Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2: Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 3: Everybody is thej Envy Jess, hilarious, Charlamage, the guy. We
Speaker 3: are the breakfast Club, just as out lawn, the roaster Filline.
Speaker 3: And we got a special guest in the building. We
Speaker 3: got the good brother, Derek Lucon Lewis. Welcome brother, Good
Speaker 3: on my brothers.
Speaker 2: How you doing that?
Speaker 1: How you doing now?
Speaker 2: I'm doing great?
Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent. Man.
Speaker 3: Now For people that don't know who Derek Lewis is,
Speaker 3: besides going to the greatest university and college.
Speaker 2: In the world, Oh, which is that? Does State? Definitely
Speaker 2: not Delawes.
Speaker 1: State, Hampton University.
Speaker 2: That's right. Breakdown who Derek Lewis is.
Speaker 1: Derek Lewis is a inspirational leader. Grew up in Chocolate
Speaker 1: City back in the sixties seventies, single parent, familyhood lifestyle.
Speaker 1: Decided I wanted to be something different. I want to
Speaker 1: dream big for myself despite the circumstances I was under
Speaker 1: in the Chocolate City back at that time, and was
Speaker 1: inspired by getting a great education, inspired by joining a
Speaker 1: big company, inspired by putting that work in to coome
Speaker 1: who I wanted to be, my best version of myself
Speaker 1: to lead others be not only a go getter, but
Speaker 1: also a go give her and strive for excellence. And
Speaker 1: I was able to do that over a thirty five
Speaker 1: year career at PEPSI. Since then, I've retired now and
Speaker 1: I keep doing my work. I'm i'll sere released in
Speaker 1: a book that launches tomorrow. Thank you for the opportunity
Speaker 1: to talk about that today. And also I'm launching cheese
Speaker 1: Steak restaurants in Orlando, Big Dave's Cheese Steak. So you
Speaker 1: know brother Derek Hayes who azos. Yeah, I love him too,
Speaker 1: So Ivins first franchise E. I'm bringing ten units to
Speaker 1: central Florida. I've already opened up four locations, two in
Speaker 1: the Kia Center and two in Campbeld Stadium. We're off
Speaker 1: and running. I got two brick and mortars that open
Speaker 1: up at the end of marsh beginning of April and
Speaker 1: the Sky's limit. I'm also obviously serving on boards. I'm
Speaker 1: back of my alma mater, serving as a trustee and
Speaker 1: putting in the work there more nonprofit boards, doing the
Speaker 1: family thing. So life has been great, but I'm also
Speaker 1: maybe we'll still contributing the ways that satisfied me and
Speaker 1: my family.
Speaker 3: Well, let's go back a little bit the way you
Speaker 3: got your job at PEPSI. Break that down and explain
Speaker 3: that a little bit. How you got that job and
Speaker 3: how you grew from you know, starting off there to
Speaker 3: damn running what you did at PEPSI.
Speaker 1: Well, look, it was back in the late eighties. Job
Speaker 1: mark was pretty good.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I was interviewing my second semester. Interesting enough, I had
Speaker 1: PEPSI to come down, I had interview. I stayed up
Speaker 1: late the night before, kind of party in came to
Speaker 1: the career. It came to career fair and I failed
Speaker 1: the interview. I basically got a rejection letter. I want
Speaker 1: to say a week or so later in the mail,
Speaker 1: I was one of the most disappointing days of my life.
Speaker 3: Why did they decide not to go with you?
Speaker 1: At the time, Well, I think I was. I was
Speaker 1: not my best an interview, and I think for people
Speaker 1: having a lesson, when you're going in for an interview,
Speaker 1: you need to be at your best, and I was
Speaker 1: at my best. I took it for granted. I took
Speaker 1: as though I can stay up all night and party
Speaker 1: and not do all the research, and it's not be
Speaker 1: buttoned up, you know, and so I went in probably
Speaker 1: at a you know, one to ten, probably went into
Speaker 1: five or six, and guess what, that's just not good enough,
Speaker 1: not gonna be good enough for anybody, much less even
Speaker 1: a PEPSI. So I sort of retooled. They were coming
Speaker 1: back down a different sort of area was coming down
Speaker 1: from Baltimore. I hunkered down, very disciplined, studied my butt
Speaker 1: off that night, made sure I was as sharp as
Speaker 1: I could be, wanted and nail that interview, got subsequent
Speaker 1: follow up interviews, and got the job offer to start
Speaker 1: in Baltimore, Maryland. Three weeks out of college. I was
Speaker 1: a management trainee. Got out the car going into my
Speaker 1: first day of the office and prayed to God and said, God,
Speaker 1: I like for this to be the first day of
Speaker 1: my next forty years, because at the time you think
Speaker 1: it'll retire when you're sixty two, mid sixties whatever. And look,
Speaker 1: I prayed in that parking lot. I got in my maximum,
Speaker 1: my new maxim, I bought my advance, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the rest was history. And the day I felt the
Speaker 1: first day, I felt like I belonged there. I felt
Speaker 1: like this was the place for me. I learned a lot.
Speaker 1: I still wled a lot, but also if you read
Speaker 1: the book, you'll learn how being a paysetter mattered in
Speaker 1: that company, and showing early on that I'm willing to
Speaker 1: be a paysetter. I have the courage to be a
Speaker 1: pay set. I'm not worried about circumstances surrounding me. I'm
Speaker 1: going after it. That was a catalyst for me to
Speaker 1: really embrace the growth that came along the way throughout
Speaker 1: the entire journey.
Speaker 4: And you said you want you said, you said a
Speaker 4: prayer to God to be there for the next forty years?
Speaker 1: Were you there for forty I was a thirty five?
Speaker 2: Thirty five? Wow? Yeah?
Speaker 4: So what made you find what made you say, you
Speaker 4: know what? Let me for golds last five? Like with
Speaker 4: pivoty Well, I mean I was a good point.
