54: How to Work Smarter & Build an Impactful Platform with Blavity’s CEO Morgan DeBaun

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hot Happy Mess. Celebrate your magic in the middle of
life's messes. Happy. I'm Seri Hall, and this is Hot
Happy Made Shoot. What is up? How are you? It

(00:28):
is Wednesday if you're listening to this on the day
it drops, which means I should be telling you Happy Wednesday.
I want to officially welcome you back to season two
of Hot Happy Mess. I am SuRie Hall. I've got
some really exciting episodes coming your way. You're gonna love them.
We have been banking and batching episodes like a freaking pro. Alright,

(00:49):
we're not new to this podcast game anymore. We're true
to it. From crypto to motherhood, to plastic surgery, to
deal with boys, and so much more we're talking about
at all. And so many of you loved my bonus
episode that I dropped at the start of this year,
which was really just me opening up, having a heart
to heart with you, keeping it real about what I'm learning,

(01:11):
where I am in love and in life and in
relationship and just kind of the energy that I am
on in two and beyond. The bonus episode is called
Secrets to Enjoyful Life. It really resonated with you. If
you haven't heard that episode, yet go back and listen.
It's episode fifty three, Get Your Life. I really think

(01:31):
you're going to enjoy it. Um. It was the most
honest and transparent and just vulnerable I've been in a
little while. And it's a solo episode, so it's just
you and me, heart to heart, and I have really
put some things in perspective over the last few months especially,
and I have learned some lessons that I am now

(01:53):
actively applying in my life. And I just to really
briefly touch on it, you know, I go into what
self love really is and this idea that I'm just
now sitting with a self abandonment and self abuse, and like,
what is that really and what does that mean? And
how do we do it to ourselves without even realizing it.

(02:14):
Sometimes it's one thing to talk about self love, UM,
but it's another thing entirely to be able to recognize
the signs of um self abandonment. And I was flabbergasted, shocked,
shook to realize some of the ways that I was

(02:34):
abandoning myself without even realizing it until I went to
this awesome restorative, meditative sort of kumbiometry. Uh in carlsback
California over New Year's z and it was awesome. So
go check out episode fifty three. I think you're really
gonna like it. Let me know what you think. In
the meantime. If you're here today, I'm assuming it's for

(02:57):
today's episode. Get excited. I think it's the right time
for this episode as we are closing out Women's History Month.
Technically it's the second to last day. But say levy, UM,
we are talking to the wonderful Morgen Davon um about
all things entrepreneurship, about what it means to be a
black woman in this space, particularly the tech space, and

(03:20):
she's just really killing it and I'm really excited for
you too, kind of. UM, get an understanding of how
she has created the life and the career and the
success that she's created, and also how she avoids burnout
what she sees for the future of her industry. Um,
why you should care about the future of this industry,

(03:43):
because you should. You're not gonna want to miss that.
But first, let me give you a quick life update.
What is going on in the world of what Lola
is pretty much house trained. You guys have been getting
the updates on the puppy, the toy Golden Doodle is
not peeing and shitting everywhere like she was. It was

(04:05):
such a source of anxiety for honestly, that might be
an episode that we need, just like unpacking the anxiety
that comes with a young dog that is occasionally unattended
in your living room, bedroom and or other areas that
have a lot of ivory cream and white tone furniture
and fabrics. Uh, but we're out of that phase. Thank god.

(04:29):
He is good all the time. She is running around
a total spas in the most adorable way. She is
a hundred percent sleeping on the bed, which I said
she wasn't gonna do, but I mean it's Lola. So yeah,
things are good with the puppy house. For renovations are
basically done. I will update you all on that later
because I'm excited to jump into some business. You know,

(04:52):
every now and then, we love to sit down with
an entrepreneur, a woman who was killing it um in
the world of finance or business. And you are absolutely
really going to love this conversation that we're about to
have today with Morgan. We're talking about finding peace and
living in your purpose. I am all about living on
purpose these days, especially, which is something that I talked

(05:13):
about in my first episode of the year. For Purposes
my word for the year, and that means living intentionally.
That means walking in my purpose, waking up and living
life on purpose, not just letting life happen to me.
And for so many of you, and certainly for Morgan Divon,
that includes uh, your career, whether it be a business

(05:36):
or a startup or a side hustle. Uh, So she
is going to be sharing that journey. We'll get into
it more than just a second here. But when I
think about entrepreneurship, it's something that runs deep for me.
You know, my father, who I'm basically the same person as,
except with hair. It's just a bald, older male version
of me. Um is an entrepreneur, just deep down in

(06:00):
his heart. So I grew up watching him acquire real
estate properties and um deal with tenants on the weekends,
and he would bring me and my brothers downtown for
all of his meetings with the city when he was
you know, applying for permits or working to get grants
or loans to achieve his dreams, one of the biggest being,

(06:22):
you know, starting a restaurant. In my hometown of Toledo, Ohio,
a soul food restaurant kind of like a supper club
vibe and and that was always a dream of his.
It's one he's still working on, and I'm excited to,
you know, hopefully try and support that however I can.
But I say that to say, the the scenes of
entrepreneurship were planted early in my life, and so I

(06:43):
know how much heart and hustle it takes just to
wake up every day and try let alone succeed. And
so when I stumble across or find me someone who
is succeeding in the space of entrepreneurship, I can't help
but be fascinated by their story because it's never easy
and every story is always so unique. Um. And I'm

