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00:00Or, like, network with your peers, too, because everyone grows, and those peers, you all become titans of industry.
00:08But my friends were always good, iron sharpens iron, to have somebody to bounce something off that had a different perspective.
00:15It was always good to also have people who aren't yes people, like, and really, like, can check.
00:21Who will call you out, right?
00:23Will call you out.
00:24So, and that's just, it's just very, it's needed.
00:26I think we all need those moments and those people in our lives that keep us real, keep us authentic, and also just love you and want the best for you.
00:36And I've been very fortunate that, you know, from college to now, it wasn't that long.
00:44No one said it was, Connie.
00:46My own, my own, my own.
00:49But, you know, I just think it's just you always have to have people around you that you know in your heart just want the best for you.
00:56And can advise you, can, like, when you have those hard days, because it's hard.
01:02They console you, but they're also like, you know, okay, that's enough.
01:06Let's get back on the horse and keep going.
01:10It's, Ty, you too.
01:12I mean, I will, I'll jump in, but I'd love to hear from you as well, because what you said is so true.
01:17I mean, I remember when I was transitioning from another job, and it was just not working.
01:25And I was driving on the freeway, and I was talking to a really trusted friend, and she was like, what are you doing?
01:30Turn the car around.
01:32Like, she was like, you have to know what your worth is.
01:34And it's like what I said earlier, know what your worth is.
01:37If they don't know what your worth is, then you need to go someplace that does.
01:40And I think each step sometimes is so scary when you think about moving, but when you have the right people around you, sometimes to remind you, like, wait a minute, like, I do have more worth than this.
01:53Or even to remind you, nah, sit down, you're good where you are, right?
01:57Like, it is good to have both of it.
01:59And, you know, to that point, like, environment is everything, and not every plant grows everywhere, right?
02:06It doesn't mean that it's a bad environment.
02:08It just means it's not the most fruitful for you.
02:10When I was leaving a big job, it was difficult because it was, well, no one leaves this place, right?
02:15And it just wasn't the place for me at that time.
02:17It was a great place.
02:18It wasn't, no one, I don't think they had it out for me.
02:21I don't think, it just wasn't the place where my gifts were going to flourish.
02:25And I think that's so important, right?
02:26Go where you're loved.
02:27Go where you're nurtured.
02:29Because that makes all the difference.
02:30And it can be so accelerating once you find your people.
02:33And it's for a season, right?
02:34You stay as long as you're still growing and thriving in that environment.
02:41So do either of you have a mentor?
02:44Like, we talked about that.
02:45But do either of you have a mentor?
02:46Mentor, and if so, what was the way that was most beneficial for your young career when you were mentoring?
02:54So I didn't have mentors, as we talked about earlier.
02:57But what I learned after being at a company is we talked about mentors, we talked about sponsorship.
03:02We're just advocates.
03:04So there were people inside the company that I would do informationals with and develop relationships.
03:10Because I think it's important that when there's a lot of meetings I'm not in, there's a lot of times your name comes up in a room that you have somebody there that can advocate for you.
03:20And I learned that that was probably so important in my career journey.
03:25Because I've been in rooms where I see stuff, you know, people taking out of contention just because there's not a voice, you know, based on other things.
03:33So advocates, I have a few now.
03:36People who will say your name, right?
03:38People who will say your name.
03:39So I'm going to ask you one more question before we go to the audience.
03:46Tell us one career-defining moment that you've been most proud of so far, and then I'll tell you mine.
03:55It's hard to pick one.
03:56This is a recent one, though.
03:57I was incredibly proud of our capital raise.
04:02You know, black women are the fastest growing segments of entrepreneurs in this company and the least funded.
04:06And there's still a handful.
04:07I think it's like sub-60 who've raised over a million dollars in capital.
04:11And I asked my team from a PR perspective so I could have the soundbite how many black women have raised $100 million in capital.
04:17And there aren't even studies, right?
04:19There's still – black people still make up, you know, 1% of Fortune 500 CEOs.
