November 22, 2023 • 12 mins
In this episode, Sheila Eldridge invites you into the dynamic world of media entrepreneurship, revealing the roots of her journey from founding Orchid Entertainment to spearheading Miles Ahead Entertainment & Broadcasting. She shares the transformative power of looking beyond familiar horizons to expand business opportunities, emphasizing the importance of diversity in one's professional network. Sheila unravels the intricacies of syndication and how it became a pivotal force in the future of entertainment. Join us for a captivating conversation as Sheila unravels the threads of her media odyssey, offering not just insights but a blueprint for aspiring entrepreneurs in the ever-evolving world of media.
Host IG:@itstanyatime
Guest IG: @wearemilesahead
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks to MasterCard for sponsoring this episode. Head to MasterCard
dot com backslash small Bids to learn how they're amplifying
and supporting black women entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And that's a.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Good lesson in that you have to put yourself in
environments that are outside of your sphere of business. So
I started going to more conferences in corporate you know,
advertising and marketing conferences, more diversity conferences. I started going
to Chicago where the black ad agencies were, so I
(00:33):
kind of brought my scope because I knew I wanted to,
you know, broaden our services as a business. So we
really that was and then the industry was growing the Internet.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
It just really took off for us in that area.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
You're listening to Money News powered by Greenway, a finance
podcast dedicated to dropping all the knowledge and gems from
the world's leading celebrities, entrepreneurs and experts, and tech, business
and more. I'm your host, angel investor, technology enthusiast, and
media personality Tanya Sam. Each week, we talk with guests
who are making significant strides in their fields and learn
(01:11):
how they are making their money move. If you're someone
who's looking to make your money move, you're in the
right place, So open up your notes app and lock
us in, because this podcast will give you the keys
to the kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance you
so rightly deserve. Before we start the episode, I'd like
to remind you to check us out at gogreenwood dot
com and follow us on social media at Greenwood and
(01:34):
me on all things social at It's Tanya. Time to
stay locked in to new episode.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Hey money Movers, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Today we continue our conversation with the driving force behind
Miles Ahead Entertainment and Broadcasting, Sheila Eldred.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Okay, let's talk about this. Is this where Orchid Communications
was born?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Oh no, Orchid Communications was the first my first business.
That was a PR business. Okay, that was my first business.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Wow, where'd you find that?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Are we find everythin? We go deep into the crates?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
That was deep in the crate.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
All of us started Orchid Communications when I had just
moved to California straight out of Howard and I was
doing PR and you know, I just thought I want it.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Meant I wanted people to know it was owned by
a woman. So what man is going to name their
company orchid?
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Right?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And so uh, that's how it got the name, but
it really did stick. And then as the business changed.
And then, mind you, when I started my business, there
was no internet, So you talk about OG.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Oh, yeah, that's right. I lived through that time. I
was right there on the cusp of it.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
But yeah, wow, So you had to have offices in
LA in Chicago and New York, in Atlanta, you know,
in DC you had to have these brick and mortar
offices and so so the technology was changing and people
had associated the business very much with just PR and
(03:07):
I knew I wanted to expand I could do, we
could do more than that. And I was slowly moving
into broadcast and marketing as the industry.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And the markets were growing.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And so that's how Orchid Communications morphed into Miles Ahead
Entertainment and Broadcast. I am a huge Miles Davis fan,
so I said, Miles Ahead. Yeah, we're on the cusp
of new technology and the Internet.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
It just came.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
So I used that as a theme for the business
and services that we could all wow, And that's really
how Miles Ahead became Orchid became Miles Ahead Entertainment and Broadcasting.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Oh I love this, but an interesting trajectory and actually
just that incredible time period of like seeing the Internet
being ushered in and you know, money morrors out there
don't remember this. I exactly remember dial up going from
encyclopedias in the library to how the Internet changed. How
I mean, I'm right there with you, and I think
(04:11):
it's interesting times right now. We see new technologies from
AI to you know, blockchain coming in. So pay attention
for the opportunity here. So you had this vision, You've
gone from PR now and you are trying to harness
media entertainment. What came next because we got a teaser
there where's you were able to buy five radio stations
(04:32):
and sort of fulfill that part of your dream.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
But what was in the in between.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Well, what was in between when we morphed into miles
hit entertainment before broadcasting came about. My goal there and
focus was, Okay, you come from the entertainment industry, you
know radio, you've been you know, people in the entertainment side,
and a lot of corporate America at that time was
(04:59):
just beginning.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
To use music artists and celebrities.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
In their campaigns and that was kind of the beginning
stages of hip hop. So I said, well, what if
we become the go to agency that can align your
brand with artists, speakers, or personalities that speak to in
the same audience. And no one was kind of in
(05:26):
that space because a lot of people hadn't come out of.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
The entertainment industry.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
