Ep 4.6 - Brian Owens

Alvin and German conduct a great conversation with VMLY&R Commerce’s, Senior Vice President of North America Commerce, Brian Owens.’99. With over 15 years of diverse professional experience spanning CPG market research, creative advertising, management consulting, brand management, and direct retail sales, he brings a wealth of expertise to the table. As a seasoned public speaker and strategist, he delves into various topics including commerce and brand awareness, retail go-to-market strategies, DEI commerce transformation, shopper marketing, customer experiences, the consumerization of healthcare, and fostering diverse, inclusive, cross-functional teams. His proficiency extends to global commerce leadership, leveraging first-party retailer data for sales, and providing advisory support for global retail health commerce initiatives. Prior to joining VMLY&R Commerce, he made significant contributions at Kantar Consulting, Proctor & Gamble, and Reckitt Benckiser, where he revolutionized syndicated retail insights, led retail CPG sales teams, and spearheaded management consulting projects for top-tier brands. Notably, during his tenure at Colgate, he excelled as a dual-sport athlete in hockey and football while earning his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The following podcast is being brought toyou by the Defile Life podcast Network.
Welcome to Aftergate, Powered by theDefile Life Network. Are You all Ready?
Aftergate is a podcast series highlighting Colgatealumni of color in their professional endeavors.

(00:23):
Aftergate. Are You all Ready?Aftergate? Is hosted by Alvin Glymph
aka al and Herman Dubois aka AJerry? Are all Ready? We are
doing Aftergate because Colgate University has producedinnovators who have changed the world every day,
Yet many alumni of color and themainstream Colgate community are unaware of the

(00:43):
amazing accomplishments of alums of color.Are you all ready? Welcome? Welcome,
Welcome, Welcome back. This isAftergate. This is your boy,
Alvin Glymph and I am I'm aco host of the podcast known as after

(01:04):
Gate, where we specialize in amplifyingthe journeys of alumni of color, specifically
from Kogi University and doing my math. This officially will drop as the eightieth
episode. Yes, sir, weare in the midst of season four and

(01:30):
it has been one of them rides, kind of like our first ride up
to Kogate. We had no ideawhat we were in store for and boy
was it a journey. And Iwould say that has been this journey of
after Gate. But before I gotoo far, let me make sure I
introduced my co host, mister headmanddu Bois, My rider died since the

(01:53):
summer of nineteen eighty seven. What'sgoing on? Brother? How you doing?
What is good? Though? Ican't complain. Not bad for Wednesday?
But everything is downhill from here nowwe easy to the weekend. There
you go, there you go,there you go. Had a good week.

(02:13):
I had a week you know itain't over, but uh, just
learning to road. Roll with thepunches, you know, roll with the
punches. So great weekend, greatweekend. I had a chance to do
a few things. Have some havea recreational life, been on the wall
grinding and you know, so itwas. It was nice to do a
little brunch on Sunday. Okay,little spot that when you're done on the

(02:36):
m I A we got to goto old school hip hop, uh national
spot. You were the missions wouldenjoy it, Okay, looking forward to
that, looking forward to that.This happens to be may you birthday month.
But they had for those of youwho don't know right right right,

(02:57):
shows. My son's birthday was thismonth, so we had a nice little
celebration. But you know, honestlymy week, the highlight of my week
yesterday had the opportunity to do aconvening with the United Way and we actually
had on our agenda. This iswhy it's relevant a coolgate alone Andrell Tyson.
So shout out to Andrell oh Wow, the regional director of the US

(03:22):
Department of Health and Human Services,and so he introduced the topic as we
talked about maternal health disparities and thatGeorgia is not doing well. The country
itself is not doing well, butparticularly when it comes to women of color.
And so we had people from theMarch of Dames, Center for Black

(03:44):
Women's Wellness, Kaiser Permanente, aswell as one of the local county Board
of Health. But you know,the reason again is relevant for this is
that as we talk about leveraging thisAftergate network, Andrell Tyson was willing to
support this effort, this event.Hell yeah, that's what this Aftergate thing

(04:06):
is all about. It's about leveragingthe amazing resources that we have within alumni
Color Network. There we go littleplus all right that I bring this week's
guest into the studio. Can Iget your blessing? My brother? Absolutely?
You ready know de ly the churchsays they met. Amen. Amen.

(04:29):
So with that in mind, withoutfurther ado, Aftergate listeners, alumni
of color, I get your permission, get your blessing to bring the one,
the only into the studio. BrianOwens, class of nineteen ninety nine.
Welcome to after my Brother. What'sgoing on? Boys? How are

(05:01):
you man? Doing great? Doinggreat? How are you? I'm blessed,
holly favored, and God likes tosay yes, yes, great to
have you here. You know,in our after Gate tradition, we always
like to set some context of haveour roads cross path before I don't believe

(05:26):
our roads have cross path. Butthe connection is Sophia after Gate Intern,
super super Now she's an alumni andstill doing amazing thing, but she was
after Gate Intern when we first kickedoff this podcast, and her and two

(05:46):
other sisters. It's so good tohave you here. Appreciate brother, Yeah,
yeah, thank you for having me. Wait where are you calling it
from? I'm calling from Boston,Massachusetts. I'm from Okay. Don't hold
out again, most people do.We'll forget me, you know, we
are to New Yorkers, so NewYork Boston thing. Yeah, we'll leave

(06:11):
that alone for at least the purposeof this show. I'm sure I came
up at COVID all the times thatpart all the time. So let's let's
go back class of ninety nine.So you graduate high school ninety five five?
Yeah, okay, So give usa sense of what life is like
for you nineteen ninety five pre nineteenninety five, Like, what's your life

(06:36):
like, what's your where you growup, what's your community like? What
do you remember about that time interms of any politics or culturally. Just
give us a sense of what it'slife like before you get into KOVID.
So nineteen ninety five, I'm inmy Cushing Academy, a school that Kenny
Gamble went to. Oh yeah,football, So I was playing football all

(07:00):
there, also playing ice hockey,so you can see in the back I
was actually a three sport athlete atthat time. Obviously academics excelled at as
well. I was trying the waygoing to Brown, Dartmouth, Duke,
and Bu. I had scholarships forboth for sports, But for me,

(07:24):
I was trying to be Bo Jacksonor Deanna Sanders at the time. Right,
So at the time, coach Billwasn't necessary head coach. He was
a running backs coach, and thatwas being recruited by both coaches, coach
Vaughn and coach Bill at the sametime, and unbeknownst to them, I
was like, I'll come here,but I have to play both sports,

(07:46):
right, So it was I wasin the process of negotiating that early versus
you know, waiting and going tomy Ohio or be It was of my
last three choices. I also waslooking at Duke too for football to walk
on. But I feel I madea good choice. You know, academics
were important to my family. Thetemperature at that time was, you know,

(08:07):
I think we're dealing with the MagicJohnson. We're dealing with that news
coming now. That was like ninecirca ninety two, ninety three, dealing
with hip hop. You know,yeah, Nwa Snoop Dogg's album Biggie just
dropped. So like I was inthe probably the heyday of hip hop.
I identify with that's a big partof you know who I am, and

