September 5, 2023 • 51 mins
In a world where success is often equated with fame, it’s important to recognize and celebrate those who have made an extreme impact in their fields without receiving the same flowers as those in front of the camera. Paxton Baker, my latest guest, is the perfect example of that. He joined me to open up about his experiences working his way through BET to an executive position, how he strategically put himself in the position to become a sports team owner, latching onto what you’re passionate about, and more. He’s incredibly business savvy but manages to explain his approaches and methods in ways that any listener can understand and work towards.
You need to tune in not only to hear his powerful story, but to establish:
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A position for yourself doing what you actually find value and meaning in
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Long-lasting relationships that provide opportunities that you couldn’t have otherwise been exposed to
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Negotiating and communication skills that secure deals and make people want to work with you (hint: it’s not about how you tell somebody to do something, it’s how you ask)
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A multifaceted public persona as opposed to a one-dimensional character
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Healthy habits that leave you clear-headed and focused
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…and more!
Host: Daymond John
Producers: Beau Dozier & Shanelle Collins; Ted Kingsbery, Chauncey Bell, & Taryn Loftus
For more info on how to take your life and business to the next level, check out DaymondJohn.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All of the things that you've been through. You had
something that you were probably looking to accomplish before you
went into it. An investment person who no one in
the room is even conscious of who that is. But
you know what is the first time I met Clarence Avon,
he couldn't believe that a black boy from Compton was
producing a festival in Amsterdam. So my life, to me,
I try to live the example. I'd like to be,
(00:22):
for the most part successful some percent of the time,
trying to be successful all the time, never successful all
the time.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
But you give it your shot, to give it your shot,
to give it your shot.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
What if I told you there was more to the
story behind game changing events?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Get ready for my new.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Podcast, That Moment with Damon John will jump into the
personal stories of some of the most influential people on
the planet, from business mobiles and celebrities to athletes and artists.
All right, Patin, thank you so much for being here.
I know that Listen, everybody in the world may not
know your name as a household name, but that's really
(01:02):
not important to write. People in the world know you
and respect you, and love you and value and you've
been behind so many amazing things. It's very rare that
you know, Uh, anybody, I don't care personal call it.
Anybody has so many different industries or they've made an
impact from a business side as well. So thank you man.
I'm gonna get right into it. I'm gonna I got
(01:22):
a couple of questions. I got a lot of questions actually,
and I don't know if we have as much time
as I would like to get into it, but uh,
we're gonna get into that moment of becoming a minority
owner of a baseball team, the Washington Nationals, and an
executive b T. But break down how you even got
into these positions. Because when I was sitting back thinking
(01:43):
that I know you. You know we're not the tightest,
but I've always said act you know, where'd you come from?
It was just straight up I was like, I know
him here. I know, I think we were working with
app like together right when I saw you. I mean, yeah, like,
where did it start? And just give us a really
short short light boom watch all of here, because all
(02:06):
of a sudden, now I knew you started getting into entertainment,
But where'd you come from? Where did you start?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Born in Compton, nineteen sixty and family moved out of
wats right after these sixty five riots out to San
Bernardino left California as a kid at fourteen to go
to academy outside of Philadelphia. Was born and raised an
Orthodox Sevendy Adventists. Grew a lot from the faith, very
meaningful in my life, but kind of outgrew being there
(02:33):
with it and started to travel. I've lived in eleven
States in seventeen cities. Boy on the entertainment side, started
doing shows in DJ and a junior college in the
late seventies and then in the early eighties at Temple
University is kind of where I got my entertainment start.
DJ and on WRTI, which was the twenty four hour
(02:53):
jazz station. Jazz was a meaningful still lives a meaningful
part of my life. Studied African American Studies and Pick
Quick Pick Stop in Atlanta, one in Miami, and then
my first big international business shop was producing the nineteen
ninety rub of Jazz and Latin Music Festival and from
there started literally producing festivals all throughout the world. Ninety
(03:15):
one in Amsterdam, ninety two started the Saint Lucia Johns Festival.
Did that for twenty four years as producer. Started my
relationship with BET ninety one and ninety nine ninety nine,
started as an executive at BT, which is where I
would have actually I met you.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Prior to that, I met you.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I think it was ninety four ninety five when you
guys did the Fuhou Big celeb event in Saint Martin.
It was the largest gathering of black celebrities anywhere in
the world outside of the United States, and that was
one of those Who's Two events. I produced a few
of your stages for you, and we were both real,
real young at the time, but you know, you were
(03:51):
hot and on fire, and I took notes on you
long long, long, long ago produced the show caribbyan rhythms.
Rachel and I got married back in ninety five, and uh.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
You were you were married to Rachel. Yeah, okay, well.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Rachel Caribbean Rhythms, Planet Groove.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
No, it was Rachel. They used to be like, you're saying,
like she's whatever, right chilling in the sand, and she
said some.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It was those big those Biggie who put that line together.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Fans of Rachel. Biggie did it.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Man, you're talking about the Donnie Simpson was right before that.
Then Rachel Man, this is all right, go ahead, got
go ahead, gotta keep going because I'm ready the questions
off of that, but yeah, that's a prior but go
ahead for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So that would have been where you and I first met.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It was back in the early nineties, and uh so
I had a twenty plashier career BT and uh but
I was always kind of mindful of of you have
what you have, but let's think about other things and
other opportunit beyond it. So back in two thousand and five,
my my dentist, doctor Ronnie Rosenberg, introduced me to the
(05:06):
Learner family and we started conversations around the ownership for
the Washington Nationals, which were the relocated Montreal Expos. And
I love sports too. My passions were music and sports,
and so as soon as I had the opportunity to
get get a shot to buy into a major league
sports team, the door opened and I joined the Learner family.
(05:28):
We purchased in Montreal exposed to Major League Baseball for
four hundred and fifty million dollars back in two thousand
and six, and that started my taste for sports. So
much like when you get a door opened, you kind
of look for other opportunities to come through it, and
so over time. Now I'm in my fifth sports ownership
group and coming up from.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I don't know, fIF Yeah, I interest ould think Callie like,
I'm gonna have some I'm gonna have some blue cheese
on those wings a bit. Tell me about those the
five man sure.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
The Washington Nationals with the Learner family in two thousand
and six, we purchased the team, began to kind of
build a culture for it, which is your overwhelmbly were
in leadership. Culture is overwhelmingly important. I'm putting together a
winning organization starts with your mind and your mindset and
then you kind of build it out from there. In
(06:26):
twenty fifteen, I had the opportunity to join the entrepreneur
here in Washington called Mark iin n Mark is now
he's gone on to own to purchase the city open
and he's the second partner with the Washington Commander's purchase
with Josh Harris, which just happened not too long ago.
That was my second third was the Washington Spirit which
(06:49):
is the National Women's Soccer League, and purchased into that
in twenty twenty we won the twenty one National Women's
Soccer League Championship and that made my third third championship ring.
I have three of them now Johnston's rings from championships.
After that would have been the Cape Down Tigers in
(07:14):
South Africa which play They've made the Basketball Africa League Championship,
the NBA's NBA Africa Championship for the past three years,
made it to the finals, haven't won yet, but have
made it to the finals for the last three years.
Then in addition to that, the DC Glory rugby team
which is in the Major League Rugby League which has
(07:35):
twelve teams. And in addition to that, I'm a partner
in the Sports Fishing Championship, which is a champion fishing
tournament which takes place pretty much all throughout the throughout
the coast of the United States off the coast, and
I've got a couple more coming up that I'll be
in before the end of the year. So I love
(07:56):
sports opportunities. I think it's one of the best things
that a person can put their finances into. UH just
got to be patient enough to one build a winning
culture and then two being able to be financially stable
enough to part with resources that you can invest for
a long period of time.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
You know, tell me if I'm looking at the screen,
I'm staring at the screen like a toddler. But you know,
how many people in the world know that there's an
African American or even heard that there's an African American
behind that is a minority investor or partner in five
sports teams and two or three leagues that nobody knows
(08:39):
comparison to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, maybe doctor j I'm
not even sure. How come we don't know that and
celebrated because you have not, you know, been keeping a secret.
Yet you don't also wear it on your sleeve and
go out there and brag, right you are? You know
you're you're making things happen. Why don't we know this?
(09:01):
Do you think that there is a bigger issue there?
Because where only if you would to ask anybody else
to be a minority or be a minority owner, meaning
even participate in that aspect, you would you would hear
everybody say it can happen. Why don't we know this?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
That's a that's a good question. Damon from from your
end as an entrepreneur and an amazing entrepreneur, there are
certain things that you kind of put out there. You've
got a team that are kind of bubbling up with
ideas and interest around, and then there are some other
things that you just kind of put the elbow grease
into and focus on and help build, and things kind
of bubble up when they're supposed to. I've been seeing
(09:42):
a lot more recently on posting about minority and or
just overall ownership and sports, and so I've been included
on some of those posts over time. But as you
kind of pointed out, it's not something from my end
that I've gone out of my way to kind of
try to make happen it all for me. It's more
focusing on the business and focusing on the opportunities.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
And I understand right, I'm clear on your position of Man,
I'm trying to make moves here and I'm not trying
to you know, I ain't trying to brag about any
of this stuff. I got a bigger obligation to be
of as much value in any partner would know this
right to be as much value in service. And I
(10:25):
don't even need to ask you that question, because when
I walk into rooms, I may or may not see you,
but people talk about you because that means you are
a very busy person. I did in the intro. I
talked about how you are a business person. I talk
about how you're a philanthropist. I talked about how you're
an entrepreneur. But I also talked about your recognition in
(10:47):
the government and the lobbying and or of fighting for
what's writing being acknowledged for those things. But if I
have to take a step back for somebody who a
young kid or anybody listening today who says, listen, I
was either moved from city to city. I had a
passion how did you become such a worldly person being moved?
(11:12):
And I don't think you're being moved around city to
city because you know, you're born with a silver spoon
in your mouth and you'll moved around in all your homes.
I think you're being moved more like whether an army
brat or you know people who are being moved around.
