Reclaiming The Feminine CEO Feat. Morgan DeBaun

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
But what I wanted the white boys to say about
me is Morgan is hardcore. We're betting on her. She's
a fucking boss, she's fierce, she's a shark. She's gonna
get it done. That was the only narrative that would
have gotten me to be able to let them give
me millions. MM.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Welcome back to Good Mom's Bad Choices. I'm Erica and
I'm Mila.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Happy Wednesday, bitches, Happy motherfucking hump day.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
How you doing.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
How are you feeling, baby? I feel good, I feel
I feel tan, I feel great. I put on darker makeup.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Today, Okay. I was like, it's raining, bitch.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Would I put on darker makeup today just to feel
like I was in Costa Rica? I was like, let
me go a shade darker. Okay, I feel like the
camera will be flattering. It has to blend my neck.
You know you're just gonna bolen down. Tips, ladies, use
a beauty blunder. Blend down, don't forget the don't forget
to blend down. I hate when I fucking see the
line too. But you can get away if you buy
a beauty blender, and this is a plug. If you

(01:09):
buy a beauty blunder and you get it wet. You
can wear any shade of makeup.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
I don't, Please, don't tell the bitches that you can.
Please don't do that. Beauty blender makes everyone. I really
don't want to see any black women in very light makeup.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
And I don't want to see Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:23):
I'm talking about more dark, not more light.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Okay, well you look some kiss my love. What do
I wear? The brown shirt? Hopefully it was gonna like
I think that was reflecting.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
But please, God, for the love of God, don't take
Erica's advice and start wearing colors that don't belong to you.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Terrible makeup advice.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Bitch is just lying. This is my color.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Yep, Like eric I said, it's fine.

Speaker 5 (01:49):
Now, I'm good.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
I'm happy.

Speaker 5 (01:50):
We're we're in money March.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
I feel like we've had some really great guests, and
I've been learning lots of things.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
I have. I've learned a lot of things.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
We've been recording our audiobook, which is been really really
fulfilling in some weird way. I know we wrote it,
but like I just realized when we were recording the
other day, like I haven't heard myself say it like, I,
you don't really realize that you don't hear yourself talk
until you put headphones on because we don't wear headphones.

Speaker 5 (02:13):
Refuse, we're too cute.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
My hairstyles will not make it if I wear headphones.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
But I was like listening to the book and I
was like, oh, this is what I said. I was
like crying and shit, I'm like, ah, this is powerful,
this is how I sound.

Speaker 5 (02:24):
Yeah, I'm really excited for people to hear it. It's
it's a really good book. I have to say I.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Felt very activated after, like we have a director and
our audible and engineer and like it's this kind wonderful
middle aged white woman who's a single mom named Jessica.
And she was like, when I read your book, I
really could relate to it. And I was like, you
know what, if Jessica relates to our shit, it's a hit.

Speaker 5 (02:50):
If the white it's a hit.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Not the white like it, it's a hit. It's more
like it's it's relatable.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
Even if we drop a couple of amazing the white's,
it's mainstream. That is you know, she wasn't she wasn't
frightened from the you know, the nigga's here and little
nigga there.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
You know.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
She was like, you know what, I get it? Yeah,
and I was like, good, that's all that matters. So
you get it. You're okay. Good.

Speaker 5 (03:13):
Shout out to Jessica.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
And if you guys haven't pre ordered our book, make
sure you click the link in this episode description and
pre order are a Good Mom's Guide to Making Bad Choices.
It officially comes out on Mother's Day. No, it comes
out on May second, okay, the week of Mother's Day. No, okay,
because there's May seventeen, okay.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Two weeks after, two weeks before Mother's Day.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Okay, Well, you guys, just click the link in.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
The episode description. You'll find all the information there. You
can also listen to the book because we just recorded the.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Audible and that's also on pre order.

Speaker 5 (03:38):
Yes, so that's it.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Not as getting an argument trying to promote it.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Eh, it is this day, so get it anyway, by
the book.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
Anyway.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
To continue on with money March, I'm really excited. We
have a guest here that we've been As we said
before we hit record, we've been stalking her.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
No, not to scary you, We stalk a lot of
our guests. It's kind of our thing.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
It's the only way to make it so there's no
shame in my game. But yes, Morgan, we have been
stalking you. We've been manifesting this for quite some time.
We've been in No we did.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Sorry you go ahead to excited.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
Excited today, guys, a very long time coming. We have
manifested the one and only the CEO, the serial entrepreneur,
the author, Morgan Debaum, the CEO of Blevity Glaty, Inc.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yes, we're very excited.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I'm veryting into all the tanks.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
So little backstory, Morgan, Me and Meil actually saw you slash.
We're like trying to get your attention one time at
so house.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh my gosh, I fell on your friend. Yes, that
was remember. I do remember it because it was the
middle of afro tech World when we were in the
metaverse and we were like watching Afro Tech World. It
was me, my chief of staff Kate, and I think
my boyfriend was there, Josh was there.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
I don't think he got there yet because you know,
i'd be talking so I wouldn't known. But okay, we're
with the other woman.

Speaker 5 (05:07):
Like you feel like you were in the thick of
important ship.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah. We were actually working on our book.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Such a weird place.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
It's like you want to like you should network with it.
It's like you don't want to be like you don't
want to be extra. Then people like, get the fuck
away from me. But but this is my chance. So
I was like, but then I didn't do anything except
trip over her full friend like sitting.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
And I like, I was like, okay, well I'm not
going to.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Do that, but I remember you should have said that
in the email.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well that was the last day. I was like, do
you think I should do you think we should DM
her and tell her if we fell on her it
might it might be in the DMS. Actually, okay, girl,
I fell on your friend today. I just wanted to say,
if you're want to come on the show.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Well I'm here now. So it worked out. We got you.

Speaker 5 (05:51):
Thank God. Shout out to Nelly.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, we're so happy to have you.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
We've seen me like really watched you grow and like
watch the platforms grow and like it's fucking amazing. There's
not a lot of young black women entrepreneurs, you know,
the leveling up in the way that you have.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Especially in tech, I know how I mean, I don't
know much about tech, but I just know that it's
predominantly a white male space.

Speaker 5 (06:15):
Yes to the maximum.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
There's nothing wider and maybe banking, but like it's up there. Yeah,
it's pretty bad. I heard that.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Like you kind of got into this at a really
young age though, like even investing in stocks at like
age thirteen or something.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yep, I've been investing in the stock market since I
was thirteen.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
How like why yeah, Like at thirteen, I was like
trying to make out or something.

Speaker 5 (06:39):
It's a weird show, like trying.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
To speak, going to make you absolutely know mind.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
I shout out to my parents. I mean that was
really it. I was super competitive, Like I've been a
competitive person my whole life, and so my parents just
like gamified everything, so everything from like grades to like
you know, if you read these books over the summer,
then you get this. So they just figured it out.
It like mastered me basically, and my dad set up

(07:04):
basically a game with the stock market where if I,
like my grandma gave me one hundred dollars every year,
regardless of inflation or anything, it's just one hundred dollars
check and he said, Okay, if you save half of it,
you always have to save half of it. You can
spend the other half on like bubble gum money, like
whatever you want, but if you invest half, we will

(07:25):
match it. And I was like, oh, I can do that, mad,
Like I am old enough to be able to do that, Mad,
you know. So then I just started investing it because I.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Was just like trying to get more.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, like why not?

Speaker 3 (07:38):
And then how were they Like were they like guiding
you on where to invest in or like.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
No, they were teaching me how to make my own decisions.
So like when we would go to Starbucks or Panera
Bread or Best Buy, they would be like, do you
know who owns this? Like do you know about this company?
So this a company you would invest in, And so
it was just a constant conversation, mostly with my father.

(08:04):
And then I started to just be like, oh my god,
this is so interesting and I started making recommendations to him, like, Dad,
everybody's using this thing called Netflix. And he was like no,
because at the time DVDs were still a thing. He
was like no, like people are still going in a
Blockbuster And I was like, no, I think that Netflix
like all my friends are using Netflix, and if I

(08:25):
had bought Netflix at that time, your girl would be
on a beach somewhere. Like I remember, I actually bought
it and then he was like, you should sell it
and buy something else, and I did, And I still
hold it against him to this day because I'm like, Dad,
my little mailbox money would be actually problem right now.
But yeah, it was just a constant back and forth

(08:46):
until the point where I think I was around sixteen,
that I had a job. I worked at Toys r Us.
I worked at Delia's shout Out to Deal. You know,
the folding of all the t shirts on that wall
was miserable, and I was investing the money from my job,
where my parents were like I like, we're not matching this,

(09:07):
and it was like you're good, Yeah, we're done. But
I think once you learn how the financial system works
in compounding interest, and like, you see how powerful it
is to start at any age, really yesterday is always
the best age. How freeing it is, you know, really
changed my life. You know. My first blavity was started

(09:28):
with my money that I saved, and I bootstrapped the
company for a year so I had freedom to make
my own decisions about what I wanted it to be.
I didn't have to rely on investors, and it was
a lot of difference.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
Was a lot of that money from your investments, Yeah,
like from like yeah, being thirteen.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yep, And every time I got money, I would always
like invest some of it and just think about it.
Like I bought Facebook stock at seventeen dollars, you know,
so like it's and it's a stock has split since
then and all these different things. So it's never too
late to get going.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
Were either of your parents in finance? Is that their background?

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Are?

Speaker 2 (10:06):
They just feel like, you're going to do this?

Speaker 1 (10:07):
Just black and smart? You know. They went to Howard
like just normal black folks from Saint Louis, Like nothing spectacular.
I mean they were. I have great parents, but like, no,
my dad's a doctor, my mom's stay at home mom.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Oh my god, I need to gamify my kid.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
I hope this works, like you can do it, I know,
And I really think that my daughter's built for this.

Speaker 5 (10:28):
Is my daughter be the next Morgan?

Speaker 3 (10:30):
To mam, I'm really I'm really feeling like she's really
competitive and she really likes to win, and she's really
and she's really she loves school, and so I've been
trying to I'm always encouraging her and obviously in school
and in ways.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
But gamifying I love that. First of I love that
word and that.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Concept of like doing that because I mean, even even me,
like I should I need to gamify myself.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Right, And it's fun to look at stuff and be like,
you know what everyone is like wearing this right now,
or like no one is wearing that, or like people
love the CEO, or like I never hear anyone talk
about this CEO, and then to actually read about these things.
The other thing that I was doing at a young
age is you can look at the investor reports. So
every quarter, every publicly traded company puts out their report

(11:11):
and they actually talk about what their trends are, what
they're going to do, where they're making their investments, and
you can see every single piece of revenue for all
of their divisions. So you can go look and see
what BET is making. You can go look and see
you know what Warner Brothers and all these other companies
are making. How fun is that? Right?

