The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Derek Lewis Talks 'Survive and Advance,' Corporate America, Entrepreneurship, PepsiCo + More

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Derek Lewis To Discuss 'Survive and Advance,' Corporate America, Entrepreneurship, PepsiCo. Listen For More!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here at LifeKit, NPR's self-help podcast, we love the idea of helping you make meaningful lifestyle changes. Our policy is to never be too punishing on yourself or too grand in your goals, which is why we've got shows on how to make little nudges to your behavior and create habits that stick. Listen to the LifeKit podcast on iHeartRadio. Jon Stewart is back at The Daily Show and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Dive into John's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment,

sports, and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondents and contributors. And with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else. Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We want to speak out and we want this to stop.

Wow, very powerful. I'm Ellie Flynn, an investigative journalist, and this is my journey deep into the adult entertainment industry. I really wanted to be a player boy, my doll. He was like, I'll take you to the top, I'll make you a star. To expose an alleged predator and the rotten industry he works in. It's honestly so much worse than I had anticipated. We're an army in comparison to him.

From Novel, listen to The Bunny Trap on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. Nimini here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip hop. ["History to Life"]

Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. And it began with me Did you know, did you know

I wouldn't give up my seat Nine months before Rosa It was Claudette Colvin Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning everybody, it's DJ, Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the guy, we are The Breakfast Club.

Jess is out, Lauren LaRosa filling in, and we got a special guest in the building. We got the good brother, Derrick Lewis. Lewis, welcome brother. Good morning my brothers. How you feeling? How are you doing? How are you doing now? Good, I'm doing great.

Excellent, excellent man. Now for people that don't know who Derrick Lewis is, besides going to the greatest university and college in the world. Oh, which one is that, Del State? Definitely not Del West State. Hampton University. We relate you.

That's right. Break down who Derrick Lewis is. Derrick Lewis is an inspirational leader. Grew up in Chocolate City, back in the 60s and 70s. Single parent family hood, lifestyle. Decided I wanted to be something different. I wanted to dream big for myself despite the circumstances I was under

in the Chocolate City back at that time. And was inspired by getting a great education. Inspired by joining a big company. Inspired by putting that work in. To become who I wanted to be, my best version of myself. To lead others. Be not only a go-getter, but also a go-giver, and strive for excellence.

And I was able to do that over a 35-year career at Pepsi. Since then, I've retired now, and I keep doing my work. I'm obviously releasing a book that launches tomorrow. Thank you for the opportunity to talk about that today. And also, I'm launching cheese steak restaurants in Orlando, Big Dave's Cheese Steak. So you know brother Derek Hayes. I love him. Who owns those? Yeah, I love them, too

So I was his first franchisee. I'm bringing 10 units to central Florida I've already opened up four locations two in the Kia Center and two in Campbell's South Stadium. We're off and running I got two brick and mortars that open up at the end of March beginning of April and the sky's the limit I'm also obviously serving on boards. I'm back at my alma mater serving as a trustee and putting in the work there. More non-profit boards, doing the family thing. So life has been great, but I'm also, maybe I'll still contribute in the ways that satisfy me and my family.

Well, let's go back a little bit. The way you got your job at Pepsi, break that down and explain that a little bit. How you got that job and how you grew from, you know, starting off there to damn near running what you did at Pepsi. Well look, it was back in the late 80s. Job market was pretty good.

You know, I was interviewing my second semester. Interestingly enough, I had Pepsi come down. I stayed up late the night before kind of partying. It came to career fair. It came to career fair and I failed the interview. I basically got a rejection letter I want to say a week or so later in the mail. It was one of the most disappointing days of my life. Why did they decide not to go with you at the time?

Well, I think I was not my best in interview. And I think for people having a lesson, when you're going in front of you, you need to be at your best. And I was not my best. I took it for granted. I took it as though I can stay up all night and party and not do all the research, just not be buttoned up.

And so I went in probably at a, one to 10, probably went in at a five or six. And guess what? I just not good enough. Not gonna be good enough for anybody, much less even a Pepsi. So I sort of retooled, they were coming back down, a different sort of area was coming down from Baltimore.

I hunkered down, very disciplined, studied my butt off that night, made sure I was as sharp as I could be, went in and nailed that interview, got subsequent follow-up interviews and got the job offer to start in Baltimore, Maryland. Three weeks out of college, I was a management trainee,

got out the car, going into my first day of the office and prayed to God and said, God, I'd like for this to be the first day of my next 40 years, because at the time, you think you're gonna retire when you're 62, mid-60s, whatever, and I prayed in that parking lot, I got out my new Maxima, I bought my Advance, and the rest was history.

