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Earn Your Leisure Lecture at Wharton ft Andre Iguodala & Evan Turner The Secrets to Success · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Africa is one of the few, it's a continent broken up,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: but it's really, we look at it as a country,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: us as African Americans. Like I think of Africa, I
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: don't think of it as countries. I think of it
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: as a bunch of states, but it should be a country.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about group economics. Imagine if Africa
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: had one currency. But just understanding that, you know, the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: complexities of Africa, even Nigeria, 270 million people, the oil
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: comes from there. You know, I had a great understanding
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of Nigeria when I went. 2019, the oil that comes
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: from Africa, but they have no refineries. They export their
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: oil and then they buy back gas because they don't
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: have refineries. They can build the infrastructure with their wealth.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: That let me know everything I needed to know in
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: terms of, oh, I know exactly what's going on.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, there we go.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Yep, yep.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes. You guys chose the music?
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  Speaker 4: So first and foremost, we want to thank warden for
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  Speaker 4: having us this is uh something that we definitely don't
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  Speaker 4: take lightly you know it's been a tremendous journey for
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: us and this is another milestone that we get to
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  Speaker 4: you know check off the bucket list so this is
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: going to be fun and to do with these guys
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: we've been talking for the last hour so this is
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: going to be a definitely fun conversation for sure um
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: but before we want to start just wanted to say
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  Speaker 4: thank you really appreciate it all right um so let's
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: let's get into it you guys want to say anything
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: before we start.
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  Speaker 3: I mean i'm just in the presence of greatness so Yes. No, no.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Thank you all.
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  Speaker 2: That's all.
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  Speaker 1: Just thank you all for allowing us to be here.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: We want to have a great conversation. Hopefully you take
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: something from this. But most importantly, I know we say
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: this a lot and it sounds cliche. Let's all connect.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Let's find a way for us to build.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: You know, I have a lot going on and there
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  Speaker 1: will always be recorded.
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  Speaker 5: I'm not sure if you noticed.
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  Speaker 3: There are some job openings.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm trying to say. Without saying, I'm going
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: to fire people.
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: Clapping up for job openings. It's like Oprah. You got
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: a job. Shout out to the cadets. They got a job.
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  Speaker 5: For sure.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of cadets in here. I didn't know
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  Speaker 2: where I was at. Getting ready for war. Hopefully not.
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  Speaker 5: Perhaps not.
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  Speaker 6: Maybe.
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  Speaker 2: So let's get into it.
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  Speaker 4: I know we're going to, you know, ask each other questions,
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: but I want to ask you guys a question. How
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: did this partnership come together? You guys obviously, you know,
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: played in the league and that's a brotherhood. But now
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: you have a different brotherhood in business and in, you know,
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  Speaker 4: new age media communication.
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  Speaker 2: So how did this partnership come together with you guys?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, he's he's a great storyteller in terms
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of like how we actually met. And so I'll do
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  Speaker 1: Tarantino style and I'll go later and then he'll go
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: back in time. But essentially, you know, with the media part,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we we have such similar, you know, viewpoints
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  Speaker 1: of the world and the things we see. But I
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: think we speak to it differently. I mean, I think
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  Speaker 1: it's it's communicated to the masses differently.
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  Speaker 3: I have.
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  Speaker 1: The folks that I can speak to and then he
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: has the folks that he can speak to and we
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: feel like we can cover a lot of ground. But
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: what we were seeing is just only your own IP
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: and understanding the power behind it. Growing up, I think
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  Speaker 1: all we had was Bob Johnson and BET. And there's
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  Speaker 1: been a lot of conversation behind that in terms of
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  Speaker 1: You know, Jay-Z's doing it now. You know, we're building
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  Speaker 1: up our own properties. You know, we're talking about Rihanna
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  Speaker 1: and Fenty outside. We're talking about a lot of NBA
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: athletes with underwear lines. We're talking about the Skims deal
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  Speaker 1: with the NBA. And I've had a lot of conversation.
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  Speaker 1: We can talk about this later in terms of what
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: do we do with those properties once we build them
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  Speaker 1: up because there's a lot of– the feedback can be
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: negative sometimes if we sell it. But then I also heard, well,
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  Speaker 1: isn't that the purpose to IPO? And I think you've
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: done an incredible job of enlightening your listeners, which is
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  Speaker 1: our community in terms of participating in public companies. And so, yes,
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  Speaker 1: we should go out and reap the fruits of our
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: labor in terms of what we're building. But when we
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: do go public, like our people can participate and that's
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  Speaker 1: how you sell it. You know, and so there's not
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  Speaker 1: that negative connotation from behind it coming from that. And
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  Speaker 1: so with us, too, we have conversations like this all
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  Speaker 1: the time. And that's why we chose to go out.
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  Speaker 1: And as you know, I have a deal with ESPN
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  Speaker 1: and ETS had deals that he's done in the media space.
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  Speaker 1: And so we can use those platforms to leverage, to
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  Speaker 1: raise our profile. But then we have our own property
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  Speaker 1: that we can go out and we can try to
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  Speaker 1: scale and go deeper into our conversations and to our
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  Speaker 1: listeners and kind of give them some insights on our
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  Speaker 1: minds and how we got to where we are having success,
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  Speaker 1: not just on the court, but off the court.
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  Speaker 6: And just to go further into that, you know, myself
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  Speaker 6: and Jerry, we met like back in 09. So he
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  Speaker 6: was in a league. I was getting ready to go
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  Speaker 6: into my last year of college and join a league.
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  Speaker 6: So when I walked into the gym in Chicago, we
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  Speaker 6: were able to, you know, join, make a friendship. A
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  Speaker 6: year later, I get drafted to the Sixers. I was
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  Speaker 6: his rookie. And, you know, he was, A vet to me.
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  Speaker 6: So we kind of had our ups and downs.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you for being nice.
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  Speaker 5: Very kind.
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  Speaker 6: As a vet rookie. And, you know, our first five
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  Speaker 6: or six months was kind of rocky. But eventually we
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  Speaker 6: realized we were kind of the same individual, the same mindset.
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  Speaker 6: And I think that's where the friendship grew. So once
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  Speaker 6: he left Philly and we went through our career, we
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  Speaker 6: stayed connected and stayed locked. And over time I got
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  Speaker 6: offers for different media outlets and different shows. But I
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  Speaker 6: really just took my time to really try to formulate
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  Speaker 6: it and make it the most organic. And I think
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  Speaker 6: the number one thing is trying to find people who
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  Speaker 6: you relate to and, most importantly, who support you. And
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  Speaker 6: that's how Point 4 started. And, you know, just for myself,
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  Speaker 6: after being in Philly, such a tough media market, one
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  Speaker 6: thing that I really put priority on is getting my
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  Speaker 6: own story out there and telling my own narrative and,
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  Speaker 6: you know, telling the narrative from the athlete that someone
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  Speaker 6: gets mixed up. Some of the best people I ever
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  Speaker 6: met were in the NBA, and some of the smartest
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  Speaker 6: people I ever met were in the NBA. And to
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  Speaker 6: reach that feat, it's no small task. And I think
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  Speaker 6: to tell that story from, you know, a super accomplished
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  Speaker 6: individual like Dre or, you know, seeing things like myself really,
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  Speaker 6: you know, open up the market and spread the narrative
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  Speaker 6: for what athletes can be. And, you know, three years
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  Speaker 6: ago when we started, it was a small conversation to
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  Speaker 6: the point now we're meeting with billionaires and some of
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  Speaker 6: the top people and, you know, breaking award and talking to,
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  Speaker 6: you know, the future minds. So, it's been a cool
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  Speaker 6: thing and it's been fun.
