E460: Matthew A. Cherry, Stephanie Humphrey, Ed Gordon, Kwame Johnson & Juliet Udeochu

Appearing on this episode of Money Making Conversations is Ed Gordon, EMMY-winning broadcaster; Host of Weekend with Ed Gordon on SiriusXM, Author of new book, Conversations In Black: On Power, Politics, and Leadership; Kwame Johnson & Juliet Udeochu, Producing Real Men Mentor Panel for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta; Matthew A. Cherry, Television Executive, Executive Producer Black KKKlansman, and Creator of Hair Love; and Stephanie Humphrey, Tech and Lifestyle Expert known as “TechLife Steph”, Tech contributor for ABC's "Strahan, Sara & Keke"; Founder of "Till Death Do You Tweet".Each Money Making Conversations show hosted by Rushion McDonald is about entrepreneurship and entertainment. We provide the consumer and business owner access to Celebrities, CEOs, Entrepreneurs and Industry Decision Makers. They in turn deliver information about career planning, motivation, financial literacy and how they lead a balanced life.Don’t miss Money Making Conversations with host Rushion McDonald anytime through our iHeartRadio Podcast, which can be found under the Business/Finance Section, Fridays at 10AM ET on SiriusXM Channel 141: H.U.R. Voices and Fridays at 7PM ET on SiriusXM Channel 142: HBCU. We want to keep you Winning with your Career and your Life! #AskMMCThe Money Making Conversations radio talk show shares the “Secrets To Success” experienced firsthand by marketing and branding expert Rushion McDonald. Mr. McDonald is a brand guru and has been a marketer for major national and global brands like State Farm, Ford and Home Depot. He has worked with Kevin Hart, Stephen A. Smith, Jamie Foxx and most notably, Steve Harvey and will provide access to women and multicultural markets to expand the reach of your brand. The show features one-on-one career advice to callers, contributions from corporate leaders, successful entrepreneurs, celebrity interviews regarding their business ventures, social media branding, financial planning and information to empower small businesses to a path of success!“The Kind of Talk that Inspires Change.”https://www.facebook.com/MoneyMakingConversations/https://www.iheart.com/podcast/53-Money-Making-Conversations-28341098/https://open.spotify.com/show/3ABAQdTXqAnhGwxrsjFa5yhttps://www.rushionmcdonald.com/https://www.facebook.com/rushionmcdonald/https://twitter.com/RushionMcDonaldhttps://www.instagram.com/rushionmcdonald/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rushionmcdonaldhttps://am920theanswer.com/radioshow/7908
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
advice to many occasions. In occasion, didn't notice, I'm not broke.
You know, He'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry
decision makers. It's what he likes to do, it's what
he likes to share. Now it's time to hear from

(00:25):
my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations. Here we go. Hi,
welcome to Money Making Conversation. Yes, I'm the host Rashan
McDonald East Money Making Conversations talk shows about entrepreneurship and entertainment.
I provide the consumer and business owner access to celebrities, CEOs,
entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It is important to understand

(00:47):
that everybody travels a different path to success. That's because
your brand is different, the challenges you're facing your life
are different. Success is always there for you, though, so
stop reading other people's success stories and start writing your own. Now.
You can be motivated by their success because their stories
can offer you directions and to help you reach your
goal through your planning and committed efforts. Got to have

(01:09):
that effort. My guests or Money Making Conversation have that
same passion, and they share that information when we talk
doing my interviews about their career, their motivation and what
they're promoting, how they live, they balanced life, and more
importantly and most importantly, their secrets to success. But next
guest is uh dif friend um been knowing him? Wow.

(01:32):
When I first started managers the way back in the
radio days in l A. He's to come in there
man with the camera crew. He's always been a go getter,
but more importantly, he's one of the most widely respected,
award winning journalists in the industry today. Over the course
of his stellar career, he's worked at various television networks
including B E, T, NBC in MS, NBC and CBS.

(01:54):
We hosted and contributed to programs including Conversations with Ed Gordon,
b Et Too Night, b T News, Sixty Minutes, NBC
Today's Show, and Dateline. He is also a former host
of Our World with Black Enterprise and NPR News. Is
a new book, Conversations in Black, where he brings some
of the today's top leaders and influences together to explore

(02:16):
new narratives for African American leadership and the post Obama
era and the Trump era. The book, the book We're
released on Hatbayed by Hatchet Books on January fourteen of
this month, is available for pre order right now. Please
welcome to Money Making Conversation my man Ed Gordon. Well,

(02:39):
first of all, this book I kind of you know,
I know, this book kind of started being developed in
twenty twelve because we should do the Neighborhood Awards together.
So it was always talked and so I'm not I'm
not shocked by coming out. But it's also when we
started talking to Obama as president, and so it really allows,
I've read the book, allows for you to tell a

(03:01):
unique story because now you have the Obama experience and
now you have the Trump experience. Yeah, it's interesting, Rashaan,
I started in twelve at least the idea came to me,
and the book itself is written as if all forty
plus of us were in the same room having a conversation.
You know, often some of the best nuggets come out

(03:24):
of interviews, when you're talking to the person before or
after the interview, and I said to myself, with all
the great people I talked to, Uh, it wouldn't be
great if I could get everybody in the same room. Well,
I knew I couldn't do that, but I said I
could have what people would see as a virtual conversation. Now.
So it's written as if we're all sitting together, and

(03:45):
each chapter is a different topic. So we talk about
black girl magic, we talk about Black Lives Matter, the
Black vote, the Obama years, Trump images in Black America.
We cover everything and some of the people we have
Maxine Waters, Hary Bellafani, t I to mel Hill, Angela
Ry uh, Stacy Abrams, Eric Holder. I mean, the list

(04:07):
goes on and on, DL Hugh Lee, Charlemagne and God.
And what I'm most proud of man is I started
in twent twelve. I had to stop it because I
got a TV project. I picked it back up, uh
last year in nineteen and now we've got the culmination
of this, And I think it's important because our community

(04:28):
has kind of been stuck in neutral. We need some
new narratives because our fight for justice and equality, as
you and I talked about all the time, continues, and
it's really important that you say that because you know,
at a certain points in the book that you were
pointing out, like in you talked about when you was
on the Steve Harvey Show and there wasn't November about
the voting, and you was on the phone being interviewed,

