Latest / Eating While Broke / DOUG MELVILLE - A Come-Up Served Over Rice (pt. 1)

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DOUG MELVILLE - A Come-Up Served Over Rice (pt. 1) · Eating While Broke

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have very
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: special guests Doug Melville in the building. He's an expert
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: in reputation management, international diversity and career pivoting. He's a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: lecturer at Stanford University, Forbes contributor and best selling author
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of Invisible Generals, interm CEO of Council of Urban Professionals,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: in addition to fellow podcaster at the at the Black
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Effects DM ME with Doug Melville.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: That's right, that's a lot. That's a lot. I got
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: a lot of things going on, but they all fall
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: under the mission to help make the invisible visible, to
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: help uplift and to help people make sure that their
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: next step is their best step. So it's a lot
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: of different ways to do that, and I have my
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: hands in some different things, but it's all about getting
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: the message across the different mediums. And I'm excited to
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: be your fellow podcast partner in crime under the Black
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Effect Network. I'm the newest member of the Black Effect fam.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Yes, can you tell everybody what d M ME with
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Doug Melvillville is about.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, So my podcast d M Me with Doug Melville
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: is really about working with people, bringing in experts and
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: listening to callers and people that download the podcast on
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: self help, easy practical ways and advice to level up
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: their current life through business through culture, but also to
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: make sure their reputations are on point and elevate them
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: inspirational guests who can come in and share their lived experiences.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: So it's a self help podcast with practical, real world advice.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: I love that. I love that now, but it needs it.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Before I get into the tea of everything, Doug, I
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: need to know what you're gonna have us eating today.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: All right. So when we talked and you said, Doug
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: eating while broke, I don't really cook. So the first
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: thing was, oh boy. But then I realized when I
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: was at rock bottom in college junior year and I
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: really wanted to eat and I really only had a
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: couple of shekels, I made a dish that has rocked
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: my life and it is gonna take over TikTok okay. Oh,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: today's dish is chicken McNugget parmagen. No.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Oh wow, it sounds fancy.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Chicken McNugget parmagen. No, So I know what you're thinking,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: I know, chicken McNuggets, maybe with caviar. Some people want
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: to cook twice well done, but not the chicken McNugget
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: a parmisano. That is when you put sauce, cheese, Italian seasoning,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: bake it in the oven, pull it out, and then
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: pour it over a bed of rice. Look at that.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: This is big time right now.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: So not only is it big time, but shout out
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: to executing the goal of being broke. This dish was
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: extremely affordable. Now I know a lot of you guys
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: know McDonald's does cost a lot. We are taping very early,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: so we did go to the store and just get
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: a bag of chicken nuggets, put them in the air Fyer.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: You could walk through all those ingredients for it.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: I would love to walk through these ingredients. First of all,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I want to say, listen, if you really want to
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: eat while broke, the key is you have to download
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the McDonald's app so you can get the discount McNuggets.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Because you get five dollars off to twenty, you get
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: a ten miles cheese.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: I agree. Now we're just turning into a McDonald I'm
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: just saying, if this is sponsors.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Now, Donalds. Listen, your chicken McNugget palm, best secret off
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: menu item going. That's all there is you over here
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: selling with caviar. You need to sell with a little
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: marinarraa dipping sauce and cheese that you sprinkle on and
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: people could make their own chicken nugget parm.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: That was gonna be my next question. Do nuggets matter?
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: I like the McDonald's nugget, but when I went to college,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the nuggets were iffy. Now they're all white meat nuggets.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: People are going to McDonald's laughing and joining each one
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: like it's delectable. But when I went to college, some
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: of the nuggets were the dark meat nuggets, and I
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: personally love dark meat chicken. But we had to buy
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: two twenty packs just to make sure all the nuggets
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  Speaker 2: were premium.
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  Speaker 3: You're hilarious.
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  Speaker 2: So, but now all the nuggets have been fixed, you know,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: supply chain, you know evolution, quality of food went up
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: price too. But we're gonna do it with the chicken McNugget.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: But if you just have regular nuggets from the store,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: the big batch, the costco. Yeah, the one that comes
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: in the two hundred hilarious you know it looks like
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: it's like the size of the dog food. Like I
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: got four hundred nuggets from the Costco. You could use
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: those two. So the key is nuggets is the primary ingredient.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Then you have the parmagen. Okay, get the red giano.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Wait is that supposed to be that's mozzarella, you.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Know whoever's on this shopping list. But what we're gonna
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: do is we're gonna use this mozzarella freshly cut. This
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: is freshly cut. I could mmm, smells like Tuscany.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: And then right here we have rice. Now the best
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: part about this rice, the best part about this rice
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: it is still square as if it was poured out
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: of the Chinese food container that I would order it
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: from in college. So this is very very realistic. We
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: have the discount Italian seasoning. This is ingredient number four,
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: and ingredient number five, the three cheese, discount tomato sauce. Okay,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: so these five ingredients, we need either a sheet pan
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: or a flat dish here as this will be baked
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: and we can go ahead with the preparation. Okay, so
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: we are m oh, I feel just like I'm in
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Italy today. Okay, we're gonna do it without gloves. We're
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: gonna do it without gloves. I know the internet gets wild,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: but we're gonna lay each nugget flat next to each other.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Look at this, Oh my gosh, it smells Italian.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: You and this Italian.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Well, it's parmisano. That's what I'm saying.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Did you like chicken parmesan growing up?