04:23Women make up 10% of private equity-backed – CEOs for private equity-backed companies.
04:30And I can't even find the data on how many black women.
04:33And so, you know, that idea about having the confidence to do hard things, I was incredibly proud of that, but also for the team that we developed that got us there.
04:44And I think for me it was in 2020, right, the pandemic.
04:51I think, you know, I produced our award shows and programming for BET.
04:55And at that time we had to rethink how to do it.
04:59So, you know, you take for granted how much you just know how to do something.
05:03And we were asked to really, like, well, how do you do it now when you can't leave your house?
05:08How do you create shows?
05:10And one of the first things in that April that I produced, like, in three weeks was a telethon, Saving Ourselves.
05:20And it raised $17 million to help people in our communities with COVID.
05:28So I'm very proud of that moment.
05:31Proud because of what it did in terms of purpose.
05:33But also proud in what it challenged me.
05:35Because I remember it looked like, uh-oh.
05:38But it's, like, it's great to have those times in your career that you really are, like, okay, how do I exercise a different muscle?
05:46How do I turn this on its ear?
05:48How do I think about how to do this next?
05:51Because that's truly what innovation is.
05:53And if you can keep, without it being a global pandemic, challenging yourself to figure those things out, I think you'll go very, very far.
06:02That's a real, and this is a real hard question for me.
06:05Because it's like a mama trying to decide which of her babies she loves the most.
06:10I've had the privilege of creating programs that help underrepresented voices recognize their dreams of working in this industry.
06:20And so I would say, for me, having, being able to do that in my career has been the best part of what I do.
06:29It's being able to find people to tell our stories by us, you know.
06:34And if I had to choose one or two, I would probably say it was, like, a directing program, a female forward that I created at NBC, or a late-night writers program that changed landscape in late-night writing.
06:47It brought women and diverse voices there that had never been there before.
06:51And I'm really excited about the work we're doing at Warner Brothers Discovery, one in particular that will be announced in about two weeks.
06:56So stay tuned, because I'm really – all right, so let's do some questions.
07:00And what I would ask of you all, because of our time, ask your questions specifically to someone, and let it be a question and not your – you know what I mean by that.
07:11Let it be a question.
07:12So tell us your name as you come up.
07:14Praise the Lord, saints.
07:15My name is Meech Justice.
07:16I am a creative executive for TV and film.
07:21My question is for you, Ms. High.
07:22I want to first say publicly thank you, Ms. Connie, because we always see each other, and she always acknowledges me every time we work together.
07:27So, Ms. Connie, I love you.
07:29Humanity is real, okay?
07:31But no, Ms. High, I want to know, how does your organization utilize and manage superstar players?
07:37Because I feel like this room is full of people who are multi-talented.
07:39How do you utilize your superstars?
07:42On our team, our employees, our team members.
07:44Both.
07:45Both, okay.
07:46You know, one, I just generally believe everyone is a superstar, right?
07:51Like I think that, you know, you just have to find, like I said, what your center of excellence is.
07:56And, you know, I've been in the – I was in this company for – I've been with Kevin, I guess, for like six years.
08:01I was promoted four times in six years.
08:03And when I got the CEO role, when I was appointed CEO – and by the way, I was already doing the CEO role when I was appointed,
08:08so that's a whole other topic about how you step into the role first.
08:12But when he and I were talking about it, he said, you know, the one thing you're doing – you're doing all the things.
08:17One thing I ask of you is your journey here be the rule and not the exception.
08:22And so, to me, that's one of my KPIs, right?
08:25It's like how am I growing talent?
08:27How am I developing opportunities?
08:28I say to our managers, you know, one of your KPIs is how many people are you promoting?
08:34Because I want to make sure that we're seeing the full organization, that I'm seeing the full – you know,
08:38and we have a team that is 75 percent people of color, 52 percent women, and it's really important that there's mobility, right?
08:47Like, it's one thing to get in the door, but we – and pay equity is very important.
08:51And so we – I say all that to say we made it a business imperative from the top down to make sure that we take care of our people
08:57so our people can take care of business.
