 Historically at the front and center of the educational sector and pop culture for black America historically black colleges and universities have been central to the black American narrative in life upon these shores and here to talk with us about the emerging viewpoint of those narratives as Lewis Carr is the legendary president of media sales for black entertainment television in that role for the better part of 19 years over 35 year career with the network. Author of two books and mentors and many here to talk with us about the value of HBC use the commodification of HBC use in the entertainment space and more in education. So doc it is an it is an honor to have you on today man. Thank you man appreciate being here with you and let me congratulate you and encourage you on the work that you do. Because it is necessary and important and today's world and what we all are trying to achieve for our communities and our young people. As high praise coming from you. Let's get into the heavy lift of the conversation early because I think this is something that a lot of folks will follow BT grew up with it. Who really embedded in our lives as a resource for news information and lifestyle will want to know and as a network it's it's long been synonymous with sports entertainment lifestyle. A lot of folks have called for BT to take hold again of those roots that they have with historically black colleges and universities. How do you view HBC use as a commodity or an asset for the network or national attention and viewership and in total in the marketplace when you consider the value of airtime and marketing space. Well, you know, I don't know if I view it as a commodity. I may view it as a precious metal if we have to put a term on it because not just from an overall how do we sort of monetize the HBC you experience but more important where do we get our talent from you know who do we give opportunities. How is our brand sort of connecting and engaging with HBC you students. So I look at it that you know whether we're talking about interns whether we're talking about full time talent. We look for people who really understand our overall mission and whether that's entertainment engage or empower or you know we are now in this space where we're talking about. Black love black joy black pride black power. I believe that HBC you students and their overall culture as we know leads the black experience as I said last week on a panel what young black kids do today the world does tomorrow. So that's why I think it's so important to brands like BT that we sort of make sure that we are on the cutting edge on the pulse of the HBC you experience and those students that participate there. When we think about you know kind of the Genesis and the evolution of reality television BT was at the forefront of that obviously the College Hill property was a big part of that. And it helped in a great way of exposing HBC use to communities all over the country particularly in places that do not have any HBC. And in exposing you know the dynamicism of young people. You know there have been rumors about that we heard Dion Sanders and Tracy Evans talking about that when he arrived in Mississippi that it was possible that that was going to be a reboot. I don't know if you're at liberty to talk about that but is that is that a real possibility. And if so are there things that would would take place with this iteration of the show that may be different from the last time we saw it. It is a real possibility. That's what I can say. It is a real possibility. You being a media understand that. Right. And I think the difference today is that the black experience black culture as the president of the United States and the leader of the free world said last week as he opened up the NAACP image awards black culture is American culture. The black experience is America's experience. So I think what's different today than a couple of decades ago is America is awake. Black community is awake. Black students are awake. They're more engaged. They understand their power more they understand their influence more and their impact on everything. I was saying that everything unique about America comes from black people. So I think what is different today is that we realize our power. We realize our influence and we are more engaged than ever before. And whether that is what we want changed or what we want to see different or on calling on brands and corporations to be more active in participating in change. How do you take your experiences and try to get people to see that not just as individuals but as collective society. So you you have experienced you're an author your publisher. You you obviously work in media and entertainment and particularly in the revenue side of it. And then you also are an educational advocate through philanthropy and serving as an executive on two collegiate boards. So you have a lot of different hats that you wear. How do you wear them or adjust them to say to people to young people particularly. Here's how you can realize your power now that the whole country is more awake than has ever been in terms of trying to create opportunities or to create equity. And while we still have a long way to go we're moving a little bit quicker than we typically have. How do you tell people to take advantage of this moment. Well number one to young people what I say is is be prepared continue to be engaged and continue to bring awareness to the inequities of our communities and our country. Push push push push push don't let people tell you it's going to be a slow process. We need to wait. We need to slow roll it. Don't let that continue to sort of force the conversation and also not just on people who don't look like you but on people like me. Make us come off the sidelines and engage and make sure that we are telling your story on the inside walls of corporate America. Make sure that we are pushing just as much as you are pushing and to corporate America and what I say to them I try to help them understand the business case. You know if you can't do it just because it's the right reasons do it because it's the right business reasons and those are easily sort of laid out easily you know transparent. So I try to make a business case to corporations and I try to make a preparation case and awareness case to young people. Is there anything that HBC use whether as individual institutions or as a collective sector. Is there anything that they can do to get a Lewis car to say hey you know you're obviously you know dedicated and intentional about programming. But how do we turn that into partnerships as you mentioned earlier in the in the dialogue about you know hiring pipelines for for talent pipelines for for workforce development. Are there things that HBC use can do to match the intensity that you know BT and Viacom CBS has