Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Ron Gillyard and Will Campbell Full Interview

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Ron Gillyard and Will Campbell Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I am your host,
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Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. I recognized that we all have different definitions
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Speaker 1: of success. For some exercisable paycheck. Mine is helping people
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Speaker 1: wake up and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and
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Speaker 1: live their very best life. These are my passions and
0:15
Speaker 1: that's what I'm going to do for you. I want
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Speaker 1: you to stop tripping over small challenges and prepare to
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Speaker 1: rise above the bigger obstacles that life will present to you.
0:23
Speaker 1: On my show today, have two guests. I'm gonna introduced
0:26
Speaker 1: them separately. One I've known for a long time in
0:28
Speaker 1: the in the Steve Harvey Morning Show days. His name
0:33
Speaker 1: is Ron gil Yard. He's a trusted marketing and media
0:36
Speaker 1: executive who has advanced the initiative of companies and individuals
0:39
Speaker 1: in the technology, marketing and music industries for over twenty
0:43
Speaker 1: five years. He's a four thinking strategist. Gilliard has been
0:47
Speaker 1: able to consistently drive revenue growth, market penetration, and creative
0:51
Speaker 1: developments for all his clients. Also on the show, first
0:54
Speaker 1: time he's on the West Coast. He already told me.
0:56
Speaker 1: His name is Will Campbell. He's the co founder and
0:59
Speaker 1: CEO of Quantasy LLC. Wills more than twenty five year
1:03
Speaker 1: career can be most easily summarized by the quote, if
1:06
Speaker 1: you want to come up with new answers, you have
1:08
Speaker 1: to ask new questions. With his vision that he's co
1:11
Speaker 1: founded and led the growth of the agency to what
1:14
Speaker 1: now mounster more than sixty people and one fully integrated
1:17
Speaker 1: cultural marketing force. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations, Chief
1:21
Speaker 1: Growth Officer of Quantasy and Associates, who is also a
1:24
Speaker 1: partner with co founder and CEO at Quantasy LLC, Ron
1:29
Speaker 1: Gillyard and Will Campbell. Thank you, sir. I had to
1:35
Speaker 1: get a lot of you got a lot of talking
1:36
Speaker 1: about man, you know what I'm saying. But when you
1:43
Speaker 1: have something like when offur just letting them know about
1:45
Speaker 1: the show, everybody, I was just setting up what this
1:48
Speaker 1: show really about. And I hope they took us as
1:50
Speaker 1: a compliment. I felt that in the industry that we
1:53
Speaker 1: that I try to reach the entrepreneurial space, the information space.
1:56
Speaker 1: YouTube guys are to me, it's recognizable talents, like having
2:00
Speaker 1: hard type talent, like the high profile celebrity talents. You've
2:04
Speaker 1: got some celebrities in your own rights, what you guys
2:07
Speaker 1: are doing in this particular brand of business. And since
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Speaker 1: you are the co founder and the CEO of Quanta
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Speaker 1: cy LLC, well cowboll, tell us what that what that
2:15
Speaker 1: company does? Initially? Yeah, thanks for sean. UM. So we're
2:20
Speaker 1: creative services agency. UM. I think the shortest way to
2:24
Speaker 1: put it is we help businesses and brands grow by
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Speaker 1: Christian culture in the right direction UM. And the services
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Speaker 1: that we provide extended entertainment, technology, marketing, branding UM and
2:38
Speaker 1: how we bring culture into those worlds to help grow
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Speaker 1: businesses and brands. Right. So now that's that's the creative shot.
2:47
Speaker 1: Then then run you come in. I see revenue growth
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Speaker 1: tied to your name. Explain to me and my listener
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Speaker 1: exactly what does that mean? UM? That means finding opportunities
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Speaker 1: to to grow the company from a financial standpoint, from
3:04
Speaker 1: revenue standpoint, from a side standpoint, and helping our partners.
3:08
Speaker 1: You know, the sign of a good partner is someone
3:10
Speaker 1: who not only you know, who pays you money. Yeah,
3:15
Speaker 1: you're an employee if they just pay you, but if
3:17
Speaker 1: you're able to show them ways in which they can
3:20
Speaker 1: grow their business and elevate, you know, their business and
3:24
Speaker 1: grow their revenue. Then that's the sign of a good partnership.
3:27
Speaker 1: So with the clients that we have and hope to have, UM,
3:32
Speaker 1: we've always tried to not only you know, be there
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Speaker 1: and be creative from the marketing side, but we look
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Speaker 1: at that business Will and myself and and other members
3:41
Speaker 1: of the team, and we try to find ways if
3:45
Speaker 1: they're not thinking about something, to illuminate that for them.
3:48
Speaker 1: I used to always say, sometimes you're so busy running
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Speaker 1: the store that you're you you spend no time growing
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Speaker 1: the store or you know, so just finding ways to
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Speaker 1: to increase profitability where it's like just say, you know,
4:05
Speaker 1: you can't make the hamburger, clean up the store and
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Speaker 1: drop the fries at the same time, somebody got to
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Speaker 1: be working a cash register too, you know. And that's
4:15
Speaker 1: really what this is all about. When when I try
4:17
Speaker 1: to interview people on these shows, I try to get
4:19
Speaker 1: information about what money making conversation really is all about.
