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Executive Retail Leadership | CEO | "Techpreneur" feat. Kevin Lloyd Part 2
107 Plays1 year ago
Today’s Guest is Kevin Lloyd, a former Executive Leader in Retail and current “Tech-pre-neur”, who has built a tech and entrepreneur ecosystem that brings together the Black community in Central Ohio. He has over 20 years of Executive Leadership at Retail outlets like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target, Old Navy and Sears. Additionally, he is the Co-Founder and CEO of MYLE (Make Your Life Entertaining), an Entertainment Software and Data Analytics company that provides curated content based on the user's location. His vision is to become the world's most renowned entertainment marketplace and they’ve set a mission to expose at least 25,000 socio-economically challenged youth to entertainment, the arts, & travel. He’s also the COO of Color Coded Labs, an education course that empowers people of color with tech courses AND after they graduate, connects them to innovative companies dedicated to diversity. Finally, he is the Co-Founder of ColumbusBlack.com, the premier online source of news, events, and entertainment for the Black community in Columbus, Ohio. It has acquired more than 250,000 unique visitors, 500,000 visits, and exceeded 10 million hits.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinlloydtheleader/
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Promotion
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back for part two of Take Your Homeboy to Work Day podcast. We'll pick up where we left off. But before you go, we need your help to spread our message. So please subscribe, like, and rate five stars wherever you get your podcast and on LinkedIn at Take Your Homeboy to Work Day podcast. Thank you. Enjoy.
Emotional Motivation in Tough Times
00:00:27
Speaker
I don't even know how to describe those emotions, but I definitely understand how that can keep you going even when you may not feel like you're going. So that's really special.
00:00:37
Speaker
And I guess I wanted to start with Columbus Black, because I
Columbus Black and the Genesis of Myo
00:00:40
Speaker
know that's the foundation for you getting into tech and building Myo, which you just alluded to. So now I guess I'd love to just maybe go over Myo, color-coded labs, your co-working space. Let's start with Myo. How did Columbus Black build into Myo? First thing is I want to share something that you mentioned. You mentioned tech.
00:01:03
Speaker
Now, everything is evolved and changed. We had no idea that Columbus Black was a tech platform, right? It wasn't considered a tech platform. And we were doing email blasts before email blasts were created or known. We were basically doing social media before it became social media. And seeing everything kind of evolve was very enlightening for us. And it was like, wow. So that led into some of Mile. But really, Mile came from.
00:01:33
Speaker
We had gathered some great learnings from having events and understanding our community, what we buy, what we eat, what we drink, right? And learning those things and how we could create habits or form habits from leveraging the technology and engaging folks.
00:01:48
Speaker
And then with Mao, that came about from some conversations with a potential client opportunity. And from that conversation, it turned into, hey, how could we diversify a little bit more, more mainstream, which we had on our radar already. And then it turned into how can we create like this perk
00:02:06
Speaker
for people so they could get acclimated faster and easier. And one thing led to another, right?
Myo: Revolutionizing Event Management
00:02:13
Speaker
And over time it evolved into this concept and it wasn't necessarily make your life entertaining at the time. It was all about lifestyle enhancement
00:02:22
Speaker
But the technology basically evolved over time, because when we started this concept, and Sherriella tested this, that we literally were talking about software at the time, which is interesting. We came back full circle to a software company. But at the time, it was a thing of apps did not exist. That's how far ago this idea came up. It was before apps.
00:02:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the iPhone wasn't even... Yeah. And like literally all of that happened while we... When we moved, relocated from Columbus to New York, that's when everything started to explode on the app side. Okay. And that's actually during that time for when Uber actually
00:03:10
Speaker
was launched, right? But we didn't even know about Uber at that time. That's like, you know, how recent all this stuff happened. So anyway, the bottom line is, that's how the idea came about and was formulated. And then a big part of that too is, I mentioned the 10 relocations over the 25 years. And what you learn in every one of those relocations are people are looking for the same things, right? Things to do, places to go, and food to eat.