(07:03):
always so inspired by the men and women in my
life who are making it happen or even trying to
make it happen, because even that takes heart and bravery
and courage. Uh, Because it's so easy to just get
caught up in a funk or you know, show up
for the same job and feel safe every day to
do it over and over and over again till you.
But no, say, the entrepreneurs of the world and that

(07:25):
includes Morgan Dubon. Today she is joining me. She's an
amazing Alpha babe and the founder and CEO of Ravity,
and she is sharing her amazing story of being a
black woman at the top of the VC funding and
entrepreneurship realm. So we're gonna dive into how she got started,
what gave her the idea for Bravity, all of the

(07:45):
amazing offshoots, new branches, um of entrepreneurship. She has, uh
some a really cool summit that I'm sure a lot
of you have heard of that especially celebrates black women
and the content that we're creating. And most importantly to me,
most importantly to you, probably if you're listening to Hot
Happy Mess, is how she balances it all. Because we're

(08:08):
all about best life minus the burnout, and it is
easy to get burnt out just getting through the nine
five grimes. So you know, it must be easy to
get burnt out when you're you know, creating something from scratch. So,
without further ado, here's your story. Here's Morgan. Okay, guys,

(08:28):
we have Morgan here right now. She was born and
raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She's a graduate of Washington
University and today She is a serial entrepreneur and corporate advisor.
As the founder and CEO of her own business, which
she started six years ago, Gravity Inc. The leading digital
media company for black culture and millennials. Morgan has grown
the company into a market leader for black media, reaching

(08:50):
over one million readers per month y'all through a growing
brand portfolio. She has so many accomplishments, so many fancy
trophies and plaux and all the things that we're going
to get into a little bit later in the conversation.
But first of all, Morgan, welcome, Thank you for joining
me today. Thank you for having me. Of course, of
course I'm excited to talk with you, uh specifically about entrepreneurship,

(09:13):
the future of entrepreneurship UM and also Afro tech. But
even more than that, this podcast is really about best
life minus the burnout. How do we balance work and
life in a place that feels authentic and healthy Because
my twenties were anything but healthy. They were successful, but
they were also full of burnout. So I'm excited to
learn some of your coping mechanisms, tools, tactics, things that

(09:37):
you recommend to to women UM in the industry as well.
So let's just kick things off with a big congratulations
on the success of Levity, Inc. I love if you
could just break down how that came to be. You
started this, if I'm correct, while you were still in school,
not quiet, I had graduated from school. UM. I started
it when I was twenty four, so I was a

(09:58):
couple of years out of school. I was working in
Silicon Valley in tech and then decided that I wanted
to start my own business and really grow a media
brand and platform that could be for black millennials. So
Bravity today. You know, we have over five brands UM
that we own Afro Tech, Travel, Noir, Shadow, and Act

(10:18):
of course Bravity twenty one. And then we also have
a huge ad network where we run ad sales and
partnerships UM in partnership with our partners that are publishers
like The Shade Room, um Ball or Alert and others
to help increase our collective buying power as black owned
media companies. When we're going out UM and pitching agencies

(10:39):
and brands, talk to me a little bit about the
need for Bravity UM. So often things that are the
biggest successes come out of a gap in the marketplace,
a hole that needs to be filled or avoid. What
was it that you saw that was missing and how
much work on the front end did it take to
kind of bring that vision to light. So many things

(11:00):
were missing. I mean, think about like eight years ago.
Seven years ago, there wasn't really a brand that was
speaking to the black millennial experience. I mean, we certainly
had legacy brands that our parents grew up on that
we might have dabbled in, like Black Enterprise or Ebony
or Essence, all brands that you know, I stand on
the shoulders of giants. And yet there's still um different

(11:24):
interests that we're able to have as millennials, like travel
and tech that I wanted to make sure weren't kind
of we were only having mainstream media as our platform
and our voice, and we know that mainstream media isn't
going to always prioritize our stories or our heroes first.
So I wanted to create a space where we were

(11:44):
the first to publish, when we were the first. You
have a business and you're launching it, like after Tech
is going to publish and promote your business. If you're
talking about, like you raised money for the first time,
after Tech is going to make sure that you see
that if you're a short wins an award, shadow and
act is going to make sure that we feel your
that you know, and it might take you years to
get into the Hollywood Reporter. Um. So I think that

(12:06):
it was necessary for us to have a really big vision.
Now it all makes sense, But when I was starting,
people thought I was nuts. You know, they always do.
That's how you know you're on the right track when
someone else you're doing too much, You're doing just enough. Yeah,
they're like, she's not focused. This is the feedback from investors.
You know, she's very ambitious, she's not felt that she's

(12:26):
a shark. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know
if this is where, if this is going to make it.
And so I had to really believe in my own
vision and check in with myself and stay grounded in
what I thought was true and what I wanted the
future to be instead of letting everybody else tell me
and give me feedback on do you think this is

(12:47):
a good idea? Do you know? Do you think this
is a good idea? I think a lot of times
in your twenties, you're seeking approval because we were growing
up in the school system where your teachers or your
principles are telling you you're doing this right, you're doing
this wrong, you're on track, you're not on track, and
you're benchmarking all the time onto sort of like fantasy
rubric that the world has created in society. And then

