November 3, 2025 • 51 mins
Sometimes life throws us a curveball. A plan falls apart. A door closes. Or maybe, like tonight, an unexpected emergency happens. And in that moment, we face a choice: we can fret, or we can pivot.
With an unexpected emergency for my guest. I had the opportunity to speak directly with you. And I want you to remember this: To set yourself apart, show up through it all. No matter your assignment, how you complete it will determine how well the job was done! Seek ELLAvation® is a power source for change-seekers who are ready to lead, elevate, and build through sports, entertainment, business, and community to plug in.
With an unexpected emergency for my guest. I had the opportunity to speak directly with you. And I want you to remember this: To set yourself apart, show up through it all. No matter your assignment, how you complete it will determine how well the job was done! Seek ELLAvation® is a power source for change-seekers who are ready to lead, elevate, and build through sports, entertainment, business, and community to plug in.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
There was a time people counting me out, but they're
mocking me. I'm move inside out and I got to
know to know what that says. But what I believe
that God's my dad. I don't need you to bother me.
(00:37):
I know who I help. I'm created and.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I reflect what my eyes there to see?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
All the bigness eye posess less persibility, what lassie to pay?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Shut?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Should I get read?
Speaker 4 (01:15):
There is no time really stand for the outside Dolly
the ftin though that boy is the insults still isself pay.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
The visions of kids say all.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
These simple Monday bye something take your mind for you'll
buy your pleasa think your on following this plan head
we not died all w the Cone's nine extremely.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Welcome. Welcome, Welcome to another segment of the Seek Elevation
Experience with yours truly, Attorney Elkisha. This is where real
issues and real people, real conversations take center stage because
(02:24):
change doesn't happen in silence. From sports to entertainment to
business and community, right here is where we elevate voices
that need to be heard. But we don't just talk.
We talk about things to empower, to inspire, and to
challenge the status quo. And let me make this clear
(02:45):
that I skipped over just a second ago being attorney Alakeisha,
I don't ever give legal advice on this segment, on
this stage, but I do talk about or may share
some legal information. It is to educate you, not to
give you legal advice, because I will have to know
your situation in order to do so, and because I don't,
(03:07):
I'm not giving legal advice. With that said, I know
there will be those who are rolling in to see
our amazing guests that I had schedule for tonight, mister
Capricio Skates, who is an absolute powerhouse in the music industry. Unfortunately,
(03:30):
something not great just happened not too long ago, and
I'm happy. Everything is okay, Everything is okay, but it
is something that needs his full attention. And so although
I completely completely want him here right now, he needs
(03:53):
to give his full attention to what matters most, because
when all of this is all gone, all of this
is all gone, the one thing that stands are those
closest to us. Right everything else is secondary to that.
None of us is promised tomorrow, and so my heart,
(04:19):
my energy, my thoughts, my everything goes out to that situation.
Which again everything is okay, but it needs his full attention.
So I will love, I will love for you all
to be so empowered by him. I want to reschedule this, however,
(04:44):
I have to figure out how to do that, because
this is I'm wrapping up the season. I cannot believe
one year went so fast, almost one year. Where is
the time gone? I don't know, but I'm gonna be
appreciative of it, but it is going. If I am
(05:08):
able to squeeze it in somehow, I will. But the
plans wore, And that's the thing about plans, right Sometime
they get laughed at. The plans were to this end
on here, but I do know I would like for
you all to get this amazing information. I had my
dear friend on here already on the segment of the
(05:29):
podcast and another capacity we talked about just some ideals
and some information and some empowerment stuff for artists themselves.
But tonight our plans were to talk about just the
longevity for music professionals in general, especially someone like him
(05:49):
who has been in the music industry for so long.
And the music industry is one of those industries that
is constantly evolving, and so it was definitely powerful information
that I wanted to cover to understand the industry from
the business perspective, even as a creator, because when you
understand anything from a business perspective, then you truly understand
(06:13):
the longevity, but you also understand how to work with
the people that you're actually working with, and that's one
of the things I did not want to miss for
this season. We gave a lot of insights, dropped a
lot of nuggets for people actually in the industry providing
(06:33):
their services and their talents from one perspective, but I
wanted to make sure I didn't close out was spinning
it all the way around. So now, no matter what
side you're coming in on this industry, you understand and
have a good amount of knowledge of how to deal
with people on the other side, because that makes a
(06:53):
difference in what you're actually doing as a track athlete.
One of the things that that just happened here recently.
I don't know if any of you guys watched track
and field. I know we're low on a totem poll
when it comes to sports, but and it doesn't happen
every four years during the Olympics. Track and field is
(07:17):
ongoing pretty much for majority of the year, you have
the Olympics, you have World Championships that alternate every two years.
Between that, you still have the USA Championships. You have
a lot going on, but because of the business of track,
the only time is really pushed and put out there
in the public is during the Olympics and maybe a
(07:39):
little bit during World Championships. But the one thing that
is going on now right, you have Michael Johnson, who
is an infamous athlete two hundred meters four hundred meters,
just amazing, who here recently developed a league called the
(08:00):
Grand Slam Track League, and he had an idea of
getting athletes together what he called the best of the
best to compete against each other and they go on
a little circuit to actually do it, just trying to
elevate track and field and bring it, bring more fans in,
(08:23):
put more eyes on it, right, the business of it.
But if you look up Grand Slam Track and I
am completely I'm in complete support from Michael Johnson and
his attempt and my hopes are that the Grand Slam
(08:44):
Track League takes off. But then you had o'hannian, Alexis o'hannian,
Serena William's husband who stepped into the track and field
arena and last year he came out with something called
(09:05):
Athlos and it was where he identified top woman in track.
Last year was just track. He identified top women that
were competing in track and not field because number's track
and field. He identified them and put them against each
(09:26):
other and they won the prize money. On top of
prize money, they won this crown. It's a Tiffany crown.
Literally personally made Tiffany crown. So look up aflows at HLOS.
(09:46):
They get this crown, they get their prize money. But
what he did also was allow the athletes, certain athletes
join in on the of this event that he put on.
And then what he did was not just make this
(10:08):
event where spectators come out and see track and field
runners competing against each other on the track. He made
it a party. He identified an artist who would perform
at AFLOS before everything got started, would perform prior to
(10:31):
the actual track event. You had athletes that came in,
the athletes that were going to compete, some athletes that
competed previously, and just gave him like the red carpet treatment,
literally got makeup done fashion literally like the red carpet,
like when you see like the academies and all these things,
and they walk the red carpet, and you have photographers
(10:53):
shooting shots like they would walk the red carpet, ask
who the best dress is? And I bring these two
up for a reason. It ties in the reason why
I wanted to bring my guests on tonight to talk
about music from a different perspective, the business perspective, is
because when I look at Grand Slam Track and I
(11:13):
look at Athlos and the reason why one absolutely is
soaring and one is actually struggling. Now, the difference between
the two is understanding track the sport and track the business.
From just understanding something from the entertainment perspective can make
(11:39):
you very limited, or just understanding something from the creative
perspective in general can make you very limited. And that's
why a lot of us feel stuck. But when you
really start grasping the business side of anything you're doing,
that's when we see it can soar. So when we
look at Grand Track, the first thing I looked at
(12:03):
when Michael Johnson came out last year with it, he
did use a very notable track athlete, Sidney McLaughlin Laverne.
You have to look her up, absolutely, next level type athlete.
