Ep. 217 Monk Inyang is CEO and founder of 1st Street Partnerships. He's is on a mission to make AI practical, accessible, and culturally relevant—especially for underrepresented communities.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Black Tech, Green Money. We'll look and see another episode.
I'm super excited to bring you. Monk Yang, CEO and
founder of First Street Partnerships. He's on a mission to
make AI more practical and that's definitely needed in our
community right now, make it more accessible and culturally relevant,
especially for underrepresented communities. Through First Street Partnerships, he helps businesses,
(00:21):
leaders community harness the power of AI for growth, creativity,
and economic opportunity. Blending those strategic expertise that he brings
with storytelling and innovation. He's empowering people to use AI
with confidence and intention. Welcome to the show, Monk In Yang.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you, Bill, Thank you appreciated.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Definitely glad to have this conversation, big fan of the show.
Thank you for the space to talk about This is
a really important conversation.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
To add absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I want to start because you have spent a lot
of time working with students, middle school students, high school
students in the center, and so you also write books
for them. So what in what influenced you to work
with people, especially.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
In our communities at such a young age.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, yeah, I think you know. For me personally, I've
always been a creative at heart. I started writing fiction
when I was in third grade and selling it to
friends as a kind of sideway hustle to make some
money on, you know, in the side in middle school.
And I think that age range and that imagination and
(01:30):
what you few is possible and the way you view
the world is really special and so connecting with students
at that age and I kind of.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Try and bring that to the work that I do now.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Of really like imagination and like your highest level of creativity,
whether you consider yourself a creative or not, that's what
you know. When we tap into that, you see some
really special things. So I love being around that group
for that reason.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And you talked about fiction, which I love to read fiction,
especially near future fiction. Is you know, my particular genre.
How has the storytelling that ability that you've harnessed and cultivated,
How has that helped you with your leadership and ability
to communicate you know, things like AI to these communities.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah, yeah, I think you know when you're when you're
looking at storytelling, and all great stories follow particular paths
and have a rhythm and a way of kind of
bringing the audience in. And one of the you know,
one of the big rules of storytelling is you want
to let the audience know what they have, you know,
what they have in store upfront and kind of ease
some of the fears of am I, you know, am
(02:35):
I going to enjoy this or not? And so when
I have conversations with people about AI and I go
through the training and we were connecting, those those same
principles kind of come in place as well. You know,
I help we help move people from AI anxiety to
AI adoption, and that's through really culturally resident community based education.
(02:59):
And so the story telling of you know, meeting people
where they are and kind of saying, you know, it
makes sense that you may be apprehensive about this, right,
Either this thing is going to be the greatest thing
in the universe which causes its own all right, let's relax,
or it's going to be the terminator and it's going
to destroy everyone. And so in either direction, you may
not come at this or feel that you know, this
(03:20):
is something that may be be for you.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
And so helping people walk.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Through that path of understanding that you know, if you
center yourself, and we have to center our humanity. Our
humanity is what created and researched and brought this technology
into our lives and our humanity is the only thing
that gives value to whatever it creates. It doesn't create
things in a vacuum. We are the ones who say
that is very helpful to do. And so when you
(03:45):
center yourself and kind of anchor yourself, and that's the
framework that we use in all of our training, anchored
intelligence as opposed to artificial intelligence. When you anchor your humanity,
your creativity, your voice in how you use the technologlogy,
it changes the way you view it, what you think
is possible. It raises your ambition. And so that's what
(04:07):
we you know, what I look for and storytelling and
doing that in the class helps people.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
See that they get I want to set some landscape
here because you know there's a lot to your story,
a lot happening currently with your story that will congratulate
you on and I'll give you the opportunity to talk about
So before I get deeper into like your work, I
want to talk about this relationship with Kevin Hart.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
So talk about.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
The current Caramino Fund and the new news that's up.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
In your world.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, So we're incredibly honored to be partnering with Kevin
Hart's Grand Karamino tequila brand, and so they have a
Karmino Fund where they provide ten thousand dollars grants to
black and LATINX entrepreneurs around the country.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
And so this year I'm very honored to.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Be that they recognize the need for AI education as
the hot button pressing issue for that community and for
these entrepreneurs, and so they've brought us in as a
partner to provide AI education for the grant winners that
win in this this current cohort. So we're really looking
forward to be able to again bring that anchored intelligence framework,
(05:19):
help people understand how they are the drivers of this technology,
how it can how you can trust but verify, and
how you can you know, grow your top line, grow
your bottom line in that in that AI education. So
that is something we're really excited to do. And I
think we I strongly believe that this kind of private,
(05:42):
private and public partnership, so whether it is through workforce
development boards or through corporations and brands that want to
speak in this in this moment in a way that
is valuable and impactful for communities.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
This is the way that it gets done.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
And providing pathways for access to high quality. The education
is always is always a benefit for the society.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, talk about the unique value propositions. I mean there,
I imagine, especially somebody at his level and the kind
of things that they see with his team.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
There's a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
They could have partnered with, and they chose Monk. And
what was it about your offering that they said, you
know what, there's something unique here, something special here. This
is the guy and his team to go fulfilled this vision.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah. No, I appreciate you on pointing that.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I think you know it's it's humbling, and I think
from the beginning of when I pitched it and spoke
about it and our and our team spoke about it.
For me, I looked at the landscape of how AI
training is typically handled, and it's typically handled like all
tech training, and it is you do A and then
B becomes the result, you know, the way you were taught,
(06:51):
you know, Microsoft Word or Excel or any of these
other programs. And AI is very unique in that use
of language is a game changer. The fact that it's random,
it's a game changer. There's so many things that it
can replicate but then be wrong about, and so many
things that it can create that you may not have
even thought of while you were starting that process. And
(07:11):
so for our framework and what makes us different is
while others may be really focused on what's the greatest
prompt that you can make, and we will cover those
things and talk about best practices and all of that,
it really is centered on the person and how you
think and how you interact with the technology.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I always tell people.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
That it is you view it as an intern or
an overeager colleague. And if you have something really important
that you want to get done in the workplace and
you're having a colleague do it for you, the way
you instruct interact, the level of detail that you have
changes compared to if you don't really think that that's
(07:48):
that important. And so you'll be surprised how often people
use AI like it's Google, and it's not Google. And
so if you use it like that, you are missing
out on ninety five percent of the benefits of the.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Of the tech.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Describe your leadership style.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Servant leadership.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I think it's asking people to do things that you
wouldn't do yourself is an abuse of of leadership, especially
if it is.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Something that you know.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Being a part of the pulling people forward and providing education, mentorship,
all of those things really requires you being in there,
being in the mud with people and having done it,
being a part of it changes what you you know,
push forward towards.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
So for me, I think it's servant leadership all the way.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
What did you have to learn about Monk and Monk's
proclivities that helped you shape your leadership style today?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, well that's a great question, I I I say,
you know, I say a lot. I spent some years
doing executive coaching, specifically for black and Latin next corporate
kind of you know, mid career professionals, and I say
all the time that I was a career career changer.