for trying to find new people from new places to do new things that are emerging in tech and entertainment. So I would put that particular duty on the administrators of HBC use. I think young people are doing their part whether that is protesting whether that is marching whether that is you know going to school and get an education. I think the administrators of HBC use need to start reaching out and trying to create real business partnerships with corporations to sort of create this pipeline that corporations need and HBC you need. In order to create jobs and opportunities and awareness and they need to do that with intentionality and consistency. So I think it's sort of a role to play for everybody. There's a role to play for corporations. There's a role to play for HBC you administrators and then there's a role for the students to play as they prepare themselves for leaving college and participating in the world in a big way. How do you get people to think big in that way. And I'm not saying and I don't mean to indicate like you know HBC use need to think bigger. They do every day about survival and thriving. But if you are not Howard University Spellman College Morehouse College Florida A&M Southern University if you are not a prominent brand in the HBC use space if you are a smaller institution. What would advice would you provide to say a smaller campus with you know a very centralized yet important mission could approach a big business and say do business with us because of this. Well you know I haven't been a sales guy for so long I don't think it's really the size I think it's the intentionality and it's the strategy that is needed. Now when you're small clearly you've got to work harder. You've got to be more intentional and you've got to be more strategic but I don't think it's impossible. I think you just got to be intentional I think you've got to be loud. I think you've got to be consistent and I think you've got to do some things that may be nontraditional or out of the box in order to get people's attention. But I think most HBC use have a history that they are proud of and that people will be interested in and they've just got to do the sale job. It's just it's just a straight up sale job of getting people in corporate America to understand the value that they and their institutions and their students bring to the business case. When you or at least when I went through your first book very little secrets which really gets to the core of how to interpret and to embed principles of hard work commitment faith. You know as told to the antidotes of you as a track and field athlete in high school and college it really just says you know if you believe in if you believe in something and you're willing to work hard for it will happen. Yeah you know I talk about vision a lot and if you don't have it for yourself then try to find a vision maker. But I think in this particular environment in which we are right now I think we need to have big visions and that's from an individual basis that's from an institution basis. I think we need to think about scale and you know different type of opportunities and different type of partnerships and how do we take advantage of this window that is open this much now. All right. It ain't open like this. I don't think you know you can jump through it. You might have to crawl through it. But it is open. And how do we take advantage of that as long as it's open we hope that it's going to stay open for decades. I'm not sure but I know it's open right now and I think we all need to be very intentional about trying to get through it and sort of grow our footprint grow the awareness grow opportunities. And I think it's just critical that we do it at this moment. Is there something that that that the sector can do that that indicates taking advantage of it obviously we're seeing a big influx of philanthropic support coming to HBCUs and we're seeing a lot more companies being intentional about we want to not so big that people need to stop. No please don't stop please don't stop but bigger than we've seen. I would just say it's more than it was a year ago. In some cases bigger than we've ever seen. But are there is there a case to be made that HBCUs can make and people like you can make to say here's how it continues on. You said administrators but you know the HBCU story you know it well you've been selling it for a long time you've been paying for a long time as a supporter. What what what else can we do from a corporate perspective particularly black folks who are leading in corporate spaces. I think number one they can come together and talk about who are some of the most influential and famous HBCU grads and that campaign should go to everybody. Not just to corporations but it all should go to our own community because we want to continue to sort of motivate our own young people to participate in the educational experience. I think it also a story needs to be told about those HBCU grads who are now in corporate America in great jobs and who are making a difference. A lot of them at DET and very influential and high positions and they're very very proud of the schools that they've come from. So I think they need to sort of create a campaign and you know if there's no dollars for them to sort of buy the time and buy the space. They should come to people like us and say can you donate time can you donate space because this story needs to be taught. And I'll probably get in trouble for that. Now it's busy giving away no air time. I mentioned earlier that you are a college trustee at Chicago State and you're a native of Chicago and you work closely with your alma mater Drake. You are very concerned and have been on the record talking about opportunities for African-American students attending affording college in the years to come particularly post pandemic. How serious of an issue do you think college access will be for our community in the years to come. And are there things that the community can do to prepare for what will be challenges with affordability with preparedness for academic rigor. What can we do to adjust. Well first of all thank you for mentioning that I joined these boards to be able to be an access point for students primarily black students to get in school. Because I believe it's so important right now that our young people get educated. And whether it is a four year college or whether it's a two year college whatever the case may be. I believe that education knowledge is the key to a better life. And the growth and improvement of black communities around the country. So that I dedicated myself to sort of helping these two schools. I'm also on advisory board of the School of Innovation at Iowa State. I just want to make sure that I am doing my part to sort of make sure that our young people understand the importance of