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Speaker 1: What's your kind of north star that keeps you inspired

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Speaker 1: and going to build this thing?

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Speaker 2: Ibby Rogie Bro.

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Speaker 3: I think the thing that lingers in my head the

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Speaker 3: most now that if I stop, someone else is going

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Speaker 3: to take the credit for what we already started.

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Speaker 4: Say it again, I like that one, not like Bro.

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Speaker 2: Go back to what I was saying earlier.

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Speaker 3: There were zero HBCUs in twenty twenty that had gaming

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Speaker 3: and esports programs. I know for a fact that communities

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Speaker 3: started and helped majority of the HBCUs start their gaming

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Speaker 3: esports programs. So like, for me, it's like that that's

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Speaker 3: not subjective, it's very much like objective fact. And I'm like,

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Speaker 3: there's no way that we're going to start this and

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Speaker 3: then let some third party company go raise ten million

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Speaker 3: off of a deck idea to then monetize it off

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Speaker 3: of this community that they had no connection to in

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Speaker 3: the beginning. So again, when I look at our story,

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Speaker 3: I actually watched Bob Johnson's story a lot because what

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Speaker 3: Bob Johnson did, he was like, Yo, people of color

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Speaker 3: want to see themselves on TV. They want to see

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Speaker 3: themselves and events in magazines. We are the culture. There's

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Speaker 3: no distribution network for this culture. Let me build this

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Speaker 3: thing called black entertainment television. And what I'm saying is

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Speaker 3: that CXM is going to be that exact same thing.

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Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on, y'all? Welcome to another episode of

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Speaker 1: butter Nomics. I'm your host, Brandon Butler Butter atl And

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Speaker 1: today we have a special guest in the house, mister

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Speaker 1: Ryan Johnston, Community Media.

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Speaker 3: Ryan.

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Speaker 4: How are you doing today, bros Man.

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Speaker 2: I'm doing good man. I appreciate y'all for having me on.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Man, Now look for those that don't know, man, like

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Speaker 1: we know you did the game and guru, y'all doing

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Speaker 1: all stuff, Like what is community Media?

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Speaker 2: You know? So community Media?

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Speaker 3: We're a media tech company based here in Atlanta, Georgia

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Speaker 3: that focuses primarily on connecting diverse audiences to brand through

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Speaker 3: gaming and anime initiatives. So in real life what that

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Speaker 3: actually means like from a consumer standpoint? I always say,

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Speaker 3: like our companies claim the famous that a few years

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Speaker 3: ago we created the first video game in the Esports

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Speaker 3: League in North America for HBCUs. So I guess just

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Speaker 3: kind of give some a quick back story in context

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Speaker 3: why we even kind of started down this journey of gaming.

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Speaker 3: The whole nine So we learned is that nearly eighty

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Speaker 3: three percent of black youth play video games on a

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Speaker 3: weekly basis, But when you look at the nearly four

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Speaker 3: hundred billion dollar global industry, only two percent of the

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Speaker 3: industry represents African Americans. So we wanted to figure out

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Speaker 3: as like one, me and my business partner Chris, we're

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Speaker 3: HBCU alum. So like we didn't need a thesis, Like

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Speaker 3: our thesis was, Hey, we were students. We didn't need

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Speaker 3: much market research to know that kids at these universities

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Speaker 3: are already playing video games. They're betting in dorms for McDonald's,

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Speaker 3: for cash, like whatever the case may be. And we're like, well,

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Speaker 3: what if we created an infrastructure that actually allowed them

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Speaker 3: to compete in gaming in esports just like traditional sports.

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Speaker 3: So over the time, at the time when we started,

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Speaker 3: we had literally there were zero HBCUs and twenty twenty

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Speaker 3: that had gaming in esports programs. Now they're about sixty

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Speaker 3: seven universities throughout the throughout North America out of the HBCUs,

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Speaker 3: I just say specifically that have gaming in esports. And so,

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Speaker 3: like I say, our claim to fame is that we

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Speaker 3: initially started there and built that out. We're now going

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Speaker 3: into our fifth season of the league, and it really

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Speaker 3: gave us this perspective that, all right, cool, that's what.

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Speaker 2: Competitive gaming looks like.

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Speaker 3: But what about other elements that are pillars of gaming,

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Speaker 3: like music, fashion, sneaker culture of food, and travel. And

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Speaker 3: then we started building out other events, series, digital content

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Speaker 3: properties that really touch all of these different categories across

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Speaker 3: the game and vertical.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Man, so folks who don't know, there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: opportunities out here. I mean some people have probably heard

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Speaker 1: a phase clan before. I'm sure people heard of like

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Speaker 1: AMP or you know, consinat. But like, it almost seems

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Speaker 1: like video games just having a moment right now. It's

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Speaker 1: always it's kind of been brewned under the surface for

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Speaker 1: a little while, but it's kind of gone mainstream now. Like,

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Speaker 1: how do you feel about just seeing all that stuff

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Speaker 1: kind of become more and more front street? You know,

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Speaker 1: is interesting? So to your point, I think it's becoming

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Speaker 1: more mainstream. But when you look at the categories of entertainment,

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Speaker 1: gaming is the largest form of entertainment.

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Speaker 3: It's larger than film, movie, film, TV and music combined.

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Speaker 3: We just talk about annual revenues. So these are the

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Speaker 3: things when you just talk about gaming, A lot of

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Speaker 3: times it's the activity. A lot of times we are

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Speaker 3: thinking about the elemented games, the production, the marketing, the distribution,

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Speaker 3: you know, the actual management. A lot of times, to

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Speaker 3: your point, are communities focused on the front facing consumer side.

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Speaker 3: So a lot of times we are aware of amp

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Speaker 3: phase kysinet like what's happening in the industry, But when

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Speaker 3: you're actually about what's happening on the business side, who

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Speaker 3: are making those decisions, what are the companies that are

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Speaker 3: driving kind of like the change, you really don't see

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Speaker 3: people that look like us that are making those decisions.

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Speaker 3: So that's why we felt like when we've learned the

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Speaker 3: data that so many people, that young people were playing

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Speaker 3: video games on a weekly basis, and then when you

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Speaker 3: looked out in the market, there was no platforms or

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Speaker 3: programs that actually directly market it to people of color

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Speaker 3: in the gaming industry, We're like, well, that's our angle,

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Speaker 3: and like let's just run that direction one thousand miles

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Speaker 3: an hour.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, do y'all only work with HBCUs or are

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Speaker 1: you working with like other colleges and universities too?

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Speaker 3: Yeah know, so I just like to preface with the league.

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Speaker 3: But now as community media man, we have a very

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Speaker 3: vast community. So we work with colleges and universities, we

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Speaker 3: work with the general market, we work we have a

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Speaker 3: very robust like creator network. So like the way I

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Speaker 3: like to explain it that community media is kind of

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Speaker 3: like our parent B to B organization. So like my

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Speaker 3: goal with community media is to work with holdings, companies,

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Speaker 3: agencies and brands to really understand their goals and objectives

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Speaker 3: and how they're looking to reach multicultural, gen Z millennial audiences.

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Speaker 3: And so we either use the HBCU Esports League, the

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Speaker 3: Kickback or Trap Sushi as one of our three assets

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Speaker 3: to actually then engage with those communities. So throughout a

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Speaker 3: calendar year, we do about twenty two livestream broadcasts for

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Speaker 3: HBCU e Sports, We do four tent pole in person

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Speaker 3: experiences with the Kickback, and we have twelve monthly event

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Speaker 3: well we have one event a month, totally twelve events

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Speaker 3: with Trap Sushi. So all in from like a total

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Speaker 3: attendance standpoint, we reach about twenty five thousand people in

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Speaker 3: person a month, but digitally we reach about two hundred

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Speaker 3: million people. A month through our different creator and owned

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Speaker 3: and operated channels.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and y'all just said, I know, not too long ago,

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Speaker 1: y'all did a deal where y'all did like a partnership

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Speaker 1: or like a semi acquisition of Trap Sushi. Like, just

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Speaker 1: explain to people, are those three different? You know businesses

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Speaker 1: said Trap Sushi to kick back in the course.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So, I think when we looked at the gaming market,

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Speaker 3: we understood that there's different audiences within gaming, right, A

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Speaker 3: lot of people, like before the show we're talking about,

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Speaker 3: you know, there's competitive gaming, there's social gaming, and then

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Speaker 3: there's really like that blend of competitive social. But I

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Speaker 3: think the really big element that we lean on is

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Speaker 3: like culture, bring in like music, artists and entertainers. So

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Speaker 3: HPCU Esports is just that it's a competitive esports league.

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Speaker 3: So literally think of like the NCAA. It's a twenty

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Speaker 3: two week long season. Howard plays Morehouse, Fisk University plays

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Speaker 3: Oakwood University. They play for a record in a regular

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Speaker 3: season that goes to a playoffs that then determines the champion.

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Speaker 3: And then we do that across different titles like NBA

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Speaker 3: two K, Madden, Call of Duty, and Fortnite I think

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Speaker 3: the distinguishing factor for HBCU Esports is we also provide scholarships.

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Speaker 3: So in the last two years, we've done nearly two

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Speaker 3: million dollars with the scholarships to active HBCU students that

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Speaker 3: are playing in this league. So I have like close

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Speaker 3: to ten to fifteen students in the last two years

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Speaker 3: that have earned over one hundred k playing and like

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Speaker 3: within the HBCU Esports League itself, so the kicker there

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Speaker 3: is that, So that's more of like the tournament organization side.