(08:28):
you know, sort of the there'sa little bit of a revolutionary undertone to
the to the music back then,where you know, like you look at
Kendrick and Drake right now, likeI'm Kendrick all day, just because it
was all about lyrics and all thatback then. So I feel like at
Klodgate we were at a renaissance notto kind of quote the Renaissance Center,
but it was very much a musicculture. I wouldn't say fashion so much

(08:52):
because I think the fashion was prettywhack back then, but generally, I
feel like if you are black goingto Klogate, you had a lot of
optimism. You know, Donal Foylewas there a year before, so there
was there was a lot of attentionto the school, so people knew who
Clogate was back then. Similar tothat like the basketball team being good now,

(09:13):
right, So a lot of parallelstwenty five years later in terms of
the temperature. I mean, Ithink racial stuff was still going on to
a certain extent. I think everyonehas a story about that, right,
But like prior to coming to Clogate, it was really trying to understand sort
of given that, you know,there was a lot of optimism to being
black and then obviously going to Clogateand I feel like you're getting an Ivy

(09:37):
League education you know, there's alot of just you know, you know,
sacrifice was worth the effort, sortof kind of mentality, kind of
kind of in the Colgate, whichis a little bit different from twenty five
years later, just assessing what thevalue of that degree versus sort of you
know, this other past to besuccessful now as a black professional And yeah,

(10:00):
I'm glad I had that tenure andI'm you know, obviously in this
position now talking about Babco, whichwe'll explain about a little bit later,
and reconnected with people from Kogate,like Sofia who's on the board, multiple
generations because we all had shared purposeand shared experiences. And it's like I
think, you know, looking backto nineteen ninety five, you know,

(10:22):
the city was exciting, it wasa lot of stuff, and we were
isolated in upstate New York, right, So I think anyone on campus for
those four years probably rather be inManhattan or or DC living the Uchi Wali
Walley life versus sort of like sufferingnow thinking that spring party Beacond was the
best things to slice bread because therewas nothing else to do, you know,

(10:43):
But I had a good experience.I played both sports, had a
code switch a lot. But atthe end of the day, I got
through. You know, I've benefitedfrom the degree, you know, give
him a managing director right now ofstrategy and insights that one of the biggest
advertising agencies in the world called Soso I'm pretty proud of that part of

(11:03):
my Well, one thing, I'mpretty certain you are the first hockey player
that we have as an Aftergate guest. So that's that's that's a that's a
check. Definitely the first hockey playerand football player, you know, So
that's that's kind of cool. Ialso credit Colgate for teaching me the game

(11:26):
of hockey and have been a hockeyfanatic. I came to Colgate familiar with
it and being in New York,I like the Ranger, still a doubt
her Ranger fan, but it wasUH goalie who was on my UH floor
at K E. D. Andso we would go like watch him play,

(11:48):
Like the whole floor would go watchthis dude play, and just really
taught me the beyond fighting. Iguess I came to Colgate just thinking hockey
was just about fighting, but Ilearned a lot more about it. Act
there was two black guys on thehockey team when I was there myself and
Steve Duberry who's the year who's Canadian? Yeah, you know, but there
was two of us on the team, so there actually was a history.

(12:11):
And actually I think the ninety teamthat won, oh no, there was
definitely one while I was there.Yeah, so, you know, I
think he actually played for the Bruinsgram you know, so I think it's
just, you know, although thatschool was isolated, you know, I
felt like accepted, at least inthat spear of things. I felt like,
frankly, playing hockey and KLOGI wasa you're more of a celebrity than
anything else, just because it wasthe sport, was the sport, the

(12:35):
successful sport at the time. Sothe high school, Chris Christian Academy was
the Christian Academy was a prep school. Yeah, okay, so what's it
like, give me us, giveus a sense of what's the demographics.
Well, understand what the transition waslike. Yeah, we were the number
on the hockey team in the country. So it was all like people who
are going Division one are going toNHL. Like we had a bunch of

(13:01):
kids in the NHL. So wewere pretty much getting ready for you know,
we were isolated in our own dorm, so it was really about SAT
scores and just focusing. You know, I got, I got a leg
up just because when I got toClogate was a little bit easier because I
was already boarded, so I alreadywent through that whole boarding school acclamation,

(13:24):
so I got I didn't I knew. I was a little bit more comfortable
coming into Clogate probably than the averageAfrican American, just because I kind of
dealt with that whole homesickness well,you know, I don't fit in here
type of stuff before, and youknow, once you kind of get I
knew how to study too, becauseI think that one thing, like I
knew what was important, I alsoknew what not to study, right.

(13:48):
I also knew also knew about officehours. So those sort of things kind
of gave me a little bit ofadvantage just in terms of like time management
stuff. I mean I wasn't necessarilysmarter or anything to anybody, but this
new sort of how to work efficiently. And how did you get introduced to
hockey just out of care? I'mfrom Boston, Massachusetts. Man, Let's
start there. Man, Like growingup here, either you play hockey or

(14:13):
you don't have friends. Okay,So like I became really good. I'm
a single parent. My mom dadleft when I was two. Single parent
households so from my mom from Roxburylike where like new additions from like projects
like all that. Right, Sothis woman didn't know anything about ice hockey.
But my grandmother bought a house inArlington, Massachusetts through redlining because the

(14:37):
only way you can buy a housein Massachusetts in the sixties was through a
white family. So growing up inthat environment allowed me. I grew up
around all white people who played hockey, and that town used to be the
best in the state. So whenI started skating, people took notice.
And then next thing I know,I'm getting sponsored to all these private schools,
and I'm getting I'm being rated inan NHL draft and all this stuff

(15:00):
up because yeah, you know,skate fast and can score some goals,
you know, things like that.So you know that was that was coming
in. So I was highly regardedcoming into Colgate athletically as well as football
wise, because I was a prettysought after football recruit to I was all
in New England all that stuff.Not to kind of talk about this athletic

(15:22):
but It's just those are the thingsthat I was trying to go IVY.
I was trying to play in theIVY League ECAC the whole time because I
never was thinking about playing professional.I always wanted just to get the degree
and maximize it, you know.That was always a plan for me and
my mom. What was your whatwas your position? So I was on
the team that was zero to elevenColgate. So I and then we won

(15:45):
the league. The next year wewon the Patriot League when Ryan Vanna Super
became our quarterback and Damon Smith wasour running back and we, uh,
we definitely turned it around. SoI've been through a lot of highs Low's
experience, like winning everything and thencoming to Klogate and being you know,
people you play football was like embarrassingmy freshman year, you know, So

(16:08):
how would you how would you describeyour transition transitioned? Then that first year
at campus it was tough. Ifeel like I relied on just doing well
in school and just getting myself.I really blocked off, I think just
being able to understand the importance ofbeing like, you know, having good

(16:30):
GPA, just getting you know,I missed eleven games in hockey so I
would like I wouldn't start playing foothockey hockey until after Thanksgiving, right,
so like I missed. So Iknew I had to be like on top
of my stuff if I wanted toeven be considered playing. And so I
was really disciplined my freshman year,like really really disciplined. And I think

(16:52):
I was probably I knew, youknow, because I was at a prep
school for the guys who would comeback and talk about it. So I
kind of knew I had a littlebit of advantage coming in. I think
that if you talk to somebody thatwanted to stay at HRC, I would
argue that they had a harder timeacclimating. I kind of knew how to
sort of like be part like beon the hockey team but on the football
team, but still hang out withthe black people for dances and parties.