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: I did? I did. I like chicken parmesan. I can't
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: really cook, but when the money is on the line,
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I do love chicken parmesan. And shout out to the
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: prep chef here who put just enough nuggets to line
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: the bottom with one. This prep chef is on the mark.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: So first you line the cooking pan or tray with
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: the chicken nuggets, okay, and they are fresh. Then what
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: you do is you take this mozzarella cheese. Okay, you
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: could just sprinkle it, no exact measurement, you know, put
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: it high. Make it feel good, make it feel like
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: this is your night out on the town. Look at
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: this night on the town. The kitchen can do this.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Throw a little on it.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: It's hard to imagine. You don't cook.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: I do not cook. Actually I put a little more cheese.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Just looks a little light, but the cheese is really
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: the key here, and you're gonna spread this over. You're
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: gonna do the whole thing here. Light perfect, that's gonna
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: melt beautifully. Then we take the Italian seasoning. Now, don't
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: open it with the big mouth side. That's too much
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: season You gotta do it with the one where you
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: and you know, put it high, Flip it high. People
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: like it high. We are in California. People like something
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: else high too. But anyway, we're gonna put that seasoning
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: on and then we have the sauce. Here. Three cheese,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: so if you added it four cheeses, are you checking
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: for this? Yeah, let me tell you something. We're gonna
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: put the spoon in here. We're gonna wiggle it.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: I think you like cooking.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: I don't cook anything at all. We're gonna wiggle it
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: and then we're gonna just they call this a doll up.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: If it was sour cream.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: Are you're putting very little sauce on it?
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't neat too much sauce. You know. I
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: like dipping the sauce, so actually I would heat a
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: little on the side. I'm a dipper, you know, kind
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: of like the Auzu sandwich.
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  Speaker 3: I thought this was gonna have a lot more sauce
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  Speaker 3: than that.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, don't do too much sauce.
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  Speaker 3: This is just mozzarella, cheese and nuggets.
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  Speaker 2: There is a lot of hate coming from this desk.
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  Speaker 2: Is anybody here at the kitchen here here in this hate?
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is crazy, real conflicting energy.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to try this dish. I was thoroughly
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: impressed when I first heard it. I said, oh, this
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  Speaker 1: is about to be stretchy and gooey, crunchy.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Yep, crunchy, stretchy and gooey.
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  Speaker 1: Keep it very Oh he's finally covering it. One spoon
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: at a time.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: You know, when I came here today, they had no.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: Spoon because we just thought you were gonna laugh.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: And I said, no, no, no, no, no, no, you have
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: to have some.
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  Speaker 3: It's looking it's looking good. I mean, one spoon at
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  Speaker 3: a time, y'all, One spoon at a time.
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  Speaker 2: Home wasn't built in a day, and let me tell you,
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: chicken nugget parmesan wasn't either. All right, So now that
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: we got the sauce on here, we could put this back.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Because I do have a little OCD. I like to
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: put a cap on it, if you know what I'm saying.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: And I do a little more seasoning just to touch,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: just to keep the spirit right. Okay, now we are
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  Speaker 2: ready for baking.
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  Speaker 3: That looks great.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I thought you were going to do like sauce, maybe
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: another layer of cheese, hook it up, make it all
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: calorie crazy. But okay, my hopes are with you. Okay,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and then and then so we're gonna pop it in
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  Speaker 1: the oven. All right, cool, we're gonna call cut. We're
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: gonna put it in the oven, and then we're gonna
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: get into Doug's story on how this dish even came about. So, Doug,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: after watching you make that dish, and now I understand
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: in my mind, after watching you why you prefer the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: McDonald's chicken nugget over the regular nugget is when you
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: buy the regular nuggets, they're usually breaded, and when you
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: buy the McDonald's chicken nugget, they're fried, so they have
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: that crispy shell. The reason why I think you didn't
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: put the sauce first. These are my theories, guys, from
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: a cook's mind, because it definitely didn't look logical. Is
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: you put the cheese first because you wanted to reduce
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: how soggy the chicken nuggets got. And then maybe the
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: little sauce was because.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: You got some white in.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: You got some caucasidy in yourself, because I feel like
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: if the black would you know, I don't know, that's terrible.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: I'm really getting stuck up on here. But this is
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: the thing. You want the cheese to mill on the
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: nugget for the crispness, okay, so that's why I put
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: the cheese on a nugget, and then you want the
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: sauce on the top hot for the bubbliness. Okay, So
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: I hear what you're saying. But we did do it
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: in a little bit of a different order from a
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: traditional like farmers on setup. But we put the cheese
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: on the nugget, then the sauce, but double seasoning. So
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: I don't want to hear any more of these Caucasity jokes.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: You only chose one seasoning, respectfully, I'm sorry.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Sorry, Well, it's it's Italian seasoning. What if we broke
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: up the country in the northern Italy, southern Italy, the
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Almalfi coast, this season could be taking in all Sicily.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: I love how you You know, I don't like when
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: people make caucatity jokes to me either, but I just
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: had to go there. You only had one seasoning, yes,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: so you're gonna have live with that. But Doug, tell
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: me what was going on during the making of the
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: chicken nugget? Make chicken nugget Parmesano.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Where was I in my life when, yeah, what was.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: Going on where it got that desperate?
