March 1, 2022 • 32 mins
This week, host Louis Carr has a conversation about music, BET and sports with serial entrepreneur, Paxton Baker.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mrs Louis Carr, host of the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Blueprint Man Summer,
where we have consistently given men a prescription for birth,
not just for themselves, but also for their families and
their community. During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate
(00:22):
our listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness, and
even relationships. Today we have of our special guests, one
of my special friends, serial entrepreneur Paxton Baker. Welcome, Baxton,
(00:43):
Thank you, Louis Carr. Thank you Louis Carr. Uh, friend
of almost three decades and big brother. You are welcome
to the Blueprint Connect podcast. Baxton. When I met you
all three decades ago, you had your own production company. Uh,
(01:06):
you were producing festivals all over the world. And uh,
tell us how did you get into the festival producing business?
How did that happen? One step at a time, one
step and one step at a time. And the other
part that I was throwing is from a passion point
(01:26):
of finding things that you love to do, finding things
that you're passionate about, something that really kind of like
motivates you and stirs you and then getting lucky enough
from a business perspective of kind of seeing you through.
So I actually started doing productions at Temple University back
in when I was in college at Temple and they
(01:47):
had a twenty four hour jazz station called w r T.
I said ah at a radio show on Friday nights,
and it started off with me doing lots of interviews
with jazz musicians, and then from that I started to
empty concerts and literally one day, while I was on
stage being a host for a big concert attribute to
(02:08):
John Coltrane, a light literally without exaggeration, popped on in
my mind while I was on stage, and I realized
at the bulk of the musicians on stage that I
interviewed and new and had relationships with, I'm seeing this
production happened. I'm like, well, I can actually produce things.
And so I started off doing a Wednesday night student
run jazz series, and before I knew it, I started
doing shows across the city, working with a lot of
(02:31):
different promoters, learning the business, and so I started a
Wednesday night jazz series and it started from there literally
a passion point of something I loved. Worked in Atlanta
for a year with the city of Atlanta, producing the
the city's jazz festival and the music part of the
(02:51):
first National Black Arts Festival back and then one day
I was hosting the I was host for the Cultural
Minister of China and um at Andy Young's office, who
was married at the time Pops Pops Philip Michael Thomas
and Philip and I had known each other since childhood
(03:12):
and my oldest brother were best friends and we had
a long family history with each other. He was starring
Miami Vice at the time. Long story short, moved to Miami,
worked with Philip Petters Theater start producing a jazz series there.
One of the people that came to one of the
shows and actually tell me about that opportunity in Rubba,
And in a short space of time, I went down
to a Ruba for the nine festival and it was
(03:33):
given the opportunity to produce the ninety Rubba Festival. Then
UH produced the Drum Jazz festal in Amsterdam and ninety
one St. Lucian ninety two where we met each other.
Then two the very first E Lucia Jazz Festival, and
in a short space of time I was producing about
six international music festivals, picked up BT as a client
(03:55):
where you and I first started to work with each other,
and UH from ninety three two ninety from actually A
ninety two to uh B T was one of my
clients and I was up to about when I ended
up joining BT and running BT Jazz and sold the
production company to BT, which became BT Event Productions. We
(04:18):
were up to about eight international music festivals. At one
point we were doing ten festivals a year across the world. So,
but the lute side, I really pull it back to
finding something that you're extremely passionate about, something that you love.
And I think that because because I'm often asked a
question like you know what you know? What should I do?
(04:38):
What are you thinking? For me? For young people? As
as a consistent answer, my part, don't finding something that
you love and doing something that you love so so
so accident. When you think about productions, festivals and concerts
and things like that, which is more important, Yeah, the
(05:01):
relationships with the artists or having the technical expertise of producing.
I think I think on that when I think it's
I would say the relationship with the artist. Uh. And
and also when you're when you're producing, so being a promoter,
you're you're generally putting up your own money. As a producer,
(05:23):
you're generally working for somebody else. And so from from
my end the bulk of my career, I've been more
of a producer. I promoted some shows myself, but I've
been more of a producer. So I work on behalf
of international festivals, working on behalf of the government. So
uh so. So my bible, uh Lewis, my bible from
my career has been Thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
(05:46):
That has the most meaningful book for me in the
whole of my life. And so one of the twelve
riches is the capacity I understand people. So for me
it's just as important in his relationship with the artists
is the importance of being able to get along with people.
And as you know, in the corporate environment, that's probably
one of the most key things that you can have,
(06:08):
is the ability to get along with people. So artists
and their technical expertise can be hired, in my opinion,
And so I've had the good fortune in my career
and working with Derrick Lewis, and he and I literally
have gone around the whole of the world together from
from Johannesburg and Durban and Cape Town, Tosa, Wilder, Morocco
(06:29):
to Kagana, Cape Town, Ghana to An India, Delhi, uh, Mumbai,
uh Go, uh, etcetera. Literally, without exaggeration to our audience,
you clearly are Renaissance. Make all right? So so fact,
(06:49):
then tell me this because I'm sure that the audiences
would be wondering, well, how did you meet these people?
So you said Coltrane, I know, Earth Wind and Fire.
I mean you was throwing a phillop Michael Thomas. You
know you just don't like, Hey, that's pellop, Michael, that
was on breaker. How did you meet those people? And
(07:10):
how did you develop those relationships? Because you know everybody
wants to know somebody famous. Well, I think, you know,
I go back to like a pleasing personality and the
capacity to understand people. So uh, so I didn't meet
John Culture and he passed before before I was well,
(07:30):
I was alive when he passed. But as far as
like Harry Belafonte, uh, Tony Bennett, al Jaro, George Duke,
many of the people. So Harry actually called me up
literally uh. In two I was in New York working
at UM producing. I think it was st. Lucian and
Aruba at the time, and I was just about to
get started and trinid At and Harry Belafoni called me up.
(07:52):
He he was trying to find a producer in the
Caribbean to do a festival that he wanted to produce
in Barbados, and so so his was kind of one
coming to me. I think your reputation little something that
you guard very jealously in a positive way, like your reputation.