So every two years I was not in a new job,
(09:12):
I was in a new career. And so I was
an actor, I was in investment sales. I did investment
research on Wall Street while I was writing the book.
I've been in a bunch of different places, and what
you notice is that one different places have different completely
you know, completely different cultures, what people find important and
what you know, how we move forward with our work.
(09:34):
But there's a lot of core elements of how we interact,
how we want to be seen how we want to
show others that we see them. That is a through
line between everything that we do. So it helped me
become a better leader because I'm interacting with folks in
all you know, all different aspects. And it also helped
with being able to teach something like AI because you
(09:55):
get a view of how different people look at the
same problem. And at the end of the day, it's
a tool that helps you solve problems, business problems, creative problems.
And so getting that access to two different ways of
looking at it has been really beneficial in the work
I do.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Now, yeah, I'm going to ask the leadership question but
a different way, and so what would make someone want
to follow you?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
What would make someone want to follow me? Wow? I
think if I'm looking.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
At a at a leader, there is an element of
how will that person help me be better at, you know,
at whatever it is that I want to do and
in order to do that there you know, sometimes we
may pick the person who is in a position of
power in the career that we have and say, well,
(10:50):
that person can obviously get me the next job, internship,
or whatever it is. But I think a great leader
and you know, by no means am I saying I'm
a great leader, But I think something about me is
I take a genuine interest in other people. I want
to know what you know makes you take, what makes
you what do you view as success and why is
that and how do we get there? And what do
(11:12):
you want to do moving forward? Because I think for
any of us, and I'm noticing it now in my
life as I kind of moved from corporate to this
endeavor that to be fulfilled in life, to not just
work and pay bills till you die, it requires you
being used at your maximum, using all of the talents
that you have in some form of service to other people.
(11:33):
And so if that's not happening on both ends, then
you'll be really good at something.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
You don't enjoy, or you will, you know, be struggling.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
To do something that helps a lot of people, but
that you know that's not for you. So taking an
interest in folks and helping them find those things, I
think would be one of the reasons someone would be
interested in finally or listening.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, we spend a lot of time on the show
talking about many is the variety of ways we in
our community Black people can use or build leverage or
build technology to find wealth. And obviously the huge conversation
happening is about AI and that specific category of technology.
(12:17):
And so when you think about the racial wealth gap
and even the class.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Wealth gap, I guess you can even say.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
That's you know, how can AI help us solve these
issues and these challenges?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, I mean this is sometime I'm extremely passionate about
because it can help it solve it in several different ways.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
And so when you have this gap, that structure goes.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Down to where you got educated, the amount of opportunities
you got exposed to, what you think of when you
see a particular problem, all these different things that can
dictate how you move forward and trying to build wealth,
and what you think is possible, what you have access
to and all in all of those things, it is
(13:04):
a massive uh gap closer in some of the barriers
of entry across a lot of industries.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Right Like, if I wanted to start.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Something entrepreneurial, not only will I need to be extremely
good at the thing that I'm coming out to do,
whether it is designing sneakers, it is you know, starting
a small mom and pop store, whatever it is. Not
only do I need to be extremely good at that
to even give myself a chance to battle and succeed
in the economy. There's so many other aspects of that
(13:36):
work that I need to also be able to do.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
And for folks who have been moved or.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Stepped aside in the process of learning those aspects, I'm
really playing, you know, I'm finding with both hands tied
behind my back. So when we talk about, you know,
how do I manage my my my finances, how do
I write proposals, how do I respond to rfpp RFPs,
How do WHY market my business? And how do I
(14:04):
find my brand voice? What is a brand voice? All
of these different things.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
That you may have some of that knowledge, but you
a lot of times you don't.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And regardless of where you are, I work with, you know,
executive directors of nonprofits, corporate executives, people who are starting
out in their career, working out with working with students,
and everyone has gaps and everyone approaches this thing in
a different way. And that community aspect is what's beautiful
about the way we do our trainings.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
That we're all sitting in the.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Same room and I'm encouraging people to whether it's sounds
smart or not or silly, and you just thought it
was cool that they put a green dot next to
the answer. Say it out loud, because those small missing,
you know, learnings that we all have is what makes
the is what's the difference. So, getting back directly to
your question, how does AI kind of close that? It
(14:53):
gives you access to learn in a style that is
exclusive or extreme me helpful to you about topics that
are important to you in a way that will be
resonant to you. And then you can then take action
and do things in a way that is faster, more efficient,
gets you to the benchmark, gets you to your zone
(15:16):
of genius, the thing that you are actually here to
compete on, the thing that you're shooting in the gym
all day about.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Let's get you to that. And so AI has that opportunity.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
And so when you do that et scale across communities
and you take a whole class of people through corporate
America competing at a higher level and being able to
put themselves forward in the workforce, entrepreneurs competing globally at
a higher level.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
What does that do to the wealth that our community has?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people more
and more every day are realizing. You know, a lot
of issue point is chat GBT for a lot of people,
it's just the jury point that most of us are
aware of. And when they put their first prompt in,
they're like, oh my god, just look at what this
thing can do. That can have a couple of different things.
Oh my god, look at what this thing can do,
or oh my god, look at what this thing you
(16:06):
can do. I'm in trouble, So I want to talk
about the AHA moment, like what.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Are you what are you seeing?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Is most common as the AHA moment for these black
entrepreneurs that you work with, when they realize how it
can be applicable to them.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Particularly to your earlier point.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I think there's a there's a couple Aha moments that
that are that happen all the time. There is the
you know, we'll put in a prompt that I know
typically has some fancy response that people like, Oh that's
that's interesting. I'm surprising. I'm surprised that it happens. I
think the level one AHA moment is uh and I
think where people spend their the most amount of time
(16:48):
and usually stay, which I think is a little disappointing,
is when you find out how much time and effort
it can save you on things, because in itself, I
mean that is incredible.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So if you've done work for any period of.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Any amount of time, you know the hours that it
takes to redo that power point to you know, rewrite
that memo, to write that email, whatever it is. And
so going through a couple exercises and getting that aha
of like wow, like I can really get this off
the ground in not less than half the time, is
that kind of first level. But for me, the moments
(17:24):
that I really find fascinating, what I think is kind
of the like exponential beauty of this technology are the
iholom or those aha moments on the top line. So
I call it, you know, the boost of your ambition.