Speaker 5 (11:28):
And so that you can make smarter choices.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
You can make smart choices more informed.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yep, that's so interesting, Wow.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
How did love come to be? Like what how did
that idea grow? Like what was like You're like, I
need to do this, this is important.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
A couple of things. You know. At the time, I
was living in San Francisco. I was working at a
tech company Into It, which is they make TurboTax and
like mint dot com quick books, seeming hopefully with invoices
that are getting paid. But like you think about into It, one,
you don't know what into It is, like you know
the product, it's a house of brands, not a branded house.

(12:05):
And then two, I was like learning so much about
how these tech companies, all based in Silicon Valley, build
products for billions and billions of people. And when you
meet these guys, they're just like Joe down the street,
Like they're not special, they're not smarter than us, they're
not more educated than us. Like they go to normal

(12:27):
regular as schools, Like they don't all go to Stanford,
m T or anything like that. And this is supposed
to be the most innovative place in the world, right,
This is supposed to be the place that is building
products to solve the problems of society, and they have, however,
not our problems, and I felt like, Okay, I'm twenty

(12:50):
three at the time when I was thinking about this,
I have no risk, got no kids, I got no debt.
Like you know, I'm good. So if I'm ever going
to take a risk and bet on myself, I should
do it now. So that was one thing. And then
so I knew I always wanted to start something. And
then two, you know, blavity specifically was a reaction to

(13:13):
two things. One, I felt like this generation of black
folks we didn't have anything for ourselves yet, like the
generation before us had ebony and essence and like you know,
black enterprise. They're all still here today after many ups
and downs and changes of hands, but they're not like
screaming our language, especially almost ten years ago. And then

(13:36):
two Mike Brown got killed and I was living in
San Francisco. I'm from Saint Louis, and so I kind
of was like, I need to be of service. I
want my life to matter. I'm four eleven. I'm not
going to be like in the street protesting. That's not
my ministry, you know, like that's not where I'm bringing
my best self and my best contribution in my brain

(13:59):
to this global black economy. But I am one of
very few people in the black tech ecosystem and in
the Silicon Valley at the time that had the capacity,
the risk tolerance, and the safety net of like having
you know, no like whatever, my live in my parents'
basement if I mess up, like that's not the end

(14:20):
of the world, you know, and why not me? So
that was the beginning of like how I got my
mind around starting on this journey.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
And did you start Blavity while you were in San Francisco? Like,
does that worry Glavity was I guess founded?

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Was it out there? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (14:36):
In my apartment? Very cliche, that's true.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
While you're still working for the other company.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Absolutely, you know, being on a West coast hours, I
would wake up at six because it's nine am. I
would have like morning calls, you know with people in
the East Coast, go to work, come home, get back
at it.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
And when you started Blavity was like, what was like
really the mission was it too? I guess, create a
platform for black stories to be told for I mean what, yeah,
what was really like at the beginning, because I'm sure
it's grown since then, what was it at its beginning?

Speaker 1 (15:11):
To be honest, with you. The mission was to create
a platform for black people and to leverage media and
content to build trust and audience so that we could
go do other things. So I always knew. There's probably
some early interviews with me and like Julian Mitchell, you know,
and talking about I don't want to be a media
because media is like a super shitty business. I mean,
you all know, like it's really really hard, but it's

(15:34):
the best way to bring people together around stories and
around narratives, and around talking about things that other people
don't talk about, businesses that aren't going to get featured
anywhere else. Like Blavity has been the first to break
so many stories, to shine light on so many entrepreneurs
and issues that like otherwise wouldn't have gotten coverage. And
then because we're successful, we're able to like an MSN

(15:56):
picks it up, or then HuffPo picks it up, and
then you know, CNN picks it up, and it becomes
this whole ecosystem. But it's also you know, now we're
so big that we can actually make a difference, right,
Like first you got to build the audience, get the power,
and then it's like, okay, what are you going to
do with it, right, you know, and so we're in
the what are we doing with it? Phase, which is

(16:18):
so much more fun than their early phase.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
That's a beautiful place to be. I think people forget that.
I think people like see successful people or see successful businesses,
like especially like in the time of social media, right,
and they're like, and I see it all the time.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
I'm like, especially like living in LA and shit, it's like,
oh yeah, like I have one hundred thousand followers.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
And then I'm like, but.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
What yeah, like and then what but like, what are
you doing? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (16:43):
Rapper like not like that particularly, like that's whatever, but
not no shade to the rappers.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
I'm talking about someone specific.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
I'm like, they're so very specific. Person person.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
No, I'm like, I don't know who you're he made it,
not him.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
I'm talking about somebody from another platform that we did
that was fucking a horrible platform.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
Now you even have the girls in a comments talking
about who this is? There?

Speaker 5 (17:09):
No it is? OK?

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Are people we want? We want?

Speaker 6 (17:12):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (17:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (17:14):
And it was just like, you know, it's just there's
no end goal. And I think people fuck that up
a lot, and you go yeah, and then he goes
to angle.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Well the angle was clicked. It's also clickbait. Just people
just want to just this is giving Atlanta. Sometimes I
feel like that when I'm like and I'm like, I
can't do it, y'all, because it's just what are we doing?
Why are we spend it? Like, like what behind the stuff?

Speaker 2 (17:38):
What is it?

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Parent?

Speaker 4 (17:41):
There's a DJ and there will be fried chicken or
fried fish and it will be good and there will be.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Which I'm actually fine with the lifestyle if the if
there is substance behind it, and I think so much
unfortunately in our community is just reinforced from just the
clout chasing that like sometimes just people like fail up
and then all of a sudden, I'm like, oh shit,
it actually worked for you, that's true.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
But then but then but then it like it sits
in and you're up there and then you're like what.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
It just never stops.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, I don't aspire to that, and I don't think
you all either.

Speaker 5 (18:16):
No. No, I feel like.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
When you have a platform that is literally built on
just click bait and zero substance, I feel like it's
such a rat race to try to constantly try to
like find a story, make a story up bait someone
to say some shit, like it just becomes so disingenuine
and also karmically. I feel like you're fucked. I feel like, God,

(18:40):
it's gonna be gonna strike you down at some point.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
There are definitely times where I have to get off
Instagram because I can see just you just see so
much and you're like, wait a minute, stop, like don't
compare yourself to this. This is not your path, you know.
And I think that the Internet has just done so much.
I mean, we were just talking about this from like
a mental health perspective, where it's just such constant bombarding
with messages. As someone who runs a media company, it's

(19:06):
just fascinating because we do get access to so much
truth and I'm like, oh man, if people actually knew truth,
it would be a different Instagram, Like it would be
a different show.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
I feel like people know truth, but they just ignore
it like blinders on. I think we know that we're fucked.
I think it's pretty clear the fuck up.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
It's like right here, like the world's ending sucking up.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
It's like that movie like give me a plastic bottle. Yeah,
don't look up. It literally is, and it's just like
it's it's not. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (19:38):
I'm like, you know, I believe that a lot of
most of Americans are sheeople, but like that's just people
like you.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Really, I guess it's a comfort thing.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
It's like ignore, ignore, ignore, even if I know the truth,
because I'm too scared to just like, yeah, like act
in a way that matters.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
Oh, I have a question, because you do have a
media company in ways, do you feel like you have
a responsibility in that way too, because like of the
content that you choose to share and like, you know,
especially okay, like now you have this platform that is
essentially moving the needle and getting stories that maybe would
have never gotten coverage to be covered and to get attention.
Yet on the flip side, and people are also coming

(20:15):
on your platform for entertainment and for for new source
and for clickbait even at times, you know, yeah, like
how do you find a balance in between between those things?

Speaker 1 (20:25):
The balance is really hard because we started off being
like I was very black militant, like I was very
for the people by the people, black everything, black employees, blackboard,
Like I was very we're gonna do it all, you know,
And then reality set in and it was like, actually,
that's not very sustainable, Like you need a diverse workforce,
you need a diverse board, you need because you need,
you need a mote around you because business goes up

(20:48):
and down. That also meant same thing with content. So
there's plenty of stories that are the right thing to do.
But what you learn is that people actually, to your point,
don't actually click the right thing to read. They don't
want to see. So we have to make editorial decisions
about environmental justice is something that black folks need to

(21:08):
know about. Injustice, I should say, you know, like food insecurities,
water cleanliness, like we implicitly know Flint, Michigan is still
like struggling, but we don't really want to hear about
it every day. But if we don't as a black
media company talk about it, why would the white folks
talk about it. So it's literally our job to apply pressure.

(21:29):
But we as black folks are also fucking exhausted, So
it's challenging. I mean, I've had editors quit not because
they don't love working at Blavity, but because it's exhausting
to actually face the reality of all of the things
that you have to cover and read. Like any black
kid who's shot. You know, there's certain stories right now
where there's this black kid that just got dismantled. He

(21:50):
called his mom, you know, and a couple hours before
and was like I'm being chased and the police officers
are like nope, he's fine, Like no a fall play,
no faul play, And everyone's like, dude, you know, if
we don't cover that story, is it going to get
picked up nationally? But are we going to cover that
story every day? You guys would never click. So it's

(22:10):
this weird balance and we don't always get it right.
It's not easy, but it is a constant discussion. It's
a constant back and forth. You know. I've spent lots
of money trying to get people to care about shit
that I know they don't care about, and also avoiding
writing about the Kardashians, which would get a lot of clicks.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
Wow, that's a heavy balance. I mean, that's a hard balance,
and I understand that. Like even fucking scrolling through Instagram
or even recently, I was looking a lot of like
not even comparing this because this is different, but like
a lot of the black media outlets where we get
gossip and like the fake news and all this shit
that really doesn't.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
Matter at all.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
And I'm like and sometimes and it's not even about
like about black violence and those things. Sometimes I do
scroll past because I'm depressed and I I'm emotional. I'm
a cancer and a bitch be crying mid day.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
You have empathy. I don't want to consume it.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
I can't.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah, But on the flippan like, I see like ghetto network,
I mean ghetto like media outlets that I know are
like owned by black people, and it's like the stupidest
fucking shit, And then on the bottom it's like we
don't condone violence. I'm just like, oh, come on, like
just take that line off at this point, like it's exploitive.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
And it's like but they wouldn't write it if it
didn't get clicks. I know, And I have the data.
You know, we have a huge publisher network where we
work with a lot of entertainment brands and we know
what does well and what doesn't do well.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
Data is real.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Stuff is getting rid about it because people are cooking it.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
So I have to keep hearing about Blueface, and I.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Mean, I feel like we've all watched at least seven
clips of them from front to back. I've done it too,
and I'm like, well, we're pregnant.

Speaker 6 (23:54):
I was like, I thought you're gonna like but like,
why do I care? Why we don't know these people
don't need to ever do I want to know?

Speaker 1 (24:05):
You?

