My next guests are Dina Marto and Courtney Rhodes. They co-Founded in 2020, C & D The Agency. It is an all women-led management agency that provides Marketing, Branding, Public & Media Relations services, and Project, Talent, and Operations Management specializing in Business and Entertainment. Their mission is to empower, mentor, and lead businesswomen to collaborate and increase minority women's opportunity. Dina Marto is a seasoned entrepreneur, having shattered gender and ethnic glass ceilings during her nearly 20 years as a music executive and small business owner. Dina is on the management team for superstar Tip "T.I." Harris and helped launch his popular podcast, which became #1 on Apple Podcasts. Courtney R. Rhodes is a branding and marketing expert. For 20+ years, she has worked with multi-million-dollar businesses to get their marketing messages seen, heard, and experienced across television, radio, magazines, and e-commerce, digital and social media platforms. She's placed over 100 million dollars in advertising dollars across television, radio, digital, social, and outdoor media. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Dina Marto and Courtney Rhodes.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
advice to many occasions. In incase you didn't notice, I'm
not broke, you know, he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs
and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do,
it's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
(00:25):
hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations. Here
we go. Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I'm your host,
Rushan McDonald. I recognize that we all have different definition
of success. For some exercisable paycheck, mine is helping people
wake up and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and
live their very best life. These are my missions and
these are my passions, and that's what I'm gonna do
(00:46):
for you, and that's what we do on Money Making Conversations.
I really want you to stop tripping over small challenges
and prepare the rise above the bigger obstacles that life
will present to you. My next guest are Dina Marteaux.
That's when Oh and Courtney Oats they co founded in
That's this year, the Year of the pandemic c Indeed
the agency. It's an all women lead management agency that
(01:08):
provides marketing, branding, public and media relations services along with
project talent and operations management specializing in business and entertainment.
That mission is to empower which is an important mentor
and lead businesswomen to collaborate together and increase opportunity for
minority women's Dina is a seasoned entrepreneur, having shadowed gender
(01:29):
and ethnic glass ceilings during her nearly twenty years as
a music executive and small business owner. Dinus is on
Dinas on the management team for a Superstar My Man
t I and helped launched his popular podcast, which became
number one on Apple Podcast. Courtney Roads, who I know
from Tampa when Steve Harbory and I was down there
launching I Wanted our Affiliate Radio Stations is a branding
(01:51):
and marketing expert for twenty plus years. She has worked
with multimillion dollar businesses and getting their marketing message, scene, heard,
and experience across television, radio, magazines, e commerce, digital and
social media platform She's placed over one hundred million dollars
in advertising dollars across television, radio, digital, social and outdoor
(02:12):
media leaders and Deale with introduction like that, this is
a money making conversation. Please working the money making conversations,
Dina Martau and Courtney Rose. Ladies, Hey, that was amazing. Well,
you know, first of all, thank you for coming on
the show. And you know, because of the fact that
(02:34):
uh doing the show about going on like three years
and and uh, I want to write you by the
star bought a building in Atlanta here Peachtree. It's gonna
I'm building out of broadcast studio. So my next interview
with you guys, hopefully being stupid studio, it's a COPD
friendly studio. And I bring that to your attention because
(02:54):
you guys are I'd like to say the word movers
and shakers and y'all, y'all, y'all venture and y'all y'all. See.
Can I say the used the word visionary without being offensive?
Oh okay, cool, let's stop. Let's start with the top
divisionary in my in my screen here, Miss Courtney met
your Tampa a long time ago. Sales, so I can
(03:15):
verify when you say that you did sales, you did sales.
And you know when when you go to these affiliate markets,
there's always an opportunity to be able to sell your
brand and people have to understand your brand. And Steve
Harvey was we were growing brain, not the brand that
he is today, but you were a recognizable brand. And
I was like the guy who was like, you talked
(03:36):
to me, You talked to Steve to get the business
deals done? How do you look at a business deal
and a business opportunity? Um, so I kind of just
again look at everything as an opportunity and as a
person who can bring solutions to whatever marketing or business
challenge that whoever I'm sitting in front you know, whatever
(03:58):
they have. You know, someone's going to come to us
because there's a challenge they need help to do something.
And so for me, I look at it as what
solution can I provide with the expertise that I have,
the experiences or the connections or network that I have,
how just to be solutions oriented in my approach. You
know when I was listening to when I was reading
(04:18):
each one of your bios and this is this is
kind of like you each are kind of like a
version of me, because you know you seriously, you know,
because God turned the Dina because now she's dealing with
she deals with talent a lot. You know, I didn't
see that on your bio. You know you you you're
a person that, like I did a lot of lot
large Caleb's contry promotions. I'm always out there, so cars
(04:39):
on through media, so Hamburger through media. That's kind of
like you. And then on the on the talent management side,
high profile, high energize um know what they want to do.
Sometimes they don't do it right. But you gotta be
there to mediate and also have to be very smart
but very quiet sometimes. I also have to know all
the answers. Even Steve Harvey once told me said, Rich
(05:00):
you think you know everything? And I said, yes, I do.
So I could not tell him I don't because what
does what purpose does that serve? And so Dina, I
have to look at you as a person who knows
everything because you do with talent. Well, I think about it.
If I don't know it, I will definitely, I will
definitely figure it out. That's the key to that, because
you have to know what you know, and you have
(05:22):
to know what you don't know, and you have to
know how to figure it out from there. That's important.
And when you when you say that, because we're talking
about two successful females, okay, and and let's just put
it real. You know a lot of times women or
because they are attractive, and you are two attractive women,
sometimes people hear you, but they just see you. How
(05:44):
do you overcome that? Obviously, gonna start with Gina just wrapped.
You just responded, how do you overcome that? That's a
good point, Um. I would say that you have to
really stay consistent and persistent with your work ethic. And
I think oncebody realizes that you're an asset to the team,
that you bring value and that you're smart and you
(06:04):
should be around, they look past the beauty and they
start really wanting wanting to work with you based on
your skill set and what you can bring to the table.
So I just the way I've done it in a
male dominated industry is just maintain my respect and earn
my respect by doing the work and doing it well
(06:25):
and having to do it a lot of times better
than my male counterparts. You do, and that's but this
is like I said, oh, you know, cording to couldn't
say this. You know, as a minority. Sometimes it's often
said that we said we have to be two times
or three times better than the white person to get
the respect and still get a check. They're smaller than them.
(06:45):
And that's kind of frustrating because it's actually true. And
so from a sales standpoint, coordinate, you've had to deal
with that first of all, sales is generally a male
dominated lane. And then you down in Tampa, which is
the tip of Florida. So when I met you was successful,
you were vibrant. You you have my attention and because
you knew what you wanted to do. Maybe because I
grew up with six sisters, so I always had a
(07:08):
respect for knowledge that came out of women. Came they
came from women when they spoke to me. So what
are some of the mysteries of the walls that you
have to climb as a female because we're gonna get
to the agency, because that's important that I said, who
you guys up before we start talking about this agency, Courtney.