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Speaker 3: So then on the business side, we handle the production,

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Speaker 3: we do the sponsorships, and we do the media rights

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Speaker 3: for our league as well. So through that side is

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Speaker 3: when we bring in brands, just like again the NCAA

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Speaker 3: for US, we've had historically Verizon discovered Nike, and Hot

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Speaker 3: Pockets and Mountain Dew are like our season sponsors for

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Speaker 3: the HBCU Esports League itself. So like that's that structure.

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Speaker 3: Then we have the kickback. The kickback is a little

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Speaker 3: bit different where it doesn't focus on competitive gaming and esports.

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Speaker 3: That's more so around the careers, education and music. So

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Speaker 3: we're literally doing the kickback September DC September nineteenth in Washington,

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Speaker 3: DC is actually our first arena activation, so I'm like

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Speaker 3: personally super excited about that.

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Speaker 2: But the way that program works.

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Speaker 3: In the morning, we bring in like one thousand K

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Speaker 3: through twelve and college students. They go through panels and

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Speaker 3: workshops about careers within gaming. The middle of the day

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Speaker 3: we do a gaming tournament, and we conclude kick back

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Speaker 3: with the concert. So even from like a musical perspective,

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Speaker 3: the last few years, we've done push a t we

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Speaker 3: did g Herbo. Last year we did n L E Chappa.

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Speaker 3: I feel comfortable saying it now. We literally just executed

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Speaker 3: the agreement. So on September nineteenth and DC we'll have

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Speaker 3: JID So like we're actually just like finding these creative

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Speaker 3: ways to really bring this education and information into our community,

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Speaker 3: and we just do it through these interactive, live and

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Speaker 3: virtual events. And then the last one trap sushi, gaming

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Speaker 3: and anime they go hand in hand, right, And then

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Speaker 3: when you look at culture now, I think the perfect

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Speaker 3: example is like Megan thee Stallion. Right when you look

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Speaker 3: at her most recent album, like there's anime references, there's

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Speaker 3: video game references on nearly every single track. But for

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Speaker 3: us being so heavily focused on our main assets. We're like, hey, look,

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Speaker 3: we don't need to create a competitive asset to figure

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Speaker 3: out how to get into gaming. Like, let's just invest

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Speaker 3: into an organization that's already doing amazing work and has

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Speaker 3: a strong community, and let's figure out how to bring

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Speaker 3: our worlds together. And that's what resulted in the investment

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Speaker 3: into Trap Sushi itself.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and you do that through all your you know,

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Speaker 1: your partnerships, so you know who are some of the

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Speaker 1: main brands that you all work with to help make

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Speaker 1: all this stuff happen.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so actively right now, Exfinity, Microsoft, we do a

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Speaker 3: lot of work with Nike. Nike is really cool one

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Speaker 3: because we do a lot with like their virtual goods.

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Speaker 3: So when Nike's doing like literally just yesterday, Nike announced

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Speaker 3: a partnership with Lego and that I'm assuming is going

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Speaker 3: to tie down the road into Lego's partnership into Fortnite,

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Speaker 3: and Nike has Nike World and so like where I

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Speaker 3: really started to recognize, like, our opportunity is working with

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Speaker 3: these with these brands and almost like these future marketing

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Speaker 3: plans and strategies of how they're trying to connect through

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Speaker 3: to these audiences, and a lot of times it has

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Speaker 3: to do with gamings involved.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you know when you think about it too, I

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Speaker 1: mean you're make it a good point because when you

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Speaker 1: think about it, you know, all these brands are essentially

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Speaker 1: competing for attention, correct. And you know, as a former

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Speaker 1: you know, app developer, software engineer, I would always tell people,

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Speaker 1: you know, you're competing not just with TV shows. You know,

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Speaker 1: you're competing with candy crushing on people's phones and stuff now,

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Speaker 1: but you know, if people are playing video games like

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Speaker 1: you're saying, and it makes perfect sense for these brands

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Speaker 1: to want to get involved with organizations like yours or

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Speaker 1: even get involved from the games. I mean, you're starting

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Speaker 1: to see more in game advertising exactly. I can only

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Speaker 1: imagine what kind of stuff's going to be out on

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Speaker 1: GCA six when it drops, exactly. But I think these

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Speaker 1: brands are starting to kind of recognize that, you know,

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Speaker 1: a lot of this attention is going into video games,

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Speaker 1: and so how can we kind of put ourselves there,

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Speaker 1: Like when they come to you, what kind of you know,

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Speaker 1: problems or you know, what kind of reasons are they

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Speaker 1: coming to you and community media to work with you about?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, primarily I don't want to necessarily label it a problem,

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Speaker 3: but I think what they see value when is the

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Speaker 3: fact that we have this community of like not only

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Speaker 3: digital impressions but actually real people that show up at

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Speaker 3: these activations, and we have the ability to authentically help

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Speaker 3: message one their product brand messaging to this audience. But

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Speaker 3: then also you know, transparently it boils down to like,

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Speaker 3: you know, their bottom of funnel when it comes to

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Speaker 3: like purchase intent, brand favorability, and you know, for us,

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Speaker 3: again kind of marroring the fact, marrying the fact that

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Speaker 3: we have this community, marrying the fact that we have

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Speaker 3: these brand audiences, we just have the responsibility again to say,

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Speaker 3: like how do we then create a program or a

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Speaker 3: can and pain.

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Speaker 2: That's value add to both sides of the coin.

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Speaker 3: And what we know historically is that when you look

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Speaker 3: at the gaming ecosystem right now, there's big events like

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Speaker 3: in Atlanta, there's dream Hack, right There's other events like packs,

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Speaker 3: there's the esports. There's a lot of different things that

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Speaker 3: go on, but again, none of them cater to people

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Speaker 3: that look like you and I not saying that people

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Speaker 3: don't show up that look like you and I, but

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Speaker 3: I think holistically, what we recognize is when you look

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Speaker 3: at the diverse media landscape. You know, we cover fashion,

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Speaker 3: we cover music, we cover food, we cover beauty and travel.

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Speaker 3: Is that a single major, scaled, diverse publisher that talks

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Speaker 3: about gaming and anime?

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Speaker 1: Something will tell me you all started working, But like,

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Speaker 1: what was it like getting that first brand deal? Like

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Speaker 1: how does that happen? Where you cold? Because a lot

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Speaker 1: of people don't know right lives. I've talked to people

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Speaker 1: and they don't really understand what it takes to even

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Speaker 1: start finding brands and partnerships. So is that something you

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Speaker 1: all were kind of actively seeking? Were you cold emailing people?

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Speaker 1: And if people kind of reach out, like what was

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Speaker 1: those first couple of deals?

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Speaker 2: Like jero so I think the jonah that.

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Speaker 3: I'll just like share a bit about my background So

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Speaker 3: before community media, the reason I actually moved to Atlanta

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Speaker 3: after school in twenty fifth team. My background is in sales,

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Speaker 3: so I actually started out doing it sales with Vanish

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Speaker 3: business here in the city. I'll stage yeah, like crazy

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Speaker 3: like literally cold calls, door knocks, but on the B

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Speaker 3: to B side, not the consumer side. So right out

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Speaker 3: the gate, I had learned how to begin speaking, talking

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Speaker 3: and developing like a sales funnel and a sales process.

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Speaker 3: So I went from IT sales to IT consulting at

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Speaker 3: a business in the King and Queen Building, and literally

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Speaker 3: I left Corporate America in twenty eighteen to go back

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Speaker 3: to Georgia State full time to get my master's in

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Speaker 3: sports management. And it was the practice of understanding now

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Speaker 3: the world of sports business in sport and an actual

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Speaker 3: formal practice, and marrying my day to day job and

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Speaker 3: then understanding like, hey, oh cool, I'm already going to

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Speaker 3: tech conferences and networking and closing deals on the IT side.

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Speaker 3: It doesn't seem too far fet to think that same

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Speaker 3: process would exist if I start going to sports marketing

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Speaker 3: gaming related conferences and meeting brand marketers that are literally

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Speaker 3: trying to do the same thing but just through a

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Speaker 3: different perspective than I was doing in my corporate job.

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Speaker 3: So it was as soon as we started, it was

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Speaker 3: cold calls, going to events, networking, shaking hands, you know,

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Speaker 3: introducing people to what we do. You know, one caveat

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Speaker 3: I would love to just share, you know, to kind

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Speaker 3: of speak to this as well as a little nuanced

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Speaker 3: about our company is. Before Community Media's launch, which was

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Speaker 3: September twenty twenty one. We actually started the Community Foundation

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Speaker 3: was our first baby in January of twenty twenty. So

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Speaker 3: I like to preface and mention that because under our foundation,

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Speaker 3: we already had some very strong partnerships with brands like

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Speaker 3: Microsoft and Verizon. Where we decided to start a separate

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Speaker 3: for profit business was when a lot of our partners

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Speaker 3: were asking us to do things outside the scope of

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Speaker 3: our five oh one c three. So we're like, hey, yeah,

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Speaker 3: we can definitely do this, but you know, as black entrepreneurs,

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Speaker 3: like I'm not trying to get caught up in know,

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Speaker 3: financial scandals and using the like a foundation the mask

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Speaker 3: as a for profit. So we're like, yeah, let us

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Speaker 3: handle this. But first, internally, we need to stand up

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Speaker 3: another organization let's call it Community Media, and that will

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Speaker 3: serve as our marketing, appizing, production talent arm and still

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Speaker 3: to this very day, our Foundations serves as like our

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Speaker 3: academic community based you know, teaching kids about coding, game

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Speaker 3: design part of our part of our business. So I

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Speaker 3: say that to say is like we launched the for

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Speaker 3: profit with like seed capital and the fact that we

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Speaker 3: already knew that we had brands that wanted to invest

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Speaker 3: in the work that we were going to be doing now.

