Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Keenan Towns Full Interview

Transcript

Keenan Towns Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: heart or text I Heeart to five hundred five hundred
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  Speaker 1: for my next guest. Uh, let's just say some brands
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  Speaker 1: right now. In Sharrock Vodka. You know it's p Diddy, Tangeray,
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  Speaker 1: Jean Smirnov, Johnny Walker, Bailey's just a few. This concany
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  Speaker 1: has over two hundred outstanding brands, old and new, large
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  Speaker 1: and small, global and local. With these brands sold in
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  Speaker 1: a hundred and eighty countries at almost every price point
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  Speaker 1: in every category to meet their consumer demand. Now let
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  Speaker 1: me introduce you the director of Influencer Brands at the
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  Speaker 1: Agio North America. Please welcome to Money Making Conversation. Keenan Towns, Hey, Hey,
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  Speaker 1: what's on? How are you pretty good? My friend pretty
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  Speaker 1: long time, long time, long time listening. Before we get started, Man,
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  Speaker 1: I want to say congratulations on this platform because this
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  Speaker 1: is exactly what we need. And um, you know, I've
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  Speaker 1: known you for a long time. I've always looked up
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  Speaker 1: to you as a mentor, so, you know, to be
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  Speaker 1: to be on your show, uh, not only as a blessing,
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  Speaker 1: but uh but I'm I'm very humble, so thank you
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  Speaker 1: for having me. Well, thank you, you know because of
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  Speaker 1: the fact that, uh, you know, that's what this platform
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  Speaker 1: is about. It's about being able to I was talking
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  Speaker 1: to Anthony Hamilton's We'll talk to a lot of celebrities.
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  Speaker 1: They always when I would say, hey, man, I don't
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  Speaker 1: care about your ticket sales. I don't care about you
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  Speaker 1: about your movie, movie, movie, whether it's a blockbuster or
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  Speaker 1: the opening week. It's about you, the brand. And this
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  Speaker 1: is what this is about. Mr Towns and his brand
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  Speaker 1: and how you influencing people, your industry decision maker. That's
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  Speaker 1: why you're on this show because consumers need to know
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  Speaker 1: and entrepreneurs need to know how this works and when
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  Speaker 1: you when you carry a brand just as powerful and
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  Speaker 1: and as I guess we should say as influential in
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  Speaker 1: the in the liquor consuming business as as you have
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  Speaker 1: what I mean as as that first question, what is
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  Speaker 1: the responsibility for you as an influencer of this type
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  Speaker 1: of brand, What is the responsibility of that? Well, you
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  Speaker 1: know with with Spirits, the first responsibility is responsibility is
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  Speaker 1: consuming responsibly and um, you know, and and respecting the
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  Speaker 1: fact that you know it's an alcohol brand and um,
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  Speaker 1: there are ways that you go about marketing and you
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  Speaker 1: know and that you as you know, we take it
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  Speaker 1: very seriously. We've got a very strict marketing code and um,
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  Speaker 1: and we have to adhere to that. So that's the
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  Speaker 1: first piece of it, um. You know. The second pieces
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  Speaker 1: that you know, to your point, we have so many
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  Speaker 1: big brands, right THEO has been around, uh for many
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  Speaker 1: years in different different factors of companies. Um, but you
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  Speaker 1: know we've acquired over you know, the last twenty thirty years,
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  Speaker 1: some of the biggest brands in Spirits what you mentioned
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  Speaker 1: Johnny Walker, Crown Royal, smearing Off, Captain Morgan Sirock, daily on.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it just goes on, um, you know, and
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  Speaker 1: and and you know and and it's a great place
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  Speaker 1: to work, you know, it's It's nothing better than going
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  Speaker 1: into a restaurant, a bar, a lounge and when you
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  Speaker 1: see you know, thirty percent of that back bar are
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  Speaker 1: brands that you represent. Um, you know, it feels great.
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  Speaker 1: It feels like you know you're at the right company
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  Speaker 1: and you're doing the right thing and you're doing it.
