The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - Moment 46 - A Tribute To Jamal Edwards

Episode Date: February 24, 2022

Jamal Edwards: A true legend, role model and friend. In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast I usually pick one of my favourite moments across all the episodes, but this week after the heartbreaking news of Jamal’s passing I wanted to collate the best bits of our conversation into a mini montage as a dedication to the prodigious person he was. I hope we can all live in the legacy he left behind. Jamal Edwards played a huge role in my life, he was someone that I admired and looked up to tremendously. He paved the way and proved to young black men like me that I could become successful and achieve big things. Jamal is the founder of SBTV, the first new media business on YouTube, which is hugely successful, and plays a role in launching the careers of many, many people in the music industry, including Ed Sheeran. He talks here about the dimensions of being an entrepreneur, and how the mistakes we make often create the biggest hurdles to overcome and learn from. His wisdom and maturity are inspiring to listen to and as we delve into the subject of achieving happiness, he says his own happiness comes from being able to give back, to improve other people’s lives and to give people the confidence and self-belief he wished he had. We recorded this clip over a year ago, and I wanted to share with you moments from it that capture his genuine empathy, charisma and diligence. Rest in peace brother. Episode 39 - https://g2ul0.app.link/voBhicG5Snb

Quick one, just wanted to say a big thank you to three people very quickly. First people I want to say thank you to is all of you that listen to the show. Never in my wildest dreams is all I can say. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd start a podcast in my kitchen and that it would expand all over the world as it has done. And we've now opened our first studio in America, thanks to my very helpful team led by Jack on the production side of things. So thank you to Jack and the team for building out the new American studio.

And thirdly to Amazon Music who, when they heard that we were expanding to the United States, and I'd be recording a lot more over in the States, they put a massive billboard in Times Square for the show. So thank you so much, Amazon Music. Thank you to our team. And thank you to all of you that listened to this show. Let's continue. From watching your journey as an 18 year old kid sat in Moss Side in Manchester, watching YouTube and reading articles and things like that, I got to see one, I guess, one dimension of being a successful young entrepreneur. But there's this other dimension, which I think, especially at that time, nobody really talks about. And I think it's probably

quite hard for you to articulate the true nature of being a young successful entrepreneur that had a lot of spotlight and a lot of people talking and really on this wave of sort of YouTube when I was watching you in the day. So I guess my question is, what are the things about being a young entrepreneur when you came up, where you came up, that people just don't appreciate or just don't realise? I don't know, I think it's just living your life in a public like like and i'm all for making mistakes like and for people to learn from them and and myself learn from them but i think it was a lot of pressure of making sure you're like like the way

you dress like all that sort of stuff and it was only to a certain point where people didn't know who i was it's only my local the local people that knew who i was the google chrome advert then took me to another like level in terms of like publicity which i was i think like about 19 really i was just like whoa it's just mad like people coming up to me taking pictures people staring at me i was like what is doing it before i'll just get mad anxious i was like and i was like and then like some people like it got to the point of like where people take pictures and that and i'll be like why why are you taking a picture and i didn't understand and then i'd be like what's my name like can i just be like do you think i'm mistaken or do you like is it someone else but most of the time like all the time people say oh jamal come on

man like sbtv and i'm like, yeah, cool. So that's the like publicity fame side of being in the spotlight. What about the business side in terms of you were at the centre of this like super fast growing media platform and you were like really an early mover in that space i imagine you get brands swarming on you and there's team members and there's this sort of expectation that you have to be like the ceo and the founder and know what you know all of the right moves to make what's that like at a young age you've got pay people as well yeah i think i was like the youngest boss if you say that everyone that i employed was older than me and it was very daunting for me to be telling people oh yeah do it like this do it like this I used to let people sway my decisions because I was like

