Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Overcoming the Odds: Former NFL Player turned Hollywood actor starring in The Black Hamptons on BET+ and celebrity spokesman for Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia, Karon Joseph Riley.

Transcript

Overcoming the Odds: Former NFL Player turned Hollywood actor starring in The Black Hamptons on BET+ and celebrity spokesman for Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia, Karon Joseph Riley. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you're about to make a change in your life
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  Speaker 1: Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald. Our theme is
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  Speaker 2: Him.
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  Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald our host the weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass
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  Speaker 1: show the information in interviews that this show provides really
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  Speaker 1: My guests is starting in the NAACP nominated series The
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Black Hamptons and you can find it on be T.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Please welcome with the Money Making Conversations Masterclass because we
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: have a lot to talk about. Karan Joseph Ridley, how
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  Speaker 1: you doing, sir?
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  Speaker 2: He's a love King. How you doing. I'm doing great well.
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  Speaker 1: You know, first of all, you have a naturally euth
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: lifting smile. You know who'd you get it from? Who's
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: taking credit for that? Mam and Dad?
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  Speaker 2: I got to give all credit to my mother. She
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  Speaker 2: she's with the ancestors now, man, and I'd be remiss
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  Speaker 2: if I don't give her and arrested my ancestors all
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  Speaker 2: the credit for everything I'm doing now in this time.
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  Speaker 1: You know, when I when I, when I've encountered our relationship,
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  Speaker 1: you know, first of all, is always visual.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's cream.
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  Speaker 1: You know you was an athlete, you know, and I've
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: been a sports fan and so. But when you talk
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: about who you really are, something that we can relate
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  Speaker 1: to is that I have sickle cell trade. And I
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  Speaker 1: want to start our conversation with there because of the
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: fact that we know the sickle cell disease, which is
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: also an extended form of the trade, you know, paralyzes
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people, in particular African Americans in the
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  Speaker 1: United States. Tell us about your sickle cell background.
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  Speaker 2: H speaking up, we just mentioned my mother. She is
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: the one who birthed me and the one who gave
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: me the trade. As well, but I made a promise
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: with my mother and she she passed away from sickle
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  Speaker 2: cell maybe ten twelve years ago now, but she lived
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: to be sixty five with the trade with the actual
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  Speaker 2: sickle self Fallacymian disease, which you and I both know
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: is a miracle in itself. They told her in college
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: when she was doing her finals, when she went to
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: get her physical exam, they said, Angela, you should probably
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: not even worry about having no kids, worry about anything
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: other than that. Just stayed president for your day, because
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: you probably won't make it to twenty five. And my
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: mother used to tell me that story all the time,
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  Speaker 2: And I said, Mama, what did you do when she's
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: in the doctor told you that? She said, I ain't
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  Speaker 2: pay that, I didn't fay that white man no mind.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: I went and did my I ain't took my finals,
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  Speaker 2: And you and your two other brothers are sitting here
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  Speaker 2: and this testamentult that he didn't know what he was
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: talking about. And that's just who we are. Baby. Don't
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: let nobody tell you who you are. You tell the
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: world who you are and show them.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: And at that motivation, when you're hearing it from your mom,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: hearing it from as you grow older and educate yourself.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: By cicle cell, you gained a lot more respect. I'm
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: sure what she had to deal with.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well I live with it every day. Man.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: You didn't know every day you lived with the thought
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: of the other shoe dropping. Right, Because I've seen my
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: mother go through crisis. I've seen a great moment in
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: our life turn into a nightmare seemingly out of nowhere
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: because of a crisis from sickle cell. So I spent
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: my whole childhood in my early adult life basically holding
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: my breath, just waiting for that phone call that you know,
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  Speaker 2: my mom had a severe crisis and she's no longer
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  Speaker 2: with us. But fortunately, like I said, she made it
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  Speaker 2: to sixty five. And one of the promises I made
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  Speaker 2: her was if I can stop this disease, I'll stop it.