I think once people kind of know you as a
good person, an honest person, a credible person, uh, somebody
(08:14):
who's serious, a person of value, that your reputation kind
of procede you in many ways. And I think that's
a positive thing, or certainly should be a positive thing
by way of a positive reputation. But once you meet
somebody in a short space of time, somebody makes a
quick decision or whether or not they like you. And
I think a lot of that comes down to energy,
(08:35):
like literally the energy that you give off. And so
I'm a big believer in affirmations, and I have a
multitude of different affirmations I do at night before I
go to sleep every night and every morning when I
wake up. Some of them sometimes become redundant. But uh,
literally before I get going in the morning, before I
get out of bed, I have probably about five or
(08:56):
six affirmations that I kind of keep going with. So
I think your energy is overwhelmingly important. And then the
knowledge that you you gain along the way, uh, being
able to casually talk about things without it like coming
across as if you're bragging, because it's not. It's like,
you know, those are relationships that are real to you
in real time. So, uh, that would be kind of
(09:20):
like some things that I would kind of add to it.
And then also, I mean, I think it's incumbent upon
you to read to be an interesting person yourself. And
so the more information that you have, the more interesting
I think that you can be. And and then it
kind of adds to something that's inside of you, the
energy that kind of defines who you are as a
perfect person. And then also I think it helps for
(09:40):
you to have a definitive purpose for what you bring
to the table. There's an affirmation one of the ones
that I always liked. It was like, my presence alone
produces valuable results. And so for you to actually have
that confidence within yourself to think that just the value
of you walking in a room or just your presence
in a conversation that it produces something to it. So
and then self beliefs is important as well, and that's
(10:01):
certainly one of the things that I learned from thinking
Grow Rich. We'll be right back with more of my
interview after this quick break. So I called you a
serial entrepreneur, but you also spent a number of years
(10:24):
in corporate America. Tell us about why are you so
your business to be et and that experience and what
you learned they're being in corporate America. So, uh, it's
the biggest difference, in my opinion, in corporate America versus
just being kind of a purely entrepreneur is in corporate America,
(10:45):
you have more resources to work with. That is probably
the most important possible thing that can come out of it,
is just the vast amount of resources that you have
to work with. Um, you're really aware that when I
came into BT, I came men to be T Jazz
and b T Jazz was the step child of of
BT and never quite really fully got past being a
(11:07):
step child. And but it was more resources than I've
ever had to work with before I walked in the door,
so resources, and then the other part in corporate America
as well as the importance of getting along with people
and being able to work into work in a collaborative environment.
That really can't be overstated at any point is the
(11:27):
importance of collaboration. And so the part that I liked
about that is you come up with an idea, your
idea has to pass the rigor of multiple departments in
multiple colleagues and UH for UH, for for television specifically
at BT. You could have the most fascinating idea in
(11:49):
the world, it could be the most incredible art endeavor
in the world, but if it can't sell it candidly,
is almost meaningless. And so for me and the corporate
environment was being able to get along with as Seals Group, UH,
the importance of the Seals Group and coming up with
ideas that were ideas that were sailable and monetizeable ideas UH.
(12:10):
In the independent entrepreneur pieces pretty much the same, only
you're selling directly to clients. So it's the difference in
in corporate America, you're selling to a client what you're
collaborating with the as Cells Group, because they may actually
end up being the touchpoint, whereas in the pure entrepreneurial space,
you're selling. But at the end of the day, if
your ideas don't sell, you don't eat. And that would
(12:32):
be one of the other different biggest differences in the
corporate in the corporate world versus entrepreneurial. Well, so for
me right now, if I'm not coming up with ideas
that are monetize herble, if I'm not adding measurable, definable
value to clients, then I'm not going to eat. Whereas
in corporate America that paychecks coming whether or not you
know in short time, uh, that idea is really that
(12:53):
good or not. So it's the to me the independent
entrepreneur outside of corporate space, you're more on the taser's edge.
And if you're not, if your ideas aren't winning, and
your ideas aren't selling and you're not adding you know,
really really measurable value, you're not going to last long
with the client. In a corporate mary, you can string
it out a little bit longer, got it. Got it?
(13:17):
So you decided to leave the et and go back
out into the entrepreneur world. And you've got a number
of ventures going right now from Liquid Soul Media too,
the overall pkbuh brand. And then you also are involved
in some sports teams. Tell us about that. How did
(13:41):
that happen? You know, because I'm not involved in the
sports teage and nobody has come to me, So you know,
how did you end up with the Washington Nationals and
the Washington Spirit as uh minority owner? Okay, so in
corporate America? Uh uh. One of the things that that
(14:06):
it's ironic, um, and it's funny. When we first started
the conversation today, uh you know crystals you know said
oh shucks, and you kind of made a joke about
But I've learned a lot from you, and one of
the things I learned from you was you always had
your numbers with you. If you remember saying that to
me back in two earlier? Am I wrong? No, You're
(14:32):
not wrong, right, I still got him. I just back
then I cared him in a briefcase. Not I care
more for Okay, Well, I'm actually old school and every
day I have my numbers with me without exaggeration. Right.
So so if if in your blueprint and not blowing
(14:56):
any smoke for you, when you think about younger people
who you've inspired, you got me by a few years,
but literally, I have my numbers with me every single day.
I never forgot that. I forgot that. So while I
was at BT, I was what And I think that
in my opinion, entrepreneurs, uh, you you should. You should
(15:16):
always kind of keep a little nervousness with you, like
I have a little bit of nervousness with you. You
can be bold, you can be assured, you can make
a lot of choices, but you have that little bit
of nervousness. And so in corporate America, I was there.
I had no idea how long it was going to last.
And so each day I was there, I took it.
I took advantage of what was given to me, and
(15:37):
I began to build my life after the life I
wanted to live. After I left b T. I started
to build that life the day I walked in the door.