I've always been taught to respect your elders so like if they if I say let's do a video like this someone older than me but I think it's like this I'd be like yeah probably you know but actually got more experience but or like more years on your age but i had to learn to like sort of take that back and actually do what i wanted to do but in early early days it's very daunting like i would never tell people like oh you can do this because i've been oh they're just way older than me no listen to me i'm like like i'm a kid to them do you know what i'm saying and i think i had to overcome that like fear of of just people saying but you're this age like what are you doing well you can't tell me to do that and i say like that and it's not saying that like that people that work for

me was like that but that was just programmed in my head like i used to tell myself that over and over again that was definitely like a something i had to overcome because there's like a lot of kids out there that that will be thinking they might be 19 years old, 20 years old, whatever. They'll be thinking, I think I'm too young to start anything or do anything. What would you say from your experience to those kids? Now, especially you can start business at whatever age. I did pocket money pitch and kids like 11 years old was pitching me a forecast. I was like, what? This is crazy. So I was like what this is crazy so I feel like the

age now has been lowered I think like when we were in school entrepreneurship and business wasn't really like co-signed as much as it is now and they're seeing people like myself people like you other people like breaking down the barriers and like you know what actually enterprise can be done like at whatever age it is and it doesn't matter what background you're from because like people are actually making it happen that Google advert was massive at the time

actually I feel like I remember where I was when I saw it it was like the first ad break of X Factor that year it was crazy I know

I was like sweating really literally sweating I was like I've got the list of like where it was going like it was on Sky Sports really

they gave you a list yeah they gave me a list of every like it was huge and yeah like it was like Lady sports really they gave you a list yeah they gave me a list of every like it was huge and um yeah like it was like lady gaga and justin bieber was like my counterpart i was the one in the uk and i think the reason why i did well is because like a lot of people related to the story but um it was a surreal moment it was a surreal moment like it was a surreal moment one of the one of the things I actually spoke about in the last podcast I did was about race and the topic of race. Here's my kind of opinion.

One of the things that, I've got to be honest, frustrates me a little bit is when minorities, specifically black minorities, because it's the group that I feel like I can identify with the most, fall into the trap of thinking that their race will hold them back or even in cases of like you know um gender or even ageism um will hold them back because they are black and it's a young successful black man like yourself um do you ever see that and what's your opinion of it i used to but that's about i used to think it's because i'm black yeah yeah and now like i don't think that as much but i said that depends upon the people that you hang around with and that you surround yourself with because i surround myself with so many different groups and i like to connect those groups so like my upmarket city boys i would connect them to

like my state boys and we'd go to like soya house for example and they'd all be there and they all get on and they all like fine but everyone seems to make the segregation and i like i think back in the day i used to have that in my head if i never used to get anything as i was because i'm black it's because i'm black and then I built my mindset out of that because it was going to keep me trapped if I kept like thinking like that

all the time and I just got to like I feel like it doesn't like it doesn't matter what what race you are

it goes deep it goes deep like it goes deep obviously the history yeah like that you can see like like black history that you can see like

like black history and you can learn about it and I'm not going to go into it I know bits about it and I'm not like I'm not going to say I'm like a historian

or whatever but I know about like the oppression oppression oppression all that but

it's like we're in a in a new age and people can say what age or race or whatever but it's like we're in a new age and people can say what age or race or whatever, but it's in your mind to be the change you want to see in the world. That's a Gandhi quote. And I try and make sure that I don't let that affect how I move because otherwise it's not a blame game. You just got to carry on.

You got to do it. And it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy on you gotta do it and it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy if you start to believe it right yeah like you manifest do you know what I'm saying

why don't you manifest you're gonna do something else not manifest that's because I'm black the reason I didn't get that is because I'm black or it's because I'm young like I remember

I used to do that as well like it's because I'm young but then I like ended up employing someone that had 20 years of experience and then me and that person combined got the job. You know what I'm saying? And you've just got to think, you're in a situation,

how do you take it and change it to the way that it can fit you? And then build on it. And that's what I think frustrates me about it. It's because I see the issue. No discrimination is a very real thing and i'm not denying that it is i think we're all just we all have our own prejudices yeah you know stereotypes and 100 so but that's not something that i can really change at scale like i can't change the prejudice in people you can change your mindset yeah and i actually think that the

prejudice or the belief that i'm being um I'm at a disadvantage because of something like my skin color that I can't change is more dangerous or more conducive with me not being successful than the little bit of prejudice that John at that brand might have towards people that look like me. So I think the mindset becomes a bigger issue.

