March 29, 2022 • 35 mins
Have you ever wanted to pick the brain of present day media mogul to get their hot takes on how you can find your way into brand deals, TV castings and paid influencer/celebrity status? On this episode, we tap in with Ahmed Islam, CEO at Ten35, a full-service advertising company that leans into culture, Michelle Ghee, CEO at Ebony / Jet, Rahsan-Rahsan Lindsey, CEO at MediaCo, and Detavio Samuels, CEO at REVOLT.
This conversation was recorded at the first AfroTech Executive, held in Los Angeles, California.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Is this idea that what's really changed over the last
year for me is that black is now green. When
you look at black media companies were growing like tech companies.
If you look at black advertising agencies were growing like
tech companies. The only idea you need is the biggest blacks,
the biggest black owned media company, the biggest black owned
food chum, the biggest like black for the first time
(00:21):
is money is driving significant r y. I'm with Lucas,
this is black tech dream money. I'm gonna nswer this
to some of the biggest names, some of the brightest
minds and brilliant ideas. If you're black and building are
simply using tech to secure your back, this podcast is
for you. So the end of last year brought a
(00:46):
new initiative for afro Tech. Our new conference focused on
C suite executives, founder, spenture capitalists, and more. It's called
afro Tech Executive, and so far we've touched down in
Los Angeles, Miami, and just this past week in New York. Many,
if not all, of the conversations we bring to the
stage in this intimate room are the definition of for
(01:07):
us bias. And these are the conversations we can't always
have in the mainstream. These are the amongst family conversations,
you know what I mean. We're set to bring afro
Tech Executive to a few more destinations in twenty two alone,
and I want to give you a bit of a
peek into what it's like to be in the room.
That there will be more episodes to come. I give
(01:27):
you a taste of afro Tech Executive, like a conversation
with the co founder of one of the biggest sites
on the planet, Steve Hoffman from Reddit. Conversations with the
first black woman's CEO of a Fortune five hundred company
or Sela Burns and One will share here today. For
this episode, we'll dive into a conversation with president Day
media moguls on the stage is I Met Islam, CEO
(01:49):
at ten thirty five for full service advertising company that
leans into culture, Michelle g CEO at Ebony, Jet Resign Rasign,
Lindsay Who CEO at Media Code in the Tapio, Samuel's
Who CEO at Revolts, which was founded by Diddy. These
powerhouses discussed the future of black media. So good morning,
Good morning. I'm a Mad Islam CEO ten thirty five.
(02:15):
My team and I spend most of our days figuring
out how to transform brands of culture. Happy to be here, UM,
to really kick off this conversation around is evolving topics
around black media and advertising. UM. Blessed to be on
stage with a group of giants this morning. UM. Starting
with Michelle g CEO of Ebony Jet. Super happy and
(02:35):
super excited to hear with Michell's gonna talk about as
a kid, spent a ton of time in Chicago, long
history of just watching that platform grow. So I'm sorry
to see what the shell is gonna do here. They
don't even know you. Gotta tell you, gotta let him know.
Next up my man to Tabio, Samuel's CEO of Revolte,
(02:56):
having an amazing years really kind of changing the culture
and changing the game in black media. Last, but not least,
my brother was Sean Lindsay, CEO of Media Coe also
play the advertising to set us for TV one, So one.
We got a very short time. We could probably spend
a couple of hours talking about this topic, but we
got thirty minutes, so we're gonna get into it. UM.
(03:16):
My first question is really in the world that we're
right now, right there are a lot of brands that
are just doing everything they can, or at least saying
they're doing everything they can to connect with black consumers.
You know, what are some of the biggest challenges that
brands looking to connect with black consumers are facing right now?
So I think, first of all, can you guys hear
me microphone check one to Okay, sorry, let me my
(03:41):
boss is here Eton Bridge, But let me act right first,
for Morgan, thank you for having us, Thank you for
bringing this theme class together on these whole boys for
the first time. But I feel like I know my
you know, I'm just gonna make it very simple. I
try and tell the truth. Right. Brands have great intention
we see it. They were kind of force too because
of the moment we're in and you gave me black
(04:02):
and successful right now, I don't know what's happened. And
then what happens is they have good intentions, but they're
a little fearful. So the first thing is fear. So
brands can't be fearful, like there's nothing to fear, right,
you know, you need to speak to this consumer. This
consumer is on their phone, they're buying products, they're talking
share like it's the perfect group of folks to talk to,
(04:22):
and then you have good do you register a budget
and then you send it to your agency that does
not look like us at all. They're years old, they
have no respect for the culture. They don't return our calls.
They put us through a thing. So I'm like, even
if I see an agency it was pushed to it,
I'm not getting on the phone because it's not worth
my time because I'm a CEO, right, And so I
(04:45):
called the client and say, listen, we're not gonna play
these games. And it is games. And so clients need
to know that your agencies are not working on your
behalf when your backs are turned. And so if you
want to get real and get honest and do a
good service to reach this consumer, hire some black people.
Make sure your agencies are representing the people that you
(05:05):
want to communicate with. Y'all do that. We're good. Yeah,
I'll just pop in really quickly on that one. I
think you know two thoughts, um One. In this day
and age, like what we tell brands all the time
is revolutionary times require revolutionary thinking. And so one of
the biggest challenge that you have with a lot of
these brands is they're not ready to do revolutionary thinking.
(05:26):
They're stuck in convention, they're stuck in the old model.
They want to transact with us in the same way
that they want that they transact with Google and Facebook.
And so it's about tonnage and it's about scale. When
you're dealing with our audience, it's really about influence and
cultural movement. So getting brands to understand that, and like,
let's measure things differently. Yes, you're gonna get billions of impressions.
Let's get those billions of impressions through the amazing stories
(05:48):
and stories we tell and ideas that we create together.
Let's get the earned media impressions the talented. Everything doesn't
have to be delivered from my specific ecosystem. So let's
think about how we measure our impact. The second piece
of measure man for me is in this day and age,
it's not just about you getting your impressions delivered. How
many black creatives did we elevate, how many black entrepreneurs
did we amplify. We need to make sure that we're
(06:09):
measuring not just the impression game, but all of the
other ways that we can create change. And then the
last thing that I say, um from my perspective. You
still have a lot of brands who I think are
just trying to check a box. And so for them,
I'm always saying, like, the issue is that you have
KPIs powering dreams instead of dreams powering KPIs. And so
what brands have to start to do is dream about
what they can do with this culture, dream what they
(06:31):
can do with this community, and then build KPIs that
match that, not just getting stuck again like I'm just
trying to check a box. I would say it's a
couple of things. You can't hear me, Okay, Um, well, uh,
First of all, the scale issues is big, because the
truth is they created the problem right by not investing
(06:53):
in our businesses. They don't exist, so we haven't been
able to scale. Then they'll they'll pile on and say
a company has to be say owned, But then if
that's true, then you can't take on capital because a
lot of times you need to give up equity to
get the capital you need. So then that keeps you small,
and they won't won't accept any responsibility for creating that.
And I'm not talking about this in a year. I'm
(07:15):
talking about over decades and decades right. And then the
other thing I would say is that, um, quite often
when they look at their brands, are always looking from
a brand centric perspective and so from a you know,
general market perspective. Whatever, the key selling proposition might be
one thing, but within the black community is something different. Right.
So I was actually met with a client yesterday, Um,
(07:35):
black girl sunscreen and really simple like hers doesn't leave
white residue when we put on that lotion and sunscreen,
Like sometimes my whole face is great if you take
a picture of me, right, Um, which is why I
get the early one and spray dead joint on because
I mean, I use sunscreen, I don't care I needed
despite my complexion, but that the nutrogena and stuff like
(07:58):
that doesn't work for me. And so if you if
you look at your product or your service willing to
figure out what is it that would actually make it
make sense to black people, to other people of color,
it might not be the thing that you typically would
would message. And so you have to be willing to
have that conversation, which means you need to hire people
like Amad and actually let them tell you what they
(08:18):
think makes sense for the audience that you're trying to
reach not how do you fit the message that we've
already created to this audience is not the same thing. So,
so to tell you a quick question, you know we
talked about, I think there's there's a lot of activity
right there are a lot of brands that are at
least expressing their intent of doing what's right when it
comes to black culture. I mean, what brands do you
(08:39):
think are doing it right right now? And secondly, what
advice would you give brands that are just trying to
figure it out and actually get started doing something. Yeah,
I think for brands who are I'm gonna start with
the back and then go um and go backwards. For
brands who are trying to get into this game, I'm
gonna go to I think it was either MICHELLEA. Rashaan
who just said hire experts. So I tell a lot
(09:00):
about like Disney and Black Panther. Right, Disney had never
made a black superhero movie in the way that they
needed to make Black Panther. One way they could have
done it is just hire a white creative director or
the white producer and a white production crew and do
it in the way that they had always done it. Instead,
they hire Ryan Coogler one expert, and Ryan brings the
whole family with them. Now, now we're putting on black people.