Speaker 2 (24:06):
In the comments like you are tripping.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, I'm like like those comments that are like please don't.
But that's the point and I think that you know, generally,
media is hard to because you don't own I don't
own Instagram, I don't own TikTok, I don't own Facebook. Like,
so you're also building conversations and audience and you're not
getting paid to keep these platforms alive. And that doesn't

(24:30):
pay my bills, that doesn't pay payroll having a bunch
of likes on Instagram. So it's a weird industry overall,
which is why as a company, we actually, yes, we
care about the views and the clicks in the sessions
on the site, but we actually care about intent from
the views. So, like, is your intention when you're reading
a travel Noir article eventually to book a trip, I

(24:53):
a flight, get a hotel, discover a new place. Like
I'd rather have a smaller audience that is engaged and
just actually like go going through like aff attech. Okay, yes,
you can read this cool article about Robert Smith or
like whatever, but are you looking for a job, right,
and then that actually creates a better ecosystem for the
for the black economy at large? Right? Right? Does that

(25:15):
makes sense?

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah? Yeah? I mean I love l No, me too,
I'm going this.

Speaker 4 (25:22):
Yeah, but I think that's a huge misconception in general,
And like in this last like I guess ten twenty
years on, how has Instagram been around?

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Not even that long.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
I got mine late. I was in Nears movie.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah, yeah, sounds about right. Yeah, we're getting older. That
sounds crazy. Yeah, it's about fifteen years because I remember.

Speaker 4 (25:41):
Yeah, But like I think people have this crazy misconception
of like if you have a lot of followers, then
that equates to success. And even with us, like it's
not like we're crazy like fucking like popping, but people
are like, oh, you're I see, like getting Hollywood now.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
I'm like, bitch, We've been doing this work.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Don't equal money.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
Fat.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
I was like, first of all, but I see the
like people put so much into that in their businesses
and like or you know, not not really businesses or
whatever you do. I see all these bitches with a
lot of fucking you have a whole lot of followers,
and everybody has an online boutique and fucking eyelashes.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
But people buy them innut So.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Some of those.

Speaker 5 (26:19):
Boutiques is popping.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
They are cash flowing. I know those girls. No, I'm serious,
they are making such good cash.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
I agree, and some are not.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
Maybe not the lashes, but the online.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
This can't be a good turnaround. I'm like, this is
not the lashes. I'm like, how many shiplashes can you buy?
How many? How many can you how much are your profit?

Speaker 4 (26:39):
So maybe I'm a hater because I'm like, I'm an esthetician.
I was doing the eyelash extensions.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
I was like, stop selling them. Fulah could be terrible.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
No, but I I I think it's an interesting like
being a woman and being an entrepreneur, especially for you
because you're in a like male dominated industry, especially being
in tech. Like what are some of the like obstacles
that you've had, like in challenges you've had, like and
ways you've had to show up being a woman and
not only that black woman in this space, and like

(27:13):
you know, I think there's like for women there's this
weird dance we have to do. Yeah, and it's like
I'm I'm soft, but I'm I'm delivered, but I'm not
big a bitch, but I'm not you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Like not a pushover, but I'm not showing too much sig.
But isn't enough that I do? Are you going to
do it?

Speaker 1 (27:31):
When I it's certainly evolved, you know, I've had. I
have way more freedom now because I'm kind of like,
I mean, if you if you can't see my receipts, yeah,
but like I don't need you, so we're good. But
but I did need you, So we acted differently. When
I first started the company, I was very silicon Valley
blavity T shirt, black pants, black boots, glasses, curly hair,

(27:55):
just trying to blend in, which is like impossible, and
it was very much like no frills. What I wanted
the white boys to say about me is Morgan is hardcore.
We're betting on her, Like she's a fucking boss, she's fierce,
she's a shark, She's gonna get it done. Like that

(28:15):
was the only narrative that would have gotten me to
be able to let them give me millions was that
they thought that I could be hardcore enough to make
it through, because you did need to be hardcore, Like
it's not it was not cute. What does hardcore mean
in tech? In tech, it means by any means necessary,
like working fifteen hour days, sleeping with your laptop. It

(28:36):
means flying across the country on your own dollar. It
means sleeping on couches, you know, because you don't want
to waste money on hotels. Like it means there's no
job too little, like I'm answering support emails as somebody else.
I'm my own assistant. Like it's there's no job that
I would not do for this thing that I'm growing,

(28:58):
and this money that I took on from other people
who give me millions of dollars that I don't have
to pay back, like I mean, we do as a company,
but it's like personally, I don't have to pay back.
There's nothing that she wouldn't do. That's a shark. You know,
she's gonna get it done. And I think that this person,

(29:19):
like if I had shut up this way, it would
not be she's a shark. Okay, But I had to
actually work really hard to unlearn all the trauma that
I had to take on through the process to be
like shift from founder survival mode to executive, CEO, chairperson, shareholder, right,

(29:41):
all of these other identities that I hold now these
identities were cute, but they didn't matter because like, you
have to make it through, you can get over here, right,
So it was I think it was a journey for
me personally. I'm sure my employees feel the same because
they've seen that transition. Those who've been with me since
you know, my first employee still works for us. There's

(30:01):
a lot of people we lost along the way. And
if you only saw me in different periods of time,
your experience with me would be very different.

Speaker 5 (30:09):
And that's what I mean.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
And I know that's I don't know if you carry
that with you, because Hi, Derek, carry some guilt. I
feel bad for people who I'm like, oh, you were
actually fantastic, but like you didn't understand what we were
up against. You thought you were just coming to work
at like an HBCU, And I'm like, somebody has to
pay these bills. Like you're a salesperson. You closed no

(30:33):
revenue all year, you were supposed to close a million dollars,
Like what do you think I have to make that
money back up? Like I gotta go close it now, right,
Like these are people's lives. I'm paying for somebody's kids braces,
like like this is a responsibility. This is not just
kick sing giggles and like free food right right. But
that transition, I am it was not cute.

Speaker 4 (30:54):
How did you transition from all those roles like like
you said, like founder of survival mode to exac Like
I think that people will underestimate like the mindset that
has to come with that shift, and like you know,
like how has that how what tools have you used
to like shift into this this role of this woman
that you know so.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Many different things. I mean I think therapy of course,
Like but my therapy, like I've never been I probably
have been depressed along the way because like everybody gets
depressed and said and kind of like what the fuck
is things going?

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Because you have to keep going?

Speaker 1 (31:25):
But like what am I gonna do?

Speaker 2 (31:25):
I've gotta work.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
You gotta go to work. I had coaches, I have
co founders who I leaned on, like in times when
I was like I know I'm not doing this well.
I need you to do this because I don't actually
think that the business will receive it from me. They
need to receive it from you as men like you
need to carry this and that was challenging I think

(31:49):
for certain people. But it was the like not between
me and my co founders, it was the right move.
I also had to do a lot of like self
work on my own femininity because it was very masculine
energy for such a long period of time. Like I was,
I had a chip on my shoulder, so even in
my personal life, I had a chip on my shoulder,
like I was basically a man, like I was out
here just manning, you know, Fey, Yeah, well that was hard.

(32:15):
I have moved, I mean I think that was one thing.
Like actually leaving La and readjusting my physical space was
really important because when I lived here, I mean I
lived to work, like I walked to the office. I
lived in the office when our first office the office
in my bedroom were next door to each other. Like
this was my life. So I had to detach from

(32:38):
Blavity is a person to Blavity is a company that
I own and employed by and responsible for. But I
am also a person, and I'm allowed to have a life,
and I'm allowed to paint on the weekends, or you know,
ride my bike, plant a tree like fuck it, whatever,

(32:58):
like do whatever, tap out like And that's actually better
in the long run for me. But it took it
just took a lot of time. You gotta go down
before you can get there.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yeah, I would imagine that that would be really challenging.
I think even you know, even with us, if you're
building something, you're so excited about it, like it becomes
like you can't like the moment you wake up, you're
in it, like in the middle of.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
If there's anything wrong with that, I think there's just phases,
and you just need to know when it's time calibrate exactly.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
It is not sustainable.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
It should never be forever. So like anyone who's in
grind mode forever, I'm like, that's not necessary. There's it's
either you, it's actually I mean, it's not anything else,
it's you. Like, it's not a requirement hard work for
an extended period of time. Years. Of course.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
I always like love this, Like this quote that I've
heard and we talked about it a lot, is like
and I wonder if you relate to this now or
like currently and and or if this is kind of
a think of the past is like you're value being
linked to your product productivity, because I think a lot
of female entrepreneurs get into this mode of like.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
Work work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Yeah, becoming so their identity being so wrapped up in
their whatever their business is. And I know for me,
I've had to like really battle with that concept. But
is my value totally linked to this.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
I view productivity. I do believe that my value is
tied to productivity, But I don't view productivity as amount
of hours I put in. So like I can sit
with a business or an entrepreneur and something that will
take them twenty five hours I can do in ten minutes.
You know, I'm still productive, you know what I mean.
So I do believe that, Like there are certainly times

(34:44):
when I wake up in the morning and I'm like, Okay,
what is the most important thing for me to do today?
And if I just do that one thing, then I'm productive.
It's not my calendar is not packed right Like today,
I was like, no, if this is it, and I'm done,
Like I did my mornings, did my meetings. I was
on calls on the way to this conversation, but I

(35:04):
wanted to be fully present. I knew if I had
stuff later, then I'm gonna be thinking about that. This
is it me and I drinks with my girl Carly,
that's it. And I think that black women we have
to value not the amount of time we spend, but
the impact of the work that we do. You know
what I mean and not to me is productivity.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
I like that, not the time we spend, but the
impact of the work that we do. Yeah, I think
also like for black women, we're you know, we're being
educated at the highest rate, We're like opening businesses at
the highest rate. And but there's also this stereotype of
black women being masculine, and you know, we're having like
this trend.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Of soft life. What the fuck does that mean?

Speaker 1 (35:50):
I'm like, so what are we doing.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
Opposed to a hard life? Like I don't want a
hard life.

Speaker 4 (35:58):
True, you know, but it's just like it's also it's
difficult because when you're an entrepreneur and you're a business
woman and you eat, breathe, sleep your ship because you
know it's impactful and you believe in it and it matters. Yeah,
you know, it's like this this fine line and I believe,
like also you work hard and then you're like, okay, bitch,
that's enough.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Okay, But I think I.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Think entrepreneurs can have a soft life. I do you think?

Speaker 2 (36:24):
So I do?

Speaker 1 (36:26):
How do you all define it?

Speaker 4 (36:28):
We had this conversation not too long ago, and we
got a lot of SHITU.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Like the girls have already get tapped in.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
Our guest was like, ah ah, I shout out to
trap yoga bay. She was like she feels like it
means docile, and like.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Oh really, I don't want to.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
I don't know what she.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
What her like definition was, And then then it made
me think, like what the fuck is soft life? But
I think it's just like like you said, like working
hard but doing less, you know, Like I really like
realizing that I can be impactful without doing like a
hundred million things and outsourcing and being like.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Hey you do this, Hey you do this? How are
the people?