00:03:34
Speaker
So if I'm living in New York City and I moved from New York City, what happened is friends will reach out and say, Hey, where should we go in New York? Right. And that would happen for us all the time. People reach out to us. Hey, where should I go when I go to Atlanta? Cause I used to live in Atlanta. Where should I go when we're here? Right. So it was the thing of,
Corporate Lessons Fueling Myo's Growth
00:03:52
Speaker
Okay, if we could figure out how to do this through a technology-based platform, that would simplify that and make it easy for everyone. That was one side of it. Well, the other side is through Columbus Black, what helped Columbus Black to grow was promoting events. So some partners and I used to host events every single month. One of them was the mid-month mixer, but then I probably held, I don't know, probably 30 or 40 other types of events with other promoters over the years.
00:04:19
Speaker
So, on the other side of Mile, we learned that there are some key things that promoters need, right? One, you need a place to post your events. You need another place to promote your events, right? All in the same platform. You shouldn't have to say, I want to post an event on one platform and I want to go someplace else to promote it, right? So, Mile allows you to do that all in one. Well then, obviously the promoter's like, hey, we'll love to use this platform, but we'll need to be able to sell our tickets on it.
00:04:43
Speaker
So guess what? Now you can sell your tickets. And at the end of the day, we all know that everybody now wants data insights, right? So what about who's buying my tickets and what can we learn about people who are interested in my events and how can we target more of those people to get more of them to come to our events based off the fact that they like what we do. So that's what we have literally been developing over the last nine years.
00:05:10
Speaker
And we finally have a platform that people love because it allows you to find things to do, places to go food to eat, and it allows event creators to post their events, promote their events, sell tickets to their events, and capture engagement insights from their audience, all on one platform.
00:05:31
Speaker
Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, I guess I want to I want to try to find a parallel with this next question. You know, I love you have a real systematic way of how you thought about building your business and the value you want to provide as you were going through corporate America being in leadership.
00:05:50
Speaker
Were there any parallels or thought processes that you learned in corporate America that you applied to, to my own and so for me, when I didn't see happening at the time, but I ended up, uh, there's two things. One being an African-American and corporate America, you end up in a lot of different, at least I was blessed enough to, to be in a lot of different roles. The challenging part of that was in most cases, I was the only one in those roles.
00:06:18
Speaker
But for me, because I was in retail, a lot of the opportunities that presented themselves were entrepreneurial based. That's the other good part about being a retailer is you run a business. You're responsible for the P&L if you run a store or a district or market. And it's all about profit and loss and how many people you're going to hire and how you're going to spend your money. So you control all that. You're an entrepreneur for another company at that time. And that's what they want. They want you to effectively run that business.
00:06:47
Speaker
And what I didn't realize was that the foundation was being created for me to literally run my own business. Okay. So a lot of those leadership skills, uh, understanding how to manage teams, understanding, uh, and I want to say managing teams as much as I want to say understanding how to lead and engage people. Right. Because you want a team, but everyone is their own individual and you have to understand how
00:07:14
Speaker
to, you have to understand what people's triggers are, right? What motivates them, inspire them. You had to get to know them. And that was one of the biggest things. So that comes into play every single day as an entrepreneur. No matter if I'm dealing with somebody on my team, someone who's a contractor, another business owner, a potential client, all of those foundations were built.
00:07:37
Speaker
in my corporate career that I'm now not able to apply as I'm doing what I'm doing with my businesses. And then in addition to that, just understanding business in itself, having a business sense from a professionalism standpoint, a paperwork and documentation standpoint, and now even more importantly, a number standpoint, understanding your financials, how your financials guide you to make the decisions for the business, running a profitable business, not just a business, but looking at profitability, because you could be making money, but not making money.
00:08:09
Speaker
So that's very, very important for people to understand. So I'm going to answer that question.
