Latest / The Scene Projects / Zenith City Radio: Community, Collaboration, and the Future of Independent Broadcasting
Transcript
- 0:00Hey down here.
- 0:01It's beautiful.
- 0:02Welcome into a very exciting episode of The Scene.
- 0:04I'm your host Bubba Starts.
- 0:06I am joined by three, lovely individuals who have driven a long ways to connect with us out
- 0:12here the road.
- 0:13Of course we are at the beautiful Dunmyers On The Lakes here in Brainerd, Minnesota.
- 0:19Fantastic venue, for the last two days of less than that, even thirty six hours of making
- 0:27music out here and enjoying being right on the lake and being in this culture.
- 0:32Hence the choice of footwear.
- 0:34But I want to give you all, because we've just met and I haven't done my research on any of
- 0:41you yet, that's kind of how I like to roll here.
- 0:43I love meeting new people and, this is the best way to do it.
- 0:47So go ahead and introduce yourself going down the line and give us the give us the little
- 0:53short a short five one one on who you are so we can move forward from there.
- 0:59and foremost, thank you ever so kindly for having us and taking out some time of your day.
- 1:04Solomon Witherspoon from Duluth, Minnesota.
- 1:07I am the president of Zenith City Radio currently.
- 1:11Quick background, 02/2001, I tried for the Chicago bears.
- 1:1502/2002, I tried for the falcons.
- 1:1602/2003, I tried it for the Cowboys.
- 1:19I was with Prince's crew for about ten years.
- 1:23You know, my two albums, have the new power generation instrumentation in my two albums.
- 1:28Me and Victor go back probably over a decade and we've been making music and making hits and
- 1:33making songs and just bringing everybody together collectively.
- 1:37Period.
- 1:37Know?
- 1:37Everyone needs a helping hand and that's what we do.
- 1:41We unite and we engage and we're solutions.
- 1:43You know what I'm saying?
- 1:44So thanks for having us brother.
- 1:46Yeah.
- 1:46This is beautiful and awesome.
- 1:48Vic, he mentioned you already so go ahead and we'll just let you kind of do the same thing
- 1:53here and we'll keep building on the bigger story with our individual stories.
- 1:57Yeah, I'm from Las Vegas.
- 1:59I moved to the area when I was roughly 11, 12 ish, moved up here.
- 2:05My family had some family up here.
- 2:08And I've been doing music literally for, gosh, twenty five plus years.
- 2:12I've had several commercial recording studios, produced well over 20 artists, and probably
- 2:19over 300 different types of songs, all types of genres, mostly hip hop, though.
- 2:25And we're doing Xena City Radio right now.
- 2:28We've had this for about three years.
- 2:30It's really taken off.
- 2:31We have the biggest big show with Solomon Weatherspoon that's on iHeart, all platforms.
- 2:36Just it's it's been wonderful.
- 2:38Just just interviewing people from all types of backgrounds, and it's been amazing.
- 2:43And the radio station's up, way up with the listeners just from the two years, like
- 2:49doubling, tripling.
- 2:50And we're all over on every platform.
- 2:52We have a huge listener base in Europe country, and it's just grown from there.
- 2:58We just continue to to connect with people such as yourself and to bring a whole community of
- 3:03content creators, entrepreneurs, musicians together.
- 3:05We're doing a business gala June 29 in in Duluth.
- 3:09It's gonna be wonderful.
- 3:10We're going have a lot of city people there.
- 3:12We're inviting everybody.
- 3:13It's a free event.
- 3:14We're going have an after party, red carpet, keynotes keynote speakers.
- 3:17We just added that.
- 3:18So it's going to be amazing at the Clyde.
- 3:20So, yep.
- 3:21And it's taking that digital platform and all of that attention that you've garnered and then
- 3:28being able to use that in the real world now to bring people together to do And we saved the
- 3:35best for last.
- 3:37Why don't you go ahead and tell us, you know, obviously you're the boss of this opportunity.
