Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Ais York, The owner of York Promotions, his cultural live events and concerts promote mental health awareness.
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
- 0:07Speaker 1: is the secrets of success experience firsthand by Marketing and
- 0:10Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
- 0:13Speaker 1: advice on many occasions. And in case you didn't notice,
- 0:16Speaker 1: I'm not broke. You know he'll be interviewing celebrity ceose,
- 0:19Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision make because it's what he likes
- 0:22Speaker 1: to do, it's what he likes to share. Now it's
- 0:24Speaker 1: time to hear from my man, Rashan McDonald. Money Making Conversations.
- 0:29Speaker 2: Here we go. Welcome, Welcome back to the show. I
- 0:32Speaker 2: say back, because you don't. You're back. You've been listening,
- 0:35Speaker 2: and I welcome you back to Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
- 0:39Speaker 2: I'm the host for Sean McDonald. I say every week,
- 0:41Speaker 2: the interviews and information that this show provides is for you,
- 0:45Speaker 2: and it's time to stop reading. And we do a
- 0:47Speaker 2: lot of reading. We do a lot of I want
- 0:49Speaker 2: to be like that person. I wish I could be
- 0:51Speaker 2: like that person, but we don't have the information, we
- 0:53Speaker 2: don't have the goals, we don't have the prep to
- 0:56Speaker 2: reach those goals that a lot of people are quite frankly,
- 0:59Speaker 2: we may not have to tell, so we should look
- 1:01Speaker 2: in the mirror and find out what our talent is.
- 1:03Speaker 2: And I always say leave with your gifts and they'll
- 1:05Speaker 2: let your friends, family of coworkers stop you from planning
- 1:09Speaker 2: or living your dreams. So let's get started. My guest
- 1:13Speaker 2: is East York Cut, the owner of York Promotions. His
- 1:15Speaker 2: cultural live events and concerts promote mental health awareness. He
- 1:20Speaker 2: is a hospitality consultant and restaurant Google. East New York
- 1:23Speaker 2: is tackling the mental health crisis. Everything in his nation,
- 1:27Speaker 2: Everything in these events nationwide and other communities using his
- 1:30Speaker 2: Sole Healing Festivals, the annual R and B Sole Picnic
- 1:34Speaker 2: African and Caribbean Festival, and Miss New York offers one Stop.
- 1:38Speaker 2: I'm telling you you go to these events and you
- 1:40Speaker 2: want to stop sessions with licensed mental health therapists and
- 1:44Speaker 2: a panel of mental health experts who provide yog to
- 1:48Speaker 2: life or spiritual coaching right there on the spot at
- 1:51Speaker 2: a concert unheard of. He is on the show to
- 1:54Speaker 2: discuss his career journey, his upcoming events, and why mental
- 1:57Speaker 2: health awareness is so important. Please U from the Money
- 2:00Speaker 2: Making Conversation Masterclass, East York, Hey doing sir.
- 2:03Speaker 3: Hey, hey, I'm great.
- 2:05Speaker 4: How are you?
- 2:06Speaker 2: You know New York? I see, I see York. I
- 2:08Speaker 2: want to put New York in front. I want to
- 2:09Speaker 2: put new in front of it. Do you want to
- 2:10Speaker 2: put New York in front of it? I apologize?
- 2:14Speaker 3: So it's all good man.
- 2:16Speaker 2: Well you know your events. First of all, can you
- 2:22Speaker 2: give a little history of your background in the business.
- 2:24Speaker 2: I know I mentioned the hospitality consulting and restaurant guru
- 2:28Speaker 2: or what is your what is your background?
- 2:31Speaker 3: My background is I was I was born in New York,
- 2:34Speaker 3: but went to school went to Rutgers University in New Jersey.
- 2:38Speaker 3: And while I was at Rutgers, I learned the restaurant
- 2:41Speaker 3: and went I learned the restaurant industry at a restaurant
- 2:45Speaker 3: called Delta's with a guy named Joshua Suggs who also
- 2:49Speaker 3: went to Rutgers and his uh his wife's Corretta. I.
- 2:54Speaker 3: While working at the restaurant, I worked at a part
- 2:58Speaker 3: time at the Hilton Hotel High Hotel, so I learned
- 3:02Speaker 3: hospitality and in the in the hotel industry as well,
- 3:07Speaker 3: where it was it was very disciplined. I began consulting
- 3:13Speaker 3: after that and on on other restaurants and their operations,
- 3:17Speaker 3: and I helped investors open restaurants in the New York
- 3:22Speaker 3: and New Jersey area. And then I moved to Atlanta
- 3:26Speaker 3: actually in the late nineties as a consultant. I worked
- 3:30Speaker 3: on projects like Club Dreams Studio seventy two. You know,
- 3:35Speaker 3: big nightclub owners like Alex Kidwan helped him with some
- 3:39Speaker 3: projects he had, and so I just moved in that
- 3:42Speaker 3: space for for some years. And then I tried my
- 3:46Speaker 3: hand at being a restaurant toward myself with the restaurant
- 3:51Speaker 3: on Auburn Avenue called Burger Bar Yep, Yep. I had
- 3:56Speaker 3: that restaurant going for about three and a half years.