(04:51):
and you felt the synergy there, The energy wasn't there
for the black vote. It felt like there was a
complacency and and and because of that in place, and see,
we have to believe that may have cost Hillary Clinton,
among other things, the opportunity to be the next president
of the United States. When you talk about that complacency,
we're talking about that same complacent complacencing today, even though

(05:13):
we are provided with much more channels of communication, especially
with social media, right absolutely. And Rashan, you know, you
brought me on Steve Show and gave me a segment
because you understood the making sure that we've got certain
words out and looked at certain ideas and certain issues.
And you know, Black America has been taken for granted

(05:33):
for a long time. And because of that, I think
we have become complacent with you know, I look at
the the NFL playoffs right now. You know, four black
quarterbacks when there were years and years and years, and
people believed no black quarterbacks. You know, they talk about
all these new coaches that they want to hire, but
tell them, do you hear a black name mentioned? Even

(05:56):
what the NFL talking about the Roodey rule. And we're
gonna really look at minorities they don't. We're looking at
what Trump has done over the course of this next
four years. And I hastened to say, and I hate
to even admit this, but he could win again in
eight years of Trump. As Stacy Abram said says in
the book, if you think this four years has been bad,
you better strap in if he wins again. Absolutely, So

(06:19):
when you when we go through the book, you know
then you mentioned something the name Dio, hughgle, Eric Holder,
Jamal Hill all shot at Michael Eric Dyson, t I
these are these are the pen eight people. But also
you have an opinion ed And that's when I was
when I was reading a book, you kind of took
a step back and allowed them to tell the delivered
the narrative. Was that difficult for you or that was

(06:39):
the whole approach to the book? Now? Really that was
the approaches you know, uh Rashwan, I have been a
traditional journalist my entire career, so I don't often give
my opinion, though in this book I get more of
my opinion than I would normally. But as I said,
I thought the dynamic of this book was to get
all of these people to your point. The people that

(07:02):
you bring in, the people that are go getters, that
you know, the rule change that the people that make
a difference. I thought bringing together forty plus of those
folks would be so dynamic. I mean, we've got April
Rain who started oscar So White, Torono Burke, who started
the Me Too movement. You know, they're talking about black

(07:24):
girl magic um with with the Yamba Uh. You know.
I mean, I just felt like we need to start talking,
and then more importantly, out of those conversations, we have
to start doing and if not, we're gonna just be
sitting in this neutral spot. One of the things we
do in one of the chapters is we look at

(07:45):
black leadership and ask the question whether or not they've
been doing enough. And you know, that's really interesting thing
about I'm talking to Ed Gordon. His book Conversations in
Black Uh. You can pre order it now, is being
presented by Hatchet Books that are being Wars a January
fourteen Conversations in Black with Ed Gordon. He's interviewed forty

(08:06):
UM industry decision makers, people I talked to on them
on a daily basis about leadership, about what's next, what's next.
But that leadership I think is, you know, because we
always go back to what real leadership. You know, you
always go back to Martin Luther King and you true leaders,
and you go to Malcolm X, true leader, and after
that it kind of gets confusing. Ever since then, who
do we turn to? You know, entertainment has somehow become

(08:29):
the leaders of the voice of Black America music. You
know in your book you talk about Marvin Gay, you
know what's going on that CD that that resonates with me.
That music still is relevant today. But I feel that
when you start talking about leaders, I think our leaders
are entertainers. I think killing Mike and t I both

(08:51):
say that in the book. And we always had entertainers
who were leaders, you know, you think about the Civil
rights movement, Harry Belafonte was out there, and Sammy Davis,
Judy Year in Sydney Potier, but you also had those
other leaders that you know, we're in the four if
I ask you twenty years ago name the top ten
black leaders, you could do it without even thinking boom

(09:12):
boom boom boom boom. Today, you know, if I say, okay,
I'll give you Al Sharpton, I'll give you know, four
or five people after that, name me ten more people struggle.
And so I don't know that we have to have
ten black national leaders like we used to. But what
we do talk about in the book, and what we
need desperately is a black agenda. No people move forward

(09:36):
without a plan. No, no team wins without a game plan,
and Black America doesn't have a game plan right now.
We hope that this book will be the start to
really move people uh to make a difference in their communities,
because sometimes we're sitting and waiting on others to do. Rashaan,
and you've always said, you know the idea of getting going,

(09:57):
you know, you being your own sparks. So if you
don't see the leadership in your community, then you need
to be the leader. Let me ask you this, because
we talk about you know that that black leadership, the
black voice. You know, because of social media, you know
it is always tell people what social media has changed,
how people communicate because it's everybody's press conference. You don't

(10:17):
need to offer to call a press conference posted. And
I feel that in some ways that has diminished exactly
who is doing the talking, because the viral video can
do the talking for that particular subject matter. So has
social media helped us or diminished our ability to be organized? Yeah,
I think it's done both. I mean, let's let's face it.

(10:38):
If social media had been back in the day, King
would have had a Twitter page, King would had a
Facebook page. But what King would have done is he
would have put it up on Twitter and then hit
the streets. What we have too many people doing is
liking it on Twitter, but forgetting to hit the streets,
or forgetting to stay off that bus, or forgetting to etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
You know, and we've got to be honest about black leadership.