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: I was actually in college. I was at university. I
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: went to Syracuse University. And you know, when you're in
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: college and your parents pay for your college so you
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: don't have to get a job, but in it change
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: you really live on a budget. You know, Like if
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: you don't have to have a job at college because
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: your parents are able to afford it, that's great, but
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: you really are learning to budget, learning to save money.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: And we had a McDonald's near our campus, and I
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: really wasn't good at cooking. But even when you cook
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: at home, it's the same few things. You make a
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: turkey sandwich. You went to some like it was so
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: basic because you do it so many times. So I said,
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: I love this McDonald's twenty nuggets for a five dollars
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: deal that we used to have in our campus. And
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: I said, if I went and I bought two twenty
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: piece nuggets for ten dollars, I could actually turn that
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: into my favorite restaurant meal, which was chicken parm. So
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: I figured how I could get those nuggets. I would
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: go to the store. There would be a sale that
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: you would print out in the newspaper clipping, and then
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: you would look at what's on sale, and there was
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: always a pasta sauce on sale, and there was always
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: some seasoning on sale. So I would just get the
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: pasta sauce to seasoning and whatever cheese was on sale,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: mozzarella or parmesan sometimes, and the rice was from a
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Chinese food restaurant. I would just get the court two
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: dollars or white rice. And I would come home and
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: I would lay out the pan, and I felt like,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: you know, I was really dominating my kitchen. I felt
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: like I was actually cooking something, but it was really
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: just chicken McNugget parm. But then I would set it up,
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: put it in a tray, pull it out. My roommate
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: was like, what is that. People used to come up
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: and be like, what smells so good, Doug? What is
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: going on. And what I used to do is I
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: used to take a fan and I will blow the
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: steam out the window so the whole dorm could smell it.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: I wanted everybody to know Doug is cooking chicken McNugget
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: parm and that people be like. I'd be like hello,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: they'd be like, hello, Doug. I would look in the
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: eyehole because I don't know who it is, could be
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: anybody from the dorm, and I would look through and
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: they'd be like, Doug, are you cooking your famous chicken
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: McNugget parm? And I said, come on, man, that's why
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: I had to get the two twenty piece nuggets because
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: the neighbors are coming over. I can't eat forty nuggets worth.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: But let me tell you what makes it so special.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Because the nuggets are already cut, you don't have to
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: worry about someone taking the big scoop. You know how
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: when you have chicken palm, then so and the whole
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: chicken comes over, and then you didn't really get any
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Then you got to try to cut at the dinner table.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: They gave you a butter knife. You should have ad
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: a state knife. The whole thing's wrong. But with the nugget.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Individual look at that easy. It was crazy.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: I can't wait to eat this.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying, this is what we were cooking.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Made that story sound like a beautiful That was a
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: beautiful story.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so what were you going to school for. I
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: graduated and never made it again.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm sure at that point you were sick of
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: it once.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: I graduated, never made it again. So let me just
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: say this. Actually retired when I got my diploma, but
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: I went to school for marketing.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, what was the first job you had straight
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: out of school where you don't have to eat this?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Well, actually, my first job right out of college, my
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: parents just said, Doug, you have to get a job.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: The couch is closed. So when I was getting ready
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: to graduate from university, my parents were like, we don't
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: care what you do, but the couch is closed. You
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: cannot come back home. So I was like, oh my god,
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: I was under pressure. I'm dressing. I was undecided for
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: three years of my college. So when I decided a
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: major in marketing, because you can't graduate and undecided, I
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: got to notice at the end of my junior year,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: there goes bruh, you cannot graduate in undecided. So I
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: take summer school and then I had to go finish
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: school and marketing was my major. But I had to
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: get a job because my parents weren't going to let
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: me live back home.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Your parents were starting to stick at you strict. They
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: were like, no money, total homelessness.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Good luck, buddy.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my dad's a judge and he's really serious in
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: my mom she's in education, so she's more of the
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: encouraging soft skill expert, if you will. But there was
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: a job in our student hall and under miscellaneous. There
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: used to be a category of miscellaneous jobs and our
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: like job board posting. So one day I go audition
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: for this job. I go for the interview of the job.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: The people are on campus and I call my parents
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: and go, guys out a job. They were like, what,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: you got a job? What's the job? Driving the Oscar
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: Mayer Wiener mobile. That was my first job out of college.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: I drove a twenty seven foot hot Dog to forty
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: eight states. I got to go to every state in
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: the US for one week. The job is fifty two
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: weeks four weeks training. I had to go to hot
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Dog High in Madison, Wisconsin. You have to learn everything
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: about hot dogs. You have to go to the plant,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: you got to go to there, you have to go
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: to the farm, you have to go to everything, and
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: you learn how to drive the wienermobile. So there's six
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Wiener mobiles.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: But did you have to cook in them?