- 3:58Speaker 3: And then this is around the third year I was open.
- 4:02Speaker 3: A fourth year I would say I was open, they
- 4:04Speaker 3: started to build on that street car project. I don't
- 4:07Speaker 3: know if you matter. And when that started. When that happened,
- 4:13Speaker 3: they actually cut the street off and they told us
- 4:16Speaker 3: there's the businesses on that street that you know, you guys,
- 4:20Speaker 3: you know this is this project will only take three months,
- 4:23Speaker 3: so you know, figure it out for three months, and
- 4:25Speaker 3: the project actually took over a year. During that time,
- 4:31Speaker 3: no one on the street can make money, you know,
- 4:32Speaker 3: us restaurants, no, none of the businesses, and so we
- 4:35Speaker 3: complained to the city. But what I didn't did was
- 4:38Speaker 3: I turned my restaurant into a hospitality training center, and
- 4:43Speaker 3: so I taught hospitality and so I started doing classes
- 4:46Speaker 3: on management, everything from mixology, service, all all different parts
- 4:51Speaker 3: of the business. And you know, I just said, you know,
- 4:53Speaker 3: let me let me do that until until they until
- 4:56Speaker 3: I can open up, until the street of the streetcar
- 4:59Speaker 3: project is done.
- 5:02Speaker 2: Let me ask you this now a burger bar, because
- 5:03Speaker 2: I'm a I'm a burger man. I'll tell you right now,
- 5:06Speaker 2: I can't walk past a good burger with us. Now, burger,
- 5:09Speaker 2: what was your burger bar set up? Because I just
- 5:11Speaker 2: want to give a background because the restaurant and hospitality
- 5:14Speaker 2: two separate things. But deal with people, deal with being
- 5:17Speaker 2: able to convince people through customer service, quality, you know,
- 5:21Speaker 2: quality room, quality food. Now, let's go back to the
- 5:24Speaker 2: hospitality before we go back to the burger bar, because
- 5:26Speaker 2: I want to talk about those burgers. Now, hospitality. What
- 5:30Speaker 2: makes a good hotel? What makes a hotel? Because I
- 5:33Speaker 2: know what I have, but there's a consistency that that
- 5:36Speaker 2: brings people back based on pricing too, So what makes
- 5:39Speaker 2: a good hotel.
- 5:42Speaker 3: To me, it's a combination of things. More importantly to
- 5:45Speaker 3: me is staff. The proper staff with the proper training.
- 5:51Speaker 3: Staff to me is the key. And good staff are
- 5:55Speaker 3: people who can who can anticipate guests wants to meet.
- 6:01Speaker 3: To be honest with you, Shan, I think it's something
- 6:04Speaker 3: that's in people right. You have to want to please
- 6:07Speaker 3: people right, to be to be to be good in
- 6:10Speaker 3: the hospitality and some of the best hotels across I've
- 6:14Speaker 3: traveled to some of the best hotels around the country,
- 6:17Speaker 3: and the best serve that the best hotels come with
- 6:21Speaker 3: the best servers of service. I would say, so staff
- 6:25Speaker 3: is is key to me. That's that's that's number one.
- 6:28Speaker 3: Everything else sort of falls in line. I think a
- 6:31Speaker 3: good restaurant cleanliness, quality is important, and again all that
- 6:36Speaker 3: falls into anticipating guests wants and needs.
- 6:40Speaker 2: Now, you know, no before that we were talking to
- 6:43Speaker 2: East York restaurants in Atlanta. Then they're gonna start construction,
- 6:47Speaker 2: which is like a death nail to a lot of
- 6:49Speaker 2: you know, people can't get to you how you're gonna
- 6:51Speaker 2: sell your product, you know. Plus it looks uncomfortable in
- 6:55Speaker 2: that whole environment because people don't want to go anywhere
- 6:58Speaker 2: whereas a task or or to to to get to it. Now,
- 7:03Speaker 2: what was your menu like because you decided that the
- 7:06Speaker 2: burgers are something that you're going to put your brand behind.
- 7:09Speaker 2: Why burgers?