education. And that they have access to education no matter what their economic background or capabilities are that we can figure it out. And I think that I'm trying to make sure that as I would say Jerry that there are more waymakers out there that is focused on education of our young people. And so whether they're going to HBCU or whether they're going to a state school or wherever that people come off the sidelines who got relationships who got resources. Who really understand the importance of knowledge in our community and what it's going to do for our future that we really do all that we can. And people are doing a lot. But I'm asking people to do a little more to make sure that black young people get educated. It is one of my primary missions. Do you have any concern that because there's such a push for diversity in Fortune 100, Fortune 500 in every industry and in every realm of life here in America that there could be pushback from corporate hierarchies or from systems that exist? Well being very honest and transparent with you. They say there's a push. I'm not sure that's real. At this particular point. You know, is it more just talk about it now be about it. We've got to see some numbers get up on the board for we to say it's real. All right. Is there pushback. There's always going to be some silent pushback. I don't think people want to be that vocal. Well, most people don't want to be that vocal. There is a group of people that we see every day are still being vocal, whether it's against voting rights or against DNI. So let me correct that. But I think that corporations are talking more than doing more right now. So I think it is continued and needs to be pushed by people like myself. The importance of having a diverse workforce and what it does for corporations. Please plug, you know, plug your book, plug the publication. Because I think that people want to get a sense of, you know, how you have distilled, you know, through your own understanding what leadership looks like and what it feels like. You know, one of the one of the big takeaways, obviously me being a Morgan State grad in your book is you work you work for for Earl Graves. And he came in one day and said, I'm gonna fire everybody. You know, people with the Morgan know that that's Earl Graves. I mean, but I think that there is power if there's an antidote that you would share that helped you to define leadership or define greatness. Please share that and then share with people how they can get more of your experience and more of your insight on these topics through your books, through your conversation, through your social. So 18 years ago, Jared, I started the LCIF Foundation, which is Lewis car internship foundation. And I did that to show what one person's commitment to D and I could end up being. And as of today, we've had over 180 interns that came through the LCIF Foundation, and we have over 50 that have full time jobs in the industry right now. So I think it's important that people make their efforts intentional. I think it's important for students to be curious and be coachable and be hungry. When I give speeches, Jared, I talk about I had the privilege of being poor. And I didn't like it. So I worked hard to sort of change that direction and narrative of my family. So I tell students, be hungry, be curious, be coachable and use the greatest invention of the 21st century, which is the Internet to seek out knowledge and information and opportunities because they are everywhere. They are everywhere. We've just got to be almost desperate to find them in order to take advantage of everything that exists out there. There's money out there for scholarships. There's opportunities out there for jobs. I was sitting on this panel as I was telling you last week, this HBCU panel, and someone said, you know, how do we get our content reviewed within your corporation and people start talking about, you know, this organization, that organization. I'm like, we sitting here right in front of you. You know, addresses in the world. Send it to us and then harass us, be consistent or pressure us. You know, so I think you've got to be more aggressive in this environment because it's more competitive than ever before. You've got to be determined. And you've got to be intentional about being successful at your craft than ever before. It's intention. You know, when people come through my internship program, I said, we're going to work you very, very hard. You've never been worked like this before. You probably even going to get upset at us because we're trying to build a work capacity. We're trying to stretch your capacity to be able to do a lot of things and work multiple hours while you're young instead of trying to do it when you get over like me. So we want to make sure that we prepare young people for the workforce. We want to make sure that we make them curious. We want to make sure that they're confident. I believe that young people at HBCUs and at most schools, you got to live up to your greatness. It's an inherent in you to be great and you've got to live up to that greatness. Don't let yourself down. Don't worry about, don't let your parents down. Start with yourself. Believe in yourself, believe in your own greatness and work towards being it. Being in corporate America, someone said something to me. I'm not going to tell you who it is. About five years ago, I was debating them about something. They said, Lois, just live up to your ego and we'll all be fine. And I just, whoo, whoo, because if you don't believe in yourself, who's going to believe in you? So I'm telling young kids, live up to your ego because we all got them. We all got them. That's what I try to do every day is live up to that ego and go out and believe and show the world. When someone tells me, I can't, I'm almost like, did you tell me you can't? I can't do that. So if you, if you follow me and I am Lois Carr, you see me doing all these other things that my latest brand called Waymaker. And it is a brand where we want to educate, motivate and inspire people to live their best life to change their families, their communities and this country. So I am, people tell me that I can't do a certain thing. I'm not to prove you wrong. Even at my age right now, I'm out to prove you wrong. I had the privilege, Jared, a few years ago of sitting in a room with Bill Clinton and we all had opportunity to ask him a question. And so I'm sitting there as questions going around the room and I'm thinking, what can I ask? That's clever. You know, you come from the hood, you say, you know, I want to ask something that's real clever. And I said, Mr. President, how big does your ego have to be to want to be leader of the free world? And he looks at me and said, not big at all. I just looked at the person that was doing it in front of me and said, I can do better than that.