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  Speaker 2: And I believe this disease could be stopped with just
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  Speaker 2: educational Shane. We have to learn how to educate ourselves
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: on our self. Our self. Knowledge of self is really
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: what we can cure every disease of our culture. In
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: my opinion, starting with cycle cell. Right, if every woman
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: I dated before I met my wife, up until my wife,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: I asked. The first question I asked was what's your
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: cicle cel status? And some sisters was taking it back
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: by because they really didn't understand what I was asking.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: But most sisters actually liew which was a testament to
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: those sisters and their families communication styles, and it includos
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: to them as well, because as you know, I'm a
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: celebrity spokesman for the Cycle Self Foundation here in Georgia
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: and every year I go out to the camp, I
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: talk to the children, I deal with the parents, the adults,
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: and I've had conversations with some of them. I'm like,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: did you guys know that you both had the trade
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: before you appropriated? Some said no, most said no, but
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: there were some who went into it overstanding that they
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: both had the trade and it was the thing of
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: whatsn't happening to Some are people in this country as well.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: We've been waiting for some guy in the sky to
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: fix everything. That's not the case. We have to save ourselves.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: And they also understand now at the time that yeah,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: you made a decision and this is the consequence of
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: your decision. And I've been very proactive in not making
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: that decision and putting that on my children and also
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: doing my part to stop this disease.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: You know, I like I said, my wife, she has
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: sickle cell trade. I had cicklecel trade. Well it was
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: beautiful daughter. Of course, there's a twenty five percent chance
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: that that child that we have now who does not
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: have sickle cell could have had sickle cell. Now when
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: you go through the whole part like a good friend mine,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna call him a good friend. Ryan Clark, he
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: has sickle cell trade and he talks about a lot
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: of stories where high elevation gave him issues. I believe
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: he the story to remove his spleen or something like
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: that because of.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Playing played in Denver. I played in Denfer as well.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: So talk about a lot of people think when they
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: just have sickle cell trade, they're good, but it still
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: is some medical issues can arise from that. Being that
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: you are a high profile athlete. Talk about their steps
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: or did you even worry about that or did you
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: did your local trainers were they aware of you having
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: sickle cell trade?
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  Speaker 2: Well that's the that's the that's the the double edged
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: sworder to catch all of this disease and shining it's
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: a black it's considered a black disease, so it's not
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: a lot of people who's going to hear about how
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: to help it or fix it. So I was really
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: literally on my own as far as understanding and disease
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: and educating myself on it. I'm thankful that we grew
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: up in Detroit, Michigan, up north, where the medical industry
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: was on top of it, versus the south, where my
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: mother moved on to the South. It took us forever
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: to find a doctor who could help treat her her condition.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: And some of the things that we were doing up north,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: we were we were doing blood is change, we were
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: doing some cutting in stuff, and my mom was living
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: in Detroit, And when we got to Georgia, we had
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: to bring those those those procedures to Georgia. And now
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: they've implemented those procedures and a lot of the things
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: they do for sickle sell patents here g org Is
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: based on what they deal with my mother because they
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: didn't really understand what she was doing, but now they
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: understood it. And for us, as an athlete, I kind
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: of innately knew, like from research, I knew I had
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: to stay hydrated, so I started drinking a gallon of
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: water every day since I was sixteen seventeen, right, and
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: I had stopped. I stayed hydrated and as you know,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: high altitude. So when I fly, I wear compression pants,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: I wear all of the things to help alleviate any
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: of the symptoms that can happen, like blood clotting or
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: anything like that. That's one of the byproducts of having
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: the single sell trade. And also I think that cost
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: me some of my draft status as well because of
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: my staff in college. I should have been a first
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: round pick based on my numbers in college, because there's
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: been no defensive end to come out of college in
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: the last twenty years. With my numbers, it wasn't the.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Top ten pig right based So did you graduate from
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: University of Minnesota? Correct? And I sat time cycle Leader's still.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Deal to the day.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Now with that being said, well, first of all, I
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: educate me what a compression pant impression cans.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you don't know about them, but it's I
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: called them. I called them old old folks hands because
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: you really wear them to actually keep the circulation in
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: your body moving a little faster and increases the circulation
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: in your legs and your joints. So that was one
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: of the things that I picked up. And I got
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: COVID a couple of years ago, and the byproduct of
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: COVID with my single cell trade background caused me to
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: have blood clots and I ended up basically almost costing
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: my life. Man, to be honest with y'all, spent three
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: days in the hospital. It was. It was a scary situation.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: But thank god, I stay in great shape and I
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: was able to fight through that and get on the
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: other side of it. But from henceforth, the doctor's like
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: wear compression pants when you fly over two hours. Always
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: keep yourself hydrated, as you already know, and stay stay
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: in shape and keep yourself in tip top shape like
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: you've been doing that.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Karar. You were a professional athlete in the field of
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: football for forly seven years now. That's a lot of
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: physical punishment. But also you hear the word concussion pop
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: up a lot. I remember when I was growing up.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: You know, they give a guy salt underneath his no whatever,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: they push it back out on the field. Now you
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: were in a position of seeing this transition. What exactly
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: is a concussion? And did you ever have one?