So so I think for me, it's always been about
(07:29):
making sure that I am heard and and that I
can bring value to the table. Rather it was with
clear channel, which is what it was when we met
or through the work that I do today. And to
piggyback on what Dina said, you just you have to
always learn, especially in the male dominated industry, to listen, listen, listen,
(07:51):
because I think just men and women naturally have a
different way of communicating. And not to be stereotypical, but
men are sometimes more aggressive, more comfortable in confrontational roles.
And for me, it was just about listening and always
coming back to the table with the solution, with the result,
kind of staying keeping my little balance self and you know,
(08:15):
conversations with the guys and agreeing and and just positioning.
You know, a lot of times I would just listen
in the beginning, especially when I was in Tampa, I
was the only female on the management team. Um, and
you know, meetings could get crazy and egos to get
in the way, and you listen, you you know, agree
where you agree, but then you circle back around and say, hey, guys,
(08:35):
have you thought about it like this? I think that's
amazing the way you want to do it. Maybe we
can add this, we can add that, and just kind
of be supportive at first, and that allows you to
get your voice heard. That allows you to get your
you know your perspective out there, and then when you
consistently do that, then the guys again it just you
just become a part of the team and they come
(08:56):
to you for that expertise because you're you're able to
actually bring I think, a better balance of energy to
the table and kind of pull things down a little
bit and still, um, you can still be heard. Just
my approach has always kind of been a little different
in how I heard and when I hear both of
you talk to me. I was gonna say, being honest
(09:17):
with your clients as well is really important because a
lot of times when you're dealing with some high profile people,
people are afraid to be honest with them as as
people on their team. And I think that my clients
would say that I'm always honest whether you want to
do it or not, and whether I agree or not,
I'm going to give you my perspective and still support
you on that is I think the key to a
(09:40):
lot of high profile people staying out of trouble is
by being honest, by being a person who says I
don't think that's a good idea, and because the not
saying it means that you should have said it. And
so when I look at when I listened to a
Coordinate and Dina, how did you guys get together to
form to see a d Okay, I got I know
about your Brandina Coordinate. I'm aware of your brand from
(10:03):
past history. How did you two ladies, because you're coming
from different different landscapes, even though according to your playing
music from a standpoint at a radio station tied to
clear Channel, which is not our heart media. And Dina,
you know you came from record labels as well and
moved into talent management. So I feel a sense of
the cross. But how did you guys come together? Well,
(10:27):
here's the thing. We have been friends for a long time,
and we've actually worked on projects in the past together
here and there. We've always talked about doing something together.
And when we had to sit down for a second
during this pandemic and and just had a moment to
look around and see what was going on, we felt
like it was the appropriate time because we had a
(10:48):
time to focus in and and know what was really needed.
I think the I think being united is needed more
than ever right now, especially with women, and so we
just did to just go for it. And the best
part about it is that Courtney is an expert in
her world with marketing and branding and pr and I'm
(11:09):
an expert in my world on the management side with
talent and project management and operations. So we're just combining
forces and being more powerful. Together. We could easily be
successful continue to be successful on our own and our
individual journeys. But the most important thing here is that
we both believe that our greater purpose is to mentor
(11:29):
and lead the next generation of women leaders. And that's
important that you know, um, when you say that, which
is very powerful. And you started your business doing a pandemic, okay,
launched it, and I basically I bought a building doing
a pandemic. And and you know, and I say that
(11:51):
because in a way, first of all, it's very tragic
because it overtly affects people of sixty five in the
minority community. And secondly, but from a business perspective, and
I felt it allowed me to catch up, you know,
because a lot of competition was shut down in the
second quarter, live events with advertisers pull all the media
from in the second quarter. The third quarter started trickling black.
(12:13):
You started getting virtual events, and then so talent started
to creep back out in some productions, especially entertainment, started
to go back out. So I commend you because I
felt that what you're doing is very smart, because that's
what I did. The first quarter. I was getting my
brand together, trying to define that. Second quarter, getting all
my legal paperwork, making sure I would launch the site.
(12:33):
I launched a whole new platform, and in the third
quarter and fourth quarter, I tell my team it's time
to make money, and we will make money because we've
established that is that courtineal sense of what you guys
are doing the plans in place pandemic hit. It didn't
throw any fear into your through sadness and through complications
of how to do business, But it didn't alter your dreams. No,
(12:54):
it didn't actually um spet it up because it gave
us time to kind of reassess what we reached go in.
Um of course, we were kind of all forced to
quiet down, kind of reflect on, you know, personally from
a career standpoint, what's really important to me, Like what's
gonna drive me how when we come on out on
the other side of this thing. What do I want
(13:14):
to do and do? What are the causes that I
care about? What are the kind of clients that I
want want to work with where messages that I want
to get out into the culture. And so, like Dna said,
we've talked about joining forces before, and we knew that
we could um complement each other's expertise but also scale
the work that we do because a lot of times,
(13:34):
obviously Dana's working on projects where it involves marketing and branding.
I work on projects sometimes where we're hiring out talents.
So we knew that just coming together would allow us
again to grow, but also do work that was more
meaningful and to come together to do something really important
(13:55):
to make sure that the narrative that the future is
female isn't just something that we say that we're actively
doing our part to make sure that we're supporting that
marriage and been the work that that we're doing, and
we're bringing other very talented and the word you use
with innovative women along. So that was really important for us.
And when I say that word, I say that word
(14:16):
with respect. I say that word with a lot of uh,
you know, and I don't and I like to believe
that I'm one of those guys. I would tell that
people that are twenty four hours in the day, learn
to use every hour. And when I say and, I
say that as a compliment because I know how passionate
I am, and I know my resume when I say,
you two are kind of like a versions of me
and and because it's a testament to your ability to
(14:40):
be able to adjust to change and you're not in
your fearless And you also understand that I know when
I walk in a room that I'm a black guy.
I know when I got I know, I know when
you walking room your attractive ladies. That's something you have
to admit and sometimes you have to admit that people
have to be trained on what you bring to the table.
Able and said, you've launched an all female lead agency
(15:06):
in Atlanta, Georgia. Dina, Why, Well, I'm it's it's really
the topic that we're talking about money making conversations. We're
trying to level the playing field. We're trying to close
that gap for women to make the money that they
deserve to make. Two, especially for minority women to have
(15:27):
more opportunity and really and really help women work together
and not be competitive against each other. I find that
a lot of times, especially in these male dominated industries,
we are pitted against each other and it's a lot
of competition, but I think we're stronger if we can
actually work together. So we want to be that example.
We kind of want to show shed the light on
(15:48):
that journey of getting women who are great at what
they do, who are very skillful, having us collaborate together
for excellence for our clients. And I think that that's
really the main s we're we're doing this agency. Of
course we want to make money, but we want to
make money like how men are able to make money.
That's very true. Um money is really in the beginning
(16:12):
of my intro says, you know, there's people haveing a
version of what it is a sizeable paycheck is some
people is is a large check. I'm driven by the
fact that opportunity drives me, and I think that's a
sense of who I'm talking to hire DNA and courting
you opportunities because if you don't have an opportunity, you
can't get in the door to make your play or
make your statement, then the money is gonna come because
(16:34):
you're skilled at it. Now two words that we hear
popular popularize all the time. It annoys me so much.