And the day I felt, the first day I felt like I belonged there, I felt like this was the place for me. I learned a lot, I stumbled a lot, but also if you read the book you'll learn how being a pacesetter mattered in that company and showing early on that I'm willing to be a pacesetter, I have the courage to be a pacesetter, I'm not worried about circumstances surrounding me, I'm going after it.

That was a catalyst for me to really embrace the growth that came along the way throughout the entire journey. You said you said you'd said a prayer to God to be there for the next 40 years. Were you there for 40? You weren't there for 40? I was at 35. 35, wow.

So what made you say, you know what, let me forego these last five? Like what pivoted? Well, I mean, I was at that point, 55 was the normal number. A lot of the guys I came in with, the campus program was really strong, robust at the company throughout the 80s and early 90s.

It was a really strong program in the company. And so a lot of us that were there, my peers, 55 was the number because the grind of the business, this is a very intense business. Hyper competitive, you know, going against our prominent competitors and other competitors. And so there is some wear and tear.

We traveled a lot, we moved eight times. It gets to a point where you have a next chapter. I read the book Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks and it opened my eyes to say there is life beyond the 35 years of the years, the time you spend at Pepsi. And so I wanted to always be an entrepreneur. I was talking about my book, being an entrepreneur when I was a kid,

selling Dorito chips to school, selling Jolly Ranchers and gum as a side right, I needed to do that because I needed to put money in my pocket, right, and so I always had this itch to be an entrepreneur. The authorship piece just came from me retiring and kids and colleagues asking me, you can't leave without, you know, so you're going to bottle this up and take it away, you have to leave us with some insight, you have to leave us with perspective on your journey. And so that's what I considered doing. The book was really the January of 2023

and got with a ghost writer and Page Two Publishing Company and the rest is history and here I am today. What was your title at Pepsi right before you left? The last title, I was president of PepsiCo Multicultural North America, so for an entire corporation. And I wanted to ask- So basically DEI before DEI?

It wasn't DEI, so I wanna clarify the DEI thing. It was, DEI had its own department. I was all about focusing on consumer, culture, and community. And so I was primarily, throughout my career, I was an operating executive. So I ran the P&L. I had billions of dollars of responsibility. At one point, I was running North America.

And then we did a restructure. And I went, I assumed, the South, the South responsibility president. And then at the tail end of that run, which was about three years, we delivered fantastic results. And we developed such a good playbook at the time because COVID was involved and George Floyd situation was involved. And we had developed such a good model

on culture, community and company that the company asked me to step in and create this big role for the entire corporation using the best practice that we developed in sort of the Southern United States and be able to start to implement that. So that was the last role that I had in common, primarily throughout my career.

I was all putting sales and driving profit, driving market share. It was getting after it in the trenches each and every single day. You were one of the first people, corporate wise, right? I graduated from Hampton a long time ago, so I would go to all these different homecomings, but you were probably one of the first

to bring huge corporations to all the HBCUs, right? Not just the big ones, because it's easy just to go to the big ones where North Carolina A&T, which is the biggest university as far as students are concerned, or FAMU, which is a big university. Why was it so important to you to do that HBCU run and to show up at those HBCU schools when other corporations weren't, but they started following after you did. Absolutely.

It's all about legacy, right? And so my HBCU experience at Hampton was absolutely fascinating, incredible. And so to be able to take that experience, build that sort of legacy, not only through the corporate side, investing not only just events, activation on campus, but also recruitment. I recruited heavily on HBCU campuses. I pushed hard to have recruitment centers go down to these schools, not just in called Mid-Atlantic area, but also down throughout the Southwest. I was responsible for setting up the SWAC partnership that we still enjoy today. That has been now a long-term partnership

and agreement based on the schools that are in SWAC. Great schools, great campuses, certainly the activation mainly revolves around sports, but I took that and extended that to recruitment and also community effort, right? And so me, it's a whole sort of end to end proposition, not just about the parties and social side, it's also about jobs. It's also about what we're doing in the community. It's also about setting up legacy for the future. When you, in the opening of your book, you talk about going through like all of the pandemic and the riots that happened after George Floyd

and Ahmaud Arbery, and you realizing like, I'm not an activist, but I do want to do something because I know what it's like to not know what's going to happen tomorrow. When did you get to a point in your career where you felt empowered to be like, my activism is in the boardroom and this is what I'm going to do?