- 7:12Speaker 3: Because I felt like that too great American pastime, That's true.
- 7:16Speaker 3: One thing that I can I would say as an American,
- 7:19Speaker 3: as a as a guy who was as a black
- 7:20Speaker 3: man born in America, is we learned a lot of
- 7:24Speaker 3: America's great pastimes and we kind of indulge in it
- 7:28Speaker 3: when we when we when we when we want to
- 7:30Speaker 3: feel comfortable. And burgers just one of them, just like
- 7:33Speaker 3: milkshakes and you know all that other fun. You gotta
- 7:37Speaker 3: have the fries now, so you know, let me do
- 7:43Speaker 3: a good spin on burgers. And I did everything from
- 7:47Speaker 3: from from you know, uh fish burgers to you know,
- 7:51Speaker 3: vegan burgers right and one of my one of my
- 7:55Speaker 3: best sellers or something you don't like this, I did
- 7:57Speaker 3: a one pound burger. Okay it was it was literally
- 8:01Speaker 3: a pound a pound of meat, and I did a
- 8:03Speaker 3: lot of the A lot of the university college football
- 8:07Speaker 3: students used to stop in and challenge that one burger's.
- 8:14Speaker 2: And I'm a big double meat guy. You know, so
- 8:17Speaker 2: I know what one pound can do to you now.
- 8:21Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, you know, I mean
- 8:25Speaker 3: I love it.
- 8:26Speaker 2: And you know when you when you talk about the process,
- 8:28Speaker 2: you know, because I've done some promotion in my day
- 8:32Speaker 2: and and my whole thing, and you're right to be
- 8:34Speaker 2: a promoter. It's about pleasing. That was always my mindset,
- 8:38Speaker 2: you know, wanting the customer to feel they got more
- 8:41Speaker 2: for their money, you know, overvaluing the product, you know,
- 8:44Speaker 2: like I said, especially when you're dealing with black customers,
- 8:47Speaker 2: because I always tell people, you know, they're all not
- 8:50Speaker 2: always their entertainment dollar isn't as disposable as it might
- 8:54Speaker 2: be for a person who is not black and so,
- 8:57Speaker 2: and a lot of things operate off that. It really
- 8:59Speaker 2: does operate on the fish in the fifteenth those that's
- 9:02Speaker 2: when the money's there, it's available to be entertained. And
- 9:04Speaker 2: I used to set my concert dates or my event
- 9:08Speaker 2: dates tied to those specific weekends because I felt that
- 9:13Speaker 2: I sold tickets. Now now in hospitality, you're in restaurant business.
- 9:18Speaker 2: Now you're going into these festivals, in these outdoor events.
- 9:23Speaker 2: What made you courageous in that direct? What encouraged you
- 9:27Speaker 2: to feel that you know something, I can do this,
- 9:29Speaker 2: I can, I can I can convince three thousand, four
- 9:32Speaker 2: thousand and ten thousand people to come to an.
- 9:34Speaker 3: Event, right right, Well, thanks for that question. So I
- 9:39Speaker 3: launched your promotions in twenty sixteen. And to me, you know,
- 9:44Speaker 3: I'd always dabbled into the promotion, you know, when I
- 9:48Speaker 3: was up North and High family was in entertainment, and
- 9:51Speaker 3: so what I did was to me, it was important
- 9:55Speaker 3: to you know, in hospitality again, you learned people to
- 10:01Speaker 3: anticipate people's want and need and I felt like I
- 10:04Speaker 3: had a good grasp on that, and so it made
- 10:06Speaker 3: me want to give them more of what they wanted
- 10:09Speaker 3: and needed and so so so promotion was just sort
- 10:14Speaker 3: of second nature to me, and you know, and so
- 10:18Speaker 3: you know, and I wanted to elevate it. And one
- 10:20Speaker 3: thing that one of the things that was important to
- 10:22Speaker 3: me is giving people purposeful, meaningful experiences, you know, something
- 10:29Speaker 3: that's not just about you know, bringing some entertainer, some
- 10:32Speaker 3: rappers and somebody to sing. I'm talking about an event, producing,
- 10:37Speaker 3: curating events that people want to come to and that
- 10:40Speaker 3: they actually get something out of, like you said, Raissan,
- 10:43Speaker 3: something that they feel like I got something out of this.
