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Bonus Commencement Episode: Angela Yee · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, guys, how are your feelingist Angela Yee from the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Breakfast Club, and I just want to say I'm excited
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to participate in this commencement speeches for the Class of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty podcast event. I know a lot of us
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: right now are going through a lot of things. So
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: for me to be able to talk to you and
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: just communicate what I've been through and any kind of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: advice that I can give, I'm honored to be able
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to do that. Before I do say anything, I want
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: to tell you that you did it. You made it
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: across the finish line, and right now, you guys are
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: under the most unique circumstances that I believe I've ever seen.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Whenever you think about your twenty twenty graduation, you're definitely
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: going to have some of the most interesting stories to tell.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: And that's what I want to focus on today. Right
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: as you figure out the next stop on your journey
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: of life, some of you are going to continue on
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: with formal education, some of you will join the workforce
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: right away, some of you will take a break as
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: you ponder what's next in life, and some of you
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: will start to own businesses. Some of you, guys will
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: just straight up hustle. I've done all of those things
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: throughout the course of my career, and what I want
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: to talk about today is just being flexible, also controlling
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: your reactions to things that you can't control, and being proactive.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to quote Kanye West when I talk
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: about that, being proactive, which is not something I normally do,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: so you know it's important now. When I first graduated,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I went right back to my parents' house. They live
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: in South Thurren's, New Jersey, and I wanted to stay there,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: but they got tired of me being in the house.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I was broke, I was in debt. They had paid
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: for me to go to college. I also had taken
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: out a lot of student loans. So after less than
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: a month, they were like, you have to get a
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: job and you have to get a place to live.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: So the first thing I did was in my head,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I said, I'm going to get a job working at
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: a temp agency. I wanted to be able to pursue
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: my career as a writer. Since I was in kindergarten,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I just knew I would be a writer. I didn't
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: even survive three days doing this temp agency job. I
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: was opening envelopes in a quote data entry position. It
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: was awful. I decided, let me just tap in and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: follow up on these internships I had done in college. Fortunately,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: when I was in school, I went to Wesleyan University
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and I did use the Career Resource Center and it
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: was great for me to be able to link up
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: a different people who graduated from Wesleyan who were able
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: to get me internships. Now, one internship I did did
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: not necessarily have to do with my college. It was
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: through a colleague of mine and I ended up getting
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: a job working for the Wu Tang Clan, the legendary
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Woutang Clan. After several years of working in the music
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: industry and also making sure that I networked, I made
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: sure that I went out, I formed my own relationships
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: with people. I also developed my skills in marketing and NPR.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I decided that I want to be a freelancer, and
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I did want to have multiple streams of income, but
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I also wanted to have my freedom to be able
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: to travel if I needed to, not have to be
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: in an office every day, and that was pretty good
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: for me. It wasn't until I was twenty eight years
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: old that I actually stumbled and for real stumbled into
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: my career in radio, and that was thanks to my
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: relationship with Paul Rosenberg. Paul is M and m's manager,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and he had just started the station Shade forty five
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: on serious satellite radio. I had actually worked with him
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: on Eminem's clothing line, and because he saw how hard
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I worked and just the relationships I managed to forage
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and continue to keep, he said, Okay, let's try you
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: on the radio. And it did end up working out.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: At first, I had to work there and not get paid.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: It was kind of an unpaid probation period. But because
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: I was working like I was getting paid, and I
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: was putting in that extra time, in those extra hours,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: and really humbling myself because you have to think I
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: had already been working for almost eight years and getting
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: paid a pretty decent amount of money to being paid nothing.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: It was really a humbling experience for me. But I
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: think in the end it all worked. Now I've been
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: doing radio for sixteen years and I still haven't focused
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: on what I set out to do, or originally that
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: was to be a writer. Remember, Now, life will do
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: that to you. Sometimes you have a plan and there's
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: all these detours, there's all these dead ends, and then
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: you have to take a whole new route. And sometimes
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: things happen quickly, and sometimes they happen easily, and sometimes
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: it takes years or it doesn't materialize the way that
