Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Making A Difference: A trailblazing media executive at Harper’s Bazaar, Ebony, Honey Magazine, and digital platforms like BET and The Grio.

Transcript

Making A Difference: A trailblazing media executive at Harper’s Bazaar, Ebony, Honey Magazine, and digital platforms like BET and The Grio. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi. Ever, Sean McDonald host the weekly Money Making Conversation
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show provides
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: offer everyone It's time to start reading other people's success
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: stories and start living your own now. If you want
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to be a guest on my show, Money Making Conversation Masterclass,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: please visit our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Click the b against button.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: If you're a small business owner, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, influencer,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: or nonprofit now let's get this show.
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  Speaker 2: Roller.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: My guest made History is the first black woman to
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  Speaker 1: helm a major mainstream US magazine, and as deputy editor
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  Speaker 1: in chief of Harper's Bazaarre. She's held senior leadership roles
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  Speaker 1: at Paramount Herts, Disney Timing, and several independently owned brands.
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  Speaker 1: Now she has a highly anticipated debate novel, If I
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Rule the World, and it will be published by funt
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  Speaker 1: Iron Books in January or twenty twenty six. Please welcome
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass, Amy duoyce On.
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  Speaker 3: That so nice to be here, Rashaun, thanks for having me.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Well, First of all, I got I got the d
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Boys right? Correct? Yes, you did.
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  Speaker 3: My namesake so that's what I get that right.
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  Speaker 2: On the book. I don't want people to be looking
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: for Amy Barnett and mister see right there.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: If I say it's right, then you type that it
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: gonna come directly you because you're one of a kind.
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  Speaker 3: I appreciate you, sir, and I'm proud of my middle name. Again,
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: I'm named after wb D Boys, so I'd like to
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  Speaker 3: use my whole name.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I said some really amazing things, and
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  Speaker 1: I've known you over the years and followed your career,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: followed you through the injured leg and all that stuff.
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  Speaker 1: But you're very humble, but you've been in a very
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  Speaker 1: competitive industry.
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  Speaker 2: How do you balance that?
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  Speaker 3: Amy, I mean, I I appreciate that, and that's a
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  Speaker 3: very kind thing to say. And it's interesting because it
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  Speaker 3: is one of the things that I talked to people
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  Speaker 3: that I mentor about, right, you know, I talk to
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  Speaker 3: people about the energy that you put back in the
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  Speaker 3: world and the way that that comes back to you
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: and the fact that you know, all of it is
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  Speaker 3: sort of circular, and you have to really be intentional
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  Speaker 3: about the way that you walk through the world. Right,
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  Speaker 3: So I think that the way that you are treating
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  Speaker 3: people around you is the kind of energy that you're
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: going to get yourself as it comes back to you.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: And the other thing is, you know, I really spent
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  Speaker 3: a lot of time over the course of my career
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  Speaker 3: humanizing success. You know. I think that for a lot
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: of people, you know, they look at you know, those
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: folks who have had certain kinds of professional accomplishments, and
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: they think that these people are different or they're somehow
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  Speaker 3: I don't want to say better, but they just have
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  Speaker 3: a sort of different set of experiences or what have you.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, my goal throughout a lot of my
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  Speaker 3: career has been to help people understand that we all
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  Speaker 3: make mistakes, like nobody is better than anybody else. You know,
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  Speaker 3: we are out here flawed and you know, and just
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  Speaker 3: trying to find success, fine, love, find fulfillment at the
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: same as everybody else. And that was actually one of
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: the reasons why I started writing my editor's letters at
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  Speaker 3: Honey Magazine. That was actually my first editor in chief job.
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  Speaker 3: So when I started writing my editor's letters at Honey Magazine,
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  Speaker 3: I decided that I wasn't going to do the normal
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  Speaker 3: editors letters where you say okay, well on page fifty
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  Speaker 3: three is a great QD story on page twenty five
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  Speaker 3: is a great fashion story. Instead, I chose to use
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  Speaker 3: that magazine Real Estate to talk about my own stories
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  Speaker 3: and my my failures and the lessons that I've learned
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  Speaker 3: and the insights I wanted to impart. So, you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's just it's part of who I am, and it's
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  Speaker 3: it's part of what I want to leave with the world.
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  Speaker 2: What is Amy Well? Amy?
