Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Al Roker Full Interview

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Al Roker Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: must be eighteen years older to purchase blay Fine. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversation. I am your host, Rashan McDonald.
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Speaker 1: I recognized that we all have different definitions of success.
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Speaker 1: For some exercisable paycheck, mine is helping people wake up
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Speaker 1: overcoming the arts, and how to live a balanced life.
1:39
Speaker 1: My next guest, big fan of this young man is
1:41
Speaker 1: the weather Man slash co anchor on NBC's Today's Show
1:45
Speaker 1: and co host of the third Hour of Today. His
1:47
Speaker 1: owner and CEO of his production company, Our Roker Entertainment Incorporated.
1:52
Speaker 1: He is on the show to discuss this new book,
1:54
Speaker 1: You Look So Much Better in Person. It's a great title.
1:57
Speaker 1: His Journey is about his journey, but it teaches us
1:59
Speaker 1: how we can wear to the storm of life no
2:01
Speaker 1: matter how Having it downpour and share his antidotes from
2:04
Speaker 1: his own treasure trove or memories of being in the spotlight.
2:08
Speaker 1: Most importantly, you can purchase this book right now, Right now,
2:11
Speaker 1: you can buy this book. Please welcome to money making Conversation.
2:13
Speaker 1: I'm calling my friend al Roka, Hi Rishan, How are
2:18
Speaker 1: you pretty good? My friend? Uh, this is a book
2:21
Speaker 1: about a first of all, before him get started. I
2:24
Speaker 1: thought reading this book, especially the end of chapter three, well,
2:28
Speaker 1: you announced that you were You are a weather man,
2:30
Speaker 1: a parade host, a production guy, master ceremonies, an occasional author.
2:36
Speaker 1: Your your book could easily have been titled more than
2:39
Speaker 1: a weather man or weather person. Yeah, I guess it
2:43
Speaker 1: could have been. Um. But you know, one of the
2:45
Speaker 1: things I've learned, one of the best bits of advice
2:48
Speaker 1: I was getting was by Willard was by Willard Scott,
2:52
Speaker 1: who was my mentor, who's the man who helped me.
2:55
Speaker 1: Uh develop who I am? Said? You know, he gouse
3:00
Speaker 1: two things because and this was at a dinner we
3:03
Speaker 1: were having. He said, always be yourself because at the
3:07
Speaker 1: end of the day, they can take anything away from you,
3:10
Speaker 1: but they can't take you away from you. Um. And
3:14
Speaker 1: the other thing he said was never give up your
3:16
Speaker 1: day job, you know, no matter uh, because back then
3:20
Speaker 1: when we were having dinner, he was the the number
3:23
Speaker 1: one news personality in Washington, d C. And you know,
3:28
Speaker 1: and and while he was doing that, he still had
3:32
Speaker 1: all these side hustles were obviously we didn't call upside hustles.
3:36
Speaker 1: But but he always said, you know, at the end
3:38
Speaker 1: of the day, everybody knows me for this, and that's
3:43
Speaker 1: where all of this comes from. And so you know,
3:47
Speaker 1: I try to do all these different things and take
3:50
Speaker 1: advantage of all these different opportunities. But the reason those
3:54
Speaker 1: opportunities come up is because I'm on the Today Show. Absolutely,
3:58
Speaker 1: you know when I when I was reading the book,
3:59
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you travel from Syracuse, did you
4:02
Speaker 1: go down to d C? Then you go down to
4:04
Speaker 1: Cleveland and you come back to New York City. It's
4:07
Speaker 1: it's a journey, but it's the journey about I've never
4:10
Speaker 1: given up and working hard. That's that seems to be
4:12
Speaker 1: the message that you're trying to tell. When the opposite
4:15
Speaker 1: tunity to posit itself go forward, but when you go
4:18
Speaker 1: for it, give that seems to be the tone of
4:21
Speaker 1: the book. Correct. Well, here's the deal, my dad told me.