How did you do all that? Find DJing and then
start globally by the way, some of the teams you
(11:34):
own on the other side of the planet. So I
just want to make sure people are clear on that.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
How did you do that?
Speaker 3 (11:40):
All in a worldly manner before the Internet even existed
and cell phones were out.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Passion passion, and both of us speak to young people
on a regular basis. That's often the most meaningful question
I'm asked is you know, what would you what advice
would you be to your former self or to other
young people and from minus always doing things that you're
passionate about.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So I mean.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Literally, for me, as a kid, I loved music. That's
like one of the most kind of anchor components at
the core of my life is music. And then in
addition to that, I played sports. It wasn't good enough
to be a musician, but I loved it. But sports
I could play, and I played pretty much all sports
and track my hand at everything. So to me, those
things that are deeply passionate for me, the things that
(12:26):
I touch in the place where I kind of get
my core beginning as far as travel, that would be
kind of like a third piece to it. And so
once you kind of just get to me some fundamentals
of business under your skin, you can pretty much do
business anywhere and make money anywhere. So I've been an
(12:47):
entrepreneur the whole of my life. I've hustled the whole
of my life, and opportunities pop up, and sometimes you're
the only person there who's like thinking business all the time.
It comes to you fairly easily. I don't drink alcohol,
I don't smoke, and so for me it's like, well,
you got a key in on something to put your
time and edgy towards something. So I love making money.
(13:10):
I love the passion around that. I love the opportunities
that creates for you, and so being mindful of those things.
I ran across the book thinking Grow Rich when I
was seventeen years old. At the time, when I was
probably it was my first time dropping out of high school.
I dropped out of high school three times, ended up
earning a.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Drop on a high school three town on did you
drop while you're out?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Well, you're not. You go back next year.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
You go back to next year and talk your way in,
just get ahead even though you didn't complete anything. And
after my senior year of high school, when I dropped
out the third time, I was like, well, I'm not
going back at it anymore because I should be graduating. And
I ended up talking my way into junior college in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I want I want to pull us for a second,
because there's so much stuff there right now. First of all,
I'm a huge fan of thinking go rich, you know,
and a lot of people if you don't know what
you're hearing it from a whole other individual. It is
attributed is one of the top books for success. I
am not talking about religious books at all. I am
talking about purely a business book by Napoleon Hill. There's
(14:18):
so many nuggets there. So first of all, so many commonalities.
I love hip hop, I couldn't wrap I was going
to be part of it.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You love jazz, you.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Couldn't play well the same way that as you were
a good player and stuff. And I tried to tell
all the kids or anybody who are it is. Whatever
you love, there's ten jobs around it. You don't have
to be Jordan. You know, you can be packed and
the team owner. You can be the nutritionists, you can
be the attorney, you can be wherever you excel at.
(14:50):
Really really critical for people to understand that. The next
thing is when you understand the fundamentals of business, you
can travel the world and no matter what, you can
figure it out. I was just talking to a colleague
of minded team member of mine. I was like, always
look for the motivation of something. Every time that something
(15:10):
is bought or so, somebody makes money, right, and everything
that you buy you can sell, right, you know, and
so and everything you do for free you can get
paid to do. And so you will go into when
you go into different countries, you say, well, I don't
speak the language. You speak the language. The language is trade.
The language is of service, of value, commodity. People need something, right,
(15:33):
and you can always as you look at fundamentals of business,
what happens is you look at opportunities. So I'll give
you an example. I was someone's going to the airport
and I told them listen. They're like, oh, I got
all these bags, but you know they have they have
a preferred like a status right in the bag is
seventy pounds. And they were pissed off. Family men or
of mind David. They started making me, you know, open
(15:56):
the bags in the middle of airport because every one
of the bags was seventy two pounds over. Well, you're
only a lot of seventy pounds, right, but everyone did
one to two pounds. They were like two hundred apiece.
If I didn't take the two pounds out. You didn't
break it down. You didn't think like business. The person
at the counter, that person has a job. It gets
put on the scale, the scale hits upstairs. The end
(16:19):
of the month, they go, do you know you let
four thousand bags through that were two pounds over? And
if you add all four thousand or those by two
hundred dollars, you know how much money we lost? You're fired. However,
who's the people when you pull up, they're chasing you down? Skycaps?
Why they work for tips? You ever gave somebody the
counter a tip? No, the skycaps are looking at you
(16:42):
for a tip. What do they do? Oh? They make
sure the scale is not it's a little up your
bag sixty nine pounds.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Man.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Next time she went, she had four bags she got
through the airport fifty dollars all the bags of the
damn near ninety five pounds. It's just the form of
thinking about what is the motivation for business in any form?
And I think that's what you see because you're able
to put these puzzles together in different countries or jazz
fest and various other ways. Can you speak more about
(17:14):
as you looking? Because I know that I don't care
where you dropped me off. I'm gonna be okay, yep,
legally I'm gonna be yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
So then that one's interesting in that. So I loved
music as a kid.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I mentioned that.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
But when the opportunity producing international music festivals came up,
I looked at the US and at the time, this
was before the FX roll up of all what became
La Nation. They were big promoters Celador concert Southern promotions.
Like throughout the United States, you had chunks of like
very very solid white promoters who had territorial rights to
(17:55):
pretty much touring. And then you had al Haman and
you know who have most of the black tours on lockdown.
So there was like, well, how can I compete for me?
The Caribbean was an opportunity because nobody was there. So
I started and Ruba was there from nineteen ninety two,
started to saying lucirom ninety two to twenty fourteen.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Let's break that. Why don't we break that down for
a second round? Business via When you see that nobody's there,
there's nobody there for a reason, something has not been unraveled,
or as a lot of the real estate men and
women would say, there's a lot of hair on that dog,
and I need to shave the hair off that dog.
Meaning they're in it for the long play. You can't
(18:35):
get that building because it's a family that was in
trust and there's ten people and they're fighting over it.
And then there's the city Da da And you're willing,
you're willing to work, You're willing to put in work
for five years, ten years, But you got you got
a formula. What was the issue in the Caribbean. We
know there's not a lot of necessarily infrastructure all the people.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Because nobody had taken the time to connect dot and
and so, Uh, William Morris Triad was still around the
time William Morris I C M c A. They in
my opinion, they were waiting for somebody to come along
who was able to connect dots and so to put
the tours like I toured the Fujis in ninety seven.
We went to Barbados, Trinidad, Saint Martin. Uh, I'm blanking
(19:23):
one or two stops along the way that we did
with that tour.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
But I started to, uh make it have a fire pass.
How come?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
How come? How come you didn't have fire pestival out there?
How did you secure the fact that you were going out.
Remember this is before the Internet and social you.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Know, I was before fax machines, like I was. This
is when fax machines were first created, like around four
fax machines were if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
As right, when the people wearing wooes.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, this was like early, early on. I remember buying
my first fax machine and how amazing that was. But essentially, Dan,
to give you a short answer to it, was kind
of just really looking and observing as to what the
opportunities were. And then like so for me of like
traveling to Barbados, traveling to Trinidad, traveling to Saint Lucia,
traveling different places, I built in relationship with a director
(20:18):
of marketing for American Airlines. This was literally ninety one,
ninety two, ninety three, ninety four, ninety five, and so
I started going to different islands and different locations, pull
up meet promoters, gets references from other people to introduce
me to people, building relationships to tourist boards across the board.
(20:38):
And then like once you build those relationships, you got
somebody in Barbados that you can celidate to. In Barbados,
you got somebody in Trinidad you can celidate to. You
have somebody in Saint Mark you can celidate to. So
putting that together and as a as a tour promoter,
going back to going back to William Morris and say, hey,
I've got five dates for Gloria US Fun and I
(21:01):
can deliver five markets because I have five different relationships
with different promoters and different locations. So just using your
mind as being quick with opportunities and thinking through that,
that was pretty much. I don't mean to make it
too simple, but in my opinion, some of the stuff
really was simple. You want to do something, You go someplace,
you show up. You have to have enough house some
(21:21):
money to get there. But you get there. You spend
three or four days, You meet everybody wo's supposed to meet.
You go over and meet different different production companies who
could do sundites and staging. You work with promoter who's
got relationships, You work with the tourist board, You put
together a tour, You make an offer back to one
of the agencies in the States, and you start to
build relationshipsship.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That too.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
That led me to I just want to drop this
on you. When nineteen ninety two came around. I had
already done Aruba the Drum Jazz Festival in Amsterdam, and
Amsterdam was only because Ruber was a Dutch colony. UH
started started Saint Lucia ninety two and then started the
Barbados Painted Jazz Festival with the brother there. But that's
when Harry Belafani caught me up and he said, hey man,
(22:26):
I've been wanting to do a festival and I've been
checking with with all the agencies, and your name keeps
popping up. And that's how I started my relationship with
Harry Belafani. He called me on the phone and we
began a relationship from there. But it was my work,
which is what you said at the beginning of the
introduction was, hey man, you're not really trying to, like,
you know, blow a whole lot of flag of flags
(22:48):
up with your name, but people who should know you,
most of them do.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
And that's not what I got you brushing on And
I ad a stand you're too close to you and
you brush over and if we had a lot of time,
the wee could probably will dig in on it. But
the whole purpose of that moment and what we're talking
about are moments that have happened. Uh, you know, and
I want to I want to always try to put
a different lens on what you're talking about. And so
(23:13):
let's look at the problem at hand. Okay, the problem
at hand is that it wasn't smooth sailing. It never
is negotiating with anybody, right, And if you're negotiating with countries, music, acts, managers, people,
there are going to be uh, some bad actors. There
(23:35):
are going to be people who have all the best
intentions they let you down. There are going to be
people who want to get paid on the side. I
want to get paid in advance. They're gonna they're gonna
be one of the people, kind of like the chicken
or the egg. Give me the money first and then
I'll show up. It's never been done before. These are
countries that don't support this. So you've had to make
some tough calls and tough decisions, and you've had to
(23:59):
cancel things, you've lie to, You've had to DoD your
teas and across your t's and dot your eyes because
somebody said something. They let you down. And now you're
talking new relationships and all of a sudden you're like, yeah,
I got coca cola, and Coca Cola is like, okay,
but do you have this artist? And that artist is like, yeah,
but I don't like the hotel in that country. How
(24:22):
do you play that line? Because that's a very hard
line for a lot of us to play, right. I
don't want to speak out of hand. This person's giving
me a shot if I let them down. But a
lot of times I tell people to literal say you
lay it out, you take the elephant on the room.