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  Speaker 1: You know it's really interesting because you know, I would say,
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  Speaker 1: calm writer, Okay, I'm just say that, not your your
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  Speaker 1: level of writing, because.
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  Speaker 2: There's a different it's different levels of writing out there,
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  Speaker 2: ladies and gentlemen.
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  Speaker 1: Our the black the black information pipeline seems to be
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  Speaker 1: under attack nowadays, where we're being discouraged to identify ourselves
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  Speaker 1: and be proud and be able to.
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  Speaker 2: Say I want to do this. When you hear these
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  Speaker 2: attack messages.
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  Speaker 1: Being put out there, I'm not going to direct it
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  Speaker 1: to anybody in particular, but I do read it. I
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  Speaker 1: do see it, and I feel uncomfortable. How do you respond?
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  Speaker 1: How do you respond to that? Amy Well? I I.
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  Speaker 3: Think that it's incredibly important, especially in this political environment,
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  Speaker 3: right you know that we find ourselves in in this country,
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  Speaker 3: to Britain as much authenticity as possible, and to also
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: be very clear about where we stand both personally, professionally,
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  Speaker 3: politic politically with regard to social issues. You know, I
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  Speaker 3: just I think that we are in a position right
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  Speaker 3: now where it's true, black voices, black people in this
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  Speaker 3: country under attack, like across the board. I mean, I
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  Speaker 3: really believe that, you know, and you know, black voices
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  Speaker 3: are under attack, Black media is under attack. Anything having
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  Speaker 3: to do with us is under attack. So you know,
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  Speaker 3: we are going to have to remain strong, try to
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  Speaker 3: you know, get together or you know, uh, solidify our
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  Speaker 3: community and and remain authentic to our voices and to
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  Speaker 3: who we are so that we can express ourselves, so
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  Speaker 3: that we can you know, try to fight what's happening
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  Speaker 3: to not just our own individual you know kind of
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: means of being successful, but also our voices and our media.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, we you know, it is unfortunate that we
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  Speaker 3: are finding ourselves in this position. But I'm so grateful
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  Speaker 3: for those of us, you know, who have been able
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  Speaker 3: to also establish these independent platforms that have been authentic
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  Speaker 3: and have sort of resisted what's going on. We have
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  Speaker 3: people like Roland Martin, and we have people like Joy Reed,
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  Speaker 3: we have people like Don Lemon, who I'm just incredibly
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  Speaker 3: grateful with people like yourself who are out here, you know,
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  Speaker 3: trying to create a pipeline of information. And I would
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  Speaker 3: just take that example and I would extend it to
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  Speaker 3: everybody out there in our community and say, Okay, be authentic,
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  Speaker 3: use your voice, stand together as a community fight cool.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's great because I feel that's a transition to
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  Speaker 1: your novel, which is in a different period in the nineties.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you're titled it if I ruled the world.
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  Speaker 1: If I ruled the world, If I rule the world?
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  Speaker 1: Why if I rule the world? You know, because a
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  Speaker 1: song pops into my head when I hear that if
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  Speaker 1: I ruled the world.
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  Speaker 2: Why did you call it if I ruled the world?
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  Speaker 3: That is that is the song that should pop in
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  Speaker 3: your head? That is true, you know. I mean so,
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  Speaker 3: as you mentioned before, I do have a career in media.
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  Speaker 3: So I I am a three time editor in chief.
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  Speaker 3: I was editor in chief of Honeyman Magazine. I was
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: editor in chief of Team People Magazine. I was editor
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: in chief of Ebony Magazine, and I was deputy editor
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  Speaker 3: in chief of Harper's Bizarre, and so this particular novel
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  Speaker 3: has been in my head for years, and it is
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: about a woman who works at a fashion magazine and
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  Speaker 3: eventually becomes the editor in chief of a you know,
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  Speaker 3: urban women's music and lifestyle magazine called Sugar, somewhat similar
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  Speaker 3: to Honey Magazine, if you will.
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  Speaker 1: And.