We black people didn't even know you know what I mean.
(09:22):
So the idea is you have to have experts in
the room who can help you pave the way. You
can't assume that you've been doing it incorrectly for a
hundred years and then all of a sudden, the same
people in the building are gonna know how to move
in the way that you need to move in this
moment in time. As it relates to brands who I
think are doing amazing, Look, I'm just gonna shout out
to people who are doing amazing for us, because that's
(09:43):
what real partnership looks like. I'll shout out to State Farm.
State Farm came in as a big partner on Revote
Black News a year ago. Before all these brands started
making commitments, Before all these brands started doing, State Farmer
was already there. I give them love for that. In addition,
they've given us money, Um, that is going to help
us in this moment. We just hired a new black
woman executive to run Revot Black News. The whole business
(10:06):
is about to change. That only happens because a brand
like State Farm comes in guarantees you money for a
couple of years you can invest and build. Watch what
Revolt Black News and this Black Woman does. State Farm
is going to get that credit or credit from a
brand perspective. When it's all said and done, Target, we're
doing really, really, really really amazing work with Target. They
are one of the brands who are absolutely trying to
(10:28):
impact the culture. They're trying not to just do sponsorship stuff,
but what can we do to really move the needle
for our people. Um, so shout and Target out. And
then the last one that I'll say is Verizon. Um,
same thing. We have big dreams and and and and
Verizon is one of those places where we got to
come in and tell them what our dreams were. And
they're gonna come in and stay for both many years
and millions of dollars. We're gonna support you. And so
(10:50):
calling out the brands who are showing up in a
really big way, not just financially but in true partnership.
Oh last one McDonald's. McDonald's came out and made a
big announce but we talked a lot about accountability. It's
talked about the money that they were pledging, the multi
cultural group that they were creating, They've done all of it.
Were so many brands have not moved on any of
those commitments. McDonald's, we've already started our multi cultural communities.
(11:11):
We've already started our conversations around what the money looks like.
And so again i'll shout McDonald's out for doing with
the heart of doing really good work in this community. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
I know there are brands out there like Dang. I
wish they would call my name next year. We can
come on, let's go. Uh you know, I want to
give a shout out to p and because I believe
(11:33):
that they are truly doing the work. And so when
I got announced that I was beginning, I'm in the CEO.
And if y'all don't know, in February two, I was
fired from a company who just did not respect culture.
Have me check my culture at the door when I
walked in every day. I know all of y'all have
experienced that at some point of y'all ain't old enough.
Then I caught COVID ten days later, so me and
God had a journey and then eat in bridgement on
(11:56):
debut on July six to seven, text me right, never
met her Black girl Magic. You know we're working on something.
So the whole point is that as soon as I
was announced January nineteenth, Divine Order John Johnson's birthday, my
announcement comes out. I did not know that. Right the
mind Order on the path, Mark Pritchard calls me, Michelle,
(12:17):
I'm so happy for you. How can I be an
institutional investor not counting impressions, not expect anything because I
know you're in a growth mode. How can we help
you build right? He said, because Ebony is really the
black time you have chronicled history. Since you were the first,
you will be the last. We want you to be
this thing. That's what brands have to do right, and
(12:39):
we're worth every penny of that because what we're doing
for the community, how we're connecting, how we're selling people's
products and services. And so I give them a big
shout out. I appreciate Mark reaching out to me and
asking me the question, how can we help you that
we're not measuring right? And I respect that from a
brand absolutely. I have to second the PG. They had
(12:59):
actually done a really good job than haven't been as
uh focused on pricing as they typically would be, and
also have been willing to take risk because the truth is,
if you deal with you want to actually talk about culture,
you're gonna talk about some things that might be controversial.
You know, a white institution might not necessarily want to
deal with, and they've been willing to do that. I'll
call out one that's not as well known, and that's
Athleta and what they did with Alison Felix. Most of
(13:23):
you know what happened with her and Nike, how disrespectful
they were, pay cup when she got pregnant, all of
that stuff. Not only did Athleta take her on, and
she's the first um professional athlete that they've done an
endorsement with, but then they helped her launch her own shoe, right,
So that's investment in her as an athlete. Obviously it
can pay dividends for them as a company. If you
look at what brand Jordan has done for Nike, you
(13:43):
know that he's done a lot more for them than
they've ever done for him. But at the end of
the day, that to me is true investment is allied ship.
They're they're speaking to women, they're speaking specifically to black women.
You can see how disrespected black women have been almost
always seem to be no matter what level they get to.
Just think about how that Williams sisters are treated. Despite
everything's um Serena's clearly done to prove that she's the
(14:04):
greatest American athlete of all time, they still disrespected because
she does something that a white guy would do and
it's you know, it's big news. And so I really
respect that letter doing that. I think they took a
big chance on it. They didn't know if she was
gonna make the Olympics, because I would say, you know,
a couple of years ago, it didn't look like she would, um,
you know, two and it's two years later, right, it
ended up happening in so um, I very much respect
(14:27):
you know that, Lineman. So, I think we've talked about
culture a little bit, and something I firmly believe is
that really black cultural influences one of the biggest exports
of this country, right, literally one of the biggest exports
of this country. And I think my question is, as
we think about the evolution in the future of black
(14:48):
cultural influence, what does the future of collaboration between black
media platforms and black influences and black creators look like
I'll start with the tabio. Yeah, so Revolt we fully
see ourselve up as a platform for creative I don't
think we ever wanted ourselves as the thing. We are
the operating system for the things. What we're trying to
(15:08):
do is the best mouse trap for creators to move in.
You want to create short form content, long form content,
studio business experience. We're building a most immersive world of
the culture possible and then bringing in black creators to
let them play. And so the way that we see
it at Revolt is um. Even right now that we
have conversations with brands, were always trying to figure out
(15:30):
who are the creators that we can bring along the
way that again can benefit economically from all of the
things that we're doing together. Um, I would say so
most of you probably don't even know what media Co is.
Media Co is relatively new company launched a couple of
years ago. We own Hot ninety seven in WBLS in
New York and um, also, yeah, we just had summer jam.
(15:51):
That was the thing. Um, hurricanes and COVID and homophobic
comments and all kinds of other things. Is like, okay, lord,
I hear you. I'm still I'm still here. Um, but
you know, we really look at it, you know, in
particular Hot nunety seven, So we think about that from
a cultural perspective and what it not. Really I'm trying
to drive it, but trying to make sure that it
(16:13):
is open to whatever the culture is saying is important, right,
So making sure our platform is representing the culture. Uh.
With WBLS, which is obviously a different platform for those
of you who don't know it's it's really R and
B for the most part. Um, it's trying to figure out, well,
what is what is their cultural inflection point? We talk
about hip hop culture all the time. I've never heard
anybody say R and B culture, but there's probably something there.
(16:35):
And if I asked you to describe R and B culture,
you all of you would probably have some idea of
what that is. So that's that's what we're doing now. Um.
You know, we're not fully developed. You know, I was
brought on and helped do a lot of those things.
So that's you know, we're kind of going into strategic
planning in the next actually next couple of weeks to
start to figure that out. We're gonna relaunch our apps
and stuff like that. But I think it's it's super
important that whatever we do, we're reflective of what the
(16:58):
culture is saying is important and not what we're trying to,
you know, push out into the culture. Let me build
on this question, what advice would you give influencers and
creators that are looking to create collaborative partnerships with black
media platforms like yours. I want to just jump in
and say, like, how many people are sick and tired
of not having our own? Like we jump on social
(17:19):
media every day, We're giving away our intellectual properties. They're
making five billion dollars a quarter and you're getting ten
dollars because you have five hundred thousand followers. Come on,
I'm gonna preach today. So you have to get mad,
you have to get angry, you have to innovate. Theory
is like I'm looking around this room, like who's the
next Facebook, Who's the next Google? Who is the next Microsoft,
(17:42):
Who's the next Warner Studios? And I'm gonna tell you something.
