September 5, 2025 • 23 mins
Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Isaac Hayes III.
🎯 Purpose of the Interview
To highlight Isaac Hayes III’s entrepreneurial journey, his stewardship of his father’s legacy, and his creation of Fanbase, a Black-owned social media platform designed to empower creators and challenge the status quo of tech ownership and monetization.
🗝️ Key Takeaways 1. Legacy & Identity
- Isaac Hayes III discusses the duality of carrying a famous name—both a burden and a blessing.
- Early in his career, he used a pseudonym to avoid bias and prove his merit as a music producer.
- Quote: “In the beginning, it kind of hurt you… down the line, it’s going to help you tremendously.”
2. Music Publishing & Ownership
- He explains the difference between masters and publishing in music rights.
- Publishing is like “musical real estate”—you own it until you sell it.
- Quote: “As long as you hold on to that musical real estate, you own it forever.”
3. Social Media as a Business Tool
- Hayes recognized the power of social media around 2008–2009.
- He emphasizes how Black culture drives social media engagement but lacks ownership.
- Quote: “Black culture elevates all infrastructures of entertainment, but we don’t own them.”
4. Fanbase: A Visionary Platform
- Fanbase is a subscription-based social media platform that:
- Doesn’t run ads.
- Allows creators to monetize directly via in-app purchases.
- Sends content to all followers without suppression.
- Quote: “I’m the first social media founder to create a mechanism where people could subscribe to people using in-app purchases.”
5. Innovation & Influence
- Fanbase pioneered features like gold verification badges and mobile subscriptions before major platforms adopted them.
- Hayes asserts that Fanbase moves at the speed of Black culture, unlike competitors who mimic it.
- Quote: “The only separator between us and them is capital.”
6. Political Impact
- Hayes used social media to support political campaigns, including helping elect Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
- He views social media as a tool for civic engagement and community empowerment.
- Quote: “Social media spreads messages through virality… it can create engagement and action very quickly.”
7. Investor-thon & Community Support
- Fanbase raised nearly \$700,000 in 10 days through an equity crowdfunding event featuring celebrities and influencers.
- Hayes stresses the importance of Black ownership in tech infrastructure.
- Quote: “If we’re not owning infrastructures, we’re just contributing to other people’s wealth.”
🧠 Final Message
Isaac Hayes III is a visionary entrepreneur who blends legacy, innovation, and cultural empowerment. His mission with Fanbase is to create a platform where creators—especially from the Black community—can thrive, monetize, and own their digital presence.
#SHMS #STRAW #BEST
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I am Rashan McDonald, a host the weekly Money
Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading
other people's success stories and start living your own. If
you want to be a guest on my show, please
visit our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click the be
a Guest button. Chris submit and information will come directly
(00:23):
to me. Now, let's get this show started. My guest's
career in business started in twenty thirteen with him serving
as president and CEO of Isaac Hayes Enterprises, managing the
name Image Likeness, Brand Masters, and publishing catalog of his
soul icon father, the late Isaac Hayes. He is also
(00:43):
a visionary with the goal to change social media forever.
That vision is fan based. Please welcome the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass. Isaac Hayes.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
How you doing, my brother?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
What's good?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
How are you coming with that strong voice in my
little rag voice? Come on, Isaac, don't do me like that.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Don't do me like that.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
That's strong, powerful voice. You just popped out of that.
How you doing so? You're doing good.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I'm doing great, are you well?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know, I'm glad you came on the show because
of the fact that you know, it's been a period
here like Lebron and his father, you know, Lebronni and
Lebron's playing and you and you get into this point
where you you have a famous name that you that
you were given. What is there a burden or is there.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A blessing for you? Can you can?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You can you share that with my audience before we
get into your interview.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I think it's both. I mean I started out as
a music producer. I produced music from two thousands to
like two thousands almost twenty I mean, you know, seventeen,
probably even ninety nine twenty and so in the beginning
it kind of hurts you to the point where I
think people don't think you're very serious about being a producer,
think that you've got it made, or you know, it's
pretty easy. So some point, change my name very early
(01:57):
on as a producer to a producer that nobody would
know that was isucating her. So I could, you know,
really just make my music and get get jobs and
get placements based off the fact of who other music
and now who my father was. Now as you're older,
as I'm older, and I'm moving up the ladder of
success in business. You know, my father's name holds a
(02:19):
lot of respects in a lot of rooms in industries
because of the type of person that he was. And
so I think it helps, you know, when you I mean,
I'm able to meet people like Samuel L. Jackson or
Denzel Washington or people that are in business that knew
my father and say they have a lot of great
things to say about him, And so it helps. But
it takes a while to transition. At first. It hurts.
And I think that's the thing with that'll happen with
(02:41):
any famous you know, a child or anybody's famous. So
hurt in the beginning's gonna hurt briny in the beginning,
down the line, ten fifteen years down the line, it's
going to help him a lot. It's gonna help him tremendously.
We do.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Our love about the whole interview about you is that
you've embraced the entrepreneur side of this industry, as does
your dad. Because the fact that you have a catalog
and a brand that he understood and valued and his talent.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You know, I always tell everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
My favorite all time Isaac Hay movies, Truck Turner That
that was my movie, Isaac Chuck Turner, boy, I can
start reciting lines him and no heroes in that boar.
