Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Jonathan Azu Full Interview

Transcript

Jonathan Azu Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Listening makes us smarter, more connected people. It makes us
0:03
Speaker 1: better partners, parents, and leaders, and there's no better place
0:06
Speaker 1: to start listening than Audible. Audible is where so many
0:09
Speaker 1: inspiring voices and compelling stories open listeners up to new
0:12
Speaker 1: experiences in ways of thinking. Audible members now get more
0:15
Speaker 1: than ever before. Members choose three titles every month, one
0:18
Speaker 1: audiobook plus two Audible originals that you can't hear anywhere else.
0:22
Speaker 1: Members also have unlimited access to more than a hundred
0:24
Speaker 1: audio guided fitness and meditation programs. Audible delivers best sellers, business,
0:29
Speaker 1: self improvement memoirs, and more, all professionally narrated by actors, authors,
0:33
Speaker 1: and motivational superstars like Rachel Hollis, David Goggins, and Mel Robbins.
0:37
Speaker 1: Audible members can also get free access to the New
0:39
Speaker 1: York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post delivered daily
0:43
Speaker 1: to the Audible app. With a convenient app, members can
0:45
Speaker 1: access Audible any time at the gem, while commuting or
0:48
Speaker 1: on the go, and on any device will always pick
0:51
Speaker 1: right back up where you left off. Audible also offers
0:54
Speaker 1: free and easy audiobook exchanges. Credits you can roll over
0:56
Speaker 1: for a year in a library you keep forever, even
0:59
Speaker 1: if you cancel. Explore all the ways listening on Audible
1:02
Speaker 1: can help improve mind, body, and soul with entertainment, information
1:06
Speaker 1: and inspiration. You can get titles from your favorite I
1:08
Speaker 1: Heeart talent such as Chelsea Handler, Danny Shapiro, Charlemagne, the God,
1:12
Speaker 1: and Bobby Bones on Audible. Start listening now with a
1:14
Speaker 1: thirty day Audible trial and your first audiobook plus two
1:17
Speaker 1: Audible originals are free. Visit audible dot com, slash I
1:21
Speaker 1: heart or text I Heeart to five hundred five hundred.
1:24
Speaker 1: My next guest is Very Successful is the founder and
1:27
Speaker 1: CEO of Culture Collective. Culture Collective is the vision of
1:31
Speaker 1: former red LFE Management general manager at the years of
1:34
Speaker 1: driving success for some of the industry's most iconic artists,
1:37
Speaker 1: brands and companies. They're now leveraging their knowledge and relationship
1:42
Speaker 1: to create a diverse environment that is inclusive and will
1:44
Speaker 1: develop dynamic managers and powerhouse entertainments entertainers with the initial
1:50
Speaker 1: focus of urban genrere clients. Culture Collective and this network
1:54
Speaker 1: managers and shared service executive will represent creatives who are
1:59
Speaker 1: redefining the culture while also exemplifying and promoting diverse leadership
2:04
Speaker 1: and entertainment for the next generation. Please welcome to money
2:08
Speaker 1: Making Conversations the mastermind behind Culture Collective music executive and
2:14
Speaker 1: investor Jonathan A. Zoo. Thank you for having me. I
2:19
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Well, you know, when I bring people on
2:22
Speaker 1: the show, I want people to know where they're on
2:24
Speaker 1: the show. Yes, yes, you know, and well put guess
2:28
Speaker 1: what I'll saying? Well put, Well they tell me about
2:31
Speaker 1: this because you know your management we are as a
2:34
Speaker 1: person who's managed talent before and currently still management challenge.
2:38
Speaker 1: You know when I stop managing Steve Harbor, I thought
2:39
Speaker 1: I was done. I said, you know, uh, and then
2:42
Speaker 1: all of a sudden I got pulled back in, Jonathan,
2:44
Speaker 1: I got pulled back in. People people read the bio.
2:48
Speaker 1: This can you do? Certainly is a favor. You know.
2:51
Speaker 1: I want to spend a bunch of time because a
2:52
Speaker 1: lot of people don't understand boy management. Is that your part? Uh?
2:57
Speaker 1: Poor wife, poor friend, park else the port father port.
3:02
Speaker 1: You are a lot of things when you manage talent.