I love working for the Bridgeman family because y'all probably
like they fly to onto bar rates, but they're black.
Bill and their family from Louisville Junior Bridgeman would die
if he had to walk into the room and get
on the stage because they fly to the radar. Right.
But I love sitting at the tables like what are
we gonna buy? What are we going to? Who? Partner?
Like to we own them? Like? I love that narrative
(18:03):
because we have to get in the ownership game. I
don't want to pay check. I don't want to be
your employee. I want to build, create, grow, And we're
sitting at the table talking about that. And when Morgan
is doing she's telling the story and shining a light.
What the Tommy is doing is building a platform. But
we're here to encourage you. You don't have to accept that.
You don't have to be an employee, you don't have
(18:24):
to get a paycheck. You are free to do whatever
you want to and if anything happens today that we encourage,
be out there and be free create get yours. Okay.
So partnership is great, ownership better right right? You know
it was. It was great being back in the green
room again, just you know, listening, and I think part
(18:47):
of the the thing I realized that there are a ton
of amazing things happening in the space, in the world
of media and the world of advertising right now, what
are some of the trans Mitchell, I'm gonna start with
you because you're you're hot right now. Oh, we're gonna
We're gonna keep it going. What are some of the
trends that you see coming in and you guys were
giving you giving me a peek behind the tent. What
(19:07):
can we share not only just with your platforms, but
in general. You know, last night, I'll say Gena and
I we were sitting down with Jay Brown, who created
Finty Beauty, and we were just talking about a lot
of things going on, and so we're talking about her
and her brand and what she's building. Now this like, Yo,
that's dope, right, I mean, like, that's amazing. I was like,
what's been Oh that's a last name. You'll come on,
Michelle catch up. But then I look at Travis Scott
(19:29):
like my kids were literally like, yo, mommy, Travis is
gonna be in fortnite. I said, wait, what I had
to Google like that is amazing. And he's still selling products.
He has people following twenty seven million downloads, looking products
being moved. Then I go to nas I don't know
if y'all sauce the summers the video and I was like, yo,
(19:49):
he's hitting a golf ball off of his Hennessy. Then
he's drinking. There was a moment that was creative and
this and things are flowing. There's so much amazing creativity.
But I believe that we have to understand what's going on.
We have to understand what's moving things and people, and
we have to take the time because we're so busy
that we can't even be creative. But like those things
and those like like those are inspiring to me that
(20:11):
you're moving in the culture in a way that is
so memorable and share able that I find a super dope.
I would say, um, whether what I hope we do
is we take back some of our i P which
you you hit on your last comment. I mean, we
give away so much i P for free right, And
you saw that a lot of the black creators were
(20:32):
boycotting TikTok because they weren't getting credit the people, they
weren't having folks, you know, drive to the dances they created.
But we're giving it away. So what I would love
to see is that's take a lot of that stuff back,
put it on platforms that we own. Make sure that
before you do it, you're setting up like, well, what's
the rev Sharre situation. That's the kind of thing the
influences can do, because if you don't know ahead of time, well,
(20:52):
how do I get compensated from our work? And if
what you if you're an influencer and you're creating dances,
you're doing all that like that is your job. You
should be and state it. Fourth, they're making money hand
over fist for even if it's pennies, because they're all
about tonnage, right, they just got people coming through all
the time. They're there um putting advertisers against it, and
they're making money. And so that's what I'm I would
(21:12):
like to see our influences start to do. I would
like to see them understand that not everything is necessarily
a paycheck. Rev Share can be a real thing. You
can make real money from it, but you need to
know upfront. Um, you know we're a publicly traded companies,
so understanding that cash isn't always king. Sometimes you want
to you want to take some risk. You get a
stock when it's when it's low priced, and you help
build it what it's gonna do is it's gonna build
(21:33):
your wealth exponentially because frankly, it's gonna grow out fast
and putting it in the bank or most investments, right,
and it's in some ways it's a little less risky
because you're the one helping to build it. So that
that's one of the trends. I certainly would like to
see Yeah, yeah, from from a vot vote perspective, and
they maybe even be able to tie the question that
you asked a little bit earlier, which is what would
(21:54):
you say the creators. I would say the creators called Michelle,
called Carver, Shan, called Detaio, because we are all building
platforms to amplify their voices, call me to call them,
call them head a revote changed our entire content development
strategy based on the fact that we believe that defeat
(22:14):
the future of media's influencer. You can look at Viacom property,
you can look at H A, B, C, B ET,
all of them, and then you can go look at
what Cardi B is doing any day, what Will Smith
is doing any day, what Travis and they blow all
of their numbers away. Right The top media platforms in
the world right now all belong to celebs and influences, right,
(22:36):
and so that again back to this idea while we're
building a platform for them. So that's a trend that
I see continuing into the to the long long future.
The other piece which we said, but I'll just hit
it real quick and then get out this idea that
black culture drives global culture, This idea that we can
create products for the fourteen percent or fifteen percent of
black people that exist, but given our impact, we can
(22:58):
create things that move the world. And I think all
too often we're so super focused on the thirteen or
the fourteen and not often realized that the opportunity for
global domination, global impact exists, and so we should just
continue to plan in that space as well. So question,
I mean, we've we've talked about just I think the
(23:19):
change that's happened and the accelerated change over the past
you know, eighteen months, almost two years and system murder,
George Floyd, and I think we've all seen things that
we guess probably if you told us prior we're going
to happen that you know, we're just to stop get
out of it. There's not there's no way, that's not possible.
What do you guys, see now as we move forward,
what are what are your predictions for the next three
(23:40):
years and next five years, like what's coming down the pipeline.
I think I think this moment that black media is
having a really really amazing moment. You can't say that
all advertisers have showed up, but you can say that
there's a handful or a group or a collective of
advertisers that are really trying to show up in a really, really,
really big way. I think we have you know, three
(24:00):
years really I say, like eighteen months to really get
it done, but eighteen months to three years to kind
of ride this way. And so the game that we're
all playing is how big can you get? How dope
can you get as quickly as possible, because when all
the money disappears, and when all the black lives matter,
when he disappears, you gotta be ready to compete. And
so I believe what's happening is will will will will
(24:20):
continue to see years of investment into black owned media.
Those of us you know, who are playing the game correctly,
will recognize that there's a dual responsibility that the advertisers
have to deposit into us, and that we have to build, build, build,
And I believe that when you wake up in the
end of three years, even when the money disappears, if
when Michelle's dreams have come to life, the impacts she
will have made, Rashaan's dreams will come to like like
(24:44):
you think, like I keep saying, like these black creators
and black media companies are being funded. The world is
about to change us taking control of our story and
our narrative. When we wake up in three, four or
five years, the world will feel different. This is not
one of those like teeny teeny incremental change. Is this
moment is one of those moments that that is going
to create lasting change forever. So anyways, I think black
(25:05):
media is hot, is gonna stay hot for almost three years,
and then we just got to make sure that when
it's done, we're ready to We're ready to dominate. Yeah,
And I love that, and I'll just jump on the
back of that. I see us owning other pieces of
the business. Right, So, like if if Ebony wanted to
have a studio just for saying, we want to really
dig into the content business because we have all this stuff,
what what cloud is that going on? How is that
(25:26):
getting to the movie students. I want to be that
black cloud. I want to own that piece oh n
f t s like I want to own the blockchain.
I want to be the underground rower for all of
y'all who create, Like I don't want to limit my
vision to just what we can see, right because when
we do and dream like that, in the next generation,
they too can dream, right Like you and I talk about,
(25:47):
we're not building this empire so our kids don't have
to do anything. We're building this empire so they can
do something great, so they can be amazing, so they
can flow, they're not checked at the door. And so
I want to know. I want to investigate what I
love about um, this opportunity, this tragedy because I always
say my glass is half full and God makes no mistakes.