4:25
Speaker 1: I talked about this in my book, and absolutely my
4:28
Speaker 1: dad and and he is, you know, I we lost
4:31
Speaker 1: him back in two thousand one, and I still, you know,
4:36
Speaker 1: I miss him every day. But one of the things
4:39
Speaker 1: that he told me in the high school was, you know,
4:41
Speaker 1: and he said, listen, you are going to have to
4:44
Speaker 1: work twice as hard, to be twice as good to
4:47
Speaker 1: get half as far as the white kid next to you. Absolutely,
4:50
Speaker 1: that's true. And I said, and I said, but that
4:52
Speaker 1: that's not fairies, that's not called fairness. It's called life,
4:56
Speaker 1: he said. And if that's that's what you're gonna do.
4:59
Speaker 1: And I remember about home one day with a report
5:01
Speaker 1: card that was less than stellar, and I thought, he
5:03
Speaker 1: is going to just explode. Uh. And I got out
5:08
Speaker 1: home and he came home. He was working as a
5:11
Speaker 1: bus driver, came home and my mother showed him a
5:14
Speaker 1: report card and he looked at me and he said,
5:17
Speaker 1: if you can tell me this is the best you
5:18
Speaker 1: can do, and I will accept it. But if this
5:21
Speaker 1: is not, I am really disappointed at you. And got
5:25
Speaker 1: up and left the table. And I was like, damn uh.
5:30
Speaker 1: And I brought those grades up. So you know, when
5:33
Speaker 1: you when you say that about because I'm African American
5:36
Speaker 1: and fifty um, and we talked about, you know, the
5:41
Speaker 1: times that we are in now we're now COVID and
5:44
Speaker 1: eighteen with the civil unrests, and I look at your
5:48
Speaker 1: career and I'd like to believe that you are a trailblazer.
5:52
Speaker 1: I believe that you was a trailblazer in Syracuse, you
5:55
Speaker 1: are a trailblazer in d C, trailblazer in Cleveland, and
5:59
Speaker 1: even a trailblazers today. And do do do I'm just
6:03
Speaker 1: asking this question now, do you realize the significance of
6:07
Speaker 1: who you are as an African American for somebody or
6:10
Speaker 1: my children to see you and TV? Well, you know
6:14
Speaker 1: that that's very I don't even know what to say
6:17
Speaker 1: to that in in that Uh you know, I think
6:22
Speaker 1: I think our goal I think as as a people
6:25
Speaker 1: are just to do your job and do it to
6:28
Speaker 1: the best of your ability. So that, uh, you know,
6:32
Speaker 1: that's what people see and not just that you know,
6:34
Speaker 1: the whether it's an Al Roker on TV or listening
6:37
Speaker 1: to a Rashan on on the podcast. You know, but
6:41
Speaker 1: when you see people in their line of work who
6:44
Speaker 1: do their line of work to the best of possibilities.
6:49
Speaker 1: Then that becomes those people become role models. I was
6:52
Speaker 1: just talking to somebody, you know growing up in New
6:54
Speaker 1: York City. You know, uh, when I was a kid,
6:58
Speaker 1: you know, seeing a uh Bill McCrary or a J. J. Johnston,
7:05
Speaker 1: or a or a Guilt Noble or Melvite Tolliver Boptique,
7:09
Speaker 1: you know, all these folks, you know. And to be honest,
7:13
Speaker 1: I never wanted to be on TV, but I remember
7:16
Speaker 1: what a big deal it was to see us TV. Absolutely,
7:20
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm saying, is that it's a big deal.
7:22
Speaker 1: You know, this story, your story starts at sixty eight
7:25
Speaker 1: when you were in college, you know, and got this
7:27
Speaker 1: job we canme weather band job, and you know, and
7:30
Speaker 1: you went in there and and you you you you
7:32
Speaker 1: basically just I'm gonna call him till he tell me
7:35
Speaker 1: to stop calling. And you know, the funny thing is,
7:38
Speaker 1: once I got the job, it was funny because I
7:40
Speaker 1: was gonna be the first. You know, there are big people,
7:42
Speaker 1: you know they were, but we had black reporters. It's
7:44
Speaker 1: the black cap. That's That's what I'm saying. I don't
7:47
Speaker 1: want you to show away, and that's a show away.