(11:00):
You know, I asked people in one of the chapters
on black leadership to grade black leadership. And you know,
when you say the leadership, you gotta put that in quote.
So an entertainer can be a leadership. Someone like Charlemagne
and God as a leader, he's got such a huge
platform and he moves forward but when we look at
traditional leadership, leaders of civil rights organizations and the like. Um,

(11:21):
you know, some people have been skeptical and not been
happy with the leadership we've received in the last twenty years.
I asked some people to give a grade to it,
and not everyone gave, you know, high marks. I mean,
this book is very candid too. You know, it's not
just everybody patting one another on the back. But what
but what they don't do is they don't beat up
without offering solutions or without saying, hey, we've got to

(11:44):
have these people's backs. You know. The interesting thing about
it is that I'm talking to Edging his book Conversations
uh in Black in regards to History stand January fourteen.
Right now, you can pre order it. Uh, Can you
tell us how we can get the book other than
what I been saying about it. Yeah, you can go
to ed Gordon dot net and their links there that

(12:04):
allow you to uh pre order the book or wherever
you normally order books, Amazon or Barnes and Noble. But
the easiest way, and you'll learn a little bit more
about the book, is to go to ed Gordon dot
net and you can hit the link. It will take
you right to the page and you can pre order
the book if you're too lazy to do that. January fourteen,
that's the day it hits the stores. If you don't

(12:27):
like to go on the computer, just wherever you buy
your books, get your books. It's a great present for
young people. I mean, we talk about the youth. We
talk about Nipsey Hustle in the chapter about black men
and all that. So it's uh, it's a little uh
something for everybody in this book. But I think and
hope that at the end of the day it will
be an important book and get us not only talking

(12:50):
but moving. Kevin, will you be doing a tour with
the book autographs? Uh, we'll hit starting uh January four teens. UM,
I'll do press in New York and uh uh d C.
And then we had out on the road. Uh Kansas
City is our first stop, um, and then we go

(13:12):
from there. So if people go to uh ed L.
Gordon at ed L Gordon on Twitter and Instagram and
on my face Facebook page, uh, you know, you can
follow where we're going throughout. So we're excited be heading
out west as well traveling the country. So we're trying

(13:33):
to get people to join the conversation. Sir, you know,
have a conversation in black and then get out there.
We need new narratives, We need everybody involved because at
the end of the day, particularly if Trump wins again
haven forbid. Uh, they're putting us all in the same boat.
No pun intended. Absolutely, conversations in black. Ed Gordon book

(13:54):
comes out of January. Thank you for coming on the show.
Get those banners to me because I want to promote
your book too as well. Okay, thank you, We talked soon.
We'll be right back with more from Marsan McDonald. The
money Making Conversations don't touch that down, Hi, this is

(14:15):
Rushan McDonald to host of money Making Conversation. You say
to yourself who calls Rushan shell. Please welcome to money
Making Conversations, Lonny Love. You have to believe in yourself.
Nobody else believes, and you believe in yourself. With me
being the first woman to host as suscessible with seventy
thousand people, U to introduce Michelle Obama. That just doesn't

(14:37):
come overnight. Please welcome to money Making Conversations. Lynn, Phil
your daughter Charity is a hot mess on greed lease
well she is she is. She's just trying to find
her footing, and she got spoiled because there were maids
and things to help take care of her. A lot

(15:00):
of times. The baby and the family is like that.
Money Making Conversations continues online at www dot money Making
Conversations dot com and follow money Making Conversations on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram. Hi, welcome to Money Making Conversation. I'm your
host with Sean McDonald. That's right, money Making Conversations going

(15:22):
on three years to talk show about entrepreneurship and entertainment.
I provide the consumer and business owner access to celebrities, CEO, entrepreneurs,
and industry decision makers. It's important to understand that everybody
travels a different path to success. That's because your brand
is different, You're different, the challenges you face in your
life are different. So stop reading other people's success stories

(15:43):
and start writing your own. Now you can be motivated
by their success stories because their stories can offer you direction.
That's what this show us all about and help you
reach your goals through your planning and committed effort. And
committed effort just the key. You have to have a
plan to be successful. My guests or Moneyment conversation, have
the same passion, and they share that information when we

(16:03):
talk about their careers and motivations or what they're promoting,
how they live, balance life, and more importantly, their secrets
to success. My next guests have been on the show
before their game changes, their life changes. They're from the
Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta. We have
Kwamae Johnson, great to be here. Appreciate you having back

(16:25):
us back on the show. We appreciate it. Okay, and Juliet,
you don't cheat. Yeah, that job is McDonald's. Good morning.
When you're following on social media, velegator, right, oh my goodness,
you know you know you're you know you're partnered up
with local leaders. I'm one of those local leaders. Celebrities
are following that kind of leader, that celebrity influential men

(16:47):
in Atlanta to give youth, especially young boys, every opportunity
to succeed. Big Brothers Big Sisters currently have over three
hundred boars on the waiting lists. Name is, six percent
of the boars are African American. You're back on the
show to talk about the real mentor Real Men mentor panel.
That's January. Tell us about that the gathering Spot. Yes, yes, yes, um, yes,

(17:09):
you know right now. The gathering Spot is the hub
for young African American professionals if you have a startup.
If I mean, Ryan just has a great thing going
in the city and I think it's amazing, so um
to us, I was an ideal place to have it.
So this is our second event, especially social entrepreneur. If
you're a social entrepreneur, yes, this is where you need
to be. So basically it's uh, we did it two

(17:32):
years ago, keep forgetting and to me, it was just
a call of action. I wanted to bring together a room.
Like I said, I'm from l A and I haven't
seen so many young professional African Americans, so I moved
to Atlanta. You know, everybody's a fake basketball, fake this,
fake that. But we have men out here really doing things.
So why aren't we out here giving back to these communities.

(17:53):
I haven't seen so much disparity until I lept out here.
So um, the panel is just I wanted to have
a conversation, why are you not doing your part? Who
is that who impacted you to become the man you
are today? Um? So it was great. We had about
what seventy guys think about thirty something throughout that whole
process signed up and this year we just wanted to

(18:15):
make it a bigger just the second year. This is
the second year and last two thousand and eighteen it
was at the office and I think that was the
most African American man we ever had. And how did
you get them to show up for that? I was
out there, We did radio, had a lot of people
out there, being a street team inviting their coworkers, guys
and their basketball teams. Um for turning the Outfite came

(18:38):
out deep. We had about maybe thirty guys. Yeah, out,
they came out. They came out deep because yeah, what
do you think of it? We had a big turn
out listen, So like you know, you having us on
the show was gonna get the word out right and
sometimes social media now you have like a banners yet. Yeah. Yeah,
so we're we're solidifying all of that. This league cool

(19:00):
because that's a you know, like I said, I'm not
went in the marketing and Brandon, you know, like I said,
I definitely got to do my part and and and
get the word out because of the fact that I
want to be able to just just you know, I
always tell people, you know, you always want to go
get in on the restaurant when you can't get in it,
you know, going that people to cheers, people on the
walls going, Okay, what's going on? But what they what