Because being like a only or like one of few in a big corporation like a Pepsi, it's not easy to be like, you know what? Y'all listen to me, this is what we need to do. This is how like a only or like one of few in a big corporation like a Pepsi, it's not easy to be like, you know what? Y'all listen to me, this is what we need to do, this is how we should get back, this is how we should help. That's a great question. I think mid-career I felt that responsibility now because I was starting to really move up in the organization

and there weren't many people at the top and so a lot of the younger associates looked for me for guidance, direction. And so I just started creating networks across, I moved around a lot, so when I ended up in the West Coast, we would be at a national meeting, and it would not be uncommon for me to call

all the Black Associates to a hospitality event at the end of the night, and we would have like 100 people in a suite, I'd just go over and up and go over in a suite, go in and get everybody together and just talk to them about their journey, what's going on, how I see the future of the company. I'm an historian of the culture at Pepsi, going back to the 40s. I had a relationship with Alan McKellar Jr. He was the first person hired in corporate America as an intern in 1942,

along with Jeanette Mount. She went to Hampton, he went to South Carolina State. So first two interns in corporate America, I had a relationship with him up until he passed away in 2018. I spoke at his home-going service, which I was very honored to do. A lot of his family didn't even know the impact he had not only just the company but in corporate America and so you got to think for generation after generation the legacy of impact and evolution of the movement from the 40s of the 50s to the civil rights era you started seeing more and more investment in advertising for the company did leaning and heavily wasn't all received well because there was a lot of tension back then.

And then you get to the 80s and you saw the Michael Jackson endorsement. That was obviously a big breakthrough for pop culture. And the company really sang entertainment, music matters to us. The African American cohort is a priority cohort. You got to the 90s, they elevated into hip hop and started transforming then. Then you get to 2000, 2010, it became a core principle inside the company that it flowed through all the businesses. So anybody, any functional leader,

or any leader around the world basically had to embrace diversity as a core priority and principle. Then you got to 2020, I was right in the middle of all that because I was the top executive at the time to really sort of lead that and guide that. Ensuring that one, I'm looking after the company, I'm also looking after the associates, I'm also looking after the community.

Right, and that takes a hell of a lot of courage because at the old time I'm worried, I have my own concerns in my own life about what's happening, but at the time when someone's leadership is needed, it was time for me to step in and step up. And I did that, I did it honorably and gracefully, humbly, and I was excited to do that.

I was excited the company gave me the platform to do that, and I think it turned out very, very well for everybody. Question, did Michael Jackson, I guess you would call it a controversy, when he got his headset on fire while filming the commercial, did that hurt or help Pepsi? I don't know if it did one or the other. It certainly brought a lot of attention.

It brought a lot of attention, and sometimes when you get attention, that's really what matters, but I can think about all the iconic commercials and media that he did. When I think about Choice of New Generation, Pepsi Generation, I think about him a lot with that. And so that's what resonates for me.

That incident, while it does get talked about, I don't think certainly overshadow the brilliance and sort of the scale of his awareness and what he brought to the company and to one of obviously our biggest brand at the time. The reason I asked is random as hell. That's why when you brought it up, I was like, damn, me and my guy Glasses Malone, we were having this discussion.

We were having it in a group chat. My guy Silas, DJ Head, all of us. We were talking about Michael Jackson, and DJ Head was, I mean, I hate, Glasses was saying how after that commercial, after his head caught on fire and everything, that's when Thriller really started to take off. And that's true.

So I wonder if it was the Pepsi campaign or was it that controversy? Like what was it? I know it helped Michael, I just wanted to know. I think it was all the above. I mean, obviously he got a ride, we got a ride for it because we were one of the first ones to really get behind Pop Star of that magnitude, right?

We signaled that that's our thing. Again, he was black and all the other cultural things that went around that, surrounded that, were starting to become beneficial to the company as well. So there were just a series of statements made in the evolution going back to the 40s. That's deep, that's rich history that I felt like I had to carry that on.

So to answer your question, I felt from guys like Allen, hey, the torch got handed to you, it's your time now to step up like he did and others did Back in the 40s. I wanted to go back to the DUI DEI conversation Charlemagne mentioned With companies taking DEI off the table. How will that affect the company like Pepsi? How would that affect those big companies since you've been there and you've seen whether they hired African Americans or minorities? Yeah, how does that affect that and do you think it's a good idea? I think they'll be fine because again they're going back to the history the history is so strong and the torch passing

From CEO to CEO has been really strong and solid so it's like runs relay race that that never stops, right? So I feel like they'll be in good shape. I think for what I'm seeing now, it's it's not obviously it's unfortunate But the same time as I talked about my book a lot, it's an opportunity, right? So while there, you know looks appear to be a setback, there's times for now leaders, companies, cultures to step up to the plate. I do think it's weak that when there's bandwagoning and the student body, student body left, student body right,

I think all the knee jerk reactions, I think is not good, it's not healthy. I think it's not the ideal leadership you need now in this era of time. So I do think that while companies are pulling back, they might have articulated what they're doing with that. So yes, I agree that that DNIE playbook needs to have evolved. I think it was dated.