4:22
Speaker 1: It's about these different layers that we have out there.
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Speaker 1: And so Will, why did you why did you bring
4:27
Speaker 1: up individual like Ron into your company? What? What what
4:31
Speaker 1: visionary needs did you have to have somebody in your platform? Yeah,
4:36
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting, man, when when we first started
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Speaker 1: this company, you know, we saw these different worlds. Uh.
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Speaker 1: There were people in the entertainment space, UM, and then
4:47
Speaker 1: on a whole different plane there were people in the
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Speaker 1: tech space, UM, and then in a whole different world
4:53
Speaker 1: there were people in the marketing space. And they were
4:56
Speaker 1: all very sort of like disconnected units. But I always
4:59
Speaker 1: saw the one space. Always saw how technology works with
5:05
Speaker 1: entertainment works with brand development as one thing. And then
5:09
Speaker 1: as as Ron and I developed our friendship first, he
5:14
Speaker 1: instantly occurred to me and somebody that just got that,
5:17
Speaker 1: and it's it's a way that he had been working
5:19
Speaker 1: for years and years. He and I started off on
5:22
Speaker 1: some entrepreneurial things, doing some things together UM, and it
5:26
Speaker 1: came to a point where it was like, hey man,
5:28
Speaker 1: I would love for you to come over here and
5:29
Speaker 1: help me grow this. We had a similar vision UM
5:33
Speaker 1: as well as with my other partner, and so it
5:36
Speaker 1: really was just a clear understanding, and he has so
5:40
Speaker 1: much knowledge and insight into where we were trying to
5:43
Speaker 1: take the business. It just made a lot of sense
5:45
Speaker 1: for us. Okay, now he now he threw some out
5:48
Speaker 1: in I gotta ask you, what knowledge it insight did
5:50
Speaker 1: you have Ron. I'm just just being curious here. You know,
5:54
Speaker 1: I'm listening to a visionary so a person over there.
5:58
Speaker 1: And I love you, you you know, I've always loved you
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Speaker 1: a person now because I don't care what was going
6:01
Speaker 1: bad or good, You're always wrong. You stayed right there,
6:05
Speaker 1: you stayed centered. So what what what qualities did you
6:07
Speaker 1: have that rong that that really just just stepped the
6:10
Speaker 1: whole process that made it a great partnership. Um, no
6:18
Speaker 1: question for will, but I will sometimes sometimes you gotta
6:23
Speaker 1: talk about yourself. Okay, other people to talk about you,
6:26
Speaker 1: but sometimes you can talk about you because a lot
6:27
Speaker 1: of people don't do that. That's what social media is
6:29
Speaker 1: all about. Social media is is the form I call it.
6:32
Speaker 1: We live in the Mohammad, the Mamahali era, That's what
6:35
Speaker 1: I call people. Because you gotta tell people you the
6:36
Speaker 1: greatest now because he he branded it, but now people
6:39
Speaker 1: are doing it now. So I'm not saying you gotta
6:41
Speaker 1: tell the people you the greatest. But there are qualities
6:43
Speaker 1: that people see in people like you that some people
6:46
Speaker 1: need to like understand that has value. And I met
6:50
Speaker 1: you in the record game. You know, when I was
6:53
Speaker 1: listening to player music, you had all these radio show,
6:56
Speaker 1: radio stations and things like that. That's how my relationship.
6:59
Speaker 1: Now you're in a whole different platform, and a lot
7:01
Speaker 1: of people don't know how to make that transition. They
7:03
Speaker 1: feel like they're stuck. Yeah. So for me, I've always
7:10
Speaker 1: had a wee not me mentality. I have always tried
7:14
Speaker 1: to analyze. I think my one of my biggest faults
7:20
Speaker 1: is also one of my biggest biggest assets. And I
7:25
Speaker 1: needed to down downsize the fault part of that and
7:30
Speaker 1: and but recognize it. I was never comfortable in the
7:35
Speaker 1: space that I was in. I was always looking towards
7:38
Speaker 1: the next what's next. When I was an intern, I
7:43
Speaker 1: was trying to imagine. I came to work every day
7:46
Speaker 1: dressed like I was the director of marketing or director
7:52
Speaker 1: of A and R. When I was that, I was
7:54
Speaker 1: came as if I was the vice president, and I
7:58
Speaker 1: just came to work every day thinking like I'm gonna
8:01
Speaker 1: run this particular job that I have is if I'm
8:03
Speaker 1: the president of this organization. I'm not, but I know
8:08
Speaker 1: that I want to be. So I was always off
8:10
Speaker 1: in the future. Um, I think that you know you
8:16
Speaker 1: said I'm always calm. I think this is me angry
8:19
Speaker 1: this is me, man, sad, glad, whatever. So I'm always
8:24
Speaker 1: center and I'm always watching. I learned at the early
8:27
Speaker 1: age that you were gonna learn so much more by
8:31
Speaker 1: listening than talking. So it was I think it's the
8:35
Speaker 1: reason Guy gave us two areas in one mouth. The
8:38
Speaker 1: other thing is I was in a business that, in
8:42
Speaker 1: the music business, my job was to spot talent. But
8:45
Speaker 1: I didn't just look for people that could singer dance.