3:04
Speaker 1: Please tell people your experience. Am I am am? I
3:07
Speaker 1: not missing. I am not trying to mislead people when
3:10
Speaker 1: they're getting into the management game. You have to invest
3:12
Speaker 1: your time both emotionally and physically into somebody's success. Yeah,
3:18
Speaker 1: you you really do. You You give up every aspect
3:20
Speaker 1: of who you are, and it's it's a lifestyle business.
3:23
Speaker 1: And I've been able to experience that at a very
3:26
Speaker 1: high level. Um, you know, with with a variety of
3:30
Speaker 1: different managers and artists you know, at every shape and size,
3:34
Speaker 1: But the one commonality, one denominator, is that it's it
3:39
Speaker 1: leads to every aspect of your life. Right. And so
3:42
Speaker 1: I always like to say, when you're evaluating whether you
3:45
Speaker 1: want to manage an artists, it's it's almost like do
3:47
Speaker 1: you want to get married? Right at that level, you know,
3:52
Speaker 1: right where you know you will end up talking with
3:56
Speaker 1: that person potentially more than anyone that you in your
3:59
Speaker 1: own personal family. Um. Because that's just that's that's just
4:02
Speaker 1: the nature of the business. And that's why I always
4:04
Speaker 1: tell people that, Like when I got to share my
4:07
Speaker 1: story so it becomes relatable as to why I got
4:09
Speaker 1: on the show. Like when Steve Harvey approached me, I
4:12
Speaker 1: was successful sitcom writer, very successful in Hollywood in and
4:17
Speaker 1: he asked me to start managing his career. He had
4:19
Speaker 1: we had just taped Kings of Comedy and I was
4:23
Speaker 1: kind of like on the fence. If I was managing
4:25
Speaker 1: him was very successful, but I didn't really we didn't
4:29
Speaker 1: really become successful until two thousand and five, when I
4:33
Speaker 1: decided to really invest one into managing. The reason I
4:37
Speaker 1: say that is that if you want somebody to be successful,
4:40
Speaker 1: you cannot do it part time. You really can't. You
4:44
Speaker 1: really can. It's it's impossible, fact to be honest with you.
4:47
Speaker 1: You know, I've got two young children, um, five and one,
4:51
Speaker 1: you know, and in a beautiful wife, and and they
4:55
Speaker 1: loved the industry that I'm in. And it's great too
4:57
Speaker 1: because I've opened them up to the and you know, my, my, my,
5:01
Speaker 1: my artists and clients, UH know them just as well
5:04
Speaker 1: as they know me. And it's hard to not have
5:06
Speaker 1: it that way. You know, some people may see you
5:08
Speaker 1: need that separation. But because we live in this lifestyle
5:11
Speaker 1: business where you know, Thursday's, Friday, Saturday's where most people
5:15
Speaker 1: are thinking about the weekend and taking the time and
5:18
Speaker 1: leaning back and checking out, we're checking in right, There's
5:23
Speaker 1: always something going on, right, So it's pretty you know,
5:26
Speaker 1: it's difficult to not really open up your whole life
5:30
Speaker 1: to the people that you work with. That's why it
5:32
Speaker 1: has to work. When I talk about the marriage part,
5:34
Speaker 1: That's why it has to be a fit. It can't
5:36
Speaker 1: be a thing where you're just doing it too to
5:40
Speaker 1: get by, or you're just doing it because of the money.
5:43
Speaker 1: You know, there has to has to be a fit.
5:46
Speaker 1: I've you know, on my career, like you, you get
5:49
Speaker 1: the phone calls, you get the emails of the text
5:51
Speaker 1: from our friend. We you listen to we listen to this,
5:54
Speaker 1: you know, you know everything from my my, my daughter,
5:58
Speaker 1: my daughter. You know, I think my daughter can seeing
6:00
Speaker 1: or you take a listen on up to on up
6:03
Speaker 1: to you know, the guy at the checkout count of
6:05
Speaker 1: the grocery store. You know the nmy Is demo tape.
6:07
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty good. So you get the whole gamut.
6:11
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, if you're not
6:13
Speaker 1: emotionally connected to it and you don't have a vision
6:15
Speaker 1: for it, um, it's not worth doing because it really
6:18
Speaker 1: does take over, you know, asking for your life. So
6:20
Speaker 1: it's gonna do that. You gotta be happy. And that's
6:22
Speaker 1: why I always tell people they don't really Because I
6:25
Speaker 1: ran a common clubs, I ran into a lot of
6:28
Speaker 1: manager of singing groups, manager of this and and they
6:31
Speaker 1: really and everybody wants to be a manager because it's
6:33
Speaker 1: so fly, it's so cool to say the word manager.