And again, if you've worked or done anything, you have
been kind of conditioned to understand what you can do
when you can't do.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And whatever I'm going.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
To propose or you know, take on will fall within
the bucket of what I can do. And I have
an idea of what I can do, and you you know,
working with folks across their their careers and getting to
that idea of when you see something that shows you
I can actually do something two or three step levels
above what I thought I could do before, because now
(18:07):
it doesn't take as long to get that ground research,
it doesn't take as long to coalesce these four different ideas,
it doesn't take as long or I'm able to look
at much more information. So now my ambition of the
projects I would I would take on, the business that
I would start, what I would do because if I
could have this, then I'd really do it. That AHA
(18:28):
is the one that is really groundbreaking because that AHA
then says, now you're going to go off and do
something that you didn't think you could do before. And
if we just keep doing that right across small businesses,
across people in the corporate world. Right if you're trying
to get a promotion and you have an idea of
what you think you can do in your eight hour day,
and then you get to this boost of like I
(18:48):
can do a completely different thing.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
How do I change my strategic thinking?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
How do I change my day around the abilities that
I that I now have.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
What's in your EDC your everyday carry Like what are.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
The things that monk has to have before he leaves
the house, before he leaves the apartment, Like these things
help you get through the tools the things that help
you get through your day to be most productive. And
you can't say just your phone because everybody.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Now it cannot be just my phone. I'd be I'd
be naked out that the phone is really important. I
need headphones if I'm gonna be anywhere. I have a
Sony w X. I don't know why they don't have
like simple names, but it's like it's over the ear,
the really nice, the nicest headphones I've ever gotten, and
(19:38):
I you know, you know, block out sound, listen to music,
listen to stuff and and really kind of zone out.
So headphones, good bag. I love you know, podcasts and
music and yeah, opportunities to take part of culture is
also really big for me. I know it's not a
(20:00):
think specifically if you're leaving the house, but if I
didn't have access to be able to, you know, watch
the shows that we're that we're all watching and you know,
partaking that conversation, I don't know, I don't know what
I do.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
So headphones is the only thing that in your phone
that's all you need.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
I need. I need my headphones and my phone and
you know, my wallet. And I think we're good to go.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
I dig it.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Talk to me about a book that you didn't write,
another book that might have shaped your thinking.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, I mean there's there's there's so many, uh great books.
And and it's always funny when I talk to people
who are in business and you say, like, what's the
book that you that you enjoy? It's always a nonfiction
business related book. But there's a lot of fiction that
has changed the way I look at things.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I think.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I'm a I'm a current really big fan of a
personval Ever Percival Everett, who wrote America.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
He wrote a Rasure which became.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
American Fiction with Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Brown and all of them. The book of Ratio was incredible.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
He had another book called Trees just kind of talk
just really And what was interesting for me is as I,
as I move forward, really leaning into the uniqueness of
who you are, the way you talk, the way you
you know, think of things, the way you interact with things,
especially as I do this this AI work and interact
(21:26):
with people who are all you know, from all different backgrounds,
and the way you interact with AI is around language.
And so the language that we all use, we can
be in the same socioeconomic class. We can be whatever
it is. The language you use is different, and I
think it's really it's beautiful. Like I think, you know,
we all kind of raised to be ashamed of the
(21:49):
bonyx and ashamed of like how people talk and everything
like that. But I'm like, it's beautiful that there's a
you can sound like you're from Memphis, you sound like
you're from Houston, and you sound like you're from Jersey
and I can tell and no, you're from Philly. You
just said John. Like all of that is really beautiful
and and like some of those those books like Trees
and Erasure, is just the use of language. Tony Morrison
(22:11):
is another person of just really leaning into like, our
language is beautiful and any anyone that's telling you otherwise
is just it's a lie.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
What are some low cost or no cost tools that
black entrepreneurs, small business owners, mom and pops should be
using to help them achieve scale or to just grow.
Maybe scale isn't even the goal?
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yeah, yeah, I think you know one, scale not not
being the goal is a big one.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
You know. I think getting into an understanding of like
what do you want? What do you want?
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Your days to look like and what what does success
look like for you?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
And then a lot of stuff I'm going to say
is technology related. YouTube.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
People are you know, if you're not on YouTube, just
seeing people talk about the thing that you're interested and
being able to kind of learn and adapt and find
community of people who are talking about what you do.
And it doesn't matter what you do. You can have
a hair salon in Miami, you can have, you know,
a laundromat in Detroit. There will be people online talking
(23:15):
about the ins and outs of what is working, not working,
the trends, all of that. I think that is one
that free education that's available online is one that is.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
People don't tap into enough, even if you think you are.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, so often well, I guess historically we have, especially
in our communities. You're trying to build a business and
the only way you know how is by getting you know,
some consultant, some advisor who's probably going to cost you
some money to be able to help you figure out
this strategic plan to grow. But now you have AI
and you talked a little bit about earlier. You know
this thing help you save time, but now let's use
(23:54):
it to a different level of helping you strategize. Can
you talk about how we should be thinking about it?
So when we are saving the chat GPT or Claude
or Perplexity or whatever we're using to a bookmark on
our you know, Chrome or whatever, we're downloading the app,
when we're going to that thing every day, how should
(24:16):
we be structuring the prompts, the questions that we ask
so that we get higher quality answers and responses.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
I think in general, more destriptive language is key. And
so as an self audit for yourself, think about how
you give instructions to people, to anyone, because if you
are poor at giving instructions and you tend to have
people needing to do many revisions your chat GPT experiences,
(24:49):
you're not going to be getting the best out of
it because you don't you're not detailed, You are not
starting with the end in mind. I think is Another
thing is when you are coming to it again, here
is the like not thinking of it as Google and
thinking of it as this new technology. If it's Google,
you will ask it question one, where can I get this?
(25:10):
Then question two? You may know where you want to
get to, but you're asking it one by one and
then you're looking through the results and seeing which one
makes sense for you.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
With AI.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Start at the end, I am preparing this presentation that
is that needs to do this.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
It is for this.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Community, this group will be looking to hold it to
this level of standard. I want to make sure that
it combines these things, all of those things that may
feel like I don't do I need to say all that. Yeah,
it will dramatically improve what you get back when you
when you're you're working with it. And so two, it's
(25:47):
it's an interesting it's an interesting dilemma where a technology
is requiring you to be better in your soft skills.
But essentially you need to improve your soft skills. You
need to improve your own own clarity. Because sometimes people
will use AI and say the result was kind of crappy,
And the honest truth is you weren't even clear about
(26:07):
what you wanted yourself. You didn't even really know what
you wanted to do. And because you're not that clear
about it, this kind of brought you to the task.