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  Speaker 3: Somewhat similar. And you know, initially the book was called Sugar,
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  Speaker 3: right after the fictional magazine that my protagonist edits. But
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  Speaker 3: I was like, I don't know if that's really conveying
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  Speaker 3: what this book is about. Because my protagonist is a complicated, ambitious,
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  Speaker 3: flawed woman who is trying to achieve her professional goals,
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  Speaker 3: who is who is trying to find love, who is
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: fighting enemies, who ask you know, complicated relationships with her friends,
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  Speaker 3: She's dealing with massogy and hip hop, and so she
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  Speaker 3: is really on a journey that is about finding herself,
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  Speaker 3: coming into her own and really you know, kind of
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  Speaker 3: understanding the world of which she belongs. And so the
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  Speaker 3: title I love the title of Obviously it's a NAS song, right,
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  Speaker 3: So the title is you know, really about like if
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  Speaker 3: I ruled the world. To me, it was like evocative
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  Speaker 3: of like the journey that my protagonist is taking. And
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  Speaker 3: then I was also thinking, well, who are the music
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: artists who are popular right during that time? Obviously nas right,
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  Speaker 3: and he is still popular, but in the late nineties
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  Speaker 3: and early two thousands, when my book is set, he
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: was incredibly popular. And this song features Lauren Hill, who
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: we all love and Revere and who was also a
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: little sort of you know, kind of low, you know,
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  Speaker 3: small reference. Coincidentally, Lauren Hill was the very first cover
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  Speaker 3: of Honey magazine back in the day, so there's lots of.
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  Speaker 2: Reference, so a lot of personal references. I think that
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  Speaker 2: makes that makes for a great story.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: That means that you are more authentic like you, like
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: you stated earlier when we were referencing black history and
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  Speaker 1: black information that's being denied, denied by to the general
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: public by a lot of sources nowadays. But I think
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: that you know, that's why when I heard about the
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: book and it's on pre order right, yes.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: So it's available for pre order now wherever you buy
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: books online, Amazon work.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: How does that work now? Because I think I know
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: that's important. I've been fortunate to be part of two
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: best sellers, Steve Harvey's Act Likely think like Man best seller.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Pre orders played a major role in that, and Steven A.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Smith's Straight Shooter, which is a New York Times best seller,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: pre orders played a major role in that. Tell us
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: why pre orders are that important to your the success
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: of your book?
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Initially, Yes, sir, so pre.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: Orders are critical for all authors, but particularly debut authors.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: I'm not a debut author. I did running on fiction book,
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: but I'm a debut novelist. And so what happens is
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: that all of the order. So for those of us,
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: those of us who have you know, goals of being
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: on bestseller lists, like you know, for me, being on
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: a bestseller list is the you know, would be the
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: fulfillment of a lifelong dream. When it's put it that way,
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: and my book officially goes on sale, meaning it will
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: start to ship January twenty seventh, two thousand and six, right,
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty six, but all of the pre orders that
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: I get, so every time you guys pre order my
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: book between now in January twenty seventh, all of those
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: sales count towards the first week sales, right, And to
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: get on bestseller lists, you need to have between five
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: thousand and ten thousand sales. That first week, and for
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: debut novelists, it's incredibly difficult to get that level of
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: sales in one week unless you have a really strong
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: pre order campaign. So that's why I'm super grateful for
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: the support my book has already gotten. And you know,
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: for all the pre orders you guys, you know make
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: between now and when it actually goes on sale, it
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: will count toward the books you know, first week, and
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: then it will drive the book towards success. So could
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: not be more grateful for the support.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Well, I know that first, I do want to get
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: that out because I like, I've been fortunate to be
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: a part of two amazing books, and I don't take
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: that for granted. I know there's a lot of hard
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: work and getting it to be New York Times bestsellers.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: I know the pre sales played.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: A major role in that, because once you appear on that,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: then then they stamp New York Times best Seller on
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: your book, and then that's like another stamp of okay,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: you should buy this book, and it goes to another
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: cycle of success that can go to months on a
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: best seller list.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Now, now let's go back to this book.
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  Speaker 1: If I ruled the world novel because I had a
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  Speaker 1: comedy club called the Hip Hop Comedy Stop, and I
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: opened it in nineteen ninety two. And music, you know,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: I just think about all the music. Hip hop is
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: just really you know Snoop Dogg and now I remember
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: everybody is just Doctor Dre.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Everybody was coming out and so that.
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  Speaker 1: Music, I always tell everybody time period was such an
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: important time between deaf comedy, jam used music.