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah, which is how society has run since like the
beginning of time, like Egyptians like, yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
I think it is a lot of an Outsourcing is
a great word because I think as women, we feel,
especially in entrepreneurship, we feel like we have a lot
to prove, and so we want to take on every
role exactly instead of saying, hey, you do that, I
don't pick that up.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
See, I had a I'll give you an example of
something a coach told me once. We were on a
call and I was talking about how I just felt
so overwhelmed. There was so much going on, and I
felt like I wasn't giving my employees enough time. I
was trying to like step back and like not be
a micromanager and da da da da dah. And she said, well,
if you had an opportunity during the day to you know,

(37:42):
read a business book, read some articles, and then also
you know, people were coming to you with fires and
you needed to address them. Which one do you think
is more valuable use of your time? And I was like,
if there's a problem, I need to solve it. And
she said, no, you should be reading the book and
reading the articles because you need to be in the future.
And if you're never in the future, then your business
never will get there. And the fires and the things

(38:03):
that's today you could spend all day that'll never stop
if you're sitting in the fires. And it's like that
kind of perspective that helped me release the guilt, the
shame of being like, hey, there's a problem, you too,
fix it and tell me what happened to gure it out,
figure it out, And there's no shame in that.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
I think.

Speaker 4 (38:22):
Also, when you build something and you've done every job,
every aspect of it, you're like, fuck it, I'll make
the graphic, I get the move, just.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Got out my way.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
Yeah, sometimes I have to ask myself. I'm like, what
the fuck? But I have to do it? Why are
you here? Right?

Speaker 2 (38:37):
But but it's because you know you can do it.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
And then there's also that like no one can do
it better than me, but like, no, someone can do
it better than you, and they will, but you haven't
found the right person, right.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
And if they can do it eighty percent, this is
the rule. They can do it eighty percent as good
as you, they should do it. You shouldn't do it
if someone else can do it eighty percent because your
time is more.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
That makes sense. I like that, yep. I mean, because like,
no one's going to be just like you.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
No one's going to be one hundred percent. But if
they can do eighty percent, you shouldn't do it.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
You should be reading a book and thinking about your future.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
Basically, honestly, I mean, I think strategy.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
I think with our business, we have had to release control.
You know, I'm definitely a micromanager in ways I can be,
and so stepping back from the business because I realized
that my micromanaging wasn't helping anything. And also like I
was like, why am I paying people if I'm going
to do it anyway?

Speaker 5 (39:28):
And I'm not happy.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
I'm I love what I do, but it's becoming it's
making me feel I guess, unhappy in ways. Yeah, I
felt like I didn't have time for myself, and so
relinquishing that control has been so life changing for me
and like having real work boundaries and saying, yeah, no,
I'm not going to do that. Sorry, I'm I'm actually

(39:51):
working out at twelve o'clock. I'm not available for that
right then, and being like Eric is working out at
twelve o'clock. Yep, sir, sure I am, It's on my calendar.
Actually I'm actually not Oh no, I'm not going to
record them.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
Sorry.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah, And it's like and like staying true to that
and like even like even like having to even like
with Mila, like saying like, well, Mila has to do that,
so she can't do that. Either because like sometimes we
have to like each other with our own boundaries.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
You have got of soccer. It's fine. We don't need
to fine mom, this Saturday is fine.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
Just just just do mommy. Yeah. I think that's fair,
And I think it's important to have those accountability partners,
and like I do that in business as well, right,
Like I will tell my team, my chiefain staff, like
it says lunch on my calendar, my team doesn't schedule
meetings during lunch. Am I eating lunch? Am I not
eating lunch? It doesn't matter, Like it says lunch, don't
you schedule over it. So, just setting those boundaries and

(40:43):
then communicating them in a way that people can actually
interact with you is so for me has been like
super helpful.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
Because there comes a time where you work really really
hard and you're putting out a lot of fires and
you're like, yeah, there's never like a sleep point.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
I think everybody.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
Everybody works and they're like I want to get to
this point and I'm going to be a billionaire and
I'm gonna set up and I'm gonna be gone.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
But it's like, I mean that can't happen.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
That will do you all have an end when it's
enough enough?

Speaker 4 (41:10):
When I can charter a yacht, oh my gosh, three
times a year okay for a month, ooh ooh in
like the south of Italy the Caribbean with all my friends.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, that's mine.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
Have you done the math yet? No? I encourage you
to do the mask. It's probably not as expensive as
you think.

Speaker 4 (41:26):
Ah, okay, well shit, maybe maybe it's closer than I think.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Maybe it's closer.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
I was like, we should look into the numbers because
I don't think it's as far as I think it.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Yeah, yeah, for a week is twenty to thirty thousand.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
For one week?

Speaker 3 (41:37):
Twenty forty sixty fully staffed food and how many?

Speaker 2 (41:42):
How many people can't sleep up to six eight?

Speaker 1 (41:45):
If you want like a catamaran, or if you want
like a big body yet obviously you can be like
ridiculous and get up to fifty or a hundred k
a week, but I.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
Feel like a catamaran overnight is like, okay, we've got
an a catamaran that was a pretty big catmora.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
I did it last year for how long?

Speaker 1 (41:58):
We did a week?

Speaker 2 (41:59):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Yeah? Over it by Croatia. Yeah girl, yeah, that's a
whole other thing for another day. Yeah, it was a messy.
There's a lot of receipts you can retravel nore for
you're curious how it went. But but the retreat we
did yacht nick that was right, So it was a lot.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
Also, this was like a retreat that you went when
and you had people come like.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
This was someone else's retreat, got it? Don't you put
that on me? And it's too much. But basically if
somebody else's retreat, they used the boats from yacht Week
in Croatia and other places, and anyways, we had a
great time, but it was a clusterfuck. Our boat was fine,
but everybody else had a rough time. Either way. I

(42:49):
was on a yacht for a week with my best
friends and it was very obtainable. I guess this is
my point. Like I too have been like, okay, what's
my dream world? And I think it's so important for
black women for us to actually say, like, this is
my dream scenario. It's work three days a week, it's
you know, being able to rent a house in Costa
Rica and Porto for two months. It's be on a

(43:11):
yat da da da da and then just put the
price on it, like just actually fuck it it out,
because especially if you can invest your cash, the interest
on ten million dollars to interest on twenty million dollars
to interest some fifty million dollars is probably enough to
pay for your lifestyle. So you actually know what your
number is.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
I think that's really important because I honestly I have
dreams and aspirations, but I haven't written them all the
way down and said this is my this is it
and when I get to this point, because I think
if you don't, then you get there, and you don't,
you don't, I realize you got there.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
And that's what made me like start that exercise is
because I have friends where I'm like, you're so fine,
Like you are good, bro, Like you're fine? Why are
you doing this to yourself? Like what when is it enough?
And the answer is it will never be enough. You
will never stop.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Forever if you don't have an endgame.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
Yeah, Like, but do you think it's deeper than just
the end game? When it's like when it's that and
there's like a la, there's like a lack of fulfillment
inside besides whatever the end game.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Is, Yes, it's a seeking, it's a seeking. It's a
comparison to it's a well I know this other person
and I think I'm better than them, are the same
as them, but they're over here and I'm over here.
It's a lacking in comparison, which is a never ending
to your point, like that's never gonna end. You're always
going to be making less money than somebody else, right forever.

(44:41):
It's always gonna be a rich and those people. It
changes all the time, right like Elon Musk today, face
ons tomorrow, like it depends on the stock market that day.
So they can't even count their money, like they don't
even know how much they're They're losing billions and making
billions every other week, Like is that really? What does
that matter? No? Right, there's gotta be a number.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
That is so important.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
I just realized that, Like, why do the fuck have
I never looked up the price of a yacht for
a week?

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Do it?

Speaker 2 (45:07):
I've been thinking about this for years. Yeah, but I
was just I was just.

Speaker 4 (45:11):
Thinking, like we had this conversation with someone else too
about thinking that things are unobtainable, like putting things outside
of your scope, and even for me, like I'm gonna
look up that number because we're not there. But like,
but you don't even over there because you didn't even
check in with six of your friends.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
That's right listening to get your coins up.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
And like I imagine too, when people go on Nobu
and Cabo, I'm like, I know how much those costs
per night. If everybody does that, y'all could have just
been on a yacht for a week.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
Right, right girl.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
And it's just I mean, that's that's a that's just
in general. I think when it comes to taking care
of yourself and investing in yourself and investing in your
your self care, whatever that sary you. I mean, I
think about even like the retreats that we do, and
you know, a lot of women look at the price
tag and I think our retreats are really reasonably priced
on everything that you get and hundred I think, yeah,

(45:59):
like that's the base and you have solo rooms and
things up to like five, totally reasonable and it's all inclusive.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
And so I think you will spend three hundred dollars on.

Speaker 7 (46:09):
One meal at no boot if you can get in
right right or what is or whatever, You'll spend a
rack on that fucking lace front, bitch.

Speaker 6 (46:21):
Literally that is literally not the install, not even install, you.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Just way way five hundred on the inside.

Speaker 5 (46:31):
The hair, like girl, the hair.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
The Malaysian whatever the fuck and you're telling me that
you it's thirty.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Five dollars a month on rent, right.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
And it's unattainable and granted. Listen for people that are
listening to this and getting triggered because they're.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
Like, you don't know my bank account.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
I don't know your bank account, but you know, and
you know how much you spent on ubers, you know
how much you spent on coffee, you know how much
you spent on whatever the fuck you're doing over there,
do and and you're not fulfilled? Do you look cute
for a minute and you're like, okay, well that was fun,
but that meal was good and now you're shitting it
in the toilets.

Speaker 5 (47:05):
Go on now, girl, Like I'm just.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
Like it's just crazy.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
Have value, like the value, like because we'ven had people,
you know, come come for us, like you know, this
is a single mom demographic and this.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Is like out like it's about like luxury, like it's.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
A recession and like almost suggesting that like no, like
all single moms can't afford this and I was like,
this seems like a projection and like and it also
sounds like you don't value your experiences and your self
care and your wellness because it seems so much. And
not to say everybody's coins are the same, because everybody's

(47:38):
shit goes up and down and has you know, I'm
fucking a single mom, I get it, But it is about, like,
do you see value and like in the wellness of yourself?

Speaker 8 (47:48):
Is it?

Speaker 4 (47:48):
Like you know, people will do all these things because
they're like short quick nails care, quick like satisfactions or whatever,
quick whatever the hell you know I'm trying to say,
but like these long term you know, even I've heard
people be like, no therapy, that shit is expensive, and
it is, but bench how well, how much do you
want to be well?