And now here here is where we are. So again,
when we you know, center our humanity and who we
are and really focus on how do you strategically think
when you are partnered with someone who you respect, who
(26:28):
is eminently intelligent about the subject.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
That we're going to work on. How do you collaborate?
How do you work through it?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
And there's probably needs to be improvement there that will translate.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
To how you use AI.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
So the businesses that you get an opportunity to work with,
so I want you to talk about kind of the
categories that they're in, the the main verticals are there
in and based on those categories, what you typically find
as issues and concerns with how they approach AI is
an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Yeah, yeah, I think so, you know, there's the there
are the corporate brands like the Grand ker Amino Funds,
and you know that is something that I think is
newer in the in the space as far as corporate
corporate brands finding ways to be a part of the
AI conversation through education and all of that. Some of
the other entities that we that we work with. We're
(27:25):
doing some training for fashion design students in Morgan State University,
doing some work with NJ I T and kind of
developing the you know, one of the.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
First online AI self self.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Paid certifications as far as one of the the worries
or mistakes that I see in the education space is
students are constantly getting mixed messages. So the same university
you can be taking four courses, this other person is
taking four courses.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Three of your professors.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Told you don't you ever touch AI, and if I
even smell that you did, you're going to fail. And
then you have another professor who's like, this is the future.
Let me teach you how to use it in a
way that is helpful in this course. And the school
doesn't have an overall policy of how you should use it,
and so that kind of leads you out in the
you know, lingering on what makes sense. And then at
(28:19):
the other end of the school, maybe they have a
research hub where they're getting fifty million dollars a year
to research AI in there. But there we're not all
talking to each other about the same thing. And so
there really is a doom and gloom kind of fear.
This is going to make things too easy. How do
we teach if this thing is available, this AI is available,
how do I give you an essay?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
If AI can make the essay?
Speaker 3 (28:41):
And I always say, you know one, you still need
a craftsman with in front of these tools. If you
don't know how to write an essay, then it will
sound like an AI very generic essay because you don't
know what you're doing, you don't know what you're looking for.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
You can't craft it, you can't do any of those things.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
So the same way we had to change the way
we taught when the calculator came out. It's not like
you gave up on math. Calculator came out. Now you
can do it, forget it. You created math problems, right,
you created a thing to say. Now that I know
that you have this tool, let me test your thinking,
your creative like problem solving. And that's the you know,
that's the same thing that you know I keep saying
(29:21):
when you when you center the person. It's like, at
the end of the day, this tool is only really
helpful if you are a good creative thinker, a strategic thinker,
and I'll show you some ways to interact with it
to pull that out.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Of you and get better at that.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
But the same thing kind of applies to to students
and something that I think we it's going to probably
take a while.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Universities tend to move slowly in these these types.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Of things, but that is the disadvantage, and so as
a student you have to kind of on your own
realize that, like, hey, I need to make sure I'm
staying you know, up to up to speed on this
on this technology.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Can you talk about how AI and technology education in
general can be structured or designed to not just teach
skills but in power ownership.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Yeah, I think that, you know, for us, in our framework,
one of the important things is understanding you know, how
this technology is working. Right, it's been trained on things
that have been created already and that you know, whether
it's creative books, whether it is manuals or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
And so if you.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Are looking to use the tech really making sure that
you have an understanding of you know, centering yourself and
making sure that you have an understanding of what you
are kind of producing. So, if it's giving you facts,
verifying those facts, is it making a thing that I
tell people all the time?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
You know?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Level one? Is it told me that fifty percent of
X y Z is you know this is this is
what the fact is. I'm going to go to the
website and verify that that fact is correct. There's a
peer a time where you absolutely needed to do that,
because most of the time it was a maid of
fact that's gotten a lot better. But the bigger or
the the a little bit deeper is just like anything else.
(31:12):
There are assumptions that are being made in how this
is presented to you. So if I'm presenting an answer
to you, I'm making some assumptions that this is true,
this may not be true, this is what you're looking for,
this is what you're not looking for. And so as
a user of AI, being able to kind of question
and say, all right, what assumptions did you make when
you gave me this summary of the of the events,
(31:36):
Because in order to give me a summary, you have
to cut some stuff out, you have to find that,
you know, leave some stuff in, and you'll be surprised. Oh,
I thought that you would be more interested in this
as opposed to this. Okay, no, actually I need more
information in this area or that assumption is not true.
So it is using your expertise and bringing in your
(31:56):
expertise constantly all the time as you're as you're working
with it, and it's a it's an ongoing process. Because
it's so quick to bring detailed information, you end up
getting kind of lazy. In how much you kind of
go through and say, well, let's let's.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Now go through this.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
But you've got time now they made a report in
ten seconds and the like work on it.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I want you to leave this small business owners, the
entrepreneurs with some homework. So if you you do this
every day, and so you're teaching people how to use
these tools and giving them exposure to the tools. For
small business owners who may not yet have you know,
a folder bookmark of a bunch of you know, AI.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Tools like I do. What would you encourage.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Them to do having listened to you talk today as
a first step to make some progress or that they
can grow their business, they can get some of their
time back, they can you know, create some new revenue
streams or et cetera. What should they be doing?
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Yeah, I think you know one I highly encourage, you know,
getting a joining a good newsletter. It's a lot of
newsletters around AI that kind of distill it in a
way that is, you know, some are much more tech
forward than others are.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Maybe application and what we're what we can use it with,
use it for.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
I think another thing is really understanding what you are
trying to do with your with your small business and
maybe you and maybe that that process makes you realize
that you don't really know that you're you're not really sure,
like what is the goal?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
What am I trying to you know, achieve?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
You're just maybe your head has just been underwater and
you're just trying to stay open. And that's real and
that that that can be the case. So with AI,
it's you know, figuring out what you're trying to what
you want to do with your business and playing around
with it. You know, find some some training.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
You know, always always.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Encourage people to reach out to us, and we love
to have conversations and find ways that we can we
can collaborate with folks. But find some some you know,
intro actually training of just how it works, and then
mess around with it, you know, give it opportunities to
like test things out, tell you something about you know,
tell you about something you already know, and then question
(34:11):
it and just see how it presents information to you,
see how that lands. And you know, that's that's where
you start. There's no one and done manual on AI.
So waiting for the like end all be all here
it is, You're gonna be waiting forever.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
It really is just get in there. You know.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
We obviously recommend having a framework to do it, but
like really getting in there and and and and messing
around with it and seeing how it works.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity Afro
Tech with the Black Effect Podcast Network in night Hire
Media and it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas,
with the additional production support by Kate McDonald and Jada McGee.
Special thank you to Michael Davis and Lovebeach or more
about my guess Other Tech This up is an innovators
at afrotech dot Com video version.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
This episode, we'll drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Some tap in.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Enjoy your Black Tech Green Money, Share us with somebody
go get your money.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Need some luck
Black Tech, Green Money. We'll look and see another episode.