Kind of used her face for this league and he
(12:23):
would show up with her different platforms and speak about
Grand Slam track and that was helpful, right to let
her lead. But there was a lot of things that
were shared and said during the circuit of promoting this event,
(12:44):
and some of the things that were said rub people
the wrong way. And the very first thing that was
said that was not received well was that field was
going to be left off of track. So we have
track and field. When you show up anywhere you always
see is track and field. It's track and field. That's
what it is. He left off field, and that caught
(13:09):
a lot of backlash. And his explanation was because field
events they're not captivating. People show up and they want
to see people running, but there's just this disruption with
having field events there. It's not captivating long jump, you know,
shot put. So he wanted to bring attention to the
(13:33):
fans and do it in a way where was absolutely captivating.
So cutting off the field events was how to do it. So,
as someone who is a product of track and field,
a part of it was coming out saying this that
caused a lot of division. Then you have Alexis come
(13:55):
in and say, hmm, he's paying attention, right. He helps
tons of startups. He helped startups become billion dollar companies.
He himself is and so one thing he's gonna know
as a startup because he was starting up Aflos. Actually
(14:15):
he did it before Grand Slam. It was it was okay,
but he's listening to the backlash. What are people not
liking and what he's saying watching how it was actually going.
I know this because see I'm investigating, I'm watching. I'm
keeping my eyes and ears to the ground. I'm watching him.
He made comments at least Aflos did whoever's behind it
(14:39):
on Instagram comments on some of the Grand Slam events again,
which were great. But when he promoted Aflos for this
time around the second time around, what he do he
went and said, Oh, I'm gonna clue field events, not
(15:02):
just field events. He made sure was very narrow though,
because one of the athletes that spoke up against Michael
Johnson's charge on field events being you know, boring if
you will, was an athlete named Tara Davis, a very
great long jumper, exceptional long jumper. She came out and
(15:25):
did not take that too well. So what he did
was bring Tara Davis in not just as someone to compete.
He brought her in as someone to be a partner
to help him understand more the field event perspective, especially
when it comes to long jump, so to help him
(15:47):
understand more and someone who also has part ownership in this. Now.
So now he has these athletes that have part ownership.
He's building around him having conversations with these athletes on
you know what's poor in where do I need to
be educated? Whereas you juxtapose that to Michael Johnson, who
(16:08):
was in the sport, who said, I already have the answer.
And so when he talked to Tara and then she
became an athlete that showed up and pushed it. In
all the excitement, he wrote up Aflos and did something crazy.
He said, Okay, not only am I going to get
your input and I'm gonna make sure long jump is
(16:29):
here because I see the excitement you bring to long jump.
It's not about the field event. It's about the athlete.
And that's in anything, it's not about the subject, it's
about the person delivering the subject. I see that you
are very entertaining, and I want you to kind of
be googling this as I tell you this. Look up
(16:49):
Tara Davis, look up Grand Slam Track Club, look up
Aflos at hlos, because this will help you in any area.
It's not just track, it's just understanding the business side
versus not. So he brings her in and he decides
to roll out. Guess what, before we even open up
(17:09):
the official day of competition, We're gonna have long Jump
do this the first day the opener and Time Square
in New York. You're gonna Long Jump in the middle
of Time Square and New York. And it was a party.
(17:30):
He brought DJs out, He brought the community out the
way that you will see, you know how you see
New Year's Eve or some type of concert and Time
Square and you see all the people in the streets
and on that big stage, you got that person performing.
That's what he did for Long Jump. So he brought
(17:52):
fans out by making it so engaging and doing something
that was historical. And he did it with an event
that was labeled as being pouring a distraction fans wouldn't
be interested. He paid attention to where there was a gap.
(18:17):
He paid attention to where someone said that there was
a problem, he decided not to focus on the problem,
but focus on a solution. As a business person, you're
going to focus on solutions. Problems are beautiful things to
you when you're on the business side, because problems are
speaking to you as opportunities to do more. But if
(18:43):
you're not on the business side, a problem is something
for you to make you pivot, to go somewhere else,
to do something else. But he understood business. If you're
saying there's a problem, let me find a solution. And
what he did as a business person, what he did
as track the business and not just track the sport,
(19:04):
was let me find one of the top athletes in
a field event. Let me find not just a top athlete.
Let me find an athlete that is entertaining someone who
want to watch and see that is winning, that is
absolutely winning. Not let me just find that athlete for
(19:28):
the reasons of bringing notoriety, bringing fans eyes. But let
me find that athlete so I can sit down and
have a business conversation on how to make this make sense.
That's that's the difference. To go even further, Grand Slam
(19:54):
Track League promised a lot of money, a lot of
money for for placements, for prize money for these athletes,
and they were able to bank each time they ran,
and then they also were able to bank overall after
(20:14):
the circuit was completed, and they ranked each athlete in
those events. Well, the very last event they were able
to do the circuit, but by the very last event
they had to cancel that event. And when they canceled
that event, all of a sudden, there were, you know,
(20:36):
statements released about why it was canceled in some troubles
that were being experienced, and the main trouble that was
being experienced was money. So athletes were saying, I didn't
get paid, show me my money. Some athletes were paid,
(20:58):
some athletes were paid, some not all. And then you
have some athletes who say they weren't paid at all,
and they were like, show me, give me my money,
show me the money. All of this it was pushed
out there how much they were gonna get paid. You know,
in track and field, we don't get paid much. It
doesn't matter what stage you're on. Track offees don't get
(21:21):
paid much on a world stage, Olympic stage. It's it's small, right,
So he was pushing at This is huge prize money,
This is life changing, this is game changing. So when
people heard that there were money troubles, it was a
problem that start to overshadow all the good things that
(21:44):
were happening up until that last meet. Immediately where my
mind went to because he explained that investors backed out,
there were things that happened where where he depended on
the monies it fell through. So immediately my mind went
to the business of it, right, what things were put
(22:09):
in place from the business perspective that wouldn't just allow
people to fall through. Now, don't get me wrong. One
thing I have to keep telling individuals having contracts and
doing all the things that you need to do legally
to have that infrastructure, it puts you in a better
(22:31):
position to prevail if anything was to happen, to prevail
in front of the fact finder in a court with
an arbitrator. If you have the infrastructure in place, one
you do less of the fighting. When you do less
(22:51):
of the fighting, you come less out of your pocket.
But doing everything that you need to do legally doesn't
shield you from experiencing legal woes. It doesn't stop you
from happening. What it does is hopefully prevent it because
people know that you're serious about whatever, and depending on
(23:14):
the terms that you all are agreeing under, may make
somebody think twice about it. But it doesn't shield you
because some people will still try to try you. That's
just what the industry is about. They'll try to try you,
and to be honest with you, some big time companies
will they'll go ahead and try you because they're hoping
(23:35):
that they can out money you. They're thinking that even
if you prevail in the end and possibly can get
all the money back that you spent in legal fees
and costs, maybe you will break before you can get there.
Maybe you can't even spend a lot of money to
get to the end to get it back. So doing
(23:56):
all the things legally doesn't shield you from legal wo
It just puts you in the best position to prevail
on anyone trying to play you. Now, back to what
I was saying. The first thing I thought of when
he said all this, I was like, was everything in
place for people to just back out of this? Leave
(24:20):
you with this debt owe to all of these athletes.
I mean, what is going on here? Then you let's
switch it over to Aflos then you look at AFLOS
again paying attention to the woes and the problems, hearing
what people are saying about Grand Slam is what's the headliners.
