Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Karen Lee Full Interview

Transcript

Karen Lee Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: My next guest is I called her the she's a publicist.
0:03
Speaker 1: She's a publicist. You know, she's kind of like a
0:05
Speaker 1: ninja of publicists because I don't care. I could be
0:09
Speaker 1: standing there on the red carp and she walked, Harry,
0:11
Speaker 1: where you come from us? She always respeakable. I've never
0:15
Speaker 1: seen her walk forward towards Even if she walked towards me,
0:19
Speaker 1: I probably didn't see her and didn't recognize that. She
0:22
Speaker 1: got upon and said hello. She's just that that nice
0:24
Speaker 1: and that you know. She she knows how to be
0:27
Speaker 1: around celebrities and not be seen, and which is really
0:30
Speaker 1: key to a really good publicist. What is the publicist?
0:34
Speaker 1: What's the purpose of a publicist? My next guest will
0:36
Speaker 1: be able to answer these questions and many more. This week,
0:40
Speaker 1: she's being honored at the Living Levings Foundation show and
0:43
Speaker 1: Darner which I will be attending, which I will be
0:46
Speaker 1: taking myself. He's with her on the red carpet in
0:48
Speaker 1: Los Angeles this week. She has an award winning entertainment
0:51
Speaker 1: publicist with over twenty five years of experience. She's also
0:55
Speaker 1: the senior vice person of W and W public Relations,
0:58
Speaker 1: which has been which has offices in New Jersey and
1:01
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. She represents artists, athletes, including Charlie Wilson. We
1:06
Speaker 1: know Charlie Wilson, Come on now, Bobby Brown, We know
1:09
Speaker 1: Bobby Brown. Come on now, Chris Paul, CP three, you
1:12
Speaker 1: know CP three, Paddler Bell, come on now, Sweepy Tator,
1:15
Speaker 1: Patti Bell. That was you. You know she's Sweepytator, Paddler,
1:17
Speaker 1: Bill Peach, Cobbler, Pattle the Bill now and has worked
1:21
Speaker 1: with world renowned talent including My Boy Rusher, Holly Robinson,
1:25
Speaker 1: Pete who are just attended her charity foundation on with
1:28
Speaker 1: incredible husband Rodney Tupac, who I considered the greatest rapper
1:33
Speaker 1: of all time. There's people question me on that, but
1:36
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, stopped sexy. You can do that. Party of music.
1:41
Speaker 1: He can do that, you know, politically challenging music. He
1:45
Speaker 1: could do that. That's what tupacat do. Tupac gave it
1:48
Speaker 1: all and plus you remember these lyrics. That's what I love.
1:51
Speaker 1: The body Prince come on now, how many babies in
1:54
Speaker 1: the world? This man and brod In Prince please working
1:59
Speaker 1: to money main conversation, My girl Karen Lee, thank you
2:04
Speaker 1: for having me Chell and I appreciate it. Thank you,
2:06
Speaker 1: good morning, well, good morning here, and thank this boy
2:11
Speaker 1: talking about everybody, but you don't telling the truth. I'm
2:14
Speaker 1: telling the absolute truth about the people you that you
2:17
Speaker 1: have represented and you currently represent. Before we get started,
2:22
Speaker 1: Congratulations on being honored at the Living Legends Foundation dinner.
2:28
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I appreciate that, um and being
2:32
Speaker 1: honored with the others ten people being honored, and being
2:35
Speaker 1: with nine other people who I have a tremendous amount
2:37
Speaker 1: of respect for and who have all worked together to
2:41
Speaker 1: jointly mature the artists we work with move forward in
2:44
Speaker 1: their koreas as an honor as well. Absolutely, I know
2:47
Speaker 1: my man Frank Ski, he's out of Atlanta. He's being
2:50
Speaker 1: honored on Hyman Childs my man out of out of
2:54
Speaker 1: the Dallas market, on the first market radio station to
2:58
Speaker 1: gage Steve Harvey syndication and the syndication change. Haiman Child's
3:02
Speaker 1: being honored. My man Steve Hegwood. And I tell you
3:04
Speaker 1: Steve Hegwood taught me radio from a standpoint of how
3:08
Speaker 1: to deal with these are the people being honored with
3:10
Speaker 1: Karen On at the Living Legends Foundation and Steve Heckwood.
