Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Tressa Azarel Smallwood on quitting her job to follow her passion resulting in MegaMind Media

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Tressa Azarel Smallwood on quitting her job to follow her passion resulting in MegaMind Media · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: the Forest dot Org brought to you by the United
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Speaker 1: States Forest Service and the at gown Soul. Hi, Welcome
1:01
Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversation. I am your host with Sean McDonald.
1:05
Speaker 1: It's time to stop reading other people's success stores and
1:07
Speaker 1: start writing your own. I tell that the people every
1:09
Speaker 1: time you listen to show and watch this show, because
1:12
Speaker 1: I always tell people they talk about the gifts, they
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Speaker 1: talk about passion. I always tell you leave with your
1:16
Speaker 1: gifts and don't let your age, friends, family, or coworkers
1:19
Speaker 1: stop you from planning or living your dreams. My interviews
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Speaker 1: I do on money Making Conversations is about giving you
1:25
Speaker 1: access to celebrity CEO, entrepreneurs and industry decision maker. My
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Speaker 1: next guest is Tressa As a real small one. She's
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Speaker 1: an award winning book publisher and movie producer. Trust is
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Speaker 1: the CEO of Life Changing Books l c B and
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Speaker 1: co founder Megamind Media LLC. In two thousand three other
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Speaker 1: right in her first novel, her very first novel, Tressa Wow,
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Speaker 1: reside from her teaching tenure in the Maryland Schools District
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Speaker 1: for fulfilling her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Since then,
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Speaker 1: l c B had published over a hundred and sixty
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Speaker 1: two titles and print indigitally becoming one of the leading
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Speaker 1: independent publishing companies having in the literary industry today. Since lunch,
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Speaker 1: Megamind Media Tressa has produced several award winning movies which
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Speaker 1: have been adapted to UH to film and tell TV
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Speaker 1: shares for networks such as Viacom, BT Networks, TV one,
2:14
Speaker 1: B t HERB, Urban Movie Channel and more. With such
2:17
Speaker 1: a large varia content, Trestler has positioned Megamind Media to
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Speaker 1: become one of the fastest growing film production company from
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Speaker 1: book to film adaptations in America. Please working to money
2:27
Speaker 1: making conversations. I'm woulda calling my good friend because you know,
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Speaker 1: I saw a movie last year. She didn't know I
2:31
Speaker 1: saw a movie all in you know what I'm saying
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Speaker 1: with a little mama and at least Neil Tressor as
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Speaker 1: a real small wold just ma'am. I know about you.
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Speaker 1: I know about you before you knew about me. Oh
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Speaker 1: that's so dope. Thank you so much for having me.
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Speaker 1: As I shared earlier, there's no better place to be
2:50
Speaker 1: on a Monday, money making Monday, talking about money making
2:54
Speaker 1: conversations with you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.
2:57
Speaker 1: Know when I it was really interesting because my staff
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Speaker 1: when they always bring names up to me about people
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Speaker 1: who will be interesting guests. Because what they're trying to do.
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Speaker 1: I try to get the guests to tell their story,
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Speaker 1: their journey, because we all want to be a version
3:10
Speaker 1: of you. I always tell people, don't be Rashan mc.
3:12
Speaker 1: Don't be a version of yourself, a better version of me,
3:15
Speaker 1: because you because you gotta learn from your mistakes and
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Speaker 1: you gotta understand why you're successful. Trying to implement, trying
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Speaker 1: to trying to duplicate me a version of me can't work.
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Speaker 1: So in your intro, it says, after your first novel, okay, okay,
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Speaker 1: now I ask this question, was it a hit selling novel?
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Speaker 1: Just hey, Rashan, I got it out there. I decided
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Speaker 1: to exit. Yeah, so you know what it was. It
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Speaker 1: was an unexpected hit um. I was actually teaching a
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Speaker 1: year prior to that, never had any thoughts about writing
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Speaker 1: a novel or going into the book publishing industry. But
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Speaker 1: obviously that was my faith because I was pregnant in
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Speaker 1: three months in I was on recess duty, having all
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Speaker 1: of these issues with pregnancy and ended up going to
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Speaker 1: the doctor thinking that something was wrong. Something was wrong,
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Speaker 1: but it wasn't detrimental. They said, hey, right now, you
4:12
Speaker 1: gotta go on bad rest at this very moment for
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Speaker 1: the next six months until you deliver. So that was
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Speaker 1: life changing for me. I went on bad rest at
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Speaker 1: that very moment, and one of my family members came
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Speaker 1: over and I kept saying, what am I gonna do?
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Speaker 1: Six months, I got this little bell here ringing it
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Speaker 1: so my husband could bring me some food. I was like,
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Speaker 1: this is not gonna work. I'm I'm too ambitious for this,
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Speaker 1: and she said, you should write a book. That was
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Speaker 1: the start. I literally started listening to some stories UM,
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Speaker 1: of some things that were happening at her job, and
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Speaker 1: that was the inspiration to pend my very first novel,
4:45
Speaker 1: A Life to Remember. UM. By the time that my
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Speaker 1: daughter was born, her name is Bailey. She's nineteen years
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Speaker 1: old now, so that tells you how long ago that was. UM.
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Speaker 1: And so I published that book after all of the
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Speaker 1: naysayers kept saying, don't publish it on your own. Uh, don't.