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Speaker 1: And for your background too, that's interesting. Were you always

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Speaker 1: kind of wanted to do something in the video game

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Speaker 1: space because you were saying you doing ITT sales and

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Speaker 1: then you went and got to sports management. Did you

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Speaker 1: just like see an opportunity and kind of went after

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Speaker 1: that or was this something that you always want to do.

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Speaker 2: So I'll get the quick background roll.

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Speaker 3: So, like my goal in life was always to be

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Speaker 3: like a basketball agent.

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Speaker 2: Okay, that was my passion. That was why I wanted

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Speaker 2: to go to Georgia State.

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Speaker 3: At the time I was at Georgia State, I was

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Speaker 3: interning it like these small international like FEBA firms and

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Speaker 3: all this stuff. Through that process, I was like, you,

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Speaker 3: I actually don't want to be a basketball agent. I

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Speaker 3: want to say as far away from this as I

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Speaker 3: possibly can, but I want to stay close to culture

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Speaker 3: in sports. I played high school college basketball, so like

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Speaker 3: it's a part of just like who I was. To

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Speaker 3: answer your question, the kicker was around and don't quote

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Speaker 3: me on this, right, between twenty sixteen and twenty eighteen, right,

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Speaker 3: Georgia was one of the first five states in North

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Speaker 3: America to launch varsity high school esports. So what that

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Speaker 3: actually means is that all of our counties here they

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Speaker 3: have esports. So there's varsity teams. As I mentioned, we

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Speaker 3: created the HBCU Esports League because there was already majority

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Speaker 3: pwis that had esports at the collegiate level. These pwis

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Speaker 3: are recruiting down, so that means young black kids are

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Speaker 3: missing out on scholarship opportunities, they're missing out on new

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Speaker 3: internships that are coming into the.

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Speaker 2: Market, the whole nine.

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Speaker 3: So what we recognize is that inadvertently the state had

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Speaker 3: alienated a lot of schools because all the titles in

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Speaker 3: the first two years were computer games. So if your

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Speaker 3: school couldn't afford the computer lab, the hints, you couldn't

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Speaker 3: have a esports team. So we're like, yo, as this

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Speaker 3: is going to grow throughout North America, this seems like

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Speaker 3: it's going to be a problem. Sort of like community

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Speaker 3: could be the group to be the voice for these

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Speaker 3: inner city schools initially to help them actually ramp up

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Speaker 3: and get an esports program. So that was like the

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Speaker 3: major fact about, Hey, we see this happening right in

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Speaker 3: front of us. I'm in the midst of this in

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Speaker 3: a sports management program in the city of Atlanta. And

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Speaker 3: to your point, my passions for gaming, for sports, for music,

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Speaker 3: it all exists within the gaming industry, So like, well,

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Speaker 3: why don't we just go down this route and through

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Speaker 3: this process. You know, our organization, one of our ambassadors

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Speaker 3: is like Ocho Cinco, you know, we work with major musicians,

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Speaker 3: is like touching everything that we love to do all

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Speaker 3: through this industry of game and is like been kind

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Speaker 3: of crazy. But that was the background of why we

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Speaker 3: got started, was just seeing the problem and just wanted

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Speaker 3: to help kind of fill the void in Atlanta first.

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Speaker 2: But now we spread that throughout North America.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's also interesting to think, you know, especially with

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Speaker 1: y'all launching the foundation around January twenty twenty. We all

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Speaker 1: know what happened, you know, around February March April. How

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Speaker 1: did the whole pandemic you know impact your business? Like

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Speaker 1: I know, for me specifically, even though that was kind

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Speaker 1: of a terrible situation, you know, from a butter standpoint,

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Speaker 1: we actually grew a lot during that time. I remember

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Speaker 1: telling my team, you know, look, y'all, everybody's about to be

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Speaker 1: at home on their phone, so we got to find

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Speaker 1: ways to like lean in and kind of provide value.

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Speaker 1: And I think for Butter, we kind of created a

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Speaker 1: lot of separation and kind of like really helped solidify

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Speaker 1: our space and culture. But from your standpoint, especially from

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Speaker 1: a video game and standpoint, did y'all see any you know,

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Speaker 1: specific benefits of that you know that time?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, bro, for sure.

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Speaker 3: And I always say, like, going back to January twenty twenty,

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Speaker 3: shout out to Joey Willmac from Goody Nation, Bro, because

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Speaker 3: it was his panel that I did that. I was like, yo,

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Speaker 3: I think this is an idea, and then I quit

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Speaker 3: my job like no, no, like literally the next week after,

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Speaker 3: I was like, I'm gonna try this thing community. So

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Speaker 3: I always say like, thank you for that. We work

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Speaker 3: labs program. I always say the Goodie Nation, we work

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Speaker 3: labs piece. But to your point, we saw exponential opportunity, right,

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Speaker 3: so marketing budget shifted, media budget shifted, social impact budgets increased. Also,

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Speaker 3: you got to think it was COVID and George Floyd simultaneous.

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Speaker 3: We were then a group that was talking about gaming

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Speaker 3: and HBCU esports in community and they were like, yo,

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Speaker 3: this just makes sense. So that we actually saw within

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Speaker 3: like the first call it eight months. You know, we

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Speaker 3: were working with brands like Microsoft, Verizon, red Bull because

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Speaker 3: this was all kind of part of like this new

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Speaker 3: revent marketing strategy and so like early on that was

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Speaker 3: our kind of like kickstart. But the main thing, as

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Speaker 3: you know, kind of being a brand marketer is like

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Speaker 3: continuity and renewals, right, So it's like, how do you

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Speaker 3: then create sustainable programming that not allows brands to show

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Speaker 3: up for a moment, but that allows them to show

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Speaker 3: up for a movement, right, And so that's kind of

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Speaker 3: been like the main focus from day one is like

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Speaker 3: we as a salesperson, you know you can close a deal.

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Speaker 3: As a salesperson, you also know the hardest thing is

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Speaker 3: to get a renewal, right because as soon as you

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Speaker 3: get a deal closed, that.

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Speaker 2: Means fifty other people are calling.

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Speaker 3: They're trying to figure out how to upseart your deal,

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Speaker 3: how to short and so like for me, that's kind

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Speaker 3: of been the main focus. It's just like despite getting

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Speaker 3: this brand bought in, it's like, what do we need

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Speaker 3: to continue doing in the community, know, put intended in

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Speaker 3: the market to continue to show value outside of what

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Speaker 3: other call it brand partners are bringing to the table.

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Speaker 3: And so I just think that has been a big

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Speaker 3: part of why we've seen some early success and you know,

433
00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:04,120
Speaker 3: you know, knock on. What continue to do is, yeah,

434
00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:08,520
Speaker 3: we're providing traditional marketing insights impressions, but it's this actual

435
00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,159
Speaker 3: connection to the community and this growing space. And that's

436
00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:13,480
Speaker 3: what I tell my partners all the time. It is like, yeah,

437
00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:16,120
Speaker 3: y'all are sponsoring an event, but like, look at yourself,

438
00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:18,520
Speaker 3: no different than like the first partners of the NBA.

439
00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:21,000
Speaker 3: Right Like, when I look at what we're building, it's

440
00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:23,359
Speaker 3: seventy five years down the road. It's going to be

441
00:19:23,359 --> 00:19:26,880
Speaker 3: a media network of you know, the NBA Cares, it's

442
00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:29,040
Speaker 3: going to be NBA All Star Weekend. But it's all

443
00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:32,119
Speaker 3: going to be wrapped around this ethos of gaming as

444
00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:33,600
Speaker 3: kind of like the central passion point.

445
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:37,040
Speaker 4: Yeah, so come back to net Like, how big is

446
00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:38,320
Speaker 4: your team right now? With community?

447
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:40,800
Speaker 3: Right now we're ten full time and what's that? What's

448
00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:43,040
Speaker 3: that process been like building the team? B There's been

449
00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:45,560
Speaker 3: ebbs and flows, right, I mean we've had probably as

450
00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:49,040
Speaker 3: many as eighteen, we've been as low as six, right,

451
00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:50,840
Speaker 3: and so right now I think we're in a really

452
00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:53,320
Speaker 3: good place. We literally just brought on two new people

453
00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:55,600
Speaker 3: in the last month to help with like our content

454
00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:58,160
Speaker 3: and our like our account team. But now we're growing

455
00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:00,040
Speaker 3: a team. One cavet All also say, we're like I

456
00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:00,920
Speaker 3: grew up an only child.

457
00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:01,879
Speaker 4: Shot me too.

458
00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:05,919
Speaker 2: There you go. And it's like you always have this

459
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:07,440
Speaker 2: vision of like, hey, I have this thing in my head.