7:49
Speaker 1: But I'm not shying away. But you know, I guess
7:52
Speaker 1: here's the thing. I've tried to raise my kids that, uh, listen,
7:58
Speaker 1: Dad's on TV. But you know what, Dad's job is
8:02
Speaker 1: not any more important than uh bus driver, which my
8:07
Speaker 1: dad was, truck driver, firefighter, any of those folks, you know,
8:12
Speaker 1: as long as they are because you look it. Once
8:15
Speaker 1: I'm off TV, I'm still me, but I'm not. You know,
8:19
Speaker 1: I'm not Al Roker on TV. I'm just Al Roker.
8:22
Speaker 1: So you know, I don't think that we're important that
8:26
Speaker 1: much more important just because of what I do. You
8:29
Speaker 1: you should be important for who you are, not what
8:32
Speaker 1: you are. Absolutely I'm not I'm not shying away from
8:35
Speaker 1: what and I'm not saying I'm not. I'm not saying
8:37
Speaker 1: that you are. I'm just saying this is what I've
8:40
Speaker 1: had to uh kind of impart upon my kids, because
8:45
Speaker 1: you know, they've seen me fire to rage, Al Roker
8:48
Speaker 1: wearing a suit holding a briefcase with them, trying to
8:53
Speaker 1: flag a cab and then bed down man hat and
8:56
Speaker 1: that cab passes you by for a white guy or
9:00
Speaker 1: a white woman half a block down who does isn't
9:03
Speaker 1: dressed nearly as well as you are you know and
9:06
Speaker 1: and and so you know, I said, look and at
9:08
Speaker 1: the end of the day, and that's what's been so
9:11
Speaker 1: amazing about this. There's almost this I wish I could
9:14
Speaker 1: have written this book, post or or you know, during
9:18
Speaker 1: this pandemic, because it has brought out a lot of things.
9:21
Speaker 1: And you know, I mean, uh, I am so grateful
9:27
Speaker 1: that I did one of the last, if not the last,
9:30
Speaker 1: interview with John Lewis, and uh. He talked about how
9:37
Speaker 1: you know, just when you think maybe there's no hope
9:40
Speaker 1: or you're feeling a little down about stuff, and he said,
9:43
Speaker 1: seeing these people, seeing this diverse group, his rainbow of amazing.
9:48
Speaker 1: He isn't an amazing young people demonstrating that has said
9:53
Speaker 1: enough enough that and you know what we're doing. I
9:56
Speaker 1: don't think this would have happened if we weren't in
9:58
Speaker 1: a pandemic, because Floyd would have just been another black
10:02
Speaker 1: guy who had been murdered, because we would have gone,
10:05
Speaker 1: we would have gone back to all We would have said,
10:07
Speaker 1: oh that's terrible, as a as a country, oh that's horrible,
10:10
Speaker 1: and then something else would come by to distract us.
10:13
Speaker 1: We would go back to our our world, go back
10:16
Speaker 1: to our jobs, go back to whatever we're doing, go
10:18
Speaker 1: back to our vacations. But this happened when we had
10:22
Speaker 1: no choice but to look We could not look away.
10:26
Speaker 1: And and and that's what you're saying the truth. You're
10:28
Speaker 1: speaking the truth because you know this weekend, because they
10:33
Speaker 1: told me I was going to be interviewing you this Monday,
10:35
Speaker 1: and you brought up John Lewis because I was gonna
10:36
Speaker 1: bring him up in his interview. And I'm not trying
10:39
Speaker 1: to make you uncomfortable when I talk to you about
10:42
Speaker 1: who you are and what you mean to African Americans?
10:46
Speaker 1: Is that, uh, when you know as much as I
10:49
Speaker 1: knew about John Lewis, when I see him walk down
10:54
Speaker 1: that bridge in Selma years old, Yeah, that was for
10:58
Speaker 1: the first time I saw owe him. You know, I
11:01
Speaker 1: saw him. And and you are a pioneer, and you've
11:05
Speaker 1: written a great book and all these great stories you
11:08
Speaker 1: tell are told are checkpoints of history to me. To me,
11:14
Speaker 1: because I know that I'm an entertainment business. I know
11:17
Speaker 1: the difficulty of what you have to do in entertainment
11:21
Speaker 1: to be successful period. And it may it may be
11:23
Speaker 1: the most difficult. Feel that you can get in and
11:25
Speaker 1: try to be a person of color and try to
11:27
Speaker 1: be successful in entertainment and you've achieved it. And I
11:32
Speaker 1: say that because of the fact that in Syracuse, d C. Cleveland,
11:36
Speaker 1: New York, you have to be a person of authority
11:40
Speaker 1: and accepted that the information coming out of your mouth
11:43
Speaker 1: it's real and accurate. And you've achieved that for before
11:46
Speaker 1: the years. That's that's an incredible talent. And I just
11:49
Speaker 1: wanted to congratulate you on there and that was important
11:51
Speaker 1: for me to let you know how I feel from
11:54
Speaker 1: a person, my daughter, my my my family, that you
11:58
Speaker 1: have been important to the African American community, my friend,
12:01
Speaker 1: and thank you and that that that that you know,
12:04
Speaker 1: it resonates in this book more when I read it,
12:06
Speaker 1: because you know you you couch you very well with humor.
