Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Richelieu Dennis Talks Essence Festival; Online Criticism, Target Boycott, Black Businesses +More

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INTERVIEW: Richelieu Dennis Talks Essence Festival; Online Criticism, Target Boycott, Black Businesses +More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that answer up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Morning.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: Everybody is DJ en Vy, Jess Hilarious, Chelamaane the guy
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: we are the Breakfast Club. Lonla Rosa is here as well.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: And we got a special guest in the building. He
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: has so many titles.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Well, ladies and gentlemen, Richard, We'll go ahead.
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna say he's the executive chairman of Sundown Group
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: of Companies. That's right, we have rich Dennis.
• 0:23
  Speaker 5: Yes, it is a group of companies. Tell them some
• 0:26
  Speaker 5: of the companies.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Uh, Richard, Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. As
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I was saying earlier, like every couple of.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Years, talk to Mike, talked to Mike. You should know
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: every couple of years.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: No, I only do this like once every two years,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: explain myself to you. But so, Sundown Group of Companies
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: consist of Sundown Media Group and Media and Technology Group.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Uh So, that's Essence, Refinery twenty nine, Afro Punk, Beauty
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: con and a few other media assets, Sunday Aile uh Financial,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: which is New Voices fund in which we we invest
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: in and businesses. One of the largest investors in black
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: owned businesses and people of color. So that's that's the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and then the consumer. We have so now consumers. So
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: some of you guys know us for the brands that
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: we've built like Shade Moisture and in Heritage and Madam C. J.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Walker and now some of the newer brands like Alafia
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: and some of those things. So so we we we
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: we play across the the economic landscape of culture.
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: And also, if I'm not minatake, you said afroc, I
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: mean afroch afro punk, afropunk Okay, and a beauty conk and.
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: Beauty he said, you know, listening, he said, Okay, I'm
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: just making sure man.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: I'm the reason I want to stress that is because
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: you said you got to come in here every couple
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: of years to explain yourself.
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: But I want people to know who you are, and
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: I want.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: Them to know how important you are to a lot
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: not not just you know yourself, but to a lot
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: of other black companies in black Absolutely.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean we've we've invested in, uh probably
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: at this point, well over one hundred black businesses we've
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: focused in on. We started with a keen focus on
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: women on black businesses, and then we we spread that
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: out to men. So you know, we've invested in and
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: helped build companies like Mael Honey Pot Square Squire rather
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: than not Square Squire solo funds. So we go across
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: everything from consumer to to deep tech, right with the
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: lens of trying to solve vexing problems in the black community,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: investing in businesses as solve vexing problems in the black community.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: We see ourselves as building the UH, the cultural infrastructure
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and monetization engines that allow us to keep ownership of
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: our intellectual property as a community and to build and
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: scale businesses that can then reinvest back in the community.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: One of the last times I was here, now one
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of the last times with the time before the last time,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I came in here and we're talking about me selling
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Shae Moisture, and I said to you guys, I'm selling
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: this company because I am going to unlock wealth that's
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: never been seen in our community before. I'm going to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: invest that wealth back in our community.
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: And you did it.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I did that right six years later, seven years later,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: not only have we done that, we've now had four
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: or five exits that have delivered more than a billion
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: dollars wow back into Black families in this country. So very,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: very proud of the journey that we're on. But every
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: once in a while, you know, we don't get it
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent right, But what we do do is
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: come back and fix it and get it one hundred
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: percent right.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: So that's and I do want to say it's very important,
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: h what you do and have done is so important
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: and even more important now when you see all these
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: DEI initiatives getting rolled back, when you see these fundings,
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: when you see this funding for these black organizations and
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: black companies getting cut.
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: All we gonna have is us that's to invest back
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: in each other.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: That's it. That's it, you know. And and part of
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: that is if you don't create wealth, we don't have
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: us to invest back in each other. Right, then we're
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: we're constantly needing to have other people support us to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, you know we've got we've got changes
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: in healthcare coming, right, We've got changes in our abilities
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: to get an education. It's going to cost it. We're
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: going to have fewer opportunities and higher costs. Right. The
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: only thing that we can control is our economic destiny, right,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: And so I'm fiercely protective of that because if we
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: don't have that we've got, We've got nothing, and to
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: do that, we've got to build big businesses. We've got
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: to build infrastructure to support those businesses, and we've got
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: to train up people so that they can run those
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: businesses right, all things that we all know are missing
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: from our community infrastructure today. So we've got a lot
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: of work to do, and we're here to do the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: work now.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Of course, trendon all.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: The last couple of days was the Essence Festival yep,
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: thirty first Essence Festival. Some people were upset, some people
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: were mad about timing. Some people said it wasn't as
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: packed as it usually is. They were mad that target
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: was a sponsor. So I know you're here today to
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: break some of that down. So yeah, what happened I
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: guess Essence Festival weekend?
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So, first of all, a lot of the criticism
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: is warranted, a lot of it is not right. There's
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: always an explanation for things that go wrong, and people
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: always excited to take credit for things.
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: That go right.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: My job is to balance that all out, right. So
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: we have an incredible team that's running Essence Festival. They
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: have built something that when you look at it, if
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: you look at the scale of what it is today
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: that competes against the best in the world, right without
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the resources of the best in the world, right and
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: without the access that the best in the world has. Right.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: So I'm extremely proud of that team. I'm also proud
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: of the fact that they took risks that we don't
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: normally get to take in order to build something better,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: and some of those risks worked out exceptionally well. Like
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: you go into the convention Center extraordinary, right. We had
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: problems in production with the mics. That happens seems seems
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: to happen more in the Superdome or in domes rather,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: but we had problems there. Those problems will be addressed
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: because they are easily addressable. There's reasons for why that
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: happened at some point. We can get into that if
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: you want to. But they look, we had over forty
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: acts over the three day weekend in the in the
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: in the Superdome. Right, best talent in the world, and
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: they deserve the best acoustics, they deserve the best production,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and we'll give that to them. We've given that to
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: them for thirty years. This thirty first year, we didn't
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: we didn't do as good a job as we normally do,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: and next year we'll do a better job than we've
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: ever done. Is we've learned what the what the issues were.
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: So why would Lauren hillsow Lake?