Speaker 1: Fifty five was the normal number. A lot of the
Speaker 1: guys I came in with. The campus program was really strong,
Speaker 1: robust at the company throughout the eighties and early nineties,
Speaker 1: was really strong program in the company, and so a
Speaker 1: lot of us that were there in my peers, fifty five.
Speaker 2: Was a number.
Speaker 1: Because the grind the business is a very intense business,
Speaker 1: hyper competitive, you know, going against our primary competitors and
Speaker 1: other competitors, and so there is some wear and tear.
Speaker 1: We traveled a lot. We moved eight times. It gets
Speaker 1: to a point where you have a next chapter. I've
Speaker 1: read the book Strength to Strength by author Brooks, and
Speaker 1: it opened my eyes to say, there is life beyond
Speaker 1: the thirty five years of the years, the time you
Speaker 1: spent at Pepsi, and so I wanted to always be
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. I was talked about my book being an
Speaker 1: entrepreneur when I was a kid selling Dorito chips to school,
Speaker 1: selling Jolly ranchers and gum right as a side hustle.
Speaker 1: I needed to do that because I need to put
Speaker 1: money in my pocket, right, and so always had this
Speaker 1: itch to be an entrepreneur. The authorship piece just came
Speaker 1: from be retirement and kids and colleagues asking me, you
Speaker 1: can't leave without you know, so you're gonna bollow us
Speaker 1: up and take it away. You have to leave us
Speaker 1: with with some insight. You have to leave us with
Speaker 1: perspective on your journey. And so that's what I considered doing.
Speaker 1: The book was really the January of twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: and got with a ghostwriter and pace through publishing company
Speaker 1: and the rest is history. And here I am today.
Speaker 3: What was your title at PEPSI right before you the.
Speaker 1: Last title, I was President of PepsiCo Multicultural North America,
Speaker 1: So for the entire corporation, basically before D it wasn't D.
Speaker 1: So I want to clarify the D and I there
Speaker 1: it was D, and I had its own department. I
Speaker 1: was all about focusing on consumer, culture and community, and
Speaker 1: so I was primarily throughout my career, I was an
Speaker 1: operating executive, so I ran the P and L. I
Speaker 1: had billions of dollars responsibility. A one point, I was
Speaker 1: running North America, and then we did a restructure and
Speaker 1: I went I assume the South the South responsibility as
Speaker 1: president and then at the tail in that run, which
Speaker 1: is about three years, we delivered fantastic results and we
Speaker 1: developed such a good playbook at the time because COVID
Speaker 1: was involved in George Floyd, situations evolved and we had
Speaker 1: developed such a good model on you know, culture, community
Speaker 1: and company that the company asked me to step in
Speaker 1: and create this big role for the entire corporation. Use
Speaker 1: the best practices that we developed in sort of the
Speaker 1: Southern United States and be able to start to implement that.
Speaker 1: So that was the last role that I had had
Speaker 1: in coming primarily throughout my career, I was I was
Speaker 1: all putting sales and driving profit, driving market share. It
Speaker 1: was getting after it in the trenches each and every
Speaker 1: single day.
Speaker 3: You were one of the first people, you know, corporate wise, right,
Speaker 3: I graduated from Hampton a long time ago, so I
Speaker 3: would go to all these different homecomings, but you would
Speaker 3: probably want of the first to bring huge corporations to
Speaker 3: all the HBCUs, right, not just the big ones, because
Speaker 3: you know, it's easy to just to go to the
Speaker 3: big ones where North Carolina A and T, which is
Speaker 3: the biggest university as far as students are, you know, concerned,
Speaker 3: or FAMU which is a big university. Why was it
Speaker 3: so important to you to do that HBCU run and
Speaker 3: to show up at those HBCU schools when other corporations weren't,
Speaker 3: but they started following after you did.
Speaker 1: Absolutely it's all about legacy, right, and so my SPCU
Speaker 1: experience at Hampton was absolutely fascinating, incredible, and so to
Speaker 1: be able to take that experience build that you know,
Speaker 1: sort of legacy, not only through the corporate side, investing
Speaker 1: not only just events, activational camps, but also recruitment. I
Speaker 1: recruited heavily on HBCU campuses. I pushed hard to have
Speaker 1: recruitment centers go down to these schools, not just in
Speaker 1: called Mid Atlantic area, but also down throughout the Southwest.
Speaker 1: I was responsible for setting up the Swack partnership that
Speaker 1: we still enjoy today. That has been now a long
Speaker 1: term partnership and agreement based on the schools that are
Speaker 1: in Swack. Great schools, great campuses. Certainly the activation mainly
Speaker 1: revolves around sports, but I took that and extend that
Speaker 1: to recruitment and also community effort right and so me,
Speaker 1: it's a whole sort of end to end proposition, not
Speaker 1: just about the parties and social side. It's also about jobs.
Speaker 1: It's also about what we're doing in the community. It's
Speaker 1: also about setting up legacy for the future.
Speaker 5: Will You in the open end of your book, you
Speaker 5: talk about going through like all of the pandemic and
Speaker 5: the riots that happened after George Floyd and my Ibbury,
Speaker 5: and you realizing like, I'm not an activist, but I
Speaker 5: do want to do something because I know what it's
Speaker 5: like to not know what's going to happen tomorrow.
Speaker 2: When did you get to.
Speaker 5: A point of your career where you felt empowered to
Speaker 5: be like, my activism is in the boardroom, and this
Speaker 5: is what I'm going to do, because being like only
Speaker 5: or like one a few in a big corporation like
Speaker 5: a PEPSI, it's not easy to be like, you know what,
Speaker 5: you all listening to me, This is what we need
Speaker 5: to do, This is how we should get back, this
Speaker 5: how we should help.
