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Speaker 1: Afro Tech Conference is back, bringing together over twenty thousand

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Speaker 1: tech enthusiasts, founders, investors, and more for another unforgettable year.

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Speaker 1: For years, afro Tech has been the go to event

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Speaker 1: for black innovators in tech with the brightest mind share

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Speaker 1: the latest developments and insights, and this year we're bringing

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Speaker 1: the experience to Houston, Texas from November thirteenth through the sixteenth.

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Speaker 1: Join us to learn from the innovators and leaders who

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Speaker 1: are shaping the future of tech. From insightful panels to

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Speaker 1: curated meetups and expansive recruiting, you'll connect with industry trailblazers.

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Speaker 1: In addition to focusing on the latest and AI and data,

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Speaker 1: this year's programming explores the intertetions of tech with health,

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Speaker 1: environment and creative design. Don't miss your chance to be

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Speaker 1: part of it. Secure your spoted afro Tech Conference twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty four today visit Afrotech Conference dot countered Buy your

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Speaker 1: ticket now. I'm Will Lucas and this is Black Tech,

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Speaker 1: Green Money. Anne Russell is Director of Edge Network Infrastructure

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Speaker 1: APT META. He's been with the tech giant for nearly

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Speaker 1: a decade. He's initiated and led critical inn and infrastructure

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Speaker 1: projects connecting unconnected people in the emerging markets, especially in Africa.

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Speaker 1: He's a creative former contributed to Huffington Post, the filmmaker,

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Speaker 1: and a diversity and inclusion champion at Meta. So for

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Speaker 1: the people who aren't super you know, familiar with your background.

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Speaker 1: You were not like a technical person growing up, like

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Speaker 1: and so you've got you found your way to engineering

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Speaker 1: roles and you know, really technical roles at Meta. I

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Speaker 1: mean probably Facebook then, but Meta without a technical background,

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Speaker 1: how does that happen?

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Speaker 2: Oh?

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Speaker 3: It was a journey, an exhausting one and one filled

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Speaker 3: with you know, lots of uh, you know, concerns early

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Speaker 3: on of whether I was making kind of the right

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Speaker 3: decisions and imposter syndrome which many people feel from going

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Speaker 3: from a non technical background to very technical work. I

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Speaker 3: started my career early in investment banking after college, like

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Speaker 3: many people kind of when I was in college at

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Speaker 3: wake Forest University, you know, private equity and venture capital

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Speaker 3: and investment banking and sounded very sexy, right. I wanted

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Speaker 3: to be an investment banker. I watched all the movies

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Speaker 3: kind of growing up, and I was like, this is

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Speaker 3: the career for me. For two years of doing it

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Speaker 3: and working eighty hours a week, and private equity groups

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Speaker 3: not investing, and you know, working in a bunch of

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Speaker 3: pitch stacks which weren't going anywhere and making very little money.

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Speaker 3: At the time, It's like, I think, I maybe want

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Speaker 3: to do something a little bit differently. So I had

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Speaker 3: an opportunity to join a tech company that was literally

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Speaker 3: two blocks down the street walking distance from the investment bank,

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Speaker 3: who was looking for people of my background who worked

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Speaker 3: on acquisitions and business valuation, did M and A work

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Speaker 3: to help them think about consolidating other companies within their

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Speaker 3: tech industry. It was a media company content delivery network

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Speaker 3: that worked with you know, Google and YouTube and others

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Speaker 3: at the time to cast all their video content. So

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Speaker 3: I decided to kind of make the leap of faith.

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Speaker 3: I actually had a friend working there at the time,

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Speaker 3: which make the transition easy. And for the first six

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Speaker 3: months or so it was work you know on you know,

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Speaker 3: acquisitions and doing M and A work, and then the

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Speaker 3: company went through a major rework It was a bit

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Speaker 3: during the recession and laid off much of the senior

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Speaker 3: kind of executive staff. So you know, two or three

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Speaker 3: layers between me and the CEO at the time were

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Speaker 3: just cut overnight, so you know, of course I'm nervous,

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Speaker 3: I'm scared. And then the CEO comes to me and

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Speaker 3: asks me to change my role within a company. They

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Speaker 3: needed help with the supply chain and expanding the company

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Speaker 3: from having a US presence to a global international presence,

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Speaker 3: and asking me for help to start negotiating the supply chain,

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Speaker 3: working with our network engineering team and becoming a bit

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Speaker 3: more technical so that I could expand the network. So

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Speaker 3: the time, I had no idea what that involved, but

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Speaker 3: I quickly found myself, you know, after kind of finishing

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Speaker 3: in the NBA at Arizona State, going back to night

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Speaker 3: school as soon as I finished my MBA and trying

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Speaker 3: to do the Cisco Certified Network Associates kind of an

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Speaker 3: entry level network engineering kind of one on one program

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Speaker 3: while asking the netw work engineers in my company a

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Speaker 3: million questions kind of day and night. So was learning

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Speaker 3: from the bootstrap, so massive and posular syndrome. I had

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Speaker 3: no idea what I was doing at the time, but

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Speaker 3: luckily I was surrounded by by people who were just

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Speaker 3: gracious in answering questions and wanting to kind of mentor

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Speaker 3: me early in their career, so fast forward kind of

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Speaker 3: four years of doing that became very technical and kind

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Speaker 3: of network engineering, and then Facebook happened to find me

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Speaker 3: kind of twenty fourteen looking for someone of my background

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Speaker 3: who had worked in kind of finance before but was

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Speaker 3: also technical from a network engineering perspective to help them

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Speaker 3: build and expand their entire network. So kind of fratuitous

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Speaker 3: at the time that I had kind of the finance

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Speaker 3: kind of hat and had kind of a technical background

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Speaker 3: that I could kind of combine those skills into something

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Speaker 3: that Meta was looking for to help them actually expand

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Speaker 3: their global network today, which is one of the biggest

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Speaker 3: in the world.

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Speaker 1: So for people who you know, kind of count themselves

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Speaker 1: out of roles because they feel like they may not

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Speaker 1: be experienced, so they may not have exactly what the

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Speaker 1: listing is looking for. I mean, you're a test them

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Speaker 1: into you know, you should probably take the take the

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Speaker 1: shot if it's interesting.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, Absolutely, it's interesting because I believe studies show that

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Speaker 3: this happens to women actually more than men. Men tend

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Speaker 3: to be a bit more overconfident and applying for roles

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Speaker 3: that they may not necessarily be qualified for on paper,

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Speaker 3: whereas sometimes women from what studies show will look at

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Speaker 3: some of the qualifications and say hey, I meet maybe

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Speaker 3: three out of five and not all five, and then

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Speaker 3: talk themselves out of applying. And one of the things

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Speaker 3: that I've always encouraged people to do in their career

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Speaker 3: is like, look, if you meet two out of five,

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Speaker 3: three out of five, doesn't matter. Go through the interview loop.