You know this is gonna be a hard situation. I
promise I'm not gonna let you down, but I'm also
not gonna lie to you. If this thing doesn't happen
(24:44):
by this date or I feel anything, I'm gonna give
you a call and give you straight up answers like
how do you do that? Because that's the difference in
people who know how to navigate and massage you know
these things?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Right? So, because I think so.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Communication one is communication and then two kind of really
like letting people know who you are and your sincerity
and your authenticity come through.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
One of my brothers who ended up working with me
for thirty plus years in the Caribbean, who was from Trinidad,
taught me early on, he said, passing in the Caribbean.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
But you know, you know who is he? I You know,
I'm Trinidadian Derek.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Lewis, Derek Close's name. He just passed last year, said suddenly.
But from uh he worked with you, he worked, he worked.
As a matter of fact, he was my stage manager
on those Fuobuo dates that I did for you.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, you know, I'm from Dago Martin and you know
who's been you know what I haven't seen in a while.
You know, I'll come over with the name. Uh yes, okay, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
So so it was the the advice was, it's not
how you tell somebody how to do something, that's how
you ask. So I learned that when I was in
my early thirties. I'm sixty two now, when I was
like thirty.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
How is not how you tell, it's how you ask.
Give me a give us all an example of that positioning.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You're running into a scenario, like you said, of there's
a critical person who's at the who's at customs making
a decision on letting equipment into a country, and you
have to go to that person. And if that person
doesn't let that equipment out at a specific time that
(26:34):
you needed out. The whole show could be blown and
everything could be blown up in the air. And this
is a person who's literally sitting behind a desk who
no one will ever know in life. But he has
the decision is to he has the power over to
let some equipment through customs or hold it up for
a week or two. And if that equipment is held up,
your life is gonna be changed, and not for.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
I'm gonna show you how my wife would talk for
that person.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
God darning.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
I need that equipment, buddy by four o'clock, or give
me your name and your manager's name. I think that's
pretty effective.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, brother, I need you to work with me and
I need this equipment release. If you would be kind
of let me know what I need to do to
get this done correctly. So I'm going to inherit it
whatever it is you need me to inherit too. But
we need to work with each other because everything's gonna change,
not for the better if I can't get this through.
(27:33):
So what do I need to do to work with
you to get this done properly?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
So how many people do you find? And I believe
in the same right because you know that person, I
don't care if they're a waiter. I don't care if
they're scraping gum off the street. That person has pride,
that person has frustration, that person has the need for acknowledgment.
(27:58):
How many people do you fin find abuse that privilege
that and just overlook that person and they never wonder,
they don't want, they don't never understand why they didn't
get anywhere. Do you find that? That is a common
mistake that people make.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
On both sides, one from the person who has the
power to make the decision, and sometimes they'll make arbitrary
decisions that just don't make sense to others who you're
just ready to overlook a person like I mean the
room I'm in right now in the True Reformer building,
the sister who's the security guard who let me in
to come up here to use this room to do
(28:42):
the podcast from. And so for me, as the person
who's got some degree of enlightenment, it's on you to
be kind and gracious and treat people like you'd like
to be treated, something I work to do every single
day by way of my kindness and my graciousness toward others.
And in friendships being the friend that I would like
(29:03):
to have. So uh that comes those little simple things
come to us all the time. Uh and damn you
can translate those to businesses pretty easily. But to me,
just meaningful human relationships and small interactions with people from
a human perspective that makes all the difference in the world.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
And let's be very thirst I'm not I'm not going
to be able to get to all the shit that
you will have accomplished. I'm I'm taught, I'm your your
you know, I'm really at your age right now as
I went through it. I'm at thirty five. I got
a whole bunch I got a whole bunch of other
years to cover here where we're talking about what is
(29:41):
and I'm getting to all other things. But I want
to make I mean because I want people to really
listen to what you said. Because also there's a couple
of things to think about. You know, when you have
an interaction with any of these people, right it takes
one second to say thank you. And however, there's another
responsibility that comes with that. If you really want to
be genuine, you want to be there when they have
(30:03):
the small ask if they ever have the ask in
the future. That's critical because even that woman downstairs you
want to it's it's not impossible just to remember her
name when you say thank you, Judy, and to say
if you ever name me, if you have any idea, oh,
whatever the case is, here's who I am. You give
(30:25):
me a call. That woman will most likely ninety nine
percent never call you, but it will make that person
feel special, and you never know when you're gonna run
into her again, or well, she's gonna hear your name
and all of it. You know how many times I've
been someplace and somebody said, you took a picture of
my daughter in the airport walking down the street. And
(30:49):
that's why I called you five years later, because your
name came up and you didn't have to do that.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yeah, yeah, Holy correct. So that's how I got into
the Washington Spirit. I had met a gentleman named Steve
Boblin at twenty seventeen, and he called me an early
twenty twenty during the during the pandemic and said, I'd
like to bring into my group to be part owner
of the Washington Spirit National Women's Soccer League club. And
(31:19):
literally is somebody who i'd met one time in my life.
And he remembered the meeting and called me back up
and said, hey, I want to offer you the opportunity
to come into our ownership group. I'd like you to invest,
but I'm willing to also give you some give you
some equity in the team for just joining our group.
And that was literally from a person who I met
(31:40):
one time. So you can make an impression on somebody
one time. You may not know it yourself, but you
absolutely positively can make an impression upon somebody for one
meeting with them, and.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
It can change your life. But you can also change
their life as well.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
And so let's talk about those saw skills how they transferred,
because how you use those soft skills to move over
to uh you know, team ownership. Now, being a being
a fan of a team or a fan of a
sport and being an operating and or advisor or working
the sport are two totally different things. I tell people
(32:18):
I love the restaurant. I love some chicken wings I
was having at a restaurant. I invested in the restaurant.
And when I started to deal with having to hear
about insurance and labor laws and uh, you know, real
estate issues, I never went back to the restaurant again,
right now, dealing with being a player or a spectator
(32:40):
of a sport and then dealing with the intricacies or
running a team a lot of personalities as well as
people don't realize, or being a you know, in a
team whatever capacity, you know you're also a politician in
there because that team. I've learned this from Mark Cuban.
You know, he said when he first made some money
and he went and bought the MAVs, he thought he
(33:02):
could say what he wants. He thought he can throw
chairs on uh, you know, on courts and be a
bad boy, right, And he didn't realize that there were
three hundred reporters reporting on every one of his moves,
and that kids in communities looked up that's some of
the only hope they had was that team, and that
he had a bigger responsibility. This wasn't I could do
(33:24):
what the hell I want. These are families looking up
to it. There's responsibility that comes in working and in
the organization. How did you transfer those soft skills over
to this area. Because every one of the people listening
to us right now, inclusive of myself, we don't want
to be held in a box. We want to be
able to do other things that we like. But people
(33:45):
only you know, for Shark Tank, Damon just made baggajeans.
I was supposed to walk in the room with Bagga
jeans on gold teeth and start wrapping. That's how people
saw me before Shark Tank, and rightfully, so that's only
understanding they had of me. What you know, what is
it like being part of the operation and you know
those aspects of a team and and what do you do? Like?
(34:07):
What what do people do? Everybody has different positions, but
please tell me what is it like being in organizations
like that?
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (34:15):
One?
Speaker 1 (34:15):
I like you said something earlier when you talked about Mark,
but we talked about responsibility. So I think once you
kind of get past the luster and you pinch yourself
a couple of times and say, well, I can't you know,
I can't really believe I'm part owner of a major
league sports franchise. One is your relationships with the principal partners.
That's there all the time. But two, it's the fans
(34:39):
who the You talked about the responsibility in the neighborhood,
But to me, part of that part of that piece
is when someone buys a ticket to come to a
sports event, to me, they're investing in your You're investing
in your story, in your investment, in your in your portfolio.
They're actually investing in it. And so they now for
that brief moment of time while they're in that game
(35:00):
and participating with it. And certainly if they're a fan,
if they're buying T shirts and merchandise and there's posters
on the wall, they're investing in your portfolio, in your investment.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
And to me, it is a.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Responsibility to them, and one to me that that, to
me is a humbling thing because you're thankful for that,
because they're making whatever you do blow up and be bigger.
I'm conscious when I walk through Washington, not just on
game days, but on game days. I can almost get
a feel for an attendance of a game by seeing
how many people are wearing Nats jerseys during during the
(35:33):
during the season, or during a homestand more specifically, and
those people, to me, are buying into it when they
have that jersey and they're buying into it, and you
get a feel. I drive around on game days and
baseball we have generally home stands for about a week
to seven to ten day homestands and then we go
on the road, then we come back again. But for
that span of time from the beginning of April through
(35:56):
the end of September, that's our baseball season. So I'm
mindful of the team much more so during the season.
I'm thankful when I walked walked throughout the city. There's
part of the responsibilities one being a part of a community,
being an owner in a community. Most of my investments
have been in end or around Washington, but as you mentioned,
I've invested in Cape Town. I've got a couple more
(36:19):
coming up. But you're going to be in Australia, but
in the city to me that you live in, it's
much more of a responsibility to be a part and
parcel of what that is. As far as the responsibilities
on a day to day part ideally help with helping
to shape the ownership group and the front office leadership group,
and that comes to relationships and being participating. The Learner
(36:40):
family tell me early on that I could be as
involved or uninvolved as I wanted to be. I chose
to be involved, and I became the chairman of the
Minority Partners Group or the Founding Partners Group as we're
referred to, which are the black owners of the Washington Nationals,
Black and Latino owners of Nationals. So I try to
(37:01):
participate where it's an open opportunity for me, everything from
helping to shape how things are viewed with my media background,
but also how things run as well, and try to
be a part of making some good picks for key
c suite c suite leadership in a group that's a
small part of it. And then I consider myself an
(37:23):
ambassador of the team as well, and I participate from
everything from the gear that I wear and things like
that to speaking with people and building up the team.