My background was in the entertainment industry and radio and
you know, in the music industry. And so my first
client was Coca Cola and we did a campaign for Sprite.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
With Curtis Blow.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Oh god, I remember that one and just it was
Curtis Blow, I think, Dougie Fresh and a couple of
other artists when Sprite was beginning to play around in
the hip.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Hop and that was one of my first projects.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
And then we did some work for Ford, so you know,
then we did McDonald's. McDonald's was in getting to move
into the faith based and gospel market and so you know,
those execs, they didn't know the industry. So if we
were there, then you know, we became the go to
agency for that. And that's a good lesson in that
you have to put yourself in environments that are outside
(06:19):
of your sphere of business. So I started going to
more conferences in corporate you know, advertising and marketing conferences,
more diversity conferences. I started going to Chicago where the
black ad agencies were, so I kind of brought my
scope because I knew I wanted to you know, broaden
out services as a business. So we really that was
(06:42):
and then the industry was growing the Internet. It just
really took off for us in that area. But I
knew in my heart hearts that broadcast is where I
wanted to be. So that's when, like I said, I
went through, went to Kathy, told Ms Hughes and told
her what I wanted to do. Did the program for
(07:02):
a year, came to d C every month, we had
to come every month for this intensive you know program,
and then came out. So I moved to Augusta, Georgia
when I bought the stations.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Okay, I want to talk about buying stations because this
is a mix of you know, building a network, fundraising,
trying to figure out where to buy a station, and
radio was popping at this time. So how did you know, like,
how did you narrow down to Augusta? How did you
know what markets to go into?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Well, first of all, you have to two things, find
a deal and she and her son gave me a
great deal.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
That was first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
And second of all, you've got to look at a
market where the business at that time, the stations were underperforming,
and they were underperforming because they owned stations in Atlanta,
in Charlotte, in Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
In big markets. So for them, Augusta was.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Too small for them to keep their eye on, you know.
And for me, it was big and it was perfect
because it was underperforming, but it had the potential. And
so when I got there, they had like thirty employees.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
I cut that down to nineteen, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Because I knew we could do it for less because
I had an eye on it and I was in
the market.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That's the other thing.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
You can't purchase something that you are not there in
the market to really dissect what your product is and
figure out what's the best way to market it and
to go to the market. So that's really how we
began to grow. But I made a big mistake.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Oh I love the big mistakes. Oh I hate that
they happened, but we learned from them. That's not what
a mistake is.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
For I guess it was always say, maybe a mistake
is just a next step to where you want to go.
I thought that Augusta was just like a small version
of Atlanta. The mindset and the people and the progressiveness.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
You know, it is not, it is not, it is not,
it is not.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
You know, there's some places that are open to the new,
then the other places that are kind of rooted in
what he is and don't necessarily embrace a new technology
or embrace new and so Augusta was you know, the
biggest thing that happens in Augusta, I say.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Is are the masters? Okay, I mean, yeah, that's about it.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
Let's let's be frank. It is the South. Yeah, you know,
Atlanta was is still is a mecand we saw this
with our elections politics and Georgia. Augusta is a different place.
So and what year was this.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
That you were Oh that was fifteen, that was fifteen,
twenty fifteen.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Yeah, so that's definitely not the same. So knowing your
market is certainly.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Knowing your market.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
I mean, I did my due diligence, but there are
just some things that you you don't know, you know,
you just don't know. I was fortunate in that I
was a good money manager. I learned that your biggest
asset is always in business. The people that work with you,
your team. I made sure that I had a team
around me and in my business. Now that there, I say,
(10:15):
these young people are smarter than I am. You know,
you have to have a great team. And so we
got through it and I ended up selling those stations
ten years later and you know, profiting. But what it
taught me was content is king. Yes, so I said,
I need to get in the syndication business.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I need to.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Create content where my landscape can be the world, not
just one market.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Oh fascinating.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
And had I not gone to Augusta, I never would
have moved into the syndication business. And so that is so,
you know, it was a tough I'm not going to
see it was a mistake. It was a learning experience.
Let's put it there.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
I'd like to say exactly.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
It was a learning experience and on the outside, you
you know, were able to make a sale out of it.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
And move on to the next day. And this is
I think something is so interesting about your journey. You
continue to pivot and evolve.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Thanks for listening to today's episode. If we helped you
make your money move, please share it with your community,
Subscribe and leave us a review on iHeartRadio and Apple podcasts,
follow us on social media at Greenwood, and visit us
at Gogreenwood dot com for more financial tips and remember,
money Movers. If this were easy, everyone would do it.