Marketing and branding, especially the word brand. I just I
can't stand that word. It's not because people just throw
it out nowadays like they know exactly what. Oh they
know exactly. Branding expert, I can hear that one more time.
(16:55):
Oh my god, I'm a branding expert. So courting y. Yeah,
they'll just show you an example. Okay. In two thousand,
when I started managing Steve, I used to work for
IBM okay and so corporate. From a corporate standpoint, I
knew where the brand was was IBM okay. So when
I looked at Steve, I looked at I said, I'm
(17:17):
gonna treat him just like a corporation. I'm giving the
same rules, the same standards, the same belief that the
corporation sets itself up for consider their brand. Because I
always tell you I would tell people, you know, corporations,
they they just shout out. They tell you they got
the best Hamburger, they got the best car, they've got
the best cell phone and all these things. And that's
why I'm enjoying this interview because I'm like bouncing back
(17:39):
between versions of my brain left right, left, right, left right.
But branding expert Courtney, what is that what is a
branding expert? Please help me. I'm so and I love
this question because people use the words branding and market
marketing together like it's the same thing, and it's not.
(17:59):
So we all know that a brand is just the
way someone when I say rashan, what comes to people's mind,
the energy, the images, the feeling. It's the story that
we share out into the world because of the things
we do right, and so we know in a corporate world,
it's a nice logo and it's a position, right, like
(18:23):
your hamburgers are gonna be you know, mid tier loads here,
heights here, right. But for people and the kind of
work that we do, branding is about what's the experience
you're creating for people? What's the vibe that you get
when you interact with us our brand. It's all about
women's empowerment. It's all about being inclusive. It's all about
(18:44):
having fun. It's all about doing meaningful work that's gonna
make a real different and community of the African American
community and communities of color. It's about showing a different
narrative to women doing business together in one It's about positivity, connection, collaboration,
and it's about when people interact with me and DNA,
(19:05):
specifically with our brand and seeing d the agency. We
want people to walk away feeling empowered, excited about moving
towards again a more powerful, collaborative, inclusive community of whatever
you're doing. So for us, it's it's women doing business
and male dominated industries and making them feel good, you know,
(19:27):
good about themselves. So it's just the experience that we
create with the colors we use, the events that we curate,
the messages that we said, and it's about being consistent
in those things, and those things create the heartbeat of
who you are as a company, as a person, and
then you're marketing shares that messages out into the world
through different platforms and stories and events and situations. See
(19:52):
how smart she is. She's good? Um, she's scary good.
I mean you know what I mean. Don't stop stop
you are you blessing? You are a blessing. Okay. I
remember that was my first take on you many years ago,
and to see where you've transformed or evolved too is
(20:15):
amazing now when when when I heard you talk cordony,
it felt more like from a business standpoint, from you know,
from a from a uh like like you know a
product standpoint. And then I turned to Dina, and you
use the word branding expert when it comes to talent,
What does that mean, Dina? When it comes to talent, talent,
(20:40):
talent is a brand in itself. So any any any artist,
any any person that like yourself, you are at you
are talent and you are your own brands. So we
have to do the same thing. We have to maintain
the proper messaging. What we want people to know and
feel about you, how we wanted to look overall, how
(21:00):
we wanted to feel. So it's pretty much the same
way as Hamburgers, but it's a person, which makes it
sometimes a little bit more complicated. Hamburger don't talk. Hamburger
don't talk right. Hamburgers don't mess up somethings sometimes when
they talk. They don't post on social media. They don't
do that right. Hamburgers will change their minds sometimes the
(21:22):
morning when you have a plan and then they decide,
their mood just shifts and they want to do something else.
That's you know, it's a little different. And hamburg and
Hamburgers don't throw your strange looks either, that's right, Like
you're a crazy one in the room and Hamburger will
not throw you under the bus when you know what
I mean. I love it. I love it. I've talked
(21:44):
to my two sisters. I'm talking to you know. We're
behind the scenes. We we we are the ladies that
are always behind the scenes, the secret weapons that a
lot of times people don't even know exist. But we
are an integral part of the team that we're on.
Cool path. Let's talk about Let's brag a little bit. Okay,
I mentioned a little bit about t I and some
of the accomplishment. Talk about some of your product, Dina,
(22:06):
and then court Deem coming to you. Okay, okay. Well,
my history has been in the music business mainly. I
started a PR firm, an entertainment PR firm when I
was nineteen in college. And then I met L A.
Read when I was twenty one and he handpicked and
hired me to work with him at Island def Jam.
So I was on his A and R team for
six years and I helped with Janet Jackson, L Cool,
(22:26):
j Nas Young, Jeez, Rick Ross and and so many
others when jay Z was president. And then I left
to start my own artist development company and I built
a recording studio in midtown Atlanta called twelve Music and Studios.
I ran and operated that operated that facility, and I
nurtured and managed talent for seven years. Then t I
(22:50):
called me and wanted me back on his team because
we worked together previously when I was a lot younger
and he was putting out trap music. And I got
back on his team, and I've been on his management
team hell being out for the last three years. So
I also sold my studio about a year and a
half ago, just so I could do more focusing on
the new things that I wanted to do and to
kind of pivot and the same thing that we're doing
(23:12):
now with pivoting with this agency, which is really a blessing,
I'll say, because we're at the point in our careers
we would get to kind of pick and choose who
we want to work with, and that's truly a blessing.
We don't we don't. We don't decide on working with
clients based on monetary things. We decide on on what
their vision is, what the messages, how is this going
(23:32):
to impact the community. That's really where we make our decisions.
Awesome Courtney c R the c in the d of
the agency. That's me, your accomplishments, you your things. They
brought you into this world that you when you sit
down you make a pitch. You got to tell people
what you're doing currently or what you've done in the past,
(23:54):
how does they work and what do you have to say? UM. So,
as far as my career accomplishments, I started my career
right out of grad school started working for UM Clear
Channel as an account manager for w POC, which is
one of is that what you wanted to do A coordinate? UM?
(24:14):
I wanted to be UM an anchorwoman initially until I
did an internship actually, and then I changed my mind.
And so you had aspirations of being a talent in
one time at first, yes, yeah, UM But anyway, so
I started as an account manager for w POC, which
(24:34):
is a top five still country station in the country
for Clear Channel, and I was selling POC country, jazz
and gospel and digital. So it was I think it
was like two thousand and three where digital just started
to come up and we were trying to figure it
(24:55):
out as a media company, what we're gonna sell, how
we're going to be a the show clients. R Oyes
and stuff like that. And so I did that for
a year and a half and pretty quickly I was
able to leverage a Jaguar deal for clear Channel throughout
like twenty markets and it was a multimillion dollar deal
and it kind of set my career up. And honestly
(25:17):
it was a fluke, but that's a whole another story.
It kind of set my career because I ended up
getting recruited into management. That you gotta tell us the
fluke now unless you say it was a blessing from
being the nosing. This took over when you say fluke,
(25:40):
it just like yeah. Um. So at any rate, that
deal kind of set my career up, like I said.