(17:15):
Like I was able to navigate alot of different communities just because I learned
how to do that in prep school. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, all that. Like Iliterally like without that sort of like intermediary
step that transition would I probably wouldhave been home every weekend like I was
in prep school my first semester,Like I was literally home every weekend until

(17:37):
like my coaches like, you gottatry to stay here. I assume that
you were not part of o US. No. So I got to school
early too though, because of football. I was on campus and I was
like, yo, why are allthe black people here before me? I
was like kind of mad, youknow, and I met Chester. Chester
was o US and Delgado all theseguys came early because he was our class

(18:03):
to mister Lieutenant governor all so like, I realized that there was a little
bit of like, oh my god, like the black people had to get
like it was a little bit likeI wasn't part of the program. Like
me and Corey Hill. A coupleother people on the football team weren't asked
to come up early like a cupin July, right, And I'm like,
you guys think this In July,I was like, God, you

(18:25):
missed your summer. I felt badthey missed it summer, you know when
I was like, and I stillfelt bad coming up early, you know,
because I had to be there inlike second week in August. Were
there in July. I was likejeez, you know, so yeah,
I thought that was interesting. Butall those people of our all doctors and
lawyers, and you know, itdidn't seem like a either help them or

(18:48):
it was just something that you know, gave them a community before they got
there, which I thought was Iwas jealous of that, to be honest
with you got gotch Do you rememberwhere you stayed your four years like somebody
a living like So funnily asked thatMike, one of the board members of
the Black and Brown Collective, thathopefully we'll talk about a little bit with

(19:10):
my freshman year roommate Zacho Bell.He was there. Then we moved to
New Dorm. I lived with abunch of football players, and then I
moved back with Zach and a bunchof other guys. So I originally lived
with and stillman at Parker Apartments andthen we went to newall mhm. So
we did like traditional dorm life,New Dorm where there was a lottery and

(19:34):
then you know, party central forParker and New when we kind of like,
you know, like we never livedoff Campustill, just we wanted to
stay there. The food, youknow, you gotta get an alternate meal,
man, you gotta you know,you gotta get the alternate meal definitely
helped, definitely help. What'd youmajor in sociology and anthropology? Professor Levine?

(20:00):
He called me out power, racism, and privilege. He's like,
all right, give me the blackperspective. I was like, I was
like, this woman, and Idid that. He gave my advisor.
Yeah, he's the best. Yeah. Ronda was definitely a big part of
the community in terms of big timewhat kind of students helping us get through.

(20:22):
When you look at your four years, right, so what do you
think are some of your accomplishments ofthings that you are remember fondly in some
of the highlights of your time here. I think lettering in two sports I'm
pretty proud of. I think thefriends that I'm still friends with twenty five
years later, I'm pretty proud of. I think the ability I love Kogate's

(20:47):
research. I think the ability totell a story analytically, think leadership skills.
You know, I got a lotof advantage of being uncomfortable there because
I feel like my it's been harderin professional life than it ever was at
Klogate in certain ways, and likeeven I take that for granted by you

(21:08):
know, I think it's very hardto trust people in a way in a
professional way, and I feel likeClogate prepared me for the realities of corporate
America, where like there's people whoact like your friend, but they're in
the fraternity and those are they're reallytheir brothers, right, so you gotta
like like they're cool with you socially, but they're they're not sharing the test

(21:33):
with you. The sayeek and peopleand think that Kai might be doing that,
right, So there's just elements oflike I accepted certain truths probably earlier
than most because of Klogate, andbecause I played two sports, I had
to navigate two different worlds. SoI guess maintaining a sense of my blackness
out of that experience was I'm prettyproud of. I got a strong sense

(21:55):
of self because of that experience testedmy identity pretty much, and I'm grateful
for that. You know. Itreminds me of two of our close friends
who were also tailbacks, Hansa andSteven Williams, who were best of friends,
and yet I always remember them navigatingbetween the relationships they had with the

(22:15):
football players and still being able tobe at cultural events that they moved in
both worlds, and I think that'sone of the advantages of being a student
athlete that oftentimes not recognized. Youknow, they talk about the challenges of
being a student athlete, but beinga team, being a member of a
team where we're not that you wouldlook past race, but you bond over

(22:40):
the sports. You bond over thephysical activity and in some instances it can
go be on the field and transferinto the classroom, into the dorm,
into campus life. And not everybodygets that opportunity. Yeah, and hockey
is tough too, right, Sohockey is a very majority sport, right,
and the Canadian so you're dealing withand then they're older too, So

(23:00):
I'm dealing with freshmen who are twentyone years old who can go all to
bars, right, I'm dealing withCanadians. I'm dealing with people like you
know, there's just different, justso much difference, right, Like I'm
a kid whoorksout high school in NewEngland and these guys have lived away from
their families since they were fifteen,right, So there's just different, Like

(23:22):
they played pro hockey in Canada.Maybe the not taking a salary and then
we're able to kind of and thenyou know, guys guys who play Ana
McDonald played with me one of theStanley Cups without Anaheim Mighty Ducks. So
like that's how and then you're expectedto conform in hockey, like your identity
is expected to be lost on theteam to play like I'm loving hip hop

(23:45):
and they're listening to like they're tragicallyhip and like Dave and like Dave Matthews
band in the locker room and I'mlike, I'm a freshman. I'm like,
can I play some dre? CanI play like? And they're like,
it's not the basketball locker room.Like I have to deal with that.
I got to deal with that,yeah, yeah, yeah, or
else I can fight everybody, whichI did at times. But oh man,

(24:10):
yeah that's pretty dope. So I'mwondering, like how I don't want
to say common, but the ideaof football hockey doing both sports, I
don't think it's happening again just becauseI I'll just say it like this.
You know, I'm twenty five yearsout. I've had a hip replacement already,

(24:30):
Like my body is breaking down too. And I think now when you
think about the new laws and niland the yeah, the fact that people
like you you're not going to seeyou're not going to see people playing two
sports because of the physical toll,the time investment, so the marketing around
it. I'm in marketing and advertisingright now. Like everyone's a brand,
right, So there's an element ofhigh school athletics have become college athletics now.