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: She said it wasn't her fault, Absolutely was not her fault,
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: she says, she thanks y'all for actually stepping up and
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: saying it wasn't a Well.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Our job is to protect black women. We're not going
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: to sit here and say, hey, you know, because she's
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: taking the heat for it, We're going to be quieter
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: because that's just not that's not what we are, that's
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: not what essence it's about, that's not what we're building.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: There were there were production issues with the audio video
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: system that caused the delay in her performance. We own that, right.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Those delays you know, were primarily because we've been very
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: aggressive in as I said earlier, our job is to
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: develop the infrastructure that drives black businesses, right, So we
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: also want to make sure that we're investing in the
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: local businesses in New Orleans, right, And so our partner,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: our production partner, from our mandate and my team's directive,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: which which again we're very proud that we're able to
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: do this. You know, One of the things that that
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: that that is also satisfying but scary, is that there
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: are no more black festivals around, right. We're about the
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: only independent one left, right. And so what that means
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: is that the people that get to produce these festivals
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: fewer and fewer and fewer of them have the resources
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: and the access and the ability to run these large
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: festivals because they're not getting those opportunities. Right. I said
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: to my team a year ago, is we need to
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: go out and find the types of partners that we
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: can develop and grow so that they have the opportunities
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: to do these right. So we probably should have been
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: a little bit more uh thoughtful in the execution of that, right,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, I'm proud of
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: the fact that they took the risk. Right. Next year,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: we will have a local, well trained, well developed a
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: partner in that area because we got the experience we
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: had this.
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: Year, y'all didn't have the right production team to pull
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: off a.
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: Concert of that scale base.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: For the sound.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, right, however, sorry, sorry, you go ahead that right. However,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: our job is to train them up. It's not their fault, right,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: it's our fault. Right. We have to we have to
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: if we if we're going to go that route, we
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: have to continue to make sure that we're investing in
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: their development and then their training, and we're gonna we're
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: going to continue to do that and rest assured that
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: will not happen again. I'm sorry.
• 10:51
  Speaker 6: I want to ask you the production company that you're
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: talking about, is that separate from the Solomon Group company,
• 10:56
  Speaker 6: because there was articles about them working with you guys,
• 10:58
  Speaker 6: and people throwing a lot of blame on a Solomon
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: g people too.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, at the end of the day, it's
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: not any of our partner's fault. Is our fault because
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: we engage them, we we hire them, we pay them,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: we manage them, and it's our job to make sure
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: that everything is delivered properly. I'm not gonna sit here
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: and say that it's the Solomon Group's fold or is
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: this group's Faulds that.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Group's fault, right, Richiere a nice guy.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, Well, if I want
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: you to do.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: Sound, I'm not a sound guy. It sounds supposed to
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: be right. I'm paying you a certain amount of money
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: to sound supposed to be perfect. That's what you're paying for.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: You don't sit there with the mics and it just
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: levels and stuff like you pay somebody.
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: About the artist. Yeah, that was the other thing I
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: kept hearing. I kept hearing people was you know, late.
• 11:36
  Speaker 7: But Lauren Hill says she wasn't late though, So.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Let me get to that. But first, let me take
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: this right. It's not that I'm a nice guy. Is
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: that I am trying to build something that's lasting. If
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: I don't invest in people and I don't have the
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: patience with them, plenty of people allowed me to fail, right,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: And because they allowed me to fail, I'm where I'm
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: at today. Right. My job and the role that I
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: see myself playing is to make sure that when somebody fails,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I'm there to pick them up right, because that's the
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: other thing that we don't have the luxury of as
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: black people. We get one shot right and then you
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: walk away. So we're gonna take the hit. It's our fault,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: it's our responsibility. We will deal with our internal partners.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Our internal partners will step up and if they then
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: don't step up to the plate, then they will be gone.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: But it will not be because they made a mistake here.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: It will be because they haven't been able to learn
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: from those misses, right, So that that's that's the answer there.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I think you you you were asking the tardiness.
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: You know, I read the open letter that you know,
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: Stephanie Mills wrote, and you know, I love God, bless God.
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: Loves Stephanie Mills. And what she said was, you know,
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: she's a professional. This is an o G veteran in
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: the game. He said.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: The challenges I encountered were multifaceted and in my view,
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: indicative of broader organizational shortcomings. The scheduling and time management
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: were severely lacking, creating a chaotic and stressful, stressful environment backstage,
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: This organization cascading onto the stage, impacting the flow of
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: the event and ultimately diminishing the quality of the performances.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: Then she got into the logistical issues, and oh, she said,
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: beyond the logistical issues, the technical difficulties is what we
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: just talked about.
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: The sound system, she said, all that was deeply problematic.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean she she said it there's nothing
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: that there's nothing to.
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: Argue there, right, The I guess the why is what
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: I'm asking.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Well, I think I think the why is one scale, right,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and when you have when you start with the technical issues.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: As you guys are in this business, things have a
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: way of having domino effects and they impact they impact
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: other things. Right, So we're tracking all of that down.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: We've got, you know, folks that have been working nonstopper
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: on the clock to make sure that we not just
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: identify these So so whether it's it's Mills, or it's
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: the security guard on the floor, or whether wherever it is,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: we're talking to everybody and we're making the adjustments that
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: we need that we need to make. This isn't a
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: matter of hey, you know we're oblivious to these issues.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: It's not This isn't a matter of, hey, we don't
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: understand that there were challenges. We understand there were challenges.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: We're getting to the bottom of it. We're correct.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: I think I understand what you're saying as far as production,
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: because you know, we deal with that, especially in.
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: Radio a lot of times.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: Right, you're giving people an opportunity, you're giving people a chance,
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: but they may not have the experience. And you said
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: you got to train them up. But man, when you
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: got something that needs to hit the ground running, I
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: can't teach you how to run. I need you already
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: know how to run.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well you know, and a lot of times
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: too because we don't get the opportunity. We may know
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: how to run, but we may be rusty, right, I
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: may not have done it in a year a year
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: and a half, so things slip, right, I may have
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: I may have new team members that haven't really run
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: it with me before. So I've got it. I've got
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: to figure out how to do that. So this is
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: not this is not this isn't anything new to this
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: business or to the to the the music or the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: festival business. But I think it is particularly heightened because
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: we care about the people that we care about, and
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the people that we serve care deeply about what it
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: is that we're doing. Right, So this this criticism, I
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: don't take it as criticism to criticize, although there is
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: some of that, right, there's some piling on this all that,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: but that's that's part of the game. But people really
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: care about what essence means to them and it's a
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: source of pride for them, right, So we have to
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: deliver that. That's why I'm here, right, So we have
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: to be able to deliver that, and we have to
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: deliver that excellence every day and so you know, five
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: hundred things may go right, and one thing may go wrong,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: or two things or ten things may go wrong. We
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: owe it to ourselves to say, hey, this isn't working
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: and be for us to correct it. So I do
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: have to ask.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: You know, I go to Essence every year, right, and
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: I was there this year. I actually spoke on one
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: of the stages, this Wade Lounge.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I did dope. Was that it was dope? Yeah?