(26:09):
It gave us an opportunity to sit down and breathe
and think right, to make calls, to build relationships, to
work from home, right, which is like it sounds crazy,
but now I can actually I saw him like I
was like, yo, you got tall, Like I think in
a minute, Like so there's always a blessing in the
tragedy and it's still going on. So what are we
(26:29):
gonna do? In our dawntime. What are we gonna do
to think and grow? How are we gonna build beyond
just the black media and own the infrastructure? Like that
to me is dope. I don't want people to talk
about that. So I would say that, um, despite all
of us up here, what we've seem so far is
that we can barely handle all the money because there
(26:51):
are a lot of companies that are doing it right.
And for if you look at the commitments that many
of them made, if they're true, a lot of the
ten year commitments, so it's a it's a ten million
dollars over ten years, a hundred million dollars over ten years, UM.
And so the real truth is there's opportunity for all
of you to create your own companies. You know. One
of the things, unfortunately, I feel like, is we see
so few archetypes of who we are. We see so
(27:12):
few ideas really get funded and really get um to
to gain any scale UM. And you know, obviously some
of them are very obvious music, hip hop, you know,
sometimes fashion, UM, but we don't necessarily always see things
like Afro tech, right, black people in technology, etcetera. I
think there's real opportunity for lots of people out here.
I imagine a number of your entrepreneurs to start it.
(27:34):
There's actually money there that wasn't there before to help
you scale faster than a lot of the companies that
we're with. We're able to scale because the capital wasn't there,
because that that revenue is there that can actually help
you go out and get capital because you know that
you can get promises from advertisers that revenue is gonna
be coming in, which is gonna help you scale. Because
you can actually grow your platform, you can actually hire
(27:56):
creatives or do rev shares with with influencers and create
if who are going to help drive more UM you know,
audience to your platform. So what I hope is that
you realize that this is an inflection point in many
ways for more companies to be created, for so many
more companies that maybe around now but haven't been able
to scale, to actually scale and use UM you know.
(28:17):
Maybe maybe it's a moment. I hope it's longer than
eighteen months or two years maybe whatever wherever we have left.
But whatever it is, I think that I would love
to see a lot more companies, a lot more entrepreneurs
be able to create things and be able to scale
businesses and reflect broader areas of of you know, our culture,
because there is so much more out there. I think about,
you know, travel, I know um Blabby has you know,
(28:39):
traveling more, but cooking and all sorts of other things
that you just you barely see that stuff at least
not at scale. So I'd love to see a lot
more of it. Can. I just want to say that
because you bring up such a good point, is that
of black owned businesses could get no funny because they
only had one employee. So y'all go get two or
three more and then you then you have access to
(29:02):
what's going on. We didn't even know that until we
got the note, so we couldn't even partake in all
the money flowing because there were rules set in place
for us not to partake. Yeah. And then the last
piece that I'll say, just a piggyback on all of this,
is this idea that what's really changed over the last
year for me is that black is now green. When
you look at black media companies were growing like tech companies.
(29:23):
If you look at black advertising agencies were growing like
tech companies. The only idea you need is the biggest
Black X, the biggest Black owned media company, the biggest
black owned food CHA, the biggest like black for the
first time is money. It's driving significant R O Y,
so getting encouraging everybody out here to start. Godment's actually
ten billion dollars to black women to that point, though,
(29:46):
and I think we've seen more investment. We also know
if you think about the commitments and the promises that
were made back in June July, what's been invested to
this point is miniscule compared to what was mus And
so the question is what's being done, or more importantly,
what should be done to create accountability around holding true
(30:08):
to those promises from the brands and organizations that have
made them. I'll start with the show. Well, you already
know what we're about to do. You know, it was
a great uh suggestion by eating She's like, who's Who's
like putting a ticker up about what everyone promised, but
what they delivered. It really is up to us because
we have the pen, we have the platform to tell
that story. So we have to make it a priority,
(30:30):
right and maybe nobody wants to sponsor that Everything we
do can't be about sponsorship. Dollars. Did I just say
that we wouldn't hurt But y'all know my background super salesperson,
right right. But but I think that it's up to
us too, And then how do we do that together,
how do we form a coalition and somebody just focusing
on that in the marketplace, because if we're busy growing
(30:52):
our businesses, there really is nobody that's lobbying for us.
So it's one of the things that I'm passionate about.
It's one of the things that I want to get
off the ground. Don't want to do it with my
brothers right here and some of my sisters. Morgan, that
we make sure that we're holding the marketplace accountable with
a dedicated conversation space and people. Man, yeah, I mean,
she hit it. The biggest thing I think we can
(31:13):
do is create some sort of scorecards for for national accountability.
Don't you gave him my idea? If he does, you'll no, no, no,
I'm only doing it. I'm only doing it with her.
Don't worry. That's exactly that's exactly what you need. And
then the second thing, and we talked about this is
every time we have this stage doing our job to
call out those people who are doing it right and
(31:34):
call out those people who are doing it wrong. So
I think that's number two. And then the third one
is we have to get better at rallying our community
to weaponize their dollars right. We have to get better
at making sure they understand that these people are not
reinvesting in your community. Therefore they do not deserve your pennies,
your dollars, your coins, your Harriet Tubman bucks, whatever it is.
(31:55):
I think we have to do a better job to
get giving people to see that that I'm never gonna
have the music start playing on me with I'm on
stage in my career. So we're gonna get ready to
start wrapping it up. But before we go, looking at
the clock, before we got table, So what do you
want to leave people? I think the biggest thing I
can leave with everyone is that this the time is now.
It's right for you know, others to come and build
(32:18):
something themselves. Everything does doesn't of us have to be
the biggest, but it has to be something that is unique.
It has a perspective that's yours. When you say black,
it doesn't just have to be African Americans, African Caribbean.
So many you know, we have so many different things
we have to offer from a cultural perspective to the world,
and I would love to see us all do it.
There's actually there are actually resources out there now to
(32:40):
do it. I would also lastly say that people need
to also be thinking about invest UM ensure that they
put money in Black banks. Doesn't have to be all
your money, but they're the ones who are canna be
able to provide business loans and lines of credit and
other things that help companies be successful. And that's that's
one of also the things we can do to ask
some of these UM client partners to be accountable is
what do you do with black banks to help make
(33:01):
sure that the money is really flowing into the community.
So I'll live with that, yeah, on my side. UM
controlling a narrative, that's the big idea for Revolt. We
believe that there's a lot of conversation right now about
representation and media representation is not the issue. It's a
symptom of the bigger issue, which is control. Is the
fact that black people have never had control of our narrative.
They've been telling our story for us in a really
(33:22):
big way since the fourteen hundreds, that story that said
we were subpar, we were less than, we were uncivilized,
we didn't deserve. Every day we wake up trying to
take control back of our narrative. And so for the
people who are in this room who are storytellers, creators,
not just call us so that we can do it together,
but just for me, we are literally one of the
highest leverage points in the fight for social justice. The
(33:44):
fight for social justice is simply a war on imagery.
Those people who are the storytellers, those people who are
the makers of it. We get to move the needle
through story and so, um, you know, we gotta control
our narrative home. Oh right, oh right. Um, So I
would say this. I want everybody to take out your phone.
Everybody has a phone, take it out. I want you
(34:05):
to mark Monday on your calendar to say, I'm gonna
follow up from today, because what happens is we come
here and you listen and a mien standing ovation and
we get back to the ground. I want everybody to
mark their calendar that they're gonna put afro tech on
their calendar at nine am. And I want you to
take some type of action from today, some type of
(34:26):
honesty with yourself. Want you to look in the mirror.
So I'm not gonna just leave that in l a
in that room. I'm gonna push the boundaries. I'm gonna
go back to my company's I'm gonna look at my board,
I'm gonna see who I'm doing business with, I'm gonna
look at my whatever. That one action is that every
single person in this room takes one action. We're going
to be better tomorrow. So if y'all could do that,
that we didn't waste our time up here. Amen. Amen.
(35:03):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Black and
the Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast Network and
Iheared Media. It's produced by Morgan Dabon and me Well Lucas,
with additional production support by Love Beacham and Ris and Lewis.