That was my movie. Because these these are brands that
lived with people. There's music, you know, the soundtrack Chef
is a classic. It's one of the all time great
(03:29):
music pieces that ever been distributed. But what we don't
realize was the music that your father produced, the music
he wrote. Tell us about that background.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Well, my father started as a session musician at Stax
Records on Oltist, writing songs, you know, you know, stuff
like that, like arranging and doing stuff like that that
him and David Porter made this this partnership became a
songwriting producing team in Stax, writing hundreds of songs, songs
like doing Something's Wrong with My Baby and soul Man
and Fold Them I'm Coming from like nineteen sixty three
(03:59):
to ninety teen sixty nine, so six years they wrote
just so many songs that were just amazing, and so
that's that really transitioned him becoming a solo artist in
nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Wow, you know that that whole because that's really what
we start talking about getting paid. You know, you have
you have an artist who performs the song. Then you
have the breakdown that whole strategy. Yeah, I heard the
word licensing. I hear the word publishing, and I hear
performing artists. The performing artist is the person that is
really only gets paid for performing. It's the I think,
(04:34):
the licensing and the publishers where the money really it
becomes residuals and you can get paid on an ongoing basis. Correct,
Can you explain to my audience how that works.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yeah, So a copyright has two sides. It has a
master and has a publishing. The master's is sound recording.
So whatever the song eventually is, it's laid out on
two tracks or two tracks, or it's laid out on
you know, a stream or whatever the record come, he
typically owns that. And then the publishing is owned by
the two writers, the or the one writer whoever wrote
(05:05):
the song. Because that right there is really the main
you know, where the money is. And so a lot
of times people are signed their rights and that's something
that my dad did as a songwriter early on. And
so once he did that, he would have access or
get control of that music for another fifty six years.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Right, you know it always it always amazes be Man
because you know you're bad your dad and many others
when you say great names like oldest writing and all
these individuals, rach Hall's they had the I want to say,
the genius under the clear understanding that my work. I
want to control that. Can you talk about the the uh,
(05:41):
the courage to be able to walk in do it
racist times and be able to say I want ownership,
I want my rights.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, I mean a lot of Well here's the thing.
I think most of the most of the music industry
was you know, exploitive to all all types of artists.
It's very rare. The artists got to maintain control of
their topic. Right. I think you know that that part
was was was very very hard and difficult, and so
a lot of artists, you know, got exploited, and so
(06:14):
that was tough. I think people didn't know the business
and understand up thing. To anybody out there that wants
to know what music publishing is, I just say, it's
musical real estate. You own it until you sell it,
and it's yours in perpetuity until you do some sort
of deal with it. And so as long as you
hold onto that musical real estate, you own it forever,
as long as you know, continue to make the right
(06:34):
you know, deals and moves to that kind of stuff.
So they had to have courage to be able to
kind of fight for their music rights. Unfortunately though, a
lot of artists, including my father, never really got the
chance to do that, especially in a stack situation because
of the bankruptcy and all things that happened over at
Stax Records, right right.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Right, Because now I know, I've done a lot of concerts, Isaac,
and when I do a concert or music concert and
I used the music to bring up comic, I amused
the music to play, I gotta pay fees for that.
That's part of the publishing or licensing for because I'm
in a paid venue. That's I have to pay those
(07:11):
fees to play the music. Is that That's how it works.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Every venue, so think about this. Every venue, so it's
a stadium, a nightclub, or restaurant, they do a deal
with p r o s that allow them to play
as much music as they can based on the capacity
of the venue, and then an estimated you know he right, yeah,
who over like an annual amount of time so it
could be if it's a large theater, like you know,
(07:35):
a big arena, that's one price. If it's a restaurant
in a night comp it's another price, and then that's
that money goes to pay the writers. And so yeah,
most you know, anytime you hear music played in in
arenas and stuff like that, those deals have been done.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You know, I'm gonna transition now because of the fact
that I just want to set at the background for
everybody of.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Who Isaac Hayes. The third is.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You know he's an entrepreneur, and now you used to
worry visionary and you're opening because I'll be honest with you.
When social media came out, I remember I was still
managing Steve Harvey at the time.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
We had this amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Fan club list, about seven hundred and fifty thousand fan
club members. So and I didn't really appreciate understanding the
value of social media. Even though I would look at television,
especially news CNN at the time, I would always see
the Twitter logo, just Twitter logo or Facebook or whatever
people have already promoted followed me, follow me, and I
(08:29):
thought that was amazing. They're not paying for this, but
they encouraged people. They saw the power of social media.
When did you start really valuing the power of social media?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I would probably say two thousand, like eight or nine,
because really social media started changing the way that we
communicate and it really gave people an opportunity to reach
large amounts of people in real time. Even though this
is before like you know, cell phones became smartphones and
transition to that. But I was I was a MySpace guy,
(09:02):
I was a Facebook guy, it was a Twitter guy.
