Podcast Host (2:55)

You know, we saw, you know, a few other, a few other staples in the hip hop community, you know, throw shots at each other. We've seen a lot of stuff is happening. So is the podcast game falling apart?

Reshawn McDonald (3:15)

I've been screaming this for three or four years, but most of the people that y' all see who are potting things may not be going. And this is not the Queens flip bookmark because those are my brothers, brothers in arms, yada yada. I'm glad they talked it out. Talked to Flip the other day. But to me it is a indicator of how well someone is or is not doing based on how quickly they are willing to get into arguments with others. Shout out to all the rappers. Shout out to every crew. I love y', all, but I think when things are going well, there are signs, right? One sign. Nori. Every. Y' all know Nori. Every time I see Norio Instagram, Monaco Yach bottle from Jay Z, he with Tata just new watch. Nor got 73 watches in the last two years.

Podcast Host (4:07)

Nor, you gotta chill man. You gotta chill, man. He got too many watches.

Reshawn McDonald (4:10)

Jacob and co Connoir, right? You see that even Joe Joe get into a lot less kerfuffles these days after that number got leaked. So our podcast in trouble. Yes, I think the formation of them. I like Gil a lot. Gil's arena actually is one of my favorite shows. But the difference that we have to stress is that every good deal and good partnership that looks good may not be good for you long term. What good is a partnership if it removes. They removed his name off of Gil's arena. Now Gilda straight gives money. You'll probably made what, 400 million in his lifetime in the NBA. So he's fine. But I do think some of these podcasts and streaming deals can be predatory. Even the guy from Twitch saying Kai isn't on a mountain. Rushmore of streaming like how name me four other speaker. He said both Kai and Speed are on the mountain. What?

Podcast Host (5:14)

Yeah, you say kind Speed are not on the mount version of streaming.

Reshawn McDonald (5:18)

So yeah, independence is important. Good being a good business person is your own. And one thing I want to stress like people a lot of times go for bigger viewership. The number that really matters is percentage of equity and non dilutable shares. It's a lot of y' all who getting 2 million views. I can't scrounge up 20,000 for an emergency. Don't walk into the predatory deal is my advice. Continue to build. Build a craft that people are going to need from you. But I think it's a travesty what is being done with that deal structure and the timing of it after the gambling, the irony even in that he get arrested for underground gambling. And here come underdog taking 50 rights. Be careful.

Podcast Host (6:12)

100. And I also think just some game, you know, if you guys are interested, and I said this before, for you content creators out there, I don't think that if your business model revolves solely around revenue that's produced from people watching your show, as far as like ad dollars, that's.

Reshawn McDonald (6:36)

Me steak.

Podcast Host (6:38)

Now, not to say there's nothing wrong with ad dollars, but that should be add. That should be added. Okay, litmus test. If you're not able to run your show in a hypothetical scenario that you had zero ad dollars, then you need to rework your business model. So what a lot of people do is they have a fire, they have paywall. Joe Button obviously has done it the best as far as his Patreon is concerned. Right. Where he has free content, but then he has a Patreon as well.

Reshawn McDonald (7:04)

Right.

Podcast Host (7:04)

And you see that with a lot of shows, whereas horrible decisions, whether it's, you know, 85 south with channel 85, they have the free content, which is used as like a gateway to the emotional. Yeah, everybody's not gonna go to the paywall, but there'll be enough paid subscribers that it balances out the free content. That's one way. That's one way. Another way is to offer products and services that also can serve as an, as another form of a paywall. Right. So I say that all the time. As far as, if you look at market Mondays, that's public school and that's. That's free for anybody. But if you really want to know where to buy, right. The prices and the list and all that, well, that's Red Panda, Harvard. If you really want to know how. If you really want to know how to trade options, if you really want to know, get the financial planning calls and the resources that we have, that's EY University. So we, we offer both. Both ways, right? Yeah, that's another one. And I think that you really have to think about it in bigger terms as far as the free platforms that we're on. YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Instagram, Twitter. As long as. Because they're not always potentially even going to be able to be. We're not always potentially going to have this reach that we have because it is, it is good to be able to reach a lot of people. The downside is that you don't get paid, but as you're reaching people, you're supposed to use that to grow your brand to now you can do other things outside of that.

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Podcast Host (8:51)

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Reshawn McDonald (10:21)

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Podcast Host (10:57)

That if you're a Content creator. But if you're just saying, okay, I'm just going to make content all day and my revenue model is going to.

Reshawn McDonald (11:04)

Be selling ads for ads.