(24:48):
Immediately Alectis come out and say, oh, by the way,
AFLOS is in partnership with cash App. Athletes will get
their money immediately on the spot. They don't have to
wait for these checks. Immediately they will get this money
(25:09):
on the spot. It is going to be cashed at
to their account. And so you had these runners, these
athletes compete and then immediately when the winners won, they
went behind the scenes, went behind the stage and did
their interviews and all that good stuff. Literally a stage
(25:31):
because at the track, a stage was set up for
these athletes to go on the stage, and he had
his wife Serena Wilms crown these athletes with their tiffany
with they're personally handmade tiffany crowns on the stage. When
(25:53):
they left the stage, went behind the scenes and did
an interview. Immediately they showed their phone, I got my money.
I got my money, no delay, no hesitation. So really
huge sponsorship or collaboration with cash App. Because cash At
was recently in the news for this class action suit,
(26:16):
but a good time to show the money in a
good light. But he also competed against the narrative of
Grand Slam Track Club not paying their athletes. When from
not paying to where Grand Slam said after they ran,
because the understanding was after they run they would get
(26:37):
this money. They held up this gold envelope and was
dancing and it's supposed to have been a check in there.
But he actually had them show the money put in
the account. So again he understood the business side. Let
me pay attention to what the issue is. How can
I solve that, What can I do to bring more
(26:59):
eye and trust? And how do I do this in
a way where it's about business. The winnings for him,
his lead for affles was sixty thousand dollars for the winner,
and then it went down, you know for second place
for Grand Slam. I believe it was one hundred thousand dollars.
He didn't over promised, he over promised. He didn't over promise.
(27:25):
He kept it to one night, not multiple series, not
multiple meets. One night. See, he's showing proof of concept.
This is understanding business. Please follow me here. I want
you to follow me to apply this to whatever you're
doing and understand why there's a difference when you don't
understand the business of what you're doing. He didn't over promise.
(27:49):
He didn't feel that in order for me to bring
eyes to what I'm doing, I have to overpromise and
then need to over deliver. He felt what I am
going to promise is something obviously he felt I can do,
I can live up to. But where I'm going to
(28:10):
over deliver is paying attention to solving a problem that's
out there and making this something that stands out different
than anything else out there. I don't need this to
happen for this time, for this second time, around four times.
I need to hit it big one time to get
(28:32):
people to see my vision, to believe in what I see.
I need to just go all in this one time.
And when he did that, he went in this one
time and then he pulled his circle of people in.
You've seen when you go watch Aflows. You can look
(28:53):
it up on YouTube, the AFLOS Meet. What he did
was have the camera, his camera people of course looking
at these athletes. He had Sierra as a performer. This year.
He pulled his wife in this year, not last year,
to crown people. But in the audience as viewers of
this Track event, there were all types of celebrities there, right,
(29:18):
you had Queen Latifa was there, Flavor Flav was there,
You had so many different so many different people from
actors to singer, songwriters, all types of people, and made
sure the camera got on those people. He placed those
individuals in VIP, mixed with some other people just that
(29:39):
are not you know, performers, but put them in VIP.
So when the athletes crossed the line and went to
that area, spanned that area of VIP. You've seen these
celebrated individuals. Michael Johnson has notoriety. He'd done some amazing
things using his name as leverage, his connections as leverage.
(30:07):
Strategically placing and putting the connections there and putting less
of him stuff in front could have been a huge
business move. But Track says, we're just gonna put the
focus on these athletes and they're gonna run super fast,
and they're gonna make you excited because they're running super fast,
(30:28):
and you're gonna love Track because of that. But let'sa said,
I can't just bank on that. If people haven't been
liking Track up to now, I can't just focus on
putting the eyes on track athletes, no matter how fast
they are, because they're running this fast, they're breaking rural records,
they're breaking American records, they're getting gold medals and Olympics
(30:52):
and World championships, and people still aren't watching. So I
don't want to just put eyes on them. I have
to put eyes on this event that places them in there.
And everybody understood the assignment. It was a party, so
(31:14):
the objective was still achieved of getting more fan base
because they had the young lady the gymnasts, Oh gosh,
what is her name? The gymnasts her name is is
escaping my mind right now, the Asian where I can't
remember her name. But they had the gymnasts there and
(31:37):
she was talking about how excited she was of this
athlos event, super excited, hyped, and then she said, I've
never been to a track event. I've never been. I'm
happy to be here. I have some friends here because
(31:58):
she met some individuals at the Olympics, but I've never been,
so he a've chived achieved the objective of getting more
eyes on track and field. That stadium was packed. People
showed up to party. They couldn't wait for the after party.
(32:21):
Artie was partying in Times Square the day before, so
they couldn't wait for the next day. And lastly, I
want to bring this point up. Remember I said Michael
Johnson caught backlash because he said Field Evince, that's boring,
(32:41):
is a distraction. I'm just going to focus on just track.
And it felt like an isolated situation. But let's spend
this with Aflos. Alexis said, I'm just doing this for women,
no men. So he isolated man, I'm just doing this
(33:01):
event and it is a woman only event. But what
did he pay attention to their You had two that
said I'm isolating something, but he didn't get as much backlash.
Of course there's backlash, people say, hey, what about us?
What about man? Come up with something for us? One
(33:22):
he was very strategic and what to choose. You gotta
read the room. You gotta pay attention to what is
concerning for the people as a whole. No one really
knows the difference of track versus feel when you're talking
about the people as a whole, like you have to
already be watching Track and Field, right, But there is
(33:45):
an ongoing conversation about overlooking women in sports. We talk
about the WNBA. Any sport overlooking woman is a hot topic,
and woman becoming more equal or at least have somewhat
(34:08):
of an equal playing field has been a collective conversation.
So when he chose what to focus on, it was
something that was going to foster more consensus than it
was dissension. Understanding business is understanding that you're not going
(34:31):
to be able to please everybody. You're not going to
be able to serve everybody, and you shouldn't. You can't
because if you're trying to do that for everybody, you're
missing something, something is missing. So he understood, I'm not
going to pease everybody, but I will choose my battles,
and I will choose the battle that is going to
(34:55):
help the mission versus hurt the mission. And so although
he just focused on women, when you look at the
AFLO Smeethe all these men that was there, you had
Noah Allows, who was a notable track athlete. He gave
his take on Grand Slam Track Club and why he
(35:15):
didn't participate in it, and he gave his very political
response and review on it. But when you listen to
him about AFLOS, he was like oh my gosh. One
They showed him there the night before in Times Square
(35:36):
and then the next day, and he was so impressed.
He said, I am impressed with Aflos and I don't
impress easily. Oh they got that caption from Noah no
allows a male top mail and the hundred and two
hundred and track and field at an event that is
(36:00):
for woman, said, I am impressed. Now I am going
to bring up the elephant in the room because it's big.
Some people are saying, Okay, Michael Johnson caught hell from
the beginning. From the time he mentioned Grand Slam Track,
(36:24):
people were already pushing and negative and all this type
of stuff. Agreed, I agree here it was a lot.
He was already catching, already catching a lot. And there's
different reasons why people are saying that happen. But if
you also look at Athlos its first year, it was
(36:47):
catching it too. It was catching it for all types
of reasons. Him stepping into an arena, not being about
track and field, not knowing and understanding track and field,
according to his own admission, wasn't really a lot of
engagement or following on the Instagram page. It was just
like m very slow, so if you look at both,
(37:14):
although it was delivered two different ways, it wasn't a
lot of support in the beginning. Another thing people are
saying is, you know, especially when it comes to the
black community, you have someone who is starting this amazing
opportunity for track athletes trying to shift this game that
(37:39):
has always been playing. The athlete stepping up saying I
want to do something different, I want to do something new.