I think the circumstances in the 60s, 70s are very different than the circumstances now. Back then we obviously had extreme tension, unlawful things happening, social norms were accelerating very rapidly. We're in a different era now. Not that those things still don't exist, but not showing the intensity level they did back in 1670s. So this agenda should have evolved from where it is. It's a 60-year-old playbook. This playbook needs to be more comprehensive.

So it needs to account for the greater good, because that's how the world is moving now. It needs to be more collaborative. People need to work together more. Yes. Okay? So comprehensive collaborative needs to be compassionate. You need to have an agenda where you are.

It's about people. And so even in this case where you're telling a cohort that we're de-emphasizing something to de-prioritize in, you haven't necessarily come back with something that you're doing to offset that. Something again that revolves greater good, more collaboration, sort of more sensitivity around things that are going on. That's how you treat people.

So that lack of sort of compassion that is being shown in the, we're cutting it, and we're not talking about really anything else, I think is just not good. So I think this is a time for leadership to step up to the plate. It's not hard to write this new playbook, by the way. It should have been written a long time ago.

And leaders like myself could have done it. I saw, I could almost feel in 2020 what was happening. It was a more of an in your face moment. Everybody was going to get on board because no one wanted to be left behind or deal with the rash of being sort of on the outside looking in. And then obviously what happens is time moves on, things move on. They really really weren't any call it scorecard metrics or calibration against what you said and what you were going to go do to now. Can anybody go back and even remember

what people said back in 2020? So there was always a question around sustainability of that effort. I can remember them pledging all that money to them corporations and not delivering. Right, yeah, right. There was a lot of money, a lot of checks written. A ton of checks written, but where are we today? A lot lot of money a lot of checks written. Yeah, a ton of checks written But where are we? A lot of pledges with no checks written. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. You had that you had that happen too, right? And so you have people, you know in a quiet way resisting or just reacting Instead of really reimagining what the new playbook be so we actually took the time To reimagine the old DE9 to something more modern, that focused again on being more comprehensive, certainly being more collaborative,

and being more compassionate, we can get there. That's not hard to do, by the way. I like that. It's not hard also to execute that plan. What's hard is getting everybody on board. But you know, I always said that the problem I have with corporate DEI, it didn't feel for us by us. Like it should have been more,

it should have been black people. Telling these corporations what is needed. Not these corporations saying, okay here, this is what we're gonna do. Well that's the difference with a Pepsi is that we were always at the table. You know, throughout the history of time, whether it was the black sales force back in the 40s

or up until modern era, I was at the table when these programs were being developed and had a point of view and had perspective. And I give all the cities credit to all the CEOs who listened, who adapted, who empowered the executives to take charge. And I would do the same thing. I would ask the employees,

instead of putting your head down with all this, now you're empowered to do something about it. I believe in the structure of ERGs, employee resource groups, and I believe you have to have places to be safe, where if you feel isolated in the company, no matter where you come from, you have to have a place to go and should go so those things should structurally stay in place but it's up also in coming upon

those groups to lead a new agenda for the future not keep looking up going where we're going where we're going let's go you're looking up there's nobody there's nobody looks like you up at the top okay think about it CEOs right now fortune 500 less than 2% so how much progress is that really from the 1960s and now we have 2% less than 2% of people running the top 500 companies The world they're qualified people out there. There's no doubt about I'm one of those qualified people They're gonna run a fortune 500 company So I'm not trying to do that now But I'm out here and there's hundreds if not thousands of people like me that are qualified, but they're not getting the opportunity

So in some some regard you can look at, did the DEI structure actually hurt progress from people elevating because of this perceived, you're getting an express card. Check the box. You know, a fast mover without sort of having the merit and having the credentials do that thing. There were a lot of concerns.

It actually held a lot of people back. So let's reimagine this. Let's rebuild it, let's not, while we respect the grounded nature of how it was built, let's evolve it to a way that is more comprehensive, more collaborative, and more compassionate. And we get there, everybody wins.

You can't have winners and losers in this space. You can't have mandates in this space. I was there. I mentored just- No, what you just said, it can't just be a mandate. Because a lot of it was just PR for These these corporations all was yeah check the box. I meant to or just as many call it Caucasian executives as do black executives or other executives for that matter because

They want to really learn how to get this done And so my teachings were always more open to the greater good because I realize as you teach people, especially where there's majority representation, they're likely going to affect, they're gonna be able to help affect change. And they feel like they're part of the process. But when you're alienated and told you have to do this, man, that resistance is high. People go, man, I ain't doing that. I ain't doing that.