Myo's Vision for an Entertainment Ecosystem
00:08:16
Speaker
Yeah. Awesome.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, yes, it did. And that's, man, that's exactly why I really wanted you to come on as a guest, this background of corporate America, because a lot of times these days, corporate America is kind of shunned as selling yourself and selling your soul and you aren't building anything for yourself, but you're able to talk about how the development and the growth internally help prepare you for entrepreneurship. So I really appreciate you finding those parallels and finding the value in corporate America that then helped you become successful in entrepreneurship. So that's awesome.
00:08:48
Speaker
As it relates to mile, where do you see it going? What's your goal and future? What do you see? What do you see? Yeah, so with now, we're super excited, right? If you think about where technology is, and if you think about how you spelled it out, the company is an entertainment software.
00:09:07
Speaker
and lifestyle data analytics company. So what does that really mean for those are like, what is that? What is that? So on the front end, we're building software technology platforms that literally should make your life better and simplify things for you. Now in this case, there's primarily going to be around entertainment, hospitality, and transportation.
00:09:28
Speaker
So far, we've built, obviously, Mile, the social activity in entertainment marketplace, which is available on your iOS, Android, and your desktop. So most people know of it as the Mile app, right? Why? Because that's what we promoted it as. And that's because it is so enhanced and so comprehensive, we want people to really use it so that they can see entertainment in a different way that they've ever experienced. But what we're looking to build is an entire entertainment ecosystem.
00:09:58
Speaker
So that's the big picture. And I can't, because of the secret sauce, go through all the details of what that ecosystem looks like. Let's just say it does not exist today. Okay. What we're does not exist. We're not copycatting with anybody else is doing. We are creating a new lane.
00:10:16
Speaker
And the plan and the goal is to disrupt the entertainment industry as we know it today by truly making your life entertaining no matter who you are or where you are. And there's so many facets to that. And these emerging technologies that are out there now are, you said you want to ask about this a little bit later, but if you think about AI, generative AI and what that is doing or going to do in the future,
00:10:40
Speaker
When you think about the people who have adopted NFTs and blockchain technology, as well as the metaverse. We hear about these things, but unfortunately, we're not necessarily delving into them and using them the way that we can or should. And we're excited to be on the forefront of a lot of that.
00:10:59
Speaker
And once again, you can't see where we're headed, but we want everybody to be a part of where we headed. So we invite people to download the app today in the app store on the Mile event. Go to our website, mile.com. Become a part of this ecosystem that we're building now and grow with us, because what we're going to build, you're going to be amazed by over time.
00:11:23
Speaker
That sounds exciting, man. That sounds really exciting. I'm going to make sure to put a link to the website and then to be able to download it in the show notes to make it as simple as possible
Faith and Entrepreneurship
00:11:33
Speaker
so that people can join the community. Thank you so much. That sounds really exciting.
00:11:39
Speaker
And I love that you are a visionary thinker. And so, you know, I want to ask this next question. It's really abstract. And I guess you can include your entire career experiences, include the future you're looking on, you know, some of the, you know, your color coded labs.
00:11:56
Speaker
But as you think about your career and what you have accomplished and what you want to accomplish, if you had to describe that as a picture to a painter and they were going to draw it, what would you describe that picture as? How would you explain your career and what you're trying to accomplish for an artist?
00:12:20
Speaker
That is a great question. And so as you were asking that question, I'm like, man, what is that picture? I would say, and it's still forming in my mind, but right now what I see is almost like a circular, you got to try to envision this, a circular ladder, right? That is going upward into the sky, up toward heaven.
00:12:47
Speaker
right? So, um, and to describe that as I'm like, and this is literally off the cuff, but that's the vision that I received. And as I'm thinking through what that is, is obviously, you know, continuing to climb upward, right? But at the end wanting to end up in heaven. And as you're going around in these circles, right? On the way up,
00:13:12
Speaker
There are different things that you experience, um, as you go around those circles, right? So those are all the life experiences that are happening. And it's not like it's a straight path straight up, right? Like there is a, and that's in that circle as you're going up, it's, you know, it may come up and down a little bit as you're going toward the top. But, um, the goal here for me, especially right now is, yep, I started down here at one place.