(19:23):
they is what they're keeping over with these kids? You
know what what I gotta do? And so I don't
that's the goal. The goal is to put us, put
us in a position. You know, it was really interesting
when I everything. You got to have a little swag
look cool too. That's why people jump in real fast,
you know, because they don't know and world gets out
of going I'm doing this. I'm changing this young man's
life and only give eight hours a day a month,

(19:45):
eight hours eight hours a month a month, and that's
and then but we have to realize that is time.
But that is not an incredible amount of time. You're
not adopting this kid. So so what was the theme
for the panel last year? Did anybody host Japan? Because
you got your bar with showing in, Yeah, you put
what they told me. I gotta get people and you know,

(20:06):
I gotta I gotta have a theme. I gotta host.
You know, I'm you know what I'm saying I'm going
to work for the big and theater. Listen. We wanted
to definitely, we wanted to take it to another level
this year. Last year was great. We just had a
lot of folks who are already a part of our network,
some big some brothers who are already doing the work.
But we wanted to bring in some celebrities like yourself,

(20:27):
others who could really get the word out at a
big level UM this time and you know, partnering with
the gathering spout with Ryan and others down there, just
taking it to the next level. So we want to
get folks like you. We got some other big names
we're not gonna share right now that we're working on
UM to just get new people in the building who
don't know about it and have a conversation and say,
you know, this is really about us stepping up as
men in the community, many of us who are doing

(20:49):
really good things and have you know, eight hours we
can and it's it's not really about new time. I say, create,
you know, incorporation, your person you're this same time. You
know you're doing different things already, and why not bring
that young person with you to do things that you're
already gonna do and give them ex but bring them
up to the studio or you know, if I go
to the barbershop or different things that we do. Um,
just s all right in my mind, you know, trying

(21:11):
to calculate time. You know, you know I've started by
pilate classes. I'm just trying to you know, because really
when you start saying it, but it's about the commitment though.
For me, that's important that people out there understand because
I've been there. I've seen these kids. I walked in
the room. They look, they go whatever because they know,
are you here to make yourself feel good today? You know,

(21:34):
just your one charity moment. Don't look at me as
a charity case. I can do bad by myself. I
don't need this emotional drop in and drop out experience.
That is the key that we have to say is that.
But we have to let them know that there's a commitment.
But they also is not an adoption process from going
down and not moving into your how know. So I

(21:55):
want to touch on what you just said, so call
me said as well. UM, we like to call it,
don't make me time, share time the time that you
have already on the weekends, what do you do go
to the barbershop. I'd like to use the example. Um,
I met a big who said, um, what his little
brother like to do with him was to watch his
car on the weekend because his parents didn't have cars.
And that time, sitting down washing this car with his

(22:17):
big he's talking about school, talking about sport, and he's
getting that one on one time you go to the
grocery store, go to public. I like to say tell
your little this, Hey, we're going to grocery store. You
have to do it because you have no food in
your house. But to that, that's that one on one time.
Say hey, we're gonna go in the grocery store with
for fifty minutes for fifty dollars. At that point, you
teach you a little how to budget money, time management.

(22:41):
And while you're walking up and down the aisles, healthy
living right, how to get healthy food. And you guys
are just talking. You might not want to go shopping
with me. No ice cream, get some cakes, and you
can teach your boy how to bake. She's gonna get
it back to the right. I'm gonna be trying to

(23:02):
frank some joke. Keep my bake but that's your skill set.
And then that's why you guys work as a team
because of the fact that I'm here because somebody was
courageous enough to say, I need you to be a
part of this. Okay, now you got my mindset. I'm
overly trying to block time. Now I gotta go talk
to my wife. Go Okay, I'm thinking about what you

(23:22):
do because because you know, I'm mad at because she
ain't got a dog, you know what I'm saying, And
so and and and so. Now I'm trying to bring
on a human being into our world, and so for
a committed process and that so I got to look
at my schedule and see how eight hours plays out,
because no matter what we are, what we're talking about,

(23:45):
it's still a human being. And and in different age
groups who don't know the experiences they've had before you
came along. Like you said, you have a young child
eight you might want to mentor somebody who's twelve, somebody
who's fifty. Each one of them they got some drama
coming with that, you know, I'm saying. So you have
to know who you're talking to because that kid that
you may be starting to mentor maybe already have went

(24:06):
down the road or made the curve that you if
you're not spending the time to understand where they're at mentally,
you you just shocked. You wake up, you see him
on the news and because you did, because you were
just you know, playing the game. Yeah. Yeah, we make
sure you know before you get in that you know
all the background and in choice is a big part
of this. In preference and you may want to work
with an eight year old, twelve year old or young

(24:28):
man who's into certain things, you know, So all that
plays into to our decision making process. But also you
get to know what's going on before we match you,
and the family gets to know about you before we
match you. So it's a very thoughtful process where we
work together on that. Right. So with that being said,
I'm just talking to YouTube. What's what's this? The staff
look like a big brothers. We have a very amazing team,

(24:49):
fifty staff, most of our staff on our program team.
We have a very diverse staff. We gotta you know,
folks who have MSW degrees and you folks like me
who were in jail, you know. So it's it's a
it's a very great team to work with. I'm very
honored every day to go work with them. And our
program team is really providing the support to our bigs

(25:11):
and our kids in the field and the families that
are doing the work. So it's a great staff. But
we have fifty staff. We're in midtown. Come check us
out any time, right right at the corner seventeenth th Peachtree.
We love to have you cool so real men mentor Yes.
The panel is going to be January at the gathering spot.
How long was it last year? About an hour? So
we have Yeah, so we have when you first come in,

(25:32):
we we we want to talk for now by myself,
it can go longer. You've got a long wind bill
over here. But with the things I'm dragging all these
people down here. You know, a man ain't we want
to get him in. But I know we want to
have like a whole like mixer time to for you

(25:53):
to get in meet other local men in Atlanta. We're
going to have guys who were big are ready talk
to them because you know, this is our job get
where sales people. But we're gonna have people who are
there who are actually out there putting in the work
that can answer all the real life questions on my inn.
I gotta I gotta get the banners from you. I
gotta get a press release out, the lockdown the talent

(26:15):
that make sure that it's approved on both sides. You
know their agenda and get all that straight. Uh. Samantha Taylor,
who's the executive producer of Money Making Conversations, is handling
the production of the live inventive we're gonna be doing
at the gatherings by January. Big Brothers, Big sisters. Uh,
Metro Atlanta. What'll I say? They called with Julia, thank
you for coming on the show again and I got working. Hi.