8:47
Speaker 1: I also looked for people that had a different kind
8:52
Speaker 1: of talent and executive talent. And I've worked, you know,
8:55
Speaker 1: with some really really smart let and dairy if you
9:01
Speaker 1: will people. And I said when I got in the
9:04
Speaker 1: music business that when they wrote the book about hip hop,
9:09
Speaker 1: when they wrote the book about R and B music, um,
9:14
Speaker 1: I at least one of the sentence in that book, right,
9:17
Speaker 1: And you know, you know, if I get a chapter,
9:20
Speaker 1: so be it. And but I became robbing to a
9:25
Speaker 1: lot of Batman's right. And I worked alongside Andre Horrell,
9:31
Speaker 1: I worked alongside Sean Combs or p Diddy or Puff
9:34
Speaker 1: Daddy or Puff or Diddy or whicheveryone we're going with
9:37
Speaker 1: this week. So I worked alongside Clive Davis, Jimmy Iveen, Um,
9:44
Speaker 1: you know, Irving AI's Off, Simon Rinshaw, some of the
9:48
Speaker 1: best in the business to do it. And to be honest,
9:52
Speaker 1: when I met Will, I always tell this funny story
9:55
Speaker 1: which i'll you know, it's long, so i'll preview. I
9:59
Speaker 1: realized Will because water to a drowning man, myself saying
10:03
Speaker 1: to an era. And I was like, there's something about
10:06
Speaker 1: this guy, and he had similar qualities to some of
10:11
Speaker 1: those people that I named that I've worked within the
10:13
Speaker 1: music business, and so it was a no brainer for
10:16
Speaker 1: me to try to be helpful. And I had a
10:20
Speaker 1: perspective and I had this worldview, and you get elevated
10:24
Speaker 1: to this in music, you get elevated to this somewhat
10:28
Speaker 1: unreal perch of that you know everything when you don't.
10:34
Speaker 1: But since I was on that perch, I was gonna
10:36
Speaker 1: try to read and consume as much knowledge as possible.
10:40
Speaker 1: And I'm not a talkative guy normally, but if I
10:44
Speaker 1: become comfortable with you, it's hard to shut me up
10:46
Speaker 1: when I think I know something, Well, we'll definitely uh.
10:50
Speaker 1: You have the skill the gift of gap. We all
10:52
Speaker 1: need to have that and all to these successful in
10:54
Speaker 1: this business. I'm speaking to just re introduce you guys
10:57
Speaker 1: to my audience. Wrong, guil Yard and Will Campbell Quantitity
11:00
Speaker 1: and Associates Quantity LLC, which especially fully integrated cultural Marketing
11:06
Speaker 1: force UM runs on the West East coast and Willows
11:10
Speaker 1: on the West coast. Now, Will he said something, you
11:12
Speaker 1: said that you can sell water to a drowning man. Okay,
11:16
Speaker 1: so now the pandemic hit. Now, when the pandemic hit
11:19
Speaker 1: in Marching this country said we have to shut down.
11:22
Speaker 1: All my staff became employed via zoom and so I
11:27
Speaker 1: don't have sixty people, but I got enough that I
11:29
Speaker 1: had to keep the checks rolling to create some type
11:31
Speaker 1: of synergy and also trying to continue to make money
11:35
Speaker 1: a plan to make money. So with the skilled level,
11:38
Speaker 1: did you have being able to sell water to to
11:41
Speaker 1: the water to a drowning man? What did you do
11:43
Speaker 1: when it and what was your perspective when the COVID
11:46
Speaker 1: ainteen hit and the impacted your business practices? UM? I
11:52
Speaker 1: mean it was you know, when it comes to I
11:54
Speaker 1: think the idea of selling two people, it's about how
12:01
Speaker 1: you can help. And now's the question we asked, how
12:03
Speaker 1: can I help? Where can I help? UM? And and
12:08
Speaker 1: helping people sells itself. UM. And you know, I don't
12:13
Speaker 1: think people play enough value on what it means to
12:16
Speaker 1: provide value to others. So what we did we really
12:20
Speaker 1: looked at UM the people in our world and what
12:25
Speaker 1: challenges they were facing, what new challenges they were facing
12:28
Speaker 1: in light of the pandemic UM, and where we could
12:31
Speaker 1: come in and play a role. And so for each
12:34
Speaker 1: of our different clients, that were different issues that they
12:39
Speaker 1: were suffering to look as. We also looked internally. But
12:43
Speaker 1: as for instance, UM, knowing that we have in house
12:47
Speaker 1: engineering and technology chops, UM, we looked at the event business,
12:52
Speaker 1: which had gotten decimated because you know, people couldn't produce events.