I want to put the athlete first. And then you
had this other person who's not black. You have this
white male, this white man come in and say I
want to do something different for female athletes and track
(38:05):
and individuals. Look at okay, you have so many people
in the black community. Who's community who's not supporting Michael Johnson,
But all of these people in the black community is
supporting Alexis or he is the husband of Serena Wilms,
and all the things. Understanding the business of anything, you
(38:32):
have to do what's called a SWAT analysis. You have
to understand your strength, your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunities,
and your threats. If you look at last year in
this year, you clearly see Alexis follow swat because he
didn't just when he said it take off, it took
(38:55):
off for the things that he paid attention to in
that SWOT analysis trengths, weaknesses, opportunity, and threats. Michael Johnson.
Then you look at those things, because I Am not
going to sit here and pretend that there are not
barriers that come with or obstacles that come with all
(39:15):
the things that people are mentioning. But what you can
do is you identify those things, and you know them,
and you prepare for them, and it helps you to
make better decisions when you're looking at who to isolate,
how to deliver with this vision or ideal you have
to the very community that you want to support you.
(39:38):
So although those things can be taken into consideration, I
strongly believe I strongly believe that wasn't those weren't the
determinative factors. Speaking as a business woman and dissecting it
(39:58):
from the inside, what I seen was the determining factor
was understanding track the business and track the sport. I
was in the sport, I was an athlete, and this
is how I think it should be handled. This one.
I wasn't in track, not an athlete, but I see
(40:19):
a business opportunity and I'm gonna handle this business opportunity
the same way I handle any of the startups I've
done or any of the founding owners that I help
with their startups. This is a business, so that is
Aflo's and Grand Slam Track is something to be studied
(40:42):
because it's in an industry. And if whatever industry you
are in, whether it's entrepreneurship, sports, entertainment, and you are
on the side of providing a product or service and
you want to know how to elevate what you're doing,
now is the time moving forward. Times are evolving. It
(41:06):
doesn't matter what it looked like before. Now is the
time for you to understand the business aspect of what
you are doing. What are problems? Don't let them make
you go a different direction, become the solution. Where are
other people in the industry failing at that? You can
(41:29):
take those failures as lessons to learn from or take
it even deeper where you fail that because you're failing
doesn't make you a failure. Stopping makes you a failure.
Where when you just failed at something, you're learning something.
It's a lesson. So what have you failed at that
you can now take that lesson and do better. These
(41:49):
are the things a Lexus Day. This is we're looking
at where is there where is there a gap where
you're not trying to step into something that has always
been done this way, and it's done this way because
someone says it's supposed to be done this way. It's
best to be done this way. You know, no one's
gonna watch field events because they're boring, they're distracting, versus
(42:13):
I'm gonna take this long jump and put it in
the middle of Times Square in New York with the
DJ and party. So pay attention to what you are
doing and look at how you can. Now you have
to be both. And if you're bringing people onto your team,
(42:36):
if you have a team, you need to sit down
with them now, not as the artists, the creative, the owner.
You need to sit down and discuss with them what
needs to be executed for you in order for you
to deliver an up level whatever it is that you
have to offer. So I went off on that because
(43:01):
that was one of the things that I wanted to
touch on. Built to evolve longevity for music professionals with
our guest Cap because he's been a music professional for
so long and he has constantly evolved reinvented himself, been
in this industry, and I really wanted him to drop
some gems so you can understand it from the business perspective,
(43:25):
no matter what you're sitting on as a music professional,
so you understand it from the business perspective. But the
information and the thought is universal, and so hopefully me
bringing from my area of track and field this information
(43:46):
to you from something that's going on in real time
or just happen in real time, that you can now
go back and just look. Hopefully me bringing that information
to you, it's something for you to apply person only
to what you have going on, and you really understand
and it helps to hit home the difference between you
(44:06):
moving from a business perspective to I just show up
and I'm talented perspective. I can create this product and
service perspective, and you understand it. Because he took off
and he's going to now next year. I mean, I
(44:27):
told you proof of concept, he stayed focused. He's now
going to supersede attempt to which obviously he proved through
his concept he can and I'm sure through this proof
of concept. And I keep saying that because you have
to show that too. You can't just have people believe
in you because you believe in yourself. You have to
(44:48):
believe in yourself first before anyone believes in you. But
proof of concept is what's gonna make people move. So
he showed proof of concept. So he I was know
who's like, I'm on board next year. Now he is
doing multiple competitions, and he says he wants to like
(45:10):
F one, it's gonna be like track and field, like
the F one series. That's how it's gonna be. Like
how you have the racing cars and you have sponsors
that show up and all the things. He's already matching
the two, and he knew how to describe it. He
picked F one, He picked freaking a sport that people
(45:34):
are highly interested in that has money. He didn't just
talk about track and field. He know who he's he
know who he's speaking to, so as he prepares them
for next year, and he used this comparison of F
one and Track and Field, and he always showed the
proof of concept. Kudos to the athletes that would be involved,
(45:55):
Kudos to him. With the completely taken off, and hopefully
Michael Johnson is able to learn from the lessons and
also do what I believe Alexis is doing watch and
know how to deliver, and don't just think you know
(46:18):
it because I've been in it. Put the people around you,
get the right partners. So that's what I wanted to
bring to the table. That's how I wanted to fill
up our time and hopefully that gave you some nuggets
to apply to whatever it is that you're actually doing.
(46:38):
If there's anyone on that has any questions, I do
not mind taking those questions before I wrap up, if
there's anything that you want to say, because that's one
thing I was not able to do was take any
a lot of questions throughout this season. But if there's
any questions that you have, I am more than willing
(47:01):
to more than willing to take them. Unfortunately, this is
only tonight. It is only rolling on YouTube. I do
not have it. I usually have it airing also on
LinkedIn and on Instagram, but it is only on YouTube
(47:24):
for those who will see it on replay. If you
have questions comments, please feel free to put them in
the comment box and I will respond to them as
I am able to get to them. But if there
is no questions, that is a rap for today's episode
(47:44):
of seek elevation experience. I hope you. I hope what
I shared with you as tremendous value, tremendous value to
what you are actually doing. I hope what I shared
with you is a spark, a spark that is gonna nite,
(48:07):
ignite a huge flame, and you on how you move
forward and how to elevate what you are actually doing
and look at everything that you're doing and dissecting it
from a business perspective, and studying a select few around
you that's doing what you're doing, See what they're doing well,
(48:30):
see what they're not doing well, but always walk into
it from the perspective that I am a business first
and the product and service that I deliver is something
that helps you, but me understanding I'm a business first
helps me. So with that said, the more you know,
(48:55):
the more you grow, the more you learn, the more
you definitely can earn. Yeah, the more you can learn,
the more you learn, the more you could definitely earn
from this information today. But when you share, you show care.
So don't keep this information or this knowledge to yourself.
I want you to spread the wisdom no matter when
(49:18):
you see in this segment, when you see it, if
it hits home and you know somebody else needs to
see it, share it, tag somebody in it. I want
us to continue to keep elevating together. This is my
next to last video segment live segment, I should say,
(49:44):
for the season. But I will continue throughout the year
of sharing some information on my audio podcast. Actually, as
I think it through, that may be where I can
possibly have capricio. Just not live. You can't ask questions,
(50:04):
but if you share questions. If I do do it
that way and you want to send questions that I
can ask dooring, then I won't mind going through some
of the top questions and ask them. But for now,
this is next to last. I enjoyed being live. I
am looking forward to what next season is going to be.