These are all things that were on desktop computers. And
then when Instagram came out, that's when everything changed in
my opinion, because it was the first mobile, first device
that was image based on you know, on smartphones, and
that kind of opened the door that I felt like
it changed the way that people distributed and disseminated content
(09:23):
and actually consumed content. Is now the content comes directly
to your phone. You're not watching a television, You're not
running to your laptop. Right this content?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Okay, I understand what you're saying right now, because that's
why the industry, the social media industry really is a
mobile industry, correct, Isaac.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
So it's changed. We go back to like Facebook came
out in two thousand and four. Okay, first camp, there
was people writing on your wall. You know, it was
more comments and images, right, it was comments and images
and comments. Right when you get to the mobile era
and we put video. Now that video got added to
social media. Every single person on social media a television network.
(10:00):
Now it's TV. Now you scroll your feed like you're
watching channels. You're watching these small one minute, two minute,
five minute clips on social media that can really entertain
you just as much as watching television. And what's remarkable
about that is we're finding out that people will sacrifice
a large screen for the ability to move with their screens.
So rather have a big eighty five minutes TV in
(10:22):
your house and watch the game, you would sacrifice that
to be able to watch the game on the train,
on the plane at work. Oh you are. And so
that's where it became. Now social media is now an
entertainment vehicle. It is the new form of entertainment. It
is the new television.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Never to ask you this, I'm gonna call you an
expert now because you you everything.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Comes out of your mouth.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Because it was two thousand and eight, two thousand and
nine where I was denouncing that you know, we're gonna
stick with this, this whole process. And then about twenty ten,
I want, you know some Steve Harvey, we need to
start getting into this social media because you know, at
that point, we started seeing our competition. When I say
a competition, other fellow comedians having four hundred thousand followers,
(11:05):
seven hundred thousand followers, And because I really I started
realizing that, you know, people are starting to because if
you had a fan club, people couldn't see your fan
club members, but when you have social media, they could
see the engagement. That was the difference maker with sold
me on social media. Realizing that you can now publicly
(11:27):
display your success story on social media where the fan
club email base you couldn't do that. Is that really
the big change for you? Or you saw that beyond.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
That, Well, what I saw was the fact that that
that black culture was really elevating social media. The first
thing I noticed is that black culture elevates all the
infrastructures of entertainment, but we don't own them. Mean basically,
like if you take the NFL, the NBA, the music industry,
(11:59):
social media, these are primarily industries that are owned by
small groups of white people that exploit young people and
black culture for billions and billions of dollars, right, and
so we don't have any ownership of those things. And
that's when I started to notice that there was a
deficit in that, because you know, these companies wind up
(12:21):
being worth billions and trillions of dollars, but at the
end of the day, who really benefits from that but
the small group of people that were allowed to invest
in these companies at an early stage before anybody. And
then the black culture in the black community comes on
there and makes it the most popular thing on planet Earth.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
We will be right back with more insights from Money
Making Conversation master Class. Welcome back to Money Making Conversation
master Class hosted by me Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversation
master Class continues online at Moneymaking Conversations dot com and
follow to Make a Conversation Masterclass on Facebook, x and Instagram.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
So fan Base is a social media platform that is
just like Instagram, TikTok, the current social apps with a
couple of additions. Okay, one do not run ads, and
what's important about not running advertising is not I'm not
beholden to publicly traded shareholders or advertisers who can sometimes
suppress and shadow band and censor people's content based on
(13:28):
the fact of who the platforms they spend money with.
I didn't want to do that because, number one, it
creates a limitation on the amount of people that can
see your content. So I asked this question a lot
to people. It's a rhetorical question, but basically, why would
Instagram let you post a video or if you're talking
about Steve Harvey, why would Instagram let Steve Harve or
anybody post a video or let you let it reach
(13:50):
ten million people for free? Where they're going to literally
turn around and charge Domino's Pizza money to reach ten
million people with they're advertising right going to do that
because if Steve Harvey or any person with millions of
followers could reach those people for free, the advertisers would
come directly to the person with the following and pay
(14:10):
them to those ads on their page and never spend
money on Instagram or Facebook. So for that reason, they
suppressure content. So I don't care how many followers Steve Harvey, Beyonce,
the Rocks, whoever, Party, be Drake, anybody has on social media,
They'll never reach their full following because the advertisers have
to make money off that reach. So at fan Base,
(14:31):
I wanted to say, look, I don't care how many
followers you have more social media, don't care how big
you get. If you have one hundred million people, they
are following you. On fan Base, We're sending your content
to one hundred million people. That's the first and foremost.
And secondly, there's a monetization component to the platform that
allows people to have subscribers. That's the first thing that
really came to my mind. I said, we need a
social media platform where people can additionally subscribe to the
(14:53):
same person that they follow, like Netflix, for extra content.
So I want to be able to suscribe to the
same person I follow. If I follow you or Steve
Harvey or Lebron James or anybody like that, I can
also subscribe to that same person monthly for additional content
that they won't share anywhere else. And that was the
birth of fan Base, and that really set us apart
(15:15):
back in twenty eighteen when I started to build the company,
because no other platform did that. I'm the first social
media platform and founder to create a mechanism where people
could subscribe to people using in app purchase.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Now you create in the social media entrepreneurs basically entrepreneurs.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Well, it existed other play it existed through credit cards,
So platforms that allowed you to subscribe to people through
current credit cards that existed, not mobile devices, so not
being able to iPhone or you're Android to subscribe directly
to a person by just using a fingerprint or a
face scan. And that changes the speed in which you
can monetize and make money as a content creator. Anybody can,
(15:56):
So that changed the game, and that's really what we brought.