And so when that happened, because I ended up having
to like go to corporate and present the deal to
Jaguar and so like you know there um their VP
of Marketing in head of brands, consumer brands and all
(26:02):
that and close. The deal went really well, and so,
like I said, that led into me being recruited by
the executive management team. So I went to Tampa as
a sales manager for three radio stations, one being launching
The Beat, which was the first urban actually to go
into Tampa believe it or not. UM w f l
(26:24):
Z which is uh SHR station, and UH Mix which
is like uh no Mix was the HR and w
f l Z is like a pop station. But anyway,
so I went there with three stations under my belt,
stay in Tampa, learned the Ropes under my general sales manager.
They gave me the Beat as my station within like
(26:47):
three months, honestly, and I just had fun with it,
Like I just used my intuition quite frankly, to UH
make decisions UM. As far as marketing was concerned, how
we were going to position urban and a market like
Tampa that had never they had a reggae tone, but
they never had an FM hip hop station, and so
(27:07):
that went well. My boss in Tampa came to Atlanta
as the market manager for Clear Channel Atlanta UM, and
he recruited me. They were launching a country which is
the Bowl, which is the number one country in the market.
It was the FM broadcast for Brady's Radio network, and
so UM. Once again I had kind of gotten the
(27:31):
role of being of launching stations in new markets because
of what we had done, the flip that we had
done with the Beat in Tampa. So they brought me
here to launch a country little microw Media in the South,
and that's what I actually had two country stations. There
was this little stick in Peachtree City called w d
c L. I'm not sure what that stick is now.
(27:52):
So I ran the two country stations and was in
charge of Brady's Radio network, which taught me a lot
of out just you know, managing forty eight million dollar
radio station, managing a lot of people, managing responsibilities from
I was in charge of the marketing department, the sales department,
the promotions department, UM, and then I served on executive
(28:17):
committee for for Clear Channels. So that kind of taught
me the things that I needed to learn to kind
of step out into entrepreneurship and UM. After doing that
Clear Channel that spot by being capital UM there were
eight general sales manager. Six of them got laid off.
(28:37):
Unfortunately I was not one of them. I was super
sad because they got this huge severance check and unfortunately
I was one of the ones that stayed and had
to make it work. And so that taught me more
about acquisitions and mergers, mergers and how to make a
profit and law statement work. And long story short, I
left there started working for myself. Ford Morgricultural became my
first client and my entrepreneurship during you started from there. Awesome,
(29:01):
I toldwards National Women's Small Business mom Um speaking to
Adina and Courtney. UH. The agency, which is what you
c and d the agency? What you started in UH
in the city of Atlanta. Your first project is it
was is a voter education initiative aim at combining voter
suppression in Georgia during the twenty election. Can you tell
(29:22):
us how that, how that came about and also what
are you doing when you say this is your first project.
When when somebody says the first project out of the agency,
what does that mean? Well, this is our first campaign
that we're doing to to launch with the agency so
people know what we are up to and that we
want to do meaningful things in the community. I think
(29:44):
it's really important right now to exercise your right to vote,
but a lot of times people don't even understand their
rights for voting, and so we want to just educate
and give and and funnel all the information on into
one place so people can get it, whether it's early voting,
UM absentee ballot, or whether you're going in person on
the day of vote, you know, election day. We want
(30:07):
people to know, um, their rights. We want them to
know that if they come across something that looks like
voter suppression or it's something that's blocking them from doing
what they have the right to do, they we want
them to have that information. And so we're just pulling
all that information together and sharing it through our network
and through um just just our really just our network
(30:29):
and social media of course. And um, I voted already earlier,
but okay, cool put it, posted it on social media
that I voted. And um, it's a very important election
November thirte for a lot of reasons, but more importantly
to get there, get this country back to a level
of sanity that we all feel we can walk out
our front door and return safe, because right now it
(30:51):
gets ugly and ugly every day. Uh. And and closing,
Courtney and Diana, First of all, thank you for coming
on the show. I this was work this wise. It
is such a beautiful interview. You guys are dominant personalities.
I'm looking at two distinctively different position people that work
incredibly well together. Your strengths they crossed, but they don't cross.
(31:13):
When I say that means that you both understand your
lanes and it allows you to be able to eloquently
pitch like Courtney said, like she did in This Wild Me,
and then all eloquently understand. Because I've managed talent, a lot,
high profile talent, and I know exactly you know when
you start talking, I laugh because every everything you said,
(31:33):
I've had to deal with and still dealing. I jumped
right back into fire and I said I would go well,
I left Steve Harr I said I was done. I
wasn't gonna do this anymore. And I'm back in. They
pulled me back in reputation, pull me back in, But
I want to just say thank you. I want to
be in you guys life. You know, if you ever
need my services. I I do a lot of media.
I do RFPs. I love to include you guys in marketing, branding.
(31:57):
I'm gonna get my staff to reach out to you
guys and get the deck on you guys. So you
know I'm gonna being an agency record for something selves
for some fortune five hundred company from my multicultural perspective.
And I don't do PR and so so you know
I don't. So I can't do everything. But you can.
You can lie that you can do everything, but you
want to do it well. And I and I and
(32:18):
just being the two young ladies who are trying to mentor.
That was the key in this conversation that I was
so impressed about because I was since I was eighteen,
that's been my mantra. Uh No, don't leave anybody behind.
I don't know why I did it. It was just
called of my natural DNA and I from the very
start of this conversation, that's all I heard you guys
talk about. And I want to be a part of
(32:39):
any way I can assist growing the CND the agency
in Atlanta, Georgia, because both of you guys are brilliant. Courtney,
I know your track worker that wasn't That's when impressed
me way back then was the fact that you were
selling more than black radio and uh and Dana Um
meeting you for the first time, I've heard about you
when I there's a lot of people, a lot of
people said, dude, how you never Yeah, she said a
(33:01):
lot of names. I know, okay, and we were So
we've crossed and we've talked and I've heard about you
and get you on my show. Money Making conversations and
blessing and uh, thank you, thank so happy When you
guys reached out, I was like, really, okay, I'm tuning
to do this. It's great, thank you. And you hit
it on the and you hit it right on the nose,
(33:21):
like you have a way of knowing how to pick
up on you know, your your your guest on the show,
because I would say that you summ that up pretty well,
you did. We were heart well. You know, I started
this and I didn't know what I was doing from
the standpoint, you know, I would just I didn't know
(33:41):
why people were coming on the show where they're coming
on the show, because I should manage stink Harvey. They
think I'm getting on the radio show, the talk show,
and I was trying to find my voice and and
so I just look at two fantastic people that you
know if you called me, and you know, I don't charge.
That's why I started this whole platform here. But I
do know how to make people famous. I do know
how to and you guys are famous, okay, you your famous.
(34:04):
Commodities Zoom has allowed me to have an interview like
this because if I try to do this in January,
but we're never what what is he talking about? But
Zoom has allowed this format and to see how you
guys operate on this world. You should do it as
much as possible because you will shine in a lot
of great lanes of opportunity because both of you guys
(34:24):
are brilliant. Okay, thank you so much, so much for
having are essential. The conversations you're having are really important.