6:36
Speaker 1: But the commitment to time. And I tell people that because,
6:39
Speaker 1: like I said, basically, Steve harv and I was kind
6:41
Speaker 1: of like having dual careers. He was, he was very
6:43
Speaker 1: I was still had my foot doing Rashan McDonald's brand,
6:47
Speaker 1: doing other TV show development TV shows. And the last
6:50
Speaker 1: TV show I did as Rushan McDonald was I did
6:53
Speaker 1: the MTV show called The Shop. It's very similar to
6:56
Speaker 1: what what the lebron is doing right now. HBO is
6:59
Speaker 1: back show. It's the same show and so and I
7:02
Speaker 1: was doing it and uh, I was shooting it in
7:04
Speaker 1: Brooklyn and so and that. And so when I made
7:07
Speaker 1: the commitment right there, said you know something, We're not
7:09
Speaker 1: gonna win if my mind remains split. I have to
7:13
Speaker 1: I have to commit to the whole process. And when
7:17
Speaker 1: I committed the whole process, then guess what. Everything moved
7:20
Speaker 1: forward fast, everything my my whole want her to present.
7:24
Speaker 1: Commitment allowed me to just think, sleep, eating, drink. Steve Harvey,
7:28
Speaker 1: I could tell you his blood pressure. I can tell
7:30
Speaker 1: you what he didn't like. I can tell his suit.
7:32
Speaker 1: I can tell his shoes. I can tell you what
7:33
Speaker 1: time he got up. I can tell you what time
7:35
Speaker 1: he went to bed. As a manager, you have to
7:37
Speaker 1: know all these things. You have to know, uh, catering needs.
7:41
Speaker 1: You have to know that the seat they like on
7:43
Speaker 1: the airplane. You have to know what side of the
7:45
Speaker 1: car they like to sit there, what type of cars
7:47
Speaker 1: they don't like. A dude like, all that comes into
7:50
Speaker 1: if you manage, if you're trying to take somebody from
7:52
Speaker 1: one level to the next level, these things you need
7:55
Speaker 1: to know, and you have to know, and you have
7:57
Speaker 1: to take them very seriously or you will not be
7:59
Speaker 1: managing that very long. Yeah. I always have to say,
8:03
Speaker 1: you know, you know because I get the question what
8:04
Speaker 1: is the manager? I always talk about we were. I
8:07
Speaker 1: consider myself more a strategist, right and the stens that
8:10
Speaker 1: we are positioning positioning the client for success. In order
8:13
Speaker 1: to position them for success, there has to be a roadmap,
8:16
Speaker 1: there has to be a strategy, and it has to
8:17
Speaker 1: be a long term vision, not a short term vision. Right. Um.
8:21
Speaker 1: You know. In in addition to that, you know, part
8:24
Speaker 1: of that position, like you just mentioned, is how can
8:26
Speaker 1: I make this person feel the most comfortable the most
8:30
Speaker 1: directed for success as possible. And sometimes that is, you know,
8:34
Speaker 1: to be very honest with you, what's what's in that
8:37
Speaker 1: dressing room writer, to make them feel very comfortable going
8:40
Speaker 1: to show time? Right, you know, um, you know it's
8:44
Speaker 1: and and then and the bigger, bigger pictures. Sometimes it's
8:47
Speaker 1: it's having a real conversation with them. Where is your
8:49
Speaker 1: goal line? What? How do you define success? Success is
8:53
Speaker 1: defined by the eye to beholder. So tell me what
8:55
Speaker 1: success is to you so I can help you achieve
8:58
Speaker 1: it versus just assume that we're just gonna, you know,
9:02
Speaker 1: go for the moon and we're not sure right where
9:04
Speaker 1: the moon's at, or or or or what size it is.
9:07
Speaker 1: Always talk about, you know, setting sales towards a continent.