00:13:38
Speaker
I've climbed this ladder and I will continue to climb this ladder. There will be ups and downs along the way, but the goal is to build a legacy along the way. Right. So it doesn't, that ladder doesn't evaporate. It stays because it's the legacy that's being built along the way throughout this life. But with the goal of, um, you know, having a pathway for others to follow as well,
00:14:02
Speaker
with it all ending in the right place. Through the faith that I have in God and what he's provided, the goal is to obviously end up in his kingdom, but to do a
Ventures for Community Impact
00:14:13
Speaker
lot of great work along the way. So that would be the painting that I would have.
00:14:20
Speaker
That's awesome. I can envision that now. So I know that can sometimes be a tough question to think abstractly, but I love the picture you painted and thank you. And I guess let's take a couple of, I guess, a minute or two, you know, we could talk about faith and how that has, I guess, enhanced you. We've talked a lot about the tangible skills you've learned.
00:14:39
Speaker
But having faith, an intangible belief system or support system has been very important to you. You've mentioned how it gave you the foundation to build Columbus Black through First Church of God and talked about how it's helped you. But I guess could you just share, for those who may not have faith or may not believe, why would you encourage somebody to become a believer and how has it helped you and how do you think it can help other people?
00:15:09
Speaker
interesting that you asked that. There are times that I have... I mean, if most people listen to this segment, a lot of people would be like, wow, he just kind of had a good, easy life, right? Is what it may come across as sound like.
00:15:30
Speaker
But if they pay close attention to some things that I said, it clearly was not that, right? And if you go back to
00:15:41
Speaker
where I grew up, how I grew up, the environment, single parent home. I'm not even gonna say no money. This is a very little money, right? And then being able to grow into the lifestyle that I've been able to live at this point through the corporate America piece and financial growth and all of that stuff. And then taking
00:16:11
Speaker
one of the biggest leaps that anybody could take of faith and saying, okay, God, you gave me everything that you said I needed and I'm going to take this leap and I'm going to walk away from all of that money, right? Because I'm being told I'm supposed to be doing something different and bigger, right? And literally having to transform your lifestyle completely and lean on faith
00:16:35
Speaker
and only on faith, right? Like there are days where it's like, I don't know how I'm gonna make it. And I have a family, right? So I'm responsible for certain things. And it's like, I don't know how, and then God provides a way, right? Like, but I lean in on him. Like I literally tell him, I am completely relying on you. When you talk about a faith walk, I am on 150% faith walk every day.
00:17:05
Speaker
Okay. And I also have an appreciation for life and a respect for life because things, as we know, they change so fast. And I don't just mean like people dying instantly. I mean, people ending up in critical condition or severe situations of complete life changes, like upside down, like look at the tornadoes that are happening. Look at the hurricanes, like people's lives are being turned upside down. Look at the accidents, right? Like it is one of those things where you have to appreciate
00:17:34
Speaker
everything you have every day. The ability to wake up, one, to be able to breathe, two, to be able to even get up and move. So many people can't move out the bed today. Sanity. People don't have sanity. They can't figure things out. People are waking up right now. They don't have food. They don't have shelter. They don't have love. They don't have support.
00:17:59
Speaker
respecting all of that and understand that I'm a vessel doing God's work. So when you actually look at everything, my whole scope, if you said, look at everything I'm doing, everything I'm doing,
00:18:12
Speaker
is to impact somebody else's life. If you look at ColumbusBlack.com, literally is to connect people from a socialization standpoint for them to feel connected and feel like they have a place, right? That is so important. Number one, and get key information out to them. Number two, mile. While we created mile, and yes, it can generate wealth, it is still a tech startup. It is a growing business, which means it's been massive sacrifice to get it off the ground and it's finally starting to grow, right?
