Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Rushion Interviews Adam Richman, Host of the History Channel series "Adam Eats The 80s," & Benny Pough, Influential Music Industry executive!

Transcript

Rushion Interviews Adam Richman, Host of the History Channel series "Adam Eats The 80s," & Benny Pough, Influential Music Industry executive! · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's to show that she
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  Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
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  Speaker 1: Brandon expert ras Shan McDonald. I will know he's given
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  Speaker 1: me advice on many occasions in Indica. You didn't notice,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not broke. You know He'll be interview with celebrity CEOs,
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  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do,
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  Speaker 1: it's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
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  Speaker 1: hear from my man, ras Shan McDonald. Money Making Conversations.
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  Speaker 1: Here we come. Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Rashean McDonald. I recognize that we all have
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  Speaker 1: different definitions of success. For you, it may be the
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  Speaker 1: them to accomplish their goals and live their very best life.
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  Speaker 1: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories. I
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  Speaker 1: tell that people, I tell it every episode, and start
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  Speaker 1: writing your own. People always talking about purpose and gifts.
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  Speaker 1: I'm excited about my guests on Money Making Conversation Masterclass,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and today I'm even more excited. When you sit down
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  Speaker 1: and watch a guy through things that you go, I
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  Speaker 1: think I can do that. Not really, not really. His
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  Speaker 1: name is Adam Richmond. He is He made his name
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  Speaker 1: on TV as the star of Man Business Feud that
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  Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many episodes I've seen that
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  Speaker 1: this guy he was willing to eat large amounts of
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  Speaker 1: food in short periods of time, taking these challenges from
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  Speaker 1: various restaurants across the world country. To me, it was
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  Speaker 1: the world and alas now promoting his new series, Adam
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  Speaker 1: Eats the Eighties, like if you're a video, I got
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  Speaker 1: the big old box right here, they sit down here
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  Speaker 1: for marketing, and I got all the little goodies that
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  Speaker 1: they put in that box. The popular series and also
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  Speaker 1: another popular CIEs that he holds on the History Talent
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  Speaker 1: called The Food That Built America, which is really really
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  Speaker 1: a cool show, is also airing in season three. Both
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  Speaker 1: shows us like I said that earlier or on Sunday
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  Speaker 1: nights on the History Challenge. Now, let's get back to
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  Speaker 1: the eighties. That was a decade, you know, when food
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  Speaker 1: was all about the flavor. And this ten episode series
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  Speaker 1: follows Richmond as he digs into the most nostalgic and
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  Speaker 1: you said, just out because some of the foods is
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  Speaker 1: out today and I'm still eating this. So we're gonna
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  Speaker 1: talk about that. So I may be I may be
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  Speaker 1: a bit of nostalgic and still just don't want to
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  Speaker 1: let go, just don't want to let go. But his
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  Speaker 1: views were relived the decade by joining Richardond and journey
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  Speaker 1: back to where these brands all begin. That's the really
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  Speaker 1: cool part about it. We're gonna talk about that during
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  Speaker 1: the interview, learn about their majing secrets never reveal and
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  Speaker 1: watch this Richmond tries versions of products that were never
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  Speaker 1: intended for public use. Please walk with the Money Making
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  Speaker 1: Conversations Masterclass. The host of two History Channel shows, My man,
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  Speaker 1: Adam Richmond. How are you doing, Adam? Thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for having me. It's an honor. And I'll tell
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  Speaker 1: you some Adam. I'll just go back to a little history. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: just becoming a fan of yours and uh, you know,
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  Speaker 1: as a younger guy, you know people always say, man,
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  Speaker 1: you can eat, you can eat, you can eat. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: now now know on you I can't eat. I can't eat.
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  Speaker 1: I I consume a nice amount of food. But I
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  Speaker 1: would tell you this. I'm gonna tell you this. I
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  Speaker 1: don't care how much money I make. I still to
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  Speaker 1: go to buffet's man, I go to corral. I'll still
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  Speaker 1: roll up in their man and in child ass. So
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  Speaker 1: I enjoy variety. And I still I understand a vat
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  Speaker 1: of a great steakhouse. But boy, I would go by
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  Speaker 1: our buffet. Is still enjoyed it. What got you into
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  Speaker 1: the business, Adam, Well, uh, yeah, I don't really like
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  Speaker 1: that normally. I don't think i'd still be here if
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  Speaker 1: I did. I UM, but the story of food, the
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  Speaker 1: shared communications through food and stuff like this. But it
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  Speaker 1: was always a hobby and advocation. And Um I was
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  Speaker 1: told like I guess many Jews from the Northeast are
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: told like you're gonna become a doctor. That was the
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: path I was on. And then UM slowly became a
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  Speaker 1: little disenchanted with science, fell more in love with languages.
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  Speaker 1: I speak French, I speak Hebrew speak some Japanese. UM
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  Speaker 1: and then UM, I but began acting to s on
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  Speaker 1: my own. I started. I came out of Emory University
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  Speaker 1: in Atlanta. I worked for the Olympics in nineties six
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: and then Atlanta is a great town for a non
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  Speaker 1: union actor to start, at least it was in the
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: mid nineties. And so food became a way to support
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  Speaker 1: my acting habits. So working at restaurants, working in kitchens,
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  Speaker 1: and um, you end up with two education simultaneous in
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  Speaker 1: arts education in the culinary one and uh, flashing very
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  Speaker 1: far forward. I came out of Yale Drama School, UM
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: because I decided that if I got a master's from
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: a good school at very least I could teach in
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  Speaker 1: the arts at university level and make at least a
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  Speaker 1: six figure income and provide for a family and so
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: on and so forth. And Mom would get the sticker
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: for the back of her car that said Yale to
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: get the Yale Mom coffee mug, I'll be straight. So
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  Speaker 1: basically what ended up happening was, UM, I came out
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  Speaker 1: of Yale, I was blessed to be signed with the agents,
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  Speaker 1: started working, and again the food stuff sort of augmented
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  Speaker 1: and supported all the acting stuff. And UM I read
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  Speaker 1: three books in very short succession. But I personally, UM,
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  Speaker 1: I consider to be the lynchpins of me achieving a
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: modicum of success. And I don't get any kind of
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: kick back. I want to make that clear. These are
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  Speaker 1: just genuine books I read that helped me. UM. I
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  Speaker 1: read a book called The Way of the Peaceful Warrior,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and then I read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruise,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and then I read a book called UM The Renaissance
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Soul by Margaret Loebanstein Life Designed for People. Uh, it's
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: it's called Life Designed for People with too many passions
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: to pick just one. And UM. In that book, there
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: was one particular exercise called the reverse flow chart, where
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: you sort of took your passions and your abilities and
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  Speaker 1: it helped you kind of ascertain what you are career
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  Speaker 1: could and should be. And I knew I had this
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  Speaker 1: entertainment skill set and you know, knowledge base and work
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  Speaker 1: experience resume, and then I had a culinary one, and
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  Speaker 1: I knew that it was the merging of the two
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  Speaker 1: that was the thing. And then I just launched myself
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  Speaker 1: at every opportunity. An opportunity UH came my way, um
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  Speaker 1: through one of the agents that I signed with at
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  Speaker 1: a graduate school, and I launched myself at it like
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: a juggernaut, Like I just was like, if this is
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  Speaker 1: what you want and this is the opportunity. Um. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I had studied international studies, so I knew travel was
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  Speaker 1: a thing. I had cut formal training as a sushi chef,
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  Speaker 1: so I knew that was a thing. And I had
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  Speaker 1: a masters from the l drama so a new performance
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  Speaker 1: was my thing. So I needed to find a way
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  Speaker 1: to fuse travel, food and performance. And when the opportunity came,
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  Speaker 1: you just have to come at it, no let up.
