September 30, 2025 • 48 mins
Ep. 235 John Newton is Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Dream Con and member of RDC World.
Blavity and Dream Con are partnering to host a one-day, on-site experience at AfroTech Conference 2025. This new activation aims to empower the next generation of Black digital entrepreneurs and creators by providing tactical insights, fostering connections, and building pathways to sustainable success for content creators, influencers, and esports talent.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afrotech Conference is back and return to AIDS Town, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seven through thirty first, twenty twenty five
at the George R. Brown Convention Center. For years, Afrotech
has been to go to experience for black tech innovators, founders, engineers,
creators and investors. In twenty twenty five is shaping up
to be the biggest year yet, though with fortyzery to
(00:20):
ten hees expected. This year's conference will feature five days
of dynamic programming across six curator stages from discovery to
executive leadership. Join us to hear from industry leaders at
the forefront of change, learn from top ten engineers and designers,
and connect with recruiters from nearly two hundred companies. This year,
we're digging deeper into what's next with tracks exploring AI
and machine learning, med tech and health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech,
(00:45):
and much more. Whether you're launching your first startup, pivoting
into a new role, or scaling as an execut there's
something here for you. Tickets are moving fast to keep
your spot nowt at afrotech Conference dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We'll look us.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Here at Black Tech, Green Money. I'm excited about today
show because this guy is part of one of the
funniest collectives on the internet. Jonathan Newton's co founder and
chief creative Officer at dream Con and a member of
our DC world, which is all about making the fans laugh.
That's what they're about. Their job is to make you
laugh and provide entertainment through skids, vlogs, short films, and more.
(01:22):
Dream Con, for its part, is a premier entertainment convention
founded by artc World dream Con unit's enthusiasts globally to
celebrate gaming, anime, sports, film, music, and pop culture while
fostering inclusivity, and it sensed to belonging.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Welcome John, Hey, Hey, thanks for the introduction. Absolutely to
be here, man, I think it's gonna be good. And
what you're doing as well.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, yes, and that's why we wanted you here to
talk about what you're doing. So I think I want
to start here. So in high school, friends told you guys,
and I've heard it even also, like anime is not cool.
It's cool now, but I it was not cool you
know when we were coming up. How much of dream
kind is about reclaiming that narrative and provide you know,
(02:10):
proving that black people and black fans of anime, you know,
have a have a space in geek culture.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I think with dream Con, you know, it's it's a
cultivation of all the people that either dealt.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
With similar you know hard then in high school, middle.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
School or whatever, where you know, it wasn't as mainstream
or as open minded to just be into these certain
things once you got you know, once you get first
past a certain age, you know how you just know
how we be sometime man, you too old to be
this and that you feel me and so you know,
when you get to under those type of social pressures,
(02:50):
you tend to keep it to yourself, stay more reserved
for those specific things, and really just indulge in those
things in your own.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Private space at home.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
So with dream Time, it's really cool to see that,
you know, we were able to use that same energy
things that we've dealt with while we was growing up
and really just provide a location, a space for all
those people with life planning individuals to all just kind
of show up together and just be open with it
when you know, because you know, I think growing up
(03:19):
they thinking like we got to keep to ourselves. Well,
now I'm in a space of other people who've all
done the same thing. Hold on, like, we don't got
to do that no more. And now the world is
kind of like acknowledging it, you know, it's impossible to
ignore it. So yeah, I think that's really a big
part of dream kind of how it got started, and yeah,
support of it.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah. And so you've gone from numbers of eight hundred
people in twenty eighteen to thirty four thousand just this
past year. And so when did you realize that you
had gone from just a convention to like this was
a movement or the culture.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I think, I mean really honestly, for us, we felt
like that was like that way from the very beginning,
you know. And but I think once we kind of
transitioned to going from Austin, I mean from we was
in like the Dallas area and we moved to Austin,
and it was like a really large jump, and you know,
(04:18):
we were from like six thousand people to twenty so
it was like a really big growth and we really
were like, man, like, you know, they're gonna stick around
for a while, right, So at first, when we had
the first year to a hunder people, we expected I
just transparently. The first year, we thought we were going
to have ten thousand people. So whenever we had eight hundred,
you're like, oh, man, I guess it really wasn't you know,
(04:39):
as many people as we thought. But we just kept
sticking to it and it just started growing and growing
and growing and made it.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
What made you stick with it when you thought it
was gonna be ten thousand you get eight hundred most people, you.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Know, Yeah, I would say that the thing that made
us stick with it was the fact that, you know,
on the contents side, like even though in person, you know,
we only had injury people us as a collective, and
as with our content our channel, like our videos were
going viral, they were hitting people was in comments telling
(05:12):
us like man, like I.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Remember I was doing this, or hey, I wish I
had friends that were into these things. So like we're
looking at online everybody talked about it, and in person,
you know, we were thinking like, okay, well maybe it's
just simple the fact that you know, it's.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
The first year.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Like people, you know, even myself, it's like if I
see something popping up, I might not go to person,
you know, I need to see how it is looking first,
let me see what the feedback is. Why, you know,
spend that money on a flight or hotel.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
You feel me?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
So I think it was just the the in person
one showed us that there is a space for it.
But online, what we were doing, we were going to
such an alarming rate that we knew that the people
out there, and I think it was just a matter
of time. Was kind of our thought process.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
You know, there are other conventions and confresces that touch
on this subject matter, and you know, and I wonder,
like what your unique value proposition was, like you there
there was a quote I found from you guys where
you said, originally we were planning on visiting anime comic
conventions as guests to meet and interact with our fans
in a fun setting. However, many of these conventions, except
(06:17):
for a small few, were either ignoring us or turning
us away and saying we wouldn't fit in. So we
decided from there instead to make excuses, or instead instead
of making excuses or complaints, we would create our own, bigger,
better convention. What was it about those other conventions that
they were not seeing?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
So, I mean, before we even knew about the convenient space,
before we had ever even been talent, right, It was
more about the diversity, the lack of diversity that they
had in their rosters. I think it was just like, Okay,
we know obviously from top of the shows.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Like Dragon ball Z or Ugo, all the all.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
The classic shows that you know, we grew up seeing
on TV that they're going to bring these certain voice
actors in certain time levels there naturally. But I think
that because there was a lack of acknowledgement that our
community as well were into these things that reflected within
their their rosters or just across the board, we just
(07:15):
felt like, man like, even us we had like I
think at the time, we had like a million subscribers, right,
and we were I got the million off of just
the content that you know, Mark was creating to build
this fan base around these certain things like anime and gaming,
all these different things. So for us, we were just
definitely like, well, we feel we definitely feel like we're
big enough to be able to show up in these
(07:35):
spaces and the talent in our way, like, yeah, we
not in the shows, but we are actually driving the
culture towards the same niche area as well. And I
think that you know, it's just something that it was
an earlier time. I think that maybe they just I'm
(07:57):
not going to just blame anyone specifically, right, but I
think that it was definitely something that we were like, well,
we're not about to fight for you know, we're not
going to fight for a spot.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
We're going to just make our own. Yeah too much. Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
For sure. When yeah, when you're in the middle of
these plannings, you're playing dream con or more RDC projects,
how do you know whether you're making a decision as
a fan, as an executive, or as like an architect
of the culture, Like, how do you ensure that you're
not just you know, being narrow minded in one of
(08:31):
those respects.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah, I mean I think that we are luckily, we
are very socially aware of just everything, right, you know,
because we're in a group, because we you know, have
the opportunity to speak to each other and have like
seven different perspectives, you you know, from that level as
a group, we use a lot of those things within
(08:54):
our content, and I think that's why we've been able
to stay around so long, because we're able to adapt
to what's.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Going on on the world. You know.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
We also make content around so many different avenues and
so many different perspectives, Like we're not just making content
or Internet.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
We're doing gaming, black culture, sports, you know, music.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
We have so many different things where we have a
viral videos in each area to where it's like, hey, look,
were staying around you feel me like whatever's going on?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Were doing that?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
And I think that using that energy in a visit
perspective is like, hey, as a business, what can we
do to make sure not only that this is something
that can have longevity and stay diverse as wrong as
well as well as like just thaying around, but also
acknowledging the fact that we are accustomed to creating projects
(09:44):
working with lots of different people. So when you scale
ITT to dream Powd, we have an amazing team of
individuals who are a part of us on the outside.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
They're not in the content room.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Sometimes when you're working on content and everybody lives in
one house, you can get very close minded on that.
But we brought in like other Dreamers who had similar
backstories to us, but they work in professional areas and
different backgrounds, whether it's accounting, finance, all this different stuff
that keeps us open minded and I think that's kind
of where the success has led because we're not only
(10:16):
just going off of our own individual thought process.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
We have like a solid team of people who, you know,
I will.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Say transparently, when we first started, there's a lot of
people came on just voluntarily.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
It wasn't like hey, you got to pay me to do.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
It was people reaching out to us wanting to be
a part is because they acknowledged what we had. And
he look, uh, you know, I got a full time job.
You know, I just graduated college. I just got my
massive degree. But like I see what I got going on.
You know what I'm saying, You know, I do want
to like where can I fit in? So then yeah, exactly.
So then you see that and you're like, okay, well cool,
(10:49):
you can fit in what you what you do? Like, well,
I just got you know, I'm a CPA. It's all bad. Yeah,
Like I don't know nothing about no finances. Let's learn
from this person who can teach us. I think the
best thing we can have is having smart people around
us who are helping us.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Learn as well on the way and not having too
much ego.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
You know, I think a lot of creatives just assume
Bigger is always better, you know, and then and obviously
you know, getting bigger is the goal in many of
these things. Bigger shows, bigger conventions.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Bigger audiences, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
But you know, bigger comes with costs. Also, it's not
just better full stop. Can you talk about some of
the things that people may not realize are the other
side of bigger, but you typically don't see it until
you're bigger.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
I think, Yeah, when we were smaller, I think a
lot of the decisions were weighted way easier than.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
What they are now.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I think back then, it's like, okay, we want to like,
I think bigger is better, but it just depends on
what your definition of better is. Because it's like, more
people means we need to, you know, invest more into
security and more intelligicities. I mean, if we messed up
on any type of program and then that causes a
large chain reaction, that means that any little MISTAKEY potentially
(12:06):
make means that on social on social media now there's
a big, bigger role to that. You gotta factor all
those different things in the same way that you know
it's a double sworde and the same way that the
community has gathered together to uplift us to be successful.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
They can also tear you down if you don't honor
what they do. And they knowledge.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I mean, I'm sure if anyone that has a presence
or deal with this knows that.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
But dream Plounce started in a timeframe, you know, still
early social media where that was, like people are still
figuring it out. And I think now y'all know twenty
twenty five, like we know the power of social.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Media, and.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
We just why don't you just you know, keep it
respectful and listen to your audience.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
That's a big thing. You can give more.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
People, Like I said, more security, you got a factor
and now you getting getting bigger partnership situations and conversations
now as hold on, we need some uh some better
legal we need better this is this because now it's
a lot going on, and I think it's just all
about just being prepared and some of those people who
came in earlier, who invested in earlier, who had skilled areas,
(13:09):
get to learn alongside you.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
So I think.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
We're very blessed and we're very happy to be getting bigger.