So take the lessons you've learned from this episode and
(11:38):
apply it to your life. Money Moves is an iHeartRadio
podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcast from. Make sure to
tune in Monday, Wednesday and Friday and subscribe to the
Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you too
(11:58):
can have the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Until next time,
Thanks to MasterCard for sponsoring this episode. Head to MasterCard
dot com backslash small Bids to learn how they're amplifying
and supporting black women entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And that's a.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Good lesson in that you have to put yourself in
environments that are outside of your sphere of business. So
I started going to more conferences in corporate you know,
advertising and marketing conferences, more diversity conferences. I started going
to Chicago where the black ad agencies were, so I
(00:33):
kind of brought my scope because I knew I wanted to,
you know, broaden our services as a business. So we
really that was and then the industry was growing the Internet.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
It just really took off for us in that area.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
You're listening to Money News powered by Greenway, a finance
podcast dedicated to dropping all the knowledge and gems from
the world's leading celebrities, entrepreneurs and experts, and tech, business
and more. I'm your host, angel investor, technology enthusiast, and
media personality Tanya Sam. Each week, we talk with guests
who are making significant strides in their fields and learn
(01:11):
how they are making their money move. If you're someone
who's looking to make your money move, you're in the
right place, So open up your notes app and lock
us in, because this podcast will give you the keys
to the kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance you
so rightly deserve. Before we start the episode, I'd like
to remind you to check us out at gogreenwood dot
com and follow us on social media at Greenwood and
(01:34):
me on all things social at It's Tanya. Time to
stay locked in to new episode.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Hey money Movers, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Today we continue our conversation with the driving force behind
Miles Ahead Entertainment and Broadcasting, Sheila Eldred.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Okay, let's talk about this. Is this where Orchid Communications
was born?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Oh no, Orchid Communications was the first my first business.
That was a PR business. Okay, that was my first business.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Wow, where'd you find that?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Are we find everythin? We go deep into the crates?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
That was deep in the crate.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
All of us started Orchid Communications when I had just
moved to California straight out of Howard and I was
doing PR and you know, I just thought I want it.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Meant I wanted people to know it was owned by
a woman. So what man is going to name their
company orchid?
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Right?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And so uh, that's how it got the name, but
it really did stick. And then as the business changed.
And then, mind you, when I started my business, there
was no internet, So you talk about OG.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Oh, yeah, that's right. I lived through that time. I
was right there on the cusp of it.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
But yeah, wow, So you had to have offices in
LA in Chicago and New York, in Atlanta, you know,
in DC you had to have these brick and mortar
offices and so so the technology was changing and people
had associated the business very much with just PR and
(03:07):
I knew I wanted to expand I could do, we
could do more than that. And I was slowly moving
into broadcast and marketing as the industry.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And the markets were growing.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And so that's how Orchid Communications morphed into Miles Ahead
Entertainment and Broadcast. I am a huge Miles Davis fan,
so I said, Miles Ahead. Yeah, we're on the cusp
of new technology and the Internet.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
It just came.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
So I used that as a theme for the business
and services that we could all wow, And that's really
how Miles Ahead became Orchid became Miles Ahead Entertainment and Broadcasting.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Oh I love this, but an interesting trajectory and actually
just that incredible time period of like seeing the Internet
being ushered in and you know, money morrors out there
don't remember this. I exactly remember dial up going from
encyclopedias in the library to how the Internet changed. How
I mean, I'm right there with you, and I think
(04:11):
it's interesting times right now. We see new technologies from
AI to you know, blockchain coming in. So pay attention
for the opportunity here. So you had this vision, You've
gone from PR now and you are trying to harness
media entertainment. What came next because we got a teaser
there where's you were able to buy five radio stations
(04:32):
and sort of fulfill that part of your dream.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
But what was in the in between.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Well, what was in between when we morphed into miles
hit entertainment before broadcasting came about. My goal there and
focus was, Okay, you come from the entertainment industry, you
know radio, you've been you know, people in the entertainment side,
and a lot of corporate America at that time was
(04:59):
just beginning.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
To use music artists and celebrities.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
In their campaigns and that was kind of the beginning
stages of hip hop. So I said, well, what if
we become the go to agency that can align your
brand with artists, speakers, or personalities that speak to in
the same audience. And no one was kind of in
(05:26):
that space because a lot of people hadn't come out of.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
The entertainment industry.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
My background was in the entertainment industry and radio and
you know, in the music industry. And so my first
client was Coca Cola and we did a campaign for Sprite.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
With Curtis Blow.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Oh god, I remember that one and just it was
Curtis Blow, I think, Dougie Fresh and a couple of