I'm super excited to bring you. Monk Yang, CEO and
founder of First Street Partnerships. He's on a mission to
make AI more practical and that's definitely needed in our
community right now, make it more accessible and culturally relevant,
especially for underrepresented communities. Through First Street Partnerships, he helps businesses,
(00:21):
leaders community harness the power of AI for growth, creativity,
and economic opportunity. Blending those strategic expertise that he brings
with storytelling and innovation. He's empowering people to use AI
with confidence and intention. Welcome to the show, Monk In Yang.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you, Bill, Thank you appreciated.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Definitely glad to have this conversation, big fan of the show.
Thank you for the space to talk about This is
a really important conversation.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
To add absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I want to start because you have spent a lot
of time working with students, middle school students, high school
students in the center, and so you also write books
for them. So what in what influenced you to work
with people, especially.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
In our communities at such a young age.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, yeah, I think you know. For me personally, I've
always been a creative at heart. I started writing fiction
when I was in third grade and selling it to
friends as a kind of sideway hustle to make some
money on, you know, in the side in middle school.
And I think that age range and that imagination and
(01:30):
what you few is possible and the way you view
the world is really special and so connecting with students
at that age and I kind of.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Try and bring that to the work that I do now.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Of really like imagination and like your highest level of creativity,
whether you consider yourself a creative or not, that's what
you know. When we tap into that, you see some
really special things. So I love being around that group
for that reason.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And you talked about fiction, which I love to read fiction,
especially near future fiction. Is you know, my particular genre.
How has the storytelling that ability that you've harnessed and cultivated,
How has that helped you with your leadership and ability
to communicate you know, things like AI to these communities.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah, yeah, I think you know when you're when you're
looking at storytelling, and all great stories follow particular paths
and have a rhythm and a way of kind of
bringing the audience in. And one of the you know,
one of the big rules of storytelling is you want
to let the audience know what they have, you know,
what they have in store upfront and kind of ease
some of the fears of am I, you know, am
(02:35):
I going to enjoy this or not? And so when
I have conversations with people about AI and I go
through the training and we were connecting, those those same
principles kind of come in place as well. You know,
I help we help move people from AI anxiety to
AI adoption, and that's through really culturally resident community based education.
(02:59):
And so the story telling of you know, meeting people
where they are and kind of saying, you know, it
makes sense that you may be apprehensive about this, right,
Either this thing is going to be the greatest thing
in the universe which causes its own all right, let's relax,
or it's going to be the terminator and it's going
to destroy everyone. And so in either direction, you may
not come at this or feel that you know, this
(03:20):
is something that may be be for you.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
And so helping people walk.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Through that path of understanding that you know, if you
center yourself, and we have to center our humanity. Our
humanity is what created and researched and brought this technology
into our lives and our humanity is the only thing
that gives value to whatever it creates. It doesn't create
things in a vacuum. We are the ones who say
that is very helpful to do. And so when you
(03:45):
center yourself and kind of anchor yourself, and that's the
framework that we use in all of our training, anchored
intelligence as opposed to artificial intelligence. When you anchor your humanity,
your creativity, your voice in how you use the technologlogy,
it changes the way you view it, what you think
is possible. It raises your ambition. And so that's what
(04:07):
we you know, what I look for and storytelling and
doing that in the class helps people.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
See that they get I want to set some landscape
here because you know there's a lot to your story,
a lot happening currently with your story that will congratulate
you on and I'll give you the opportunity to talk about
So before I get deeper into like your work, I
want to talk about this relationship with Kevin Hart.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
So talk about.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
The current Caramino Fund and the new news that's up.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
In your world.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, So we're incredibly honored to be partnering with Kevin
Hart's Grand Karamino tequila brand, and so they have a
Karmino Fund where they provide ten thousand dollars grants to
black and LATINX entrepreneurs around the country.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
And so this year I'm very honored to.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Be that they recognize the need for AI education as
the hot button pressing issue for that community and for
these entrepreneurs, and so they've brought us in as a
partner to provide AI education for the grant winners that
win in this this current cohort. So we're really looking
forward to be able to again bring that anchored intelligence framework,
(05:19):
help people understand how they are the drivers of this technology,
how it can how you can trust but verify, and
how you can you know, grow your top line, grow
your bottom line in that in that AI education. So
that is something we're really excited to do. And I
think we I strongly believe that this kind of private,
(05:42):
private and public partnership, so whether it is through workforce
development boards or through corporations and brands that want to
speak in this in this moment in a way that
is valuable and impactful for communities.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
This is the way that it gets done.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
And providing pathways for access to high quality. The education
is always is always a benefit for the society.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, talk about the unique value propositions. I mean there,
I imagine, especially somebody at his level and the kind
of things that they see with his team.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
There's a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
They could have partnered with, and they chose Monk. And
what was it about your offering that they said, you
know what, there's something unique here, something special here. This
is the guy and his team to go fulfilled this vision.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah. No, I appreciate you on pointing that.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I think you know it's it's humbling, and I think
from the beginning of when I pitched it and spoke
about it and our and our team spoke about it.
For me, I looked at the landscape of how AI
training is typically handled, and it's typically handled like all
tech training, and it is you do A and then
B becomes the result, you know, the way you were taught,
(06:51):
you know, Microsoft Word or Excel or any of these
other programs. And AI is very unique in that use
of language is a game changer. The fact that it's random,
it's a game changer. There's so many things that it
can replicate but then be wrong about, and so many
things that it can create that you may not have
even thought of while you were starting that process. And
(07:11):
so for our framework and what makes us different is
while others may be really focused on what's the greatest
prompt that you can make, and we will cover those
things and talk about best practices and all of that,
it really is centered on the person and how you
think and how you interact with the technology.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I always tell people.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
That it is you view it as an intern or
an overeager colleague. And if you have something really important
that you want to get done in the workplace and
you're having a colleague do it for you, the way
you instruct interact, the level of detail that you have
changes compared to if you don't really think that that's
(07:48):
that important. And so you'll be surprised how often people
use AI like it's Google, and it's not Google. And
so if you use it like that, you are missing
out on ninety five percent of the benefits of the.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Of the tech.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Describe your leadership style.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Servant leadership.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I think it's asking people to do things that you
wouldn't do yourself is an abuse of of leadership, especially
if it is.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Something that you know.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Being a part of the pulling people forward and providing education, mentorship,
all of those things really requires you being in there,
being in the mud with people and having done it,
being a part of it changes what you you know,
push forward towards.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
So for me, I think it's servant leadership all the way.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
What did you have to learn about Monk and Monk's
proclivities that helped you shape your leadership style today?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, well that's a great question, I I I say,
you know, I say a lot. I spent some years
doing executive coaching, specifically for black and Latin next corporate
kind of you know, mid career professionals, and I say
all the time that I was a career career changer.