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  Speaker 5: That's pretty dope.
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  Speaker 7: I've always wanted this because where you land in the
• 7:23
  Speaker 7: league is important. Obviously you got to start in Philly,
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  Speaker 7: but branding is something that has shifted a little bit, right?
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  Speaker 7: When you came in the league out of Arizona, you
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  Speaker 7: out of Ohio state, there wasn't a focus on making
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  Speaker 7: the individual, the person like the star, right? Like we
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  Speaker 7: had a few stars and brands got behind it, but
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  Speaker 7: everybody didn't have their own individual situation.
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  Speaker 5: So, I wonder where did that shift for you guys, right?
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  Speaker 7: Was it the move to go to state where now
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  Speaker 7: you're in an area, Silicon Valley in particular, where the
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  Speaker 7: conversation outside of basketball is happening and you're privy to
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  Speaker 7: it and now starting to take that information and applying it?
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  Speaker 7: And did that relationship with him continue? Right now you're
• 8:01
  Speaker 7: learning things, but you're not on the same team. Hey,
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  Speaker 7: let me put you up on some game.
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  Speaker 5: No, for sure.
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  Speaker 1: It's interesting now, they think they're too young. putting their
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  Speaker 1: brands together. I think you need to show your excellence
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  Speaker 1: on the court first. And that's where you really establish yourself.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's the inverse effect has happened where you
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  Speaker 1: got a kid with a brand. And I'm like, well, wait,
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  Speaker 1: why do you have a brand? Oh, you play basketball.
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  Speaker 1: As opposed to he's one of the best at what
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  Speaker 1: he does. And I think as technology's gotten better, And
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  Speaker 1: with making sports more valuable is you can get closer
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  Speaker 1: to the athlete than ever. And that actual individual athlete
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  Speaker 1: is B2C where I can actually touch my fans. Like
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  Speaker 1: I can get close to them like they can see me.
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  Speaker 1: And before it was only your superstars. We call them
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  Speaker 1: your signature guys who had their own shoes. Well, now
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  Speaker 1: we were just talking about a guy in the back
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  Speaker 1: who was at the all white party, but he's making
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  Speaker 1: his presence felt and people identify him. although he may
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  Speaker 1: not be a household name. And so even if you're
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  Speaker 1: the ninth man on the team, you still can have
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  Speaker 1: a brand. But you can make yourself the best ninth
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  Speaker 1: man in the NBA. Like, make your presence on the
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  Speaker 1: court first. And I think that's where it's changed as
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  Speaker 1: time has gone on. And I was fortunate enough to
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: have the same agent as Kobe Bryant, so I was
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: able to see how Kobe was moving And so that's
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  Speaker 1: what led me to understand, like, all right, I got
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  Speaker 1: to do it on the court first, do it on
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: the court first. But now these kids are getting smarter.
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  Speaker 1: It's just they have to make sure they take care of,
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  Speaker 1: you know, what they have going on on the court.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: And going to debate was amazing. But my business partner, Rudy,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: who's in here right now, we were talking about Silicon
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Valley years before I got there.
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  Speaker 3: Just didn't know that I would be. there.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: But when the opportunity came, that was a part of
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the strategy. When I got into free agency, the Warriors
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: didn't have cap space. And I actually had a meeting
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: with them. And I'll never forget. I had a meeting
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: with New Orleans. Sacramento offered me an amazing deal. it
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: was damn near double the deal I took. Like it
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: was a lot, but I had to sign it within
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: like five minutes. And he was like, the owner was like, Andre,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: you're the future. You're, you're, you're Kings 2.0.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Incredible. And I still have a great relationship with him
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: because the.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Vision that I took to the Warriors, he actually wanted
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: me to bring that vision to the Kings. He actually
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: saw it. And, and I've never spoken that. And he
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: deserves a lot of credit. He saw that like, listen,
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  Speaker 1: you're the blueprint. for what the NBA player should be
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: in terms of your business. Cause he came from the warriors.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: So he saw it, but he didn't know I had
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: a meeting with the warriors because the warriors had no
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: cap space, but I actually set up a meeting with
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the warriors. They were like the fourth team I met
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: with that day. And it was Mark Jackson. It was
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Joe Lake up and they had two execs in there.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: And they said, Andre, we appreciate you inviting us in,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: you know, just kind of know why you wanted us
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: to come in knowing that we don't have cap space.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: And then I just broke down why I wanted to
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: play for them. Like, Hey, Like, I see it in
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Steph Curry. We just lost to them. Steph wasn't Steph,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: but I see it. And you got this kid I
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: had to guard named Clay Thompson. I never heard of
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: this kid, but this kid can shoot it like none other.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't tell them that I had been following Silicon Valley,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: but I said there's some business things that I'm trying
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: to figure out.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: It was in the back of my mind.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: And they were like, well, we appreciate it, and we
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: appreciate how you feel about our organization, but there's nothing
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: we can do. But my agent and their GM, who
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: was there, Bob Myers, they used to work together at
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: the same agency. Dwight Howard was stalling one weekend. I
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: was going to sign with the Dallas Mavericks on like
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: a Friday. And Mark Cuban is called and said, would
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Dwight Howard push back his decision to Monday? So you
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: got to wait. My agent and the Warriors GM figured
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: out like a trade. situation like Richard Jefferson will go
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: here two other players go here opens up cap space
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: we can get it done and then sometimes it's like
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: you know why do you believe in our power like
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: some things just work out for the reasons they're supposed
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to work out and boom it worked out crazy and
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: then you know the rest is history.
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: No you never know you never know lead with intent
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: so I want to fast forward it a little bit
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: and Dre I know obviously we'll talk about your role
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: with the NBA but NBA PA But I'm interested to
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: know your idea and what the vision is for NBA
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: basketball on the continent of Africa.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, some interesting developments have happened there recently. I
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: know the head of NBA Africa just stepped down. And so,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: you know, Africa is one of those. I have to
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: speak different now with the role I have.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: E.T.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Has Evan has, you know, allowed me the ability to
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: really express myself and he hates it when I'm, I'm PC. Um,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: but I think he's, he's starting to understand, you know,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the power of the voice, you know, um, and that's
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: why I love him next to me cause he can
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: just speak. Um, but Africa historically, not like the last 10,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: 20 years, I'm talking about the history of humanity, um,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: in terms of, They have, what, 70, 80% of the
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: world's resources? And then how it's been taken advantage of,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: the human capital, how that's been taken advantage of. You know,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I was just listening to a speech not too long ago,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: like how old is Nigeria in terms of the actual nation?