Speaker 1 (48:06):
But also like you are your biggest asset and your
biggest tool, Like your body is the thing that's fueling
your ability to like exist and work and your mind
and your ability to expand your mind and like remove
beliefs that are limiting and all these things. Is like
your money maker. So I spend a sit ton of
money on my personal development because that is what's making

(48:29):
everybody money. So making everybody rich, So it's a to
me when people aren't incapable like getting there. It's a
different level of self to like fully understand the power
that we have within ourselves, you know. And there's a
lot of reasons for that, especially for us Black people.
We are taught and we have been trained, and we

(48:50):
have been sold, and we have been disassociated in our
minds with our body and our worth. But like, if
you can move past that, it's infinite, right, you have.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
To invest in the mental health care at all.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Like I think I heard Lebron spends like over a
million dollars a year on his body because it's his
money maker. Right, Like we should be eybe not a
million dollars, but like a couple of thousand.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
Right, Yeah, don't skimp on yourself, skimp on what is
fueling you and floating you through this life and in
your existence here. Because you're falling short in different parts
of your life and not showing up for people or
not showing up for yourself. A lot of it is
because you're not taking you're not taking care of yourself.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
I know.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
For me, like the way I eat is so crucial
for me, and I've and over the past few years,
I've really had just had to like submit to that,
and because I've been like in.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
Denial and see this is big in Silicon Valley. I
think this is something I also learned from what folks
was just like they really value their body, like the supplements,
Like I've never seen more supplement I didn't even.

Speaker 5 (50:02):
Know you do get Silicon Valley.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
I just think of a lot of white men doing
cocaine next to computers.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
They do that too, but then they get to IV.
They like it's so intense, Like they're so in tune
with their like performance as an individual. Like they a
lot of them do cocaine because it improves their performance, right,
they can work all night their sharpness, and then they
take melatonin and they take to this and they take
that to be able to go to sleep. And like
they are so in tune with the ups and downs

(50:28):
of their ecosystem as a body and how that impacts
their ability to make money. That is fucking incredible. Like
I didn't take that many supplements until COVID and then
I like unlocked the whole other level. It was like,
oh my god, what is this Lion's main Like started
taking little mushroom types, and then I learned black people

(50:49):
have been doing this forever, and so have black people
in certain parts of the world, but not in not America. Yeah,
not in Saint Louis. You know the price of the
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
I think of like these different documentaries that I've seen
and even like someone sent me something recently, like a
wellness room where people are like taking all types of drugs,
but they're like they're like they're like monitored while they're
taking psychedelic, the psychedelic like the sonic psychedelic monitors monitored experiences.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Yeah, therapists like no, but like.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
They're in a room and they're like getting fed what
is that drug? Ayahuasca?

Speaker 2 (51:23):
It's not aahuasca, it's uh, what is it?

Speaker 5 (51:26):
It's like a it's like a pretty intense drug that
you should never take.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
Ketamine like ketmine, well, kenemine is also now like like
they're using that for therapy.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
But that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
Like they're in they're like having ketamine IV's that are
being monitored by and it's like allowing them to like untap.
Like this guy was saying, like I remember when I
was in my mother's womb and I realize some white
people shit, but like you're not supposed to say that,
I know, because eventually black people are gonna get on
board too.

Speaker 8 (51:53):
But yeah, right, maybe I don't know Kenemine, but like
they are so they're they're open into trying anything they
can in order to be their best selves.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
And to open other parts of your mind. And I think,
I mean, Steve Jobs did like drugs every day, you
know what I mean, Like it really has been a
part of tech culture, Silicon Valley culture, innovation culture, creative
culture forever. It's just interesting now that like we're all
regulating it.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
Well now, oh yes, Like I'm gonna take this cocaine pill.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
I'm going to micro dosk.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
Oh my god, that's going Like I know, I don't
do cocaine, just micro dove.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
Yeah, that's all yeah macro, Oh my god. This is
just about we are not.

Speaker 5 (52:43):
Here, no no no.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
I support some jug use.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
I support Lion's Maine, ash Ganda. I support that's not direct.

Speaker 4 (52:51):
Those psychedelics mushroom yeah, psilocybin yeah, marijuana, fine.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
It's kind of the all the natural things things that
are legal. Let's go that route.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
As legal.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
Yeah, some places, uh it depends on the dotage.

Speaker 4 (53:12):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's true white people did be
invested in themselves and we need to take a note
out of their book because you're right, and that's the difference.
And even like I also thought about what we were
talking about earlier, is like you could work so hard
and then you're like, oh shit, you look up and
you're like your kids are fucking eight, and you're like
you were just three.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
What the fuck happened?

Speaker 4 (53:31):
And like I did all this shit, and I granted,
I'm happy I did this ship. Yeah, but it's like, okay,
like if I die tomorrow, what the fuck is important?

Speaker 2 (53:39):
You know? Like all these fires that I put.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
Out, like the cliff didn't go out today, you know,
like nobody gives a fun but like my kid and
like you know, your family and like you realize especially
when you put your head down and you work and
you're working new work you start when you as you
get older, your parents get older, you know, the people
around shit happens, yeah, fucking pandemics and shiit. People die,
like like your mortality comes in and then you're like

(54:02):
you don't want something extreme to have to happen for
you to have to shift. You should value your life
and your success and your work in the presence so
that you're not like trying to catch up or like
you know, it's not like there's a balance. There's like
this this harmonious balance that has to be found, because
if we work ourselves to death, then we haven't spent
time with the people we loved, and we haven't laughed hard,

(54:23):
and we haven't done cartwheels. And you had dessert, had dessert,
you know, and like cried and like experienced the success
and at every stage, then what the fuck is it?
You know, because like we'll never be at this stage again,
right here where we're at, like right here.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
This beautiful stage. Every stage is beautiful. And I think
that's another thing that like I'd learned along the way.
There's I yearn for the moments when we were back
in the office Artist Laft, where I live next door,
and people would just knock on my door, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Like, was it like what we do today?

Speaker 1 (54:54):
You know, I'd loved those days, but in those days
I was thinking about today it's too much. So yeah,
like I think it's so important for all of us
to really value I call it my three day window.
Like if I can look back in the last three days,
have I done at least some of the things that
bring me joy? Have I talked to some of the

(55:15):
people that bring me joy? Like if it's just all work, work,
work for the future. Nope, that's good.

Speaker 4 (55:22):
That's a good measure too. Let me just looking at
that last three days, like that's easy.

Speaker 3 (55:25):
I literally have a calendar reminder. This is so sad,
but also maybe a calendar reminder my phone for a
joy appointment, Like what are you.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
Doing those joy appointments? Yea, what I get like.

Speaker 5 (55:38):
Master big, get my nails done, and you know whatever.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
Have a call a friend I haven't talked to in
a while, They've been meaning to call and talk to
they take a month and sometimes like it's it's creating
those habits that then become just standard and you don't
even they don't have to be appointments anymore, right or
just you just do it. But unfortunately I had to
create one because I was like, yo, I'm not like,

(56:03):
I'm not like present, I'm not calling, I'm not doing
anything for myself. Everything is about hitting this deadline, getting
to this, getting to that, sending that email, checking this,
d da da da, and I was like, WHOA. So
I think that, you know, for those that are listening
and those that are you know, starting their own businesses
and in the thick of it, like it's so important
to take a step back and take a moment to

(56:25):
check in with yourself and and be present, because you're right,
these moments won't last. I think about me and me
Lias sitting in our living room for those of listening
from the beginning, you know, like we started this podcast
in my dining room, and those days of like long
nights recording at like twelve am when our kids were asleep,
editing until the wee morning because we were recording the

(56:47):
day before the episode came out. Like I missed those days.
I mean, do I want to be doing that specifically, No,
but like those days were so we're so amazing, and
I think we did. I think I did relish and
spend time in those moments. But there were moments where
I was like, please God, get me out of this.

(57:08):
I agree, like please, I want to be here right
now in Studio City, in my fucking podcast studio. That's right,
you know, not trying to get it off.

Speaker 4 (57:16):
An hour episode off of seventeen Apple phones and thirty
minute increments.

Speaker 5 (57:22):
So grin is real.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
I think people really underestimate the amount of consistency that's
required for like this type of work. You have to
be consistent. There's no other way around it.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
No one should have ever taught us the word sweat equity.
As soon as I heard it, I was like, oh, yeah,
my sweat equity is high.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
Any any person that gives us what offers us a deal,
We're like, you're just equity, but they don't care. I
also had to learn that too. I'm like, I'm this
isn't my value. They don't give a ship. They will
walk away.

Speaker 4 (57:55):
They're like, we put the numbers in this calculator and
it says right here that you are worth no sweat equity.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Calendar it and no matter how successful you get, that
will never change. They will always Yeah. I mean literally
as recently as a couple of months ago. Like let's
say you're raising money and like I've raised around twelve
million dollars a little more than that. I remember, I
owned all of my stock. So there's this thing when

(58:23):
startup world where like you get stock and then you vest,
so like you get your stock over a certain period
of time because they don't want you to leave. So
I had fully vested. I owned all my shares. I
got money from a fund, and they're like, great, we're
gonna take away experson of your shares and they have
to revest. But I'm like, I already earned that sweat equity.
That's those those shares are mine, right, what are you

(58:45):
talking about. You can give me new shares and those
can vest, but like I'm vesting against myself. It's a pie, right,
so like the more shares you give me, you're actually
just shrinking the pie I already have. Like it's a
weird dance.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
So I'm like, think this crazy.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
Like y'all can literally say we're going to give you money,
but then you're gonna we're gonna take the shares you
already have that are yours that you've earned and make
you wait for years to get them back. It's interesting,
it never ends, and that's like part of the course.
Like it's not a oh my god, like a Morgan
was mistreated thing like that is how venture works. But

(59:20):
you know, those are the hard things about being in business.
There's so many things that are in power structures that
we are not exposed to that like, you know, you
could take that ship personally, which I did, and I
had to call a couple of people and be like
is this normal? Like they're like, yeah, you know you
have to sign it. I have to. Yeah, yeah, there's

(59:41):
no like popping off. They're like no, no, no, like
this is standard. I'm like okay, but it just never ends.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
I think that, like you know, people that are listening
that are you know, maybe work in tech and want
to know more about how like how to raise money
or like what is what are some like first of all,
what are some like know how like.

Speaker 5 (01:00:03):
Things you shouldn't do?

Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
And then like maybe like three things that you should
do or like some tips when it comes to raising capital.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Have you ever thought about it?

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
We've thought about it, thought about Yeah, this is for
me the questions from us because she was actually we're
having this conversation like before you came, and she was like, well,
I don't know if like our business is one like
where we would need to like raise capital.

Speaker 5 (01:00:24):
I was like, what the fuck guess it is?

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
I think I think I was like money all the time.

Speaker 4 (01:00:28):
No, but I think that there's this fear because for me,
like I'm not coming from like I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
I didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:00:34):
I didn't come into like business entrepreneurship with tools. My
parents were like, here, here's a.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Business, here's your LLC, here's your credit.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
That's right, is don't your credit?

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
And here's one hundred thousand dollars. Figure it out?

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
But like so there's all these so a lot of
times and even people are just chatting like, you know,
do you need investors?

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
And I'm like, well, we're covering our bills right now.
Do we need to be taking money from somebody?