12:58
Speaker 1: We had clients that had events edule that they had
13:00
Speaker 1: to cancel. We have friends that are event producers UM,
13:05
Speaker 1: and so we delivered technology that we had already been
13:09
Speaker 1: working on to create virtual events and UM. You know
13:14
Speaker 1: people in the business, for instance, working closely with Rich
13:18
Speaker 1: Dennis Essence, who's also a visionary, great guy, UM, their
13:25
Speaker 1: Essence Festival, which as you know, is a massive, massive,
13:28
Speaker 1: massive event people generally it was gonna be canceled. So
13:34
Speaker 1: not only do do those six hundred thousand people within
13:38
Speaker 1: the Black community missed out on this huge opportunity. There's
13:42
Speaker 1: a whole laundry list of clients and sponsors and all that.
13:47
Speaker 1: So this would be a big revenue hit right. So
13:51
Speaker 1: by by partner with Rich and his team to deliver
13:54
Speaker 1: the Essence Fest, virtually he's got a great group of
13:57
Speaker 1: producers and staff on his side as well. By a
14:00
Speaker 1: partner with him to deliver it, he was able to
14:02
Speaker 1: help those clients to recover that revenue and still serve
14:07
Speaker 1: um his mission and his and his audience and his
14:12
Speaker 1: Essence subscribers and so like. I said that that sells itself,
14:17
Speaker 1: um and so identifying those opportunities to help people is
14:21
Speaker 1: really where it starts. You know, it's really interesting that
14:24
Speaker 1: you brought up to Essence because of the fact it
14:26
Speaker 1: is a massive live event, and massive live events or
14:29
Speaker 1: any live event, you know, it affected individuals tour and
14:32
Speaker 1: stand up comedians, singers, or large tours, movie theaters, anything
14:37
Speaker 1: that had mass attendance, was affected by the country shutdown,
14:41
Speaker 1: as well as still affected by the COVID nateen and
14:43
Speaker 1: the virus that may be encountered without proper social social
14:47
Speaker 1: distancing and mass Now do you feel that they're because
14:51
Speaker 1: of the pandemic that the virtual industry. When I say
14:54
Speaker 1: that virtual entertainment side has been even more developed. When
14:59
Speaker 1: I watched Damis last night and just watching, uh, you know,
15:03
Speaker 1: I've been fortunate to participate in some self produced virtual
15:07
Speaker 1: events myself. What do you think the Essence Festival would
15:10
Speaker 1: always would consider doing a virtual versions all because of
15:14
Speaker 1: the success that had this year? Or you think that
15:17
Speaker 1: that the live way is the only way that they're
15:19
Speaker 1: going to continue to do business? And what a great question.
15:23
Speaker 1: And here and here's what I say. I'm gonna go
15:25
Speaker 1: back to go forward. So, as you know, in recent years,
15:29
Speaker 1: a lot of the business skylarking, whether it's Coachella, whether
15:34
Speaker 1: it's Essence Festival, showing about music festivals, conferences, complex count
15:38
Speaker 1: you name it and from and these were huge revenue centers, right,
15:43
Speaker 1: sponsors for products, sales for tickets, for all of those
15:47
Speaker 1: kinds of things. But what you've seen recently over the
15:50
Speaker 1: last years is how much these a lot of experiences
15:54
Speaker 1: were working to become more digital anyway, right, so little
16:00
Speaker 1: event now you're saying, uh, photo ops for Instagram and
16:04
Speaker 1: hashtags to track this and to sell this, because creating
16:09
Speaker 1: an epicenter of culture and activity that could then spawn
16:15
Speaker 1: a global reach right to create or engagement um from
16:21
Speaker 1: all around the world. So I think that global perspective
16:25
Speaker 1: of a live event is only going to continue. I
16:28
Speaker 1: think during purely virtual events, I think there's some fatigue
16:32
Speaker 1: around that. And so I think even though they have swelled,
16:36
Speaker 1: when the actual physical events come back, it's going to
16:40
Speaker 1: enhance the virtual eventage, right because now it's like, hey,
16:45
Speaker 1: you can participate in this event um in addition to
16:50
Speaker 1: the physical versus instead of right, it's not instead of
16:54
Speaker 1: it's how it's how they work together. So now you
16:57
Speaker 1: can have a Coachella, a conference kind of s and
17:00
Speaker 1: spect but still have a global reach where people can
17:02
Speaker 1: kind of participate and grow. So I think that physical
17:06
Speaker 1: events will come back, and they'll come back with even
17:09
Speaker 1: greater digital extensions and capacity going forward. And so with
17:16
Speaker 1: that being said, ron I was talking to the agency
17:19
Speaker 1: that represents the Air Force and we were talking about
17:21
Speaker 1: virtual events, and they were saying, is you know they've
17:24
Speaker 1: not seen enough yet to quantify quantify the success of
17:28
Speaker 1: whether these virtual events were because you know, in a
17:31
Speaker 1: live event, you know when somebody walks through the door,
17:33
Speaker 1: you can that's a person you can you can get
17:35
Speaker 1: their information, get their background information, and they can be
17:38
Speaker 1: part of the data growth and you can you can
17:41
Speaker 1: you can justify uh that action now when you're getting
17:44
Speaker 1: into this virtual world, which is a potential new revenue
17:48
Speaker 1: growth stream for for you to be able to go
17:50
Speaker 1: out there and talk to new partners or old partners.