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Speaker 1: Self publishing is not the way to go. I didn't listen.
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Speaker 1: I said, I'm gonna learn to do it myself, and
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it well. And I did that. UM.
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Speaker 1: I published the book. In my first two months. I
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Speaker 1: was able to make forty thou dollars and sold five
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Speaker 1: thousand copies independently. Self publishing, and so it was a
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Speaker 1: huge success. I never went back to work, and I
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Speaker 1: started building my book, my book empire from their life
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Speaker 1: changing books. Now it is yours, your book empire tied
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Speaker 1: strictly to your talent, or you bringing outside writers, or
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Speaker 1: you out there nurturing other talents under your megamnd uh
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Speaker 1: So definitely I started nurturing other talent um instantly. You know,
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Speaker 1: when you're when you're good at something, other people like
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Speaker 1: you said they want to emulate that, they want to
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Speaker 1: duplicate it. And so because of my teaching um spirit,
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Speaker 1: I said, let me teach others to do what I
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Speaker 1: do UM. And so by two thousand and five, which
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Speaker 1: was you know, four years after that happened for me,
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Speaker 1: I had already had about thirty authors under my label
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Speaker 1: Life Changing Books, and although they were writing books, I
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Speaker 1: was still writing myself. UM. To date, I've written seven
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Speaker 1: books myself, and all of the others are written by
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Speaker 1: outside authors who came to me and wanted to be
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Speaker 1: a part of my team. And your team consisted because
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Speaker 1: now we're just talking about you only on only interview
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Speaker 1: in you Okay, when I hear two books digitally and
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Speaker 1: the heart back or a paperback all me. You you're
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Speaker 1: telling me you are one woman operation. Well, well, let
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Speaker 1: me say this. Obviously, as you grow, you're able to
6:38
Speaker 1: bring in people who do things better than you. So,
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Speaker 1: for example, I'm not a book editor, I go and
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Speaker 1: hire editors to edit the books. I'm not you know,
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Speaker 1: a big marketing firm, but I know how to go
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Speaker 1: and hire the marketing firm to make that happen. So,
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Speaker 1: you know, it's been really really successful for me, which
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Speaker 1: has really put me in position because of all the
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Speaker 1: content it our own. It put me in position to
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Speaker 1: transition into the movie industry with a company that I
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Speaker 1: created inten called megam Media. Okay, cool, I love this story.
7:10
Speaker 1: We're talking about a person who I have to say that, Okay,
7:14
Speaker 1: you became a writer now, but you were it was
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Speaker 1: an educator, you know, high school level, elementary school level.
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Speaker 1: So what made this transition other than the fact that
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Speaker 1: he was in bed for six months? You know, they
7:26
Speaker 1: rested your daughter, who's inn eighteen years of age right now,
7:29
Speaker 1: what really clicked in your head to say this is
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Speaker 1: a possibility. Well, I feel like I've always had the
7:36
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial spirit in me um growing up. I watched my
7:40
Speaker 1: grandfather literally have six and seven different jobs, and I
7:44
Speaker 1: didn't understand it back then. We just kept saying, well,
7:46
Speaker 1: what is he doing now? Why is he going here?
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Speaker 1: What is this all about? And he taught me as
7:50
Speaker 1: I was growing up, So it was just something that
7:52
Speaker 1: was just in me that by the time I graduated
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Speaker 1: from college, I knew, Okay, my family said I need
7:58
Speaker 1: a college degree, but let me tell you this. I
8:01
Speaker 1: know that I want to be an entrepreneur. I just
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Speaker 1: didn't know what type of entrepreneur, what industry it was
8:07
Speaker 1: at the moment. And then once I started teaching, I
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Speaker 1: fell in love with helping others. That was big for me.
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Speaker 1: Uh And so I do believe that outside of being
8:17
Speaker 1: on bad rest and given that opportunity, I would have
8:20
Speaker 1: gone into entrepreneurship at some point anyway, just because it
8:23
Speaker 1: was always in me. But that was the moment where
8:26
Speaker 1: I said, this is it. This book is successful. It's
8:30
Speaker 1: all about writing and creating content, which is my thing.
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Speaker 1: I love it. I can create for days. And so
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Speaker 1: that was my moment and I just took advantage of it.
8:39
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of times people get their opportunities,
8:43
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8:45
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Speaker 1: if you ever if you have a plan, and so
11:28
Speaker 1: I have to believe that when you made the decision
11:31
Speaker 1: to walk away, I know, four your thousand dollars and
11:34
Speaker 1: two months is a lot. That's that's nice. You know
11:36
Speaker 1: you started adding that up over years period. You know
11:38
Speaker 1: you've elevated the tax bracket. But still that had to
11:42
Speaker 1: be a plan. What was the plan tied to you
11:45
Speaker 1: leaving your your your educational background because you wanted to
11:48
Speaker 1: be a school teach. You what to school to build
11:50
Speaker 1: a school teacher? You were you were teaching and changing
11:53
Speaker 1: and shaping young minds. But then at one point you
11:55
Speaker 1: to say it's about me and what I want to
11:57
Speaker 1: do too, and how I can change mind this way
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Speaker 1: too as well. Correct correct, correct. I think the defining
12:05
Speaker 1: moment for me came with um, my husband saying, yes,
12:11
Speaker 1: let's do it, because you know, everybody around me said,
12:15
Speaker 1: then wait a minute. You just went to school to
12:17
Speaker 1: get a masses and education, just finish. Why are you
12:20
Speaker 1: now leaving this industry and why are you taking this chance? Um?