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  Speaker 1: You just have to put everything you have into those opportunities.
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  Speaker 1: And that's that's kind of what I did. Audition, So
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  Speaker 1: man versus food, did you have to like eat food
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  Speaker 1: from the part of the audition? Believe there was no
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  Speaker 1: there was no five pound burrito audition. But but the
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  Speaker 1: first audition actually you did have to bring some food,
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  Speaker 1: but they wanted to see how you could describe flavor
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  Speaker 1: and how you made it look when you ate. Um.
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  Speaker 1: Then there were subsequent auditions, interviews they check your references,
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  Speaker 1: and then the final screen test was at CATS's Deli
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  Speaker 1: and it was on Balantine's Day of two thousand and eight,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and it was me in the final six dudes, and
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I had a very good mentor when I worked at
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  Speaker 1: Actress Theater of Louisville, Kentucky. John Jordy said, an audition
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  Speaker 1: is not some kind of new age experience. It's competition.
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  Speaker 1: It's a competition. You're there to get a job. There
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: there to get a job, and whether or not you
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  Speaker 1: pay your bills in a meaningful manner for the next
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: however long, depends upon how well you fare in this competition.
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  Speaker 1: So you can make nice nice with everybody else, but
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  Speaker 1: you're there to lock it down and get a damn job.
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  Speaker 1: So uh yeah, I auditioned and at that final screen test,
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  Speaker 1: I had to eat a gigantic double Ruben prize. And
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what this The Sandwiches and Cats is
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: deli or not cheap. And I was pretty broke, and
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: so being able to get a cat's a sandwich for free,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: it was pretty dope. That was like those I've been there.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: That's awesome place, so good, so good. You know, the
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: beauty of you as a as a talent, because that
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  Speaker 1: explains now how the endian of man versus food. Because
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: you always had those little fake press conferences, you and
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: I and I'm to you so man that that made
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  Speaker 1: me a fan of yours because you could you know,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: you have a sist of humor. You know, you didn't
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: take it for real, but it was that it was
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: that personality to the next level. And you always had
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: a nice, charming smile, and you did they Let's tell you,
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  Speaker 1: they hired the right person because all those things. When
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  Speaker 1: you ate, it was a journey, and when you talk
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: to people, you look comfortable, you look like a regular guy.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: In the end, it was a spoof having people I
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: could like ask you questions and things like that. So
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: really that was the pasona that you built out and
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: you became this connoisseur, this star of consuming food. But
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: really you was an entertainer to me, you know, because
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: I could see you being a game show host easily,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure you've done that in your lifetime.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: But the thing about that, but right now and you're
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: in this food industry. And then so a little background
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: on me is that when I when I heard about
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: the show, you know, out of each the eighties, in
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: six I was working for IBM and had my math degree.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Everybody thought gonna stay at IBM, but I wanted to
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: pursue a career as a stand up comedian. So I
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: left IBM and so shocked everybody to pursue a career
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: and stand up comedian, where I was a road comedian.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: So when you start talking about at the eighties, I
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: was out there consuming Roy Rogers. I was there, brother,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I was there, you know. So so this this is
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the fun journey for me. And just interviewing you was
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: kind of like, wow, I did that. Oh yeah, I
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: remember that. But when when I saw Roy Rogers, that
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: really hit home for me. So just just talk about
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: being involved in this series. You know, you got this
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: serious about the Food That Built America. But to talk
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: about a little about this show, and I'm gonna throwing
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: my little comments here and there because I kind of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: like experienced this because I was on the road in
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the eighties and stuff. I love it. Yeah, Roy Rogers
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: owned for sure. That's that was there. That was their
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: domain for sure. Well, So the two shows are so
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: fascinating because they sort of compliment each other, just do
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: um and so Food That Built America is one of
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the most inspiring ones for me personally. And I'm not
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: saying that because a minute or a minute, um, these
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: men and women bet on themselves, spent on themselves when
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the world bet against them, when common sense bet against them.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: And I think there's a lesson in that. But also
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Bill Maher once said, we live in a guitar hero
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: culture where everybody wants to play the solo, but nobody
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: wants to learn the chords. And I think that these
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: are people that spent time in the trenches and you
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: don't realize how much sweat equity. You know, people hear
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: about the success, but they don't really pay attention to
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: what it took to get there. And I think that
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: that's that's the coolest part. And so for me, the
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: other aspect is I love those little bits of nickel
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: knowledge where you uh know, that little factoid about that
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: cookie or that symbol or that company and something interesting.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: So to look at the new Wendy's logo and see
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the word Mom hidden in the ruffles of Wendy shirt
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: because they want to evoke Mom's home cooking. Or the
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: fact that um the Oreo cookie came after the Hydros
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and the symbol on that cookie actually comes from this
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: medieval guild symbol. Or even the fact that whilely Amos,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: a famous Amos was an agent at William Morris discovered
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Simon and garf uncle and got one of the first
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: loans to start his business from Marvin Gay. All those
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: cool little facts. I just think you get a deeper
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: appreciation of the culinary world around us. It's beautifully shot
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and whether it's this season, whether it's beer, whether it's bread,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: whether it's sweets, whether it's um casual dining. I think
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: that there is something for everyone. There is something connect
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: with everyone, male entrepreneurs, female, black, white, Asian. I think
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: that it's remarkable. We'll be right back with more Money
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashan McDonald. Now, let's return to
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashan McDonald. You know, I'm
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: a fan of like those ripley believe it or not,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: and this is kind of like that, but for food,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: you know, because you don't believe that this actually happened
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: this way, Like he was talking about uh famous aimos
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and like several years ago he had contact these people,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: contacted me about doing a documentary and and so like
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: I said, the whole Marvin Gay, he told me that
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: whole story. And the fact that you know, his cookies
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: don't look like cookies, they like really like like a
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: quarter of a cookie, and he said that was right,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: like a little you know, it's like, you know, if
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: you the way we consume cookies nowadays, he has almost
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: looked like chips. And the fact that he was able
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: to pull that off. He was talking about going from
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: car to car, the whole backstory. Like you said, it's
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: really compelling because you go as an entrepreneur there was
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: before social media, that was before the Internet. These are
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: just people sometimes going from you know, store to store
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: or person to person to get their word out. And
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: then the brand just took off of all those stories.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Because there's a lot it's the third season. What's the
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: most compelling is that the individual or is the product
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: that they actually come up with? Question. I think it's
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the effort of the individual. I think you have to
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: have a product that you believe in that goes without saying.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: And I'm very impressed by when you look at everyone
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: from Campbell's soup to the lady that founded Pepperage Farm,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: right there was an uncompromising level of standards that both
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: inspires me, it makes me feel a little bit African
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: corner something. I'll be honest with you, but um, I
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: think that every single it's like, what's that old line
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: from the old old song? They all after Christopher Columbus.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: But I feel that this is very much the case.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: So I feel that it's the individual. I feel that um,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: hard work and determinational loan or omnipotent as it seems.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: And and I'll say, you know, because that's the thing.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Right While he amos had an original cookie, a good cookie,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: a great personality, but by his own admission a businessman,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: he was none. And he's scaled up, uh, devoid of
