Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Dina Marto and Courtney Rhodes on Mangaing T.I., and Placing Over 100 million Dollars in Advertising

Transcript

Dina Marto and Courtney Rhodes on Mangaing T.I., and Placing Over 100 million Dollars in Advertising · 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 incase you didn't notice, I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: not broke, you know, he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs
0:20
Speaker 1: 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 go. Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I'm your host,
0:32
Speaker 1: Rushan McDonald. I recognize that we all have different definition
0:36
Speaker 1: of success. For some exercisable paycheck, mine is helping people
0:39
Speaker 1: wake up and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and
0:41
Speaker 1: live their very best life. These are my missions and
0:44
Speaker 1: these are my passions, and that's what I'm gonna do
0:46
Speaker 1: for you, and that's what we do on Money Making Conversations.
0:49
Speaker 1: I really want you to stop tripping over small challenges
0:51
Speaker 1: and prepare the rise above the bigger obstacles that life
0:54
Speaker 1: will present to you. My next guest are Dina Marteaux.
0:58
Speaker 1: That's when Oh and Courtney Oats they co founded in
1:02
Speaker 1: That's this year, the Year of the pandemic c Indeed
1:05
Speaker 1: the agency. It's an all women lead management agency that
1:08
Speaker 1: provides marketing, branding, public and media relations services along with
1:13
Speaker 1: project talent and operations management specializing in business and entertainment.
1:18
Speaker 1: That mission is to empower which is an important mentor
1:21
Speaker 1: and lead businesswomen to collaborate together and increase opportunity for
1:24
Speaker 1: minority women's Dina is a seasoned entrepreneur, having shadowed gender
1:29
Speaker 1: and ethnic glass ceilings during her nearly twenty years as
1:32
Speaker 1: a music executive and small business owner. Dinus is on
1:35
Speaker 1: Dinas on the management team for a Superstar My Man
1:38
Speaker 1: t I and helped launched his popular podcast, which became
1:42
Speaker 1: number one on Apple Podcast. Courtney Roads, who I know
1:45
Speaker 1: from Tampa when Steve Harbory and I was down there
1:47
Speaker 1: launching I Wanted our Affiliate Radio Stations is a branding
1:51
Speaker 1: and marketing expert for twenty plus years. She has worked
1:54
Speaker 1: with multimillion dollar businesses and getting their marketing message, scene, heard,
1:58
Speaker 1: and experience across television, radio, magazines, e commerce, digital and
2:03
Speaker 1: social media platform She's placed over one hundred million dollars
2:07
Speaker 1: in advertising dollars across television, radio, digital, social and outdoor
2:12
Speaker 1: media leaders and Deale with introduction like that, this is
2:16
Speaker 1: a money making conversation. Please working the money making conversations,
2:20
Speaker 1: Dina Martau and Courtney Rose. Ladies, Hey, that was amazing. Well,
2:28
Speaker 1: you know, first of all, thank you for coming on
2:30
Speaker 1: the show. And you know, because of the fact that
2:34
Speaker 1: uh doing the show about going on like three years
2:38
Speaker 1: and and uh, I want to write you by the
2:42
Speaker 1: star bought a building in Atlanta here Peachtree. It's gonna
2:45
Speaker 1: I'm building out of broadcast studio. So my next interview
2:48
Speaker 1: with you guys, hopefully being stupid studio, it's a COPD
2:50
Speaker 1: friendly studio. And I bring that to your attention because
2:54
Speaker 1: you guys are I'd like to say the word movers
2:56
Speaker 1: and shakers and y'all, y'all, y'all venture and y'all y'all. See.
3:02
Speaker 1: Can I say the used the word visionary without being offensive?
3:05
Speaker 1: Oh okay, cool, let's stop. Let's start with the top
3:08
Speaker 1: divisionary in my in my screen here, Miss Courtney met
3:12
Speaker 1: your Tampa a long time ago. Sales, so I can
3:15
Speaker 1: verify when you say that you did sales, you did sales.
3:19
Speaker 1: And you know when when you go to these affiliate markets,
3:22
Speaker 1: there's always an opportunity to be able to sell your
3:26
Speaker 1: brand and people have to understand your brand. And Steve
3:28
Speaker 1: Harvey was we were growing brain, not the brand that
3:30
Speaker 1: he is today, but you were a recognizable brand. And
3:33
Speaker 1: I was like the guy who was like, you talked
3:36
Speaker 1: to me, You talked to Steve to get the business
3:37
Speaker 1: deals done? How do you look at a business deal
3:40
Speaker 1: and a business opportunity? Um, so I kind of just
3:45
Speaker 1: again look at everything as an opportunity and as a
3:49
Speaker 1: person who can bring solutions to whatever marketing or business
3:54
Speaker 1: challenge that whoever I'm sitting in front you know, whatever
3:58
Speaker 1: they have. You know, someone's going to come to us
4:00
Speaker 1: because there's a challenge they need help to do something.
4:03
Speaker 1: And so for me, I look at it as what
4:06
Speaker 1: solution can I provide with the expertise that I have,
4:09
Speaker 1: the experiences or the connections or network that I have,
4:13
Speaker 1: how just to be solutions oriented in my approach. You
4:16
Speaker 1: know when I was listening to when I was reading
4:18
Speaker 1: each one of your bios and this is this is
4:20
Speaker 1: kind of like you each are kind of like a
4:22
Speaker 1: version of me, because you know you seriously, you know,
4:25
Speaker 1: because God turned the Dina because now she's dealing with
4:28
Speaker 1: she deals with talent a lot. You know, I didn't
4:29
Speaker 1: see that on your bio. You know you you you're
4:32
Speaker 1: a person that, like I did a lot of lot
4:34
Speaker 1: large Caleb's contry promotions. I'm always out there, so cars
4:39
Speaker 1: on through media, so Hamburger through media. That's kind of
4:41
Speaker 1: like you. And then on the on the talent management side,
4:45
Speaker 1: high profile, high energize um know what they want to do.