This is a controversial topic, of course, because, you know, it's the important nuances that, you know, prejudice and important nuance is that you know prejudice and discrimination are still very real things yeah 100 but it's it's you you're how you deal with it there's that saying of like people get thrown things at them all the time but it's your reaction that is what makes it whatever it is exactly you know what i'm saying look at the football football at the moment and and racism for example raheem could turn around run into the crowd and start slapping whoever's being racist but no he deals with it properly like a big man diligently and

do you know what i'm saying so it's about how you deal with it definitely talk a second about um figuring out more as you've gotten older what like fulfillment is in life and what like happiness really is. Yeah. Do you have that answer? I don't have the answer. Do you know what it is for yourself? Do you know what the things are that?

For me, what makes me happy is being able to give back. I think when earlier, like years ago, I think money was like a big happiness factor, but I've known people that I've got serious money and they're not happy. So I feel like me, happiness for me is like being able to give back

and improve other people's lives. Like, and I was doing that for years with SB. I put artists on and then they'd blow up and then I'd be like, yes, I've been helped, helped a career. Do you know what I'm saying? And then like after that, it became more about the community of doing the stuff the youth stuff and that like for me is fulfillment and you

on the topic of giving back to people you're opening youth centers back up in london yeah yeah i've got like four um i'm supposed to do one and then i ended up opening four because i just got carried away um there they were centres that were closed. Two were like drop-in sessions where young people can come and just somewhere outside of school and outside of your home where you can come and just talk if you've got problems or whatever.

And we want to try and do a lot of mental health workshops. And then we've got another session which is like music and media, which like JBR have kind of like thrown loads of stuff at us. Apple have given us loads of stuff where young people can come and learn to produce, film, anything that you want. And then we've got one which is sports, which is like for kids that want to do sport. And I think the main thing I want to do with these centres is like we've engaged over 150 kids over the past 13 14 weeks um but it's like if a young person comes to me and says I asked them what do you want to do one was I want to be

a lawyer one wants to be a sprinter one wants to um be a librarian whatever I would then use my contacts to connect them to that right person so then I'll go speak to like a law firm or go speak to like apple or go speak to the British Library and then get that young person in there for work experience whatever and to try and help build their self-belief and confidence because I think that's one of the big things that I didn't have from when I was young I didn't really have the confidence and self-belief because no one used to tell me you could do that you could do that I just sort of like looked at the tv and the newspapers and and internet and made up my own mind but that's one of the big things that i want to try and do for the young

people today what impact did money have when you you left top man um making some money i don't know people like never know people might be scheming on you touch wood like never been like robbed or whatever but like you just never know i've had people like say oh Jamal be careful like people kidnap you and whatever and I'm like because I think like people have that perception of you're making loads of money like in the early days and it wasn't that at all but it was like oh you've got like millions of views you must be making loads of money um so I feel like money just brings money brings happiness and sadness I think um but in the early days i used to think money was money made the world go around i don't i don't think that anymore but they say that when something

becomes a job or it becomes like monotonous or like this the same every day and also when you get paid to do it you lose the creative motivation to do it that's why you've always got to have oomph moments like i class them as oomph moments, like moments in my career where it just gives me a new oomph for like a period of time. So like, for example, the most recent one was, I did a fashion week party at Surhaus Greek Street. I saw it.

Like that was an oomph moment. And it was like, we were saying in a group, like, oh yeah, let's do one for Halloween or let's do another one for Christmas or whatever. But it was like no let that marinate let that just like you know what i'm saying let it season you know when you put the season in the food just gotta let it get the juices you know what i'm saying like we're and we need to like when we um as well as we're our losses and our wins we need to let it sink in because like if you lose like yes it's dust yourself back up and get back up again

but you just need to realize what how did you lose and how can you like not make that same mistake again the same thing for your wins like let it get out there and then you move on to the next thing and i think like over the years i've always had to have these moments i did a talk about creating and curation i was was a creator at first, and then I ended up being a curator. And I think one of the oomph moments was when I did the social media hub, the first ever social media hub at Buckingham Palace,

where I took a selfie with Prince Harry and Prince William. And I think it was from that moment, I was like, oomph. That lasted for months. And it's like, when we're working, you've always got to think of these moments. Like, and I always try to say, if I have four moments in a year, cool, that's good.

A moment each quarter. And then I can have like little moments in between that. But it's just reminding people I'm still here. Like, cause I'm like 10 plus years in the game now. It's like, you always just got to have them sort of moments.