- 10:46Speaker 2: You know, because that's important because a lot of people
- 10:48Speaker 2: understand that, because you know it as a promoter and
- 10:53Speaker 2: as an event planner, it's a lot of people approach
- 10:56Speaker 2: have approached me, let's do this, Let's do this. But
- 10:58Speaker 2: if I could understand how the actual customer got something
- 11:03Speaker 2: out of it? Now, you know, because you know as
- 11:05Speaker 2: a promoter or or or an event planner, you know
- 11:08Speaker 2: you can. You're gonna benefit if there if you have
- 11:10Speaker 2: your budget and a certain amount of people show up,
- 11:13Speaker 2: then there's a profit margin and you're going to benefit
- 11:15Speaker 2: from the profit margin. Now if they don't, if they
- 11:18Speaker 2: show up, what about the customer? Did they benefit? And
- 11:21Speaker 2: I think a lot of people, a lot of promoters
- 11:24Speaker 2: don't see that, and that doesn't achieve longevity. And from
- 11:27Speaker 2: my from my understanding, because you have that carrying factor,
- 11:31Speaker 2: that hospitality mentality, that customer service mentality that leads to
- 11:37Speaker 2: your events being successful.
- 11:39Speaker 3: Correct, you know, I felt like I wanted, you know,
- 11:44Speaker 3: to get away from again when I when I moved
- 11:46Speaker 3: away from the hospital the restaurant business. You know, I
- 11:49Speaker 3: was capped at fifteen percent profit margin to me, to me,
- 11:53Speaker 3: it was important to sort of scale that the idea
- 11:57Speaker 3: of pleasing people of you know, and again anticipating the
- 12:01Speaker 3: want to leeds and delivering it. But yeah, you know,
- 12:05Speaker 3: you know, growing it, growing it to the level where
- 12:07Speaker 3: you are sort of getting curating experiences for them and
- 12:10Speaker 3: to make them feel like they're getting something out of
- 12:13Speaker 3: it was very.
- 12:15Speaker 2: Important, you know. You know. The thing about it is,
- 12:17Speaker 2: you know, like I said, people always say, you know,
- 12:19Speaker 2: behind every great man, there's a great woman, behind every talent,
- 12:22Speaker 2: there's a great manager, behind every great production, there's a
- 12:26Speaker 2: great producer. And I'm saying that in this situation, you're
- 12:30Speaker 2: producing these events around the city, like the Arts Atlanta
- 12:35Speaker 2: at the Underground Atlanta, Camp Creek, Soul Fast, the Beach State,
- 12:39Speaker 2: which is an all white block party, you know, Spicing
- 12:42Speaker 2: Beats at the Underground Atlanta. You know. Then you have
- 12:45Speaker 2: the Atlanta African Caribbean Festival and then the Social There
- 12:49Speaker 2: Festival at the Central Park in Atlanta. These are events
- 12:52Speaker 2: because my show broadcast nationwide. You know, look at you know,
- 12:56Speaker 2: is there a website they can go to where they
- 12:58Speaker 2: see these calendar events and they can tell their cus
- 13:01Speaker 2: or their relatives or they can plan a visit to
- 13:03Speaker 2: come to your events. Where can they go to find
- 13:06Speaker 2: these events on your WEBSITEAST?
- 13:09Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, they can go to York Promotions dot com.
- 13:11Speaker 3: And as soon as they go there's y or r
- 13:13Speaker 3: K Promotions plural dot com. And then as soon as
- 13:17Speaker 3: they go there, they'll start They'll see the list of
- 13:20Speaker 3: events that we have curiated throughout the year. And you know,
- 13:24Speaker 3: we change it frequently because we always add stuff on
- 13:27Speaker 3: as we are taking some of these events on tour.
- 13:31Speaker 3: But yeah, no, definitely they go to the website www
- 13:33Speaker 3: dot York Promotions dot com and they will see everything there.
- 13:38Speaker 2: You know, it's really interesting because you know, East, when
- 13:40Speaker 2: I've when I've listened to you, you know you're you're promoter,
- 13:43Speaker 2: so you know there's an unknown factor to you. You know,
- 13:46Speaker 2: you're not let's strow out a name. You're not a
- 13:48Speaker 2: celebrity of Ricket Smiley or some other famous person uh Mariteria,
- 13:53Speaker 2: Anthony Anderson, people aison, but you are really the star.
- 13:58Speaker 2: But don't nobody know that for these events? So you
- 14:01Speaker 2: get this, You get to walk around, you get to
- 14:04Speaker 2: get to see people and from a from a personal
- 14:07Speaker 2: standpoint or ask questions.
- 14:09Speaker 5: How does that?
- 14:10Speaker 2: How does that? How does what's that? Experience, like when
- 14:13Speaker 2: you at your event and you get to see it
- 14:16Speaker 2: from a from a from a kind of like a background,
- 14:19Speaker 2: but you but you're the one that's producing it.