17:53
Speaker 1: How does this conversation I just had with Will and
17:55
Speaker 1: the conversation I just had with this agency that represents
17:58
Speaker 1: the air Force, I'm coming to play with you and
18:01
Speaker 1: what you're when you're when you're trying to generate revenue growth.
18:06
Speaker 1: I think the thing that I tell someone and I
18:08
Speaker 1: didn't I'm not gonna take credit for this quote. Well,
18:12
Speaker 1: the two quotes that I try to tell try to
18:14
Speaker 1: slip into every conversation that I have with someone about growth.
18:18
Speaker 1: One of them is predicting rain doesn't count building the
18:23
Speaker 1: arc does. There are a lot of people that could
18:25
Speaker 1: tell you what's gonna happen and what they think is
18:28
Speaker 1: gonna happen and all of this other stuff, and they
18:30
Speaker 1: do nothing and then they're still not prepared when that
18:33
Speaker 1: thing happens. Right. Um. The other one is the quickest
18:40
Speaker 1: way to failure is always is saying, but that's not
18:43
Speaker 1: how we've always done it. And so I think to
18:47
Speaker 1: piggyback on the question that you ask will and and
18:49
Speaker 1: and also to answer the question that you've just asked
18:52
Speaker 1: me is and I'll tell this story. We started building
19:00
Speaker 1: that virtual platform that Will spoke of before COVID nineteen.
19:05
Speaker 1: We we started building it off an idea of what if, again,
19:11
Speaker 1: asking different questions, right, um, what if I can experience?
19:18
Speaker 1: What if I want to experience the live event? And
19:21
Speaker 1: then we'll use essence as an example. There are things
19:25
Speaker 1: that essence that you are missing out on when you
19:29
Speaker 1: make certain decisions right about what you're going to do
19:33
Speaker 1: and how you're going to spend your time. Yes, everyone
19:35
Speaker 1: is in the stadium at night, but there are seminars
19:37
Speaker 1: by day. There's you know, they take over the convention center.
19:41
Speaker 1: You can go shopping, You could do all of these
19:43
Speaker 1: other things and all of these so you make choices
19:47
Speaker 1: and you don't get to see other things. Virtual allows
19:51
Speaker 1: you to get that rest you need for that Janet
19:56
Speaker 1: Jackson concert tonight and still see that handle with Rashaan
20:02
Speaker 1: during the daytime. Right, and so from a revenue growth standpoint,
20:06
Speaker 1: this person has spent money on the ticket, spent money
20:11
Speaker 1: on a hotel, renting a car, or engaging in ubers
20:14
Speaker 1: and transportation, building that local economy, building money for you know,
20:20
Speaker 1: essence Coffers. Where's the revenue, where's the growth potential? I'm
20:24
Speaker 1: gonna charge him to log in to see Rashaw's panel,
20:31
Speaker 1: and he could still be in his hotel room. He
20:33
Speaker 1: or she could still be in their hotel room preparing
20:37
Speaker 1: for a concert that they're gonna see tonight. So there
20:40
Speaker 1: was always I have a comic con analogy. I have
20:43
Speaker 1: a complex kind analogy of all of those other things.
20:46
Speaker 1: So I think the other thing is the barrier of entry.
20:51
Speaker 1: We all had to sign into Zoom. I clicked the button,
20:55
Speaker 1: I clicked on the link. Someone in your organization let
20:58
Speaker 1: me in and where it. But if you wanted to
21:01
Speaker 1: gather more information, then I fill out something so that
21:06
Speaker 1: same data that you're getting by might be physically buying
21:10
Speaker 1: that ticket through ticket Master or whatever for that live event,
21:14
Speaker 1: you can gather that gap data and a more accurate
21:17
Speaker 1: version of that data digitally. And so all of that
21:20
Speaker 1: helps with UM growth and thinking about UM how to
21:26
Speaker 1: engage both in a physical and digital world. I love
21:31
Speaker 1: Before COVID nineteen, I think people thought it was one
21:34
Speaker 1: or the other, and we've we always viewed it as
21:37
Speaker 1: one Ambia, which is very smart when you when I
21:40
Speaker 1: see companies like Disney when they do what they're doing
21:43
Speaker 1: with the movie Move On, which they yet to tell
21:45
Speaker 1: anybody how much money made so far, when they said, look,
21:48
Speaker 1: we got eighty million subscribers and we're gonna charge thirty
21:51
Speaker 1: dollars a ticket if we can pull it in ten
21:54
Speaker 1: percent of that and still put this in the movie here,
21:56
Speaker 1: that ten percent that we got, we get we control
21:59
Speaker 1: one hurt percent. And the thing that you know, one
22:01
Speaker 1: of the major reasons of just hearing numbers like that
22:04
Speaker 1: and talking to a growth expert and talking to a
22:07
Speaker 1: founder or a visionary can consider both of you, guys
22:09
Speaker 1: visionaries when I when I talk about the futures that
22:12
Speaker 1: the technology aspect, and one thing is always angering me guys,
22:16
Speaker 1: is that blacks has always been viewed as less, less
22:21
Speaker 1: capable of delivering the technically advanced or the the technically
22:26
Speaker 1: perceived well organized platform. Do you what what do you
22:30
Speaker 1: have to fight against will when you talk about your
22:33
Speaker 1: your business when people are not saying people are doing this.