Special thank you to Michael Davis, Jimmy Hollins, and Carson
von Jan you know like the Wine. Yes that's his
real name. Learn more about Mary and other tech that.
(35:25):
This interview is an Afro tech dot com Enjoin your
Black Tech. Green Money gave us a five star rating
on iTunes. Go get your money, Peace and love,
Is this idea that what's really changed over the last
year for me is that black is now green. When
you look at black media companies were growing like tech companies.
If you look at black advertising agencies were growing like
tech companies. The only idea you need is the biggest blacks,
the biggest black owned media company, the biggest black owned
food chum, the biggest like black for the first time
(00:21):
is money is driving significant r y. I'm with Lucas,
this is black tech dream money. I'm gonna nswer this
to some of the biggest names, some of the brightest
minds and brilliant ideas. If you're black and building are
simply using tech to secure your back, this podcast is
for you. So the end of last year brought a
(00:46):
new initiative for afro Tech. Our new conference focused on
C suite executives, founder, spenture capitalists, and more. It's called
afro Tech Executive, and so far we've touched down in
Los Angeles, Miami, and just this past week in New York. Many,
if not all, of the conversations we bring to the
stage in this intimate room are the definition of for
(01:07):
us bias. And these are the conversations we can't always
have in the mainstream. These are the amongst family conversations,
you know what I mean. We're set to bring afro
Tech Executive to a few more destinations in twenty two alone,
and I want to give you a bit of a
peek into what it's like to be in the room.
That there will be more episodes to come. I give
(01:27):
you a taste of afro Tech Executive, like a conversation
with the co founder of one of the biggest sites
on the planet, Steve Hoffman from Reddit. Conversations with the
first black woman's CEO of a Fortune five hundred company
or Sela Burns and One will share here today. For
this episode, we'll dive into a conversation with president Day
media moguls on the stage is I Met Islam, CEO
(01:49):
at ten thirty five for full service advertising company that
leans into culture, Michelle g CEO at Ebony, Jet Resign Rasign,
Lindsay Who CEO at Media Code in the Tapio, Samuel's
Who CEO at Revolts, which was founded by Diddy. These
powerhouses discussed the future of black media. So good morning,
Good morning. I'm a Mad Islam CEO ten thirty five.
(02:15):
My team and I spend most of our days figuring
out how to transform brands of culture. Happy to be here, UM,
to really kick off this conversation around is evolving topics
around black media and advertising. UM. Blessed to be on
stage with a group of giants this morning. UM. Starting
with Michelle g CEO of Ebony Jet. Super happy and
(02:35):
super excited to hear with Michell's gonna talk about as
a kid, spent a ton of time in Chicago, long
history of just watching that platform grow. So I'm sorry
to see what the shell is gonna do here. They
don't even know you. Gotta tell you, gotta let him know.
Next up my man to Tabio, Samuel's CEO of Revolte,
(02:56):
having an amazing years really kind of changing the culture
and changing the game in black media. Last, but not least,
my brother was Sean Lindsay, CEO of Media Coe also
play the advertising to set us for TV one, So one.
We got a very short time. We could probably spend
a couple of hours talking about this topic, but we
got thirty minutes, so we're gonna get into it. UM.
(03:16):
My first question is really in the world that we're
right now, right there are a lot of brands that
are just doing everything they can, or at least saying
they're doing everything they can to connect with black consumers.
You know, what are some of the biggest challenges that
brands looking to connect with black consumers are facing right now?
So I think, first of all, can you guys hear
me microphone check one to Okay, sorry, let me my
(03:41):
boss is here Eton Bridge, But let me act right first,
for Morgan, thank you for having us, Thank you for
bringing this theme class together on these whole boys for
the first time. But I feel like I know my
you know, I'm just gonna make it very simple. I
try and tell the truth. Right. Brands have great intention
we see it. They were kind of force too because
of the moment we're in and you gave me black
(04:02):
and successful right now, I don't know what's happened. And
then what happens is they have good intentions, but they're
a little fearful. So the first thing is fear. So
brands can't be fearful, like there's nothing to fear, right,
you know, you need to speak to this consumer. This
consumer is on their phone, they're buying products, they're talking
share like it's the perfect group of folks to talk to,
(04:22):
and then you have good do you register a budget
and then you send it to your agency that does
not look like us at all. They're years old, they
have no respect for the culture. They don't return our calls.
They put us through a thing. So I'm like, even
if I see an agency it was pushed to it,
I'm not getting on the phone because it's not worth
my time because I'm a CEO, right, And so I
(04:45):
called the client and say, listen, we're not gonna play
these games. And it is games. And so clients need
to know that your agencies are not working on your
behalf when your backs are turned. And so if you
want to get real and get honest and do a
good service to reach this consumer, hire some black people.
Make sure your agencies are representing the people that you
(05:05):
want to communicate with. Y'all do that. We're good. Yeah,
I'll just pop in really quickly on that one. I
think you know two thoughts, um One. In this day
and age, like what we tell brands all the time
is revolutionary times require revolutionary thinking. And so one of
the biggest challenge that you have with a lot of
these brands is they're not ready to do revolutionary thinking.
(05:26):
They're stuck in convention, they're stuck in the old model.
They want to transact with us in the same way
that they want that they transact with Google and Facebook.
And so it's about tonnage and it's about scale. When
you're dealing with our audience, it's really about influence and
cultural movement. So getting brands to understand that, and like,
let's measure things differently. Yes, you're gonna get billions of impressions.
Let's get those billions of impressions through the amazing stories
(05:48):
and stories we tell and ideas that we create together.
Let's get the earned media impressions the talented. Everything doesn't
have to be delivered from my specific ecosystem. So let's
think about how we measure our impact. The second piece
of measure man for me is in this day and age,
it's not just about you getting your impressions delivered. How
many black creatives did we elevate, how many black entrepreneurs
did we amplify. We need to make sure that we're
(06:09):
measuring not just the impression game, but all of the
other ways that we can create change. And then the
last thing that I say, um from my perspective. You
still have a lot of brands who I think are
just trying to check a box. And so for them,
I'm always saying, like, the issue is that you have
KPIs powering dreams instead of dreams powering KPIs. And so
what brands have to start to do is dream about
what they can do with this culture, dream what they
(06:31):
can do with this community, and then build KPIs that
match that, not just getting stuck again like I'm just
trying to check a box. I would say it's a
couple of things. You can't hear me, Okay, Um, well, uh,
First of all, the scale issues is big, because the
truth is they created the problem right by not investing
(06:53):
in our businesses. They don't exist, so we haven't been
able to scale. Then they'll they'll pile on and say
a company has to be say owned, But then if
that's true, then you can't take on capital because a
lot of times you need to give up equity to
get the capital you need. So then that keeps you small,
and they won't won't accept any responsibility for creating that.
And I'm not talking about this in a year. I'm
(07:15):
talking about over decades and decades right. And then the
other thing I would say is that, um, quite often
when they look at their brands, are always looking from
a brand centric perspective and so from a you know,
general market perspective. Whatever, the key selling proposition might be
one thing, but within the black community is something different. Right.
So I was actually met with a client yesterday, Um,
(07:35):
black girl sunscreen and really simple like hers doesn't leave
white residue when we put on that lotion and sunscreen,
Like sometimes my whole face is great if you take
a picture of me, right, Um, which is why I
get the early one and spray dead joint on because
I mean, I use sunscreen, I don't care I needed
despite my complexion, but that the nutrogena and stuff like
(07:58):
that doesn't work for me. And so if you if
you look at your product or your service willing to
figure out what is it that would actually make it
make sense to black people, to other people of color,
it might not be the thing that you typically would
would message. And so you have to be willing to
have that conversation, which means you need to hire people
like Amad and actually let them tell you what they
(08:18):
think makes sense for the audience that you're trying to
reach not how do you fit the message that we've
already created to this audience is not the same thing. So,
so to tell you a quick question, you know we
talked about, I think there's there's a lot of activity
right there are a lot of brands that are at
least expressing their intent of doing what's right when it
comes to black culture. I mean, what brands do you
(08:39):
think are doing it right right now? And secondly, what
advice would you give brands that are just trying to
figure it out and actually get started doing something. Yeah,
I think for brands who are I'm gonna start with
the back and then go um and go backwards. For
brands who are trying to get into this game, I'm
gonna go to I think it was either MICHELLEA. Rashaan
who just said hire experts. So I tell a lot
(09:00):
about like Disney and Black Panther. Right, Disney had never
made a black superhero movie in the way that they
needed to make Black Panther. One way they could have
done it is just hire a white creative director or
the white producer and a white production crew and do
it in the way that they had always done it. Instead,
they hire Ryan Coogler one expert, and Ryan brings the
whole family with them. Now, now we're putting on black people.