3:13
Speaker 1: In two thousand when I got the first contract deal
3:16
Speaker 1: with with Steve Harvey for Radio one. Steve Hegwood showed
3:20
Speaker 1: me how to do radio. And it was after that
3:23
Speaker 1: Phil Thorn, my man out of Nashville, shet the coats
3:27
Speaker 1: be your own brand. Uh, it's just my boy sitting
3:31
Speaker 1: the mill. I came boy Sittny Miller heard this interview
3:33
Speaker 1: and I didn't mention his name. He beat me up.
3:36
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Deanna Williams some some some major thoughts that
3:43
Speaker 1: people don't know anything about, but that are very responsible
3:48
Speaker 1: success of a lot of artists. And that's the that's
3:50
Speaker 1: the I'm gonna tell you something about the Living Legends Foundation.
3:53
Speaker 1: Living Legends Foundation honored me, uh several years ago and
3:58
Speaker 1: and uh and so it was out of the blue,
4:00
Speaker 1: but they just called h And so you know, everybody
4:03
Speaker 1: knows my career has been a major portion of my
4:06
Speaker 1: career has been in the background building Steve Harvey's brand
4:09
Speaker 1: and working with sponsors, working with advertising, high profile Fortune
4:14
Speaker 1: five companies. And when they called me and said, Rashaw,
4:17
Speaker 1: we wanted on you, it really took me back because
4:19
Speaker 1: it took me took me back because I didn't understand
4:21
Speaker 1: what they were talking about. And but that's what this
4:24
Speaker 1: show does. It awards people who really are the backbone
4:28
Speaker 1: of the industry that keeps it moving forward. It keeps
4:31
Speaker 1: that they're They're not in front of the mic, they're
4:33
Speaker 1: not trying to seek got interviews, but they're so key
4:37
Speaker 1: to moving forward. When I see this list, when I
4:39
Speaker 1: see all these names, Sydney Miller, Dana Williams, him and Child,
4:43
Speaker 1: Frank Skee, Maurice White, my boy, I forgot his name, bro,
4:46
Speaker 1: I gotta see him on who Karen Lee, she the coach,
4:49
Speaker 1: Phil Thornton, Steve Heckwood, and debor In Tate a dedre
4:54
Speaker 1: uh Tate. Kate who was part of Slavory Union Records
4:59
Speaker 1: before Queen Latifa is who she is today. Yeah, being
5:05
Speaker 1: honored on Friday, and I feel very honored to be
5:07
Speaker 1: a part of that group. Girl. You deserve to be
5:11
Speaker 1: a part of the group. But let's ask us some
5:13
Speaker 1: questions I want my listeners to understand, Like, because a
5:16
Speaker 1: lot of people to get these boy pr firms, you
5:18
Speaker 1: hear about public What exactly is a publicist? Karen? Please
5:21
Speaker 1: tell us what explain that you have experience? What exactly
5:25
Speaker 1: isn't publicist? You come into an artist and athlete, or company. Um,
5:32
Speaker 1: if you start out with artists my background is primarily
5:35
Speaker 1: in music and sports. You come in uh to meet
5:39
Speaker 1: with the artists, talk to them, Okay, what are your goals?
5:42
Speaker 1: What do you want to achieve professionally and personally, and
5:46
Speaker 1: you help them, together with their team, put together a
5:49
Speaker 1: plan that helps them met their goal. And one of
5:53
Speaker 1: the primary things about their plan is the patience to
5:57
Speaker 1: know it's not gonna happen overnight. Well, that's very true.