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Like I'm wondering, like and I asked her that, I
was like, do all businesses need to take investments? Because
for us, you know, maybe there have been opportunities now
when I was ever can even try to offer the
twelve million dollars, But I'm always wondering, like is it
of our is it in our best interest to have
like because for us, I'm like, I'm gonna owe you
some money, like obviously not as personally but the business.
And there's this like I feel like if I can

(01:01:16):
pay for our own ship, and I mean, I guess
we can expand more with more money. But there's this
is just like in like this underlying fear because I
don't know. I'm not fully versed in the world of
investments or you know, like all these things that immediately
my mind goes to, I'm going to owe you some money.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
I feel like that's all Black's how I don't have Parney.
Are you sure, right?

Speaker 5 (01:01:38):
Yeah, that's how.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
That's how we that's how we feel, and and there's
a part of me that feels that way. But I
think because i've well, I have my mom has grown
her company. My mom is a founder and she owns
a beauty brand, Beauty Wonder, And so I've seen her.
She's it's a privately owned company. She's had investors try
to come in and you know, have these talks and things,
but ultimately she hasn't had she had and had any

(01:02:00):
investors in the twenty years of her having her company.
So I've seen her do it on her own, So
I know it's possible. But I know that there's even
at a time now where she's kind of like, bitch,
I'm tired facts. I'm also like, am I gonna be
running this company forever?

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Aircar? Are you gonna run this company? Ession?

Speaker 5 (01:02:16):
What are you doing? Or you look like you're busy
over there, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
So and you know, I'm looking at my at our
company and I'm like, yeah, okay, we have good, good
media here, we have our podcast studio. But I have
like big dreams for this. I have like way bigger dreams.
I have big studio dreams for this, and I'm not
I'm not gonna invest all my money in this shit.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
I mean, you all are literally the case study. You
have the ambition, you have the network. I mean, you
all are very well connected. So it's not like you're
not sitting in Kansas where you don't know nobody. You know,
I say, like you're in La and you have a
sweat equity. So you know, I think in terms of
how people should evaluate venture funding because there's also different

(01:02:56):
types of funding. Right, So venture funding, the venture capital industry,
when peop say VCS is what venture capital stands for,
is really about investing in high growth startups that can
get a ten x plus return on the money that
that investor is giving you. So somebody gives you ten
million dollars they expect to get back, you know, fifty
to one hundred million back. That's how much I owe

(01:03:19):
these people. You know what I'm saying. But I'm like,
oh no, we did. Like we're good now, you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Know the day maybe a lot of money, maybe maybe not.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
Right, but it's that that's the equation you have to make.
But also when you look at production companies and you
look at production studios, how much do you think your
media is worth? How much do you think they praised?
A lot? Doesn't matter, It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.
My point is to have the vision.

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
I don't know because I went to their offices and
I said, bitch, how you got this office?

Speaker 5 (01:03:51):
Google?

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Google?

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Google, look it up right now.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
It's in a building. We probably could figure it out.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
Just literally google it. It's just Google. Dear media venture funding.
There will be articles on how much they've raised. The
reason why I want you to look it up is
because if there's someone in your world, in your industry
that does what you do, but maybe at a bigger scale,
and you can look at that they've raised venture frunchh.

Speaker 5 (01:04:11):
Base would have been on crunch base.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
Yeah, twelve point seven million. Perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
And you know, in my mind, I was like, I
think we've had this kind run investor.

Speaker 5 (01:04:18):
We know we still rounds of funding.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Her husband's rich, they are rich. They came from money.
That's literally what I told you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
We literally have not always the case. Sometimes they are
married to the boys, but.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
They still got to ask.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
So in twenty twenty two they raised all of your
media's information. No, but this is four point seven million,
and then in twenty twenty they raised eight million. Wait
and what was the first magnet companies was the investor? Okay,
eight million was in twenty twenty and then first round
last year was four point seven million.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
So first round would probably be their series seed seed
round and then goes to Series A or they did
a four million dollars Series A sounds too low, so
they probably just like of what we call a bridge
round in between the next rounds because they might have
been running out of money. My point is that it's doable, right,

(01:05:09):
and like I think that because they're not in our world,
like these people who are raising this money aren't a
part of our ecosystem all the time. It's just hard
to see and hard to believe. But the information is there.

Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
What do you so so say, I'm dear media, what
do I need to have in place in order to
even go to an investor like I need to have? Obviously,
I'm sure business plans and sort of like fan of
action to just show like this is how I'm going
to make back your money.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
Yeah, ish you think, but it's actually it's a couple
of things. One it's a deck, pitch deck, a PowerPoint
presentation of Google slides presentation.

Speaker 2 (01:05:43):
But I'm the Cama queen. I can make it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
I don't know about no camera maybe with the AI features.

Speaker 7 (01:05:49):
But.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Yes we can talk about AI. Yeah, I can go
down that rabbit hole. But okay, so you need a
deck that says, this is who we are, this is
the market. So this is the total market, this is
the total podcasting market. This is how much is spent
in advertising, and right do you paint the big big
billion dollars, billion dollars, like black people listen to radio

(01:06:13):
at this and then radio is coming back, like I
want digital and urban radio makes this amount, you know
every year, hundreds of millions of dollars. And we're gonna
take just like this slither of it, you know. So
that's what you're that's the picture you're painting. And then
you're like and then here's who we are and this
is our track record and like look how amazing we
are and like da da da da And then you say,

(01:06:34):
and we're asking you to give us five million dollars,
and what we're gonna do with that is hire this
and hire this and rent this and get a studio
in Atlanta, in the city of New York so that
all of our talent, we're going to license different shows
and we're gonna do this whole thing. And then you
go and you talk to people.

Speaker 5 (01:06:50):
And then if you don't do those things, what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
Baron down the street? What happens if you don't What
happens if you don't get it done? Yeah, I mean
I've been welcome to literally everyone, but like it's really
hard to raise money for everyone, not just black folks.

Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
Like what if they give you the money and then
they don't succeed, You don't like your company, don't you
don't give them one hundred million dollars you owe them?

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Okay, So a couple of things happen, and this actually
happens a lot that people don't know what's happening, so
they get your company can get acquired. So let's say
you guys like aren't doing well. You'd call me and
be like, hey, so how would you feel about buying us,
and I would be like, sure, what are your numbers?
What are you this?

Speaker 5 (01:07:30):
What are you that?

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
Like, I'll buy you. So then the headline is you
guys were acquired.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
So a lot of times that's what's happening all the time.
But sometimes probably are acquired.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
So you can't figure out, like this seems odd. They
don't look like they're doing well. They probably aren't.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
Didn't you acquire a business?

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
Shotown act in travel noir? Okay, okay, those are both acquisitions.
Not to know, we're not we're not associating, no, no, no,
but yes, and I've been I've looked at many many
deals every week, right, And that's what happens a lot
of times. Sometimes you get the LinkedIn posts where you're like,

(01:08:08):
we ran out of money and we're done. And what
happens then is you liquidate your assets. You'd sell this couch,
you'd sell everything you've got. No, literally, seriously, it's traumatic.
They are like liquidation companies. We liquidated our office. It
was the most traumatic thing, like during COVID. And you
give that money to your investors, you pay them back first,

(01:08:30):
and then anything left, which there's nothing left, would go
to you. But there's nothing left because it didn't work out,
got it? But vcs know this, like that's already built
into the risk profile for you, so it's not anything
to for me. It's like they know what they're dealing with,
so you might as well aim for the stars, so
that it's really not so.

Speaker 3 (01:08:48):
I mean, it feels I think when you don't really
know the language and the landscape, it feels something like
totally unattainable to find a venture capitalist to invest in
your company, when really it isn't that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
That wild of it is doable. Yeah, I have seen
people way less successful than you and probably half y'all
listen to this, get it done.

Speaker 4 (01:09:08):
Excuse me if there any venture capitalists listening. Good good
media is available for investments. It is not going to
make her our pitch deck on canvas.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
My pitch jacks on canvas are the bar. Worry, where
do you see this ship?

Speaker 1 (01:09:28):
What I love is when I get resumes made on
camp and I'm just like, yes, it's screaming financial director
from me.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
When's your birthday?

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
I'm ann Aquarius February six, February.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
Six, Happy belated, thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:09:41):
So it is my boyfriend who's waving from the other day.
Deep connection to quariuses. You guys are a vibe.

Speaker 5 (01:09:49):
Wait, so what are the other types?

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
So there's vcs and so you can take that Alan
So we did that, Oh lord jesus, yeah, there's well
not from like cabbage.

Speaker 5 (01:09:58):
We didn't. But he went with are you going to
do this again?

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
Were bitch ass?

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
What the no?

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
Jefferson Andrew Jefferson, Andrew Jeffrey Anderson.

Speaker 4 (01:10:12):
We went with bitch ass Jeffrey Anderson from the mother
fucking direct funding.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
Don't ever go to those motherfuckers.

Speaker 4 (01:10:19):
They lie and they cheat and they lie and they
cheat in duct in type form.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
They did it in an email.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
I'm dead fuck them. Why did you go into such
a randomness? Weird?

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
We were rushing, we weren't we.

Speaker 5 (01:10:34):
Just during COVID No, this is like, this is in September.

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
What did we need money for? Working capital?

Speaker 5 (01:10:40):
Studio?

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
Working capital? So I think that's the most common use
of like needing money is because you need the money
to build the things so you can make the money,
but it's short term. It's just like a one time
costs right, and a couple of things. You can take
out a loan from wealthy individuals, which is like call
convertible note, so it can convert into equity, or you

(01:11:02):
can pay them back with the interest rate. That's like
the safest thing to do.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
Or they'll take equity in your business, or they'll take.

Speaker 1 (01:11:08):
Equity in your business when you raise money. So it's
like eventually.

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
A couple of months, Yeah I did that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
Maybe you don't remember, Yeah, I like you probably not forgot. Yeah,
and it's gonna work out it around this range, just
plus or minus.

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
That's like super safe because you can always pay them
back if you want, or you can raise and then
you never have to pay them back they're converted to equity.
You can take a line of credit from a bank,
like a reputable bank.

Speaker 5 (01:11:37):
Yeah, that's what we should have done.

Speaker 4 (01:11:39):
Ye, don't do it from a bitch ass motherfucker's probably
sitting in a fucking apartment.

Speaker 1 (01:11:44):
She was.

Speaker 3 (01:11:44):
She was like, I feel like they're sitting in an
apartment in Burbank, Like like in just like typing on computers,
there's revenue based financing, which is like let's say you
guys close like five huge deals and they're all worth
like one hundred k each, so you've got half a
million out in accounts, receivable.

Speaker 1 (01:12:02):
You can take a loan out on that accounts receivable.
It's a revenue based financing. That's pretty good. Like, there's
so many options for short term cash flow issues, and
I think not enough people. They wait till they're in
the cash flow issue to get the loan, which is
the exact time not to. And I've learned this the
hard way. There was a time when we didn't make payroll,
where we were about to not make payroll, and I

(01:12:23):
was like, damn, I really should get a loan right now.
No nobody was to give you a loan when they're
looking at your finances. You I got it, Like, that's
not it right, And then so they do.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
It's gonna be a high ass of other fucking interest.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
Right now. I can't do it, you know, So you
gotta figure it out. But yeah, when you got the money,
that's when you go get more financing. It's like, we
just got I don't know whatever, I think this is
public information. I don't know. At some point I'll put
a press release out out of it. But we just
got a ten million line of credit and do I
need it?