00:18:39
Speaker
Um, but we created extra mile international, which is the nonprofit arm. So the goal is as mile grows, extra mile will grow as well. Now, extra mile is designed to expose and educate socioeconomically, um, underserved youth and expose them to entertainment, arts, and travel experiences. Why? Because they don't have the money. Their parents don't have the money for them to have these experiences that could tug a passion that could change their mindset, change their life so that they can change the world.
00:19:09
Speaker
Our goal is to
Community-Focused Coworking Space
00:19:10
Speaker
take a percentage, up to 5% of everything that we make from ticketing fees, advertising fees, marketing revenue, and put that back into nonprofit organizations focused on those youth so that they can actually have those experiences and hopefully we can change one life at a time, right? So when people say, man, how do you get up with all this energy every day is because I know the work I'm doing is to impact other lives. So every day I wake up ready to go because I'm doing God's work.
00:19:36
Speaker
Then you have color coded labs. We are literally teaching black and brown folks how to code and helping to helping them to increase their salaries by a minimum of $20,000 within six months. It's a 19 week bootcamp. And then we're working with companies to hire these candidates. Okay. So now you have people that are making 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 or less that are going into jobs, paying them 50, 60, 70 or more.
00:20:02
Speaker
That is changing one household at a time. And that is how you get substantive, not band-aids, substantive, um, growth economically and close the wealth gap that exists in our country. Right. So that's one way we change the lives there. And then last but not least is venture suite. Right. So we're venture suite. That is a coworking space. So same thing is in the King Lincoln Bronzo district. So when you have entrepreneurs,
00:20:47
Speaker
connect with folks. You can help build your business. You can have a quiet space. So that's what we do there. Not to mention it's a beautiful event space for those that can't afford to have events at other locations. And you got a beautiful space right in your community. So everything is literally to help make it better for other folks. And that's the legacy that's being built.
00:20:53
Speaker
and innovation.
00:21:08
Speaker
Man, salute to you for finding your purpose. That is amazing. I had a question about your coworking space. What neighborhood is it in? Yeah, it's 780 Mount Vernon Avenue. It's in the King Lincoln, Bronzeville district or area. It's right across the street from the Columbus Urban League.
00:21:29
Speaker
The Urban League actually owns the building. We leased that space out there, a partner of ours, and helped to support what we're doing in the community. It's right on 780 Mount Vernon Avenue, also across the street or caddy corner from the King Arts Complex. When you think about that whole area right there, how rich it is in history, it's a block away from the Lincoln
00:21:49
Speaker
theater. It's a block and a half away from Adelphi bank. So the first black owned bank here in central Ohio got to give a plug to them as well. So this is a very historic and very rich in history area. And we happen to be one of the pillars on the corner there as well.
Misconceptions and Insights on Entrepreneurship
00:22:07
Speaker
That's awesome. Yeah, man. I attended, my grandmother attended silo. I attended silo with her growing up there. And that's, I think the
00:22:14
Speaker
the third oldest missionary Baptist church in all of Ohio. It's a landmark. So that whole neighborhood is filled with landmarks as it relates to the Black community. So thank you for explaining where it is and where people could find it. Now, I have a couple more questions for you. You mentioned earlier that you weren't necessarily born with the entrepreneurship bug, but it was birth inside of you later.
00:22:39
Speaker
Now, before you went into entrepreneurship, I imagined you had an image of what it was, and then you actually stepped into entrepreneurship. What was the biggest misconception or what was the biggest difference between what you thought entrepreneurship was and what it actually is? That's a really good question. But I had some help. So let me see. So let's go back to what was my perception before.
00:23:10
Speaker
I mean, I would say I thought it was hard work, right? I would say I didn't look at entrepreneurship like the glory, oh, I'm going to become an entrepreneur and be able to do whatever I want, whenever I want, I'm going to be balling out of control. That was not my perspective of it, probably because of being in retail and kind of being an entrepreneur, but for another business and actually starting new business concepts.