4:50
Speaker 1: Sometimes they don't do it right. But you gotta be
4:52
Speaker 1: there to mediate and also have to be very smart
4:55
Speaker 1: but very quiet sometimes. I also have to know all
4:57
Speaker 1: the answers. Even Steve Harvey once told me said, Rich
5:00
Speaker 1: you think you know everything? And I said, yes, I do.
5:03
Speaker 1: So I could not tell him I don't because what
5:06
Speaker 1: does what purpose does that serve? And so Dina, I
5:08
Speaker 1: have to look at you as a person who knows
5:10
Speaker 1: everything because you do with talent. Well, I think about it.
5:13
Speaker 1: If I don't know it, I will definitely, I will
5:17
Speaker 1: definitely figure it out. That's the key to that, because
5:20
Speaker 1: you have to know what you know, and you have
5:22
Speaker 1: to know what you don't know, and you have to
5:24
Speaker 1: know how to figure it out from there. That's important.
5:27
Speaker 1: And when you when you say that, because we're talking
5:30
Speaker 1: about two successful females, okay, and and let's just put
5:36
Speaker 1: it real. You know a lot of times women or
5:38
Speaker 1: because they are attractive, and you are two attractive women,
5:41
Speaker 1: sometimes people hear you, but they just see you. How
5:44
Speaker 1: do you overcome that? Obviously, gonna start with Gina just wrapped.
5:47
Speaker 1: You just responded, how do you overcome that? That's a
5:50
Speaker 1: good point, Um. I would say that you have to
5:54
Speaker 1: really stay consistent and persistent with your work ethic. And
5:57
Speaker 1: I think oncebody realizes that you're an asset to the team,
6:02
Speaker 1: that you bring value and that you're smart and you
6:04
Speaker 1: should be around, they look past the beauty and they
6:09
Speaker 1: start really wanting wanting to work with you based on
6:12
Speaker 1: your skill set and what you can bring to the table.
6:14
Speaker 1: So I just the way I've done it in a
6:17
Speaker 1: male dominated industry is just maintain my respect and earn
6:22
Speaker 1: my respect by doing the work and doing it well
6:25
Speaker 1: and having to do it a lot of times better
6:28
Speaker 1: than my male counterparts. You do, and that's but this
6:33
Speaker 1: is like I said, oh, you know, cording to couldn't
6:35
Speaker 1: say this. You know, as a minority. Sometimes it's often
6:38
Speaker 1: said that we said we have to be two times
6:40
Speaker 1: or three times better than the white person to get
6:43
Speaker 1: the respect and still get a check. They're smaller than them.
6:45
Speaker 1: And that's kind of frustrating because it's actually true. And
6:49
Speaker 1: so from a sales standpoint, coordinate, you've had to deal
6:52
Speaker 1: with that first of all, sales is generally a male
6:53
Speaker 1: dominated lane. And then you down in Tampa, which is
6:57
Speaker 1: the tip of Florida. So when I met you was successful,
7:00
Speaker 1: you were vibrant. You you have my attention and because
7:04
Speaker 1: you knew what you wanted to do. Maybe because I
7:05
Speaker 1: grew up with six sisters, so I always had a
7:08
Speaker 1: respect for knowledge that came out of women. Came they
7:11
Speaker 1: came from women when they spoke to me. So what
7:13
Speaker 1: are some of the mysteries of the walls that you
7:17
Speaker 1: have to climb as a female because we're gonna get
7:19
Speaker 1: to the agency, because that's important that I said, who
7:21
Speaker 1: you guys up before we start talking about this agency, Courtney.
7:25
Speaker 1: So so I think for me, it's always been about
7:29
Speaker 1: making sure that I am heard and and that I
7:33
Speaker 1: can bring value to the table. Rather it was with
7:37
Speaker 1: clear channel, which is what it was when we met
7:39
Speaker 1: or through the work that I do today. And to
7:42
Speaker 1: piggyback on what Dina said, you just you have to
7:45
Speaker 1: always learn, especially in the male dominated industry, to listen, listen, listen,
7:51
Speaker 1: because I think just men and women naturally have a
7:55
Speaker 1: different way of communicating. And not to be stereotypical, but
8:00
Speaker 1: men are sometimes more aggressive, more comfortable in confrontational roles.
8:05
Speaker 1: And for me, it was just about listening and always
8:07
Speaker 1: coming back to the table with the solution, with the result,
8:11
Speaker 1: kind of staying keeping my little balance self and you know,
8:15
Speaker 1: conversations with the guys and agreeing and and just positioning.