And so you may remember that I volunteered for a
lot of nonprofits. One of the early ones I joined
back in two thousand three, I joined the board of
the US Congress's official charity, the US Congressional Award and
(16:00):
and this Congress's official Charity for Young People. When I
joined the board, there was about eighteen twenty thousand young
people in the program. Now we're well over fifty five
fifty six thousand young people in the program now, and
they earn a congressional medal. I'm on. I was at
WILL was a viacom the whole of the time I
was there. I put a lot of volunteer time and
(16:20):
worked outside of my day job. And I never took
my day job for granted. So when I talked about
being a little nervous, I guess that would be the
core of what I would say is you don't you
don't take the time you have for granted. So I
looked for business opportunities that were non conflictual. Back in
two thousand five, my dentist, actually Dr Ronnie Rosenberg, introduced
(16:41):
me to the Learner family, who was putting together a
group to purchase the Washington Nationals. Washington Nationals had been
the Montreal expos. They were taken over by MLB in
two thousand four and two thousand five. They moved them
to Washington in two thousand six. We were one of
originally thirteen groups, which cut to eight, then cut the five,
(17:03):
then cut the four. One of the groups collapsed into
our group and the Commissioner of Baseball ended up giving
us the opportunity with the Learner family to purchase it.
So when I came into the Learner group before we
bought the team, myself and James Brown were the original
to African Americans that were in the partnership group. We collapsed.
James Brown the sports catch Yes our CDs and it
(17:26):
was on Fox fe years now on CDs. Our group
was there, j JP and I were there were the
two and the other part was for Washington. D C.
Lowis just gave a little more information. The team was
shot to. The expos were shot to Jacksonville, Florida, Las Vegas,
Portland's Northern Virginia, Sacramento, and d C. The Commissioner the
(17:52):
DC City Council with Mayor Tony Williams, and the city
Council said that they would put up the six hundred
and fifty million dollars through a bond for the team
to come to Washington, but it had to have significant
minority participation. So our group ended up winning the bid
in two thousand six and we took over ownership of it. UH.
(18:14):
One of the other things that I would really kind
of let caution entrepreneurs in particular in the corporate world.
Maybe caution is not the right word, but like to
get your paper straight, to to be a cacoholic, to
uh be a cacoholic, and to uh to save. And
so when opportunities come up, if you have money to invest, UH,
(18:37):
if you have money to invest you the opportunities oftentimes
are there for you. Uh. You have to have that.
You have to have some kind of the savings and
some kind of a capital that you can invest in
different things. And if you're able to do that, you
can win. So UH on not taking things for granted.
Every day I was at BT, I thought about my afterlife.
I thought what I wanted my afterlife to look look like,
(18:59):
and I wanted to be prepared to re enter the
entrepreneurs the independent auspreneurial world. But I need to have
backing behind me. And so the more money that you
have saved yourself, the better off that you're going to be.
So savings is a critical component of any successful entrepreneur
inside of corporate America. Outside of corporate America, I think
the more money has saved, the better decisions that you'll make,
(19:21):
and you're in a position to to take advantage of
opportunities when they enter into your door. So I did
that and with baseball, the opportunity came to me the
Learner Family, I asked me to join the group. Uh,
with my work with Congress, I think the Congression Award.
(19:41):
When I walked in the door, I was the only
African American on the board. And now we have African
American participation. We have ten percent accounting Asians and Latinos,
and we have others as well. Uh in that so
we're the boards and now minority UM representation on the board,
(20:02):
and we look like what America looks like on on
the board for Congress's official charity. So, and as you're aware,
the relationships are kind of a critical piece to it.
So when people kind of know you for something, they
begin to other opportunities came, uh the Washington Spirit, which
is the twenty one World champions Uh and the Nationals,
(20:23):
by the way, the twenty nineteen World champions I did,
I did. We want you just to look at that,
so I'll be having another back. So you want to
same championships again? All right? This is my third championship lost,
literally my third one. My first was the Washington Castles,
(20:44):
which is World Team Tennis in when I when I
left BT UH and opportunity to work with Mark Iron
and they won their sixth championship in a row in
and I came in and got the last year of
the championship run. Then the Washington Nationals the World Series
champion in twenty nineteen, the Washington Spirit in November, we
(21:05):
won the national won a Soccer League championship in Louisville,
UH November twenty and so it's my third championship opportunity.
Steve Baldwin, who's the principal owner, UH, I met him
at another volunteer of that at the University of Maryland
for the athletic director then and UM he when he
bought the team in and twenty nineteen, he sought me out.
(21:28):
He said, Hey, I've got something special. I'd like you
to join the group. I ended up joining last year
and we won. We won the national Women's Soccer Championship.
And it's my third, my third UH, it will be
my third Jostin's ring from championship. I think that you know,
people seek you out once you develop good reputation. We'll
(21:52):
be right back with more of my interview after this
quick break just's leaning on these relationships, all right, because
when you listen to your journey, it seems like you
volunteered for a lot of groups and opportunities where there
(22:18):
was sort of nothing at that moment in return for
you personally, So whether they were philanthropic or Bible ones,
c threes or whatever the case may be. And then
once you became part of that, people got to know you.
How important is volunteerism, How important is once you get
(22:41):
a part of an organization really leaning into development relationships?
Talking about that for justice science. So Napoleon Hill caused
it going the extra mile, and Mark McCormick, who was
the founder of i MG which is now owned by
William Morris Endeavor uh talked about He called it going
(23:04):
the extra ten percent. I think that is. And then
volunteerism is something a little bit different, but uh uh. Volunteerism,
volunteerism and also tightening uh to me are something that
it's like subconsciously, you can vent your subconscious that you
have extra You can vent your subconscious that you are
(23:26):
you are solidly planted, that you're firmly rooted, and that
you have enough that you can give extra of yourself.
That to me is what tidening is, and that's what
volunteerism is as well. When you can donate your own
money to causes that are important that you think helped
make the world a better place to be, and it
could be. I mean, there's so many different things that
you can volunteer for, from environmental issues to to saving
(23:49):
the whales to you know, dolphins. It's like you can
kind of go you know, needy, needy children, hunger, et cetera.
