Latest / Earn Your Leisure / How Morgan DeBaun Built a $40M Media Empire & Acquired 3 Black-Owned Brands

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How Morgan DeBaun Built a $40M Media Empire & Acquired 3 Black-Owned Brands · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Earners.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: What's up.
• 0:02
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• 1:04
  Speaker 1: can keep pushing your vision forward. This episode is brought
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: to you by P and C Bank, a lot of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: people think podcasts about work are boring, and sure, they
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: definitely can be, but understanding of professional's routine shows us
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: how they achieve their success little by little, day after day.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: It's like banking with P and C Bank. It might
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: seem boring to save, plan and make calculated decisions with
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  Speaker 1: your bank, but keeping your money boring is what helps
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• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Member FDIC.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about this, the rollback of DI, the rollback
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: of corporate involvement with black organizations. You are in the
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: crossfires of that because you work with a lot of
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: corporations and you have a black event, right, Yeah? Has
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: that impacted you? What's your thoughts on this? Because a
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: lot of time people just hear this, but it doesn't
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: really matter if it doesn't impact you personally. So you,
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  Speaker 3: as somebody that's operating at a high level and have
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  Speaker 3: a lot of corporate relationships, what's your thoughts on everything
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: that's been happening.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, our business is over forty million in revenue.
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  Speaker 2: Half of it is aprotech, half of it is media.
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  Speaker 2: So on the media side, revenue is up. Like all
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: these consumer advertisers are completely like cappin when it comes
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: to D and I, like it's very much a political fodder.
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  Speaker 2: But when it comes to their bottom line and their
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  Speaker 2: top line, you have to invest in black audiences and
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: consumers like we are where growth is, multiculturals, where growth is.
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  Speaker 2: They already have the white consumers, so they can't put
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: their foot off the gas and not advertise to us.
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  Speaker 2: Now how they advertise that shifts slightly. But actually the
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: tariffs are having a bigger impact on the media business
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  Speaker 2: than the D and I executive orders really, So yeah,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: so the D and I executive order was basically saying
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: like you can't have preferential treatment. So all the programs
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: and you know, these big commitments of we're going to
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: spen one hundred million dollars on black old media, like
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: they were honoring those anyways, So nothing really changed, Like
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: you are already going to spend what you were going
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: to spend with me, regardless of what you said you
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: were going to do, so nothing changed from our end
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: for the tariffs. The tariffs require people to be more
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: risk averse because they're not quite sure what's going to happen.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: And Trump is changed in his mind constantly, I mean
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: literally Friday afternoon, like dude, what are you doing? You know,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: So there, when people become unstable, they become more risk averse.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: They become slower, you know, they slower with payment terms,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: They're slower with are we going to release this product line?
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Are we not going to release this product line. Advertising
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: is tied to campaigns and launches, so things get held
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: up because things are stuck in the ports or whatever.
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  Speaker 2: That impacts how much they're willing to spent on advertising
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: those products and services.
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  Speaker 1: That's interesting, I mean, and the other side of it,
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  Speaker 1: and we've seen it as well, especially in media, when
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: there's uncertainty, when people are unsure, then they go to
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  Speaker 1: trusted sources for news. Have you seen an uptick obviously
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: in your space during this I don't even know this
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  Speaker 1: one hundred days, yeah, right.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, traffic stuff. I mean, media companies do well under
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Trump because these chaos you kind of have to you
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  Speaker 2: have to stay involved, and because people know they can't
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  Speaker 2: trust mainstream media anymore. They're looking for alternative platforms, Like y'all.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure your traffic on your YouTube is
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  Speaker 2: probably skyrocketing. I saw Martin.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: He's good for business.
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  Speaker 2: He's good for business. He's not good for society, but
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: he is good.
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  Speaker 1: Things. Thank you, thank you for drawing that line.
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  Speaker 2: But I do think I mean, even Roland Martin, I
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: think that like three hundred thousand subscribers in like ninety days.
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  Speaker 2: You know, these are crazy numbers, but it's because people
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  Speaker 2: are looking for reliable sources and people they trust that
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  Speaker 2: they know they're going to get the truth from.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I saw that you began investing into the stock
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  Speaker 1: market at the age of thirteen, which I think is amazing.
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  Speaker 2: What lessons from investing so.
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  Speaker 3: Early have you taken into your media empire?
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  Speaker 1: Mmm?