00:23:34
Speaker
literally for companies. So I knew the work that was required. Um, and I think I expected that as well. Now what I didn't, um, understand as much was the sale cycle and how long it would take to get deals done. Um, I didn't understand at the time that people that you thought would help you wouldn't and that the people that you thought, uh, wouldn't would,
00:24:04
Speaker
The people you least expect to be there for you and advocate and open up a door for you are the people that will. Sometimes it's the people you just met. And then the people that you have access to, that you know, that you think will do those things for you, they don't. And by the way, and I don't necessarily say that in a negative way, I say that it just doesn't happen.
00:24:25
Speaker
It doesn't mean that they don't want to. Sometimes they don't know how to or they just don't do it. So those are things that I didn't understand as much, but that would help me too before I started, when I first started talking about mentors.
00:24:41
Speaker
And I'll give a plug to Richard Crockett, even though I have a lot, like it'll be hard for me to name everybody who's mentored me. Okay. But this specific conversation, I use a lot of time with people when they reach out to me about entrepreneurship and they're taking that leap. And I'm like, okay, let me, let me share what you will share with me. And what I loved about, you know, what he shared with me first thing he said was about time. Right. So he showed to me the faith that he had and belief he had in me, that he would want to, what took me so long to actually take the step.
00:25:10
Speaker
right? Because he felt like I had what I needed to make that happen. So then the second thing was he explained it to me. He was like, right now, man, it's like being in the wilderness and you feel like you're just out there naked all by yourself, right? Like you're just like no clothes on. And he says, once you get a grasp of your finances and how you can bring in enough to begin to feel like, okay, this is how I can make it, you'll start to
00:25:41
Speaker
basically put some clothes on, right? Cause you're in this wilderness. So you'll start to, you know, you might get some underwear now and you get a sock here. You know, in that analogy, it was so like, it helped me to understand like, okay, one piece at a time, one step at a time. And you just got to keep going too. That's one of the things that, you know, is interesting about entrepreneurship. People will give up on entrepreneurship so fast, you know, three months, six months, a year, two years in.
00:26:10
Speaker
But if you think about it, if you go to get a degree, people will go to school for minimum two, but most cases for a 10 years, right?
00:26:21
Speaker
to become what they want to become. Well, entrepreneurship is very similar, right? And there's learnings that come along the way. Like if you took it as a each year, like a going to school, like if you said, OK, I'm going to school for four years. Well, if you said I'm going to become an entrepreneur and I'm going to give myself at least four years to go at this thing and to learn each year because as a senior or junior or senior, you're not like you were as a freshman, right?
00:26:48
Speaker
So it's the same way in entrepreneurship, you have to one go in and then build a foundation and learn the basics of becoming an entrepreneur. That's where I think accelerators are like really, really phenomenal. Cause they help you to understand some of the basics you should have. They normally help you open up your first door, meaning a client or client base or whatever that may be. And you literally build your foundation and you grow from there. Okay. So that for me is.
00:27:16
Speaker
Like I look at entrepreneurship so differently now because of all that I've been through, right? So this is 18 years where I did double duty. Well, let me say 14 of the 18, I did double duty. And then the last four and a half has been pure bread out here in the wilderness.
00:27:35
Speaker
one sock and one finger of a glove at a time, right? It's like, so that's what that is. But it looks and it's worth it because of the autonomy, the flexibility, you know, something I don't share as openly. But my sister, one of my older sisters passed back in 2013. And one of the things I struggled with was
00:28:01
Speaker
Um, not being able to be like my, one of my other sisters, we spent a lot of time with her, right? Leading up. And then literally though, like the last, I would say 30 days, um, of her life, I wasn't with her as frequently as I was prior to that.