I do a lot of public speaking. You mentioned volunteerism.
I've been chairman of the United States Congress's charity called
the US Congression Awards since two thousand and seven. I'm
(37:44):
a volunteer in that position. I've raised millions of dollars
and it's a charity for young people and helping them
grow through personal development, physical fitness, goal setting and development,
and volunteerism. It's called the US Congression Awards versus official
charity to young people.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
And last one and thank you so much for for
all of this this knowledge you said, you said at
one point, you don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't
do other things like that. And you know, I find
that the most successful people, you know, addiction of whatever,
(38:23):
or a habit of whatever is bad, whatever it could be.
There is a fine line, right, even if it's an
addiction to or gaming what whatever, it is spending too
much time on something that is not necessarily building your
skill level and productivity. I don't think I've really talked
(38:48):
to too many you know, people about that publicly and
just you know, but we you know, a lot of
the a lot of the government, the Secret Service is
made up of Mormons, right, and various people who have
a high level of productivity due to the fact that
they may not have some of these some of these
kind of habits. How I don't think I've ever had
(39:10):
this discussion, definitely not publicly. How do you feel that
that has been really either add clarity to you or
it has increased your productivity or where do you think
that that has been in your benefit? And a lot
of times people have these what escapes, right, what do
(39:33):
you do to escape or what do you do to
zone out? I mean it could be working out. It
could be I don't know what it is, right, it
could be listening to some jazz.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Right.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
How do you feel that has played a real benefit
in your life? Because I stopped drinking about two years
ago and I'm very, very productive prior to that, obviously, right,
But now I mean I'm unstoppable. I am, I am.
I am hungry than I was when I was twenty
seven years old. And it's not for money, right, It's
(40:05):
to be alive and to share this information and to
have this joy and see my little girls and see
my friends, and just do what's right and pay back
what I have been a beneficiary of from the Harry
Belafonte's and the Paxtons of the world. I want to
know where do you feel and how do you feel
(40:28):
about the fact that you didn't have necessary those vices,
maybe have others? And how do you release if you
don't have certain vices?
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Great question and one that I'm not often asked a lot,
can't itly? I'm trying to like, as I was listening
to you talk about, I was trying to think, is
anybody ever brought it up in an interview.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
About and this is that moment because I've never brought
it up either or I never thought about it.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Yeah, well, I guess it's second nature.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
But damn, I can say that I'm aware that I'm
always conscious, like I'm like, you know, Napoleon Hill talks
about positive mental attitude and kind of like having that
be there all the time. I'm always conscious, So there's
never a moment where my mind is dulled or my
senses are dulled away and I'm not focused on business.
(41:16):
You and I have been together more times than you'd
actually know, because more often than not it was at
events or like the after party for a BT award,
and everybody in the room ninety ninety five percent of
the people in the room are drinking, and you know, hey,
God bless them.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
That's you know, that's sure.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Nothing against anybody, but it's just that's not what's happening
with me. When I splurrege periodically, I'll drink a spray
because all the other times it's either water or club
soda or water with gas. And I'm always aware, like
just there's no point where somebody says, hey, man, you
(41:54):
know I was talking to you. You forgot, you know,
we were talking about this, this and that it's like, no, no,
I'm actually I'm on it. I didn't forget anything. I'm
crystal clear. It's you know, I'm consciously aware of what
it is, and I'm focused.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
And I'm focused and I'm focused.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Because my mind is not dull by something and I'm
not like sidetracked by anything. So think about for all
of the all of the things that you've been through,
and all of the events that you've been through, all
the different parties that you've been through, like you were focused.
You have something that you were probably looking to accomplish
before you went into it, and when you ran across
(42:48):
a person who was there. It might be a famous personality,
or it might be a business personality that many people
in the room don't even know who that is, but
you know who it was because you know the business
that they're in, Like a private equity person, right, an
investment person who no one in the room is even
conscious of who that is, but you know who it is.
And you're trying to get to that side of the
room to vibe with that person because you know what
(43:10):
you're trying to accomplish with him, And so when you
have here shot with them, your voice is not slow.
Your mind is not dull in any way, shape or
form you would point on, you know, I would just
briefly point out to my first relationship. The first time
I met Clarence Avon backstage at a concert January of
nineteen ninety one at the Old Cap Center in Landover, Maryland,
(43:32):
outside of DC. And in that conversation that I have
with Clarence, you couldn't believe that a black boy from
Compton was producing a festival in Amsterdam. And he's, you know,
you know Clarence's language, because I know you know him.
You know, He's like, you know, damn, but you know,
(43:53):
you know over at Amsterdam, Like what do you do? Like,
break down to me. You said you produced an event.
Tell me what you do? Like, I booked the talent,
I booked the venue, I booked the sound license stage.
I make sure the insurance is paid. I make sure
that the portagohn is there. I make sure this is secure.
So I break down all of production to him and
(44:15):
he's looking at me, wait, waiting for me to slip
up anywhere. And we kept talking and he was like, damn,
you know a negro in Amsterdam, And you know he
used a different word than that in Amsternam, I even
know they had black people over there, let alone you
little negro from Compton over there, you know effing with
that and like okay, you can come see me. And
(44:38):
that gave me the opportunity to sit at the feat
and study at Clarence Avon University as a thirty year old.
And that brother took me under his wing and taught me.
And had I not have been clear and focused with
that brief moment of time that I had with him,
and I had read up on this preparation as a
key critical piece to it. I had read up on
(44:58):
who he was. I knew who he was. Most people
in that whole venue out of twelve thousand people that
were there that night at a concert, very few people
to know who Clarence Avant was. But I did, and
I took my opportunity and to changed my life. So
being prepared for those little moments and nuggets of time
that you have are critical.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
You may not have them.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
So for you, somebody studying you and they point out
something like, you know, an obscure point early on in
your career, they picked your interests. They now have your
attention and it's up to them to take that moment
and do something correct with your attention that may change
their life. So for me, it was the same thing.
I take nothing for granted now you made it. Think
(45:38):
about a silver spoon earlier. That was funny because there
was no silver and a home in Compton in the
nineteen sixties. The youngest six kids black born in Compton.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
You're leaving during the riots, they were no spoons at
all because we were burning the place down because of
the same things we've had seen and having recently. So yeah,
you had nothing.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
You take that moment and you run with it and
you make the best of it. And that's been for me.
My whole career has been taking the best of those,
you know, singular moments and making the best of them.
So I can't say enough about preparation. I can't say
enough about savings, being prepared when those opportunities come along,
that you have the capital to invest in it. And
(46:25):
then charity by way of sharing what you have with
other people and volunteering. Volunteering the sharing part. Napoleon will
address that, like when you give away something, how you've
reinforced it yourself, your own awareness of the things that
you have that you have enough to share with others
and that reinforces that positivity within yourself and you can
(46:46):
continue to grow and make the world a better place.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Well, I mean, you have done so much for us
as a culture and behind the scenes. And I have
one last question. And I don't know of you or
I how the am so this? I always say that
you know it is. It is sad, very very sad
that if you really reflect on this, I'm the only
(47:10):
African American on national television show that did not self made,
that did not come from music, sports to television, meaning
in the front side of entertainment. And I always say,
there are so many of us, and you're an example
of it, Bob Johnson, Kathy Hughes. But I've never been
(47:35):
on I've never been highlighted on the cover of any
African American magazine. Now I want to qualify that or
digital whatever it is by saying that, Well, I don't
know if I should be on a music one, and
definitely shouldn't be on a sports one. But I've been
on the cover of Ink and all these other ones.
Why aren't people like you and I but forget me,
(47:59):
I have that platform. Why aren't we internally and within
our communities celebrating more brilliant people like you and Kathy
Hughes and so many other people, because if we don't
celebrate ourselves, then why shouldn't anybody else? Right, Why aren't
we putting that out instead of them taking nothing away
(48:22):
from the athletes? Athletes are literally winning a lotto because
it is you know, there's not a lot of athletes
out there, and you're playing at the highest level. It
is very hard to be an athlete, an actor, or
singer anybody, right, But why aren't we celebrating more people
like you?
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Well, you qualified the question and you said maybe you know,
maybe we don't know the answer to it, that that
was a great qualifier to it. I don't know the answer,
but I'd be willing to bet that there's never been
a day in your life that it's impeded you in
any way, shape or form from being the best that
(48:55):
you possibly can be. And as much as I'm thankful
to hear you say something to the effect of that,
it should happen, I'm thankful for that. And to me,
you simply just saying that to me has without exaggeration. Brother,
I want to tell you it's made my day, and
it's a blessing to me. There's never been a day
that I've ever woken up and actually taken any time
(49:16):
whatsoever to think about somebody's celebrating me or bemoaning the
fact that somebody hasn't done it. It doesn't even possibly mind.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
Actually you got to do it because you want to
do it. Yeah, But you know, maybe maybe that was
just maybe just a call out to people to say,
show people Packston, show your your children, Paxton, right, because
it's great to see these music artists or these great
people who are doing great things. But we need the
people who are watching now to show their children, Paxton,
(49:49):
not Damon, look this Paxson. There's probably thousands of more,
you know, people that we don't know why, you know,
don't aspire to this, aspired to this greatness.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
You know, well, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for it. Brother,
I appreciate it. I've been when people sometimes say to you,
oh man, I've been following you for years, but I
literally I work for you back in uh nineteen ninety four,
ninety five, producing stages for you.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
How about that.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
I didn't know that then. And you know what, we
got to dinner, we're gonna go. We're gonna follow up
one for sure. I gotta I got a big a
list here for you already. Man. But but for the
purpose of everybody watching who they've been, they have invested
their time with us. I appreciate you so much, man,
and we learned a lot a lot of lessons from
you about the about communication, about uh, you know, knowing
(50:43):
how to be of service, about having the structure and
the fundamentals of business and knowing how to translate that
into other areas soft skills, giving, and so many other things. Man,
So thank you so much. And uh, I'm gonna, we're
gonna we're gonna hook up and I'm gonna follow you
right now.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
That works.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
Thank you, belove it, since Billy appreciates you. Wishing you
every continued some guy's many blessings and each and every
one of your steps.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
That moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't forget
to subscribe to and rate the show. And of course
you can all connect with me on any of my
(51:37):
social media platforms. At The Shark, Damon spelled like Raymond,
but what a d
All of the things that you've been through. You had
something that you were probably looking to accomplish before you
went into it. An investment person who no one in
the room is even conscious of who that is. But
you know what is the first time I met Clarence Avon,
he couldn't believe that a black boy from Compton was
producing a festival in Amsterdam. So my life, to me,
I try to live the example. I'd like to be,
(00:22):
for the most part successful some percent of the time,
trying to be successful all the time, never successful all
the time.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
But you give it your shot, to give it your shot,
to give it your shot.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
What if I told you there was more to the
story behind game changing events?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Get ready for my new.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Podcast, That Moment with Damon John will jump into the
personal stories of some of the most influential people on
the planet, from business mobiles and celebrities to athletes and artists.