(24:55):
So the idea of a university sponsoringtwo people for two things that would
have to be it like multi probablyhave to be. I don't see Kogate
doing it, but you know,you know, I'm I'm stranger things just
given the fact that they're they havescholarships now, and like there's just different
elements of compensation that I think arenow becoming headwinds from like what I did

(25:18):
right, which was more of negotiationbecause they really wanted me for football and
I'm like, I'm not coming unlessI play hockey, right, knowing the
time coming bit that being a studentathlete for one sport is the mind sports
were you were there was there aton for any other involvement in any other
extracurricular activities that you found yourself.Yeah, I mean my friends were all

(25:41):
active in so all my college roommateswere either student government people or like active
in o US or like so I'vealways been a fan of civic and sort
of like I've always volunteered. Itwas part of Jack and Jill. I
did all that stuff as a kid, right, so I've done a lot
of sort of the sort of thegiving back part. So I always trying

(26:02):
to do community service when I wasthere. But I feel like when you're
isolated up there, it's very hardto be Like it just felt like we're
in a bubble and like the impactof the causes that, like there wasn't
really oh yeah, like back thenwe're dealing like I wasn't as politically active
as I consider myself now, butwe're dealing with an election back then coming
in, you know, there's atransition from like you know, presidents or

(26:25):
transition from Clinton. So there's alot going on that way too. Although
like the school didn't feel as polarizingas it probably does now as it relates
to some of the more current eventsthat are going on today. But like
it was a bubble, Like itfelt like if you weren't in a fraternity,
or you weren't an athlete, likeyou did club soccer or did other

(26:47):
stuff right to keep yourself busy.So I was friends with a lot of
different types of groups of people.I did do like children's theater and stuff
my senior year, which you knowa lot of the athletes did too,
just because we all enjoyed you know, I spent a lot of time with
the kids, so as much astime we could do that with them as
well. So I like that aspectof sort of you know, the flexibility

(27:08):
that the school provided, and youknow, there was opportunities to do that
stuff. I would love to havedone more in hindsight, but I just
didn't feel like it was It wasn'ta lot. I mean, it was
just like liberal arts and it waslike drinking and people like wasting time.
I guess right. I just feltlike there was a lot of that.
I feel like education value differently nowit's more expensive, and it's definitely more

(27:33):
expensive. So we'll take that asa great segue to take a pause so
we can show some love to oursponsor, and then we will circle back
and get back into hear a littlebit about Babco. Also hear about what
life has been like since you graduatedfrom Lovelo University. So we'll be back

(27:56):
with the second half of this conversation. So this episode is sponsored by Hope
Murals. Hope Murals is a nonprofitthat provides adolescent youth with an interactive experience
of creative expression via an urban artsplatform that stimulates both mental and physical development.

(28:17):
Please visit that website at www dotmuralsdot org to learn more and find
ways you can support the work theydo. Welcome back, Welcome back,
Welcome back. This is part twoof the conversation with Brian Owens, class
of nineteen ninety nine. But beforewe jump into what life has been like

(28:41):
after Gate, we want to makesure we thank our sponsor, Hope Mural
So please, as always we areencouraging you to jump on that website hopemurals
dot org, show them some love. Make sure you have a greater appreciation
of all that they're doing to exposeour youth to urban arts all over this
country. They're doing some amazing thingsusing art to build their sense of hope

(29:06):
and affect their development emotionally, socially, characterise. Check out Wholemurals. They
have an amazing social media presence atWhole MirOS, so get on their site
and show them some love. Also, we want to make sure we show
some love to our network, theThe fire Life network. They are always

(29:27):
the power behind what we do here, so we also want to make sure
you show some love to the podcast. The fire Life Pause is definitely a
good spot to check out this podcastas well as other dope podcasts that they
have on the network. Show themsome love. And it's always we want
to always shout out our guests becausewithout our guests, the Coviate aoc that

(29:51):
have been on here sharing their greatstories and their journeys, we wouldn't have
a show. And when you doget a a chance to listen to our
show on any of your major podcaststreaming services, make sure you like or
subscribe so that you get a messagewhen we drop it on whether it's Spreaker,

(30:14):
Spotify, make sure you like asubscribe so that you know when we
are dropping a new podcast on Saturdaysat thirteen hundred hours. So before we
get into the what life has beenlike for Brian, I'm gonna pass it
to my co host who can bringus back in onto the second half,
So on you Jerry, Yeah,sir, Yeah, sure. Welcome back,
folks, and just quick plug ifyou haven't heard, special special events

(30:38):
going on, special celebrations going on, a reunion weekend this year, so
you want to make sure if youhave not registered, if you have not
my plans, you might want tolook into what's going on because it's not
gonna be your average reunion. Andwe got some major legends in the building
for this week that weekend, andyou should be there if you were heavily
involved, or even if you weren'theavily when you were undergrad at KOGE in

(31:02):
the community of Color. It's aboutcelebrating the culture and those who shoulders we
stood on, who we've all stoodon. So come on out. But
with that, we're back with BrianOwens class of ninety nine. And before
we get back to sort of thejourney that you went on after Kovie,
we want to be able to throwa little curve ball and just sort of

(31:22):
speak to something that I think impactsus all in one way or another.
But record has it that this year'sNCAA Women's Basketball Championship had reached record views,
and I even believe it. Don'tquote me on this, I have
to get my data right. Mayhave exceeded some professional sports that played by

(31:48):
men, that was competing with pastrecords, and so as a student athlete
who went to a university that hada fair share of women's sports, with
with how professional sports is just sortof with with merchandising and sponsorship evolving,
uh, with diversity, equity andinclusion being a factor, women's rights always

(32:13):
at the foundation of this. Isthere a shift occurring? Is is it?
Is there something in the air?Are just all young girls playing ball
at a younger age? What isit that from your angle would would sort
of give us some insight to boththe experience as an athlete and now in
the professional world. What's going on? Yeah, great question. I'm also

(32:37):
noticing a shift. What I'm afan of, uh, you know,
women's sports even at Kogate, youknow, whether it's a volleyball team or
basketball team. You know, wehad you know, uh, a bunch
of you know, close to oLimbians and and uh you know, you
know, uh, you know,you know Division one, you know,

(32:57):
yeah, whatever, you know,we have. We had a lot of
successful teams when I was there.What stands out to me is the fact
that anyone could be a brand now, so you don't necessarily have to worry
and be part of an AAU teamor like your ability to go viral and
you and create your own likeness isimportant, right. I work in advertising,

(33:21):
so I get excited that, youknow, the female athletes are making
more than male athletes and sometimes rightnow depending on in college, just because
of the ability to get sponsorships outsideof the university from brands like Coca Cola.
I think about Caitlyn Clark and justyou know the fact that although her
salary coming into under w NBA islike seventy five thousand dollars a year,

(33:45):
even though like Nike's giving her twentyeight million in sponsorship. Right, So
there you go, right, She'sand then and then folks are arguing that
she deserves a Michael Jordan type ofdeal if anyone watched you know, the
Shoe the show air, right,I mean there's aspects of certain athletes come
around and demand a certain premium.I'm hoping that diversity kind of comes to

(34:08):
impacts Clogate as it kind of assessesthis opportunity as well as it's talent.
Right. I think they need torecruit people that can also make the university
popular. In addition, so theability to evangelize, evangeli to have a
following are all critical components of success. Now, if you're a student athlete,
you just can't be good and expectto be seen. If you're not

(34:30):
good and own your own likeness,you have an ability to either be sort
of replicated or passed over. AndI think and then you have an equal
part like parents have to help kidsto negotiate. You know, there's not
even a belt, Like before we'regoing to go to Clogate's like how much
can Colgate give me? The wholedifferent? And that could happen to volleyball,

(34:52):
the field, hockey, It doesn'tmatter anymore. Likes it's I wish
I was coming into college now asan athlete, because I could have maximized
my body. You know, honestlyROI versus waiting to kind of get to
a professional lead to qualify myself tomake money off of skills, I could

(35:12):
have made money off of been seventeento eight years old, especially in hockey.
It definitely could have monetized myself.So like, looking back, I'm
jealous, but because I was talkingabout compensation even back then, when like
you know, Obandon from UCLA wassaying that athletes should get paid like he
did that lawsuit in nineteen ninety nine. So like now we're seeing the fruits

(35:35):
of that twenty five years later.It just tells you how long progress takes
when it comes to like D andI and now it's gone in front of
action, is sort of gone.So you know, I'm hoping Kolgate just
mixed because of the pressure on theeconomic model. I hope it doesn't sacrifice
the diversity of talent that they haveto get the recruit because of that,
and they don't make excuses. Ireally hope they don't do that. Well,

(36:00):
we hope so as well. I'mon the Alumni Council, so I
get to hear directly from President Casey, and he stands firm in his approach
to continuing to want a diverse andinclusive campus that is focused on making sure
all students feel like they belong onthis campus. So appreciate that insight.