6:01
Speaker 1: I know that because a lot of Also, let's gonna
6:04
Speaker 1: put a lot of people want to publicists but don't
6:06
Speaker 1: want to pay. Yeah, that's true, very true. Let's go
6:10
Speaker 1: and get that out there. They want that promotion, but
6:12
Speaker 1: they don't want to play the price for a really
6:14
Speaker 1: good one because they think it's it's a lot of disrespect,
6:18
Speaker 1: I would say to for publicists and the actually what
6:21
Speaker 1: they accomplished on an ongoing basis correct or yes, Because
6:25
Speaker 1: people think we'll shoot. All they gotta do is pick
6:27
Speaker 1: up the phone and make a couple of calls to
6:29
Speaker 1: somebody because everybody wants to talk to me and I'm
6:32
Speaker 1: miss and I'm that. They don't always understand the business,
6:35
Speaker 1: especially now the business has changed a lot. Social media
6:39
Speaker 1: can be your friend or your enemy, and you make
6:42
Speaker 1: that decision. A publicist can help work with your management team,
6:46
Speaker 1: your agents. Okay, we going out on tour. What do
6:50
Speaker 1: we want to do on that tour? Wouldn't want to
6:52
Speaker 1: leave in that community. We don't want to just go in,
6:55
Speaker 1: do a show, say hey, thank you, and walk away.
6:58
Speaker 1: You can't do that. People nowadays want to know a
7:01
Speaker 1: bit more about the people they spend their money to see,
7:04
Speaker 1: and you try to help develop the talents in order
7:08
Speaker 1: to make their career be have some longevity to it
7:12
Speaker 1: and not just be a flesh in the pan or
7:14
Speaker 1: one album. Well you know, also you're paying for, especially
7:18
Speaker 1: an individual like you who's been in the business twenty
7:21
Speaker 1: five years, you're paying for your relationships. And relationships are
7:26
Speaker 1: very important because I'm gonna tell you this, when I
7:29
Speaker 1: was managing Steve Harvey, my relationships that I had with
7:32
Speaker 1: the media were very important. I can get interviews, I
7:36
Speaker 1: could kill interviews, I could do I can move interviews around.
7:39
Speaker 1: I could be able to say, hey, can we can
7:41
Speaker 1: we delay this because I need to get this done first,
7:44
Speaker 1: and I could actually talk to them. So they're paying
7:47
Speaker 1: for that as well. And that's very important. Correct. Oh, no,
7:51
Speaker 1: it's extremely important because you you and a publicist and
7:56
Speaker 1: journalists have to have some trust in each other. You
7:59
Speaker 1: can't panic when there's something going on with your client
8:02
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily the most positive thing in the world.
8:06
Speaker 1: The relationship you have with the journalists is going to
8:09
Speaker 1: determine how hardcore that interview is going to be cool.
8:14
Speaker 1: What are they gonna say, How are they gonna try
8:17
Speaker 1: to slam them up against the wall, or they're gonna
8:20
Speaker 1: give them an opportunity, or they're going to just let
8:22
Speaker 1: it be a small part of a conversation. Currently, we
8:26
Speaker 1: will be right back with more this conversation on money
8:28
Speaker 1: making conversations. How does Rashan McDonald you're listening to money
8:32
Speaker 1: making conversation? My guest on the phone is currently twenty
8:35
Speaker 1: five years of experience. She is the senior vice president
8:38
Speaker 1: of W ANDW Public Relations, which has offices and offices
8:43
Speaker 1: in New Jersey and Los Angeles. She's being honored at
8:46
Speaker 1: the Living Legends Foundation Awards show and dinner, which I
8:48
Speaker 1: will be attending because she's a friend. I say a
8:52
Speaker 1: friend because guess what, she's always been there supporting me.
8:56
Speaker 1: Like I said, when you're in the business, in the
8:58
Speaker 1: public's eye, it's all it is not always good news,
9:01
Speaker 1: and that's what they call crisis management, and so that
9:04
Speaker 1: that plays a major role, especially with social media. Sometimes
9:08
Speaker 1: people are posting things they shouldn't post, and then they
9:10
Speaker 1: try to take it down like like like nobody screenshot it. Though,
9:15
Speaker 1: when you take some down from social media just goes away. Now,
9:19
Speaker 1: you said earlier, Karen that social that being a publicist
9:22
Speaker 1: has changed over the years. Really talked to about talk
9:26
Speaker 1: to us about that change. You kind of mentioned social media.