People what's happening behind the scenes and not in front
of the TV screen. They need to know the intricacies
of business and how to make money. It's really important.
(34:44):
I appreciate you. I'm telling I staff to get a
deck on you guys. Okay, and we're gonna talk to
Bye bye, great thing, both of y'all. Bye bye. If
we want to hear more money making Conversation interviews, please
go to money Making Conversations dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald.
I'm your host. Wow, that was pretty good. Huh.
Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
advice to many occasions. In incase you didn't notice, I'm
not broke, you know, he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs
and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do,
it's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
(00:25):
hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations. Here
we go. Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I'm your host,
Rushan McDonald. I recognize that we all have different definition
of success. For some exercisable paycheck, mine is helping people
wake up and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and
live their very best life. These are my missions and
these are my passions, and that's what I'm gonna do
(00:46):
for you, and that's what we do on Money Making Conversations.
I really want you to stop tripping over small challenges
and prepare the rise above the bigger obstacles that life
will present to you. My next guest are Dina Marteaux.
That's when Oh and Courtney Oats they co founded in
That's this year, the Year of the pandemic c Indeed
the agency. It's an all women lead management agency that
(01:08):
provides marketing, branding, public and media relations services along with
project talent and operations management specializing in business and entertainment.
That mission is to empower which is an important mentor
and lead businesswomen to collaborate together and increase opportunity for
minority women's Dina is a seasoned entrepreneur, having shadowed gender
(01:29):
and ethnic glass ceilings during her nearly twenty years as
a music executive and small business owner. Dinus is on
Dinas on the management team for a Superstar My Man
t I and helped launched his popular podcast, which became
number one on Apple Podcast. Courtney Roads, who I know
from Tampa when Steve Harbory and I was down there
launching I Wanted our Affiliate Radio Stations is a branding
(01:51):
and marketing expert for twenty plus years. She has worked
with multimillion dollar businesses and getting their marketing message, scene, heard,
and experience across television, radio, magazines, e commerce, digital and
social media platform She's placed over one hundred million dollars
in advertising dollars across television, radio, digital, social and outdoor
(02:12):
media leaders and Deale with introduction like that, this is
a money making conversation. Please working the money making conversations,
Dina Martau and Courtney Rose. Ladies, Hey, that was amazing. Well,
you know, first of all, thank you for coming on
the show. And you know, because of the fact that
(02:34):
uh doing the show about going on like three years
and and uh, I want to write you by the
star bought a building in Atlanta here Peachtree. It's gonna
I'm building out of broadcast studio. So my next interview
with you guys, hopefully being stupid studio, it's a COPD
friendly studio. And I bring that to your attention because
(02:54):
you guys are I'd like to say the word movers
and shakers and y'all, y'all, y'all venture and y'all y'all. See.
Can I say the used the word visionary without being offensive?
Oh okay, cool, let's stop. Let's start with the top
divisionary in my in my screen here, Miss Courtney met
your Tampa a long time ago. Sales, so I can
(03:15):
verify when you say that you did sales, you did sales.
And you know when when you go to these affiliate markets,
there's always an opportunity to be able to sell your
brand and people have to understand your brand. And Steve
Harvey was we were growing brain, not the brand that
he is today, but you were a recognizable brand. And
I was like the guy who was like, you talked
(03:36):
to me, You talked to Steve to get the business
deals done? How do you look at a business deal
and a business opportunity? Um, so I kind of just
again look at everything as an opportunity and as a
person who can bring solutions to whatever marketing or business
challenge that whoever I'm sitting in front you know, whatever
(03:58):
they have. You know, someone's going to come to us
because there's a challenge they need help to do something.
And so for me, I look at it as what
solution can I provide with the expertise that I have,
the experiences or the connections or network that I have,
how just to be solutions oriented in my approach. You
know when I was listening to when I was reading
(04:18):
each one of your bios and this is this is
kind of like you each are kind of like a
version of me, because you know you seriously, you know,
because God turned the Dina because now she's dealing with
she deals with talent a lot. You know, I didn't
see that on your bio. You know you you you're
a person that, like I did a lot of lot
large Caleb's contry promotions. I'm always out there, so cars
(04:39):
on through media, so Hamburger through media. That's kind of
like you. And then on the on the talent management side,
high profile, high energize um know what they want to do.
Sometimes they don't do it right. But you gotta be
there to mediate and also have to be very smart
but very quiet sometimes. I also have to know all
the answers. Even Steve Harvey once told me said, Rich
(05:00):
you think you know everything? And I said, yes, I do.
So I could not tell him I don't because what
does what purpose does that serve? And so Dina, I
have to look at you as a person who knows
everything because you do with talent. Well, I think about it.
If I don't know it, I will definitely, I will
definitely figure it out. That's the key to that, because
you have to know what you know, and you have
(05:22):
to know what you don't know, and you have to
know how to figure it out from there. That's important.
And when you when you say that, because we're talking
about two successful females, okay, and and let's just put
it real. You know a lot of times women or
because they are attractive, and you are two attractive women,
sometimes people hear you, but they just see you. How
(05:44):
do you overcome that? Obviously, gonna start with Gina just wrapped.
You just responded, how do you overcome that? That's a
good point, Um. I would say that you have to
really stay consistent and persistent with your work ethic. And
I think oncebody realizes that you're an asset to the team,
that you bring value and that you're smart and you
(06:04):
should be around, they look past the beauty and they
start really wanting wanting to work with you based on
your skill set and what you can bring to the table.
So I just the way I've done it in a
male dominated industry is just maintain my respect and earn
my respect by doing the work and doing it well
(06:25):
and having to do it a lot of times better
than my male counterparts. You do, and that's but this
is like I said, oh, you know, cording to couldn't
say this. You know, as a minority. Sometimes it's often
said that we said we have to be two times
or three times better than the white person to get
the respect and still get a check. They're smaller than them.
(06:45):
And that's kind of frustrating because it's actually true. And
so from a sales standpoint, coordinate, you've had to deal
with that first of all, sales is generally a male
dominated lane. And then you down in Tampa, which is
the tip of Florida. So when I met you was successful,
you were vibrant. You you have my attention and because
you knew what you wanted to do. Maybe because I
grew up with six sisters, so I always had a
(07:08):
respect for knowledge that came out of women. Came they
came from women when they spoke to me. So what
are some of the mysteries of the walls that you
have to climb as a female because we're gonna get
to the agency, because that's important that I said, who
you guys up before we start talking about this agency, Courtney.
So so I think for me, it's always been about
(07:29):
making sure that I am heard and and that I
can bring value to the table. Rather it was with
clear channel, which is what it was when we met
or through the work that I do today. And to
piggyback on what Dina said, you just you have to
always learn, especially in the male dominated industry, to listen, listen, listen,
(07:51):
because I think just men and women naturally have a
different way of communicating. And not to be stereotypical, but
men are sometimes more aggressive, more comfortable in confrontational roles.
And for me, it was just about listening and always
coming back to the table with the solution, with the result,
kind of staying keeping my little balance self and you know,
(08:15):
conversations with the guys and agreeing and and just positioning.