9:12
Speaker 1: You don't you don't have to tell him what country
9:13
Speaker 1: you want to go to, but let's at least go
9:14
Speaker 1: in the right direction, right right right, And that's really
9:17
Speaker 1: that's that's key because of the fact that you have
9:20
Speaker 1: to be able to have those values like so, now, okay,
9:23
Speaker 1: I'll stop managing Steve Harvard. Okay, I'm just so I'm
9:27
Speaker 1: trying to find Rushawn's voice. Then I get a call
9:29
Speaker 1: from a man stephen A. Smith at ESPN. Here we
9:32
Speaker 1: should here, we should uh can we sit down and
9:35
Speaker 1: talk talk about what not? Just talk? Just talk, just talk.
9:39
Speaker 1: Next thing, you know, I'm managing him. Then I was
9:41
Speaker 1: to get a call from a Reva Martin Chee chee
9:44
Speaker 1: in the view on my show, just like this, did
9:46
Speaker 1: you go? Can we talk? Can we have lunch? Now?
9:48
Speaker 1: Managing her? It's just that, it's just it. But I
9:51
Speaker 1: know that when you manage people, I know, you know,
9:55
Speaker 1: you know, you learned, and I feel that that's what
9:57
Speaker 1: you're doing with your business, that you're creating. With Culture Collecting,
10:01
Speaker 1: you're taking your experience and trying to I try to
10:05
Speaker 1: get and let people know. So talk a little bit
10:07
Speaker 1: about what you exactly was trying to do with the
10:10
Speaker 1: Culture Collected. Yeah. So, you know, I I've had an
10:13
Speaker 1: interesting career, you know, in entertainment and it's been pretty dynamic.
10:16
Speaker 1: In college, you know, I was the guy that booked
10:19
Speaker 1: a lot of concerts to come through and went to
10:21
Speaker 1: dread University, small school in Iowa. You know, um, you know,
10:25
Speaker 1: my story didn't didn't quite scream entertainment, you know, in
10:29
Speaker 1: the beginning, you know, I went to school with the
10:31
Speaker 1: small school sort of booking shows. Got pretty good at it,
10:35
Speaker 1: you know, at that time I worked with everyone from
10:37
Speaker 1: Dave Matthews to One twelve right, so you know, it's
10:40
Speaker 1: back in the in the night, late nineties. And when
10:43
Speaker 1: I graduated, I thought I was I thought it was
10:45
Speaker 1: hot stuff, and I thought that I could easily get
10:48
Speaker 1: a job in New York, right because you know, nobody,
10:51
Speaker 1: nobody was doing it like I was, right, And I
10:53
Speaker 1: went to I went to New York. I slept with
10:55
Speaker 1: my parents friends couch, and I hit the payment for
10:58
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, and then I found myself up
11:00
Speaker 1: right back uh in St. Louis, which is where I
11:02
Speaker 1: grew up on my parents couch at that time, trying
11:06
Speaker 1: to figure out what I wanted to do, and I
11:09
Speaker 1: gotta but luckily I had interned, and this is what
11:12
Speaker 1: I always, you know, tell people is important to have internships.
11:15
Speaker 1: And I had interned for Live Nation, and they had
11:19
Speaker 1: directed me towards an opening in radio. And I never
11:22
Speaker 1: thought that radio would get me to where I wanted
11:24
Speaker 1: to be, because I really wanted to be next to
11:26
Speaker 1: the artist. And I, out of lack of options, got
11:30
Speaker 1: a job in radio low person on the totem pole
11:33
Speaker 1: stuffing prize boxes, you know, driving the radio station van
11:37
Speaker 1: and I did that for about a year and a
11:39
Speaker 1: half and they had the opportunity to go to New
11:41
Speaker 1: York and work for CBS Radio Corporately in the in
11:44
Speaker 1: the music Partnerships division. And that's what really really my
11:48
Speaker 1: career took off right because I started meeting a lot
11:50
Speaker 1: of high, UH influential people. UM. I started meeting making
11:55
Speaker 1: a lot of contact in the music industry, especially on
11:56
Speaker 1: the on the record label side, UM, which labels are
12:00
Speaker 1: pretty much in that driver's sipt at that point, and
12:03
Speaker 1: UH eventually shifted my career into live events and then
12:06
Speaker 1: into management and h all the executive sea level positions.