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Speaker 3: If you get accepted, have the conversation, because there may

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Speaker 3: be something that they're looking for that you may have

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Speaker 3: no idea. You may impress them in that conversation. You

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Speaker 3: may be a non conditional thinker from a nonconventional kind

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Speaker 3: of background, original thinker, I mean, and that might be

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Speaker 3: something that's unique and original, creative that may take that

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Speaker 3: role to a new level that they hadn't even anticipated.

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Speaker 3: And that happens so often. That's why it's so important

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Speaker 3: to put your best foot forth, apply to these roles,

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Speaker 3: and take the leap of faith. I think it's so

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Speaker 3: important that you don't talk yourself out of opportunities and

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Speaker 3: blocking and blessing.

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Speaker 1: By doing that telling yourself no, yeah, you know. So

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Speaker 1: for people who come up technical, you know, I remember

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Speaker 1: when I was learning front end, it was like, you know,

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Speaker 1: one one day you had to learn you know, Ruby

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Speaker 1: on rails. The next day you had to learn Python,

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Speaker 1: the next day you had to learn this other language.

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Speaker 1: And it was like it was like a never ending

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Speaker 1: cycle of different things coming out that you should probably

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Speaker 1: know characteristically because you, I mean, you work at one

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Speaker 1: of the biggest companies in the world and you're seeing

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Speaker 1: the future, you're building the future. What kind of characteristics

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Speaker 1: should a person who wants to be in leadership in

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Speaker 1: the technology space be developing?

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Speaker 3: I think a few things that Mark talked about this

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Speaker 3: recently on the Acquired Chase kind of podcasts at the

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Speaker 3: Chase Inner kind of a couple of weeks ago, and

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Speaker 3: if people haven't watched it, I think it's available on Spotify.

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Speaker 3: But one of the things I find interesting in kind

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Speaker 3: of Silicon Valley and kind of Mark mension is that

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Speaker 3: you know, if you're wanting to be in the technical

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Speaker 3: leadership role at many of the larger kind of tech,

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Speaker 3: larger kind of companies in Silicon Valley, you need to

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Speaker 3: be technical, right. So historically kind of in Silicon Value

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Speaker 3: would find that many of the CEOs and people in

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Speaker 3: kind of VP leadership of major tech companies weren't actually

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Speaker 3: technical that might have one technical founder and one kind

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Speaker 3: of VP event, but many of the folks weren't technical,

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Speaker 3: and sometimes those companies just don't survive longer term. And

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Speaker 3: you look at just how rapid innovation is happening and

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Speaker 3: the technology trends. You have to have technical people that

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Speaker 3: can help you navigate those trends. Read the tea leaves,

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Speaker 3: kind of see the future and learn how to take

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Speaker 3: the company from kind of A to Z. So, you know,

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Speaker 3: if you're wanting to work in kind of a technical

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Speaker 3: kind of engineering role, you've got to be a sponge, right.

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Speaker 3: You've got to soak up knowledge. You have to ask questions.

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Speaker 3: You have to take advantage of tools and resources that

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Speaker 3: are free sometimes paid. Understand what the Amazons and Googles,

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Speaker 3: the metas, the open a eyes, the anthropics of the

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Speaker 3: world are focused on. Understand kind of road maps, listen

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Speaker 3: to kind of their podcasts. Meet with people. I still

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Speaker 3: encourage people kind of early in their career to do

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Speaker 3: informational interviews with people, Like it's so easy sometimes just

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Speaker 3: to go on LinkedIn, find a person, hopefully you know

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Speaker 3: a person of color, a brother or sister who is

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Speaker 3: just willing to just talk to you and kind of

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Speaker 3: give you information and if you ask stup questions, usually

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Speaker 3: people were impressed by that and willing to kind of

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Speaker 3: help you. I can't tell you the number of times

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Speaker 3: I've done this. When people reach out to me, you

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Speaker 3: know LinkedIn wanting to know them more about meta my

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Speaker 3: role in particular, I'll give them the time of day.

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Speaker 3: You know, it's close mouths. Don't reach out, ask those

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Speaker 3: questions right understand kind the challenges that they're facing the

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Speaker 3: day to day. What are the things that they're working

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Speaker 3: on now in terms of kind of road maps and

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Speaker 3: where they're winning the future. What kind of technologies are

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Speaker 3: they exploring. For me, as a person that builds global infrastructure,

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Speaker 3: my industry is changing kind of rapidly. I'm always happy

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Speaker 3: to talk about those things. So you have to ask questions,

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Speaker 3: you have to read, you have to stay current with

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Speaker 3: kind of technology trends because the space is moving so rapidly.

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Speaker 3: So I think that's the words of encouragement that I

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Speaker 3: would have for folks.

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Speaker 1: To that point of the space is moving so quickly.

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Speaker 1: The I love talking about small business owners entrepreneurs and

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Speaker 1: giving them value from these conversations because not everybody's going

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Speaker 1: to be building technology, but a lot will be using technology,

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Speaker 1: employing technology to scale. And so for AI, which we're

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Speaker 1: having a big global conversation about AI, and to your point,

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Speaker 1: it's moving rapidly. What is potentially overlooked for those small

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Speaker 1: business owners and entrepreneurs? What are we not paying enough

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Speaker 1: attention to that could be valuable to us?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? I think, you know, technology is the great equalizer. Right,

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Speaker 3: So when you think about kind of rewind, I don't know,

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Speaker 3: ten twelve years ago, however long ago kind of Uber

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Speaker 3: or Lyft or that look, remember being kind of traveling

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Speaker 3: or being kind of in New York and trying to

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Speaker 3: hell a taxi. I can't tell you the number of

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Speaker 3: times as a black man, I got passed over for

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Speaker 3: you know, a white kind of counterpart, right because they

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Speaker 3: didn't know about me, They didn't know who it was.

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Speaker 3: You couldn't kind of see the background, and just assuming

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Speaker 3: some stereotype about me. Right, So I'm standing there looking

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Speaker 3: crazy on the street, trying to wave down a taxi

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Speaker 3: and can't get one. Right, But all of a sudden,

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Speaker 3: you know, Uber and kind of Lyft and others called

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Speaker 3: you know, come along and you can get transportation at

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Speaker 3: an access that kind of your fingertips, right, So it's

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Speaker 3: just kind of one example. So when you think about

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Speaker 3: as like a small business owner or kind of creator,

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Speaker 3: like AI is one of those technologies that can be

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Speaker 3: the great equalizer, especially if you're a small business. I

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Speaker 3: talked about this recently and kind of another kind of

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Speaker 3: panel conversation, but one of the things that we're doing

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Speaker 3: that is launching something called AI Studio, which is available

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Speaker 3: now for kind of creators, even kind of small businesses.