12:24
Speaker 1: I remember family member saying you got summers off, and
12:27
Speaker 1: I said, and I'm gonna have the rest of my
12:28
Speaker 1: life off. In a minute, I'm gonna really go and
12:31
Speaker 1: do this. But my husband was the one who said,
12:33
Speaker 1: I got you, let's do it. Um. He did ask
12:37
Speaker 1: me about my strategy. You know, how are you gonna
12:39
Speaker 1: do this? Are you personally gonna be the one writing
12:41
Speaker 1: the books constantly? And I said, no, I'm gonna do
12:45
Speaker 1: duplicate my success. I'm gonna build a publishing house just
12:49
Speaker 1: the same way you see other big publishers out here
12:52
Speaker 1: have been doing. And it's gonna be a learning process.
12:55
Speaker 1: So I would say, in my very first two years,
12:58
Speaker 1: I made so many mistakes. I just you know, just
13:02
Speaker 1: a lot of my takes, but I learned from them
13:05
Speaker 1: and I started gaining mentors, and I said, I want
13:08
Speaker 1: to find the people who are shaping these bigger companies,
13:11
Speaker 1: bigger publishing houses, that let them show me what to do.
13:15
Speaker 1: And by the time I got a couple of contracts
13:17
Speaker 1: with like Borders Books back then and Walden Books, those
13:20
Speaker 1: were big entities that were interested in helping um female
13:25
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs at the time. Uh. And by the time I
13:28
Speaker 1: got those contracts and being able to walk into those
13:30
Speaker 1: bookstores and seeing my name on the books on the
13:32
Speaker 1: in the in the front window and on the shelves,
13:35
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I got this now. And so
13:37
Speaker 1: I knew at that point that the strategy worked. But
13:40
Speaker 1: but my husband was the key to that with saying,
13:42
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna support you in this. I'm talking
13:44
Speaker 1: to Tredifer as a real small wood. They creative life
13:48
Speaker 1: changing books as well as megamind Media. And when I,
13:52
Speaker 1: when I, when I, when I listened to you talk,
13:55
Speaker 1: you know there's always uh, I want here the word
13:57
Speaker 1: disconnect because it's almost here, like how you know, you know,
14:01
Speaker 1: how does this happen? Because you know you have Amazon
14:04
Speaker 1: out there, you have Borders they got, they got marketing machines.
14:07
Speaker 1: You know, they got advertising dollars. You know they you
14:10
Speaker 1: know you you you can say their name. You know
14:13
Speaker 1: Megamond doesn't pop into your mind unless you think of
14:15
Speaker 1: someone some animated movie or something like some superhero or
14:18
Speaker 1: something villain or something like that. That's when you think
14:21
Speaker 1: of Megamond. But how did you believe in yourself so much?
14:24
Speaker 1: And so you know something, I I can do this
14:27
Speaker 1: to other people, not only myself, but I can do
14:29
Speaker 1: like kelp me slide into that lane of understanding because
14:34
Speaker 1: of the fact that at the beginning of my show,
14:36
Speaker 1: I always tell people to lead with their gifts and
14:38
Speaker 1: don't let your age friends and family and co workers,
14:42
Speaker 1: and that's what you what was happened in your life
14:44
Speaker 1: co workers and friends and families and said, but you
14:47
Speaker 1: you you you you with your school for this, I
14:50
Speaker 1: would excoolse Beth. My degree in mathematis and sociology. Okay, whoa,
14:55
Speaker 1: I love it. Okay, so you you you're talking to
14:57
Speaker 1: the right person when just saying that degree something I love.
15:01
Speaker 1: I brag about it. I put it on my wall.
15:03
Speaker 1: I tell people, probably I have a degree in mathematic
15:06
Speaker 1: but that doesn't define who I am and who that
15:08
Speaker 1: can be. Now you're doing the same thing. You went
15:12
Speaker 1: against the grain because even though you're not Simon and
15:15
Speaker 1: Suite Schuster, even though you're not Amazon, even though you're
15:18
Speaker 1: not Harper College, what made you believe the treasure as
15:23
Speaker 1: a real small wood could do this? Yeah? Well, one,
15:28
Speaker 1: faith plays a big part of my life. Um, I
15:32
Speaker 1: am always uh in prayer. Obviously, we know that you
15:36
Speaker 1: have to do more than just pray. You gotta actually
15:38
Speaker 1: do some work, right. Yeah, that's that's really big for me.
15:42
Speaker 1: And so you know, I feel like if you map
15:45
Speaker 1: out a strategy, if you really believe in yourself enough
15:48
Speaker 1: and so people love to say I believe in myself,
15:51
Speaker 1: but do you really believe in yourself when things when
15:54
Speaker 1: things start failing, when you are not succeeding, do you
15:58
Speaker 1: give up? Or do you hang in there? Again? I
16:01
Speaker 1: really always taken back to my childhood. I've watched my
16:05
Speaker 1: grandfather failed, but I watched him still get up and
16:08
Speaker 1: go to the event or to the gig or whatever
16:11
Speaker 1: was happening. Um. And we did a lot of you know,
16:14
Speaker 1: talking about how did we turn this around? How do
16:17
Speaker 1: we stay in the game, how do we make it work.