(36:24):
But before we get into BABCO,I'm gonna continue teasing BABCO so that our
listeners, you know, make surethey stay in tune because we want to
hear about it. I would lovefor you to give us a sense of
what your life has been like sincegraduation. So if you can walk us
through our life from graduating in ninetynine, to the corporate professional you are

(36:47):
now, Yeah, professionally. It'sbeen a journey. I think Kogie afforded
me the opportunity because of the alumninetwork as well as being a student,
opportunity to have a job before Ieven graduated. So, you know,
I quit playing football my senior yearand just played ice hockey so I could
focus on, you know, justrecruiting and and finding a job. And

(37:09):
I was able to get a joba Lockheed Martin UH as part of their
financial Leadership Development program ron ZEIMEC wasa was a COVIE graduate. Were they
able to get me a job likethey paid for my m b A.
I ended up graduating from George WashingtonUniversity in d c UH. So I
love the d m V area.I spent you know, four or five

(37:30):
years there. I loved it.I didn't want to leave, but I
got a job of Gillette. Soonce I graduated from my MBA from gw
in accounting in in entrepreneurship, whichis a good segue to batcode too,
So that was my major. Mymaster's in Business Administration was in those are

(37:50):
my specializations. Then I worked atGillett and finance and accounting, so the
story of me sort of going intosort of you know, different jobs and
different places. This is sort ofa theme of my life. So like
I went from finance and accounting intolike a corporate role working in an rob
and a global toothbrust division and learnedabout the cost of capital and all that

(38:10):
fun stuff. After working at LuckyMartin as like a cost accounting there did
well. Procter and Gamble bought us. So I took that as an opportunity
to move into sales, just becauseI felt like, you know, that's
where the action was a bit.So I moved there, was successful.
There, ran a sales team,soldialllett Raisers to CBS. So I have

(38:32):
a lot of training and sort ofyou know classical consumer packaged good, brand
building fundamentals, storytelling, understand sortof what it takes to write a big
advertising All that stuff got exposed tothat obviously, selling, negotiating skills,
analytical skills, building a data story, did all that fun stuff on the

(38:53):
job. Being more of an apprenticeyou know, from there, got promoted,
you know, ran a pretty bigbusiness on the CVS team, selling
you know, close to three hundredmillion dollars worth of razors, CBS fourteen
million dollars worth of spend, alot of responsibility people, but I didn't
have I didn't want to move toCincinnati, So I took an opportunity to

(39:15):
move to a company called record Bnkuiserwhich sold light sool and a bunch of
other products. Lived in Jersey fora while, did that again outside my
comfort zone. And then from thereI went into research. So worked at
Kantar, which did a lot ofmarket research. This is where the sociology
and anthropology kicked in. Like itjust took like fifteen years to get there.

(39:37):
Doing survey research, you know,learning a lot about you know,
different audiences, what drives them,what motivates them, what changes behavior,
what goes into behavior changes you haveto tell somebody do twenty five different times
to build brand equity, things likethat, Like I learned a lot of
good bills and works big companies,big brands, Unilever, you know,

(40:04):
PEPSI coke all of them right,And then so I have understanding what kind
of goes into sort of the machineof a big brand and the investment that
goes into it. And then fromthere I now work at a company called
VML, and I work in theBAV Group, which is called brand asse
Evaluation. I'm a managing director,so I lead our strategy and insights group,

(40:28):
and you know, our specialization ison brand building, brand equity building,
brand positioning. So thirty you knowoverall companies like thirty thousand, thousand
employees. Every Super Bowl commercial you'reselling on C on TV, somehow my
company is probably impacting it because we'repart of WPP. So I understand media.

(40:49):
I understand you know why there's sucha gap and access for African Americans
in media. I'm seeing a big, big disparracy there. So like in
my career right now, I'm reallychampioning amplifying black voices. But at the
same time, I'm trying to takemy own expertise as a subject expert in

(41:12):
like healthcare, retail, healthcare,pharmacy. I know a lot about that.
I also know a lot about scalingbrands and how to do it on
social, how the position, howto tell a really good story, and
how to pitch. So all thesethings you learned in an advertising agency.
I didn't know that coming from Colgate. I wish I did, or else
I probably would have gone that route. But going to traditional selling to retailers

(41:38):
and selling brands to retailers. Ilearned how to scale stuff, so I
know exactly what it takes to kindof make something big fast. So I
feel like that's been my career.It's been about you know, critical thinking,
analytical, you know, the abilityto code switch a bit, just

(41:59):
because that's why I learned to coldate. And then that ability has gotten my
ability to be a good sort ofapprentice. So people trust me and they
train me, and I learned fast, and then I train other people and
I try to mentor people and thenbuild a coalition around me, so there's
good talent around me and success usuallycomes from that. So that's a long

(42:21):
winded story, but it really startedfrom you know training and education, more
free education with Lotkey paying for ityou couldn't afford my MBA. And then
building off of that with you know, tenured experiencing consumer package goods brands as
well as now in advertising and youknow, high level market research. So

(42:44):
I feel pretty good about my businessacumen, which is why I feel really
strong about my co founding bab Clubwith Chester Phelps, who was a fellow
nineteen ninety nine grad was another studentathlete that played basketball. So before we
get into back, I definitely wantto just throw a little bit about something
you said. So you talked aboutthe market share of uh yeah, like

(43:10):
elaborate on that. Yeah, Soif you think about advertising where I work,
and we work with a lotch ofbig brands right whether it's you know,
I'm working on Narcan right now,like the launch of Narcan and literally
saving lives as a campaign or workingwith a Laoreal, the access to those
dollars to be able to advertise ina big, meaningful way, those are

(43:36):
hard. Like it's hard for asmall entrepreneur or an up and coming black
owned brand or enterprise to be ableto afford to be able to scale on
Instagram without right, it's hard tobe able to create or buy ad space
to compete with a clarox on duringthe play Google Pixels, the NBA right

(44:00):
now, Right, that's a client. So the ability to understand placement,
the cost of that, as wellas you know, ways to amplify spend
as well as platforms to sort ofyou know, this is a really good
platform TikTok to create content, butif you want to scale it, you
do it on Instagram. So we'reunderstanding the intelligence of all the platforms,