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  Speaker 1: Let me just add something about that responsibility. Note, like
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  Speaker 1: when you go to the website and then you click brands,
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  Speaker 1: you have to enter information to show that you're above
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  Speaker 1: the team. So I'm just letting you know that he
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  Speaker 1: carries that above. Yeah, producing with a man. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: you can vote at a you gotta drink at twenty one,
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  Speaker 1: but that was all right. Also, let you know I
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  Speaker 1: don't drink. But that doesn't mean that that this interview
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  Speaker 1: is not about my habits, about habits of people who
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  Speaker 1: enjoy these spirits. But I want to drive on the
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  Speaker 1: fact that you guys carry that mantle or be responsible
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  Speaker 1: to the highest level, even in the digital and social
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  Speaker 1: media community. So when that with that being said, liquor
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  Speaker 1: and spirits are consumed, Oh, there sees no periods where
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  Speaker 1: you guys know you how to have got to have
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  Speaker 1: those warehouses packed because the call is gonna come from
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  Speaker 1: your product. Absolutely, I mean, you know, to your point, uh,
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  Speaker 1: certainly you have to be twenty one. You enter in
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  Speaker 1: that age day, you enter in your age and then
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  Speaker 1: you and then you opened You're opened up to a
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  Speaker 1: world of celebration, you know, and really a diagio. That's
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  Speaker 1: what we're about, you know, celebrating responsibly and um, you know,
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  Speaker 1: and and there are key periods and you know, obviously
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  Speaker 1: the holiday is a big time October, November, December, you know,
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  Speaker 1: from from from Thanksgiving through Christmas and New Years, that
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  Speaker 1: has to be probably our larger selling period. Um. But
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  Speaker 1: but but then summertime comes around and there's you know,
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  Speaker 1: the drinking occasions have changed, you know, from from nightlife
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  Speaker 1: to daytime parties now and um, you know, outdoor summer
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  Speaker 1: summer events. So you know, so again listen, you know,
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  Speaker 1: one of the best things about the liquor industry is
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  Speaker 1: that people love to celebrate, um and and and good
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  Speaker 1: times and bad you know. So um, it's it's sustainable
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  Speaker 1: and you know, and we're just happy to be here
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  Speaker 1: and and hopefully people enjoy our brands. Let me let
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  Speaker 1: me back up a little bit. We're talking about the brands,
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  Speaker 1: but I want to let people know about you. That's
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  Speaker 1: why this show is important, because you're an influencer. You're
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  Speaker 1: a person who who's who's who's ascended to a level
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  Speaker 1: of responsibility that you be able to communicate the spirited
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  Speaker 1: world to the masses. How did it all start for
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  Speaker 1: you in this direction? And also how they all start
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  Speaker 1: for you and this this area of the business. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: so UM for me originally up from Washington the feet,
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  Speaker 1: Um I grew up. I grew up in northeast d
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  Speaker 1: c uh in a place, a place called Lanks and perish.
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  Speaker 1: Um we were at at one point where the murder
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  Speaker 1: capital of the world. Um. I grew up. I had
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: probably fifteen or twenty guys that lived on my street
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  Speaker 1: who I considered, you know, my friends. Um. Today there
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  Speaker 1: is two of those guys that are still living or
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  Speaker 1: not incarcerated. So um, you know, it's a tough, tough,
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  Speaker 1: tough area, tough neighborhood. Um you know. And and fortunately
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  Speaker 1: I was. I was able when when everybody was going right,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: I went left. I went the other way or left
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: when they went left, I went right. Um. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I stayed focused on education. UM you know, I was
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: bust across town to a private school because I got
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: kicked out of the public school was on the on
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the first day for fighting. UH. And my parents put
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: me in military school. Um. You know. And and from
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: that point on, um, you know, and I think my
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  Speaker 1: grandmother every day for kind of saving my life because
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: you know it, although it took me an hour and
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  Speaker 1: a half to get to school every day, UM, I
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  Speaker 1: didn't run into that negativity in my neighborhood. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I had to leave before everybody got up and by
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  Speaker 1: the time I got home, they were doing something else. So, UM,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: you know, I took a different path. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: and again I'm very blessed and fortunate that I had
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  Speaker 1: people in my life to to kind of steer me
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  Speaker 1: in that direction. From there, I went on to UH
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  Speaker 1: to Temple University UH in Philadelphia, UH, and I studied marketing. UM.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't really know what that was going to turn
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: out to be, you know, and and and you know,
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  Speaker 1: and I think, as you know, young people that are listening, UM,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you you really don't know where life is
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  Speaker 1: gonna take you, but you know, you do things that
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  Speaker 1: you're interested in. And at that point I started to
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  Speaker 1: throw events in college, throw parties for my fraternity and
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  Speaker 1: some other things, and which which I had start to
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  Speaker 1: understand about marketing. You know what what that meant, you know,
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  Speaker 1: to promote not only your event in your party, but
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  Speaker 1: yourself as a promoter. So I started to throw parties
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  Speaker 1: in Philly and um and I bought some of the
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  Speaker 1: biggest hip hop acts as Shilly at the time. I
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  Speaker 1: brought Notorious b I G. And I bought Daddy the
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  Speaker 1: Philly and I brought a few other people of Philly.