460
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:09,320
Speaker 3: I want to bring it to life, and of course

461
00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:11,000
Speaker 3: you know you need people, but then I don't think

462
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:13,320
Speaker 3: you realize how much you may need people until you're

463
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:16,199
Speaker 3: actually in the process, because you're not used to having

464
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:20,520
Speaker 3: people around. And so I would say early on, delegation

465
00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:23,280
Speaker 3: was really really really hard for me and just like

466
00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:26,280
Speaker 3: being able to like hand out certain tasks just because

467
00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:29,200
Speaker 3: like everything's so close to your chest. But then I realized, man,

468
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,600
Speaker 3: like with clear instruction, clear follow up, delegation is probably

469
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:33,720
Speaker 3: like the best thing that's ever happened.

470
00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:36,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, delegation exactly.

471
00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:39,000
Speaker 3: And so again, just going as an entrepreneur, you' like

472
00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:41,760
Speaker 3: you always hear it, but like you never really feel

473
00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:44,080
Speaker 3: it until you're in it. And it's like, man, just

474
00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:48,040
Speaker 3: being able to be open minded, be flexible, you know,

475
00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:50,840
Speaker 3: care about other people's problems outside of the business problems,

476
00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:53,880
Speaker 3: like putting like people first is something that I'm even

477
00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,480
Speaker 3: still learning how to do versus like the business first,

478
00:20:56,720 --> 00:20:58,480
Speaker 3: but now growing a team. It's been a process where

479
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:00,639
Speaker 3: I was like, it's almost like a mini fanamily to

480
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:04,840
Speaker 3: a degree, and some family members like get divorced and

481
00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:07,920
Speaker 3: others start new families. So like it's just very interesting,

482
00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:10,000
Speaker 3: like just kind of being in that process. So that's

483
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:12,480
Speaker 3: what I always related to. But it's it's definitely been fulfilling.

484
00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:14,000
Speaker 3: But me as a I guess going on as a

485
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:16,800
Speaker 3: five year entrepreneur, still learning that process of like what

486
00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:20,080
Speaker 3: it actually takes to properly manage and grow grow a team.

487
00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:22,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, you know, one of the things I

488
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:24,600
Speaker 1: have probably done best in my career in the last

489
00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,639
Speaker 1: i'd say five to seven years is really learn how

490
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,520
Speaker 1: to become a better manager, learn how to you know,

491
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:34,159
Speaker 1: work with people, how to lead people, and also how

492
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:35,959
Speaker 1: to like let go of certain things. Like the one

493
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,240
Speaker 1: thing I always kind of tell people is what I've

494
00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:40,439
Speaker 1: realized is, you know, nobody's going to do stuff the

495
00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:42,359
Speaker 1: way you do it, right, So we all have to

496
00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:44,480
Speaker 1: kind of come up with a personal threshold, right, like

497
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,400
Speaker 1: are you okay with somebody who can do something seventy

498
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:49,560
Speaker 1: five percent eighty percent as well as you can do it.

499
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:52,639
Speaker 1: That last twenty is a tough putt, you know, that

500
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:54,879
Speaker 1: last twenty that's the magic maybe only you can kind

501
00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:56,479
Speaker 1: of bring in. It's something only you can do. But

502
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:58,920
Speaker 1: if you can find somebody that pretty consistently can get

503
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:01,000
Speaker 1: about seventy five to eighty percent of what you typically do,

504
00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:03,719
Speaker 1: and that then frees you up to do other things,

505
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,520
Speaker 1: it means a world of difference in the job of

506
00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:08,159
Speaker 1: a CEO. It's kind of like the work themselves out

507
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,480
Speaker 1: of a job. It's to enable people and kind of

508
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:12,320
Speaker 1: put people in places so that you can focus on

509
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,200
Speaker 1: working on the business, not in the business. But how

510
00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:15,840
Speaker 1: has that been for you?

511
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:16,120
Speaker 3: Though?

512
00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:18,600
Speaker 1: You know, if you've been pretty hands on, what's it

513
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:20,840
Speaker 1: been like letting go of that and saying, you know what,

514
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:22,800
Speaker 1: that's not quite how I would have done it, but

515
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:24,080
Speaker 1: it got done and I'm cool with that.

516
00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:27,000
Speaker 3: So I think it was like a mixture of the

517
00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,199
Speaker 3: only child syndrome and the entrepreneur like, hey, we have

518
00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:32,800
Speaker 3: to deliver for brands, and like finding the balance between

519
00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:36,399
Speaker 3: both because then it's just over time you do more deals,

520
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:38,760
Speaker 3: you get more comfortable just in your own role. You

521
00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:42,439
Speaker 3: realize the things that may have mattered a lot to

522
00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:46,120
Speaker 3: you are literally they may not just be that important, right, Like, hey,

523
00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:49,920
Speaker 3: this format and a document may not like it literally

524
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:52,280
Speaker 3: doesn't matter, right as long as the deliverables match, right,

525
00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:54,280
Speaker 3: the clients are getting what they want. Again, there's still

526
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:57,280
Speaker 3: standards we have, you know, SOPs, we have all these processes.

527
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:00,240
Speaker 2: But I've had to learn just be like it's okay.

528
00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 3: Like that's what I find myself saying more than like

529
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:04,800
Speaker 3: literally on the way today, like we had a little snap,

530
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:07,360
Speaker 3: a little hiccup yesterday with some stuff, but got situated

531
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:11,840
Speaker 3: this morning. Like an old version of Ryan probably would

532
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:13,640
Speaker 3: have carried that with him until four o'clock.

533
00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:16,800
Speaker 2: This afternoon, right like and just stewed on like why

534
00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:19,359
Speaker 2: was it like this? Why not the way dude it?

535
00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:21,000
Speaker 3: That's literally what I said on my way here. I

536
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:24,960
Speaker 3: was like, it is okay, it's done. Everyone's happy, it's cool.

537
00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:27,520
Speaker 3: And I think it's more of like I'm developing more

538
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:30,480
Speaker 3: emotionally mature than anything. And that's why I say, like,

539
00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:32,000
Speaker 3: I think by the time I have a kid, I

540
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,120
Speaker 3: think I'll be a solid parent, bro, Because I feel

541
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:36,040
Speaker 3: like all the things that would may have made me

542
00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:38,760
Speaker 3: frustrated in what I see in my other peers that

543
00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:39,680
Speaker 3: have like little ones.

544
00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:42,080
Speaker 2: I was like, I'll be able to that'd be cool.

545
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:56,400
Speaker 1: What's what's been the biggest thing you've kind of learned

546
00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:58,120
Speaker 1: in this journey? Is it kind of just being learned

547
00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:00,360
Speaker 1: how to work with people in that capacity or because

548
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:02,760
Speaker 1: there's just again, I think a lot of times people

549
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:06,639
Speaker 1: they kind of discount the entrepreneurial journey. You know, it's

550
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:08,800
Speaker 1: kind of being you know, fetishized a little bit in

551
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:11,360
Speaker 1: my opinion. And plus people also kind of think too

552
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:14,679
Speaker 1: for some reason, it's bad to have a corporate job, right,

553
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:16,360
Speaker 1: And I always tell people like that's almost like going

554
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 1: to college if you really want to be an entrepreneur.

555
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:19,760
Speaker 1: Like the ability to learn how to do you know,

556
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:22,679
Speaker 1: work on somebody else's dime goes a long way. But like,

557
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 1: what has been some of the biggest lessons that you've

558
00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 1: kind of learned just through this journey of the last

559
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:26,840
Speaker 1: five years.

560
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:29,240
Speaker 3: Oh, honestly, bro, Like the last week has been very

561
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:30,960
Speaker 3: eye opening because I like all my lessons, I feel

562
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:33,560
Speaker 3: like I've consolidated. But I would say, like I realized

563
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 3: this past week is like what's for you? What's for me?

564
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:37,480
Speaker 3: Is for me, and what's kind of for you is

565
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:39,920
Speaker 3: for you. And I think that's been my biggest learning

566
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,719
Speaker 3: in this journey, is like being able to cheer for everyone.

567
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:46,199
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of times that, even in

568
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:47,760
Speaker 3: a weird way, opens doors for you.

569
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:49,720
Speaker 2: When you're like, I'm.

570
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:51,920
Speaker 3: Very excited when a peer of mind that's an entrepreneur,

571
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:54,399
Speaker 3: we may be competing for something similar, like you may

572
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 3: get them, Like, yo, that's that's mad dope, bro, Like

573
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:57,359
Speaker 3: I'm super excited.

574
00:24:57,359 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 2: I think being open minded. I say a big one

575
00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:00,640
Speaker 2: is perseverance.

576
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 3: You know, also kind of a part of my personal life,

577
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:08,280
Speaker 3: a part of the fraternity Alpha Ba Alpha, and we

578
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:10,239
Speaker 3: have a poem, don't Quit. I find myself saying that

579
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:14,400
Speaker 3: poem a lot. And it's like, I think a lot

580
00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:18,320
Speaker 3: of times I see people give up right before they should. Yeah,

581
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:20,920
Speaker 3: And I think seeing that enough times is enough motivation

582
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:23,560
Speaker 3: to keep going. And so I like always lean heavily

583
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:24,280
Speaker 3: on perseverance.

584
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:24,399
Speaker 4: Bro.

585
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:27,040
Speaker 2: It's like it's never going to be easy. But the

586
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:28,480
Speaker 2: ones that I have been.