I don't have to do it, I'm not gonna go do it. It's the wrong thing to do. It should always be about best talent. So what are you doing? My book is all about what are you doing to one, bettering yourself, what are you doing to believe in yourself, and what are you doing to be yourself? That's been my mantra my whole life.

I'm investing in myself. I have to get better. I have to take risk. I have to invest in myself to get better. I have to have discipline. I have to have commitment. I have to dream big. And I have to be authentic and stay authentic.

And that's what I try to role model myself my entire life. All that book tells you about the lessons on maintaining those disciplines and those principles. I want to ask you this, right? Here at LifeKit, NPR's self-help podcast, we love the idea of helping you make meaningful lifestyle changes. Our policy is to never be too punishing on yourself or too grand in your goals, which is why we've got shows on how to make little nudges to your behavior and create habits

that stick. Listen to the LifeKit podcast on iHeartRadio. Ever wonder what it's like to be on the phone with an NFL general manager as you finalize the biggest contract in NFL history? I'm AJ Stevens, vice president of client strategy at athletes first, where we've negotiated $1.4 billion in current NFL quarterback contracts, introducing the athletes first family podcast, the quarterback series, along with my cohost, Brian Murphy, athletes first CEO.

We're pulling back the curtain on how these historic deals come together. You'll hear directly from the agents who shaped the NFL's financial landscape. The ones who negotiated Justin Herbert's extension and Deshaun Watson's fully guaranteed contract that sent shockwaves through the league. This isn't just about the numbers though. It's about the untold stories behind these massive negotiations and the relationships the NFL superstars like Dak Prescott, Tua Tunga-Vallilola, and Jordan Love have with their agents at Athletes First. For the first time ever, the agents who orchestrate these deals are sharing the details of the

negotiations and everything that led up to their clients signing on the dotted line. Listen to the Athletes First Family podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Arturo Castro, and I've been lucky enough to do stuff like Broad City and Narcos and Roadhouse, and so many commercials about back pain. And now I'm starting a podcast because honestly, guys, I don't feel the space is crowded enough. Get Ready for Greatest Escapes, a new comedy podcast about the wildest true escape stories in history.

Each week, I'll be sitting down with some of the most hilarious actors and writers and comedians to tell them a buckwild tale from across history and time. People like Ed Helms, Diane Guerrero, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Zoe Chow. Titanic. Charles Manson. Alcatraz. Asada Shakur.

The sketchy guy named Steve. It's giving funny true crime. I love storytelling and I love you, so I can't wait. Listen and subscribe to Greatest Escapes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We want to speak out, we want to raise awareness, and we want this to stop. Wow, very powerful. I'm Ellie Flynn, and I'm an investigative journalist.

When a group of models from the UK wanted my help, I went on a journey deep into the heart of the adult entertainment industry. I really wanted to be a playboy model. Lingerie, topless. I said, yes, please. Because at the center of this murky world is an alleged predator.

You know who he is because of his pattern of behavior? He's just spinning the web for you to get trapped in it. He's everywhere and has been everywhere. It's so much worse and so much more widespread than I had anticipated. Together, we're going to expose him and the rotten industry he works in. It's not just me.

We're an army in comparison to him. Listen to The Bunny Trap on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I love the title of the book Survive in Advance, Lessons on Living a Life Without Compromising. It's rooted in the DEI thing. Right now you have a lot of people saying they wanna boycott Target, right? Because they rolled back their DEI initiatives, which I don't get it, you know, it's a lot of different companies that roll back DEI initiatives, so why just Target?

But what they're saying is they wanna make an example out of this one company, but then now people are saying, hey, let's do a compromise, let's support the black brands in Target, but boycott everything else. What do you think the best course of action is? I think the best course of action again is I think leaders around the space, people who have experience,

people who have dealt with struggle in their life like I have, who've been through a journey, I've been through HBCUs. I have this experience, I serve a trustee at HBCU, so people that have the experience out there need to lead a new agenda, need to lead a more modern agenda that again, I go back to these same three C's, right? That is absolutely more comprehensive.