other artists when Sprite was beginning to play around in
the hip.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Hop and that was one of my first projects.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
And then we did some work for Ford, so you know,
then we did McDonald's. McDonald's was in getting to move
into the faith based and gospel market and so you know,
those execs, they didn't know the industry. So if we
were there, then you know, we became the go to
agency for that. And that's a good lesson in that
you have to put yourself in environments that are outside
(06:19):
of your sphere of business. So I started going to
more conferences in corporate you know, advertising and marketing conferences,
more diversity conferences. I started going to Chicago where the
black ad agencies were, so I kind of brought my
scope because I knew I wanted to you know, broaden
out services as a business. So we really that was
(06:42):
and then the industry was growing the Internet. It just
really took off for us in that area. But I
knew in my heart hearts that broadcast is where I
wanted to be. So that's when, like I said, I
went through, went to Kathy, told Ms Hughes and told
her what I wanted to do. Did the program for
(07:02):
a year, came to d C every month, we had
to come every month for this intensive you know program,
and then came out. So I moved to Augusta, Georgia
when I bought the stations.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Okay, I want to talk about buying stations because this
is a mix of you know, building a network, fundraising,
trying to figure out where to buy a station, and
radio was popping at this time. So how did you know, like,
how did you narrow down to Augusta? How did you
know what markets to go into?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Well, first of all, you have to two things, find
a deal and she and her son gave me a
great deal.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
That was first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
And second of all, you've got to look at a
market where the business at that time, the stations were underperforming,
and they were underperforming because they owned stations in Atlanta,
in Charlotte, in Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
In big markets. So for them, Augusta was.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Too small for them to keep their eye on, you know.
And for me, it was big and it was perfect
because it was underperforming, but it had the potential. And
so when I got there, they had like thirty employees.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
I cut that down to nineteen, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Because I knew we could do it for less because
I had an eye on it and I was in
the market.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That's the other thing.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
You can't purchase something that you are not there in
the market to really dissect what your product is and
figure out what's the best way to market it and
to go to the market. So that's really how we
began to grow. But I made a big mistake.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Oh I love the big mistakes. Oh I hate that
they happened, but we learned from them. That's not what
a mistake is.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
For I guess it was always say, maybe a mistake
is just a next step to where you want to go.
I thought that Augusta was just like a small version
of Atlanta. The mindset and the people and the progressiveness.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
You know, it is not, it is not, it is not,
it is not.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
You know, there's some places that are open to the new,
then the other places that are kind of rooted in
what he is and don't necessarily embrace a new technology
or embrace new and so Augusta was you know, the
biggest thing that happens in Augusta, I say.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Is are the masters? Okay, I mean, yeah, that's about it.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
Let's let's be frank. It is the South. Yeah, you know,
Atlanta was is still is a mecand we saw this
with our elections politics and Georgia. Augusta is a different place.
So and what year was this.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
That you were Oh that was fifteen, that was fifteen,
twenty fifteen.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Yeah, so that's definitely not the same. So knowing your
market is certainly.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Knowing your market.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
I mean, I did my due diligence, but there are
just some things that you you don't know, you know,
you just don't know. I was fortunate in that I
was a good money manager. I learned that your biggest
asset is always in business. The people that work with you,
your team. I made sure that I had a team
around me and in my business. Now that there, I say,
(10:15):
these young people are smarter than I am. You know,
you have to have a great team. And so we
got through it and I ended up selling those stations
ten years later and you know, profiting. But what it
taught me was content is king. Yes, so I said,
I need to get in the syndication business.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I need to.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Create content where my landscape can be the world, not
just one market.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Oh fascinating.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
And had I not gone to Augusta, I never would
have moved into the syndication business. And so that is so,
you know, it was a tough I'm not going to
see it was a mistake. It was a learning experience.
Let's put it there.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
I'd like to say exactly.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
It was a learning experience and on the outside, you
you know, were able to make a sale out of it.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
And move on to the next day. And this is
I think something is so interesting about your journey. You
continue to pivot and evolve.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Thanks for listening to today's episode. If we helped you
make your money move, please share it with your community,
Subscribe and leave us a review on iHeartRadio and Apple podcasts,
follow us on social media at Greenwood, and visit us
at Gogreenwood dot com for more financial tips and remember,
money Movers. If this were easy, everyone would do it.
So take the lessons you've learned from this episode and
(11:38):
apply it to your life. Money Moves is an iHeartRadio
podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcast from. Make sure to
tune in Monday, Wednesday and Friday and subscribe to the
Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you too
(11:58):
can have the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Until next time,
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