Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Interview of the Week: Bevy Smith, the Pop Culture Aficionado, advises on being stuck during the pandemic, and her new book “Bevelations: Lessons From A Mutha, Auntie, Bestie”

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Interview of the Week: Bevy Smith, the Pop Culture Aficionado, advises on being stuck during the pandemic, and her new book “Bevelations: Lessons From A Mutha, Auntie, Bestie” · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
0:07
Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
0:10
Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
0:13
Speaker 1: advice to many occasions. In the case you didn't notice,
0:15
Speaker 1: I'm not broke, you know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs,
0:19
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do,
0:22
Speaker 1: it's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
0:25
Speaker 1: hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations. Here
0:29
Speaker 1: we come. Welcome to your money making Conversation. I'm your host,
0:31
Speaker 1: Rushan McDonald. It's time to stop reading other people's success
0:35
Speaker 1: stories and really and start writing your own. I tell
0:37
Speaker 1: you that every time you can listen to this show
0:39
Speaker 1: I watch it now you can be motivated by their
0:41
Speaker 1: success because their stories can offer you direction and help
0:44
Speaker 1: you reach your goals. But remember it's their stories and
0:47
Speaker 1: it's their goals. Now you have to start planning your
0:50
Speaker 1: story and your goals, and you're not gonna get there
0:52
Speaker 1: through your committed effort. My interviews that I bring on
0:55
Speaker 1: money Making Conversations or celebrity CEOs entrepreneurs and in just
0:59
Speaker 1: your decision, because these are different types of people that
1:01
Speaker 1: you're meeting this business, and these type of people influence
1:04
Speaker 1: the way we from pop cultures, forts the finances are
1:07
Speaker 1: tied to those four categories of our demon pointing no
1:10
Speaker 1: money making conversation. My next guest is Betty Smith. She
1:13
Speaker 1: is an author, pop culture deficionado, fashion expert, and host
1:18
Speaker 1: of be Relations on series XM Radio. Andy Bevy just
1:22
Speaker 1: released our first book, be Relations, Relations of her memoir
1:25
Speaker 1: about learning to live a big, authentic and unapologetic life
1:29
Speaker 1: and how you can do it too once in a while.
1:31
Speaker 1: It's successfully luxurally fashion publication executive at Rolling Stone and
1:35
Speaker 1: Vibe magazine. She shifted and I have I can relate
1:38
Speaker 1: to that because I did some shifting and we're want
1:40
Speaker 1: to discuss because a lot of things in her book
1:42
Speaker 1: I related to and she shifted up professional goals over
1:46
Speaker 1: a decade ago to pursue a life in front of
1:48
Speaker 1: the camera. Bety served as a moderator on Bravo TVs
1:51
Speaker 1: revolutionary talk show Fashion Queens, and with a co host
1:54
Speaker 1: in the nationally syndicated entertainment news program Page six TV.
1:59
Speaker 1: Please Working the Money and conversation for the very first time,
2:01
Speaker 1: but not the last time. Mrs Bevy Smith, how are
2:04
Speaker 1: you doing? I love, my love, I'm so happy to
2:07
Speaker 1: be here with you. Well, I you know, I want
2:10
Speaker 1: to talk about the book, but it's a lot going
2:12
Speaker 1: on in your life, you know, And it's my design.
2:15
Speaker 1: I I took it with my reading from the book
2:17
Speaker 1: that every move you made was not something that's just
2:20
Speaker 1: kind of happened. It happened because you sought it out,
2:23
Speaker 1: You planned it and and and and it worked to
2:26
Speaker 1: your favor. And that's what the book really is about
2:28
Speaker 1: planning your destiny and choosing your path correct it is
2:32
Speaker 1: it is. You know. I'm from Harlem, and so a
2:34
Speaker 1: lot of times and people hear my story they say,
2:38
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, you're such a hustler, and I always
2:40
Speaker 1: tell them I'm not a hustler. I'm a strategist. Because
2:43
Speaker 1: a hustler will do anything to make their money, you know,
2:46
Speaker 1: the in goal for them is always about the green
2:49
Speaker 1: the money, and for me, it's always about satisfaction, finding
2:53
Speaker 1: my work. Um. And I'm also not going to take
2:57
Speaker 1: things that don't resonate with me. I'm not gonna ever
2:59
Speaker 1: take a job that just really doesn't connect with me. Um,
3:02
Speaker 1: it's just not worth it. I've been offered a myriad
3:05
Speaker 1: of time to be a part of reality TV show
3:08
Speaker 1: once or twice in my life, and I've always said
3:11
Speaker 1: no because I just doesn't fit in. So, yeah, I
3:13
Speaker 1: do believe that's important. It's imperative to have a plan
3:17
Speaker 1: for your life, to have a strategy for your life
3:19
Speaker 1: and not just allow things to just kind of happen,
3:21
Speaker 1: but while at the same time being open to the journey.
3:25
Speaker 1: But the journey is really important. That we want to
3:27
Speaker 1: talk about your book Berelations, and you have relations in
3:30
Speaker 1: it a little a little uh like all a little
3:32
Speaker 1: the little um statements of information that would allow you
3:36
Speaker 1: to move your life forward in a positive direction with planning.