(26:38):
This is Rushan McDonald to host the Money Making Conversation.
You say to yourself, who calls Rushan Shell? Please welcome
to Money Making Conversations, Lonnie Love. You have to believe
in yourself. Nobody else believes, and you believe in yourself
with me being the first woman to host as Susceptible
with seventy thousand people. Um to introduce Michelle Obama. That

(27:00):
just doesn't come overnight. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations.
Lyn your daughter Charity is a hot mess on Grelease.
Well she is, she is. She's just trying to find
her footing, and she got spoiled because there were maids

(27:20):
and things to help take care of her A lot
of times. The baby and the family is like that.
Money Making Conversations continues online at www. Dot money Making
Conversations dot com and follow Money Making Conversations on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time you stop thinking

(27:49):
about your dreams and put some plans into action. My
next guest is on the phone. First time we've talked
no of his work. Is a former NFL wide receiver
turned filmmaker who played for the Jacksonville Jagulaws, Cecinnati Bengals,

(28:09):
Carolina Panthers, and the Baltimore Ravens. He retired to two
thousand and seven and moved to l a A to
pursue a career in entertainment. Since then, he has going
on to direct music videos, short films, feature films, television
and wealth series. He's an NFL alum director, Monkey Ball,
Monkey Paul Production Films and television executive and author of

(28:31):
When I Just Read It Last Night called Hair Love.
He currently is a television executive, like I stated early
with Market Paul Productions. Please welcome to moneymaking conversations. My man,
Matthew a cherry, Hey, how you doing well. You've got
a lot going on, you know, for to be a
former football player, a couple of things. You know. First

(28:54):
of all, you know a sport that I you know,
a sport that I would never play because physically, Uh,
I don't know. I looked at it this weekend. I'm going,
how do y'all do it? So do you look back? Matthew,
he go, how did I do it? And why did
I do it? Oh? No, not at all, um. You know,

(29:15):
I think it's just uh, some people, you know, like
when you when you're growing up, you live in certain environments,
the neighborhoods, and you know it's kind of what all
your friends are doing, and you know, you you want
to kind of stay off the streets and make sure
that you have something else going on. And you know,
football growing up in Chicago was uh, what's kind of
that for me? So no, not at all. Chicago. I

(29:37):
was at Chicago. I lived in Chicago. I was I
was producing, uh that could produce a Steve Harvest talk
show from and my man, I got closed with your clothes,
but I had to buy in Chicago, that I wear
nowhere else hilarious. Ye gets pretty pretty frosty out there.

(30:00):
So do you miss the code? That's all I'm ask
Do you missed the cold Chicago? My friend? No, No,
I live in l A now, so you know don't.
So let's talk about you getting started in this business, because,
like I said, you know everybody's stereo types of individuals.
You know, your your football player. When you start trying
to get out of that window, people can look at

(30:20):
your life. M why how uh is that is that
even possible? Even if I like that to the fact
that you know, I come from the inner city, uh, Matthew,
and I my degree is in mathematics. I wanted to
be a stand up comic and people look at me like, okay,
stand up comic. You're not Richard pryor you're not rich Box.
So people always want to block. You're always tell people

(30:42):
have to be careful to people who who you might
consider your family or your loved ones or your best
friends because they can be the first people to throw
out the negative statements and throw out the blocks. So
so when you when you when did you? When did
you start developing these skills that I that I introduced
you as directed and because all that comes into play,
when do you start developing these skills? Um? You know,

(31:07):
it was something I was always interested in, man. Um.
You know, probably as early as high school. UM, I
remember wanting to, uh, you know, kind of join like
the radio and the TV club that they had and
uh at my school. And you know, I major in
the radio TV broadcast in college. So you know, I
knew that. I knew. I always knew eventually whenever I

(31:28):
got done playing sports, that you know, this would be
my kind of long term career and it was just
kind of a matter of what the approach might be.
But yeah, I always always knew. Now that would I
say all this so you you you're no longer playing
professional football? You say you moved to Los Angeles? Now
did you knew would established relationship or you moved out

(31:50):
there just to you know, you say, man, this is
where I was supposed to be. I gotta go and
get my feet wet and start making it happen. Yeah.
You know when when I was playing ball. UM actually
came out to l A for the first time in
like oh five when I was with the Bengals, and
this radio personality that I worked with in Cleveland at
the radio station out there. Basically I asked if I

(32:11):
want to come out for the BT wards and just
kind of hang out, and I was like, you know,
this would be a good opportunity to kind of get
eyes on, you know, the city and kind of see
what it's like. And I just love that it was
just all about production. You know, like the coffee jobs
you got none but writers and they're writing scripts. Uh,
you know, even the printing copy stores, you know, they
offering discounts on head shots and script printing. And it

(32:32):
just felt right. And I was lucky enough to meet
a person who was a part of this program called
street Lights, and street Lights is as nonprofit organization that
kind of helps men and women of color get jobs
as production assistance in the industry, like in mostly the
commercial world. And um, basically, you know, I met her,
we buy asked her she would kind of put me

(32:54):
down as a reference that she did, and um, I
applied to this program and I got in. And so
when I moved down Hey, this was kind of like
the only really relationship that I had coming out there.
And I kind of came out here knowing that I
was gonna be doing this like production assistant training program.
And you know, as you know, production assistants like you
do all the eye jobs like the moving to director's chairs,

(33:17):
getting the talent out the trusting room, righting in the
stage like stuff like that. But you know, it's a
great opportunity to actually physically get all set and kind
of see what everybody does and trying to figure out
what it is that you may want to do for
a living. You know, it's really important that you said
that because you know a lot of people they have standards.
You know, I'm not gonna do that, you know, but

(33:38):
but I I tell people when you as a as
a production assistant on the set that I was called
p AS and and so you get you get to
really get to really get into some areas where you
wouldn't normally get if you were just a producer because
a king, you know. Plus you can like get into
writer's rooms, you can ask productions, you can you can

(33:58):
be you can sit down next to a direct actor.
But you have to have your game plan. You know,
you can't be annoying. You have to be a person
that doesn't look too comfortable because a lot a lot
of people they want to just sit down, you know.
In other words, you almost got to be just be
in the back of the room and blend in. And
and a lot of people don't understand that. You always
tell people in my life, I don't always and you

(34:20):
might be the same way with you, Matthew. It's not
about the financial opportunity. It's about the opportunity now, it's
what you do with that opportunity that could lead to
a financial opportunity. And and a lot of people understand
that just getting in the door that he said that
really clear. And that's why I try to make sure
people who come on my show let them note the
end results. You know, Black Plansman is the end result, okay.