Going this boycott angle and only supporting this, supporting that, that's not the answer either. That's not the answer. It's very short term. Yeah, it drives a lot of engagement, but it's not the right answer. You're going to increase polarization to even a greater extent when you do that. Our time is now to look at this as a positive in terms of change and creating new change for the culture and do it in the right way that's gonna create sustainment. Doing these sort of side hustles and taking these tactics that are abrupt,

abrasive, temporary, don't solve the long-term problems. I'm into solving the long-term problem. Let's solve the long-term problem. Let's get people leaders together with the corporation say hey We want to take a different cut at this look at again looking at all your cohorts looking at all the people that matter Looking at all the things that you're gonna do look at the money you spent before and give you opportunities I do know how to spend that money a little bit differently Maybe to create programs that everybody can win to create programs everybody's working together

Our uniqueness is the one thing that we actually all have in common. Our uniqueness is the one that everybody brings out to the table. If we use that to our advantage, the teamwork will be unparalleled in this entire country. But instead we look at it only on the basis of really gender and race. That's how we sort of measure uniqueness, really. We need to look at it across the spectrum. Everybody has different lived experiences, everybody has different backgrounds, everybody thinks differently. We need to celebrate that in a very different way where everybody at the table is being represented. That's going to give you a

greatest output, that's going to give you a big greatest culture, that's going to give you the best results. It's proven when you have people that celebrate uniqueness or really value uniqueness at the table, it drives the best business results. So you have this triangle where you got consumer, if you're a brand company, you got solely consumer, you you're a brand company, you got solely consumer, you sort of got the company and you got your community. Right, that's the sort of three legged stool. Inside that is culture.

Get your culture right, you focus, you spend the right money against the consumer to drive the behaviors you need and the sales you need. You focus on company, you're getting representation right, you just look like the market. There's some markets that aren't gonna look like every market. Every market's not gonna look the same. But you're looking like the market you operate in and

you represent, right? And that's going to be different. And then you obviously have the community. We want to lift all the communities up. We don't want to just be sort of separate and discreet and carve out and say, we only care about these communities. We only care about these black brands in these stores. We want to make sure we're evolving the greater good and everybody gets to go along for the ride. That takes real courage, that takes real strategic leadership, that takes real sort of collaboration and maturity to pull this off and not look at it with your head down but look at it with your head up on what's the future look like in this space and having people at the table to do that will get us to the right space.

Absolutely. You know I wanted to talk about your first paying job. For people that don't know, what was your first paying job and who gave you that job? My first paying job was under leadership of Mayor Marion Barry. The legend. The legend. My daddy was in rehab with Marion Barry.

Was he? Jesus. Back in the day in South Carolina. Okay. Marion Barry was... Wasn't going hand with it but I... I respect Marion Barry. I respect him.

I mean the man overcame all so many struggles. May I respect, that guy is a legend for the DC culture. Legend. He's a legend to me. I realize it's not about the mistakes he made. We all make mistakes. But he cared about people, man. He cared about kids.

He knew the risk of kids venturing off and not having time filled in throughout the day. So he created this summer program. Every kid, 14 and up, guaranteed a summer job. All you do is fill out the paperwork. So I had my first paying job at 14, I was making $3.35 an hour, I was getting on the subway, I was excited every day, I got to go up and go to work every day, get on the subway and go to Brooklyn. And I was going to a school or administrative place and filing papers. I mean, it wasn't like I was doing

a lot of strategic and heavy lifting work, but I had a job. I was taught to be... I was already responsible going that, by the way, so it wasn't a matter of Derrick Lewis understanding the role of having a job. I was already like the dad of the house and the big brother of the house, you know, when I was 10 years old. But this was important to me now because it really defined and started elevating the sort of professional lens. You're gonna be working with other people, you'll be working for people. This isn't just a side house. You're cutting grass, washing cars, cleaning houses, selling Doritos at school like you were.

This is now a professional job. It sort of really shaped my mindset around what I wanted to go do. I thought I was gonna be a government worker up until I went to Hampton. And then obviously I was able to dream bigger when I got to school, saying, all these companies come down here

and they offer these kind of monies. Because all my family was government jobs, right? So I thought that was my path. I dreamt I was going one day to make $100,000, live in a single family home and be a happy guy. And that was at my age now. Guess what? Life took a very different circumstance.

God had my back. The circumstances were very, very different as a child growing up. I knew I wanted to have a different life for myself. I put a lot of faith in him and took that journey and here I am today. Still now, much more into go giver mode than go getter mode. For years I was go getter. I mean hyper go getter because we didn't have much.

So I was never gonna let something go by because of performance. And now my mindset has really shifted as I've aged and matured and grown to paying it forward. So I was in pay it now mode for many, many years. Now I'm in pay it forward mode. And I'm having the time of my life doing that. Hopefully this book will inspire many others,

whether you're a child going through the struggles, I did it, you read the book, a lot of struggles, a lot of dark days there, a lot of days where I didn't know if I was gonna make it out to become one of the highest ranking executives in corporate America, a very recognizable organization. They had my back, I had their back. It was a great run. Create a lot of-

I want to talk about your coming up with your wife as well. Yeah, okay. That's big. How long have you been married? We've been married 32 years. Now, explain how that is having the right partner by your side. It's meant everything. Me and Charlamagne talk about it all the time.