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: a business plan to match that scale. Decisions were made,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: fiscal decisions were made, um that were ill advised, you know,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: to be in a difficult location at a walking ball
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: in Arizona with no air conditioning, Like it's just poor forethought.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: And you know, you have an entrepreneur. And let's also
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: be honest, an African American entrepreneur were in the eighties,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: who who sadly can now no longer even use his
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: own face and name on a product he created with
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: his aunt as a child. And that's profoundly tragic. But uh,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: there's a playwright named Stephen Diets and he wrote an
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: essay called an Audience Manifesto and he said, if the
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: artist trips, we know to jump. If the artist hits
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: their head, we know two duck. And I think that
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: that's where whially Amos is worth his weight in gold,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: is that he is such a warm, wonderful Zen's type
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: of individual that despite the slings and arrows. I mean,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: my god, who would think whally Amos could go on
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Shark Tank and not get a deal and that happened.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: And yet um, he's very forthcoming because you know he
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: got that deal with I believe it was Bloomingdale's and
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: he was in all these stores and didn't have a
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: production fills. He couldn't scale to meet the demand. Absolutely.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: And then the flip side, you know, we juxtaposed this
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: in food that built America is Debbie Field. And we
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: could also acknowledge at the eighties. And I say this
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: as you know, the son of a very strong stepmom
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: and mom who hit their head on that glass ceiling
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: several times. Is straight up like for women as entrepreneurs
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: in the eighties, it was not a warm, welcoming time.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: And Debbie Field, I think, if I'm not mistaken, she
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: had something like a twenty one percent interest rate on
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: her first loan, and she said it was the best
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: money she could ever get because it was the only
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: money she Her husband leveraged his house, but Debbie Field
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: kept it small, so it was a proving concept. She
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: actually walked the streets of Palo Alto. She wasn't selling
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: as much as she felt she could. And you know
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: what I said about betting on yourself. Someone made a
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: really harsh comment to her at a dinner party, saying
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: how she had this stupid pipe dreams. She was a
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: beautiful woman, still is, but a beautiful woman, and so
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: they thought she was just this pretty housewife. And she
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: locked up the shop, took samples on the tray, pounded
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the pavement, built the ground swell, built the demand, and
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: her husband was At the time of the eighties, they
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: called it an economic futurist. What we call today is
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: I t He realized that she could exert quality control,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: maintained proprietary UM recipes, UM track you know, losses and
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: gains and whatever through a computer, and it changed the game.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: And I feel that's why I talked about the individual.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: They both had great cookies. One of them had a
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: better business plan. Limpian Subway had great Both have decent sandwiches,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: subway you scientific method and blew them off the bat absolutely.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: You know the fun part about the eight show, you know,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: because I said, I was on the road out there
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: doing my thing, and even when I go in the airport,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: you know, I said, any end, you know, I will
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: stop and give me that lemonade. That's what I do.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I get, I get a plane one and give me
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: a lemonade. And brother, I am happy, I'm walking down.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: I'll take it on the plane. I don't care from
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the first class. I got my Auntie Aunty ms into
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: that and I'm excited. The same thing with Center Bons
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: and when they came out with the minis, but we
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: all started with the center Bonds and then the Mr
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: t s. It was just it was just a flood
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: of just stuff coming to me. Go oh yeah, forgot
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: about that Mr T And then and then and then
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: they said this package about the bubble gum that you
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: too at one time, all the sweet goes away. It
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: was just it was just a fun stuff. But the
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: point that really got to me that when I was
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: doing a background on this was the fact that I
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: didn't know that the McDonald's flies were prepared a different
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: way and then and then they changed the syrup on
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: the coat. Talk about that type of information that you're
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: getting out of that show that right, there's a lot
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: of hot moments in that or oh I didn't know that,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely so yeah, So moving to the other show,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: out of meets the eighties, we look at this incredibly dynamic, energetic, wild,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: wildly innovative decade through the prism of food. Right, and
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: like you said, we will basically go to the origin
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: story for these brands that came out in the eighties
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: and became national and global icons like Cinnabon and Anti Ann's,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: you know, and and so and so forth. Um, and
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: then look at things that appeared in the eighties and
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: maybe disappear, So one of those breakfast pizza right, exactly,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: exactly right. And obviously, because you know, you're incredibly you know,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: brilliant man with the head for numbers, you understand that. Um,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: you know, when Reagan switched to supply side economics, reagonomics
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: floods the economy with money until the recessions in the nineties,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: and uh, and then everyone wears flannel and gets tribal tattoos.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: But until then it was big shoulder pads, big hair,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: jay ones, you know Bo Jackson illustrateds right right. In
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the eighties was unlike today. You didn't necessarily have to
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: have nutritional info on your food. You did not have
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: to have calories at fast food restaurants. There was no
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: real concentration unless it was medically ordained or religiously specified.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: I think you needed to be vegan, vegetarian, paleo, keto,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: whole thirty five to you know, all these other atkins
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: not a thing. And diet culture emerged in the eighties,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: but it was fat, fat fat. It was Jane Fonda's
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: work out, the grapefruit diet in the Beverly Hills Bring Back.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Because I was a Jane Fonda, I had to. I
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: had I had the VHS tapes and the BATA my
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: step my stepmom, and I was a little chovy kid
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: my stepmom. No leg warmers though, because you know that's
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: child abuse. I was just gonna tell you because I was,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: I had to leg warmers because I was, I was
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: an instructor. Adam, you talk to the worst guy in
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the world here, you probably look good at them. I
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: would look I want I want to look like a
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: little decorated hippo. And then then the other thing is
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: if you were called there was that show for broadcast TV,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Richard Simmons had Healthy Eating. There was a guy Captain Kangaroo,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: and other shows called Slim Goodbody who would wear a
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: suit where you could see organs and stuff. And so
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: there was this this effort because by the eighties people
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: were watching roughly eight hours of television. Today, Um, you
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: had a whole generation of latch key kids. As two
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: parent families, two parent working families became the norm. Women
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: had room in the workplace that they never did before. Um,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: there was a one third increase of white collar workers
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: had parents gone. Plus you had the invention of the microwave,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: which allows children the ability to cook, parents to prepare
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: meals incredibly quickly, gives companies a new avenue for revenue,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: allows a whole other market for leftovers and home delivery
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: because it doesn't take a whole production to reheat something
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: or remake something or reconstitute something. And um, you know,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and then with all the fluctuating economic stuff, there was
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: a new pivot. So bringing it to what you said
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: about Coca Cola and McDonald's French fries, so and well,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: this is so cool because we went to this food
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: lab called Mats and Labs in northern California, just south
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: of San Francisco, and it's just's relatively close to San
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Jose and it's um just spectacular and quite frankly. I mean,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: these guys have developed everything from like the frappuccino, some
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: of the nut milks you've seen. But it's a food lab.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: These are two food scientists. And what happened was in
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the eighties there was a millionaire who had had a
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: heart attack and his doctors cautioned him about fast food.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: He spent his money on this crusade to health of
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: i fast food. And one of the things they talked
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: about was how McDonald's would fry their French fries and
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: beef tallow, which is solidified beef fat. And it's still
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: done in England. If you've ever had a roast dinner
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: anywhere at a pub or at a restaurant in England, Uh,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: they use duck fat um every gastro pub and their