587
00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:30,199
Speaker 3: Following and I look up to, the other thing I

588
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:32,600
Speaker 3: can confirm more than anything is that they never stopped.

589
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:34,880
Speaker 3: Like I don't know what else they may have had

590
00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 3: going on in the background, but it's like, what I

591
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 3: do know is that they have just never stopped. And

592
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:40,719
Speaker 3: that is kind of like my plan until we get

593
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:43,440
Speaker 3: to the point of like, hey, we're we've achieved what

594
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 3: we personally set out to do. We're kind of going

595
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:48,119
Speaker 3: through internally with the company, like what does our exit

596
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:52,320
Speaker 3: strategy plans look like? Right? And still in my mind

597
00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:54,639
Speaker 3: thinking through that, right, and so anyway, bro, I just

598
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:56,360
Speaker 3: feel like that it was an awesome question, but it's

599
00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:59,240
Speaker 3: like I would boil it down to being open minded, perseverance,

600
00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:03,359
Speaker 3: and then like literally just cheering for everyone.

601
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:05,359
Speaker 1: Win for you is necessarily a loss for somebody else, right,

602
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:07,879
Speaker 1: Like everybody can vice versa, yeah, and vice versa, like

603
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 1: both people can win and it can be okay. Or

604
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,680
Speaker 1: even if you do something and you know this other

605
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 1: brand gets a little bit more money than you, like,

606
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 1: there's still opportunities to kind of win. I think again,

607
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:18,560
Speaker 1: a lot of times people get so caught up in

608
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:21,119
Speaker 1: it's got to be like we get look competitive, and

609
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 1: reality is like the more you kind of help people

610
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:25,679
Speaker 1: and bring people along, all kinds of opportunities open up.

611
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:27,840
Speaker 1: But even to your point about just being tired, I

612
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:31,240
Speaker 1: mean again, everybody. Look, look, y'all. I don't think y'all

613
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:33,360
Speaker 1: understand everybody that's an entrepreneur at some point is wanted

614
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:33,720
Speaker 1: to quit.

615
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:35,119
Speaker 4: Is one to give up?

616
00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:35,959
Speaker 2: You know.

617
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 1: The thing that I always kind of lean into when

618
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 1: I think about that is there's this really good book

619
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:43,359
Speaker 1: by Seth Godin Caught the Dip, and it talks about

620
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:45,480
Speaker 1: if you think about your career, you just think about

621
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:49,600
Speaker 1: doing anything important. There's a moment when you say you're

622
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:51,639
Speaker 1: going to do something, and it's almost like you're on

623
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,879
Speaker 1: a cliff and you're on this cliff and everybody's congratulating, Amen,

624
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,920
Speaker 1: congratulations you graduated from college or you and now you're

625
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:00,560
Speaker 1: starting this business. Everybody's happy for you. And then you

626
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:02,680
Speaker 1: got to step off that cliff. And when you step

627
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,600
Speaker 1: off that cliff, you're in the work. And nobody sees

628
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,240
Speaker 1: you when you're in the work. Nobody sees you when

629
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 1: you're in the dip. Nobody sees you when you're dealing

630
00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:12,479
Speaker 1: with some shit at two o'clock in the morning, and

631
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 1: you're like, man, why am I even doing this? And

632
00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:17,560
Speaker 1: that's the moment where you got to decide do I

633
00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 1: want to quit or do I want to keep going.

634
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:21,119
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, there's nothing wrong with

635
00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:23,960
Speaker 1: quitting if you don't want what's on the other side.

636
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:26,680
Speaker 1: But if you know you want what's on the other side,

637
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:28,600
Speaker 1: you got to keep going and you got to push

638
00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: through in those kind of moments. Throw when you do

639
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:32,960
Speaker 1: get it, because it happens to all of us, Like

640
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,600
Speaker 1: what keeps you going? What's your motivation? What's your kind

641
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:38,119
Speaker 1: of north star that keeps you inspired and going to

642
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:38,800
Speaker 1: build this thing?

643
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 2: Ibby Rogie Bro.

644
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 3: I think the thing that lingers in my head the

645
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:43,240
Speaker 3: most now that if I stop, someone else is going

646
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:44,879
Speaker 3: to take the credit for what we already started.

647
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:47,399
Speaker 4: Say it again, I like that one, not like Bro.

648
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:50,159
Speaker 2: Like we go back to what I was saying earlier.

649
00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:53,359
Speaker 3: There were zero HBCUs in twenty twenty that had gaming

650
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:56,920
Speaker 3: and esports programs. I know for a fact that community

651
00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 3: started and helped majority of the HBCUs start the gaming

652
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:03,920
Speaker 3: esports programs. So like, for me, it's like, it's not objective.

653
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:07,480
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, that's not subjective. It's very much like objective fact.

654
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:09,359
Speaker 3: And I'm like, there's no way that we're going to

655
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:11,960
Speaker 3: start this and then let some third party company go

656
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:15,360
Speaker 3: raise ten million off of a deck idea to then

657
00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 3: monetize it off of this community that they had no

658
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 3: connection to in the beginning. So again, when I look

659
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 3: at our story, I actually watched Bob Johnson's story a

660
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:26,480
Speaker 3: lot because what Bob Johnson did, he was like, Yo,

661
00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:29,800
Speaker 3: people of color want to see themselves on TV. They

662
00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 3: want to see themselves and events in magazines. We are

663
00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:37,080
Speaker 3: the culture. There's no distribution network for this culture. Let

664
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 3: me build this thing called Black Entertainment Television. And what

665
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:42,840
Speaker 3: I'm saying is is that CXM is going to be

666
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:45,960
Speaker 3: that exact same thing for the genre that we're focused

667
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:49,760
Speaker 3: on for gaming and anime. But these same topics is

668
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 3: like I always call them the three letter acronyms, be ET, V,

669
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:56,000
Speaker 3: H one, MTV, CNN, you know TN, T. You go

670
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 3: to T and T for high action movies, right, You're

671
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 3: going to go to CXM for all things culture, music, gaming, anime,

672
00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 3: upcoming releases. The fact that Tecans did a collaboration with

673
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:09,480
Speaker 3: Nike phone posits and they're doing, like, where's that information

674
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:12,640
Speaker 3: being really spoken about? Where the events that follow those,

675
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:15,120
Speaker 3: where are the community programs that support those? And I'm like,

676
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 3: that is what our mission vision is through everything that

677
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:17,960
Speaker 3: we're doing.

678
00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:20,959
Speaker 1: Yeah, now, where do you kind of see the future

679
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,280
Speaker 1: of you know, esports and you know HBCU sports and

680
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:25,160
Speaker 1: just gaming in general.

681
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 4: Right, Like again where everybody's thinking about.

682
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 1: You know, obviously virtual reality is going to be a

683
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 1: thing coming up soon and just even more immersive games

684
00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:33,959
Speaker 1: and experiences. But you know, if you had to kind

685
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:35,640
Speaker 1: of you know, I would say put on your Apple

686
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:37,760
Speaker 1: Vision Pro but those got discontinued, you know what I mean.

687
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:39,280
Speaker 1: But if you can kind of see around the corner,

688
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:42,080
Speaker 1: like what does gaming look like in the next five ten.

689
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:45,800
Speaker 3: Years, I think gaming will look like traditional sports. You

690
00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 3: say five or ten years, Yeah, what I just said

691
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 3: is I think fifteen, twenty, twenty five, thirty years down

692
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:51,640
Speaker 3: the road.

693
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:54,320
Speaker 2: So that's what was like. I think five or ten

694
00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:55,640
Speaker 2: years is going to look similar to now.

695
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 3: Right, You're going to have more events like the Kickback

696
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,240
Speaker 3: and like dream Con, and it's going to be more

697
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:03,560
Speaker 3: of those. But when you're talking about the development again,

698
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:05,760
Speaker 3: I was so thankful for my program at Georgia State

699
00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:08,120
Speaker 3: because it talks you through how sports were developed. I

700
00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:09,680
Speaker 3: think a lot of times we look at sports now

701
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 3: are like this is what has always been no, Like,

702
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:14,880
Speaker 3: at one point in time, it was literally fifteen people

703
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,479
Speaker 3: watching what is now the NBA, and it shed right,

704
00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:20,800
Speaker 3: and like that has now grown and developed to franchises

705
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:23,840
Speaker 3: and billion dollars this and star athletes and shoe endorsement

706
00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:26,040
Speaker 3: did but that has been If you look at the

707
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:29,080
Speaker 3: NFL or baseball, that is a one hundred year time span, right,

708
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 3: And so I think over time those communities, especially the

709
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:35,520
Speaker 3: interest of younger generations, you know, I think our early mistake.

710
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:38,480
Speaker 3: We talked about mistakes earlier. I think my earliest mistake

711
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:41,000
Speaker 3: is that we market it too old, right. We try

712
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:44,760
Speaker 3: to convince active college students and people that were recent

713
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 3: alum that gaming is cool. But respectfully, we missed the boat, right,

714
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:52,280
Speaker 3: gaming was just that pastime. But no, the younger, the

715
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 3: kids in high school and middle school, they're the ones

716
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:56,720
Speaker 3: that are looking at the feasibility of trying to be

717
00:30:56,880 --> 00:31:00,200
Speaker 3: these creators. And like tuning in the live streams was like,

718
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:03,520
Speaker 3: we really missed the market the mark on our marketing

719
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 3: super early because we just went for the wrong crowd.