There's so many different things that you can volunteer for.
But I I think that I think that by going
and giving that extra that extra ten, that you convince
yourself that that you have room to give, that you're
firmly planted, you almost psyche yourself out into believing and
(24:12):
giving and doing more. And I think that that that
positive mental attitude, that positive thing that's engendered from that
is that extra special elixir that makes you different than
other people. You know, I could turn the table on you, uh,
you know, literally Lewis and ask you, because you've seen
(24:32):
you've seen hundreds of executives over the course of your
corporate career, and what makes those that special little group,
that special extra group, a little bit more wonderful, a
little bit more specially, I have a little more magnetism.
There's some things that successful people have in common to me,
and your mental attitude and the capacity to volunteer and
to give live yourself to me is just one of
(24:53):
those special things. To that point, I had a conversation
with someone is we can uh, do you think that
that DNA or trade is that inherent in an individual
or is that learned? Because when you think about corporate America,
(25:17):
you see a lot of executives do things for the
sake of their self and their brands, and they use
their corporate money and corporate influence, and that's fine. And
then you see some people go that extra what you
would call temper cent and they use their own money
and their own resources to sort of help others and
(25:39):
help communities or organizations. Is that the people who go
to extra temper cent is that inherent in their DNA?
Is that who they are? Or do you think that
they've learned that over the course of time. For the
most part, I would say that you know, when I
hope that there are some things in our DNA that
certainly some things you know from my mother and father, uh,
(26:02):
and more so my mother. But I think it's learned behavior.
So that's you know, it's it's culture, a culture you know,
from someone who took the time to help you. It
could be your parents, could be an older brother and sister,
it could be mentors. Uh. And that to me is
you know what your Lewis Carr Institute is about. It
is like teaching that little thing. So I said, a
lot of it certainly can be passed on. I would
(26:24):
think that the greater part of it is learned. It's
like when you talk about things in your DNA. That's
like I think athletes, like there's certain you know what
people with just called like, oh, he's just a natural athlete.
You know, he's just seasoned. And so there's some gifts
that you have from the athletic perspective that are natural,
but even those need to be taught. You have to
teach that there's some things to get past that. Um
(26:46):
Immet Smith's a friend and he would talk to you
about the amount of practice Lewis that he did over
the course of his career, and he could tell you
all of his coaches who taught him. And those coaches
were one of the more critical kind of components and elements.
For him is the teaching part of coaching, So I
would I would probably Lois, I would say more of
it is is learned behavior. In that regard learned behavior great, great,
(27:15):
you always involved in something next? What's next for you?
Baxter Baker? Uh Well, I love tech and I love
international travels. So two of my projects coming up for
they're literally a work in progress, and once I get
them up and running, I love to come back on
(27:35):
the blueprint and talk about them because UH one is
going to involve bringing African countries into Washington, d c
uh in the soccer space. I can say that much
about it, and I'm hoping to put that together for two.
And I've got another tech project I'm working with with
a big organization that we're looking to launch in actually
(27:59):
both of them in the third third quarter, third fourth
quarter of this year, both of them. So I love
I'd love to talk about. I want to change the world.
I really do. I want to change the world. Uh
every day in my own way, I want to change
the world. I want to make the world a better place.
I think that with kind of like coming up with
(28:21):
big ideas which to meet Germany out of small ideas,
but coming up with ideas that literally can change the
world and make it a better place. Those are things
that really interests. So I've got some really cool sports
project coming up this year. Uh there's another there's another
lead that I'm planning on buying into. Hopefully I get
that done before the end of the first quarter of
(28:41):
this year. Um in a whole kind of more of
an obscure sport, uh that I'm hoping to kind of
make more daily routines and one that I think that
African Americans can make a huge imprint on is given
the opportunity. So I love sports. That's one of my
next ventures to my next ventures are actually the sports
face one is in the tech space and then music
(29:03):
is there as well. So my one is going to
be music contact. So I'm excited that to me, is
part of it ruminates me and gets me going every
single day is to have new ideas and I can
kind of come up with and monetize and so that's
super exciting for me. And that's kind of what's next
next in front of me. So as we close, Uh,
(29:26):
this is called the Blueprint Connect podcast. Give us three
things past that you would recommend that anyone who is
on their journey to success make part of their sort
of daily, weekly, monthly routine. So one is your mental attitude,
(29:48):
by way of improving your mental attitude, and that's a
daily struggle. There's nothing, there's nothing that really uh gives
you a guarantee from one day to the next. But
so developing mes and in a positive metal attitude, that's one. Uh.
Two is your health by way of just remaining a
very very sound, physically healthy person. And then third is
(30:10):
harmony and human relationships, the capacity to be able to
get along with people and build and so those are
like the three core principles of Napoleon Hills that can
grow rich. And so I recommend that book to anybody
who hasn't read it. I don't care where you're at
your in your success journey, if you're already a billionaire
or uh if you're an up and coming young entrepreneur
on the way up like that, Like I reread it
(30:32):
on a regular basis. It's been the blueprint, the blueprint
candidly of my life. And then uh, friendships like like
I can't really say enough about being able to maintain
positive friendships and um Lewis side now that you can.
You owe a lot of your career to relationships that
you've been able to have and maintain over the course
of your career. I've known you to have god fathers,
(30:54):
I've known you'd have mentors in your life and people
that you kind of go to that you've kept and
kept close to over the course of your career. So
uh uh and then giving back like that to me
is just you can't overestimate the importance of that, And
so that would be four. But um, giving back to
others and being able to share your blessings with other people,
(31:16):
uh in a very very wonderful way. And I've appreciated
Lodgy for for doing that over the course of your career,
because that's when you do a lot of it. So um,
and then be thankful and be happy to be appreciative.
So all those things I would throw in tox and
thank you for that. Man. I appreciate this, and uh
(31:37):
we here at the Blueprint connect community wish you and
yours are very very very special and successful and prosperous.