9:28
Speaker 1: Will give us a little bit more detail on the
9:30
Speaker 1: modern day publicists. You've got so many things that you've
9:36
Speaker 1: got to deal with now that you didn't before. Sometimes
9:39
Speaker 1: artists don't have develop they don't have as much artist
9:42
Speaker 1: development training at labels as they used to have before.
9:46
Speaker 1: So you have the responsibility of helping your artists learn
9:49
Speaker 1: how to do an interview. It's not just so simple
9:52
Speaker 1: to sit down with some one or get on the
9:54
Speaker 1: phone with someone and talk about um your career. You've
9:58
Speaker 1: got to know, Okay, these are of the points I
10:00
Speaker 1: need to hit. This is what I need to do.
10:03
Speaker 1: You can't lose your temper social media and do a
10:08
Speaker 1: rant and then one, As you just said, take it down,
10:11
Speaker 1: because it's never taken down. The other thing about young
10:14
Speaker 1: people that want to come into the PR game, I
10:17
Speaker 1: speak um sometime in college classes. Have done a number
10:21
Speaker 1: of those, and inevitably someone will ask me, so, what's
10:24
Speaker 1: it like to hang out with celebrities? And it makes
10:27
Speaker 1: me last. I don't celebrities, and good publicists don't hang
10:32
Speaker 1: out with celebrities. They work for them. It's a difficult
10:36
Speaker 1: business because you've got to balance it. You're in a
10:40
Speaker 1: lot of social situations with clients. You're you're on red carpets,
10:45
Speaker 1: you're at dinners before you go. I never arrived at
10:50
Speaker 1: an event with a client. I need to get there
10:53
Speaker 1: before they do. Who's on the red carpet? Who do
10:55
Speaker 1: we need to talk to? Maybe there's two or three
10:58
Speaker 1: people we don't need to talk to. You've got to
11:00
Speaker 1: get on and pay attention and understand and make sure
11:03
Speaker 1: your client is prepared when they come out. But you
11:06
Speaker 1: have to be prepared as well. Really can't decide if
11:09
Speaker 1: I have dinner with the clients. I don't have a drink, right,
11:12
Speaker 1: It's not a personal thing. This is business. It's really
11:16
Speaker 1: funny because I'm one of their She's representing me and
11:21
Speaker 1: along with Janney Jackson, Alicia Keys, Rusher, Kelly Rowlands, Steve Harvey,
11:26
Speaker 1: pat LaBelle, the White Howard, Chris Paul, Holly Robinson, Pete
11:30
Speaker 1: Ludacris Bile, Mary, Mary Kim that's Kim k E, M
11:34
Speaker 1: so So Death Recordings, the Music Ones, Remainer, Pete or
11:37
Speaker 1: She Wallace, brands like Crime World, the State of Orders Reading.
11:43
Speaker 1: That's a lot, that's a lot going on. That's a
11:46
Speaker 1: lot of personality. That's what she's talking about. So you
11:48
Speaker 1: can't be in the picture with all these personalities. You've
11:52
Speaker 1: gotta be working for all these personalities. And she knows
11:55
Speaker 1: like she she's she's I've been a red carpers and
11:58
Speaker 1: then she's seen me walking the red carp Rashan, where
12:01
Speaker 1: are you going? I go into the vid red carpet
12:04
Speaker 1: or whatever? Shan I go, you know, um, Karen can
12:10
Speaker 1: I like nope, Nope, nope, nope, no, uh this way
12:13
Speaker 1: this Rashan at the other end right here. She that's
12:16
Speaker 1: how she that's she's like a little ninja. I try
12:18
Speaker 1: to get past the little red carpet. She's over there
12:21
Speaker 1: just waiting, Where are you gonna because that's her job.
