Perseverance and Partnership: Unleashing the Path to Success

Explore the transformative power of perseverance and partnership in this inspiring episode. Join host Gboyega Adebayo and guest Evan Marshall as they delve into the importance of peace, patience, and perseverance on the journey to success. Gain valuable insights from Evan's experiences of tackling gaps and the pitfalls of reactivity. Discover the value of strategic partnerships in addressing customer feedback and overcoming challenges. Embark on a transformative journey and unlock your full potential with the wisdom shared in this episode.

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FULL VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

INTERVIEW WITH EVAN MARSHA

Gboyega Adebayo: Oh man, leadership, I, I, it's, it's, it's a fun, frustrating role and experience, but I, but I think that, um, like you said, communication, communication, communication. If you get better at communication, then a lot of it, um, a lot of things iron themselves out. Um, . All right. So I, I do want to hit on one more topic before we, we dive into some, some, some fun, uh, concluding questions. 

Gboyega Adebayo: Um, when we had our prep call, we wanted to talk about, um, patience and perseverance. And I, I, I would love to hear, um, in your journey, [00:49:00] not only in with black men's wear, but excuse me, uh, but also in your freelancing career, what role of patients, what role did patients have on your journey? And, and honestly, was it really hard to, to to be patient at times? 

Evan Marshall: No, I think that kind of goes back to kind of what we were discussing earlier in terms of being like, 

Evan Marshall: um, this is working.  

Evan Marshall: So my mantra for this year, um, is pushing p all 2023. that's, uh, peace, patience, perseverance, and prosperity. So, as you're building a business is the, you have to have perseverance. That perseverance goes back to what I was saying earlier in terms of being pleasantly persistent. No, doesn't mean never knowing how to follow up. Um, realizing that you might think you're ready, but that client might realize that you're actually not [00:50:00] ready, not that you're not capable of doing the work, but you might not have the infrastructure as an organization to service their needs from a customer service standpoint that they're accustomed to. 

Evan Marshall: It doesn't mean that the output itself. It's not what they de, uh, require, but the customer service, like if you're looking at, from 

Evan Marshall: our standpoint, our team has eight people. If you're used to working with a, uh, organization that has 300 people, your whole staff that you're gonna get for client that we might win, like a Taco Bell or a Ruffles or an Infiniti 

Evan Marshall: might be 15 people. So we have to show that even though we might not be operating 

Evan Marshall: at scale, we can execute at scale.  

Gboyega Adebayo: Yeah.  

Evan Marshall: So that's the 

Evan Marshall: perseverance. Um, with that, um, that 

Evan Marshall: goes back into being patient, being patient in terms of what we discussed earlier in terms of, um, that no doesn't mean never towards that 

Evan Marshall: small win on that proposal, right? That patience of, okay, yeah, while we didn't win this one, that proposal was strong. And then you [00:51:00] never know, three months now, 

Evan Marshall: hey, here's his check.  

Gboyega Adebayo: Yeah,  

Evan Marshall: Hey, you know, you know I got, I got your email from so-and-so. They were recommending me to you. I had a woman telling me today, Hey, do you know so-and-so, uh, from Densu? I'm like, nah, I just sent them over your capes stack. I didn't ask her to do that. 

Evan Marshall: So she chose to do that. Right? That's then that's patience. So patience kind of gz with the perseverance. If once you have the patience and the perseverance, that's how you can be at peace.  

Gboyega Adebayo: Yeah.  

Evan Marshall: And then when you're at peace, that's when it's like, okay, that's when you're like, okay, every day's a win. 

Evan Marshall: I'm a brick by brick going with the end goal, going with the end game. And then if you maintain that, then 

Evan Marshall: you know the prosperity's gonna come.  

Gboyega Adebayo: Yeah,  

Evan Marshall: that's why I say peace, patience, perseverance and prosperity are the four things that I put focus on this year is because if you maintain all of those things that allows you to kind of be able to continue to 

Evan Marshall: grow and  

Evan Marshall: focusing on skilling your visit. 

Gboyega Adebayo: dude, I love that. No, I, I love that. And I'm gonna [00:52:00] have to, I'm gonna have to go back to the recording and write that down cuz I think it's, I think it's a good mantra. One question and, and, and maybe this is just, um, some self, some, me searching for some coaching, cuz I know my, my tendency is, um, you know, you get that, that no, you get that feedback and you're just like, all right, here's the positive feedback. 