16:19
Speaker 1: So I think from me learning that at an early
16:22
Speaker 1: age and then growing up myself and and saying, hey,
16:26
Speaker 1: I want to do this. You know, walking away from
16:28
Speaker 1: your job doesn't mean you get the opportunity to go
16:32
Speaker 1: back to it. It doesn't mean you get the opportunity
16:35
Speaker 1: to backtrack. At this point, once I made that commitment
16:38
Speaker 1: to go for it, I was in it, even when
16:41
Speaker 1: even the years that weren't as great, I was in it.
16:43
Speaker 1: Even when the rejection came. I was in it, and
16:47
Speaker 1: I took and I stayed in it. Even when I
16:49
Speaker 1: started making my media. My first movie almost took me
16:52
Speaker 1: all the way out. I was like, Lord, why why
16:54
Speaker 1: did I get into this business? What is going on here?
16:57
Speaker 1: But I knew I wasn't going to quit. I knew
16:59
Speaker 1: I was going to keep going. It's it's something where
17:02
Speaker 1: you have to tell yourself, I got this despite the setbacks,
17:07
Speaker 1: despite the challenges. But you also have to be real
17:10
Speaker 1: with yourself and know that those things are going to happen.
17:13
Speaker 1: I think when people try to fool themselves saying, oh,
17:16
Speaker 1: you know on social media, this person is doing this
17:18
Speaker 1: and this. You know you'll see me on the red
17:21
Speaker 1: carpet all the time. But you you have no idea
17:24
Speaker 1: what I went through to get there, you know. So
17:27
Speaker 1: I just I think people need to understand. Don't just
17:31
Speaker 1: say you believe in yourself. You really gotta believe in
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Speaker 1: What grows in the forest trees, Sure no one else
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Speaker 1: grows in the forest. Our imagination, our sense of wonder,
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Speaker 1: from this and connect with this, we reconnect with each other.
18:26
Speaker 1: The forest is closer than you think. Find a forest
18:29
Speaker 1: near you and start exploring. I Discover the Forest dot
18:32
Speaker 1: Org brought to you by the United States Forest Service
18:35
Speaker 1: and the AD Council. And we're live here outside the
18:39
Speaker 1: Perez family home, just waiting for the And there they go,
18:43
Speaker 1: almost on time. This morning. Mom is coming out the
18:46
Speaker 1: front door, strong with a double armed kid carry. Looks
18:48
Speaker 1: like dad has the bags. Daughter is bringing up the rear.
18:52
Speaker 1: Oh but the diaper bag wasn't closed. Diapers and toys
18:56
Speaker 1: are everywhere. Oh but mom is just nailed the perfect
19:01
Speaker 1: car seat buckle for the toddler. And now the eldest daughter,
19:04
Speaker 1: who looks to be about nine or ten, has secured
19:07
Speaker 1: herself in the booster seat dead zips the bad clothes
19:10
Speaker 1: and they're off. But looks like Mom doesn't realize her
19:14
Speaker 1: coffee cup is still on the roof of the car.
19:16
Speaker 1: And there it goes. That's a shame that mug was
19:20
Speaker 1: a fan favorite. Don't sweat the small stuff, just nailed
19:24
Speaker 1: the big stuff, like making sure your kids are buckled
19:26
Speaker 1: correctly in the right seat for their agent's eyes. Learn
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Speaker 1: Right Seat visits n h s A dot gov slash
19:34
Speaker 1: The Right Seat Brought to you by Mitza and the
19:36
Speaker 1: AD Council. They trust him you know, it's really great
19:39
Speaker 1: when I'm listening to your motivation. And you know, like
19:42
Speaker 1: I said in when I saw your movie All In
19:45
Speaker 1: that you executive produced and you wrote, starring a Eleas
19:48
Speaker 1: Neil as well as Little Mama the Rapper, um I
19:53
Speaker 1: was first of all, you gotta have talent on the
19:55
Speaker 1: screen to really make the words and the and the
19:58
Speaker 1: plot have any substance. Okay, you know you can. You
20:01
Speaker 1: can have all You have a great book. If it's
20:03
Speaker 1: not directed correctly or written correctly, then the translation is nothing.
20:08
Speaker 1: And Little Mama, if you don't know about her skill set,
20:10
Speaker 1: please join the club. She's very talented. Of course, at
20:13
Speaker 1: least Neil is. You know, her role is played her
20:16
Speaker 1: mama in the movie, and the Little Mama had three kids,
20:19
Speaker 1: you just dragging around all over the town and trying
20:22
Speaker 1: to just find her place in life. Or your movies
20:26
Speaker 1: female centric or female focused movies? Yeah, yes, absolutely most
20:31
Speaker 1: of them are uh, female focus. But also what's very
20:35
Speaker 1: unique about the movie that you're speaking of All In.