(34:43):
And and plus that's not his end d I shouldn't
even say that. That's one of his accomplishments were all
are aware of. But before that he would just be
a you know, I mean. And that's the thing though,
It's like, you know, sometimes when you come out there
and you you kind of think you already know what

(35:03):
you're doing, sometimes that can hinder you because, like you
you may be closed off to kind of all these
other opportunities, you know, and being a p A is
just such a great way to just like literally spend
a little time with every department kind of Okay, do
I want to get in hair and makeup? Do you
want to be a grip or electrician? You know what
I mean? Like you really can kind of find your
your your you know, whatever it is that you're trying

(35:24):
to get into long term. You know, absolutely, so Matt,
just talk about hair love. Okay. Um, yeah, like I said,
I know, I have a daughter, all right, my wife.
You know, Uh, I've done my attempts over the years.
My daughter said, don't mess with my hair no more. Dad,
please stop. Okay, that's not what you do. Okay, I
love you, but leave my hair along. What was the
motivation behind hair love? Well, you know, it was a

(35:49):
couple of years ago, back and sit out in seventeen.
I am, you know, very very active on social media,
and I just really noticed this trend. I kept coming across, uh,
all these videos of specifically African American fathers doing their
daughter's hair, and you know, I always like trying to
share a lot of family friendly content on my social
media and it was just I was just noticing this

(36:11):
trend to where every time I shared like a video
of a mom interacting with their kids. You know, they
would do well because a lot of times the videos
were cute, but it was every time it was a
black dad and a black daughter for a black dad
and their kids, period, they always just like overperformed. And
I just really just noticed, you know, it seemed like

(36:33):
it was kind of this double edged sword because like,
obviously the videos are very cute and touching, but I
kind of learned that it was also because people weren't
used to seeing black men depicted in this light, you
know what I mean, Like, you know, we get all
these negative stereotypes in the media, like for not around
for our kids and you know, et cetera. And so
them seeing like these dads that were taking the time

(36:54):
to do their daughter's hair, it kind of felt like
an anomaly. And for me, like I have a lot
of I'm not a father yet, but I've lot of
friends that are young fathers and there's not anomaly to them.
You know, Like rent is expensive everywhere often now now
how times you know both parents have to work, and
so mom gotta leave earlier, gotta go out of town
or something. You know, dad gotta step up. What do

(37:15):
you want to do? What is your goal? You know
we started we was a former NFL football player, was
a former p A. Now you've got this hot animated
project out there. You've executive produced The Black Plansman. What
do you want to do? My friend? Um, you know,
I'm kind of doing it now. You know. It's just
for me and just continuing to create projects that kind
of elevates and humanize black people, you know, um be

(37:38):
that in any medium, be the animated, live action, TV
or film. Um, you know I'm directing television now too.
So I just did an episode of blackish'll be coming
out around Valentine's Day. This big book, a big movie
that hasn't been announced yet, but I'm really excited about.
And uh, you know, trying to figure out a live
acting feature as well. So you know, just can seam

(38:00):
of working trying to reinvent myself. Man, that that's really
the goal and the dream now the dream now the
last o G that's you. Yeah. Yeah, I was a
co producer and director on the show too, So yeah
it was Matthew. Matthew, you need to stop being humble.
There's a humble interview, Matthew. You there's a humble interview

(38:21):
you know, you know you you got it going on,
my man? You know comment. The reason I say that
because you know I'm Hollywood. I went out to Hollywood.
I know, you know when they buried all the sitcoms
on W B and U p N. You know what
I'm saying, where as used as a starter started kits

(38:41):
and when I see you're in a you're in a
a guy your talents are? Is that Hollywood at a
good time? You know? Well, we could start telling our stories.
When I look on when I look at TV commercials,
I see I see interracial people on TV dating an
insurance together, buying cars together. We're only a couple of

(39:03):
years ago when a little black girl mixed or black
girls went in the room for cheerio, they wanted to
shut down cheerios. You know what I'm saying? That ain't
that fall from that? And to be able to see
stories that are being told by able Duvernet And if
you hear this here, this right here, you're saying, you're
comfortably saying I want to tell African American stories because
you know now there's a demand or need, our requests

(39:27):
for that type of confidence that has to make you
feel good. Yeah, man. I mean I think you know, nowadays,
like you know you're talking about back in the day
with like the c W and the w B and
UPN and all that. Like, you know, now there's so
many more networks from places that are doing original content.
So you know, it's just kind of like a byproduct
of that, like the more outlets that need content, you know,

(39:49):
the more opportunities that you know, black creators and creators
of color are going to have to be able to
tell their stories and you know, hopefully do them in
a in a good way that you know makes their
people look good. You know, I just want to continue that.
You know, people like gabad Rene and Jordan's and James
you know, are all kind of been mentors to me
and people who are really uh just admire and want

(40:11):
to follow their footsteps. So well, I'm telling something you
you are a special talent if I can compliment you
in that manner and you accepted. My wife Alwa tells me,
I don't know why I say thank you when people
compliment me because of the fact that some of the
things I'm just doing what I love to do and
you're doing what you love to do. Sometimes you don't
understand that what you what. You have a unique talent

(40:33):
and you're accomplishing things that are not normal. Yeah, no, man, no, definitely,
you know you got me. Man, it's good. I appreciate
your Matthew a cherry. We'll be right back with more
from Marsan McDonald the Money Making Conversations. Don't touch that down. Hi,
this is Rushan McDonald, the host of money Making Conversation.
You say to yourself who calls Rushan Shell. Please welcome

(40:55):
to money Making Conversations, Lonnie Love. You have to believe
in yourself. No body else believes that you believe in yourself.
With me being the first woman to host as successible
with seventy thousand people to introduce Michelle Obama, that just
doesn't come overnight. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations. Lyn,

(41:16):
your daughter Charity is a hot mess on green Lease.
Well she is, she is. She's just trying to find
her footing and she got spoiled because there were maids
and things to help take care of her a lot
of times. The baby in the family is like that.