- 3:42We all know that sitting here, but why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself.
- 3:48My name is Chantelle Turner, but I excuse me, Taylor.
- 3:51Chantel Taylor.
- 3:54But I also go by missus Martinez.
- 3:57And I'm the creative director at the New City Radio.
- 4:00And maybe there are some public strains.
- 4:05I have my figures in just about everything we do.
- 4:09That's fantastic.
- 4:10And obviously Zena City Radio is the platform.
- 4:14So why don't we start with that.
- 4:15What is the difference between what you're doing and maybe what's available out there on
- 4:24the market already?
- 4:25What makes you different with Xenus City Radio?
- 4:29Being the CEO of Zenith City Radio, I really wanted to connect with people on a bigger
- 4:35scale.
- 4:36I wanted to have a platform that we can promote others' music.
- 4:40And I think the interactions that I've had, I've talked to artists throughout the country
- 4:46that have reached out and to have that, again, that connection.
- 4:49Like, there's a lot of platforms where you submit your music and it gets spin here and
- 4:54there.
- 4:54But the and the extra work that we put in to really help promote artists and business, I
- 4:59think makes us stand apart from others.
- 5:02But you also have the events aspect where we're doing concerts, we're raising money for
- 5:06charities, we're out here putting on these galas.
- 5:09We wanna take it on the road.
- 5:11We're actually Saint Louis is one of the places we wanna hit up.
- 5:13I have a lot of connections down there.
- 5:15And it's been requested in Las Vegas, Atlanta, and then probably in Minneapolis.
- 5:20But it's just a beautiful thing to see so many people from different backgrounds come together
- 5:25and really put on a platform that is unique and can showcase so much.
- 5:29And and a lot of the people that come to me have said, you know, we've never done anything
- 5:33like this.
- 5:33We've never been to a gallery.
- 5:34We've never been to you know, I've never been on the radio.
- 5:36We've never had a podcast.
- 5:37You know, you're giving us this opportunity that no one else is literally doing.
- 5:41So
- 5:41yeah.
- 5:42Because we try to do everything affordably.
- 5:44Yeah.
- 5:44And we try to keep it on on on budgets.
- 5:46You know, we we wanna have it so everybody can get in on what we're doing.
- 5:51At the end of the day, it's about promotion.
- 5:53It's about investing in our community.
- 5:56And I think it's been wonderful.
- 5:58The outpouring of support restarted has been amazing.
- 6:03We I took a break because my mother had gotten sick in 2023 when we had launched everything,
- 6:09and she had passed last year.
- 6:11And we just did an interview with the Duluth Tribune, and I said, you know, you know, I tell
- 6:15everybody, like, my mother would've wanted me to continue this.
- 6:18She would've want me to keep doing what I love doing and keep making her proud.
- 6:23I feel that that's why this is this is also different.
- 6:25This feels different because I have my mother's spirit and her and her vibe and her everything
- 6:31behind what I'm doing.
- 6:32So it just it feels it feels like I'm on another level because I feel like my mother's
- 6:36like, just keep doing your passion.
- 6:38Keep living your dream and keep moving forward towards your destiny.
- 6:43That's what she always said?
- 6:45Yep.
- 6:45She always said that.
- 6:47How lovely.
- 6:48How lovely that you're operating with that mentality.
- 6:53Right?
- 6:54Because a lot of people I realize now that don't carry that.
- 6:57We don't carry the spirit of our ancestors.
- 7:00And you see a lot of I think that's why you have such a broken family structures around our
- 7:05whole planet right now.
- 7:06Right?
- 7:07Especially in this country.
- 7:09But the family is so far from the center of most people's universes.
- 7:13It starts at home.
- 7:17It starts in a church for a lot of people.
- 7:19That you become bigger than yourself.
- 7:22And that's kind of what you're building.
- 7:23It's no different than what we're building with the SCENE projects.
- 7:26It is communities.
- 7:27And then we're all getting together and bringing our communities to each other through
- 7:30these galas and these galas, in these conferences.