- 14:23Speaker 3: It's not the experiences. It feels very good. You know,
- 14:26Speaker 3: we've built and you've done this to it. So we
- 14:28Speaker 3: built great relationships with talent and their management. And what
- 14:32Speaker 3: a lot of people don't see is we tend to
- 14:35Speaker 3: dial into their their struggles as well. And what I
- 14:40Speaker 3: mean by that is a lot of times when people
- 14:42Speaker 3: are not doing that, they're not on tour, you have
- 14:45Speaker 3: to ask yourself, well, what are they doing on their
- 14:47Speaker 3: past time as they're trying to fill filling their time
- 14:50Speaker 3: with money making opportunities, right, you know, we become sort
- 14:54Speaker 3: of the second people they call.
- 14:56Speaker 2: Absolutely right, absolutely, you know, I'm talking to East yorkman
- 15:01Speaker 2: of York Promotions. He's a lot of events that nationwide,
- 15:05Speaker 2: not just Atlanta, but more importantly, we focused on his
- 15:08Speaker 2: Atlanta events where he provides mental health awareness. When we
- 15:12Speaker 2: come back, we're going to talk about why is that important,
- 15:15Speaker 2: how it works at his events, But more importantly, if
- 15:18Speaker 2: you want to talk to him, call us. He's making
- 15:20Speaker 2: a difference in the community by providing mental health awareness
- 15:25Speaker 2: counselors at his events.
- 15:28Speaker 5: Please don't go anywhere, We'll be right back with more
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- 16:15Speaker 5: You are now tuned into the money Making Conversations. Minute
- 16:18Speaker 5: of Inspiration with Rashawn McDonald.
- 16:21Speaker 2: Money Love with Your Prayer.
- 16:22Speaker 7: You A and M University in Houston, Texas for about
- 16:25Speaker 7: four years and got her engineering degree. Lonnie worked as
- 16:27Speaker 7: an engineer for IBM and other companies for more than
- 16:30Speaker 7: ten years. Did she realized that engineering was not her passion.
- 16:33Speaker 7: Stand up comedy was her gift.
- 16:35Speaker 4: I just think everybody should tell their journey, and especially
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- 16:56Speaker 4: only know me from real or from Chelsea Lady, or
- 16:58Speaker 4: you know the the shows that Rashan will put me on.
- 17:04Speaker 4: So but you know, it's the whole journey.
- 17:08Speaker 7: If you want to hear this full interview with Loney Love,
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- 17:44Speaker 5: Now let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaun McDonald.
- 17:49Speaker 2: I'm speaking to Is York, the owner of York Promotion
- 17:52Speaker 2: as York promotions. He's a cultural live events expert concerts
- 17:57Speaker 2: that promote mental health awareness doing the event. Now you
- 18:01Speaker 2: have an event coming up and and you chose, well,
- 18:04Speaker 2: this interesting part about you. You're not afraid of going
- 18:07Speaker 2: into territories that people have told you won't work. And
- 18:12Speaker 2: just speaking globally to my audience, there's an area in
- 18:14Speaker 2: Atlanta called the Atlanta Underground and it was very popular
- 18:18Speaker 2: one time, and then all of a sudden basically just
- 18:20Speaker 2: died off. And now they're trying to bring it back.
- 18:24Speaker 2: And my man, mister York decided he's going to take
- 18:27Speaker 2: on his events down there, and it's proven to be
- 18:31Speaker 2: an event that's proven to be very popular. But more importantly,
- 18:35Speaker 2: it's reinvigorating a part of the community that had died
- 18:39Speaker 2: off or people had no value. How is it important
- 18:43Speaker 2: and how did you conceptualize, mister York that going to
- 18:47Speaker 2: Atlanta Underground, an area of Atlanta which people have written off.
- 18:52Speaker 2: People said, hey, don't go down there. They got crying
- 18:54Speaker 2: people gonna go. You would never make it, But you
- 18:56Speaker 2: decided to go against the grain.
- 18:58Speaker 3: Why well, or sean to me, I felt like it
- 19:05Speaker 3: was important to speak to the pride of Atlanta when
- 19:10Speaker 3: when we activated Atlanta and in a certain way, I
- 19:14Speaker 3: was trying to figure out what where, what areas, or
- 19:19Speaker 3: what things the does Atlanta have that represents its pride?
- 19:23Speaker 3: And the underground was one of us, this nostalgic place
- 19:25Speaker 3: that everyone spoke about, even people from around the country.
- 19:28Speaker 3: When it came to Atlanta. They knew about the underground.