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  Speaker 2: So I know it's a novel, but do you are
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: you able to sell.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: The importance of music and media in your in your book?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely well. I mean in urban media, you know, we
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: were completely intertwined with the music industry, you know, so
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: I like to say, I mean I've been music industry
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  Speaker 3: adjacent for twenty years now. You know, most of the
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: artists that I featured, you know, earlier in my career
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: were music artists. Most of my covers were music covers.
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: I mean black Hollywood is I don't say it's new,
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  Speaker 3: but you know there's been a real rise of you know,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: black Hollywood in the past I'm going to say decade,
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  Speaker 3: but for so many years, you know, music really drove
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: everything that media did from a celebrity perspective, and even today,
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  Speaker 3: I mean music drives culture, you know, whereas Hollywood reflects
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  Speaker 3: culture and you know how we love our music. So
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: you know, when you look at urban publishing, you know
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: you see magazines like you know, Honey Magazine, right, you
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: see Vibe, you see Double Xcel, you see the Source.
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  Speaker 3: You know, these were all magazines that centered around music.
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  Speaker 3: And this book in particular is very reflective of the
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  Speaker 3: culture of the time. And what that means is that
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: it's not just about this woman's journey. It's also has
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: themes that talk about the music industry. So there's misogyny
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: and hip hop for example. You know, we're seeing the
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: kind of reckoning go on right now in the music industry,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: and this book reflects a lot of what female executives
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: went through during that time, and so we're absolutely talking
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: about that. I'm referencing a lot of music artists that
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: were popular at the time. I also have fictional music
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: artists you know that I'm talking about, you know, who
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: also kind of go through things, you know, have a
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: journeys themselves in the book. So it is very very
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: music related.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Well that's important that you know. The interesting thing about
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: this amy because you're always a planner. Now, female driven
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: young time. You know, I go all the way back
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: to you know, uh uh you know, living single, I
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: go all the way back there.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, you just come.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Forward that magazine Driven is a is a television concept
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: or a movie concept, part of the bigger plan of
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: this or release.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: If I ruled the.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: World, Absolutely yeah, I mean I.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: You shine? No, absolutely yeah?
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: No. You know, don't play about you know, you know,
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: I don't play about my goals for shot. You know,
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: I don't play about my goals. I'm over here manifesting
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: big thing, sir, so yes, And I'm a so a
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: very visual thinker. I'm a visual person, and so when
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: I was writing the book, I was thinking visually, I
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: was thinking about set pieces. I was just I was
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: thinking thematically. So I absolutely see my book as a
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: television series, and I'm not actually working on that right now.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Imagine it is because when you write a book like this,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: it's kind of close to who you are, Okay, kind
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: of close to your are you dropping kind of like
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: a memoir type tone to it, or this is just
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: so fictional you just because this is what you did
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: for a living, you can keep it accurate.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: It's interesting everybody, many people will think that it's a
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: Roman ac clay, meaning that it's about me, But it's
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: actually not my story. It's just based in a world
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: that I know extremely well, that I know better than
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: almost anyone else, and I have referenced certain aspects of
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: my life and my journey, but it's not my story.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: So you know, it's something that I know intimately and
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: organtic enough to be able to really talk about on
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: who have written about with a lot of authenticity, but
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: it's just not my personal journey.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Stay with us.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: More money Making Conversation mastic Lass coming up next. Welcome
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: back to Money Making Conversation mastic Lass with me Rashaun McDonald.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Measure this amy because there are a lot of talented
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: people out there, Like there's a lot of talent basketball
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: players and athletes out there, but only a few breakthrough.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: What what is your qualities or your skill set? Because
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: I got to put you in the skill set you know,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of people can dribble a basketball,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of people can dunk it. A lot of
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: people can have baseball over the fence, but they can't
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: hit it consistently.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: What enabled your rise in this industry?
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Is it a writing style you you achieved what what?
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: What qualities?