22:36
Speaker 1: Let me just get that cleared up. I'm just talking
22:37
Speaker 1: about my experience and dealing with people having a having
22:41
Speaker 1: a point of view that can be limited based on
22:43
Speaker 1: what they perceive I can do as an African African
22:46
Speaker 1: American or as a company. How did you walk through
22:49
Speaker 1: that next step and and present your company is capable
22:52
Speaker 1: of doing everything? You know? UM, The short answer is
22:58
Speaker 1: sometimes you can show them better than you can tell them. UM.
23:03
Speaker 1: And I think that you have to UM put your
23:07
Speaker 1: faith in your team and in the work and do
23:08
Speaker 1: what you can. UM. Now that said, there are a
23:12
Speaker 1: lot of barriers to access that we face, UM, limitations
23:19
Speaker 1: to resources that we face, and so at the same token,
23:23
Speaker 1: I'm fully aware of that, and I think just because
23:27
Speaker 1: maybe I've been able to have some success doing X
23:30
Speaker 1: y Z doesn't guarantee that the next person in my
23:33
Speaker 1: position is going to have a fair shot. And so
23:37
Speaker 1: I don't just look at it it's like, oh, well, hey,
23:39
Speaker 1: look we did it. And even though that there's those
23:41
Speaker 1: that have done more and have had greater success than us,
23:45
Speaker 1: I know that there's always like various limitations and so
23:49
Speaker 1: UM with that in mind, we still spend a lot
23:51
Speaker 1: of our time trying to break down those barriers with
23:55
Speaker 1: some of the philanthropic work that we do, with some
23:58
Speaker 1: of the advocacy work that we do. I serve on
24:01
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles County UM Small Business Commission for that
24:06
Speaker 1: exact reason, to find ways to advocate for resources and
24:11
Speaker 1: opportunities for small businesses UM in in l A, which
24:14
Speaker 1: is Learne thee UM minority so UM. For me personally,
24:20
Speaker 1: it's about continuing to trying to partner with the right
24:23
Speaker 1: people gain access for instance, and this opportunity to be
24:27
Speaker 1: able to partner with you will share knowledge and information
24:30
Speaker 1: to so an audience that's come to trust what you're
24:33
Speaker 1: doing and what you have to say UM, and then
24:36
Speaker 1: just continue to focus on doing really good work UM
24:41
Speaker 1: so that people you know, gain trust in what you're doing.
24:44
Speaker 1: We know that reason. I bringing that up because I've
24:46
Speaker 1: been fortunate to be in this business, especially on radio side,
24:49
Speaker 1: from two thousand and listen watch agencies to go from
24:53
Speaker 1: black agencies to determ multicultural agencies and then they started
24:58
Speaker 1: giving up the money and the money seems to be
25:00
Speaker 1: lesser for the from the black side of the agency
25:04
Speaker 1: is trying to target that particular audience and so now
25:06
Speaker 1: we're in the middle of a pandemic, and we've seen
25:09
Speaker 1: a tremendous surge. When I say surge, I'm talking about
25:12
Speaker 1: Black Lives matters. We've seen HBCU donations. We've seen companies
25:17
Speaker 1: announced that they have money set aside for minority supplier development,
25:21
Speaker 1: but not let you know that minority suppliers also include
25:24
Speaker 1: white women. Okay, but and so when you're dealing with
25:27
Speaker 1: all these things, do you feel there's an opportunity now
25:31
Speaker 1: to really put your business into the forefront run or
25:34
Speaker 1: will most of you guys can answer it one at
25:36
Speaker 1: the time. I just want to get a sense of
25:39
Speaker 1: looking at what we are the landscape now. Are we're
25:41
Speaker 1: able to really jump out there now and participate? Um?