09:00Hi.
09:01Hi.
09:02Hello, everybody.
09:02I'm Tanishia.
09:03My question also was for Ty.
09:05Can you speak to your Women Right Now Fellowship, and will there be an opportunity in 2023 to apply
09:12and how you're using it as a platform to build talented writers?
09:15I'm so glad you asked.
09:16I don't know you, but thank you for asking.
09:18Okay, I'll answer this very quickly.
09:20Women Right Now is a comedic screenwriting fellowship in partnership with Sundance Institute,
09:24founded by myself and Candace Wilson-Cherry, our head of film.
09:28It was because, you know, there's always an area for improvement.
09:32I talked about how great the guys are that I work with, but comedy is also a boys' club.
09:35So you see something, you say something, and then you do something.
09:39We said we were going to change the narrative right now.
09:42We partner with Sundance Institute.
09:43Every year we take three writers, no barrier to entry.
09:45We are going into cycle three.
09:47Stay tuned for an announcement, right?
09:49It doesn't matter.
09:49You submit an original.
09:50We read every single one of them, an original short.
09:53Go through the process.
09:54We produce three of them.
09:55We put real budget behind them.
09:57To get more visibility, we partner with black actresses who are looking for their first helmet directing,
10:03whether it was Bracia Webb, Tika Sumter, Making Good.
10:06They've all come through and really shot a light on these films.
10:08They've also got more directing jobs as a result of directing these films.
10:12We exhibit at Sundance every year, and all the writers get first looks with Heartbeat.
10:16We've got one project that's set up with NBCU.
10:18We just commissioned a feature from the Cycle 1 candidate.
10:22So stay tuned for opportunities to apply, womenrightnow.com, right, W-R-I-T-E.
10:27Thanks for whoever.
10:28That's why.
10:31I love that.
10:32I am a big pipeline.
10:34You know, I believe in the pipeline, so I absolutely love that.
10:38Okay, so finally, what's your motto or word of advice that helped inspire you
10:45and consistently takes you along this journey?
10:48You know, I think the best advice, and you touched on it earlier, was to be myself.
10:56I think, you know, with every elevation, it's like you see everyone before,
11:01and, you know, I would always go, and I'm like, oh, well, do they expect me to be like this person or that person?
11:07And you've got to let all that go.
11:10Someone's like, they know who you are.
11:11And you probably got the job because of who you are, and you can let go of trying to be somebody else.
11:20So that was freeing to me.
11:21That was liberating, like the just be yourself.
11:24I don't know if this is advice I've gotten, but it is advice I give.
11:32Well, there are two things.
11:33One advice I've gotten, which was tough advice from a deaconess at my church growing up.
11:36She said, sometimes you have to do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.
11:40And giving all the advice about go where you're loved and whatever.
11:43I would be lying if I said there weren't lots of times in my career, and even now,
11:46where sometimes you do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do, right?
11:49It doesn't mean you take sort of abuse or suffering, but it's just sometimes the road up is tough.
11:54But the other part is the advice that I've been giving a lot recently is you can get there from here,
12:00and here is wherever you are, and there is wherever you want to be.
12:04Like I said, I hit a wall at one point.
12:05It's not the only wall I hit.
12:07It's the one I shared, and God is good, and life is long,
12:13and as long as you're breathing, you can perpetually get unstuck, right?
12:17And so you're only a series of quality choices and consistent actions
12:21between wherever you are, wherever you want to be.
12:25That's great.
12:26I would just finally say, for me, if you're creative,
12:32don't ever wait for someone to give you permission to do your passion,
12:35because your passion is yours, and no one has the right to say yes or no to that.
12:42And then finally, you know, I would just say, know that you belong.
12:46You have a seat at the room.
12:48We're often told that no, we don't, and we do.
12:51We do belong there, and your input is really important and needed.
12:57So thank you, Ty, and thank you, Connie, for joining us,
13:01and thank you, everyone, for sitting for our panel.
13:09Right on time.
13:10You did.
13:11I was like, you know what I did.
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