12:12
Speaker 1: I ran companies for other people. And after doing that
12:15
Speaker 1: for many many years, including the last five years that
12:18
Speaker 1: one of the biggest management companies in the world, I
12:20
Speaker 1: began to look across the table. I began to look
12:23
Speaker 1: next to me, and I began to look at those
12:25
Speaker 1: that were coming up, and no one looked like hold
12:27
Speaker 1: that thought, we're gonna go to break and we'll come back.
12:29
Speaker 1: So I want to get this complete story on how
12:32
Speaker 1: this whole highly evolved and how you got culture Collective
12:35
Speaker 1: in the purpose on the phone is this ras Sean
12:39
Speaker 1: McDonald speaking on the phone is the founder and CEO
12:42
Speaker 1: of Culture Collective. Culture Collective is the vision of former
12:45
Speaker 1: Red Light Management general manager. At the years of driving
12:49
Speaker 1: success for some of the industry's most iconic artists, brands,
12:52
Speaker 1: and companies. He decided to do it so dude, he
12:55
Speaker 1: was the middle of explaining exactly, looking across the table
12:58
Speaker 1: and realized, you know, I could do this for myself.
13:03
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the show, Jonathan. Yeah, so, you know,
13:07
Speaker 1: realize if I could do this for myself and most importantly, um,
13:12
Speaker 1: for reasons bigger than music, I can do it to
13:14
Speaker 1: impact the next generation. You know, I'm a kid that
13:16
Speaker 1: I'm a kid that was raised with Midwestern values. My
13:20
Speaker 1: father was a was an immigrant. He was he was
13:22
Speaker 1: from Nigeria, brought to the adopted, brought to this country
13:26
Speaker 1: at the age of sixteen. And I watched him, Um,
13:30
Speaker 1: you know, I watched him grow and struggle but become
13:34
Speaker 1: successful and I learned so much from him. And I
13:36
Speaker 1: watched him reached back out to his community, which was
13:40
Speaker 1: he St. Louis to work with the people there to
13:42
Speaker 1: help provide them with the tools resources and knowledge to
13:46
Speaker 1: live a better life. And I thought to myself as
13:48
Speaker 1: as as a as a black executive, I'm an interesting crossroads.
13:52
Speaker 1: You know. I joke with people that I'm I'm now
13:55
Speaker 1: on the on the opposite side of forty you get
13:58
Speaker 1: side right, And you know, I've had an amazing professional
14:03
Speaker 1: career and I can continue to work for other people,
14:08
Speaker 1: help other people build their brands, or I can decide
14:11
Speaker 1: to do it for myself. An architect is the way
14:13
Speaker 1: that I'd like to architect it, you know, with the
14:15
Speaker 1: help of those that have helped me get to where
14:16
Speaker 1: I'm at right UM, and then open my arms up
14:21
Speaker 1: and share this knowledge that I have with the next generation. UM.
14:26
Speaker 1: And really what the the embass of diversity and inclusion
14:29
Speaker 1: and making sure that this next generation is giving given
14:32
Speaker 1: access UM and bestowed knowledge to become great executive, especially
14:37
Speaker 1: in management, because we end up having in management is
14:40
Speaker 1: that because it's not anything you have to be academically
14:44
Speaker 1: accredited to do a lot of people, to you the
14:47
Speaker 1: point that you made earlier, want to be a manager,
14:50
Speaker 1: but they have no skill set to be able to
14:52
Speaker 1: do it. And a lot of that in my you know,
14:56
Speaker 1: what I've seen is because a lot of those future
15:00
Speaker 1: managers have trouble getting into this system that we have
15:04
Speaker 1: called an entertainment um for various reasons, and a lot
15:08
Speaker 1: of it could be around the fact that those that
15:11
Speaker 1: run the companies are the ones that uh give access
15:15
Speaker 1: to the internships. And if those that run in the
15:18
Speaker 1: companies don't look like us, those that are getting the
15:21
Speaker 1: internships won't look like us either. It could be the
15:24
Speaker 1: fact that a lot of the companies and entertainment um
15:28
Speaker 1: don't pay interns right, and if you don't pay interns,
15:32
Speaker 1: a lot of people that look like us are from
15:34
Speaker 1: our community can't afford to do the internship. So therefore
15:37
Speaker 1: it's not even the consideration set that you'll be a manager.