(50:28):
My aim is to always elevate, but I'm excited for
what's to come. So until next time, I want you
to keep striving. I want you to keep growing, and
I always say this most importantly, keep seeking, seeking, seeking elevation.
(50:52):
I see you next time, peace and PROGRESSI
There was a time people counting me out, but they're
mocking me. I'm move inside out and I got to
know to know what that says. But what I believe
that God's my dad. I don't need you to bother me.
(00:37):
I know who I help. I'm created and.
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I reflect what my eyes there to see?
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Should I get read?
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There is no time really stand for the outside Dolly
the ftin though that boy is the insults still isself pay.
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Speaker 2 (02:03):
Welcome. Welcome, Welcome to another segment of the Seek Elevation
Experience with yours truly, Attorney Elkisha. This is where real
issues and real people, real conversations take center stage because
(02:24):
change doesn't happen in silence. From sports to entertainment to
business and community, right here is where we elevate voices
that need to be heard. But we don't just talk.
We talk about things to empower, to inspire, and to
challenge the status quo. And let me make this clear
(02:45):
that I skipped over just a second ago being attorney Alakeisha,
I don't ever give legal advice on this segment, on
this stage, but I do talk about or may share
some legal information. It is to educate you, not to
give you legal advice, because I will have to know
your situation in order to do so, and because I don't,
(03:07):
I'm not giving legal advice. With that said, I know
there will be those who are rolling in to see
our amazing guests that I had schedule for tonight, mister
Capricio Skates, who is an absolute powerhouse in the music industry. Unfortunately,
(03:30):
something not great just happened not too long ago, and
I'm happy. Everything is okay, Everything is okay, but it
is something that needs his full attention. And so although
I completely completely want him here right now, he needs
(03:53):
to give his full attention to what matters most, because
when all of this is all gone, all of this
is all gone, the one thing that stands are those
closest to us. Right everything else is secondary to that.
None of us is promised tomorrow, and so my heart,
(04:19):
my energy, my thoughts, my everything goes out to that situation.
Which again everything is okay, but it needs his full attention.
So I will love, I will love for you all
to be so empowered by him. I want to reschedule this, however,
(04:44):
I have to figure out how to do that, because
this is I'm wrapping up the season. I cannot believe
one year went so fast, almost one year. Where is
the time gone? I don't know, but I'm gonna be
appreciative of it, but it is going. If I am
(05:08):
able to squeeze it in somehow, I will. But the
plans wore, And that's the thing about plans, right Sometime
they get laughed at. The plans were to this end
on here, but I do know I would like for
you all to get this amazing information. I had my
dear friend on here already on the segment of the
(05:29):
podcast and another capacity we talked about just some ideals
and some information and some empowerment stuff for artists themselves.
But tonight our plans were to talk about just the
longevity for music professionals in general, especially someone like him
(05:49):
who has been in the music industry for so long.
And the music industry is one of those industries that
is constantly evolving, and so it was definitely powerful information
that I wanted to cover to understand the industry from
the business perspective, even as a creator, because when you
understand anything from a business perspective, then you truly understand
(06:13):
the longevity, but you also understand how to work with
the people that you're actually working with, and that's one
of the things I did not want to miss for
this season. We gave a lot of insights, dropped a
lot of nuggets for people actually in the industry providing
(06:33):
their services and their talents from one perspective, but I
wanted to make sure I didn't close out was spinning
it all the way around. So now, no matter what
side you're coming in on this industry, you understand and
have a good amount of knowledge of how to deal
with people on the other side, because that makes a
(06:53):
difference in what you're actually doing as a track athlete.
One of the things that that just happened here recently.
I don't know if any of you guys watched track
and field. I know we're low on a totem poll
when it comes to sports, but and it doesn't happen
every four years during the Olympics. Track and field is
(07:17):
ongoing pretty much for majority of the year, you have
the Olympics, you have World Championships that alternate every two years.
Between that, you still have the USA Championships. You have
a lot going on, but because of the business of track,
the only time is really pushed and put out there
in the public is during the Olympics and maybe a
(07:39):
little bit during World Championships. But the one thing that
is going on now right, you have Michael Johnson, who
is an infamous athlete two hundred meters four hundred meters,
just amazing, who here recently developed a league called the
(08:00):
Grand Slam Track League, and he had an idea of
getting athletes together what he called the best of the
best to compete against each other and they go on
a little circuit to actually do it, just trying to
elevate track and field and bring it, bring more fans in,
(08:23):
put more eyes on it, right, the business of it.
But if you look up Grand Slam Track and I
am completely I'm in complete support from Michael Johnson and
his attempt and my hopes are that the Grand Slam
(08:44):
Track League takes off. But then you had o'hannian, Alexis o'hannian,
Serena William's husband who stepped into the track and field
arena and last year he came out with something called
(09:05):
Athlos and it was where he identified top woman in track.
Last year was just track. He identified top women that
were competing in track and not field because number's track
and field. He identified them and put them against each
(09:26):
other and they won the prize money. On top of
prize money, they won this crown. It's a Tiffany crown.
Literally personally made Tiffany crown. So look up aflows at HLOS.
(09:46):
They get this crown, they get their prize money. But
what he did also was allow the athletes, certain athletes
join in on the of this event that he put on.
And then what he did was not just make this
(10:08):
event where spectators come out and see track and field
runners competing against each other on the track. He made
it a party. He identified an artist who would perform
at AFLOS before everything got started, would perform prior to
(10:31):
the actual track event. You had athletes that came in,
the athletes that were going to compete, some athletes that
competed previously, and just gave him like the red carpet treatment,
literally got makeup done fashion literally like the red carpet,
like when you see like the academies and all these things,
and they walk the red carpet, and you have photographers
(10:53):
shooting shots like they would walk the red carpet, ask
who the best dress is? And I bring these two
up for a reason. It ties in the reason why
I wanted to bring my guests on tonight to talk
about music from a different perspective, the business perspective, is
because when I look at Grand Slam Track and I
(11:13):
look at Athlos and the reason why one absolutely is
soaring and one is actually struggling. Now, the difference between
the two is understanding track the sport and track the business.
From just understanding something from the entertainment perspective can make
(11:39):
you very limited, or just understanding something from the creative
perspective in general can make you very limited. And that's
why a lot of us feel stuck. But when you
really start grasping the business side of anything you're doing,
that's when we see it can soar. So when we
look at Grand Track, the first thing I looked at
(12:03):
when Michael Johnson came out last year with it, he
did use a very notable track athlete, Sidney McLaughlin Laverne.
You have to look her up, absolutely, next level type athlete.
Kind of used her face for this league and he
(12:23):
would show up with her different platforms and speak about
Grand Slam track and that was helpful, right to let
her lead. But there was a lot of things that
were shared and said during the circuit of promoting this event,
(12:44):
and some of the things that were said rub people
the wrong way. And the very first thing that was
said that was not received well was that field was
going to be left off of track. So we have
track and field. When you show up anywhere you always
see is track and field. It's track and field. That's
what it is. He left off field, and that caught
(13:09):
a lot of backlash. And his explanation was because field
events they're not captivating. People show up and they want
to see people running, but there's just this disruption with
having field events there. It's not captivating long jump, you know,
shot put. So he wanted to bring attention to the
(13:33):
fans and do it in a way where was absolutely captivating.