You know, a lot of times I would just listen
in the beginning, especially when I was in Tampa, I
was the only female on the management team. Um, and
you know, meetings could get crazy and egos to get
in the way, and you listen, you you know, agree
where you agree, but then you circle back around and say, hey, guys,
(08:35):
have you thought about it like this? I think that's
amazing the way you want to do it. Maybe we
can add this, we can add that, and just kind
of be supportive at first, and that allows you to
get your voice heard. That allows you to get your
you know your perspective out there, and then when you
consistently do that, then the guys again it just you
just become a part of the team and they come
(08:56):
to you for that expertise because you're you're able to
actually bring I think, a better balance of energy to
the table and kind of pull things down a little
bit and still, um, you can still be heard. Just
my approach has always kind of been a little different
in how I heard and when I hear both of
you talk to me. I was gonna say, being honest
(09:17):
with your clients as well is really important because a
lot of times when you're dealing with some high profile people,
people are afraid to be honest with them as as
people on their team. And I think that my clients
would say that I'm always honest whether you want to
do it or not, and whether I agree or not,
I'm going to give you my perspective and still support
you on that is I think the key to a
(09:40):
lot of high profile people staying out of trouble is
by being honest, by being a person who says I
don't think that's a good idea, and because the not
saying it means that you should have said it. And
so when I look at when I listened to a
Coordinate and Dina, how did you guys get together to
form to see a d Okay, I got I know
about your Brandina Coordinate. I'm aware of your brand from
(10:03):
past history. How did you two ladies, because you're coming
from different different landscapes, even though according to your playing
music from a standpoint at a radio station tied to
clear Channel, which is not our heart media. And Dina,
you know you came from record labels as well and
moved into talent management. So I feel a sense of
the cross. But how did you guys come together? Well,
(10:27):
here's the thing. We have been friends for a long time,
and we've actually worked on projects in the past together
here and there. We've always talked about doing something together.
And when we had to sit down for a second
during this pandemic and and just had a moment to
look around and see what was going on, we felt
like it was the appropriate time because we had a
(10:48):
time to focus in and and know what was really needed.
I think the I think being united is needed more
than ever right now, especially with women, and so we
just did to just go for it. And the best
part about it is that Courtney is an expert in
her world with marketing and branding and pr and I'm
(11:09):
an expert in my world on the management side with
talent and project management and operations. So we're just combining
forces and being more powerful. Together. We could easily be
successful continue to be successful on our own and our
individual journeys. But the most important thing here is that
we both believe that our greater purpose is to mentor
(11:29):
and lead the next generation of women leaders. And that's
important that you know, um, when you say that, which
is very powerful. And you started your business doing a pandemic, okay,
launched it, and I basically I bought a building doing
a pandemic. And and you know, and I say that
(11:51):
because in a way, first of all, it's very tragic
because it overtly affects people of sixty five in the
minority community. And secondly, but from a business perspective, and
I felt it allowed me to catch up, you know,
because a lot of competition was shut down in the
second quarter, live events with advertisers pull all the media
from in the second quarter. The third quarter started trickling black.
(12:13):
You started getting virtual events, and then so talent started
to creep back out in some productions, especially entertainment, started
to go back out. So I commend you because I
felt that what you're doing is very smart, because that's
what I did. The first quarter. I was getting my
brand together, trying to define that. Second quarter, getting all
my legal paperwork, making sure I would launch the site.
(12:33):
I launched a whole new platform, and in the third
quarter and fourth quarter, I tell my team it's time
to make money, and we will make money because we've
established that is that courtineal sense of what you guys
are doing the plans in place pandemic hit. It didn't
throw any fear into your through sadness and through complications
of how to do business, But it didn't alter your dreams. No,
(12:54):
it didn't actually um spet it up because it gave
us time to kind of reassess what we reached go in.
Um of course, we were kind of all forced to
quiet down, kind of reflect on, you know, personally from
a career standpoint, what's really important to me, Like what's
gonna drive me how when we come on out on
the other side of this thing. What do I want
(13:14):
to do and do? What are the causes that I
care about? What are the kind of clients that I
want want to work with where messages that I want
to get out into the culture. And so, like Dna said,
we've talked about joining forces before, and we knew that
we could um complement each other's expertise but also scale
the work that we do because a lot of times,
(13:34):
obviously Dana's working on projects where it involves marketing and branding.
I work on projects sometimes where we're hiring out talents.
So we knew that just coming together would allow us
again to grow, but also do work that was more
meaningful and to come together to do something really important
(13:55):
to make sure that the narrative that the future is
female isn't just something that we say that we're actively
doing our part to make sure that we're supporting that
marriage and been the work that that we're doing, and
we're bringing other very talented and the word you use
with innovative women along. So that was really important for us.
And when I say that word, I say that word
(14:16):
with respect. I say that word with a lot of uh,
you know, and I don't and I like to believe
that I'm one of those guys. I would tell that
people that are twenty four hours in the day, learn
to use every hour. And when I say and, I
say that as a compliment because I know how passionate
I am, and I know my resume when I say,
you two are kind of like a versions of me
and and because it's a testament to your ability to
(14:40):
be able to adjust to change and you're not in
your fearless And you also understand that I know when
I walk in a room that I'm a black guy.
I know when I got I know, I know when
you walking room your attractive ladies. That's something you have
to admit and sometimes you have to admit that people
have to be trained on what you bring to the table.
Able and said, you've launched an all female lead agency
(15:06):
in Atlanta, Georgia. Dina, Why, Well, I'm it's it's really
the topic that we're talking about money making conversations. We're
trying to level the playing field. We're trying to close
that gap for women to make the money that they
deserve to make. Two, especially for minority women to have
(15:27):
more opportunity and really and really help women work together
and not be competitive against each other. I find that
a lot of times, especially in these male dominated industries,
we are pitted against each other and it's a lot
of competition, but I think we're stronger if we can
actually work together. So we want to be that example.
We kind of want to show shed the light on
(15:48):
that journey of getting women who are great at what
they do, who are very skillful, having us collaborate together
for excellence for our clients. And I think that that's
really the main s we're we're doing this agency. Of
course we want to make money, but we want to
make money like how men are able to make money.
That's very true. Um money is really in the beginning
(16:12):
of my intro says, you know, there's people haveing a
version of what it is a sizeable paycheck is some
people is is a large check. I'm driven by the
fact that opportunity drives me, and I think that's a
sense of who I'm talking to hire DNA and courting
you opportunities because if you don't have an opportunity, you
can't get in the door to make your play or
make your statement, then the money is gonna come because
(16:34):
you're skilled at it. Now two words that we hear
popular popularize all the time. It annoys me so much.
Marketing and branding, especially the word brand. I just I
can't stand that word. It's not because people just throw
it out nowadays like they know exactly what. Oh they
know exactly. Branding expert, I can hear that one more time.