No other platform did that before.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Isaac when you know, would try to wrap this around
my head an idea that you have about social media
because it seems so big. But how were you able
to be not intimidated by the process of developing the
idea that was unique?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
That works?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Oh, that was simple. And I had a conversation with
a VC about this that I when I had this
conversation with a VC, they asked me kind of something similar,
but they said, why would you want to build something
that is in competition with Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg Instagram.
He's a giant, He's this big giant, you know, Mega
tech giant, and I was like, well, well, one reason
(16:41):
is because I can build anything that he can build,
but he can't build black people in black culture. And
I speak very specifically in the space of technology because
technology is a vast industry. But when it comes to
technology and social media, I know my stuff. I'm gonna
stay in my lane. That's why I know, and I
know that black culture and young people power social media.
So the ability in which fan Base moves is at
(17:02):
the speed of culture. Because I'm black and I'm around
black culture, these other platforms have to move at the
speed and with taking copy or mimic Black culture. So
that gives us an advantage every time. So any ideas
that we come out with, we're going to come out
with the ideas. First. There's multiple things that fan base
has done. Like I said, there was no such thing
as in app purchase subscriptions before fan Base. Check it.
Before twenty nineteen, it wasn't that Now if you look,
(17:24):
Twitter has it, Facebook has it, Instagram has it, TikTok
has it, Snapchat has it. All these platforms allowed you
to subscribe from your mobile device. It didn't exist until
we created that. And so that's my point there was
no such thing as a goal verification badge or any
social media platform. We had that in twenty nineteen. If
you go to Twitter right now, every business has a
goal verification badge, so they're mimicking what we do. So
(17:45):
the only separator between us and them is capital, which
is one of the reasons why, like I said, you know,
we were raising capital a unique way through equity crowdfunding,
which gives us the ability to build our company but
not give up crazy amounts of equity and not what
we want to do as a business. So that's that's
why I'm confident, because I know what makes social media
work is technology, psychology, and black culture.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Now, when I was reading your bio, it says that
you use social media to elect Andre Dickens. How did
you know the floor is yours? You know, because of
the fact that I just try to tell people that
social media is beyond just vacation photos and pictures of food.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
On your plate.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
It is a tool that, especially in the entrepreneurial space,
we need to understand our brand and be able to
communicate with the people and generate revenue on that. You
are a visionary from a social media standpoint, you start
launch fan base. Now an elect I'm mayor right now.
You played a major role in getting him elected. How
(18:45):
did that process come to you to say I can
do this well?
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Number One, I love Atlanta and I understand that black
political power is the main reason that there's so much
black success that Atlanta's not a mistake. It is an
intention community of people that were built, that built the
community of political power, that offered opportunity for black people
to build business, and I want to make sure that's maintained.
What's also more important is that more and more people
(19:12):
are on their mobile devices every day, and those messages
spread through virality. They spread through social media platforms like Twitter,
like Facebook, and like Instagram. And so when you're able
to connect with users at mass and create movements via
social media, that can be very impactful, especially political campaigns.
And so if there's a message that needs to be
you know, put out there, it's not necessarily always going
(19:34):
to be heard by broadcast media, which is the number
one form of media which we've known for you know,
probably one hundred years or so. Rightly, radio and television,
right and then we moved to the narrowcast, which is
kind of like these smaller sub networks which is on
which are the apps like you know, Facebook and Instagram
and stuff like that. And so to be able to
(19:54):
move messaging and content around through those platforms to people
right on their mobile devices, it can create engagement in
action very very quickly.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Wow, and and and the engagement you you were trying
to achieve was either registration or encouraging the vote. What
was what was the motivation with your social media campaign?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Well, it was definitely voting. I mean, you know, Atlanta
has about half a million or so residents in the
city of Atlanta proper. But when we when these elections
come up, we're only winning elections. I think even when
Keisha Lanz Botoms wanted I helped out with her campaign,
I think eight hundred and seventy three votes. So you
got understand how those margins are. So just to be
able to inform people the urgency of voting through social
(20:38):
media is extremely, extremely important. And then depending on who
it is. I mean that in that election with Andre,
we had Felicia Moore and so and and again I
wasn't necessarily I was a fan of what Andre was doing,
but Felicia more just shown signs that she wasn't necessarily
going to be the best ally always for the black community,
just by some of the things that she had done.
(21:01):
So getting those messages out of letting people know, like, look,
this guy said something racist, she apologized, and she took
her apology down. I was like, uh uh, that's a
problem right there.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
As we close out, man, do you conducted in an
investor thon which was star studded with influences and celebrity.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
What was the purpose of that?
Speaker 3 (21:17):
The investment thon was very successful. We almost raised about
seven hundred thousand dollars in ten days with people like
Bill I am Intended, Charlamagne the God, ebro earned your Leisure,
Roland Martin, Milton Jones, of one hundred Black Men of America,
Bill Harper, all these people came on and spoke so kindly.
Candy burst about fan base, and I think that's extremely
(21:39):
important because it shows the beliefs and what we're doing.
And there are no black owned social media platforms, Google it,
search it, research it. I'm the only one that's really
in this space doing this, and so it's extremely important
that we own infrastructures. Think of how many things, right,
think of how many things that have existed that black
people are invented, but we don't own the infrastructure up.