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: It was really.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: I mean I love that because I get you get
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: to see your core of people that you don't usually
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: necessarily get to see.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Right, everybody comes in one place.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: And you don't see that as the Puerto Rican I'm
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: not Puerto.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Rican black, stop that.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: But I really get a chance to see people, and
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: not just at the convention center, not just at the concert,
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: at restaurants, at day parties, at just being out and about.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: But I did notice that it wasn't his pact that
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: it usually is, right right. Some people say it was
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: maybe because of the boycott of Target. Some people say
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: maybe you know, people can't afford it. Right now, What
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: do you say to that?
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: Was it Target?
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Was it? You know?
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Look, I think I think we live in a world
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: right now, where there's so much uncertainty right and and
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: people are trying to figure out where this is all headed. Right,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: they're they're they're hurting financially, or they're or they're unsure
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: of what's going to happen to them financially. So they're
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: they're they're they're taking a beat on things and say, hey,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: am I going to do this? There's uh a sort
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: of deep sense of of responsibility for to just share
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: everything right and and to be and to be as
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: as loud and as and as vocal and as visible
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: as as possible. So so things that may not be
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: fully understood get discussed in ways and in places that
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: sound like they actually know what they're talking about. But
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: so at the convention center again, phenomenal success. Here's why.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Last year there was a lot of lines, a lot
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: of blockage of the aisles. Our elders couldn't move freely,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: they couldn't get from one place to another. So we
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: made a strategic decision to increase the size by one
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand square feet. Right. What that enabled us to
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: do was wider aisles right spread the spread the place
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: out of tuk tuk lines on the sides and away
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: from the center aisle, so people could move more freely. Right.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: So when you look at that, you say, oh, there's
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: fewer people here, right, And you couple that with an
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: active boycott that's going on, right, and you couple that
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: with all of the uncertainty that I just talk about,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and then it's easy to come to that conclusion. Well,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: you know, we had almost fifty thousand people a day
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: go through the convention center in some days more right,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: that's the first thing. So same numbers as last year
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: right in the convention Center, same numbers are last year,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: better organized, better plan. That's the lessons that we won
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: last year. Right. Now, we got to turn our attention
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: to our production in the Superdome and make sure that
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: that's just as tight. You don't have any issues in
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the convention Center, and we're engaging with that many people
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: a day, right. I think it's something like I don't
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: like four hundred panels, right, twenty something thousand minutes of content, right,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: like massive stuff, right scale stuff. The last part about
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: that is it's all free. Right, So when you come
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: into that experience. The other thing that I think you
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: noticed this year, for those of you that have Ben
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: is the elevation of the experience, right, the the the
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the the visuals, right, the the content, the the the uh.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: The quality of the presenters right, the quality of the
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: presentations extraordinary. Right. I was extremely excited about about the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: programming at swayet right for for the first time, it
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: wasn't an afterthought A men's experience wasn't an afterthought. It
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: was it was a real intentional experience and execution.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: Right, we'll bring down with Swede is for people that
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: don't know it and worry there because they might not know.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So Swayed is Swayed is what is now essences uh,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: men's platform and experience that we're that we're slowly building
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: up because if you go out, then you look in
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: in the media landscape today, there's nothing that's really focused
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: on on on black men in an elevated and aspirational way.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: And so Swede was actually a a magazine that was
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: owned by Essence, that was launched by Essence back in
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the day as as a and was then shuddered shortly thereafter.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: And I looked at it and I said, you know
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: what a cool what a cool name uh for for men? Right,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: And and so we're gradually building that up. But I
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: think from your experience there you can see where we're.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Headed with it.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: And I think a lot of women all the time
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: always look for men at essence.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Right, because there's a lot of relationships.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of women and they're.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: Looking for relationships, they're looking So that Swede Lounge was
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: a great opportunity for me looking at the panel. So
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: but I do want to say too, I want to
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: stay on the economic point that and be brought up.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: I saw people came plaining about the BBIP super lolenges.
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: I guess they said the super Lounge used to be
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: a part of the standard ticket price, but then they
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: had to charge extra for the v VI I P.
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: So a lot of people was like, man, that prices
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: me out.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: So that was one how do you balance like financial
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: sustainability with accessibility.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Well, And but I think that's also part of a
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: part of what I was saying earlier about people having
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: an idea but not really fully having all of the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: information to make to make decisions right. So that super
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Lounge experience was was a free experience where the convention
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: center had not the conventions the super don't have these
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: spaces right inside of them. That essence used as a
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: way to showcase up and coming talent, right, give them opportunities,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and went quite for the for the main stage for
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the past three year years or so, the super Dome
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: was under construction and those spaces went away, so we
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: haven't had that for three years. The way that we
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: solved for that was doing super lounges early on the
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: main stage. Right. That didn't change, right. But what we
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: also are dealing with is one we should talk about
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: the economics of it, right, and we'll come back to
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: the economics of how an event like this gets pulled
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: off and what it takes and what it requires. But
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: what we then did was said, hey, we're trying to
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: over deliver on the value proposition of why you come
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: to why you would go to the Superdome, why you
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: would buy a ticket, right. And what has happened is
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: for our community, they get charged more and they receive less.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: We're guilty of trying to give more for the same price, right,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: and that has to then be accompanied by other sources
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: of revenue in order to sustain that free convention center. Right.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: How about I didn't I've been going for so many years.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: I didn't know the convention center was free.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: I had no idea convention centers.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: I had no.