With the right partner, it keeps you out of trouble, keeps you from doing foolish, and sometimes you got a smack in the back of your head. So talk about that journey, about having that right partner on your side to make sure that you stay focused. I mean, it really has been the key to the success I've had. And I talk about this a lot, especially recently we've been talking about this a lot, is our line shared vision

on how we wanna do, live our lives. Now the story at Hampton, you know, was volatile. We met, I was a senior, she was a freshman. Things didn't work out, they worked out great at the beginning, but as you know, those things volatile. We met, I was a senior, she was a freshman. Things didn't work out, they worked out great at the beginning, but as you know, those things are temporary down there, didn't work out. I moved on, I wanted to be this, go get my job, go establish some income, go buy my first house

before I started taking relationships seriously. It was a big mistake that I'm glad didn't cost me, because I wouldn't be here now if she wasn't part of my life, but we reunited, time heals. I matured, I came back, I saw the true values she brought to the table. And I knew all along that our vision on family, our vision on career, our vision on community,

our vision on faith were so aligned that it was obvious for me to say, hey, I need to lock this down, right? Because I knew that the place I wanted to go go, I absolutely had to have a partner that was willing to go along with that ride. And that ride wasn't gonna have lumps to it. The ride has had lumps to it,

but we've been there for each other the whole time. Because we never wavered on the shared vision. She had a quarter job when we had our third child. That was not an easy time for her to do that. I talked her into doing that. But it was, again, it was a tough time. We adjusted to it, obviously, we've come out fine with that. But it was, again, it was a tough time. We adjusted to it, obviously, we've come out fine with that.

But that was the time where I had to really sort of lean in with her. There's times she had to lean in with me. We moved around a lot, new communities. You can imagine how sisters are going to places like Portland, Oregon, where it's 2% black and trying to find a place to get your hair done. You know, you get to town, well, okay, we're here now.

Where do I get my haircut? Where do we get our hair done? Where do we get nails done? Where do we socialize? What do we do we get nails done? Where do we socialize? What do we do to sort of relax and become ourselves in the culture? We found ways, we found places, we eventually would make our way around it,

but then by the time we got comfortable, it was time to move again and again and again and again. So a lot of sacrifice that we had, but we've built the family we wanted to build. We call ourselves Team Lewis. She's the co-captain, or she's actually the chief household officer, I would say to to her and been a part of all that but shared vision has been the absolute focal point of our success

Leaning on each other trusting each other grinding each other. She's made me better I would like to say I've made her better, but she's still has made me better in this whole journey There's a point in the book not the statistic in This point in the book just talking about your wife a point in the book, not the statistic, in this point in the book, just talking about your wife and leaning on her, you talk about your journey with finding out that you had a cancerous mass, and just things you overlooked because you were working,

and just in day to day, and the title of the book, Survived in Advance, you talked about feeling like you survived and you got away from a lot of things you didn't have to worry about what was gonna happen next in your life, and then you're super successful, and then cancer comes, and your wife is there,

and your family is there, like, can you talk to me about what that journey was like for you? And in the face of it, you're still, I see you kinda get emotional right now. Yeah, no, it was a great, that was a tough time, right? I mean, I'm retired now, I'm playing a lot of golf, and I'm having the time of my life, and then I started seeing blood in my stool,

and again, sloppy for me, undisciplined for me. I had never had a colonoscopy, you know? And so here I am, 56, and every year I go get my executive physical, check in the box, and doctors like, hey, Derek, it's your over 50 now, it's time to get your colonoscopy. I'm like, I got you, I got you, I got you. But I'm going back to the grind,

I'm going back to the grind. I'm focusing on people, I'm focusing on my job. Are you scared to go? I wasn't scared, I just ignored it. I deprioritized it. I made it feel like my executive physical was good, I'm feeling good,. I'm focused on my job. Were you scared to go? I wasn't scared. I just ignored it. I deprioritized it. I made it feel like my executive physical was good.

I'm feeling good. The boxes were checked. You said you had all the best doctors. Your cognitive skills were good. Your motor skills are the highest they've ever been. Your blood comes back fine. You're good. So I'm like, I'm good, man.

I got to get back to the grind. And I ignored it. It was a terrible, terrible decision. I don't want anybody out there that is 50 or over and has not had a colonoscopy. Now, as a matter of fact, you need to, you start getting younger now, starting to get a lot younger.

Yeah, I think I went down to 45, I believe. Depending on your family history, a lot of it has to do with your family history, but the earlier the better. So there's no such thing as an early start with checking out yourself in that regard. And so it was a terrible decision. It would have cost me my life.