Think about Djang and that grammar flash and Benedett, but
(22:01):
he doesn't own techniques or Serrato. Think about the ice cream.
Stoopid ice cream itself was in anyby a black man,
but we don't own briers, we don't own edies, we
don't own ben and Jerry. Think about the alarm system
was invented by a black woman, right, But we're not brinks,
We're not ad t. So my point is, if we're
not owning infrastructures, we're just gonna be contributing to other
(22:21):
people's wealth in ways that don't ever benefit our community.
So we have to own the infrastructure first, and then
we go on the platform and at our sauce.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I'm Jayson Isaac Casey. Third, You're amazing, brother.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
This will not be the last time you speak to
Rashaan McDonald. It is a money making conversation. And thank
you for coming on my show. And I gotta connect
with you man. I'm gonna get your sell numbers so
we can communicate because I like your approach, I understand
your value and I'm a marketing branding expert and I
like talking to people who have a vision and my man,
when I say this, you are a visionary. Thank you
(22:53):
for coming on Money Making Conversations Master Class.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
This has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaan mcdone
thanks to our guest and our audience. Visit Moneymaking Conversations
dot com to listen and register to be a guest.
Hi, I am Rashan McDonald, a host the weekly Money
Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading
other people's success stories and start living your own. If
you want to be a guest on my show, please
visit our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click the be
a Guest button. Chris submit and information will come directly
(00:23):
to me. Now, let's get this show started. My guest's
career in business started in twenty thirteen with him serving
as president and CEO of Isaac Hayes Enterprises, managing the
name Image Likeness, Brand Masters, and publishing catalog of his
soul icon father, the late Isaac Hayes. He is also
(00:43):
a visionary with the goal to change social media forever.
That vision is fan based. Please welcome the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass. Isaac Hayes.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
How you doing, my brother?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
What's good?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
How are you coming with that strong voice in my
little rag voice? Come on, Isaac, don't do me like that.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Don't do me like that.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
That's strong, powerful voice. You just popped out of that.
How you doing so? You're doing good.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I'm doing great, are you well?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know, I'm glad you came on the show because
of the fact that you know, it's been a period
here like Lebron and his father, you know, Lebronni and
Lebron's playing and you and you get into this point
where you you have a famous name that you that
you were given. What is there a burden or is there.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A blessing for you? Can you can?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You can you share that with my audience before we
get into your interview.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I think it's both. I mean I started out as
a music producer. I produced music from two thousands to
like two thousands almost twenty I mean, you know, seventeen,
probably even ninety nine twenty and so in the beginning
it kind of hurts you to the point where I
think people don't think you're very serious about being a producer,
think that you've got it made, or you know, it's
pretty easy. So some point, change my name very early
(01:57):
on as a producer to a producer that nobody would
know that was isucating her. So I could, you know,
really just make my music and get get jobs and
get placements based off the fact of who other music
and now who my father was. Now as you're older,
as I'm older, and I'm moving up the ladder of
success in business. You know, my father's name holds a
(02:19):
lot of respects in a lot of rooms in industries
because of the type of person that he was. And
so I think it helps, you know, when you I mean,
I'm able to meet people like Samuel L. Jackson or
Denzel Washington or people that are in business that knew
my father and say they have a lot of great
things to say about him, And so it helps. But
it takes a while to transition. At first. It hurts.
And I think that's the thing with that'll happen with
(02:41):
any famous you know, a child or anybody's famous. So
hurt in the beginning's gonna hurt briny in the beginning,
down the line, ten fifteen years down the line, it's
going to help him a lot. It's gonna help him tremendously.
We do.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Our love about the whole interview about you is that
you've embraced the entrepreneur side of this industry, as does
your dad. Because the fact that you have a catalog
and a brand that he understood and valued and his talent.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You know, I always tell everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
My favorite all time Isaac Hay movies, Truck Turner That
that was my movie, Isaac Chuck Turner, boy, I can
start reciting lines him and no heroes in that boar.
That was my movie. Because these these are brands that
lived with people. There's music, you know, the soundtrack Chef
is a classic. It's one of the all time great
(03:29):
music pieces that ever been distributed. But what we don't
realize was the music that your father produced, the music
he wrote. Tell us about that background.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Well, my father started as a session musician at Stax
Records on Oltist, writing songs, you know, you know, stuff
like that, like arranging and doing stuff like that that
him and David Porter made this this partnership became a
songwriting producing team in Stax, writing hundreds of songs, songs
like doing Something's Wrong with My Baby and soul Man
and Fold Them I'm Coming from like nineteen sixty three
(03:59):
to ninety teen sixty nine, so six years they wrote
just so many songs that were just amazing, and so
that's that really transitioned him becoming a solo artist in
nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Wow, you know that that whole because that's really what
we start talking about getting paid. You know, you have
you have an artist who performs the song. Then you
have the breakdown that whole strategy. Yeah, I heard the
word licensing. I hear the word publishing, and I hear
performing artists. The performing artist is the person that is
really only gets paid for performing. It's the I think,
(04:34):
the licensing and the publishers where the money really it
becomes residuals and you can get paid on an ongoing basis. Correct,
Can you explain to my audience how that works.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yeah, So a copyright has two sides. It has a
master and has a publishing. The master's is sound recording.