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Speaker 3: And if you're a creator, leveraging the AI to be

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Speaker 3: able to create an AI extension and the agent of

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Speaker 3: yourself that can communicate with your fan base globally, that

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Speaker 3: can push merchandise for you, that can push ticket sales,

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Speaker 3: that can reply to common stories and kind of dms

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Speaker 3: and help you scale yourself. It's really powerful. Right. Don't

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Speaker 3: leave money on the table because you don't speak eight languages, right, Like,

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Speaker 3: leverage the AI to do those things. If you're a

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Speaker 3: small business, you know, and you're a startup, you know,

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Speaker 3: your capital and your balance sheet is going to be

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Speaker 3: pretty limited. Right. So just as everyone has a social

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Speaker 3: media page and an email address and kind of a website,

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Speaker 3: you know, think about the future as having kind of

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Speaker 3: these AI agents that can help you scale your businesses,

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Speaker 3: that can communicate with customers kind of globally, that can

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Speaker 3: offer discounts, help you with customer return, help you predict

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Speaker 3: kind of the creative for ads, help you figure out

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Speaker 3: who your actual audience is better than you can confirm. Right.

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Speaker 3: So there's just so many opportunities as a small business

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Speaker 3: owner or as a creator to leverage these tools. So

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Speaker 3: I think people really have to be early adopters and

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Speaker 3: explore some of these things. One of the announcements we

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Speaker 3: just launched yesterday at the Connect conference was LAMA three

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Speaker 3: point two and update to kind of LAMA three point one,

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Speaker 3: which is our long language model. An exciting thing about

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Speaker 3: that is multimodial. So I use this at work all

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Speaker 3: the time. You have an internal tool called Metamate which

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Speaker 3: uses our long language model, and I used to spend

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Speaker 3: hours sometimes working on presentations and putting together kind of

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Speaker 3: charts and graphs and writing meeting notes. I uploaded kind

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Speaker 3: of a Google doc with all my reading, our meeting

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Speaker 3: notes and a bunch of other data to our internal

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Speaker 3: long language model. I say, hey, summarize all this data

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Speaker 3: put into kind of four or five action items. Also

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Speaker 3: summarize some of the data into a chart table with

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Speaker 3: xyz kind of columns and these petters and something that

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Speaker 3: can export into kind of a broader prison within thirty

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Speaker 3: seconds that I rendered all of it Normally it took

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Speaker 3: me hours to do right. So it's about being more efficient.

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Speaker 3: How can I scale myself? How can I get time

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Speaker 3: back in my day to do other things right? As

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Speaker 3: an executive, I don't want to spend four hours in

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Speaker 3: Excel right, our PowerPoint right. I want to use tools

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Speaker 3: that can make me more efficient so I can spend

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Speaker 3: my time thinking about strategy, where the business needs to

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Speaker 3: go in the future, and scaling myself. That's where my

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Speaker 3: time needs to be spent. So it's just one example.

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Speaker 3: There's just so many use cases for AI that create

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Speaker 3: just efficiencies for you and allow you to scale yourself,

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Speaker 3: and I think people should really explore those.

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Speaker 1: No. I love that. It was this quote I found

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Speaker 1: from you as this is a couple of years ago

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Speaker 1: where you said connecting the world is really one of

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Speaker 1: the fundamental challenges of our generation. And that's an idea

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Speaker 1: we really embrace. Embrace. We work with partners to develop

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Speaker 1: innovative technologies around the world that help some of the

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Speaker 1: biggest connectivity challenges in solving them. And together we're bringing

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Speaker 1: more people online, faster online, to a faster internet. And

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Speaker 1: so I think about again, to those people who don't

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Speaker 1: work at the biggest companies in the world, but are building,

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Speaker 1: hopefully one day the biggest companies, what can we learn

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Speaker 1: from you and your role in a company like this

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Speaker 1: that you guys get laser focused on a mission, laser

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Speaker 1: focused on solving big problems that we can ask small

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Speaker 1: business owners entrepreneurs learn from, like, how do we learn

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Speaker 1: scale at our stages from a meta Yeah, I.

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Speaker 3: Think you know, as a you know, business owner or

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Speaker 3: someone who's kind of building products, I think you always

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Speaker 3: have to be thinking about the idea of how do

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Speaker 3: things scale in the future. And it is a hard

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Speaker 3: thing to think about in terms of kind of the

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Speaker 3: trade off that you have to make when you're building

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Speaker 3: a new product or kind of launching the business. How

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Speaker 3: am I going to uniquely create and deliver value to

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Speaker 3: people at scale? Right? Because you don't want to build

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Speaker 3: businesses or products that can't scale or kind of reach

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Speaker 3: kind of multiple people, because then you're kind of boxed

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Speaker 3: in into kind of a I'll give you a good example.

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Speaker 3: I have worked on a number of things that I

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Speaker 3: felt at Meta. I was it proudly right. It was

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Speaker 3: a learning experience for me. I was building kind of

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Speaker 3: a startup inside of Meta kind of six years ago,

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Speaker 3: a connectivity program that had some traction early on in

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Speaker 3: terms of building Internet exchanges and emerging markets, and I

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Speaker 3: couldn't find partners to scale because the business model didn't

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Speaker 3: make sense. So I had to kind of go back

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Speaker 3: to the table and think about, how do I kind

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Speaker 3: of create a business model that other carriers can kind

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Speaker 3: of get behind. This can to make them revenue but

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Speaker 3: also be call suffortable for people to adopt a technology

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Speaker 3: and use it. So when I figured out kind of

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Speaker 3: the business model that scale, which was kind of debt

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Speaker 3: financing for some of these companies that allowed them to

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Speaker 3: have these longer term kind of loans with affordable kind

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Speaker 3: of interest rates, or they could kind of take risk

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Speaker 3: and make revenue and take bets and risk in these

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Speaker 3: emerging markets where they otherwise wouldn't make revenue. The business

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Speaker 3: model just made sense for them, right. So when I

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Speaker 3: started to think about how do these things kind of

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Speaker 3: scale a long term what's a commercial model to do that.

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Speaker 3: I started to get traction pretty quickly and became one

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Speaker 3: of Marvel's valuable kind of connectivity programs at Meta at

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Speaker 3: the time, connecting tens of millions of people and South

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Speaker 3: are in Africa and parts of kind of Latin America,

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Speaker 3: providing people with more affordable internet and a better quality

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Speaker 3: of experience. So you have to be thinking about long term.

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Speaker 3: It's how, you know, across kind of the the product

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Speaker 3: or kind of the business or whatever the project or

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Speaker 3: whatever it is that you're working on. How are these

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Speaker 3: things king to scale longer term? You know, how do

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Speaker 3: I kind of get value to as many people as possible?

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Speaker 3: And how can I do that in a repeatable, sustainable way.

