Last night I got to meet Don Lemon and D.L. Hughley. The night was about politics and the uneasiness in this country, and these are two of the people who inspired me to start this show.
When I left my dream job to start my startup, it was originally about a physical space and a building. The goal was to help people grow, land their dream jobs, land the right money to uplift their lives, and take care of their health, all through programming and events. Then the construction estimate came back.
Once it was clear we didn't have $1.3 million, the people in our ear started advising us wrong. Focus on this, focus on that. I was a new entrepreneur with an investment, and I got taken advantage of. I spent two years letting people advise me away from what I had always intentionally wanted to do, and all of it led us to the wrong destination, with me doing something I never wanted to do and didn't like doing.
So I had to get back to my roots, which was always just helping people manufacture excellence. That's what made me want to start The Excellence Factory show. Same mission, no building required: honest conversations about careers, money, health, and growth, so people can go build their own excellence.
Even then, there were a lot of nerves. Will it be successful? Should I do this? Should I really speak my mind? There's a lot of risk with that.
Then I watched Don get fired from CNN and start his own show, and I watched D.L. keep driving impact and speaking his mind. Both of them gave me the boost I needed to finally start.
So what have you been advised away from?
Maybe it's a business, a show, a book sitting in your notes app, or a degree you started and never finished. Whatever it is, start with the smallest version you can do this week. The building can come later.
If you want more of that conversation, look up DL + DL Anything Goes, Don and D.L.'s show together.
→ Go to the source [DL + DL Anything Goes]
Nights like last night remind me I want to keep networking across, because there's so much great talent and creativity within our circles.
And guess what? These sensitive conversations don't stop. Money Talks, part one, with Bryan Williams and Darin Kenley premiered this morning, and we got into what's underneath the way we handle money, including the stuff most people never say out loud.
Your 1% this week. Write down the one thing you've been talked out of, or talked yourself out of. Then give it 20 minutes before Wednesday.
Hit reply and tell me what it is.
Forward this to the friend who keeps saying "one day."
the extra.
Fun fact, if you're not familiar with the D9: these are the hand signs we throw up to represent our fraternities. The Divine Nine are the nine historically Black fraternities and sororities that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council, founded in 1930 at Howard. Alpha Phi Alpha, my fraternity, came first, in 1906 at Cornell. Omega Psi Phi followed in 1911, the first founded at an HBCU, right at Howard.
The Invisible Interview · The Invisible Score · The TEF Show