- 7:34And we talk about content creator conferences or just get together, right?
- 7:40And everybody who are stars of their own show are all willing to turn that camera around and
- 7:46go, No, but look at the people I'm with.
- 7:48Look at the stars that I hang out with.
- 7:51And we've really caught fire with that.
- 7:53My partner El Pablo one time with me on this tour behind the camera a lot but just as much
- 8:00the star of the show as well.
- 8:03And realizing that it's all one big movie.
- 8:08We keep saying this is a movie and it's like yeah it's the movie that never ends.
- 8:12It just goes for over.
- 8:14We are our own reality shows and people are really into this, And now it becomes a lot more
- 8:19interesting because you're bringing these other worlds together.
- 8:21And when everybody kind of has a central location and then a format for how you
- 8:28communicate and how you scratch each other's backs.
- 8:30Right?
- 8:31You know what I mean?
- 8:31Making sure you're getting on and you're hitting that follow button.
- 8:34Not just hitting the follow button, but Facebook will let you invite a thousand friends
- 8:37to your friends pages.
- 8:38If you're not being that friend that goes through there, and it's one of the things I do
- 8:42when I meet anyone, is like, man, if I like your stuff, cool.
- 8:44If I'm gonna hit that and hit that.
- 8:46Because now it's a habit.
- 8:47Right?
- 8:47I've just been doing it for so long that it's just a habit.
- 8:50And yeah, a thousand people don't go and like your page right away.
- 8:53But now it's in their notification box and then pops up later.
- 8:56And you get these residual attention that is powerful and it takes five seconds.
- 9:02Right?
- 9:03That's right.
- 9:03I think if we all start to tap into each other's world a little bit more, which is
- 9:08exactly why we're all driving across the damn country to do it.
- 9:12Because we have a shared vision, right?
- 9:15We've all been kind of given this mission together to go, hey this is how you're going to
- 9:20cripple that behemoth of attention, right?
- 9:23The ABCs, the NBCs, like network television and then cable.
- 9:26And it's just been dwindling, right?
- 9:28The attention pie in the 60s was divided three ways, right?
- 9:33You had the three stations and that was it.
- 9:35And now it is so fragmented into a million pieces that what we're finding now is only by
- 9:43teaming up with other creators.
- 9:44Correct.
- 9:45And building your own networks of people hosts and shows.
- 9:49You have to have so much content.
- 9:52You have to be your own cable network, 20 fourseven content is what the people crave.
- 9:57It's like when we were talking off camera, release a long form video every single day plus
- 10:02our shorts and everything to keep up with that.
- 10:05And we need that times 24.
- 10:07Correct.
- 10:07You know what I mean?
- 10:08To even stretch the surface of what cable does.
- 10:12It's awesome to reach other people that realize we're not going to get there without helping
- 10:18one another.
- 10:19And it's going to take a lot of work.
- 10:21But the rewards of it when you're helping other people, you're helping creators to go and make
- 10:26a $40,000 $50,000 a year living just playing music or creating whatever they're doing.
- 10:32Hosting podcasts.
- 10:33How rewarding that's going to be in two or three more years right when we're reviewing
- 10:39tape and going hey!
- 10:41When it was a baby right?
- 10:43And that's why we won't tape.
- 10:44And I kind of said regardless of what the quality is we don't worry about being the most
- 10:49professional thing right now.
- 10:51We're just trying to archive what the hell we're doing.
- 10:53There you go.
- 10:54That's what it's really about.
- 10:57Chantel, talk about the actual nuts and bolts of getting the creative actually out into the
- 11:07world.
- 11:07Now are you guys an internet radio station?
- 11:10We are.
- 11:10As well?
- 11:11So you have music that's going 20 fourseven?
- 11:13Yep.
- 11:13Right?
- 11:14Alright.
- 11:14That's huge.
- 11:15So do you do the programming then?
- 11:17I help with some.
- 11:19He does a lot of it.
- 11:20This guy I met him over a decade ago.