- 19:31Speaker 3: Rappers had it in their songs, et cetera. So when
- 19:34Speaker 3: you yep, and then when I went there, I was like, Wow,
- 19:37Speaker 3: this can't be this underground, this great underground that everyone
- 19:39Speaker 3: spoke of. And so the idea came and I said,
- 19:44Speaker 3: you know what, I'm inspired to do an art event
- 19:48Speaker 3: and art driven event there to speak to the art
- 19:52Speaker 3: or creative community here in Atlanta, make them come out,
- 19:55Speaker 3: come back out to the underground, let them feel it.
- 19:59Speaker 3: And you know, art it's so raw right, almost had
- 20:03Speaker 3: no definition. It's just raw. And the underground to me
- 20:06Speaker 3: was raw. So I said, let's use the underground and
- 20:11Speaker 3: let's let's let's sort of make it our canvas and
- 20:14Speaker 3: bring in Atlanta creatives and have them just sort of
- 20:17Speaker 3: go crazy. And so we touch on every all the
- 20:20Speaker 3: different creative spaces from you.
- 20:21Speaker 2: But let me ask you this question, Joe, how many
- 20:24Speaker 2: people thought you were crazy? Are you out of your mind?
- 20:27Speaker 2: You felt that, hey, this is a great idea, but
- 20:30Speaker 2: this is not the right idea. How many people thought that?
- 20:33Speaker 3: They all did? They all did? They all did? They said, listen,
- 20:37Speaker 3: we're not going back down there, and you can go
- 20:38Speaker 3: down there. We're not going back.
- 20:44Speaker 2: But in the midst of all this mental health you know,
- 20:48Speaker 2: you know, I know, we jokingly used the word crazy,
- 20:50Speaker 2: that which is associated sometimes when you were talking about
- 20:53Speaker 2: people who are mentally not stable, and a lot of
- 20:57Speaker 2: these words have not become PC. You have to watch
- 20:59Speaker 2: how you use to our word which you years back.
- 21:02Speaker 2: You could say those words publicly and people will not
- 21:05Speaker 2: take offense to them. Now, mental health awareness, we all
- 21:08Speaker 2: know in the black community, that's a word that mental
- 21:11Speaker 2: health that Black people run from people. They don't want
- 21:13Speaker 2: to acknowledge stress. They don't want to we don't even
- 21:16Speaker 2: want to loted hot blood pressure, let alone mental stress. Now,
- 21:20Speaker 2: why mental health awareness at your event?
- 21:24Speaker 3: Well, you know, mental health challenges are real and the
- 21:28Speaker 3: plays the black community, we all know this. We wanted
- 21:32Speaker 3: to take advantage of all the large gatherings in these
- 21:35Speaker 3: events and use them as a safe space for people
- 21:37Speaker 3: to come and enjoy our food, music culture and be
- 21:41Speaker 3: exposed to opportunities, you know, to learn best practices and
- 21:45Speaker 3: coping mechanisms for healing and uh you know, holistic health
- 21:51Speaker 3: through complementary soul healing chats with licensed therapists you know.
- 21:56Speaker 3: I event attendees, you know, they get to sit down
- 21:58Speaker 3: and talk to therapis is you know who look at
- 22:01Speaker 3: them and they address their challenges and you know, and
- 22:06Speaker 3: they it has has a great impact for them for
- 22:11Speaker 3: their families. You know. You also get to learn your
- 22:13Speaker 3: good meditation, you know, and and other mechanisms to help
- 22:17Speaker 3: you help you cope and deal fall under the backdrop
- 22:21Speaker 3: of a festival.
- 22:22Speaker 2: You know. And it's really interesting because uh, I tell
- 22:25Speaker 2: us I got a phone call. Let me take this
- 22:27Speaker 2: phone cause I don't one of don't want them them
- 22:29Speaker 2: hold on to a demeta. Uh are you on the line.
- 22:31Speaker 2: This is Rushan McDonald. You're also speaking of mister East
- 22:35Speaker 2: East York of York Promotions. What is your question?
- 22:38Speaker 5: Hi?
- 22:38Speaker 9: Good after them calling to sign out now and get
- 22:41Speaker 9: involved as a volunteer or any other way that may
- 22:47Speaker 9: made me Mister York may need help.
- 22:49Speaker 2: Well, they line it up now for you, mister York.
- 22:51Speaker 2: They hear, they hear what you're doing for the community.
- 22:54Speaker 2: You know, you're not just selling tickets, but you're selling health,
- 22:57Speaker 2: You're selling uh oh, you're selling change. And I think
- 23:00Speaker 2: that's the motivating factor behind why I brought you on
- 23:02Speaker 2: the show, because you know, we all can go to
- 23:05Speaker 2: a concert, but do we go to a concert where
- 23:07Speaker 2: you actually know the promoter cares about you? And that's
- 23:11Speaker 2: what you do. Now, please explain. Our name is the Meter.