So whatever the song eventually is, it's laid out on
two tracks or two tracks, or it's laid out on
you know, a stream or whatever the record come, he
typically owns that. And then the publishing is owned by
the two writers, the or the one writer whoever wrote
(05:05):
the song. Because that right there is really the main
you know, where the money is. And so a lot
of times people are signed their rights and that's something
that my dad did as a songwriter early on. And
so once he did that, he would have access or
get control of that music for another fifty six years.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Right, you know it always it always amazes be Man
because you know you're bad your dad and many others
when you say great names like oldest writing and all
these individuals, rach Hall's they had the I want to say,
the genius under the clear understanding that my work. I
want to control that. Can you talk about the the uh,
(05:41):
the courage to be able to walk in do it
racist times and be able to say I want ownership,
I want my rights.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, I mean a lot of Well here's the thing.
I think most of the most of the music industry
was you know, exploitive to all all types of artists.
It's very rare. The artists got to maintain control of
their topic. Right. I think you know that that part
was was was very very hard and difficult, and so
a lot of artists, you know, got exploited, and so
(06:14):
that was tough. I think people didn't know the business
and understand up thing. To anybody out there that wants
to know what music publishing is, I just say, it's
musical real estate. You own it until you sell it,
and it's yours in perpetuity until you do some sort
of deal with it. And so as long as you
hold onto that musical real estate, you own it forever,
as long as you know, continue to make the right
(06:34):
you know, deals and moves to that kind of stuff.
So they had to have courage to be able to
kind of fight for their music rights. Unfortunately though, a
lot of artists, including my father, never really got the
chance to do that, especially in a stack situation because
of the bankruptcy and all things that happened over at
Stax Records, right right.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Right, Because now I know, I've done a lot of concerts, Isaac,
and when I do a concert or music concert and
I used the music to bring up comic, I amused
the music to play, I gotta pay fees for that.
That's part of the publishing or licensing for because I'm
in a paid venue. That's I have to pay those
(07:11):
fees to play the music. Is that That's how it works.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Every venue, so think about this. Every venue, so it's
a stadium, a nightclub, or restaurant, they do a deal
with p r o s that allow them to play
as much music as they can based on the capacity
of the venue, and then an estimated you know he right, yeah,
who over like an annual amount of time so it
could be if it's a large theater, like you know,
(07:35):
a big arena, that's one price. If it's a restaurant
in a night comp it's another price, and then that's
that money goes to pay the writers. And so yeah,
most you know, anytime you hear music played in in
arenas and stuff like that, those deals have been done.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You know, I'm gonna transition now because of the fact
that I just want to set at the background for
everybody of.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Who Isaac Hayes. The third is.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You know he's an entrepreneur, and now you used to
worry visionary and you're opening because I'll be honest with you.
When social media came out, I remember I was still
managing Steve Harvey at the time.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
We had this amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Fan club list, about seven hundred and fifty thousand fan
club members. So and I didn't really appreciate understanding the
value of social media. Even though I would look at television,
especially news CNN at the time, I would always see
the Twitter logo, just Twitter logo or Facebook or whatever
people have already promoted followed me, follow me, and I
(08:29):
thought that was amazing. They're not paying for this, but
they encouraged people. They saw the power of social media.
When did you start really valuing the power of social media?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I would probably say two thousand, like eight or nine,
because really social media started changing the way that we
communicate and it really gave people an opportunity to reach
large amounts of people in real time. Even though this
is before like you know, cell phones became smartphones and
transition to that. But I was I was a MySpace guy,
(09:02):
I was a Facebook guy, it was a Twitter guy.
These are all things that were on desktop computers. And
then when Instagram came out, that's when everything changed in
my opinion, because it was the first mobile, first device
that was image based on you know, on smartphones, and
that kind of opened the door that I felt like
it changed the way that people distributed and disseminated content
(09:23):
and actually consumed content. Is now the content comes directly
to your phone. You're not watching a television, You're not
running to your laptop. Right this content?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Okay, I understand what you're saying right now, because that's
why the industry, the social media industry really is a
mobile industry, correct, Isaac.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
So it's changed. We go back to like Facebook came
out in two thousand and four. Okay, first camp, there
was people writing on your wall. You know, it was
more comments and images, right, it was comments and images
and comments. Right when you get to the mobile era
and we put video. Now that video got added to
social media. Every single person on social media a television network.
(10:00):
Now it's TV. Now you scroll your feed like you're
watching channels. You're watching these small one minute, two minute,
five minute clips on social media that can really entertain
you just as much as watching television. And what's remarkable
about that is we're finding out that people will sacrifice
a large screen for the ability to move with their screens.