- 11:25He was known as DJ Vegas Vice.
- 11:29So he's the music man.
- 11:31He he finds the most fire remixes and DJs
- 11:38I've ever came to that.
- 11:40For real.
- 11:41His his ear for music is so insane.
- 11:44I love it so much.
- 11:46Mhmm.
- 11:46And there's there's there's a lot more to it.
- 11:50So the creative side is driven by our internal soul's desire for the interconnected,
- 12:00interdependent way of living with other people.
- 12:04And for Victor and I, we shine when we help others shine.
- 12:09My background is in human services.
- 12:12I have a degree in human services, so I I feel like I always have to be doing something to
- 12:20help the world.
- 12:21I'm an advocate of all sorts of different kinds.
- 12:25And using this platform to help others shine is why we do it.
- 12:33It's it's we're not trying to make a make a bunch of money.
- 12:36We just wanna survive.
- 12:37Right.
- 12:37Maybe enough to thrive.
- 12:40Right.
- 12:40You
- 12:40know?
- 12:41And we use everything around us to help inspire.
- 12:48And take you for example.
- 12:51This guy is gonna do all sorts of stuff to put together a package of promotional material for
- 13:01you that he's gonna put out there for you.
- 13:04And maybe I'll have my hands in that.
- 13:09No one ever gets to know.
- 13:12No one ever gets to know.
- 13:13We drive we pull our inspiration from the people that we work with.
- 13:19Right.
- 13:19And trying to get to know them and their mission and their story to help really show
- 13:26that and help it shine.
- 13:28Yeah.
- 13:30Yeah.
- 13:30And you know another thing really quick about the whole thing with the radio station.
- 13:33So we're commercial radio station.
- 13:37And I try to teach artists about protecting themselves, Registering with the royalty
- 13:44collections, making sure you're reading everything if you ever sign anything.
- 13:48That's a big part of what we do.
- 13:50And our station does pay royalties out through our host.
- 13:53So we're licensed in every country.
- 13:55In every royalty collection agency, we are registered with them.
- 13:59So we emphasize that, you know, we do have a way to be able to pay the artists that we play
- 14:06and support.
- 14:08Right.
- 14:08So that's really important too.
- 14:10Now is for for artists, how are they getting involved?
- 14:14Are they paying to be part of some kind of community with you that kind of gets them into
- 14:18the ecosystem?
- 14:19Or are they just submitting tracks to you and you have to kind of sort through all of that?
- 14:24Or what's the method?
- 14:26Yeah.
- 14:26We usually run promo.
- 14:28run And I actually linked up with a pretty big producer in St.
- 14:34Louis and she actually was one of the people that of went over with me.
- 14:38She's like, you know, this is what I what I think.
- 14:40This is my suggestion being in she's been in the music industry for over thirty five years.
- 14:44And she's like, this is what I suggest.
- 14:46And so I was like, yeah.
- 14:47I forgot to do, you know, we'll we'll do that.
- 14:49You know, we wanna be self sustainable, obviously.
- 14:51You know, we have some cost to run a station, but we try to keep our overhead profitable and
- 14:59affordable for what we're doing.
- 15:01But at the same time, we want it so everybody can get in on it.
- 15:04You know, if you wanna get your stuff played, we can put this promo together.
- 15:07And I also do extra, some extra stuff for artists.
- 15:10It's not just like, hey, we're just gonna do this and play your music for three months and
- 15:14that's it.
- 15:14I'm gonna keep working with those artists and developing friendship and a bond and a
- 15:21partnership to help them grow.
- 15:23Because a lot of them come in and they're like, I just do music and it's a business.
- 15:26Right.
- 15:26And you have to know
- 15:27Well, and it starts it keeps sounding more and more like artist management.
- 15:30Right?
- 15:31Or artist, you know, instruction or consulting or you know what I mean?
- 15:36Whatever title you kind of want to put onto it.
- 15:39Maybe it's not full hands on management.