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: mama that serves Brussels sprouts, said Patty or whatever they
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: do a duck fat fry, so frying in suet or
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: tallow is very, very common, but it's way more saturated fat. Remember,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: if any animal product has cholesterol, any plant product doesn't.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: So you could eat a pound of vegan cheese, you
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: may have, you know, taken in quite a bit of
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: fet but you will have taken in no cholesterol. And
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: basically he started this crusade, and strangely enough, all the restaurants,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: both McDonald's Burger King pivoted on the same day away
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: from beef talo and began frying in a beef flavored
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: vegetable oil. Um. The other thing is, as you mentioned
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Coca Cola. Now, being a former Atlanta boy myself and
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: having gone to Emery, my father may rest in peace
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: with my pop right here. Uh, I'll never forget. Um
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I was down to. I was deciding between three schools.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: I was deciding between University Chicago, Washington, University St. Louis,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: actually four schools, Union College and Schenectady and Emery and
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I UM. I it was pretty gung ho about Emery
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: because by then I knew that if I were there
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: in ninety six, I was at least going to be
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: there for the Olympics. And I'm an Olympics junkie and
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: as it turned out, in nine six, I had a
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: super Bowl, World Series and an Olympics. Deltas, Xerox, and
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Coke all had headquarters there, so I thought it increased
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: the likelihood of him ployment opportunities, very least internship opportunities,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: because those companies are big enough that if I decided marketing,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: they all have a big marketing. I decided pr they
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: all had a big pr wing. Anyway, without getting too
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: far up my own butt hole, so you know, some
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: of my pop may rest in piece. I remember Emery
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: and this proud What a great school. Oh my gosh,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: if he wants to be a doctor, he couldn't. Emory
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: University Hospital system is brilliant. They're doing these things and
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: so and so forth. And then my pop calls me.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: It's like we need to talk. I said why, He said,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: why do they call it coke? You? That's nothing to
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: do with scar phase, Dad, Coke, like my dorm is
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: called Dobbs, like this dog can wonder if like nothing
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with cocaine. I promise you at all.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: I ever, I'm like seven up with that, Dad. I've
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: never had it, never will, like no, no, no, and uh,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: but that's so uh as anyone in Atlanta knows, there's
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: ever gone to the world of coca cola. Um, it's
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: a recipe. The actual recipe for coca cola dates back
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: to a Civil War veteran named Do Pemberton Um. And
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: much like all the great sodas were right there were
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: medicine topics like dr Pepper and pepsi gets its name
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: because they thought it cured pepsis or just pepsia and um.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: So coca cola had always been sweet with sugar with
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: sucros um. What happened was and this is what's so
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: cool about doing a show about the eighties and the eighties,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: between sugar prices, rising hurricanes, decimating huge swaths of the
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: sugar crops in Caribbean and so and so forth, even
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: limiting beet sugars that we had at home. Robert Goizueta,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: who is a chemist, pivots to high fructost corn syrup,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: realizes he could achieve the same bricks b R i
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: X sweetness level but spend off fraction of what sucros costs.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: So make a cola that taste the same justice sweet
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: for a fraction of the price. Shareholders saw profits like
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: they've never seen Goy's wedding, gets made CEO of the
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: business school at every named after the dude, and uh
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: where I took financial accounting and man, let me tell you,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: I was so bad at that. But so that's what
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Coca Cola did. And that was, um the first pivot,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: and then we began to see uh the a the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: rise of the artificial sweetener incorporated in this series, in
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the storytelling and things like that, you know, some Adam
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and seking to Adam Richmond here, Adam. The amazing thing
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: about it you can you can produce these shows is
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: who is telling the story. You are a great storyteller,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: my friend. I want to make sure you get that
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: out of this interview. Uh. You just engage you man,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: and I feel fortunate you. This is you know, I
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: I ain't iView a lot of people. And my wife
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: was here. She tell you, yeah, he watches him. That's
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: that's you know, because in the fact I enjoy you
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: and uh, you're doing something I could never do, but
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: it's entertainment and you do it from an entertainment perspective
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: and and really interviewing you on this show today that
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: allows me to understand you a lot more, not saying
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: I was confused by you. But you know your background,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: your intellect, you know your worldliness. It all shows across
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: on the screen and it comes across as effortless. And
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: so because of that, that comes from the person who's
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: comfortable with himself, has been around and done the things
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: that are fun for him. And my big tech away is,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: you know when I look at people in life, and
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, do what makes you happy?
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: And and and like I said, I left math degree
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: or IBM career and wanted to tell jokes. And I've
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: been rolling down that direction all my life. And you
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: have two shows on television now. You can't go wrong
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: with that. Adam each stadies. I got my little box.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: I got it in my cabinet. You know I got
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: my I would tell you what I'm tan I got.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: I got two Emmy's, I got three N Double A C.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Image Awards, and I got this right next to them. Okay,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: that's how much I think of your brother. Only thing
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: I'm missing. Only thing I'm missing, Adam, is your autograph.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: So I'm hoping one day you come through Atlanta, I
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: find out and it's gonna be a six ft black
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: man in the suit back there holding this box. Adam,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: I need your signature, brother, I need your signature. Listen,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: you got that, no problem, man. I would just for
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: the base of it. Emmy, what I would do The
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: screw of the name. Little Screw That's coming is a
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: lifetime brother on the History Chan Every Sunday, Adam Each
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: st eighties and The Food That Built America, hosted by
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: my man Adam Richmond. Thank you, Adam. We'll be right
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: You are now tuned into the Money Making Conversations Minute
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: of Inspiration with Rashan McDonald High and Rashan McDonald for
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass with your Daily Into the Inspiration.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I said that with actor, producer and filmmaker Robert Townsend,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: he talked about making you a pitch and marketing yourself.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: I understood that there is an audience out there that
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: loves the five hard beats. So I went to SATOM
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Events and I pitched my vision because they haven't done
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of events, you know, surrounding content for
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: African Americans. And I just kind of looked at a
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: lane and said Hey, I think there's a big audience
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: for this. I did the numbers and broke down my
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: power point how many markets, how many times it plays
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: on television. They heard the pitch and they said, wow,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: we've never done anything like this, And then they saw
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: the documentary. And then once I posted one time, I
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: think we got close to a half a million people
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: that were engaged with one post. You could listen to
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: this four interview with Robert Townsend. It's available on money
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Making Conversations dot com. Now let's return to Money Making
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Conversations Masterclass with Rashan McDonald. My next guest. His name
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: is Bennie Pew. He's a respected entertainment industry veteran of
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: decades of experience propelling the careers of some of the
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: leading superstars. I say superstars do mens words, including Jay
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: z Rihanna, Kanye West, Travis Scott, future DJ Kalege. In
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: twenty one, Savage q Is left an indelible mark on
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: the music industry, holding the executive roles that labels like Motown,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: Deaf Jam, Epic Records, MC Records, rock Nation. That's when
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: he called me, said he would do Rock Nation. I
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: tried to hook up a rock nation Boy before ultimately
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: deciding to pivot to This is why he's on the show,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: pivoting to entrepreneurship because that's what money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: is all about, not getting so much locked in and
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: what you're doing, but what you're capable of doing for
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: your own personal dream. Over two years later, bennips multi
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: multitiered entertainment company Diverse. Diverse Media is home to record labels,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: distribution platform, publishing management and more. Please working with the
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations mater Class the CEO Benny People, what
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: are you doing? My friends? Are you man? You know Benny?