Speaker 1: That's a great question. I think mid career I felt
Speaker 1: that responsibility now because I was starting to really move
Speaker 1: up in your organization, and there weren't many people at
Speaker 1: the top, and so a lot of the younger associates
Speaker 1: looked for me for a guidance direction, and so I
Speaker 1: just started creating networks across. I moved around a lot,
Speaker 1: so you know, when I ended up in the West Coast,
Speaker 1: I would we would be at a national meeting and
Speaker 1: it would not be uncommon for me to call all
Speaker 1: the Black Associates to a hospitality event at the end
Speaker 1: of the night and we would have like one hundred
Speaker 1: people in the suite. I'd just go up and go
Speaker 1: run a suite, going to everybody together and just talk
Speaker 1: to them about their journey, what's going on, how I
Speaker 1: see the future of the company. I'm a historian of
Speaker 1: the culture at PEPSI. Going back to the forties, I
Speaker 1: had a relationship with Alan mckeller junior. He was the
Speaker 1: first person hired in Corporate America as an intern in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty two, along with Jeanette Mount. She went to Hampton,
Speaker 1: he went to South Carolina State, so first two interns
Speaker 1: of the corpor America. I had a relationship with him
Speaker 1: up until you passed away into twenty eighteen. I spoke
Speaker 1: at his homegoing service, which I was very honored to do.
Speaker 1: A lot of his family did you know the impact
Speaker 1: he had not only just the company, but in Corporate American.
Speaker 1: So you got to think for generation out of generation,
Speaker 1: the legacy of impact and evolution of the movement from
Speaker 1: the forties of the fifties to the Civil rights era.
Speaker 1: You started seeing more and more investment in advertising for
Speaker 1: the company did leaning and heavily. Wasn't all received well
Speaker 1: because there was a lot of tension back then. And
Speaker 1: you get to the eighties and you saw the Michael
Speaker 1: Jackson endorsement that was obviously a big breakthrough for pop
Speaker 1: culture and the company really saying entertainment music matters us.
Speaker 1: You know, the Afrimaric Court is a priority cohort. You
Speaker 1: got to the nineties of Elevator and the hip hop
Speaker 1: it started transforming in then you get to twenty two thousand,
Speaker 1: twenty ten, it became a core principle inside the company
Speaker 1: that it flowed through all the businesses. So anybody, any
Speaker 1: functional leader or any leader around the world basically had
Speaker 1: to embrace Varas City as a core priority and principle.
Speaker 1: And then you got to twenty twenty. I was right
Speaker 1: in the middle of all that because I was the
Speaker 1: top executive at the time to really sort of lead
Speaker 1: that and guide that, insuring that one I'm looking after
Speaker 1: the company, I'm also looking after the associates, I'm also
Speaker 1: looking after the community. Right. That takes a hell of
Speaker 1: a lot of courage because of the only time I'm worried,
Speaker 1: I have my own concerns in my own life about
Speaker 1: what's happening. But the time when someone leadership is needed,
Speaker 1: it was time for me to step in and step up.
Speaker 2: And I did that.
Speaker 1: I did it honorably and gracefully, humbly, and I was
Speaker 1: excited to do that. I was excited company gave me
Speaker 1: the platform to do that, and I think it turned
Speaker 1: out very very well for.
Speaker 2: Everybody question did did did Michael Jackson?
Speaker 4: I guess you could call it a controversy when he
Speaker 4: got his head set on fire film the commercial.
Speaker 2: Did that hurt help Pepsi?
Speaker 1: I don't know if it did. Want to know, other
Speaker 1: brought show, they brought a lot of attention. You know,
Speaker 1: I brought a lot of attention, and sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: when you get attention, that's that's really what matters. But
Speaker 1: I can think about all the iconic commercials in media
Speaker 1: that he did. When I think about, you know, choice
Speaker 1: of new generation PEPSI generation, I think about him a
Speaker 1: lot with that, and so that's what resonates for me.
Speaker 1: That incident. While it does get talked about, I don't
Speaker 1: think certainly overshadowed the the the the brilliance and sort
Speaker 1: of the scale of his awareness and what he brought
Speaker 1: to the company into one of the obviously our biggest
Speaker 1: brand at the time.
Speaker 2: The reason I asked is random as hell.
Speaker 4: That's why when you brought up I was like, damn,
Speaker 4: me and my guy glasses from alone, we were having
Speaker 4: this discussion.
Speaker 2: We were having it in the group chat. I got Sallas,
Speaker 2: djhad all of us.
Speaker 4: We were talking about Michael Jackson and DJ head was
Speaker 4: I mean, hey, Glasses was saying, how after that commercial,
Speaker 4: after his handcut on fire and everything, that's when Thriller
Speaker 4: really started to take off.
Speaker 2: And that's true.
Speaker 4: So I wonder if it was the Pepsi campaign or
Speaker 4: was it that controversy, Like what was it?
Speaker 2: I know what helped Michael.
Speaker 1: I think it was all the above. I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: he got a ride. We got a ride for it
Speaker 1: because we were one of the first ones to really
Speaker 1: get behind pop star of that magnitude, right, we signaled
Speaker 1: that that's our thing. Again, he was black, and you know,
Speaker 1: all the other cultural things that went around that surrounded
Speaker 1: that were started to become beneficial to the company as well.
Speaker 1: So there was just a series of statements made in
Speaker 1: the evolution going back to the forties. That's deep, that's
Speaker 1: rich history that I felt like I had to carry
Speaker 1: that on. So answer your question. I felt from guys
Speaker 1: like Alan, hey, the torch got handed you. It's your
Speaker 1: time now to step up like he did and others
Speaker 1: did back in the forties.