8:19
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of times I would just listen
8:20
Speaker 1: in the beginning, especially when I was in Tampa, I
8:23
Speaker 1: was the only female on the management team. Um, and
8:26
Speaker 1: you know, meetings could get crazy and egos to get
8:28
Speaker 1: in the way, and you listen, you you know, agree
8:32
Speaker 1: where you agree, but then you circle back around and say, hey, guys,
8:35
Speaker 1: have you thought about it like this? I think that's
8:37
Speaker 1: amazing the way you want to do it. Maybe we
8:39
Speaker 1: can add this, we can add that, and just kind
8:41
Speaker 1: of be supportive at first, and that allows you to
8:44
Speaker 1: get your voice heard. That allows you to get your
8:47
Speaker 1: you know your perspective out there, and then when you
8:50
Speaker 1: consistently do that, then the guys again it just you
8:54
Speaker 1: just become a part of the team and they come
8:56
Speaker 1: to you for that expertise because you're you're able to
8:59
Speaker 1: actually bring I think, a better balance of energy to
9:02
Speaker 1: the table and kind of pull things down a little
9:04
Speaker 1: bit and still, um, you can still be heard. Just
9:08
Speaker 1: my approach has always kind of been a little different
9:10
Speaker 1: in how I heard and when I hear both of
9:12
Speaker 1: you talk to me. I was gonna say, being honest
9:17
Speaker 1: with your clients as well is really important because a
9:19
Speaker 1: lot of times when you're dealing with some high profile people,
9:22
Speaker 1: people are afraid to be honest with them as as
9:26
Speaker 1: people on their team. And I think that my clients
9:29
Speaker 1: would say that I'm always honest whether you want to
9:31
Speaker 1: do it or not, and whether I agree or not,
9:33
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you my perspective and still support
9:36
Speaker 1: you on that is I think the key to a
9:40
Speaker 1: lot of high profile people staying out of trouble is
9:43
Speaker 1: by being honest, by being a person who says I
9:45
Speaker 1: don't think that's a good idea, and because the not
9:50
Speaker 1: saying it means that you should have said it. And
9:52
Speaker 1: so when I look at when I listened to a
9:53
Speaker 1: Coordinate and Dina, how did you guys get together to
9:57
Speaker 1: form to see a d Okay, I got I know
10:00
Speaker 1: about your Brandina Coordinate. I'm aware of your brand from
10:03
Speaker 1: past history. How did you two ladies, because you're coming
10:06
Speaker 1: from different different landscapes, even though according to your playing
10:10
Speaker 1: music from a standpoint at a radio station tied to
10:14
Speaker 1: clear Channel, which is not our heart media. And Dina,
10:17
Speaker 1: you know you came from record labels as well and
10:19
Speaker 1: moved into talent management. So I feel a sense of
10:22
Speaker 1: the cross. But how did you guys come together? Well,
10:27
Speaker 1: here's the thing. We have been friends for a long time,
10:29
Speaker 1: and we've actually worked on projects in the past together
10:32
Speaker 1: here and there. We've always talked about doing something together.
10:36
Speaker 1: And when we had to sit down for a second
10:39
Speaker 1: during this pandemic and and just had a moment to
10:44
Speaker 1: look around and see what was going on, we felt
10:46
Speaker 1: like it was the appropriate time because we had a
10:48
Speaker 1: time to focus in and and know what was really needed.
10:52
Speaker 1: I think the I think being united is needed more
10:55
Speaker 1: than ever right now, especially with women, and so we
10:59
Speaker 1: just did to just go for it. And the best
11:02
Speaker 1: part about it is that Courtney is an expert in
11:05
Speaker 1: her world with marketing and branding and pr and I'm
11:09
Speaker 1: an expert in my world on the management side with
11:11
Speaker 1: talent and project management and operations. So we're just combining
11:15
Speaker 1: forces and being more powerful. Together. We could easily be
11:19
Speaker 1: successful continue to be successful on our own and our
11:22
Speaker 1: individual journeys. But the most important thing here is that
11:25
Speaker 1: we both believe that our greater purpose is to mentor
11:29
Speaker 1: and lead the next generation of women leaders. And that's
11:33
Speaker 1: important that you know, um, when you say that, which
11:37
Speaker 1: is very powerful. And you started your business doing a pandemic, okay,
11:42
Speaker 1: launched it, and I basically I bought a building doing
11:46
Speaker 1: a pandemic. And and you know, and I say that
11:51
Speaker 1: because in a way, first of all, it's very tragic
11:54
Speaker 1: because it overtly affects people of sixty five in the
11:57
Speaker 1: minority community. And secondly, but from a business perspective, and
12:01
Speaker 1: I felt it allowed me to catch up, you know,
12:04
Speaker 1: because a lot of competition was shut down in the
12:06
Speaker 1: second quarter, live events with advertisers pull all the media
12:10
Speaker 1: from in the second quarter. The third quarter started trickling black.
12:13
Speaker 1: You started getting virtual events, and then so talent started
12:16
Speaker 1: to creep back out in some productions, especially entertainment, started
12:19
Speaker 1: to go back out. So I commend you because I
12:22
Speaker 1: felt that what you're doing is very smart, because that's
12:25
Speaker 1: what I did. The first quarter. I was getting my
12:28
Speaker 1: brand together, trying to define that. Second quarter, getting all
12:31
Speaker 1: my legal paperwork, making sure I would launch the site.
12:33
Speaker 1: I launched a whole new platform, and in the third
12:36
Speaker 1: quarter and fourth quarter, I tell my team it's time
12:38
Speaker 1: to make money, and we will make money because we've
12:40
Speaker 1: established that is that courtineal sense of what you guys
12:44
Speaker 1: are doing the plans in place pandemic hit. It didn't
12:47
Speaker 1: throw any fear into your through sadness and through complications
12:50
Speaker 1: of how to do business, But it didn't alter your dreams. No,
12:54
Speaker 1: it didn't actually um spet it up because it gave
12:57
Speaker 1: us time to kind of reassess what we reached go in.