So every two years I was not in a new job,
(09:12):
I was in a new career. And so I was
an actor, I was in investment sales. I did investment
research on Wall Street while I was writing the book.
I've been in a bunch of different places, and what
you notice is that one different places have different completely
you know, completely different cultures, what people find important and
what you know, how we move forward with our work.
(09:34):
But there's a lot of core elements of how we interact,
how we want to be seen how we want to
show others that we see them. That is a through
line between everything that we do. So it helped me
become a better leader because I'm interacting with folks in
all you know, all different aspects. And it also helped
with being able to teach something like AI because you
(09:55):
get a view of how different people look at the
same problem. And at the end of the day, it's
a tool that helps you solve problems, business problems, creative problems.
And so getting that access to two different ways of
looking at it has been really beneficial in the work
I do.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Now, yeah, I'm going to ask the leadership question but
a different way, and so what would make someone want
to follow you?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
What would make someone want to follow me? Wow? I
think if I'm looking.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
At a at a leader, there is an element of
how will that person help me be better at, you know,
at whatever it is that I want to do and
in order to do that there you know, sometimes we
may pick the person who is in a position of
power in the career that we have and say, well,
(10:50):
that person can obviously get me the next job, internship,
or whatever it is. But I think a great leader
and you know, by no means am I saying I'm
a great leader, But I think something about me is
I take a genuine interest in other people. I want
to know what you know makes you take, what makes
you what do you view as success and why is
that and how do we get there? And what do
(11:12):
you want to do moving forward? Because I think for
any of us, and I'm noticing it now in my
life as I kind of moved from corporate to this
endeavor that to be fulfilled in life, to not just
work and pay bills till you die, it requires you
being used at your maximum, using all of the talents
that you have in some form of service to other people.
(11:33):
And so if that's not happening on both ends, then
you'll be really good at something.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
You don't enjoy, or you will, you know, be struggling.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
To do something that helps a lot of people, but
that you know that's not for you. So taking an
interest in folks and helping them find those things, I
think would be one of the reasons someone would be
interested in finally or listening.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, we spend a lot of time on the show
talking about many is the variety of ways we in
our community Black people can use or build leverage or
build technology to find wealth. And obviously the huge conversation
happening is about AI and that specific category of technology.
(12:17):
And so when you think about the racial wealth gap
and even the class.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Wealth gap, I guess you can even say.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
That's you know, how can AI help us solve these
issues and these challenges?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, I mean this is sometime I'm extremely passionate about
because it can help it solve it in several different ways.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
And so when you have this gap, that structure goes.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Down to where you got educated, the amount of opportunities
you got exposed to, what you think of when you
see a particular problem, all these different things that can
dictate how you move forward and trying to build wealth,
and what you think is possible, what you have access
to and all in all of those things, it is
(13:04):
a massive uh gap closer in some of the barriers
of entry across a lot of industries.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Right Like, if I wanted to start.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Something entrepreneurial, not only will I need to be extremely
good at the thing that I'm coming out to do,
whether it is designing sneakers, it is you know, starting
a small mom and pop store, whatever it is. Not
only do I need to be extremely good at that
to even give myself a chance to battle and succeed
in the economy. There's so many other aspects of that
(13:36):
work that I need to also be able to do.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
And for folks who have been moved or.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Stepped aside in the process of learning those aspects, I'm
really playing, you know, I'm finding with both hands tied
behind my back. So when we talk about, you know,
how do I manage my my my finances, how do
I write proposals, how do I respond to rfpp RFPs,
How do WHY market my business? And how do I
(14:04):
find my brand voice? What is a brand voice? All
of these different things.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
That you may have some of that knowledge, but you
a lot of times you don't.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And regardless of where you are, I work with, you know,
executive directors of nonprofits, corporate executives, people who are starting
out in their career, working out with working with students,
and everyone has gaps and everyone approaches this thing in
a different way. And that community aspect is what's beautiful
about the way we do our trainings.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
That we're all sitting in the.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Same room and I'm encouraging people to whether it's sounds
smart or not or silly, and you just thought it
was cool that they put a green dot next to
the answer. Say it out loud, because those small missing,
you know, learnings that we all have is what makes
the is what's the difference. So, getting back directly to
your question, how does AI kind of close that? It
(14:53):
gives you access to learn in a style that is
exclusive or extreme me helpful to you about topics that
are important to you in a way that will be
resonant to you. And then you can then take action
and do things in a way that is faster, more efficient,
gets you to the benchmark, gets you to your zone
(15:16):
of genius, the thing that you are actually here to
compete on, the thing that you're shooting in the gym
all day about.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Let's get you to that. And so AI has that opportunity.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
And so when you do that et scale across communities
and you take a whole class of people through corporate
America competing at a higher level and being able to
put themselves forward in the workforce, entrepreneurs competing globally at
a higher level.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
What does that do to the wealth that our community has?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people more
and more every day are realizing. You know, a lot
of issue point is chat GBT for a lot of people,
it's just the jury point that most of us are
aware of. And when they put their first prompt in,
they're like, oh my god, just look at what this
thing can do. That can have a couple of different things.
Oh my god, look at what this thing can do,
or oh my god, look at what this thing you
(16:06):
can do. I'm in trouble, So I want to talk
about the AHA moment, like what.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Are you what are you seeing?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Is most common as the AHA moment for these black
entrepreneurs that you work with, when they realize how it
can be applicable to them.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Particularly to your earlier point.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I think there's a there's a couple Aha moments that
that are that happen all the time. There is the
you know, we'll put in a prompt that I know
typically has some fancy response that people like, Oh that's
that's interesting. I'm surprising. I'm surprised that it happens. I
think the level one AHA moment is uh and I
think where people spend their the most amount of time
(16:48):
and usually stay, which I think is a little disappointing,
is when you find out how much time and effort
it can save you on things, because in itself, I
mean that is incredible.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So if you've done work for any period of.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Any amount of time, you know the hours that it
takes to redo that power point to you know, rewrite
that memo, to write that email, whatever it is. And
so going through a couple exercises and getting that aha
of like wow, like I can really get this off
the ground in not less than half the time, is
that kind of first level. But for me, the moments
(17:24):
that I really find fascinating, what I think is kind
of the like exponential beauty of this technology are the
iholom or those aha moments on the top line. So
I call it, you know, the boost of your ambition.