Speaker 4 (01:12:55):
But it's nice to have it there, Yes, But also
a line of credit is better to have and taking
just X amount of dollars from some fucker in a
bourbank apartment.

Speaker 5 (01:13:04):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
Just for the it just gives you a peace of mind.
Like if we need to pull against it, we can do.
I pay an interest on it every month, sure, but
at least.

Speaker 3 (01:13:12):
It's just for what you can go to sleep an
mm hmm, growing pains, growing pains that.

Speaker 5 (01:13:19):
We've that we've all had that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
No black folks have scaled a podcast empire, like some
people have done joint ventures with like iHeartMedia, like Charlemagne's
is super successful Black effect. I think Loudspeaker Network's not
black owned, but like this culture based. I don't think
he's raised any money, but like there's an opportunity somebody
will get this done.

Speaker 4 (01:13:41):
Yeah, I mean one thing I think has really kept
us I don't even know, like two Bitches and a Wish, but.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
Like, hello, it is weird. Two bitches and a wish
boats in house.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
Not must say, but Erica, you have a part point.

Speaker 4 (01:14:02):
I mean, but I think we've been like super clear
and confident about our goal, super super confident, like and
saying no and like not being worried and being like
I know my value even if no one cares about
my spot equity, we do, you know, and it's it's
kind of toxic because we'd be like, we don't need them,
fuck them, you know, it's like us convincing each other.

Speaker 2 (01:14:20):
But you need that.

Speaker 4 (01:14:22):
You need that like that clarity, and I'm like, I'm
not going to sell out. I'm not selling anyone in
my business for a portion of what I put into
it because and then also just being so clear, because
people are going to tell you if you whether or
not they think you're valuable, or whether or not you're
landing in a niche that's important or needs to be occupied,
or if you say white bitches or nigga too much,

(01:14:42):
you're not gonna get picked up or be popular, and
then you're in target.

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
So I'm dead.

Speaker 5 (01:14:49):
Oh my goodness. Well, switching gears real quick.

Speaker 3 (01:14:53):
I wanted to talk to you about love as an entrepreneur,
you know, I you know, I think that you know,
especially in your industry, I'm sure you've had to like
kind of protect yourself and maybe probably the early days
of like you know, what people can access about your life,
and I've seen that you've kind of kind of opened

(01:15:14):
up a little bit and started to share, you know,
different aspects of your relationship and love and how has
that been for you and really what was the inspiration
behind really showing you know, that part of your life.

Speaker 1 (01:15:27):
Yeah, well simple answer, I'm done.

Speaker 2 (01:15:29):
This is it?

Speaker 1 (01:15:29):
So I just kind of like I felt like some
I'm thirty three, so started Blabin I was twenty four.
Don't want to date me when I'm twenty four years old?
Like not cute? You know what I mean? Like we're
in the mud. I actually I had a boyfriend when
I started the company, and then we were long distance,

(01:15:51):
broke up, and then I was just you know, you
meet so many people when you are fundraising and going
to events and it's a it's a male, you know,
it's me and all the guests, right, And that was
really hard for me to I'm like, are we friends?
Are we colleagues? Are you trying to have sex with me?
Like like going on? You know?

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
And I made moves.

Speaker 1 (01:16:13):
I made mistakes, like I fell in love with different people,
Like I went through all the ups and downs that
any girl in her twenties goes through. And I also
knew along the way, like these people probably aren't my
forever people, and you know, building in public is not
the easiest, and I didn't want any inkling of my

(01:16:33):
personal life to like impact my business or the perception
of my success. Like there was a time when if
you google my name, people were googling like Morgan and
Bond boyfriend, like Morgan Bond dad, as if there was
like a man secretly like financing my life.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
I'm like, no, I'm just working really hard, not the
dad and the boyfriend.

Speaker 1 (01:16:54):
There must be there must be a man like and
it's like there's no man like it stand as me
and go founders like who are men? But like I'm
still me? You know, so I think that I just
had I was so cautious not to step into any
of those stereotypes because I worked so hard and I

(01:17:15):
was just very much like no, fuck y'all, like like
I'm gonna do this, maybe even to my own detriment,
like because people could have maybe probably weren't trying to
sleep with me, but like just wanted to help. And
don't get me wrong, men have helped me so much
along the way. My investors are men, et cetera. But
I felt like my personal life it just wasn't like

(01:17:36):
there you know, it wasn't to the point where it
was like worthy of space and time and interaction, and
I needed to be fully happy and enjoy self. And
I think COVID allowed me the physical space because I
wasn't on the road like traveling every week, and the

(01:17:56):
business was stable after we got through the initial chaos
we all went through with like George Floyd and the
election and all this stuff. But once I made it
through all of that, I really was in peace and
I was just so happy. And that is also oftentimes
when you find the right person, you know. And I
was very committed to finding my partner in life, like

(01:18:18):
I very much was. I took my friends are like
you dated like it was a job, Like I was serious,
you know. And I had this one thing that I
would tell guys that I'm dating, like one, I'm keeping
my options opient open, Like I do not aspire to
be a girlfriend. I aspire to be a wife and
a mom. So you know, I like the girlfriend is

(01:18:43):
title is like not the thing for me. So if
that's what you're looking for as a girlfriend, we probably
aren't the right fit or we should just like stay open,
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:18:53):
And I think so many women are so afraid to
lead with their need, their wants, and their desires. They
feel like they're going to scare off that person. And
I always tell people like, if they're scared, then they're
not for they're not for you. Well it makes you
some women think they'll sound needy, needy and desperate.

Speaker 1 (01:19:10):
I think that men aspire to be married and to
find their partner just as much as women do. Like
my male friends, who are the worst guys ever, they're like,
I want to be married. I'm like, are you kidding?
Your actions are lining up?

Speaker 5 (01:19:22):
Sir?

Speaker 1 (01:19:23):
They don't line up, But I do think they genuinely
mean it, Like they genuinely they're like, yeah, I want
like a wife and I have kids, but I want
my wife and my kids to being the same woman,
Like I want to do all the things. They can't
get there any times assume with their behavior, but like
they want it just as much as we do. And
the idea that they don't I think is something we
try to tell ourselves because it makes ourselves feel better.

(01:19:44):
But I actually think they do, and it just needs
to be the right circumstances right, you know, and the
right person. And I had to get really comfortable with
I may be single for the rest of my life.
And I think once I accept I did that, Like one,
men are infinite, there's billions of them. Like my odds

(01:20:06):
are my favor right that part. But if it doesn't happen,
I live a beautiful life I have. I have more
than work. I walk, I pain, I garden, I like,
I have a rich, juicy life. So you know you
don't work out, it will work out, right, So I
think that was that was like the second thing was
just like feeling comfortable in self, and then I think

(01:20:29):
that also just makes you so much more attractive, like
just being a studio and a bass like these guys
don't give a ship.

Speaker 5 (01:20:36):
In fact, it's probably scary, Yeah, it an would be.

Speaker 1 (01:20:41):
It's some my like men would be intimidated by you,
for sure. Absolutely they've definitely said that. Or like guys
would be like, oh, I've had a question forever, but
I was just so intimidated. I'm like, okay, well, yeah,
like sounds good for you, Like I'm good bro, like
you know, and I'm sure there's men who are like
kicking themselves now because they thought I was this hardcore,

(01:21:02):
intense person and then they see me now and they're like, oh, man,
she looks squishy, you know what I mean, Like damn,
And I'm like, yeah, say me. But women are in phases.
We have to feel safe, and I think, you know,
I worked on myself first, and then I was out
in the world looking and receiving, you know, and actually

(01:21:24):
being able to receive all the love and the energy
that was coming my way. And the more you receive,
the more it becomes easier to find and navigate to
the person that's right for you.

Speaker 5 (01:21:35):
Is do you require your partner to.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Be?

Speaker 5 (01:21:42):
And I have no idea what your partner does.

Speaker 3 (01:21:44):
I know that he exports, he helps you out with
your productions and stuff like that, But I'm just wondering,
like Morgan before versus Morgan, then was it important for
your partner to be like equally yoked? Because I think
a lot of times too, because I only say this
because I think, like I think, as women we are.
Our inclinations sometimes is to say no. But then as

(01:22:06):
time goes on, it's not even us. It's usually the
men that become less over time, become I guess somewhat
insecure about you know, the position that their woman is
in versus them. And it becomes like this issue, I'm
just curious, like that is that important to you?

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
Is that something that yeah, this is something that's important
to you.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
You know, I dated them all. I mean I dated
guys who worked normal nine to fives. I dated guys
who are you know, aspiring LA people. I dated you know,
your New York forty year old plus ballers, Like I
dated that at all. Like I was a non discriminatory
black I promostly do. Yeah, I've only did black black men.

(01:22:51):
But other than that, I'm like, I'm like, you're good,
like you fine, okay? Wein So I think now, like
what my original criteria like as I was just like
thinking through, Okay, what's the right fit for me? Was
people who could I could live my full life with
and I didn't feel like I had to compartmentalize. And

(01:23:13):
I think just how they made me feel was most important.
So if I felt like like I've got to go
to LA this week, I've got to New York this week,
I've got to go over here, I've got to go here,
Like are they gonna be like, oh my god, You're
never home. Are they gonna be like okay, Like I'll
meet you there right, like can they meet me? There
are they got to go take vacation days, but they
don't have right, Like if they can, if we can

(01:23:35):
just live our full lives together, that's all that I want.
So then their job does matter a little bit.

Speaker 5 (01:23:41):
They can't.

Speaker 1 (01:23:41):
That's their choice, like I if they had a job
like one. I think people choose their jobs like generally, right,
So yeah, if you choose a nine to five that
has a fixed amount of vacation days and you need
approval for all these things, and I'm like, yo, we
just got invited to like the oscars. Are you coming
or are you not? Like I'm going, are you coming?

Speaker 8 (01:24:06):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:24:07):
So, like that is their choice. And if they can't
live with those choices and they're gonna resent me for
living my life that I've worked really hard for, then
they're not the right man for me. And a lot
of men men opted out, Like a lot of men
like get into it and they opt out. They're like
I've got too much going on, or like I need

(01:24:27):
they see how impactful my work is and like I
really got to work on my career, so they opt out. Okay,
you should go do that. It's the wrong timing for us.

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
You won't be dead the oscars, right, I mean, I
get it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:41):
I mean, for me, it's important I want my partner
to be able to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Speaker 1 (01:24:46):
Fuck. Yeah, we say in beautiful hotel, are working so
hard for to just be here by myself, That's what
I'm saying. So like naturally, I was attracted to men
that had more control over their own calendars, you know,
but that could be a number of careers. You could
be artists, you could be a business person. I mean,
you could be I don't know, fucking entrepreneurialing lawns like
I don't care. You could have a landscaping company, but you.