3:39
Speaker 1: And that's what I took away from the book. It's
3:41
Speaker 1: a long book now, but a good read because it's
3:43
Speaker 1: talks about your life from childhood. It talks about your parents,
3:47
Speaker 1: talk about your older brother, your your your sister who's
3:50
Speaker 1: a nerd, older brother who's gay, and and your father
3:54
Speaker 1: who worked at a copper refinery pact factory, and your
3:57
Speaker 1: mom who was cleaned homes. But I didn't want to,
4:00
Speaker 1: like you said in the book. You know, let me
4:01
Speaker 1: not let you think your mama was working like the
4:04
Speaker 1: people in the Help. Your mama had fashion, your mama
4:06
Speaker 1: had personality, and that's where you got your personality from
4:09
Speaker 1: from your mom. Correct. Indeed, I got my my fashion,
4:13
Speaker 1: sensibility and my outgoing personality from my mom. My mom
4:17
Speaker 1: is still, at this age of ninety three, one of
4:19
Speaker 1: the most fashionable people that I know, and it's been
4:22
Speaker 1: a great honor to be her daughter, along with my daddy,
4:25
Speaker 1: gust Lee Smith, and I say his name in every interview, So, um, yes,
4:29
Speaker 1: it's been an honor to be their daughter. Well, you know,
4:32
Speaker 1: I I know that I was fortunate. Uh. I grew
4:34
Speaker 1: up in fear War Texas and it was just like
4:37
Speaker 1: the hood as they would say, inner city in Houston, Texas.
4:41
Speaker 1: And um, I both my parents. My father was a
4:43
Speaker 1: truck driver, my mom was a high school had received
4:45
Speaker 1: a high school education. Six sisters, two brothers. My family
4:48
Speaker 1: is a little bit bigger than yours. But the family
4:50
Speaker 1: was important to me because it shaped me. And I
4:53
Speaker 1: felt that in reading your book, you constantly talked about
4:56
Speaker 1: how your family shaped you. That's definitely you know, Um,
5:01
Speaker 1: my parents gave us a really incredible work ethic. They also, um,
5:06
Speaker 1: even though they were from Jim Crow South, they were
5:09
Speaker 1: not enamored by white people. They never felt like we
5:13
Speaker 1: needed to compare ourselves to white people to see how excellent.
5:17
Speaker 1: So I never got that traditional speech for that a
5:20
Speaker 1: lot of black people get, which is you have to
5:22
Speaker 1: be ten times better than the white person to get,
5:25
Speaker 1: you know, half as much. I never got that message
5:27
Speaker 1: in my home. And although I understand why many people
5:30
Speaker 1: give their kids that message, UM, I'm so glad I
5:33
Speaker 1: didn't get that message because then when I went into
5:35
Speaker 1: old white um environments for work. You know, everything I've
5:39
Speaker 1: ever done really has been primarily a white world. Advertising
5:42
Speaker 1: is incredibly white unless you work, and multicultural fashion is
5:46
Speaker 1: incredibly white, especially when you're talking about the luxury fashion category.
5:50
Speaker 1: You know, TV is incredibly white. Um. You know. So
5:54
Speaker 1: I've always gone into these environments. But because I didn't
5:57
Speaker 1: have that hanging over my head that I needed to
5:59
Speaker 1: show white people that I was just as good, if
6:03
Speaker 1: not better. Um, I was able to go into experiences
6:07
Speaker 1: and just to my work and do the good work,
6:10
Speaker 1: which is how my parents raised us to do. And
6:12
Speaker 1: then from my sister, she was the one who gave
6:14
Speaker 1: me a lot of my black uh kind of intelligencia information.
6:20
Speaker 1: She's the one who told me all about the Hall
6:22
Speaker 1: and Renaissance and and why the community that we were
6:25
Speaker 1: living in was so great and it was it had
6:28
Speaker 1: such a legacy. And therefore, because I was living there
6:31
Speaker 1: and walking on the same streets as Baldwin, as Zora,
6:34
Speaker 1: Neil Hurston, as Linkston News, as a Philip Randolph Adam
6:38
Speaker 1: Claim Powell Jr. I mean, the list goes on and on.
6:41
Speaker 1: Because I was walking on those same streets, because I
6:43
Speaker 1: was attending schools they had their names on the building.
6:47
Speaker 1: I had a legacy as well, and that I could
6:49
Speaker 1: be black excellence. And then my brother gave me my
6:52
Speaker 1: love of art. My brother was as you mentioned, he's gay,
6:56
Speaker 1: and he gave me passionate about art. Jay, It's like
7:00
Speaker 1: the creative arts just overall, well, you know the fun
7:03
Speaker 1: part about it. You know, let's go astrology. I'm Pisces.
7:07
Speaker 1: You know your scorpio. You know that. Come on, I
7:10
Speaker 1: wouldn't bring up Pisces if that didn't score for you.
7:12
Speaker 1: You know, we're romantic, you know, poet, and we have
7:15
Speaker 1: assistance will together, you know, we can get Daisy, almost birthday,
7:19
Speaker 1: your birthday February seven coming on and then and I can,
7:26
Speaker 1: I can respect. That's why I love this book. Okay,
7:28
Speaker 1: any book that quotes lyrics from Teddy Pendergrass. I'm telling you,
7:32
Speaker 1: you're my girl there, You're a girl right there. And
7:35
Speaker 1: the book was so much fun. It was so honest.