Speaker 3: I wanted to go back to the DEI conversation, slo
Speaker 3: May mentioned with companies taking off the table, how will
Speaker 3: that affect a company like Pepsi, How would that affect
Speaker 3: those big companies Since you've been there and you've seen
Speaker 3: whether they hired African Americans or minorities, how does that
Speaker 3: affect that? And do you think it's a good idea.
Speaker 1: I think they'll be fine because again, they're going back
Speaker 1: to the history. The history is so strong, and the
Speaker 1: torch passing from CEO to CEO has been really strong
Speaker 1: and solid. So it's like runs relay erase that that
Speaker 1: never stops, right, So I feel like they'll be in
Speaker 1: good shape. But I think for what I'm seeing now,
Speaker 1: it's not Obviously it's unfortunate, but a the same time,
Speaker 1: as I talk about my book a lot, it's an opportunity. Right.
Speaker 1: So while there, you know, looks appear to be a setback,
Speaker 1: there's times for now leaders, companies, cultures to step up
Speaker 1: to the plate. I do think it's weak that when
Speaker 1: you know there's bandwagoning and this student bodies, student body left,
Speaker 1: student body right. I think all the knee jerk reactions
Speaker 1: I think is not good. It's not healthy. I think
Speaker 1: it's not the ideal leader you need now in this
Speaker 1: era of time. So I do think that that, you know,
Speaker 1: while companies are pulling back, they in my might haven't
Speaker 1: articulated what they're doing with that right, So yes, I
Speaker 1: agree that that D and I EI playbook needs to
Speaker 1: have evolved. I think it was dated. I think the
Speaker 1: circumstances in the sixty seventies are very different than the
Speaker 1: circumstances now. Back then, we obviously had you know, extreme tension,
Speaker 1: unlawful things happening. Social norms were accelerating very rapidly and different.
Speaker 1: We're in a different era now, not that those things
Speaker 1: still don't exist, but not certainly at the intensity level
Speaker 1: they did back in sixteen seventy. So this agenda should
Speaker 1: have evolved from where it is. It's it's a sixty
Speaker 1: year old playbook. This playbook needs to be more comprehensive.
Speaker 1: So it needs to account for the greater good, because
Speaker 1: that's how the world is moving now. It needs to
Speaker 1: be more collaborative. People need to work together more. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: so comprehensive, collaborat It needs to be compassionate. You need
Speaker 1: to have an agenda where you are it's about people
Speaker 1: and so even in this case where you're telling a
Speaker 1: cohort that we're demphasizingself to deprioritize in, you haven't necessarily
Speaker 1: come back with something you're doing to to offset that,
Speaker 1: something in that revolves greater good, more collaboration, sort of
Speaker 1: more sensitivity around things are going on. That's how you
Speaker 1: treat people. And right, so that lack of sort of
Speaker 1: compassion that is being shown in the we're cutting it
Speaker 1: and we're not talking about really anything else, I think
Speaker 1: is just not good. So I think this is a
Speaker 1: time for leadership to step up to the plate. It's
Speaker 1: not hard to write this new play with by the way,
Speaker 1: it should have been read a long time ago, at
Speaker 1: least like myself could have done it. I saw, I
Speaker 1: could almost feel in twenty twenty what was happening. It
Speaker 1: was a more in your face moment. Everybody was going
Speaker 1: to get on board because no one wanted to be
Speaker 1: left behind or deal with the rash of being sort
Speaker 1: of on the outside looking at And then obviously what
Speaker 1: happens is time moves on, Things move on. There really
Speaker 1: really weren't any call it scorecard metrics or calibration against
Speaker 1: what you said and what you were going to go
Speaker 1: do to now can anybody go back and even remember
Speaker 1: what people said back in twenty twenty, right, So there
Speaker 1: was always a question around sustainability of that effort.
Speaker 2: I can't remember.
Speaker 4: I can remember then plaguing all that money to them
Speaker 4: qualifications and not delivering, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, r a lot of money, a lot of checks written, Yeah,
Speaker 1: a ton of checks written. But we're already a lot
Speaker 1: of pleasures with checks exactly exactly exactly you had. You
Speaker 1: had to happen too, right, And so you have people,
Speaker 1: you know, in a quiet way, resisting or just reacting
Speaker 1: instead of really reimagining what the new playbook be. So
Speaker 1: we actually took the time to reimagine the old d
Speaker 1: n I into something more modern that focused again on
Speaker 1: being more comprehensive, certainly being more collaborative, and being more compassionate.
Speaker 1: We can get there. That's not hard to do, by
Speaker 1: the way, like that, it's not hard also to execute
Speaker 1: that plan. What's hard is getting everybody on board.
Speaker 4: But do you know I always said that the problem
Speaker 4: I had a corporate DEI. It didn't feel for us,
Speaker 4: by us like it should have been more. It should
Speaker 4: have been black people right telling these corporations right, what
Speaker 4: is needed right, not in these corporations saying Okay, here
Speaker 4: is what we're going to.
Speaker 1: Well, that's the difference with a PEPSI is that we
Speaker 1: were always at the table, you know, throughout the history
Speaker 1: of time, whether it was a black salesforce back in
Speaker 1: the back in the forties or up until modern era.
Speaker 1: I was at the table when these programs are being
Speaker 1: developed and had a point of view and have perspective.
Speaker 1: And I give all the cities credit to all the
Speaker 1: CEOs who listened, who adapted, who empowered the executives take charge.
Speaker 1: And I would do the same thing. I would ask
Speaker 1: the employees instead of putting your head down with all this,
Speaker 1: now you're empowered to do something about it. I believe
Speaker 1: in the structure of erg's employee resource groups, and I
Speaker 1: believe you have to have places to be safe where
Speaker 1: you're if you feel isolated in the company, no matter
Speaker 1: where you come from, you have to have a place
Speaker 1: to go and should go. And so those things should
Speaker 1: structurally stay in place. But it's up also incoming upon
Speaker 1: those groups to lead a new agenda for the future,
Speaker 1: not keep looking up going where we're going, where we're going,
Speaker 1: guess gout you're looking up. There's nobody. There's nobody looks
Speaker 1: like you up at the top. Okay, think about it.