But there is a big part of being able to
adjust to all those things that come with being bigger,
especially in a small time fl Like I said, when
we went from the one year where we went from
six thousand to twenty thousand, man, it was like we
didn't know what was getting ourselves into.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
So yeah, so you've got content, conventions, partnerships, intellectual properties,
a lot of moving pieces. I imagine there's got to
be like some core principles and things that you always
evaluate opportunities against when you're making decisions. Can you talk
about how you, you know, make that decision making process happen.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I mean, it really depends.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
I think that for us, we definitely have it very
strict guideline for our standards of what we want to
what we want and who we want to associate with. Regardless,
it's not always just about the money you have the money.
You know, money could be great, but if it's not
a good fit, then we do feel that our attends
will be able to see that, you know, And I
think that's just around our brand.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
We're very very down to earth, We're very very like hey, like.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
What is natural to us on our platform and I
think that, Yeah, the conversations are definitely just kind of
more so like waying opportunities to keep us on the
original goal. I think the originally like the good thing
about dream Time, you know what I love is because
you know the event itself, it's called dream time.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
It's built off of dreams.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
And I think when you think about dreams, that is
something that that's relatable to everybody. I think a lot
of people think like, oh, I don't watch anime. I'm
not you know, there's no reason for me to go
to dream Time when you show up there and you're like,
oh wait, there is an anime, but there's gaming.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Oh they got music.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Oh they're playing the All Star Celemty basketball game, football,
all these different things and just lack excellence all in
one space of people just being themselves. And I think
that when we come of dealing with different people, we
really make that notion pretty clear from the beginning, like hey, look,
we would love to have your part in this, but
we kind of take the creative control on that and
(15:16):
be like, hey, look here's how we feel it will
work for you.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Here's what we're not gonna do. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
You got to really just kind of stick your foot
down and be like, hey, look like this, because if
you have a bad partnership, the brand can't get blamed.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
We are you know, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, so we're like, hey, it don't matter with the
money because y'all can mess up the money in the future.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
So y'all cast up in the future won't get blamed.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
You know, you talk. I've heard you use the phrase
like world building, like your intentional on building, you know,
world building around what you have going on, and not
just in media, but events also. And so with that approach,
it can't just be about a one two, three, four
DA account convention. How do you how do you build
(16:00):
something that's like three hundred and sixty five days a
year it's a living thing versus just like a conference.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yeah, and it's crazy you bring it up, because that's
been like a really reoccurring discussion right.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Now for us.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
It's like, okay, like we have this amazing product, right
it comes around once a year, you know, but how
do we make it to where you know, people keep
it on their mind a little bit longer throughout the year,
Like what are some other things we can do throughout
the year to build towards the type of it? And yes,
the event is just getting bigger on the weekend. But
what else can we do? And so I think the
(16:33):
biggest thing right now when it comes to products is
really focusing on a great storyline. Obviously, we always storify
everything because of just our content. We're just all storytellers, right,
So how do you apply a really great story to
this event itself? Because everybody that's coming to the event
are all here because they are very fans of these
(16:55):
great anime stories, right, and so you can kind of
create an experience for them to make them feel like
they're even more part of the process leading up to
it and afterwards. And I think that when people get
more invested into the story of the product before and after,
then that gives us as a company more opportunities to
do things before and after as well, to keep it
(17:16):
on their mind throughout the year, whether that's like doing meetups,
doing you know, little satellite events. You know, maybe we
can take certain components of each category that's appointed dream
Con and do it in different cities, right, Like Okay,
maybe we can go to Atlanta and do something that's
just sports, and then that ties into the main event.
Maybe we set up a whole gaming circuit where Okay
(17:38):
online all the aspiring esport gamers. You know, we're going
to have you all compete for six months and the
top sixteen players get to get flown out to Dream
con right, And so now you now we have different
incentives going out throughout the year, or maybe we branch
outs and separate IP. Maybe we start our charity foundation
and we do different community things throughout the year that
all still tie up to our main things to where
(17:59):
it's almost like it's like Dreamcole would be the super Bowl, right,
you got the whole you know, in NFL, you got
the league to have it all the regular season and
you get the playoffs and then boom super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
That's what I feel like we can create.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Dream pac could be the anime Black NERD super Bowl,
and we can have regular season of other activities. So
that's a bit way I can put it.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, I wonder like, what were the indicators that told
you guys early on that a convention would work, Because
I think about there's so many, you know, social media influencers,
people who may be funny, they may be beautiful, they
may have some sort of attraction online that they put
out a product and they can't sell nothing, or they
(18:41):
try to show up somewhere and ain't nobody coming to
see them. So what was it about the following that
you built online that said, you know what, people will
get a flight, they will get on the bus, they
will get you know, a rental card, they will get
a hotel room, stay on somebody's fot or to come
(19:01):
see us. What was it about that?
Speaker 3 (19:04):
I will say for the group, the collective itself, because
just transparently before while it was happening, I wasn't even
a part of the group yet, right, I was actually
just a fan.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I was a fan first, and my.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Partner Mark, he is the one that I founded the group, right,
So I was a fan and I was like, Man,
I'm at home, I'm thinking like, man, I wish I
have some friends who could just get it together like them,
because I feel like we could do.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Some stuff right.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
And so luckily I was blessed to be in a
situation where I end up getting closer and we ended
up being able to work together and then eventually get
to dream time. But even just using myself as an example,
I was like, well, I was willing to travel and
do these things to get closer to some people who
inspire me. What is to stop these other people around
the world to potentially do that. And if you see
where I'm going with this, so it's like and then
(19:48):
on top of that, right, the differing the difference with RDC,
I would say, is that we were making content around
this black anime game, I mean subculture very early and
when it was still like in its infancy, right, and
so you know, being credited as one of the main
people who really started to make black people and anime
(20:12):
be popular. Not that they didn't like it, we publicized it.
We were a driving force to men to be like, hey,
look like whenever we you know, the earlier via our
videos were going on YouTube and they was sitting twenty
million US and going to Japan, people in the commers
would be like, oh wow, Like yeah, you know, I
do like NME, but I didn't even know, Like I
didn't know people was talking about it like this, Like
(20:33):
I didn't know there were other people like that. And
we were like yeah, and they see that we're getting
successful office and now they feel a little, you know,
a little more confident to talk about it online. Now
we're starting to get these little comunities on Facebook, make
people start in groups and clubs and collections.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
All these in the things, right, So then.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
You see that it's almost like everybody was just waiting
for somebody to break through, and once they broke through,
they can look and say, all right, been cool, I
could talk.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
About it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
And it's cool right because now you know, even with this,
we're getting popular off of that, we're getting acknowledgment from
different celebrities. Now you've started to get rappers talk about it.
Now people you go back through and it's like people
idolizing these rappers and whatnot. And so even then they're like, oh,
it's cool to talk about it. I'mna put some of
that in my music. So now it's spread into music.
And then you go to sports. You see people in
the end zone and they're doing like to may and
(21:18):
maya move and different things, and oh snap, I'll look
up to athletes too. So now everybody's getting in on
it. It's getting more acceptable. And I say all that to
say that because everyone was holding this in for all
their youth, middle school, high school, and college.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Right. The first person that was like, hey all, look,
I understand how y'all.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Was because we was there and look where we're going
right now, were about to create this live event. Y'all
should pull up and meet other like minded people out there,
because now it's quite a hard definement. And I think
that that alone gave us the success to bring it because,
like I said, it's called green card. And the thing
with the word dream is that dreams are it is
(22:00):
something that's that is relatable across the boards. No, there's
no specific individual that it's it's something that's relatable for
everybody to want to chase there. And so when you
by coming to dream time, you feeling like you're taking
a step closer towards your dream, which is something that
people will invest in buying a flight and getting a
hotel or you know, if I'm at a job right
(22:21):
now and I'm working by nine to five and I'm
really unhappy and I see some people that look up
to are doing some stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I really want to do, then you know, I might
be willing to.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Sleep on the floor in the hotel. If I need
to mean is that I can meet some people. So
I think that's our foundation. It's the foundation of that
the success after we have each year, if they're getting biggers,
getting our heights and it's becoming popular. I think that's
the key to us that makes us different. We're not
just selling like some merch you know. I think the
merchant is like, all right, cool, you buy the shirt,
throw it on the floor. This is we're selling an
(22:51):
experience in a dream.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
So dream Con isn't just about building one weekend of
community events each year. Is about extending that ecosystem into
new spaces and platforms. And this year, yes, we're proud,
you know at Blavity to partner with you know you
guys on the Creator Summit at Afrotech in a couple
of weeks and the first of its kind of experience
designed to empower black digital entrepreneurs and creators. This is
(23:15):
a one day event happening at Afrotech in Houston, bringing
together TikTokers, YouTubers, podcasters, twitch streamers, esports, talent and more.
And so we're gonna do workshops, panels, fireside chats and
the goal is to help creators turn influence into income,
grow authentic communities, and build sustainable businesses in the creator economy.
(23:40):
So talk about with all that, how you and Blavity
designed your programming to be both visionary and practical for
the next wave of black creators.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, I think that, you know, I think with Morgan,
you know, the kind of what you you know, what
y'all got going on. Obviously it's more center our tech,
but I think that tech in itself plays a heavily
strong part in the success of a Dragon Force for
our community as well. Right, you know, techn applies Tech
(24:14):
applies everything at this point. Right, so when it comes
to being able to watch you know, people who developed
the stream services for people to watch, and people developing
the technology to play these games and do these things
and work in these spaces. It's all. It's really the
glue to everything for us. And so it just was
a and then on top of the fact that you
guys are doing it in this you know, same situation.
Y'all was in Austin. We was in Austin, then y'all
(24:36):
moved to Houston. Then we had to move to Houston,
and you know, and we're dealing with a demographic of people.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
You know, it's it just makes sense for us.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
So then from there it's like, okay, well this makes sense, right,
how do we you know, we're not competing against each other.