12:10
Speaker 1: But also the reality is did you have to be
12:13
Speaker 1: you have to be on hick on your feet, You
12:15
Speaker 1: have to be smart, and you have to be willing
12:17
Speaker 1: to work hard and when the opposite tunity position itself,
12:20
Speaker 1: you cannot show away from it. That's what you that's
12:22
Speaker 1: to tell with your book, right And you know it's
12:25
Speaker 1: funny because uh, you know I left, I got a
12:29
Speaker 1: job in Syracuse and then I got a job in Washington,
12:31
Speaker 1: and I moved to Cleveland, which was, you know, fairly
12:33
Speaker 1: at the time, the late seventies was a fairly racially
12:36
Speaker 1: polarized city. Uh. And uh again I was the first
12:41
Speaker 1: black weather man there, thank you. And uh always interesting.
12:46
Speaker 1: I had a we had an anchor guy. He was
12:48
Speaker 1: married to his coch Doug. And yeah, Doug it there
12:52
Speaker 1: and and you know, nice man. I You know, if
12:56
Speaker 1: you had asked me, is Doug racist, I'd say no
13:00
Speaker 1: it Doug, you know, could say some things. And uh,
13:03
Speaker 1: one night, are after our newscast, we were in downtown Cleveland.
13:07
Speaker 1: Not a great time to be out after eleven o'clock. Uh,
13:11
Speaker 1: an older African American gentleman who's homeless, everybody knew it,
13:15
Speaker 1: came up behind Doug with a rolled up newspaper and
13:17
Speaker 1: kind of bopped him on the back of the head
13:18
Speaker 1: and ran off and that was it. Well, the next day,
13:21
Speaker 1: Doug's telling everybody how he was assaulted, an attack, and
13:23
Speaker 1: we all kind of like, yeah, we wish we had
13:25
Speaker 1: been the one who had done it. But anyway, Uh, anyway,
13:30
Speaker 1: his his wife, his co host Mona is about to
13:33
Speaker 1: introduce me. We're live on TV and just and now
13:36
Speaker 1: here's Mona before you introduced. Now all I have to
13:40
Speaker 1: tell you. I don't know if you'd heard, but last
13:43
Speaker 1: night after eleven o'clock news, one of your people attacked me. Now, uh,
13:49
Speaker 1: you know it's one of those moments, Roshan where time
13:51
Speaker 1: stands still. You're trying to figure out how are how
13:54
Speaker 1: am I going to react to this as an outrage
13:58
Speaker 1: is and I find TV only TV. I looked at
14:03
Speaker 1: me and I said, Doug, why in the world with
14:05
Speaker 1: a weather with a weatherman attack you? And then just
14:09
Speaker 1: moved moved on. Um, well, well, people were outraged for me.
14:15
Speaker 1: They called you know I mean, and they had to
14:18
Speaker 1: suspend him. And then he came back to as a reporter,
14:21
Speaker 1: demoted kind of a field anchor as they called it.
14:24
Speaker 1: And then like six seven months later he resigned and
14:28
Speaker 1: he and his wife left, went down to Columbus, Ohio,
14:30
Speaker 1: and you know, another good ten years down there. But
14:34
Speaker 1: you know it's you. You've You've got to pick your look.
14:37
Speaker 1: There's so there, there's so much that we can be
14:40
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14:44
Speaker 1: George Floyd beyond outrage, Um uh, you know me being
14:49
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14:53
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14:56
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Speaker 1: free auto dot ai. That's O T T E R
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Speaker 1: dot ai. You know our thank you for the comment.