12:25
Speaker 1: Her job is to politely remind us that here's an
12:30
Speaker 1: opportunity to build your brand, to promote your brand, to
12:33
Speaker 1: expose your brand. Is a classic example is out of sight,
12:36
Speaker 1: out of mind. The media is true and if you
12:39
Speaker 1: if you're not a part of the media, positive of
12:42
Speaker 1: our negative because you can say what you wanted by
12:44
Speaker 1: the Antonio Brown negative media is helping him out, okay,
12:47
Speaker 1: because he keeps him into the forefront. Now he's changing
12:49
Speaker 1: the narrative saying I'm soing Oakland, I'm so in New England.
12:52
Speaker 1: They're gonna give my thirty million. No, we might not meant.
12:54
Speaker 1: Everybody kind of quieted down now because of the fact
12:57
Speaker 1: that the narrative is changing, because guess what, he may
13:00
Speaker 1: get that thirty nine million dollars from both teams. So
13:03
Speaker 1: he's not looking so silly now now. People like myself
13:07
Speaker 1: who are trying to build his brand can't avoid or
13:10
Speaker 1: cannot miss opportunities. And that's what she reminds me of
13:14
Speaker 1: when I walked past a red carpet, when I walked
13:17
Speaker 1: past an opportunity to be interviewed. You constantly have to
13:20
Speaker 1: be the steward of maintaining good quality publicity. Correct. Oh no,
13:28
Speaker 1: you're definitely right, Rashawan. And I think one of the
13:30
Speaker 1: other things that young people have to be reminded of
13:34
Speaker 1: is if you're just starting out in this game, you
13:38
Speaker 1: can't represent and Antonio Brown. You don't have the experience.
13:44
Speaker 1: You have to know when to back up and say,
13:46
Speaker 1: you know what I need to have. I need to
13:50
Speaker 1: help you find somebody who's got the experience to bring
13:53
Speaker 1: this on. And this is as important as your relationships
13:57
Speaker 1: are with the media, your relationships with other PR professionals
14:03
Speaker 1: are as important. We depend on each other. We call
14:08
Speaker 1: each other, girl, I got this client of doing this, this, this,
14:11
Speaker 1: and then I just want to get an idea from
14:13
Speaker 1: you because I know you did something similar. Give me
14:15
Speaker 1: some thoughts on how you think we should roll. We
14:18
Speaker 1: respect each other. Yeah, there's a competition sometimes for a client,
14:23
Speaker 1: but the respect we have to each other is more
14:25
Speaker 1: important than anything else. That is so true. And what
14:30
Speaker 1: is more important I think when I hear because so
14:33
Speaker 1: many young people come into the business, see you know,
14:35
Speaker 1: getting degrees in public relations, they want to hop in.
14:37
Speaker 1: I want to be a I want to be a publicist.
14:40
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means because I know what
14:42
Speaker 1: it takes to be a publicist, I know what it
14:44
Speaker 1: takes to to be able to create the relationship. And
14:46
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you this, because of social media, it
14:49
Speaker 1: is actually harder to try to get print interviews because
14:53
Speaker 1: they are there now all digital now. They're actually harder
14:56
Speaker 1: to get interviews on TV. Uh as you have a
15:00
Speaker 1: relationship because of the fact that everybody's competing for different slots,
15:04
Speaker 1: but they wanted for different reasons. That has really changed
15:07
Speaker 1: the game so much and how you approach because you
15:09
Speaker 1: know you're going in and then people are moving. They
15:12
Speaker 1: might have been at five years not looked like every
15:14
Speaker 1: year that there's a different person booking the show. So
15:17
Speaker 1: you caused to have to reinventual conversation every year with
15:20
Speaker 1: the same show. It's really can be frustrating, But how
15:23
Speaker 1: do you overcome the frustration caring? You can't let it
15:28
Speaker 1: get you down, And it is part of what helps
15:32
Speaker 1: when you have a relationship. Because some talent you write,
15:35
Speaker 1: talent book has changed. Talent producers change a lot, and
15:39
Speaker 1: they change a lot more quickly. People used to be
15:41
Speaker 1: a chose for years at a time. That's no longer true.