Speaker 1: CEOs right now fourteen five hundred less than two percent,
Speaker 1: So how much progress is that really from the nineteen
Speaker 1: sixties and now we have two percent less than two
Speaker 1: percent of people running the top five run the companies
Speaker 1: in the world. They're qualified people out there, there's all
Speaker 1: doubt about I'm one of those qualified people are going
Speaker 1: to run a forty five hundred company. So I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to do that now. But I'm out here and
Speaker 1: there's hundreds, if not thousands of people like me. There
Speaker 1: are quality, but they're not getting the opportunities. So in
Speaker 1: some some regard, you can look at, did the d
Speaker 1: I structure actually hurt progress from people over and because
Speaker 1: of this perceived you're getting an express card, check the box,
Speaker 1: you know, a fast mover, you know, without sort of
Speaker 1: having the merit and having the credential do that. I
Speaker 1: think there were a lot of conservas and it actually
Speaker 1: held a lot of people back. So let's reimagine this,
Speaker 1: Let's rebuild it. Let's not while we respect the ground
Speaker 1: and nature of how it was built, Let's evolve into
Speaker 1: a way that is more comprehensive, more collaborative, and more compassionate,
Speaker 1: and we get there everybody wins. You can't have winners
Speaker 1: and losers in the space. You can't have mandates in
Speaker 1: the space. I was there.
Speaker 4: I mentored, you know what you just said, true, it
Speaker 4: can't just be a mandate, right, because a lot of
Speaker 4: it was just pr for these corporations.
Speaker 1: Yeah, checked the b I mentored just as many call
Speaker 1: it Caucasian h executives as I do block executives or
Speaker 1: other executives for that matter, because they want to really
Speaker 1: learn how to get this done. And so my teachings
Speaker 1: were always more open to the greater good because I
Speaker 1: as you teach people, especially where there's majority representation, they're
Speaker 1: likely going to affect. They're going to be able he
Speaker 1: effect change, and they feel like they're part of the process.
Speaker 1: But when you're alienate and told you have to do this, man,
Speaker 1: that resistance is high. People going, Man, I ain't doing that,
Speaker 1: I ain't doing that. I don't have to do it.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go do it. It's the wrong thing
Speaker 1: to do. It should always be about best talent, So
Speaker 1: what are you doing? My book is all about what
Speaker 1: are you doing to one better than yourself? What are
Speaker 1: you doing to believe in yourself? And what are you
Speaker 1: doing to be yourself? Right? That's been my mantra my
Speaker 1: whole life. I'm investing myself. I have to get better.
Speaker 1: I have to take risk. I have to invest myself
Speaker 1: to get But I have to have discipline, I have
Speaker 1: to have commitment, I have to dream big, and I
Speaker 1: have to be authentic and stay authentic. And that's why
Speaker 1: I try to roll model myself my entire life. And
Speaker 1: all that book tells you about the lessons on maintaining
Speaker 1: those disciplines and those principles.
Speaker 4: I want to ask you this right because I love
Speaker 4: the title of the book, Survive and Advanced lessons on
Speaker 4: living a life without compromising. It's rooted in the DEI think.
Speaker 4: Right now, you have a lot of people saying they
Speaker 4: want a boycott Target, right because they rolled back their
Speaker 4: di initiatives, which I.
Speaker 2: Don't get it.
Speaker 4: You know, it's a lot of different companies that roll
Speaker 4: back the why just Target, But what they're saying is
Speaker 4: they want to make an example out of this one company.
Speaker 4: But then now people are saying, hey, let's meed, let's
Speaker 4: do a compromise. Let's support the.
Speaker 2: Black brands in target with boycott everything else. What do
Speaker 2: you what do you think the best course of action?
Speaker 1: I think the best course of action again is I
Speaker 1: think I think leaders around the space, people who have experienced,
Speaker 1: people who have you know, dealt with struggle in their
Speaker 1: life like I have, who've been through a journey. I've
Speaker 1: been through HBCUs. You know, I have this experience. I
Speaker 1: serve a trust the HBCU. So people that have the
Speaker 1: experience out there need to lead a new agenda, need
Speaker 1: to lead a more modern agenda. That again, I go
Speaker 1: back to these same three c's right, that is absolutely
Speaker 1: more comprehensive going this this boycott angle and only supporting
Speaker 1: this support and that that's not the answer. That's not
Speaker 1: the answer. That's very short term. Uh yeah, it drives
Speaker 1: a lot of engagement, but it's not the right answer.
Speaker 1: You're going to increase even increase polarization to even a
Speaker 1: greater extent when you do that. Our chance, our time
Speaker 1: is now to look at this as a positive in
Speaker 1: terms of change and creating new change for the culture
Speaker 1: and do it in the right way that's going to
Speaker 1: create sustatement. Doing these sort of side hustles and taking
Speaker 1: these tactics that are abrupt, abrasive, temporary don't solve the
Speaker 1: long term problems. I'm into solving the long term problem.
Speaker 1: Let's solve the long term problem. Let's get people leaders
Speaker 1: together with the corporation and say, hey, we want to
Speaker 1: take a different cut at this, looking at it again,
Speaker 1: looking at all your cohorts, looking at all the people
Speaker 1: that matter, looking at all the things that you're going
Speaker 1: to do, look at the money as you spent before,
Speaker 1: and giving you opportunities and ideas of how to spend
Speaker 1: that money a little bit differently, maybe to create programs
Speaker 1: that everybody can win, to create programs everybody's working together.