- 15:41But it's definitely hey, this is we know how to do it.
- 15:44We didn't get this far because we don't know what we're doing.
- 15:47I don't have a degree that says I have a PhD in this to teach you, but I have a straight PhD.
- 15:54And this is how I do it.
- 15:58And this is what it looks like to really succeed and be at the level just that we're at.
- 16:03Maybe you can get further than I can.
- 16:06And I don't mind giving you the skills that gets that.
- 16:09Because now we're attached to you.
- 16:11If you make it, now we all make it.
- 16:12Right?
- 16:13That's what it is.
- 16:13And when you're connected to as many people as you can be, right?
- 16:17I'm sure all of us have Facebook friends in the thousands, You're talking about a 20,000 reach
- 16:22between just Facebook friends, right?
- 16:25That's not even followers on top of those things.
- 16:27So it's kind of realizing, even for myself, lot of are watching.
- 16:32Even if they're not hitting the like button and I don't see the vanity metrics a lot, I don't
- 16:36look at them anyway.
- 16:38But when I look at the views and I've been at a steady you know on the personal facebook like a
- 16:42160,000 views a month.
- 16:43I was like, that's a shitload of people.
- 16:46Right?
- 16:46Like damn.
- 16:47Yes sir.
- 16:47Because I'm not seeing 160,000 likes over the course of a, you know, because I'm not, I'm
- 16:53just not watching it.
- 16:53But to look back at it and go, okay consider we're touching a million people this year,
- 16:59right?
- 16:59A million eyeballs, we're seeing our I'm going to be a lot more careful about what I'm putting
- 17:04out there, alright?
- 17:05If you're all watching, then you're going see a lot more of what I'm doing and the people that
- 17:09I'm supporting, and not so much the memes that are coming through.
- 17:13You know what I mean?
- 17:14I've just been a lot more careful about that.
- 17:17Solomon, what is the future of Zenith?
- 17:21Where does it go from here?
- 17:22It kind of seems like, mean, obviously, you're the man, right?
- 17:26You walk in the room and people know that.
- 17:29It's very obvious that you are the one who's kind of driving the growth of this.
- 17:33Where do you take this out to be the salesman and what does that look like for you kind of on
- 17:38a day to day?
- 17:38of
- 17:38all, great question.
- 17:42Guess the overall vision, I want revisit a few things we spoke about.
- 17:47We're far more than just artist management.
- 17:52Next event we have local businesses coming together just so they can all get acquainted,
- 17:57meet each other,
- 17:59share their stories and get to know.
- 18:00It's almost like a chamber of commerce mixer, right?
- 18:02But for hood people.
- 18:05A chamber of commerce.
- 18:06We are members of them too.
- 18:08They will be there.
- 18:09Yeah.
- 18:10Will be there.
- 18:11And it's also there's going be vendors there.
- 18:14So it's not just a business mixer.
- 18:17Right.
- 18:18Well, we can do so much more because we're so much more creative than a stuffy business
- 18:21people that are like, oh, we can do this and this.
- 18:23We're like, no.
- 18:24We know.
- 18:25We're entertainment We're
- 18:27going to have
- 18:27a DJ.
- 18:28We're going to have a dance floor, we're gonna have vendors, we're gonna have food.
- 18:32It's gonna be family friendly.
- 18:33And just pigeonholing into the artist management because it's already so much more
- 18:37than that.
- 18:38It's just you have so many branches, right?
- 18:41So what if if the core is Zenith?
- 18:45You know, what what is it to you?
- 18:47At the very core, what is the main trunk of that tree?
- 18:49We are an all encompassing one stop.
- 18:52Literally not a shot, but a one stop vision that can unite this whole world.
- 18:56We can unite every single community, every continent, every township, and every city and
- 19:00every state.
- 19:01So I want to revisit you asking me a question.
- 19:03Didn't get a chance to
- 19:03answer that.
- 19:04Yes.
- 19:04You asked me what is the overall vision and where do I see this take out for the future?