Would have cost my life. But the beauty came out of all my relationships. We sat in the car, this was the story. I found I had the tumor. We got in the car and we're looking for, like basically the doctor was basically very stoic. He's like, hey, you have a cancerous tumor. I suggest that you look into an oncologist now.

You may need surgery, you may need radiation. Here's a recommendation we give you, guys down the street, you can pop in there, here's your paperwork. I hope to see you a year from now. That was really the conversation. That's how it is. So we get out of there and we go walk down the block to go see the guy because obviously like, hey, I need to like set something up.

My urgency is high right now and it's closed. It's like three o'clock close. We get in the car and I can feel that moment where it's silenced for a minute or two, trying to collect everything, collect ourselves. What's going on here? And so I thought, called a friend. I had a friend, phoned a friend who I'd known had gone through cancer and boy, she bailed me out.

And by that time, three or four hours later, I was on the phone with the chief medical officer of the Advent Health Network, my eventual surgeon, and oncologist all within hours to talk about my problem, get them the paperwork, they did an early diagnosis over the phone, they said hey, it's serious but it's not like we can fix this, so you need to have the faith, we got you. We got your back.

And so I never like got scared I never had that moment. I'm like, okay It's like is this a six-month thing is it am I on the clock now? Like really I'm on a clock because I had so much in front of me God has sent send me a lot of signals about what I was gonna do in my next chapter And I feel like you're not gonna you're not gonna show me all to take that away from me But this is a chance to reset your life Reset your health prioritize your health the way your health needs to be prioritized

because I didn't prioritize it the way I needed to and I would tell everybody, everybody, make sure your health is the number one thing. If you can't be the best version of yourself, you can't be there for everybody else. So how in the hell can I, I'm a hypocrite. I'm out there saying I'm out here for everybody, but I'm not here for myself.

And so self-care is really elevated in my life in a big, big way and obviously the health part of that. Not only the physical part but the mental part and emotional part. Very important for me now. It's given me the foundation now to do things I actually haven't done before in many, many years. But my wife was fully behind me. She took it actually hard and I did. We talked about that a lot. She's like, Derek, I'm going through this too. When I would get short with her, I'd say it's okay it's okay. Try not to make it a big deal. But it was a big deal.

It needed to be talked about. But she was a rock of strength for me in ways that I will never ever forget. I know if it was reversed, I'd be there the same way for her, and God forbid it gets that way. So let me take all that pain for the family to keep the family going.

But she was the rock in this whole thing, and I wouldn't have got through it at that level if it wasn't for her and her support. She came through big time and my network came through big time and it was one of the most incredible experiences. I say in the same breath, it was the hardest lesson I learned, it's also the greatest lesson I learned at the same time. Because I got a lot of runway left. And that, you just motivated me now for the next 30-some years of my life to go after

in ways that I haven't gone before. It refueled me. It re-energized me. It put me in a different space. And again, this whole notion of being a go-giver, man, I'm in that space and I see the vision of what the future holds for that. That's right. All right.

Well, pick up the book. His memoir, Survive and Advance, Lessons on Living a Life Without Compromise. It's out right now. Derrick Lewis. Derrick Lewis, we appreciate you for joining us. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. Thank you all. Thank you for what y'all do, man. It's the right now. Derrick Lewis, we appreciate you for joining us. Thank you, brother. Thank you all. Thank you for what y'all do, man.

It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that ass up. In the morning. The Breakfast Club. Here at LifeKit, NPR's self-help podcast, we love the idea of helping you make meaningful lifestyle changes. Our policy is to never be too punishing on yourself or too grand in your goals, which is why we've got shows on how to make little nudges to your behavior and create habits

that stick. Listen to the Life Kit podcast on iHeartRadio. John Stewart is back at The Daily Show and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Dive into John's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports, and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the shows, correspondents, and contributors. And with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else.

Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We want to speak out and we want this to stop. Wow, very powerful. I'm Ellie Flynn, an investigative journalist, and this is my journey deep into the adult entertainment industry. I really wanted to be a player boy, my doll.

He was like, I'll take you to the top, I'll make you a star. To expose an alleged predator and the rotten industry he works in. It's honestly so much worse than I had anticipated. We're an army in comparison to him. From Novel, listen to The Bunny Trap on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. Nimmini here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast

for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip hop. -♪ Flash slam another one gone, bash bam another one gone, the cracker, the bat and another one gone, the tip of the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure

from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. -♪ And it began with me, did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat Nine months before Rosa, it was Claudette Coleman.

Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records because in order to make history, tuning in to Historical Records because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.