(13:08):
you graduate and you're like, wait a minute, it was
all a lie. It was a lie. You know, when
I was turning thirties, when I got to the point
where I just stopped caring what other people thought in
a really good way. I mean that positively. You know,
your twenties, as you mentioned, are so much about seeking
approval and affirmations from our role models and people that

(13:29):
we want to emulate. And then I just stopped caring
because it was too exhausting and it was too tiring,
and half the time the people that I was seeking
approval from didn't even really get my vision um until
it had already been executed. So I just got to
the point where I was like, no one has to
get it except for me, because no one has to
execute it except for me. So I love hearing you
say that because obviously it paid off tenfolds. You have

(13:50):
this amazing empire that you're growing. Now I'm curious to
know what did it look like team building around that,
because using discernment, finding the people who do get it,
and and building the infrastructure to execute a vision, it
takes more than one person. How did you discern who
the right people were to add to that team so
early on? Yeah, I mean my success was certainly accelerated

(14:13):
because I had an incredible group of people that I
was working with every day. I started the business with
my co founders, Jonathan, Jeff and Aaron. We all went
to college together at Washington and St. Louis, and so
I had a group of guys that I was really um,
you know, I've been through things with because we went
to college together, right, so we already have built up
some trust, we had built up some communication strength. We

(14:34):
knew who we were at that time, and so it
was great to be able to start the business alongside
of them. And then, you know, there's a difference between
starting a business and then scaling it right. And after
a couple of years, once we started to really get traction,
we had big conferences and big clients, um a lot
of money in, a lot of money out. You know,

(14:55):
then you start to need to really bring in other
senior executives who have experience, and that is a challenge
I think for me, I was I viewed um Again,
this is like early mid twenties, right, I viewed my
shortcomings as a failure, like my shortcomings and skills or
experience as a limitation instead of acknowledging that it was

(15:17):
impossible for me to be the best possible CEO in
the world at the age of seven, and then going
and finding the people who can offset those weaknesses that
I have, right, And those are the things that I've
had to learn along the way. And I'm grateful now
that I have an incredible operating team that I work
with on a day to day basis that can lead
things like finance, that can lead things like our content

(15:39):
strategy and actually make sure that we're able to operate
with the level of excellence that we started off with.
And so, you know, I think in your twenties you
have to just figure out what you're good at, like
you really do. And I know that what you're gonna
talk about burnout, but I think part of it is
we've gotta go hard in the paint so that you
can really push your limits in your twin ease and

(16:00):
then you just gotta know when to stop. That's when
I see people not know how to do. Yeah, and
that's the thing, right, you kind of have to put
in the time on the front and so that you
can enjoy coasting later. Um. And so I love that
you brought that up. I'm curious when was the point
that you realize, Okay, I've been putting in the word
I've been grinding. I think we might be honest something.

(16:22):
I think it might be time to just take the
foot off the gas and coast for a second. Girl,
I don't know that I'm even coasting for really, Like
I mean, like I have cash. Well, I wasn't. I'm
not broke anymore, I think you know, I didn't pay
myself a salary. For the first three years of the business.
I was living in the office. We had an office
on one side of Artists off in downtown l A.

(16:45):
And my bedroom was on the other side. You know.
So I was really in the mud building with the team,
your shoulder and shoulder for years. Um. So it wasn't
until I would say, like maybe like you're two or
three of afro Tech, which you're like four of business,
did we start to have enough wiggle room to really

(17:06):
for me to be able to take a look up
and say like, Okay, where are we where do I
want to be? Am? I just moving with the momentum
of the world and the energy versus doing things intentionally
for the business and for myself. UM. You know, I
had formed a board for the first time. I had
raised over ten million dollars at that point, so I

(17:27):
had a lot of money to make decisions with um
and also a lot more bills, right, So I think
at the end of the day, I was seeking feedback
and advice and hired an executive coach, and I really
had to get outside folks involved in advising me through

(17:48):
the next phase of growth so that we could get
out of the growing pains as fast as possible scaling
a business. I love hearing you say that even with
the ten million dollars raised, you were in the trenches
three years without a salary. Any successful entrepreneurs, successful CEO
who I'm friends with, who I've spoken with, people are
so surprised at how long they actively chose to grind

(18:11):
it out, did not cut that check to put into
their personal checking account because they saw the larger vision
and they were willing to sacrifice. You know, in this
day and age, it's so easy to get caught up
in the boss Baid mentality, the quote unquote CEO whatever
that means. But so few people are willing to put
in that work for an amount of time. UM, that

(18:33):
is sustainable when it comes to building a business that
can actually you know, outlive you potentially. But it seems
very much that that's the type of enterprise that you're
building here. Uh, you talked about raising tim million dollars
in those early years. I want to talk a little
bit about BC funding UM for those who are thinking
about getting into the space, for those who are potentially scaling.