720
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,320
Speaker 3: We try what everyone else was initially attempting, was hey,

721
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,760
Speaker 3: let's take traditional sports model in the traditional culture marketing

722
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:15,480
Speaker 3: model and like, let's just drop that into gaming, and

723
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:17,560
Speaker 3: I'm like, now that doesn't work. It has to be

724
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:21,120
Speaker 3: grassroots and developed from the ground up and then incremental

725
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 3: investments over time that then actually lead to a program

726
00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:29,040
Speaker 3: that's then scaled year over year over year. So the

727
00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:31,360
Speaker 3: answer to the question more directly is like, when I

728
00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 3: look at the future, it's that it's academic programs, is

729
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 3: community programs. Again, I look at it no different than sport.

730
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:39,920
Speaker 3: There's gonna be your LA fitness basketball group. There's going

731
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 3: to be your intermural clubs. There's gonna be professional leagues,

732
00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:45,440
Speaker 3: they're gonna be international leagues. There's going to be you know,

733
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:48,960
Speaker 3: special events. Like all of this is kind of just

734
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,720
Speaker 3: be wrapped around this banner of just gaming, but again

735
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 3: not as hand on the controller as an interest point

736
00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:58,200
Speaker 3: and a passion pillar to actually now say gaming is cool.

737
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 3: You gotta think bro For us for the longest time,

738
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:01,480
Speaker 3: if you was in a gaming anime, it was black

739
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:02,040
Speaker 3: is a nerd?

740
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:03,200
Speaker 2: You lame, you.

741
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 3: Whack you out of pocket. You know, don't sit over here.

742
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:08,200
Speaker 3: What we're doing is saying like, no, all that stuff

743
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 3: now is in the mix. Yeah, like it's not excluded

744
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 3: in its own thing. But matter of fact, we're not

745
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:15,640
Speaker 3: trying to join you. We're just trying to bring all

746
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:18,160
Speaker 3: this stuff over here. Like we're not trying to make

747
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 3: who the forgotten about black people were cool? They've been cool.

748
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,320
Speaker 3: From our perspective, y'all are late to the party, like

749
00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 3: gaming's not late. Hip hop is late, like entertainment is late,

750
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:31,960
Speaker 3: like we've been doing games deft jen Vendetta came out

751
00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:35,320
Speaker 3: twenty years ago. So yeah, just as an example, but

752
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 3: we at that time wasn't tapped into that as a

753
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:41,640
Speaker 3: means of mediums for like revenue generation for our community.

754
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:44,680
Speaker 2: We just spent money and consumed it. So we're trying

755
00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:45,520
Speaker 2: to put that on this head.

756
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:48,160
Speaker 1: And you think that, you think that again kind of

757
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:50,680
Speaker 1: staying true to that and also again like finding those

758
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:52,320
Speaker 1: like not growing up, the kind of growing down in

759
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:54,480
Speaker 1: the audiences. That was probably one of the bigger tactics

760
00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 1: that that really kind of helped y'all be more successful.

761
00:32:57,040 --> 00:32:58,960
Speaker 1: You think there was other kind of inflection points that

762
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:01,400
Speaker 1: helped the business kind of through. Like I always again

763
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:02,480
Speaker 1: like when you kind of look back on it, you

764
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:04,680
Speaker 1: can always think about the moments. Always makes sense when

765
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:06,480
Speaker 1: you look back on correct, you know, So what were

766
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:08,480
Speaker 1: some of those kind of moments, of those inflection points

767
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 1: that you know, you can kind of see the growth

768
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 1: of the difference.

769
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:13,000
Speaker 3: So I think it was after we did the first

770
00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 3: one or two years of HBCU Esports and in the middle.

771
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:19,520
Speaker 3: So the thing about ESPCU Esports is one hundred percent virtual,

772
00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:22,000
Speaker 3: so the kids are competing at their dorms, We're doing

773
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 3: a live stream out of Atlanta. But in the second

774
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:27,240
Speaker 3: year we ended up doing like a small in person

775
00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:29,840
Speaker 3: activation in Washington, d C. With all the local d

776
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,840
Speaker 3: and v HBCUs and just seeing that in person camaraderie

777
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:37,320
Speaker 3: and kids cheering like the Hampton kids cheering for Howard

778
00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 3: over Morgan. I'm like, nah, bro, this is real, Like

779
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 3: its actually more real than I thought. And the step

780
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:46,000
Speaker 3: be next after that was all right cool. When you

781
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,120
Speaker 3: look out in the world, there really is no gaming

782
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 3: collective for people of color, right, Like, So we launched

783
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:54,200
Speaker 3: this initiative about three years ago, two years ago called

784
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:56,720
Speaker 3: Big Creator. Initially it was like, let's bring together small

785
00:33:56,760 --> 00:33:59,239
Speaker 3: creators and help them become larger creators. But we got

786
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 3: twelve hundred rugs strengths and twelve months. So now like

787
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:07,120
Speaker 3: even on paper, we own the largest We are sincely

788
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:12,719
Speaker 3: organized the largest digital gaming collective in North America, right,

789
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:15,439
Speaker 3: like twelve hundred people that are active, and these twelve

790
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:18,000
Speaker 3: hundred have their own community. So like now we're trying

791
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:19,520
Speaker 3: to figure out like all right, cool, well how do

792
00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:22,680
Speaker 3: we layer the big creators into our marketing strategies? So

793
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 3: like we're just trying to find all like so many

794
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,600
Speaker 3: different ways to get our community involved, and no pun intended,

795
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 3: we ask community or just the quarterback, but like the

796
00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:35,719
Speaker 3: real players are these independent groups throughout North America. Trap

797
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:39,680
Speaker 3: Sushi here, Trap Sushi in Montana, the Trap Sushi in Mississippi,

798
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:43,759
Speaker 3: the community in Tennessee that none of them know, they

799
00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:45,920
Speaker 3: know about each other, but there's no one bringing them together,

800
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:48,719
Speaker 3: so or like like let's just try and organize this thing.

801
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:50,279
Speaker 1: No, yeah, first you got to kind of collect the

802
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:51,640
Speaker 1: dots and then you kind of connect the dots. And

803
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:53,360
Speaker 1: I think when when you do that, you kind of

804
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:55,840
Speaker 1: see these new opportunities and nuances like oh yeah, if

805
00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,120
Speaker 1: I connect these this group of this group or you know,

806
00:34:58,160 --> 00:34:59,359
Speaker 1: this group of this, all of a sudden a new

807
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:02,040
Speaker 1: kind of opportunity. But that means you got to kind

808
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:04,520
Speaker 1: of keep yourself open and flexible, right, And you know,

809
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:07,480
Speaker 1: Jeff Bezos has a great quote that I love. It's like,

810
00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:10,000
Speaker 1: be stubborn on your vision, but be flexible on the details,

811
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:12,040
Speaker 1: correct because you don't know how this stuff is going

812
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 1: to work out, and sometimes an opportunity kind of you know,

813
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:17,600
Speaker 1: pops up that you didn't expect, or you know, something happens.

814
00:35:17,600 --> 00:35:19,160
Speaker 1: Has that ever happened where you know, you all kind

815
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,080
Speaker 1: of went into something, you know, thinking there was going

816
00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:22,279
Speaker 1: to be a moment, then all of a sudden, either

817
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 1: a celebrity pulled up or just something happened in that

818
00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:26,960
Speaker 1: moment where you're like, wow, I didn't even realize this,

819
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: but we're riding this wave now.

820
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:30,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, it's it's crazy, bro Like.

821
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:33,320
Speaker 3: Even so you spoke about a little earlier, so like

822
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:36,520
Speaker 3: I would say, like, there's two moments that were defining

823
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:38,920
Speaker 3: for us, and then there was a Seleverty like moment

824
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:41,200
Speaker 3: that kind of came out of nowhere, something that also

825
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:42,880
Speaker 3: kind of put us on the map. In twenty twenty one,

826
00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:44,800
Speaker 3: we were one of the marketing partners for the release

827
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 3: of the New Space Jam movie. So like our responsibility

828
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:50,520
Speaker 3: was we actually created a gaming experience on the Purple

829
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:54,120
Speaker 3: carpet at the screening of Space Jam Out and at

830
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:56,279
Speaker 3: Los Angeles. So it gave us like a ton of

831
00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:59,920
Speaker 3: visibility to like Lebron and like all the casts in them.

832
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,080
Speaker 3: So we're like it was a eye opening and say,

833
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:03,920
Speaker 3: like all right, cool, there's a lot of feasibility not

834
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:07,040
Speaker 3: only in gaming but in Hollywood and what's happening. So

835
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:11,240
Speaker 3: since that moment, we started working with like movie studios

836
00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:14,120
Speaker 3: and we do screenings in Atlanta, like with Dune two

837
00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:16,360
Speaker 3: was the most recent one we did. But with Dune

838
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,600
Speaker 3: there's a game, so like now the studios are like,

839
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:21,279
Speaker 3: we're creating these gaming movie like experiences, which was like

840
00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:24,320
Speaker 3: really interesting. Last year we gave away a million dollars

841
00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:27,080
Speaker 3: with Mountain due to HBCU students and two different tournaments,

842
00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:30,320
Speaker 3: one for Mortal Kombat, one for Call of Duty. And

843
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:33,879
Speaker 3: I'm like, when you start four years ago, like I'm

844
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:35,800
Speaker 3: not thinking that, hey, there's ever going to be a

845
00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:39,439
Speaker 3: chance for literally sixteen black kids to compete for half

846
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,080
Speaker 3: of a million dollars in these tournaments. Like Roder just

847
00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:44,040
Speaker 3: graduated nine years ago. I was like, bro, like we

848
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 3: just I barely just missed the shit, you know, Like

849
00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:48,560
Speaker 3: in what's going on. But even like with the Kickback

850
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:51,480
Speaker 3: last year, you know, to your point of why, I say,

851
00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:53,239
Speaker 3: like everything that's just supposed to happen, how it was

852
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:55,319
Speaker 3: supposed to happen, what was for use for you? We

853
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,960
Speaker 3: had a headlining artist, unfortunate things happened forty eight hours

854
00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,200
Speaker 3: before the show had to pull out within forty eight hours.