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: It's uh. First of all, let me just tell you
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: why Benny is so special to me. Steve Harvey. Now
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: he gave us our first record deal way back in
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: the two thousand one or two man listen, that was
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: a real story to man. You guys, one thing I
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: will say about you and Steve is that you know
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: there's no secret on why you guys are successful because
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: you know I've been in as I started my career
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: in Motown Records, So I was blessed start my introduction
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: into the music business and a black owned company, right,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: which is different like everyone's journey is different. But one
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: thing that I feel blessed was is that you know,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: they made us work hard. Um, you know how it
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: is when we with us, right, But they taught me
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: a lot and they wouldn't allow me to fail. They
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: made me work and wouldn't allow me to fail. They
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: made me working fail. Right. But when I when I
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: met you and Steve, I saw it, like you know,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: the connection and the love and driving, the determination. And
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: one thing that you guys always had was foresight and vision.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: So to see where you both are is in a
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: surprise to me because you're always some tight top dress yo,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: super clean. I ain't yo, y'all remind me of jam
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: and Lewis. He mayn't remind me like this. If I'm
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: not gonna drop it, I'm not gonna drop none of
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: the worse. But I gotta get the people. Oh, I
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: gotta get the people a little bit about you know.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: I hear you all that money making and all that
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: good good, all that good talk, but they don't know. Man,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: you're a real one and um, you know what you
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: talk is really what you're about. So I'm so excited
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: to be here and just you know, be able to
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: um speak to your audience and that you're extending, you know,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: an opportunity for the to do this with you. So
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: appreciate your brother. We know, Benny Um, the the the
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: the ability to communicate. It's always been your skill set,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I met him in the
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: l A. I've met him in chr Car, i met
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: him in Las Vegas, I've met him in Atlanta, i
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: met him in New York City. But it's all always consistent.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Your tone and your personality has always been consistent. Is
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: that intentional? Are you have a clear understanding that people
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: what they expect that you should be delivering that So
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: it all starts for me. It started at home. You know.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: My parents would never allow us to speak with our
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: head down and eyes down. Never did that. Um. Then
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: as uh, you know, we were being reared really realized
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the value of what we say is what we mean, right,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: and you know all of those things. We came from
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: a strong Christian background, Like my mother was a real Christian,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: not like the fake Christians. But you'll know the real Bible,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: you know, the real Bible. Like I never saw my
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: mother the pair of jeans and pants because there's a
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: scripture somewhere I haven't found it yet in the Bible
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: that women I don't in jeans. Wasn't even around it,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: but there's a scripture that women shouldn't emulate men in
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: any But you know, I'm sure your audience, them, good
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: old Baptist Christian women and men, understand that. And so
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: we gret. We grew up in a in a very
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: you know, devout household in that respect. But I think
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: what what was really important for me and identification was
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: the fact that um I started delivering papers and news
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: newspapers at eleven years old. And what you realize in
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: the lessons that were given and dealing with adults. It's
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: kind of like now in business managing up. You know,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: just like when you go to a restaurant, you eat,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: believe it or not. The service at a disadvantage because
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: you can always say I don't like it, you go
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: to the bathroom and leave right. There's a lot of
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: things that can happen, but you've already provide the service.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: So at eleven years old, I realized how shifty adults
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: could be. Not undelivered the paper all week, and rain
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: had to get up at six in the morning collect day.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Y'all know when collect day is, you either never dare
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: they get a little bit, you gotta come back later,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: come see me on Saturday, or like you know what.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: They disappeared for three or four weeks. So at that
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: point I realized, you know, I wasn't a child anymore
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: because I was dealing with adults. So it's like playing
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: up in basketball, right, like your freshman playing with the seniors.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: So ultimately, I never really dealt with kids my age
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: in that aspect because I was always, you know, dealing
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: with adults. So I learned how to customize myself and
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: situations going up and down. Absolutely. The interesting thing about
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: just having you on the show, we're gonna talk a
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: little bit about your book that's coming out in September,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: and just that note right there, why are you writing
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: a book, Beney for you? So there's a story behind that.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: I never had aspirations on doing a book, but on
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: August thirty one, I was in a near death car accident.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: August two, I took my son to boarding school. He
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: went to i MG and Brandon and Florida, And on
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: the of August a friend of mine called me in
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: the office and he asked me if I wanted to
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: go to a barbecue, and I told him yes. The
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: next day. He called me on Wednesday and asked me
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: if I was still coming. That Thursday, he calls me
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: again and asked me if I'm still coming. That Saturday morning,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: I took a flight from New Jersey down to Charlotte,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: North Carolina. And from Charlotte, I drove to Columbia, South
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Carolina to visit my sister and my nephews and spent
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: some time with them while they were playing football. My
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: sister and I would drove from Columbia to Orangeburg to
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: spend some time with my father and celebrated send me
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: a birthday, and I spent a little time with my mother,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: who has Alzheimer's. My friend calls me getting asked me
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: if we're still coming. On the thirty one, I drive
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: from Columbia to Charlotte to take a flight back to
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: New York. It was a misty rain that day, so
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: the flight was delayed. Get on the plane, fly back
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: to New York about an hour and a half late.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Now I call my wife and let her know I'm
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: gonna be late because the flight was delayed and I
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: had a meeting in New York City. In Manhattan, driving home,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: my friend calls. He asked me, are you still coming?
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: I said yes, called my wife, let her know to
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: get my youngest daughter and let her know that we
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: weren't going to take the convertible because it um seemed
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: like it wouldn't be safe with this rain. So we
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: take the truck, picked him up. We drove out the
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: rule in New Jersey. We're about twenty minutes out. My
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: friend calls me. He asked me, again, are we coming?
