 Hey everybody, so I've been getting a lot of emails and text messages today about Beyonce's partnership with Peloton and what it means for the HBCUs that are involved in the 10 schools that'll get an opportunity to Get free memberships for their students And what it means for black colleges, but there's one element about this that I really want to talk about tonight And I'm you know, I'm likely going to be on Fox. So hopefully the next week or two Hopefully we'll be talking about this on Dodgers at the dark in a couple days But there's one specific element. I want to talk about this and that's the marketing for HBCUs a lot of folks are saying, you know Beyonce got enough money Peloton got enough money Where this could have been more financially beneficial For the HBCUs, right? but the one thing that HBCUs really really struggle with and not because of intention or because of you know Malpractice or anything like that is marketing of all the the revenue that we get in of all the gifts of all the donations everything that we get in Very little of that funding goes to marketing producing commercials Developing assets Doing things that get your programs out there that get your alumni All the positive things about an HBCU out to the general public We just don't do that because there's so many more things that the institution institutions view That could be a better spend of the money. We'd rather take all of our money and try to get students in that's more revenue We'd rather take our money and try to get more faculty hired to be able to retain them to be able to give them raises We'd rather you know renovate Facilities and try to do other things that make our operation sure of but we very very rarely Talk about marketing and now that you have Beyonce doing something like this where again She's promoting HBCUs Even without a major You know donation to the institutions This is an extraordinary marketing opportunity this news those 10 institutions the HBCU sector at large is Out there is the one of the major news stories of the day Pandemic Trump feels the election was stolen Beyonce and black colleges There's very little that you could do That HBCUs could do to pay for that kind of support to pay for that kind of exposure When you throw that into all of the gifts that have been given to the sector throughout the last several months When you think about Chris Paul during the NBA playoffs Promoting HBCUs, you know through apparel and shoes. That was a this has been an unprecedented run of HBCUs having strong marketing and I can tell you I haven't seen anything like this Since a different world and that wasn't even the highest point of our enrollment period That wasn't the highest point of our enrollment capacity, but that was one of the biggest stretches of consistent marketing for HBCUs that we've ever had and so when you think about marketing for black colleges There's typically a couple of tent poles a different world Tom during the morning show Lou Rawls in the UNCF Parade of Stars You don't get any higher than that, right? You don't you don't you don't get more marketing share You don't get more free promotion than that and because those things are starting to die down where you don't have televised Events and televised branding all over the country that all different kinds of people can see you've seen that in part in Part there's some other factors in it But in part enrollment has fallen down now you see a lot of black celebrities getting out there using HBCUs To be to serve as the cornerstone for their black lives matter or their racial equity work And that's a good thing for the black colleges. That's a wonderful thing So before we you know and I understand it I don't I don't criticize folks who are saying you know Beyonce these companies They could do a lot more in terms of giving money to black colleges But let's not look past what this this really is This is a substantial way that celebrities are using their brands using their platform to bring HBCUs Into a front and center position of attention and awareness Now it's up to each school. It's up to the sector. It's up to the institutions to do with that and to capitalize on that Beyonce's not going to get out there and cut a commercial for 100 HBCUs She ain't going to get out there and cut a commercial for one HBCUs. None of us can afford her Um, you know when we start thinking about what Beyonce calls to pitch a product There's a reason she didn't pitch a whole bunch of products. Most of these companies out here can't afford her There's a reason you don't see Beyonce doing a lot of live performances Most of these uh, most of these these these festivals and most of these award shows can't afford the sister So when she does it when she does stuff like this, it's opportunistic for her And I don't mean that in a in a slightful way I mean that in a very business-oriented way when she does stuff like this It's beneficial to her or it's something that's near and dear to her This is something that's obviously near and dear to her It ain't the first time out the gate for Beyonce with HBCUs She's been a donor to HBCUs for the last several years She's had uh scholarships that have gone to institutions. She's sent students She's paid for these babies to go to college. So this isn't you know, this isn't something Beyonce used in HBCUs She didn't put some money up So we can be honest about that But the second part about it is this is exposure and marketing And awareness that we could not afford you're really talking about the highest One of the highest grossing Probably the most popular entertainer in the world Who is now regularly including HBCUs in her performances in her philanthropy And in her business dealings and I like I said, we're going to get more into the business dealings of this On some later stuff that I'm going to appear on But just know That it's no small thing and no accident And certainly no misstep or slight that black colleges were included in this Beyonce is going to have is going to make money off this peloton deal And the fact that she leveraged the announcement Of what she's going to gain from having her music rights Paid by peloton and what peloton is going to gain in the way of new memberships that