And again, if you've worked or done anything, you have
been kind of conditioned to understand what you can do
when you can't do.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And whatever I'm going.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
To propose or you know, take on will fall within
the bucket of what I can do. And I have
an idea of what I can do, and you you know,
working with folks across their their careers and getting to
that idea of when you see something that shows you
I can actually do something two or three step levels
above what I thought I could do before, because now
(18:07):
it doesn't take as long to get that ground research,
it doesn't take as long to coalesce these four different ideas,
it doesn't take as long or I'm able to look
at much more information. So now my ambition of the
projects I would I would take on, the business that
I would start, what I would do because if I
could have this, then I'd really do it. That AHA
(18:28):
is the one that is really groundbreaking because that AHA
then says, now you're going to go off and do
something that you didn't think you could do before. And
if we just keep doing that right across small businesses,
across people in the corporate world. Right if you're trying
to get a promotion and you have an idea of
what you think you can do in your eight hour day,
and then you get to this boost of like I
(18:48):
can do a completely different thing.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
How do I change my strategic thinking?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
How do I change my day around the abilities that
I that I now have.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
What's in your EDC your everyday carry Like what are.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
The things that monk has to have before he leaves
the house, before he leaves the apartment, Like these things
help you get through the tools the things that help
you get through your day to be most productive. And
you can't say just your phone because everybody.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Now it cannot be just my phone. I'd be I'd
be naked out that the phone is really important. I
need headphones if I'm gonna be anywhere. I have a
Sony w X. I don't know why they don't have
like simple names, but it's like it's over the ear,
the really nice, the nicest headphones I've ever gotten, and
(19:38):
I you know, you know, block out sound, listen to music,
listen to stuff and and really kind of zone out.
So headphones, good bag. I love you know, podcasts and
music and yeah, opportunities to take part of culture is
also really big for me. I know it's not a
(20:00):
think specifically if you're leaving the house, but if I
didn't have access to be able to, you know, watch
the shows that we're that we're all watching and you know,
partaking that conversation, I don't know, I don't know what
I do.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
So headphones is the only thing that in your phone
that's all you need.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
I need. I need my headphones and my phone and
you know, my wallet. And I think we're good to go.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
I dig it.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Talk to me about a book that you didn't write,
another book that might have shaped your thinking.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, I mean there's there's there's so many, uh great books.
And and it's always funny when I talk to people
who are in business and you say, like, what's the
book that you that you enjoy? It's always a nonfiction
business related book. But there's a lot of fiction that
has changed the way I look at things.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I think.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I'm a I'm a current really big fan of a
personval Ever Percival Everett, who wrote America.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
He wrote a Rasure which became.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
American Fiction with Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Brown and all of them. The book of Ratio was incredible.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
He had another book called Trees just kind of talk
just really And what was interesting for me is as I,
as I move forward, really leaning into the uniqueness of
who you are, the way you talk, the way you
you know, think of things, the way you interact with things,
especially as I do this this AI work and interact
(21:26):
with people who are all you know, from all different backgrounds,
and the way you interact with AI is around language.
And so the language that we all use, we can
be in the same socioeconomic class. We can be whatever
it is. The language you use is different, and I
think it's really it's beautiful. Like I think, you know,
we all kind of raised to be ashamed of the
(21:49):
bonyx and ashamed of like how people talk and everything
like that. But I'm like, it's beautiful that there's a
you can sound like you're from Memphis, you sound like
you're from Houston, and you sound like you're from Jersey
and I can tell and no, you're from Philly. You
just said John. Like all of that is really beautiful
and and like some of those those books like Trees
and Erasure, is just the use of language. Tony Morrison
(22:11):
is another person of just really leaning into like, our
language is beautiful and any anyone that's telling you otherwise
is just it's a lie.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
What are some low cost or no cost tools that
black entrepreneurs, small business owners, mom and pops should be
using to help them achieve scale or to just grow.
Maybe scale isn't even the goal?
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yeah, yeah, I think you know one, scale not not
being the goal is a big one.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
You know. I think getting into an understanding of like
what do you want? What do you want?
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Your days to look like and what what does success
look like for you?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
And then a lot of stuff I'm going to say
is technology related. YouTube.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
People are you know, if you're not on YouTube, just
seeing people talk about the thing that you're interested and
being able to kind of learn and adapt and find
community of people who are talking about what you do.
And it doesn't matter what you do. You can have
a hair salon in Miami, you can have, you know,
a laundromat in Detroit. There will be people online talking
(23:15):
about the ins and outs of what is working, not working,
the trends, all of that. I think that is one
that free education that's available online is one that is.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
People don't tap into enough, even if you think you are.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, so often well, I guess historically we have, especially
in our communities. You're trying to build a business and
the only way you know how is by getting you know,
some consultant, some advisor who's probably going to cost you
some money to be able to help you figure out
this strategic plan to grow. But now you have AI
and you talked a little bit about earlier. You know
this thing help you save time, but now let's use
(23:54):
it to a different level of helping you strategize. Can
you talk about how we should be thinking about it?
So when we are saving the chat GPT or Claude
or Perplexity or whatever we're using to a bookmark on
our you know, Chrome or whatever, we're downloading the app,
when we're going to that thing every day, how should
(24:16):
we be structuring the prompts, the questions that we ask
so that we get higher quality answers and responses.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
I think in general, more destriptive language is key. And
so as an self audit for yourself, think about how
you give instructions to people, to anyone, because if you
are poor at giving instructions and you tend to have
people needing to do many revisions your chat GPT experiences,
(24:49):
you're not going to be getting the best out of
it because you don't you're not detailed, You are not
starting with the end in mind. I think is Another
thing is when you are coming to it again, here
is the like not thinking of it as Google and
thinking of it as this new technology. If it's Google,
you will ask it question one, where can I get this?
(25:10):
Then question two? You may know where you want to
get to, but you're asking it one by one and
then you're looking through the results and seeing which one
makes sense for you.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
With AI.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Start at the end, I am preparing this presentation that
is that needs to do this.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
It is for this.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Community, this group will be looking to hold it to
this level of standard. I want to make sure that
it combines these things, all of those things that may
feel like I don't do I need to say all that. Yeah,
it will dramatically improve what you get back when you
when you're you're working with it. And so two, it's
(25:47):
it's an interesting it's an interesting dilemma where a technology
is requiring you to be better in your soft skills.
But essentially you need to improve your soft skills. You
need to improve your own own clarity. Because sometimes people
will use AI and say the result was kind of crappy,
And the honest truth is you weren't even clear about
(26:07):
what you wanted yourself. You didn't even really know what
you wanted to do. And because you're not that clear
about it, this kind of brought you to the task.
And now here here is where we are. So again,
when we you know, center our humanity and who we
are and really focus on how do you strategically think
when you are partnered with someone who you respect, who
(26:28):
is eminently intelligent about the subject.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
That we're going to work on. How do you collaborate?
