Ep.15 : Empowering Underrepresented Voices Through Audio and Entrepreneurship w/ Ona Oghogho
In this episode of '"Beyond the Threshold,'" I speak with Ona Oghogho, a Podcast Producer, Brand Strategist and founder of Adode Media, The BLK Pod Collective and the BLK Pod Festival.
In this episode we discuss:
Her journey from working in healthcare to creating a successful podcast community and eventually establishing a full-service creative agency.
The burnout she experienced balancing multiple ventures and how she shifted her focus to sustain her professional growth.
The process of building a business, the importance of research, and the nuances of managing a team while expanding service offerings.
Her experiences with event planning, securing sponsorships, and evolving her business model to align with her aspirations.
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How to support & connect with Ona:
Website
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Instagram
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[00:00:00] Ona: I do this full time, I do not. This is not my side project. This is not my, you know, something fun to do. And there are people who pay and support their families based off of the work that we do here. And so when you start recognizing that level of responsibility, I was burnt out because I was trying to have one foot in my agency and one foot still in my past.
[00:00:24] In essence,
[00:00:26] Sidney: tune in. As we give flowers to black men and women [00:00:30] making waves in the audio industry, I'm your host, Sidney Evans, and this is beyond the threshold.
[00:00:49] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Beyond the Threshold. I'm your host, Sidney Evans, an award-winning audio editor and producer. For those of you who don't know on this show, I interview black men and women working in [00:01:00] the audio industry to highlight the lessons and experiences it takes to achieve success in the field.
[00:01:06] So, quick story before I jump, we, we get into the nitty gritty of the episode back in 2021. This is when I was working at FRQNCY media. I think he's got an email one day about, uh, someone wanting me to speak and lead a, uh, audio engineering panel at a, uh, upcoming event. So, I'm not sure, [00:01:30] I don't, I'm not even know, I don't even know if I actually talked to the, to the, uh, today's guest directly over somebody from the team, but I, I hopped on the call with them.
[00:01:39] They, you know. Said they found out what I do and interested me to come to, to lead, lead the panel. So I'm thinking it's kind of like a, you know, we have this group of people, we're kind gonna fill 'em out and then we're gonna decide. So I'm at, at the end of the call, I'm like, okay, so like I. How do I know if I like, get to speak or not?
[00:01:57] If I made it or not. And they're like, oh no, we already figured that [00:02:00] out. Like we're just, we just wanted to like formally invite you, but there is no process. We just want you to come speak. So IC obviously I, I committed to it on the spot and then once I got off the call I was like, dang, I really gotta do this.
[00:02:13] 'cause I had never, like, the reason why I got into audio is because, so I can avoid as much public speaking, all that stuff as possible. Um. But I guess when you get to a certain point where you kind of get competent at something, then you gotta start teaching it and, and getting out there. So I, I went through with it.
[00:02:29] I [00:02:30] did it. Um, and that was my first speaking gig, um, is in terms of what I do from audio. And that event was, uh, black Pod Fest, which was an extension of the Black Pie. I'm sorry, black Pie Collective, which was founded by today's guest. Not only that, uh, she's an entrepreneur and founder of Adobe Media. A creative, creative agency specialized in audio production and media solutions.
[00:02:57] Uh, but at the end of the day, she's just an [00:03:00] innovator in Community Builder. She used those platforms to empower underrepresented voices, so to not, to delay any longer. Uh, today's guest, Anna a Gogo.
[00:03:10] Ona: Well, thank you so much Sydney, for thinking of me and I'm super excited to be here and, um, excited for this conversation.
[00:03:17] Sidney: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I. We, uh, I, I know you're, uh, a woman that wears many hats, so I appreciate you taking, uh, just a little bit of your time to, uh, to hop on the pod and [00:03:30] kind of tell your story. And, uh, as I mentioned off, uh, before we started recording, um, I don't know, didn't know too much about you prior to your, uh, ventures in the audio rims.