Gboyega Adebayo: Great. Here's my gap. I sometimes have the challenge of trying to rush to solve that gap. So if someone says, Hey, your, your team's not big enough, or You need this type of specialty to serve. , as you're running your business with your team, have you guys found yourselves trying to rush to solve a gap? And like how do you manage that? 

Gboyega Adebayo: How do you decide like that is a smart decision or are we just being too reactive, um, and not seeing an opportunity to be patient and kind of let things grow? 

Evan Marshall: I mean, to your mention as [00:53:00] you mentioned, like with, as a business 

Evan Marshall: owner, you're always somewhat reactive when 

Evan Marshall: you're client, when you're chasing money. Uh, cause anybody, 

Evan Marshall: everybody's always chasing money, chasing new business.  

Evan Marshall: Right. Uh, and I would say to an extent we've never really focused on doing that, but I think it goes back to what you were saying in terms of reflecting. 

Evan Marshall: It's like, okay, if, so I'll give you a direct example. So one of the things we have, so a lot of times we're so within that, Uh, African American space. Like you have like the same basic media platforms. So you have your Big Five, which are Ebony Essence, uh, BET,  

Gboyega Adebayo: Mm-hmm.  

Evan Marshall: um, Revolt and, and Radio One, right? 

Evan Marshall: Those are your main five, right?  

Evan Marshall: But then you also have your, um, not, not Revolt, Blavity, excuse me, Blavity in Urban One, Blavity and Urban One. But then you also have Blavity of Revolt. You have Madam Noir, you have Grio, [00:54:00] that there was all those, all those are platforms so that there's content that can kind of live on those platforms. And then what you have then is the, what they call the, um, culturally adjacent platforms. 

Evan Marshall: So those are your Complex, your ESPNs, your, uh, hype Beast, your high Sobi, that even cnn that over-index heavily to black and brown consumers, but 

Evan Marshall: they're not black and brown media entities, right?  

Gboyega Adebayo: right?  

Evan Marshall: So a lot of times what we were facing before. Was, okay, your content is strong, your messaging is strong, but like, where's the reach? And basically what's your, where's your distribution model? Because you guys don't have, you're not a Blavity where you're getting 40 million unique WI visitors to your website a month across your off blavity. You're not an essence to where you have, you know, uh, a hundred million 

Evan Marshall: visitors and a month, like 500 million visitors on a monthly basis. 

Evan Marshall: You're not a BET 

Evan Marshall: where you have a large network platform. So it's like, okay, so to your point, did we take a step back, like, well, do we try [00:55:00] to become ourselves a content publisher ourselves and do content and try to find freelance? But I was like, we were like, no, that's 

Evan Marshall: not really what we can do. Um, so our pivot to that was then, you know what, let's find distribution partners that would align with us. So then from that, now we have distribution partnership deals with Revolt. We have one with Reach tv, we have one with Players tv. We have one with the Shade Room to where if X brand wanted to pay us to promote content, I can reach out to all four of those properties, say, Hey, I'm working on this proposal. This is what, this is my strategy, uh, based off of this dollar allocated amount, what level of impressions is distributed. Now we still create the concept and now it's 

Evan Marshall: distributed, uh, distributed across your platform. So I'm getting that reach. So that's an alternative. So it's like, to your point, it's addressing. The concern and feedback that they provided us with, but it's doing it in a way that still allows us to maintain our 

Evan Marshall: core competency as a business, which [00:56:00] is telling stories in terms of creating long that kind of content and not being another content publisher out there. Because transparently, we're never going to win in that space 

Evan Marshall: because those platforms are already big. 

Evan Marshall: I said we're not, we would never, but like that is a tougher lane for us to get in. Whereas also it's like, why don't we find strategic ways to 

Evan Marshall: be more efficient 

Evan Marshall: within that process? 

Gboyega Adebayo: Yeah. No, I, I, I appreciate that example. That's very real. Finding the partnerships that help fill those gaps rather than feeling like you gotta take on that burden of all of a sudden, okay guys, now we're gonna become them the next b e t done . Like, and that, that, that'll be very challenging. You know, I, I, I love that example. 

Gboyega Adebayo: Um, alright, so, so let's hit some of these concluding questions. Um, and this is one of my favorite ones. What misconceptions did you have about entrepreneurship before you became an entrepreneur? 