It's just like, hey, look y'all got y'all audience, and
we have ours. How can we come together and amplify
as a whole? Right, So I say all, I have
to say that whate of our strong suits for dream
Find as well. Obviously we got past the categories of anime,
game and sports music, TV film.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
But the core of our side is the creator space. Uh.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
We credit the success of dream Find heavily on their
careers because in the earlier days, we wasn't you know,
when we were starting, we wasn't able to go get
the Japanese voice actors or these other you know, the
white voice actors of this. We just had to be like, hey, look,
we like na game and we liked all these things,
and it's just us, y'all, y'all fans of us, pull up,
(25:31):
you know. We reached out to our other creator friends
who had audience as well, Hey can y'all you know, y'all,
can you pull up and we can do this and
set up the program and just to really to bring
the people. So the foundation of dream Clind was built
off the creators. That's the mem one part on why
it even started, right or to get it things. So
I say all, I have to say that using that
(25:53):
same energy when it comes to the creative space right now,
when we look at what Blavity is doing, and there's
a large creator aspect to tech as well, there's a
whole bunch of like it's I would I would credit
to in all levels. I didn't seen so many tech
people who are in the creator space.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
And so for us, what we want.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
To do is find a way on bringing our expertise
in that creator space and compliment the Blavity Atho tech
space as well. And yeah, I mean I feel like
it's it's pretty clear at this point, like we just
want to find a way how can we amplify Athro
tech and provide the things that we've learned over all
this time in exchange for stuff in the technology that
(26:35):
we want to learn from market. And I think that's
what makes this, you know, this partnership such an amazing
theme because it's just really naturally integrated.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It's not about money, it's not about all these things.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
It's a matter of just us recognizing each other and
saying like, hey, y'all, like.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
We both are in the.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Same space and you know, have like how can we
make this make sense to everybody that's what I'm excited about.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, and I love that you position this that you know,
I get the most pervasive question I get about afro tech,
you know, and people are considering going They're like, you know, well,
I'm not in tech, and I'm like, you probably are
in tech, but just because you just don't know it,
and like you could be in healthcare, you're still utilizing
technology to do what you do. You could be, you know,
a barber, beautician. You probably are still using technology to
(27:19):
do what you do. And so I love that you
position that, And so I want to I want to
talk about Houston real quick, because we have moved to Houston.
You know, we moved Houston last year, we're there this year,
and you guys moved to Houston also, And what is
the difference in that? What what difference did that make
in the ability to grow and scale this in a
way that mattered to the mission, Like us moving moving
(27:43):
to Houston.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
What I shout in Houston, I'll say, shout out to
Houston because the energy and I was, I mean, you've
seen Austin and Houston as well, like us, No.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Austin to you as watching it y'all here too.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I just think that, you know, I lead the reason
why we had to leave, or reasons out of our control,
right with the changes in Austin and that, and so
what we learned doing in Austin. Austin was great, but
when we came to Houston, I feel like the energy
was just just a different level, right, that was more
more relatable. Houston's way more culture, And that's just the
fact it's more culture.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
It's just it fits well.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
With our demographic and people there. And on top of that,
Houston itself kind of even extending the handout they showed up,
you know, and even right now as I'm going through
this whole New year, playing like I didn't have so
many different relationships and connections and people just talking about
dream Con like you know, like stars in their eyes
and just being like, Wow, I didn't.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Even know that this was happening.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
And it's really giving us an extra fire to want
to make sure that this next upcoming event is as
great as possible, because I think the Houston community allies
and the Houston's one thing about our sinities is very
diverse as well, and I think that Houston is diverse
and it aligns really well. And on top of all
that like there's just you know, there's just there's just
(29:08):
more relatableness from that. I think that just makes it
just work better in my opinion. I think this last
year the difference. You know, we were a little bit bigger.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
At a bit bigger, yeah, a lot bigger.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Yeah, you know, I have to doubt player. But we
had city officials come out there. I ain't never I
ain't know city officials who care about coming to an
event like that, right, And so they're out there and
giving their certificates and stuff, and I was like, oh,
and then I see them and I'm like, oh, you
know there's some some brothers like us you've been mew
the's even more of like dang, like we can really
just understand each other already off the bat, you know.
(29:42):
So that's what That's what I'm aside about being here
and non biasedly I am from Houston, Borner raise, right.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
So so that was just an extra acting to the cake.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
How are you thinking about how AI is all could
impact conventions you know and content? You know? So I
think it two things creating opportunities. How would AI create
opportunities for you in the in the live event space
and potentially some of the downsides to it.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
That's a tough question because I just feel like with AI,
there's some like I just feel like AI can just
be applied to so many different areas. I would say
that I can see the pros and cons depending on
which air of it. Right now, I think for AI
like it can help definitely make things move quicker, right,
help us gets turned answers quicker.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Whether it's like using things like CHATCHBT, like.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Just the little things of learning that we had to
like go, you know, extra lengths to learn and understand
about it is definitely being adjusted to adjusted to that
direction to make it easier even for myself, right And
I think that, you know, there is a kind of
the I think the scariness of it is the unknown
of what it can potentially be in the future. I
(30:55):
don't know exactly how AI will necessarily affect the event
space from an overall grand scheme of things in the future.
I don't know if AI can potentially recreate an event
like the dream con you know, maybe who knows, But
that's not really something that I feel like.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I can predict at this moment. I just think that.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
There is depending on what space I know, like you know,
with dream con we deal with a lot of original artists,
a lot of musician, you know, athletes, like, there's a
lot of different entertainment and I think the how AI
affects entertainment as a whole will would probably yes, directly
affect dream Coon in the future. But I really don't know,
(31:38):
like in what way yet, And I think that's just
something that you know, just what time can tell. I
don't think anyone really can know. All we have is
really more so predictions, and I think, yeah, we just
got to adjust and see how it goes.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Honestly, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
What's a dream you're still chasing that people might not expect.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
A dream that I'm chasing, So I would say, I mean,
the number one thing for me is, you know, one
of the things I want to be is a producer, right,
and I'm not talking about like just a music producer.
I think I want to be a producer in entertainment.
I think that dream Pind is a good stepping stone
for me to gain and acquire tools to become that
type of person in the long run. You know, Like
(32:21):
I said, I think for me, the most appealing aspect
to that is the fact that I want to be
the person who could potentially work on projects, you know,
fund projects, you know. Pat people come to me with
whatever dream or great ideas they have and it's like, hey, John,
I really believe in this, man, Like do you believe
in into?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
What can you do?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
And then how can I come in and support that aspect?
And I think with dream can it gives me a
good experience to do that because in a way, right
like I always compare a dream pind like a movie,
Like right now, if this, if dream Clond was a movie,
I'm pretty much the producer slash showrunner, you know what
I'm saying, Like I'm over here, like I'm looking talent.
Those are my actors, you feel me, And I'm getting
(33:03):
my assistant director. That's you know some of our director
level executives, right, you know, we're creating the release state.
You know, we got to like, all right, the movie
drops on next summer, that's when the event starts, and
then we have the marketing rollout leading up towards it,
the marketing roll out and leaving towards the event. So
in a lot of ways, there's a lot of different
things that compare to that. But for me, one of
my things is becoming a producer, getting some more other
(33:25):
projects under my belt, whether that's in film, music, you know, television,
all that. Like I really believe that I often be
that person. And also just to you know, with my
partner Mark, he you know, his dream is to become
or he is. You know, he's working on being a
director and writer. Those are his main things. That's why
(33:46):
he started to Collective in the first place, because he
wanted He created the group to give himself a stepping
stone to.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Get closer to his dream of being a writer, director.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
And so my goal is to hopefully have dream con
give me a stepping stone to become a producer, so
I can circle back and we can work together and
be like, hey, lo, look here's what we created. Thank
you for giving me this opportunity. You know I didn't learn,
I didn't tee up on the producer side. You know,
maybe one day we can work on projects together outside
of dream Time.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
So that's my dream.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, one last question, I think the you you talked
earlier about how like like you came into something that
was already starting to pop, like you, like you weren't
originally one of those part of the collective, but you
were a fan and you found your way in partnership
with these guys as part of the team. There's there's
(34:34):
a ton of people who might be fans of you know,
other creators of the influencers, et cetera, who are like,
you know, I would love to be on that ride,
and they believe that they have some value to provide.
What was how did it happen that you know, there
are there's this thing that's over here popping and you're like, man,
(34:56):
I want to be part of that.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
What was that?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
What was the bridge to number one? Even getting them
to pay attention to you?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
And or you?
Speaker 1 (35:05):
How did you How did you get a flag big
enough to get the pay attention?
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah, I think, I mean it's not a short answer,
but I can give this as I can, right, you
know I think the so yeah, like I was working
as a leasing agent right out of apartment community. I
was working, you know, my nine to five, and I
was just a fan watching videos right and then. And
so they are the first people who let me understand
(35:31):
somebody who was a reserved nerd right that people were
making content.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Like this and going viral and get in love.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
And I was like oh wow, okay, And you know,
if you really want to understand the space, there's like
different levels to it because I think back then people
had just a very specific archetype of person that they
think people who watch anime are, you know, just to
be transparent, right, And so with Mark, to me, he
was a person where in high school I would never
(35:59):
have guessed that he was in the end.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
He was like the cool dude. He was in the middle.
He was cool with the athletes, the hoodlums, you feel me.
But he was often cool with the.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Nerd cities that y'all like, hey, I'm in the middle.
So every refuse. It's just a right person that was
ab to bring everybody. And I think that that type
of archetype for this type of space was I didn't
know that was a thing, right, so, and I think
that was a big credit to where when he was
making content in the earlier days and we was making
the hood videos, he was making the sports videos, were
making the music and doing the anime things and him
(36:30):
really really loving the anime part, but having like a
different archetype it was very it made him stand out
more back then to where now you're getting both communities
now you're getting us watching him, and then you got
the other side being like, oh, he's just funny, Like
this video is just funny, right. So I say often
say that as me when I'm working, When I was
working my job and noticing that it made me a fan,
(36:51):
so then it inspired me. Dream is a very big
part for him. So it inspired me to try and
make my own content at the time. So at the
time I was alan he doing it, man, I really like, I'm.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Sick of this.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Let me just go ahead and try and see if
I can do my own things so I won't get
try to get my friends, hey, y'all, like we could
make our own stuff too.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
It didn't play out.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
You know, it's harder to get people to kind of
buy in on the dream when they don't really see
the full vision in the end. And I think that
was something that put me down because I didn't feel
like I had people who were trying to push towards
that as far as I did. And so I say,
all I have to say, that's kind of how I
started getting to the mindset of like knowing that there
is something more for myself.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
So I was just a follower. You know. Sometimes they'd
be working on a new videos.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Sometimes they'd be like, hey, y'all, we're looking for X
amount of people because we're trying to make this new video.
And sometime, you know, it'd be thousands when people responding.