TWU twenty two
Mrs Louis Carr, host of the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Blueprint Man Summer,
where we have consistently given men a prescription for birth,
not just for themselves, but also for their families and
their community. During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate
(00:22):
our listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness, and
even relationships. Today we have of our special guests, one
of my special friends, serial entrepreneur Paxton Baker. Welcome, Baxton,
(00:43):
Thank you, Louis Carr. Thank you Louis Carr. Uh, friend
of almost three decades and big brother. You are welcome
to the Blueprint Connect podcast. Baxton. When I met you
all three decades ago, you had your own production company. Uh,
(01:06):
you were producing festivals all over the world. And uh,
tell us how did you get into the festival producing business?
How did that happen? One step at a time, one
step and one step at a time. And the other
part that I was throwing is from a passion point
(01:26):
of finding things that you love to do, finding things
that you're passionate about, something that really kind of like
motivates you and stirs you and then getting lucky enough
from a business perspective of kind of seeing you through.
So I actually started doing productions at Temple University back
in when I was in college at Temple and they
(01:47):
had a twenty four hour jazz station called w r T.
I said ah at a radio show on Friday nights,
and it started off with me doing lots of interviews
with jazz musicians, and then from that I started to
empty concerts and literally one day, while I was on
stage being a host for a big concert attribute to
(02:08):
John Coltrane, a light literally without exaggeration, popped on in
my mind while I was on stage, and I realized
at the bulk of the musicians on stage that I
interviewed and new and had relationships with, I'm seeing this
production happened. I'm like, well, I can actually produce things.
And so I started off doing a Wednesday night student
run jazz series, and before I knew it, I started
doing shows across the city, working with a lot of
(02:31):
different promoters, learning the business, and so I started a
Wednesday night jazz series and it started from there literally
a passion point of something I loved. Worked in Atlanta
for a year with the city of Atlanta, producing the
the city's jazz festival and the music part of the
(02:51):
first National Black Arts Festival back and then one day
I was hosting the I was host for the Cultural
Minister of China and um at Andy Young's office, who
was married at the time Pops Pops Philip Michael Thomas
and Philip and I had known each other since childhood
(03:12):
and my oldest brother were best friends and we had
a long family history with each other. He was starring
Miami Vice at the time. Long story short, moved to Miami,
worked with Philip Petters Theater start producing a jazz series there.
One of the people that came to one of the
shows and actually tell me about that opportunity in Rubba,
And in a short space of time, I went down
to a Ruba for the nine festival and it was
(03:33):
given the opportunity to produce the ninety Rubba Festival. Then
UH produced the Drum Jazz festal in Amsterdam and ninety
one St. Lucian ninety two where we met each other.
Then two the very first E Lucia Jazz Festival, and
in a short space of time I was producing about
six international music festivals, picked up BT as a client
(03:55):
where you and I first started to work with each other,
and UH from ninety three two ninety from actually A
ninety two to uh B T was one of my
clients and I was up to about when I ended
up joining BT and running BT Jazz and sold the
production company to BT, which became BT Event Productions. We
(04:18):
were up to about eight international music festivals. At one
point we were doing ten festivals a year across the world. So,
but the lute side, I really pull it back to
finding something that you're extremely passionate about, something that you love.
And I think that because because I'm often asked a
question like you know what you know? What should I do?
(04:38):
What are you thinking? For me? For young people? As
as a consistent answer, my part, don't finding something that
you love and doing something that you love so so
so accident. When you think about productions, festivals and concerts
and things like that, which is more important, Yeah, the
(05:01):
relationships with the artists or having the technical expertise of producing.
I think I think on that when I think it's
I would say the relationship with the artist. Uh. And
and also when you're when you're producing, so being a promoter,
you're you're generally putting up your own money. As a producer,
(05:23):
you're generally working for somebody else. And so from from
my end the bulk of my career, I've been more
of a producer. I promoted some shows myself, but I've
been more of a producer. So I work on behalf
of international festivals, working on behalf of the government. So
uh so. So my bible, uh Lewis, my bible from
my career has been Thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
(05:46):
That has the most meaningful book for me in the
whole of my life. And so one of the twelve
riches is the capacity I understand people. So for me
it's just as important in his relationship with the artists
is the importance of being able to get along with people.
And as you know, in the corporate environment, that's probably
one of the most key things that you can have,
(06:08):
is the ability to get along with people. So artists
and their technical expertise can be hired, in my opinion,
And so I've had the good fortune in my career
and working with Derrick Lewis, and he and I literally
have gone around the whole of the world together from
from Johannesburg and Durban and Cape Town, Tosa, Wilder, Morocco
(06:29):
to Kagana, Cape Town, Ghana to An India, Delhi, uh, Mumbai,
uh Go, uh, etcetera. Literally, without exaggeration to our audience,
you clearly are Renaissance. Make all right? So so fact,
(06:49):
then tell me this because I'm sure that the audiences
would be wondering, well, how did you meet these people?
So you said Coltrane, I know, Earth Wind and Fire.
I mean you was throwing a phillop Michael Thomas. You
know you just don't like, Hey, that's pellop, Michael, that
was on breaker. How did you meet those people? And
(07:10):
how did you develop those relationships? Because you know everybody
wants to know somebody famous. Well, I think, you know,
I go back to like a pleasing personality and the
capacity to understand people. So uh, so I didn't meet
John Culture and he passed before before I was well,
(07:30):
I was alive when he passed. But as far as
like Harry Belafonte, uh, Tony Bennett, al Jaro, George Duke,
many of the people. So Harry actually called me up
literally uh. In two I was in New York working
at UM producing. I think it was st. Lucian and
Aruba at the time, and I was just about to
get started and trinid At and Harry Belafoni called me up.
(07:52):
He he was trying to find a producer in the
Caribbean to do a festival that he wanted to produce
in Barbados, and so so his was kind of one
coming to me. I think your reputation little something that
you guard very jealously in a positive way, like your reputation.