• 24:15
  Speaker 7: Idea, well, you'd be working. I just was an attendee
• 24:19
  Speaker 7: and I just went and you just had no idea.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: It was free.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: That's crazy. I had no clue. Nowhere else on this planet.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Which is amazing is anybody giving us that. I mean,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: think about who you got to see, and they got
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: to see and talk to you, right, they got to
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: see on that same they got to see and talk
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: to Maxwell. They got to see and talk to it.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: And let me explain it this a little bit.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: So the convention center, of course, it's it's a huge
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: convention center and they have different stages, podcasts, artists performing,
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: and I didn't know all that was free.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: But all that is free, So like you can go there.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: And when I was there doing one stage, Lloyd was
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: doing another stage performing, so there was like ten thousand
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: people at Lloyd's stage. There was a couple thousands people
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: that our stage, people doing podcasts, conversations with Maxwell, And
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: I didn't know that's free, that's.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's dope. No. But in order to maintain that,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: that money has to come from somewhere, right, so we're
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: we're trying to find other ways that we can monetize
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: so that we can continue to provide that experience, so
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: we don't have to charge because our community is going
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: through I don't know if people know this, right, unemployment
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: rate for black women in this country right now is skyrocket, right,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: unemployment rate for black people in this country is skyrocket. Right.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: The opportunities that we were promised just two years ago
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: have evaporated. Right, We're gonna stand by our community and
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: we're gonna build. We're gonna use our business acumen to
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: build a sustainable business that will be here one hundred
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: years from now. Right, We're gonna make those investments. We need,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: our commun need to come along. We also, though taking
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: full accountability, need to make sure that our community knows
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: that that's what we're doing. Right. I think we take
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: for granted that they know what we're doing. The fact
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: that you guys in here have been there, I don't
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: know how many times you've probably been there fifteen times
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: that you didn't know that all of those experiences were three.
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: Right, So it's only been once, I'm sorry, once and
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: once in Houston.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Oh so you went ra Trina Katrina yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: But that's that's a million square feet that we produce
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: in that convention center for our community, serving anywhere from
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: fifty to seventy thousand people a day, right for three
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: days straight. It's where we bring black businesses in the
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Soco market so they can sell their products. And when
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: they come to that SoCal market that one weekend, many
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: of them make more money in that one weekend than
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: they make the entire year.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: But the only other thing that I would say that
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: I did not like is every night at that convention center,
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: well at the concert when people were performing, I didn't
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: know who was really performing until I got there.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: You guys had, I mean, think about it. You got
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Looe Rilla, Patty LaBelle.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: I think they had the last Line Law in the Hills,
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: nas Boys.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Too, Menie Dougie f Babyface, so many.
• 27:30
  Speaker 7: It was like that wasn't properly promoted. But I didn't
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: know what I got.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: I didn't know what I got there about all those artists.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: And I feel like it would have been a bigger
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: push if you to know, like you got to see
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: all those artists in the weekend. You never see nothing
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: like that, old and new coming up artists like it was.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: It was a dope show.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: That's but that's what we do every year, right, and
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: that's and that's the idea.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: So you usually you know when new addition is closing out,
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: you know when Mary's before.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Like you never it was, I didn't. I didn't.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: I didn't Niles was there until.
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: I got there.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: So let me so I'll tell you I don't know
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: was there too, I see want to play.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: That's true.
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: By the way, he's being biased.
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: All the people are from Queens, Okay. I bet y'all
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: promoted Patty Leabell and crazy Queens.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: If you asked you, I did not know.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: So so that's another learning, right, So but I tell
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: you more than that, more than than Hey, we need
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: to we need to really amp it up because you know,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: people need to know. More than that. We need to
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: be earlier so that people can plan because in this economy,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: in the world that we're in, right, people need to plan.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: And people this is this is some people's vacation, right,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Like some people are like, Hey, I'm gonna save up
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: my money this year so I can go so I
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: can go to Essence, right, Great, we need to make
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: sure that we give them enough of a window for
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: them to plan. The other part of it is we're
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: we're the music and the festival. The concert part of
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: it is an important part in the celebration, But that
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: convention center is where the nourishment and the learning and
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the nurturing comes in. And so we've got to make
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: sure that we tie those closer together so that people
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: know all of all of what's happening and they can
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: understand just exactly how massive it is. So we'll do
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: a better job of marketing so that people know more
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: and that they know earlier. So that's that's certainly something
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: that we can improve on, and that feedback is very well.
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: I want to talk to you about Target.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: I totally get you need targets dollars to even do
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: this event.
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: You don't have to explain that.
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: But was that a tough decision being that you know,
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: the Jamal Bryant, the Tamika Mallory's, a Nina Turner's have
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: you know, staged this boycott against Target that a lot
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: of people.
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: Are participating in out So.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Those are always difficult decisions, right, And this wasn't a hey,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: we decided to go with Target against the boycott or hey,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: we decided to go with the boycott against Target. Right,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: You've got to remember what our value proposition is to
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: this community, and that is to help them build their
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: businesses and to help them build their build their build
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: the infrastructure that supports their business. Right, we build the
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: infrastructure they build their businesses. So it wasn't a it
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: wasn't a uh A decision around here's you know, here's
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: this boycott that we want to go against, or here's
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: this retail partner that we want to support, right, it
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: was it was the decision first of all, was we
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: already had a contract right prior to all of this
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: four years now, and they've been good partners, right, They've
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: they've done what they've told us to we're going to
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: do and even recently not recently at at festival, Brian Cornell,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: their CEO, came on the ground. He's like, look, I
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: want to see the people, I want to talk to
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the people. I want to understand. But he also shared
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: that we haven't stopped doing the things that we had
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: committed to. We're going to complete We've made a two
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: billion dollar commitment that was who the black community.
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: But isn't at the whole point of the whole point
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: of the protest is that because they rolled back to
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: DEI initiatives, but they haven't you know, done those things
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: from what I've been told.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: No, So what he shared was that they actually never
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: stopped those things. Right, They're they're two billion dollar commitment.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: He said that they are going to complete that two
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: billion dollar commitment at the by the end of this year.
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: They just can't label the d GAD a trump.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to get into the politics of it,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: but what I will say is that they've committed to
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: and have exercised and from what I've been able to see,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: they have done what they said, certainly with the businesses
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: that are in there, that are in their retail environment,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: which is where I think the bulk of those dollars
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: go anyway. But that's for that's not for me to
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: that's not for me to answer, right What I what
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I can say, though, is that they have shown me
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: and provided evidence that they have continued that they've continued
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: those programs. They've continued their HBCU program and the scholarships.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: They've continued their their their their their dollar commitments. Right. So,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: for our decision making was based on the economic impact
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: or the or the inadvertent economic impact that we're seeing
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: in the black businesses that So if that convention center
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: didn't happen, there's two hundred vendors that would have lost
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: their income for that weekend, right, which, as I said earlier,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: for some of them, is the bulk of their income.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: There are retail there are brands that have been preparing
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: all year to have a showcase to get retail distribution, right,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: So there's other retailers that come there. Because we also
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: have a program through the New Voices Foundation that trains
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: up our vendors to be ready to go into retail.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: So that's the other thing that we do. We have
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: almost thirty thousand black businesses on our platform and women
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: own businesses on our platform that we're providing developmental services
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: to every day and also at the festival, right. So
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: that's everything from preparedness to go into retail, to business planning,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: supply chain development, all the things that it takes to that.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: So we've also then as a result of that, really
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: curated the SoCal markets so that when our guests come in,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: they're getting the best of the best, and that when
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: retail partners come in, they're able to then say, hey,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: they're ready to do business and go and go to
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: the next level. Right, So we don't want to deprive
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: them of that opportunity. Greater than that is they've already
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: made the investments, right, Some of these people have not
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: some of the many of them, because where do we
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: go to get funding in our community when we need
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: to build a business today? Right?