So cutting off the field events was how to do it. So,
as someone who is a product of track and field,
a part of it was coming out saying this that
caused a lot of division. Then you have Alexis come
(13:55):
in and say, hmm, he's paying attention, right. He helps
tons of startups. He helped startups become billion dollar companies.
He himself is and so one thing he's gonna know
as a startup because he was starting up Aflos. Actually
(14:15):
he did it before Grand Slam. It was it was okay,
but he's listening to the backlash. What are people not
liking and what he's saying watching how it was actually going.
I know this because see I'm investigating, I'm watching. I'm
keeping my eyes and ears to the ground. I'm watching him.
He made comments at least Aflos did whoever's behind it
(14:39):
on Instagram comments on some of the Grand Slam events again,
which were great. But when he promoted Aflos for this
time around the second time around, what he do he
went and said, Oh, I'm gonna clue field events, not
(15:02):
just field events. He made sure was very narrow though,
because one of the athletes that spoke up against Michael
Johnson's charge on field events being you know, boring if
you will, was an athlete named Tara Davis, a very
great long jumper, exceptional long jumper. She came out and
(15:25):
did not take that too well. So what he did
was bring Tara Davis in not just as someone to compete.
He brought her in as someone to be a partner
to help him understand more the field event perspective, especially
when it comes to long jump, so to help him
(15:47):
understand more and someone who also has part ownership in this. Now.
So now he has these athletes that have part ownership.
He's building around him having conversations with these athletes on
you know what's poor in where do I need to
be educated? Whereas you juxtapose that to Michael Johnson, who
(16:08):
was in the sport, who said, I already have the answer.
And so when he talked to Tara and then she
became an athlete that showed up and pushed it. In
all the excitement, he wrote up Aflos and did something crazy.
He said, Okay, not only am I going to get
your input and I'm gonna make sure long jump is
(16:29):
here because I see the excitement you bring to long jump.
It's not about the field event. It's about the athlete.
And that's in anything, it's not about the subject, it's
about the person delivering the subject. I see that you
are very entertaining, and I want you to kind of
be googling this as I tell you this. Look up
(16:49):
Tara Davis, look up Grand Slam Track Club, look up
Aflos at hlos, because this will help you in any area.
It's not just track, it's just understanding the business side
versus not. So he brings her in and he decides
to roll out. Guess what, before we even open up
(17:09):
the official day of competition, We're gonna have long Jump
do this the first day the opener and Time Square
in New York. You're gonna Long Jump in the middle
of Time Square and New York. And it was a party.
(17:30):
He brought DJs out, He brought the community out the
way that you will see, you know how you see
New Year's Eve or some type of concert and Time
Square and you see all the people in the streets
and on that big stage, you got that person performing.
That's what he did for Long Jump. So he brought
(17:52):
fans out by making it so engaging and doing something
that was historical. And he did it with an event
that was labeled as being pouring a distraction fans wouldn't
be interested. He paid attention to where there was a gap.
(18:17):
He paid attention to where someone said that there was
a problem, he decided not to focus on the problem,
but focus on a solution. As a business person, you're
going to focus on solutions. Problems are beautiful things to
you when you're on the business side, because problems are
speaking to you as opportunities to do more. But if
(18:43):
you're not on the business side, a problem is something
for you to make you pivot, to go somewhere else,
to do something else. But he understood business. If you're
saying there's a problem, let me find a solution. And
what he did as a business person, what he did
as track the business and not just track the sport,
(19:04):
was let me find one of the top athletes in
a field event. Let me find not just a top athlete.
Let me find an athlete that is entertaining someone who
want to watch and see that is winning, that is
absolutely winning. Not let me just find that athlete for
(19:28):
the reasons of bringing notoriety, bringing fans eyes. But let
me find that athlete so I can sit down and
have a business conversation on how to make this make sense.
That's that's the difference. To go even further, Grand Slam
(19:54):
Track League promised a lot of money, a lot of
money for for placements, for prize money for these athletes,
and they were able to bank each time they ran,
and then they also were able to bank overall after
(20:14):
the circuit was completed, and they ranked each athlete in
those events. Well, the very last event they were able
to do the circuit, but by the very last event
they had to cancel that event. And when they canceled
that event, all of a sudden, there were, you know,
(20:36):
statements released about why it was canceled in some troubles
that were being experienced, and the main trouble that was
being experienced was money. So athletes were saying, I didn't
get paid, show me my money. Some athletes were paid,
(20:58):
some athletes were paid, some not all. And then you
have some athletes who say they weren't paid at all,
and they were like, show me, give me my money,
show me the money. All of this it was pushed
out there how much they were gonna get paid. You know,
in track and field, we don't get paid much. It
doesn't matter what stage you're on. Track offees don't get
(21:21):
paid much on a world stage, Olympic stage. It's it's small, right,
So he was pushing at This is huge prize money,
This is life changing, this is game changing. So when
people heard that there were money troubles, it was a
problem that start to overshadow all the good things that
(21:44):
were happening up until that last meet. Immediately where my
mind went to because he explained that investors backed out,
there were things that happened where where he depended on
the monies it fell through. So immediately my mind went
to the business of it, right, what things were put
(22:09):
in place from the business perspective that wouldn't just allow
people to fall through. Now, don't get me wrong. One
thing I have to keep telling individuals having contracts and
doing all the things that you need to do legally
to have that infrastructure, it puts you in a better
(22:31):
position to prevail if anything was to happen, to prevail
in front of the fact finder in a court with
an arbitrator. If you have the infrastructure in place, one
you do less of the fighting. When you do less
(22:51):
of the fighting, you come less out of your pocket.
But doing everything that you need to do legally doesn't
shield you from experiencing legal woes. It doesn't stop you
from happening. What it does is hopefully prevent it because
people know that you're serious about whatever, and depending on
(23:14):
the terms that you all are agreeing under, may make
somebody think twice about it. But it doesn't shield you
because some people will still try to try you. That's
just what the industry is about. They'll try to try you,
and to be honest with you, some big time companies
will they'll go ahead and try you because they're hoping
(23:35):
that they can out money you. They're thinking that even
if you prevail in the end and possibly can get
all the money back that you spent in legal fees
and costs, maybe you will break before you can get there.
Maybe you can't even spend a lot of money to
get to the end to get it back. So doing
(23:56):
all the things legally doesn't shield you from legal wo
It just puts you in the best position to prevail
on anyone trying to play you. Now, back to what
I was saying. The first thing I thought of when
he said all this, I was like, was everything in
place for people to just back out of this? Leave
(24:20):
you with this debt owe to all of these athletes.
I mean, what is going on here? Then you let's
switch it over to Aflos then you look at AFLOS
again paying attention to the woes and the problems, hearing
what people are saying about Grand Slam is what's the headliners.
(24:48):
Immediately Alectis come out and say, oh, by the way,
AFLOS is in partnership with cash App. Athletes will get
their money immediately on the spot. They don't have to
wait for these checks. Immediately they will get this money
(25:09):
on the spot. It is going to be cashed at
to their account. And so you had these runners, these
athletes compete and then immediately when the winners won, they
went behind the scenes, went behind the stage and did
their interviews and all that good stuff. Literally a stage
(25:31):
because at the track, a stage was set up for
these athletes to go on the stage, and he had
his wife Serena Wilms crown these athletes with their tiffany
with they're personally handmade tiffany crowns on the stage. When
(25:53):
they left the stage, went behind the scenes and did
an interview. Immediately they showed their phone, I got my money.