(16:55):
Oh my god, I'm a branding expert. So courting y. Yeah,
they'll just show you an example. Okay. In two thousand,
when I started managing Steve, I used to work for
IBM okay and so corporate. From a corporate standpoint, I
knew where the brand was was IBM okay. So when
I looked at Steve, I looked at I said, I'm
(17:17):
gonna treat him just like a corporation. I'm giving the
same rules, the same standards, the same belief that the
corporation sets itself up for consider their brand. Because I
always tell you I would tell people, you know, corporations,
they they just shout out. They tell you they got
the best Hamburger, they got the best car, they've got
the best cell phone and all these things. And that's
why I'm enjoying this interview because I'm like bouncing back
(17:39):
between versions of my brain left right, left, right, left right.
But branding expert Courtney, what is that what is a
branding expert? Please help me. I'm so and I love
this question because people use the words branding and market
marketing together like it's the same thing, and it's not.
(17:59):
So we all know that a brand is just the
way someone when I say rashan, what comes to people's mind,
the energy, the images, the feeling. It's the story that
we share out into the world because of the things
we do right, and so we know in a corporate world,
it's a nice logo and it's a position, right, like
(18:23):
your hamburgers are gonna be you know, mid tier loads here,
heights here, right. But for people and the kind of
work that we do, branding is about what's the experience
you're creating for people? What's the vibe that you get
when you interact with us our brand. It's all about
women's empowerment. It's all about being inclusive. It's all about
(18:44):
having fun. It's all about doing meaningful work that's gonna
make a real different and community of the African American
community and communities of color. It's about showing a different
narrative to women doing business together in one It's about positivity, connection, collaboration,
and it's about when people interact with me and DNA,
(19:05):
specifically with our brand and seeing d the agency. We
want people to walk away feeling empowered, excited about moving
towards again a more powerful, collaborative, inclusive community of whatever
you're doing. So for us, it's it's women doing business
and male dominated industries and making them feel good, you know,
(19:27):
good about themselves. So it's just the experience that we
create with the colors we use, the events that we curate,
the messages that we said, and it's about being consistent
in those things, and those things create the heartbeat of
who you are as a company, as a person, and
then you're marketing shares that messages out into the world
through different platforms and stories and events and situations. See
(19:52):
how smart she is. She's good? Um, she's scary good.
I mean you know what I mean. Don't stop stop
you are you blessing? You are a blessing. Okay. I
remember that was my first take on you many years ago,
and to see where you've transformed or evolved too is
(20:15):
amazing now when when when I heard you talk cordony,
it felt more like from a business standpoint, from you know,
from a from a uh like like you know a
product standpoint. And then I turned to Dina, and you
use the word branding expert when it comes to talent,
What does that mean, Dina? When it comes to talent, talent,
(20:40):
talent is a brand in itself. So any any any artist,
any any person that like yourself, you are at you
are talent and you are your own brands. So we
have to do the same thing. We have to maintain
the proper messaging. What we want people to know and
feel about you, how we wanted to look overall, how
(21:00):
we wanted to feel. So it's pretty much the same
way as Hamburgers, but it's a person, which makes it
sometimes a little bit more complicated. Hamburger don't talk. Hamburger
don't talk right. Hamburgers don't mess up somethings sometimes when
they talk. They don't post on social media. They don't
do that right. Hamburgers will change their minds sometimes the
(21:22):
morning when you have a plan and then they decide,
their mood just shifts and they want to do something else.
That's you know, it's a little different. And hamburg and
Hamburgers don't throw your strange looks either, that's right, Like
you're a crazy one in the room and Hamburger will
not throw you under the bus when you know what
I mean. I love it. I love it. I've talked
(21:44):
to my two sisters. I'm talking to you know. We're
behind the scenes. We we we are the ladies that
are always behind the scenes, the secret weapons that a
lot of times people don't even know exist. But we
are an integral part of the team that we're on.
Cool path. Let's talk about Let's brag a little bit. Okay,
I mentioned a little bit about t I and some
of the accomplishment. Talk about some of your product, Dina,
(22:06):
and then court Deem coming to you. Okay, okay. Well,
my history has been in the music business mainly. I
started a PR firm, an entertainment PR firm when I
was nineteen in college. And then I met L A.
Read when I was twenty one and he handpicked and
hired me to work with him at Island def Jam.
So I was on his A and R team for
six years and I helped with Janet Jackson, L Cool,
(22:26):
j Nas Young, Jeez, Rick Ross and and so many
others when jay Z was president. And then I left
to start my own artist development company and I built
a recording studio in midtown Atlanta called twelve Music and Studios.
I ran and operated that operated that facility, and I
nurtured and managed talent for seven years. Then t I
(22:50):
called me and wanted me back on his team because
we worked together previously when I was a lot younger
and he was putting out trap music. And I got
back on his team, and I've been on his management
team hell being out for the last three years. So
I also sold my studio about a year and a
half ago, just so I could do more focusing on
the new things that I wanted to do and to
kind of pivot and the same thing that we're doing
(23:12):
now with pivoting with this agency, which is really a blessing,
I'll say, because we're at the point in our careers
we would get to kind of pick and choose who
we want to work with, and that's truly a blessing.
We don't we don't. We don't decide on working with
clients based on monetary things. We decide on on what
their vision is, what the messages, how is this going
(23:32):
to impact the community. That's really where we make our decisions.
Awesome Courtney c R the c in the d of
the agency. That's me, your accomplishments, you your things. They
brought you into this world that you when you sit
down you make a pitch. You got to tell people
what you're doing currently or what you've done in the past,
(23:54):
how does they work and what do you have to say? UM. So,
as far as my career accomplishments, I started my career
right out of grad school started working for UM Clear
Channel as an account manager for w POC, which is
one of is that what you wanted to do A coordinate? UM?
(24:14):
I wanted to be UM an anchorwoman initially until I
did an internship actually, and then I changed my mind.
And so you had aspirations of being a talent in
one time at first, yes, yeah, UM But anyway, so
I started as an account manager for w POC, which
(24:34):
is a top five still country station in the country
for Clear Channel, and I was selling POC country, jazz
and gospel and digital. So it was I think it
was like two thousand and three where digital just started
to come up and we were trying to figure it
(24:55):
out as a media company, what we're gonna sell, how
we're going to be a the show clients. R Oyes
and stuff like that. And so I did that for
a year and a half and pretty quickly I was
able to leverage a Jaguar deal for clear Channel throughout
like twenty markets and it was a multimillion dollar deal
and it kind of set my career up. And honestly
(25:17):
it was a fluke, but that's a whole another story.
It kind of set my career because I ended up
getting recruited into management. That you gotta tell us the
fluke now unless you say it was a blessing from
being the nosing. This took over when you say fluke,
(25:40):
it just like yeah. Um. So at any rate, that
deal kind of set my career up, like I said.
And so when that happened, because I ended up having
to like go to corporate and present the deal to
Jaguar and so like you know there um their VP
of Marketing in head of brands, consumer brands and all
(26:02):
that and close. The deal went really well, and so,
like I said, that led into me being recruited by
the executive management team. So I went to Tampa as
a sales manager for three radio stations, one being launching
The Beat, which was the first urban actually to go
into Tampa believe it or not. UM w f l
(26:24):
Z which is uh SHR station, and UH Mix which
is like uh no Mix was the HR and w
f l Z is like a pop station. But anyway,
so I went there with three stations under my belt,
stay in Tampa, learned the Ropes under my general sales manager.