15:41
Speaker 1: It sometimes happens is that you become friends with the
15:44
Speaker 1: artists and that artists explodes and you're there next to
15:49
Speaker 1: them as their manager, and when that artist gets to
15:51
Speaker 1: the level of notoriety, people around them say, hey, you're
15:55
Speaker 1: your friends there. He's not really a manager, he's a
15:57
Speaker 1: furniture and that that man gotta go. We're gonna put
16:01
Speaker 1: you with somebody that's gonna take care at to the
16:03
Speaker 1: next level. That person's wefts aside because I just never
16:05
Speaker 1: had the right shot. Yeah, he's speaking the truth. Many
16:09
Speaker 1: times going a room with Steve Harvard and they just
16:13
Speaker 1: to be speaking to Steve and then sudden, um, I know,
16:18
Speaker 1: I know who I am, I know what I was accomplished.
16:20
Speaker 1: I know the reason that meeting was set up was
16:22
Speaker 1: because of me. And usually about a week later, I
16:25
Speaker 1: get that phone call with an apology going up. I
16:28
Speaker 1: thought you was just a friend of his. You're gonna
16:32
Speaker 1: be talking to me because I'm closing these deals, and
16:34
Speaker 1: I know I negotiate and that's why, you know, and
16:37
Speaker 1: I always tell people early on and crew, we didn't
16:39
Speaker 1: have an agency, you know, we it was just me
16:41
Speaker 1: and him, just me and him. And so the benefit
16:44
Speaker 1: of that, I learned how to do book there is
16:46
Speaker 1: I knew how to do syndication. I knew how to
16:48
Speaker 1: do radio contracts. I knew to do a syndicated contract.
16:51
Speaker 1: I knew how to do film, any type of box
16:53
Speaker 1: office contract, I knew how to do it. I we
16:56
Speaker 1: booked our own tours. I didn't go through an agency
16:59
Speaker 1: to do a tour. So as a manager, if you
17:01
Speaker 1: want to be successful, what he's saying saying, you've got
17:05
Speaker 1: to learn the skills and get skills that are respected
17:08
Speaker 1: and working with with the cultural collective gives that respect.
17:12
Speaker 1: That's what I'm That's what I'm hearing in this conversation, correct, Jonathan, Yeah. Absolutely,
17:17
Speaker 1: And and the ability for us to to network with
17:19
Speaker 1: each other, to pull each other into a standbox and
17:21
Speaker 1: share resources, share knowledge base. Um, you know, to your
17:25
Speaker 1: point like this is, you know most of us got
17:28
Speaker 1: to this business because we you know, we've worked in
17:32
Speaker 1: at both end of the Absolutely, we really hustled, right,
17:36
Speaker 1: and and we should. Let's pull those resources together. So
17:40
Speaker 1: when you're when you're an artist is negotiating that managers
17:43
Speaker 1: negotiating that contract for an artist, and someone like yourself said,
17:47
Speaker 1: you know what, I've done that deal before. Let's share
17:49
Speaker 1: that knowledge. Right, Let's create a house. Let's create a home.
17:53
Speaker 1: We can all to collectively win. Um, one person's win
17:57
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be other person's loss. All ships rise.
18:00
Speaker 1: So how does how does a talented guy like Roshan
18:03
Speaker 1: McDonald help out your program? Because your your company, your vision,
18:06
Speaker 1: your dream, Because I, oh, man, Le'll tell you something.
18:09
Speaker 1: I will die one day and this information gonna be
18:12
Speaker 1: with me, so our rather share it and other people
18:14
Speaker 1: benefit from it and you win. Like you said, that's
18:18
Speaker 1: that's how my life. My life has been about uplifting.
18:20
Speaker 1: My life is about paying it forward. So how do
18:23
Speaker 1: you take a talented guy like and all this all
18:25
Speaker 1: this information and help out your your network. Tell us
18:30
Speaker 1: how that works? Yeah, well, you're you're doing it now,
18:33
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, you're example by the platform that
18:36
Speaker 1: you have and allowing people myself to to come on
18:39
Speaker 1: and share a vision and inspire people. Inspire people is
18:43
Speaker 1: the biggest, the biggest thing, because you know, for me,
18:46
Speaker 1: I just want to be able to inspire people. And
18:49
Speaker 1: I've been lucky and blessing life, and I don't I
18:51
Speaker 1: don't want to leave this world looking back and say,
18:53
Speaker 1: you know what I did really good for myself, but
18:56
Speaker 1: I didn't really impact anybody in a way that was meaningful.