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: I had one that was documented. I'm pretty sure. I
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: had a couple of others that we didn't document because
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: I was actually at the tail end of the NFL
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: when it was real football and we still did two
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: of day practices and when yes, they would get you
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: the smelling salt and push you right back onto the field.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I played in that I played in the last the
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: last few years of that era before football became flag football.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: What is nothing as now. I committed them on trying
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: to make the game a lot safer because it's just
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: not a safe game at all, man. And concussion is
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: basically trauma to your brain. Man, when your brain moves
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: and hits the inside of your skull. This is what
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: a concussion is. And be honest with you, football is
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: probably one of those sports that if it's still around
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: in twenty years, I'll be surprised.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: There's certain rating records every time they pop on TV.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: So it's gonna be hard to push the number one
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: television show off of television. Physil Linear gonna be hard,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: and that is going to be the streaming. As they
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: say that they follow the Bucks. It kind of reminds
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: me of those own Gladiators, you know, So I see
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: this is just kind of like the world that we
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: live in now. Reality is is that professional football, which
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: is the NFL. Is that gladiator moment that we saw
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: in the Roman Coliseum. You participated in that being an athlete,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the high profile athlete. Because a lot of people, you know,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: they they dreamed for what you participated in. What were
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: the high and what would the low of that level
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: of participating in the NFL.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: I tell people all the time, playing in the NFL
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: was my best and my most favorite part time job.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: It literally was a dream that was realized. And shortly
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: after realizing the dream, I realized that it was a nightmare.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: And I'll say that because my first passion has always
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: been an act into entertain and be a personality the
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: way I've been blessed to have one right and sports
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: came into my life second. So football was my second sport.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Basketball was my true love. Now, how I depict the
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: two is I'll play basketball for free. I'll never play
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: football of Greek Also, you know you love something or not,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: So for me, it was it was it was a
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: It was a it was a great experience, great lessons
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: I got the I got the rough elbows and talk
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: to a lot of successful men that have the same
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: mindset and I still have a great brotherhood from that.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: From that time in my life, and also learned a
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: lot of valuable lessons in business and just learning how
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: those billionaires and those people who are on those teams
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: operate their teams and operate the and operate the game.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: You know, I always knew that my career was not
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: gonna be as long as some other guys, just based
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: on my outside interest. When I went to the top
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: find they asked me straight up, like, what's your plans
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: for after football? And in hindsight, if I answer the
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: question different, I might not have got a red mark
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: on my report. But my remark was, when I finished
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: playing football, I'm going to go to to Hollywood and
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: take it over. And I looked at me like, oh,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: so you do have plans and I'm like absolutely, saying so.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: He was like, so, so you want to be an
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: actor when you retired from football. I said, no, I'm
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: going to be an actor when I retire from football.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: I don't do once, I do what I do. Wow.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: You know that sometimes when you show confidence people, it
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: makes people nervous. But the thing about it, when I
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: when I look at you, Karan you know, good looking guy,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Why I'm not Why don't see you on the NFL network?
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: You know, talking to chopping it up with that?
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: What's up with that?
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: You know? Because you're smart, you're able to bruh, you're articulate.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Come on that Why I don't see your NFL network?
