Monday, October 19, 2009

What's up promoters, stop acting like coons.

I write with all due respect, to all black males trying to climb the ladder of success. You deserve a shout out, because black males have been denied equal access to the “gold pot at the end of the rainbow.” We have had to work harder than any other ethnicity of people to ever step foot in North America. A lot of us have fallen victim to some of the racism that has surrendered your generation, my generation and future generations to a different path that is not necessarily positive for a healthy environment or community to be examples for the world to imitate or even admire. The horrible past times that we or our forefathers experienced should be reason enough for us to unify, pool our financial resources, knowledge, and expertise to go for self in the industry of promotions. Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to move from the South (Tampa) to Chicago. During my short time in this wonderful and magnificent city, I have been in promotional training. Fortunately for me, I am “interning” with one of the most powerful CEO’s to promote in the city of Chicago and beyond. I am blessed that the Creator would give me an opportunity to venture into another facet of entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, I have not been able to grasp the “coonish” mentality of some of the promoters in this industry, in particularly, the young brilliant promoters. So, I have decided to shed some light on some errors that I see being made in a multi-million dollar industry by the lack of unity, loyalty, humbleness, client-service, community service, and innovation.
I understood that the lack of unity in the south was due to ignorance and the inability to organize effectively to form an efficient marketing and economic plan to gain a portion of the many entertaining dollars that flow through the city or cities of the south. I understood that everyone was greedy and did not want to share and pool resources to put a dynamic dent in the industry. I understood that the level of black consciousness is not made to go to certain heights in the minds of young entrepreneurs, causing them to not understand the value of togetherness. So to see, the circulation of black people’s money being funneled to and through the hands of black business men and woman, and being recycled right back to the “other man”, has raised some questions and/or concerns. His fault or ours, is the question? Nonetheless, I arrived in Chicago with a pre-conceived notion that black businessmen did not have the same methodologies of doing business in the entertainment industry. Fortunately, I am learning from a CEO, who understands the concept(s) of thinking outside the box and the will to become international. The concepts learned, will allow me to take back to the south a measurement of how to promote more effective and efficient. I know white people were and are not the only ethnicity of people to make Chicago one of the hottest cities in the world. It is home to the first black president of the United States. It is the third largest city in the Nation, and it was made that way from the blood, sweat, and tears of blacks that came before this current generation. In other words, black males, in particularly paved roads in many different facets of business. May it be judged as legal or not legal? By the way, “judge not, unless you be judged” or “he who is free from sin, let him cast the first stone”. I do know that many people got in this industry to avoid being on the wrong side of the law. There is not one promoter who has a problem taking count at the end of the night with the funds spent in the venue(s) from not legal activity.
I must say that Chicago’s nightlife has really surprised me. Make no mistakes, no other city market venues and events like this city. The avenues are of sheer brilliance, from text messages to face book, and now twitter. Promoters are able to reach clients in ways like never before. Unfortunately, those avenues are now being used to continue the exploitation of our woman, children, and business partners. This has created a lack of unity in the industry. The black promoter has the sole responsibility of catering to the social needs of our people, in particular. With that responsibility, comes a level of dignity, loyalty, and productive economic/social advancement for us businessmen and black people. There is a minimum of $50,000 made on any given Friday or Saturday night by all black promoters alone. That is a minimum total of 2.6 million dollars generated per year by black promoters. Keep in mind, that is one night out of the weekend, leaving out weekends that fall on huge holidays. If you include three nights a week, promoters average about a quarter of a million dollars as a whole. That sums out to about a minimum of 5.4 million dollars generated per year. Those numbers are important, because unfortunately, promoters don’t own 2.5% of the venues that they promote. If promoters make that collectively, then the other than black club owners, are making 2 times as much or approximately 11 million plus dollars a year of profit. Promoters could form teams of 5 or 10, and put so much of the proceeds into the establishment of a future venue project(s). I know politics is one of the hurdles that we must overcome in a city that is know for many political scandals and corruption, but the lack of unity, loyalty, client-service, humbleness, community service, and innovation that we display among each other; make us a liability for anybody to take us as serious business men and women.
For example, we have decided to attack each other in ways never seen since the annals of history set us on this sojourn in this country. We are degenerating into the mindset of “coons” and savages. A savage is a human who has lost the knowledge of self and morality; and is living and acting like a beast in the field. I have been shocked at the level of disrespect that happens on twitter with some well-known promoters against each other. Instead of spreading a unified uplifting message that creates positive energy, there is backbiting, hating, and serious slander taking place in the name of being known or famous. Thus, creating the same type of environment that was created when Tupac and Biggie, two great young poets, were gunned dunned because of “beef”. It is also similar to the same type of environment that was created when our big brother Malcolm X was killed. Is envy and strife among brilliant minds the objective to attaining success. It is very similar to the environment that allowed the slaughter of our youth in and on the streets of Chicago. This environment that is being created is being watched by not just the followers that you know, but followers that you don’t know. This behavior is being viewed and frowned upon. One question, why would I patronize your event when at any given time, your so-called competitor in the industry, whom you have been trying to defame and slander on twitter, wants to seek a different type of revenge. Not based on cyberspace bold and bad talk, but with direct physical violence. Is that type of environment safe for our people who want to come out, have a good time, and forget about the stresses of life that the week or situations has put them under. Do you not realize that as a businessman, you have to be that 23 hours 57 minutes and 46 seconds a day? Which means, that you must represent your corporation at all times? You must be a direct reflection of what you want your company to portray.