(41:37):
Money Making Conversations continues online at www dot money Making
Conversations dot com and follow money Making conversations on Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram. My next guest is truly she's just
one of the people renaissance people. I call it that
because she's been able to reinvent herself a lot of people.

(41:58):
I had a degree in mathematics and nothing side of
the big stand up comic. If somebody asked me to
do a math problem, either we're gonna start fighting because
I don't know when you might call me. I thought
you're to doree mad because I don't know I reinvented myself.
That's not a life that I live now. This young
lady right here on the phone. As a former engineer
turned media personality in the area of technology and lifestyle.

(42:22):
She has the technology contributed for ABC News, working on
the nationally syndicated daytime show Straight Hand Sarah and Ki Ki.
A media appearance and interviews include Good Morning America, Chat
A TV series, X m Essence, and Huffington Post Televisions
one of her loves, but she is most passionate about
helping people become better digital citizen. She's on the shoulder

(42:44):
to day to talk about three apps that people can
utilize to manage and improve their finances, and that's what
I call perfect timing. Please work with the money making conversations.
Stephanie Humphrey, Hello, Hello, it's so happy to be here.
Thanks so much for having me first. For it's definitely
been a long time since you've been on the show.
And that's a good thing because you've been busy, and

(43:04):
I've been so busy. You're you're regular on different shows
and things like that. What and it's about It's about
your brand, It's about putting the word out and maintaining credibility,
what have you. What do you do to maintain credibility
with your varce because that's a competitive space, it absolutely is,
and I think you have to be consistent with content.

(43:24):
You know, there there was that whole idea of content
being king that was really popular a few years ago,
and that is actually still the case. Content is king.
So as you're utilizing these social media platforms, as you're
utilizing your website or your blog or whatever, you have
to consistently be pushing out content to people around your

(43:48):
brand and your area of expertise. Now, that does not
necessarily mean that you always have to be creating content,
because that can get overwhelming, you know, trying to do
videos every day, or or a podcast every week or
whatever that looks like. But curating content it's just as
effective as creating content. So I do a lot of both. Actually,

(44:12):
So most days, most days of the week, Monday through Friday,
I will curate content that I find on the Internet
and push it out and get people's opinions on it,
start conversations around it, drive engagement around technology topics that
I think people might be interested in. But then once
a week I actually create content as well through my

(44:33):
sixty second Tech Break which comes out on Wednesdays, which
gives people a actionable, relevant, little nugget of information that
they can watch, learn and then go do something with.
Now what what I'm assuming it comes out on social media?
What platforms? Do you distribute across all platforms? Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,
and LinkedIn? So I can share it on my Twitter account?

(44:56):
Yes you can? Please? Do you say? Every Wednesday? Right
comes out. He's a program director for money Making Conversations,
So every Wednesday we're gonna start sharing her. M's a
tech break, Yeah, on on social media because I'm always
trying to you know, like I said, that's that's a

(45:18):
part of quality content that you're talking about. Now let's
talk about because I got a lot of people on
the on my show talk about making that transition, and
then every everyday people who are afraid to make that transition,
afraid to walk away from that job. Fear just overwhelmed him.
Like I tell people, you know, my degrees in mathematics,
I work for IBM, and then I left IBM too

(45:41):
become a comedian. I was already a comedian, but when
you walk away from a full time job, you're becoming
a comedian for really, that's right. I was just fooling.
I'm just going on stage at night telling jokes. Just yeah, alright,
that's all I want was fun that every show. I'm funny.
But when I left IBM, I was a real comedian. Okay,
I to find out how I was gonna get a

(46:02):
regular check on a regular basis. Now, with that being said,
you're a former engineer, what what type of engineer were you? Well?
I was a systems engineer for Locke Martin, but my
degrees were in electrical engineering and telecommunications and networking engineering. Already,
is she making me feel my little math degree feels that?

(46:22):
Trust me, I don't as hard as it wants me
to get through calculus. I know, a math degree is
a big deal. You make me feel good, Stefphani. But
you know, there's the fun part about our life. Like
I went from you know, math, IBM computers to being

(46:43):
a comedian. Now you kind of still maintained your your
your land of communication because you stayed the technology and
lifestyle so so so I'm not saying that was but
but but there is still a transition. So I asked you, Okay,
how what did you get the car offinitse When did
you get the belief did you could do this or
even or did you just nurtured along like I was

(47:05):
telling jokes at night, we'll use like building your brand
before you made the leap. Oh? Absolutely, And I mean
it really was nothing. But God, I can't take any
credit for this because this wasn't something that I had
always wanted to do and and finally had the courage
or whatever to do it. And you know, I wasn't
that little kid that you know used the hairbrush as

(47:27):
a microphone and acted like a TV hose in my mirror.
I didn't do any of that. Like I did not
have any designs on being on television before I actually
did it. And I just credited again to God giving
me this vision and putting me in the right places
at the right time to meet the right people that

(47:49):
sort of encouraged it and planted those scenes and in
my you know consciousness that hey, maybe I could actually
you know, make this work. But but no, to your point,
I absolutely my day jobs for a long time, and
you know, work to work the program at night on
the weekends, you know, late night, early night. You know,
at one point I was working with QVC that's a

(48:10):
twenty four hour UH station, so I might be there
at to thirty in the morning and have to go
straight into work or or whatever that whatever that looked like.
But yeah, you definitely, you know, hold onto your to
your paycheck for as long as possible and and get
your plan together and save your money and and figure
out how you're going to maintain your lifestyle or what

(48:31):
has to change about your lifestyle. That's the one thing
I don't think people understand. Some things are going to
have to change about your lifestyle when you make this transition.
At least at first, you know, you're gonna have to
cut back on some stuff. You're gonna have to you know,
maybe that vacation every year, I ain't gonna happen. Uh,
So you have to think about what that all is
gonna look like and put that plan in place before