How do you work through it?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
And there's probably needs to be improvement there that will translate.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
To how you use AI.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
So the businesses that you get an opportunity to work with,
so I want you to talk about kind of the
categories that they're in, the the main verticals are there
in and based on those categories, what you typically find
as issues and concerns with how they approach AI is
an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Yeah, yeah, I think so, you know, there's the there
are the corporate brands like the Grand ker Amino Funds,
and you know that is something that I think is
newer in the in the space as far as corporate
corporate brands finding ways to be a part of the
AI conversation through education and all of that. Some of
the other entities that we that we work with. We're
(27:25):
doing some training for fashion design students in Morgan State University,
doing some work with NJ I T and kind of
developing the you know, one of the.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
First online AI self self.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Paid certifications as far as one of the the worries
or mistakes that I see in the education space is
students are constantly getting mixed messages. So the same university
you can be taking four courses, this other person is
taking four courses.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Three of your professors.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Told you don't you ever touch AI, and if I
even smell that you did, you're going to fail. And
then you have another professor who's like, this is the future.
Let me teach you how to use it in a
way that is helpful in this course. And the school
doesn't have an overall policy of how you should use it,
and so that kind of leads you out in the
you know, lingering on what makes sense. And then at
(28:19):
the other end of the school, maybe they have a
research hub where they're getting fifty million dollars a year
to research AI in there. But there we're not all
talking to each other about the same thing. And so
there really is a doom and gloom kind of fear.
This is going to make things too easy. How do
we teach if this thing is available, this AI is available,
how do I give you an essay?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
If AI can make the essay?
Speaker 3 (28:41):
And I always say, you know one, you still need
a craftsman with in front of these tools. If you
don't know how to write an essay, then it will
sound like an AI very generic essay because you don't
know what you're doing, you don't know what you're looking for.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
You can't craft it, you can't do any of those things.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
So the same way we had to change the way
we taught when the calculator came out. It's not like
you gave up on math. Calculator came out. Now you
can do it, forget it. You created math problems, right,
you created a thing to say. Now that I know
that you have this tool, let me test your thinking,
your creative like problem solving. And that's the you know,
that's the same thing that you know I keep saying
(29:21):
when you when you center the person. It's like, at
the end of the day, this tool is only really
helpful if you are a good creative thinker, a strategic thinker,
and I'll show you some ways to interact with it
to pull that out.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Of you and get better at that.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
But the same thing kind of applies to to students
and something that I think we it's going to probably
take a while.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Universities tend to move slowly in these these types.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Of things, but that is the disadvantage, and so as
a student you have to kind of on your own
realize that, like, hey, I need to make sure I'm
staying you know, up to up to speed on this
on this technology.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Can you talk about how AI and technology education in
general can be structured or designed to not just teach
skills but in power ownership.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Yeah, I think that, you know, for us, in our framework,
one of the important things is understanding you know, how
this technology is working. Right, it's been trained on things
that have been created already and that you know, whether
it's creative books, whether it is manuals or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
And so if you.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Are looking to use the tech really making sure that
you have an understanding of you know, centering yourself and
making sure that you have an understanding of what you
are kind of producing. So, if it's giving you facts,
verifying those facts, is it making a thing that I
tell people all the time?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
You know?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Level one? Is it told me that fifty percent of
X y Z is you know this is this is
what the fact is. I'm going to go to the
website and verify that that fact is correct. There's a
peer a time where you absolutely needed to do that,
because most of the time it was a maid of
fact that's gotten a lot better. But the bigger or
the the a little bit deeper is just like anything else.
(31:12):
There are assumptions that are being made in how this
is presented to you. So if I'm presenting an answer
to you, I'm making some assumptions that this is true,
this may not be true, this is what you're looking for,
this is what you're not looking for. And so as
a user of AI, being able to kind of question
and say, all right, what assumptions did you make when
you gave me this summary of the of the events,
(31:36):
Because in order to give me a summary, you have
to cut some stuff out, you have to find that,
you know, leave some stuff in, and you'll be surprised. Oh,
I thought that you would be more interested in this
as opposed to this. Okay, no, actually I need more
information in this area or that assumption is not true.
So it is using your expertise and bringing in your
(31:56):
expertise constantly all the time as you're as you're working
with it, and it's a it's an ongoing process. Because
it's so quick to bring detailed information, you end up
getting kind of lazy. In how much you kind of
go through and say, well, let's let's.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Now go through this.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
But you've got time now they made a report in
ten seconds and the like work on it.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I want you to leave this small business owners, the
entrepreneurs with some homework. So if you you do this
every day, and so you're teaching people how to use
these tools and giving them exposure to the tools. For
small business owners who may not yet have you know,
a folder bookmark of a bunch of you know, AI.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Tools like I do. What would you encourage.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Them to do having listened to you talk today as
a first step to make some progress or that they
can grow their business, they can get some of their
time back, they can you know, create some new revenue
streams or et cetera. What should they be doing?
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Yeah, I think you know one I highly encourage, you know,
getting a joining a good newsletter. It's a lot of
newsletters around AI that kind of distill it in a
way that is, you know, some are much more tech
forward than others are.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Maybe application and what we're what we can use it with,
use it for.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
I think another thing is really understanding what you are
trying to do with your with your small business and
maybe you and maybe that that process makes you realize
that you don't really know that you're you're not really sure,
like what is the goal?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
What am I trying to you know, achieve?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
You're just maybe your head has just been underwater and
you're just trying to stay open. And that's real and
that that that can be the case. So with AI,
it's you know, figuring out what you're trying to what
you want to do with your business and playing around
with it. You know, find some some training.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
You know, always always.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Encourage people to reach out to us, and we love
to have conversations and find ways that we can we
can collaborate with folks. But find some some you know,
intro actually training of just how it works, and then
mess around with it, you know, give it opportunities to
like test things out, tell you something about you know,
tell you about something you already know, and then question
(34:11):
it and just see how it presents information to you,
see how that lands. And you know, that's that's where
you start. There's no one and done manual on AI.
So waiting for the like end all be all here
it is, You're gonna be waiting forever.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
It really is just get in there. You know.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
We obviously recommend having a framework to do it, but
like really getting in there and and and and messing
around with it and seeing how it works.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity Afro
Tech with the Black Effect Podcast Network in night Hire
Media and it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas,
with the additional production support by Kate McDonald and Jada McGee.
Special thank you to Michael Davis and Lovebeach or more
about my guess Other Tech This up is an innovators
at afrotech dot Com video version.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
This episode, we'll drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Some tap in.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Enjoy your Black Tech Green Money, Share us with somebody
go get your money.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Need some luck
Host
Will Lucas
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