20:39
Speaker 1: You know, as an African American screenwriter, you have the
20:43
Speaker 1: ability to change the narrative right, So at Megamond, any
20:47
Speaker 1: movie that you see from me, it is going to
20:50
Speaker 1: show African Americans in a good light bottom line. So
20:53
Speaker 1: in the movie All In Little Mama didn't start off
20:56
Speaker 1: in a good light, right she begin but by the
21:00
Speaker 1: time you got to the end, what was happening. She
21:03
Speaker 1: was an entrepreneur, She opened up her shop and all
21:07
Speaker 1: was well. Right. So that was me I had. I
21:10
Speaker 1: had the the the decision making opportunity as to how
21:14
Speaker 1: I was going to end that film. And so I
21:17
Speaker 1: believe that the more content creators that we get out
21:20
Speaker 1: there who have that same mission, where like, how are
21:23
Speaker 1: we gonna look on screen? You know? And so I
21:26
Speaker 1: wrote another movie, UM that was based off of a
21:29
Speaker 1: book from Life Changing Books called The Available Wife. UM.
21:33
Speaker 1: This movie is actually airing on BT this month. But
21:37
Speaker 1: when you watch how these African American females look, you're
21:41
Speaker 1: gonna say to yourself, oh my goodness, like who did this?
21:45
Speaker 1: Who did this? The moment that you see them. They
21:48
Speaker 1: have nice, nice careers, entrepreneurs. Everywhere they look good, they are.
21:54
Speaker 1: Everything that they do is gonna put you on another level.
21:58
Speaker 1: So we don't have to always put ourselves in movies
22:01
Speaker 1: where we are the underdog. But that doesn't have to happen.
22:04
Speaker 1: But it starts with who has the pen, who's doing
22:07
Speaker 1: who's doing the writing, and who's making the decisions. Interesting
22:11
Speaker 1: thing about it because we all talk about budgets, okay,
22:13
Speaker 1: and that that's you know, who you know, because you're
22:17
Speaker 1: getting some amazing talent and I know your budgets, aren't
22:19
Speaker 1: you know? We're talking about Will Packer budgets. And some
22:22
Speaker 1: of these, even his movies are the most profitable movies
22:26
Speaker 1: in the in the in the Hollywood history is Will
22:28
Speaker 1: Packer movies. So when you when you start looking at
22:32
Speaker 1: new talent of veteran talent bringing them to your project,
22:35
Speaker 1: how do you have the casting? Yeah, so we typically
22:40
Speaker 1: connect with the agents that have either seen our product
22:45
Speaker 1: or know someone who knows us, right, because it's all
22:48
Speaker 1: always about who you know. In the very beginning, when
22:51
Speaker 1: I produced my very first movie, nobody knew who we were,
22:55
Speaker 1: so it was very difficult to get talent. But once
22:58
Speaker 1: they saw secrets, UH centers wanted some of the movies
23:02
Speaker 1: that I did first, they then said, oh this is
23:05
Speaker 1: this is a great you know, a great company to
23:09
Speaker 1: go and work for. I know they're gonna be treated well,
23:11
Speaker 1: I know they're gonna look good on screen and so
23:13
Speaker 1: from there has become very easy. So now, for example,
23:16
Speaker 1: I'm casting for a new movie as we speak. You know,
23:20
Speaker 1: when when we're being introduced to certain agents, we're just
23:23
Speaker 1: really send it over are real and saying, hey, here's
23:26
Speaker 1: a new movie that we're doing. Here is the script,
23:28
Speaker 1: and and it's it's much easier now. Um, and our budgets,
23:32
Speaker 1: like you said, we don't have the mega budgets, but
23:35
Speaker 1: at our budget level, talent knows that, oh we're gonna
23:38
Speaker 1: be seen in a good light. And this is something
23:40
Speaker 1: I want to be a part of. Absolutely, Because now
23:43
Speaker 1: when you can, would you consider your movies independent productions
23:46
Speaker 1: or how how how is that featured? Yeah, we're we're
23:51
Speaker 1: considered independent filmmakers. Okay, Now that's that's the beauty of
23:55
Speaker 1: your industry because of the fact that now when I
23:58
Speaker 1: when I have to reference all In because that's a
24:00
Speaker 1: movie I saw and that I fell in love with
24:02
Speaker 1: your talent. I fell in love with the concept and
24:04
Speaker 1: it was a feel good story and it goes back
24:06
Speaker 1: to me. And that's why I relate to your a lot,
24:08
Speaker 1: because I wrote Sitcom's Sister Sister, you know, Jamie foxx
24:13
Speaker 1: the Parkers, and it was all about you know, heavy
24:16
Speaker 1: said women feeling good about themselves. That was the Parkers.
24:19
Speaker 1: Jamie Foxx was an entrepreneur, young man finding themselves. And
24:22
Speaker 1: when when I went to the series in the last
24:24
Speaker 1: two years, we took him out of the hotel and
24:26
Speaker 1: made him, made him a business, put him in a
24:28
Speaker 1: professional business world. And then Sister sister. That was two
24:31
Speaker 1: twin teenagers coming of age because we took him from
24:34
Speaker 1: high school to college. And I always feel good about that.
24:37
Speaker 1: And if my whole brand, if you look at what
24:39
Speaker 1: we did with Steve Harvey, it was always about uplifting
24:41
Speaker 1: black people. Same thing I'm doing with stephen A. Smith.
24:44
Speaker 1: So it's about the positive image that you create that
24:46
Speaker 1: we are now giddy now. You know when you started
24:49
Speaker 1: way back in the early two thousands, you know, when
24:52
Speaker 1: nobody out there wanted black content. Nobody was looking for us.