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Speaker 1: I like that. So I'm sure you get asked by

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Speaker 1: a lot of people, Hey will you mentor me, Hey

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Speaker 1: will you be the person out? You know, I can

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Speaker 1: call and email and et cetera. And while that's you know,

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Speaker 1: that's what it is. And I'm sure you've had mentors

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Speaker 1: in your career. How have you found, first of all,

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Speaker 1: who are your mentors and how have you found those

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Speaker 1: mentorship relationships best developed? Because I'm sure it's not like, hey,

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Speaker 1: will you be my mentor, and it's just beautiful from exactly.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I like to make that joke sometimes when

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Speaker 3: I'm talking to people, because you know, I do get

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Speaker 3: that question a lot, you know, every time I open

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Speaker 3: LinkedIn or somehow someone gets kind of my EMAO address

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Speaker 3: asking me to kind of be their mentor. I'm like,

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Speaker 3: it's kind of like asking someone to be your friend

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Speaker 3: and you've never met before, even my friend. It doesn't

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Speaker 3: really work that way. It has to happen organically, right, So,

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Speaker 3: I think when you're networking in general, like one principle

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Speaker 3: that I stand by is almost kind of like the

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Speaker 3: comment I made earlier, is how do I create value

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Speaker 3: for someone else? Like take yourself out of the equation

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Speaker 3: and figure out how do you add value for other people.

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Speaker 3: When you can do that, typically those relationships develop kind

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Speaker 3: of organically. When I first hearded that meta as an example,

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Speaker 3: you know, I wanted to have impact. I was eager

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Speaker 3: like everyone else. But when I was kind of networking

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Speaker 3: and building senior level kind of relationships and relationships was

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Speaker 3: kind of uh know, cross functional members across the organization.

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Speaker 3: I'm thinking about, how do I make their jobs easier,

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Speaker 3: more efficient? What do I do kind of uniquely just

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Speaker 3: kind of add value to this situation or this kind

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Speaker 3: of program. How can I help them and make their

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Speaker 3: lives easier. When you can do that for people, whether

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Speaker 3: it's at work, you know, networking, kind of meeting new people,

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Speaker 3: trying to get business from someone, think about how do

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Speaker 3: you add value to them first? And that's the best

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Speaker 3: way to develop a relationship organically, especially if it's someone

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Speaker 3: that you want to be a mentor or someone do

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Speaker 3: you think that can kind of guide you longer terms

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Speaker 3: like what value are you bringing to them? Try to

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Speaker 3: think about things selflessly and think about how do you

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Speaker 3: add value for other people? Was Typically people are going

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Speaker 3: to you know, people good hearts at least will want

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Speaker 3: to help you kind of in return, right, and has

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Speaker 3: to be organic, right. You can't go in with the

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Speaker 3: intention of getting something and being in transaction from other people.

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Speaker 3: Think about how do you help them? And typically that

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Speaker 3: comes back to you. I've found that to be something

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Speaker 3: that's worked through me, work for me throughout my career

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Speaker 3: in terms of mentors. Inside of Meta, I have a

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Speaker 3: couple of people Alvin Bowles, who runs kind of are

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Speaker 3: at team in North America. One of the senior VPS

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Speaker 3: has been someone instrumental in my career. E mail. You know,

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Speaker 3: one of our top black executives inside of Meta has

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Speaker 3: always been kind of a mentor for me. Outside of

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Speaker 3: Meta kind of depends on this the spaces I operate.

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Speaker 3: I do a lot of stuff on the creative side too,

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Speaker 3: and kind of film production. Terrence J. Has always been

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Speaker 3: a mentor for me, kind of on the production side. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: you know a few people like that. I think I'm

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Speaker 3: always finding new people my career that I can kind

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Speaker 3: of learn from. It's one of the things that I value.

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Speaker 3: Stain and hungry, figuring out how to evolve myself over time,

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Speaker 3: and just being eager to learn. I think if you

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Speaker 3: remain eager to learn, you naturally just find people in

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Speaker 3: different spaces that end up being kind of mentors for you.

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Speaker 3: You want to help you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, No, there are people who have personal interests like

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Speaker 1: I'm glad you gave me an alleyup on the video production.

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Speaker 1: There's people who don't work at the biggest companies in

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Speaker 1: the world and have have the stressful schedules, and they

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Speaker 1: try to find space for their interests, their hobbies, the

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Speaker 1: things that just bring them joy and fill them up.

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Speaker 1: How are you managing that? Because I mean you talk

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Speaker 1: about the level of stress in work that you may have.

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Speaker 1: You know, when your impact reaches hundreds of millions of people,

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Speaker 1: how do you manage that those personal interests in the work.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I get this question a lot too, And

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Speaker 3: I won't give you a toxic answer like I'll sleep

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Speaker 3: when I'm dead and I work twenty four second. You

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Speaker 3: can't do that, right, you know, as we get older,

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Speaker 3: health as well. Take care of yourself. The fact, take

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Speaker 3: care of yourself, that's a fact, right. I try to

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Speaker 3: be very intentional about my time, and I've gotten better

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Speaker 3: at this as i age. But you know, I have

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Speaker 3: a pretty set routine in terms of where I spend

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Speaker 3: my time and energy. So I'm one of those early risers,

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Speaker 3: kind of like my dad was when he was younger.

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Speaker 3: At five am, I'm kind of at the gym. I'm

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Speaker 3: working out, have a set amount of time for that,

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Speaker 3: eating brakfasts. After that, from kind of seven am to

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Speaker 3: usually kind of five thirty six, six thirty pm, I'm working.

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Speaker 3: I'm focused, I'm locking them being president at work. After that,

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Speaker 3: when I come home, you know, kind of relax of it.

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Speaker 3: You know, I usually allocate a couple hours of meet

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Speaker 3: for kind of the creative right when I can kind

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Speaker 3: of sit back, you know, being kind of my environment

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Speaker 3: where I'm relaxed and kind of do some creative thinking.

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Speaker 3: I'm either working, I'm writing, you know, film projects, I'm

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Speaker 3: working on something with my brothers now and spending kind

434
00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:31,480
Speaker 3: of a few hours doing that, and then spending some

435
00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:34,920
Speaker 3: time reading too. Reading's important too. You want to stay ahead.

436
00:21:35,359 --> 00:21:36,840
Speaker 3: So I try to be intentional about the time I

437
00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:38,800
Speaker 3: have during the week and especially on weekends. You can

438
00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:40,479
Speaker 3: do so much and fit so much in your day

439
00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:42,960
Speaker 3: if you're intentional about it, but you have to put

440
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:44,960
Speaker 3: the energy there. And I think for sometimes, I think

441
00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:47,000
Speaker 3: for people. Sometimes I can just be exhausting and trying

442
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 3: to balance that schedule. But when you care about something

443
00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:53,639
Speaker 3: intensely and you're passionate about it, you will put the

444
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:56,600
Speaker 3: time and energy into it to ensure that that manifests

445
00:21:56,640 --> 00:22:02,080
Speaker 3: into something that you can you leverage to turn into

446
00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:06,960
Speaker 3: something big. Right. One of my first feature films last

447
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:10,840
Speaker 3: year was Fear, a horror movie that got released in

448
00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:13,040
Speaker 3: kind of theaters in January twenty twenty three that I

449
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:15,600
Speaker 3: was the EPM. It was one of the first times

450
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:19,119
Speaker 3: that I had an opportunity to release a feature film,

451
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:23,159
Speaker 3: you know, working with just amazing kind of talent, you know,

452
00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:26,679
Speaker 3: Deon Taylor, director, people like Terrence j Ti, Joseph Acora.