I think once people kind of know you as a
good person, an honest person, a credible person, uh, somebody
(08:14):
who's serious, a person of value, that your reputation kind
of procede you in many ways. And I think that's
a positive thing, or certainly should be a positive thing
by way of a positive reputation. But once you meet
somebody in a short space of time, somebody makes a
quick decision or whether or not they like you. And
I think a lot of that comes down to energy,
(08:35):
like literally the energy that you give off. And so
I'm a big believer in affirmations, and I have a
multitude of different affirmations I do at night before I
go to sleep every night and every morning when I
wake up. Some of them sometimes become redundant. But uh,
literally before I get going in the morning, before I
get out of bed, I have probably about five or
(08:56):
six affirmations that I kind of keep going with. So
I think your energy is overwhelmingly important. And then the
knowledge that you you gain along the way, uh, being
able to casually talk about things without it like coming
across as if you're bragging, because it's not. It's like,
you know, those are relationships that are real to you
in real time. So, uh, that would be kind of
(09:20):
like some things that I would kind of add to it.
And then also, I mean, I think it's incumbent upon
you to read to be an interesting person yourself. And
so the more information that you have, the more interesting
I think that you can be. And and then it
kind of adds to something that's inside of you, the
energy that kind of defines who you are as a
perfect person. And then also I think it helps for
(09:40):
you to have a definitive purpose for what you bring
to the table. There's an affirmation one of the ones
that I always liked. It was like, my presence alone
produces valuable results. And so for you to actually have
that confidence within yourself to think that just the value
of you walking in a room or just your presence
in a conversation that it produces something to it. So
and then self beliefs is important as well, and that's
(10:01):
certainly one of the things that I learned from thinking
Grow Rich. We'll be right back with more of my
interview after this quick break. So I called you a
serial entrepreneur, but you also spent a number of years
(10:24):
in corporate America. Tell us about why are you so
your business to be et and that experience and what
you learned they're being in corporate America. So, uh, it's
the biggest difference, in my opinion, in corporate America versus
just being kind of a purely entrepreneur is in corporate America,
(10:45):
you have more resources to work with. That is probably
the most important possible thing that can come out of it,
is just the vast amount of resources that you have
to work with. Um, you're really aware that when I
came into BT, I came men to be T Jazz
and b T Jazz was the step child of of
BT and never quite really fully got past being a
(11:07):
step child. And but it was more resources than I've
ever had to work with before I walked in the door,
so resources, and then the other part in corporate America
as well as the importance of getting along with people
and being able to work into work in a collaborative environment.
That really can't be overstated at any point is the
(11:27):
importance of collaboration. And so the part that I liked
about that is you come up with an idea, your
idea has to pass the rigor of multiple departments in
multiple colleagues and UH for UH, for for television specifically
at BT. You could have the most fascinating idea in
(11:49):
the world, it could be the most incredible art endeavor
in the world, but if it can't sell it candidly,
is almost meaningless. And so for me and the corporate
environment was being able to get along with as Seals Group, UH,
the importance of the Seals Group and coming up with
ideas that were ideas that were sailable and monetizeable ideas UH.
(12:10):
In the independent entrepreneur pieces pretty much the same, only
you're selling directly to clients. So it's the difference in
in corporate America, you're selling to a client what you're
collaborating with the as Cells Group, because they may actually
end up being the touchpoint, whereas in the pure entrepreneurial space,
you're selling. But at the end of the day, if
your ideas don't sell, you don't eat. And that would
(12:32):
be one of the other different biggest differences in the
corporate in the corporate world versus entrepreneurial. Well, so for
me right now, if I'm not coming up with ideas
that are monetize herble, if I'm not adding measurable, definable
value to clients, then I'm not going to eat. Whereas
in corporate America that paychecks coming whether or not you
know in short time, uh, that idea is really that
(12:53):
good or not. So it's the to me the independent
entrepreneur outside of corporate space, you're more on the taser's edge.
And if you're not, if your ideas aren't winning, and
your ideas aren't selling and you're not adding you know,
really really measurable value, you're not going to last long
with the client. In a corporate mary, you can string
it out a little bit longer, got it. Got it?
(13:17):
So you decided to leave the et and go back
out into the entrepreneur world. And you've got a number
of ventures going right now from Liquid Soul Media too,
the overall pkbuh brand. And then you also are involved
in some sports teams. Tell us about that. How did
(13:41):
that happen? You know, because I'm not involved in the
sports teage and nobody has come to me, So you know,
how did you end up with the Washington Nationals and
the Washington Spirit as uh minority owner? Okay, so in
corporate America? Uh uh. One of the things that that
(14:06):
it's ironic, um, and it's funny. When we first started
the conversation today, uh you know crystals you know said
oh shucks, and you kind of made a joke about
But I've learned a lot from you, and one of
the things I learned from you was you always had
your numbers with you. If you remember saying that to
me back in two earlier? Am I wrong? No, You're
(14:32):
not wrong, right, I still got him. I just back
then I cared him in a briefcase. Not I care
more for Okay, Well, I'm actually old school and every
day I have my numbers with me without exaggeration. Right.
So so if if in your blueprint and not blowing
(14:56):
any smoke for you, when you think about younger people
who you've inspired, you got me by a few years,
but literally, I have my numbers with me every single day.
I never forgot that. I forgot that. So while I
was at BT, I was what And I think that
in my opinion, entrepreneurs, uh, you you should. You should
(15:16):
always kind of keep a little nervousness with you, like
I have a little bit of nervousness with you. You
can be bold, you can be assured, you can make
a lot of choices, but you have that little bit
of nervousness. And so in corporate America, I was there.
I had no idea how long it was going to last.
And so each day I was there, I took it.
I took advantage of what was given to me, and
(15:37):
I began to build my life after the life I
wanted to live. After I left b T. I started
to build that life the day I walked in the door.