All right, Patin, thank you so much for being here.
I know that Listen, everybody in the world may not
know your name as a household name, but that's really
(01:02):
not important to write. People in the world know you
and respect you, and love you and value and you've
been behind so many amazing things. It's very rare that
you know, Uh, anybody, I don't care personal call it.
Anybody has so many different industries or they've made an
impact from a business side as well. So thank you man.
I'm gonna get right into it. I'm gonna I got
(01:22):
a couple of questions. I got a lot of questions actually,
and I don't know if we have as much time
as I would like to get into it, but uh,
we're gonna get into that moment of becoming a minority
owner of a baseball team, the Washington Nationals, and an
executive b T. But break down how you even got
into these positions. Because when I was sitting back thinking
(01:43):
that I know you. You know we're not the tightest,
but I've always said act you know, where'd you come from?
It was just straight up I was like, I know
him here. I know, I think we were working with
app like together right when I saw you. I mean, yeah, like,
where did it start? And just give us a really
short short light boom watch all of here, because all
(02:06):
of a sudden, now I knew you started getting into entertainment,
But where'd you come from? Where did you start?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Born in Compton, nineteen sixty and family moved out of
wats right after these sixty five riots out to San
Bernardino left California as a kid at fourteen to go
to academy outside of Philadelphia. Was born and raised an
Orthodox Sevendy Adventists. Grew a lot from the faith, very
meaningful in my life, but kind of outgrew being there
(02:33):
with it and started to travel. I've lived in eleven
States in seventeen cities. Boy on the entertainment side, started
doing shows in DJ and a junior college in the
late seventies and then in the early eighties at Temple
University is kind of where I got my entertainment start.
DJ and on WRTI, which was the twenty four hour
(02:53):
jazz station. Jazz was a meaningful still lives a meaningful
part of my life. Studied African American Studies and Pick
Quick Pick Stop in Atlanta, one in Miami, and then
my first big international business shop was producing the nineteen
ninety rub of Jazz and Latin Music Festival and from
there started literally producing festivals all throughout the world. Ninety
(03:15):
one in Amsterdam, ninety two started the Saint Lucia Johns Festival.
Did that for twenty four years as producer. Started my
relationship with BET ninety one and ninety nine ninety nine,
started as an executive at BT, which is where I
would have actually I met you.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Prior to that, I met you.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I think it was ninety four ninety five when you
guys did the Fuhou Big celeb event in Saint Martin.
It was the largest gathering of black celebrities anywhere in
the world outside of the United States, and that was
one of those Who's Two events. I produced a few
of your stages for you, and we were both real,
real young at the time, but you know, you were
(03:51):
hot and on fire, and I took notes on you
long long, long, long ago produced the show caribbyan rhythms.
Rachel and I got married back in ninety five, and uh.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
You were you were married to Rachel. Yeah, okay, well.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Rachel Caribbean Rhythms, Planet Groove.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
No, it was Rachel. They used to be like, you're saying,
like she's whatever, right chilling in the sand, and she
said some.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It was those big those Biggie who put that line together.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Fans of Rachel. Biggie did it.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Man, you're talking about the Donnie Simpson was right before that.
Then Rachel Man, this is all right, go ahead, got
go ahead, gotta keep going because I'm ready the questions
off of that, but yeah, that's a prior but go
ahead for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So that would have been where you and I first met.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It was back in the early nineties, and uh so
I had a twenty plashier career BT and uh but
I was always kind of mindful of of you have
what you have, but let's think about other things and
other opportunit beyond it. So back in two thousand and five,
my my dentist, doctor Ronnie Rosenberg, introduced me to the
(05:06):
Learner family and we started conversations around the ownership for
the Washington Nationals, which were the relocated Montreal Expos. And
I love sports too. My passions were music and sports,
and so as soon as I had the opportunity to
get get a shot to buy into a major league
sports team, the door opened and I joined the Learner family.
(05:28):
We purchased in Montreal exposed to Major League Baseball for
four hundred and fifty million dollars back in two thousand
and six, and that started my taste for sports. So
much like when you get a door opened, you kind
of look for other opportunities to come through it, and
so over time. Now I'm in my fifth sports ownership
group and coming up from.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I don't know, fIF Yeah, I interest ould think Callie like,
I'm gonna have some I'm gonna have some blue cheese
on those wings a bit. Tell me about those the
five man sure.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
The Washington Nationals with the Learner family in two thousand
and six, we purchased the team, began to kind of
build a culture for it, which is your overwhelmbly were
in leadership. Culture is overwhelmingly important. I'm putting together a
winning organization starts with your mind and your mindset and
then you kind of build it out from there. In
(06:26):
twenty fifteen, I had the opportunity to join the entrepreneur
here in Washington called Mark iin n Mark is now
he's gone on to own to purchase the city open
and he's the second partner with the Washington Commander's purchase
with Josh Harris, which just happened not too long ago.
That was my second third was the Washington Spirit which
(06:49):
is the National Women's Soccer League, and purchased into that
in twenty twenty we won the twenty one National Women's
Soccer League Championship and that made my third third championship ring.
I have three of them now Johnston's rings from championships.
After that would have been the Cape Down Tigers in
(07:14):
South Africa which play They've made the Basketball Africa League Championship,
the NBA's NBA Africa Championship for the past three years,
made it to the finals, haven't won yet, but have
made it to the finals for the last three years.
Then in addition to that, the DC Glory rugby team
which is in the Major League Rugby League which has
(07:35):
twelve teams. And in addition to that, I'm a partner
in the Sports Fishing Championship, which is a champion fishing
tournament which takes place pretty much all throughout the throughout
the coast of the United States off the coast, and
I've got a couple more coming up that I'll be
in before the end of the year. So I love
(07:56):
sports opportunities. I think it's one of the best things
that a person can put their finances into. UH just
got to be patient enough to one build a winning
culture and then two being able to be financially stable
enough to part with resources that you can invest for
a long period of time.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
You know, tell me if I'm looking at the screen,
I'm staring at the screen like a toddler. But you know,
how many people in the world know that there's an
African American or even heard that there's an African American
behind that is a minority investor or partner in five
sports teams and two or three leagues that nobody knows
(08:39):
comparison to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, maybe doctor j I'm
not even sure. How come we don't know that and
celebrated because you have not, you know, been keeping a secret.
Yet you don't also wear it on your sleeve and
go out there and brag, right you are? You know
you're you're making things happen. Why don't we know this?
(09:01):
Do you think that there is a bigger issue there?
Because where only if you would to ask anybody else
to be a minority or be a minority owner, meaning
even participate in that aspect, you would you would hear
everybody say it can happen. Why don't we know this?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
That's a that's a good question. Damon from from your
end as an entrepreneur and an amazing entrepreneur, there are
certain things that you kind of put out there. You've
got a team that are kind of bubbling up with
ideas and interest around, and then there are some other
things that you just kind of put the elbow grease
into and focus on and help build, and things kind
of bubble up when they're supposed to. I've been seeing
(09:42):
a lot more recently on posting about minority and or
just overall ownership and sports, and so I've been included
on some of those posts over time. But as you
kind of pointed out, it's not something from my end
that I've gone out of my way to kind of
try to make happen it all for me. It's more
focusing on the business and focusing on the opportunities.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
And I understand right, I'm clear on your position of Man,
I'm trying to make moves here and I'm not trying
to you know, I ain't trying to brag about any
of this stuff. I got a bigger obligation to be
of as much value in any partner would know this
right to be as much value in service. And I
(10:25):
don't even need to ask you that question, because when
I walk into rooms, I may or may not see you,
but people talk about you because that means you are
a very busy person. I did in the intro. I
talked about how you are a business person. I talk
about how you're a philanthropist. I talked about how you're
an entrepreneur. But I also talked about your recognition in
(10:47):
the government and the lobbying and or of fighting for
what's writing being acknowledged for those things. But if I
have to take a step back for somebody who a
young kid or anybody listening today who says, listen, I
was either moved from city to city. I had a
passion how did you become such a worldly person being moved?
(11:12):
And I don't think you're being moved around city to
city because you know, you're born with a silver spoon
in your mouth and you'll moved around in all your homes.
I think you're being moved more like whether an army
brat or you know people who are being moved around.
How did you do all that? Find DJing and then
start globally by the way, some of the teams you
(11:34):
own on the other side of the planet. So I
just want to make sure people are clear on that.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
How did you do that?