7:40
Speaker 1: It was so you know, uh, well, I stay honest
7:43
Speaker 1: because you wouldn't tell us when you made a mistake.
7:46
Speaker 1: You wouldn't open up about your personal life from your
7:49
Speaker 1: from your siblings, to your parents, to your lifestyle. At
7:54
Speaker 1: what point in the book that you went, wow, I
7:56
Speaker 1: am telling a lot. Did they ever cross your mind?
8:00
Speaker 1: You know? I felt that it was a really freeing
8:03
Speaker 1: experience to be able to tell my story in this
8:06
Speaker 1: way and to tell it in an authentic manner, because
8:09
Speaker 1: you know which I'm actually moving on. You know, this
8:12
Speaker 1: is another chapter that I'm embarking upon. My book is
8:16
Speaker 1: literally my book Revelations, Lessons from My Mother, Auntie Bestie,
8:21
Speaker 1: a combination of fifteen years of work when I left
8:24
Speaker 1: Rolling Stone Magazine to now. And that's fifteen years of
8:28
Speaker 1: attempting to be a part of this industry, be a
8:32
Speaker 1: television host and become a writer all those things. And
8:35
Speaker 1: I did it, and now I'm on to the next
8:37
Speaker 1: And I knew that this book, if I was honest
8:40
Speaker 1: in this book, this book would actually be a catalyst
8:43
Speaker 1: for that change and for that next chapter in my life.
8:46
Speaker 1: So I had no no hesitation about being very honest
8:51
Speaker 1: and authentic. No, let me share some things that are
8:54
Speaker 1: related to okay, um, you know. Uh. First of all,
8:58
Speaker 1: the name change. You know, baby, my name is Rashaan
9:02
Speaker 1: publicly now I'm a junior. My father's actual name is
9:05
Speaker 1: Russian McDonald. And so it got to I got to
9:09
Speaker 1: a point in my life where I needed to find
9:11
Speaker 1: my identity, what was my voice because I went through
9:14
Speaker 1: some of the same middle school and the high school
9:16
Speaker 1: challenges you with you trying to find your voice, maybe
9:19
Speaker 1: running with the wrong crowd and and and defining yourself.
9:22
Speaker 1: And so I remember I was in college when I
9:25
Speaker 1: changed my name, And so when I left school in
9:27
Speaker 1: the spring, I was Russian. I came back to school
9:30
Speaker 1: in the fall, I was Rashawn, and I was correcting people.
9:32
Speaker 1: I was saying, hey, my name was Shawan. And and
9:35
Speaker 1: then of course everybody from high school you ain't know
9:38
Speaker 1: Rashane you're Russian whatever, but you eventually gonna be saying Rashane.
9:41
Speaker 1: I was just telling me that all the time. I said,
9:43
Speaker 1: I said, you eventually gonna be saying Rashaan one day,
9:46
Speaker 1: and and that and that. And I related to that
9:49
Speaker 1: because you know, when you make a decision to say
9:53
Speaker 1: this is who I am, that's a powerful statement. And
9:55
Speaker 1: I know because I experienced it. And sometimes you people
9:58
Speaker 1: make you trying to be you know, trying to brow
10:01
Speaker 1: beat you, try to bully you, just and trying to
10:03
Speaker 1: define who they think you are. And that's why the
10:05
Speaker 1: name changed for you was very important to tell us
10:08
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, and I love that story with Sean
10:11
Speaker 1: because it is very similar. I was um at the
10:14
Speaker 1: height of my advertising fashion career. I was thirty three
10:18
Speaker 1: years old. UM. I had just arrived at Milan. I
10:21
Speaker 1: was surrounded by gifts and Bucci and father and and
10:24
Speaker 1: all the big Italian luxury brands. I had, you know,
10:28
Speaker 1: just gotten out of my luxury Mercedes Sadam with my
10:31
Speaker 1: driver Giofani. I mean, it was quite fabulous and I
10:35
Speaker 1: come to, you know, my regular hotel suite in Milan
10:38
Speaker 1: at the Fanciest uh you know, five star hotel, in Milan,
10:42
Speaker 1: and I'm a black girl from Hall. I'm a hundred
10:44
Speaker 1: and fifties street n Dago, So clearly this is I've
10:48
Speaker 1: come a long way from the block, right, and um,
10:51
Speaker 1: when I arrived this is probably like, you know, maybe
10:54
Speaker 1: my I don't know twenty of thirtieth time doing that, right,
10:58
Speaker 1: because I've been in the business for me and I've
11:00
Speaker 1: been living this kind of lifestyle for a while. And
11:03
Speaker 1: when I when I got into that hotel woman, when
11:06
Speaker 1: the bellman left, I collapsed onto the sheets and I
11:08
Speaker 1: was like, this cannot be my life. I realized I
11:11
Speaker 1: was miserable, and I was dissatisfied, and I just felt
11:15
Speaker 1: like there was a hole in my spirit. And I said,
11:17
Speaker 1: how can I change my life? And I did not
11:20
Speaker 1: really have an answer, but I sat down and I
11:23
Speaker 1: wrote out the things that made me feel bad about
11:25
Speaker 1: myself and about my life. I realized that I was
11:28
Speaker 1: working in a career fashion that really does prey on
11:31
Speaker 1: women's insecurities, and um, you know, and also it was
11:35
Speaker 1: a tough position for me because I was working in
11:38
Speaker 1: luxury and there weren't a lot of black people in
11:40
Speaker 1: the space, so I was always having to show up
11:43
Speaker 1: and kind of be a representative from my entire culture.