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: No, you don't cook any hot dogs, but you have
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: to know because you're a brand ambassador for Oscar miles.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: So what it was was you go around the country
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: and you sing the hot dog song and the Wiener
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: jingle at different supermarket openings, the Pigley Wigley, you had
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: to sing the Kroger, the Ralphs, and we would audition
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: children for the opportunity to be stars in the Oscar
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Meyer Wiener commercial by singing the Wiener jingle and the
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Bologoney song. So there's eighteen people with this job, six wienermobiles,
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: three people on each wienermobile, and you crisscrossed the country
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: and you auditioned kids throughout the year, and at the
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: end of the year, some young families and children and
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: the whole thing get a fifty thousand dollars scholarship and
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: the opportunity to sing in the commercial.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: This actually doesn't sound like a bad job.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: And did your parents what was your parents'.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Response you make bad decisions?
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Did they even ask?
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: How much? I love how you blew? Because that has
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: just showed.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: How my parents were, like, we paid all this money.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: I went to syrahc House. My dad's like, do you
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: have an obsession with the color orange? Who would drive
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: a hot dog? And then you would put us in
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: these hot dog jumpsuits. They would call them flight suits,
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: and we all had to have a hot dog name.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: So I was hot Dog and my partner was Annie
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Baloney and Lindsay Lunchable.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Us, I love this story. So did your parents at
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: some point say how much were you making? Was the payworthy?
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: It was twenty seven thousand dollars a year. But this
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: is what the thing was, what I took that job
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: for was I knew that experiences would be something I
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: was more attracted to than sitting at a desk. And
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: to be able to go to all forty eight states
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: for one week your first year out of college, I
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: today still don't even know anyone who's been well, actually,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: one person in my Stanford class this year said that
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: they'd been to all fifty states, But I really meet
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: no one that has been to all forty eight states.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say, as a young person, honestly, like
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: that sounds like a.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: Really great job.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: You don't technically have to have a place.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: To live, so they pay for hotel every night. You
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: get a per diem every day, and you would just
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: crisscross the country. And how we got paid was whoever
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: got the most media impressions would get the largest bonus.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: So your job was to call newspapers, websites, television, local
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: broadcasts and try to get people to cover the wienermobile.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: So you'd be like, hey, the wienermobiles rolling in the
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Rancho Cucamungo, come on down to the Rancho Cucamongo Quakes
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: game and audition your child to be in the next
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: Oscar Myro commercial. Will be there Saturday and Sunday during
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: these two games six to nine. Blah blah blah blah blah.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: I love that as a marketing major, that that was
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: your first opportunity because I think there's like a part
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: of the minus says, oh I need the big wig
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: job behind the desk, fancy pay, but there's nothing better
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: than like grassroots marketing.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: As a marketing and I got to see the whole
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: United States, meet people in every state, and because there
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: was six wienermobiles, it was a little competitive against each other.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: So everybody was who would get the most media impressions?
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: That's the whole job.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: Did you get the most?
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I got way the most. Yeah, but yeah, I killed it.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: You know what I did though, I had the LA
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Region and I would go to movie premieres with the
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Wienermobile lethal weapon for if you go online and find
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: a video. They thought I was supposed to be there.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: I rolled up with the Wienermobile and did an interview
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: on extra and that blew everybody out of the water.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: But because no one thinks someone didn't call it. When
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: the Wienermobile drives up, everybody's like did you order this?
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: They're like, Gus, did you get this? Bob's do you jan?
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Everybody's calling everybody as I'm going can I go through?
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: And by the time the Wienermobile had pulled up to
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: the red carpet, I was doing an interview for the show.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: No one knew I wasn't supposed to be there.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: That's brilliant.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: So I would do that at movie premieres one after
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: another until people were just like expecting the wienermobile. But
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: my media impressions blew everybody else out.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: Wow. So how long did you stay with the company?
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: So that job is one year, four weeks of training,
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: forty eight weeks on the road. So when I was
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: done with that, I was trying to get another job
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: and it didn't go so well.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: So did you end of going calling for the couch?
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: Did you call the couch?