24:55
Speaker 1: What do I want to feel us? You know? And
24:57
Speaker 1: then you battle with TV want you battle with Open Network,
25:00
Speaker 1: You bad littld be teacher to try to get a
25:02
Speaker 1: little little meaty with your stuff. How is the reaction
25:06
Speaker 1: been to your brand now that suddenly people want black content.
25:09
Speaker 1: We got the Netflix out there, the Amazon, the Hulus,
25:12
Speaker 1: on next a new network coming out of this time
25:14
Speaker 1: to the oh Hulu relationship. What is happening with your brain? Girl,
25:18
Speaker 1: You gotta be feeling good about yourself. Your faith is
25:21
Speaker 1: paying off. Yeah, yeah, hard work pays off, I'm telling you.
25:25
Speaker 1: And so when I think about it, I'm so glad
25:27
Speaker 1: that you brought that up, because I always tell people
25:30
Speaker 1: it's a part of staying through it all, like saying
25:34
Speaker 1: the course. When when I first did Secrets in sixteen,
25:39
Speaker 1: we took it to a b FF, very first time
25:43
Speaker 1: doing any of this, I remember being in the movie
25:45
Speaker 1: theater for the screening and actually looking around going, wait
25:50
Speaker 1: a minute, this is real. This is really real. Now
25:52
Speaker 1: people are in here watching this movie. And so God
25:55
Speaker 1: bless me big time because right after the screening, I
25:59
Speaker 1: met some one from BT and they said, hey, you
26:02
Speaker 1: need to meet such and such. They're gonna call you
26:05
Speaker 1: next week. And that happened. Um got a call from
26:08
Speaker 1: BC the very next week and said, hey, we want
26:10
Speaker 1: to license this movie. So staying the course, staying committed.
26:16
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't even know that that was going
26:18
Speaker 1: to happen to me. I honestly was going there saying
26:21
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a chance on myself. I'm gonna market
26:23
Speaker 1: this film like crazy. See who shows up at my screening,
26:26
Speaker 1: and if nothing happens, I'm gonna keep going. I'm gonna
26:29
Speaker 1: figure it out. I'm gonna get it on somebody's network.
26:32
Speaker 1: But it happened very quickly, and from there the train
26:36
Speaker 1: has not stopped moving. Well that's a good train. Now
26:39
Speaker 1: that now you have some project coming out on up
26:42
Speaker 1: on bt HER tell us about the tell us about
26:45
Speaker 1: the the process that Megamind of of taking these books
26:50
Speaker 1: and adapting them for film. You know, we all know
26:53
Speaker 1: you the brain child. You know you are the Megamind.
26:56
Speaker 1: Talk to us about that dressing. Yes, yes, so so
27:00
Speaker 1: obviously with Megamond, our primary goal is to take the
27:04
Speaker 1: books that are in the book catalog, from life changing
27:06
Speaker 1: books and adapt those into the movies. So that's the
27:09
Speaker 1: primary goal. However, along the way, when people see that
27:13
Speaker 1: you can produce um, that you're putting out good content,
27:17
Speaker 1: of course they're going to tap into you to do
27:18
Speaker 1: projects with them as well. So the partnership with bec
27:22
Speaker 1: her Um with these health initiatives came with UM. One
27:26
Speaker 1: of the executives over there, Loisa bates Um, she was
27:29
Speaker 1: looking for someone to UM partner with them on the
27:33
Speaker 1: health initiatives. So they have a series called The Waiting Room,
27:36
Speaker 1: the Couch, and now the Hotline. All of these series,
27:41
Speaker 1: UM are projects that highlight health issues or some type
27:45
Speaker 1: of issue that African American women face. So for example,
27:50
Speaker 1: The Couch touches on mental health. UH, the Waiting Room
27:53
Speaker 1: touches on breast cancer awareness, and now the Hotline touches
27:57
Speaker 1: on domestic violence. And so this is a series that UM,
28:01
Speaker 1: you know obviously you know bt Her feels really strongly
28:05
Speaker 1: about and I am actually the producer for for that series.
28:09
Speaker 1: And so we bring in celebrity directors. We've had Vivica Fox,
28:14
Speaker 1: Mona Scott, Young, Victoria Raoul and that's a bell callaway. Uh.
28:18
Speaker 1: The list goes on, but they basically come in, they
28:22
Speaker 1: take us an episode and they direct that episode. And
28:26
Speaker 1: the reason why we tapped into uh celebrities to do
28:30
Speaker 1: this is because we know when they speak. People listen
28:34
Speaker 1: when you have a Shirlelee Ralph talking to you about
28:37
Speaker 1: why you should go and get a mammogram early uh
28:40
Speaker 1: and why she decided to direct a an episode about
28:44
Speaker 1: breast cancer awareness. UM. So these these short films episodes
28:48
Speaker 1: are very very powerful. Um. We have a set of
28:52
Speaker 1: them coming out in July for The Couch, which are
28:56
Speaker 1: the mental health UM series on the Vivigate Fox movie
29:00
Speaker 1: that she directed, was that shot d C Area. Yes,
29:04
Speaker 1: we shoot all of our movies in DC. It was
29:06
Speaker 1: so funny because I would just tell you a little
29:07
Speaker 1: funny story because one of the locations that she chose
29:10
Speaker 1: was a very good friend of mine. Did you guys
29:12
Speaker 1: use Laura Foods? It was her. So so we are
29:17
Speaker 1: so I on the phone, We're talking to Laura and
29:19
Speaker 1: then she walked the Foxes in my office directing. It
29:24
Speaker 1: was so funny that you're saying that because I knew
29:27
Speaker 1: exactly the project that you were talking about that was
29:29
Speaker 1: recently shot, by the way, it was shot this year. Yeah,
29:32
Speaker 1: and we actually shot two series at Laura's UM facility.