Podcast Host (11:09)

And you, it's going to be a difficult, a difficult scenario because anything could happen. And when you start to lose revenue or when they said, like I said, underdog, they want to cut back now, you, you have nothing, you have no other option but to say, okay, whatever you want to do, because you own half of the show. And my whole thing is, I don't know why you need to own the show. Like, you can, you can be a partner, you could be an ad partner and we can, we can, we can have a deal. You own it. Showing it's like obviously Gilbert Arenas, you already, he already has money. So that's another thing. Don't be afraid to put your money up sometimes, like as an entrepreneur, like, and there's been a few people potentially like that kind of fall in that situation where you would think from the outside in, like they already have. They came into it. See, we're, we're anomalies for sure. If you wait like as far as the people that. Actually most people in 2025 in podcast space, let's say for black men, podcast space, not streamers, podcast space. Most of them are a celebrity from a time before. So Cameron Equity over. Yeah, Cameron and Mace were celebrities from a time before when they used to rap. Gilbert Arenas and his crew was the celebrities one time before when they used to play basketball.

Reshawn McDonald (12:30)

Great.

Podcast Host (12:31)

All the smoke was with celebrities from time before when they used to play basketball. Noriega was a celebrity of time before when he used to, when he used to rap. Fat Joe and Jada, they were celebrities. I mean they still rap, but you know celebrities from hip hop and they carried it over. Now you got Jim Jones may know Fabulous Davies rappers. So Joe Button, a rapper who carried, who carried it over. There's not a lot of people at the high level, at the, at the higher echelon that were not any level of celebrity that broke through and it's going to become that now. It's even hard. It's harder now.

Reshawn McDonald (13:11)

Yep.

Podcast Host (13:15)

They all sort of play. So now they all coming in. All of the rappers, all the basketball players, all the football, the pivot, those ex football players, they all coming into the space. So now they have a. They have an advantage over you because you're starting with a thousand followers. They're starting with a million followers already.

Reshawn McDonald (13:33)

Travis Kelsey and his brother. But the differentiator and equalizer is do you have a skill set that many are not talking about that can help millions or billions of people. I would love to see someone in this era just talk about how to get hired in corporate and succeed. There's a lot of gaps that can be filled, and very important key lesson is to not follow everyone else's business model and not be in a sector or space that everyone else is in. When I came in and I was charging premium price, people like, you're crazy. I'm like, it's crazy to not charge premium. Here we are. A lot of people have tried to adjust. 2026, I got a plan for y', all, and I'm gonna show you. At one time, I remember when it wasn't in vogue to talk about investing or stocks, and now here we are. There's a proliferation of people that do that. 2026, I got a plan for y'.

Podcast Host (14:25)

All.

Reshawn McDonald (14:25)

Stay tuned. A great piece of advice in business is to always do the opposite of what the field is doing. And I see a lot of people broadcasting, podcasting who are copying the same model. And it's like. But the 50 ownership pieces is smart, because if they can get him to focus on the football show, to sell more ads to that audience, which is more beneficial for. For Underdog, Allegedly. But I dropped Gilbert's value talking about basketball, which that's a really great show. I can demonize. You take your audience and then sell ads against the audience that you built for your lifetime since you've been a ball player. He's not the only one that goes. And the most important thing, too, in business is to be able to say no. That's why I tell y' all some of them conversations of, okay, if you get 150, can you just say, no, I don't want to do this on my show. No, no, no. I don't want to. My favorite thing in business is I don't feel like it. You want me to really do it? Pay me 7 million. I don't want to do it. Sorry.

Commercial Announcer (15:35)

Yeah.

Podcast Host (15:36)

And the thing about it is, you got to be able to. Sometimes you're chasing something that might not be as profitable as what you already have. I said that before, like, as far as never discount a niche audience. We might not have the largest audience in the world, but we have an educated audience that has higher income, that has a higher level of priorities. I would rather have our audience than some, like, you know, a lot. I don't even want to name nobody's names, but there's a lot of people that Might talk about rap or something like, and they'll get a million views, but it's like these people just stay in their face. They don't work, they don't contribute to society. They're not going to be a customer to you ever. They're never gonna like. So it's like never discount quality over quality. Yes. 100.

Reshawn McDonald (16:30)

Yeah. Two fives don't make a 10. Threesome that go for business. You can't even sell the audience to a CPG company if you wanted to.

Podcast Host (16:40)

So that's just some. Some game for you guys if you're interested. But, you know, do what you want with it.

Reshawn McDonald (16:45)

But kudos to you. Love the show. I hope he can work his way out of that deal. But be careful, my brother. You got a hot show. Be careful.

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Reshawn McDonald (17:07)

No.

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Reshawn McDonald (17:11)

Nope.

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Reshawn McDonald (17:13)

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Reshawn McDonald (17:24)

We use sunscreen, so why not be proactive?

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Podcast Host (17:31)

Hola.

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Reshawn McDonald (17:33)

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Reshawn McDonald (17:39)

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