453
00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:29,040
Speaker 3: And it was kind of intimidating for me to be

454
00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:31,720
Speaker 3: an EP on a project of kind of that scale, right,

455
00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:34,240
Speaker 3: And it was a time commitment too, to be invested

456
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:36,639
Speaker 3: just shot over kind of multiple weeks and kind of

457
00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,359
Speaker 3: the pandemic. I was trying to balance work a time

458
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,840
Speaker 3: where you know, people were freaking out about health, trying

459
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:44,280
Speaker 3: to focus on their jobs and not kind of get

460
00:22:44,359 --> 00:22:46,680
Speaker 3: laid off too, and that to just be very intention

461
00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:48,800
Speaker 3: about kind of managing my time and putting in kind

462
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:51,520
Speaker 3: of the energy and carving out kind of that mental

463
00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:54,160
Speaker 3: space for something I was passionate about that I knew

464
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:56,840
Speaker 3: that have the potential to be something big, right, So

465
00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:58,919
Speaker 3: you have to kind of make those trade offs and

466
00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:00,840
Speaker 3: ask yourself, what do you want in a sacrifice. Or

467
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:03,240
Speaker 3: you're willing to sacrifice a couple more hours of sleep

468
00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:05,159
Speaker 3: to get up and go to gym and be healthier,

469
00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:08,600
Speaker 3: are you willing to spend thirty forty forty five more

470
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:11,119
Speaker 3: minutes a day after reading, so that you can educate

471
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:13,360
Speaker 3: yourself on kind of new spaces. I learn a lot, right,

472
00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:16,600
Speaker 3: It's like the ten thousand hour rule. People forget just

473
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:19,280
Speaker 3: you know how valuable it is when you make that

474
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,639
Speaker 3: time commitment, those sacrifices. It just helps you propel yourself

475
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:23,880
Speaker 3: and get ahead.

476
00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:27,600
Speaker 1: How do you think about showing up as an authentic

477
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:31,040
Speaker 1: black man? Like, because when people see technology folks, and

478
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:35,680
Speaker 1: particularly the technology folks in Silicon Valley, we I don't

479
00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:37,720
Speaker 1: want to say historically, but we tend to think of

480
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 1: you know, you kind of have to assimilate into the dress,

481
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:46,440
Speaker 1: the way of being in et cetera. And you know, yeah,

482
00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:48,439
Speaker 1: code switching, all of that. So I mean when I

483
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:50,280
Speaker 1: see you walk into a room and you got a

484
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:52,080
Speaker 1: blue sky in shirt on it, like you like you're

485
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:54,320
Speaker 1: a real black man, you know what I mean? So

486
00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:56,800
Speaker 1: I wonder how you think about how do you how

487
00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:58,399
Speaker 1: you show up in the world.

488
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:02,639
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what, I wasn't always that way. I

489
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:06,639
Speaker 3: think it's interesting enough. When I first started at Meta

490
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,159
Speaker 3: early in my career, I was always worried about that

491
00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:12,080
Speaker 3: because you know, I wanted to make the best impression.

492
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:14,639
Speaker 3: I was one of very few black people kind of

493
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 3: on the broader kind of engineering teams. And I was

494
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,280
Speaker 3: really cognizant about how I show up because I was

495
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:22,520
Speaker 3: worried about opening the door for the next person of

496
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:24,360
Speaker 3: color and the next brother sister who wants to work there.

497
00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:26,520
Speaker 3: I was like, if I felt and we may not

498
00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:28,399
Speaker 3: go hire any more black people. Right. That was kind

499
00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:30,240
Speaker 3: of the mental anguage that I was working with at

500
00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:32,520
Speaker 3: the time. That's a lot to put on someone's shoulders,

501
00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:34,760
Speaker 3: especially early in their career in the twenties, right. But

502
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:36,560
Speaker 3: you know, I was always thinking about the next generation.

503
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 3: But one of the models at Facebook was, you know,

504
00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:43,280
Speaker 3: bringing your authentic self to work, And I was like,

505
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 3: what does that really mean for me as a black man?

506
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 3: Everyone else? Right, I was like, it's not even a

507
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:56,320
Speaker 3: black farmer shop. So when I got comfortable, especially I

508
00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:59,280
Speaker 3: started as I started landing impact and just developing kind

509
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 3: of credibility, I was like, you know what, Like I

510
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:04,640
Speaker 3: don't need to walk into a room and code switch

511
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:06,399
Speaker 3: or pretend to be someone else. I was like, you

512
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:08,360
Speaker 3: know what, Like, I'm gonna let people see my Facebook,

513
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 3: my Instagram, my everyday life. I'm going to be neat Right.

514
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:14,080
Speaker 3: So I had this realization kind of a year or

515
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:17,639
Speaker 3: two after Meta, especially as I started, you know, getting

516
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 3: involved in some of the DEI programs too. It was like,

517
00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:22,560
Speaker 3: how am I going to attract people to want to

518
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,680
Speaker 3: work at META if I'm code switching and I'm being

519
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:28,719
Speaker 3: two different people, Like, that's not authentic, right, I wouldn't

520
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:30,360
Speaker 3: want to work with me? Like, who want to work

521
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:32,879
Speaker 3: with someone like that? Right? So I remember kind of

522
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 3: going back to the pandemic when we had a juneteen

523
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:38,840
Speaker 3: celebration the first time that kind of Meta and I

524
00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 3: held this broader panel with Juy McKesson and you know,

525
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:44,840
Speaker 3: Eva Chand who's our m VP of kind of fashion.

526
00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 3: And I was like, you know what, I'm wearing my chain.

527
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:51,880
Speaker 3: I'm in front of the whole company. I'm gonna do myself.

528
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 1: Is serious, serious.

529
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 3: And people loved it. Right, So I'm wearing this shame. Well,

530
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:01,320
Speaker 3: I can overmind. You gotta be yourself like and I

531
00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:03,919
Speaker 3: think we need to show up authentically. People respond to that.

532
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,720
Speaker 3: They respect you, they appreciate it, and they admire it. Right,

533
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:09,360
Speaker 3: So I really try to be myself. I'm the same

534
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 3: person in any room I walk in, whether I'm in

535
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:15,480
Speaker 3: the executive meetia at work or if I'm you know,

536
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,560
Speaker 3: going to my church or I'm on this podcast, right,

537
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 3: I'm the same person. You're gonna get the same errand

538
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,040
Speaker 3: and no matter what situation, I value that and I

539
00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:25,960
Speaker 3: think I encourage people to do that now.

