourself Number one. Right,
Speaker 4: we live in a world where people think either they
Speaker 4: are too great or they are too awful. Rodger Kipling
Speaker 4: has a poem called if, and my favorite stanza in
Speaker 4: that poem is if you can meet with triumph and
Speaker 4: disaster and treat those two impostors just the same. That
Speaker 4: is saying that both triumph and disaster are impostors, neither
Speaker 4: of them are real.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: Too many times, because we post some on social media,
Speaker 4: everybody tell you, oh my god, you the greatest thing ever,
Speaker 4: is so good, or the opposite.
Speaker 1: They just hate knowing you're telling you how awful you are.
Speaker 4: Neither of that is true. You gotta stay even keeled.
Speaker 4: So the first thing you gotta do is be honest
Speaker 4: about you and your skill set. It's the only way
Speaker 4: you're gonna get better. Don't worry about external factors. You
Speaker 4: got to have a very honest conversation. One of the
Speaker 4: things I talk about in the book is how we
Speaker 4: have to make sure I'm a daily affirmation type of person.
Speaker 4: You're there encouraging yourself right, giving yourself positivity, telling yourself
Speaker 4: how you're ready, how you prepared, what you can do,
Speaker 4: but also being very very honest with yourself. I don't
Speaker 4: care what you tell the world. Don't lot of yourself,
Speaker 4: a lot of your mom, a lot of your cousin,
Speaker 4: lot of your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband and wife. Do not
Speaker 4: lie to yourself. Be very very clear about what it
Speaker 4: is that you do.
Speaker 2: Well. You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to talk you about the pack of
Speaker 3: family model too. If you want to have what others,
Speaker 3: won't you have to do with others don't?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you got your mom with you, Yeah her, I
Speaker 4: got moms, I got you know what.
Speaker 1: It's something that mom instilled in me.
Speaker 4: You know when I was growing up, Mom and dad
Speaker 4: they took me like you know, like simmling the lion
Speaker 4: king and lifting me up and said, you know, whatever.
Speaker 1: The son touches is your son.
Speaker 4: Like I encourage my folks with kids, do that, tell
Speaker 4: your kids, because that's when they're the most impressiable.
Speaker 1: Tell them they can do anything.
Speaker 4: They told me that, and so I was very audacious
Speaker 4: growing up with my family. It's me, my wife. We
Speaker 4: have four children, So that's the six pack. If you
Speaker 4: want to have what others don't, you have to be
Speaker 4: willing to do what others won't.
Speaker 2: Period.
Speaker 1: That is the mantra.
Speaker 4: The mantra is that understand whatever it is that you
Speaker 4: want to do, if anybody else can do it, then
Speaker 4: it's not special. You're not gonna get it right. You're
Speaker 4: not gonna get something that's unique. You gotta be willing
Speaker 4: to do what others are not to get that thing.
Speaker 4: And I believe that the more you do hard things,
Speaker 4: the better you become at hard things. The more hard
Speaker 4: things you do, the easier hard things become. So don't
Speaker 4: run from doing hard things. Don't run from doing the
Speaker 4: things that everybody else says it's crazy. That's the only
Speaker 4: way you're gonna get strength and to build that muscle.
Speaker 4: It's by doing those hard things. Why I say dream
Speaker 4: big because your dream has got to be so big,
Speaker 4: because they're gonna be challenges along the way. It's got
Speaker 4: to be so big that it pushes you past those
Speaker 4: challenges inevitably, because if the dream is just a mediocre dream,
Speaker 4: like man, it'd be kind of cool to do that.
Speaker 4: Then when you run into a speed bump and that's
Speaker 4: really hard, you're gonna say, you know what, it ain't
Speaker 4: worth it.
Speaker 1: I'm cool, right, But if the dream is so big, right,
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 4: So big for a color H four KHD, like super
Speaker 4: crazy beyond your wildless dreams big, then when you do
Speaker 4: hit that hard moment, those challenges, you know it's worth
Speaker 4: it to keep going and keep fighting because the dream
Speaker 4: is big enough.
Speaker 3: Is Will Packer allowed to turn his own book into
Speaker 3: a movie?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Limited seriously, Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm Will Packer. You
Speaker 1: know what I think about doing it. I could do that.
Speaker 7: I saw Heather in the background and that you know
Speaker 7: what Heather say in the background.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 7: I just saw something.
Speaker 1: I was given a lean like maybe no, don't do
Speaker 1: it right now or something. You know what.
Speaker 4: I've made this book not to turn into a movie
Speaker 4: or a TV show. You never say never, because you know,
Speaker 4: one of my biggest movies is Think Like a Man.
Speaker 4: Steve Harvey will tell you he never thought of that
Speaker 4: as a movie.
Speaker 1: Never.
Speaker 4: He never wrote it for that. I wrote this to
Speaker 4: give the master mentorship that I didn't have. I have
Speaker 4: people coming to me a lot and saying, tell me
Speaker 4: about your success story, tell me about your failures, tell
Speaker 4: me about what you had to overcome. And so when
Speaker 4: I tell these stories, right, and I talk about you know,
Speaker 4: Beyonce turning me down five times, or or or or
Speaker 4: I yourselba, you know, almost not walking the carpet at
Speaker 4: the first Emmy's and how you get past that? Like,
Speaker 4: when I tell these stories, I'm doing that so that
Speaker 4: other people can benefit from them.