00:28:17
Speaker
And that bothered me. And that still to this day bothers me because it's like I didn't have the autonomy and the flexibility to just take care of my family the way I wanted to at that time. And so one of my motivators to actually become an entrepreneur was to make sure that I would have that ability to do that. And what I will tell you is my mom had a situation about a year and a half ago, two years ago,
00:28:43
Speaker
medical situation and my sister and I needed to take care of her and I was able to go to New York and just spend that time and be there with her and come back home and then go back there. That for me is one of the main reasons why I did it and I thank God that I was in a position enough to be able to be there for her and help her to recover and now she's doing well.
00:29:05
Speaker
So, those are, everybody has their why. I have multiple whys, but the family piece, right. The autonomy, the flexibility, the wanting to build this legacy and impact of the lives for me is my reason for it. So, when you think about like, okay, would you think about entrepreneurship before versus now? It's a totally different reason why and how I look at it now versus then.
Influential Books and Continuous Learning
00:29:32
Speaker
Respect my brother respect man respect and I guess well one last question about entrepreneurship What books or resources do you read? that Keep you updated on innovation or keep you motivated. Oh man, I tried to Between leadership books or entrepreneurial books, right
00:30:01
Speaker
is what kind of keeps me motivated for the most part. I'm always like reading some type of article or now and there's things on social all the time, right? Social media to kind of stay abreast of certain things. But for me, there are like, you know, anytime I can get into a good book,
00:30:20
Speaker
around the things that I'm doing, that's what motivates me. One of them that I'll share is, oh, this is directly related to my industry, which is unique. So we have a marketplace. There was this book called The Cold Start Problem. And man, you talk about getting the answers to the test on your business model and getting you motivated and inspired to just go harder. That one for me was a big one. There's another one by Eric Ries, The Lean Startup.
00:30:49
Speaker
That book, anybody who's going to be coming entrepreneur, it's the same thing with the cold start problem. If you're going to start a business, you have to have the cold start problem because you're starting from scratch. And along the way, you're going to always start from scratch again. Now with the lean startup,
00:31:06
Speaker
That book was inspiring because of the fact that every business and every company should be thinking about innovation, what's next, testing things out, iterating, trying something new, see if it works, trying something else. If you don't have that mindset, you're going to fail because something new is going to come along and people are going to move over. And if you're not on the forefront or have a part of your business that looks at innovation, what's coming up, and you're willing to try different things and learn different things,
00:31:36
Speaker
you're going to fail. And I've worked for companies where it's happened. So that's how I stay motivated and inspired is looking for and listening to friends who are in the same circle that come up with these different amazing books and share them. And then I have a list of all these books that I want to read. And then guess what? When I have some downtime, I just pull one of them up on Audible
00:31:58
Speaker
And I listen, especially when I drive, is I drive a lot. That's my tranquility. I love to drive, and I could drive pretty much anywhere. But during that time, I can listen to books. Awesome. Thank you for those jewels and the actual books.
Motivation, Individuality, and Support
00:32:14
Speaker
I'm going to try to put a link to those on Amazon and the show notes also. So thank you for actually giving me some titles and authors.
00:32:22
Speaker
Well, we are coming down to the end of this conversation. It's been so enriching. Before you go, though, I'd like to ask some pop quiz questions, some fun questions, where the listeners can learn a little bit about who you are and a little bit about your interests outside of work. All right? Yeah, I was right. So the first one, man, the first one, I'm going to create the scenario for you. You are an A&R at a music company.
00:32:51
Speaker
at a label and you've been given an unlimited budget to create your perfect song, we'll call it. You get the choice to choose any three artists and then one producer or beat maker. And you can get them in the studio and they have to use their collective creativity to create a song. Which three artists are you choosing and which producer or beat maker are you choosing? Oh my.
00:33:21
Speaker
Oh man, hold up. I love, I love stopping people with this. Yeah. Man. So let me start here probably on a producer side. I'm gonna say Swiss beats.