- 23:14Speaker 2: How could she get involved as a volunteer, a person
- 23:16Speaker 2: who wants to be involved with your concerts? Or there
- 23:20Speaker 2: a contact line? Please talk to her?
- 23:22Speaker 3: Yes, how are you? And thank you for the call.
- 23:26Speaker 3: We invite all help and uh obviously you know it
- 23:29Speaker 3: takes a lot to produce these things, so but you
- 23:32Speaker 3: can you can email lead direct actually at ais at
- 23:37Speaker 3: your promotions dot com. You know I'm always checking my emails.
- 23:42Speaker 3: And again we all we encourage help, you know in
- 23:45Speaker 3: every way.
- 23:46Speaker 2: And did you have any of the questions the Meter?
- 23:48Speaker 10: No, that's it, Thank you very much. I'm definitely on
- 23:51Speaker 10: a health and wellness journey and just to know that
- 23:55Speaker 10: somebody is interested in that more than just like you said,
- 23:59Speaker 10: just entertainment, So well, you.
- 24:01Speaker 2: Know, sometimes that's how you have to reach people, you know,
- 24:04Speaker 2: because you know I used to do stand up comedy,
- 24:07Speaker 2: and as a stand up comedian, you know, I used
- 24:09Speaker 2: to go on stage. I always knew that people in
- 24:12Speaker 2: that audience had issues and they and I'm saying, with
- 24:16Speaker 2: life issues. You know, work all day, they might they
- 24:18Speaker 2: might have an argument with their wife or their husband,
- 24:21Speaker 2: or they may have gotten fired. They may have they
- 24:24Speaker 2: might not have a job, and so I knew it's
- 24:26Speaker 2: a stand up I was dealing with a lot of
- 24:29Speaker 2: issues that I was not aware of on that stage,
- 24:33Speaker 2: and my number one job was to entertain them. My
- 24:35Speaker 2: number one job was for an hour or forty five minutes,
- 24:39Speaker 2: however long I was on stage, was to make them
- 24:41Speaker 2: forget about all that crisis that that they walked away from,
- 24:46Speaker 2: that they have to return to when I said good night.
- 24:49Speaker 2: And that's why I'm attracted to what you're trying to do, York,
- 24:53Speaker 2: because that was my mentality as a performer. And at
- 24:57Speaker 2: your event, you're taking this step further. You have and
- 25:00Speaker 2: licensed therapists at your events.
- 25:03Speaker 3: Correct, Yes we are, Yes, we do yep, and we
- 25:07Speaker 3: get you get to sit down with them for at
- 25:11Speaker 3: least six minutes and and talk and just open up.
- 25:14Speaker 2: Wow. And so let's go back to your events. Now
- 25:16Speaker 2: you got the Arts Atlanta is every First Friday at
- 25:20Speaker 2: the Atlanta Underground.
- 25:22Speaker 3: Yes, it is every first Friday. Next one's coming up September.
- 25:25Speaker 2: First, and then after that October sixth, and then November third.
- 25:28Speaker 2: Every first Friday, it's called the Arts Atlanta at the
- 25:31Speaker 2: Atlanta Underground that we talked about. What is that nighttime event?
- 25:34Speaker 3: Yeah, we start at nine pm and we go to
- 25:37Speaker 3: three am. Actually lavings people, some people. Some people hang
- 25:40Speaker 3: out to three am.
- 25:42Speaker 2: I tell you right now, I'm old school. I RuSHA
- 25:46Speaker 2: go say goodbye by one o'clock because that's what time
- 25:48Speaker 2: the clubs close. Back in my day, they played the
- 25:50Speaker 2: country song and then I say it's time to go.
- 25:52Speaker 2: They put it on the Country West. The music they're
- 25:54Speaker 2: trying to run us out of. Yea, but the beauty
- 25:56Speaker 2: of it. As we wrap up this interview, mister York,
- 25:59Speaker 2: what exact it goes on at that event, the Arts Atlanta,
- 26:03Speaker 2: that happens the first Friday at the Underground in Atlanta,
- 26:07Speaker 2: every first Friday. What is the what is the entertainment,
- 26:11Speaker 2: and what is the accomplishment as we wrap this interview up.
- 26:14Speaker 3: Okay, it's an immersive art experience. But when you come
- 26:16Speaker 3: you experience all different forms of art. So we have
- 26:20Speaker 3: regular we have art, we have film, music, we have comedy,
- 26:24Speaker 3: we have dance, we even have DJs. We have food.