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: I thought the couch was at a commission.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: My dad begrudgingly reopened the couch. He had transformed my
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: bedroom into my mom's office or the family. He didn't
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: care what it was transformed into, but it wasn't going
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: to be my bedroom. And I'm on the couch for
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: three months. And I'm on the couch, and I have
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: very limited opportunities. But I had interned between my junior
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: and senior year for Quincy Jones. And my manager was
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: this guy, Mike Posad, who now runs the Council of
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Urban Professionals where I serve as the executive director. But
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: he was the man I interned for when I was
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: in college. And there was another individual, Jay Brown, his
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: brother Kyrie Brown. So I knew these guys for many years.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: And when I got done with the Wienermobile. I called
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: back to one of the guys Kyrie, and I said,
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: you know, is there any way you can help me
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: get a job in music? I said, you know, anything
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: I can do like and he was like, what was
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: your experience? I go, well, I traveled around the country
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: and the Wienermobile, but I had got rejected so many
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: jobs before that. I just said I had traveled around
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: the country as a tour manager. I didn't tell him
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: exactly what it was.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: Oh my goodness.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: So he sets me up with an interview at this
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: law office. Eight am. They go, Doug, go to this
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: law office and you're going to do an interview at
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: this law firm. And I was like, what's the job for.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: He goes, Doug, just go down and talk to this lawyer.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: He works in the music industry. Just go down and
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: do the interview. So when you don't have a job
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: and you live on your parents' couch, my mom's like, Doug,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: did you brush your teeth? And my dad's like, you know,
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: do you know how to tie a tie? And you know,
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: everybody's really into making sure you get this job because
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: we got to get you off this couch. So I
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: go down to the city because I'm an hour away
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: in Connecticut. I get off the train, I walk to
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: the job interview, and I arrive at eight o'clock for
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: the interview. Eight o'clock. I check in, How you doing.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: My name's Doug. I'm here for the job interview. The
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: woman behind a desk he name was Jen. I was like,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: She's like, I asked her name, how you doing? Oh,
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: my name is Jen. Hey, Jen, I'm Doug. I'll just
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: be over here in the seat. She's like, Okay, I
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: love your energy. You're so happy to be here at
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: eight o'clock in the morning. I said, I gotta get
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: off this couch. It didn't matter what was going to happen.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: I was hyped right there. So eight o'clock goes by
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: eight fifteen, eight thirty, eight forty five nine. I'm laughing
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: at Jen, she's laughing at me. Guy's still not here.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Nine to fifteen, nine thirty ninety minutes late, the guy
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: shows up who I'm supposed to interview with, drops his
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: briefcase in the office, goes back to talk to Jen,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: comes back to me, and goes, Doug, let's go down
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: to Starbucks and get a coffee. So I'm there ninety minutes.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: No one's really said anything to me. We get down
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: in the elevator. The Starbucks we were in Times Square
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: was so long. He goes, Doug, you're gonna hold this
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: chair and I'm gonna wait in line. What do you want?
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: The man waits in the whole line, comes all the
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: way back. Now we're in a chair. We are at
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: ten o'clock right now, Okay, the man hasn't said anything
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: to me. We sit down at the desk and he goes, Doug,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: I just want to tell you that you passed the interview.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: And I said what? And he goes. In life, how
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: you judge success and how other people judge success in
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: you are two different things. You are the twenty seventh
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: person we call for this job. You don't know the job,
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: you don't know me. And I showed up ninety minutes
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: late for every single person to see who would complain,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: who would yawn, who would check their phone? Who would
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: ask Jen when I'm coming? And you were the only
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: person that did not yawn, did not ask Jen for me,
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: did not complain, and sat in that seat focused. So
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: for that, you will be the first person I offered.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: The job changed my whole life change.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you right now. I would have failed that
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: test with flying colors. Boy, I would have been like,
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: are you so when is he coming? That's crazy?
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: So what was the job? So I get a one
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: way ticket and I land on the tour Britney Spears
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Hit Me One More Time Frame, and the assistant tour
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: manager he goes, you traveled around the country, you got
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: the green light from the Quest Records, Quincy Jones family,
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: and you're available right now. It's a young tour, it's
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: all teenagers. I airdrop on the Britney Spears Hit Me
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: One More Time tour as an assistant manager, and my
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: job was to oversee the opening act Michael Frido. There
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: was other singers on the tour, and my job was
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: to make sure the opening act and everybody associated with
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: them were tight right, put together. We rehearsed, everybody, ate
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: everybody at a hotel rooms and that was my job
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: on the tour. So the tour manager sets up the
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: production of the tour, and then Britney herself has someone
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: to work with her dancers and all those individuals, and
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: then I would work with the opening acts. So I'm
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: assistant tour manager on the Hit Me One More Time
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: tour and I was twenty one years old. She was
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: seventeen years old. It was her first tour. It was
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: really everybody's first tour, all the dancers. I had to
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: learn everything, all the dance routines, everybody's outfits, how to
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: check people in, catering, the whole thing. And then the
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: next thing you know, I'm traveling around on a tour
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: bus with full catered meals. We're staying at the Four Seasons.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: I and all my friends are like junior junior junior associates,
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: and I'm over here and they're laughing at me driving
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: the Wiomobile last year and now it's like, how about
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: now that's hilarious.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Now going back, I'm just.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Curious you didn't go up to Gen one time to
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: say does he know I'm here?