(44:22):
the tools that you can build commerceexperiences around. All that stuff isn't easily
accessible and knowledgeable. You know,there's a lot of black people who work
in these places that go off andrun their own shops because they're boxed out
and they're not able to help peoplethat look like us scale faster. So

(44:42):
I've seen that now for about fouror five years, and companies like Coca
Cola, big companies have like acommitment to this stuff. P and G
have commitments to this stuff. SoI know it's possible. But I also
know, you know, I workfor an advertising agency and we're very,
very expensive, right. I actuallywork for marketing consultants, a brand marketing
consultancy. Now, where's it's value. We're a premium priced shop because we

(45:08):
can valuate a brand and tell youhow much you're worth. So I want
to create access for more people thatlook like us to be able to get
that same intelligence. Yeah, yeah, will you write it, because that's
your key. That's the key tosuccess. In my opinion, if you're
a business looking to get your brandin front of a loyal, supportive,

(45:28):
successful market, you need to becomea sponsor of Aftergate. Our network recognizes
the opportunity to work with co Gates, a lum of color, to leverage
the reach of the show to increaseawareness and profitability for your business. Reach
out to the Defile Life podcast networkand we will work with you throughout the
entire process. We have special packagesto get you started. Contact us at

(45:51):
info at go to firelife dot com. Every week professionals of color ranging from
politicians to educators, to judges,to entrepreneurs, to lawyers, corporate leaders,
and even retirees. After Gate reachesin a rate of successful bipod listeners.
Contact us to learn more about howwe can benefit you. With that

(46:15):
being said, if it was everthe top for our segue back of the
question would be, so where doyou go now? You mentioned how your
journey has taken in industries. Someopportunities presented themselves, doors open, others
closed. Share with us division ofthe vision of Babco is I think twenty

(46:39):
five years in the making, prettymuch since we graduated from COVID, right,
so, I think it took ita while for all of us to
grow up and find each other.Life is life, you know, you
know, kids, all sorts oflife experiences can happen, right, and
then the ability to be reconnected withanother person that's gone through the same like
experiences is special. Like you whatyou two are doing is specially right.

(47:00):
And I had the pleasure of beingso are in the presence of other sort
of entrepreneur creators, like the foundersof Black and Bol coffee. You know,
two brothers are you know, realslick, you know, Pronell and
Rod Pronell says are Rod Johnson.I saw them come together and help each
other and they start a black ownedbrand that's coffee that no one's doing,

(47:22):
and it's scaling over millions of dollarsand I'm like, Wow, wouldn't it
be cool to do something that likesomebody like that with somebody at Clogate.
Fast forward to two years ago,Ama Martha's vineyard, you know, vacationing.
All these black people are around Morehouse, Hampton, you know people are

(47:43):
you know, you know, alltheir politicians, Kamala Harris is on the
island, Barack's on the island.All these universities are repping their school,
raising money, helping black people.And I'm jealous. I'm seeing Lehi there,
I'm seeing like brown there, I'mseeing Colombia. I'm seeing these schools,
you know, have this sort ofidentity on this island where I'm from.

(48:05):
I'm from Massachusetts, and I'm like, I want KOVI to be a
presence here, Like we know people, we got famous people too. Why
can't we raise money? Why can'twe have a make a have a statement
here? Right? So I callmy friend Zach. Zach's like, yo,
you should talk to Chester. Italked to Chester. I think they
were like Turks and Keko's actually atZack's house and like, I was like,

(48:27):
Chester, get your ass to thevineyard. He got on the plane,
came to Vineyard, and BAPCO kindof formed. At that point,
we were talking about post COVID,there's no more. We're seeing a lot
more black owned businesses going out ofthe business. He's like, yo,
I see this in Harlem. Youknow, I see this in Roxbury in
Boston. You know we should dosomething about it. You work at Disney.

(48:49):
I work at VML. This isthe biggest advertising You work the biggest
media company in the world in Disney. You guys invented storytelling, sorry Shakespeare,
right, Walt Disney is impressive.You know how to build websites.
I know how to do strategy.Let's help some people. So we started
a nonprofit business called the Black andBrown Collective named BABCO. It's been two

(49:16):
years into making. Last summer wedid a small impromptu launch with Kogate support,
you know, on the island.Diana Seconi came, she supported so
we had good representation there. Cogatesponsored it. It was great, but
we just wanted more. We're like, we want everyone to bring thirteen people
to the event next year. Becauseof the thirteen number. And then as

(49:39):
we got more and more people,people like Sophia raised her hand, people
like Jeanie Rivere, you know,raised her hand. She graduated in the
eighties, you know, Sofia inthe you know, the two twenty twenties.
You know, we're in ninety nine. We immediately wanted some advocacy on
the board, more white representation,so we didn't feel like it was a
militant group, right because we don'twant sponsor turned off. Zach's on the

(50:01):
level, you know, Jewish dudewants to help out like the civil rights
movement was back in the day.Jumped on board. You know, all
this stuff is on purpose driven right, So we really we put a million
dollar number there because we want transparency. We're really focusing on the startup phase
because, like we told you,that's the hardest part, right. I

(50:22):
think there's twenty percent of black ownedbusinesses start, only four percent succeed.
Right, So even if we havethe ambition of being a black owned business,
just the structure of being even inthat space and being the four year
opportunity of working at P and Gand all these big companies and understanding what
goes into the pitch of capital andwhat the infrastructure looks like. You know,

(50:45):
I'm like, good, let's breakdown some barriers here, my man,
and like, let's do let's dosomething for black and Brown because you
know, Coogate is a diaspora andwe want to make we were focusing more
on Kogate first. You know,we we really went there first, and
you know, we we we gotsupport, but we really don't want to
open this up. So the ideais really it's inspired by our this idea

(51:08):
of scaling faster. What's going tobe unique about the Black and Brown Collective
is that, you know, justbecause of background in website development and just
you know, events, just beinga guy in the city and being from
you know, Niak, New York, so we had a lot of confidence

(51:28):
in our ability to kind of likebuild a following. I just really am
passionate about this. I just wanta great change. I feel like I
want to get a better ROI andmy COVID degree as an African and I
think by doing something like this,creating space on the Marsi's vineyard during the
African American Film Festival when people arethere for a signature, experience, the
fundraise and teach. Now we haveopportunity and conversations by with some developers that

(51:55):
create a platform a website, notwebsite, but social media platform that will
be able to have our founders likeSophia, like Race Darko, folks who
are identified in the clok Atia programthat we've done our due deils. We
want to spotlight them. We wantto create spaces on the website experience that

(52:17):
we're going to build that allows themto fundraise on their own and allows them
to create experience of the lower costof capital and that allow them to scale
faster across all social media as wellas take advantage of versus events. Remember
versus back in the day COVID,so we're in conversations with some of those
folks. So when they have theirown versus events, our hope is to

(52:39):
be able to embed advertising and featuresof our BABCO entrepreneurs in those spaces.
So we're really trying to create aninfrastructure to help We want to close the
capital access, racial ec and equitygap. We want to help black and
brown founders with their startup costs,whether it's samples, transportation and mentorship,

(53:00):
pip whatever. We need to kindof like, you know, keep the
lights on to help people kind ofget to that big sort of next stage.
And then we want to partner withpeople that look like us, people
that don't look like us, peoplethat have money, people that don't have
money, big institutions. We wanteveryone involved, which is why it still
feels like you gotta go on Alvinshow, You got to go on your

(53:21):
main show. These brothers are doingwhat you and Chester are doing right.
We have a vision. We wantto mentor people, we want to get
back right. We want to createspace. So when we look about the
sacrifice of feeling different and feeling likewe have to adapt our selves to a
culture that isn't necessarily comfortable for usand now dealing with that in hockey and

(53:45):
other places, it's like we're sickof it. Man. We just want
to create space for whoever's young thatwants to be succeed and we want to
show them a road map to dothat. You know, we're having a
launch party in the city on thetwenty first at Bar Bar the sit in
and time in May Yeah, comethrough and then our big signature event is

(54:06):
on Martha's Vineyard. I'll send youguys a links to send out to folks
as well too. It's you know, the website's babco fund dot org so
b A, b CEO, fU n D dot O r G.
There's a lot more information on thewebsite. The idea is just to get
people signed up for the experience.We're in the process of getting sponsors.