- 26:27Speaker 3: So when you come there, again, it's an immersive art experience.
- 26:30Speaker 3: So it's sensory overloads. Art sensory overload and so so you.
- 26:34Speaker 2: Have you have tap two autists, you have films, movies
- 26:39Speaker 2: that are being played. Like I said, you have food
- 26:42Speaker 2: so people can dream. You have great security. All these
- 26:47Speaker 2: things are important that you want people to know down
- 26:49Speaker 2: that they come into a very safe environment, a very
- 26:52Speaker 2: friendly environment. And I'm assuming a very diverse environment too,
- 26:56Speaker 2: racially as well.
- 26:57Speaker 3: Correct, Yes, very diverse racially. People from all walk to life.
- 27:02Speaker 3: I've met father I've met grandfathers sitting enjoying experience with
- 27:07Speaker 3: their sons and grandsons, three generations of families just enjoying
- 27:13Speaker 3: the experience. So yeah, people from all walks of life,
- 27:16Speaker 3: all types of people.
- 27:17Speaker 2: Congratulations again, tell us how we can reach you, tell
- 27:19Speaker 2: us about your website again, thank you for coming on
- 27:21Speaker 2: money making conversation. How do we get in touch with you?
- 27:24Speaker 3: You can get in touch with me at your www.
- 27:28Speaker 3: Dot York Promotions dot com or ai s at your
- 27:31Speaker 3: promotions dot com. And then also I want to throw
- 27:33Speaker 3: in there, but Sean, we got the big event with
- 27:35Speaker 3: Jermain Decree Social Death Festival and that's again a mental
- 27:38Speaker 3: health initiative. Wow October seventh and eight, Salay Sunday.
- 27:42Speaker 2: I want to make sure, well, guess what we bring
- 27:44Speaker 2: you back for that event because I think, because you know,
- 27:47Speaker 2: this is more than just an interview about a concert.
- 27:49Speaker 2: This about our community supporting an initiative that you've you've
- 27:54Speaker 2: ingrained into your process. You know your events, and like
- 27:57Speaker 2: I said, reason I have to commend you on that
- 27:59Speaker 2: because I've done a lot of concerts. I've done music
- 28:02Speaker 2: concerts and up comedy concerts, created the Hoodie Awards and
- 28:06Speaker 2: the Neighborhood Awards, and I never in my mind thought
- 28:10Speaker 2: this was an option or even thought in this direction.
- 28:12Speaker 2: But as a performer, I knew that I was exercising
- 28:16Speaker 2: a lot of demons from people when they was when
- 28:19Speaker 2: I was on stage making them laugh. So I knew
- 28:22Speaker 2: from that standpoint, my duties, my responsibilities is as a performer,
- 28:26Speaker 2: but you as a promoter at taking a one step
- 28:29Speaker 2: because you're having people there to assist people. You know,
- 28:33Speaker 2: they go on stage, they let them know the facilities
- 28:37Speaker 2: and back if you go back there and talk to
- 28:39Speaker 2: a counselor all that in the process of a show.
- 28:42Speaker 2: It's an amazing thing. I definitely want to invite you
- 28:44Speaker 2: back for the Social Death event that's in October because
- 28:48Speaker 2: this is about community and we making a big push
- 28:51Speaker 2: on this show about mental health awareness in the black community.
- 28:54Speaker 2: We don't want to shove it down people's throat, but
- 28:56Speaker 2: I think the way you're doing it makes it edible. Okay,
- 28:59Speaker 2: So I want to thank you for coming on the
- 29:01Speaker 2: show East York and we talked soon.
- 29:02Speaker 3: Okay, my friend, thank you, brother, Thank you York.
- 29:05Speaker 2: Promotions dot com. That's where you can reach him in
- 29:07Speaker 2: all his events.
- 29:10Speaker 5: Let me tell you about the host of Moneymaking Conversations,
- 29:13Speaker 5: Rushan McDonald. Rushan's a two time Emmy Award winner, three
- 29:17Speaker 5: time NAACP Image Award winner, sitcom writer, stand up comic,
- 29:22Speaker 5: and former IBM executive. Thank you for joining us for
- 29:26Speaker 5: this edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass money Making Conversations
- 29:31Speaker 5: Masterclass with Rushan McDonald is produced by thirty eight to
- 29:35Speaker 5: fifteen Media Inc. More information about thirty eight to fifteen
- 29:38Speaker 5: Media Inc. Is available at thirty eight to fifteen media
- 29:42Speaker 5: dot com. And always remember to lead with your gifts.