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: You Know what's funny is when I retired and I
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: was transitioning to acting, I had been doing sports shows
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: while I was actively playing to get myself comfortable in
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: front of the camera, right, So my natural thought was
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do sports radio, spamming sports TV and act.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: That was the plan after I realized the politics that
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: was involved in sports television. And it doesn't matter how
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: good you looked or how well you spoke, or how
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: intelligent you were, if you were in a Hall of Famer,
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: you weren't getting the shot. And the realistic of it
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: is my NFL career was a footnote in my life,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Like what I'm doing now is gonna be ten times
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: bigger than anything I did on the football field, and
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: I'm thankful for that. Again, you have to love this game.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: I don't even watch football anymore with Sean, So for
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: me to sit here and watch eight hours of football
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: every day and then talk about it. It's not just
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: now of my interest, man, I'm too self absorbed for that.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan MacDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 13:55
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• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Now you're a catchphrase, keep peddling?
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Where did that telling, baby it comes from? I'm an
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: ADDD cyclist. I started riding shortly after I retired from
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: the NFL, and it was the first sports sensed football
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: that challenged me on a spiritual, physical level. On that level,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: and I found that I still needed that in my
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: life to continue being who I was, but I just
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: couldn't keep playing football, so cyclic replaced that, and at
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: the same time, it gave me a whole another gift.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: It gave me a gift to basically active meditation. I
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: would always call it. I would go out on these
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: twenty miles, thirty miles, forty fifty one hundred mile rides,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: and I would undoubtedly come back if I had a problem.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: When I left, I didn't have the when I got
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: back if I had if I had a if I
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: was dealing with something I needed to figure out at work,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: in the house, in my family, just in life in general. Man,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: the world. Being out in nature and on my bike
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: a place that's been a place of freedom and enjoy
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: for me ever since I was four years old and
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: I first started pedaling a bike. It brings so much
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: clarity to my spirit. And one day I was riding
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Man and my legs was tired. I didn't know if
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: I was gonna make it home. I was. I was like, man,
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: I might have to call Terry come pick me up.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: And a voice said to me, keep paling, keep pedaling,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: And I started seeing a bigger view of that, and
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: that voice was And the time I was doing this ride,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: I was at a point in my career as an
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: actor that was a little down. I was a little
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: I was a little discouraged, and it all started to
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: make sense. And it's like, Yo, you can get home.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: You may not get there as fast because you're tired
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: right now, but if you just keep pedaling, you would
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: get there.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I smiled, when I talked to you, because it's somewhere
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: along the line, and I just loved the fact that
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: you know, this is instilled by your mom, I'm sure,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: and also watching her overcome the drama that was caused
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: by her sickle cell and the very many crisis that confidence,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: you seem so confident. Does that scare people? Does that
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: make people not worry about that you could make a
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: mistake and not understand it being this confident?
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Oh what another thing on a valuable lesson my mother
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: taught me, And I think this would be who anybody
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: who's listening, don't worry about what somebody else is thinking
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: about you. It's any of business, and it doesn't matter
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: how they perceive you. How most people are gonna perceive you,
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: or they're gonna perceive you from their lenses, so they're
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: not confident. My confidence might scare the hell out of them,
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: and that's okay. I don't. I don't. It doesn't bother
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: me at all. It just means you probably won't be
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: able to hang around me long because again, if you're
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: afraid and what I'm in my life is too bright
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: for you, then I will suggest you go find you
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: so a dimmer light that you get hanged around because
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not the one. I'm never gonna shrink, I'm never
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: gonna change, and I'm a Rashan. Here's the kicker. I
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: don't want anybody around me to do that either, right,
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: anybody who's in my life or in my circle, I
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: need you to be as right as you can be.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: I need you to be your full power because I'm
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: coming with my full power. So let's let's put all
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: our powers together and make something amazing happen.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Right, you know, which I want to hundred percent agree with.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: And I like the fact that you're telling that to
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the people who are listening or watching, because a lot
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: of people, you know, and black people in general, as
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: you know, we're total to be humble or don't don't
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: don't be egutistical, don't it all, don't be too postful.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Well with social media and the world we live in today,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I would go back to the Muhammad. I a lit there.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Muhammad A lead totally everybody how graded was? And that
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: has been a Monika Prime Time told everybody how graded was?