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  Speaker 1: This is all while I was in college, so you know,
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  Speaker 1: that's kind of where it started. So I had I
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  Speaker 1: had a love for marketing, market Yeah, yeah, the natural yea,
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  Speaker 1: the natural love for it. You know, so you're just
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  Speaker 1: taking natural talent not to be not knowing that many
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: years now is it's branding as marketing is trending? Is
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: is you? You just That's how it was with me
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: in college. I was just doing some things that I
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: look back now. I would tell people what you learn
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: in your twenties is what you're gonna make money in
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: your forties and your fifties so big yeah, because your
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: thirties that's your resume building period. I don't tell people
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: your twenties. Whatever you learn, that's what you're doing now.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: All though you were saying, Hey, I was throwing concert
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the same name you you book P did as a
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: concert and the concert promoter, Now you're marketing his brand.
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  Speaker 1: That's amazing. Now I'm running his brand. Yeah, exactly, exactly,
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  Speaker 1: And you know, and and again you don't really think
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: about it at the time. The preparation that you know,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the things that you're learning, UM, and how it will
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: benefit you and years to come, and those lessons um
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: that you learn, you know, well, like you said, are
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: building blocks for your future. So you know, I was
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: recruited out of Temple to UH to work for a
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: pharmaceutical company in New York, a very big pharmaceutical company,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: and I thought I hit the lottery, said, uh, they said,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: we're gonna give you fifty two tho dollars a year
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: in the company car. That's yeah, this is this is
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: my first job out of out of out of college. Listen,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: where do I whe where do I sign? I'm gonna
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: take that And that job moved me. That job moved
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: me to New York UM and I went through an
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: extensive training UM. I was a market development associate for
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: uh ostel Peroter's drug, and again I had I had
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: no biology background, no medical background. I went through a
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: very extensive twelve week training on human anatomy and um
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and this drug and how it would affect folks, and
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: you know, and it was very interesting about that job.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Is is that I moved to New York and my
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: territory was the Upper east Side. I had the Bronx,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: I had a Harlem and I had the Upper east Side.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: And and when I tell you, I went, my doctors
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: in the Bronx they loved me. My doctors in Harlem
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: they loved me. The white doctors on the Upper east
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Side they didn't love me. And when I tell you,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: they made it so difficult for me, I mean, the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: racism is it is reel today, but it was certainly
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: real for for a young black man who was years
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: old claiming to be the expertal o colosis trying to
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: tell fifty sixty year old white doctors about you know,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: this drug and this disease. They weren't hearing it, you know,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: and they made an ark for me. You know. So
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I quickly realized within about nine months that that probably
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: wasn't the right job for me. Cool, Well, hold that.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I hold that thought right there, because we want to
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: hear about how did you go to the right job?
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: And we're back with more. He's the he's the director,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: he's the brand influencer, the Agio. Everybody knows the Agio.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: There's the key love, that's Sharrock. Everybody knows that. Just
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: you know, it's like he did his owns commercials. He'd
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: be right to tell us about marketing trends, drinking trends.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: And also I want to ask about something I've always
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: bugged the Agio about, how can you sponsor my event?
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Be right back with more money making conversations. Cool? This
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: ras Sean McDonald where you are listening to money making conversations.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: As you know, money making conversation is heard on channeling
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: one forty one. It was serious x M on Howard
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: University campus has also heard on Channel one forty two
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Serious XM on all HBCU campuses. The reason I brought
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: that up and brought it to Mr Town's attention because
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: he's talking about that transition from from college to the
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: professional world as some of the some of the pitfalls
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: and when you think you got the job over your
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: lifetime and the lottery. You've hit the lottery that you
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: can be hit with a curve. And that's what you got,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: hit with a curve right there where you got your
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: two thou dollars, You got your call, You out there
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: selling everybody in New York and then all of a sudden,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: somebody telling you we don't want you, we don't want
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: you or your products. And so at that age of three,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: what are you going from there? Sir? You know what?