(18:53):
You do coaching yourself also, did I see that on
your website? Yes? Every year, every quarter I take a
small group of typically black entrepreneurs and help them figure
out how to avoid all the mistakes that I've made,
so helping them scale their teams, hire their first set
of employees, and grow their revenue. Okay, and how important
would you say that a coach is You talked about

(19:14):
the fact that you hired an executive coach. I think
I'm about to hire my first one ever. IM one
of my closest friends works in the space, and I've
seen what she what her having a coach has done
for her. How important is that? And at what point
do you think someone needs a coach to kind of
push them to that next level? You know, I think
if you want to do something that you're a first

(19:34):
time founder, your first time like entrepreneur, if you don't
have the network where there's a lot of people in
your family or from your school, your community that are
at that height, at the level that you want to be.
If you're at the top of your class and you're
looking around, you're like, oh wait, I'm doing the baddest
best in my little group right here. Okay, probably time
to get a coach or an advisor. Um. And you know,

(19:57):
I think the other part that's really important about advisors
and coaches or mentor you know, it just depends on
what industry, and everybody calls it a little bit something different.
You want somebody who's already done what you're you're about
to do. So a lot of times, you know, especially
in this world of like clubhouse and all this stuff,
it's like people out here selling coaching packages and programs,
but they don't they've never done a thing that they're
coaching you on. They're just making all this money coaching

(20:20):
you being a coach of coaches. Listen and this is okay,
Like I'm don because I do not want to go there,
because I have so many thoughts about it, and it
really is I don't even want to say it's giving Ponzi,
but I just I get so confused by the coaches
coaching people on how to coach, but I'm not seeing

(20:41):
anyone having done any action in these spaces. So I
love that you just drive home the point that you
want someone who actually has proof that they have succeeded
in the space that you want to make a splash.
That's right, and you know you want the coach that's
like reluctant to even take you on, Like even for
for my prom you have to I we have a
long wait list and you have to go through interviews

(21:03):
and I show up every two weeks. I did not
miss a call, and I do not expect you to
miss a call. And it's like, I'm on you, right.
But then after that that quarter really worked together for
about twelve weeks. After that, Cool, You've got the skills,
You've got the you know how to think and That's
the biggest thing for me is what is the decision
making criteria, What are the muscles I need to build?

(21:26):
How do I think through my problems? And is it
me or is it the stage of business that I'm in.
So many times in the early days, I took everything personally.
I thought it was me. When I was getting bad
feedback from my team, when people were resigning, when things
were tough, when we were getting negative feedback from our
audience and didn't like some of the content choices we

(21:46):
were making, I thought it was me. I took it
very personal. Well, it turns out it was actually for
some of it, it was me, which people need to
help me accountable. But also it was the phase of
business and which were in. It was the rate that
we were growing, and so any business growing that fast
at that stage is going to make mistakes. And so
it's not just a meet thing, it's a world thing.

(22:07):
And I think having an advisor and a coach through
those moments, especially in your twenties when you're still really
figuring it out, is such an important investment. But also
you have to do therapy right, So it's you know,
I mean, I do both right, and they're for different purposes. UM.
But I think as a solo founder, if you are
a solo founder, or if you don't have those co founders,

(22:31):
those business partners, you probably need emotional support and then
also business advice. I talked so much about mental health
and mental wellness, and yet that is a very different
thing than executive coaching. And so I'm realizing that's that's
the void that I need to build, right Like, I
love my therapist. I'm in it. I can't wait to

(22:52):
talk about it. She's like, girl, Okay, give me like
five seconds just process all the goodies that you've dropped
in the first five minutes of session. Um. But now, like, okay, professionally,
what what does that look like? How do I have
someone pushing me and holding me accountable? So I love
that you differentiate between those two things. UM. One of
your biggest successes afro Tech. I'd love to just talk
a little bit more about that. UM. The platform, Um,

(23:15):
the event has expanded so beautifully. Tell us exactly what
it is and what your goal is with afro Tech. Yeah,
so we started afro tech. I think again, you're two
of business for Gravity and Gravity Inc owns Afrotech. Sometimes
people don't realize that I intentionally didn't want everybody to
know that Bravity and everything so that we could grow
in scale without all the eyeballs. But now I'm like, hey, surprise,

(23:39):
we own it. So afro Tech started a couple of
years after Bravity started, and one of the reasons we
created it was was a few things. One um. As
I founder myself, I could see that there was a
lack of connectivity and network within the black tech community,
and especially at that time living in San Francisco, it

(24:00):
was an impediment to growth because when you're building your
business and you're raising money, it's about introductions about what
rooms you're gonna be in. It's about the rooms that
people are speaking your name that you don't even know
exists yet. And so if you're not connected, then you
are going to be behind. Just straight up, you know,
it's going to be more difficult for you. Same thing
when you're working at a big tech company, you need

(24:22):
internal champions at that tech company so that you can
rise in the ranks and people are putting you up
for promotion, giving you those salary adjustments, et cetera. And
so I wanted to create a space where all of
the parts of the black tech ecosystem could come into
one room, and every year we had a moment where
we were going to leave more connected, more accelerated, And

(24:42):
I felt really lucky and very grateful that I had
figured out how to navigate it as a black girl
from St. Louis. I'm not from the Bay. I didn't
go to Harvard like like you know, statistically, I am
not supposed to be here, right, So I feel very
grateful and I'm very humble that I was able to
navigate it. But I don't want somebody else coming behind
me to have to be as lucky as I was.