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: No?
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: What were you doing?
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Because the thing about it was you knew you couldn't
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: go to the cat. That's what I'm saying.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: So you're not your parents. Let me tell you something.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: I got to shout out to your parents because I
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: like like that your dad even took the initiative to
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: shut down your bedroom.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Oh that was already under construction.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Because I think that the level of uncomfortability is what
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: probably even motivated you more to be like, I can't
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: come home.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: You know when you can't come home. And my parents
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: kept saying, Doug, take any job, just do anything, and
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: I was and this is what I they wanted me
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: to call oscar meer back. I was like, I can't
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: do it, and they said, Doug, just take a job.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: And I said, guys, job stands for just overbroke. I
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: have gone to college and I am going to have
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: a career. And why paint colors on your canvas just
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: to have to go back and repaint them. Leave the
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: canvas blank. So I'm going to be right here on
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: this couch and it'll all work out. And I tell you,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: when I landed on that tour, no one could believe it.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: What did your parents say? That obviously wasn't that.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: My mom was like, that's my baby, that's my baby.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: When is she coming to Connecticut, Dougie, we gotta go.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: We rubing New Haven. My mom has signs and stuff
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: I love.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Let me just tell you something. I'm a closet Brittany fan.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: I was never out of the closet with a best
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: believe when them cities dropped, I was as long as.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: No one new Yeah.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: No, Britney, Brittany's cool. But you know, as a black,
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: you ain't trying to you know.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: Well, the thing was, I still make sure I sing
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: to Britney Spears songs and karaoke. Really yeah, well, you
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: know when all the controversy around her came up. You
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: have to make decisions in life because you know, you
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: hear stories or you have lived experiences. And that was
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: such a powerful time. We were all young, seventeen eighteen twenty.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: I was one of the oldest people on the tour.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: You know, you're twenty one, twenty two. It's it's all young.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: No one knew it was going.
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: To be surprised. It was so many young people.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, so many young people. And it was hard to,
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: you know, manage everybody because everybody's travel around the country
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: and free. You know, you're twenty you're a dancer, you
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: work an hour a day or less. You have the
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: whole day, foods catered, you have a driver, expencer going
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: per diem. You know, you're really this is good living,
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: This is good living.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: It was awesome.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: No parents no parents, So I got to see the
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: country again. Like one version was in the hot Dog.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Now I'm in the Four Seasons. You know what I'm saying.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: I remember when I checked in the Four Seasons here
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: in Beverly Hills. It was the nicest hotel I ever
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: stated in my life up until that time. And I
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: remember I opened the shades and I stuck my head
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: out the window and I turned to the right and
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: it was Conan O'Brien. He was in the room right
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: next to me, and I remember him looking at me
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: on the balcony out and I was like, oh my god,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: and he was like and I was So I was like,
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: I'm staying in the same hotel as Cod and O'Brien,
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: and meanwhile he still has the late Late show. But
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: I was so excited, you know, I.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: Can only imagine.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So after so what did you end up walking
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: away learning from that experience?
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: So my biggest learning from that experience is know the
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: people you're with every day. When you're a tour manager,
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: you have to know everyone's role in case someone gets sick,
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: someone has to get swapped out. You know, you're on
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: the road, so you have to deal with finite resources,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: So you have to know everybody's job. What is the
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: talent person do every day? How do we prep the
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: radio station winners? How do we contact families and friends?
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: How do we make sure everybody has their guest passes?
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: But it's how do we check everyone in the hotel?
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: How do we make sure everybody's uniform is clean every day?
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: Then people would gain weight or lose weight on the tour.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: How do we get everything hemmed? Then you have the
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: hair and makeup people. Do you know if someone calls
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: out sick, who's the backup? You know, I was learning jobs.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: I didn't even know. I was like eyebrow technician, What
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: that's a job? But that's like actual someone's role. You know.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: It was a huge learning for me. But the point
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: is when the tour ended, and everybody kind of goes
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: their own way. So when you're a tour manager, your
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: role ends when the tour ends. You could go on
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: another tour, but sometimes people get excited like you're always
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: going to work with the artists, but it's really just
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: for this amount of time. So we did hit me
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: one more time, we did drive me crazy, and then
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: when the tour was over.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: Please don't tell me, you went back to no.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: No, well no, I didn't go back to the couch
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: when the tour was over.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: And the pay was good.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: The pay was six hundred and fifty dollars a week.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: It was not good.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: Was that less than the Oscar Meyer people?
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Probably?