Evan Marshall: Ooh, that's a good one. Um, [00:57:00] okay, this is a hot take. Um, that black gatekeepers didn't exist cuz 

Evan Marshall: they a hundred percent do.  

Gboyega Adebayo: Interesting. Say more 

Evan Marshall: Um, so it's kinda going back to what we're saying in terms of as you're doing partnerships, uh, as you, what you realize is that there's a lot of people that even look like us in some of these rooms that want to be the only person in that room, or they view you as a threat. They view you as not in the aspect of, oh, y'all coming up question, let's work together and then we can both accelerate to the next level. 

Evan Marshall: It's like, 

Evan Marshall: nah, how do I kind of get him away?  

Gboyega Adebayo: Right,  

Evan Marshall: Um, one of the things they always say between different, between like the black community and other communities. You meet, you know, people from other groups and they own five businesses and they all do the exact same thing. They all make 

Evan Marshall: 4 million, do the exact same thing. 

Evan Marshall: Whereas two, often times in our community it's been, you make 5 [00:58:00] million, I make 2 million. And then you're focusing on how to, how do I get my two, how do you get my 2 million so we, so you can get to seven versus if we just partnered together, 

Evan Marshall: I can get to 

Evan Marshall: eight, .You can get to 15 

Gboyega Adebayo: Right, exactly.  

Evan Marshall: know 

Evan Marshall: what I'm saying? And now 

Evan Marshall: we both win it, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, so like a lot of it's there, it's shifting, 

Evan Marshall: you know, with like millennial. Uh, but one thing I said, I didn't realize that black gatekeepers generally do exist. It's 

Evan Marshall: unfortunate, but they do exist. That is a misconception that 

Evan Marshall: I had. 

Evan Marshall: Entrepreneurship.  

Gboyega Adebayo: Interesting, interesting. Oh, that's a good one. Um, what books would you recommend to other entrepreneurs? 

Evan Marshall: Ooh. Uh, yes. I have Tribe Mentors 

Evan Marshall: by Timothy Ferris.  

Gboyega Adebayo: Okay.  

Evan Marshall: Uh, so great work. If you're familiar with Timothy Ferris, he wrote Tribe of Mentors. He wrote Tools of Titans, uh, really huge podcaster. So within Tribe Mentors specifically to me, uh, I'm a big believer that you can have mentors with 

Evan Marshall: somebody that you've never even met,  

Evan Marshall: uh, [00:59:00] in terms of listening to 

Evan Marshall: their podcast, literature articles, uh, you know, white papers, like just, you know, going to conferences and hearing them speak. Um, cuz you two people can have the similar linear mi, linear thought process 

Evan Marshall: and even though they've never actually met. Uh, so tribal mentors is good because within that book, he he interviews everybody from Richard Branson to Serena Williams to Tiger Woods, to um, Matthew McConaughey, anybody you can think of. 

Evan Marshall: And he asks them basically like the same six to seven different questions across. And this book, 

Evan Marshall: like 400 pages, it's super thick.  

Gboyega Adebayo: Yeah.  

Evan Marshall: what you see across the, all those people that we all look up to and aspire to be call us of industry and sector, they all have a similar, same linear thought process. 

Evan Marshall: Similar same. They all voice it, envision things, they look at things their own unique ways. But if you really kinda 

Evan Marshall: on a macro level, majority of their processes 

Evan Marshall: in terms of what they're trying to get, uh, [01:00:00] gonna be the same thing, right? Like one of the questions you always ask is like, if you could have a billboard 

Evan Marshall: anywhere in the world, what would it say? Right? And it's like, so stuff like that. So, um, so, uh, Tribe of Mentors by Timothy Ferris 

Evan Marshall: would be one I would recommend.  

Gboyega Adebayo: No, I appreciate that. And it, and it, it very much goes in line with my realization with this podcast, which is, you know, starting this was just an exploration of, Hey, I'm about to become an entrepreneur. What's it like? What, what are the experiences? And also my business is supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs. 