are going to grow from these thousands of students Who who are going to get two years free and maybe re-up to get some other stuff past that two-year membership The amount of bikes that their company is going to sell HBCUs are not going to get a direct market share off that But they're getting promotion and exposure and awareness that none of these institutions could afford And none of them would want to take any of their revenue and set aside for this kind of marketing There's no school out there. Howard. I don't care which school it is Howard Tuskegee Morehouse Spellman None of the elite HBCUs None of the none of the none of the high the high level state public HBCUs Would ever be allowed to set aside one million two million three million dollars and buy commercial time The alumni would go crazy and say that's not going to work Nobody would say that it's a good idea for any of our institutions to spend millions on marketing Or to have a Super Bowl ad or to do something this big and over the course of the last several months HBCUs as a sector and even some with individual institutions have had an opportunity to get marketing for free For free You didn't have to pay Beyonce anything. Nobody had to pay Chris Paul anything Nobody had to pay the new york times of the wall street journal variety magazine or every other publication that has covered this story today anything But those schools those 10 schools in the sector at large just got all kinds of publicity I'm talking about it now. You guys are talking about it right now It's going to be in a variety of different videos that people are going to cut on youtube a lot of different commentaries and Editorials that are going to be done. This is this is coverage. You couldn't pay for And so I think that there's a great value in that I think that there's something that we ought to celebrate about that And if there's one thing that the institutions can do to continue those opportunities Is to go and to leverage with these celebrities and to reward them for doing that kind of stuff We already buy Beyonce's music. We probably are already going to buy peloton bikes. I'm already on peloton Jcs 777 that's a plug. Follow me But we're already going to be invested And and an appreciative of Beyonce's alignment with the sector But how do we continue to get these celebrities to leverage their brands in our favor to produce things like marketing and awareness for us That's a major look for recruitment. That's a major look for that's a major look for donors That's a major look for corporate support Those are the kind of things that we have to do. So how is the sector going to take Going to take the opportunity to do that Tiffany Brockinson Hayden. Thanks a lot, babe If if nothing you take away from these comments tonight Is don't don't get on the think piece wave and get on twitter get on facebook get on here on instagram And say Beyonce is not doing enough Chris paul is not doing enough These celebrities got all the money in the world and they're not doing enough That is more than you could ask for and I'm not saying we don't need money I'm not saying that we wouldn't appreciate more financial stability at our schools But it is unreasonable to ask anyone no matter their wealth or affluence to take the burden of our sector The burden of our resource challenges and try to knock that out 100 million dollars at a time They make and spend their money just like we do But if they are cleverly Leveraging their resources leveraging their platform in our favor That is more and above and beyond what we could ask for Nobody else is doing it Black celebrities are obviously on a wave of aligning their brands with hbc us. We ought to be happy about it And I'm hopeful that a lot more celebrities. I'm hoping a lot more athletes I'm hoping that a lot more corporations come along for the ride and that our institutions are smart enough To get with those celebrities once they do it and say hey Let me introduce you to some specific elements of our schools that maybe help you or encourage you to hire some of our graduates Who knows what this thing with peloton and Beyonce will do who knows that there's not a hbcu that both of them go to and say You know what we're looking out for these schools. We're using them as a part of our marketing Why don't we hire a couple of these graduates to be trainers on peloton make some celebrities out of these kids? That's now a possibility Beyonce already has connections with hbcu. She didn't got marching bands to play with her at Coachella She already has pipelines that that don't get speaking of a lot But these are part of the things that that that are happening with hbcu's And so we can't get on a think on a think piece wave And make it seem like what this sister is doing what brothers like quiz paul are doing aren't anything This is a this is a this we are experiencing a golden era of marketing for hbcu's And there's a reason that you see all this money coming into the sector There's a reason that you're seeing enrollment being stable even at a time where the pandemic has made a lot of people Considered not going to school. There's a reason why hbcu's are doing better than they then we thought they would particularly at this time in our history So, you know the hbcu pipeline. I see what you did there laurel So i'm saying to you To all the brothers and sisters out there listening Please don't look At marketing and opportunities like this as not enough Please don't consider them as less them Please don't consider them as things that could be better capitalized by a A check being coming to the schools Please look at it for what it is. These are black celebrities strategically marketing hbcu's strategically including hbcu's in business decisions and corporate partnerships Even at the even at the point of individual institutions and even at the point of sector-wide support And as this continues to grow The one responsibility that we have is students alumni institutions faculty staff students Is to say that we support these opportunities That we are engaging and we are embracing Every brother and sister who has a platform Who is willing to align that platform on behalf of hbcu's these are folks that didn't graduate from hbcu's