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: Go fund me right?
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Right? So part of what they use this weekend for
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: is to recoup the investments that they've made. So how
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: do they get these investments? They're taking our second mortgages
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: on their homes, they're drawing down on their four to
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: one ks, they're borring from their neighbors and their friends
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: and their family. Go for every single person here right, right,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: And if they don't get these opportunities, what happens to them? Right?
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: So we've got we've got to think about. So it's
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: it kind of you know, it's I'm a I'm older
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: than all of you guys. I grew up at a
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: time where it was, you know, it was it was
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: we had MLK to follow and learn about, and you
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: had two sides to mlk's platform. The first one was
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: the civil rights platform. The second one which he didn't
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: get to see all the way through unfortunately, and we
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: can all speculate as to why was the economics rights platforms? Right?
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: So the boycott is focused on the civil rights platform.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: I'm focused on the economic rights platform. That's what I've
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: done my entire career, right, thirty something years now, almost
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: forty years. This is what I've done, right, I started.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: I started when I was nineteen years old, right, so
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: almost forty years. It's kind of crazy to think, right,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: but that's all I've done, right, All I've done is
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: build businesses that invest back in black communities and develop
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: new businesses that can then stand on their own. So
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: I'm looking, I'm faced with this and I'm seeing the
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: impact that this is not just having here but also
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: on shelf. So, yeah, the boycott can. Our voice has
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: been heard, there is no doubt about it. Our voice
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: has been heard, fantastic, Right. My question is what next? Right?
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: And how do we now? How do we now protect
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: those businesses that have been impacted because targets, traffic may
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: be down, right, their revenue may be down, But think
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: about those I don't know how many there has I
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: know that we're involved with maybe twenty businesses in that
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: that cell to the target that at other retailers, but
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: we're talking specifically here. Some of them, their businesses are
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: down more than fifty percent. Some of them their business
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: the average is around thirty percent. Right, the right, because
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: the traffic isn't there and the the So the impact
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: of that is the longer this goes on, I can't
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: pay my mortgage. I can't pay you back the money
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: that I barred you from you, Right. I can't send
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: my kids to the schools that I've not put them
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: in because I thought, Hey, I've got I've got this business.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: That's that's ramping up. Right. I'm worried about healthcare because
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: there's all kinds of changes coming there. There's there's an
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: undue amount of stress that goes on those businesses as
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: a result of this. Right, the boycott I think has
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: served its purpose. I think it has been one that
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: showed our economic might, It showed our voice, It showed
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: that we can be we can be united. I'm all
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: for that, right, But what I have to think about
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: is how I make sure that these people and these
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: businesses that have made these investments survived through this. Until
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: all of that is the result.
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: Can you move on from a boycott if a demand
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: hadn't been met? Though, again, if you have, because the
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: whole point of boycott is because you have demand. If
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: Target hasn't met those demands, why should we tell people
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: to move on if they have not met those If
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: they haven't met those demands, why should we tell the
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: protests to move on?
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah? So I haven't told anybody.
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: To move on, right, It sounds like you're saying that.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Just No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: is that my responsibility, the place that I've lived my
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: life is in building out that ecosystem. Right, So my
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: job is to ensure that our ecosystem survives. Right, That's
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: my job, right, And that's what I'm doing.
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: I guess my mother's real quick.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: God.
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: I just want to.
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: Just from a just from your standpoint, just Essence, right,
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: not the black owned businesses within Target, just Essence and
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: Essence Festival. If you would have said, you know what,
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: I'm listening to the protesters Target, I don't want you
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: to be a sponsor this ship.
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: How would that have impacted y'all business? Because I know
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: you had a contract.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: Well, we have a we have a contract, so that
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: that would that would impact our business. I tell you
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: something else, Right, there's many others that have either pulled
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: out of supporting uh uh uh black media and and
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: and and black businesses. There are many others that have
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: cut down what they have, what their commitments had been,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: or or where they have where they have invested before.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: So it's not just this isn't just an issue that
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: related just to target, right, this is an issue that
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: you know, we've had partners you know that didn't come
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: back for didn't come back right, used to be able
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: to you know, do the ride and drive and you know,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: they they they've cut back. They didn't come back, Delta
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: didn't come back right. So there's partners in it. But
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: we still put on the same, the same show. We
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: still put on the same the same event. So we're
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: gonna ride for our community. Right. We knew we were
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: going to take a loss going into this, but it's
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: better to me that we take a loss and that
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: those those that community, that business community, the broader community
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: of New Orleans, the broader community that comes to Essence
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Festival has an extraordinary experience.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: We did have hiccups, Yes, why didn't those companies come back.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean you know some of them have. Some
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: of them have have Yeah, I mean they've they've they've
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: they've they got rid of program. There's no money, there's
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: no there's nobody, right, So so you know, but this
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: is the new world that we live in, and I
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: think it's very important that we are that we're moving forward.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Like we can't just we can't just go to sleep
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: or we're not going to wake up and it's going
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: to be better. We got to work through it, right,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: And so I think that, like I said earlier, you've
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: got the the civil rights part of the civil rights
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: and civil justice part and you've got the economic rights
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: and economic justice part of it. The two have to work, right,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: and so I'm looking forward to us getting the two
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: to work in the interim. You've got to sustain what's there,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: otherwise it's not recoverable.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: Do you bring it back next year?
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: And you know, with the difficulties that you had this year,
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: especially with sponsors.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: Pulling out, do you bring it back?
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: And that's question The reason I asked is you said
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: you took a huge loss this year, right, yeah, yeah, right,
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: and you don't have the sponsorship, So how do you
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: sustain that without raising prices and making sure that people
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: can still enjoy what they enjoy without hitting the consumer
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: in the pocket, you know, especially since you lost a
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: car company, lost Delta and whatever else.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: Those are big hits.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: You never know. Next year they may be back, gotcha, right, you?