So I send my little email or my message. Never
really got a response, right, and then one time they're like, oh,
one time they did respond and like, hey, can you
send a picture? Yeah, you know, I theyre trying to
see what the person looks like potentially, So I send
(37:53):
my picture and they didn't respond. So I said my
picture they respond for that, and then they responded. So
then months passed by. I'm still tying figure out a
lot of life. I'm saving up money. I'm already in
my mind thinking like, yeah, let me just save up
enough money so I can leave this job and figure
out how to do it myself. And uh, A situation
happened with my sister. She's from Dallas, she's you know,
(38:13):
in PR like a reporter, and they were doing like
this this segment essentially about black creators. And I was
telling her that I that I followed these people, I'm
fans of these people who make content, and so she
was like, well, yeah, you can find a way to
get ahold of.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Them, maybe we can bring them on the news for
a segment as well. So that happens. So then I'm
over here, send an email. I'm like, hey, I'm you know.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
I send another email basically a proposal saying, hey, y'all, like,
I got this opportunity on the news in Dallas News.
I'm real big fans of y'all. I think I'll be
a good fit for this. And they ended up responding.
So they responding like, yeah, we'll do it, and I
was like, well, I just want to record some stuff
ahead of time to kind of a build this segment
out there. So they're like all right, fine, pull up.
(38:58):
So I was in Houston and they were in Dallas.
I was four hour drive, so I drove four hours
to Dallas. I showed up to the house on the like,
you know, like what's up. They're like okay, And basically
I was just kind of asking them questions about like
their background, basically trying to build something up to get
enough of enough stuff to pitch to my sisters to
(39:18):
push the station to bring them on there. So I
spent a whole day with them, just learning about them,
and it was just really cool to just see that
they were just regular people just like me who just
had a platform.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
You feel me.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
And although I already thought that, but you know, sometimes
people off came get a lot of different energy. So
that's how we got in the same space. And what's
and what's I was in what I thought it was
on the door, I was all right, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
So it was like I got my foot in the door.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
We started talking, but I wasn't like my attention wasn't
to do anything. I think what one thing is important
that some people will just reach out to these people
and just ask for everything. Sometimes you got to just
earn your way in there. You can't just be like, hey,
I I'm the dreamer too, actually be in the group.
It's more like, just make yourself valuable and when it's time.
(40:05):
When time happens, it happens, you feel me. It's whatever
God decides for you and your your future. I didn't
ask to be in the group. I never asked. I
never was like, hey can I be in the group.
I never said hey, can you put me in videos.
I've been waiting for the opportunities when they reached out
to and I made sure that I was one of
the first people to respond each time, and eventually you
feel me as we start, it becomes associates that.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
I was the one that I recognized.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
I was like, man, y'all beking these hit anime videos,
Like I feel like y'all should go to some of
these other events around Texas to be talent. I was
the one that came with that idea, right, and They're like,
I mean, sure, if you can. So then they basically
gave me the green to see if I could do it.
And this is I'm not a gouba, I'm just associate.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
So as I got it, I got it. You know.
So when I'm at work during my break.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
I'm out here putting together templates, I'm like, hey, I
basically was telling all these these businesses that I was
a manager. I was like, hey, I'm the management group
for this group called RDC. They had hit videos and
make stuff. I think that they be you know, I
think y'all was talentless is great, but it's not too diverse.
I think that you guys should have some people like
this year and so I've seen like a whole bunch
of emails, right, I sent all those emails, but only two.
(41:13):
Only two responded out of those things, right, So the
two that did respond, I was like, all right, bet,
I'm gonna work with it. So then whenever I got
the two that responded, you know, I hit them up.
I'm like, y'all, I got y'all books, I got a
gig for y'all. You feel me like, I was just
like I didn't know what I was doing. I was like,
I got y'all booked out, and then all bet, So
we went to these different events. We went to the
first event, the first one went to we did a panel,
(41:35):
never did a panel before. We're all right, let's just
let's just see. So we did the panel. Full room
was booked up, like fans were all in the room,
and we were like wow.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Like he was like, wow, I.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Didn't know that people was gonna show up in person
for us side of panel. And I was like, I
mean you should have because like y'all, y'all doing something crazy.
So that was that was episode one. So we did
that and they're like, Okay, that's cool. I appreciate you.
Don like, thank you for setting this all up. By
then I got you man, like I'm gonna keep looking
for some more gigs you feel me like whatever I
was calling at the time, while I'm going back home
(42:07):
to my job and working.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Right.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
So then the second place we went to was in Houston, ironically,
and we went to that one, but that one they
didn't really give us any kind of social promo. They
basically were just like, oh, yeah, y'all, can you know,
y'all can show up and just let people know your years,
you know what I'm saying. And we were just walking
around and as we were walking around the building, people
were just kind of like coming up to us, coming
up to us, coming up to us, and it was
(42:29):
crazy amount.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
People who were just in our faces.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Yeah, and I think that the it started to click
a little bit right, and we were like, dang, we
didn't even know people would show us love. So then
months pasted, right, I'm doing my thing, and then one
day Mark was like, man, like, I know you've kind
of been helping us with getting to these different events,
but like what if we just like just started our
(42:53):
own event. And I was like yeah, I was like, yeah,
y'all should like you know, He's like yeah, but like
like can you help, like can you help us do it?
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Right?
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Because I don't even know nothing about that. In my mind,
I'm like me either. I never ran a convention.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
But what I did know is that I was I
was tired of doing what I was doing, you feel me?
Speaker 3 (43:13):
So my answer right thing was, I got it. I'm
gonna figure it out. So we hung up the phone call.
I went on Google. I said, how do you start
a convention? And the rest is history from there, I
was just learning. I started to go, you know, I
started up with gofund me. I said, hey, look y'all, look,
we even trying to go to all these different events.
They kind of been turning us away. You feel me
like people are not really seeing the vision for it.
So we decided we just gonna start our own thing.
(43:35):
So I'm creating this go fund me to raise some money.
Just I ain't trying to be too much money. I
want to raise enough money so we can start a website,
we can get a graphic design and make a logo,
just to make something tangible for y'all to just digest.
So that way it don't it goes from just talking
to happening. So I got about like three thousand. I
just closed the go fund me. I got the logo
(43:58):
stuff going. I got the website going, and then we
started social media.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
And then from there Mark was like, oh, you got it.
I was like yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
He's like, all right, I'm talking about it on YouTube channel.
So he's like, hey, y'all, we started an own convention.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
This is this.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
And then from there the dynam was Mark's like, all right, look,
I'm gonna focus on making sure the group stays big
and gets bigger and bigger, making viral videos. I don't
really care too much about the organization of the event.
I just wanted to be good. I said, all right
that I don't really care too much about doing the videos.
I'm gona figure out how to do this convindious stuff.
And so that was a dynamic. At first it was already,
see the group, I'm working on building an event, and
(44:33):
then eventually.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
It's like, oh, you might as well get moving with us.
So I don't caay, I move with you with y'all
so we.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Can kind of have because I was kind of living
in my car at the time, and he's like, well,
y'all can just stay with us and we can just
figure this out. And then from there, as you start
to live in the house, now they're making videos and
they're like.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Hey, John, can you come help us up this video?
You might as well get in here. And I was
like all right, cool.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
And then from there he's like, man, like, I really
am to start paying you because you know you're helping
for this to take a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
And then from there that's when I became a member
of the group. Unintentionally, right. I didn't. I didn't ask
to be in the group. He was like, hey, man,
you can helping us. You wanted the seven.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
The fans started recognizing me as a fit, me as
a seven person. And then so now I'm the group
and I'm doing this and I say all I have
to say is that's how. That's how it got to
the point it was. And then boom we did the
first event. It was eight hundred people. We thought it
was about to be ten thousand. We're like, dang, we failed.
I think it broke even. And somebody was like, no,
breaking even is not feeling breaking us. You can do
(45:30):
you can do your two. That was something I knew.
I said, oh, you're right, we can't do you too.
And that's how it started. That's how I got in
the position. So I really got in this position by
I won't say accident, but I gotten here by just
the grace of God.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
I feel like, man, I'm so glad to ask that question.
That was a remarkable story.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
Yeah, that's I could get to, like everybody know in
order how it happened. I never asked is sometimes it
was about just being in the right position at the
right time.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
And you came with value and come just asking for
something came a value.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
That's the one thing I didn't ask for nothing. And
I and I took a chance on myself.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
I quit my job and I loved in the car
for a little while because I really believed in what
was happening.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
And yeah, man, I think that I use myself as
proof of motivation. That like is really just crazy.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
Just to even just talk about it now, it really
makes me not emotional, but it makes me really understand
the value and just believing in yourself, and it really
makes me want to fight harder for the aspect of
what we call dream car. Like, I took a chance
and I seen some dudes doing some stuff that I
always wish I could do with my friends, and they
(46:42):
set me into that easily, and we turned that energy
into creating this space for other people who potentially might
be in that same situation that I was in eight
years ago. And I think because we are bringing those
type of people around is why we've been successful, because
we are Our product that we're selling is simply chasing
(47:03):
your dream. At the end in the grand scheme of
things like people like I don't watch anything might no
like this is a dream card. So yeah, that's that
end of my myologue.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
I love it, y'all.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Look forward to seeing you for the Blaby to Create
a Summer in Partnership Dream con happening Friday, October thirty
first at afro Tech and H ten Excited I see
Sue Jonathan Newt, thank you so much to join me.
Afrotech Conference is back and return to Eighthtown, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seventh through thirty first, twenty twenty five
(47:35):
the George R. Brown Convention Center. For years, Afrotech has
been to go to experience for black tech innovators, founders, engineers, creators, investors.
The twenty twenty five is shaping up to be the
biggest year yet, though with fortyzery attendees expected, this year's
conference will feature five days of dynamic programming across six
curator stages, discovery to executive leadership. Join us to hear
(47:57):
from industry leaders at the forefront of change, learn from
top ten engineers and designers, and connect with recruiters from
nearly two hundred companies. This year, we're digging deeper into
what's next with tracks exploring AI and machine learning, mad
tech and health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech, and much more.
Whether you'relaunching your first startup, pivoting into a new road,
or scaling as an execu it's something here for you.