Speaker 1: Our uniqueness is the one thing that we actually all
Speaker 1: have in common. Our uniqueness is the one that everybody
Speaker 1: brings that to the table. If we use that to
Speaker 1: our advantage, the teamwork will be unparalleled in this entire country.
Speaker 1: But instead we look at it only in the basis
Speaker 1: of really gender and race, that's how we sort of
Speaker 1: measure uniqueness. Really, we need to look at a cross
Speaker 1: the spectrum. Everybody has different lived experiences, everybody has different backgrounds,
Speaker 1: everybody thinks differently. We need to celebrate that in a
Speaker 1: very different way where everybody at the table is being represented.
Speaker 1: That's going to give your greatest output. That's going to
Speaker 1: give your big greatest culture. That's going to give you
Speaker 1: the best results. It's proven when you have people that
Speaker 1: celebrate you uniqueness or really value uniqueness at the table,
Speaker 1: it drives the best business results. So you have this
Speaker 1: triangle where you got consumer, if you're a brand company,
Speaker 1: you got sole the consumer, you sort of got the company,
Speaker 1: and you got the community.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: That's the sort of three legg of stool inside that
Speaker 1: is culture. Get your culture right, you focus, you spend
Speaker 1: the right money against the consumer to drive the behaviors
Speaker 1: you need and to sales you need. You focus on company.
Speaker 1: You're getting representation right. You just look like the market.
Speaker 1: There's some markets aren't going to look like every market.
Speaker 1: Every market is like go to look the same. But
Speaker 1: you're looking like the market you operate in and you
Speaker 1: represent right, that's going to be different. And then you
Speaker 1: obviously have the community. We want to lift all the
Speaker 1: communities out. We don't want to just be sort of
Speaker 1: separate and discrete and carve out and say we only
Speaker 1: care about these communities we only care about these black
Speaker 1: brands in these stores. We want to make sure we're
Speaker 1: evolving the greater good and everybody gets go along for
Speaker 1: the rock. That takes real courage, that takes real strategic leadership,
Speaker 1: that takes real sort of collaboration and maturity to to
Speaker 1: pull this off and not look at it with your
Speaker 1: head down, look at what your head up on. What's
Speaker 1: the future look like in the space and having people
Speaker 1: to ta able to do that, we'll get us to
Speaker 1: the right space.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: I want you know, I wanted to talk about you
Speaker 3: your first paying job for people that don't know, what
Speaker 3: was your first paying job and who gave you that job?
Speaker 1: My first paying job was under leadership of Mayor Marion Barry.
Speaker 1: The legend, the legend you know, daddy was in the rehabit.
Speaker 1: Marion Barry wasn't Jesus Danian South Carolina. Marion Barry was respect,
Speaker 1: struggles mad respect. That guy is a is a legend
Speaker 1: for the DC culture. Legend. He's a legend. To me,
Speaker 1: I realize that it's not about the mistakes he made.
Speaker 1: We're all making mistakes. But he cared about people, man,
Speaker 1: He cared about kids. He knew the risk of kids
Speaker 1: venturing off and not having time filled in throughout the day.
Speaker 1: So he created this sort of summer program every kid
Speaker 1: for we're teening up, guaranteed the summer job. I just
Speaker 1: got to fill out the paperwork. So I had my
Speaker 1: first paying job at fourteen. I was making three thirty
Speaker 1: five an hour. I was getting on the subway. I
Speaker 1: was excited every day I got to go up and
Speaker 1: go to I'm going to work every day, get on
Speaker 1: the subway and go to Brooklyn. And I was going
Speaker 1: to school or administrative place in filing papers. I mean,
Speaker 1: it wasn't like I was doing a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: strategic and heavy lifting work. But I had a job
Speaker 1: I was taught to be. I was already responsible going that,
Speaker 1: by the way, so it wasn't a matter Derrick Lewis
Speaker 1: understanding the role of having a job. I was already
Speaker 1: like the dad have the house and the big brother house,
Speaker 1: you know, when I was ten years old. But this
Speaker 1: was important to me now because it really defined and
Speaker 1: started elevating the sort of professional and as you're gonna
Speaker 1: be working with other people, you be working for people
Speaker 1: this and just the side house. Are you cutting grass,
Speaker 1: washing cars, cleaning houses, selling doritos at school like you were.
Speaker 1: This is now a professional job and sort of really
Speaker 1: shape my mindset around what I wanted to go do.
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to be a government worker
Speaker 1: up until I went to Hampton, and then I was
Speaker 1: able to dream bigger when I got school, saying all
Speaker 1: these companies come down here and they offer these kinds
Speaker 1: of moneies. And because all my family was the government jobs, right,
Speaker 1: so I thought that was my path. I dreamt I
Speaker 1: was going one day make one hundred thousand dollars, live
Speaker 1: in a single family home and be a happy guy.
Speaker 1: And that was at my age. Now you know, guess what,
Speaker 1: life took a very different circumstance, God have my back.
Speaker 1: Circumstances were very very different. As a child growing up,
Speaker 1: I knew I would to be have a different life
Speaker 1: for myself. I put a lot of faith in him
Speaker 1: and took that journey. And here I am today and
Speaker 1: still now you know, much more into go give her
Speaker 1: mode than go get her mode. For years I was
Speaker 1: go get her, I mean hyper go get her because
Speaker 1: we didn't have much. So I was never going to
Speaker 1: let something go by because of performance. And now my
Speaker 1: mindset is really shifted as I've aged and matured, and
Speaker 1: I've grown to paying it forward. So I was in
Speaker 1: pay it now for mode for many many years. Now
Speaker 1: I'm in pay it forward mode and I'm having the
Speaker 1: time in my life doing that. Hopefully this book will
Speaker 1: inspire many others. You know, whether you're a child going
Speaker 1: through the struggle as I did, if you read the book,
Speaker 1: a lot of struggles, a lot of dark days. There
Speaker 1: a lot of days where I didn't know if I
Speaker 1: was going to make it out to becoming you know,
Speaker 1: one of highest ranking executives in corporate America in a
Speaker 1: very recognizable organization that had my back. I had their
Speaker 1: It was a great run.