540
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 1: I think what's important that you said that I don't

541
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:30,119
Speaker 1: want to get overlooked is you had to be good

542
00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 1: at your job too, and.

543
00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 3: So it's important too. That's important too. You have to

544
00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:39,600
Speaker 3: do that too. You want to you want to be credible, right.

545
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,639
Speaker 3: You can't just come in the door, you know, be

546
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:45,680
Speaker 3: an extra and then not doing anything right. You gotta

547
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:48,560
Speaker 3: you know, you gotta let your work speak for you too.

548
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 3: I have to speak louder than words, So you know,

549
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 3: that's always important.

550
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: We had this great conversation that I'd love to rehash

551
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:56,400
Speaker 1: here because I don't think we went to a deep

552
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:59,920
Speaker 1: point invest fast stage. But we talked about the impaired

553
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 1: to get back into the office and how and what

554
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:06,639
Speaker 1: that means, particularly for black people who want to, you know,

555
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:09,640
Speaker 1: achieve greater heights in their career and if you can

556
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:11,439
Speaker 1: make can you kind of set the stage for that

557
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:13,679
Speaker 1: and make a case for whatever you believe is the

558
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 1: best mode of thinking, method of operation for employees.

559
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:20,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I know I'm going to get a lot

560
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:22,639
Speaker 3: of flat for this too, like a bit of an

561
00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:26,440
Speaker 3: unpopular answer, but I'll preface it with this. I am

562
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:30,680
Speaker 3: a big believer in the hybrid work model. You have

563
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:33,159
Speaker 3: meta for the people that didn't go remote. We're in

564
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:36,520
Speaker 3: the office three days a week. I value being in

565
00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:40,159
Speaker 3: the office because I have a global team and oftentimes

566
00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 3: I'm put into meetings as a drop of a whim, right,

567
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 3: I may need to help someone solve something that was

568
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:50,080
Speaker 3: like time critical tough to kind of do that in zoom,

569
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 3: you know, the hallway kind of water cooler conversation sometimes

570
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:55,640
Speaker 3: is so much easier, easier to have things out very

571
00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:59,359
Speaker 3: quickly versus waiting two or three weeks to do the

572
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,320
Speaker 3: same thing multiple kind of zoom calls. So that proximity

573
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:07,880
Speaker 3: to kind of others and just that environment of being

574
00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:11,040
Speaker 3: able to kind of create culture and influence culture by

575
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 3: being in the office is something that's really special to

576
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:16,320
Speaker 3: me because I enjoy like the camaraderie of being with

577
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:19,399
Speaker 3: colleagues kind of friends in the office and being in

578
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:23,400
Speaker 3: a war room together, especially when times are challenging. You're

579
00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:25,960
Speaker 3: working a hard problems like that's motivating to see, like,

580
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:29,639
Speaker 3: you know, my colleague kind of next to me, you know,

581
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,000
Speaker 3: sweating it out to you know, on a whiteboard, trying

582
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,440
Speaker 3: to figure these things out and rallying together. Like I

583
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:37,680
Speaker 3: love that. I think it's even more important for people

584
00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 3: who are younger in their career, Like you know, if

585
00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 3: you're two or three years in your career at a company,

586
00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,400
Speaker 3: I wouldn't encourage you to work remote, like I think

587
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:48,840
Speaker 3: you need to be able to see people face to face.

588
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 3: I think you need to go understand the culture. It's

589
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:52,959
Speaker 3: hard to do that over zoom. You can't really understand

590
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:54,600
Speaker 3: culture of Zoom. You need to be kind of in

591
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 3: the office around people to understand kind of the culture

592
00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:01,719
Speaker 3: of norms, understanding people's idiosyncrasies, understand the way why they

593
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 3: are the way they are. You can only do that

594
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 3: by interacting with them more frequently. And I think you're

595
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,080
Speaker 3: a younger person in your career, very hard to find

596
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:13,840
Speaker 3: mentors over soon. Just people just aren't going to have

597
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:15,760
Speaker 3: the time for that, right. I mean some may, but

598
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 3: it's just tough to do that. So being in the

599
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:20,040
Speaker 3: office may allow you to have that approximately to someone

600
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:21,600
Speaker 3: who can kind of help you in your career, who

601
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 3: can you'll come to your desk or kind of your

602
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 3: station or conference room and help you kind of navigate

603
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:29,640
Speaker 3: things and can kind of coach you a little bit.

604
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 3: And it's easier to get that guidance when they're in

605
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:34,880
Speaker 3: the office. So I think that's important, especially for you know,

606
00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 3: black men and kind of black women early in your career.

607
00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 3: Having kind of those mentors in person is something that's

608
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 3: really invaluable kind of early in your career. Down With

609
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,920
Speaker 3: that being said, can people still be successful working remotely

610
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 3: kind of five days a week. Yes, we all did

611
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,520
Speaker 3: it in the pandemic, so it's possible. You know, I didn't.

612
00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:58,160
Speaker 3: My work productivity didn't change at all. You know, I

613
00:29:58,200 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 3: think that early on, like the first kind of couple

614
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 3: weeks of you know, the pandemic, everyone was kind of

615
00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 3: struggling to get adjusted. But after a time it became

616
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:07,160
Speaker 3: kind of a normal rhythm for me. So you people

617
00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:09,920
Speaker 3: can be productive remote, but I think early in your career,

618
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,120
Speaker 3: I would encourage you to be in the office.

619
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:16,760
Speaker 1: You know, there seems to be a surgence of particularly

620
00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:19,040
Speaker 1: tech workers, but I'm sure in every industry we have this,

621
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: particularly tech workers who are doing like these day in

622
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: their life Instagram day in the life, real, yes, day

623
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: in life, you know YouTube posts. Can you talk about

624
00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:34,360
Speaker 1: the perspective of your perspective on this and how companies

625
00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 1: can be handling this?

626
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, you know, I think each company thinks about

627
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:46,680
Speaker 3: these things differently. I've heard of you know, people unfortunately

628
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:49,360
Speaker 3: either being kind of you know, fired or kind of

629
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,000
Speaker 3: you're released for the company. For some of these videos,

630
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 3: I don't have a lot of context, so I can't

631
00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 3: kind of speak on it with confidence, but I think

632
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:58,760
Speaker 3: I've seen this flash across kind of my Instagram map.