(48:19):
Take us and moving fast to keep your spot now
at afrotech Conference dot Com. Black Tech Green Money is
a production of Blavity afro Tech on the Black Effect
podcast Networking Night Hire Media, and it's produced by Morgan
Debonne and me Well Lucas, with the addigital production support
by Kate McDonald, Sarah Ergan and Jada McGee. Special thank
you to Michael Davis and Lovebeach. Learn more about my
(48:40):
guessing other tech. This shot is an innovators at afrotech
dot Com. The video version of this episode will drop
to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube, so tap in
enjoy your black tech, green money. Share us to somebody,
Go get your money, Peace and love,
Afrotech Conference is back and return to AIDS Town, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seven through thirty first, twenty twenty five
at the George R. Brown Convention Center. For years, Afrotech
has been to go to experience for black tech innovators, founders, engineers,
creators and investors. In twenty twenty five is shaping up
to be the biggest year yet, though with fortyzery to
(00:20):
ten hees expected. This year's conference will feature five days
of dynamic programming across six curator stages from discovery to
executive leadership. Join us to hear from industry leaders at
the forefront of change, learn from top ten engineers and designers,
and connect with recruiters from nearly two hundred companies. This year,
we're digging deeper into what's next with tracks exploring AI
and machine learning, med tech and health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech,
(00:45):
and much more. Whether you're launching your first startup, pivoting
into a new role, or scaling as an execut there's
something here for you. Tickets are moving fast to keep
your spot nowt at afrotech Conference dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We'll look us.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Here at Black Tech, Green Money. I'm excited about today
show because this guy is part of one of the
funniest collectives on the internet. Jonathan Newton's co founder and
chief creative Officer at dream Con and a member of
our DC world, which is all about making the fans laugh.
That's what they're about. Their job is to make you
laugh and provide entertainment through skids, vlogs, short films, and more.
(01:22):
Dream Con, for its part, is a premier entertainment convention
founded by artc World dream Con unit's enthusiasts globally to
celebrate gaming, anime, sports, film, music, and pop culture while
fostering inclusivity, and it sensed to belonging.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Welcome John, Hey, Hey, thanks for the introduction. Absolutely to
be here, man, I think it's gonna be good. And
what you're doing as well.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, yes, and that's why we wanted you here to
talk about what you're doing. So I think I want
to start here. So in high school, friends told you guys,
and I've heard it even also, like anime is not cool.
It's cool now, but I it was not cool you
know when we were coming up. How much of dream
kind is about reclaiming that narrative and provide you know,
(02:10):
proving that black people and black fans of anime, you know,
have a have a space in geek culture.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I think with dream Con, you know, it's it's a
cultivation of all the people that either dealt.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
With similar you know hard then in high school, middle.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
School or whatever, where you know, it wasn't as mainstream
or as open minded to just be into these certain
things once you got you know, once you get first
past a certain age, you know how you just know
how we be sometime man, you too old to be
this and that you feel me and so you know,
when you get to under those type of social pressures,
(02:50):
you tend to keep it to yourself, stay more reserved
for those specific things, and really just indulge in those
things in your own.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Private space at home.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
So with dream Time, it's really cool to see that,
you know, we were able to use that same energy
things that we've dealt with while we was growing up
and really just provide a location, a space for all
those people with life planning individuals to all just kind
of show up together and just be open with it
when you know, because you know, I think growing up
(03:19):
they thinking like we got to keep to ourselves. Well,
now I'm in a space of other people who've all
done the same thing. Hold on, like, we don't got
to do that no more. And now the world is
kind of like acknowledging it, you know, it's impossible to
ignore it. So yeah, I think that's really a big
part of dream kind of how it got started, and yeah,
support of it.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah. And so you've gone from numbers of eight hundred
people in twenty eighteen to thirty four thousand just this
past year. And so when did you realize that you
had gone from just a convention to like this was
a movement or the culture.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I think, I mean really honestly, for us, we felt
like that was like that way from the very beginning,
you know. And but I think once we kind of
transitioned to going from Austin, I mean from we was
in like the Dallas area and we moved to Austin,
and it was like a really large jump, and you know,
(04:18):
we were from like six thousand people to twenty so
it was like a really big growth and we really
were like, man, like, you know, they're gonna stick around
for a while, right, So at first, when we had
the first year to a hunder people, we expected I
just transparently. The first year, we thought we were going
to have ten thousand people. So whenever we had eight hundred,
you're like, oh, man, I guess it really wasn't you know,
(04:39):
as many people as we thought. But we just kept
sticking to it and it just started growing and growing
and growing and made it.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
What made you stick with it when you thought it
was gonna be ten thousand you get eight hundred most people, you.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Know, Yeah, I would say that the thing that made
us stick with it was the fact that, you know,
on the contents side, like even though in person, you know,
we only had injury people us as a collective, and
as with our content our channel, like our videos were
going viral, they were hitting people was in comments telling
(05:12):
us like man, like I.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Remember I was doing this, or hey, I wish I
had friends that were into these things. So like we're
looking at online everybody talked about it, and in person,
you know, we were thinking like, okay, well maybe it's
just simple the fact that you know, it's.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
The first year.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Like people, you know, even myself, it's like if I
see something popping up, I might not go to person,
you know, I need to see how it is looking first,
let me see what the feedback is. Why, you know,
spend that money on a flight or hotel.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
You feel me?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
So I think it was just the the in person
one showed us that there is a space for it.
But online, what we were doing, we were going to
such an alarming rate that we knew that the people
out there, and I think it was just a matter
of time. Was kind of our thought process.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
You know, there are other conventions and confresces that touch
on this subject matter, and you know, and I wonder,
like what your unique value proposition was, like you there
there was a quote I found from you guys where
you said, originally we were planning on visiting anime comic
conventions as guests to meet and interact with our fans
in a fun setting. However, many of these conventions, except
(06:17):
for a small few, were either ignoring us or turning
us away and saying we wouldn't fit in. So we
decided from there instead to make excuses, or instead instead
of making excuses or complaints, we would create our own, bigger,
better convention. What was it about those other conventions that
they were not seeing?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
So, I mean, before we even knew about the convenient space,
before we had ever even been talent, right, It was
more about the diversity, the lack of diversity that they
had in their rosters. I think it was just like, Okay,
we know obviously from top of the shows.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Like Dragon ball Z or Ugo, all the all.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
The classic shows that you know, we grew up seeing
on TV that they're going to bring these certain voice
actors in certain time levels there naturally. But I think
that because there was a lack of acknowledgement that our
community as well were into these things that reflected within
their their rosters or just across the board, we just
(07:15):
felt like, man like, even us we had like I
think at the time, we had like a million subscribers, right,
and we were I got the million off of just
the content that you know, Mark was creating to build
this fan base around these certain things like anime and gaming,
all these different things. So for us, we were just
definitely like, well, we feel we definitely feel like we're
big enough to be able to show up in these
(07:35):
spaces and the talent in our way, like, yeah, we
not in the shows, but we are actually driving the
culture towards the same niche area as well. And I
think that you know, it's just something that it was
an earlier time. I think that maybe they just I'm
(07:57):
not going to just blame anyone specifically, right, but I
think that it was definitely something that we were like, well,
we're not about to fight for you know, we're not
going to fight for a spot.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
We're going to just make our own. Yeah too much. Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
For sure. When yeah, when you're in the middle of
these plannings, you're playing dream con or more RDC projects,
how do you know whether you're making a decision as
a fan, as an executive, or as like an architect
of the culture, Like, how do you ensure that you're
not just you know, being narrow minded in one of
(08:31):
those respects.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah, I mean I think that we are luckily, we
are very socially aware of just everything, right, you know,
because we're in a group, because we you know, have
the opportunity to speak to each other and have like
seven different perspectives, you you know, from that level as
a group, we use a lot of those things within
(08:54):
our content, and I think that's why we've been able
to stay around so long, because we're able to adapt
to what's.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Going on on the world. You know.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
We also make content around so many different avenues and
so many different perspectives, Like we're not just making content
or Internet.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
We're doing gaming, black culture, sports, you know, music.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
We have so many different things where we have a
viral videos in each area to where it's like, hey, look,
were staying around you feel me like whatever's going on?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Were doing that?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
And I think that using that energy in a visit
perspective is like, hey, as a business, what can we
do to make sure not only that this is something
that can have longevity and stay diverse as wrong as
well as well as like just thaying around, but also
acknowledging the fact that we are accustomed to creating projects
(09:44):
working with lots of different people. So when you scale
ITT to dream Powd, we have an amazing team of
individuals who are a part of us on the outside.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
They're not in the content room.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Sometimes when you're working on content and everybody lives in
one house, you can get very close minded on that.
But we brought in like other Dreamers who had similar
backstories to us, but they work in professional areas and
different backgrounds, whether it's accounting, finance, all this different stuff
that keeps us open minded and I think that's kind
of where the success has led because we're not only
(10:16):
just going off of our own individual thought process.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
We have like a solid team of people who, you know,
I will.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Say transparently, when we first started, there's a lot of
people came on just voluntarily.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
It wasn't like hey, you got to pay me to do.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
It was people reaching out to us wanting to be
a part is because they acknowledged what we had. And
he look, uh, you know, I got a full time job.
You know, I just graduated college. I just got my
massive degree. But like I see what I got going on.
You know what I'm saying, You know, I do want
to like where can I fit in? So then yeah, exactly.
So then you see that and you're like, okay, well cool,
(10:49):
you can fit in what you what you do? Like, well,
I just got you know, I'm a CPA. It's all bad. Yeah,
Like I don't know nothing about no finances. Let's learn
from this person who can teach us. I think the
best thing we can have is having smart people around
us who are helping us.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Learn as well on the way and not having too
much ego.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
You know, I think a lot of creatives just assume
Bigger is always better, you know, and then and obviously
you know, getting bigger is the goal in many of
these things. Bigger shows, bigger conventions.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Bigger audiences, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
But you know, bigger comes with costs. Also, it's not
just better full stop. Can you talk about some of
the things that people may not realize are the other
side of bigger, but you typically don't see it until
you're bigger.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
I think, Yeah, when we were smaller, I think a
lot of the decisions were weighted way easier than.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
What they are now.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I think back then, it's like, okay, we want to like,
I think bigger is better, but it just depends on
what your definition of better is. Because it's like, more
people means we need to, you know, invest more into
security and more intelligicities. I mean, if we messed up
on any type of program and then that causes a
large chain reaction, that means that any little MISTAKEY potentially
(12:06):
make means that on social on social media now there's
a big, bigger role to that. You gotta factor all
those different things in the same way that you know
it's a double sworde and the same way that the
community has gathered together to uplift us to be successful.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
They can also tear you down if you don't honor
what they do. And they knowledge.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I mean, I'm sure if anyone that has a presence
or deal with this knows that.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
But dream Plounce started in a timeframe, you know, still
early social media where that was, like people are still
figuring it out. And I think now y'all know twenty
twenty five, like we know the power of social.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Media, and.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
We just why don't you just you know, keep it
respectful and listen to your audience.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
That's a big thing. You can give more.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
People, Like I said, more security, you got a factor
and now you getting getting bigger partnership situations and conversations
now as hold on, we need some uh some better
legal we need better this is this because now it's
a lot going on, and I think it's just all
about just being prepared and some of those people who
came in earlier, who invested in earlier, who had skilled areas,
(13:09):
get to learn alongside you.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
So I think.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
We're very blessed and we're very happy to be getting bigger.