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: They may be back. And there are other there are
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: other brands out there who value our community, who want
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: to engage with our community. Right There's there's new revenue
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: streams to find, there's new partners to go find. It's like,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: we can't just give up because it's hard, right because
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: otherwise we won't be here.
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: You know, I agree with you, and you know, yes,
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: there is going to be criticism for any event. But
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: based on what you just said, I wonder if people
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: realize that, let's say, next year, these companies that pulled
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: out this year for DEI initiatives, they want they might
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: want to come back, but they're not going to come
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: back to something that is getting so criticized. They're not
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: going to come back to something that's getting so slammed
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: on social media. That's when they be like, I want
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: to stay away from that, like you know.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, And and the thing is it's Look,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: what we did this year was an extraordinary success. It
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: had faults and issues like everything else. Right, but I
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: can go through the stats with you. You same number
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: of people in the convention center. Right, we're dealing with
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: what feels like a recession, especially in our community. We're
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: dealing with, Hey, you know, the conscious decision of do
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: I support this or not support this? Because I want
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: to support my community, but I also want to support
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: this this economic stance that we're taking here, we're dealing
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: with all of those things. Right. I don't think we'll
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: be dealing with that next year, Right I have I
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: have faith and confidence that we won't be I can't
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: speak for the economy, but I think the the the
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: the inner dialogue that we're having with ourselves around do
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: I do this? Do I not do this? I don't
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: think we'll be dealing with that next year. And yes,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: the criticism doesn't.
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: Hurt, butomy no, That's why I'm not going.
• 44:02
  Speaker 7: So this target thing has been going on for a while.
• 44:04
  Speaker 6: So if next year the boycott is still there, do
• 44:07
  Speaker 6: you guys, I don't know how long your contract is,
• 44:08
  Speaker 6: you guys will still be in contract next year, so
• 44:10
  Speaker 6: they'll be back next year.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, so the answer to that question is we
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: have a we have a responsibility to our community to
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: deliver to them the best product that we can deliver. Right,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: every year, we get better at delivering that product. Right
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: that to your point, the criticism doesn't help at all, Right,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: doesn't help at all, But it's not going to deter
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: us from doing the work that needs to be done
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: so that we can get those partners right and we
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: can grow and we can scale and we can do
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: the things. Like I said, our vision for this is
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: not for next year. Our vision for this is one hundred,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: one hundred years. So we're building the infrastructure that allows us,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: that allows us to do that. We'll do the work,
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: we'll make the adjustments from the that we see from
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: the criticisms, the one that the ones that are that
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: are reasonable in that work, we'll do that. Right. So,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: as far as you know what happens next year with partners, right,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: we have to go through the process to see what happens, right,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: we have to go through the process, see what the
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: other partners come through. We have to we have to
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: look at who what's going on with the boycott, what
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: changes are made to it, how things get resolved. So
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: to your point, there is a resolution to everything, right,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: we have to come to a resolution. I think that
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: will happen.
• 45:42
  Speaker 6: How did you feel when they turned the conversation because
• 45:45
  Speaker 6: of Target in Caroline are your CEO's past involvement with Target?
• 45:50
  Speaker 6: They turned it into a Black American versus Black African conversation,
• 45:54
  Speaker 6: and that whole thing exploded of like essence is losing
• 45:57
  Speaker 6: its focused on Black Americans.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, those are one of the I mean, I'd
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: love to hear how you guys think about that, But
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: that's one of those ones that I struggle with understanding
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: intellectually right, for a host of reasons, just from let's
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: just talk about the actual facts. Right. So we had
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know forty plus acts and performers, right, we
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: had one Jamaican act performer and we had one African performer, David. Right.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: That to me doesn't say that we're losing our center. Right.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: We remain extremely centered on African American culture, right and
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: on black women. That's our center. That doesn't mean we
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: can't expand out from our center. All that means is
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: we can't lose our center. So, if you were on
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: the G if you were there, you see that that
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: center is very much there. Right, you go into the
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: convention center, right, you look at what happened on the stages.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: You look at what happened. If you were there, you
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: know that we're still centered. Right. But if you were there,
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: you also know that we're growing and that we're broadening,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: because everybody has to grow abroadened otherwise you won't be around. Right.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: There's also sort of the philosophical approaches to these. To
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: this is I view myself as black. I've benefited from
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: being black, and I have also lost from being black.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: When I walk in the room. What people see, if
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: they don't know me, when I walk in a room,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: I walk down the street, they see a black man. Right.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: My entire life has been dedicated to uplifting black. I've
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: focused it on the economics, on the economic side of
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: black because that's what I know how to do. That's
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: that's that's what I'm skilled at. The Thing that I've
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: learned from that is we're much better off when we're
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: focused on our commonalities and we're building on those commonalities.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: As I said earlier, I grew up you know, King
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: Garvey L. Mumba, right that the thinking around. Hey, we
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: have a much better chance of developing and growing our
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: communities when we find the commonalities and the alignments and
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: we're working towards shared goals and shared objectives. When we
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: don't do that, we become much smaller, right, and much more,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: much more volatile, and much more vulnerable.
• 48:48
  Speaker 5: I can't even believe you took the time to explain that.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: I mean something, if me.
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: Booju, Bonting and and Devido or walking down the street
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: and a white supremacist see us, guess what do you see?
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: That's it? What do we talk?
• 49:00
  Speaker 6: Do you feel like though we criticisms like that and like,
• 49:03
  Speaker 6: you know, just some of the stuff that you you
• 49:05
  Speaker 6: would feel like we're not going to get y'all took
• 49:06
  Speaker 6: ownership for a lot of things even before the articles hit, right,
• 49:09
  Speaker 6: the things that you're like, this is nonsense, We're not
• 49:11
  Speaker 6: going to take ownership for that. Do you ever feel
• 49:14
  Speaker 6: like it's kind of like unfair? Are you ever hurt
• 49:16
  Speaker 6: by it? Because you do so much censored in black people,
• 49:20
  Speaker 6: regardless of where they come from.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: I don't have the luxury of being hurt by it, right.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: I think the first couple of times that it happened.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: You know, there was oh you know, I think the
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: first time I was here, and very very similar circumstances. Right,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: we did an add for Shay right, and that ad
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: had run for months, and they cut it down for
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: Social and the person that cut it down from social
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: for social cut it where there was a It ended
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: it was a white woman in the front and a
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: white woman in the back, and then there was a
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: very small glimpse of a black woman, right, And that
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: wasn't intentional at all, and it wasn't the message we
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: were trying to convey. But you know, people got hurt
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: by it, right, And because we build we build brands,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: and we're involved with brands that are all about our
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: culture and all about our identity, and we ride hard
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: for it. Right. So the person that made that mistake, right,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: I could have walked in and fired that person, right,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: I chose not to because that was a person that
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: was trying to do something and trying to create something,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: and that deserved an opportunity to fail. And they got
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: that opportunity to fail. Okay, they are today running one
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: of the most acclaimed agencies out there. Right, if we
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: had not if we had reacted differently, they probably wouldn't
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: have gotten that opportunity, right, So it's our responsibility to
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: give them an opportunity to fail. I have chosen to
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: spend my career trying to develop businesses and economic engines
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: in our community. I can't if I were so thin
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: skinned that, you know, every time I did something wrong,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: or every time people perceived me to do something wrong,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: I walk away from what the mission was. We wouldn't
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: be here, right, We wouldn't have these hundreds of businesses
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: that are now on the shelves of Target or Walmart
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: or CVS. If I had listened to the criticism when
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: I sold Shay, I would have gone off into somewhere
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: and hidden away and gone and done my thing there.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have.