29:37
Speaker 1: We did one with Dandy Smith and Mona Scott Young.
29:42
Speaker 1: Her film was shot there as well. Um. And you know,
29:45
Speaker 1: obviously I know Laura just because she's amazing when it
29:47
Speaker 1: comes to money. Yes, and she talked about you to
29:52
Speaker 1: me before, Rashawn, but I actually did not make the connection.
29:55
Speaker 1: So now, well good because now you know because of
29:58
Speaker 1: the fact that it was so funny, I said, I
30:00
Speaker 1: gotta ask what difficult shoot that in DC because it
30:04
Speaker 1: was recently done. But when I look at these projects
30:06
Speaker 1: and pop, you're evolving as a brand. You are a
30:09
Speaker 1: brand now, so you know, you may have when out
30:12
Speaker 1: on faith, you may have. You know, God told you
30:14
Speaker 1: you need to send up bed for six months and
30:17
Speaker 1: get you a little re ring bell, and you wrote
30:19
Speaker 1: a book, but you are a brand. What responsibility comes
30:22
Speaker 1: with you being a brand tresser as a real small
30:25
Speaker 1: wood Yeah? I think for me, Um, the responsibility that
30:30
Speaker 1: I take is number one. I said before, I get
30:34
Speaker 1: to control the narrative, right, because we are we have
30:36
Speaker 1: a lot of eyeballs on us now. So even if
30:39
Speaker 1: I wanted to act crazy, I can't, right because there's
30:41
Speaker 1: too many people watching me. Um. I take the fact
30:44
Speaker 1: that although I don't teach in the classroom, I'm still
30:47
Speaker 1: an educator and there are a lot of young people
30:50
Speaker 1: watching me, following me, wanting to duplicate my success, and
30:54
Speaker 1: so I don't take that lightly. UM. So responsibility for
30:58
Speaker 1: me is that I watch what I do. I make
31:01
Speaker 1: sure that I am pulling other people up and showing
31:05
Speaker 1: them what to do. UM. And I am encouraging people
31:08
Speaker 1: all the time to go for it, but go for
31:10
Speaker 1: it with a plan, right right, and then then the
31:13
Speaker 1: plan is that you know it can that's be just faith.
31:17
Speaker 1: It has to have a plan tied to I always
31:19
Speaker 1: tell people you go out on faith, but somewhere along
31:21
Speaker 1: life you better have some reason or budget tied to that.
31:24
Speaker 1: That that that faith. And when I when I look
31:27
Speaker 1: at what you're doing, what you I gotta ask this
31:29
Speaker 1: question because we said, you know, your your books are
31:32
Speaker 1: female centric, because people come to me all the time.
31:35
Speaker 1: You know, I can't get everybody at Simon Schuster or
31:38
Speaker 1: Harper College or some of the major labels out there.
31:41
Speaker 1: Do do you how do you? How do you? I
31:44
Speaker 1: guess screen people who want to bring novels or memoirs
31:47
Speaker 1: to your to your your book label LCB. Yeah, we
31:52
Speaker 1: have a screening process, so pretty much we send all
31:55
Speaker 1: traffic to um trust the ozareil dot com and from
31:59
Speaker 1: there people who want to go to casting they can
32:02
Speaker 1: figure it out, you know, once they get to the
32:03
Speaker 1: site if they want to, you know, submit a project.
32:06
Speaker 1: It's an easy way for me to streamline everything, all
32:10
Speaker 1: questions straight to that site. Because of course, if I'm
32:14
Speaker 1: doing radio interviews and all these different things. I can't
32:17
Speaker 1: always try to figure out how to help somebody answer
32:20
Speaker 1: each individual question. So we send everybody right there and
32:24
Speaker 1: they can get all the answers that they need in
32:26
Speaker 1: terms of um, you know, us looking at projects, whether
32:29
Speaker 1: it's a screenplay, it's a novel or whatever, it is,
32:32
Speaker 1: okay cool. So so if someone because I'm I'm gonna
32:35
Speaker 1: sending some people, you're way now because I am no,
32:38
Speaker 1: I'm d I have no clue as to what to
32:41
Speaker 1: do because I'm not familiar with because Amazon takes a
32:44
Speaker 1: lot of your money. To my understanding, you know, when
32:46
Speaker 1: you do self publishing, and so when you talk about
32:49
Speaker 1: self publish, are you going through Amazon? How how does
32:52
Speaker 1: your self publishing system work for you? Yeah, we still
32:56
Speaker 1: utilize Amazon. It's obviously not the only outlet that we have,
33:01
Speaker 1: but you know, we use Baker and Taylor, we use Ingram.
33:05
Speaker 1: Amazon is just easy for everyone. You know, whether I
33:08
Speaker 1: think I'm always in this love hate relationship with Amazon,
33:11
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, it's easy access.
33:15
Speaker 1: And because America loves Amazon, they go there for my films,
33:20
Speaker 1: they go there to buy my books. But ultimately we
33:24
Speaker 1: get a chance to disseminate the information when they come
33:27
Speaker 1: to trust at ozarel dot com. So it's just easy.