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: I said yeah. So finally we get to the house
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: and what I thought was just a barbecue, he had
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: actually catered for the two family, so it was really sweet.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Four adults, three bottles of wine. He and I we
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: peel off out of the living room and we go
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: into the deck. His house is ten thousand square feet,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: so there's a lot of dis and we're sitting on
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: the deck and uh, we're reminiscing. I've known him about
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: thirty five years, and you know, talking about the good things.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: A lot of challenges happen in his life, challenges happening
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: in my life. That misty rain happens again. So I
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: don't know whether he said or I said, well, we
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: both stood up and said, you know what, let's go
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: take a ride. He just bought a new five bends.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: So we walked from the deck through the kitchen into
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: the car. Poard jump in the car, turns on the radio.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: He backs out, jumps out of the car, walks in
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: the house, gets a cigar, gets back in the house,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: and the women and the two kids they come out.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know why black people always want to see
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: people pull off, but that's what we do, right when
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: we do that in a wave, he backs out, drives
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: down his driveway, which is probably a length of a
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: New York City block. We get to the end of
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: the road way, he opens the gate. It's a two
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: lane roadway and rule New Jersey. He literally makes it right,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: and I hear him and the cards shoots off. So
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: I made a call all day. So I pick up
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: my phone and I cut my eyes and look at
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: the old demon and the cars is seventy five. So
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: now I cut my eyes and I turned my whole
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: head and he's out conscious with his foot on the accelerator.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: So now from where we started two impact, it was
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: a half a mile without the car moving forward, without
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: a driver. At that point, I did what I was
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: always conditioned to do, what my mother has always taught
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: us to do, and speak to God. And the first
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: thing I said, because I've seen all of my family
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: obviously my son, saw my sister, my mother, my father,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: my daughter, my sister standing in the yard, I said, Lord,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: I guess I'm not going to see my family anymore.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: The second thing I said to God is, Lord, I
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: guess I'm gonna see you soon, because now I get
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: a grip of my mortality, and you realize, like just
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: s getting in, it can't end good because the car
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: is now without a driver at ninety miles an hour.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: The third thing I do is I get mad with God.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: But I'm glad God didn't get mad with me because
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: I thought about who's gonna pull wisdom into my son
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: at this point, who's gonna marry my two girls, My
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: wife's not prepared for this moment, who's gonna take care
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: of my mother? And most importantly, you know, God, have
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: I known I was gonna die today, I wouldn't came
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: to this barbecue. As we start veering off the road,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: we start clipping trees and bushes, and every time he
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: would Um take his foot off the car with decelerat
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: He was out right, he was out conscious, gone foot
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: on the accelerator, car being driven by itself. So at
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: some point we hit something in the middle of the
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: road and the car just shot across Um through the
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: opposite side of the road, and we had an oak.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: At ninety miles an hour. I sustained the level two
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: concussion L three old four vertebrate fracture, bulging disk in
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: my back. We hit the tree so hard that a
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: lacerated my liver, which led me to lead out. Have
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: the blood in my body and the force of of
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: the tree and the belt restraining me, UM severed two
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: ft in my small intestine, and at that moment God
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: put a book inside of me called on Impact, which
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: takes you through my journey from eleven years old delivering
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: newspapers to modern day. An Impact is an acronyms that
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: stands for intuition, mastery, pivot, authenticity, connection and teamwork, and
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: at the end of each chapter is a hit list
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: that the reader can apply to themselves and say, pretty much,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: if Benny could do it, I can do it too.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: And that is what led me to this point in
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: the pivot aspect of moving forward in a different direction
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: in my life. But there's fear tied to that because
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: you have such a successful track record. Because that's one
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: of the reasons I do this show is letting people
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: know fear is a good thing, because unknown is a
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: of thing. I always tell people, we live a life
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: of being too comfortable. And if you live that comfortable life,
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: are you happy with that comfortable life? When I say that,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about just a job. I'm talking about
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: a relationship. I'm talking about where you're living. I'm talking
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: about to call your driving, the clothes you're wearing. Are
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: you're comfortable walking out that front door. Are you comfortable
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: sitting at that desk and where you're working? If not,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: then you need to pivot. And when you pivot, they're
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: no guarantees the beauty of your life. Up to that point,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: when you're with your friends driving down the road, everything
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: was normal. You live in a normal life. When you
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: looked over there and saw he was unconscious, nighty miles
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: an hour, those few seconds you had to think everything
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: was abnormal, everything was against the trend and so but
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: but at that impact it had to be everything was
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: in slow motion if I that's how it really does
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: happen in slow motion. And because I've been there, you know,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: like I was telling you all, fair from a from
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: a life journey. You know, my lung collapse, stayed in
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: hospital thirty days. And I was one of those people
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: who I thought I was a self healer. You know,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: if I got sick, I go play basketball. I just
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: sweat it out of me. You know. I never stayed
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: in bed and then in that's when I was diagnosed
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: with cancer. And when you were talking that same story,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: it was very relatable to me because what happens is
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: when you met with tragedy or a decisive moment in
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: your life that you can't control. That's that's the That's
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: the part right there that y'all need to understand. When
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: he was looking over there at his friend, not knowing
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: what was wrong with his friend, he knew that car
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: was driving and he couldn't stop what was happening with it.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: That's not being in control. And so when they told
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: me I had cancer, I had no control right there,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: but I had an understanding that what was going on
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: in my life at the time, the people I cared about,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: the people I wanted to be, to be successful. That's
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: where I'm living hopefully. That's why you're living, Benny. That's
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: why it's a blessing to have a fan. It carries
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: on you have a reason to live. And so I
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: was all right, you know, I looked at everything that
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: was happening in my life, the people around me, the
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: people that had touched I was all right with die.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: Not saying I wanted to die, but it did tell
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: me at that point I needed to change my direction exactly.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: And and God finds a way of getting the attention.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: And what you're talking about is in regards to like
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: the pivot. You know, when I look at my journey
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: in the music business after three decades, what people fail
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: to realize, like when I left UM rock Nation and like,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: how could you leave that job? And well, it's the
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: best thing, Like it was an amazing situation. But have
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: you followed my career. I left every job at the
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: top because what I'm a believer is not talk about
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: to be about it. And I left all of those
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: people at starting in Motown to finishing my career in
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: corporate Rock Nation and Deaf Jam and Epic and all
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: of these situations because as a giver. It's it's about
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: teaching people, giving them the opportunity, showing them how to fish,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: and then let them fish right. And so at this point,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: even in the current landscape, a lot of the people
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: I taught to fish and now the people that are
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: now in control of the business. Because it's not about
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: me having the best folks with me. It's about me
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: going helping others to be the best. And when you're
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: doing that, then you don't worry and life is good. Man.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: You know, we don't get up end down. You know,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: we know we don't have mannaise sandwiches and woggle right.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: You know how to do bone right and sometimes you
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: put a little Mannai's on woggle. We'll be right back
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashan McDonald
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: talking about here, I want everybody hear this, but we
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: got to slow it down a little bit because see,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: your pivot was tied to an accident and that nearly
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: killed you. One of my pivots, because that's not on
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: the pivoty. He always told you he left jobs at top,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: so he was pivoted and seeing other opportunities. So we're
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: just talking about this one moment and not saying and
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: we want to let you know that everybody doesn't need
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: to have a life threatening diagnosis, a life threatening event
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: to change your direction. When you hear me talk like this,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: how do you encourage people to step out on fear,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: to past that fear and step And we always hear
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: this stepping out on faith. I would tell if you
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: don't even playing with their faith, it's gonna be a
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: short journey. Talk to us, Benny. So you know, I
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: think to your point is is actually seeing the finish line? Right? Um,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: I wake up every day knowing where I want to be,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: So whatever comes on the way, I'm comfortable with it. Right.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: If you know, if it's uh, if it's a it's
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: a great day, it's a great day. If it's a
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: bad day, it's a bad day. Because as you know,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: you're in the moment right right the past is gone
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: and you know today is only you know, yesterday for tomorrow.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: So you gotta take the time in order to a
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: calm blish what you're doing today and the value of
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: what it is. Because once again, whether I never knew
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: before the value of time, until I walked out of
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: that house and realized in an instant things change. So
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: why I'm in control of what I am in control of?