11:48
Speaker 1: And for a while I took a lot of pride
11:49
Speaker 1: in that, but then it just became exhausting. Um and
11:52
Speaker 1: there were lots of other things, and I built these
11:54
Speaker 1: things down, and I said, well, what can I do
11:55
Speaker 1: about it now? Clearly, if I'm I'm from a hundred
11:58
Speaker 1: and fifty street and nate that avenue for all, I'm
12:00
Speaker 1: in the hood, I'm not gonna up and jump my
12:03
Speaker 1: uh you know, quit my uh six figure job right
12:06
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that because I'm just satisfied. I said,
12:09
Speaker 1: what can I do to start changing my life right now?
12:12
Speaker 1: And I said, I can change how people address me.
12:15
Speaker 1: Because I was so successful at my job a Vibe magazine,
12:19
Speaker 1: they had started calling me Beverly Smith from Vibe Magazine.
12:22
Speaker 1: That was my name, and I said, no, I don't
12:25
Speaker 1: want to do that anymore, because one day I'm gonna
12:27
Speaker 1: leave Vive Magazine and one day I'm gonna do something different,
12:30
Speaker 1: and I don't want my name to be so closely
12:33
Speaker 1: connected to an enterprise that really has nothing to do
12:36
Speaker 1: with me. It's not something I own. So I said,
12:38
Speaker 1: I'm gonna change my name to Betty because Betty is
12:41
Speaker 1: a Betty abundance much, you know, So it's me. I'll
12:47
Speaker 1: take that. So I became Bebby Smith. You know. The
12:51
Speaker 1: beauty of that story is, like I said, I I
12:54
Speaker 1: experienced it and you know, and that the early part
12:56
Speaker 1: of it is when people start accepting it, because there's
12:59
Speaker 1: a group of people that will accepted and then some
13:01
Speaker 1: people will tease you and kind of remind you like
13:03
Speaker 1: they have something over your head or well, I know
13:06
Speaker 1: who you really are. But the but the big part
13:09
Speaker 1: about it was, you know, my whole life And this
13:13
Speaker 1: is where we relate a lot is that. And this
13:16
Speaker 1: is with anybody. You're told you raised by a parent
13:21
Speaker 1: of your two parents. If you're fortunate and you go
13:24
Speaker 1: to middle school, high school, you told how to walk,
13:25
Speaker 1: talk and make decisions. You you may go to college
13:28
Speaker 1: if you're fortunate. All the decisions, a lot of the
13:31
Speaker 1: decisions are being made by somebody else. They're shaping you.
13:35
Speaker 1: And so when you have a personality like I have
13:37
Speaker 1: a person like what like Bevy has a personality, it's
13:40
Speaker 1: not normal. Her personality is not normal because it was
13:43
Speaker 1: screaming to say something different, to say something like my
13:46
Speaker 1: degree is in mathematics and so oh I got a
13:49
Speaker 1: degree to make. But I was screaming like like, like,
13:51
Speaker 1: your career is in fashion and Vibe and Rolling Stone.
13:53
Speaker 1: So that's what I said. It was later, but you
13:55
Speaker 1: were screaming to say, yes, I'm successful, Yes I'm achieving.
13:59
Speaker 1: I worked for IBM, but I was screaming saying that's
14:03
Speaker 1: not what I want to do for the rest of
14:06
Speaker 1: my life. And that voice. Talk tell us about that
14:09
Speaker 1: little voice. Because I heard that voice in my body
14:12
Speaker 1: and I ran from it. I was afraid to tell
14:14
Speaker 1: people about it. And when I finally made the decision
14:17
Speaker 1: that this is who are going to be, it brought
14:19
Speaker 1: me to tears because I was, for the first time
14:22
Speaker 1: being honest in my life. And that's why I love
14:24
Speaker 1: your book, Relationships, because it's about being honest, and you're
14:27
Speaker 1: asking any reader who read your book to be honest
14:30
Speaker 1: about yourselves when you start reading the book, when you
14:33
Speaker 1: walk away from it in the end, there will be
14:35
Speaker 1: changes because for the first time, you have basically a
14:38
Speaker 1: blueprint on somebody who's telling her story napology, unapologetic life
14:44
Speaker 1: that in comparison, is very similar to yours. Yeah, so
14:48
Speaker 1: I'm hoping to challenge people you're book inside to really
14:53
Speaker 1: kind of excavate, um, what they really want in life.
14:57
Speaker 1: As you mentioned, oftentimes, especially if we're successful, um as
15:03
Speaker 1: Black people especially, we feel very guilty about being successful
15:07
Speaker 1: in in our careers and then I'm wanting to do
15:11
Speaker 1: something different because we know from whence it became. And
15:15
Speaker 1: even the most affluent Black person is traditionally only maybe
15:19
Speaker 1: too if they're blessed four generations away from poverty, right,
15:23
Speaker 1: you know, like you know traditionally you know, our parents
15:27
Speaker 1: are come through Jim pro South. You know, my parents
15:30
Speaker 1: were they actually knew slaves, my my grandparents, you know, um,
15:36
Speaker 1: you know, so we're not that far removed. So when
15:39
Speaker 1: we start to become successful, we find ourselves feeling very
15:43
Speaker 1: guilty about saying I don't want this because who are we?