Speaker 4 (01:25:08):
Can get You have the leisure to leave when you
feel like leaving. You're not tied to anybody else's schedule
for you, right, I mean you said you said a
word like women. You don't know what you said, but
it's true. Men women do all the things when they
feel safe.

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
Yeah, feeling safe is critical safety safety and.

Speaker 2 (01:25:27):
Like not having any feel like the comparted to mentalize
or you know, like shrink.

Speaker 1 (01:25:32):
Look a certain way, like you know, my boyfriend loves
me when I'm like I actually can't function and I'm
in a bathtub right now, like eating Indian food and like,
just let me be. He loves me that much as
much as when I'm you know, all glammed up wearing
a beautiful gown, like it doesn't matter to him. But

(01:25:52):
I don't feel like I would have found that here
in La. You met him in Nashville, Okay, they met
at a bar.

Speaker 2 (01:25:59):
Really love old fashion crazy?

Speaker 3 (01:26:03):
Yeah, No, the safety thing is is really I mean,
I think all women resonate with that word period, Like
you will get the soft Morgan when I feel safe.

Speaker 5 (01:26:11):
You know, you will get the soft Erica.

Speaker 3 (01:26:14):
When I feel safe, I will fucking put toothpaste on
your toothbrush before you wake up in the morning.

Speaker 1 (01:26:18):
Joyfully, happily.

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
I think men here feel man here feel safe, and
they're like, I have a.

Speaker 1 (01:26:23):
Protect I will be domesticated for you if you joyfully
you know, like I want to. I literally will stop
my day and I will make him lunch and like
bring it to him because I want to, not because
I have to because I couldn't afford to get you
uber eats, Like because you're hungry and I'm making myself
lunch and here you go, Like I think that ginger

(01:26:47):
roles are empowering when you just do whatever the fuck
you want to do, And like that's actually what being
like full love is is you can actually just be
yourself so much so that I don't even know that
I knew who, like all of myself was because I
couldn't let myself be one hundred percent anywhere with anyway,
and like I just wasn't there yet, so he actually
unlocked other parts of me.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
I was like, huh, I even know I had to,
you know what I'm saying, Like I.

Speaker 1 (01:27:11):
Didn't know I could be so carefree, Like I'm not
gonn sleep so good, Like you know, I used to
be so terrified living in a house alone, like I would.
I was just scared all the time. I would sleep
in hotel rooms and double check all the things, Like
I was just constantly scared for my safety. Girl, I
walk across the street, I don't even look across because
I'm holding his hands. Like that's how safe I feel.

(01:27:31):
And that's beautiful.

Speaker 5 (01:27:32):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:33):
I do love that.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
How long have you guys been together?

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
Almost two years?

Speaker 2 (01:27:36):
You guys have lived together?

Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
Oh yeah, we moved in like month three three?

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
Yeah, get over here, get in here when you know,
you know, your big as house. Yeah, come on in.
You got a dog, that's fine, just to spring them too.

Speaker 5 (01:27:49):
You're alarm system.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
Yeah yeah, I do call her my little security system.

Speaker 2 (01:27:53):
Oh my gosh, I'm happy for you.

Speaker 1 (01:27:55):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:27:56):
That's beautiful. I think love can be really healing and
if you know, if you feel safe.

Speaker 1 (01:28:01):
I've never thought it would be true. I was not
a fairy tale person.

Speaker 4 (01:28:05):
I think it's also when you stop like seeking it,
you stop looking your stuff like is it coming, and
then it's.

Speaker 2 (01:28:10):
Like, oh, I'm in it.

Speaker 1 (01:28:11):
But being in a place to receive it.

Speaker 3 (01:28:13):
Yeah, yeah, being that's that's crucial too. It's like, and
I think a lot of that is the work that
you do before you find the love. Ye, the work
can be is completed, not all I don't know if
it's ever fully completed, but you can do a lot
of healing in the relationship, you know. I don't think
you have to be this healed up person to then
finally enter into relationship, but there is a level of

(01:28:35):
like healing and acknowledgment and safety within yourself that has
to happen before it's.

Speaker 5 (01:28:42):
Just more clear.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
Yeah, you know, like we were able to move really quickly,
like so much of everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:28:46):
Was like are you sure?

Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
Like work has lost your fucking mind and she's posting
this man, like what is going on? Like people were shocked,
and I'm like no, like this is my twin flame,
Like this is it's done? Like when it's so clear
because I've already I'd already accepted the life without them,

(01:29:08):
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:29:08):
It's like, no, I want you in it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:10):
Yeah, like this is I think. Ye, I don't need you,
I don't need you, but this is but I start
every day yeah like selfishly.

Speaker 2 (01:29:18):
Yes, yes, I love that.

Speaker 7 (01:29:21):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:29:22):
On that note, do you have an affirmation that you
can share with Yeah, here, I.

Speaker 1 (01:29:27):
Feel like it's been changing since we've been talking because
I started off with one. But I don't think it's
bad anymore. My affirmation for the ladies is, you know,
I am full, I'm living a rich, juicy life and
I'm in control of my future.

Speaker 3 (01:29:43):
I am full, I'm living a rich, juicy life and
I am in control of my future.

Speaker 2 (01:29:50):
Yes right, yes, yes, emphasis on the juicy life, juicy
and I'm in control.

Speaker 5 (01:29:57):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:29:58):
Do we have we had Morgan Pool a card at
the top of the show.

Speaker 4 (01:30:02):
Time shout out to Mahogany tarot deck, our beautiful black
card deck and cashieron.

Speaker 2 (01:30:12):
You pulled the four of cups? Okay, the cups are
usually having to do with emotions.

Speaker 4 (01:30:18):
This one means meditation, contemplation, apathy, and reevaluation. It says
here when the four of cups turns up into tarot reading,
new invitations and opportunities are flowing to you, but for
now you're saying no and turning them away. Perhaps the
prospects do not interest you, or your cup is full,
or you already have too much on your plate. Use

(01:30:39):
your discernment to decide on what is truly important to you,
and don't be afraid to decline new projects that don't
align with your future path.

Speaker 1 (01:30:47):
This is definitely happening. I feel very guilty.

Speaker 4 (01:30:50):
The four of cups can also indicate a time when
you are turning your attention and your energy internally to
realign to this new phase of your life. You know
that you need to be standing on a on tara
firma before you can decide your next steps. While you
may while you may need to decline some very alluring opportunities,
you do so knowing you'll be in a better position
to say yes to the opportunities that are better fit

(01:31:12):
for you. You are creating the space within yourself so
that you are ready to accept new opportunities later and
give them the best possibility of success. Use this time
for inward reflection, grounding, and contemplation before accepting the next
big thing.

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
It's like, don't put out the little fires, think about
the future.

Speaker 1 (01:31:29):
It's pretty accurate. I feel like I say no to staff,
Like I said no to going to the White House
and this that, And my partner was like, are you sure,
Like this is such like a cool thing. I'm like,
I just it's I can't. I can't say yes to everything,
you know, And then I said, Then they came back
with something else. I was like, ah, I'm saying yes
to that, but if I said yes to the other steps,

(01:31:51):
So yeah, no, it's how balance you never know?

Speaker 3 (01:31:54):
Yeah. Yeah, trusting your intuition and knowing your worth and
knowing your value is is key. And just knowing that
when one door closes, another door opens, and even if
you close that door, you know another door still opens. Absolutely,
possibilities are endless.

Speaker 5 (01:32:12):
Well, Morgan, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:32:12):
So much for coming on our show. This is such
such a lovely chat.

Speaker 5 (01:32:16):
I'm so happy that we finally got to meet you.
And even though we did sort of.

Speaker 1 (01:32:20):
Fall on you a few months back, your friend I said, sorry,
I will, I will, that's so funny.

Speaker 2 (01:32:27):
Coming over to say something, and then I tripped, so
it was over, but.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
I remembered it now I'm here.

Speaker 4 (01:32:32):
Yeah, thank you so much. You've been like, you're very
much inspiration and I'm proud of you. You're doing an
amazing fucking job and it's amazing to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
Thank you. I can't wait to be your angel investor.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
Okay, well, from your mouth to God's ears.

Speaker 1 (01:32:47):
When it's time, there's a lot of subt equity. Come
and be like, that's what I can all matter.

Speaker 5 (01:32:56):
Can you tell our people where they can find you?

Speaker 1 (01:32:58):
Yes, you can find me on Instagram, which is very boring.
So go on TikTok where I actually can show you
my whole life.

Speaker 2 (01:33:04):
Oh is your tiktoking over there?

Speaker 1 (01:33:06):
Oh? My TikTok is way more fun Instagram. Like, clients
follow me on Instagram and employees follow me on Instagram,
and I feel like on TikTok you're hiding. Well, I'm like,
you can find me, but it's more of like you
chose to follow me on TikTok. If I get weird,
this is your fault. Like Instagram is basically Facebook now,
you know, like you can only boast so much and

(01:33:29):
I just feel like I'm a I'm the people's Instagram
and TikTok is not more fun for me personally.

Speaker 5 (01:33:34):
What's your TikTok? Is it Morgan's mom?

Speaker 1 (01:33:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:33:35):
Okay, of course is my name And we'll leave all
of Morgan's infos in the episode description.

Speaker 2 (01:33:41):
Make sure you click our episode description to check.

Speaker 5 (01:33:43):
Out our book, which is on pre sale.

Speaker 3 (01:33:45):
Check out our retreat just like cancel that lace front appointment, girl,
and just come on and good book, the Good Vibe Retreat.
We're going to Mexico in July. We have two dates,
all inclusive. Amazing women find come find your tribe. This
is where you come find your tribe. This is where
you detach from the bullshit. Come relax, decompress, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:34:05):
Switch up, switch up your timeline, do some new shit,
make switch up your environment, relearn yourself and remember who
the fuck you are.

Speaker 1 (01:34:12):
Make new friends.

Speaker 2 (01:34:13):
Yeah, new friends. It's hard to make a friend.

Speaker 1 (01:34:16):
It is it is, It is hard, and it is hard,
but when you're there. It's so fucking easy. It is.

Speaker 5 (01:34:22):
It's so easy.

Speaker 3 (01:34:23):
And you know, the women that come on our retreats,
they're like literally hanging out. I'm sure like right this
very moment. I look on our discord every day and
they're like, look who I'm with, and I'm like.

Speaker 2 (01:34:31):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (01:34:31):
It warms my heart to see them, like, continue the
friendships past this experience. So if you are looking for
your new bestie, I guarantee you you will find her
here or just bring your bestie with you.

Speaker 1 (01:34:43):
But anyway, we'll see you guys next week.

Speaker 2 (01:34:46):
Bye bye.

Speaker 8 (01:35:01):
Yeah, this is going up.

Speaker 2 (01:35:08):
Ellena J Solo BAA record, The Loos and Elas

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Erica Dickerson

Jamilah Mapp

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Reclaiming The Feminine CEO Feat. Morgan DeBaun