(54:31):
We have a tentative invite from theLieutenant Governor for a fundraiser. The last
night, All Races, All Creeds, All Everyone was just about helping young
people win. The idea is peoplewho are in school or even out of
school recently Alice School. We wantto help. We want to provide a

(54:52):
community and more importantly want to createspace on Martha's Vineyard where all the big
money is, Like that week iswhere all you know, if you were
talking about JP Morgan, the banksare there. So our ability to create
an event with people that are alreadyon the island and hopefully get folks like
you there supporting and being part ofthe experiences too. Give us access,

(55:15):
give us the right to have differentconversations like Charles Okertree and those folks are
having is part of like the Harvardstuff, right. I want Kobe to
be have a voice on that island, and I want Babco to both represent
are us as well as anyone whowants to just try to be an entrepreneur,
because if I knew this was possiblenineteen ninety five, nine or even

(55:37):
nineteen ninety five, I might nothave a struggle through all these different institutions
and places I worked at and likelost myself at times, because I probably
could have done it on my ownright if I knew that was possible.
So it's I want to create hopefor other people because I believe in generational
wealth, and the only way wecould do that is by creating wealth for

(56:00):
ourselves. In addition to working nineto five, Like, we have to
have multiple hustles to be successful ifyou're a person of color. And I
think Babco hopefully will be a platformthat will hopefully transform the conversation a bit
both on campus as well as sortof support the vision of entrepreneurship for anyone
who looks like us. So justprobe a little more so more than just

(56:23):
giving entrepreneurs funds. More it's it'sit's more than that. It's more strategy.
It's strategy, it's it's bringing peoplethat know how to do this into
the conversation. Is bring you knowyou I'm on the board of the y
m c A in Boston, right, it's bringing the grassroot community. You're

(56:45):
in anither way right, our abilityto partner to create you know, because
all we're doing is a website andexperience and we're going to train people on
it. We're going to give themtools, We're going to give them advice,
We're going to give them access toreally smart people like yourselves to help
mentor them, and we're going togive them space to be able to like
ask for money's whenever they need it. That's one thing we're doing right well,

(57:08):
also literally trying to create you know, bring notice to the fact that,
look, we need more people involvedhere. There's a huge gap,
and like we need to put moreand more pressure on Kogi to create spaces
for us to create our own businessesso we can fail fast. We don't
all have if we don't have amillion dollars that we can start up businesses

(57:31):
with, like people do that havecome from money, and if we do,
we need that money for other things. Right, So I think we
need to figure out the way tobe able to fail fast and how people
feel fast and you know, beconsidered in the boardrooms. Because since George
Floyd, less and less people aretaking the black or brown founder or entrepreneur's

(57:54):
call. And it was all aboutcharity after George Floyd, I haven't forgotten
the commitments. So I'm keeping pressureon everybody that said they were supporting.
This is another way that they cansupport no matter if they're black, brown,
red, yellow, lean, gay, yellow, whatever, I don't
care. We just need to helpeach other. Man. Shout out to

(58:21):
Sophia for the yeah right, Shoutout for you brothers for what y'all are
doing. Give me that website onemore time, so for yeah, so
www b A, B C,f U, N D, dot org,
BABCO, fund doc org. It'sa movement, right, We're not
trying that, we're not profiting.I get no dime for this. I

(58:42):
already dedicated some of my money intothis up front, just because I want
to leave a legacy for my daughtertoo. Right. I want her to
be on office vinit when we're vacationingand say, my daddy went to Kolgate,
not because he played ice hockey,not because he played football, because
he started APCO, Like that iswhat I'm though. I want that to
be a legacy. I want herto be like I'm part of it.

(59:06):
I want her to be starting yourown business. You know, you could
be influenced before he starts fifteen.Now, why can't that be part of
your college essay? And the siteis mobile friendly because I just registered,
got on and that August fourth eventup in New York, My might you
know, require me to make visits. Fe folks up in the Bronx and

(59:27):
go come on through. Let's goso come through. We're gonna be in
the city in May. We're gonnaprobably do something again in June TBD.
It's probably gonna be around the fightwith Tyson either gonna be in DC,
and we're probably gonna make it atwenty fifth anniversary party for the nineteen ninety
nine class folks who are going toreunion. We gotta make it a throwback.

(59:47):
And then our big Sensor event Augustfourth till the tenth Martha's Vineyard.
Well then I had We're I'm alreadyorganizing. We're gonna have three days of
events, be like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Wednesday will more likely to
be a cocktail hour. Thursday willbe like a tour of the island.

(01:00:08):
We're hoping we're gonna do something likethat because we do COVID does have roots
to Mars's Vineyard with Adam Clayton.Pole is a house there, so there
is a connection, which is whycoch Chuester and I thought it was cool
too. Kind of now then,especially with him being with Harlem being where
he lives now and then and thenand then the last day will be in

(01:00:31):
the morning. We're either gonna dolike a leadership academy for like four hours.
We're gonna teach everyone our new proprietarywebsite and then bring in speakers who
know how to raise money know howto build a brand and know how the
network. So we're gonna teach ourour entrepreneurs all these exposed them, all

(01:00:52):
these things, and whoever's on theisland, we're gonna try to pull them
into and then we're gonna do alot of live streaming as well. So
we're trying to make this as interactiveas possible so everyone could participate even if
they can't afford to come. Butat the end of the day, we're
trying to make a movement here,you know, a legacy, and I've
loved to support we've gotten. Soour board is again Zachariabel Chester, Felt,

(01:01:15):
Sofia, Brestfort as well as JanineRepair. Okay, so we're really
proud of Babco. You know.The more people that can sign up and
be part of the website is whatI'm really advocating for. I encourage you
to have Chester on separately. Youcan get his story because it's even more
compelling than mine. And like Isaid, like I feel like I feel

(01:01:37):
like I have a new brother nowbecause we're going through this right now like
it's been it's been. You know, men don't know how to talk to
each other, we don't know howto like as we get older, and
it's been cool to have a projectlike this to reconnect with people who have
the same mindset, both from afamily sort of who I am in America
as a black man and the moreimportantly as a Kobe grad. So we