(48:52):
you just jump ships. And more importantly, what I what
I tell people is that eight hours because over a
four the hour week gives your discipline to say, I
go to work at the here, I get off for five.
When you make that jump, there is no eight hours
that's right there. You know. In fact, you know people
will ask you. I know because they asked me, all,
what do you what did you do today? And I

(49:13):
look at them going, um, you know, because I have
I'll squinch. I was working. I was working. If you
want details, now, I need to think about what my
next move is and that requires time and work. And

(49:33):
you need to be quiet for a minute and maybe
go take a walk or go to the gym. I
get all my good ideas of the gym. So you
know that's work too. Let's talk about that. You know,
always hold a financial talk to the end, hold my audience,
you know, hold my listenership. Here. You have three apps
here that have to improve your finances and twenties called
mint Acorns and Robin Hood talked to us about those

(49:55):
three apps. Start with is an overall budgeting app. It's
gonna you can you can attach all of your accounts
to your bank accounts and if you have an investment
accounts and things like that. But it's gonna give you
that overall picture of where your money is going, because
you cannot get your finances on track until you know
where your money is going, so it will help you budget.

(50:16):
You can actually pay your bills through that app. You
can connect your you know, your light bill account, your
cable account, lots and stuff, pay your bills through the
app and just keep track of where your money is going.
So Men is a really really great, easy to use,
comprehensive tool for that. Then you get to Acorns. Now
this is where you start saving money. Acorns is going

(50:37):
to allow you to round up, so any of the
purchases you make with your bank card, it'll round that
purchase up to the nearest dollar and take that those
few pennies you know, whatever it is and put it
into an investment account and a savings account. So you know,
if you if you don't feel like you have enough money,
are you're not making enough money just yet to start

(50:58):
putting aside five of a month or or whatever you
can put it. You could put a quarter aside, you
know what I mean, Like, you're not even going to
miss it if you spend you know, six dollars and
seventy two cents, that that extra thirty cents or twenty
seven cents, twenty eight cents, you're not gonna miss that.
So why not just let that money start making, start

(51:18):
working for you and and saving it without having to
think about it. Let me let me just interrupt there
right quick, you know, because that's I have a jar
in my house, and so when I get changed, I
just throw it in that jar, I just throw it
in that job, right, and it's and it's a fish bowl.
It's like a little baby fish bowl. And so so
I decided to just take some of it because you

(51:40):
can go to the stores and they then go this
little machine and change it out right, thanking you how
much money it is I had, I just some of it.
It was like a thousand dollars just solve that could
have been money earned an interest somewhere. But I'm just
letting you know what you're saying, it's absolutely true because
you're talking about round up change. I was taking change change,

(52:00):
but instead of just leaving it in this fish bowl,
you're talking about investing in building interest, compounding along the way,
which I'm delaying. Everybody knows that there's a lot of
people do what I do. Just take change and just
throw it in the corner, just take chaining and just
let it just sit there, and then open up a drawer.
You got change in the bottom of the drawer, and
you push it all the one corner and then you
get it out and go, I got some Hamburger money.

(52:23):
You know, stuff like that, and so so so so.
So that's a good way of modernizing an old habit
where it can be financially beneficial to you. Call that's
called acorns. That's called acorn. That's gonna guess to take
those Take that little bit of change, but it's somewhere
where it can grow. And then robin Hood is once

(52:44):
you get to the point where you're actually ready to
do some some serious investing and and building a portfolio.
Robin Hood allows you to trade stocks for free, so
you can buy and sell shares of any stock on
the stock exchange for free. It's a it's just a
really easy way to um to get involved and get

(53:05):
engaged and get started because you know a lot of
stocks you don't have to start off with. You know,
Apple stock that costs a thousand dollars a share. You
can start off with with real estate investment trust stocks
that only cost sixteen dollars a share or something like that.
So you you start small and you build, and they're
actually they're they're they're actually introducing the idea of buying

(53:27):
fractional stocks. So it's the same the same way that
Apple costs a thousand dollars. Maybe I can't buy a
full share right now, but I got twenty dollars, so
let me start building towards the time when I can
buy a full share of Apple or or Amazon or
Google or whatever. So, um, it's just a great way
to get involved in the stock market. It has tons

(53:47):
of information that helps you, helps you do your research
on the stocks that you're thinking about, and um, and
then just kind of get involved, because that's that's how
you're gonna build that wealth. You know, just get the paycheck.
You know, unless you plan on being this EO, just
getting the paycheck may not do it for you, and
probably won't do it for most of us. You know,
people build well through stock purchases and through the stock market.

(54:09):
Warren Buffett got rich in the stock market. He ain't
get rich because he saved you know, his pennies and
his fish bowlt so. And so you want to start
thinking about uh, you know, start thinking about that, and
this is the way to do it that is not
is not high risk for you because you don't have
to spend a ton of money, and you don't have
to spend money per transaction because once you start going

(54:30):
to those uh price Waterhouses and and Goldman Sacks and
and and those bigger companies, they charge you every time
you want to buy or sell a share of stock.
Robin Hood doesn't do that. So it makes it takes
away the barrier to entry for people that will want
to get into the stock market. Meant a cars and
robin Hood, these are absent people can utilize and manage

(54:52):
and improve their finances. And I love if you want
to meant you know, it's awesome acorns. You know I
just talked about that. I just need to upgrade my program,
stop throwing money in the jar and start putting it
in the bank or something. With this software that you
have out that Robin Hood. You know, I started out
buying stock to you know, discount brokers like Charles Swab.
You know they charged me fees and you're talking about

(55:13):
it was discount, right. That's what I'm just letting everybody know.
You know, now you're talking about you, I can still
invest and grow my brand through that. It's just amazing
what the information you always give out to us on
a data basis this time, Stephanie, I do want to
promote the fact when you go to Harvard and March
talk about to the death. Do you, Paul, do you
tweet just give me death? Do you tweet? And that's
a website ww dot till death? Do you tweet dot

(55:36):
com for more information? Stephanie Humphrey, a k A. Tech
Life staff, please come back sooner, come back to the well.
I won't I won't stay that way too long. Next time,
I appreciate you, Thank you, Bye Bye. Money Making Conversations
continues online at www dot money Making Conversations dot com