I got my money, no delay, no hesitation. So really
huge sponsorship or collaboration with cash App. Because cash At
was recently in the news for this class action suit,
(26:16):
but a good time to show the money in a
good light. But he also competed against the narrative of
Grand Slam Track Club not paying their athletes. When from
not paying to where Grand Slam said after they ran,
because the understanding was after they run they would get
(26:37):
this money. They held up this gold envelope and was
dancing and it's supposed to have been a check in there.
But he actually had them show the money put in
the account. So again he understood the business side. Let
me pay attention to what the issue is. How can
I solve that, What can I do to bring more
(26:59):
eye and trust? And how do I do this in
a way where it's about business. The winnings for him,
his lead for affles was sixty thousand dollars for the winner,
and then it went down, you know for second place
for Grand Slam. I believe it was one hundred thousand dollars.
He didn't over promised, he over promised. He didn't over promise.
(27:25):
He kept it to one night, not multiple series, not
multiple meets. One night. See, he's showing proof of concept.
This is understanding business. Please follow me here. I want
you to follow me to apply this to whatever you're
doing and understand why there's a difference when you don't
understand the business of what you're doing. He didn't over promise.
(27:49):
He didn't feel that in order for me to bring
eyes to what I'm doing, I have to overpromise and
then need to over deliver. He felt what I am
going to promise is something obviously he felt I can do,
I can live up to. But where I'm going to
(28:10):
over deliver is paying attention to solving a problem that's
out there and making this something that stands out different
than anything else out there. I don't need this to
happen for this time, for this second time, around four times.
I need to hit it big one time to get
(28:32):
people to see my vision, to believe in what I see.
I need to just go all in this one time.
And when he did that, he went in this one
time and then he pulled his circle of people in.
You've seen when you go watch Aflows. You can look
(28:53):
it up on YouTube, the AFLOS Meet. What he did
was have the camera, his camera people of course looking
at these athletes. He had Sierra as a performer. This year.
He pulled his wife in this year, not last year,
to crown people. But in the audience as viewers of
this Track event, there were all types of celebrities there, right,
(29:18):
you had Queen Latifa was there, Flavor Flav was there,
You had so many different so many different people from
actors to singer, songwriters, all types of people, and made
sure the camera got on those people. He placed those
individuals in VIP, mixed with some other people just that
(29:39):
are not you know, performers, but put them in VIP.
So when the athletes crossed the line and went to
that area, spanned that area of VIP. You've seen these
celebrated individuals. Michael Johnson has notoriety. He'd done some amazing
things using his name as leverage, his connections as leverage.
(30:07):
Strategically placing and putting the connections there and putting less
of him stuff in front could have been a huge
business move. But Track says, we're just gonna put the
focus on these athletes and they're gonna run super fast,
and they're gonna make you excited because they're running super fast,
(30:28):
and you're gonna love Track because of that. But let'sa said,
I can't just bank on that. If people haven't been
liking Track up to now, I can't just focus on
putting the eyes on track athletes, no matter how fast
they are, because they're running this fast, they're breaking rural records,
they're breaking American records, they're getting gold medals and Olympics
(30:52):
and World championships, and people still aren't watching. So I
don't want to just put eyes on them. I have
to put eyes on this event that places them in there.
And everybody understood the assignment. It was a party, so
(31:14):
the objective was still achieved of getting more fan base
because they had the young lady the gymnasts, Oh gosh,
what is her name? The gymnasts her name is is
escaping my mind right now, the Asian where I can't
remember her name. But they had the gymnasts there and
(31:37):
she was talking about how excited she was of this
athlos event, super excited, hyped, and then she said, I've
never been to a track event. I've never been. I'm
happy to be here. I have some friends here because
(31:58):
she met some individuals at the Olympics, but I've never been,
so he a've chived achieved the objective of getting more
eyes on track and field. That stadium was packed. People
showed up to party. They couldn't wait for the after party.
(32:21):
Artie was partying in Times Square the day before, so
they couldn't wait for the next day. And lastly, I
want to bring this point up. Remember I said Michael
Johnson caught backlash because he said Field Evince, that's boring,
(32:41):
is a distraction. I'm just going to focus on just track.
And it felt like an isolated situation. But let's spend
this with Aflos. Alexis said, I'm just doing this for women,
no men. So he isolated man, I'm just doing this
(33:01):
event and it is a woman only event. But what
did he pay attention to their You had two that
said I'm isolating something, but he didn't get as much backlash.
Of course there's backlash, people say, hey, what about us?
What about man? Come up with something for us? One
(33:22):
he was very strategic and what to choose. You gotta
read the room. You gotta pay attention to what is
concerning for the people as a whole. No one really
knows the difference of track versus feel when you're talking
about the people as a whole, like you have to
already be watching Track and Field, right, But there is
(33:45):
an ongoing conversation about overlooking women in sports. We talk
about the WNBA. Any sport overlooking woman is a hot topic,
and woman becoming more equal or at least have somewhat
(34:08):
of an equal playing field has been a collective conversation.
So when he chose what to focus on, it was
something that was going to foster more consensus than it
was dissension. Understanding business is understanding that you're not going
(34:31):
to be able to please everybody. You're not going to
be able to serve everybody, and you shouldn't. You can't
because if you're trying to do that for everybody, you're
missing something, something is missing. So he understood, I'm not
going to pease everybody, but I will choose my battles,
and I will choose the battle that is going to
(34:55):
help the mission versus hurt the mission. And so although
he just focused on women, when you look at the
AFLO Smeethe all these men that was there, you had
Noah Allows, who was a notable track athlete. He gave
his take on Grand Slam Track Club and why he
(35:15):
didn't participate in it, and he gave his very political
response and review on it. But when you listen to
him about AFLOS, he was like oh my gosh. One
They showed him there the night before in Times Square
(35:36):
and then the next day, and he was so impressed.
He said, I am impressed with Aflos and I don't
impress easily. Oh they got that caption from Noah no
allows a male top mail and the hundred and two
hundred and track and field at an event that is
(36:00):
for woman, said, I am impressed. Now I am going
to bring up the elephant in the room because it's big.
Some people are saying, Okay, Michael Johnson caught hell from
the beginning. From the time he mentioned Grand Slam Track,
(36:24):
people were already pushing and negative and all this type
of stuff. Agreed, I agree here it was a lot.
He was already catching, already catching a lot. And there's
different reasons why people are saying that happen. But if
you also look at Athlos its first year, it was
(36:47):
catching it too. It was catching it for all types
of reasons. Him stepping into an arena, not being about
track and field, not knowing and understanding track and field,
according to his own admission, wasn't really a lot of
engagement or following on the Instagram page. It was just
like m very slow, so if you look at both,
(37:14):
although it was delivered two different ways, it wasn't a
lot of support in the beginning. Another thing people are
saying is, you know, especially when it comes to the
black community, you have someone who is starting this amazing
opportunity for track athletes trying to shift this game that
(37:39):
has always been playing. The athlete stepping up saying I
want to do something different, I want to do something new.