00:33:37
Speaker
And then on the, ooh, on the, and it's, so by the way, it's gonna be hip hop. So first of all, right? So I'm gonna end up going, if I can get three in the room, I'm gonna go J, right? So I gotta go Jay-Z. I gotta go, I'm gonna go KRS one.
00:34:04
Speaker
And I'm actually going to go, I'm going to flip it up in the middle. I'm going to go Missy Elliott. Ooh, OK. Those minds in the most four minds in the whole room, that's going to be a powerhouse hit. I know I put you on the spot. And that could be a really tough question, especially when music is so emotional and it could change. But those are three heavy hitters. So thank you for answering that. And then the second question, if they were going to make a movie about your life,
00:34:33
Speaker
What actor would you choose to play you in? I have to go with Michael, man. He killing the game right now. Oh, yeah. Come on, man. Yeah. Yeah, man. B. Jordan. B. Jordan, right? OK. Yeah, that would be the dude.
00:35:02
Speaker
That was good. Yeah. Beth, Beth. Well, man, Kevin, this has been an amazing conversation. I appreciate you being so open and honest and giving candor about your journey through growing up in New York.
00:35:17
Speaker
college, starting off in corporate America, entrepreneurship, how it's helped you build a better relationship with your family and fully and actually fulfill your purpose and what you want to do in life. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Before we go, is there anything you'd love to leave our audience with? Oh, man.
00:35:35
Speaker
First of all, I will start off with a big thank you to you, right? So I have the ability... So one of the things that I do on Columbus Black is I actually do a support black business series where I highlight what I call Movershakers and Bakers. And then I also do this piece where we highlight these entrepreneurs and talk about their businesses and I do what you just did.
00:36:01
Speaker
So I have mad respect, as you've said multiple times, for you for what you're doing with your podcasts. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell my story, because I'm always making sure everybody else tell their story. And it's very rare that somebody says, hey, I want you to tell your story. So thank you for that opportunity. Number one. Number two is that I hope that what I've shared, and this is what I tell people before my shows, and I hope this happened here.
00:36:29
Speaker
I hope that this has helped one person at least. If at least one person can have an impact or this can have an impact on their lives and how they either think about something, how it motivates or inspires them or understand that they're not the only one going through a situation.
00:36:47
Speaker
that for me would be rewarding and hopefully that actually happens and I look forward to helping to push this out as well to kind of spread this message. And then the third thing that I would tell people is keep going, right. Your vision is your vision and it's not for everybody to understand your vision because God gave you your vision.
00:37:08
Speaker
And you have to make sure that you learn as much as you can apply and then lean on him for guidance and faith and direction to accomplish what it is that you want to accomplish. Don't feel like because everybody doesn't get who you are, what is you do, that something's wrong with you.
00:37:28
Speaker
because that's why we're all different. God gave us all a different personality, different skill set. That's why we have different thumbprints, right? And we are all unique and we have to realize that. And if other people can just take a moment to respect the uniqueness of other individuals, I think we get so much further along than we are today. Like God put us all here for a reason. We all supposed to do our thing. So
00:37:56
Speaker
Support people in what they're doing and respect the fact that they're doing what they do They're not you they're not supposed to be you and you're not them and you're not supposed to be them and with that I'll leave it at that man. I appreciate it People can follow me on LinkedIn Kevin Lloyd the leader the same on Facebook. I'm on Instagram and Twitter under the same handles and Yeah, man, whatever I could do to continue to help people. That's my goal
00:38:24
Speaker
That's awesome, man. That's awesome. Well, thank you, sir. I'm sure you've been an inspiration for the listeners. I appreciate your time. You do the same. Keep going. Have a great rest of the day. Take care, brother. Bye-bye. I will. Yes, sir.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:38:39
Speaker
Hey, before you go, we need your help to spread our message. So please subscribe, like, and rate five stars wherever you get your podcast and on LinkedIn at Take Your Homeboy to Work Day podcast. Thank you.