855
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:05,399
Speaker 3: Who secured the new artist? Nli Choppa. Come to find out,

856
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 3: Chapa is a huge gamer. He's a huge streamer. You've

857
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:09,279
Speaker 3: seen a lot of the content recently with him on

858
00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:13,399
Speaker 3: Kai stream and then because of his affiliation, and he

859
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:15,839
Speaker 3: brought out a lot of other talent that he's cool

860
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:18,040
Speaker 3: with that's in Atlanta from Memphis. So like we had

861
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:21,120
Speaker 3: like this mini festival concert and it's like it all

862
00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:23,200
Speaker 3: worked out right. So to your point is like you

863
00:37:23,239 --> 00:37:26,160
Speaker 3: know what I was gonna say is the original talent

864
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:29,719
Speaker 3: would have been great, but we had Choppa. He's facetiming

865
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 3: Kai live on stage at the Kickback right. So now

866
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:36,200
Speaker 3: for the first time ever, I'm seeing our events like

867
00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:38,799
Speaker 3: going viral in the Shade room and so I was like,

868
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:41,680
Speaker 3: all right, now that's when I knew. October twelfth, twenty

869
00:37:41,719 --> 00:37:44,200
Speaker 3: twenty three, I was like, nah, we got something, yeah,

870
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 3: and we just got to figure out how to structure

871
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:48,759
Speaker 3: this and organize it. But more more importantly, how do

872
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:52,000
Speaker 3: we have business process to sustain it? Because we're not

873
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:54,279
Speaker 3: fun it bro all, we're still bootstrapping this whole thing

874
00:37:55,760 --> 00:37:57,920
Speaker 3: and still trying to make everything happen. Bro.

875
00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:00,440
Speaker 1: Hey man, y'all doing good. Y'all, boots trap the man.

876
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:02,279
Speaker 1: I see the acquisitions out here, I see the moves

877
00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:02,640
Speaker 1: that happen.

878
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 2: Kind of do some stuff.

879
00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:06,040
Speaker 4: Now, let me ask you this.

880
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 1: Let's let's switch gears for me a second, as a

881
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:10,520
Speaker 1: as a gamer, because you do play games.

882
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:12,840
Speaker 2: Also in war Zone Heavy.

883
00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,680
Speaker 1: If you could create a game, like, what game would

884
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,479
Speaker 1: you create? What game needs to exist? If you could

885
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,680
Speaker 1: make any video game you wanted? What video game needs

886
00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 1: to exist?

887
00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:22,880
Speaker 4: In your opinion?

888
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:26,080
Speaker 2: And that's a crazy question, bro, like this heavy question.

889
00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 3: I don't know because I mean, Rotch, you like everything

890
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:30,680
Speaker 3: I would want I think exists. Cause again, when I

891
00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:32,799
Speaker 3: play games, I was telling you a little earlier, right,

892
00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:36,399
Speaker 3: I play first person shooter, so Halo Battlefield, Call of Duty.

893
00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 2: For some reason, I feel like I would personally want it.

894
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:41,600
Speaker 3: I wouldn't want it for the perception it would create

895
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:44,040
Speaker 3: in America, but I would want like a Call of

896
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:47,760
Speaker 3: Duty based in like inner cities. Okay, but I'd already

897
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:49,839
Speaker 3: like even saying that I don't like the concept from

898
00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:52,799
Speaker 3: a marketing standpoint. I just like the concept of the

899
00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:56,160
Speaker 3: game itself and just being able to play in like

900
00:38:56,320 --> 00:39:00,480
Speaker 3: neighborhoods and just like a different twist. But every version

901
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:04,359
Speaker 3: of a basketball game exists, NBA Street and one I

902
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:06,839
Speaker 3: was really big and like the Tony Hawk games growing up,

903
00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:10,239
Speaker 3: like the action sports series SSX tricky, I mean, real

904
00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:12,680
Speaker 3: cheer like I don't know, but let me say this.

905
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:13,000
Speaker 2: I will.

906
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,799
Speaker 3: Actually I have one so something we're talking about with

907
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:18,719
Speaker 3: one of our partners with the Trap Sushi team, But

908
00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:20,920
Speaker 3: I would love to see an urban style fighting game,

909
00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:25,480
Speaker 3: so def Jam Vendetta. But that's like too urban but

910
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:28,840
Speaker 3: not like too fantasy, but like right in the middle

911
00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:30,160
Speaker 3: with like a hip hop soundtrack.

912
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:31,839
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm with it.

913
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:34,319
Speaker 3: So I don't know what it is, but what I

914
00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:36,239
Speaker 3: do know is that if we were to create a game,

915
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:39,759
Speaker 3: I would test it within our community of gamers, like

916
00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 3: with a beautiful thing.

917
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:42,359
Speaker 2: So like I think that would be really cool.

918
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:45,600
Speaker 3: Is like you have this urban style teching like Street

919
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:49,719
Speaker 3: fighter like game, but it's all about urban So for

920
00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 3: lack of better words, I would just call it the

921
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:54,200
Speaker 3: Boondocks fighting game. If we're just call it like a thing,

922
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:56,239
Speaker 3: it would be a Boondock style fighting game.

923
00:39:56,440 --> 00:39:58,799
Speaker 4: Yeah, just called the boon Docks. It's like the boon Docks,

924
00:39:58,800 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 4: you know, I.

925
00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:00,759
Speaker 3: See my boy ar Oh fun fact, so I grew

926
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 3: up in Columbia, Maryland. Aar magrutis from Columbia, Maryland. So

927
00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:06,839
Speaker 3: like Boon Docks, iran higher than anything. So it's call

928
00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:10,080
Speaker 3: TV right there. That's quality TV right there. If Aaron

929
00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:12,000
Speaker 3: would allow us BRO to do it, I was like, Bro,

930
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,920
Speaker 3: let's send a partnership right now, we're bringing the developers,

931
00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:16,440
Speaker 3: we have the community.

932
00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:18,840
Speaker 2: Like that thing will go absolutely crazy.

933
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:22,360
Speaker 3: Well, Uncle rukus character, Bro, what special special powers like

934
00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:25,240
Speaker 3: saying bad words that hurts your feelings and like your

935
00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:28,360
Speaker 3: health just diminishes or something like that. But no, like

936
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:29,879
Speaker 3: that's that's that's what I think it was. It would

937
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:32,680
Speaker 3: be something similar to the fighting style of the Boondocks

938
00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:36,600
Speaker 3: with that anime feel with hip hop sound.

939
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:37,480
Speaker 2: Man.

940
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:38,200
Speaker 4: I'm not even gonna lie.

941
00:40:38,239 --> 00:40:39,640
Speaker 1: Man, if I can make any game I want to make,

942
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 1: I fell down the the GTA rabbit hole for like online,

943
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:47,920
Speaker 1: like watching a T Grizzly and all those guys, and

944
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, we just need like an Atlanta GTA server,

945
00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:53,680
Speaker 1: Like just recreate Atlanta in here, call out the game.

946
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:56,000
Speaker 1: You know, you can go to a Falcons game. You

947
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:57,360
Speaker 1: can get in a fight fit in the fight with

948
00:40:57,360 --> 00:40:58,080
Speaker 1: a Saints.

949
00:40:57,760 --> 00:40:58,799
Speaker 4: Fan in the Falcons game.

950
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:00,480
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You got to you got

951
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:02,279
Speaker 1: to go defeat the Varsity. You know, you gotta go

952
00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:04,239
Speaker 1: eat at the varsitay and eat it. I can just

953
00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 1: see it right now. The water Boys.

954
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:06,200
Speaker 4: I got to take the.

955
00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:10,520
Speaker 3: Jr Crickets to Alpharetta within fifteen minutes, like crazy side

956
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:11,680
Speaker 3: missions and stuff like you.

957
00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:12,440
Speaker 4: Got to get somewhere.

958
00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:16,480
Speaker 1: But it's traffic, like I'm telling you, like Atlanta GTA

959
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:20,799
Speaker 1: game would go crazy because Atlanta culture travels very very well.

960
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:21,440
Speaker 2: So let me say this.

961
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:23,040
Speaker 3: So a big part of what we do now is

962
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:26,840
Speaker 3: like to your point GTA service Fortnite, you can build games.

963
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:30,000
Speaker 3: I also like to do opportunities in every chance I get.

964
00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:31,319
Speaker 3: I was like, well, let's do it. I'm telling you

965
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:34,040
Speaker 3: right now, like it's it's something that's very feasible. Like

966
00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:36,080
Speaker 3: we have the development like we build in game right

967
00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:38,640
Speaker 3: now in Fortnite as an example. Yeah, right, So the

968
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:41,439
Speaker 3: idea like that's on our roadmap is GTA six.