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: But you had better accommodations.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: It was the best time of my whole life. Okay,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: you can't. I mean, come on, you're go on a tour.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: You know you're living in a gyman.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: Imagine.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: It started getting crazy when people started going into the
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: dumpsters to pick out things to put on eBay. So,
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: like the tour as the tour kept going on, because then,
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: you know, in sync, joining turned ninety eight degrees LFO,
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: so we started to get a lot of people on
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: the tour. And then people would stand there the dumpsters,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: like when people would throw out their food or you
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: know whatever, they would wait and they would put it
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: on eBay. So like it started to get like really
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: weird at the end. In the beginning, it was normal,
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: like we're all happy to be here. At the end,
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: it's like, who's pizza, there's these teeth mark on it.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: It's like what is going on here? But then the
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: tour was sponsored by Tommy Hill Figure Corporation, so they
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: had been sending us clothes and when the tour was
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: at the end, they had said, Doug, you're responsible to
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: get all these containers of clothes back to New York
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: and drop them at the Tommy Hill Figure office. Right.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: They wanted to close back.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Well some of them because they're iconic. It's like the
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Gene suit, and you know, it's other pieces of clothes
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: that were you know, kind of could be historical because
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: this was a moment where people were like Britney spears
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: and it was huge. So certain containers had to go
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: back to the New York office. So I get all
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: the containers and I meet Tommy Hill Figure and his brother.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: And I didn't really know that they were real people
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: per se, Like I, of course, you know, you hear
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: the name and you know they're real, But it was like,
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: are they like actually people that will come up to
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: you or is this like a computer generated situation? And
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: I meet Tommy and Andy hill Figure and his his brother,
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: and they say, Doug, what do you want to do
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: when the tour was over? And I said, oh, I
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: would like to help entertainers create what they do outside
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: of work or maybe like ideas that they have, and
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: they were like, Doug, that's called passion projects. I was like, yes, yes,
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: I would love entertainers to create their passion projects. So
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: then they went on to tell me that their nephew
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: was the opening act of the tour, Michael Friedo, and
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: they had asked him if there was one person that
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: the family should hire to work for them from the tour,
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: who would it be. Because their lawyer was the same
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: as the lawyer that interviewed me, and how you evaluate
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: success for yourself and how others evaluate your success or
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: two different things. They had their nephew evaluating people that
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: worked on the tour and when the tour ended, which
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: person should come work with the family. So they invite
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: me to work.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: I'm learning, man, I'm learning.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: So they invited me to work with the family. Wow.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: And I ended up working with Andy with his Hill
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: Figure Entertainment group. It was called Andy Hill Figure Entertainment
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: and we would work with the artists that weren't signed
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: to the Tommy Hillfigure corporate label and help them develop
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: their passion projects.
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: They actually gave you a job doing what.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: You love exactly, and we're still friends to this day.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: I mean Andy's my first mentor because Andy started Tommy Jeans.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: So he was the one who worked with Cadata Jones
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: to dress Aliyah. He was the one who put the
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: rugby on Snoop Dogg. He was the culture guy. Where
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Tommy was the suit and the business and the designer.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: Andy was the relationship and the culture and the music guy.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: So that was the same relationship they had as they
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: were going through the rooms, and they brought me on
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: the journey to work with them to do artist relations
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: and that was where they taught me fashion, music. Margins
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: entertained relationship building, how to meet people in a room,
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: how to greet people in the room. And Tommy would
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: always say to me, you pay for what you don't know.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: So that was my learning from Tommy.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: You pay for what you don't know.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: If you don't know law, you have to pay a lawyer.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: If you don't know medicine, you have to pay a doctor.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: He was like, you're thinking like an employee, but you
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: need to think like a CEO. You need to be
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: the CEO of your own business. Doug. He's like, you
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: have to think like you control your environment because you're
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: trained in school to think like an employee. Yeah, but
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: most of the great entrepreneurs in America dropped out of
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: school because they're not training you to think like a CEO.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: So he was like, Doug, you have it in you.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: You just have to think like a CEO, and that
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: you're the CEO of your own life. So after I
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: was working with them for several months, Tommy goes, Doug,
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: you know what I want you to do. I want
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: you to start your own business. And they gave me
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: five thousand dollars to incorporate and start my own business.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: And he goes, instead of you asking me for a
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: job every day as a full time employee, and instead
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: of you applying for all these jobs, why don't you
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: become your own business, and then you set your own
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: rate as an advisor. He goes, how much are you worth?