Speaker 3: Create a lot of I want to talk about your
Speaker 3: your You come up with your wife as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, how long you've been married. We've married thirty
Speaker 1: two years.
Speaker 3: Now, Explain how that is having the right partner by
Speaker 3: your side. It's been everything. It's been me and showing
Speaker 3: me talk about it all the time. With the right
Speaker 3: partner that keeps you out of trouble. I'm doing foolish
Speaker 3: and sometimes she got a smack in.
Speaker 2: The back of your head.
Speaker 3: So talk about that journey about having that right partner
Speaker 3: on your side to make sure that.
Speaker 1: You yeah, I mean, it really has been the key
Speaker 1: to the success I've had. And I talk about this
Speaker 1: a lot, especially recently. We've been talking about a lot
Speaker 1: is our line shared vision on how we want to
Speaker 1: do liberal lives. Now. The story at Hampton, you know,
Speaker 1: it was volatile.
Speaker 2: We met.
Speaker 1: I was a senior, she was a freshman. Things didn't
Speaker 1: work out. They worked out great at the beginning, but
Speaker 1: as you know, those things are temporary down there, didn't
Speaker 1: work out. I moved on. I wanted to be this
Speaker 1: Go get my job, go establish some income, go buy
Speaker 1: my first house. Before I started taking relationship seriously, it
Speaker 1: was a big mistake that I'm glad didn't cost me
Speaker 1: because I wouldn't be here now if if she was
Speaker 1: a part of my life. But we reunited, Tom take
Speaker 1: Tom Heels. I matured, I came back. I saw the value,
Speaker 1: true value, she brought to the table. And I knew
Speaker 1: all along that our vision on family, our vision on career,
Speaker 1: our visional community, our visional faith were so aligned that
Speaker 1: it was it was obvious for me to say, hey,
Speaker 1: we need I need to lock this down right because
Speaker 1: I knew that the place I wanted to go go.
Speaker 1: I absolutely had to have a partner that was willing
Speaker 1: to go along with that ride, and that that ride
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna have lumps to it. The rod has had
Speaker 1: lumps to it. But we've been there for each other
Speaker 1: the whole time because we never wavered on the share
Speaker 1: of vision. You know, she had to quart her job
Speaker 1: when we had our third child. That was not an
Speaker 1: easy time for her to do that. I talked into
Speaker 1: doing that, but it was it was again, it was
Speaker 1: a tough time. We adjusted to it. Obviously have come
Speaker 1: out fine with that, but that was the time where
Speaker 1: I had to really sort of lean in with her.
Speaker 1: There's times she had a leaning with me. We moved
Speaker 1: around a lot of new communities. Can imagine how sisters
Speaker 1: are going to place like Portland, Oregon, where it's two
Speaker 1: percent block and trying to find a place to get
Speaker 1: your hair done. You know, you get the town. Well, okay,
Speaker 1: we're here now, Where I get my haircut? Where do
Speaker 1: we get our hair done? What're we get nails done?
Speaker 1: Where are we socialized? What do we do to sort
Speaker 1: of relax and become ourselves in the culture. We found ways,
Speaker 1: we found places, We eventually would make our way around there.
Speaker 1: But then by the time we got comfortable, it was
Speaker 1: time to move again and again and again again. So
Speaker 1: a lot of sacrifice that we had, but we've built
Speaker 1: the family we wanted to build. We call ourselves Team Lewis.
Speaker 1: She's the co captain or she's actually the chief household
Speaker 1: officers I would tell it, would say to her, and
Speaker 1: been an ogal part of all that. But shared vision
Speaker 1: has been the absolute focal point of our success. Leaning
Speaker 1: on each other, trusting each other, grinding each other. She's
Speaker 1: made me better. I would like to see have made
Speaker 1: her better, but she certainly has made me better in
Speaker 1: this whole journey.
Speaker 2: And there's a.
Speaker 5: Point in the book. Sorry, there's a point in the book,
Speaker 5: not the statistic, and this point in the book just
Speaker 5: talking about your wife and leaning on her. You talk
Speaker 5: about like your journey with like finding out that you
Speaker 5: had a cancer's mass, and just things you overlooked because
Speaker 5: you were working and just you know, just in day
Speaker 5: to day and the title of the book survived in
Speaker 5: advance you talked about feeling like you survived and you
Speaker 5: got away from a lot of things you didn't have
Speaker 5: to worry about, what was going to happen next to
Speaker 5: your life, and then you're successful and then cancer comes
Speaker 5: and your wife is there any families They're like, can
Speaker 5: you talk to me about, like what that journey was
Speaker 5: like for you? Yeah, all the way so that you're
Speaker 5: still you kind of get emotional.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that was great. That was It was a
Speaker 1: tough time, right. I mean, I'm retired now, I'm playing
Speaker 1: a lot of golf and I'm having the time of life.
Speaker 1: And then I started seeing blood in my stool. And again,
Speaker 1: sloppy for me, undisciplined for me. I never had a kolonoscary,
Speaker 1: you know, And so here I am fifty six and
Speaker 1: every year I go get my executive physical, check in
Speaker 1: the box and doctor's like, hey, Derek, is you over
Speaker 1: fifty hours? Time to get your colonoscar. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: got you, I got you, I got you. But I'm
Speaker 1: going back to the grind. I'm going back to grind.
Speaker 1: I'm focused on people. I wasn't scared. I just ignored.
Speaker 1: I deprioritized it. I made it feel like my executive
Speaker 1: physical was good. I'm feeling good. The boxes were.
Speaker 5: Checked, said you had all the best doctors.