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: If somebody's listening trying to get into this business that
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: they have to stick to and all to even be
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: considered a possibility of achieving success in this business, that's interesting.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think that this transcends media, It
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: transcends you know, being an author. I think that you know,
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: the qualities you need to be successful are are universal
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: across basically any industry, sports, medicine, I mean, law, I mean,
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: you know, I think that it's it's not just about
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: having the skills and the experience to do whatever you know,
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: job it is you're trying to do. There's a separate
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: success skill set that I talk about that is really
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: something different, right, And a lot of that is about
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: the energy, like I was saying earlier, but the energy
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: that you put forth right, It's not just about doing
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: your job. It's about doing your job with an energy
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: that makes people want to be around you. It's about
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: you know, being you know, very enthusiastic about what you're doing,
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: finishing what you have, asking for more, doing that with
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: a great attitude, you know, helping people around you, being collaborative,
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: being kind, you know, like a lot of that circles
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: back to you in ways that you can't possibly imagine.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: You know, it's it's kind of part of networking. Networking
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: is definitely, you know, intrinsic to that success skill set.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: But people think that networking is like going to these
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: events and giving people a business card, and that's that's
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: not what it is. It's about building relationships. It's about
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: supporting people. It's about asking people what you can do
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: for them, right, It's about being kind. You know, you
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: and I have known each other for a long time.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: You reached out to me for this, for which I
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: am incredibly grateful, but that's because we have built a
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: relationship over years, right, And that's something that people don't understand.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: It is it is really about having the kind of
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: energy that people want to be around, building relationships and
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: then supporting people in your community and so much of
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: that and you just don't know. And you're not doing
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: that because you think you're going to get something back.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: You're doing that because that's how you authentically show up
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: in the world. You're walking through the world in a
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: way that is generating opportunities. And the other thing I
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: will say is that in terms of success, the universe
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: will not give you an opportunity that you don't think
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: you deserve. It just doesn't happen, you know, So you
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: have to believe that you deserve all of the opportunities.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: So manifesting, you know, when I talk about manifesting something,
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: I'm not like cutting pictures out of you know, magazines
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: that I love so much and putting on post boards.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: That's not what I'm doing. I'm envisioning a goal, right,
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: I am trying to understand or I'm then being who
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: I need to be in order to achieve that goal.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: And part of that is believing that I deserve that goal, right,
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: and then I'm putting in the work, right, I'm putting
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: in the straight up work right to achieve it. So
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: it's it's, you know, sort of energetically being authentic and
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: being kind. It's envisioning your goal and manifesting it by
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: understanding that you deserve it and then putting in the work.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Now, here's something interesting, she said. We've been friends a
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: long time, which she's accurately. We met in twenty twelve
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: when I was doing producing the Steve Harvey Talked Show
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: at Chicago, Yes, and she was at Epony and We
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: used to meet once a week for breakfast.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: She's very much. We got to meet once a week
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: planking me. She's very organized. We meet breakers until we
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: find the right place to eat. We would meet. But
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: you know, that was when print magazines mattered. Print magazines mattered,
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: and now we're in an era.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: I have a two part question for you. Okay, you've
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: seen the transition from newsstand to digital. Explain to us
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: the difference and what did what did it? The good
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: it brought to your industry and some things you felt,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: well bad it brought into especially black print.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: The tough one. Rashan. I mean, because it's true, I've
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: been in both. I mean, I'm a magazine maker in
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: my core. I love magazines. I think that it's like
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: creating a piece of art every month, you know, and
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: I deeply respect you know what magazine making is because
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: it's very dichonomous. It's textual and visual and being editor
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: in chief, it's creative in business. I mean, it's you know,
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: in front of the camera, behind the camera. There's so
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: many aspects to it that are complicated that you don't
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: find as much in the digital universe.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: I have run digital brands and I ran the Grio,
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: I ran digital for be Et And you know, what
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: you do have in the digital world is an ability
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: to put out a lot more information much more quickly,
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean. So that is a good thing.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, you have there's speed to it, there's a
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: volume to it. I'm basically limitless volume, you know, to
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: the to the amount of information you can put out.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: But what you lose is that kind of careful, you know,
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: thoughtful journalism that goes in creating something that's going to
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: live forever. You know, a magazine, you know, once you
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: have it, it exists, it lives forever, you know, when
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: you put something online. I mean, of course there's great
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: journalism on digital platforms, but there is a lot of
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: journalism that's much more rushed because you can change it,
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: you know, you it doesn't have to stay up forever.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: You can take it down. You know, people won't see it,
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: you know it doesn't. It's it's more ephemeral. Whereas magazines
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: have a permanence that made you incredibly careful. Everybody went
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: into producing magazines, made us all incredibly careful with what
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: we put forth. So and I also missed the visual
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: aspect of it. Too. I missed the photo shoots. I
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: missed the cover shoots. You know that's something that, again,
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: you don't really get as much in the digital world,
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: at least not to the same extent. You have video,
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: which is fabulous, but you you don't have those same
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: kind of fashion shoots that really characterize magazines.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I'm speaking of Amy dubois on that she is in
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: history first black woman to helm a major mainstream US magazine.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: That's big, y'all, and.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: As deputy editor in chief of Harper's Bazaarre, she held