16:59
Speaker 1: Oh you know, I'm talking to a Roka his fantastic
17:02
Speaker 1: book that you can buy right now. You look so
17:04
Speaker 1: much better in person true stories of absurdity and success.
17:09
Speaker 1: I'm a guy get up at four o'clock every day.
17:10
Speaker 1: Al you are a three forty five a m guy.
17:14
Speaker 1: You beat me by fifteen minutes, my friend, So I'll
17:18
Speaker 1: give you. I give you. I got about out to
17:21
Speaker 1: you for that fifteen minutes. And the reason I bring
17:24
Speaker 1: that up because a lot of my friends and co
17:26
Speaker 1: workers and people that that called me for motivation and
17:29
Speaker 1: advice to said Richard, where you get at four o'clock?
17:32
Speaker 1: Do you have to be anywhere? Folk? Like? I said? No, No,
17:35
Speaker 1: I said, but it's a difference when I get up
17:37
Speaker 1: at four, and a difference when I get up at
17:39
Speaker 1: six is how I prepare for the day. And it's
17:44
Speaker 1: not so much, and it's how you how you allow
17:47
Speaker 1: your body and your mind to go through. I get up,
17:50
Speaker 1: I go downstairs, I stretch and watching the news to
17:53
Speaker 1: about four three, that fine about the weather. Then about
17:55
Speaker 1: five o'clock I'm in my life. You know, I'm on
17:58
Speaker 1: my own pace. And so let's walk through the steps
18:01
Speaker 1: for by that time, besides having to be to work
18:03
Speaker 1: at a certain time every morning Monday through Friday, that
18:06
Speaker 1: three is important to you, and we should and people
18:09
Speaker 1: should and here to having a set time that they
18:12
Speaker 1: get up on a daily basis to be successful. Well,
18:16
Speaker 1: here's the deal. I find that I am most productive
18:22
Speaker 1: in that hour because I don't really need to get
18:25
Speaker 1: up till four forty five or five o'clock or even
18:28
Speaker 1: five fifteen, much like yourself. But there's no there are
18:32
Speaker 1: no phone calls to be made, there are no emails
18:36
Speaker 1: to answer, there are no kids projects that you've got
18:39
Speaker 1: to work on. Uh, you don't have to uh, don't
18:43
Speaker 1: tell her ize this answer to your wife. All you
18:46
Speaker 1: have to do is get up and do what you
18:50
Speaker 1: what you want to do. I don't like rushing, much
18:52
Speaker 1: like yourself. I do not like rushing to get ready
18:56
Speaker 1: for work. I would rather and and to be frankly,
18:59
Speaker 1: to be right, that's when I wrote most of his
19:01
Speaker 1: book during that that hour. Either. And you know, we
19:05
Speaker 1: we find we tend to waste a lot of time
19:10
Speaker 1: we do. You know, if if you could uh add
19:14
Speaker 1: up the time you're you're kind of mindlessly scrolling the internet,
19:18
Speaker 1: you know, on the you know, looking at Twitter or Instagram,
19:21
Speaker 1: and and the time you're just looking at things to
19:24
Speaker 1: buy or what you probably could find another ninety minutes
19:28
Speaker 1: in your debt. Yes you could, Yes you could. And
19:31
Speaker 1: I tell people that I said, there are twenty four
19:33
Speaker 1: hours in the day. Learn to take advantage of each hour.
19:35
Speaker 1: And that's what you're saying right now when you say, look,
19:37
Speaker 1: I got Sean, it's my time. Yep. So that's why
19:43
Speaker 1: I tell people that's I wrote there in the book
19:45
Speaker 1: and said, you know, get up at least an hour
19:47
Speaker 1: before you after because you will. You will be a surprise.