- 19:09Honestly, just like we're doing now.
- 19:11We have a vision.
- 19:12Our vision will say we are gonna connect with as many people as possible.
- 19:15It doesn't matter how long we have fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, an hour.
- 19:19We're gonna say what we're gonna do and we're gonna show up and show out unequivocally.
- 19:23We have no excuses.
- 19:24My tattoo in my arm says once a task is once begun never leave it until it's done.
- 19:29Be it labor great or small do it well not at all.
- 19:32So we signed up for this.
- 19:34This is a task.
- 19:35We didn't sign up for nothing easy.
- 19:36We are uniters and we will so to answer your question, where do I see Zenith City Radio?
- 19:41I see this all across the world having having having lunch and dinner and everybody is
- 19:46welcome at our table.
- 19:47Right.
- 19:47On every single platform, regardless of who you are or where you come from, you come talk to
- 19:53us.
- 19:54We will have the church effect.
- 19:55What I call the church effect, you walk into church, and you all of a sudden, you feel this
- 19:59message from whoever the rabbi is, the pastor, the preacher, whoever that person is, and it's
- 20:04kinda like, oh, my good lord.
- 20:06I wasn't even gonna come to church today, but you walk out with that feeling.
- 20:10The word is incandescent, bright, shiny, bubbly.
- 20:13It's kinda like, oh my gosh.
- 20:15The church effect.
- 20:16So you leave and you gotta come back.
- 20:17Just like now, same exact thing.
- 20:19That's where I'm not foresee Zenith City Radio but where I know we're gonna be.
- 20:24Because the Lord doesn't put us where we want to be.
- 20:26He puts us where need to
- 20:27be.
- 20:28Yep,
- 20:29Yep, see I knew you were the man.
- 20:32That's good TV.
- 20:34And these were the conversations I was having long before I ever had a camera and a podcast.
- 20:39Right?
- 20:40And that's, it's only been amplified by having Zoom.
- 20:43I live in the middle of nowhere.
- 20:44I live in a 1,000 person farm town, you know ninety minutes from Sioux City and Sioux Falls.
- 20:50Right?
- 20:51I am out in the sticks.
- 20:53And without the internet none of this happens.
- 20:55But I've been able to not get caught up in a lot of BS and to learn how to use some of these
- 21:02tools to network into the places I want to.
- 21:04I use Facebook groups a lot.
- 21:06Right?
- 21:06Because a lot of them are regional based, lot of them are around a certain theme.
- 21:13Right?
- 21:13So I've been able to network through there and that's what's introduced me to a lot of these
- 21:17people and then having a podcast now, which is just a vessel for me to say, Hey, I'd love to
- 21:22talk to you.
- 21:23Amen.
- 21:23You know, I'd love to have a conversation with you.
- 21:25I have an award winning podcast now.
- 21:27Right?
- 21:27And being able to say,
- 21:28thank you.
- 21:29And I wanna see what you have.
- 21:30Yeah.
- 21:30Well I wanna see it.
- 21:31I I
- 21:32feel it right here.
- 21:32Yeah.
- 21:33Well, because this is what I like to do.
- 21:35Right?
- 21:35That's why I wanna hear your story, and I want to be inspired by that.
- 21:38Cool.
- 21:38Now I got new friends.
- 21:39Right?
- 21:39Now I got a family.
- 21:41I got a new table to sit at.
- 21:42And we kind of come in as having the same vision as you do and saying cool, we're going
- 21:47go out and gather all the people that like what we do and all these artists that we work with,
- 21:51and we're going to bring them the same thing.
- 21:52Right?
- 21:53And then it just becomes, that's like the festival.
- 21:55Right?
- 21:56Because when all the communities come together at a 100,000 seat venue, and that's how you
- 22:02build it.
- 22:02You don't build it by necessarily having to do it all by yourself.
- 22:06You just get out with the people that are moving and shaking and are willing to drive
- 22:10three and a half hours through Minnesota, you know, vacation traffic.