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: I call those two guys the early stages of the
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: branding experts. But then I tell everybody where you think
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: of commercial is a commercial is bragging about the best chicken,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: best car, the best computer. So you have to realize
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: that the industry it's based on bragget we have to
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: recept the responsibility in order for us to get ahead
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: of each other. We have to tell people what we
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: bring to the table. And that's what you do better
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: than it. Guess I brought on the show so far
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: because of the fact that I see a bigger picture,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: not saying what you have now it isn't big, but
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: there's a bigger picture for.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: You, sir. Absolutely, I shay I received that one hundred
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: percent of shine. And also and one people to understand this,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: what you say out of your mouth has as power
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: and that's and that's what the example of Muhammad Ali
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: showed me and what Dion showed me was if you
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: speak it, then it's probably going to be really because
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: once you put im in front of anything, the universe
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: moves and that in that way, I literally can tell
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: you the moment when my acting career took the next
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: level up is when I was able to tell people
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: when they met me. But this is when I was
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: still hustling and happened to you know, manage restaurants and
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: do all the different things. Before my acting career and
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: my acting could take, you know, take care of my
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: family without anything, I had to do a bunch of
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: other jobs, which is the journey. And I would tell
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: people all the time, Man, I'm a general manager, I'm
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: an actor. I'm missed. But I always would reface it
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: with what I was doing in a moment. And the
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: day I stopped saying any other thing than I'm an actor,
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: I'm a producer, I'm a direct I'm everything I am,
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: That's when everything just started franking up again for me.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: And I had to remind myself of that after I
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: actually played Mohama Ali in the movie. It recalibrated my
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: spirit and reminded me of what we are all here
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: to do. We name ourselves ra Sean in the world
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: has to believe it. At some point. Every successful person
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: from the Rock to Will Smith to people you worked
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: with in your past, they've all told the world who
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: they were, and then they consistently put into work over
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: time in a consistent manner to where what they were
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: saying who they were, their works lined well who they
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: said they were. In Eventually the world agreed.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Conversations master Class, hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: We shit around and we debate our success or our
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: potential to be successful because people tell you you can't
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: do that, that's not your life. Because I remember when
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: I left IBM and told people I want to be
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: a stand up comedian. Everybody, you're not gonna be Eddie Murphy.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Well you, thank you, Richard Brye. You know so people
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: always want to, whether they are intentional or not, will
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: tell you what you can't do. And so you in
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: a business. You are in a business. First of all,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: nobody told you or your univer of Minnesota okay, oh,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: NFL or whatever you you had a lot of whatever
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: is in your life, do you like like put little
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: notches or mentally little notes set whatever I told you,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: I told you, I told you, because I see ye,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I'll see Oscar, I'll say, told it, what the hell
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: in your life?
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah? New York Times bestseller. I bought that All That's coming,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: All that's coming, rescas, all That's coming, because I've seen
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: it as well. And give you A quick story of
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: that is when I was in the sixth grade, I
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: started prancticing my autograph and I would finish my work
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: in school and I would just sit there and I
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: would work on my autograph. One day, one of my
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: teachers said, well, Carin, what are you doing. I said,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: I'm working on autograph. She said, why, baby, she said,
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: I said, because people are gonna want it, and I
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: need to be prepared for when they wanted. I'm able
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: to do it property. And I would do that every day,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: every day. And I remember I got to high school.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: My first girlfriend in high school, ninth grade, I never forget.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: She was like, Karen, ain't nobody gonna want your autograph?