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  Speaker 2: Cash is king. You know, the more cash you can
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  Speaker 2: sit on, the more you can take advantage when the
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  Speaker 2: moment strikes. You know, I've done three acquisitions in the
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  Speaker 2: last you know, five years of black owned businesses. The
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  Speaker 2: only reason we'll be able to do that is because
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  Speaker 2: we had cash waiting for a moment that made sense
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  Speaker 2: for us. And then the other thing is like when
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  Speaker 2: it comes to investing. And I've also raised venture funding,
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  Speaker 2: which you know, you guys have talked about quite a bit.
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  Speaker 2: So I raised over twelve million dollars. You got to
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  Speaker 2: treat every dollar that you get as your last and
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  Speaker 2: you gotta figure out how you're gonna flip it. That's
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  Speaker 2: the same thing with investing. When you get those moments
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  Speaker 2: where you have unreasonable games, you got to take some
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  Speaker 2: chips off the table for sure. Do not get greedy, okay,
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  Speaker 2: And if we had listened to that, we all will
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  Speaker 2: be doing really well right now. If we had sold
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  Speaker 2: in November December being like this is looking pretty darn good,
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  Speaker 2: and now that money would be worth basically sixty seventy
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  Speaker 2: percent more because the stocks are down. So you sold
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  Speaker 2: at the high, plus you're getting everything at the low.
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  Speaker 2: That's a double win.
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  Speaker 3: So can you walk us through, like some of your
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  Speaker 3: acquisitions that you made, Yeah, for sure companies.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. The first one I bought was Traveloir So Travenoor
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  Speaker 2: was an Instagram brand. They had group trips, which was amazing.
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  Speaker 2: They did trips in Bahia and Johannesburg and Almafi Coast
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  Speaker 2: with little you know, Grandma's cooking pasta and stuff, and
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  Speaker 2: they had no media brand. Well, what we know is
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: that black travelers have huge discretionary income and are like
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: really growing because millennials and Gen Z we spend on
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  Speaker 2: experiences way more than our parents did. So I was like,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: all right, how do I build out Blavity in a
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: way where we're off of interest groups not just being black,
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  Speaker 2: but like what black people are interested in, and travel
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  Speaker 2: is one of them. So we bought Travel Noir that
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  Speaker 2: was like twenty seventeen. I talked about it in my
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  Speaker 2: book Rewriting Your Rules. And then the other brand that
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  Speaker 2: we bought was Shadow and Act, same but for entertainment
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  Speaker 2: in Hollywood. You know, black people watch more TV than
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  Speaker 2: any other demographic in the country, and we just love
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  Speaker 2: TV and we love watching TV as an activity with
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  Speaker 2: other people, which is different. So that was the second
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  Speaker 2: brand we bought. And then two years ago I bought
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  Speaker 2: a brand called R and B House Party, which is
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  Speaker 2: a traveling party series, so that we could build out
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  Speaker 2: blavity Fest, which is our new festival which will be
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  Speaker 2: in Atlanta at the end of May with two chains
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  Speaker 2: and Kirk Franklin and all types of programming around black wealth.
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  Speaker 2: So just starting out our experiential business on the blavity side,
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  Speaker 2: which is super important for our business.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you reference the book, rewrite your rules, let's talk
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  Speaker 1: about it. You said, master yourself, master your method, master
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  Speaker 1: your growth. Break that down for us.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I'm from Saint Louis originally, and nobody
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: really told me the game. What they told me was
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: you work hard, you get a good job, you go
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: to school the best education you can get, and like
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: it should all work out. And that's just not true.
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  Speaker 2: Like there are so many people watching this where it's
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: like you did all the things you like, had the
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: good job, and you did all the things that you
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  Speaker 2: did what was right. And we're watching a system, more
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: so today than ever before. We're the people who are
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: making the rules. They're making them for all of us
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  Speaker 2: to follow, but they're not even following them. So what
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: do you do? You know, you have to decide for
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: yourself how you want to interact in that kind of system.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: So this book is basically a framework to help you
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  Speaker 2: figure out, well, if success is it? Like do all
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: these things and then you died this golden eag at
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  Speaker 2: the end, what is my definition of success? And how
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: do I get there? What is the strategy and the
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  Speaker 2: frameworks that I need to have in order to do it.
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  Speaker 2: So it really is a workbook and a playbook for
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: people to be able to do that, you know, leveraging
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  Speaker 2: all the ups and downs with blavity and the things
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: that I've done. But more importantly, like whether you're a
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: career nine to five or an entrepreneur, like you can
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: do what you want to do, but you have to
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  Speaker 2: define it for yourself.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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  Speaker 4: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J.
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States Secretary of
• 10:08
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• 10:12
  Speaker 4: at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred
• 10:16
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• 10:32
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• 10:35
  Speaker 4: leave now. Under President Trump America's laws, border and families
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: will be protected.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,