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: But then Honeypot wouldn't have been Honeypot wouldn't have man
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: Miel wouldn't have been here, Lipbar wouldn't have been here,
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: Solo Funds wouldn't have been here.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, you name it. List goes on and on
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: and on. So you know, I don't have that luxury,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: you know, And I have to take the other thing
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: is because because what we're doing is so novel in
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: our community, right, I have an accountability to say, hey,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: this is what's working, and this is not what this
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: is what's not working. Right. People have the right to
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: decide whether or not they want to rock with us, right,
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: But we're going to keep doing what we what our
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: intentions are. We going to continue to share what those
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: intentions are, and we're going to continue to do the
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: work and be accountable for what we get. Like I
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: said earlier, when something goes wrong, when something goes right.
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: You know, I be here for both. And I'm glad
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: that you're open to all this criticism. But the reality
• 52:52
  Speaker 4: is it's hard to explain business to people who don't
• 52:54
  Speaker 4: run one, especially corporate business, especially when you are, you know,
• 52:58
  Speaker 4: a black person running a business trying to do things
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: specifically for black people. We are so hard on each other, man.
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: I haven't heard Essence talked about. I haven't heard Essence
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: be talked about this much in years at least Essence
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: probably decades, you know what I But now everybody talking
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: about it so much because we got so much negative
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: things to say.
• 53:16
  Speaker 5: And like you said, some criticism is valid.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Something is valid, not all of it, that's right, right,
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: And the levels of criticism is definitely not warrant, right,
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: I will tell you that right. But if we Hurtanie.
• 53:29
  Speaker 5: Mills, got to make that right.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: That's what we're here for.
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: Heart, Lauren Hill, you got to make that right, gott
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: to make But those are actual valid issues, right that letter.
• 53:35
  Speaker 5: She has actual valid issues, valid issues. Y'all got too
• 53:39
  Speaker 5: much Africans. It's not a valid criticism.
• 53:41
  Speaker 6: No, But I like the way that I like the
• 53:45
  Speaker 6: way that you guys responded to things because it curved
• 53:48
  Speaker 6: the headlines, Like the headlines about Laurence Hill had to
• 53:51
  Speaker 6: include fescal says it's not her fault.
• 53:53
  Speaker 7: Here's exactly what happened.
• 53:54
  Speaker 6: A lot of most festivals don't do that because she
• 53:56
  Speaker 6: said that this has happened to her before.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: But this isn't most festivals. Is essence, we're accountable to
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: our community and to those black women that we're here
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: to serve and protect, and when we get it wrong,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: we're going to say it right. Caroline, you just brought
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: up Caroline Wanga had nothing to do with this, all right.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: I saw it.
• 54:14
  Speaker 4: I saw people blaming her, but I told I was
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: told she's not even really she's.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: On leave, Yeah, she's on leave. She just she'd go
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: buy her book. Guys, she she just she just dropped
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: a phenomenal book and she's been an incredible leader for
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: for essence, and we're grateful.
• 54:31
  Speaker 7: Is she still in the CEO?
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: S she's still in the CEOC because she's on leave.
• 54:36
  Speaker 5: Why was it so quick? Why was people so quick
• 54:38
  Speaker 5: to blame her when she had nothing to do with
• 54:39
  Speaker 5: this year?
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, I don't know. We we live in
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: a world. We live in a world now where it's
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: it's easy to do that right, and so people do that.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: And you can you can shy away from it right,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: or you can face it head on. I choose to
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: face it head on because I think people get an
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: opportunity to lo learn from my mistakes. They learned from
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: my team's mistakes. My team gets to learn from their mistakes.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: And the greatest blessing is to be in a position
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: where you're allowed to make mistakes. That's the greatest blessing,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: because if you're not allowed to make mistakes, you shrink, right,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: you don't try things. You're you're you're You're stuck in
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: one thing, and that's the only place you can be.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: For our community to grow, We've got to be able
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: to afford to make mistakes. Right, We've got and but
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: the other thing is we've also got to be able
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: to the thing that I'll notice that I'll say now
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: is I've gotten on in years, is my community no
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: longer has the grace it once had for each other.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: All right, we go on these platforms and did we ever?
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know if we know we maybe maybe yeah,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: in my day, yes, there was grace. You know, if
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: something went wrong, somebody pulled you aside and said, hey,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: you know this is going wrong, if your kid did
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: something wrong, they're like, community, it was, But we've got
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: to bring We've got to bring that back. Right. It's
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: like if we run away from these things, it doesn't
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: come back. If our kids grow up and don't see,
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: they think that this is this is the way it
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: should be. So where did we get some things wrong? Absolutely?
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: But I think if you measure us against any festival
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: that happened this year, I think we we we rise
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: to the top. Right. I don't know of one festival
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: that happened this year that didn't have some sort of
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: production issue. Right, ours is amplified because people care. Right,
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: ours is amplified because our community is under a lot
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: of pressure. Ours is amplified because we have a boycott
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: going ours is amplified for a whole host of reasons.
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that we run away from it, right,
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: It means that we got to talk about it. Absolutely.
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: I think the valid criticisms and I know you gotta
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: get out of here. I think the valid criticism or
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: the production issue, the lateness, the cost for people, and
• 56:58
  Speaker 4: I do think the target, the target conversation is a
• 57:01
  Speaker 4: valid conversation to have. It's a valid criticism for people
• 57:03
  Speaker 4: that are boycotting to bring up.
• 57:05
  Speaker 5: But I think with you the way you're explaining it
• 57:07
  Speaker 5: makes sense to me.