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: In the 60s?
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's like 70s now.
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: 70s, right.
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  Speaker 2: Still a relatively young country, yeah.
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: Very, very, very young. Niger boy.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 5: The Naja boys are here.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: Chop off rice for lunch.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: And yes, my father is Nigerian, Benin City, adult. And
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Africa is one of the few, it's a continent broken up,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: but it's really, we look at it as a country,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: us as African Americans. Like I think of Africa, I
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: don't think of it as countries. I think of it
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: as a bunch of states, but it should be a country. And,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: you know, we're going to talk about group economics. Imagine
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: if Africa had one currency. But now I can get
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: in trouble if I say that. But just understanding that,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: you know, the complexities of Africa, even Nigeria, 270 million people,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the oil comes from there. You know, I had a
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: great understanding of Nigeria when I went 2019 and the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: oil that comes from Africa.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: But they have no refineries. And so they, they export
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: their oil and then they.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Buy back gas because they don't have refineries, but they
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: can build the infrastructure with their wealth. But that led me,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: that led me know everything I needed to know in
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: terms of, Oh, I know exactly what's going on. And
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: so with NBA Africa, we're seeing a lot of talent
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: come from Africa, you know, Pascal Siakam, Giannis is Nigerian,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Joel and B, you know, we got MVPs now.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: And the interesting thing is.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: They probably, maybe I get mad at me, but there's
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: NBA Africa, there's NBA China, right? But the players, we
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: only participate in the revenue from NBA America. And so there's,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: there's some things that need to be worked on from
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: that perspective. but that's something that's like near and dear
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: to me. So my eyes are constantly on it. I
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: sat on the board of a publicly traded company, um,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: that was based in, uh, Africa. And we had talks
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: in terms of like sponsoring the, uh, NBA Africa team.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: And so my, and then a lot of players are involved. Um,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Lou Aldane, close friend of mine, uh, not close enough,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: but I look up to him in terms of like
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: what he's been able to build a portfolio has been
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: able to build, um, what he's done with, uh, What
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: team did he have?
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: They made the Olympics. Sudan. Sudan.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: I think it's South Sudan.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: Royal Ivy.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: We had Royal Ivy, who was my teammate here. He
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: was the head coach. He's doing some amazing things. Basketball
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: without borders. We have a lot of players that participated
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: in that as kids in the NBA. And so we're seeing,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: you know, we talk about building pipelines, right? We're talking
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: about giving out jobs. and you know, just controlling or
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: not controlling, but raising your talent. And so it's, it's,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: it's on my, it's on my radar. Um, and we've
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: been having a lot of conversations in terms of like,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: how do you own a part of the business that you, you,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: you know, you're, you, you are the reason why the
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: business exists and athletes have never been able to participate in,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: you know, uh, the value increase of NBA teams. You
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: talk about, uh, ghost or phantom shares. I've had some
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: interesting conversations about that.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: Um, I like y'all. Y'all making me reveal a whole lot.
• 17:36
  Speaker 6: But seriously, you guys talk about brands and you talk
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: about Andre or even, you know, a brand I was
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: able to have from the NBA. How did you guys, again,
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: when you start your brand to, you know, now you have,
• 17:46
  Speaker 6: you know, festivals and people following you all over the world.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: 1.4 million subscribers. Yeah.
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: I mean, that's actually crazy. Y'all got it out the basement.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:59
  Speaker 7: I mean, the origin story really is formatted in purpose,
• 18:02
  Speaker 7: to be honest with you.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: His career was as a financial advisor. I was a teacher.
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: We had an opportunity. You know, every summer I took
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: kids from my neighborhood and they were part of this program.
• 18:14
  Speaker 7: We were teaching them about the things that they missed
• 18:16
  Speaker 7: in the 10 months of school.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: So everybody goes to school and they're like, I don't
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: remember anything. I didn't learn anything. You ask your kid,
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: what'd you learn today? Nothing.
• 18:23
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 18:24
  Speaker 7: And so it was like I felt very complicit in that.
• 18:27
  Speaker 7: If kids are going to school, I'm a teacher.
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: They're learning nothing. I'm not doing my job, but I'm
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: getting paid. And so there was an opportunity here.
• 18:33
  Speaker 7: Like we can educate kids about financial literacy, about college,
• 18:37
  Speaker 7: about decisions that they were going to make around money
• 18:39
  Speaker 7: at 14 with the hopes that if they got it
• 18:41
  Speaker 7: at 14, they would be more advanced by 19, 20, 25.
• 18:44
  Speaker 7: And so financial literacy was at the cusp of that.
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: It was like, all right, bet.
• 18:49
  Speaker 7: We're going to pay these kids to be in the program.
• 18:51
  Speaker 7: Let's teach them about money. He had just started his
• 18:53
  Speaker 7: career in advising.
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: I'm like, this is perfect. You can come in.
• 18:56
  Speaker 7: And so we started co-teaching that. Like I learned about
• 18:58
  Speaker 7: finance from him. He learned how to have classroom management
• 19:01
  Speaker 7: for me, create lesson plans.
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: And so we did that.
• 19:04
  Speaker 7: In my mind, the vision was I need to have
• 19:06
  Speaker 7: this program throughout New York first, right? Because parents would
• 19:10
  Speaker 7: see it. They're like, this is incredible. How do I
• 19:12
  Speaker 7: scale this? I'm like, I can't figure it out. I
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: can't figure it out. He was always into social media.
• 19:17
  Speaker 7: He was like, this is how we do it. So
• 19:19
  Speaker 7: he had our COO was up there right now, Abdulai.
• 19:22
  Speaker 7: He said, look, shout out to Ab. He was like, look,
• 19:26
  Speaker 7: I want you to record the classrooms. I was like, oh, okay, whatever.
• 19:29
  Speaker 7: I'm still trying to figure out how to scale this physically.
• 19:32
  Speaker 7: He was like, just keep recording the classroom. He was
• 19:34
  Speaker 7: huge on content, putting it up. That led to him
• 19:37
  Speaker 7: creating his own platform. He wanted to teach people about
• 19:41
  Speaker 7: finance in a different way. Sometimes when we think about finance,
• 19:45
  Speaker 7: it's a foreign language. right and we were coming out
• 19:48
  Speaker 7: like we're a set of stone we were coming like
• 19:50
  Speaker 7: let's break the monotony of this stush feeling when it
• 19:54
  Speaker 7: came to financial education let's talk it in our language
• 19:57
  Speaker 7: and so he was doing that for multiple people had
• 20:00
  Speaker 7: his own public access show um i'll let him tell
• 20:02
  Speaker 7: his story and then people like wait where's the rest
• 20:05
  Speaker 7: of that we need more of that where's the episode
• 20:07
  Speaker 7: and one day he was like look want to do
• 20:09
  Speaker 7: a show Let's do this podcast. We sat in my basement.