19:52
Speaker 1: And I think kind of amazed at how productive you
19:55
Speaker 1: that hour will be for you. That was a great
19:58
Speaker 1: That was a great point of knowledge your book. Another
20:00
Speaker 1: great point of knowledge I wanted to bring out was
20:02
Speaker 1: the power of relationships. And two people that stood out
20:06
Speaker 1: this book and I was talking about I would tell
20:08
Speaker 1: about people about my life, is that people I didn't
20:11
Speaker 1: see the vision in me sometimes and some people saw
20:13
Speaker 1: it and they pushed me in the direction of a
20:16
Speaker 1: nudged me or sometimes say while you still standing here
20:19
Speaker 1: looking at me, get out. And Chris and Cleveland and
20:22
Speaker 1: you mentioned his name earlier, Willis Scott in the in
20:25
Speaker 1: the d C. Talk about that significant role they played
20:28
Speaker 1: as far as the power relationships in your life to
20:31
Speaker 1: the career you have today. Yeah, I mean, you know,
20:34
Speaker 1: like I said, Willard gave me all that advice and
20:36
Speaker 1: just nurtured you know, like, uh, you know, really got
20:41
Speaker 1: me ready for this. In a sense, he was I
20:44
Speaker 1: and I say this with no shame. I consider him
20:47
Speaker 1: like a second dad. In fact, if my dad was
20:50
Speaker 1: still alive today, they would be the same age. Uh
20:54
Speaker 1: you know. And and he just you know, he was
20:58
Speaker 1: generous to a fault. He is. But you know the
21:01
Speaker 1: idea when I was I was working at w NBC
21:04
Speaker 1: in New York and filling in for him, and he
21:07
Speaker 1: came to me and he said, listen, it's it's my time.
21:10
Speaker 1: I'm going to step back a little bit. Um. But
21:13
Speaker 1: they should be thinking about putting you in there. And
21:16
Speaker 1: that's who I'm telling them. But if they come to you,
21:18
Speaker 1: just know that this is my choice. Uh. Now, there
21:22
Speaker 1: are there are very few people in this business who
21:24
Speaker 1: would do that. Um And And the person who set
21:28
Speaker 1: me up to be in that position was this woman,
21:30
Speaker 1: my news director, Chris Ostrowski. Um. She in Cleveland. She
21:36
Speaker 1: was the one who told me about the weekend weather
21:38
Speaker 1: job in New York. She said, look, they're looking for
21:40
Speaker 1: a weekend weather person. You're from New York. You don't
21:44
Speaker 1: need to be here anymore. Uh. I called the news director.
21:48
Speaker 1: Have your agent called the news director, tell him I
21:50
Speaker 1: know that you're calling, and you need to get down
21:54
Speaker 1: there an audition for that job. Um, and I auditioned.
21:58
Speaker 1: My agent called this aid loved it. They want you
22:01
Speaker 1: to start. And my station in Cleveland was about to
22:05
Speaker 1: We had moved from third place to second, and we
22:07
Speaker 1: were knocking on the door for the first place and
22:09
Speaker 1: the news and the general manager said, here's what we'll do.
22:12
Speaker 1: If you agree to stay for another two years. We
22:15
Speaker 1: will raise your salary. You'll be the second highest paid
22:18
Speaker 1: anchor person in Cleveland. We will guarantee the end of
22:23
Speaker 1: those two years, you will move to New York as
22:25
Speaker 1: the weekend weather man at the same salary that you're
22:28
Speaker 1: making now, which would have been far more than I
22:30
Speaker 1: would have been making in New York if I had
22:32
Speaker 1: taken the job. And I thought, you know what, why not.
22:36
Speaker 1: I love Cleveland, I enjoy it, so I'm gonna I'm
22:39
Speaker 1: gonna stay. And I went in to tell my news
22:42
Speaker 1: director and she said, now, as your news director, I
22:47
Speaker 1: think this is great news. It's fantastic. As your friend,
22:52
Speaker 1: I think you're making a huge mistake. You need to
22:54
Speaker 1: get out of here now. Now, who does that? You know? Uh?