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: Make it matter now. The finish line is how you
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: see the finish happening. And along the way you stay
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: focused on what it is that you want. Don't don't
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: straight stay focused on what you want, and that's where
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: the accomplishments are come. Because if you wake up every
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: day truly loving what you do, nothing else matters. Doesn't
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: matter how much money you make, right, it doesn't. And
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: when you make a lot of money, you know how
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: to make that money work right. And if you if
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: you just make Because once again, I've been saving money.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: My mom taught me how to save since I was
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: five years old. I had um Christmas clubs, some of
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: for those who are old enough to know Christmas cluse.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: My mother used to walk me a mile to the
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: bank and we put a dollar together in the bank.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: So she taught me how to save money then at five.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: So that's enrooted in me right, in which I rooted
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: my children and still in my children, which all of
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: us should do right because we don't know what the
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: value right of what we do in the responsibility of
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: who we are on what we're supposed to do, right,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: I think we get very sidetracked. And social media is
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: a problem with that right, like it's it's about to
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: swipe up, swipe down. What you're the thing about? You know,
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: millennials world problem. You know, we realized now that millennials
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: just take advantage of technology. While people were complaining about technology,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: millennial saw an opportunity to skip tax steps. So technology
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: is tied to that. So all you have to do
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: with either during the game that line long line of
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: people who want to change, or that very short line
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: of people who are frustrated. And I say short line
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: because a lot of people getting out of that line,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So you can look around
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: you You'll never be by yourself because there's stuffing to
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: people out there who're just gonna admit, we won't admit
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: they're they can change. But the thing that I really
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: wanted to point out and just hearing you talk and
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: uh and and dealing with it, you know, when we start,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: we've we've been fortunately have a lot of famous names
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: in our tied to our resume. Go with Robert Town's
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Unti and Tamara Maori. I can go with the bo Leigue,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: I can go with Jamie foxx uh Kevin Hard and
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: they can. And the list goes on and on, and
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: each one of those people, Steve Harvey, Stephen Nay Smith,
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: there's people always say wow, you just these people have
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: unique skills, unique skills that separate them and make them special,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: make them are too because they can't work around everybody.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: They have to be around a certain amount of people.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: And if you're around them and you don't have that
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: same mindset, they will trample you because they want to
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: be great. And if you don't understand, if you're hanging
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: out there just to have a good time, you won't
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: be around these people. A long talk about hanging out
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: with those type of people. Um, it's not about chance.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: That's successful. Yes, none of them, the ones that you
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: named your repertoire, you worked with and equally showing the
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: ones that I have. They all have that you not
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: unique skill set and that is determination and drive by
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: any means necessary. They're focused individuals. I mean you see it. Um,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: I've been with with individuals that you know that they
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: would be who they are just because of their work ethic,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: like there is no break time, it's work time, right.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: And and ideally, when you're on a dream, right and
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: you're on a quest or you have a journey, that's
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: what your focus is. So you need people who buy
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: in and understand exactly where you're going. And those of
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: who you need around not naysayers, not hanger on right now,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: people that kill your spirit with are you not gonna
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: make it? Let them go right, let them go and
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: and ideally, you know that's what becomes most important, is
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: is understanding the company you keep. Music is always key
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: to what we do, and it's tied to everything we
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: do in life. I always tell you know, our relationship
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: goes back to a record Daily brought to Steve and
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: I a long time ago. And if and if P
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: did he were released the artist that we needed as
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: our first single, uh he and I might not be
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: sitting there chief, but it's a beautiful thing. So I
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: want to just drop some nuggets about what this book
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: is all about. You talked about how I got started,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: but your impact man on how to motivate people and
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: take them to the next level. Let's talk about a
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: couple of keys. The key to building mental relationship because
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: people don't understand young people understand the value of mentorship
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: because they understand that, but what is really the value
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: of building mental relationships? And if you mentoring changed my life?
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: Uh as I said when I started at Motown Records.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: The woman who actually gave me my first job works
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: for me now, right because you know once again, you know,
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: life goes through with cycles and and that's what long
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: term relationships are about. Right. People pour into you. You
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: make sure that you're able to give something back when
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: it's time to drink. And and that's how it works.
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: And you know, like for me, with with the companies
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: that I've worked for, it's about teach especially for US
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: is IS minorities and African Americans and you know all
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: folks is you know, we need a break, we need
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: an opportunity. There's a lot of things we don't know.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: So instead of making a mistake, like think of it
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: in its most rudimentary basic terms. If you didn't know
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: green means go, yellow means casting, and red means stopped,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: you'd always just walk in the street. But there's someone
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: to teach you and didn't move you along in in
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: in life, in that in that respect and and that's
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: what I was able to do with the people that
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: I've worked with. I've had some amazing mentors from dere
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: Tad l a Read, um, you know, just to just
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: to name a few, and um. It's a great resource
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: for those have an opportunity to be able to ask
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: questions that you know, you may not feel that confident
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: and asking what those where you can be vulnerable. And
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: that's the importance of of giving people an opportunity to
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: be vulnerable to grow, because if not, they'll make mistakes
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: and mistakes that you already have the answers to. Why
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: would you do that? Right? Right? We know. The interesting
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: thing about it I always talk about, you know, because
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: we talked about money earlier. I would tell people I
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: never go into a relationship thinking about money, you know,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: I think about what I can build and what value
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: I can create, because if you create value in any situation,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: somebody's gonna pay you some money. Somebody gonna pay you
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: some money. Man, somebody gonna pay you some money. They're gonnay.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: And a lot of people missed that. They come in
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: this was this is what I want to get paid.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: And guess what, And then people start judging you based
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: on what they paid you. Now when you create value
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: a need, they don't judge it. They know they have
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: to pay to maintain that relationship or maintain that skill
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: or product that you're delivering on a consistent basis. But
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: you have to be consistent about it. I will remember
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: that when I was how I got started in radio.