• 20:12
  Speaker 7: I'm like, all right, let's do it. And that's how
• 20:16
  Speaker 7: Earn Your Leisure was birthed, really. We came up with
• 20:17
  Speaker 7: the name pretty quickly. He was already using it as
• 20:20
  Speaker 7: a hashtag. And from there, it was consistent. We was like,
• 20:22
  Speaker 7: all right, well, here's the vision. These are the 10
• 20:25
  Speaker 7: things we need to do. Here are 10 people we
• 20:26
  Speaker 7: want to interview. Let's just go attack it. And really,
• 20:29
  Speaker 7: it started with three iPhones and that idea, and it
• 20:32
  Speaker 7: branded into what you see now.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's... I don't want to cut you off.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: I just want you to.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Can you explain to me what you took from the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: public access and like, just explain to me how that
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: works within your story and then how you knew how
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: to maneuver into, you know, subscribers streaming and all that.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: And the difference in the revenue streams and like how
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: much is valued at.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: I never went to business school, but I was always
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: interested in business my whole life. So I was studying
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: like real world case studies. So in 2012, Instagram was
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: like fairly new. And I got introduced to it. And
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: like everybody else, I was on the app all the time.
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: And when I'm first on Instagram, I'm just thinking like,
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: this is a cool app. You get to share photos.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: At the time, it was no videos. At that time,
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: it was just for iPhone users. But I quickly realized
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: something in this situation. So I used to follow this
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: fashion blog. And the fashion blog had like a million
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: followers at that time. And at that time, if you
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: had a million followers, you could reach a million people.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: And what I realized was that what she was doing,
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: the girl that actually was running the fashion blog was
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: that she would post like look books on like, you know,
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: this actress wore this and this singer wore this. But
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: in between the looks, she would do like organic ads.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: So it'd be like a small boutique in Philly that
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: had a blazer. And you didn't really know it was
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: an ad unless she was actually really studying it. So
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: right then I'm like, this is crazy. Cause how I
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: was looking at it was like, okay, how many people
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: subscribe to New York times? Probably a million people in
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: circulation from New York times every single day. And how
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: much money does it cost to run an ad in
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: the New York times?
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: $ 50, 000.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: How much money does it cost to run an ad
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: on NBC, ABC millions of dollars.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: But I'm thinking, I didn't know, but I'm thinking to
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: myself that they're probably paying her $ 500 a thousand dollars.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: but they can reach just as many people as all
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: of these traditional outlets. So then that's when I was like, okay,
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: advertising is going to change. This is the new wave.
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: So I actually had a meeting with him and I
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: was explaining this to him. And I was like, we
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: need to start a fashion blog.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: And we did.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: We started a fashion blog. It was called Fashion Wave.
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: And we actually got it to like 12,000 followers. But
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: that was the original point was like social media is,
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: Is something that's going to take.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Over the world.
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: Most people have no idea. How they're actually using it.
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: They're just using it as consumers. But there's a business
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: behind this. This is before influencer was even a word.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: This is before you had to put ad. You could
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: just organically do it. That didn't work out. But the idea.
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: Was still there. So the next idea was. I was
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: a financial advisor at the time. So I wanted to
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: become a celebrity financial advisor.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: That was my original goal.
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: I wanted to work with athletes, entertainers, because I felt
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: like I played basketball my whole entire life. And I
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: was looking at the people that was representing athletes, and
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: I'm like, I know that they're not from the culture.
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: They're not listening to the music. I know the music.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: I'm listening to it. Why should they get to work
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: with these people? I know I'm more qualified because I
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: can actually sit down and have a conversation.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: But I didn't know anybody. I had no inroads.
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: I had no advanced degree and I didn't really have
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: a way to actually get my way into the door.
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: So the idea was to become a famous celebrity financial
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: advisor because I was looking at the landscape and I'm like, okay,
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: social media has provided a platform for anybody to become
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: a celebrity, celebrity chef, a celebrity trainer. Previously, you can
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: only become a celebrity if you was an athlete or
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: an entertainer, but now you could be a celebrity anything.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: I'm like, well, you maybe be able to be a
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: celebrity financial advisor, right?
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: First of its kind.
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: Anything is possible, right?
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: Anything. Anything is possible, bro.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Just maybe.
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: So that's when all of the content comes into play, right?
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: Where it's record everything. I'm mad we're not recording this,
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: but that's the number one rule in life is to
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: record everything because you never know.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: So we record.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: We are recording.
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: We're recording this, but you got to get.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: You got to get the organic.
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: Cell phone footage algorithm breaker.
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: So now it's like, okay, record the classroom, record selfie videos,
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: record everything to your question about the public access show.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: The number one rule in life is to cultivate relationships.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of number one rules in life, by
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: the way.
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: It's like, Just so y'all know.
• 25:25
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Three more are coming. So you got to cultivate relationships.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: So I was like, okay.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: At that time, I wanted to get in front of
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: all the top real estate developers and entrepreneurs and architects.
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: These are people that have made a lot of money
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: and successful, but nobody knows them. And what I realized
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: is that the number one rule of life is that
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: everybody wants to talk about themselves, right? So I'm like, okay,
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: if I could provide a platform for somebody to talk
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: about themselves, then now that's actually a way for me
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: to build a relationship. So I get offered a public
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: access show. I never looked at it as a public
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: access show. I looked at it as a TV show.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: And that's how I pitched it. I would go to
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: somebody and be like, you know, I have a TV show.
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: Nobody's going to turn down being on a TV show,
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: especially if they've never been on TV.
• 26:16
  Speaker 7: So.
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: what that actually did was help me to sharpen my
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: communication skills and learn how to actually interview people.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: So all of this is happening at the same time.
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: We have a relationship from growing up together and working
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: in the classroom as he just described. And my social
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: media following is building at the time. So when we
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: start earning your leisure to show, um, now we have
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: a lot of things working for us, right? So when
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: we hit this, the ground, It's like an explosion because
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: we was able to actually.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Provide information in a very relatable manner.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: So we're kind of like the ladder to the clouds.
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: I think a lot of times in our community, there
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: have been a small pocket of black intellectuals. But they
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: have not been able to fully communicate or relate to
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: the vast majority of black people on the ground. So
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: now you have a disconnect. The intellectuals feel like they're
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: better than the masses. The masses feel like the intellectuals
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: are bourgeoisies and they just like disregard them, right? So
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: I'm like, well, there's value in both places. We need
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: each other, right? So it's like, okay, we have an
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: interesting background where we're able to communicate to everybody. We
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: can be in Ivy League school or we can be
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: in a penitentiary communicating to people.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: And we have been in both places. communicating with people
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: and educating people. So when we.