22:59
Speaker 1: And then I'll say who did There was something that
23:01
Speaker 1: somebody who saw something in you that you weren't ready
23:04
Speaker 1: to accept. I know. I say that because it's happened
23:07
Speaker 1: to me. And I say that the people all the
23:09
Speaker 1: time is that you value relationship. You and she's your
23:11
Speaker 1: mentor as well. And I'd like to believe will it
23:14
Speaker 1: which is your mentor? And people see stuff and they
23:17
Speaker 1: tell you, don't relax because your gifts were greater than
23:20
Speaker 1: what we're being offered in Cleveland. Go to New York,
23:22
Speaker 1: young man, Go there and challenge yourself. And that move
23:26
Speaker 1: is the move. While we see you today on the
23:29
Speaker 1: Today Show. Yep. And now you know we talked about
23:34
Speaker 1: earlier about you know, all these different jobs. Now they
23:36
Speaker 1: call it multiple streams of income. You know back in
23:38
Speaker 1: the day, and she said, we were Jamaican's when we
23:40
Speaker 1: had those many jobs. But now it's called multiple streams
23:44
Speaker 1: of You're right, right, right, right right, no, not properly
23:48
Speaker 1: using multiple strees. Gotta have multiple streams. Ain't come if
23:50
Speaker 1: you want to make the world today. Now, one of
23:52
Speaker 1: those multiple streams of income. Is that our Roker Entertainment
23:56
Speaker 1: Incorporated production company tells us like that? And why was
23:59
Speaker 1: it important that you start and produce things out of
24:02
Speaker 1: that production company? What's your name? Well? You know, I
24:07
Speaker 1: always wanted, as I said, I didn't want to be
24:09
Speaker 1: on TV. I wanted to be in TV. I wanted
24:11
Speaker 1: to work in television. And I've always wanted to produce
24:15
Speaker 1: and and I I did a couple of specials for
24:20
Speaker 1: the Food Network just as a host and UH and
24:24
Speaker 1: I saw and they wanted me to do some more,
24:26
Speaker 1: and I, why can't I produce these? So I asked
24:28
Speaker 1: the general manager at the time, who used to work
24:32
Speaker 1: with me at w NBC, and she said sure. And
24:36
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it, and so kept producing shows. Did
24:39
Speaker 1: some for the Weather Channel and UH, Lifetime and some
24:42
Speaker 1: other places where we're about to announce an animated series
24:47
Speaker 1: for a network. I can't mention right now. UH we're
24:50
Speaker 1: doing stuff with a UH. We we just have a
24:54
Speaker 1: very varied group of projects. One that looks at UH
24:58
Speaker 1: veterans coming back with brain injuries with a group called
25:02
Speaker 1: Life Aid. It's called Life Aid, A Story of Hope.
25:06
Speaker 1: It's going to air the end of August on Discovery
25:09
Speaker 1: American Heroes and Science Channel. Uh and and you know
25:14
Speaker 1: it was it's important to me to be able to
25:17
Speaker 1: have a voice, to be able to you know, have
25:21
Speaker 1: a say and what we do and how we do it? Now,
25:24
Speaker 1: what is the difference? Then? You know, I'm talking to
25:26
Speaker 1: Arroca his great book you should buy it right now
25:28
Speaker 1: called you look so much better in person? Uh? When when?
25:32
Speaker 1: When you're because there's where you are a star. You're
25:35
Speaker 1: a media star. Your television start, you're in a very
25:37
Speaker 1: popular uh morning news broadcast and we you know, whether
25:42
Speaker 1: expert or authority. When people walk by they ask you
25:45
Speaker 1: to whether jokingly or seriously, that's who you are. Now
25:49
Speaker 1: you're a producer, a different hat, does it? Does it?
25:51
Speaker 1: What is the difference of the two other than the
25:54
Speaker 1: fact that you are a media star as a talent.
25:56
Speaker 1: Now you've become an immediate star as a producer. What's
25:59
Speaker 1: the difference? Oh, you know, in a sense, they're they're
26:04
Speaker 1: very much the same. And that you want to you
26:06
Speaker 1: you know, what do you want people to come away
26:10
Speaker 1: with you? Do you do you want them to feel
26:12
Speaker 1: like they've wasted their time or do you want them
26:14
Speaker 1: to feel like they've had some value added by watching
26:17
Speaker 1: you or by watching something you've produced. UM. You know,
26:21
Speaker 1: I like to say that there's no show although my
26:24
Speaker 1: kids are older now, but there's no show that I've
26:26
Speaker 1: produced that I wouldn't be proud to have my kids
26:28
Speaker 1: watch UM or my parents watch. And and it looked
26:34
Speaker 1: we could be a far bigger production company, but by
26:38
Speaker 1: doing certain kinds of programs and I just don't want
26:40
Speaker 1: to do those. And before we wrap up, I wanted
26:43
Speaker 1: to bring this comment up and I want you to
26:45
Speaker 1: respond to it. It's about hard work and sometimes when
26:47
Speaker 1: you work hard, you you might not get paid extra,
26:51
Speaker 1: might not feel appreciated when you're working that hard. And
26:53
Speaker 1: I feel it was a major move to the success
26:55
Speaker 1: that you are today, because that's what the book lays
26:57
Speaker 1: out to me. Each each chapter tells a story about Okay,
27:01
Speaker 1: this is what I had to do now. I was
27:03
Speaker 1: I happy doing it? No, but I had to do it.