25:48
Speaker 1: You know, I would say it's a certain degree, yes, Um,
25:52
Speaker 1: I think that what we're seeing, And just to shure
25:55
Speaker 1: some positive light on it, I think the the global
25:59
Speaker 1: awakening that you've seen has has a lot of people
26:03
Speaker 1: doneuinely reacting to the recent events and genuinely saying no,
26:13
Speaker 1: we can't allow this to continue, and genuinely trying to
26:17
Speaker 1: engage in conversations and looking to support black businesses and
26:22
Speaker 1: trying to find out what they can do when we
26:24
Speaker 1: see the rise of ally Ship, and I think that
26:26
Speaker 1: there's a certain genuine nature of that um and I
26:30
Speaker 1: think there's a recognition of some of the some of
26:33
Speaker 1: the some of the black budses getting our portunities have
26:35
Speaker 1: been doing great work for decades, you know, phenomenal work
26:39
Speaker 1: for decades. So I do think that there's a little
26:43
Speaker 1: bit of a broader opportunity that I think that we're happy,
26:50
Speaker 1: but it's not enough, right. The playing field has not
26:54
Speaker 1: been leveled, right. The system hasn't been dismantled yet. But
27:00
Speaker 1: to answer your question, I do think that we're seeing
27:03
Speaker 1: opportunities open up and some more focus, but but the
27:09
Speaker 1: work is nowhere near close to being finished. It's not
27:12
Speaker 1: it's not. Before I before I wrapped up the call,
27:14
Speaker 1: they want to thank you guys for the time and
27:16
Speaker 1: you've given me to just talk about your brand, talk
27:18
Speaker 1: about YouTube visionaries from a standpoint of what you deal
27:20
Speaker 1: with now for the pandemic, while the pandemic and post pandemic,
27:25
Speaker 1: because we have to always think that there is a future,
27:27
Speaker 1: and if you don't plan for the future, then then
27:30
Speaker 1: there's no opportunity to see success. Now, there's an app
27:34
Speaker 1: called the True Voice and mindfulness app for women of
27:37
Speaker 1: color Ron what exactly is that? Wow? True voice, so
27:43
Speaker 1: true Voice. UM. We looked out over the landscape and
27:51
Speaker 1: now I'm talking to two black men here talking about
27:54
Speaker 1: a female APPA. And so we have we try to
28:00
Speaker 1: look filling through the lens of business, but also through
28:02
Speaker 1: a cultural lens. And we noticed that in the world
28:05
Speaker 1: of mindfulness and and as we deal with we deal
28:10
Speaker 1: I hear people talk about wearing the same we're all
28:13
Speaker 1: in the same storm. I mean, no, we're all in
28:16
Speaker 1: the same boat. We're all in the same boat. And
28:18
Speaker 1: no we're in the same storm. We're definitely in different boats. Right.
28:24
Speaker 1: And so when you look at these apps and meditational
28:31
Speaker 1: apps and things like that, that we're very general market
28:35
Speaker 1: and there weren't very specific two um the cultural realities
28:44
Speaker 1: of women of color or people of color. And again,
28:49
Speaker 1: predicting rain doesn't count building the arc does. We decided
28:54
Speaker 1: that we wanted to play a miss, that it would
28:59
Speaker 1: be great to introduced something that had that hits some
29:03
Speaker 1: of the cultural beats of that These other mindfulness or
29:08
Speaker 1: um apps, these mindfulness apps were missing out on the
29:12
Speaker 1: other part of it is you know, see your other
29:15
Speaker 1: question earlier question. Once again, an industry was was growing
29:20
Speaker 1: and being valued at hundreds of millions, if not billions
29:25
Speaker 1: of dollars, and people of color to the degree that
29:30
Speaker 1: they were being thought of We're only thought of as consumers.
29:35
Speaker 1: You weren't thought of as stakeholders in these businesses. And
29:41
Speaker 1: we had seen that in so many other industries before that.
29:44
Speaker 1: We decided that it would be good to introduce something
29:47
Speaker 1: like this as fathers of daughters, as friends that have
29:53
Speaker 1: each other to lean on and talk through other things,
29:56
Speaker 1: someone who believes in counseling. Um Will's mother, it's a
30:02
Speaker 1: clinical psychologists, grew up, you know, spent her career in
30:05
Speaker 1: that business. It was something that we saw the value in,
30:08
Speaker 1: an importance of, and so it wasn't much like you know,
30:13
Speaker 1: to put it in layman's terms, think of calm or headspace,
30:17
Speaker 1: but through the lens, the cultural lens of minorities or
30:22
Speaker 1: women of color. It's really uh, thank you for that,
30:25
Speaker 1: that great response. I know that as a black man
30:29
Speaker 1: and uh and seeing like you said earlier, Will the
30:32
Speaker 1: cultural rage worldwide about what happened with the George Floord.
30:38
Speaker 1: You know, I'm talking to black men. You know the
30:41
Speaker 1: experience of work we have to deal with when a
30:43
Speaker 1: policeman I don't. I don't comfortably. I don't feel comfortable
30:47
Speaker 1: when the policeman stops me because I don't know why
30:48
Speaker 1: you're stopping me, and it doesn't. And when he got
30:51
Speaker 1: pulled out of Mercedes Being, I told Steve name Smith,
30:53
Speaker 1: I said, the game and changed. They pulled him out
30:55
Speaker 1: of that wouldn't have beat up car they pulled him
30:57
Speaker 1: out of. They pulled him out of Mercedes Being. And
30:59
Speaker 1: so it does that that level of disrespect showed itself.