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: Were able to provide the education, it was done in
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: a very non-traditional manner when it comes to business. So
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: the way that we dress, we have hoodies and t-shirts.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: The way that we talk, we was using hip hop references,
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: but we're breaking down case studies and we're actually talking
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: about very high level business, right? And everybody wants to
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: make money. So what happens is that it's just perfect timing.
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: It hits social media and then it just, Explodes on
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: social media. My original thesis on social media actually turned
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: out to be right. Like I said, we just had
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: to wait some time and we switched lanes a little bit.
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: But the idea of it came to fruition and then
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: there's opportunities in every crisis. So when the pandemic happened,
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: everything shut down and everybody was scared. And a lot
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: of people, you know, unfortunately lost their jobs and some
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: people passed away as well. But then some people benefited.
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: we were on the side of people that actually benefited
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: because when everybody was home, we had nothing to do.
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: So then they start watching us. And then we develop
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: a show called Market Mondays, where we're actually teaching people
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: about stocks, investing. Then something that happened in our favor
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: was that everybody got a stimulus check. Then something that
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: happened in our favor is that the stock market started
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: to skyrocket. So now people are making money in real
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: time from our information. And then it becomes like a
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: cult following. Now everybody's passing it along and they're telling
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: their friend, they're telling their cousins and before you know it,
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: we're at like a million people that's watching us, right?
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: So this is all part of the Earn Your Leisure story,
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: how we was able to grow organically. But it's a
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: mix of, I think, having a unique product, mixing it
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: with the right time and maximizing the moment. We're in
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: a moment right now where traditionally media, if we were
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: to try to start a show 15, 20 years ago,
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: we would have to go to Bloomberg, CNBC, ABC, and
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: we would have to compromise who we are. We would
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: have to like shave our face and we would have
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: to talk in a language that we didn't fully even
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: feel comfortable talking in. We would have to wear a suit.
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: We would have to be under the umbrella of them.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: We couldn't own our own show. It'd be impossible. But
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: now the cell phone has empowered the creatives and independents.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: And now we're able to break through without having to
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: go through the actual gatekeepers or the larger institutions. But
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: what has propelled us to even a higher level is
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: there's a middle ground that can be reached where now
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: independence is at an all time high and we have
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: the leverage to But there's only so far you can
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: go as an independent from just exposure resources. There's still
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: some level of benefit from corporate. But now we can
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: work with corporate from a relationship standpoint, as opposed to
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: them owning everything standpoint, because we have leverage. So now
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: we've been able to leverage with a lot of different
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: corporate relationships, which have helped us expand our reach globally
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: and expanded our reach globally. accelerated the growth in a
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: much quicker manner. So this is an interesting time for
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: creatives because now you can grow your following, whatever you're doing,
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: use that leverage to work with corporate, but maintain ownership,
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: maintain independence and have real leverage and real partnership as
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: opposed to being an employee. And that's something that has
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: accelerated our growth as well. So that's a very long-winded
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: answer to your question, but I think that it might
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: be beneficial for anybody that's interested in new age business
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: and media.
• 31:26
  Speaker 6: It's crazy.
• 31:27
  Speaker 7: Cause as he's talking and I was listening to you, Dre,
• 31:29
  Speaker 7: when you were talking about Nigeria, when we talk about
• 31:32
  Speaker 7: how we creatively are reaching people, it made me think
• 31:35
  Speaker 7: about the first time, like what you were speaking about
• 31:37
  Speaker 7: was illegal Dengote, right? He has an opportunity to change
• 31:40
  Speaker 7: the export import ratio from Nigeria. And so I'm thinking like,
• 31:44
  Speaker 7: how do I teach kids about that? How do I
• 31:46
  Speaker 7: walk in the classroom and tell them like they should
• 31:48
  Speaker 7: know this person. And so our way was hip hop, right?
• 31:51
  Speaker 7: The first lesson was, I took Jay-Z's line. I said,
• 31:54
  Speaker 7: all Blacks got is sports and entertainment until we even.
• 31:57
  Speaker 7: And I showed them six people from the world of
• 31:59
  Speaker 7: sports and entertainment. They knew every one of them. Jay-Z, Beyonce,
• 32:02
  Speaker 7: Floyd Mayweather, Dr.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: Dre, and Oprah.
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: They knew them all, right? And Jordan. And then I
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: gave them another.
• 32:08
  Speaker 7: Sheet with the six wealthiest people, Black people on the planet,
• 32:12
  Speaker 7: and they knew none. I said, damn, Jay kind of
• 32:16
  Speaker 7: prophesied this, right? He really showed us, like, all we
• 32:19
  Speaker 7: had until we even because we've never recognized anything outside
• 32:23
  Speaker 7: that world until I get to teach them about the
• 32:25
  Speaker 7: wealthiest guy on the planet who was a legal Dan Goldie.
• 32:29
  Speaker 7: And now this is the crossroads. And so now that
• 32:31
  Speaker 7: group of kids never gets to say they don't know
• 32:33
  Speaker 7: who that guy is.
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: And guess what?
• 32:35
  Speaker 7: He didn't do it because he dribbled. He didn't do
• 32:37
  Speaker 7: it because he could throw a football or he can
• 32:39
  Speaker 7: spit a rum. He did it from natural resources. He
• 32:42
  Speaker 7: did it from oil. He did it from cement. These
• 32:45
  Speaker 7: are all different things. So now that kid or those
• 32:48
  Speaker 7: kids that are now hearing it know that there's value
• 32:50
  Speaker 7: in other things Than the traditional things that have been
• 32:54
  Speaker 7: fed to us through TV, right? We have to be entertaining.
• 32:57
  Speaker 7: There's no value in the guy who's.
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: Going to be the doctor in the neighborhood.
• 33:02
  Speaker 7: There's no value to the person who's going to be
• 33:03
  Speaker 7: the teacher or who's going to be the chemist or
• 33:06
  Speaker 7: who's going to be the next person to venture capital.
• 33:08
  Speaker 7: Those people weren't celebrated until this moment in time. And
• 33:11
  Speaker 7: so that was kind of the thing was like, all right,
• 33:12
  Speaker 7: this is how we now can creatively reach people, use
• 33:15
  Speaker 7: social media, use hip hop, merge it all together and
• 33:18
  Speaker 7: deliver it to the people.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: How long did that breakthrough take?
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: Because when you sit there, we talked about just recently,
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: you know, to be more than an athlete was a
• 33:27
  Speaker 6: thing that just popped up like five or six years ago.