And so you may remember that I volunteered for a
lot of nonprofits. One of the early ones I joined
back in two thousand three, I joined the board of
the US Congress's official charity, the US Congressional Award and
(16:00):
and this Congress's official Charity for Young People. When I
joined the board, there was about eighteen twenty thousand young
people in the program. Now we're well over fifty five
fifty six thousand young people in the program now, and
they earn a congressional medal. I'm on. I was at
WILL was a viacom the whole of the time I
was there. I put a lot of volunteer time and
(16:20):
worked outside of my day job. And I never took
my day job for granted. So when I talked about
being a little nervous, I guess that would be the
core of what I would say is you don't you
don't take the time you have for granted. So I
looked for business opportunities that were non conflictual. Back in
two thousand five, my dentist, actually Dr Ronnie Rosenberg, introduced
(16:41):
me to the Learner family, who was putting together a
group to purchase the Washington Nationals. Washington Nationals had been
the Montreal expos. They were taken over by MLB in
two thousand four and two thousand five. They moved them
to Washington in two thousand six. We were one of
originally thirteen groups, which cut to eight, then cut the five,
(17:03):
then cut the four. One of the groups collapsed into
our group and the Commissioner of Baseball ended up giving
us the opportunity with the Learner family to purchase it.
So when I came into the Learner group before we
bought the team, myself and James Brown were the original
to African Americans that were in the partnership group. We collapsed.
James Brown the sports catch Yes our CDs and it
(17:26):
was on Fox fe years now on CDs. Our group
was there, j JP and I were there were the
two and the other part was for Washington. D C.
Lowis just gave a little more information. The team was
shot to. The expos were shot to Jacksonville, Florida, Las Vegas,
Portland's Northern Virginia, Sacramento, and d C. The Commissioner the
(17:52):
DC City Council with Mayor Tony Williams, and the city
Council said that they would put up the six hundred
and fifty million dollars through a bond for the team
to come to Washington, but it had to have significant
minority participation. So our group ended up winning the bid
in two thousand six and we took over ownership of it. UH.
(18:14):
One of the other things that I would really kind
of let caution entrepreneurs in particular in the corporate world.
Maybe caution is not the right word, but like to
get your paper straight, to to be a cacoholic, to
uh be a cacoholic, and to uh to save. And
so when opportunities come up, if you have money to invest, UH,
(18:37):
if you have money to invest you the opportunities oftentimes
are there for you. Uh. You have to have that.
You have to have some kind of the savings and
some kind of a capital that you can invest in
different things. And if you're able to do that, you
can win. So UH on not taking things for granted.
Every day I was at BT, I thought about my afterlife.
I thought what I wanted my afterlife to look look like,
(18:59):
and I wanted to be prepared to re enter the
entrepreneurs the independent auspreneurial world. But I need to have
backing behind me. And so the more money that you
have saved yourself, the better off that you're going to be.
So savings is a critical component of any successful entrepreneur
inside of corporate America. Outside of corporate America, I think
the more money has saved, the better decisions that you'll make,
(19:21):
and you're in a position to to take advantage of
opportunities when they enter into your door. So I did
that and with baseball, the opportunity came to me the
Learner Family, I asked me to join the group. Uh,
with my work with Congress, I think the Congression Award.
(19:41):
When I walked in the door, I was the only
African American on the board. And now we have African
American participation. We have ten percent accounting Asians and Latinos,
and we have others as well. Uh in that so
we're the boards and now minority UM representation on the board,
(20:02):
and we look like what America looks like on on
the board for Congress's official charity. So, and as you're aware,
the relationships are kind of a critical piece to it.
So when people kind of know you for something, they
begin to other opportunities came, uh the Washington Spirit, which
is the twenty one World champions Uh and the Nationals,
(20:23):
by the way, the twenty nineteen World champions I did,
I did. We want you just to look at that,
so I'll be having another back. So you want to
same championships again? All right? This is my third championship lost,
literally my third one. My first was the Washington Castles,
(20:44):
which is World Team Tennis in when I when I
left BT UH and opportunity to work with Mark Iron
and they won their sixth championship in a row in
and I came in and got the last year of
the championship run. Then the Washington Nationals the World Series
champion in twenty nineteen, the Washington Spirit in November, we
(21:05):
won the national won a Soccer League championship in Louisville,
UH November twenty and so it's my third championship opportunity.
Steve Baldwin, who's the principal owner, UH, I met him
at another volunteer of that at the University of Maryland
for the athletic director then and UM he when he
bought the team in and twenty nineteen, he sought me out.
(21:28):
He said, Hey, I've got something special. I'd like you
to join the group. I ended up joining last year
and we won. We won the national Women's Soccer Championship.
And it's my third, my third UH, it will be
my third Jostin's ring from championship. I think that you know,
people seek you out once you develop good reputation. We'll
(21:52):
be right back with more of my interview after this
quick break just's leaning on these relationships, all right, because
when you listen to your journey, it seems like you
volunteered for a lot of groups and opportunities where there
(22:18):
was sort of nothing at that moment in return for
you personally, So whether they were philanthropic or Bible ones,
c threes or whatever the case may be. And then
once you became part of that, people got to know you.
How important is volunteerism, How important is once you get
(22:41):
a part of an organization really leaning into development relationships?
Talking about that for justice science. So Napoleon Hill caused
it going the extra mile, and Mark McCormick, who was
the founder of i MG which is now owned by
William Morris Endeavor uh talked about He called it going
(23:04):
the extra ten percent. I think that is. And then
volunteerism is something a little bit different, but uh uh. Volunteerism,
volunteerism and also tightening uh to me are something that
it's like subconsciously, you can vent your subconscious that you
have extra You can vent your subconscious that you are
(23:26):
you are solidly planted, that you're firmly rooted, and that
you have enough that you can give extra of yourself.
That to me is what tidening is, and that's what
volunteerism is as well. When you can donate your own
money to causes that are important that you think helped
make the world a better place to be, and it
could be. I mean, there's so many different things that
you can volunteer for, from environmental issues to to saving
(23:49):
the whales to you know, dolphins. It's like you can
kind of go you know, needy, needy children, hunger, et cetera.