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: you envision that it would. You'll have to make some
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: really important decisions. And I'm a really huge believer that
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: whatever you chose to do, you have to represent you
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: in the strongest way possible. Maybe you'll be doing an
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: unpaid internship or like I did that probationary period for free.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's a low paying job that you accepted, and
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I did have that job as a low paying job,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I've had a lot of those. But if you did
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: agree to certain terms, then you have to make sure
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: that you show up, make sure you show out, because
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: you never know what that position might lead to. Now,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: maybe you have a job that you hate, but you're
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: making six or seven figures. I know people like that,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: and you still have to perform your responsibilit be on time.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: You still have to make sure that you do everything
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: to the best of your ability, make sure you treat
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: people well, because again, people don't know what you're going through,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: and you also never know what that position might lead to.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Make sure, you don't let circumstances and negative people influence
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the greatness that you have. You cannot control other people's actions,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: but what you can control is your own reaction. One
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: thing that really has helped me, and I don't know
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: if everyone can do this, but I believe in the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: power of writing, and so what I do is I
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: write things down when people do really effed up things
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: to me, And somehow the story becomes funnier when I
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: write it down, and I can even change it the
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: way I want to change it, just to make it
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: a comedy. Now, some people do this, and I know
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: writers who have a kill list, and that's people that
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: they want to get revenge on later and maybe you'll
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: read about those in my book one day. But in
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the meantime, it's very therapeutic for me. You can always
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: learn something even when things are really tragic. So when
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: something unfortunate happens, I like to do something positive for
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: another person. That's another way that I also shift the
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: energy that's around me. The last thing I want to
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: leave you with is a quote. And I told y'all
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I was going to quote Kanye West. That's not something
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I do very often, but this was during his glow
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: on the Dark Tour, they gave out these little booklets
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: of kanyeisms, and one thing that always has stuck out
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: in my head to use is necessary. And if you
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: can't be used, then you're useless. And I know we've
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: heard that so many times and songs and quotes, and
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I've always been hesitant to ask for favors, and sometimes
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I'm even hesitant to just offer my own services. It's
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: kind of a pride thing when you feel like you
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: have to be independent and do everything and not need
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: anyone's help. What I've learned is that is a waste
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: of time and energy. Right now you're graduating, make sure
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: you use those relationships that you made, or make sure
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: you tap into that alumni network when you have a
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: great pitch, when you need employment, when you're looking for
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: an employee, when you need a mentor, or even if
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: you just want to acknowledge that somebody has done something
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: great and you want to shout them out. I've gotten
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: a lot of opportunit unities from the people I came
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: up with, and I've also helped other people get into
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: great positions. The best thing I discovered in business is
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: I don't have to do things alone, I can partner
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: with other people. That's how I ended up being a
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: co owner in the Juice bar Juices for Life, BK
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: with styles P, who's a legendary rapper from the Locks
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: that you should know, and djm V. I knew styles
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: P already opened three juice bars. I knew my chance
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: of success would be higher with somebody who already went
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: through those mistakes that I knew I would have made.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: And if I try to open that juice bar alone,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I might not be celebrating four years of owning a
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: juice bar this year. When it comes to handling my business,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: there's no way that I could do everything I do.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: You know the Breakfast Club Morning Show. I also have
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: my podcast lip Service, I have all my bookings, I
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: do a lot of charity events. I'm on the board
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: for different organizations, and I still do have a life
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: outside of work. And the way I'm able to maintain
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: that is I have people who are in positions where
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: they can help me. So link up with people. Make
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: sure you show that same love back to You can't
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: just always take and not give. And remember that you
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: guys are the visionaries of twenty twenty and In the
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: times that we're in, you guys are definitely the ones
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: who are leading the way. Twenty twenty might be one
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: of the most important years that I've ever experienced, from
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: this coronavirus pandemic to the upcoming elections and everything else
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: in between. So right now, you guys, all eyes are
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: on you, and I know y'all are up for the challenge.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: So congratulations again to the class of twenty twenty.