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: You know, it was certainly a smack in the face.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: And um, you know, I said, you know what, let
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: me let me go back to what I really enjoyed
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: doing when I was in school. And m and there
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: were three guys um who went to school across the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: town at University of penn Um. They called me one
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: day and they were one of the brothers who worked
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: for r C and music. The other brothers were in
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: UH and just finishing business school. Super smart guys, the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Preside brothers and you you you may know, Michael Mark
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and Irwin presid Um. They came, yeah, and they and
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: they came to me and said, listen, we want to
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: start a marketing company at multi Cultural Marketing Company, and um,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: you know, and we need your help. Would you be
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: our would you be our partner? And at that point
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I said absolutely. Um. You know, the small period in
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: between that, I was working at a company called US
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Concepts and my first brand. They were liquor marketing company.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: My first brand was Tangara a Gin was twenty twenty
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: three years ago. I worked on Tangara a Gin and
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: uh and and when Mark and Mike and Irwin offered
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: me this job to come join their company, to have
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: ownership in the company. UM. I went to at that
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: time Shechefflin and Somerset, which owned Tanker Ray. I said, listen,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna step out and kind of do my own
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: ad agency. And they said, Keena, we love what you do.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: So wherever you go, we go. And from that point on,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: me and Liquor became synonymous. UM. You know, we we
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: we worked, you know, on the Hennessey brand, the Mollette brand,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: UM Grand Manner, Tangar Ray, Johnny Walker. We did all
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: of the kind of multi cultural marketing back when really
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: multi cultural, you know, it was really just marketing African America,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: you know, and and you know, yeah, and you know
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and so and and that put me and we were
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: able to develop that business with Cheflin and Somerset over many,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: many years. So that's what put me into the Spirits business,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: which where I got my legs. You know. We had
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: that company with them for probably five or six years,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: and we were about to get bought and the deal
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: didn't go through. I was able to cash shot of
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: the company. And then that's where I became, you know that.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: You know, I've always had this entrepreneurial spirit, and you know,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: from there I was able to transition into um, you know,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: opening some athletic footwear stores and restaurants and a few
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: other things. And again listen, there's no success with our failure,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: right and I lost a ton of money. I learned
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: a lot, a lot a lot about business and life experiences.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Who you can trust and who you can't trust, the
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: importance of doing deals the right way. Um. That important,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: doing the deal the right way and not doing it
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: on faith, and doing it with the right business place.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: That's right. Absolutely, And And to fast track, you know,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: I was in I was in l A. I had
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: moved to l A and where I met U S. Steve,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: you know, and remember you at that time, me and
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: you would go to the Grove and eat chicken. Come
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: over there. You know I was coming over to your
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: apartment playing card when I was in the room with
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: party the dom Remember that I would tell people over
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: over the palazzo, come on now right across from north
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: to remember we remember you. You gotta sponsorship, I did,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: you know? You know what, man, what's so interesting is
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: is that, like you know, I started off the conversation
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: with mentors, it's home. And you know, I've always looked
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: up to you and Steve and people like Magic Johnson
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: and you know, you know, guys a little bit older
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: than me, but really took you know, took the initiative
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: to put the hard work in. Um they learned their
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: businesses and you know, and then you always you always
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: gave back, right, So you always try to mentor and
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: teach you know, young young and not not just brothers
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: like you taught everybody. So you know, I mean again,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: those those lessons are advisable. I spent eleven years in
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: l A doing marketing for myself. Uh and then I
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: got a phone call about eight years ago from one
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: of the guys who was my client at Shefflin when
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: I first worked on Tanga. Ray called me now fifteen
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: years later and said, hey, are you still good with
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Sean Klee? So? Are you still good with me? That? Yeah?