15:44
Speaker 1: When you call, they depend on you to be honest
15:47
Speaker 1: with them. They depend on you to say, you know what,
15:51
Speaker 1: this kid is new, but I'm telling you he's something special,
15:55
Speaker 1: and then have the reasons why, and then have something
15:59
Speaker 1: else that they can talk about other than just coming
16:02
Speaker 1: on to talk about a new movie or a new
16:05
Speaker 1: or a new music release or um as a as
16:08
Speaker 1: an athlete. Talk about something that they understand that they
16:13
Speaker 1: want to talk about, something that has to do with
16:15
Speaker 1: what did I do for my community? You know what.
16:18
Speaker 1: One of the things I'm happy about, uh, now that
16:22
Speaker 1: I have a public forum is that I go back
16:25
Speaker 1: to my high school and let the kids know that
16:28
Speaker 1: they too can be followed their dreams. You can be
16:31
Speaker 1: dream leader. And television it's more interested in somebody that
16:38
Speaker 1: has something else to talk about other than the product
16:42
Speaker 1: that they're trying to sell. You know, it's really interesting
16:44
Speaker 1: you said that because the game has changed so much
16:47
Speaker 1: and all start of managing Steve Harvey and two thousand
16:50
Speaker 1: and now start if there's a new breed of stars
16:55
Speaker 1: out there, that directors are stars now, Executive produces are
16:58
Speaker 1: stars now, writers and stars now. It just used to
17:02
Speaker 1: be just the people in front of the camera where
17:03
Speaker 1: the stars. Publicists are stars now, managers are stars now. Really,
17:09
Speaker 1: so really, the it's really is a re education to
17:12
Speaker 1: the whole process now because social media have made these
17:15
Speaker 1: people stars. So your client lists has kind of like
17:18
Speaker 1: grown as an opportunity to increase your client lists has grown. Yes,
17:23
Speaker 1: as long as we take the time to understand who
17:26
Speaker 1: the client is by speaking to them, by get beginning
17:30
Speaker 1: a strong relationship with their management, so they we understand
17:35
Speaker 1: where they want to go and we help them create
17:37
Speaker 1: the road to get there. Because the other thing about
17:41
Speaker 1: a publicist, you're not right about everything. You're part of
17:44
Speaker 1: a team. You want your artists to understand. And one
17:48
Speaker 1: of the key things that every artist wants to know
17:51
Speaker 1: is that they can trust you because there's going to
17:54
Speaker 1: come a time, at some point in time in their
17:56
Speaker 1: career where something happens, whether it's positive or negative, that's
18:00
Speaker 1: about their personal life that they do not want to share.
18:03
Speaker 1: They have to be able to trust that you won't
18:06
Speaker 1: do that. And that's a hard thing to do because
18:08
Speaker 1: you're talking about somebody they really haven't known that long
18:12
Speaker 1: and haven't been in a situation where they have to say, well,
18:17
Speaker 1: you know what, let me call her because I know
18:19
Speaker 1: she's gonna get this. I know she'll trust and I
18:21
Speaker 1: know I'm not gonna hear about it again. And I
18:24
Speaker 1: think that's a very important trait to have with your client,
18:28
Speaker 1: is their trust. That's the utmost importance. I'm telling you
18:32
Speaker 1: that that's beyond utmost. It's the only thing that's important.
18:35
Speaker 1: Because if I trust you with my brain, I trust
18:38
Speaker 1: you with my name, then guess what we can get along.
18:40
Speaker 1: If I can't trust you, then I guess what we
18:43
Speaker 1: have no relationship. I'm talking to Karen Lynd the incredible.
18:45
Speaker 1: Currently she's being recognized by the Living Legends Foundations with
18:49
Speaker 1: their Media Award in Los Angeles. I'll be there carrying
18:53
Speaker 1: you know, we'll be on the red carpet together. I
18:55
Speaker 1: might tell you where you're going, need to be on
18:57
Speaker 1: that red card. So far to seeing you, Okay, thank
19:01
Speaker 1: you for coming. So looking forward to seeing you. Roshan.
19:05
Speaker 1: I'm gonna change little roles here. I would be a publicist.
19:07
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a publicist or Karen ly