633
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 3: But for me personally, I did one of these day

634
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 3: in a live videos a couple of years ago at

635
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:06,800
Speaker 3: a Meta. It's my first kind of Instagram reel. It's

636
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:08,400
Speaker 3: on my Instagram page and it was kind of just

637
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 3: a day and on life for me, coming into the office,

638
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:12,560
Speaker 3: kind of meeting with people, kind of grabbing lunch. And

639
00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:15,239
Speaker 3: I did that more just is a way to kind

640
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 3: of show other people who are interested in kind of

641
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:19,640
Speaker 3: working at Meta and what's it like to be, you know,

642
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:21,600
Speaker 3: airing at work in a day in my life, as

643
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 3: you know, someone who works in kind of network engineerings

644
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:27,120
Speaker 3: and kind of meetings with multiple different people and engaging

645
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:28,640
Speaker 3: with kind of building kind of community out that it'll

646
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 3: be cool for people to see because it's a common

647
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:34,600
Speaker 3: question that I get. Now. It's not something I do

648
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 3: every day, you know. I love Instagram reels when I'm

649
00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:39,520
Speaker 3: not doing a day in a life like you know,

650
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:44,080
Speaker 3: every week. Right, It's not something that distracts me. It's

651
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:47,840
Speaker 3: a creator economy today, right. I think Instagram, you know,

652
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 3: other apps to have built kind of this creator economy.

653
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:54,040
Speaker 3: It allows people to show off their creativity and monetize

654
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:55,640
Speaker 3: it and make it living from it. We have people

655
00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 3: who are creators at Meta who are amazing creators, right,

656
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:01,840
Speaker 3: and they make videos all the time. The key here

657
00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 3: is that it doesn't distract them from impact and their

658
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 3: daily work and their daily job too. They're able to

659
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 3: kind of balance both. So you know, from my perspective,

660
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 3: you know, as long as it isn't something that's distracting

661
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:14,360
Speaker 3: you from being able to do the job that you

662
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:18,080
Speaker 3: were hired for, I see no issue with it. People

663
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:22,760
Speaker 3: you know, can live your full lives and pursue their

664
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 3: passions and other areas outside of kind of their quote

665
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:27,280
Speaker 3: unquote kind of nine to five. As long as it's

666
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 3: not taking away from what you were haired to do.

667
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 3: I'll see no problem with it. I love it. I

668
00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:31,400
Speaker 3: love seeing those other.

669
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:36,960
Speaker 1: Videos, particularly to that creator economy sentiment, like there was

670
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:43,280
Speaker 1: a big push for young people to be technologists, engineers, designers,

671
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 1: and et cetera. And it seems like now there's a

672
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 1: larger conversation. Although there are some people who still want

673
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:51,440
Speaker 1: to do that, there's a growing conversation about this creator

674
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:55,160
Speaker 1: economy and being able to be you know, full time YouTube,

675
00:32:55,200 --> 00:33:00,239
Speaker 1: full time Instagram, full time, et cetera. Talk about how

676
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,480
Speaker 1: we can use these things to build wealth.

677
00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:08,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think whether it's Instagram or other

678
00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 3: kind of you know, competitor kind of applications which I

679
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:14,080
Speaker 3: want name here, I think there's you know, a good

680
00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 3: opportunity to leverage social media to build wealth where there's

681
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:22,760
Speaker 3: kind of residual income on the side, something you know, small,

682
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:24,880
Speaker 3: or just to be a part of kind of your

683
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 3: primary income by leveraging kind of multiple social media applications.

684
00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:30,800
Speaker 3: And you know, I have good friends and you know

685
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 3: people that I know that do it quite well and

686
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 3: have been able to kind of master this. I think

687
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 3: if you're someone who's interested in pursuing a career as

688
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:42,520
Speaker 3: a creator. I think there are just so many outlets

689
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:46,000
Speaker 3: to get paid on Instagram or kind of other kind

690
00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:49,040
Speaker 3: of applications or kind of Facebook, you know, bonuses being

691
00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:52,400
Speaker 3: kind of available in partnerships, you know, brand partnerships and

692
00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:55,640
Speaker 3: others that if you're really strategic about it and you

693
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 3: build kind of a broader presence. This is why it's

694
00:33:58,200 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 3: so important to leverage of the AI tools that I

695
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:01,920
Speaker 3: talk about that can really help you kind of scale yourself.

696
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:06,120
Speaker 3: There is an economy that allows you to be paid

697
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:08,000
Speaker 3: for this if you're good at it, right, and I

698
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:10,799
Speaker 3: think if you want to take those things seriously, I

699
00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:12,680
Speaker 3: think it's really useful to look at kind of the

700
00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:15,160
Speaker 3: tools and resources available that teach you kind of the

701
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:18,279
Speaker 3: cheat codes that help you scale yourself pretty quickly and

702
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:21,919
Speaker 3: kind of create kind of this broader audience following because

703
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:23,279
Speaker 3: you can get paid to do those things. You can

704
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 3: get paid quite well. There's a number of people that

705
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,840
Speaker 3: I'm very close with who do this constantly, right, and

706
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:31,840
Speaker 3: it's something that they enjoy because they get to be

707
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:34,400
Speaker 3: themselves and from the camera. It can be something you

708
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 3: find something you know, if you're creator that that's relatable

709
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:41,600
Speaker 3: to audiences based on you being kind of authentic. Right

710
00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 3: if you know, I'm someone who likes reading books and

711
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:46,960
Speaker 3: I have a book club for example, you know, finding

712
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:49,439
Speaker 3: kind of your niche and kind of your audience and

713
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 3: doing what you do that's kind of original that speaks

714
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:55,000
Speaker 3: to other people who like books. Right, how do I

715
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:56,920
Speaker 3: kind of create unique content it's going to speak to

716
00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:59,319
Speaker 3: kind of people or other kind of book enthusiasts. Right,

717
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 3: if I'm a runner, Like there's have a good friend

718
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:03,320
Speaker 3: who owns a you know, who started kind of a

719
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 3: runk club here kind of in a Bay area. She's

720
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:09,360
Speaker 3: built up this great following kind of in the Bay

721
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:12,200
Speaker 3: area and to use kind of Instagram to help her

722
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:14,600
Speaker 3: scale that. I mean, I think every week there's seven

723
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:16,960
Speaker 3: to eight hundred people kind of in the Berkeley kind

724
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 3: of Oakland kind of area that attend kind of runk

725
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:21,080
Speaker 3: club and it started kind of on Instagram. Now she's

726
00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:24,080
Speaker 3: a popular creator. Right, There's those things like being your

727
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,279
Speaker 3: authentic self and figuring out, you know, what do I

728
00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:29,799
Speaker 3: do that's interesting to other people who here are somewhat

729
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:31,680
Speaker 3: similar passion and how can I get kind of that

730
00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:35,239
Speaker 3: content in front of them that's unique? You know, original

731
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:38,400
Speaker 3: and authentic coming from myself to connect with kind of

732
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:40,440
Speaker 3: those you know, those those followers and kind of those

733
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,279
Speaker 3: readers are people who are using social media who want

734
00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:45,080
Speaker 3: to connect with you in similar interests and understanding how

735
00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:46,720
Speaker 3: to use the algorithm to your advantage.

736
00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:48,840
Speaker 2: And then when it was kind of the the hidden

737
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:52,560
Speaker 2: sauce behind kind of algorithm, when you find, uh, you know,

738
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:54,080
Speaker 2: I think we do a good job of kind of

739
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:56,800
Speaker 2: connecting people with you know, similar interests or passions a

740
00:35:56,960 --> 00:35:57,719
Speaker 2: kind of groups too.