So rather have a big eighty five minutes TV in
(10:22):
your house and watch the game, you would sacrifice that
to be able to watch the game on the train,
on the plane at work. Oh you are. And so
that's where it became. Now social media is now an
entertainment vehicle. It is the new form of entertainment. It
is the new television.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Never to ask you this, I'm gonna call you an
expert now because you you everything.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Comes out of your mouth.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Because it was two thousand and eight, two thousand and
nine where I was denouncing that you know, we're gonna
stick with this, this whole process. And then about twenty ten,
I want, you know some Steve Harvey, we need to
start getting into this social media because you know, at
that point, we started seeing our competition. When I say
a competition, other fellow comedians having four hundred thousand followers,
(11:05):
seven hundred thousand followers, And because I really I started
realizing that, you know, people are starting to because if
you had a fan club, people couldn't see your fan
club members, but when you have social media, they could
see the engagement. That was the difference maker with sold
me on social media. Realizing that you can now publicly
(11:27):
display your success story on social media where the fan
club email base you couldn't do that. Is that really
the big change for you? Or you saw that beyond.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
That, Well, what I saw was the fact that that
that black culture was really elevating social media. The first
thing I noticed is that black culture elevates all the
infrastructures of entertainment, but we don't own them. Mean basically,
like if you take the NFL, the NBA, the music industry,
(11:59):
social media, these are primarily industries that are owned by
small groups of white people that exploit young people and
black culture for billions and billions of dollars, right, and
so we don't have any ownership of those things. And
that's when I started to notice that there was a
deficit in that, because you know, these companies wind up
(12:21):
being worth billions and trillions of dollars, but at the
end of the day, who really benefits from that but
the small group of people that were allowed to invest
in these companies at an early stage before anybody. And
then the black culture in the black community comes on
there and makes it the most popular thing on planet Earth.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
We will be right back with more insights from Money
Making Conversation master Class. Welcome back to Money Making Conversation
master Class hosted by me Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversation
master Class continues online at Moneymaking Conversations dot com and
follow to Make a Conversation Masterclass on Facebook, x and Instagram.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
So fan Base is a social media platform that is
just like Instagram, TikTok, the current social apps with a
couple of additions. Okay, one do not run ads, and
what's important about not running advertising is not I'm not
beholden to publicly traded shareholders or advertisers who can sometimes
suppress and shadow band and censor people's content based on
(13:28):
the fact of who the platforms they spend money with.
I didn't want to do that because, number one, it
creates a limitation on the amount of people that can
see your content. So I asked this question a lot
to people. It's a rhetorical question, but basically, why would
Instagram let you post a video or if you're talking
about Steve Harvey, why would Instagram let Steve Harve or
anybody post a video or let you let it reach
(13:50):
ten million people for free? Where they're going to literally
turn around and charge Domino's Pizza money to reach ten
million people with they're advertising right going to do that
because if Steve Harvey or any person with millions of
followers could reach those people for free, the advertisers would
come directly to the person with the following and pay
(14:10):
them to those ads on their page and never spend
money on Instagram or Facebook. So for that reason, they
suppressure content. So I don't care how many followers Steve Harvey, Beyonce,
the Rocks, whoever, Party, be Drake, anybody has on social media,
They'll never reach their full following because the advertisers have
to make money off that reach. So at fan Base,
(14:31):
I wanted to say, look, I don't care how many
followers you have more social media, don't care how big
you get. If you have one hundred million people, they
are following you. On fan Base, We're sending your content
to one hundred million people. That's the first and foremost.
And secondly, there's a monetization component to the platform that
allows people to have subscribers. That's the first thing that
really came to my mind. I said, we need a
social media platform where people can additionally subscribe to the
(14:53):
same person that they follow, like Netflix, for extra content.
So I want to be able to suscribe to the
same person I follow. If I follow you or Steve
Harvey or Lebron James or anybody like that, I can
also subscribe to that same person monthly for additional content
that they won't share anywhere else. And that was the
birth of fan Base, and that really set us apart
(15:15):
back in twenty eighteen when I started to build the company,
because no other platform did that. I'm the first social
media platform and founder to create a mechanism where people
could subscribe to people using in app purchase.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Now you create in the social media entrepreneurs basically entrepreneurs.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Well, it existed other play it existed through credit cards,
So platforms that allowed you to subscribe to people through
current credit cards that existed, not mobile devices, so not
being able to iPhone or you're Android to subscribe directly
to a person by just using a fingerprint or a
face scan. And that changes the speed in which you
can monetize and make money as a content creator. Anybody can,
(15:56):
So that changed the game, and that's really what we brought.
No other platform did that before.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Isaac when you know, would try to wrap this around
my head an idea that you have about social media
because it seems so big. But how were you able
to be not intimidated by the process of developing the
idea that was unique?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
That works?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Oh, that was simple. And I had a conversation with
a VC about this that I when I had this
conversation with a VC, they asked me kind of something similar,
but they said, why would you want to build something
that is in competition with Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg Instagram.
He's a giant, He's this big giant, you know, Mega
tech giant, and I was like, well, well, one reason
(16:41):
is because I can build anything that he can build,
but he can't build black people in black culture. And
I speak very specifically in the space of technology because
technology is a vast industry. But when it comes to
technology and social media, I know my stuff. I'm gonna
stay in my lane. That's why I know, and I
know that black culture and young people power social media.
So the ability in which fan Base moves is at
(17:02):
the speed of culture. Because I'm black and I'm around
black culture, these other platforms have to move at the
speed and with taking copy or mimic Black culture. So
that gives us an advantage every time. So any ideas
that we come out with, we're going to come out
with the ideas. First. There's multiple things that fan base
has done. Like I said, there was no such thing
as in app purchase subscriptions before fan Base. Check it.