13:01
Speaker 1: Um of course, we were kind of all forced to
13:03
Speaker 1: quiet down, kind of reflect on, you know, personally from
13:06
Speaker 1: a career standpoint, what's really important to me, Like what's
13:09
Speaker 1: gonna drive me how when we come on out on
13:12
Speaker 1: the other side of this thing. What do I want
13:14
Speaker 1: to do and do? What are the causes that I
13:16
Speaker 1: care about? What are the kind of clients that I
13:18
Speaker 1: want want to work with where messages that I want
13:21
Speaker 1: to get out into the culture. And so, like Dna said,
13:23
Speaker 1: we've talked about joining forces before, and we knew that
13:28
Speaker 1: we could um complement each other's expertise but also scale
13:32
Speaker 1: the work that we do because a lot of times,
13:34
Speaker 1: obviously Dana's working on projects where it involves marketing and branding.
13:40
Speaker 1: I work on projects sometimes where we're hiring out talents.
13:43
Speaker 1: So we knew that just coming together would allow us
13:47
Speaker 1: again to grow, but also do work that was more
13:50
Speaker 1: meaningful and to come together to do something really important
13:55
Speaker 1: to make sure that the narrative that the future is
13:58
Speaker 1: female isn't just something that we say that we're actively
14:01
Speaker 1: doing our part to make sure that we're supporting that
14:04
Speaker 1: marriage and been the work that that we're doing, and
14:07
Speaker 1: we're bringing other very talented and the word you use
14:11
Speaker 1: with innovative women along. So that was really important for us.
14:15
Speaker 1: And when I say that word, I say that word
14:16
Speaker 1: with respect. I say that word with a lot of uh,
14:20
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't and I like to believe
14:22
Speaker 1: that I'm one of those guys. I would tell that
14:24
Speaker 1: people that are twenty four hours in the day, learn
14:25
Speaker 1: to use every hour. And when I say and, I
14:29
Speaker 1: say that as a compliment because I know how passionate
14:31
Speaker 1: I am, and I know my resume when I say,
14:33
Speaker 1: you two are kind of like a versions of me
14:36
Speaker 1: and and because it's a testament to your ability to
14:40
Speaker 1: be able to adjust to change and you're not in
14:43
Speaker 1: your fearless And you also understand that I know when
14:46
Speaker 1: I walk in a room that I'm a black guy.
14:48
Speaker 1: I know when I got I know, I know when
14:50
Speaker 1: you walking room your attractive ladies. That's something you have
14:53
Speaker 1: to admit and sometimes you have to admit that people
14:56
Speaker 1: have to be trained on what you bring to the table.
15:00
Speaker 1: Able and said, you've launched an all female lead agency
15:06
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia. Dina, Why, Well, I'm it's it's really
15:14
Speaker 1: the topic that we're talking about money making conversations. We're
15:17
Speaker 1: trying to level the playing field. We're trying to close
15:20
Speaker 1: that gap for women to make the money that they
15:23
Speaker 1: deserve to make. Two, especially for minority women to have
15:27
Speaker 1: more opportunity and really and really help women work together
15:32
Speaker 1: and not be competitive against each other. I find that
15:35
Speaker 1: a lot of times, especially in these male dominated industries,
15:38
Speaker 1: we are pitted against each other and it's a lot
15:40
Speaker 1: of competition, but I think we're stronger if we can
15:43
Speaker 1: actually work together. So we want to be that example.
15:46
Speaker 1: We kind of want to show shed the light on
15:48
Speaker 1: that journey of getting women who are great at what
15:52
Speaker 1: they do, who are very skillful, having us collaborate together
15:56
Speaker 1: for excellence for our clients. And I think that that's
15:58
Speaker 1: really the main s we're we're doing this agency. Of
16:02
Speaker 1: course we want to make money, but we want to
16:03
Speaker 1: make money like how men are able to make money.
16:07
Speaker 1: That's very true. Um money is really in the beginning
16:12
Speaker 1: of my intro says, you know, there's people haveing a
16:15
Speaker 1: version of what it is a sizeable paycheck is some
16:18
Speaker 1: people is is a large check. I'm driven by the
16:21
Speaker 1: fact that opportunity drives me, and I think that's a
16:24
Speaker 1: sense of who I'm talking to hire DNA and courting
16:27
Speaker 1: you opportunities because if you don't have an opportunity, you
16:29
Speaker 1: can't get in the door to make your play or
16:32
Speaker 1: make your statement, then the money is gonna come because
16:34
Speaker 1: you're skilled at it. Now two words that we hear
16:37
Speaker 1: popular popularize all the time. It annoys me so much.
16:40
Speaker 1: Marketing and branding, especially the word brand. I just I
16:44
Speaker 1: can't stand that word. It's not because people just throw
16:46
Speaker 1: it out nowadays like they know exactly what. Oh they
16:49
Speaker 1: know exactly. Branding expert, I can hear that one more time.