Speaker 3 (11:40):
All in a worldly manner before the Internet even existed
and cell phones were out.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Passion passion, and both of us speak to young people
on a regular basis. That's often the most meaningful question
I'm asked is you know, what would you what advice
would you be to your former self or to other
young people and from minus always doing things that you're
passionate about.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So I mean.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Literally, for me, as a kid, I loved music. That's
like one of the most kind of anchor components at
the core of my life is music. And then in
addition to that, I played sports. It wasn't good enough
to be a musician, but I loved it. But sports
I could play, and I played pretty much all sports
and track my hand at everything. So to me, those
things that are deeply passionate for me, the things that
(12:26):
I touch in the place where I kind of get
my core beginning as far as travel, that would be
kind of like a third piece to it. And so
once you kind of just get to me some fundamentals
of business under your skin, you can pretty much do
business anywhere and make money anywhere. So I've been an
(12:47):
entrepreneur the whole of my life. I've hustled the whole
of my life, and opportunities pop up, and sometimes you're
the only person there who's like thinking business all the time.
It comes to you fairly easily. I don't drink alcohol,
I don't smoke, and so for me it's like, well,
you got a key in on something to put your
time and edgy towards something. So I love making money.
(13:10):
I love the passion around that. I love the opportunities
that creates for you, and so being mindful of those things.
I ran across the book thinking Grow Rich when I
was seventeen years old. At the time, when I was
probably it was my first time dropping out of high school.
I dropped out of high school three times, ended up
earning a.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Drop on a high school three town on did you
drop while you're out?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Well, you're not. You go back next year.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
You go back to next year and talk your way in,
just get ahead even though you didn't complete anything. And
after my senior year of high school, when I dropped
out the third time, I was like, well, I'm not
going back at it anymore because I should be graduating. And
I ended up talking my way into junior college in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I want I want to pull us for a second,
because there's so much stuff there right now. First of all,
I'm a huge fan of thinking go rich, you know,
and a lot of people if you don't know what
you're hearing it from a whole other individual. It is
attributed is one of the top books for success. I
am not talking about religious books at all. I am
talking about purely a business book by Napoleon Hill. There's
(14:18):
so many nuggets there. So first of all, so many commonalities.
I love hip hop, I couldn't wrap I was going
to be part of it.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You love jazz, you.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Couldn't play well the same way that as you were
a good player and stuff. And I tried to tell
all the kids or anybody who are it is. Whatever
you love, there's ten jobs around it. You don't have
to be Jordan. You know, you can be packed and
the team owner. You can be the nutritionists, you can
be the attorney, you can be wherever you excel at.
(14:50):
Really really critical for people to understand that. The next
thing is when you understand the fundamentals of business, you
can travel the world and no matter what, you can
figure it out. I was just talking to a colleague
of minded team member of mine. I was like, always
look for the motivation of something. Every time that something
(15:10):
is bought or so, somebody makes money, right, and everything
that you buy you can sell, right, you know, and
so and everything you do for free you can get
paid to do. And so you will go into when
you go into different countries, you say, well, I don't
speak the language. You speak the language. The language is trade.
The language is of service, of value, commodity. People need something, right,
(15:33):
and you can always as you look at fundamentals of business,
what happens is you look at opportunities. So I'll give
you an example. I was someone's going to the airport
and I told them listen. They're like, oh, I got
all these bags, but you know they have they have
a preferred like a status right in the bag is
seventy pounds. And they were pissed off. Family men or
of mind David. They started making me, you know, open
(15:56):
the bags in the middle of airport because every one
of the bags was seventy two pounds over. Well, you're
only a lot of seventy pounds, right, but everyone did
one to two pounds. They were like two hundred apiece.
If I didn't take the two pounds out. You didn't
break it down. You didn't think like business. The person
at the counter, that person has a job. It gets
put on the scale, the scale hits upstairs. The end
(16:19):
of the month, they go, do you know you let
four thousand bags through that were two pounds over? And
if you add all four thousand or those by two
hundred dollars, you know how much money we lost? You're fired. However,
who's the people when you pull up, they're chasing you down? Skycaps?
Why they work for tips? You ever gave somebody the
counter a tip? No, the skycaps are looking at you
(16:42):
for a tip. What do they do? Oh? They make
sure the scale is not it's a little up your
bag sixty nine pounds.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Man.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Next time she went, she had four bags she got
through the airport fifty dollars all the bags of the
damn near ninety five pounds. It's just the form of
thinking about what is the motivation for business in any form?
And I think that's what you see because you're able
to put these puzzles together in different countries or jazz
fest and various other ways. Can you speak more about
(17:14):
as you looking? Because I know that I don't care
where you dropped me off. I'm gonna be okay, yep,
legally I'm gonna be yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
So then that one's interesting in that. So I loved
music as a kid.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I mentioned that.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
But when the opportunity producing international music festivals came up,
I looked at the US and at the time, this
was before the FX roll up of all what became
La Nation. They were big promoters Celador concert Southern promotions.
Like throughout the United States, you had chunks of like
very very solid white promoters who had territorial rights to
(17:55):
pretty much touring. And then you had al Haman and
you know who have most of the black tours on lockdown.
So there was like, well, how can I compete for me?
The Caribbean was an opportunity because nobody was there. So
I started and Ruba was there from nineteen ninety two,
started to saying lucirom ninety two to twenty fourteen.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Let's break that. Why don't we break that down for
a second round? Business via When you see that nobody's there,
there's nobody there for a reason, something has not been unraveled,
or as a lot of the real estate men and
women would say, there's a lot of hair on that dog,
and I need to shave the hair off that dog.
Meaning they're in it for the long play. You can't
(18:35):
get that building because it's a family that was in
trust and there's ten people and they're fighting over it.
And then there's the city Da da And you're willing,
you're willing to work, You're willing to put in work
for five years, ten years, But you got you got
a formula. What was the issue in the Caribbean. We
know there's not a lot of necessarily infrastructure all the people.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Because nobody had taken the time to connect dot and
and so, Uh, William Morris Triad was still around the
time William Morris I C M c A. They in
my opinion, they were waiting for somebody to come along
who was able to connect dots and so to put
the tours like I toured the Fujis in ninety seven.
We went to Barbados, Trinidad, Saint Martin. Uh, I'm blanking
(19:23):
one or two stops along the way that we did
with that tour.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
But I started to, uh make it have a fire pass.
How come?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
How come? How come you didn't have fire pestival out there?
How did you secure the fact that you were going out.
Remember this is before the Internet and social you.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Know, I was before fax machines, like I was. This
is when fax machines were first created, like around four
fax machines were if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
As right, when the people wearing wooes.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, this was like early, early on. I remember buying
my first fax machine and how amazing that was. But essentially, Dan,
to give you a short answer to it, was kind
of just really looking and observing as to what the
opportunities were. And then like so for me of like
traveling to Barbados, traveling to Trinidad, traveling to Saint Lucia,
traveling different places, I built in relationship with a director
(20:18):
of marketing for American Airlines. This was literally ninety one,
ninety two, ninety three, ninety four, ninety five, and so
I started going to different islands and different locations, pull
up meet promoters, gets references from other people to introduce
me to people, building relationships to tourist boards across the board.
(20:38):
And then like once you build those relationships, you got
somebody in Barbados that you can celidate to. In Barbados,
you got somebody in Trinidad you can celidate to. You
have somebody in Saint Mark you can celidate to. So
putting that together and as a as a tour promoter,
going back to going back to William Morris and say, hey,
I've got five dates for Gloria US Fun and I
(21:01):
can deliver five markets because I have five different relationships
with different promoters and different locations. So just using your
mind as being quick with opportunities and thinking through that,
that was pretty much. I don't mean to make it
too simple, but in my opinion, some of the stuff
really was simple. You want to do something, You go someplace,
you show up. You have to have enough house some
(21:21):
money to get there. But you get there. You spend
three or four days, You meet everybody wo's supposed to meet.
You go over and meet different different production companies who
could do sundites and staging. You work with promoter who's
got relationships, You work with the tourist board, You put
together a tour, You make an offer back to one
of the agencies in the States, and you start to
build relationshipsship.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That too.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
That led me to I just want to drop this
on you. When nineteen ninety two came around. I had
already done Aruba the Drum Jazz Festival in Amsterdam, and
Amsterdam was only because Ruber was a Dutch colony. UH
started started Saint Lucia ninety two and then started the
Barbados Painted Jazz Festival with the brother there. But that's
when Harry Belafani caught me up and he said, hey man,
(22:26):
I've been wanting to do a festival and I've been
checking with with all the agencies, and your name keeps
popping up. And that's how I started my relationship with
Harry Belafani. He called me on the phone and we
began a relationship from there. But it was my work,
which is what you said at the beginning of the
introduction was, hey man, you're not really trying to, like,
you know, blow a whole lot of flag of flags
(22:48):
up with your name, but people who should know you,
most of them do.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
And that's not what I got you brushing on And
I ad a stand you're too close to you and
you brush over and if we had a lot of time,
the wee could probably will dig in on it. But
the whole purpose of that moment and what we're talking
about are moments that have happened. Uh, you know, and
I want to I want to always try to put
a different lens on what you're talking about. And so
(23:13):
let's look at the problem at hand. Okay, the problem
at hand is that it wasn't smooth sailing. It never
is negotiating with anybody, right, And if you're negotiating with countries, music, acts, managers, people,
there are going to be uh, some bad actors. There
(23:35):
are going to be people who have all the best
intentions they let you down. There are going to be
people who want to get paid on the side. I
want to get paid in advance. They're gonna they're gonna
be one of the people, kind of like the chicken
or the egg. Give me the money first and then
I'll show up. It's never been done before. These are
countries that don't support this. So you've had to make
some tough calls and tough decisions, and you've had to
(23:59):
cancel things, you've lie to, You've had to DoD your
teas and across your t's and dot your eyes because
somebody said something. They let you down. And now you're
talking new relationships and all of a sudden you're like, yeah,
I got coca cola, and Coca Cola is like, okay,
but do you have this artist? And that artist is like, yeah,
but I don't like the hotel in that country. How
(24:22):
do you play that line? Because that's a very hard
line for a lot of us to play, right. I
don't want to speak out of hand. This person's giving
me a shot if I let them down. But a
lot of times I tell people to literal say you
lay it out, you take the elephant on the room.