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: And I said, and I said, okay. The first time
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: somebody asked me for all the graph you known one
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: calling first, I'm calling you. Fast forward fast forward the
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: four years my first me year in college, I started
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: playing football. I started as a truth freshman and I
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: came out of my first time playing my first game
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: walking out the tunnel. We lost the game, but it
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: was people I didn't wanted to talk to us and
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: get autographed. So this little kid said, mister Riley, can
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: I have your autograph. And I looked at him and
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: I said, you talking to me? And he said yeah,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: can you sign this? I said, yes I can, but
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: first I have to call somebody. Do you know. I
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: got on my cell phone right there all that girl
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: up and she said, Karai, what you out? I said,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: I'm just letting you know. Right now then I'm about
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: to sign my first autograph of probably millions. So I
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: just wanted to let you know because I told y'all
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: was going to call you. And she said, Karain, you
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: make me so sick, and I said, yeah, you just
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: keep taking notes. Click we doog.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: The beauty of this conversation that I'm having with you
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: is that album. Now, I can tell you Steve Harvey
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: did that too. Steve Harvey, if you sat down with
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: here to tell you he was always practiced in his autograph.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Always people always asking why you're doing that? Why you
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: doing that? Again? The results is in the uh in
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the present day, existed on his brand. Now when I
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: see you on TV, you know, I see this smooth brother,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: you know this intense brother, and shit, you know I'm
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: gonna tell you something man. You type brother man, when
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: I was running the nightclub, you made me mad because
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: I knew you as soon as you're behind walked in
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: the club, find the particular room I lost.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Okay, well that's baby, you still have sixty. I had
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: it going on. I can't give you more than I
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: can't get your fifty. I can't do my something like that.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: It's all yeah, Glinds, have more, baby, I take my
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: little forty and keep telling you know the.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Black Hamptains, you know on b et. Yeah, what led
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: to before we talk about that, Let's talk about the
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: journey to get to that, because there have been many steps, relationships, recommendations.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: You know, we all like to go in the room
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: and think we got it, but he will help you
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: get there. And like I said, Russ Paul was one
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: of the initial people who invested his vision in you.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Let's start there.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, man, I love that question and shine dope question
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: because you said it all in the question. Man's it's
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: consistency over time, working on my craft consistently all the time,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: studying with different actor coaches over the years, constantly believing
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: in the journey. And Russ Parr was one of the
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: first people, like you said, who gave me my first
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: shot on as a film as a movie and I
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: actually got to play with Kevin Hard and Mayan Good
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: and those kind of folks, and I held my own
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: in the scene with those two people, and you see
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: where those where those two people are in the world.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: So immediately I got confirmation in my very early stage
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: in my journey that I was amongst my peers. Right.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: Was I on the same level at that time? Absolutely not.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: But I tell people all the time, levels happened over
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: a time, and young actors come up to me, now, Kuran, Man,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: I want to get in the act and how can
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: I do it? And I always say, just start. You
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: have to start, and as you start, stay consistent over
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: time and success will happen. My pastor always says it says,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: doesn't happen overnight, but one night success happens. So the relationships,
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: the consistency work, and all that culminated to the Blackhamptons
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: where it is now today. That that started with a
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: phone call from what actually started with a conversation with
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: the one of the main producers of the show, Trade
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Trey Uh Uh Trade Try Tray of tried besting with
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: nd Brown and Carl Weber and those guys. So Trey
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: and a were sitting at a BT dinner and we
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: were just sitting there chopping it up like you and
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: I will be doing. And a two years later he
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: calls me and was like, yo, Kuran, I got the
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: perfect role for you. And I'm like, okay, what's what?
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: What's the d And he broke broke the series down,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: told me what it was about. You know, black wealth,
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: black people thrive, the black people doing everything other than drugs,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: building and killing each other. I was. I was in.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: I was. I was in from the from the first,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: from the first sentence when he said that, and and again,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: if I didn't have that relationship with Trey, I can't
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: say that I would be there. And if Rusty didn't
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: give me that shot on thirty five and ticket, I
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: can't say I would have kept going away. I did.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: I don't. All these things had to line up the
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: way they lined up. And I'm thankful and I never
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: I never do anything thinking it was all me.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Great, I tell you, mister Kara Joseph Riley, I want
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: thank you for taking the time of coming on Money
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Making Conversations Masterclass, not the first time, not the last time,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: little brother in my life, Brother Terry, that's how it
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: works out with me. That's why she connected on that.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Terry being Terry Vaughn folent director now uh still a
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: great actress. Claimed the fame was Steve Harvey, w B serious,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: sickom serious, But again, this show is about you and
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: the energy that you brought to this Oh really only
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: makes my listeners and viewers a lot better. Thank you
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: for coming on Mone to make a conversation Masterclass.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me brother, love you, Thank you.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: For joining us for this edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: Money Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan McDonald is produced
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: by thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. More information about thirty
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: eight to fifteen Media Inc. Is available at thirty eight
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: fifteen media dot com. And always remember to lead with
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: your gifts