18:59
Speaker 1: And when I say impact people, of course that's clients
19:01
Speaker 1: and partners, but that's also that person that just read
19:04
Speaker 1: that article or heard this podcast and said, you know what,
19:06
Speaker 1: I can do this myself. I can really do it.
19:08
Speaker 1: You know, I'm no different than than Jonathan Azoo. I
19:14
Speaker 1: was you know, you know, raised in the Midwestern example, right,
19:17
Speaker 1: It wasn't wasn't the child of affluent parents, like you know,
19:21
Speaker 1: just doing doing your thing, and you know, so you
19:25
Speaker 1: know you're doing it right now. I thank you, you know,
19:29
Speaker 1: because I know that, and I talked to this story.
19:32
Speaker 1: This is really good. This is really turned into a
19:33
Speaker 1: really cool conversation. From the standpoint though, just being able
19:36
Speaker 1: to let everybody knows it's perception and what people think
19:40
Speaker 1: of you can really be a detriment, and so you
19:43
Speaker 1: have to be prepared for that. Whenever I would walk
19:45
Speaker 1: in the room, I knew people thought I was just
19:47
Speaker 1: his boy. I knew that going in, so that's all right,
19:51
Speaker 1: but be prepared not to be his boy, oh his girl,
19:56
Speaker 1: oh his friend, or his buddy or his part of
19:59
Speaker 1: his As Lebron said, I don't have a crew. I
20:03
Speaker 1: don't have a crew. I have producers. I have managers
20:06
Speaker 1: to have educated people around me. Don't diminish what I've
20:09
Speaker 1: accomplished by throwing out a little slang words. And that's why,
20:12
Speaker 1: that's why Lebron got upset when when Phil Jackson called his, uh,
20:17
Speaker 1: the Maverick and all those guys he's crew, his crew,
20:21
Speaker 1: because we knew that was an urban slank for and
20:23
Speaker 1: it can diminish your value and so know that going
20:26
Speaker 1: in so that means that you have to do your homework.
20:28
Speaker 1: And so it's all right to know that somebody's gonna
20:30
Speaker 1: disrespect you. If and that's what a lot of people miss.
20:33
Speaker 1: If you if you're gonna be offended coming into entertainment,
20:36
Speaker 1: you might want to get out of the business now,
20:39
Speaker 1: because entertainment is crazy. They don't care how they talk
20:42
Speaker 1: to you. They don't care, is always telling. But age
20:45
Speaker 1: discrimination happens in entertainment, sexist happened discrimination. The me Too
20:50
Speaker 1: has calmed a lot of the the the the harassment
20:53
Speaker 1: down for women, thank god. But it's one of those
20:55
Speaker 1: business where you have to know when you're walking into it.
20:59
Speaker 1: The perception can kill you if you're not prepared for
21:02
Speaker 1: you and you can't and you gotta have thick skin. Jonathan,
21:05
Speaker 1: am I saying anything wrong? No, You're You're absolutely right.
21:09
Speaker 1: And I think you know and you also you gotta
21:11
Speaker 1: be yourself. Yeah, I mean, I think I think in
21:13
Speaker 1: this industry, they they try to typecast a lot of
21:17
Speaker 1: executives because they you know, you know, they think that
21:21
Speaker 1: if you are part of the quote unquote crew you said,
21:24
Speaker 1: you got to be that shiny object that shiny object
21:26
Speaker 1: in the room and they want you to dumb it down, right.
21:30
Speaker 1: They don't want you, they don't want you to be
21:32
Speaker 1: and they don't want you sometimes to be um, you know,
21:35
Speaker 1: to be educated in to to to to be wise
21:38
Speaker 1: and to be full of knowledge. Um. They see you
21:43
Speaker 1: walk in the room, they think, to your point, you're
21:44
Speaker 1: just your friend, right or this is gonna be this
21:46
Speaker 1: is gonna be easy. Deally get done because you know
21:49
Speaker 1: there's nobody around him that knows what they're doing, right,
21:52
Speaker 1: So you know, don't don't be shy to be that
21:54
Speaker 1: person that says I'm gonna break I'm gonna break this
21:57
Speaker 1: cycle and thought that you have and that's really important
22:00
Speaker 1: that that's why I just want everybody to know when
22:02
Speaker 1: you when you're looking at these opportunities and having you
22:04
Speaker 1: on the show, and believe me, anytime you want to
22:06
Speaker 1: come on my show really understanding what you're trying to do.