15:48
Speaker 1: You know, there's that whole mean that goes around on
15:50
Speaker 1: social media. I am my, U, my, my, my ancestors
15:55
Speaker 1: wildest dreams, and I'm sure when I was a Beverly
15:58
Speaker 1: Smith fashion average tising, making a great six figure salary
16:02
Speaker 1: and traveling all over the world, my grandparents could never
16:07
Speaker 1: have imagined that these were people who born in the
16:09
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. How could they imagine that their granddaughter would
16:13
Speaker 1: have all of this latitude and have all this luxury,
16:16
Speaker 1: and have all these um you know, and have actually
16:18
Speaker 1: a staff that looked up to her. You know how
16:21
Speaker 1: Oprah always says her grandmother said, one day, you're gonna,
16:24
Speaker 1: you know, find yourself some good white people to work for.
16:26
Speaker 1: And Oprah said, oh, Grandma, now I found actually good
16:30
Speaker 1: white people to work for me. All battle that, But
16:33
Speaker 1: I think that in my book, which is meant to
16:35
Speaker 1: be a self help book, I really stressed to you
16:38
Speaker 1: that if you have a dream, if you have a
16:42
Speaker 1: passion that's inside of you, even though you're really successful
16:46
Speaker 1: at your current job, your career, what have you, you
16:50
Speaker 1: owe it to yourself to explore that you have to
16:54
Speaker 1: And it doesn't mean and I never tell people to
16:56
Speaker 1: do what I did, which as I quit my job totally.
17:00
Speaker 1: I quit a job at Rolling Stone magazine where I
17:02
Speaker 1: was making three fifty dollars a year and I quit. Okay,
17:07
Speaker 1: I'm not advising anyone to do that. That's a very
17:10
Speaker 1: hard thing to do, and then that's an extreme thing
17:12
Speaker 1: to do. That's what I need to do for myself,
17:14
Speaker 1: But for you, it could be just as simple as
17:18
Speaker 1: actually honing in on that passion. You know how many
17:21
Speaker 1: of us are amazing home cooks. My sister is a
17:24
Speaker 1: great home cook. Guess what she did. She started up
17:27
Speaker 1: her own catering business, MS. Lawley's Kitchen, and it's doing
17:31
Speaker 1: really well. I have another friend who actually shot the
17:35
Speaker 1: cover of my my book. He is a music industry executive,
17:40
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with photography, but he was taking
17:43
Speaker 1: his classes. He was doing so well, and I said,
17:46
Speaker 1: what would you would you actually take the photo from
17:48
Speaker 1: my book? And I gave an opportunity and my publisher
17:52
Speaker 1: paid him for that. You know, so we we. But
17:56
Speaker 1: the thing is we don't ever even try to follow
18:01
Speaker 1: our dreams and to chase our passions. We will never
18:05
Speaker 1: ever know if we can naturally do them. We will
18:08
Speaker 1: never know. So it's very imperative. I know you're successful.
18:11
Speaker 1: I know you're doing the damn thing. I know everyone
18:13
Speaker 1: loved you in that position. I remember when I quit
18:16
Speaker 1: rolling Song, my boss said to me, you can't quit.
18:20
Speaker 1: You're in line to be uh, you know, a publisher.
18:23
Speaker 1: You can actually run this magazine one day. And I
18:25
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I know I can, but that's not
18:28
Speaker 1: what I want to do. I want to do all
18:30
Speaker 1: these other creative things. I want to be a writer,
18:33
Speaker 1: I want to be a TV personality. I want to act,
18:36
Speaker 1: I want to sing, I want to dance, I want
18:38
Speaker 1: to do all these creative things. I want to paint,
18:41
Speaker 1: I want to study art and architecture. And guess what
18:44
Speaker 1: was Sean, I'm doing all those things now. It's finally here,
18:47
Speaker 1: the season of celebration. And no matter how you celebrate
18:51
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18:54
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19:05
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19:13
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19:17
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Speaker 1: eight million dollars to local nonprofits nationwide committed to the
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20:42
Speaker 1: Dot Ai. You do have to tell me, because I
20:46
Speaker 1: like I tell you, our stories crossed so many times,
20:49
Speaker 1: you know, and and and and that and enough, and
20:51
Speaker 1: I'm sure it crosses a lot of people who are
20:53
Speaker 1: going to read this book and people who are looking
20:55
Speaker 1: for direction. And I tell you this, you know, you
20:58
Speaker 1: know it's not a dollar vent at you because I
21:00
Speaker 1: remember when I was white no Jamie Foxx Show, and
21:04
Speaker 1: I went to one of brothers and I said, can
21:06
Speaker 1: you let me out of the contract. I was making money,
21:09
Speaker 1: but I wanted to go a different direction to my
21:11
Speaker 1: care career. Wasn't nothing to do with bill Ley Avers,
21:14
Speaker 1: who was a good friend of mine to day Jamie Foxx.