- 22:14You don't think about Sunday vacation traffic.
- 22:17Everybody's going home.
- 22:18You're like, what is going on?
- 22:20I
- 22:23wanna say really thank you for reaching out and thank you for everything you do.
- 22:27You bring an immense amount amount of value to people and doing this.
- 22:30Thank you.
- 22:31You know, I always talk about adaptability.
- 22:33My mentors, they say it's not the strongest or the smartest, but the surviving.
- 22:37It's the ones that adapt the most.
- 22:39You're adapting.
- 22:39You're a musician.
- 22:40You're also seeing, hey, what?
- 22:42In a year and a half, we weren't even doing anything.
- 22:43Nope.
- 22:44You have a podcast.
- 22:46But you adapted.
- 22:47Yeah.
- 22:47You're connecting people.
- 22:48And you're not just connecting people, you're connecting people with your music, with your
- 22:51brand, and everybody.
- 22:52It comes full circle.
- 22:53So I want to commend you for what you're doing so thank you so much for having us.
- 22:57Thank you, thank you.
- 22:58Yeah, well and I've heard it in the business world now as I'm starting to step more in.
- 23:02You're either a brand house or you're a house of brand.
- 23:06Correct.
- 23:06And it was shown to me, they're like, you're a house of brands.
- 23:09You have all of it.
- 23:10You know, the Scene Projects is just one network.
- 23:12I have the Scene Projects Sports Network, Patriot Broadcasting Network, right?
- 23:16I was like, Oh, if every podcast is its own network, then you need to have as many of these
- 23:21things going on as you can, and everything wants to be niche.
- 23:24Cool.
- 23:25I'm amazed.
- 23:25Here's all the things.
- 23:26Laid the foundation for all, and now it's kind of like, Okay, let's figure out how to grow
- 23:30this one.
- 23:30Let's water this seed and see where it goes.
- 23:33It's already gotten me a ton of free stuff and access to places I never would have.
- 23:37I work at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, which is a 12,000 seat arena that
- 23:41otherwise I would have no access to.
- 23:43I would be a band that's like,
- 23:45man I'd like to play that one
- 23:46a day.
- 23:46You know?
- 23:47I would still be that guy on the outside looking in.
- 23:49And now I get emails from their marketing director.
- 23:53Right?
- 23:53Like it's just a different level that it went to really really fast.
- 23:57So I had to like become businessman.
- 24:00It's not that I wasn't with my band, but it's a lot different now as the conversations that
- 24:05you're having.
- 24:05The numbers that you're talking about all of a sudden have gotten a lot bigger.
- 24:08Where I was like, I wasn't really expecting this, right?
- 24:11But we know that we are the future of broadcasting.
- 24:15We know we're doing the right things and we're going to keep rolling.
- 24:19I had a TV news station that was afraid to meet with me because they're like, Well, we're not
- 24:23really sure we want to work with the competition.
- 24:25And I was like, I mean, flattering.
- 24:28Right?
- 24:28That's flattering.
- 24:29You're a broadcast TV network albeit a small one.
- 24:32But when he kind of mentioned offhandedly what they were doing for viewership I was like, Oh
- 24:37that's not anything.
- 24:38Yeah.
- 24:39I was like, Oh.
- 24:40Like 15,000 viewers?
- 24:42That's not a lot.
- 24:44Okay.
- 24:45And I'm not at that but I'm not as far away as I thought I was.
- 24:49I thought your numbers were maybe not 10 times that but five or six times, right?
- 24:54It's like, okay, we're touching a lot more lives and these people want to work with us for
- 24:58a reason.
- 24:58So, getting concert tickets given to you now to do giveaways and to talk about their brands and
- 25:04different things.
- 25:05Yeah, it's not the cash rich yet, but in value to my life, right?
- 25:11Cubs tickets when I was in Chicago and on a golf course because I'm like, Hey, I have an
- 25:16award winning podcast.
- 25:17Right.
- 25:19Well, and that's why we've moved into doing a song contest to have an award of our own.