• 33:29
  Speaker 6: And then a lot of times when you're coming down
• 33:31
  Speaker 6: and talking about sports and entertainment and what young individuals
• 33:34
  Speaker 6: typically want to be, they necessarily don't want to hear
• 33:37
  Speaker 6: all the rah-rah like educational stuff. And, um, How did
• 33:40
  Speaker 6: you guys keep your confidence up? We always have a saying, don't,
• 33:43
  Speaker 6: you know, diss the caterpillar and then jot the butterfly. So, like,
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: it couldn't have been that easy going in and, you know,
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: continuing to build step by step. So how did you
• 33:51
  Speaker 6: guys keep that momentum up and the faith? Did you
• 33:54
  Speaker 6: ever get discouraged?
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: Well, I think that when losing is not an option,
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: then you really have no choice but to win. So
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: it's a few ways how you look at the time frame.
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: You can look at it from when we started social media.
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: That's a relatively short period in the grand scheme of
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: things of success. Like we kind of it just kind
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: of went up. But then you look at it from
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: like your whole entire life takes you to the moment
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: that you're at.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: And that's a very long journey.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: So it's like he was a teacher and he was
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: preparing for that moment without knowing it. I was a
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: financial advisor and I was preparing for that moment without
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: knowing it.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: So I feel that you have to fully believe in
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: what you're doing. You can't really even think about it
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: not working. It's only a matter of how do I
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: get it to work. So for me, my personal journey,
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: I never really had a job before ever. So I
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: went to school and then I became a financial advisor.
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: It's a commission-based situation. So anybody can get hired. I
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: wasn't working on Wall Street. I was working for an
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: insurance company. It's not too difficult to get hired in
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: that situation, just being honest. Um, but it's also extremely
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: difficult to be successful in it. That's why it's not
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: difficult to get hired. Like 90, 90% of people is
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: not going.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: To be successful.
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: That's 22.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: But you know, it was.
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: Extremely, it's extremely difficult type of job, especially at 24
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: years old to try to convince people that they, you know,
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: need life insurance and IRAs and stuff like that. But
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: my alternative, like I said, I didn't have an advanced degree.
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: I went to a state school. My alternative was to
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: actually get a job and, that wasn't going to happen.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: So I really had no choice but to make it happen.
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: So I think, you know, and when you, when you
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: use that type of framework, then you really don't think
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: about like tough times or like, because at the end
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: of the day, what is a tough time? We really
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: never really had anything anyway. So that's something that we
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: already used to. Like, I mean, if you think about it,
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: like it can't really get too much worse. You only
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: really have a, you really have.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Nothing to lose when you have nothing to lose, right?
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: Like when you become a millionaire, now you start to
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: think like, damn, I can really screw this up and
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: I'm back to zero.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: But I mean, if you have $ 5, 000 in your bank account,
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: what's the worst that can happen?
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: You're closer to zero.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: And that's the reality.
• 36:15
  Speaker 7: Like we grow up, we're so close to zero. So
• 36:18
  Speaker 7: what is the risk, right? But I thought he was
• 36:20
  Speaker 7: going to answer this a whole different way. Because the
• 36:23
  Speaker 7: thing about it, I've known him since he was probably
• 36:25
  Speaker 7: 11 years old. He's known me vice versa. There was
• 36:27
  Speaker 7: never a time where our confidence ever wavered in ourselves.
• 36:30
  Speaker 7: What we were going to do is we would figure
• 36:32
  Speaker 7: that out, but we were always confident in what we
• 36:34
  Speaker 7: were going to be. Like I knew he was going
• 36:36
  Speaker 7: to be successful, probably vice versa.
• 36:39
  Speaker 5: And our community knew that too, because we were rooted
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: in the community.
• 36:42
  Speaker 7: But what happened over time was that we realized representation
• 36:47
  Speaker 7: and showing up as your authentic self was the key, right?
• 36:50
  Speaker 7: So most people, when I worked, They were like, well,
• 36:53
  Speaker 7: you're the gym teacher.
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: I'm like, yeah, I'm the.
• 36:55
  Speaker 7: Physical educator, but there's other things I do, too. But
• 36:58
  Speaker 7: people will only judge you from where they see you at.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 37:00
  Speaker 7: So like even now, if I go back to the school,
• 37:02
  Speaker 7: they always ask me if I'm coming back. I'm like, well,
• 37:07
  Speaker 7: about that.
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 37:08
  Speaker 7: But they only they only could see me as that.
• 37:11
  Speaker 7: But there was so much more to it. So when
• 37:14
  Speaker 7: we started to grow as a company, it was like,
• 37:17
  Speaker 7: all right, don't change who you are.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 37:20
  Speaker 7: When I was standing in front of kids in the Bronx,
• 37:23
  Speaker 7: I had the freshest Jordans on.
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 37:25
  Speaker 5: I had G-Shock watches.
• 37:26
  Speaker 7: I had a BMW because I knew one day a
• 37:29
  Speaker 7: kid was going to look at Mr. Miller's and say,
• 37:32
  Speaker 7: I want to be him. Like a lot of kids
• 37:34
  Speaker 7: are going to grow up saying they want to be you.
• 37:35
  Speaker 7: But I was like, I want kids to grow up
• 37:37
  Speaker 7: and say they could be me because the chances that
• 37:39
  Speaker 7: they could be me is 100 percent chance.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 37:42
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: Like making it to the NBA is one in a million.
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 37:46
  Speaker 7: But being somebody that is productive in their community, somebody
• 37:48
  Speaker 7: that's giving back, somebody that's educating their community, they could
• 37:51
  Speaker 7: do that. So if I could show them I could
• 37:53
  Speaker 7: have the nice car that you guys have, I could
• 37:55
  Speaker 7: have some of the watches and some of the kicks,
• 37:57
  Speaker 7: and that's where it stops.
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: I'm making it very clear. That's where it stops. You
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: might get luckier. You've never been in Dubai. I've never
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: been in Dubai. So that's the thing. Now they see,
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: that's my teacher. He was my teacher. I know him.
• 38:16
  Speaker 7: He's in Dubai. He just sat with Steve Harvey. He's
• 38:18
  Speaker 7: here with Andre Iguodala. Right now, he's speaking at Warren. Yo,
• 38:22
  Speaker 7: he used to teach me how to catch a football.
• 38:25
  Speaker 7: Anything is possible, but the representation was there. So when
• 38:28
  Speaker 7: you see us show up in a hoodie and we
• 38:30
  Speaker 7: have on fresh kicks and we do travel and we
• 38:33
  Speaker 7: like to wear nice clothes, that's all part of the
• 38:35
  Speaker 7: presentation because that's authentically who we were prior to all
• 38:39
  Speaker 7: of this. All we get to do now is show
• 38:41
  Speaker 7: up as we are and people are receptive to it
• 38:43
  Speaker 7: because it's like.
• 38:44
  Speaker 5: Wait, these guys is real. They're the real deal. This
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: is real.