Before twenty nineteen, it wasn't that Now if you look,
(17:24):
Twitter has it, Facebook has it, Instagram has it, TikTok
has it, Snapchat has it. All these platforms allowed you
to subscribe from your mobile device. It didn't exist until
we created that. And so that's my point there was
no such thing as a goal verification badge or any
social media platform. We had that in twenty nineteen. If
you go to Twitter right now, every business has a
goal verification badge, so they're mimicking what we do. So
(17:45):
the only separator between us and them is capital, which
is one of the reasons why, like I said, you know,
we were raising capital a unique way through equity crowdfunding,
which gives us the ability to build our company but
not give up crazy amounts of equity and not what
we want to do as a business. So that's that's
why I'm confident, because I know what makes social media
work is technology, psychology, and black culture.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Now, when I was reading your bio, it says that
you use social media to elect Andre Dickens. How did
you know the floor is yours? You know, because of
the fact that I just try to tell people that
social media is beyond just vacation photos and pictures of food.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
On your plate.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
It is a tool that, especially in the entrepreneurial space,
we need to understand our brand and be able to
communicate with the people and generate revenue on that. You
are a visionary from a social media standpoint, you start
launch fan base. Now an elect I'm mayor right now.
You played a major role in getting him elected. How
(18:45):
did that process come to you to say I can
do this well?
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Number One, I love Atlanta and I understand that black
political power is the main reason that there's so much
black success that Atlanta's not a mistake. It is an
intention community of people that were built, that built the
community of political power, that offered opportunity for black people
to build business, and I want to make sure that's maintained.
What's also more important is that more and more people
(19:12):
are on their mobile devices every day, and those messages
spread through virality. They spread through social media platforms like Twitter,
like Facebook, and like Instagram. And so when you're able
to connect with users at mass and create movements via
social media, that can be very impactful, especially political campaigns.
And so if there's a message that needs to be
you know, put out there, it's not necessarily always going
(19:34):
to be heard by broadcast media, which is the number
one form of media which we've known for you know,
probably one hundred years or so. Rightly, radio and television,
right and then we moved to the narrowcast, which is
kind of like these smaller sub networks which is on
which are the apps like you know, Facebook and Instagram
and stuff like that. And so to be able to
(19:54):
move messaging and content around through those platforms to people
right on their mobile devices, it can create engagement in
action very very quickly.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Wow, and and and the engagement you you were trying
to achieve was either registration or encouraging the vote. What
was what was the motivation with your social media campaign?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Well, it was definitely voting. I mean, you know, Atlanta
has about half a million or so residents in the
city of Atlanta proper. But when we when these elections
come up, we're only winning elections. I think even when
Keisha Lanz Botoms wanted I helped out with her campaign,
I think eight hundred and seventy three votes. So you
got understand how those margins are. So just to be
able to inform people the urgency of voting through social
(20:38):
media is extremely, extremely important. And then depending on who
it is. I mean that in that election with Andre,
we had Felicia Moore and so and and again I
wasn't necessarily I was a fan of what Andre was doing,
but Felicia more just shown signs that she wasn't necessarily
going to be the best ally always for the black community,
just by some of the things that she had done.
(21:01):
So getting those messages out of letting people know, like, look,
this guy said something racist, she apologized, and she took
her apology down. I was like, uh uh, that's a
problem right there.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
As we close out, man, do you conducted in an
investor thon which was star studded with influences and celebrity.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
What was the purpose of that?
Speaker 3 (21:17):
The investment thon was very successful. We almost raised about
seven hundred thousand dollars in ten days with people like
Bill I am Intended, Charlamagne the God, ebro earned your Leisure,
Roland Martin, Milton Jones, of one hundred Black Men of America,
Bill Harper, all these people came on and spoke so kindly.
Candy burst about fan base, and I think that's extremely
(21:39):
important because it shows the beliefs and what we're doing.
And there are no black owned social media platforms, Google it,
search it, research it. I'm the only one that's really
in this space doing this, and so it's extremely important
that we own infrastructures. Think of how many things, right,
think of how many things that have existed that black
people are invented, but we don't own the infrastructure up.
Think about Djang and that grammar flash and Benedett, but
(22:01):
he doesn't own techniques or Serrato. Think about the ice cream.
Stoopid ice cream itself was in anyby a black man,
but we don't own briers, we don't own edies, we
don't own ben and Jerry. Think about the alarm system
was invented by a black woman, right, But we're not brinks,
We're not ad t. So my point is, if we're
not owning infrastructures, we're just gonna be contributing to other
(22:21):
people's wealth in ways that don't ever benefit our community.
So we have to own the infrastructure first, and then
we go on the platform and at our sauce.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I'm Jayson Isaac Casey. Third, You're amazing, brother.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
This will not be the last time you speak to
Rashaan McDonald. It is a money making conversation. And thank
you for coming on my show. And I gotta connect
with you man. I'm gonna get your sell numbers so
we can communicate because I like your approach, I understand
your value and I'm a marketing branding expert and I
like talking to people who have a vision and my man,
when I say this, you are a visionary. Thank you
(22:53):
for coming on Money Making Conversations Master Class.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
This has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaan mcdone
thanks to our guest and our audience. Visit Moneymaking Conversations
dot com to listen and register to be a guest.
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com