21:17
Speaker 1: It was at that point in my career I wanted
21:18
Speaker 1: to do something different. I wanted to I wanted to
21:21
Speaker 1: have been making that decision. Eventually leave me to managing
21:24
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey because you know that move right there. Went
21:28
Speaker 1: over to the Parkers and I was writing known as
21:30
Speaker 1: a consultant producer, which gave me time to start managing
21:34
Speaker 1: Steve and we got a deal to do the morning
21:36
Speaker 1: show in two thousand and basically the rest of history,
21:39
Speaker 1: you know, family feud. The three books the two movies
21:42
Speaker 1: and were all avoid and he has the career that
21:44
Speaker 1: he will never looked back on it, and I have
21:46
Speaker 1: a career that I don't look back on. But it's
21:48
Speaker 1: the decision you make, and that's like. And the reason
21:51
Speaker 1: I bring that up is that you know, money holds
21:53
Speaker 1: a lot of people hostage. It holds the hostage from
21:57
Speaker 1: their dreams, holds them hostage from the opportunity. I have
22:01
Speaker 1: to stop you for a moment because this is something
22:04
Speaker 1: that's really pertinent. Right before I decided to quit Rolling Stone,
22:09
Speaker 1: also had an opportunity to buy a brown Stone Hall. Now,
22:13
Speaker 1: for anyone who doesn't understand what that means, is that
22:16
Speaker 1: I had an opportunity at that time to buy a
22:18
Speaker 1: Brownstone that would have been two dollars um, which that
22:23
Speaker 1: brown stone now probably goes for one point five minutes
22:26
Speaker 1: in the fifteen years span. That's how much the property
22:29
Speaker 1: values have risen. But if I had brought that Brownstone
22:34
Speaker 1: with Sean, I could not have also quit my job,
22:39
Speaker 1: and I would have been beholden to the job so
22:43
Speaker 1: that I could maintain that lifestyle of that brown stone.
22:47
Speaker 1: And sometimes people do not understand, which is what you
22:49
Speaker 1: were alluding to. They do not understand that sometimes your
22:53
Speaker 1: money and your possessions can become a guilded cage. It
22:56
Speaker 1: can become an albatross right around your neck, and you
23:01
Speaker 1: have to be careful about that. You know. In my book,
23:03
Speaker 1: I write a chapter called Brooke but Blissful, and so
23:07
Speaker 1: many people are outraged about that chapter because they're just like,
23:11
Speaker 1: I can't believe you went from three fifty thousand dollars
23:13
Speaker 1: a year the thirty five thousand dollars a year. And
23:16
Speaker 1: I tell them all the time, I did that because
23:18
Speaker 1: I knew that it was a temporary moment. Trouble don't
23:22
Speaker 1: last always. I knew I could make more money. But
23:25
Speaker 1: what I knew also is that if I kept on
23:27
Speaker 1: that same path of being a fashion advertising director, I
23:31
Speaker 1: would have made a lot of money and been incredibly miserable.
23:35
Speaker 1: And what kind of life is that? That's not the
23:37
Speaker 1: life worth living? To me, Well, I would tell you this,
23:39
Speaker 1: Your life in this book has been ahead of the time.
23:42
Speaker 1: I want to I want to go in a couple
23:44
Speaker 1: of areas of the book, I thought they just stood
23:46
Speaker 1: out the essence culture versus the vibe culture. And that's
23:51
Speaker 1: important because time periods dictate how people react to you
23:55
Speaker 1: like you said, you know, I was ten years earlier,
23:57
Speaker 1: ten years too early when I walked into ess with
24:00
Speaker 1: the look that you had at that point, Now that
24:03
Speaker 1: that look would work. It was it was like, never
24:05
Speaker 1: talk about the Essence culture and the Vibe culture because
24:09
Speaker 1: you're an opportunity to go to Essence and you chose Vibe. Yes, yeah,
24:13
Speaker 1: I had an opportunity to go to Essence magazine. The
24:16
Speaker 1: the grand dam of Essence Magazine was and Taylor, who
24:19
Speaker 1: is an iconic woman and who's such a great gift
24:23
Speaker 1: and a woman who doesn't judge other women. She she
24:26
Speaker 1: met with me and she thought I was terrific and
24:28
Speaker 1: she said, you know what, I think there's a position
24:31
Speaker 1: here for you. Go and meet with my my advertising team.
24:35
Speaker 1: And when I met with them, I realized that everyone
24:38
Speaker 1: was in like really businesswomen's suits, you know, like everyone
24:42
Speaker 1: had like, you know, collars up there here they were
24:46
Speaker 1: wearing suits. They weren't wearing that, you know that their
24:49
Speaker 1: makeup was very subdued and understated, and non I was like, whoa, yeah,
24:54
Speaker 1: I just left the white in the old white environment
24:57
Speaker 1: ragging and feel my most natural bevy as self. I
25:02
Speaker 1: don't want to go into a black environment and not
25:05
Speaker 1: feel my most bevy as self. And so I declined
25:08
Speaker 1: that that author. And then a couple of months later
25:12
Speaker 1: I got an offer to be at Vibe magazine. And
25:15
Speaker 1: when I walked and by by said, oh, this is
25:17
Speaker 1: my jam right here, because see, I'm I'm the first
25:19
Speaker 1: generation of hip hop and I'm going raised in New York.