741
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:01,400
Speaker 3: So if you're consistent, you know, whether there it's reals

742
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 3: or kind of Instagram stories are kind of using kind

743
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:06,000
Speaker 3: of app I think, you know, people tend to find

744
00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:08,120
Speaker 3: and kind of connect those audiences. So, going back to

745
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:10,080
Speaker 3: what I said earlier in the conversation, figure out how

746
00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:11,160
Speaker 3: to use AI to your advantage.

747
00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:13,720
Speaker 1: To be able to do that, you can I'm gonna

748
00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:15,920
Speaker 1: get asked this question what kind of around the mountain?

749
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:17,480
Speaker 1: But I want to set the context for it. So

750
00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:22,359
Speaker 1: I've been in boardrooms and corporate rooms, corporate spaces where

751
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:26,120
Speaker 1: you get in and you realize these people ain't that smart.

752
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:29,960
Speaker 1: They like and we have like you have this idea

753
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,080
Speaker 1: of what it's like to be in the boardroom, and

754
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:35,440
Speaker 1: then you get there, you're like, this is what these

755
00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:39,759
Speaker 1: are the people that's on this board, Like how is how? How? How?

756
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 1: And so I'm not saying so. The reason I bring

757
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:44,080
Speaker 1: that up is because not to say that the people

758
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:46,200
Speaker 1: that you work with are not smart, because they obviously

759
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:48,839
Speaker 1: are smart. But the reason I position it that way

760
00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:51,759
Speaker 1: is because sometimes we walk into the room believing that

761
00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:55,799
Speaker 1: I'm going to be so far behind and I'm I'm

762
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:57,840
Speaker 1: gonna I can't say anything because if I say, some

763
00:36:57,880 --> 00:36:59,920
Speaker 1: of them sound stupid, no matter, and you already discind

764
00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:04,759
Speaker 1: your perspective. And so how I want to ask you

765
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:07,440
Speaker 1: about your first times being in leadership meetings? What was

766
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:09,440
Speaker 1: that like? How did you get over it to where

767
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:11,600
Speaker 1: you first put up your hand, you first interjected, and

768
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:14,000
Speaker 1: you were like, not as whack, we should go over here?

769
00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 1: Because how how did you get the courage to be

770
00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 1: like I gotta something, I got something to say?

771
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:24,719
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I love this question. Well, I think I

772
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:26,680
Speaker 3: think earlier in my career, the first time I got

773
00:37:26,719 --> 00:37:30,600
Speaker 3: the opportunity to attend some of the senior leadership meetings,

774
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:32,840
Speaker 3: I was intimidated, right, I was afraid to say anything

775
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 3: and the first time I did speak up, I was stuttering. Yeah,

776
00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:41,040
Speaker 3: I was embarrassed, right, And it happens. It happens to

777
00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:45,000
Speaker 3: the best of us. Yeah. So fortunately, you know, I

778
00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:50,440
Speaker 3: had senior leaders around me who cared enough about my

779
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:53,560
Speaker 3: career and knowing how talented I was and seeing something

780
00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:54,800
Speaker 3: to me, he wanted to be able to kind of

781
00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,840
Speaker 3: pull me aside and give me constructive feedback. You have

782
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:01,680
Speaker 3: to be open to constructive feedback, right. I think a

783
00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:03,680
Speaker 3: lot of people in their career they take it as

784
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:06,440
Speaker 3: an attack or the defense mechanisms kind of go up

785
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:09,680
Speaker 3: if someone tries to edify you, and you've got to

786
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 3: keep an open mind, like when people are willing to

787
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 3: kind of pull you aside and kind of coach you

788
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:16,399
Speaker 3: and say, hey, you know, like your little nervous in there,

789
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:18,840
Speaker 3: you know, going forward, maybe think about doing X, Y

790
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:21,320
Speaker 3: Z or try to do this right, be open to

791
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 3: those things and learn. And you know, I kept content,

792
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 3: open mind out, but listen to people kind of ask

793
00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:28,440
Speaker 3: questions and over time, as I did that in parallel

794
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:32,799
Speaker 3: while building confidence in my career and building cility credibility

795
00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:35,040
Speaker 3: as we kind of talked about before, that built up

796
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:36,759
Speaker 3: enough confidence to be able to kind of speak up

797
00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,520
Speaker 3: and have a you know, a fault and kind of

798
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:42,120
Speaker 3: position on something and kind of say that with confidence.

799
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:45,240
Speaker 3: And I think people respond to confidence too. If from waffling,

800
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:48,399
Speaker 3: I'm stuttering, I'm trying to pitch an idea, people don't

801
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:49,759
Speaker 3: even think I believe in it, right, But if I

802
00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:52,279
Speaker 3: can say something but authority and confidence, knowing that I'm

803
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:55,279
Speaker 3: a subject matter expert, that I truly believe this, and

804
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:57,000
Speaker 3: I have strong convictions and I have the data to

805
00:38:57,040 --> 00:38:59,640
Speaker 3: support that, I can speak openly about that. Right. And

806
00:38:59,719 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 3: as you do that repeatedly, you know, people you build

807
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,040
Speaker 3: a reputation of being kind of credible and your thought

808
00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:07,040
Speaker 3: leader in certain spaces. They give you confidence to be

809
00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:08,719
Speaker 3: able to speak up. Right. You notice, I'll just kind

810
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:10,919
Speaker 3: of lean forward and that was very intentional with the worst,

811
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:12,239
Speaker 3: but like you have to think it out of your

812
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:14,360
Speaker 3: your body language and kind of demeanor too, so that

813
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:15,520
Speaker 3: confidence comes over time.

814
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:19,920
Speaker 1: Aar Aar Russell, thank you so much for joining me.

815
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:23,040
Speaker 3: Man lovely, thank you so much. I appreciate it well.

816
00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:27,520
Speaker 1: Always a pleasure, absolutely absolutely. Black Tech Green Money is

817
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:30,240
Speaker 1: a production of Blavity Afro Tech on the Black Effect

818
00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:33,120
Speaker 1: podcast Networking Night Hire Immedia and it's produced by Morgan

819
00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:36,720
Speaker 1: Debonne and me Well Lucas, with the additional production support

820
00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:40,080
Speaker 1: by Kate McDonald, Sarah and Jada McGee. Special thank you

821
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:42,400
Speaker 1: to Michael Davis and Love Beach. Learn more about My

822
00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:45,680
Speaker 1: Guessing Other Technish Up is an innovator's afrotech dot com.

823
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:48,200
Speaker 1: The video version of this episode will drop to Black

824
00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:51,239
Speaker 1: Tech Green Money on YouTube, so tap in enjoy your

825
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:55,200
Speaker 1: Black Tech Green Money share with somebody. Go get your money.

826
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:56,439
Speaker 1: Peace and love,