There's so many different things that you can volunteer for.
But I I think that I think that by going
and giving that extra that extra ten, that you convince
yourself that that you have room to give, that you're
firmly planted, you almost psyche yourself out into believing and
(24:12):
giving and doing more. And I think that that that
positive mental attitude, that positive thing that's engendered from that
is that extra special elixir that makes you different than
other people. You know, I could turn the table on you, uh,
you know, literally Lewis and ask you, because you've seen
(24:32):
you've seen hundreds of executives over the course of your
corporate career, and what makes those that special little group,
that special extra group, a little bit more wonderful, a
little bit more specially, I have a little more magnetism.
There's some things that successful people have in common to me,
and your mental attitude and the capacity to volunteer and
to give live yourself to me is just one of
(24:53):
those special things. To that point, I had a conversation
with someone is we can uh, do you think that
that DNA or trade is that inherent in an individual
or is that learned? Because when you think about corporate America,
(25:17):
you see a lot of executives do things for the
sake of their self and their brands, and they use
their corporate money and corporate influence, and that's fine. And
then you see some people go that extra what you
would call temper cent and they use their own money
and their own resources to sort of help others and
(25:39):
help communities or organizations. Is that the people who go
to extra temper cent is that inherent in their DNA?
Is that who they are? Or do you think that
they've learned that over the course of time. For the
most part, I would say that you know, when I
hope that there are some things in our DNA that
certainly some things you know from my mother and father, uh,
(26:02):
and more so my mother. But I think it's learned behavior.
So that's you know, it's it's culture, a culture you know,
from someone who took the time to help you. It
could be your parents, could be an older brother and sister,
it could be mentors. Uh. And that to me is
you know what your Lewis Carr Institute is about. It
is like teaching that little thing. So I said, a
lot of it certainly can be passed on. I would
(26:24):
think that the greater part of it is learned. It's
like when you talk about things in your DNA. That's
like I think athletes, like there's certain you know what
people with just called like, oh, he's just a natural athlete.
You know, he's just seasoned. And so there's some gifts
that you have from the athletic perspective that are natural,
but even those need to be taught. You have to
teach that there's some things to get past that. Um
(26:46):
Immet Smith's a friend and he would talk to you
about the amount of practice Lewis that he did over
the course of his career, and he could tell you
all of his coaches who taught him. And those coaches
were one of the more critical kind of components and elements.
For him is the teaching part of coaching, So I
would I would probably Lois, I would say more of
it is is learned behavior. In that regard learned behavior great, great,
(27:15):
you always involved in something next? What's next for you?
Baxter Baker? Uh Well, I love tech and I love
international travels. So two of my projects coming up for
they're literally a work in progress, and once I get
them up and running, I love to come back on
(27:35):
the blueprint and talk about them because UH one is
going to involve bringing African countries into Washington, d c
uh in the soccer space. I can say that much
about it, and I'm hoping to put that together for two.
And I've got another tech project I'm working with with
a big organization that we're looking to launch in actually
(27:59):
both of them in the third third quarter, third fourth
quarter of this year, both of them. So I love
I'd love to talk about. I want to change the world.
I really do. I want to change the world. Uh
every day in my own way, I want to change
the world. I want to make the world a better place.
I think that with kind of like coming up with
(28:21):
big ideas which to meet Germany out of small ideas,
but coming up with ideas that literally can change the
world and make it a better place. Those are things
that really interests. So I've got some really cool sports
project coming up this year. Uh there's another there's another
lead that I'm planning on buying into. Hopefully I get
that done before the end of the first quarter of
(28:41):
this year. Um in a whole kind of more of
an obscure sport, uh that I'm hoping to kind of
make more daily routines and one that I think that
African Americans can make a huge imprint on is given
the opportunity. So I love sports. That's one of my
next ventures to my next ventures are actually the sports
face one is in the tech space and then music
(29:03):
is there as well. So my one is going to
be music contact. So I'm excited that to me, is
part of it ruminates me and gets me going every
single day is to have new ideas and I can
kind of come up with and monetize and so that's
super exciting for me. And that's kind of what's next
next in front of me. So as we close, Uh,
(29:26):
this is called the Blueprint Connect podcast. Give us three
things past that you would recommend that anyone who is
on their journey to success make part of their sort
of daily, weekly, monthly routine. So one is your mental attitude,
(29:48):
by way of improving your mental attitude, and that's a
daily struggle. There's nothing, there's nothing that really uh gives
you a guarantee from one day to the next. But
so developing mes and in a positive metal attitude, that's one. Uh.
Two is your health by way of just remaining a
very very sound, physically healthy person. And then third is
(30:10):
harmony and human relationships, the capacity to be able to
get along with people and build and so those are
like the three core principles of Napoleon Hills that can
grow rich. And so I recommend that book to anybody
who hasn't read it. I don't care where you're at
your in your success journey, if you're already a billionaire
or uh if you're an up and coming young entrepreneur
on the way up like that, Like I reread it
(30:32):
on a regular basis. It's been the blueprint, the blueprint
candidly of my life. And then uh, friendships like like
I can't really say enough about being able to maintain
positive friendships and um Lewis side now that you can.
You owe a lot of your career to relationships that
you've been able to have and maintain over the course
of your career. I've known you to have god fathers,
(30:54):
I've known you'd have mentors in your life and people
that you kind of go to that you've kept and
kept close to over the course of your career. So
uh uh and then giving back like that to me
is just you can't overestimate the importance of that, And
so that would be four. But um, giving back to
others and being able to share your blessings with other people,
(31:16):
uh in a very very wonderful way. And I've appreciated
Lodgy for for doing that over the course of your career,
because that's when you do a lot of it. So um,
and then be thankful and be happy to be appreciative.
So all those things I would throw in tox and
thank you for that. Man. I appreciate this, and uh
(31:37):
we here at the Blueprint connect community wish you and
yours are very very very special and successful and prosperous.
TWU twenty two
Host
Louis Carr
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