22:08
Speaker 1: You're just trying to deliver information. You're trying to let
22:11
Speaker 1: everybody know that you can be Rashan McDonald, you can
22:14
Speaker 1: be Jonathan, you can be you know a lot of
22:17
Speaker 1: talented people out there who are who are diverse, who
22:21
Speaker 1: don't who looks like us. They are actually managing talent
22:25
Speaker 1: that don't look like us, and that and and that's
22:28
Speaker 1: really what surprises a lot of people. A lot of
22:30
Speaker 1: people would then realize that, you know that Lady gard
22:33
Speaker 1: God manager was an African American. A lot of people
22:36
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, it's
22:38
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I just I was just talking with somebody
22:41
Speaker 1: recently who's who's African American and had spent a bunch
22:46
Speaker 1: of years working in the in the in the in
22:48
Speaker 1: the gospel um faith oriented space, but a big, big
22:53
Speaker 1: fan of country, right that I want to go working
22:55
Speaker 1: I want to go work in country, but he's working
22:57
Speaker 1: in country right now. He told share with me to
22:59
Speaker 1: struggle that he's had, right, people like, you can't you
23:03
Speaker 1: can't work in country, you know. And that's that's same
23:08
Speaker 1: because people continue what you can't do, but they can
23:10
Speaker 1: tell you can do hip hop exactly right, So you
23:14
Speaker 1: have to start it has to start an end there,
23:16
Speaker 1: right because but but conversely, you can't work in country,
23:20
Speaker 1: but we can work in your music, right because that's
23:22
Speaker 1: what that's what I heard when when they made that
23:24
Speaker 1: that that comment to him, right, then we can do anything,
23:29
Speaker 1: and you can do in respect that. I respect that
23:32
Speaker 1: what you're trying to do because of the fact that
23:35
Speaker 1: UH as a as a person who has UH, like
23:38
Speaker 1: I said, been at the mountaintop, stayed at the mountaintop,
23:42
Speaker 1: left the mountaintop on my own terms. You have to
23:45
Speaker 1: be in a position to be able to understand that
23:47
Speaker 1: people will tell you what you cannot do when you
23:50
Speaker 1: cross the line that they don't expect you to cross
23:52
Speaker 1: because in their mind, you look a certain way, you
23:55
Speaker 1: walk a certain way, you talk a certain way. Jonathan,
23:58
Speaker 1: I'm a fan, brother. I want you to keep winning
24:01
Speaker 1: and know that you have a mentor somebody you count on,
24:04
Speaker 1: and if you ever need me, I would give myself
24:06
Speaker 1: number you can call me in your time, and give
24:08
Speaker 1: anybody else about number to call because I'm ready to
24:10
Speaker 1: build new people like you who want to expand the
24:14
Speaker 1: opportunities in that range. Absolutely, I appreciate that. And to
24:18
Speaker 1: everybody listening out there, you know I'm easily You know
24:22
Speaker 1: you can find me on LinkedIn, you can find me
24:24
Speaker 1: on Instagram. You know I always try to get back
24:27
Speaker 1: to people with their questions reach out. I appreciate your mother,
24:31
Speaker 1: my brother, you talked soon Okay, take care. You need
24:35
Speaker 1: to check out the wireless earbuds from Recon. Recon earbuds
24:39
Speaker 1: start off about half the price of any other premium
24:41
Speaker 1: wireless earbuds on the market, and they sound just as amazing.
24:44
Speaker 1: Unlike some of your other wireless options, Recon earbuds are
24:46
Speaker 1: both stylish and discreet, with no dangling wires or stems.
24:49
Speaker 1: And of course they don't just look great, they sound
24:51
Speaker 1: great too, and they're perfect for listening to all your
24:54
Speaker 1: favorite I heart radio podcasts on the go. So go
24:57
Speaker 1: to buy Recon dot com slash I Heart to off
25:00
Speaker 1: your order. That's by Recon dot com Slash I Heart
25:03
Speaker 1: for off Recon wireless earbuds. If you've been eyeing a pair,
25:07
Speaker 1: now is the time to get an amazing deal one
25:09
Speaker 1: more time by Recon dot Com Slash I Heart