16:55
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm a branding expert. So courting y. Yeah,
17:01
Speaker 1: they'll just show you an example. Okay. In two thousand,
17:03
Speaker 1: when I started managing Steve, I used to work for
17:05
Speaker 1: IBM okay and so corporate. From a corporate standpoint, I
17:10
Speaker 1: knew where the brand was was IBM okay. So when
17:13
Speaker 1: I looked at Steve, I looked at I said, I'm
17:17
Speaker 1: gonna treat him just like a corporation. I'm giving the
17:20
Speaker 1: same rules, the same standards, the same belief that the
17:23
Speaker 1: corporation sets itself up for consider their brand. Because I
17:27
Speaker 1: always tell you I would tell people, you know, corporations,
17:30
Speaker 1: they they just shout out. They tell you they got
17:31
Speaker 1: the best Hamburger, they got the best car, they've got
17:33
Speaker 1: the best cell phone and all these things. And that's
17:36
Speaker 1: why I'm enjoying this interview because I'm like bouncing back
17:39
Speaker 1: between versions of my brain left right, left, right, left right.
17:43
Speaker 1: But branding expert Courtney, what is that what is a
17:47
Speaker 1: branding expert? Please help me. I'm so and I love
17:52
Speaker 1: this question because people use the words branding and market
17:57
Speaker 1: marketing together like it's the same thing, and it's not.
17:59
Speaker 1: So we all know that a brand is just the
18:03
Speaker 1: way someone when I say rashan, what comes to people's mind,
18:08
Speaker 1: the energy, the images, the feeling. It's the story that
18:13
Speaker 1: we share out into the world because of the things
18:16
Speaker 1: we do right, and so we know in a corporate world,
18:19
Speaker 1: it's a nice logo and it's a position, right, like
18:23
Speaker 1: your hamburgers are gonna be you know, mid tier loads here,
18:28
Speaker 1: heights here, right. But for people and the kind of
18:31
Speaker 1: work that we do, branding is about what's the experience
18:35
Speaker 1: you're creating for people? What's the vibe that you get
18:38
Speaker 1: when you interact with us our brand. It's all about
18:41
Speaker 1: women's empowerment. It's all about being inclusive. It's all about
18:44
Speaker 1: having fun. It's all about doing meaningful work that's gonna
18:47
Speaker 1: make a real different and community of the African American
18:51
Speaker 1: community and communities of color. It's about showing a different
18:55
Speaker 1: narrative to women doing business together in one It's about positivity, connection, collaboration,
19:02
Speaker 1: and it's about when people interact with me and DNA,
19:05
Speaker 1: specifically with our brand and seeing d the agency. We
19:09
Speaker 1: want people to walk away feeling empowered, excited about moving
19:12
Speaker 1: towards again a more powerful, collaborative, inclusive community of whatever
19:20
Speaker 1: you're doing. So for us, it's it's women doing business
19:23
Speaker 1: and male dominated industries and making them feel good, you know,
19:27
Speaker 1: good about themselves. So it's just the experience that we
19:29
Speaker 1: create with the colors we use, the events that we curate,
19:34
Speaker 1: the messages that we said, and it's about being consistent
19:36
Speaker 1: in those things, and those things create the heartbeat of
19:40
Speaker 1: who you are as a company, as a person, and
19:43
Speaker 1: then you're marketing shares that messages out into the world
19:47
Speaker 1: through different platforms and stories and events and situations. See
19:52
Speaker 1: how smart she is. She's good? Um, she's scary good.
20:00
Speaker 1: I mean you know what I mean. Don't stop stop
20:03
Speaker 1: you are you blessing? You are a blessing. Okay. I
20:07
Speaker 1: remember that was my first take on you many years ago,
20:11
Speaker 1: and to see where you've transformed or evolved too is
20:15
Speaker 1: amazing now when when when I heard you talk cordony,
20:19
Speaker 1: it felt more like from a business standpoint, from you know,
20:22
Speaker 1: from a from a uh like like you know a
20:25
Speaker 1: product standpoint. And then I turned to Dina, and you
20:28
Speaker 1: use the word branding expert when it comes to talent,
20:33
Speaker 1: What does that mean, Dina? When it comes to talent, talent,
20:40
Speaker 1: talent is a brand in itself. So any any any artist,
20:44
Speaker 1: any any person that like yourself, you are at you
20:48
Speaker 1: are talent and you are your own brands. So we
20:51
Speaker 1: have to do the same thing. We have to maintain
20:53
Speaker 1: the proper messaging. What we want people to know and
20:56
Speaker 1: feel about you, how we wanted to look overall, how
21:00
Speaker 1: we wanted to feel. So it's pretty much the same
21:03
Speaker 1: way as Hamburgers, but it's a person, which makes it
21:07
Speaker 1: sometimes a little bit more complicated. Hamburger don't talk. Hamburger
21:10
Speaker 1: don't talk right. Hamburgers don't mess up somethings sometimes when
21:15
Speaker 1: they talk. They don't post on social media. They don't
21:18
Speaker 1: do that right. Hamburgers will change their minds sometimes the
21:22
Speaker 1: morning when you have a plan and then they decide,
21:24
Speaker 1: their mood just shifts and they want to do something else.
21:27
Speaker 1: That's you know, it's a little different. And hamburg and
21:30
Speaker 1: Hamburgers don't throw your strange looks either, that's right, Like
21:34
Speaker 1: you're a crazy one in the room and Hamburger will
21:37
Speaker 1: not throw you under the bus when you know what
21:40
Speaker 1: I mean. I love it. I love it. I've talked
21:44
Speaker 1: to my two sisters. I'm talking to you know. We're
21:46
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. We we we are the ladies that
21:49
Speaker 1: are always behind the scenes, the secret weapons that a
21:51
Speaker 1: lot of times people don't even know exist. But we
21:54
Speaker 1: are an integral part of the team that we're on.