But there is a big part of being able to
adjust to all those things that come with being bigger,
especially in a small time fl Like I said, when
we went from the one year where we went from
six thousand to twenty thousand, man, it was like we
didn't know what was getting ourselves into.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
So yeah, so you've got content, conventions, partnerships, intellectual properties,
a lot of moving pieces. I imagine there's got to
be like some core principles and things that you always
evaluate opportunities against when you're making decisions. Can you talk
about how you, you know, make that decision making process happen.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I mean, it really depends.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
I think that for us, we definitely have it very
strict guideline for our standards of what we want to
what we want and who we want to associate with. Regardless,
it's not always just about the money you have the money.
You know, money could be great, but if it's not
a good fit, then we do feel that our attends
will be able to see that, you know, And I
think that's just around our brand.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
We're very very down to earth, We're very very like hey, like.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
What is natural to us on our platform and I
think that, Yeah, the conversations are definitely just kind of
more so like waying opportunities to keep us on the
original goal. I think the originally like the good thing
about dream Time, you know what I love is because
you know the event itself, it's called dream time.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
It's built off of dreams.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
And I think when you think about dreams, that is
something that that's relatable to everybody. I think a lot
of people think like, oh, I don't watch anime. I'm
not you know, there's no reason for me to go
to dream Time when you show up there and you're like,
oh wait, there is an anime, but there's gaming.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Oh they got music.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Oh they're playing the All Star Celemty basketball game, football,
all these different things and just lack excellence all in
one space of people just being themselves. And I think
that when we come of dealing with different people, we
really make that notion pretty clear from the beginning, like hey, look,
we would love to have your part in this, but
we kind of take the creative control on that and
(15:16):
be like, hey, look here's how we feel it will
work for you.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Here's what we're not gonna do. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
You got to really just kind of stick your foot
down and be like, hey, look like this, because if
you have a bad partnership, the brand can't get blamed.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
We are you know, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, so we're like, hey, it don't matter with the
money because y'all can mess up the money in the future.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
So y'all cast up in the future won't get blamed.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
You know, you talk. I've heard you use the phrase
like world building, like your intentional on building, you know,
world building around what you have going on, and not
just in media, but events also. And so with that approach,
it can't just be about a one two, three, four
DA account convention. How do you how do you build
(16:00):
something that's like three hundred and sixty five days a
year it's a living thing versus just like a conference.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yeah, and it's crazy you bring it up, because that's
been like a really reoccurring discussion right.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Now for us.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
It's like, okay, like we have this amazing product, right
it comes around once a year, you know, but how
do we make it to where you know, people keep
it on their mind a little bit longer throughout the year,
Like what are some other things we can do throughout
the year to build towards the type of it? And yes,
the event is just getting bigger on the weekend. But
what else can we do? And so I think the
(16:33):
biggest thing right now when it comes to products is
really focusing on a great storyline. Obviously, we always storify
everything because of just our content. We're just all storytellers, right,
So how do you apply a really great story to
this event itself? Because everybody that's coming to the event
are all here because they are very fans of these
(16:55):
great anime stories, right, and so you can kind of
create an experience for them to make them feel like
they're even more part of the process leading up to
it and afterwards. And I think that when people get
more invested into the story of the product before and after,
then that gives us as a company more opportunities to
do things before and after as well, to keep it
(17:16):
on their mind throughout the year, whether that's like doing meetups,
doing you know, little satellite events. You know, maybe we
can take certain components of each category that's appointed dream
Con and do it in different cities, right, Like Okay,
maybe we can go to Atlanta and do something that's
just sports, and then that ties into the main event.
Maybe we set up a whole gaming circuit where Okay
(17:38):
online all the aspiring esport gamers. You know, we're going
to have you all compete for six months and the
top sixteen players get to get flown out to Dream
con right, And so now you now we have different
incentives going out throughout the year, or maybe we branch
outs and separate IP. Maybe we start our charity foundation
and we do different community things throughout the year that
all still tie up to our main things to where
(17:59):
it's almost like it's like Dreamcole would be the super Bowl, right,
you got the whole you know, in NFL, you got
the league to have it all the regular season and
you get the playoffs and then boom super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
That's what I feel like we can create.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Dream pac could be the anime Black NERD super Bowl,
and we can have regular season of other activities. So
that's a bit way I can put it.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, I wonder like, what were the indicators that told
you guys early on that a convention would work, Because
I think about there's so many, you know, social media influencers,
people who may be funny, they may be beautiful, they
may have some sort of attraction online that they put
out a product and they can't sell nothing, or they
(18:41):
try to show up somewhere and ain't nobody coming to
see them. So what was it about the following that
you built online that said, you know what, people will
get a flight, they will get on the bus, they
will get you know, a rental card, they will get
a hotel room, stay on somebody's fot or to come
(19:01):
see us. What was it about that?
Speaker 3 (19:04):
I will say for the group, the collective itself, because
just transparently before while it was happening, I wasn't even
a part of the group yet, right, I was actually
just a fan.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I was a fan first, and my.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Partner Mark, he is the one that I founded the group, right,
So I was a fan and I was like, Man,
I'm at home, I'm thinking like, man, I wish I
have some friends who could just get it together like them,
because I feel like we could do.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Some stuff right.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
And so luckily I was blessed to be in a
situation where I end up getting closer and we ended
up being able to work together and then eventually get
to dream time. But even just using myself as an example,
I was like, well, I was willing to travel and
do these things to get closer to some people who
inspire me. What is to stop these other people around
the world to potentially do that. And if you see
where I'm going with this, so it's like and then
(19:48):
on top of that, right, the differing the difference with RDC,
I would say, is that we were making content around
this black anime game, I mean subculture very early and
when it was still like in its infancy, right, and
so you know, being credited as one of the main
people who really started to make black people and anime
(20:12):
be popular. Not that they didn't like it, we publicized it.
We were a driving force to men to be like, hey,
look like whenever we you know, the earlier via our
videos were going on YouTube and they was sitting twenty
million US and going to Japan, people in the commers
would be like, oh wow, Like yeah, you know, I
do like NME, but I didn't even know, Like I
didn't know people was talking about it like this, Like
(20:33):
I didn't know there were other people like that. And
we were like yeah, and they see that we're getting
successful office and now they feel a little, you know,
a little more confident to talk about it online. Now
we're starting to get these little comunities on Facebook, make
people start in groups and clubs and collections.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
All these in the things, right, So then.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
You see that it's almost like everybody was just waiting
for somebody to break through, and once they broke through,
they can look and say, all right, been cool, I
could talk.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
About it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
And it's cool right because now you know, even with this,
we're getting popular off of that, we're getting acknowledgment from
different celebrities. Now you've started to get rappers talk about it.
Now people you go back through and it's like people
idolizing these rappers and whatnot. And so even then they're like, oh,
it's cool to talk about it. I'mna put some of
that in my music. So now it's spread into music.
And then you go to sports. You see people in
the end zone and they're doing like to may and
(21:18):
maya move and different things, and oh snap, I'll look
up to athletes too. So now everybody's getting in on
it. It's getting more acceptable. And I say all that to
say that because everyone was holding this in for all
their youth, middle school, high school, and college.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Right. The first person that was like, hey all, look,
I understand how y'all.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Was because we was there and look where we're going
right now, were about to create this live event. Y'all
should pull up and meet other like minded people out there,
because now it's quite a hard definement. And I think
that that alone gave us the success to bring it because,
like I said, it's called green card. And the thing
with the word dream is that dreams are it is
(22:00):
something that's that is relatable across the boards. No, there's
no specific individual that it's it's something that's relatable for
everybody to want to chase there. And so when you
by coming to dream time, you feeling like you're taking
a step closer towards your dream, which is something that
people will invest in buying a flight and getting a
hotel or you know, if I'm at a job right
(22:21):
now and I'm working by nine to five and I'm
really unhappy and I see some people that look up
to are doing some stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I really want to do, then you know, I might
be willing to.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Sleep on the floor in the hotel. If I need
to mean is that I can meet some people. So
I think that's our foundation. It's the foundation of that
the success after we have each year, if they're getting biggers,
getting our heights and it's becoming popular. I think that's
the key to us that makes us different. We're not
just selling like some merch you know. I think the
merchant is like, all right, cool, you buy the shirt,
throw it on the floor. This is we're selling an
(22:51):
experience in a dream.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
So dream Con isn't just about building one weekend of
community events each year. Is about extending that ecosystem into
new spaces and platforms. And this year, yes, we're proud,
you know at Blavity to partner with you know you
guys on the Creator Summit at Afrotech in a couple
of weeks and the first of its kind of experience
designed to empower black digital entrepreneurs and creators. This is
(23:15):
a one day event happening at Afrotech in Houston, bringing
together TikTokers, YouTubers, podcasters, twitch streamers, esports, talent and more.
And so we're gonna do workshops, panels, fireside chats and
the goal is to help creators turn influence into income,
grow authentic communities, and build sustainable businesses in the creator economy.
(23:40):
So talk about with all that, how you and Blavity
designed your programming to be both visionary and practical for
the next wave of black creators.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, I think that, you know, I think with Morgan,
you know, the kind of what you you know, what
y'all got going on. Obviously it's more center our tech,
but I think that tech in itself plays a heavily
strong part in the success of a Dragon Force for
our community as well. Right, you know, techn applies Tech
(24:14):
applies everything at this point. Right, so when it comes
to being able to watch you know, people who developed
the stream services for people to watch, and people developing
the technology to play these games and do these things
and work in these spaces. It's all. It's really the
glue to everything for us. And so it just was
a and then on top of the fact that you
guys are doing it in this you know, same situation.
Y'all was in Austin. We was in Austin, then y'all
(24:36):
moved to Houston. Then we had to move to Houston,
and you know, and we're dealing with a demographic of people.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
You know, it's it just makes sense for us.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
So then from there it's like, okay, well this makes sense, right,
how do we you know, we're not competing against each other.