25:22
Speaker 1: So hip hop is my thing. And in the book,
25:24
Speaker 1: as you know what, Sean, I talked about being big
25:26
Speaker 1: Bet from uptown friends in Tupac and Biggie and you
25:30
Speaker 1: know puff, and I'm in the scene. I'm on the scene,
25:33
Speaker 1: and so hip hop is my natural habitat. And when
25:37
Speaker 1: I'm walking to Vibe, they get my flag girl look,
25:40
Speaker 1: they get my big errands, they get that I'm showing
25:43
Speaker 1: some cleavage and I'm still gonna take care of business,
25:45
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So it was a really
25:47
Speaker 1: good fit. So sometimes you know, you have to look
25:50
Speaker 1: at a corporate culture and know whether or not it's
25:53
Speaker 1: worth it to you to contort yourself and to do
25:56
Speaker 1: things that don't feel necessarily natural to you. It's worth it.
26:00
Speaker 1: When I went to Rolling Stone, totally different corporate culture again,
26:04
Speaker 1: right back into an all white situation. But I went
26:07
Speaker 1: up in rolling Stone with a real reason, as you
26:10
Speaker 1: know what shann I talk about. I went to rolling
26:12
Speaker 1: Stone knowing that I was gonna quit as soon as
26:15
Speaker 1: I got my bonus hut. Absolutely absolutely doing hot ten
26:18
Speaker 1: months up and there, and as soon as they gave
26:20
Speaker 1: me my bonus hut, I was gonna be like child
26:24
Speaker 1: for now. But you know the thing about it in
26:27
Speaker 1: that moment that if you we used to vibe rolling
26:29
Speaker 1: Stones moment that you had because you didn't really expect
26:32
Speaker 1: to go to rolling Stone. You was using rolling Stones
26:34
Speaker 1: as a stepping stone, and then Vibe said, uh, you know,
26:38
Speaker 1: the Viber's first, and then it was rolling right, it
26:40
Speaker 1: was Vibe. I apologize it was rolling Stone because you
26:42
Speaker 1: went to roller Stone, picked up an offer, and then
26:45
Speaker 1: you took it back over the Vibe and the Vibe said,
26:47
Speaker 1: oh wow, good luck, good luck, good luck and so
26:51
Speaker 1: and so, and you were ready for that. You you
26:53
Speaker 1: were caught off guard, but it didn't slow down your momentum.
26:57
Speaker 1: And so that's why I just loved the whole process.
27:00
Speaker 1: This is that do not, and I talk about in
27:02
Speaker 1: my intro, do not allow people to control your destiny,
27:05
Speaker 1: write your own story, and you continually write your own story.
27:09
Speaker 1: And I want to ask you one thing, Bevy, because
27:13
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Bevy Smith, author of a tremendous book
27:16
Speaker 1: that I want to recommend to everybody called bever Relations
27:18
Speaker 1: as Herman Wall by learning to live a big, authentic
27:21
Speaker 1: and unapolotic life and how you can't too. One of
27:24
Speaker 1: the most fulfilling speaking events was your tour of HBCUs.
27:29
Speaker 1: UH talked about HBCUs. Did not attend one, but I'm
27:32
Speaker 1: a big proponent. I promoted, I amplify HBCUs Equal Black Excellence.
27:38
Speaker 1: Tell us about how impactful that tour was that your
27:41
Speaker 1: girlfriend from Boost took you up with as the sponsor
27:44
Speaker 1: HBCU College Tour. Yeah, you know, I also went to
27:48
Speaker 1: a p W I you know. I went to New
27:50
Speaker 1: York University, where I did not graduate because I was
27:53
Speaker 1: already in my career and so my boss was like, well,
27:56
Speaker 1: you can actually teach the fort and now you're missing
27:59
Speaker 1: out on big presentations and meetings. You know, the rubber
28:03
Speaker 1: hit the road. So I actually left UM, but probably
28:06
Speaker 1: only a year left to get my degree. But it
28:09
Speaker 1: didn't stop me. But I always tell people it's one
28:12
Speaker 1: thing to drop out of a prestigious school like m
28:15
Speaker 1: y U and another thing to drop out of a
28:17
Speaker 1: you know a school, the Trump University. Let's put it that. So, UM,
28:22
Speaker 1: I like you. I'm a very big fan of HBCUs.
28:26
Speaker 1: And so when I had the opportunity to go and
28:28
Speaker 1: speak UM it was a boost mobile toy. It was
28:31
Speaker 1: really an amazing moment for me because it was my
28:34
Speaker 1: first ever speaking engagement UM, and so I learned a lot.