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: senior leadership roles at Paramount Hers Disney just the name
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: of few, just a lot.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: I met her in Chicago when she was running the
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: helm of Ebney magazine at the time. She says, a
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: new book out, It's called If I Ruled the World.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: And I say book out means that you can go
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: pre order right now prior to being released. And that's
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: why she's on the show. Tell us about that book.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Get the word out, get these pre orders lined up.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: So guess what, she can be on the New York
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Times bestseller list and we can see her show eventually.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: On television on the big screen. That's the end goal.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: But what did.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I do know about Amy, and I've been a part
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: of her life, part of the last thirteen years. You
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: understand pivoting, you understand, And I talk about that a
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: lot on my show because a lot of people don't
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: know when to jump or understand when opportunities in that
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: current location is changing.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: They don't understand.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: They might devalue themselves and think it's all on them.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about pivoting and understanding how you can maintain
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: a balance that it's not about you and you should
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: continue to be successful because it is about you.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: Well, that's interesting. I mean I have pivoted throughout my life,
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: throughout my career. In my personal life, you know, I've
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: lived in thirteen cities on three continents, you know. But
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: in my professional life, you know, I actually started off
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: my current finance and then I spent some time in
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: the fashion industry, and then I got a graduate degree
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: in creative writing and MFA and started a twenty year
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: approximate career in media. And even within media, I pivot
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: in multiple times. I started off as the fashion and
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: beauty futures editor for Essence magazine, and then I pitched
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: and eventually became the editor in chief of Honey Magazine,
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: and then I became the editor in chief of Team People, right,
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: which was a pivot, right because I'd gone from Essence
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: and Honey, which were black and urban magazines, to twen People,
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: which was a mainstream magazine. And that's where I became
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: the first black woman to run a major mainstream magazine.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: That's the Team People with the Team version of People magazine.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: Now that's key.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Let's not understate that, because this is because people can
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: like stereotype you and then say, hey, now that's why
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I keep talking. You know, one thing, I was no
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Amy even when we met every week. You know, she
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: said across from me and I'm looking at this. I'm men,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: just tell you this brilliant person tend to undersell herself.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: And I go, I don't get this, Like she just went,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: you know, Shu, I was alway Incense and then with
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Honey and then went to Team People's magazine. Really, you
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: went with black black white like that black black black white,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: and we're just supposed to take that was just like
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: normal normal you go white white white black, but black
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: black like white.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: Not that that's not that's something's happening there. So talkers
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: talk to us, miss authentic.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, I ruled the world author, Okay, just be real
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: that there's some skill there and not this casual conversation
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: of being in the room and being able to meet
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: people and doing the hard work you at the hustle
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: and you had to keep submitting.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: Come on now, oh, let me listen. That's why I
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: was trying to talk to you about it in this
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: sort of pivoting conversation because it was not just a pivot.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: But you're right, it was some work. So let's just
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: keep it abup right, let's just talk about it. So
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: when I was editor in chief of Honey Magazine, there
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: was an organization and it still exists, called the American
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: Society for Magazine Editors. The acronym is ASMI, and that
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: is the most prestigious organization in the magazine and publishing
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: and frankly media world. Right, you can only be a
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: part of the organization if you are an executive editor
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: or above, so basically the top two positions on a
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: mass head of a respected magazine. That is the only
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: way that you were admitted into this organization. They weren't
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: admitting people in this organization from like the the source.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: They were not admitting maybe vibe, I guess. Eventually even
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: people came in. I mean eventually people, they started opening up,
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: but largely because I hustled and I formed relationships, you know,
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: and I did what I had to do basically to
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: get myself admitted to this organization. I had to volunteer
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: for the events. I judged you know, the you know,
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: the asthms again that's their their their acronym for American
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: Society Magazine and or they had an awardever you're called
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: the ellies. I judged the ellis for them, and I
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: proved myself time and again so that they eventually admitted
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: me into the organization, right, and that opened up an
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: incredible number of doors. So when I was admitted into
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: the organization as the editor in chief of Honey, again
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: breaking round because they were not letting in people from
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: urban magazines at that time. So when I got admitted
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: to the organization, at that point I started to make,
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: you know, not just do the work right, not just
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: prove myself in these rooms with all these editors, which
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: is by the way, I looked scary, right, I'm in
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: there with the editor in chief of The New Yorker,
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: the editor in chief of the Atlantic, the editor in
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: chief of the Washington Post, the editor in chief, G
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: you se what I mean? Am the editor chief of
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: Vanity Fair, and me the editor chief of Honey Magazine.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: Judging the l awards, you're making commentary about the future
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: of the industry. I had to prove myself, you know,
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: to be a worthy colleague. And when I did so,
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: that's when the people at Time Inc. That at that
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: time owned People Magazine and Team People Magazine, That's when
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: they took note and they started to talk to me
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: about coming on board to Time Inc. Because they recognized
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: that I understood culture. They knew that I was a
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: good editor, They saw that I could generate ideas and
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: that I was strategic. But it took a lot of
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: hustle and then a lot of proving myself and a
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: lot of being confident too. I had to walk in
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: those rooms with confidence, with the energy of somebody who belonged.