You know this is gonna be a hard situation. I
promise I'm not gonna let you down, but I'm also
not gonna lie to you. If this thing doesn't happen
(24:44):
by this date or I feel anything, I'm gonna give
you a call and give you straight up answers like
how do you do that? Because that's the difference in
people who know how to navigate and massage you know
these things?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Right? So, because I think so.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Communication one is communication and then two kind of really
like letting people know who you are and your sincerity
and your authenticity come through.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
One of my brothers who ended up working with me
for thirty plus years in the Caribbean, who was from Trinidad,
taught me early on, he said, passing in the Caribbean.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
But you know, you know who is he? I You know,
I'm Trinidadian Derek.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Lewis, Derek Close's name. He just passed last year, said suddenly.
But from uh he worked with you, he worked, he worked.
As a matter of fact, he was my stage manager
on those Fuobuo dates that I did for you.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, you know, I'm from Dago Martin and you know
who's been you know what I haven't seen in a while.
You know, I'll come over with the name. Uh yes, okay, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
So so it was the the advice was, it's not
how you tell somebody how to do something, that's how
you ask. So I learned that when I was in
my early thirties. I'm sixty two now, when I was
like thirty.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
How is not how you tell, it's how you ask.
Give me a give us all an example of that positioning.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You're running into a scenario, like you said, of there's
a critical person who's at the who's at customs making
a decision on letting equipment into a country, and you
have to go to that person. And if that person
doesn't let that equipment out at a specific time that
(26:34):
you needed out. The whole show could be blown and
everything could be blown up in the air. And this
is a person who's literally sitting behind a desk who
no one will ever know in life. But he has
the decision is to he has the power over to
let some equipment through customs or hold it up for
a week or two. And if that equipment is held up,
your life is gonna be changed, and not for.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
I'm gonna show you how my wife would talk for
that person.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
God darning.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
I need that equipment, buddy by four o'clock, or give
me your name and your manager's name. I think that's
pretty effective.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, brother, I need you to work with me and
I need this equipment release. If you would be kind
of let me know what I need to do to
get this done correctly. So I'm going to inherit it
whatever it is you need me to inherit too. But
we need to work with each other because everything's gonna change,
not for the better if I can't get this through.
(27:33):
So what do I need to do to work with
you to get this done properly?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
So how many people do you find? And I believe
in the same right because you know that person, I
don't care if they're a waiter. I don't care if
they're scraping gum off the street. That person has pride,
that person has frustration, that person has the need for acknowledgment.
(27:58):
How many people do you fin find abuse that privilege
that and just overlook that person and they never wonder,
they don't want, they don't never understand why they didn't
get anywhere. Do you find that? That is a common
mistake that people make.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
On both sides, one from the person who has the
power to make the decision, and sometimes they'll make arbitrary
decisions that just don't make sense to others who you're
just ready to overlook a person like I mean the
room I'm in right now in the True Reformer building,
the sister who's the security guard who let me in
to come up here to use this room to do
(28:42):
the podcast from. And so for me, as the person
who's got some degree of enlightenment, it's on you to
be kind and gracious and treat people like you'd like
to be treated, something I work to do every single
day by way of my kindness and my graciousness toward others.
And in friendships being the friend that I would like
(29:03):
to have. So uh that comes those little simple things
come to us all the time. Uh and damn you
can translate those to businesses pretty easily. But to me,
just meaningful human relationships and small interactions with people from
a human perspective that makes all the difference in the world.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
And let's be very thirst I'm not I'm not going
to be able to get to all the shit that
you will have accomplished. I'm I'm taught, I'm your your
you know, I'm really at your age right now as
I went through it. I'm at thirty five. I got
a whole bunch I got a whole bunch of other
years to cover here where we're talking about what is
(29:41):
and I'm getting to all other things. But I want
to make I mean because I want people to really
listen to what you said. Because also there's a couple
of things to think about. You know, when you have
an interaction with any of these people, right it takes
one second to say thank you. And however, there's another
responsibility that comes with that. If you really want to
be genuine, you want to be there when they have
(30:03):
the small ask if they ever have the ask in
the future. That's critical because even that woman downstairs you
want to it's it's not impossible just to remember her
name when you say thank you, Judy, and to say
if you ever name me, if you have any idea, oh,
whatever the case is, here's who I am. You give
(30:25):
me a call. That woman will most likely ninety nine
percent never call you, but it will make that person
feel special, and you never know when you're gonna run
into her again, or well, she's gonna hear your name
and all of it. You know how many times I've
been someplace and somebody said, you took a picture of
my daughter in the airport walking down the street. And
(30:49):
that's why I called you five years later, because your
name came up and you didn't have to do that.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yeah, yeah, Holy correct. So that's how I got into
the Washington Spirit. I had met a gentleman named Steve
Boblin at twenty seventeen, and he called me an early
twenty twenty during the during the pandemic and said, I'd
like to bring into my group to be part owner
of the Washington Spirit National Women's Soccer League club. And
(31:19):
literally is somebody who i'd met one time in my life.
And he remembered the meeting and called me back up
and said, hey, I want to offer you the opportunity
to come into our ownership group. I'd like you to invest,
but I'm willing to also give you some give you
some equity in the team for just joining our group.
And that was literally from a person who I met
(31:40):
one time. So you can make an impression on somebody
one time. You may not know it yourself, but you
absolutely positively can make an impression upon somebody for one
meeting with them, and.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
It can change your life. But you can also change
their life as well.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
And so let's talk about those saw skills how they transferred,
because how you use those soft skills to move over
to uh you know, team ownership. Now, being a being
a fan of a team or a fan of a
sport and being an operating and or advisor or working
the sport are two totally different things. I tell people
(32:18):
I love the restaurant. I love some chicken wings I
was having at a restaurant. I invested in the restaurant.
And when I started to deal with having to hear
about insurance and labor laws and uh, you know, real
estate issues, I never went back to the restaurant again,
right now, dealing with being a player or a spectator
(32:40):
of a sport and then dealing with the intricacies or
running a team a lot of personalities as well as
people don't realize, or being a you know, in a
team whatever capacity, you know you're also a politician in
there because that team. I've learned this from Mark Cuban.
You know, he said when he first made some money
and he went and bought the MAVs, he thought he
(33:02):
could say what he wants. He thought he can throw
chairs on uh, you know, on courts and be a
bad boy, right, And he didn't realize that there were
three hundred reporters reporting on every one of his moves,
and that kids in communities looked up that's some of
the only hope they had was that team, and that
he had a bigger responsibility. This wasn't I could do
(33:24):
what the hell I want. These are families looking up
to it. There's responsibility that comes in working and in
the organization. How did you transfer those soft skills over
to this area. Because every one of the people listening
to us right now, inclusive of myself, we don't want
to be held in a box. We want to be
able to do other things that we like. But people
(33:45):
only you know, for Shark Tank, Damon just made baggajeans.
I was supposed to walk in the room with Bagga
jeans on gold teeth and start wrapping. That's how people
saw me before Shark Tank, and rightfully, so that's only
understanding they had of me. What you know, what is
it like being part of the operation and you know
those aspects of a team and and what do you do? Like?
(34:07):
What what do people do? Everybody has different positions, but
please tell me what is it like being in organizations
like that?
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (34:15):
One?
Speaker 1 (34:15):
I like you said something earlier when you talked about Mark,
but we talked about responsibility. So I think once you
kind of get past the luster and you pinch yourself
a couple of times and say, well, I can't you know,
I can't really believe I'm part owner of a major
league sports franchise. One is your relationships with the principal partners.
That's there all the time. But two, it's the fans
(34:39):
who the You talked about the responsibility in the neighborhood,
But to me, part of that part of that piece
is when someone buys a ticket to come to a
sports event, to me, they're investing in your You're investing
in your story, in your investment, in your in your portfolio.
They're actually investing in it. And so they now for
that brief moment of time while they're in that game
(35:00):
and participating with it. And certainly if they're a fan,
if they're buying T shirts and merchandise and there's posters
on the wall, they're investing in your portfolio, in your investment.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
And to me, it is a.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Responsibility to them, and one to me that that, to
me is a humbling thing because you're thankful for that,
because they're making whatever you do blow up and be bigger.
I'm conscious when I walk through Washington, not just on
game days, but on game days. I can almost get
a feel for an attendance of a game by seeing
how many people are wearing Nats jerseys during during the
(35:33):
during the season, or during a homestand more specifically, and
those people, to me, are buying into it when they
have that jersey and they're buying into it, and you
get a feel. I drive around on game days and
baseball we have generally home stands for about a week
to seven to ten day homestands and then we go
on the road, then we come back again. But for
that span of time from the beginning of April through
(35:56):
the end of September, that's our baseball season. So I'm
mindful of the team much more so during the season.
I'm thankful when I walked walked throughout the city. There's
part of the responsibilities one being a part of a community,
being an owner in a community. Most of my investments
have been in end or around Washington, but as you mentioned,
I've invested in Cape Town. I've got a couple more
(36:19):
coming up. But you're going to be in Australia, but
in the city to me that you live in, it's
much more of a responsibility to be a part and
parcel of what that is. As far as the responsibilities
on a day to day part ideally help with helping
to shape the ownership group and the front office leadership group,
and that comes to relationships and being participating. The Learner
(36:40):
family tell me early on that I could be as
involved or uninvolved as I wanted to be. I chose
to be involved, and I became the chairman of the
Minority Partners Group or the Founding Partners Group as we're
referred to, which are the black owners of the Washington Nationals,
Black and Latino owners of Nationals. So I try to
(37:01):
participate where it's an open opportunity for me, everything from
helping to shape how things are viewed with my media background,
but also how things run as well, and try to
be a part of making some good picks for key
c suite c suite leadership in a group that's a
small part of it. And then I consider myself an
(37:23):
ambassador of the team as well, and I participate from
everything from the gear that I wear and things like
that to speaking with people and building up the team.
I do a lot of public speaking. You mentioned volunteerism.