33:30
Speaker 1: I love it. First of all, let's not just say America,
33:33
Speaker 1: but the world loves Amazons. You. You know, they can
33:39
Speaker 1: be buying your books in Africa and the Caribbean, in Spain,
33:42
Speaker 1: in Europe and Russia because they're watching my movies over there.
33:46
Speaker 1: Toober Shot, I get d m s all the time.
33:48
Speaker 1: But that's what that That's what I'm saying is that
33:50
Speaker 1: you are brand down and so you know, I know
33:52
Speaker 1: I'm going to continuous conversation because you know, you're soing
33:56
Speaker 1: chanting and from the standpoint of you know, when I
34:00
Speaker 1: when I when I come across people like you who
34:02
Speaker 1: are naturally talented, you know, it's it's always the next
34:05
Speaker 1: level when I'm trying to figure out, you know, what's
34:07
Speaker 1: the next level for you. That's why we have to
34:09
Speaker 1: talk more off the air because of the fact that
34:12
Speaker 1: I see gifts in you. I'm not saying you're satisfied,
34:15
Speaker 1: I'll never say that, but what are the next step?
34:18
Speaker 1: Because you you you know, you you know big dollar
34:22
Speaker 1: you should beat some big dollar projects. You know, you
34:24
Speaker 1: should be afraid, you know, twenty five million dollar budgets.
34:27
Speaker 1: If they're throwing around the Netflix and all this stuff,
34:30
Speaker 1: you should be doing those things. And so I'm I'm
34:33
Speaker 1: claiming it speaking in to existence. I'm just trustful. I
34:37
Speaker 1: don't just talk like that's just because you know you
34:39
Speaker 1: look good. I'm talking about because you are good. Okay.
34:42
Speaker 1: So you know if youse uglass think I talked a
34:44
Speaker 1: way because you're good, girl, you're good, all right. So
34:47
Speaker 1: so in the future, let's let's let's stay in touch.
34:50
Speaker 1: And I just want to share your story on money
34:52
Speaker 1: making conversation about how you made a decision as a
34:55
Speaker 1: elementary high school. You have a master's degree in education
34:58
Speaker 1: and you decided to you know something all of my
35:00
Speaker 1: dreams and the Nate says was your friends, your family,
35:03
Speaker 1: your co workers told you, hey, girl, are you crazy?
35:06
Speaker 1: Same people told me when I was leaving IBM be
35:08
Speaker 1: a stand up comment. They said, you're not gonna be
35:10
Speaker 1: Edin Murphy. I never told you I wanted to be
35:12
Speaker 1: Edin Murphy. And I told you I want to be
35:15
Speaker 1: richer prior you're assuming something I never All I want
35:18
Speaker 1: to do is just be Rashwan McDonald. And guess what
35:20
Speaker 1: It's worked out. For me and it's working out for you.
35:22
Speaker 1: And that's what money making conversations about. Then people hear
35:25
Speaker 1: these stories of success to let them know if you
35:28
Speaker 1: follow your faith with a plan and a budget, you
35:30
Speaker 1: can win too. But no, there's gonna be some low roads,
35:34
Speaker 1: the low roads. Go to let you know how to
35:37
Speaker 1: not fall back into the low roads. The high roads
35:39
Speaker 1: when they come. Let you know what it takes to
35:42
Speaker 1: stay at the high road because to your success. And
35:45
Speaker 1: and thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation, Trusting,
35:48
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. I really really
35:51
Speaker 1: love this conversation. I'm glad you and I'm glad you
35:54
Speaker 1: was able to put two and two together with Laura
35:56
Speaker 1: Foods now you know, talking to about you. But again
36:03
Speaker 1: she swarts, he knows how the howling your money and
36:05
Speaker 1: she's a hard worker. Again, come back on my show
36:07
Speaker 1: and we need to promote something else and also just
36:09
Speaker 1: tell your story to my fans who will vote audio
36:12
Speaker 1: as well as video for money Making Conversations. Okay, awesome,
36:16
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Have a great day. Okay, So
36:18
Speaker 1: if you want to hear or see any of my
36:19
Speaker 1: interviews on money making Conversations, please go to money Making
36:22
Speaker 1: Conversation dot com. I'm Rashan McDonald. I am your host.
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Speaker 1: bories are increasing, hiring is tough, and burnout is real.
37:05
Speaker 1: It's time to unleash growth. It's time to transform your
37:09
Speaker 1: HR from powerless to powerful. Join a DP on February.
37:15
Speaker 1: Reserve your spot now. Go to get the Plan dot
37:18
Speaker 1: IDP dot com to register for the Work Interrupted Summit.
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Speaker 1: Honorary forest Ranger Betty White here lending a hand on
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Speaker 1: my dear friends Smokey Bear because for years he's only
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Speaker 1: said only you can prevent wildfires. But there's a lot
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Speaker 1: more to say, like if you bark your car on
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Speaker 1: tall dry grass. The hoardig sauce pipe can start a wildfire,
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Speaker 1: so keep the animal safe, especially the cute shirtless one.
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Speaker 1: Go to smokey bear dot com to learn more about
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Speaker 1: wildfire prevention brought to you whether US Forest Service, your
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Speaker 1: state forester, and the AD Council