It's just like, hey, look y'all got y'all audience, and
we have ours. How can we come together and amplify
as a whole? Right, So I say all, I have
to say that whate of our strong suits for dream
Find as well. Obviously we got past the categories of anime,
game and sports music, TV film.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
But the core of our side is the creator space. Uh.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
We credit the success of dream Find heavily on their
careers because in the earlier days, we wasn't you know,
when we were starting, we wasn't able to go get
the Japanese voice actors or these other you know, the
white voice actors of this. We just had to be like, hey, look,
we like na game and we liked all these things,
and it's just us, y'all, y'all fans of us, pull up,
(25:31):
you know. We reached out to our other creator friends
who had audience as well, Hey can y'all you know, y'all,
can you pull up and we can do this and
set up the program and just to really to bring
the people. So the foundation of dream Clind was built
off the creators. That's the mem one part on why
it even started, right or to get it things. So
I say all, I have to say that using that
(25:53):
same energy when it comes to the creative space right now,
when we look at what Blavity is doing, and there's
a large creator aspect to tech as well, there's a
whole bunch of like it's I would I would credit
to in all levels. I didn't seen so many tech
people who are in the creator space.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
And so for us, what we want.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
To do is find a way on bringing our expertise
in that creator space and compliment the Blavity Atho tech
space as well. And yeah, I mean I feel like
it's it's pretty clear at this point, like we just
want to find a way how can we amplify Athro
tech and provide the things that we've learned over all
this time in exchange for stuff in the technology that
(26:35):
we want to learn from market. And I think that's
what makes this, you know, this partnership such an amazing
theme because it's just really naturally integrated.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It's not about money, it's not about all these things.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
It's a matter of just us recognizing each other and
saying like, hey, y'all, like.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
We both are in the.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Same space and you know, have like how can we
make this make sense to everybody that's what I'm excited about.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, and I love that you position this that you know,
I get the most pervasive question I get about afro tech,
you know, and people are considering going They're like, you know, well,
I'm not in tech, and I'm like, you probably are
in tech, but just because you just don't know it,
and like you could be in healthcare, you're still utilizing
technology to do what you do. You could be, you know,
a barber, beautician. You probably are still using technology to
(27:19):
do what you do. And so I love that you
position that, And so I want to I want to
talk about Houston real quick, because we have moved to Houston.
You know, we moved Houston last year, we're there this year,
and you guys moved to Houston also, And what is
the difference in that? What what difference did that make
in the ability to grow and scale this in a
way that mattered to the mission, Like us moving moving
(27:43):
to Houston.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
What I shout in Houston, I'll say, shout out to
Houston because the energy and I was, I mean, you've
seen Austin and Houston as well, like us, No.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Austin to you as watching it y'all here too.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I just think that, you know, I lead the reason
why we had to leave, or reasons out of our control,
right with the changes in Austin and that, and so
what we learned doing in Austin. Austin was great, but
when we came to Houston, I feel like the energy
was just just a different level, right, that was more
more relatable. Houston's way more culture, And that's just the
fact it's more culture.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
It's just it fits well.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
With our demographic and people there. And on top of that,
Houston itself kind of even extending the handout they showed up,
you know, and even right now as I'm going through
this whole New year, playing like I didn't have so
many different relationships and connections and people just talking about
dream Con like you know, like stars in their eyes
and just being like, Wow, I didn't.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Even know that this was happening.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
And it's really giving us an extra fire to want
to make sure that this next upcoming event is as
great as possible, because I think the Houston community allies
and the Houston's one thing about our sinities is very
diverse as well, and I think that Houston is diverse
and it aligns really well. And on top of all
that like there's just you know, there's just there's just
(29:08):
more relatableness from that. I think that just makes it
just work better in my opinion. I think this last
year the difference. You know, we were a little bit bigger.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
At a bit bigger, yeah, a lot bigger.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Yeah, you know, I have to doubt player. But we
had city officials come out there. I ain't never I
ain't know city officials who care about coming to an
event like that, right, And so they're out there and
giving their certificates and stuff, and I was like, oh,
and then I see them and I'm like, oh, you
know there's some some brothers like us you've been mew
the's even more of like dang, like we can really
just understand each other already off the bat, you know.
(29:42):
So that's what That's what I'm aside about being here
and non biasedly I am from Houston, Borner raise, right.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
So so that was just an extra acting to the cake.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
How are you thinking about how AI is all could
impact conventions you know and content? You know? So I
think it two things creating opportunities. How would AI create
opportunities for you in the in the live event space
and potentially some of the downsides to it.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
That's a tough question because I just feel like with AI,
there's some like I just feel like AI can just
be applied to so many different areas. I would say
that I can see the pros and cons depending on
which air of it. Right now, I think for AI
like it can help definitely make things move quicker, right,
help us gets turned answers quicker.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Whether it's like using things like CHATCHBT, like.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Just the little things of learning that we had to
like go, you know, extra lengths to learn and understand
about it is definitely being adjusted to adjusted to that
direction to make it easier even for myself, right And
I think that, you know, there is a kind of
the I think the scariness of it is the unknown
of what it can potentially be in the future. I
(30:55):
don't know exactly how AI will necessarily affect the event
space from an overall grand scheme of things in the future.
I don't know if AI can potentially recreate an event
like the dream con you know, maybe who knows, But
that's not really something that I feel like.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I can predict at this moment. I just think that.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
There is depending on what space I know, like you know,
with dream con we deal with a lot of original artists,
a lot of musician, you know, athletes, like, there's a
lot of different entertainment and I think the how AI
affects entertainment as a whole will would probably yes, directly
affect dream Coon in the future. But I really don't know,
(31:38):
like in what way yet, And I think that's just
something that you know, just what time can tell. I
don't think anyone really can know. All we have is
really more so predictions, and I think, yeah, we just
got to adjust and see how it goes.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Honestly, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
What's a dream you're still chasing that people might not expect.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
A dream that I'm chasing, So I would say, I mean,
the number one thing for me is, you know, one
of the things I want to be is a producer, right,
and I'm not talking about like just a music producer.
I think I want to be a producer in entertainment.
I think that dream Pind is a good stepping stone
for me to gain and acquire tools to become that
type of person in the long run. You know, Like
(32:21):
I said, I think for me, the most appealing aspect
to that is the fact that I want to be
the person who could potentially work on projects, you know,
fund projects, you know. Pat people come to me with
whatever dream or great ideas they have and it's like, hey, John,
I really believe in this, man, Like do you believe
in into?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
What can you do?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
And then how can I come in and support that aspect?
And I think with dream can it gives me a
good experience to do that because in a way, right
like I always compare a dream pind like a movie,
Like right now, if this, if dream Clond was a movie,
I'm pretty much the producer slash showrunner, you know what
I'm saying, Like I'm over here, like I'm looking talent.
Those are my actors, you feel me, And I'm getting
(33:03):
my assistant director. That's you know some of our director
level executives, right, you know, we're creating the release state.
You know, we got to like, all right, the movie
drops on next summer, that's when the event starts, and
then we have the marketing rollout leading up towards it,
the marketing roll out and leaving towards the event. So
in a lot of ways, there's a lot of different
things that compare to that. But for me, one of
my things is becoming a producer, getting some more other
(33:25):
projects under my belt, whether that's in film, music, you know, television,
all that. Like I really believe that I often be
that person. And also just to you know, with my
partner Mark, he you know, his dream is to become
or he is. You know, he's working on being a
director and writer. Those are his main things. That's why
(33:46):
he started to Collective in the first place, because he
wanted He created the group to give himself a stepping
stone to.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Get closer to his dream of being a writer, director.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
And so my goal is to hopefully have dream con
give me a stepping stone to become a producer, so
I can circle back and we can work together and
be like, hey, lo, look here's what we created. Thank
you for giving me this opportunity. You know I didn't learn,
I didn't tee up on the producer side. You know,
maybe one day we can work on projects together outside
of dream Time.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
So that's my dream.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, one last question, I think the you you talked
earlier about how like like you came into something that
was already starting to pop, like you, like you weren't
originally one of those part of the collective, but you
were a fan and you found your way in partnership
with these guys as part of the team. There's there's
(34:34):
a ton of people who might be fans of you know,
other creators of the influencers, et cetera, who are like,
you know, I would love to be on that ride,
and they believe that they have some value to provide.
What was how did it happen that you know, there
are there's this thing that's over here popping and you're like, man,
(34:56):
I want to be part of that.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
What was that?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
What was the bridge to number one? Even getting them
to pay attention to you?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
And or you?
Speaker 1 (35:05):
How did you How did you get a flag big
enough to get the pay attention?
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah, I think, I mean it's not a short answer,
but I can give this as I can, right, you
know I think the so yeah, like I was working
as a leasing agent right out of apartment community. I
was working, you know, my nine to five, and I
was just a fan watching videos right and then. And
so they are the first people who let me understand
(35:31):
somebody who was a reserved nerd right that people were
making content.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Like this and going viral and get in love.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
And I was like oh wow, okay, And you know,
if you really want to understand the space, there's like
different levels to it because I think back then people
had just a very specific archetype of person that they
think people who watch anime are, you know, just to
be transparent, right, And so with Mark, to me, he
was a person where in high school I would never
(35:59):
have guessed that he was in the end.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
He was like the cool dude. He was in the middle.
He was cool with the athletes, the hoodlums, you feel me.
But he was often cool with the.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Nerd cities that y'all like, hey, I'm in the middle.
So every refuse. It's just a right person that was
ab to bring everybody. And I think that that type
of archetype for this type of space was I didn't
know that was a thing, right, so, and I think
that was a big credit to where when he was
making content in the earlier days and we was making
the hood videos, he was making the sports videos, were
making the music and doing the anime things and him
(36:30):
really really loving the anime part, but having like a
different archetype it was very it made him stand out
more back then to where now you're getting both communities
now you're getting us watching him, and then you got
the other side being like, oh, he's just funny, Like
this video is just funny, right. So I say often
say that as me when I'm working, When I was
working my job and noticing that it made me a fan,
(36:51):
so then it inspired me. Dream is a very big
part for him. So it inspired me to try and
make my own content at the time. So at the
time I was alan he doing it, man, I really like, I'm.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Sick of this.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Let me just go ahead and try and see if
I can do my own things so I won't get
try to get my friends, hey, y'all, like we could
make our own stuff too.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
It didn't play out.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
You know, it's harder to get people to kind of
buy in on the dream when they don't really see
the full vision in the end. And I think that
was something that put me down because I didn't feel
like I had people who were trying to push towards
that as far as I did. And so I say,
all I have to say, that's kind of how I
started getting to the mindset of like knowing that there
is something more for myself.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
So I was just a follower. You know. Sometimes they'd
be working on a new videos.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Sometimes they'd be like, hey, y'all, we're looking for X
amount of people because we're trying to make this new video.
And sometime, you know, it'd be thousands when people responding.