21:59
Speaker 1: Cool path. Let's talk about Let's brag a little bit. Okay,
22:01
Speaker 1: I mentioned a little bit about t I and some
22:03
Speaker 1: of the accomplishment. Talk about some of your product, Dina,
22:06
Speaker 1: and then court Deem coming to you. Okay, okay. Well,
22:09
Speaker 1: my history has been in the music business mainly. I
22:12
Speaker 1: started a PR firm, an entertainment PR firm when I
22:14
Speaker 1: was nineteen in college. And then I met L A.
22:17
Speaker 1: Read when I was twenty one and he handpicked and
22:19
Speaker 1: hired me to work with him at Island def Jam.
22:21
Speaker 1: So I was on his A and R team for
22:23
Speaker 1: six years and I helped with Janet Jackson, L Cool,
22:26
Speaker 1: j Nas Young, Jeez, Rick Ross and and so many
22:29
Speaker 1: others when jay Z was president. And then I left
22:33
Speaker 1: to start my own artist development company and I built
22:36
Speaker 1: a recording studio in midtown Atlanta called twelve Music and Studios.
22:41
Speaker 1: I ran and operated that operated that facility, and I
22:45
Speaker 1: nurtured and managed talent for seven years. Then t I
22:50
Speaker 1: called me and wanted me back on his team because
22:52
Speaker 1: we worked together previously when I was a lot younger
22:54
Speaker 1: and he was putting out trap music. And I got
22:57
Speaker 1: back on his team, and I've been on his management
22:59
Speaker 1: team hell being out for the last three years. So
23:02
Speaker 1: I also sold my studio about a year and a
23:05
Speaker 1: half ago, just so I could do more focusing on
23:08
Speaker 1: the new things that I wanted to do and to
23:10
Speaker 1: kind of pivot and the same thing that we're doing
23:12
Speaker 1: now with pivoting with this agency, which is really a blessing,
23:15
Speaker 1: I'll say, because we're at the point in our careers
23:18
Speaker 1: we would get to kind of pick and choose who
23:20
Speaker 1: we want to work with, and that's truly a blessing.
23:23
Speaker 1: We don't we don't. We don't decide on working with
23:25
Speaker 1: clients based on monetary things. We decide on on what
23:29
Speaker 1: their vision is, what the messages, how is this going
23:32
Speaker 1: to impact the community. That's really where we make our decisions.
23:37
Speaker 1: Awesome Courtney c R the c in the d of
23:41
Speaker 1: the agency. That's me, your accomplishments, you your things. They
23:46
Speaker 1: brought you into this world that you when you sit
23:49
Speaker 1: down you make a pitch. You got to tell people
23:51
Speaker 1: what you're doing currently or what you've done in the past,
23:54
Speaker 1: how does they work and what do you have to say? UM. So,
23:59
Speaker 1: as far as my career accomplishments, I started my career
24:02
Speaker 1: right out of grad school started working for UM Clear
24:06
Speaker 1: Channel as an account manager for w POC, which is
24:11
Speaker 1: one of is that what you wanted to do A coordinate? UM?
24:14
Speaker 1: I wanted to be UM an anchorwoman initially until I
24:18
Speaker 1: did an internship actually, and then I changed my mind.
24:22
Speaker 1: And so you had aspirations of being a talent in
24:25
Speaker 1: one time at first, yes, yeah, UM But anyway, so
24:31
Speaker 1: I started as an account manager for w POC, which
24:34
Speaker 1: is a top five still country station in the country
24:38
Speaker 1: for Clear Channel, and I was selling POC country, jazz
24:44
Speaker 1: and gospel and digital. So it was I think it
24:49
Speaker 1: was like two thousand and three where digital just started
24:52
Speaker 1: to come up and we were trying to figure it
24:55
Speaker 1: out as a media company, what we're gonna sell, how
24:58
Speaker 1: we're going to be a the show clients. R Oyes
25:01
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. And so I did that for
25:04
Speaker 1: a year and a half and pretty quickly I was
25:06
Speaker 1: able to leverage a Jaguar deal for clear Channel throughout
25:12
Speaker 1: like twenty markets and it was a multimillion dollar deal
25:15
Speaker 1: and it kind of set my career up. And honestly
25:17
Speaker 1: it was a fluke, but that's a whole another story.
25:19
Speaker 1: It kind of set my career because I ended up
25:21
Speaker 1: getting recruited into management. That you gotta tell us the
25:26
Speaker 1: fluke now unless you say it was a blessing from
25:36
Speaker 1: being the nosing. This took over when you say fluke,
25:40
Speaker 1: it just like yeah. Um. So at any rate, that
25:46
Speaker 1: deal kind of set my career up, like I said.
25:48
Speaker 1: And so when that happened, because I ended up having
25:51
Speaker 1: to like go to corporate and present the deal to
25:54
Speaker 1: Jaguar and so like you know there um their VP
25:59
Speaker 1: of Marketing in head of brands, consumer brands and all
26:02
Speaker 1: that and close. The deal went really well, and so,
26:06
Speaker 1: like I said, that led into me being recruited by
26:10
Speaker 1: the executive management team. So I went to Tampa as
26:13
Speaker 1: a sales manager for three radio stations, one being launching
26:17
Speaker 1: The Beat, which was the first urban actually to go
26:20
Speaker 1: into Tampa believe it or not. UM w f l
26:24
Speaker 1: Z which is uh SHR station, and UH Mix which
26:30
Speaker 1: is like uh no Mix was the HR and w
26:35
Speaker 1: f l Z is like a pop station. But anyway,
26:36
Speaker 1: so I went there with three stations under my belt,
26:40
Speaker 1: stay in Tampa, learned the Ropes under my general sales manager.