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: We're just sitting in the back of the studio watching
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: Steve Harbor every day, and finally I went, I can
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: do this, and I started dropping producer notes producing next
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: to you know, I was then executive producer of the
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: morning show because I had value and I saw it
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: in I learned my crap. But nobody paid me extra
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: money to get up at five thirty to going to
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: study at six o'clock. I could have stayed at home
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: and just collected my my commission check because I got
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: paid on the deal. But you knew where you was going,
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: and the opportunity was the value like there wasn't um
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: when I was at a company. UM. It was an
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: interesting point. I had to make a decision on whether
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: I was going to stay at the company, and I
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: was I was gonna take another job and take a
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: six figure pay cut. Right, that's betting that. That was
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: probably the first real bet on yourself, right, the real
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: bet on yourself. But um, it was an opportunity at
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: this particular company that they never gave outsiders an opportunity
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: to come in and they were the best. So for me,
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: the value was I want to go learn how they
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: do their business, and that opportunity want up paying thirty
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: x right, Like, at the end of the day, that
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: money that I didn't make for that period of time,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: I didn't make it. I made that over and over
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: and over again because of the education, right and realizing
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: following and looking at where I wanted to go. And
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: these are steps, right, It's the tuition that you pay
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: to be yourself right, right. I literally just give you
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: an example of my relationship to that. I remember when
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: I was a writer. I was on ABC. The show
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: got counsel Steve Harvey, Me and the boys got counseled.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: And then I went over to Robert Howns's first show
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: and they cut my money in half. I was cool,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: I'm working, and then they but they kept my job titled.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: They didn't the same, and so I went to UM.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: I went to one of other studios and I sat down.
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: They said, uh. I said, I just want my job
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: title to be elevated. He said, we can't give you
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: no more money. I said, I'm not asking for no
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: more money. I just want my job title to be elevated.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: He said, does that mean that's yes? Because see that's
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: about you know, like you said, showing value with your name,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: because you know it's the staff writer, executive story of it,
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: you know, assistant producer, producers super right. So I was
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: about to miss a step. That guy looked at me.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: He goes, nobody's ever coming here and say they wanted
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: a title but not worried about the money. That small
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: move got to me eventually be co executive producer to
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: Jamie Foxx Show. If I didn't go in that room
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: and tell this guy, don't worry about the money, just
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: give me the job title, I would have never gotten
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: to be the co executive producer to the Jamie Foxx
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: Show because I have been a title behind. I see you,
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: and so that's what that's that that that's my slide
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: over to your the value of personal branding something you
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: know old too well, and I want to let it
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: somebody know. On my side, I did a personal branding
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: moved way back then before brandy was As they said
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: in Volgue today, everybody uses it so much, but nobody
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: knows what it really means, talk about personal brandy, benie people.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: So it started for me as a child. You know,
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: it's uh, it's a funny story. Um, My sister Regina
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: and I and the rest of our family. We grew
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: up in a five family house and in the attic
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: is which where our apartment was, and the winners were
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: really cold in the summers were really hot. And what
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: was the chances that my last name being Pew, that
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: there was a family of skunks that lived in proximity
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: of the house, under the house and you know, for
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: our distance. So when whether the raccoons or cats or
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: dogs would would agitate these skunks, they would spray, and
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: what would happen is that the scent would go the
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: draft would pull through the house and come in to
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: our apartment, and me and my sister literally would smell
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: like skunks. So we would go to school with the
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: last name Pew smelling like skunks. And kids as mean
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: as they are, you know, like children, like they're just nasty.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: You know, we can be bad like kids. We all
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: were bad kids, right, and realized at that point, you know,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: it could have been a pure negative. I can't change
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: my name right, um, and obviously I'm not in control
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: of the circumstances with the skunk. So that was at
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: the point when I decided to brand myself and make
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: sure my name mattered. So that's why I'm always Benny Pew,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: not Ben. I'm not Benny. I'm Benny Pew because I
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: wanted my name the matter right. Because of that, I
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: can say that, you know, like I would say, you know, Oprah,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be open open can top you?
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: You know, if you if you got a bad thing happen,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: you're like got a bad thing after you're like, you
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Oh you are? You know I was?
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: I had too friends. That's open because you know, because
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: of my name Rushan. You know, my father's really a
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: naunciated Russian, and so I had to make a decision
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: is it Russian to Raushan and pick a name? Brother,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: I remember said pick a name. I say, he said,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: But don't say it like that, don't say it like
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: you're guessing. Say Rashan, okay, Rashan and so same thing there.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: If you make a decision, ride the decision out and
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: then don't. If you don't want to be called Chris
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: in your real name is Christopher, say let people say
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: your real name christ for her. And that's what people
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: so much so long in life. There are a lot
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: of the people to define their path. What is the
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: thing that really set you apart as far as defining
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: people with advice, faith, I mean it's very clear. Um,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: you know what you believe is important because it all
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: starts with with the beliefs and the almighty and then
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: belief in yourself. It's really important. Um. Everything else the
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: secondary to me. Right, Ultimately you know someone who's been
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: in um, some of the worst situations and the best
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: and some of the best situations. What's been most important
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: is my driving for us has been my faith. So
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: that's really it's simple for me. I always tell people that, UM,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: but a strong belief in what you want to do.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: When we tied to the goals you put in place
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: to achieve your dream. But it all starts with a dream.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: But a dream cannot be a complience without goal. The
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: goals you put in action to create create next level opportunity.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: I thank you for coming on the show, brother Man.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: That was good man. Say that again. I appreciate. We
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: talked to you next Tuesday on Money Making Conversation master
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: Class Rushan McDonald and that's been benep you. Thank you.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: So you've been listening to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: Rushan McDonald, always remember to lead with your gifts. Money
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: Making Conversations Master Class is a presentation of thirty fifteen
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: Media Incorporated. You are now tuned into the Money Making
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: Conversations Minute of Inspiration with Rushan McDonald. Hi, I'm Rashan
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: McDonald for Money Making Conversation Masterclass with your Daily Made
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: It of Inspiration. I sat down with Grammy Award when
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: the singer songwriter Molly Music. He reminisced about being the
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: minister of music at his church at eleven years old
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: and not letting his age stop him from what he
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: was called to do. I was a young musician coming
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: in at the ship of a technological era. The church
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: is just before I started playing in church, which was
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: very early, were mostly organ We didn't have an organ
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: in that church, so the keyboard wasn't enough. So I
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: wanted strings. I wanted all these different types of things.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: So that's what kind of set the tone. It was
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: to please my pastor. It was to be able to
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: show that I was ready for the leadership position that
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: he gave me, even though I was so young. I
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: anticipated for people to say I was unauthorized and should
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: not be associated with such a position like minutes of music.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: So I gave my all to it. I gave my commitment.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: You can listen to this full interview with Molly Music.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: It's available on Money Making Conversations dot com