Nothing is brilliant about defaming your past or current business partner in a world that finds that type of degenerative behavior as entertaining. It makes you and your corporation a magnet for a PR disaster. I have noticed a pattern in the industry with promoters showing hypocritical behavior. For instance, there are times when we have uplifting tweets that help with some of the actual problems in our communities nationally. That is a beautiful and noble way to exercise the gift of being able to attract people to you and your every other thought. That is praiseworthy. But, at eleven in the morning, promoter’s tweets are positive and then before the sun sets, tweets become destructive and outright foolish. I have seen promoters raise awareness for youth violence, raise money for the cause in the name of the youth, and have good intentions to help be a part of the solution. But, this type of behavior is part of our problem and not a solution to any of that which is claimed to have good intentions. Why would someone trust anyone that straddles the fence in such a public and self-destructive way? Derrion Albert’s death was a sign of what we as the older generation should do to help warn and teach them about the consequences of their errors of judgment. Instead, we are creating an environment that is a pipeline to the everlasting destruction of us as a people. The song with the words, “we are headed for a self-destruction” is so prevalent in this industry. What type of promoter will subject the entire world of twitter followers, to a past business and sometimes personal relationship of a fellow promoter.
This displays a lack of wisdom and understanding of what type of power you have. One must understand that having power is temporary. It could be a long lasting relationship of power, but at some point the baton is passed on to a successor. That is why I was raised not to “burn your bridges”. Some promoters have made a minimum of a quarter of a million dollars doing business together. Some seasoned promoters pulled younger promoters onboard and trained them in the way they should go. Unfortunately, the training did not come with a manual in what to do in case of a separation or depart of ways. A wise man seeks counsel from elders and understands that you can never separate the student from the teacher. You may do greater things at some point, but your loyalty should be to the one that took you to another level of understanding on what it takes to attain longevity in the business. It kind of reminds me of how Malcolm left his teacher, and in a matter of time, his disloyalty eventually bought down the angel of death to his front door. There is more wisdom in that event, but suffice it to say that certain promoters are dying an eminent promoter’s death. You are killing your respect with your current clients. If you are behaving as such, you have already killed your relationship with your past clients. You are killing the public relations of your company. You will continue to loose the support of your faithful patrons. You sometimes employ up to 30 people a night. Is that the way a CEO of a corporation is suppose to campaign their company? Is exploiting violence through youtube, really showing that you are sincere about stopping youth violence. In these turbulent times, verbal abuse is creating environments of hostile behavior that innocent and peaceful people have to be victims of. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Twitter is a median that allows you to express your “emotions” or thoughts digitally. You now have a certain responsibility to stay positive and uplifting when you share with the twitter world. People are watching and laughing at you and not with you. The sad thing about this all is that promoters are doing this to impress the ladies. You are just contributing to the current stigma, that we, men will do anything to impress a female. That is only because the lack of understanding of what it really takes to have an everlasting effect on a woman has not matured into your being at this time. At some point it will. With age and experience, comes wisdom.
For example, business and pleasure has always contradicted each other in some way. Promoters do have the awesome gift of attracting people together to have “fun”. You can not portray to be a player one day and a businessman the next. Jealous clients will stop supporting your establishment and fellowship socially, with someone else. They see how you walk in with different women week after week. This is not smart business sense. There is a recession for white people and a depression for black people. We should honor and respect all patrons for even sacrificing their diminishing finances for our events. It is time to get out of that oppressed way of thinking and go back to when respect for people who paved the way for you to be in such a lucrative industry. You are creating an environment that may have your bottom line decreasing and taking a chance on becoming infamous. People are watching, and frowning on this Chicago promoter’s “beef”. It is definitely a horrible reality show. Maybe you should start promoting movies, instead of venues. Half of the bold statements made, are made by people that think they are more than what they are and have no solid foundation. Those promoters who have built their corporations on solid foundations will prevail and the ones that were built on uneven pavement will either have to hit the reset button and regroup, go back to the wise counsel of those who did it before them, or watch their so-called “empire” crumble. You still have a chance, so “WAKE UP” and unify in the name of seeking black dominance in an industry that still has a window for economic power and financial strength and dominance. We must give back to the community, in particular the black youth of the community, and be an example and ray of hope for avoiding the other side of the law. Hell, we can not all go to school and get an education, but we all have gifts that tap into every facet of this industry of promoting. Get out the box and innovate others, so that we can together, establish our own bar prices and entrance fees based on fair dealing. Every other nationality can take that kind of gross revenue, pool resources and minds together, unify, and monopolize the objective. But guess what, it all starts with me, so when I speak out, I know that I am speaking to myself as well. That is why I sit back and learn from one of the best to ever do it. The on-the-job training has been priceless and as long as I accept humility and be humble, God can continue to allow my mind to be renewed with innovative concepts and methods to help make this industry a better experience for everyone involved. It has been said that “sometimes you must go to the tree to pick the fruit instead of the barrel that has picked fruit already. “So, with all due respect, unless you change your ways and attitude, your current visit with this type of life will be erased sooner than later.!!! So stop acting like COONS.
Oh yeah, “if you throw a stone into a pack of dogs, the only one that screams, is the one that got hit!!!!”
Peace!!

2 comments:

  1. R.Wynn,
    Great start! So what do you feel the solution would be?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The follow-up blog will have a question/answer type tone. Thanks for reading maam.

    ReplyDelete

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