Gboyega Adebayo: And so, um, I quickly realized, oh, everyone's struggling with the same thing. Everyone, everyone's processing and trying to work through these problems. And like, we all have the same anxieties and feelings of, of being overwhelmed, but feeling hopeful and, and it is very common. And so it. I'm, I'm gonna check out that book because I'm, I'm very fascinated to see his learnings,[01:01:00]  

Evan Marshall: kind of going back to your, previously, it wasn't really a misconception, but one things you quickly realized is, like, as you said, we all just trying to figure it out. Everybody, no matter where you at in your entrepreneurial journey, even if, like, if you built a business to the level in terms of you getting acquisi or acquired, 

Evan Marshall: you know, you never, you've never done that before. So you're like, so you reaching out to people that have sold a business or been acquired by 

Evan Marshall: another business and you trying to 

Evan Marshall: figure out that process, cuz you don't know that. So like, no matter where you're at, Nagen, we all, 

Evan Marshall: everybody's just trying to figure it out. Like, and like that's one of the things you realize cause it wasn't a misconception, 

Evan Marshall: but you don't realize how real that is until you start speaking with other people in 

Evan Marshall: that journey. 

Evan Marshall: Like, Yeah. we all just trying to figure it out. 

Gboyega Adebayo: Yeah. You think everything's buttoned up and it's like, no, it's, it's actually. Put together with tape. And I didn't actually, I didn't actually take the tape off until I was like, way more successful than you think, , you know?  

Evan Marshall: But then you think, yes.  

Evan Marshall: Yep.  

Gboyega Adebayo: Um, 

Gboyega Adebayo: all right. And then, uh, what question do you think I should ask the next guest?[01:02:00]  

Evan Marshall: Ooh. Um. if the business voted tomorrow, would you be happy with, would you be happy with what you accomplished? 

Gboyega Adebayo: I like that one. I like that one because, because we've had people say, if the business folded tomorrow, what would you do? Or what, you know, what would be your next business? But the question of what would you be happy with? What you accomplished is really fascinating. So I'm gonna ask you a question back to you. 

Gboyega Adebayo: If your business folded today, would you be happy with what you builded and what you accomplished?  

Evan Marshall: A hundred percent. Um, and that's because the, 

Evan Marshall: the, the impact we've been able to have on people.  

Gboyega Adebayo: Yeah.  

Evan Marshall: Um, I've been in places to where I've, we've done flash mobs and I've had people come up to my business partner [01:03:00] and say, Hey, I was literally, before coming in today, I was considering dropping him outta college. 

Evan Marshall: But after being here for 

Evan Marshall: the last two hours, I'm good.  

Gboyega Adebayo: Hmm.  

Evan Marshall: I've had people come to the flash mob and their mo, their mother died within TW 24 hours prior to that. And they were on the fence about coming, but they came and I saw a grown man in front of 30 strangers break down and cry, but cried. Cause the support that he felt in that moment from these other black men who were strangers when his mother just died. And the affirmation that he needed to be around other people that looked like him, that were in that same mindset and the 

Evan Marshall: level of comfortability provided him.  

Evan Marshall: So kind of things, 

Evan Marshall: there's no monetary value to that. So the, the impact we've been able to have on people from that regard, um, I would say yes, like I'm a hundred percent happy with what we've accomplished because I know that [01:04:00] at the end of the day, I've been able to 

Evan Marshall: impact people in a positive way.  

Gboyega Adebayo: That's awesome, Evan. That's incredible. Um, and then last, last but not least, Evan, let people know how they can connect with you and learn more about Black Menswear. 

Evan Marshall: Yes, uh, Black Menswear, you can follow us on all social channels, um, at Black Menswear Instagram and Twitter at v Black Menswear on TikTok, uh, website at black web website, ww.blackmenswear.com. Follow us on LinkedIn. Uh, we got a lot coming out. Uh, like I said, we got, we dropping a shoe on, dropping a shoe line, uh, with a collab company called Mark Nolan. 

Evan Marshall: Two colorways, the chocolate and the honey. Uh, we have a couple of events we're doing coming up with some of our clients for Woodford Reserve. Uh, flash Mob tour stops rest of this year. We have New York, London. Uh, Atlanta, Dallas, and Miami. Uh, we're hosting the Black Men Summit in Atlanta in November, so we got a lot coming up. 

Evan Marshall: So, uh, tapping with us files on social, check out our [01:05:00] website. Uh, we're gonna continue to build, 

Evan Marshall: continue 

Evan Marshall: to grow, 

Evan Marshall: and continue to evolve. 

Gboyega Adebayo: Awesome. Evan, again, thank you so much, man. This has been awesome. Appreciate it. 

Evan Marshall: you, sir. Appreciate it.