So I send my little email or my message. Never
really got a response, right, and then one time they're like, oh,
one time they did respond and like, hey, can you
send a picture? Yeah, you know, I theyre trying to
see what the person looks like potentially, So I send
(37:53):
my picture and they didn't respond. So I said my
picture they respond for that, and then they responded. So
then months passed by. I'm still tying figure out a
lot of life. I'm saving up money. I'm already in
my mind thinking like, yeah, let me just save up
enough money so I can leave this job and figure
out how to do it myself. And uh, A situation
happened with my sister. She's from Dallas, she's you know,
(38:13):
in PR like a reporter, and they were doing like
this this segment essentially about black creators. And I was
telling her that I that I followed these people, I'm
fans of these people who make content, and so she
was like, well, yeah, you can find a way to
get ahold of.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Them, maybe we can bring them on the news for
a segment as well. So that happens. So then I'm
over here, send an email. I'm like, hey, I'm you know.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
I send another email basically a proposal saying, hey, y'all, like,
I got this opportunity on the news in Dallas News.
I'm real big fans of y'all. I think I'll be
a good fit for this. And they ended up responding.
So they responding like, yeah, we'll do it, and I
was like, well, I just want to record some stuff
ahead of time to kind of a build this segment
out there. So they're like all right, fine, pull up.
(38:58):
So I was in Houston and they were in Dallas.
I was four hour drive, so I drove four hours
to Dallas. I showed up to the house on the like,
you know, like what's up. They're like okay, And basically
I was just kind of asking them questions about like
their background, basically trying to build something up to get
enough of enough stuff to pitch to my sisters to
(39:18):
push the station to bring them on there. So I
spent a whole day with them, just learning about them,
and it was just really cool to just see that
they were just regular people just like me who just
had a platform.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
You feel me.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
And although I already thought that, but you know, sometimes
people off came get a lot of different energy. So
that's how we got in the same space. And what's
and what's I was in what I thought it was
on the door, I was all right, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
So it was like I got my foot in the door.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
We started talking, but I wasn't like my attention wasn't
to do anything. I think what one thing is important
that some people will just reach out to these people
and just ask for everything. Sometimes you got to just
earn your way in there. You can't just be like, hey,
I I'm the dreamer too, actually be in the group.
It's more like, just make yourself valuable and when it's time.
(40:05):
When time happens, it happens, you feel me. It's whatever
God decides for you and your your future. I didn't
ask to be in the group. I never asked. I
never was like, hey can I be in the group.
I never said hey, can you put me in videos.
I've been waiting for the opportunities when they reached out
to and I made sure that I was one of
the first people to respond each time, and eventually you
feel me as we start, it becomes associates that.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
I was the one that I recognized.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
I was like, man, y'all beking these hit anime videos,
Like I feel like y'all should go to some of
these other events around Texas to be talent. I was
the one that came with that idea, right, and They're like,
I mean, sure, if you can. So then they basically
gave me the green to see if I could do it.
And this is I'm not a gouba, I'm just associate.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
So as I got it, I got it. You know.
So when I'm at work during my break.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
I'm out here putting together templates, I'm like, hey, I
basically was telling all these these businesses that I was
a manager. I was like, hey, I'm the management group
for this group called RDC. They had hit videos and
make stuff. I think that they be you know, I
think y'all was talentless is great, but it's not too diverse.
I think that you guys should have some people like
this year and so I've seen like a whole bunch
of emails, right, I sent all those emails, but only two.
(41:13):
Only two responded out of those things, right, So the
two that did respond, I was like, all right, bet,
I'm gonna work with it. So then whenever I got
the two that responded, you know, I hit them up.
I'm like, y'all, I got y'all books, I got a
gig for y'all. You feel me like, I was just
like I didn't know what I was doing. I was like,
I got y'all booked out, and then all bet, So
we went to these different events. We went to the
first event, the first one went to we did a panel,
(41:35):
never did a panel before. We're all right, let's just
let's just see. So we did the panel. Full room
was booked up, like fans were all in the room,
and we were like wow.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Like he was like, wow, I.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Didn't know that people was gonna show up in person
for us side of panel. And I was like, I
mean you should have because like y'all, y'all doing something crazy.
So that was that was episode one. So we did
that and they're like, Okay, that's cool. I appreciate you.
Don like, thank you for setting this all up. By
then I got you man, like I'm gonna keep looking
for some more gigs you feel me like whatever I
was calling at the time, while I'm going back home
(42:07):
to my job and working.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Right.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
So then the second place we went to was in Houston, ironically,
and we went to that one, but that one they
didn't really give us any kind of social promo. They
basically were just like, oh, yeah, y'all, can you know,
y'all can show up and just let people know your years,
you know what I'm saying. And we were just walking
around and as we were walking around the building, people
were just kind of like coming up to us, coming
up to us, coming up to us, and it was
(42:29):
crazy amount.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
People who were just in our faces.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Yeah, and I think that the it started to click
a little bit right, and we were like, dang, we
didn't even know people would show us love. So then
months pasted, right, I'm doing my thing, and then one
day Mark was like, man, like, I know you've kind
of been helping us with getting to these different events,
but like what if we just like just started our
(42:53):
own event. And I was like yeah, I was like, yeah,
y'all should like you know, He's like yeah, but like
like can you help, like can you help us do it?
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Right?
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Because I don't even know nothing about that. In my mind,
I'm like me either. I never ran a convention.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
But what I did know is that I was I
was tired of doing what I was doing, you feel me?
Speaker 3 (43:13):
So my answer right thing was, I got it. I'm
gonna figure it out. So we hung up the phone call.
I went on Google. I said, how do you start
a convention? And the rest is history from there, I
was just learning. I started to go, you know, I
started up with gofund me. I said, hey, look y'all, look,
we even trying to go to all these different events.
They kind of been turning us away. You feel me
like people are not really seeing the vision for it.
So we decided we just gonna start our own thing.
(43:35):
So I'm creating this go fund me to raise some money.
Just I ain't trying to be too much money. I
want to raise enough money so we can start a website,
we can get a graphic design and make a logo,
just to make something tangible for y'all to just digest.
So that way it don't it goes from just talking
to happening. So I got about like three thousand. I
just closed the go fund me. I got the logo
(43:58):
stuff going. I got the website going, and then we
started social media.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
And then from there Mark was like, oh, you got it.
I was like yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
He's like, all right, I'm talking about it on YouTube channel.
So he's like, hey, y'all, we started an own convention.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
This is this.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
And then from there the dynam was Mark's like, all right, look,
I'm gonna focus on making sure the group stays big
and gets bigger and bigger, making viral videos. I don't
really care too much about the organization of the event.
I just wanted to be good. I said, all right
that I don't really care too much about doing the videos.
I'm gona figure out how to do this convindious stuff.
And so that was a dynamic. At first it was already,
see the group, I'm working on building an event, and
(44:33):
then eventually.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
It's like, oh, you might as well get moving with us.
So I don't caay, I move with you with y'all
so we.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Can kind of have because I was kind of living
in my car at the time, and he's like, well,
y'all can just stay with us and we can just
figure this out. And then from there, as you start
to live in the house, now they're making videos and
they're like.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Hey, John, can you come help us up this video?
You might as well get in here. And I was
like all right, cool.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
And then from there he's like, man, like, I really
am to start paying you because you know you're helping
for this to take a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
And then from there that's when I became a member
of the group. Unintentionally, right. I didn't. I didn't ask
to be in the group. He was like, hey, man,
you can helping us. You wanted the seven.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
The fans started recognizing me as a fit, me as
a seven person. And then so now I'm the group
and I'm doing this and I say all I have
to say is that's how. That's how it got to
the point it was. And then boom we did the
first event. It was eight hundred people. We thought it
was about to be ten thousand. We're like, dang, we failed.
I think it broke even. And somebody was like, no,
breaking even is not feeling breaking us. You can do
(45:30):
you can do your two. That was something I knew.
I said, oh, you're right, we can't do you too.
And that's how it started. That's how I got in
the position. So I really got in this position by
I won't say accident, but I gotten here by just
the grace of God.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
I feel like, man, I'm so glad to ask that question.
That was a remarkable story.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
Yeah, that's I could get to, like everybody know in
order how it happened. I never asked is sometimes it
was about just being in the right position at the
right time.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
And you came with value and come just asking for
something came a value.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
That's the one thing I didn't ask for nothing. And
I and I took a chance on myself.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
I quit my job and I loved in the car
for a little while because I really believed in what
was happening.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
And yeah, man, I think that I use myself as
proof of motivation. That like is really just crazy.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
Just to even just talk about it now, it really
makes me not emotional, but it makes me really understand
the value and just believing in yourself, and it really
makes me want to fight harder for the aspect of
what we call dream car. Like, I took a chance
and I seen some dudes doing some stuff that I
always wish I could do with my friends, and they
(46:42):
set me into that easily, and we turned that energy
into creating this space for other people who potentially might
be in that same situation that I was in eight
years ago. And I think because we are bringing those
type of people around is why we've been successful, because
we are Our product that we're selling is simply chasing
(47:03):
your dream. At the end in the grand scheme of
things like people like I don't watch anything might no
like this is a dream card. So yeah, that's that
end of my myologue.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
I love it, y'all.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Look forward to seeing you for the Blaby to Create
a Summer in Partnership Dream con happening Friday, October thirty
first at afro Tech and H ten Excited I see
Sue Jonathan Newt, thank you so much to join me.
Afrotech Conference is back and return to Eighthtown, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seventh through thirty first, twenty twenty five
(47:35):
the George R. Brown Convention Center. For years, Afrotech has
been to go to experience for black tech innovators, founders, engineers, creators, investors.
The twenty twenty five is shaping up to be the
biggest year yet, though with fortyzery attendees expected, this year's
conference will feature five days of dynamic programming across six
curator stages, discovery to executive leadership. Join us to hear
(47:57):
from industry leaders at the forefront of change, learn from
top ten engineers and designers, and connect with recruiters from
nearly two hundred companies. This year, we're digging deeper into
what's next with tracks exploring AI and machine learning, mad
tech and health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech, and much more.
Whether you'relaunching your first startup, pivoting into a new road,
or scaling as an execu it's something here for you.
(48:19):
Take us and moving fast to keep your spot now
at afrotech Conference dot Com. Black Tech Green Money is
a production of Blavity afro Tech on the Black Effect
podcast Networking Night Hire Media, and it's produced by Morgan
Debonne and me Well Lucas, with the addigital production support
by Kate McDonald, Sarah Ergan and Jada McGee. Special thank
you to Michael Davis and Lovebeach. Learn more about my
(48:40):
guessing other tech. This shot is an innovators at afrotech
dot Com. The video version of this episode will drop
to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube, so tap in
enjoy your black tech, green money. Share us to somebody,
Go get your money, Peace and love,
Host
Will Lucas
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