I've been chairman of the United States Congress's charity called
the US Congression Awards since two thousand and seven. I'm
(37:44):
a volunteer in that position. I've raised millions of dollars
and it's a charity for young people and helping them
grow through personal development, physical fitness, goal setting and development,
and volunteerism. It's called the US Congression Awards versus official
charity to young people.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
And last one and thank you so much for for
all of this this knowledge you said, you said at
one point, you don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't
do other things like that. And you know, I find
that the most successful people, you know, addiction of whatever,
(38:23):
or a habit of whatever is bad, whatever it could be.
There is a fine line, right, even if it's an
addiction to or gaming what whatever, it is spending too
much time on something that is not necessarily building your
skill level and productivity. I don't think I've really talked
(38:48):
to too many you know, people about that publicly and
just you know, but we you know, a lot of
the a lot of the government, the Secret Service is
made up of Mormons, right, and various people who have
a high level of productivity due to the fact that
they may not have some of these some of these
kind of habits. How I don't think I've ever had
(39:10):
this discussion, definitely not publicly. How do you feel that
that has been really either add clarity to you or
it has increased your productivity or where do you think
that that has been in your benefit? And a lot
of times people have these what escapes, right, what do
(39:33):
you do to escape or what do you do to
zone out? I mean it could be working out. It
could be I don't know what it is, right, it
could be listening to some jazz.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Right.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
How do you feel that has played a real benefit
in your life? Because I stopped drinking about two years
ago and I'm very, very productive prior to that, obviously, right,
But now I mean I'm unstoppable. I am, I am.
I am hungry than I was when I was twenty
seven years old. And it's not for money, right, It's
(40:05):
to be alive and to share this information and to
have this joy and see my little girls and see
my friends, and just do what's right and pay back
what I have been a beneficiary of from the Harry
Belafonte's and the Paxtons of the world. I want to
know where do you feel and how do you feel
(40:28):
about the fact that you didn't have necessary those vices,
maybe have others? And how do you release if you
don't have certain vices?
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Great question and one that I'm not often asked a lot,
can't itly? I'm trying to like, as I was listening
to you talk about, I was trying to think, is
anybody ever brought it up in an interview.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
About and this is that moment because I've never brought
it up either or I never thought about it.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Yeah, well, I guess it's second nature.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
But damn, I can say that I'm aware that I'm
always conscious, like I'm like, you know, Napoleon Hill talks
about positive mental attitude and kind of like having that
be there all the time. I'm always conscious, So there's
never a moment where my mind is dulled or my
senses are dulled away and I'm not focused on business.
(41:16):
You and I have been together more times than you'd
actually know, because more often than not it was at
events or like the after party for a BT award,
and everybody in the room ninety ninety five percent of
the people in the room are drinking, and you know, hey,
God bless them.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
That's you know, that's sure.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Nothing against anybody, but it's just that's not what's happening
with me. When I splurrege periodically, I'll drink a spray
because all the other times it's either water or club
soda or water with gas. And I'm always aware, like
just there's no point where somebody says, hey, man, you
(41:54):
know I was talking to you. You forgot, you know,
we were talking about this, this and that it's like, no, no,
I'm actually I'm on it. I didn't forget anything. I'm
crystal clear. It's you know, I'm consciously aware of what
it is, and I'm focused.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
And I'm focused and I'm focused.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Because my mind is not dull by something and I'm
not like sidetracked by anything. So think about for all
of the all of the things that you've been through,
and all of the events that you've been through, all
the different parties that you've been through, like you were focused.
You have something that you were probably looking to accomplish
before you went into it, and when you ran across
(42:48):
a person who was there. It might be a famous personality,
or it might be a business personality that many people
in the room don't even know who that is, but
you know who it was because you know the business
that they're in, Like a private equity person, right, an
investment person who no one in the room is even
conscious of who that is, but you know who it is.
And you're trying to get to that side of the
room to vibe with that person because you know what
(43:10):
you're trying to accomplish with him, And so when you
have here shot with them, your voice is not slow.
Your mind is not dull in any way, shape or
form you would point on, you know, I would just
briefly point out to my first relationship. The first time
I met Clarence Avon backstage at a concert January of
nineteen ninety one at the Old Cap Center in Landover, Maryland,
(43:32):
outside of DC. And in that conversation that I have
with Clarence, you couldn't believe that a black boy from
Compton was producing a festival in Amsterdam. And he's, you know,
you know Clarence's language, because I know you know him.
You know, He's like, you know, damn, but you know,
(43:53):
you know over at Amsterdam, Like what do you do? Like,
break down to me. You said you produced an event.
Tell me what you do? Like, I booked the talent,
I booked the venue, I booked the sound license stage.
I make sure the insurance is paid. I make sure
that the portagohn is there. I make sure this is secure.
So I break down all of production to him and
(44:15):
he's looking at me, wait, waiting for me to slip
up anywhere. And we kept talking and he was like, damn,
you know a negro in Amsterdam, And you know he
used a different word than that in Amsternam, I even
know they had black people over there, let alone you
little negro from Compton over there, you know effing with
that and like okay, you can come see me. And
(44:38):
that gave me the opportunity to sit at the feat
and study at Clarence Avon University as a thirty year old.
And that brother took me under his wing and taught me.
And had I not have been clear and focused with
that brief moment of time that I had with him,
and I had read up on this preparation as a
key critical piece to it. I had read up on
(44:58):
who he was. I knew who he was. Most people
in that whole venue out of twelve thousand people that
were there that night at a concert, very few people
to know who Clarence Avant was. But I did, and
I took my opportunity and to changed my life. So
being prepared for those little moments and nuggets of time
that you have are critical.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
You may not have them.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
So for you, somebody studying you and they point out
something like, you know, an obscure point early on in
your career, they picked your interests. They now have your
attention and it's up to them to take that moment
and do something correct with your attention that may change
their life. So for me, it was the same thing.
I take nothing for granted now you made it. Think
(45:38):
about a silver spoon earlier. That was funny because there
was no silver and a home in Compton in the
nineteen sixties. The youngest six kids black born in Compton.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
You're leaving during the riots, they were no spoons at
all because we were burning the place down because of
the same things we've had seen and having recently. So yeah,
you had nothing.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
You take that moment and you run with it and
you make the best of it. And that's been for me.
My whole career has been taking the best of those,
you know, singular moments and making the best of them.
So I can't say enough about preparation. I can't say
enough about savings, being prepared when those opportunities come along,
that you have the capital to invest in it. And
(46:25):
then charity by way of sharing what you have with
other people and volunteering. Volunteering the sharing part. Napoleon will
address that, like when you give away something, how you've
reinforced it yourself, your own awareness of the things that
you have that you have enough to share with others
and that reinforces that positivity within yourself and you can
(46:46):
continue to grow and make the world a better place.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Well, I mean, you have done so much for us
as a culture and behind the scenes. And I have
one last question. And I don't know of you or
I how the am so this? I always say that
you know it is. It is sad, very very sad
that if you really reflect on this, I'm the only
(47:10):
African American on national television show that did not self made,
that did not come from music, sports to television, meaning
in the front side of entertainment. And I always say,
there are so many of us, and you're an example
of it, Bob Johnson, Kathy Hughes. But I've never been
(47:35):
on I've never been highlighted on the cover of any
African American magazine. Now I want to qualify that or
digital whatever it is by saying that, Well, I don't
know if I should be on a music one, and
definitely shouldn't be on a sports one. But I've been
on the cover of Ink and all these other ones.
Why aren't people like you and I but forget me,
(47:59):
I have that platform. Why aren't we internally and within
our communities celebrating more brilliant people like you and Kathy
Hughes and so many other people, because if we don't
celebrate ourselves, then why shouldn't anybody else? Right, Why aren't
we putting that out instead of them taking nothing away
(48:22):
from the athletes? Athletes are literally winning a lotto because
it is you know, there's not a lot of athletes
out there, and you're playing at the highest level. It
is very hard to be an athlete, an actor, or
singer anybody, right, But why aren't we celebrating more people
like you?
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Well, you qualified the question and you said maybe you know,
maybe we don't know the answer to it, that that
was a great qualifier to it. I don't know the answer,
but I'd be willing to bet that there's never been
a day in your life that it's impeded you in
any way, shape or form from being the best that
(48:55):
you possibly can be. And as much as I'm thankful
to hear you say something to the effect of that,
it should happen, I'm thankful for that. And to me,
you simply just saying that to me has without exaggeration. Brother,
I want to tell you it's made my day, and
it's a blessing to me. There's never been a day
that I've ever woken up and actually taken any time
(49:16):
whatsoever to think about somebody's celebrating me or bemoaning the
fact that somebody hasn't done it. It doesn't even possibly mind.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
Actually you got to do it because you want to
do it. Yeah, But you know, maybe maybe that was
just maybe just a call out to people to say,
show people Packston, show your your children, Paxton, right, because
it's great to see these music artists or these great
people who are doing great things. But we need the
people who are watching now to show their children, Paxton,
(49:49):
not Damon, look this Paxson. There's probably thousands of more,
you know, people that we don't know why, you know,
don't aspire to this, aspired to this greatness.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
You know, well, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for it. Brother,
I appreciate it. I've been when people sometimes say to you,
oh man, I've been following you for years, but I
literally I work for you back in uh nineteen ninety four,
ninety five, producing stages for you.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
How about that.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
I didn't know that then. And you know what, we
got to dinner, we're gonna go. We're gonna follow up
one for sure. I gotta I got a big a
list here for you already. Man. But but for the
purpose of everybody watching who they've been, they have invested
their time with us. I appreciate you so much, man,
and we learned a lot a lot of lessons from
you about the about communication, about uh, you know, knowing
(50:43):
how to be of service, about having the structure and
the fundamentals of business and knowing how to translate that
into other areas soft skills, giving, and so many other things. Man,
So thank you so much. And uh, I'm gonna, we're
gonna we're gonna hook up and I'm gonna follow you
right now.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
That works.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
Thank you, belove it, since Billy appreciates you. Wishing you
every continued some guy's many blessings and each and every
one of your steps.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
That moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't forget
to subscribe to and rate the show. And of course
you can all connect with me on any of my
(51:37):
social media platforms. At The Shark, Damon spelled like Raymond,
but what a d
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