(25:03):
And that's why we started Afrotech. And I'm so incredibly
proud of the work that we've done because I do
think that we have made a huge debt in diversity
and tech and people seeing themselves. And now Afrotech is
a full blown media brand where we have incredible amounts
of content that goes out every single day. We've expanded
into executives, so not just looking at early career or founders,

(25:25):
but what about people getting board seats, what about people
becoming s vps and vps and sea level at these
big tech companies? How do we increase that pipeline. So
it's been a really huge driver of our business. But
it's also one of the things that I'm the most
proud of, one of the things you're the most proud
of and clearly so well versed in. We just gotta
drop some of the resume. Jam's real quick, y'all. Let

(25:48):
me let you know Morgan as a recipient of add
Colors Innovative Awards. She's been recognized by Forbes in the
thirty Under thirty and America's Top fifty Women in techlists,
and you were named as one of the one hundred
most influence antill African Americans by the Route. When you
think about the fact that you have these humble beginnings
you started in St. Louis. Statistically you weren't supposed to

(26:08):
be here, and then you hear that amazing list of
accomplishment and recognition, um not just by peers but by
industry leaders. What does it mean to you? I don't
know that it means much anymore. Really, Yeah, I mean
I don't feel like I I think again, in my twenties,
I was like, oh, we on this list when the magazine,

(26:30):
you know, and that was good. It was cloud it
was stuff that I could show my parents who had
no idea what I was. You didn't really want to
quit my job, you know, gave me a benchmark of
success amongst my peers in the community. But now I'm
just kind of like literally tell people like, don't put
me on the list. Why don't you want to be

(26:51):
on the list. I'm like, Okay, you can put me
on the list. I might not talk about it. We
wanted to be under under the radar and wanted to
be a public figure. So like part to me is
like I want to be the person who is the
person behind the person, Like I want to be all
of your favorite entrepreneurs like first Angel investor, Like I
want to be the person that's coaching them behind the scenes.
There's a lot of people in Silicon Valley that are

(27:13):
like that, where it's like, yo, Loki, this guy put
everybody on You don't know who this person is. They
can still live their lives right, and they're still bolling
and they're still able to have an impact and they
can still walk in certain rooms. Um, but you know,
there's so much challenge with being a public figure in
the black community, and I think in the world but
certainly in the black community as well, because we share

(27:37):
so much. I mean, I was looking and reading um
some of love these posts recently, and she was just
trying to remind people like she is human, she has
a life like you're not entitled to her time, and
my leak talks about this a lot, and I just
I'm struggling with how open I want to be. But
I also see that the more that I am open,

(27:59):
the more that I share my life and the things
behind the scenes and not just to picture perfect CEO,
the more that I am encouraging and inspiring that next
generation of entrepreneurs, and particularly black blooming entrepreneurs, to live
in their truth and go after it right. It is.
It's challenging. It's quite the paradox. I find myself even
struggling with that. The older I get, the less I

(28:20):
want to be up in the mix, the less I
care about what everybody else has going up in the mix,
and the more I value my privacy, which is extremely
ironic considering I'm basically signing up to be, you know,
a public figure or in media. But in this day
and age, everyone is right. We all have our personal brands,
we all have the opportunity to be a public figure
in some sense, and oftentimes it's encouraged for us to

(28:41):
build our business. I want to know who the face
of the company is. I want to know who the
founder is, and I want to know if I vibe
with her. I want to know if our our core
values resonate um. But that makes it increasingly difficult to
maintain privacy or you know, kind of separate our private
self from this public person that we offer up to
the world low key for crucifixion. Sometimes, as you walk

(29:05):
that journey and figure out what feels good to you,
what sort of reflection do you do? What do you
ask yourself um, when trying to figure out how far
you want to go, how much you want to share? Um?
What boundaries you refuse to cave on when it comes
to protecting your piece while building a business. You know,
what I've learned to do is just go with the

(29:25):
ebbs and flows of the business. So I have, or
I should say, the ebbs and flows of the business
go with me on the day. Um. But like say,
for example, we're gonna launch a new events series, or
we've got a new project that the team has been
super heads down on and I want to make sure
that I signal boosted. You know, I used my huge
platform on my personal brand to be able to drive

(29:47):
attention and traffic and audience growth for my company. So
I might get louder, more frequent during times in which
we're launching, So you know, always a couple of weeks
before Avrotech, you're gonna see me on Instagram every day,
on LinkedIn all the time because I'm driving awareness for
the business. So I've tried to contain it with the
goal that is tied to metric or an impact that's

(30:08):
really important to me too. Right now, I'm focused on
the holidays and black spending, so I'm promoting more and
more black entrepreneurs, black small business owners so that people
can circulate the black dollar that's important to me. Come
January second, I'm out, you know here from me, right, So,
I think that I've learned when to turn it up

(30:29):
and turn it down, um, and then also to do
more high quality pieces of content. So I'm looking into
and building out my video strategy so that I can
batch things so that it's not I'm so connected, but
it's not like good morning everybody. Here's what today like
real time I'm done with that. Listen what I realized

(30:50):
that every time a piece of food even almost landed
at my table, I was just pulling the phone. I'm like,
why the hell am I even wanting to take a
picture of this? At this point, We've become so conditioned
to to share the most mundane things, and at this point,
I'm starting to opt out, slowly but surely. I hear you,
But I ask people, I serving my my audience all

(31:10):
the time, what do you guys want to see? We
want to see what your day looks like, what you're eating. Actually,
you want to see my workouts are exactly exactly. I'm
sweating just like you. I promise, I promise that's all
that's happening. UM, as a black woman in tech, I'm
curious to know your thoughts on cryptocurrency, on bitcoin specifically. UM,