969
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:42,960
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know what it's going to look like.

970
00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:45,439
Speaker 3: Community is one hundred percent going to own a server

971
00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:49,400
Speaker 3: in the GTA environment create many games. So like for us,

972
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:51,600
Speaker 3: that's just like a big part of our down the

973
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:55,319
Speaker 3: road strategy is also having a studio, because like it's

974
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:57,480
Speaker 3: nice that I get to play other studios games in

975
00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:00,120
Speaker 3: my leagues. But the grandest idea is that if I

976
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:03,359
Speaker 3: have this community who's been playing non diverse owned games

977
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,200
Speaker 3: their whole life and love it, Let's make games that

978
00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:07,920
Speaker 3: people like us know and love, Let's develop them, let's

979
00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:09,640
Speaker 3: put them in our leagues, let's put them in our events,

980
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:11,800
Speaker 3: and like let's run it that way. So like community

981
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:14,440
Speaker 3: studios is something like maybe two, three, four years down

982
00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:16,960
Speaker 3: the road. But when I think about the future of

983
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:18,760
Speaker 3: what we're going to be doing and stuff like that.

984
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:20,359
Speaker 4: Well, look, I'm gonna tell you right now.

985
00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:23,600
Speaker 1: If there's a you know, GTA six server the community's

986
00:42:23,640 --> 00:42:27,319
Speaker 1: working on one, want to butter to get a piece

987
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:27,680
Speaker 1: of the action.

988
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:28,960
Speaker 4: I try to get in the action you know what

989
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 4: I'm saying. I tell you right now, we need this.

990
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:32,719
Speaker 4: We need this Atlanta version.

991
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:34,719
Speaker 2: It's going to be crazy now that that would be sick.

992
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:36,799
Speaker 1: Hey man, So look before we get out of here,

993
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,319
Speaker 1: just one last thing, like, what's some advice that that

994
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:40,239
Speaker 1: you either go.

995
00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:41,560
Speaker 4: Buy and that you kind of remember.

996
00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:43,320
Speaker 1: Like I know you were talking about the poem earlier,

997
00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:45,400
Speaker 1: but like, what's just a piece of advice that you

998
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:47,360
Speaker 1: know has been really helpful for you along this journey.

999
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:50,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I would definitely say, like, y'all should definitely google.

1000
00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:52,800
Speaker 3: I think you just google. Don't quit Alpha filef for

1001
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:54,120
Speaker 3: the poem just pops up on Google.

1002
00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:55,480
Speaker 2: No read that. I'm trying to like that.

1003
00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:58,919
Speaker 3: Poe is crazy, right, But my second job, the job

1004
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:03,160
Speaker 3: at the King Queen Building, it consulting the boss, Robert Pastor,

1005
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:05,200
Speaker 3: crazy enough for even to this day he sits on

1006
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:07,480
Speaker 3: the board of our nonprofit. So like people for my

1007
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:09,800
Speaker 3: past life are still very involved in like are current

1008
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:11,960
Speaker 3: And he always just say the same thing sticks in

1009
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:12,279
Speaker 3: my head.

1010
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:13,480
Speaker 2: Be quick, don't be in a hurry.

1011
00:43:14,200 --> 00:43:15,919
Speaker 3: Be quick, don't be in a hurry now, Like that's

1012
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 3: kind of been in the back of my head this

1013
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:20,200
Speaker 3: whole time. Is like you'll see a lot of other

1014
00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:24,880
Speaker 3: startups headlines raising this, going here, doing that, but a

1015
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:26,920
Speaker 3: lot of them stick, a lot of them don't. And

1016
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:30,239
Speaker 3: I just think for me, especially living in Atlanta, Atlanta's confusing, bro,

1017
00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:31,719
Speaker 3: people got money?

1018
00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:33,719
Speaker 2: Do they not got money? Is it shaking? Is it not?

1019
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:35,800
Speaker 2: Like you can get caught up in that and this?

1020
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:38,880
Speaker 3: When I get caught in my own like headspace, I

1021
00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:40,279
Speaker 3: just say the same thing, Yo, be quick, don in

1022
00:43:40,320 --> 00:43:42,840
Speaker 3: a hurry, stay the court, like stay the course. And

1023
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:44,839
Speaker 3: that's the one thing I always share the same people

1024
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:46,520
Speaker 3: ask the same question on most podcasts to say the

1025
00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 3: same thing, Yo, just you're good, Just be fast, Just

1026
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:53,000
Speaker 3: do not rush because that rush process where people make

1027
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:55,200
Speaker 3: a lot of mistakes. Every time you start owning a

1028
00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:57,240
Speaker 3: lot of money, they start losing a lot of things

1029
00:43:57,280 --> 00:43:58,240
Speaker 3: that were once theirs.

1030
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:01,799
Speaker 1: Just be quick, but don't be in a hurry. And man,

1031
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:03,719
Speaker 1: I love it. Look before we get out of here, Ryan, like,

1032
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:06,200
Speaker 1: just tell folks how can they find you? How can

1033
00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:08,120
Speaker 1: they support community media? How can they get involved with

1034
00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:09,480
Speaker 1: these different events all got going on?

1035
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:10,160
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure.

1036
00:44:10,160 --> 00:44:13,600
Speaker 3: So I would say all of our events and things

1037
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:15,360
Speaker 3: are on our website. So I would say to follow

1038
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 3: us on Socialist community dot co, so that's on all

1039
00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 3: social platforms. That's also our website as well, so if

1040
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:24,960
Speaker 3: people want to check that out. But for me parsonally

1041
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:29,200
Speaker 3: my Instagram and Twitter. Ryan ran it up. So now

1042
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:31,120
Speaker 3: I'd love to connect if there's any people that a

1043
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:32,719
Speaker 3: listen to that are in the game, and if you

1044
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:34,680
Speaker 3: have kids that you feel like, well, while my kid

1045
00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:37,400
Speaker 3: always on the game, got a solution for that, academic programs,

1046
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:40,040
Speaker 3: the whole nine, So definitely tap in. And we have

1047
00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:42,520
Speaker 3: a lot of events. Our next big event in Metro Atlanta.

1048
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:44,480
Speaker 3: I know this is outside of Atlanta. This covers outside

1049
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:46,040
Speaker 3: of Atlanta, but our next big event in Metro Atlanta

1050
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:48,759
Speaker 3: will be the first week in December, so more information there.

1051
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:50,239
Speaker 2: But we'll be talking about all of that on our

1052
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:52,279
Speaker 2: social platforms over the next few months.

1053
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:54,000
Speaker 1: And just let people know because community needs spelled like

1054
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:55,520
Speaker 1: they think it spells, let them know how to find

1055
00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:55,759
Speaker 1: it now.

1056
00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:58,400
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, you know that's crazy to hear other facts.

1057
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:00,799
Speaker 2: So it's c X, you and I Y.

1058
00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:03,239
Speaker 3: And actually I'll address that really quick because people usually

1059
00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:05,800
Speaker 3: say like why X. So again, going back to my

1060
00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:08,719
Speaker 3: early point of when they launched the Esports you had

1061
00:45:08,719 --> 00:45:09,960
Speaker 3: to have a computer lab to be in it.

1062
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:11,760
Speaker 2: So basically gaming.

1063
00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:13,160
Speaker 3: I should have said this in the very beginning, bro,

1064
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:15,400
Speaker 3: if you just look at it, gaming is divided black

1065
00:45:15,560 --> 00:45:19,160
Speaker 3: and I'm sorry, white and Asian, European PC console like

1066
00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:24,279
Speaker 3: PC mainly minority families are mainly consoles. Right. That's kind

1067
00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:28,080
Speaker 3: of like the great divide of this conversation. So X

1068
00:45:28,160 --> 00:45:31,360
Speaker 3: is the only button on an Xbox PlayStation, Nintendo and

1069
00:45:31,400 --> 00:45:34,480
Speaker 3: a keyboard. So for us, we're trying to bring all

1070
00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:36,680
Speaker 3: this stuff together versus looking at things in segments. So

1071
00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:39,799
Speaker 3: that is the X and Y the X so see

1072
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:42,360
Speaker 3: X MMBU and I T Y not traditional spelling.

1073
00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:42,800
Speaker 2: Community.

1074
00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:47,480
Speaker 4: The level of intentionality behind that is just chef's kiss.

1075
00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:47,600
Speaker 3: Man.

1076
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:48,879
Speaker 2: I appreciate you, yo, man.

1077
00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:51,799
Speaker 1: Look, thanks for coming out, man, congratulations and everything. Can't

1078
00:45:51,840 --> 00:45:54,239
Speaker 1: wait to see the rest of success. And you know,

1079
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Speaker 1: y'all make sure y'all support community.

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Speaker 4: Media and all they do.

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Speaker 2: Yep, thank y'all.

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Speaker 4: All right, y'all, that's the pot.

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Speaker 1: You've been listening to buttteron nomics and I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Brandon Butler comments feedback. Want to be a part of

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Speaker 1: the show, send us an email today at Hello at

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Speaker 1: butterdomics dot com. Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia

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Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia by Ramsey, with marketing and support from Queen

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Speaker 1: and Nike. Music provided by mister Hanky. If you haven't already,

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