• 38:47
  Speaker 7: This is really who they are every day. And that's
• 38:49
  Speaker 7: the easiest part. We get to show up as ourselves
• 38:52
  Speaker 7: every single day.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Now, I got a question to that for all three
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: of you, because this is, you know, I have battles
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: with this sometimes where I had a teammate. His name
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: was Andrew Bogut, and he and I have gotten really close.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: And I learned this from my mother.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: You know, I did. I wrote a book, The Sixth Man.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: And go buy it if you haven't read it.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: On Amazon right now.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: I never planned on saying that, to be honest. But
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: my mother taught me at a young age. I had
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: a story in there where my mother had two voices.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: And I said this to her one time. She looked
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: at me crazy. I was like, Mom, when you have
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: on makeup, you're nice. And when you don't have your makeup,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: I think I'm going to get a whooping at any time.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: Given moment.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: My mom was six foot tall, so I was scared
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: of her until I was like 15, like frightened. And
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: she had two voices, though. You know, she had the
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: voice at home, and then we went out to work.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: She had the other voice. And I think as African Americans,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: we all have that. You got to switch it up.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: And so the code switching, thank you. And so Andrew Bogut,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: he said to me, he's like, Andrew, why do you
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: talk different to your black teammates than you talk different
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: when you're talking to white people? And I couldn't quite
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: explain it to him, but I was trying to explain
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: to him. My mother, when we went to go, she
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: was on the phone. I remember the phone conversation, talking
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: to this guy about a house rental. We used to
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: rent this small two-bedroom apartment. I went in there maybe
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: 10 years ago, and I'm in there like this. And
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: I'm like, my brother and I, how do we live
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: in this space together? You know, he's the same height
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: as me. And the guys approved the rental. Like, yes,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: it's available to you. She took my brother and myself
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: with her to see this, to get the house. And
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: so we pulled up, knock on the door. He answers
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: the door. He's like, can I help you? She was like, yes,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: I'm the lady you spoke to on the phone. But
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: her voice, he couldn't tell what it was. The house
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: is not available. So from that moment... Like I understood
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: like how.
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: The world works. Like, whoa. And I'm like nine, nine
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: years old. Like who understands that at nine years old?
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: And like, it's just like what you're saying is like,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: how low can you go when you, I mean, what
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: can you lose when you don't have anything to lose?
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: And so that leads me to now I still have
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: to maneuver how I speak. I have to be PC,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: more PC in some places. You know, I can turn
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: it down to other places. Even when we speak, you know,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: he's always saying, I want to see that spring for
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: the new, but for three of you, You know, this
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: is my question. You know, the higher you keep moving up,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: you're going to open doors that, you know, you've never
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: been in before or doors we've never been in before.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: Like I'm thinking, you know, we're seeing entertainers into these
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: billionaire realms and they have to maneuver different. You know,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: we're in this room and we don't have the black
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: Elon Musk, whatever you want to call it, or the Zuckerberg.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Like when are we going to have our own tech
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: companies that are, you know, trillion dollar market caps?
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: But we're inching closer. And so as you move up,
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: you say you want to stay yourself.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Like we always want to stay ourselves, but are you
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: thinking about how you plan on maneuvering once you get
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: into certain places?
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: And like, what's your thoughts on it?
• 42:00
  Speaker 6: I think the only thing I can change is like,
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: I probably curse less in certain places, but that's just
• 42:06
  Speaker 6: the truth. But like anything else, cause you know, sometimes
• 42:09
  Speaker 6: you might walk into rooms and you might be like, man,
• 42:11
  Speaker 6: am I, am I sure I'm supposed to be here?
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: And one thing I always say is like, I've been
• 42:15
  Speaker 6: told is look for the signs. And when you talk
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: to other people, Shout out to everybody. You guys are
• 42:21
  Speaker 6: very talented, accomplished people.
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: And so am I.
• 42:24
  Speaker 6: And when you talk to other people, you see the
• 42:26
  Speaker 6: confidence that individuals have and sit in front of you
• 42:29
  Speaker 6: having all the things they can do.
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: And it's like, OK, you guys are.
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: Able to do that.
• 42:33
  Speaker 6: You're able to do what you said. What I was
• 42:36
  Speaker 6: able to do was one in a million. And, you know,
• 42:38
  Speaker 6: you'd be a teacher and be a lot of different things.
• 42:39
  Speaker 6: And so I try to find, you know, the one little,
• 42:43
  Speaker 6: you know. spec that I can take to really build
• 42:45
  Speaker 6: from so when I sit there and I see you
• 42:47
  Speaker 6: know great people speak with confidence I'm like well I
• 42:50
  Speaker 6: came from a situation of you know poverty where you
• 42:53
  Speaker 6: know single parent wasn't supposed to make it out wasn't
• 42:57
  Speaker 6: supposed to be in this situation I was able to
• 42:58
  Speaker 6: do it with you know a tenth of a chance
• 43:00
  Speaker 6: so every time I look there I'm like all right
• 43:03
  Speaker 6: if these people can do it I can leave here
• 43:04
  Speaker 6: and do it because I've done some amazing stuff that
• 43:07
  Speaker 6: most people can't even fathom we talk about a lot
• 43:11
  Speaker 6: of situations even just for career like mistakes it's like
• 43:14
  Speaker 6: you're worried about how people judge you. But a lot
• 43:16
  Speaker 6: of people stopped their mission a long, long time ago
• 43:19
  Speaker 6: and just went to the sideline and started pointing like, yo,
• 43:21
  Speaker 6: that ain't him. And it's like, no, I'm your superior.
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: I'm him.
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: Worry about yourself.
• 43:26
  Speaker 6: You know what I mean? And then from there, I
• 43:28
  Speaker 6: move on and just keep going. But, you know, I
• 43:31
  Speaker 6: got to keep it. Dre does a great job of
• 43:33
  Speaker 6: smoothing it out. But my mission, my delivery can be
• 43:36
  Speaker 6: a little bit more aggressive. But I definitely earned earn
• 43:39
  Speaker 6: the right to know I'm in that room and gain
• 43:41
  Speaker 6: confidence for comprehending that if you can do great things,
• 43:44
  Speaker 6: I can do great things. And I take it from there. Yeah,
• 43:47
  Speaker 6: I think you're spot on with the confidence.
• 43:49
  Speaker 7: And Dre, that story you told about your mother, it
• 43:52
  Speaker 7: hit me dead in the heart because I remember calling
• 43:56
  Speaker 7: my dad at work.
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: My parents are from Jamaica.
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: Strong.
• 43:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, shout out.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: Bumper clutch.
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: Now that we said that... Now, that's out the way.
• 44:09
  Speaker 5: So I would call him.
• 44:11
  Speaker 7: And, you know, he has a heavy patois dialect. But
• 44:15
  Speaker 7: that's changed over the years. When I would call him,
• 44:17
  Speaker 7: he worked in Manhattan at corporate.
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: And I told the story.