in a lot of cases Y'all got chris paul so born into the culture. He done enrolled in a class at winsons Salem State So let's Let's continue to show these brothers and sisters love for what they're doing It may not cost them anything It may not pay for somebody to go to school But it will encourage somebody who's going to take out who's going to get scholarships Who would never have considered an hbcu in the first place An opportunity to pursue an education and to pursue a better life by way of a black college public private Small big Elite non-elite This is an opportunity that a lot of young people all over the country and a lot of adults Who are thinking about going back to get a degree are going to take advantage of just because Beyonce said I'm doing business with hbcu's or i'm doing business with peloton And i'm taking black colleges with me So again The the number one takeaway here. This is not a small thing This is not this is not, you know Even I would even classify this as checkers and chess. This is not that either This is strategic Cooperative branding going on. This is market awareness building. This is promoting hbcu's on a global platform This is this is this is a big deal And it's up to the hbcu's Even if they weren't included in this initiative to say look we got Mega pop stars endorsing our sector. We got nba all stars endorsing our sector We got some of the richest people in silicon valley endorsing our sector Who are you? Kentucky fried chicken down the street from us not to endorse our institution Who are you local high school not to endorse our institution? Who are you football coach down the road not to send your players here? Who are you alumni not to give back to the school if Beyonce can do it for us? But you can't this is a leveraging point that we have we have to embrace this with a lot of love We got to embrace this with a lot of affection. Don't think peace this to death Don't put this in the barrel of black folks ain't doing enough This is a this is a big deal that we can spin off in a lot of different ways I just wanted to make sure that before before this night was over That we had a better or at least a broader perspective Hip hop chicken and Baltimore. They know about it west side Uh and shout out to cop and state university. I'm still waiting to hear from y'all. Um This is an opportunity that we can go To different people and say look at the love that our sector is getting Can we experience that on a grassroots level? If Beyonce can do this and she ain't never got to utter a word about hbcs a day in her life And she's done it now twice with Coachella and now Peloton if somebody who has no No nothing to gain by putting on for hbcs What can you do here locally to benefit us? How can we get our graduates hired by you? How can you pay for some of our best and brightest to continue on and earn a degree? How can we get some of the best and brightest to consider us as an educational opportunity? Hell yeah, I want to teach you Morgan me and the president don't get along It was that september lead 100 No, I do want to teach you Morgan. That's my alma mater Me and Dave Wilson don't get along. So maybe we'll talk about that. Um You know, maybe when there's a different leadership, but cop is still waiting to hear from y'all. Um No, but I'm just saying there are opportunities here And there are even and let me add to that. There's also opportunities for faculty Faculty to look at something like this and say I want to get on the wave of this hbcu love Even shout out happy birthday to freshest geek my brother. Um, there are opportunities for Faculty to get on this wave. You can't tell how many positive things are going to come out of this There's going to be opportunities. They're going to be Amazingly bright and amazingly talented faculty who are going to see something like this and say yo, I'm missing this I'm missing the opportunity to teach my people in my community Beyonce is getting on this chris paul is getting on this netflix is getting on this robert smith a billionaire is getting on this Who am I not to get on this? Who am I to miss this moment in history? Who am I not to deprive my people of my talent? A Major look a major look y'all. So thank y'all so much for the support and digest. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for the comments tonight Um, if you got any questions drop them in the next 30 seconds, I'll try to answer them as best as I can Um, but please don't don't crap on this Please don't please don't don't make this a style to be doing less than Because this is a huge deal and when you talk to a lot of these presidents and you talk to a lot of these fundraisers There's nothing better Than being able to for them to be able to go to donors and alumni and say Look, Beyonce is supporting us. I need y'all to step it up Chris paul is supporting us. I need y'all to step it up We can't be outdone by people who are on on the outside looking in wanting to support us We need our own to be a part of this movement and we are our students are coming our students are staying engaged Our alumni are giving back in record numbers I saw the morris brown president coming here dr. James Record fundraising for his institution accreditation on deck Positive things are happening for this sector. Let's not take the opportunity where a good thing happens To try to dissect it in such a way that it's something that we make out not to be a big deal Because everything happening for us in the midst of a pandemic in the midst of millions of people black people losing jobs This is anything that we get is a big deal anything that is helpful is a big deal Yes, we are recording this thursday questions that he answers. That's an answer We're on for this thursday digest at the dark series 142 xm radio Howard university Yes, we will be talking about this on thursday and a lot more So just wanted to get that out there. So I appreciate you guys listening I appreciate you guys supporting the digest Please continue. I'm going to be doing a lot of a lot more of these a lot often Kind of many afterdarks by myself, especially since I know the brothers and sisters from the shell Are going to be in here trolling me. So thanks y'all. See y'all in the next one