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: And I said, I don't know. He's like, you're worth
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: twenty five to thirty thousand a month. Start a marketing company.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: Set your rate at twenty five to thirty thousand a month,
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: and I'll make sure we have a company that hires
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: you and you could be our artist relations and marketing consultant.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: And I started a company that he gave me the
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: money for I incorporated it, and next thing you know,
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: I was hired as my rate and that's how I started.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: My marketing company was called Off the Bench Marketing. I
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: started my best friend Bill, and we grew an entire
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: marketing company employees. The whole thing from helping people build
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: out their brands, build relationships, and improve their reputation, and
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: I ended up doing that for seven years. That's how
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: I connected through the insight that they gave me. You
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: have to set your own rate. If you do not
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: value your time, no one else is going to valuate.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: And that was what he was trying to get me
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: to understand. When you go to college, you learn how
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: to take command. It's like going to the military. But
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: when you're on your own, you think like a CEO.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: But if you're going to try to get that forty
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: five thousand dollars job just so you can get benefits
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: and health insurance, I call it the BBL. People want benefits,
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: biweekly direct deposits, and a lifestyle. Everybody just wants a BBL.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: But the thing is you need to actually get your worth.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: And it's not for everybody. Not everybody can be Frank Sinatra.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: Some people have to be the band. But the important
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: thing is if you see someone who sees it in,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: you listen, lean in, follow your gut. So when I
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: started my company and started charging thirty thousand dollars for
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: companies or twenty five thousand dollars advise them, next thing
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: you know, I get hired to do MTVS off air marketing,
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: punked Newlywed, piped my Ride all those shows, and they
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: were like, Doug, could you help us develop our off
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: air marketing? USA Network called me for the Monk. Other
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: networks were calling me Tommy Jeans I worked with. So
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: what I started to do was do my superpower with
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: these other companies. And now I'm billing thirty thousand, thirty thousand,
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: thirty thousand two. I'm two hundred three hundred thousand dollars
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: a month. I was in my twenties. My friends are
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: literally making forty five grand year. I bought my first
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: house in my twenties, two Benzes in the driveway. I mean,
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: I know it's not like the whole thing, but I
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: didn't have anything. My dad was like, what is going on?
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: He's like, what do you actually do?
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: But wait, let's backtrack. I am curious, though, did you ever.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Have a talk with them and ask them what in
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: particular about my carecturistic stood out to them because both
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: it was Michael, it.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: Was Mike Prosody and the.
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: Guy on the tour Frido, Right.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Mike Friedo, both Mike, both Michaels.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Yes, okay, but we found something they have in common.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: But what was the characteristic? No, I'm serious, your story
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: is so amazing, Like I'm trying not.
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: To be speechless.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: What was the what was that characteristic that they saw
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: in you that stood out?
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: Did you ever ask them?
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Actually, I just I Andy just stopped by my podcast.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: He was one of my first guests, and he was like,
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: you were so kind and you were so relatable and
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: you were so authentic. Like, I'm just trying to do
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: the job, you know, and I'm trying to manage all
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: the egos and I don't really want any problems. But
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: I lead with inspiration and I lead with vision. Now,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: some people would like you to lead with operations, but
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: there's nothing to operate if there's no vision. So I
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: tell people, before you focus on, you know, one foot
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: in front of the other, let's focus on the vision.
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: Where are you going and what is the opportunity. Now,
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: once you know where you're going, you can get there.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: But everybody's just driving around. No one really knows where
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: they're going. They taught me, what is your vision? And
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: my vision was to help entertainers create their passion projects.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: Now entertainers became networks entertainment. But the moral of the
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: story was I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: I wanted to make good great and I wanted to
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: make better best. I am most efficiently used when something's
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: really good and I can make it great, and I
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: found that was my corporate superpower. But you have to
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: get there if you're going to build your own company,
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: And that's why you need a support team or someone
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: to nudge you or give you the right advice. See,
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: in today's world, you have so social media, you have AI,
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: you can build the maps and design it on your own,
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: where back in the day you have to actually find somebody.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: So now you have a huge advantage. But now that
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: you have that huge advantage, do you still have the vision? No? See,
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: that's the part you have to really lock in where
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: do you want to be in five years from now?
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: So there's a test. I have a coach. His name
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: is Rob Schwartz. He came on my podcast as well,
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: and he is my career coach. He's a CEO coach
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: and he has a tip that he gives and this
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: is what I tell everybody. He gave it to me,
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: I'm going to give it to you. It's called the
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: ten ten ten theory. When you have a decision that
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: comes up in your life, you need to do the
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: ten ten ten exercise? What will the decision feel like
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: in ten minutes, ten months, and ten years? Puts everything
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: in perspective. If you say no, is that good for
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: ten minutes because you can go to the night with
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: your girls, But what will that be in ten months,
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: in ten years. So every decision you look at in
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: three different ways, and then you can help make your
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: decisions quicker with more frequency because you have to live
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: by this rule. Either you complete the thought or delete
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: the thought. You have so much running around in your mind.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: You're asked to know everything, how to unlock your Tesla,
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: what's the stock price for Intel? How do I make
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: chicken a Pomagen nuggets? You have so much going on
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: in your mind that you are forgetting things, but you
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: sit things dormant, so you have to do an exercise
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: call complete the thought or delete the thought. You take
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: everything in your mind. You take a big sheet of paper,
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: make a line down the middle and write down everything
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: in your mind. And then you ask yourself, are you
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: going to complete that thought or delete that thought? Delete? Delete.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: This concludes part one of my interview with Doug Melville.
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: Tune in next week for the.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Second half of our conversation.
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: I'll see you then,