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: If I walked in with the energy of somebody who
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: felt unsure about out you know what I was doing there.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: If I looked as scared as I felt, then I
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: would not have gotten the respect of the people who
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: then recruited me to be the editor in chief of
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: teen People.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: There you go, she's Amy Bornette now Amy.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: As we close out an interview, let's recap this fantastic
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: book that's coming out. Pre orders are available right now.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: If I Ruled the World, give us a recap, said
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: in the nineties.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: Yes so. My debut novel, If I Ruled the World
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: is set at the intersection of hip hop and fashion
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: and magazine culture in New York City in the late
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: nineteen nineties and early two thousands, and it's about a
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: woman named Nikki who goes from you know, being an
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: editor at a high end fashion magazine and not finding
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: her voice there, to eventually becoming the editor in chief
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: of a magazine called Sugar, where she also struggles. She
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: struggles to navigate the dangerous music industry, where she's faced
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: with a lot of misogyny and you know, sexual violence.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: She's forced to navigate a publisher company and a team
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: that doesn't necessarily believe that she can authentically do that job.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: She's forced to navigate her own romantic relationships while she's
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: looking for love. She has front friendships that she's trying
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: to figure out how to manage, you know, with her
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: new job. And in this new world, and she's also
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: trying to become who she is. She's trying to figure
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: out where she belongs. So it's a sexy story, it's
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: a juicy story. There may be some anecdotes in there
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: that I personally lived, and I think you guys are
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: going to enjoy it. So it's called If I Ruled
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: the World, and it's available wherever you buy books.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Online pre ortist. Great.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: That was going to be my last question, but I'll
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: be remissed because one of the people that we always
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: spoke about at our breakfast sessions was her son.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: How is that young man doing? My daughter now works
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: for me in our company.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: She graduated with a digital media degree from the University
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: used with honors.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: So how is you start doing?
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Oh, I'm so proud of her. Yes, my baby is
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: nineteen years old. He is a rising sophomore at Drexel
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: University in the Music Industry program. He's a music producer,
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: he's a DJ. He is a brilliant, lovely young man
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: and right now he is backpacking through Europe with a
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: friend of his. I swear to god he's in Vienna
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: at the moment. So my child is doing really well.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: I appreciate you.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like his mama.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: I have the adventures though what we not go do?
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: What we're not go do?
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Yes, she's incredible. I think I want to take you
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: for coming on the show. I really was, you know,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: like I said, I saw this note on LinkedIn Ladies
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: and LinkedIn. She used LinkedIn and that's why I found
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: out by a book and I say, hey, I want
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: to come home, bring you on my show, not just
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: to talk to you again. A big fan, always a
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: big fan of yours and anytime I could use my
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: gifts to promote your talents, I'm going to use it.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: And you know that.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: So again, if I Rule the World is available now
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: go to any Amazon inflicce you by your books is
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: be available. Thank you Amy for coming on Money Making
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Conversations Masterclass.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: I appreciate you, Rashaun. As always, this.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: Has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me Rashaan McDonald.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Thanks to our guests and our audience. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: com to listen or register to be a guest on
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: my show. Keep leading with your gifts, Keep winning,