26:44
Speaker 1: They gave me the Beat as my station within like
26:47
Speaker 1: three months, honestly, and I just had fun with it,
26:50
Speaker 1: Like I just used my intuition quite frankly, to UH
26:54
Speaker 1: make decisions UM. As far as marketing was concerned, how
26:58
Speaker 1: we were going to position urban and a market like
27:00
Speaker 1: Tampa that had never they had a reggae tone, but
27:03
Speaker 1: they never had an FM hip hop station, and so
27:07
Speaker 1: that went well. My boss in Tampa came to Atlanta
27:12
Speaker 1: as the market manager for Clear Channel Atlanta UM, and
27:17
Speaker 1: he recruited me. They were launching a country which is
27:19
Speaker 1: the Bowl, which is the number one country in the market.
27:22
Speaker 1: It was the FM broadcast for Brady's Radio network, and
27:26
Speaker 1: so UM. Once again I had kind of gotten the
27:31
Speaker 1: role of being of launching stations in new markets because
27:34
Speaker 1: of what we had done, the flip that we had
27:36
Speaker 1: done with the Beat in Tampa. So they brought me
27:39
Speaker 1: here to launch a country little microw Media in the South,
27:43
Speaker 1: and that's what I actually had two country stations. There
27:47
Speaker 1: was this little stick in Peachtree City called w d
27:50
Speaker 1: c L. I'm not sure what that stick is now.
27:52
Speaker 1: So I ran the two country stations and was in
27:55
Speaker 1: charge of Brady's Radio network, which taught me a lot
27:59
Speaker 1: of out just you know, managing forty eight million dollar
28:03
Speaker 1: radio station, managing a lot of people, managing responsibilities from
28:09
Speaker 1: I was in charge of the marketing department, the sales department,
28:12
Speaker 1: the promotions department, UM, and then I served on executive
28:17
Speaker 1: committee for for Clear Channels. So that kind of taught
28:21
Speaker 1: me the things that I needed to learn to kind
28:23
Speaker 1: of step out into entrepreneurship and UM. After doing that
28:28
Speaker 1: Clear Channel that spot by being capital UM there were
28:33
Speaker 1: eight general sales manager. Six of them got laid off.
28:37
Speaker 1: Unfortunately I was not one of them. I was super
28:39
Speaker 1: sad because they got this huge severance check and unfortunately
28:43
Speaker 1: I was one of the ones that stayed and had
28:45
Speaker 1: to make it work. And so that taught me more
28:47
Speaker 1: about acquisitions and mergers, mergers and how to make a
28:50
Speaker 1: profit and law statement work. And long story short, I
28:53
Speaker 1: left there started working for myself. Ford Morgricultural became my
28:56
Speaker 1: first client and my entrepreneurship during you started from there. Awesome,
29:01
Speaker 1: I toldwards National Women's Small Business mom Um speaking to
29:05
Speaker 1: Adina and Courtney. UH. The agency, which is what you
29:09
Speaker 1: c and d the agency? What you started in UH
29:12
Speaker 1: in the city of Atlanta. Your first project is it
29:15
Speaker 1: was is a voter education initiative aim at combining voter
29:19
Speaker 1: suppression in Georgia during the twenty election. Can you tell
29:22
Speaker 1: us how that, how that came about and also what
29:25
Speaker 1: are you doing when you say this is your first project.
29:28
Speaker 1: When when somebody says the first project out of the agency,
29:31
Speaker 1: what does that mean? Well, this is our first campaign
29:35
Speaker 1: that we're doing to to launch with the agency so
29:39
Speaker 1: people know what we are up to and that we
29:42
Speaker 1: want to do meaningful things in the community. I think
29:44
Speaker 1: it's really important right now to exercise your right to vote,
29:47
Speaker 1: but a lot of times people don't even understand their
29:50
Speaker 1: rights for voting, and so we want to just educate
29:53
Speaker 1: and give and and funnel all the information on into
29:55
Speaker 1: one place so people can get it, whether it's early voting,
29:59
Speaker 1: UM absentee ballot, or whether you're going in person on
30:03
Speaker 1: the day of vote, you know, election day. We want
30:07
Speaker 1: people to know, um, their rights. We want them to
30:10
Speaker 1: know that if they come across something that looks like
30:13
Speaker 1: voter suppression or it's something that's blocking them from doing
30:16
Speaker 1: what they have the right to do, they we want
30:19
Speaker 1: them to have that information. And so we're just pulling
30:21
Speaker 1: all that information together and sharing it through our network
30:25
Speaker 1: and through um just just our really just our network
30:29
Speaker 1: and social media of course. And um, I voted already earlier,
30:34
Speaker 1: but okay, cool put it, posted it on social media
30:37
Speaker 1: that I voted. And um, it's a very important election
30:39
Speaker 1: November thirte for a lot of reasons, but more importantly
30:43
Speaker 1: to get there, get this country back to a level
30:45
Speaker 1: of sanity that we all feel we can walk out
30:47
Speaker 1: our front door and return safe, because right now it
30:51
Speaker 1: gets ugly and ugly every day. Uh. And and closing,
30:54
Speaker 1: Courtney and Diana, First of all, thank you for coming
30:56
Speaker 1: on the show. I this was work this wise. It
30:59
Speaker 1: is such a beautiful interview. You guys are dominant personalities.