I want to put the athlete first. And then you
had this other person who's not black. You have this
white male, this white man come in and say I
want to do something different for female athletes and track
(38:05):
and individuals. Look at okay, you have so many people
in the black community. Who's community who's not supporting Michael Johnson,
But all of these people in the black community is
supporting Alexis or he is the husband of Serena Wilms,
and all the things. Understanding the business of anything, you
(38:32):
have to do what's called a SWAT analysis. You have
to understand your strength, your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunities,
and your threats. If you look at last year in
this year, you clearly see Alexis follow swat because he
didn't just when he said it take off, it took
(38:55):
off for the things that he paid attention to in
that SWOT analysis trengths, weaknesses, opportunity, and threats. Michael Johnson.
Then you look at those things, because I Am not
going to sit here and pretend that there are not
barriers that come with or obstacles that come with all
(39:15):
the things that people are mentioning. But what you can
do is you identify those things, and you know them,
and you prepare for them, and it helps you to
make better decisions when you're looking at who to isolate,
how to deliver with this vision or ideal you have
to the very community that you want to support you.
(39:38):
So although those things can be taken into consideration, I
strongly believe I strongly believe that wasn't those weren't the
determinative factors. Speaking as a business woman and dissecting it
(39:58):
from the inside, what I seen was the determining factor
was understanding track the business and track the sport. I
was in the sport, I was an athlete, and this
is how I think it should be handled. This one.
I wasn't in track, not an athlete, but I see
(40:19):
a business opportunity and I'm gonna handle this business opportunity
the same way I handle any of the startups I've
done or any of the founding owners that I help
with their startups. This is a business, so that is
Aflo's and Grand Slam Track is something to be studied
(40:42):
because it's in an industry. And if whatever industry you
are in, whether it's entrepreneurship, sports, entertainment, and you are
on the side of providing a product or service and
you want to know how to elevate what you're doing,
now is the time moving forward. Times are evolving. It
(41:06):
doesn't matter what it looked like before. Now is the
time for you to understand the business aspect of what
you are doing. What are problems? Don't let them make
you go a different direction, become the solution. Where are
other people in the industry failing at that? You can
(41:29):
take those failures as lessons to learn from or take
it even deeper where you fail that because you're failing
doesn't make you a failure. Stopping makes you a failure.
Where when you just failed at something, you're learning something.
It's a lesson. So what have you failed at that
you can now take that lesson and do better. These
(41:49):
are the things a Lexus Day. This is we're looking
at where is there where is there a gap where
you're not trying to step into something that has always
been done this way, and it's done this way because
someone says it's supposed to be done this way. It's
best to be done this way. You know, no one's
gonna watch field events because they're boring, they're distracting, versus
(42:13):
I'm gonna take this long jump and put it in
the middle of Times Square in New York with the
DJ and party. So pay attention to what you are
doing and look at how you can. Now you have
to be both. And if you're bringing people onto your team,
(42:36):
if you have a team, you need to sit down
with them now, not as the artists, the creative, the owner.
You need to sit down and discuss with them what
needs to be executed for you in order for you
to deliver an up level whatever it is that you
have to offer. So I went off on that because
(43:01):
that was one of the things that I wanted to
touch on. Built to evolve longevity for music professionals with
our guest Cap because he's been a music professional for
so long and he has constantly evolved reinvented himself, been
in this industry, and I really wanted him to drop
some gems so you can understand it from the business perspective,
(43:25):
no matter what you're sitting on as a music professional,
so you understand it from the business perspective. But the
information and the thought is universal, and so hopefully me
bringing from my area of track and field this information
(43:46):
to you from something that's going on in real time
or just happen in real time, that you can now
go back and just look. Hopefully me bringing that information
to you, it's something for you to apply person only
to what you have going on, and you really understand
and it helps to hit home the difference between you
(44:06):
moving from a business perspective to I just show up
and I'm talented perspective. I can create this product and
service perspective, and you understand it. Because he took off
and he's going to now next year. I mean, I
(44:27):
told you proof of concept, he stayed focused. He's now
going to supersede attempt to which obviously he proved through
his concept he can and I'm sure through this proof
of concept. And I keep saying that because you have
to show that too. You can't just have people believe
in you because you believe in yourself. You have to
(44:48):
believe in yourself first before anyone believes in you. But
proof of concept is what's gonna make people move. So
he showed proof of concept. So he I was know
who's like, I'm on board next year. Now he is
doing multiple competitions, and he says he wants to like
(45:10):
F one, it's gonna be like track and field, like
the F one series. That's how it's gonna be. Like
how you have the racing cars and you have sponsors
that show up and all the things. He's already matching
the two, and he knew how to describe it. He
picked F one, He picked freaking a sport that people
(45:34):
are highly interested in that has money. He didn't just
talk about track and field. He know who he's he
know who he's speaking to, so as he prepares them
for next year, and he used this comparison of F
one and Track and Field, and he always showed the
proof of concept. Kudos to the athletes that would be involved,
(45:55):
Kudos to him. With the completely taken off, and hopefully
Michael Johnson is able to learn from the lessons and
also do what I believe Alexis is doing watch and
know how to deliver, and don't just think you know
(46:18):
it because I've been in it. Put the people around you,
get the right partners. So that's what I wanted to
bring to the table. That's how I wanted to fill
up our time and hopefully that gave you some nuggets
to apply to whatever it is that you're actually doing.
(46:38):
If there's anyone on that has any questions, I do
not mind taking those questions before I wrap up, if
there's anything that you want to say, because that's one
thing I was not able to do was take any
a lot of questions throughout this season. But if there's
any questions that you have, I am more than willing
(47:01):
to more than willing to take them. Unfortunately, this is
only tonight. It is only rolling on YouTube. I do
not have it. I usually have it airing also on
LinkedIn and on Instagram, but it is only on YouTube
(47:24):
for those who will see it on replay. If you
have questions comments, please feel free to put them in
the comment box and I will respond to them as
I am able to get to them. But if there
is no questions, that is a rap for today's episode
(47:44):
of seek elevation experience. I hope you. I hope what
I shared with you as tremendous value, tremendous value to
what you are actually doing. I hope what I shared
with you is a spark, a spark that is gonna nite,
(48:07):
ignite a huge flame, and you on how you move
forward and how to elevate what you are actually doing
and look at everything that you're doing and dissecting it
from a business perspective, and studying a select few around
you that's doing what you're doing, See what they're doing well,
(48:30):
see what they're not doing well, but always walk into
it from the perspective that I am a business first
and the product and service that I deliver is something
that helps you, but me understanding I'm a business first
helps me. So with that said, the more you know,
(48:55):
the more you grow, the more you learn, the more
you definitely can earn. Yeah, the more you can learn,
the more you learn, the more you could definitely earn
from this information today. But when you share, you show care.
So don't keep this information or this knowledge to yourself.
I want you to spread the wisdom no matter when
(49:18):
you see in this segment, when you see it, if
it hits home and you know somebody else needs to
see it, share it, tag somebody in it. I want
us to continue to keep elevating together. This is my
next to last video segment live segment, I should say,
(49:44):
for the season. But I will continue throughout the year
of sharing some information on my audio podcast. Actually, as
I think it through, that may be where I can
possibly have capricio. Just not live. You can't ask questions,
(50:04):
but if you share questions. If I do do it
that way and you want to send questions that I
can ask dooring, then I won't mind going through some
of the top questions and ask them. But for now,
this is next to last. I enjoyed being live. I
am looking forward to what next season is going to be.
(50:28):
My aim is to always elevate, but I'm excited for
what's to come. So until next time, I want you
to keep striving. I want you to keep growing, and
I always say this most importantly, keep seeking, seeking, seeking elevation.
(50:52):
I see you next time, peace and PROGRESSI
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