Speaker 1: So I could turn into a movie, That's not what
Speaker 1: I made it for.
Speaker 4: I literally made this book so that I could influence
Speaker 4: other folks who are either on their way up, thinking
Speaker 4: about making a pivot, or living a life that they
Speaker 4: know could be a little more fulfilling.
Speaker 2: They said, you gotta leave nine forty five venture.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure we do because we is.
Speaker 2: A tight schedule.
Speaker 3: Ask you a question, why don't you have the books anymore?
Speaker 3: Will I see you screaming Atlanta Falcons all day, every
Speaker 3: day everywhere you go. I know you're a minority owner.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, don't do it.
Speaker 4: I know, don't you said, why don't I rep the Bucks,
Speaker 4: so you can't context it out.
Speaker 1: Before you give me a chance to answer the question.
Speaker 3: The time you were the only Buccaneers fan, I knew
Speaker 3: that many people I don't well because there's levels, sir,
Speaker 3: and I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 4: Because there's levels, There is fandom, and I have nothing
Speaker 4: but respect for my fans.
Speaker 1: But sir, you of all people, know that there is
Speaker 1: also a level call ownership.
Speaker 4: And I want to show people that I don't care
Speaker 4: how high you can jump, how fast you can run.
Speaker 1: My forty time ain't shit. I'm sure. I'm sure my.
Speaker 4: Left hit would have something to say if I tried
Speaker 4: to get out on a track right. I can't throw
Speaker 4: a ball far to save my life. I definitely can't dunk. However,
Speaker 4: I am in a sports franchise. I am sitting in
Speaker 4: the owner's booth and in the owner's box. I want
Speaker 4: other people to see that possibility. And Arthur Blank, the
Speaker 4: majority owner of the Atlanta Falcons, gave me that opportunity.
Speaker 4: Now in real talk, Charlotmagne, one of the things that
Speaker 4: I really want to impress upon people I talk about
Speaker 4: in the book is that you never know who's watching,
Speaker 4: and that idea of always building your brand like keep
Speaker 4: stacking the bricks. Okay, I never thought that I was
Speaker 4: gonna be an owner of a football team.
Speaker 7: He said, you were walking around delivering newspapers.
Speaker 4: I was literally delivering the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper. I
Speaker 4: was delivering them door to door. I would get up
Speaker 4: at three am every morning. I would get in rolle
Speaker 4: my papers, put them in the back of my Honda Civic,
Speaker 4: and I would go out and I had to have
Speaker 4: them on everybody's porch by six am.
Speaker 1: I knew my route.
Speaker 4: That's what I did right at that time. I definitely
Speaker 4: wasn't thinking one day I would be sitting in an
Speaker 4: owner's box at the Atlanta Foul because but you know
Speaker 4: what I did. I was the best damn newspaper delivery
Speaker 4: guy that the Atlanta Journal Constitution had because my name
Speaker 4: was on it. So I gave it one hundred and
Speaker 4: ten percent and so over a lifetime of always going hard,
Speaker 4: I then put myself into position when somebody in power said,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm looking to add to my ownership group.
Speaker 4: My name came up. I made the cut life of
Speaker 4: people want to be in that position. But I made
Speaker 4: the cut because I had built a career that allowed
Speaker 4: me to do it.
Speaker 1: When you go out and.
Speaker 4: Work hard and build a career and a meaningful life,
Speaker 4: you never know how it's gonna manifest.
Speaker 1: But that's why I wrapped the Falcon Sir.
Speaker 2: I love that. But at what point did you say,
Speaker 2: you know what your booking is, it's over.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't think you have to say f anybody,
Speaker 4: but I just have to say, rise up, and I'm
Speaker 4: rooting for the for the Falcons because that's where the
Speaker 4: opportunity can I've not seen you wrapped the books since
Speaker 4: they wanted this, brother, I am a part owner of
Speaker 4: the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 1: What part of this don't you understand?
Speaker 2: Sir?
Speaker 1: Yes, what if he's doing it is levels? Are you
Speaker 1: trying to get the ownership revolt?
Speaker 3: Listen, I'm happy that you have who better than you.
Speaker 3: You know what this is trying to get better than you?
Speaker 3: It's the Cowboys fan that's what that is. It went
Speaker 3: out and that coach that nobody is excited and they
Speaker 3: just Jarry Jones and as long.
Speaker 1: As he around.
Speaker 3: If somebody want to make me a minority owner, I'm
Speaker 3: ready to denounce them.
Speaker 2: Too seconds. Okay, we'll pack a new book.
Speaker 3: Who better than you to are the healthy arrogance and
Speaker 3: dreaming big out right now. Always a pleasure to see
Speaker 3: you go out there and by this book, make it
Speaker 3: the New York Times bestseller.
Speaker 1: Massreciate you found.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you, man thank you, thank you all for
Speaker 4: having me, Charlate mane, and thank you because you're somebody
Speaker 4: that you know.
Speaker 1: And I told you this.
Speaker 4: We saw each other at the Democrat National Convention and
Speaker 4: I told you I had written my first book, and
Speaker 4: I was inspired by your books and by reading your
Speaker 4: books and just seeing that process and the ground that
Speaker 4: you put in, so you never know who's watching and
Speaker 4: who you're inspiring.
Speaker 1: Thank you, my brother, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: It's the breakfast Club.
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club.