(01:02:00):
would definitely do our due diligence toget brother Chester on. You will also,
listeners, know that this will notbe the last time you hear about
babcod, so be ready as wecontinue to promote it and encourage folks to
show some love to Babcode. Justknow that will be part of after Gave

(01:02:20):
vernacular as we go forward. Onelast question, if you had to go
back to your seventeen year old self, eighteen year old self entering Kogate as
a freshman, with all that youknow now, without the wisdom you have
now, what might be some adviceor the main advice you would give to

(01:02:43):
yourself going into Kogate, And thinkof what would that advice be. Also,
as you graduate Kogate going into theworld. Youlluded to a few things
earlier, but what might you tellyour younger self in those two junctures in
life for yourself? Well, youdidn't have to drink. I didn't pick

(01:03:06):
up alcohol until I went to thatschool, and that was the problem.
Spend more time in HRC, Almostlike I feel like I was encouraged not
to live there by athletes because ofAnd I almost feel like I wish I
spent more time building my community networkthan I'm now leveraging twenty five years later,

(01:03:32):
because I felt like in the eightiesand the nineties, black people that
were friends with white people did well. I feel like now the black people
are friends with black people from Kobedo well because we're all doing well.
And I feel like there's a misconceptionof there was a hierarchy there, and
I said, screw the hierarchy,be friends with who you're friends with and

(01:03:53):
be loyal. Like I think Iwas like that, right, And I
feel like I wish I spent moretime making other people comfortable. And I
think I because I played two sportsat times, I felt like I was
probably on the approachable because people thoughtI wasn't with the cause, even though
I was the whole time, becauseI was just too rapid and trying to

(01:04:13):
be different. When it doesn't matterwhat sports you play, still black,
right, We definitely have said onthis show before. It is, so
those divisions that seventeen, eighteen,nineteen twenty year olds are working through,
craz's unfortunate that there aren't enough adultswho are helping us. God. Yeah,

(01:04:34):
And there was no encouragement by olderclassmen to say, hey guys.
It was very competitive, right,you know, there was a scarce amount
of females all that stuff, right, so everyone was competitive with each other.
Wouldn't have been nicer if we couldhave build coalitions with other schools around
the area versus fighting Morristown wouldn't havebeen nice to be part like like some

(01:04:57):
people did that, like Chester actuallybridged some bridges, but in general it
was so isolated, and then itwas even more isolated when you were there,
right, people even self isolated evenmore. It was already isolated,
like we were already struggling with culture. So maybe I honestly leaving the campus,
I wish I did more. Iwish I went to Syracuse, I
went to New York. I wishI we were pre pre social media,

(01:05:21):
so you know, I didn't knowwe were more physical media. Getting the
whip and as road trip to collegeand uh road, I wish I did
more of that because I was alwaysplaying a game or going to some place,
so like maybe just one sport.Any last words, good Brethern.

(01:05:45):
No, I just hope what you'redoing. I want to be part of
it. I want to scale it. And like I said, I'm all
about trying to get a better ROIon our degrees and whether I graduated in
nineteen eighty or nine or twenty twentyfive, Kogate is a unique experience if
you're a person of color, andwe need to figure out a way to
celebrate it more versus put it down. And this is what we're doing here

(01:06:08):
after Gate. This has been anotherepisode of Aftergate season four. Thank you
to our guests, Thank you toour listeners. After Gate is always powered
by the Defilight Networks. Make sureyou check us out in the future on
all of your favorite podcast streaming platformsbecause we have many more dope episodes to
follow. And remember that the Coldgateof your day is not the Colgate of

(01:06:31):
today, and it's certainly not theColgate of the future. Peace Family.
Sh you hear that, listen closerthat my friend is definitely sout of focus.
It drowns out all the useless noisethat can clutter. The only nay
sayers don't exist. Haters, smaters, the peanut gallery. Who's that when

(01:06:57):
you're in your zone, all thatnoise and all that buzz's element of music.
So enjoy your journey, focus onyour goal in bask in the quiet
role that is progressed because when it'syour time to shoot that shot, spit
that verse, or close that thenthe only voice that matters is yours,
the fire life. Get them todonate. That's what your fundraising team is

(01:56:42):
about. But Aftergate does help shifta demographic that has pretty much been like
this to y'all. Right, rightnow, there's always gonna have a percentage
of but maybe that has decreased.That's all we can add. Right now,
we move the needle and has value, that has a lot of value,

(01:57:03):
and then it doesn't. With allof the universities in this country,
a simple license fee adds up prettyfast, real quick. If you talk
about twenty let's just say twenty Yuniversesaid were good, we're good, sign

(01:57:23):
us up for ten thousand dollars license. That could leave New York alone.
You think about all the schools inNew York, New York State. So
like, let's marinate on that becauseagain, like I tell my wife,
like ideas are great, but it'slike it's the the reality of where you
take it from an idea to actuallydoing it and then committing to us to

(01:57:46):
fruition and sustaining it right right,It's a it's a level of commitment that
you got to really think through becauseit's like you can't. You don't want
to just start it and be like, Yo, this ship is a lot.
Yeah, that's why you gotta think, So marinate on that. I'll
continue to marinate on that. AndI do think though, if this is

(01:58:08):
if that's the way we want togo, this is the perfect opportunity to
get people who get it, haveexperienced it, and are committed to doing
that. For people like us,Yo, imagine having at Marcus Vineyard a
code where you could come up andif you've been an act Gate, yes
you get like a discount or registrationto plug getting more because not everyone starts

(01:58:33):
looking forward to this event annually.Then doing this annually our markets and the
word's gonna spread, Right, We'regonna be spreading the word on Aftergate.
But we work out a deal withBatco, like for every AOC that's been
a guest on Aftergate. They geta something that's like a purpose, a
discount of registration, they get accessto something, or rather just because he

(01:59:00):
wants to build his membership. Hewants to build we're ready getting them on
the show, right, and sothey now we're plugging the events all all
through all our free episodes, we'replugging the event that sponsorship. Right.
Yeah, there's a lot of intointo woven the ways at which Babco and
Aftergate could serve each other. Andwe don't even talked about the content,

(01:59:28):
like the business coaching. We haven'teven gotten into the business coaching. We're
just talking about the pools that we'rethat we're swimming in the pools of folks
that are going to It's like,you know, we're building a platform through
after the Gate of AOC across decades. They're clearly trying to build a platform
of AOC across decades based on professionalexpertise and capacity. Right, we're just

(01:59:54):
getting folks to to share their story. So there's there's there's these two tracks
of movements that are happening that cancan coincidentally coexist, they can thrive off
of each other, correct and hesaid, I want a bigger r O.
I can cogate. Now you startleveraging Colgate. You have Casey come

(02:00:18):
to Marcus Viny and Funk with thebrown, the black and brown hope.
Look at the money where we're ableto, you know, like why where's
Colgate's coming in? It's like it'sabout match, Like, yo, we're
able to. If Babco is ableto range x amount, can Colgate match
that with a donation to matter,because then the nonprofit perfect? They yeah,

(02:00:42):
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Like let's let's let's let's let's
build. Yeah all right, broto be continued, Man to be continue,
my brother, all right, yes, sure, yes sir? Peace
peace, peace peace. Uh h