We black people didn't even know you know what I mean.
(09:22):
So the idea is you have to have experts in
the room who can help you pave the way. You
can't assume that you've been doing it incorrectly for a
hundred years and then all of a sudden, the same
people in the building are gonna know how to move
in the way that you need to move in this
moment in time. As it relates to brands who I
think are doing amazing, Look, I'm just gonna shout out
to people who are doing amazing for us, because that's
(09:43):
what real partnership looks like. I'll shout out to State Farm.
State Farm came in as a big partner on Revote
Black News a year ago. Before all these brands started
making commitments, Before all these brands started doing, State Farmer
was already there. I give them love for that. In addition,
they've given us money, Um, that is going to help
us in this moment. We just hired a new black
woman executive to run Revot Black News. The whole business
(10:06):
is about to change. That only happens because a brand
like State Farm comes in guarantees you money for a
couple of years you can invest and build. Watch what
Revolt Black News and this Black Woman does. State Farm
is going to get that credit or credit from a
brand perspective. When it's all said and done, Target, we're
doing really, really, really really amazing work with Target. They
are one of the brands who are absolutely trying to
(10:28):
impact the culture. They're trying not to just do sponsorship stuff,
but what can we do to really move the needle
for our people. Um, so shout and Target out. And
then the last one that I'll say is Verizon. Um,
same thing. We have big dreams and and and and
Verizon is one of those places where we got to
come in and tell them what our dreams were. And
they're gonna come in and stay for both many years
and millions of dollars. We're gonna support you. And so
(10:50):
calling out the brands who are showing up in a
really big way, not just financially but in true partnership.
Oh last one McDonald's. McDonald's came out and made a
big announce but we talked a lot about accountability. It's
talked about the money that they were pledging, the multi
cultural group that they were creating, They've done all of it.
Were so many brands have not moved on any of
those commitments. McDonald's, we've already started our multi cultural communities.
(11:11):
We've already started our conversations around what the money looks like.
And so again i'll shout McDonald's out for doing with
the heart of doing really good work in this community. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
I know there are brands out there like Dang. I
wish they would call my name next year. We can
come on, let's go. Uh you know, I want to
give a shout out to p and because I believe
(11:33):
that they are truly doing the work. And so when
I got announced that I was beginning, I'm in the CEO.
And if y'all don't know, in February two, I was
fired from a company who just did not respect culture.
Have me check my culture at the door when I
walked in every day. I know all of y'all have
experienced that at some point of y'all ain't old enough.
Then I caught COVID ten days later, so me and
God had a journey and then eat in bridgement on
(11:56):
debut on July six to seven, text me right, never
met her Black girl Magic. You know we're working on something.
So the whole point is that as soon as I
was announced January nineteenth, Divine Order John Johnson's birthday, my
announcement comes out. I did not know that. Right the
mind Order on the path, Mark Pritchard calls me, Michelle,
(12:17):
I'm so happy for you. How can I be an
institutional investor not counting impressions, not expect anything because I
know you're in a growth mode. How can we help
you build right? He said, because Ebony is really the
black time you have chronicled history. Since you were the first,
you will be the last. We want you to be
this thing. That's what brands have to do right, and
(12:39):
we're worth every penny of that because what we're doing
for the community, how we're connecting, how we're selling people's
products and services. And so I give them a big
shout out. I appreciate Mark reaching out to me and
asking me the question, how can we help you that
we're not measuring right? And I respect that from a
brand absolutely. I have to second the PG. They had
(12:59):
actually done a really good job than haven't been as
uh focused on pricing as they typically would be, and
also have been willing to take risk because the truth is,
if you deal with you want to actually talk about culture,
you're gonna talk about some things that might be controversial.
You know, a white institution might not necessarily want to
deal with, and they've been willing to do that. I'll
call out one that's not as well known, and that's
Athleta and what they did with Alison Felix. Most of
(13:23):
you know what happened with her and Nike, how disrespectful
they were, pay cup when she got pregnant, all of
that stuff. Not only did Athleta take her on, and
she's the first um professional athlete that they've done an
endorsement with, but then they helped her launch her own shoe, right,
So that's investment in her as an athlete. Obviously it
can pay dividends for them as a company. If you
look at what brand Jordan has done for Nike, you
(13:43):
know that he's done a lot more for them than
they've ever done for him. But at the end of
the day, that to me is true investment is allied ship.
They're they're speaking to women, they're speaking specifically to black women.
You can see how disrespected black women have been almost
always seem to be no matter what level they get to.
Just think about how that Williams sisters are treated. Despite
everything's um Serena's clearly done to prove that she's the
(14:04):
greatest American athlete of all time, they still disrespected because
she does something that a white guy would do and
it's you know, it's big news. And so I really
respect that letter doing that. I think they took a
big chance on it. They didn't know if she was
gonna make the Olympics, because I would say, you know,
a couple of years ago, it didn't look like she would, um,
you know, two and it's two years later, right, it
ended up happening in so um, I very much respect
(14:27):
you know that, Lineman. So, I think we've talked about
culture a little bit, and something I firmly believe is
that really black cultural influences one of the biggest exports
of this country, right, literally one of the biggest exports
of this country. And I think my question is, as
we think about the evolution in the future of black
(14:48):
cultural influence, what does the future of collaboration between black
media platforms and black influences and black creators look like
I'll start with the tabio. Yeah, so Revolt we fully
see ourselve up as a platform for creative I don't
think we ever wanted ourselves as the thing. We are
the operating system for the things. What we're trying to
(15:08):
do is the best mouse trap for creators to move in.
You want to create short form content, long form content,
studio business experience. We're building a most immersive world of
the culture possible and then bringing in black creators to
let them play. And so the way that we see
it at Revolt is um. Even right now that we
have conversations with brands, were always trying to figure out
(15:30):
who are the creators that we can bring along the
way that again can benefit economically from all of the
things that we're doing together. Um, I would say so
most of you probably don't even know what media Co is.
Media Co is relatively new company launched a couple of
years ago. We own Hot ninety seven in WBLS in
New York and um, also, yeah, we just had summer jam.
(15:51):
That was the thing. Um, hurricanes and COVID and homophobic
comments and all kinds of other things. Is like, okay, lord,
I hear you. I'm still I'm still here. Um, but
you know, we really look at it, you know, in
particular Hot nunety seven, So we think about that from
a cultural perspective and what it not. Really I'm trying
to drive it, but trying to make sure that it
(16:13):
is open to whatever the culture is saying is important, right,
So making sure our platform is representing the culture. Uh.
With WBLS, which is obviously a different platform for those
of you who don't know it's it's really R and
B for the most part. Um, it's trying to figure out, well,
what is what is their cultural inflection point? We talk
about hip hop culture all the time. I've never heard
anybody say R and B culture, but there's probably something there.
(16:35):
And if I asked you to describe R and B culture,
you all of you would probably have some idea of
what that is. So that's that's what we're doing now. Um.
You know, we're not fully developed. You know, I was
brought on and helped do a lot of those things.
So that's you know, we're kind of going into strategic
planning in the next actually next couple of weeks to
start to figure that out. We're gonna relaunch our apps
and stuff like that. But I think it's it's super
important that whatever we do, we're reflective of what the
(16:58):
culture is saying is important and not what we're trying to,
you know, push out into the culture. Let me build
on this question, what advice would you give influencers and
creators that are looking to create collaborative partnerships with black
media platforms like yours. I want to just jump in
and say, like, how many people are sick and tired
of not having our own? Like we jump on social
(17:19):
media every day, We're giving away our intellectual properties. They're
making five billion dollars a quarter and you're getting ten
dollars because you have five hundred thousand followers. Come on,
I'm gonna preach today. So you have to get mad,
you have to get angry, you have to innovate. Theory
is like I'm looking around this room, like who's the
next Facebook, Who's the next Google? Who is the next Microsoft,
(17:42):
Who's the next Warner Studios? And I'm gonna tell you something.