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: You know that's my guy. We're We're good. Hey, I
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: got an opportunity, you know, for you to come to
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: New York and work on the rock business. And and
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: and that's how you know, that's how it captains Diagio.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: But I will tell you man, you know, I've never
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: worked in corporate America outside of that nine months that
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I worked at Months and coming to a company that
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: has thirty thousand employees, that is a global company and
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: has you know, over two hundred well known brands. You know,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: this is a culture shock for me. Complete coaches stock.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: You know, I go from working three phones in my
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: own office, you know, doing deals with celebrities, doing all
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: kinds of sponsorship deals. Now I work in a queue.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I can't talk, I can't talk freely. Uh you know, uh,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: you know it's we do business a different way. The blessing,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the blessing about working for a good company is that
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: you know that Diageo They've allowed me to be who
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I am. Right, They've allowed me to bring all of
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: my experiences, all of my relationships. Um, the cultural things
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: that bring which you know, We've got some really talented
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: smart people that work at this company, but they don't
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: have the set of skills that I have. So you know,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: so and and and that's where you know, that's kind
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: of how I fit in within this company. So, um,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: you talk about fitting in though, you know, when you
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: talk about like the successive tanker Rade, when you talk
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: about the success of Sharrock and talk about all these
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: success these labels, how the role do you play in
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: that and that development? Sure? Um, you know, as as
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: a brand person. Um, you know, coming here is like
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: going to business school for marketing. Uh literally, I mean
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the the rigor the strategic insight, the research. Um. You know,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: I would have never thought that consumer you know, package
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: companies invest the amount of money that they do. Um,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: and me being on the outside, I mean, you spend
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: millions and millions of dollars on research and insights and
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: strategy and you know, so again for me, it was
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: it has been one of the most phenomenal learning experiences
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: of my life working at this company. And um, you know,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: and I've always been a brand person. I've always known marketing,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: I've always known entertainment, I've been around celebrities, athletes and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: you know, all that kind of stuff all my life,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: salvage me. Uh. The strategy piece was what kind of
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: what I was missing? You know. So so you after
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: spending you know a few years within the company, you
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: start to see how important it is to understand who
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: that consumer is, how important it is to understand the
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: drinking trends uh, cultural trends, UH, nightlife trends, UH, industry
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: overall trends. You know. So you know, and then you
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: can make informed decisions on how you take a brand
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: like Surrock, how you take a brand like tank Lay
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: or you know, or Daily On, and and like who
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: those consumers are whatever, it's gonna be the trigger points
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: for them, you know, how how how can you best
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: help these few people celebrate with your brands? And really
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: that's what it's about, you know. So for me, I
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: kind of I wear a couple of different hats. I'm
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: a traditional brand guy, non traditional traditional brand guy. Uh,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: and it's uh, you know, we start with strategy. Uh,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: we're gon, we use research, make informed to sasion, and
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: we come up with the marketing plan. I'm certainly involved
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: in the creative process with with our agency partners UM,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: and then we pushed it all the way down to
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: ourselves teams on the commercial side. So again this is
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: a it's a it's a full three sixty uh operation
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: that I mean that you that you really have to
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: understand it's really just not about creating an ad or
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: you know, understand the social media, you know, in order
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: to really market brands of this magnitude. You know, it's
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: it's um, it's a full three sixty. I wanted to
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I want to drip back a little bit about just
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: just just knowing you as a person and just the
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: personal experiences we had, Like he was talking about those
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: parties it used to do in my condo and in
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: l A. That was just natural instinctive moments of just
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: branding and marketing, and it became like an event. You
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: almost had to have a like a special v I
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: p to get in there. And I would tell you
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: story right man, that that there was It was no
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: more than about a hundred people could get into my condo.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: And I remember it was so big that Kesha COLDD,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: R and B. Superstar today she auditioned in my condo
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: to sing that's how big this thing was this and
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: we will go. Now we just need to play dominoes
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: and that you know what's so just to hear those
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: natural talents that you developed so far. I'm so proud
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: of you and I'm just so happy a lobby to
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: share your story. The bigger story is the agio, but
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the even bigger story is your story, my friend, and
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: the and the see the journey and just only growing.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: And I know that I gotta have you back on
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: in the fall. You know when it's when you're there
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: selling that look at is flying off the shelf. But
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: in the meantime, man, you stay strong, and I appreciate
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: you coming on money making conversations. Thank You're happy to
• 23:48
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