(31:32):
I've been casually in the space for about four years,
probably four years investing. We got money now then you
know working. I am doing an entire series on this.
I I so believe in it as an opportunity for
stored value. When I think about inflation, when I think
about where we are economically speaking, I mean, it really

(31:52):
is a beautiful opportunity for equity UM socio economically speaking
in a way that that we UM, particularly I'm speaking
about Black people in America have not had the opportunity
to build wealth or even store our our our wealth
or the money that we do have. I was taught
cash under the mattress. I wanted where I can see it,
and it's so heartbreaking to realize for the first time

(32:14):
they played us, they played us. So talk to me
a little bit about your perspective our cryptocurrency, UM, where
you stand on that and if you do encourage people
to invest. Yeah, so UM. You know, I've been investing
in the stock market since i was thirteen years old,
So I've always been a advocate of owning a piece
of companies and products that you are a consumer of. UM.

(32:36):
And so you know, buying socks like Apple, Netflix, Tesla,
UM products again that I use on a regular basis.
I don't have a Tesla, but if I wanted a car,
I would have a Tesla. And so I think for
crypto it's very similar. UM. If you just take that
methodology and you apply it to today in the future

(32:58):
products of tomorrow, if you want to buy potentially n
f T s or you're going to participate in a
dow um, or you're going to like be a part
of Web three point out, if you're going to be
in roadblocks using you know, robot coins or whatever it's called,
whatever their crypto is called. If you're going to be
a participant in a consumer of Web three point oh,

(33:18):
which is um, the metaverse, which is everything that everybody's
talking about right now. Web two point oh is like
you know, Zoom, like Facebook, Web three point oh is
metaversees is UM, cryptos, n f t S, dows and

(33:39):
so if you're going to be a participant in a
consumer of then it would behoove you to perhaps own
a piece of it. And there's a lot of different
ways to do it. Bitcoin, eat Theorium, silana, all of
these are different parts of the ecosystem. Things are built
on tops of block chains, and depending what you're interested

(34:00):
in or what you think is going to grow fast,
you might want to invest in the infrastructure of that space.
And Bitcoin as a currency is part of the infrastructure
of Web three point oh. And I think what's important
is to just start. You know, you can open an
account on public, which is a company I angel invested

(34:21):
in you can go buy public app, you can get
an app, story, Android, et cetera. You can buy crypto
just like on robin Hood or on coin base, and
you can just buy a fraction of a piece. You
don't have to buy the whole share, which is I
think you know, around fifty right now. You can get
a fraction, put dolls in it, and watch it grow
if you had done that four years ago. We don't

(34:45):
even get me started on some of the things that
I almost all those hit buy out. I think we
all have those stories, right. My best friend lives to
talk about how she had the opportunity to buy in
the Tesla when it was some great siventine dollars a
year or something wild. It's like, okay, but you didn't
know all so we couldn't profect that lass and move
past the trauma. Um okay, I love how you broke
that down. The metaverse is fascinating to me. A web

(35:07):
three point oh is something that I've been digging into.
And also I'm fascinated by um decentralization, just this idea
that it's kind of um a wild wild West, which
could be very scary but also extremely empowering and also
that as content creators. Um, this, this new three point
oh version of our web experience just might allow us
to own any content we share. Right when we think

(35:30):
about the Instagrams and the facebooks of the world, for
the longest, we were just convinced to create and share
without anything necessarily going back into our pockets. So the
idea that to be able to own a piece of
the fact that your ability this platform wouldn't be about
the stock and Twitter. But that's so far removed from
the value that you're potentially driving for that platform. Um

(35:53):
And so yeah, I mean, just to break it down,
just one more beat for those who are like, I
still don't understand. What else do you know? If you're
a creator. Let's say you're a musician and you are
releasing your first single and this is early days. You know,
you only have like a couple hundred fans, your friends
in them and maybe they're friends. You're only a couple
of people out from your network. They could buy an

(36:16):
n f T of your song. They could buy the song,
which means that then when that song blows up in
five years because it was your first hit, then they're
going to be able to get paid royalties now you're
able to reward those early adopters. What if the people
who were early adopters of Instagram had owned a piece
of Instagram. One of the early adopters of TikTok and

(36:37):
musically previously musically owned a piece of Musically. What if
the dancers who created all the dances on TikTok owned
their dance right And like that is the power of
the decentralization and organized um, the way that Web three

(36:58):
point I was moving and the way that we as
a culture, as a youth culture, are pushing against these
bullshit like patriarchical some random white man some other foreign
plays who owns everything or is the financier of everything
that we don't even know? Like who owns the buildings
that we all live in in the apartment building? Like what?

(37:20):
Like we need to think about every single thing that
you consume somebody owns it, right, And that is it's
a mindset shift. I think it's a culture that we
are embarking on and it's really really exciting and it's
so so so early. Like there's a lot of scams,
there's a lot of fraud. That's how early it is.
When it's like we don't even really have rules for this,

(37:40):
and um, also the point of it is that there
are no rules, and so it's a fascinating thing that's
happening right now. And I just really really encourage black
folks to just jump in, Like, just join the discord,
find somebody on Twitter, follow these people on Instagram, like,
just start to immerse yourself in the vocabulary and in
the culture. Amen. Amen, Amen, I shouted from the rooftop

(38:02):
all the time. If you're listening now and you're curious,
you want a deep dive. We have more episodes coming
specifically in that world, exploring the metaverse, web three point oh, decentralization, crypto,
all that stuff. So stay tuned. Before I let you go, Morgan,
I want to talk a little bit about the mental
aspect of this, the emotional and spiritual wellness portion. We

(38:25):
talked about best Life minus to burnout a little bit
um Where you are in your career. You've said, you know,
you feel like you're still grinding it and you don't
quite want to take the feet off the gas yet.
How have you gotten to a point of work life
balance if you have it, and what was the tipping
point for you? When did you realize something had to give.