I love working for the Bridgeman family because y'all probably
like they fly to onto bar rates, but they're black.
Bill and their family from Louisville Junior Bridgeman would die
if he had to walk into the room and get
on the stage because they fly to the radar. Right.
But I love sitting at the tables like what are
we gonna buy? What are we going to? Who? Partner?
Like to we own them? Like? I love that narrative
(18:03):
because we have to get in the ownership game. I
don't want to pay check. I don't want to be
your employee. I want to build, create, grow, And we're
sitting at the table talking about that. And when Morgan
is doing she's telling the story and shining a light.
What the Tommy is doing is building a platform. But
we're here to encourage you. You don't have to accept that.
You don't have to be an employee, you don't have
(18:24):
to get a paycheck. You are free to do whatever
you want to and if anything happens today that we encourage,
be out there and be free create get yours. Okay.
So partnership is great, ownership better right right? You know
it was. It was great being back in the green
room again, just you know, listening, and I think part
(18:47):
of the the thing I realized that there are a ton
of amazing things happening in the space, in the world
of media and the world of advertising right now, what
are some of the trans Mitchell, I'm gonna start with
you because you're you're hot right now. Oh, we're gonna
We're gonna keep it going. What are some of the
trends that you see coming in and you guys were
giving you giving me a peek behind the tent. What
(19:07):
can we share not only just with your platforms, but
in general. You know, last night, I'll say Gena and
I we were sitting down with Jay Brown, who created
Finty Beauty, and we were just talking about a lot
of things going on, and so we're talking about her
and her brand and what she's building. Now this like, Yo,
that's dope, right, I mean, like, that's amazing. I was like,
what's been Oh that's a last name. You'll come on,
Michelle catch up. But then I look at Travis Scott
(19:29):
like my kids were literally like, yo, mommy, Travis is
gonna be in fortnite. I said, wait, what I had
to Google like that is amazing. And he's still selling products.
He has people following twenty seven million downloads, looking products
being moved. Then I go to nas I don't know
if y'all sauce the summers the video and I was like, yo,
(19:49):
he's hitting a golf ball off of his Hennessy. Then
he's drinking. There was a moment that was creative and
this and things are flowing. There's so much amazing creativity.
But I believe that we have to understand what's going on.
We have to understand what's moving things and people, and
we have to take the time because we're so busy
that we can't even be creative. But like those things
and those like like those are inspiring to me that
(20:11):
you're moving in the culture in a way that is
so memorable and share able that I find a super dope.
I would say, um, whether what I hope we do
is we take back some of our i P which
you you hit on your last comment. I mean, we
give away so much i P for free right, And
you saw that a lot of the black creators were
(20:32):
boycotting TikTok because they weren't getting credit the people, they
weren't having folks, you know, drive to the dances they created.
But we're giving it away. So what I would love
to see is that's take a lot of that stuff back,
put it on platforms that we own. Make sure that
before you do it, you're setting up like, well, what's
the rev Sharre situation. That's the kind of thing the
influences can do, because if you don't know ahead of time, well,
(20:52):
how do I get compensated from our work? And if
what you if you're an influencer and you're creating dances,
you're doing all that like that is your job. You
should be and state it. Fourth, they're making money hand
over fist for even if it's pennies, because they're all
about tonnage, right, they just got people coming through all
the time. They're there um putting advertisers against it, and
they're making money. And so that's what I'm I would
(21:12):
like to see our influences start to do. I would
like to see them understand that not everything is necessarily
a paycheck. Rev Share can be a real thing. You
can make real money from it, but you need to
know upfront. Um, you know we're a publicly traded companies,
so understanding that cash isn't always king. Sometimes you want
to you want to take some risk. You get a
stock when it's when it's low priced, and you help
build it what it's gonna do is it's gonna build
(21:33):
your wealth exponentially because frankly, it's gonna grow out fast
and putting it in the bank or most investments, right,
and it's in some ways it's a little less risky
because you're the one helping to build it. So that
that's one of the trends. I certainly would like to
see Yeah, yeah, from from a vot vote perspective, and
they maybe even be able to tie the question that
you asked a little bit earlier, which is what would
(21:54):
you say the creators. I would say the creators called Michelle,
called Carver, Shan, called Detaio, because we are all building
platforms to amplify their voices, call me to call them,
call them head a revote changed our entire content development
strategy based on the fact that we believe that defeat
(22:14):
the future of media's influencer. You can look at Viacom property,
you can look at H A, B, C, B ET,
all of them, and then you can go look at
what Cardi B is doing any day, what Will Smith
is doing any day, what Travis and they blow all
of their numbers away. Right The top media platforms in
the world right now all belong to celebs and influences, right,
(22:36):
and so that again back to this idea while we're
building a platform for them. So that's a trend that
I see continuing into the to the long long future.
The other piece which we said, but I'll just hit
it real quick and then get out this idea that
black culture drives global culture, This idea that we can
create products for the fourteen percent or fifteen percent of
black people that exist, but given our impact, we can
(22:58):
create things that move the world. And I think all
too often we're so super focused on the thirteen or
the fourteen and not often realized that the opportunity for
global domination, global impact exists, and so we should just
continue to plan in that space as well. So question,
I mean, we've we've talked about just I think the
(23:19):
change that's happened and the accelerated change over the past
you know, eighteen months, almost two years and system murder,
George Floyd, and I think we've all seen things that
we guess probably if you told us prior we're going
to happen that you know, we're just to stop get
out of it. There's not there's no way, that's not possible.
What do you guys, see now as we move forward,
what are what are your predictions for the next three
(23:40):
years and next five years, like what's coming down the pipeline.
I think I think this moment that black media is
having a really really amazing moment. You can't say that
all advertisers have showed up, but you can say that
there's a handful or a group or a collective of
advertisers that are really trying to show up in a really, really,
really big way. I think we have you know, three
(24:00):
years really I say, like eighteen months to really get
it done, but eighteen months to three years to kind
of ride this way. And so the game that we're
all playing is how big can you get? How dope
can you get as quickly as possible, because when all
the money disappears, and when all the black lives matter,
when he disappears, you gotta be ready to compete. And
so I believe what's happening is will will will will
(24:20):
continue to see years of investment into black owned media.
Those of us you know, who are playing the game correctly,
will recognize that there's a dual responsibility that the advertisers
have to deposit into us, and that we have to build, build, build,
And I believe that when you wake up in the
end of three years, even when the money disappears, if
when Michelle's dreams have come to life, the impacts she
will have made, Rashaan's dreams will come to like like
(24:44):
you think, like I keep saying, like these black creators
and black media companies are being funded. The world is
about to change us taking control of our story and
our narrative. When we wake up in three, four or
five years, the world will feel different. This is not
one of those like teeny teeny incremental change. Is this
moment is one of those moments that that is going
to create lasting change forever. So anyways, I think black
(25:05):
media is hot, is gonna stay hot for almost three years,
and then we just got to make sure that when
it's done, we're ready to We're ready to dominate. Yeah,
And I love that, and I'll just jump on the
back of that. I see us owning other pieces of
the business. Right, So, like if if Ebony wanted to
have a studio just for saying, we want to really
dig into the content business because we have all this stuff,
what what cloud is that going on? How is that
(25:26):
getting to the movie students. I want to be that
black cloud. I want to own that piece oh n
f t s like I want to own the blockchain.
I want to be the underground rower for all of
y'all who create, Like I don't want to limit my
vision to just what we can see, right because when
we do and dream like that, in the next generation,
they too can dream, right Like you and I talk about,
(25:47):
we're not building this empire so our kids don't have
to do anything. We're building this empire so they can
do something great, so they can be amazing, so they
can flow, they're not checked at the door. And so
I want to know. I want to investigate what I
love about um, this opportunity, this tragedy because I always
say my glass is half full and God makes no mistakes.