Speaker 1: Yeah, your cognitive skills were good. Your motor skills the
Speaker 1: highest they've ever been. You know, your blood comes back fine,
Speaker 1: you're good. So I'm like, I'm good man. I got
Speaker 1: to get back to the grind, and I ignored it was.
Speaker 1: It was a terrible, terrible decision. I don't want anybody
Speaker 1: out there that is fifty or over and has not
Speaker 1: had a coldonoscary. Now a matter of fact, you need
Speaker 1: you start getting younger. Now, starting to get a lot younger.
Speaker 2: I think it went down to forty five.
Speaker 1: Depending on your family history. A lot of it has
Speaker 1: to do with your family history. But the earlier the better.
Speaker 1: So there's no there's no such thing as an early
Speaker 1: start with checking out your checking out yourself in that regard.
Speaker 1: And so it was. It was a terrible decision. It
Speaker 1: would have cost my life. It would have cost my life.
Speaker 1: But the beauty came out at all my relationship. That
Speaker 1: we sat in the car, this was the story I found.
Speaker 1: I had the tumor. We got in the car and
Speaker 1: we're looking for like the the basically the doctor was
Speaker 1: basically very store because like, hey, you have a cancer.
Speaker 1: As a cancer's tumor, I suggest that you look into
Speaker 1: an on collegist. Now, you made need surgery, made need radiation.
Speaker 1: Here's a recommendation we give you guys that down the street.
Speaker 1: You know, you can pop in there. Here's your paperwork.
Speaker 1: I hope to see you a year from now. That
Speaker 1: was really the conversation.
Speaker 5: That's how it is.
Speaker 1: So we get out of there and we go walk
Speaker 1: down the block to go see the guy because obviously like, hey,
Speaker 1: I needed like set something up. My urgency is you
Speaker 1: know high right now. And it's okay, it's like three
Speaker 1: o'clock closes. We get in the car and I could
Speaker 1: feel that moment where like it's silenced for like a
Speaker 1: minute or two, trying to collect everything, like ourselves, like
Speaker 1: what's going on here? And so I taught called a friend.
Speaker 1: I had a friend phone, a friend who I know
Speaker 1: and had gone through cancer, and boy, she bailed me out.
Speaker 1: And by that time, three or four hours later, I
Speaker 1: was on the phone the chief medical officer of the
Speaker 1: advent Health Network, my eventual surgeon, an oncologists, all within hours,
Speaker 1: uh to talk about my problem. Get them the paperwork.
Speaker 1: They died. They did early diagnosis over the phone. They said, hey,
Speaker 1: it's serious, but it's not like we can fix this.
Speaker 1: So you need to have the faith. We got you,
Speaker 1: We got your back, and so I never got scared.
Speaker 1: I never had that moment. I'm like, Okay, it's like,
Speaker 1: is this a six month thing? Is that? Am I
Speaker 1: on o'clock?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 1: Amoun o'clock? Because I had so much in front of me.
Speaker 1: God has sent me a lot of signals about what
Speaker 1: I was going to do in my next chapter, and
Speaker 1: I feel like, you're not gonna You're not gonna show me.
Speaker 1: All have to take that away from me. But this
Speaker 1: is a chance to reset your life. We set your health.
Speaker 1: Prioritize your health to your health needs to be prioritized
Speaker 1: because I didn't prioritize it the way I needed to.
Speaker 1: And I would tell everybody, everybody, make sure your health
Speaker 1: is the number one thing. If you can't be the
Speaker 1: best version of yourself, you can't be there for everybody else.
Speaker 1: So how in the hell can I become a hypocrite?
Speaker 1: I'm out out, I'm out here for everybody, but I'm
Speaker 1: not here for myself. And so self care is really
Speaker 1: elevated in my life in a big, big way. And
Speaker 1: obviously the health part of that, not only the physical part,
Speaker 1: but the mental part and emotional part very important for
Speaker 1: me now and it's given me the foundation now to
Speaker 1: do things I actually haven't done before in many, many years. So,
Speaker 1: but my wife was fully behind me. She took it
Speaker 1: actually hard, and I did. We talked about that a lot.
Speaker 1: You know, She's like, Derek, I'm going through this too.
Speaker 1: You know, when I would get short with her, I'd say,
Speaker 1: it's okay, trying to not make it a big deal.
Speaker 1: But it was a big deal and needed to be
Speaker 1: talked about. But she was a rock of strength for
Speaker 1: me in ways that I would never ever forget. You know,
Speaker 1: I know if it was reversed, I'd be there the
Speaker 1: same way for her, and God forbid it. It gets
Speaker 1: that way, So let me take all that pain for
Speaker 1: the family to keep the family going. But she was
Speaker 1: the rock and this whole thing and wouldn't have got
Speaker 1: through it in that at that level if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for her and her support. She came through big time,
Speaker 1: and my network came through big time. And it was
Speaker 1: one of the most incredible experiences. I say, I say
Speaker 1: in the same breath it was the hardest lesson I learned.
Speaker 1: It's also the greatest lesson I learned the same time
Speaker 1: because I got a lot of runway left, and that
Speaker 1: you just motivated me now for the next thirty some
Speaker 1: years of my life to go after in ways that
Speaker 1: I haven't gone before. It refueled me and re energized me.
Speaker 1: It put me in a different space and again this
Speaker 1: whole notion of going being a go giver. Man, I'm
Speaker 1: in that space and I see the vision of what
Speaker 1: the future holds for that.
Speaker 3: That's right, all right, Well, pick up the book his memoir,
Speaker 3: Survive and Advance Lessons on Living a Life without Compromise.
Speaker 3: It's out right now, Derek Luis.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it. Thank you, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: what y'all do.
Speaker 3: Man, it's the break good morning, wake that ass up
Speaker 3: in the morning.
Speaker 2: Breakfast club.