31:02
Speaker 1: But what also came out of this was it was
31:05
Speaker 1: really interesting. And a a lot of my white friends called
31:07
Speaker 1: me that weekend and go, I didn't know that was
31:11
Speaker 1: That's the question they said. I didn't know. They said you,
31:14
Speaker 1: you actually have to deal with this. I said, yeah.
31:17
Speaker 1: And so being able to almost live my life through
31:21
Speaker 1: a lens of honesty. Now I'm not saying I didn't
31:24
Speaker 1: because I'm Rushan McDonald. I'm gonna tell you how I
31:26
Speaker 1: feel and what I fear. But if people are looking
31:28
Speaker 1: at me with a sense of understanding what I have
31:32
Speaker 1: to deal with will help us win. And when I
31:35
Speaker 1: when I and that's why I wanted to bring YouTube
31:37
Speaker 1: gentlemen on the show, because you're in a world that
31:40
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes people don't appreciate you and we'll say
31:43
Speaker 1: you can only do this, and we talked about the
31:46
Speaker 1: African American experience, but I know for a fact you can.
31:48
Speaker 1: Guys can do any experience. And so but sometimes you say,
31:52
Speaker 1: I'm gonna win here to win here the financial pictures.
31:55
Speaker 1: So with that being said, well are you what is
31:58
Speaker 1: the future of your company? What is you? You? You
32:00
Speaker 1: you broke wrong into this? Wrong is the growth right partner?
32:03
Speaker 1: What is the future of your company and your brand? Yeah?
32:08
Speaker 1: I think that it's um to one is to get
32:13
Speaker 1: better at making the pivot. I think that as we
32:18
Speaker 1: go forward, you know, one of the single most important
32:23
Speaker 1: skills that we can develop is the ability to pivot.
32:28
Speaker 1: And that's how you play the long game, right, um
32:33
Speaker 1: because so much information that is coming out of so fast,
32:36
Speaker 1: things happen, things change all the time, and so really
32:39
Speaker 1: honing the skills that make us good at being able
32:43
Speaker 1: to pivot. And then I think when you layer that
32:45
Speaker 1: with what we talked about earlier on even the reason
32:48
Speaker 1: that you that you're doing and show in terms of
32:50
Speaker 1: helping people, and when you layer that in how can
32:52
Speaker 1: I help people? Helping people sometimes means being philanthropics. Sometimes
32:58
Speaker 1: it means provided a service for a fee. In terms
33:02
Speaker 1: of developing a business, right, So, I think for us,
33:05
Speaker 1: it's focusing on those two things. How do we continue
33:08
Speaker 1: to add value in markets in UM with partners UM,
33:14
Speaker 1: and how do we make sure that we're always prepared
33:18
Speaker 1: to pivot? And you know, we don't get too we
33:21
Speaker 1: don't fall in love too much with any one idea
33:24
Speaker 1: or any one project that we can't you know, take
33:28
Speaker 1: the blinders on. So I think the future of the
33:30
Speaker 1: business is that being open minded, being curious, being flexible UM,
33:35
Speaker 1: and always leading with UM. How do we help push
33:39
Speaker 1: culture in the right direction? Awesome guys, UM, I do
33:44
Speaker 1: my monthly. I do it a ninety thousand fan club
33:48
Speaker 1: newsletter goes out twice a month. UM. I love to
33:51
Speaker 1: put the true Voice app description banner in there, if
33:55
Speaker 1: you don't mind. I have to have a platform called
33:58
Speaker 1: HBCU Awards. I'd like to drop that banner there because
34:02
Speaker 1: I'm about authenticity, about organically telling the story and true
34:07
Speaker 1: voice I downloaded. I have a daughter. She's twenty four
34:10
Speaker 1: years old. She's graduating from college. Trying to find her
34:13
Speaker 1: voice and any platform that allows her to feel comfortable
34:17
Speaker 1: and communicating and seeing people like her and comfortably communicating
34:21
Speaker 1: those values. It's important to me and I just wanted
34:24
Speaker 1: to offer that uh Ron will live. I thinew she
34:27
Speaker 1: set up this interview. If you get that banner to me,
34:29
Speaker 1: I appreciate dropping in there, and again, thank you for
34:32
Speaker 1: coming on the show. Man. I appreciate your time. I
34:35
Speaker 1: know you're busy, fellas. I know you're busy fellas. Thank
34:37
Speaker 1: you for your time. Thank you for your time, thank you,
34:41
Speaker 1: thank you for having us. It's great to see you.
34:45
Speaker 1: Great to see you still being great at what you're
34:47
Speaker 1: great at. So whatever you call, we'll be there. I
34:50
Speaker 1: appreciate you well. Man, welcome to the family. Brother, welcome,
34:54
Speaker 1: appreciate all right, Y'll be safe man, Thank you, Bye bye.
35:00
Speaker 1: If you want to hear more Money Making Conversation interviews,
35:02
Speaker 1: please go to Money Making Conversation dot com. I'm with
35:05
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. I'm your host.