(26:09):
It gave us an opportunity to sit down and breathe
and think right, to make calls, to build relationships, to
work from home, right, which is like it sounds crazy,
but now I can actually I saw him like I
was like, yo, you got tall, Like I think in
a minute, Like so there's always a blessing in the
tragedy and it's still going on. So what are we
(26:29):
gonna do? In our dawntime. What are we gonna do
to think and grow? How are we gonna build beyond
just the black media and own the infrastructure? Like that
to me is dope. I don't want people to talk
about that. So I would say that, um, despite all
of us up here, what we've seem so far is
that we can barely handle all the money because there
(26:51):
are a lot of companies that are doing it right.
And for if you look at the commitments that many
of them made, if they're true, a lot of the
ten year commitments, so it's a it's a ten million
dollars over ten years, a hundred million dollars over ten years, UM.
And so the real truth is there's opportunity for all
of you to create your own companies. You know. One
of the things, unfortunately, I feel like, is we see
so few archetypes of who we are. We see so
(27:12):
few ideas really get funded and really get um to
to gain any scale UM. And you know, obviously some
of them are very obvious music, hip hop, you know,
sometimes fashion, UM, but we don't necessarily always see things
like Afro tech, right, black people in technology, etcetera. I
think there's real opportunity for lots of people out here.
I imagine a number of your entrepreneurs to start it.
(27:34):
There's actually money there that wasn't there before to help
you scale faster than a lot of the companies that
we're with. We're able to scale because the capital wasn't there,
because that that revenue is there that can actually help
you go out and get capital because you know that
you can get promises from advertisers that revenue is gonna
be coming in, which is gonna help you scale. Because
you can actually grow your platform, you can actually hire
(27:56):
creatives or do rev shares with with influencers and create
if who are going to help drive more UM you know,
audience to your platform. So what I hope is that
you realize that this is an inflection point in many
ways for more companies to be created, for so many
more companies that maybe around now but haven't been able
to scale, to actually scale and use UM you know.
(28:17):
Maybe maybe it's a moment. I hope it's longer than
eighteen months or two years maybe whatever wherever we have left.
But whatever it is, I think that I would love
to see a lot more companies, a lot more entrepreneurs
be able to create things and be able to scale
businesses and reflect broader areas of of you know, our culture,
because there is so much more out there. I think about,
you know, travel, I know um Blabby has you know,
(28:39):
traveling more, but cooking and all sorts of other things
that you just you barely see that stuff at least
not at scale. So I'd love to see a lot
more of it. Can. I just want to say that
because you bring up such a good point, is that
of black owned businesses could get no funny because they
only had one employee. So y'all go get two or
three more and then you then you have access to
(29:02):
what's going on. We didn't even know that until we
got the note, so we couldn't even partake in all
the money flowing because there were rules set in place
for us not to partake. Yeah. And then the last
piece that I'll say, just a piggyback on all of this,
is this idea that what's really changed over the last
year for me is that black is now green. When
you look at black media companies were growing like tech companies.
(29:23):
If you look at black advertising agencies were growing like
tech companies. The only idea you need is the biggest
Black X, the biggest Black owned media company, the biggest
black owned food CHA, the biggest like black for the
first time is money. It's driving significant R O Y,
so getting encouraging everybody out here to start. Godment's actually
ten billion dollars to black women to that point, though,
(29:46):
and I think we've seen more investment. We also know
if you think about the commitments and the promises that
were made back in June July, what's been invested to
this point is miniscule compared to what was mus And
so the question is what's being done, or more importantly,
what should be done to create accountability around holding true
(30:08):
to those promises from the brands and organizations that have
made them. I'll start with the show. Well, you already
know what we're about to do. You know, it was
a great uh suggestion by eating She's like, who's Who's
like putting a ticker up about what everyone promised, but
what they delivered. It really is up to us because
we have the pen, we have the platform to tell
that story. So we have to make it a priority,
(30:30):
right and maybe nobody wants to sponsor that Everything we
do can't be about sponsorship. Dollars. Did I just say
that we wouldn't hurt But y'all know my background super salesperson,
right right. But but I think that it's up to
us too, And then how do we do that together,
how do we form a coalition and somebody just focusing
on that in the marketplace, because if we're busy growing
(30:52):
our businesses, there really is nobody that's lobbying for us.
So it's one of the things that I'm passionate about.
It's one of the things that I want to get
off the ground. Don't want to do it with my
brothers right here and some of my sisters. Morgan, that
we make sure that we're holding the marketplace accountable with
a dedicated conversation space and people. Man, yeah, I mean,
she hit it. The biggest thing I think we can
(31:13):
do is create some sort of scorecards for for national accountability.
Don't you gave him my idea? If he does, you'll no, no, no,
I'm only doing it. I'm only doing it with her.
Don't worry. That's exactly that's exactly what you need. And
then the second thing, and we talked about this is
every time we have this stage doing our job to
call out those people who are doing it right and
(31:34):
call out those people who are doing it wrong. So
I think that's number two. And then the third one
is we have to get better at rallying our community
to weaponize their dollars right. We have to get better
at making sure they understand that these people are not
reinvesting in your community. Therefore they do not deserve your pennies,
your dollars, your coins, your Harriet Tubman bucks, whatever it is.
(31:55):
I think we have to do a better job to
get giving people to see that that I'm never gonna
have the music start playing on me with I'm on
stage in my career. So we're gonna get ready to
start wrapping it up. But before we go, looking at
the clock, before we got table, So what do you
want to leave people? I think the biggest thing I
can leave with everyone is that this the time is now.
It's right for you know, others to come and build
(32:18):
something themselves. Everything does doesn't of us have to be
the biggest, but it has to be something that is unique.
It has a perspective that's yours. When you say black,
it doesn't just have to be African Americans, African Caribbean.
So many you know, we have so many different things
we have to offer from a cultural perspective to the world,
and I would love to see us all do it.
There's actually there are actually resources out there now to
(32:40):
do it. I would also lastly say that people need
to also be thinking about invest UM ensure that they
put money in Black banks. Doesn't have to be all
your money, but they're the ones who are canna be
able to provide business loans and lines of credit and
other things that help companies be successful. And that's that's
one of also the things we can do to ask
some of these UM client partners to be accountable is
what do you do with black banks to help make
(33:01):
sure that the money is really flowing into the community.
So I'll live with that, yeah, on my side. UM
controlling a narrative, that's the big idea for Revolt. We
believe that there's a lot of conversation right now about
representation and media representation is not the issue. It's a
symptom of the bigger issue, which is control. Is the
fact that black people have never had control of our narrative.
They've been telling our story for us in a really
(33:22):
big way since the fourteen hundreds, that story that said
we were subpar, we were less than, we were uncivilized,
we didn't deserve. Every day we wake up trying to
take control back of our narrative. And so for the
people who are in this room who are storytellers, creators,
not just call us so that we can do it together,
but just for me, we are literally one of the
highest leverage points in the fight for social justice. The
(33:44):
fight for social justice is simply a war on imagery.
Those people who are the storytellers, those people who are
the makers of it. We get to move the needle
through story and so, um, you know, we gotta control
our narrative home. Oh right, oh right. Um, So I
would say this. I want everybody to take out your phone.
Everybody has a phone, take it out. I want you
(34:05):
to mark Monday on your calendar to say, I'm gonna
follow up from today, because what happens is we come
here and you listen and a mien standing ovation and
we get back to the ground. I want everybody to
mark their calendar that they're gonna put afro tech on
their calendar at nine am. And I want you to
take some type of action from today, some type of
(34:26):
honesty with yourself. Want you to look in the mirror.
So I'm not gonna just leave that in l a
in that room. I'm gonna push the boundaries. I'm gonna
go back to my company's I'm gonna look at my board,
I'm gonna see who I'm doing business with, I'm gonna
look at my whatever. That one action is that every
single person in this room takes one action. We're going
to be better tomorrow. So if y'all could do that,
that we didn't waste our time up here. Amen. Amen.
(35:03):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Black and
the Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast Network and
Iheared Media. It's produced by Morgan Dabon and me Well Lucas,
with additional production support by Love Beacham and Ris and Lewis.
Special thank you to Michael Davis, Jimmy Hollins, and Carson
von Jan you know like the Wine. Yes that's his
real name. Learn more about Mary and other tech that.
(35:25):
This interview is an Afro tech dot com Enjoin your
Black Tech. Green Money gave us a five star rating
on iTunes. Go get your money, Peace and love,
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