(38:47):
Let's see, I think in twenty nineteen pre Covid, I
was positioning myself for an easier work life balance I had.
I was willing to spend more money at the comp any.
We were hiring more people, we were doing reorganization and
restructuring so that not as many people reported to me.
And at one point, I think I have thirteen or
fifteen direct reports and it's just too much. It was

(39:10):
just too much information to consume. And I wasn't at
my best. I wasn't my best leader, I wasn't my
best people manager, I wasn't my best partner and UM
and I I was putting pieces in position to change.
And then we were after a great start and then
Covid hit UM and so I had to kind of

(39:31):
resoot back up and go to war, you know, to
protect the business, protect as many people as possible in
my company, employ as many people as possible that we
could make it through and not take the whole business down.
And it was really challenging. Had to pivot afro tech
from an in person experience to a metaverse, which nobody
had heard about in twenty dwny Um and so I

(39:53):
went hard and I moved to I left my apartment.
I moved to the beach. That was the first thing
I did to start to take care of myself. I
was like, I'm gonna go hard every day. I'm gonna
look out the window and see the ocean, like I
need peace. And I also remember that was the election season.
There's a lot of like the fireworks, the protest because
of George Floyd's murder, Like it was a lot going

(40:14):
on as a black person in this country. So I
physically moved and I physically created a space for myself
to be peaceful but still get my work done. Um,
and I felt more free. The second version of that
was then in November, after we kind of made it
through some of the humps in the business and had
successfully pivoted Afro Tech, I then took a month off,

(40:34):
a month and a half, and I went to Costa
Rica and I was like, I'm out, okay, took two
of my girls. We kicked it, we prayed, we danced,
we drank, we did all the Costa Rican things. Wait
for a month and a half. Yes that for you, Yeah,
it was great. I mean I did work still, but
it's still different when you're like in Costa Rica, viving

(40:56):
and through all the things. And then I was like,
this is so good it and I made the decision
lives in Costa Rica. I'm moving. I'm leaving l A entirely.
I got on my leave. My grandmother had passed because
of COVID, and so I wanted to be closer to
my family, and so I moved to Nashville. So I
live in Nashville. No, wa, Nashville. Okay. I am so

(41:18):
angry at the city of Nashville for taking all of
my friends Nashville and Austin. Like, I'm just out here
in l A blinking, like, so we're just not going
to get drinks tonight. Y'all are selfish? How dare you
go find your best lives playing with me in Nashville?
I really might have to have the fight. Do you
love it? I love the lifestyle. My parents lived five

(41:38):
minutes away, you know, so I bought a house here.
The real estate was much better than l A. And
I have an incredible partner. You know, I would never
have feet This man would not exist in l A.
Let me just tell you that I believe it. I
believe like I'm just much more balanced, and I'm able

(41:58):
to do things like have lead dinner. I'm able to
do things like I still fly every week. Don't get
me wrong, I'm still on the move. I'm still going
to l A every other week. But it's a different
vibe when you come home and then there's peace, and
there's balance, and there's stability, and you're not always trying
to catch up to the next thing. There's you're not
always saying no to all these invitations where you feel

(42:19):
guilty for for just wanting to be at home and
not wanting to go to so and so, so and so. So.
I feel much more balanced, and it allows me to
be a better leader um and a better example to
my team and my staff of like you don't have
to always go go, go, like it's okay to adjust.
A lot of people in my company have moved out

(42:40):
of l A. We're fully remote as a company now,
and so we've been never able to also attract better talent,
better leaders because people are able to be wherever they
want to be. Yeah. Yeah, and it makes you so
much more excited to show up for your job and
a company you love because you feel valued and appreciated.
You're not changed to a desk, just to prove that

(43:01):
you're invested in the company. And I think the Great
Resignation is a great example of what happens when people
are burnt out, under appreciated, and just sick of it.
They'd rather be unemployed than working for someone who doesn't
appreciate or value. Then that's right, exactly. Um your three
success pillars, if there were no, let's do four, because

(43:24):
if it's a standing a building, I'm going to need
four quarters. What would be your your four pillars of success?
What's carried you so far? What are the things that
you encourage us to build up in our lives if
we want um success professionally, personally, et cetera. Yes, I
actually have five and these five and I teach my
work smart program. Um one is yourself. You know, you

(43:48):
have to be a student of you. You have to
master yourself, your time, your energy, what makes you happy,
and you got to know that before you can start
doing anything else. Number two is master your U team.
How what does your team look like? Who are the
people in your tribe? Who are the people you're surrounding
yourself with on a day to day not just your
work team, but also your personal life, the people who

(44:09):
are helping with your taxes, your family, your friends, what
does your tribe look like? Three is what's the truth?
Live in your truth every single day. I call this
master your data. What is your truth? No, a lot
of times we live in the future, we live in
what it should be. We live in perceptions, and it's like,
but what are the facts? And as much as possible