28:38
Speaker 1: I was on the panel with people who did a
28:40
Speaker 1: lot of public speaking, and when I realized is that
28:43
Speaker 1: they had very wrote, very scripted kind of things that
28:48
Speaker 1: they would talk about, and every stop would be the
28:50
Speaker 1: same line. So from Morehouse to Howard from you know
28:54
Speaker 1: fam you Tube, you know, uh, Morris Brown, they would
28:58
Speaker 1: say the same kind of things. And I also realized
29:02
Speaker 1: that they were giving people are highlights real and I said, oh, yeah,
29:06
Speaker 1: that's not going to help the kids giving them a
29:08
Speaker 1: highlights real. We need to let them know about the
29:11
Speaker 1: real challenges that they will face in the workplace being black,
29:16
Speaker 1: going into corporate America. What can they expect and how
29:20
Speaker 1: can they how can they navigate these issues? And so
29:23
Speaker 1: that's when I decided to come really clean. I started
29:26
Speaker 1: telling people about my most authentic self and then the
29:29
Speaker 1: book I talk about, you know, finding out three things,
29:32
Speaker 1: and that's how you develop your own personal brand. Who
29:35
Speaker 1: are you at your core? How are you being perceived?
29:38
Speaker 1: How would you like to be perceived? If you can
29:41
Speaker 1: answer those three questions really honestly, And that's where the
29:44
Speaker 1: introspective work comes in. That if you can answer those questions,
29:47
Speaker 1: you can develop a personal brand. And once you develop
29:50
Speaker 1: your personal brand, I have a chapter call brand You,
29:53
Speaker 1: and that talks about how you can maximize and actually
29:56
Speaker 1: sell people into your personal brand, have them by into
30:00
Speaker 1: with and that's what I was able to do on
30:02
Speaker 1: that tour. But I gotta tell you you know which, y'all. Um.
30:06
Speaker 1: As I've mentioned several times just in this interview, I'm
30:09
Speaker 1: from Harlem. And when I was in these all white environments,
30:14
Speaker 1: especially when I was a kid in the eighties and
30:17
Speaker 1: as an advertising receptionist, UM, people were horrified that I
30:20
Speaker 1: lived in harm and they would say things like are
30:23
Speaker 1: you saved, don't you want to move? And things like that.
30:26
Speaker 1: And when I would go over to Europe, I would
30:28
Speaker 1: always tell people I was from Harlem, versus saying I'm
30:31
Speaker 1: from Manhattan. You call him as a neighborhood in Manhattan.
30:34
Speaker 1: So I could have easily said I'm from Manhattan and
30:36
Speaker 1: that that means everything. You know, Manhattan is what you
30:39
Speaker 1: see when you think of New York City. You really
30:41
Speaker 1: only think of Manhattan and now Brooklyn, but really Manhattan, right,
30:45
Speaker 1: And so I could have said that, but I chose
30:48
Speaker 1: to always lead with Harman. And can I just tell
30:50
Speaker 1: you something, from being authentic about my brand and about
30:54
Speaker 1: who I am and where I'm from, I have made
30:57
Speaker 1: so much money from harm from being from Harlem, because
31:02
Speaker 1: now all these big brands come into Harlem and they
31:04
Speaker 1: want an authentic and they want someone who has recognized,
31:09
Speaker 1: recognizable from a national point of view, or someone who
31:12
Speaker 1: is very locally connected, and there I am. So I
31:17
Speaker 1: learned doing that on that HBCU tour. I learned to
31:21
Speaker 1: be my most authentic self and not to hide these things.
31:24
Speaker 1: That's even the reason why I put in the book
31:26
Speaker 1: that didn't graduate from and y you. I thought it
31:28
Speaker 1: was important to put that in there, you know. So yeah,
31:32
Speaker 1: it's the authenticity is what wins for me. Well, I'm
31:35
Speaker 1: talking to Bettie Smith. She's she's been booked, she's blessed
31:38
Speaker 1: and she's busty, but more fortantly, she has a fantastic
31:41
Speaker 1: book called be Relations. You can hear her own series
31:45
Speaker 1: ex Relations of Radio Andy Bettie Smith. I want to
31:48
Speaker 1: thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations. Thank you
31:50
Speaker 1: so much, my love. It's been a droid. It's been
31:53
Speaker 1: really great chatting with you, and I'm so happy that
31:55
Speaker 1: we finally met after all these years. Absolutely, you know
31:58
Speaker 1: the beauty of you is that I know it won't
32:00
Speaker 1: be the last time we're gonna talk. But secondly, our
32:03
Speaker 1: lives are so relatable and I feel your kinshift towards
32:06
Speaker 1: you and I'm i'm I'm a blessing that haven't happened
32:10
Speaker 1: in my life are being received in your book, and
32:12
Speaker 1: so it's my responsibility to promote your book and getting
32:15
Speaker 1: into the hands as many people as possible. Again, thank
32:18
Speaker 1: you for coming on Money Making Conversations. Ms. Bevy Smith Cool.
32:24
Speaker 1: If you want to hear more Money Making Conversations interviews,
32:26
Speaker 1: please go to money Making Conversation dot com. I'm wis
32:28
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. I am your host in this season of
32:34
Speaker 1: giving Coals has gifts for all your loved ones. For
32:37
Speaker 1: those who like to keep it Cozy find fleeces, sweaters, loungeware,
32:41
Speaker 1: blankets and throws, or support minority owned or founded brands
32:44
Speaker 1: by giving gifts from Human Nation and Shame Moisture and
32:48
Speaker 1: in the spirit of giving, Coals Cares is donating eight
32:51
Speaker 1: million dollars to local nonprofits nationwide. Give with all your
32:55
Speaker 1: heart this season with great gifts from Coals or coals
32:58
Speaker 1: dot com. Living in one and manually taking notes, there
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