31:04
Speaker 1: I'm looking at two distinctively different position people that work
31:09
Speaker 1: incredibly well together. Your strengths they crossed, but they don't cross.
31:13
Speaker 1: When I say that means that you both understand your
31:15
Speaker 1: lanes and it allows you to be able to eloquently
31:19
Speaker 1: pitch like Courtney said, like she did in This Wild Me,
31:23
Speaker 1: and then all eloquently understand. Because I've managed talent, a lot,
31:27
Speaker 1: high profile talent, and I know exactly you know when
31:30
Speaker 1: you start talking, I laugh because every everything you said,
31:33
Speaker 1: I've had to deal with and still dealing. I jumped
31:36
Speaker 1: right back into fire and I said I would go well,
31:38
Speaker 1: I left Steve Harr I said I was done. I
31:40
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna do this anymore. And I'm back in. They
31:42
Speaker 1: pulled me back in reputation, pull me back in, But
31:45
Speaker 1: I want to just say thank you. I want to
31:47
Speaker 1: be in you guys life. You know, if you ever
31:49
Speaker 1: need my services. I I do a lot of media.
31:52
Speaker 1: I do RFPs. I love to include you guys in marketing, branding.
31:57
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get my staff to reach out to you
31:59
Speaker 1: guys and get the deck on you guys. So you
32:01
Speaker 1: know I'm gonna being an agency record for something selves
32:04
Speaker 1: for some fortune five hundred company from my multicultural perspective.
32:08
Speaker 1: And I don't do PR and so so you know
32:11
Speaker 1: I don't. So I can't do everything. But you can.
32:14
Speaker 1: You can lie that you can do everything, but you
32:15
Speaker 1: want to do it well. And I and I and
32:18
Speaker 1: just being the two young ladies who are trying to mentor.
32:22
Speaker 1: That was the key in this conversation that I was
32:23
Speaker 1: so impressed about because I was since I was eighteen,
32:26
Speaker 1: that's been my mantra. Uh No, don't leave anybody behind.
32:30
Speaker 1: I don't know why I did it. It was just
32:32
Speaker 1: called of my natural DNA and I from the very
32:35
Speaker 1: start of this conversation, that's all I heard you guys
32:37
Speaker 1: talk about. And I want to be a part of
32:39
Speaker 1: any way I can assist growing the CND the agency
32:42
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia, because both of you guys are brilliant. Courtney,
32:46
Speaker 1: I know your track worker that wasn't That's when impressed
32:48
Speaker 1: me way back then was the fact that you were
32:50
Speaker 1: selling more than black radio and uh and Dana Um
32:54
Speaker 1: meeting you for the first time, I've heard about you
32:56
Speaker 1: when I there's a lot of people, a lot of
32:58
Speaker 1: people said, dude, how you never Yeah, she said a
33:01
Speaker 1: lot of names. I know, okay, and we were So
33:03
Speaker 1: we've crossed and we've talked and I've heard about you
33:06
Speaker 1: and get you on my show. Money Making conversations and
33:09
Speaker 1: blessing and uh, thank you, thank so happy When you
33:12
Speaker 1: guys reached out, I was like, really, okay, I'm tuning
33:15
Speaker 1: to do this. It's great, thank you. And you hit
33:19
Speaker 1: it on the and you hit it right on the nose,
33:21
Speaker 1: like you have a way of knowing how to pick
33:24
Speaker 1: up on you know, your your your guest on the show,
33:28
Speaker 1: because I would say that you summ that up pretty well,
33:31
Speaker 1: you did. We were heart well. You know, I started
33:38
Speaker 1: this and I didn't know what I was doing from
33:40
Speaker 1: the standpoint, you know, I would just I didn't know
33:41
Speaker 1: why people were coming on the show where they're coming
33:43
Speaker 1: on the show, because I should manage stink Harvey. They
33:45
Speaker 1: think I'm getting on the radio show, the talk show,
33:47
Speaker 1: and I was trying to find my voice and and
33:49
Speaker 1: so I just look at two fantastic people that you
33:53
Speaker 1: know if you called me, and you know, I don't charge.
33:56
Speaker 1: That's why I started this whole platform here. But I
33:58
Speaker 1: do know how to make people famous. I do know
34:00
Speaker 1: how to and you guys are famous, okay, you your famous.
34:04
Speaker 1: Commodities Zoom has allowed me to have an interview like
34:07
Speaker 1: this because if I try to do this in January,
34:10
Speaker 1: but we're never what what is he talking about? But
34:13
Speaker 1: Zoom has allowed this format and to see how you
34:15
Speaker 1: guys operate on this world. You should do it as
34:18
Speaker 1: much as possible because you will shine in a lot
34:21
Speaker 1: of great lanes of opportunity because both of you guys
34:24
Speaker 1: are brilliant. Okay, thank you so much, so much for
34:28
Speaker 1: having are essential. The conversations you're having are really important.
34:31
Speaker 1: People what's happening behind the scenes and not in front
34:36
Speaker 1: of the TV screen. They need to know the intricacies
34:40
Speaker 1: of business and how to make money. It's really important.
34:44
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. I'm telling I staff to get a
34:46
Speaker 1: deck on you guys. Okay, and we're gonna talk to
34:49
Speaker 1: Bye bye, great thing, both of y'all. Bye bye. If
34:53
Speaker 1: we want to hear more money making Conversation interviews, please
34:55
Speaker 1: go to money Making Conversations dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald.
34:58
Speaker 1: I'm your host. Wow, that was pretty good. Huh.