(44:31):
to try to stay grounded in the truth and the facts,
which is much easier said than done. Um Number four
is make sure that you understand the money flow. Okay,
master your revenue, your income. You gotta know what's coming
in and coming out. If you want to be successful
as an entrepreneur, as an ambitious woman, especially as an
ambitious black woman in this world, you have to be

(44:53):
organized about your finances and you have to understand how
your money is coming in and out and what you
should be investing in. And then, last and not least
is always be a student of growth, like always be learning,
always focused on how you can get too faster, decision
making faster. Failure failures are part of the process, and
so the key is to just what are the insights,

(45:15):
what are the learnings, what are the things I'm going
to just I can move forward. You know, there's no
such thing as a bad outcome. There's only just opportunities
for you to grow and move to the next phase.
I love it. I love it. I love it. If
people want to get in contact with you, well, she's
busy all but if you'll wonder if if they want
to learn, um, involve themselves in one of your your

(45:35):
courses or get coaching. UM. You also have a productivity
challenge via your podcast. Just let us know a little
bit about how we can get some more of these
gems from you. Morgan. Yeah, you can check out my podcast,
which I do occasionally, um but mostly every other week UM,
the Work Smart Advisor podcast. You can sign up for
my newsletter and Morgan to bond dot com. I send

(45:55):
out newsletters all the time, just tips and articles and books,
time reading and random things. UM. And then I think
Instagram is probably the biggest platform where I'm like the
most active. Twitter is kind of boring now, UM, so
probably Instagram. If you want to see the behind the
scenes full three sixty in my life, Morgan, thank you
so much. This is an amazing conversation. I'm gonna let
you know when I land in Nashville, because I'll be

(46:17):
there looking for all my friends. I'm gonna do an
event next year, so I'll give you a reason to
cop Okay, I love it. I am there, happy, so good. Right.
Such an enlightening, such an empowering conversation. Love love, love
everything that that Morgan said. So thank you again to
her for sharing her knowledge and her expertise. Uh, and

(46:39):
I hope you are feeling a little bit more inspired.
We've talked about side hustle. If you're interested in starting
yours and you haven't listened to that episode, you can
go back and the Hot Happy Mess archives, um and
check out the episode on starting a side hustle. We've
got one on taxes and business, especially if you've got
a day job and decide hustle so we can keep

(47:01):
you out of prison because no one wants to go there, right,
that's not fun. So I've been told you cannot confirm. Uh,
But again, thank you to Morgan for joining Hot Happy
Mess this week. And I will certainly be making my
way now south very soon, y'all. We're ahead of Nashville.
If the invitation is coming, I'm getting on the plane
because Lord knows any excuse to to get out of

(47:24):
Dodge and go turn up somewhere different, It's an excuse
that I will take. So stay tuned. We've got more
episodes every Wednesday. That's right, we're switching a day. It's
no longer a Monday moment. It's a Wednesday moment. Wind
down Wednesday, wind down Wednesday. So now we have an
excuse to be halfway to tipsy while listening to Happy Mess.
So every Wednesday is a new episode. Um, and I

(47:46):
want you to tell your story. You know, we have
our real Woman Real Story segments. Uh So, if you've
got a while confession, if you have some as Suri
questions that you need to submit, UM, if you're just
dope and amazing and something unbelievable has happened to you
or you're in the middle of that, hit me up.

(48:06):
Submit your story, submit your confession, submit your question. You
can do it on Hot Happy mess dot com. You
can slide in my dear at Sory or at Hot
Happy Mess. But we're all about celebrating you and your
stories and real woman, So hit me up. Can't wait
to share it before we go. Y'all already know who

(48:28):
the deal is the love language of hot, happy messes.
Words of affirmation a k a. Reviews. So if you
want to be a real one, go leave a rating
really quickly on Spotify, um or on Apple podcasts. Give
your girl five stars and just like a sentence, maybe
two sentences, or as many sentences as you want. Honestly,
I don't care as long as they're generally positive. We've

(48:49):
actually got a review from a listener right now. This
is at gerald Dean m. She says everything you need
to hear. I really like listening to this podcast as
I can definitely relate to all of the topics Zuri
and her guests discuss. I feel like she asked the
questions that I'm wanting to ask but just don't know how.

(49:09):
The group chat stories are not to be missed as well, Geraldine.
I'm so glad that you're loving the episodes, especially the
group chat moments. Y'all know those are my real life besties,
and I'm so grateful that they get to kick it
with us. We are going to be bringing them out
way more this year, so stay tuned for all the crazy,
wild OMG stories. But in the meantime, thank you for
supporting leave that review on iTunes. It is the easiest

(49:31):
and free way to support Hot Happy Mess so we
can grow to infinity and beyond. Share this episode with
a friend if you loved it, and I will talk
to you next Wednesday. Wednesday, but you can talk to
me and d MS in the meantime if you want.
Follow me on Insta at Zuri zu R I H
A L L. We're at cot Happy Mess and I'll

(49:54):
see you next Wednesday. Bye bye, bye bye

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}54: How to Work Smarter & Build an Impactful Platform with Blavity’s CEO Morgan DeBaun

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

The Joe Rogan Experience

All Episodes

54: How to Work Smarter & Build an Impactful Platform with Blavity’s CEO Morgan DeBaun

24/7 News: The Latest