- 25:24But then growing Well, you guys are good.
- 25:26There should be zine at the ward.
- 25:27You know what I mean?
- 25:28Oh, yeah.
- 25:28Yeah.
- 25:28Which I'm sure of coming.
- 25:29I don't have
- 25:30to like put anything out there.
- 25:31But they have value.
- 25:33Right?
- 25:33And it's not because you're going out there and
- 25:35you're saying, We're the best.
- 25:36You're No.
- 25:36We have a big enough platform now that we can bring and build them on.
- 25:40Correct.
- 25:40And that's what I've realized with my show and it's like, Oh this is what it's about.
- 25:44And then being able to put on people that are out there doing it.
- 25:47Yes.
- 25:47To let you inspire and say, Hey, I might not be in Duluth all the time, right?
- 25:51I might not be spending all my time in Minnesota, but these people are.
- 25:54Right?
- 25:55Know these people are you're going be connected to that and you're connected with them, you're
- 25:58connected with us.
- 25:59We're all related We're all in this together and that's the takeaway that I want everyone on
- 26:06the show today listening to take away from this is to, we are in this together.
- 26:13If you're a creative, you shouldn't be looking at other creatives as competition.
- 26:17I know.
- 26:18This is a collaboration.
- 26:19We all need each other.
- 26:21If we all rely on each other for our content, we're going to go twice as fast.
- 26:26You don't need to look outside of your own network, however small or large it may be, to
- 26:32start finding conversations to have.
- 26:34Right?
- 26:34You all hear me say it continuously.
- 26:38If you don't have a podcast, you should be starting one.
- 26:40Get Zoom or get on FaceTime and record it with another phone.
- 26:45I don't care what you're doing.
- 26:46It doesn't matter.
- 26:47Start having conversations because those conversations are what changing the world.
- 26:52It's what's changing all of us internally.
- 26:55Right?
- 26:55I say it's kind of how God is speaking through us is by letting us have these conversations.
- 27:00And working through that.
- 27:01So parting shots before I let you guys get out of here.
- 27:05Solomon, any words of wisdom for our creatives out there and then of course how they can find
- 27:10you and get involved with Zenith?
- 27:12Yeah.
- 27:12Absolutely.
- 27:12We are on, again, all platforms.
- 27:15Reach out to us.
- 27:16You know what I mean?
- 27:18Together we can literally there's not a mountain too high that we can't climb.
- 27:21So connectability, partnerships, and and again, you know, if if there's no pain in growth, then
- 27:28you're doing something wrong.
- 27:29And we are in this 100 together.
- 27:31Zenithcityradio.com, Facebook, Solomon Brothers, Chanel Martinez, you know.
- 27:38So reach out to us and trust me we're very very easy to find and really quick hey God bless you
- 27:43seriously well worth the three hour drive to come down here.
- 27:46I would drove 15 to come talk to you.
- 27:49I appreciate that.
- 27:50And your passion
- 27:52and your enthusiasm and your heart and how you speak.
- 27:56May the good Lord continue to bless you every single day.
- 27:58He will.
- 27:59Thank you.
- 27:59I appreciate that.
- 28:00Sullivan, thank you so much for being part of the scene.
- 28:03You guys are your own scene Victor and the lovely Chantel.
- 28:06Thank you guys so much for being on the show.
- 28:08And y'all just keep tuning in.
- 28:10Make sure you're checking out Xenith City Radio.
- 28:12Make sure you're tapping into the scene projects.
- 28:14I have a really good feeling that we're gonna see a lot more co partnerships coming out of
- 28:19this considering this is the twenty minutes that we've spent ever meeting each other.
- 28:24All just keep tapping in.
- 28:25It's just going to keep getting better.
- 28:27So, I love you guys.
- 28:28Make sure you like, subscribe, do all that good stuff.
- 28:31And share this show out there with the whole world.
- 28:34Thanks guys.
- 28:36You.
- 28:36Thank you.