They gave me the Beat as my station within like
(26:47):
three months, honestly, and I just had fun with it,
Like I just used my intuition quite frankly, to UH
make decisions UM. As far as marketing was concerned, how
we were going to position urban and a market like
Tampa that had never they had a reggae tone, but
they never had an FM hip hop station, and so
(27:07):
that went well. My boss in Tampa came to Atlanta
as the market manager for Clear Channel Atlanta UM, and
he recruited me. They were launching a country which is
the Bowl, which is the number one country in the market.
It was the FM broadcast for Brady's Radio network, and
so UM. Once again I had kind of gotten the
(27:31):
role of being of launching stations in new markets because
of what we had done, the flip that we had
done with the Beat in Tampa. So they brought me
here to launch a country little microw Media in the South,
and that's what I actually had two country stations. There
was this little stick in Peachtree City called w d
c L. I'm not sure what that stick is now.
(27:52):
So I ran the two country stations and was in
charge of Brady's Radio network, which taught me a lot
of out just you know, managing forty eight million dollar
radio station, managing a lot of people, managing responsibilities from
I was in charge of the marketing department, the sales department,
the promotions department, UM, and then I served on executive
(28:17):
committee for for Clear Channels. So that kind of taught
me the things that I needed to learn to kind
of step out into entrepreneurship and UM. After doing that
Clear Channel that spot by being capital UM there were
eight general sales manager. Six of them got laid off.
(28:37):
Unfortunately I was not one of them. I was super
sad because they got this huge severance check and unfortunately
I was one of the ones that stayed and had
to make it work. And so that taught me more
about acquisitions and mergers, mergers and how to make a
profit and law statement work. And long story short, I
left there started working for myself. Ford Morgricultural became my
first client and my entrepreneurship during you started from there. Awesome,
(29:01):
I toldwards National Women's Small Business mom Um speaking to
Adina and Courtney. UH. The agency, which is what you
c and d the agency? What you started in UH
in the city of Atlanta. Your first project is it
was is a voter education initiative aim at combining voter
suppression in Georgia during the twenty election. Can you tell
(29:22):
us how that, how that came about and also what
are you doing when you say this is your first project.
When when somebody says the first project out of the agency,
what does that mean? Well, this is our first campaign
that we're doing to to launch with the agency so
people know what we are up to and that we
want to do meaningful things in the community. I think
(29:44):
it's really important right now to exercise your right to vote,
but a lot of times people don't even understand their
rights for voting, and so we want to just educate
and give and and funnel all the information on into
one place so people can get it, whether it's early voting,
UM absentee ballot, or whether you're going in person on
the day of vote, you know, election day. We want
(30:07):
people to know, um, their rights. We want them to
know that if they come across something that looks like
voter suppression or it's something that's blocking them from doing
what they have the right to do, they we want
them to have that information. And so we're just pulling
all that information together and sharing it through our network
and through um just just our really just our network
(30:29):
and social media of course. And um, I voted already earlier,
but okay, cool put it, posted it on social media
that I voted. And um, it's a very important election
November thirte for a lot of reasons, but more importantly
to get there, get this country back to a level
of sanity that we all feel we can walk out
our front door and return safe, because right now it
(30:51):
gets ugly and ugly every day. Uh. And and closing,
Courtney and Diana, First of all, thank you for coming
on the show. I this was work this wise. It
is such a beautiful interview. You guys are dominant personalities.
I'm looking at two distinctively different position people that work
incredibly well together. Your strengths they crossed, but they don't cross.
(31:13):
When I say that means that you both understand your
lanes and it allows you to be able to eloquently
pitch like Courtney said, like she did in This Wild Me,
and then all eloquently understand. Because I've managed talent, a lot,
high profile talent, and I know exactly you know when
you start talking, I laugh because every everything you said,
(31:33):
I've had to deal with and still dealing. I jumped
right back into fire and I said I would go well,
I left Steve Harr I said I was done. I
wasn't gonna do this anymore. And I'm back in. They
pulled me back in reputation, pull me back in, But
I want to just say thank you. I want to
be in you guys life. You know, if you ever
need my services. I I do a lot of media.
I do RFPs. I love to include you guys in marketing, branding.
(31:57):
I'm gonna get my staff to reach out to you
guys and get the deck on you guys. So you
know I'm gonna being an agency record for something selves
for some fortune five hundred company from my multicultural perspective.
And I don't do PR and so so you know
I don't. So I can't do everything. But you can.
You can lie that you can do everything, but you
want to do it well. And I and I and
(32:18):
just being the two young ladies who are trying to mentor.
That was the key in this conversation that I was
so impressed about because I was since I was eighteen,
that's been my mantra. Uh No, don't leave anybody behind.
I don't know why I did it. It was just
called of my natural DNA and I from the very
start of this conversation, that's all I heard you guys
talk about. And I want to be a part of
(32:39):
any way I can assist growing the CND the agency
in Atlanta, Georgia, because both of you guys are brilliant. Courtney,
I know your track worker that wasn't That's when impressed
me way back then was the fact that you were
selling more than black radio and uh and Dana Um
meeting you for the first time, I've heard about you
when I there's a lot of people, a lot of
people said, dude, how you never Yeah, she said a
(33:01):
lot of names. I know, okay, and we were So
we've crossed and we've talked and I've heard about you
and get you on my show. Money Making conversations and
blessing and uh, thank you, thank so happy When you
guys reached out, I was like, really, okay, I'm tuning
to do this. It's great, thank you. And you hit
it on the and you hit it right on the nose,
(33:21):
like you have a way of knowing how to pick
up on you know, your your your guest on the show,
because I would say that you summ that up pretty well,
you did. We were heart well. You know, I started
this and I didn't know what I was doing from
the standpoint, you know, I would just I didn't know
(33:41):
why people were coming on the show where they're coming
on the show, because I should manage stink Harvey. They
think I'm getting on the radio show, the talk show,
and I was trying to find my voice and and
so I just look at two fantastic people that you
know if you called me, and you know, I don't charge.
That's why I started this whole platform here. But I
do know how to make people famous. I do know
how to and you guys are famous, okay, you your famous.
(34:04):
Commodities Zoom has allowed me to have an interview like
this because if I try to do this in January,
but we're never what what is he talking about? But
Zoom has allowed this format and to see how you
guys operate on this world. You should do it as
much as possible because you will shine in a lot
of great lanes of opportunity because both of you guys
(34:24):
are brilliant. Okay, thank you so much, so much for
having are essential. The conversations you're having are really important.
People what's happening behind the scenes and not in front
of the TV screen. They need to know the intricacies
of business and how to make money. It's really important.
(34:44):
I appreciate you. I'm telling I staff to get a
deck on you guys. Okay, and we're gonna talk to
Bye bye, great thing, both of y'all. Bye bye. If
we want to hear more money making Conversation interviews, please
go to money Making Conversations dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald.
I'm your host. Wow, that was pretty good. Huh.
Host
Rushion McDonald
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