• 44:19
  Speaker 7: I really never know what he did. But I would
• 44:21
  Speaker 7: call him and he would answer it. And my brothers
• 44:23
  Speaker 7: used to laugh. I'll do it for y'all.
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: He'd be like, hello.
• 44:25
  Speaker 7: I'd be like, yeah, it's me. And, you know, he
• 44:33
  Speaker 7: would talk to me in his regular voice. And when
• 44:34
  Speaker 7: I would call my mom, she couldn't. She never did it.
• 44:37
  Speaker 7: But it used to irk me then, but it irks
• 44:39
  Speaker 7: me even more so now. It's like somebody close the house,
• 44:41
  Speaker 7: he'll do that. And it's because I'm fighting for him
• 44:45
  Speaker 7: to never have to do it, right? And so when
• 44:48
  Speaker 7: we show up in these rooms, I show up exactly
• 44:51
  Speaker 7: who I am right now, right? The guy who used
• 44:54
  Speaker 7: to stand in front of the classroom who couldn't curse, right,
• 44:58
  Speaker 7: is the same guy that's going to sit on CNBC
• 45:00
  Speaker 7: or Good Morning America or Bloomberg, same guy that goes
• 45:03
  Speaker 7: to the breakfast club with Joe Budden.
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: I'm able to change the conversation.
• 45:07
  Speaker 7: The conversations change, the information changes, but the person never changes.
• 45:12
  Speaker 7: And so we're comfortable in the barbershop or we're comfortable
• 45:15
  Speaker 7: right here in the business school because we trust and
• 45:17
  Speaker 7: we're confident in what we know.
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: And that's the most important thing.
• 45:21
  Speaker 7: I think a lot of times people feel intimidated because
• 45:25
  Speaker 7: they don't know what they're talking about, right? And so
• 45:27
  Speaker 7: that's our thing is like, I'm a constant learner. So
• 45:29
  Speaker 7: every day, like I told you, I just read the
• 45:31
  Speaker 7: Wall Street Journal before I got here. Let's have a conversation, right?
• 45:36
  Speaker 7: I'm going to be part of the conversation because I
• 45:38
  Speaker 7: make it my point to. I don't ever want to
• 45:40
  Speaker 7: walk into a room where I'm going to feel like
• 45:43
  Speaker 7: I don't feel confident. We sat down in some prestigious
• 45:46
  Speaker 7: rooms over the past month, and it was like, I
• 45:49
  Speaker 7: feel like, yeah, we've earned every aspect of respect and
• 45:55
  Speaker 7: determination and dedication to be in these rooms. So it
• 45:58
  Speaker 7: starts with the confidence, but it also goes into that
• 46:00
  Speaker 7: part of having education and feeling like, you know what,
• 46:03
  Speaker 7: I belong.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: I want to answer this.
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: I'll try to speed it up, but two parts. So
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: I never really had to worry about codes. I grew
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: up radical, and I never had a job. So I
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: never really had to worry about code switching.
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: He really told me.
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: Because you only code switch when you're not in a
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: position of power. Elon Musk can curse on TV, and
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: it's okay. That's a fact.
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: They got finger snaps on that joint. That was crazy.
• 46:31
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 46:34
  Speaker 5: All the Renaissance.
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: But what I did realize when so when I was
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: working as a financial advisor in my office, you know,
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: everybody in my office is pretty much older white man.
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: And in the beginning part of like the training, they
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: will make you watch videos of yourself.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: Like we have like a practice sale.
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: And I never really realized that I actually had a
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: New York accent until I actually watched myself speak. And
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: then then I started to realize it. And I kind
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: of became a little self-conscious of how I spoke because
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: I know that I didn't have the best diction. I
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: know that I had an accent and I didn't sound
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: like anybody else in the office. But I realized that
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: what I thought might have been a disadvantage was actually
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: a superpower. And that's actually helped us is that there's
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: millions of people that actually talk like I talk and
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: relate to how I communicate as opposed to how somebody
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: else communicates. Those people were left out of the conversation
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: for a long period of time. So never run away
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: from who you are. Embrace who you are, because that's
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: actually a superpower. Now, you do have to be intelligent
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: and it is important to have a strong mastery of
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: the language that you speak. So, you know, it's like
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: you don't wear a jumpsuit to a wedding. This is
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: common sense. So how you communicate in a barbershop might
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: not be how you communicate.
• 48:02
  Speaker 5: That's a hell no.
• 48:05
  Speaker 7: You're talking about the Batman suit that Jaden wore.
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: I think it's just a matter of just knowing how
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: to communicate properly, not necessarily code switch. I don't like
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: code switch, and I'll never code switch. But Steve Stout
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: told us something that was extremely important. I think that
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: this has been the key to earning a lease of success.
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: It's the thinnest slice strategy. When you black, you have
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: to deal with a variety of different things that other
• 48:29
  Speaker 4: people don't have to deal with or don't worry about.
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: So for us, we walk a very thin line because
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: most people that are on TV that are communicating finances
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: that are black, they're not relatable to the majority of
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: black people, right?
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: How they talk, how they look, whatever.
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: And then there's a variety of different people in our
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: culture of hip hop that aren't taken serious in the
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: business world, right? So we have to be articulate enough
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: to be respected at the highest levels of finance to
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: be here, right? But we also have to be edgy
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: enough to still be likable, appealable, and relatable to the masses.
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: That's extremely difficult. Very few people have been able to
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: pull that one off. And that's something that we do.
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: This is just a blessing that we've been blessed with.
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: But this is something that when you're thinking about, you know,
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: your pathway forward, it's important because a lot of times
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: when we get isolated in circles that we're in, but
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: we can never forget about the overarching theme of black people.
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: And no matter how good we're doing individually, nobody's successful
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: if the vast majority of people are unsuccessful. And the
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: vast majority of people are struggling. So it's important to
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: keep relatability. It's important to be able to communicate to
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: the masses while still having your integrity and being able
• 50:01
  Speaker 4: to move up the ladder. Like I said, Elon Musk
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: doesn't have to worry about that. Mark Zuckerberg doesn't have
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: to worry about that. They can just communicate and they
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: just live freely. They don't have to worry about street credibility.
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: They don't have to, but we do, right? So this
• 50:17
  Speaker 4: is a very interesting conversation that you just brought up,
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: but I just feel like, you know, in the world
• 50:23
  Speaker 4: of media and communications and just everything, it's important that.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: People have other people to look up to.
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: That's why every kid wants to be a rapper and
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: an entertainer, because those are jobs that they see as attainable.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: Because... the architect, the doctor, they're not visible.
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: They haven't made themselves visible a lot of times, and
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: they're so far unrelatable that nobody's even going to try
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: to be that, right? So if we have to, A,
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: make ourselves more visible, and we have to, A, make
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: ourselves more relatable as well, that way we can inspire
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: more people, more kids to want to be more than
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: just what they see on television.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: Thank you guys so much.
• 51:10
  Speaker 5: Thank you.