27:06
Speaker 1: And it led to this and one of those examples
27:08
Speaker 1: when you work, when Dr Frank feels before he was
27:11
Speaker 1: moved over to CBS and thought it was gonna be
27:13
Speaker 1: a green of pastors, you worked hard for eight street,
27:16
Speaker 1: eight straight weeks with only two days off. You know
27:20
Speaker 1: that could have been a breaking point. You could have
27:22
Speaker 1: said enough is enough. He said, hey, I want more money.
27:25
Speaker 1: This is not right. You could, you could complain, but
27:28
Speaker 1: why didn't. Well here's the deal for two things. And
27:32
Speaker 1: it may sound corny, but I I love what I do.
27:36
Speaker 1: I mean to be in this industry. People say, oh,
27:40
Speaker 1: you work so hard. I said, you know what, My
27:42
Speaker 1: dad drove a bus for eight hours a day, worked
27:45
Speaker 1: a lot of overtime. Sometimes we wouldn't see him for
27:48
Speaker 1: a couple of days. That's really hard work. This is work.
27:54
Speaker 1: But I love what I'm doing. Uh, it's not a job,
27:57
Speaker 1: it's it's it's my my passion. So if in the
28:02
Speaker 1: long term this is going to bring me something, I
28:05
Speaker 1: don't know if it is or not. But all I
28:09
Speaker 1: know is that if I give somebody else the opportunity
28:12
Speaker 1: to do it, then I don't get that opportunity. So
28:16
Speaker 1: I will put in the hours, I will bust my
28:19
Speaker 1: butt to do it because I want. I want whatever
28:24
Speaker 1: it's going to come after it, not somebody else. Well
28:26
Speaker 1: what came out of it? And NBC you got rolled
28:30
Speaker 1: into the studio, uh, in a in a chocolate cake,
28:35
Speaker 1: and you've been there every since. Just before we just
28:40
Speaker 1: tell us how did the chocolate cake scenario come out?
28:43
Speaker 1: And the fact you got rolled into the studio and
28:47
Speaker 1: a chocolate cake, well, you know it was. It was
28:51
Speaker 1: one of the funny moments in the book, by the way,
28:53
Speaker 1: it was, well, thank you it tell me listen, you
28:57
Speaker 1: do what you gotta do. Somebody suggested I stood it,
29:00
Speaker 1: and I thought, why not? You know, what's the worst
29:03
Speaker 1: that can happen. Luckily I'm not allergic to chocolate. Right. Well,
29:08
Speaker 1: my friend, I want to thank you for coming on
29:10
Speaker 1: my show. I have a newsletter goes out to eighty
29:13
Speaker 1: thousand people and earty four thousand people every Wednesday. I
29:15
Speaker 1: want to drop your book in. There are a million
29:18
Speaker 1: social media follows of female Please tell them. We'll send
29:21
Speaker 1: me some banners and links so I can drop it
29:23
Speaker 1: into my uh my social media post. My friend, I
29:27
Speaker 1: admire you. Thank you for allowing us to have an
29:29
Speaker 1: honest conversation. Uh every time you turn, every time I
29:32
Speaker 1: watched that TV. You're a blessing, my friend. Don't change
29:34
Speaker 1: and keep raising their great family and leaving leaving up
29:38
Speaker 1: leading us all, my friend in a positive direction. Thank you,
29:41
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you already if you want to hear
29:44
Speaker 1: more money making I appreciate you. If you want to
29:46
Speaker 1: hear more money making conversation interflu interviews, please go to
29:48
Speaker 1: money Making Conversation dot com. I'm ra Sean McDonald. I'm
29:51
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