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because if if, if we don't have sponsors. But
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: here's here's the other. Here's the other bigger thing, right
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: is we don't know, right, and it hasn't been shared,
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: and we probably need all need to do a better
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: job with that of the impact. As I said earlier,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: that it has the the unintended consequences, right that it's
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: having on the dozens, if not hundreds of businesses that
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: do business and target. Right, we don't, we don't, we don't.
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: We don't know that, right. So there's two sides to this.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: And as I said, my job is to make sure
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: that those companies are protected, those people, those people are protected,
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: and that our community continues to get the opportunities. Because
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: the other thing that happens, and I said this on
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: one of the other times out here because this is
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: something that I believe to be extremely true, is if
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: we make people scared to do business with us, they
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: already have a reticence to invest in us and to
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: do business with us if they're concerned about, Hey, you know,
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: if I do business with this person, are and something
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: goes wrong between them and their community, right we burn
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: the house down, they won't. They have plenty of places
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: to put to put their money, and they have plenty
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: of choices to as to who to put that money with.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: We have to and as it, you know, when I
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: was growing up, he used to tell, you know, you
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: have to be three times better than the next guy.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: Right in the world that we're growing up in today,
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: we have to be five times better. It's just that
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: nobody's telling us that.
• 58:48
  Speaker 4: But that's the point I brought up earlier when I
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: talked about, you know, the criticism, because the people will
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: go on social media and they may think about, okay,
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: let's put some money there next year. But if they
• 58:55
  Speaker 4: go on social media and see a bunch of backlash,
• 58:57
  Speaker 4: they'd be.
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: Like, no, I'm not going to why why am I
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: doing now?
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: I don't want my brand associated right with them.
• 59:02
  Speaker 6: So we talked about this on my podcast, and my
• 59:03
  Speaker 6: thing was the criticisms are valid. Like Charlomagne said, I
• 59:06
  Speaker 6: just wish that we understood how we shape what conversation
• 59:09
  Speaker 6: and impression is. But when you say that, like people
• 59:12
  Speaker 6: don't want to do business with us because they say
• 59:13
  Speaker 6: that we can burn the house down, what's the happy
• 59:15
  Speaker 6: medium of But at the same time, you want people
• 59:18
  Speaker 6: who feel like they need to boycott for whatever reasons
• 59:20
  Speaker 6: to get what they need and feel respected too, because
• 59:23
  Speaker 6: that's an obvious pushback, someone would say, but like, you
• 59:25
  Speaker 6: don't want people to run all over you.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: Either, Yeah, and that's fair, right, There's no I'm not
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: arguing that. I'm just saying that there's another side to it.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: Two things can be true, right, So I'm not arguing that.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: All I'm saying is that there's a side to it
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: that has a consequence, right, And as a community, we're
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: going to have to figure out what the balance is,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: because neither side is good if I'm feel like I'm
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: being disrespected here, let's let's let's dive into it and
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: understand what that actually means. And if I feel like
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not getting an opportunity here, let's dive into that,
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: understand what it not just jump on a platform that
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: and then just spill. And I personally think a lot
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: of this stuff is driven by bots. I don't even
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: think it's well, not.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 3: Only that a lot of people weren't even there, like
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: the people that left those they weren't even there, and
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: they do those type of things. I say this, and
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: I tell me Charlaman talk about it all the time.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: The bad thing is we reward this type of behavior right,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: And the way we reward it is there's likes, there's views.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: They get paid for the amount of views. So if
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: I get a million views for issue on Essence and
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: I get paid one thousand dollars for it, you know
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: what I'm gonna do tomorrow, I'm gonna do it again.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 5: Well, you probably right, but let's not dismiss the people
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 5: who are there.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: But there weren't people there. But there were people there,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: and he said they did have some problem.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: But what I want you to do too, rich is
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: instead of coming when is fed up to talk about
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: fixing it. When we want you to come before and
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: talk about what you're doing so we can get that
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 3: good word out to the people.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 5: But you're too busy doing the work.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: So that's I was gonna say, yes, So let me
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: let me, let me tell you what I grew up by. Right.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: My mother would always tell us, let's do the things
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about. Let's not talk about the
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: things we're going to do. Oh, So that's my mentality. Right.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: If it's something, if I have something to share that
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: I think like this conversation, I'm happy to share it.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: But other than that, i'd rather be I'd rather be
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: working with my team solving these problems. Right. And now
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: that you know i'm executive chairman, we have CEOs in
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: different roles, you know they're they're doing that so I
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: can sit here and talk. But the reality of it is,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: we have to give each other more grace and we
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: have to build more businesses. Right, that's our only way
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: out of this, Right, we have to build more businesses,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: and we have to treat those things that allow us
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: to build those businesses with that mindset. Right. So I'll
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: say this, Those sponsor dollars that come in go into
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: the investments to put on the free experiences that you get,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: and they'll allow us to pay for the talent that
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: we won't be able to pay for just by ticket sets.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: I got you right. There's nowhere else on this planet
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: that you can go and get what Essence Vest gives you.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: And that's why I believe people are so protective of it, right,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: And so I appreciate that, and I understand that, and
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: we will continue to do the work to make it
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: continuously better. But I will say this, what we put
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: on lives on the world stage. Right. It's not nobody's bigger, right.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: It's just that a lot of what we do is free, right,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: But nobody's bigger. So our revenues don't match everybody else's
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: revenues because they charge it. The other thing is when
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: you go when you go to Cochella, you go to
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: any one of these other places, you're just there for
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: the act that's on the stage. When you come the
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: Essence Community, you're there for community. Right. So I think
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: we did a great job with community. We didn't do
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: a great job with the production, right, But I think
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: that just the community of the talent that was there,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: and we need to communicate more frequently, earlier and more frequently,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: who's here, who's not here, what's happening? Right? So those
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: are those are things that those are things that are
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: fixing when we're here to we're here to do the work.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 4: All criticisms are valid and Essence is just going to
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 4: try to do better next year.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: There we go. That's it.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 5: That's it.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 6: We appreciate you, I said, God bless you have a
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 6: lot of patience, like.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 5: You don't have to you said, luxury of being hurt. No,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 5: I don't.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: I don't have that luxury.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you for joining us this morning.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 4: Caroline Wing is the president and CEO. I called it
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 4: our editor in chief.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, of Essence Ventures, which is, uh, the the Essence
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: business you all right.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: Well it's rich Dennis, it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning,
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 2: thanks for joining us.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: Wake that answer up in the morning. The Breakfast Club