[00:03:39] So, um, I'm curious myself, so. Others that are familiar or people just introduced, I'm sure they're curious as well. Um, so you could just share a little bit about your background, um, what kind of work you were doing prior, and then, uh, really the inspiration for Black Pie Collective, which kind of kickstarted everything I.
[00:03:58] Ona: Yeah, most definitely. So, [00:04:00] um, in actuality, I always say, uh, it all started from college, honestly. Um, I served in my college newspaper programming board as well as TV station, and I studied communication. But of course, being a Nigerian, my parents were like, you know, there's no money to be made in communications.
[00:04:18] Healthcare is where you need to be at. And so out of college, I started working in healthcare and was there for about 10 years. Um, I worked my way up into senior leadership and I was basically the [00:04:30] manager over revenue cycle. So the people who manage the, um, scheduling of your appointments, the people who do your insurance verification, the people who check you in, all of those things.
[00:04:39] So I have a background in training, project management, all of those details. And honestly, all of this started in 2019 when I got laid off from my job. So I was laid off from what I thought was my dream job, but I was also kind of burnt out from being in corporate. And so I decided to start a podcast to talk to other black women who had pretty [00:05:00] much like left corporate America to create their own paths.
[00:05:03] And that's honestly how all this started is that I really wanted to talk to people about their process because I didn't really want to go back to corporate. Um, with that in mind though, I started finding where I was running into roadblocks each time that I had a question or. I was trying to learn something new about the podcasting process.
[00:05:22] And so with that in mind, I was telling a friend who had a podcast was like, I wish there was like an organization, um, for black people, for [00:05:30] podcasting because it feels like there are no black people in podcasting. Like everything I saw from educational resources on YouTube or a bunch of white men. And it just didn't feel like it resonated with me.
[00:05:43] And so she was like, you should create it. And I was like, um, I said, I need the help. Why would I be the one creating it? Um, and next thing you know, she was like, what would you call it? I was like, I would call it black, but like, you know, I thought I was being innovative. I was like, but black would be BLK.
[00:05:58] 'cause you know, that's different. [00:06:00] Um, and I was like, I'd call it Black Pod Collective. And literally that night she went home and created a mockup, um, logo, sent it to me and was like. Ana, just put it on Instagram and let's just see what happens. And here we are, what, six years later. And what happened was the community grew, a conference, came from it, a media production company, a studio, and so much more.
[00:06:23] Sidney: Amazing. Um, so how, so what would you say like, was the timeframe into where it was [00:06:30] like I, you came up with the idea. And then like obviously he did the mock of the logo, mockup of the logo, but it's like, okay, now I have to like find out where I'm gonna host this community. Like when did you start really doing the real?
[00:06:41] How long did it take you to really start doing the wheel of work is the real work? When you saw that there was definitely an interest in it.
[00:06:49] Ona: Um, I'd honestly say I'm one of those people who I feel like if you're gonna do something, do it fullheartedly, so out the gate, um, this initially was supposed to just be where I was sharing information on [00:07:00] Instagram, and that's what it started off as.
[00:07:01] I started off just kind of sharing things that I was finding along the way. I was doing research, um, and then I decided, you know what? Let's host a meetup. People kept saying they wanted to meet us. And so next thing you know, we started hosting meetups throughout Atlanta and that took off pretty quickly.
[00:07:16] Next thing you knew, our last meetup of the year in 2019 had over 500 people. And I remember being completely confused 'cause it's like, where are all of you guys coming from? Um, but we know what 2020 did. [00:07:30] And so it went from it being just a local Atlanta thing of where people always wanted us to come to their city.
[00:07:36] Like it was just a thing. And I think it's because of the excellence that they saw in the product that we put out. And so that's, from the information that was shared, that's from the consistency, that was from the consistently showing up on Instagram and then the email newsletter that went out on a biweekly basis.
[00:07:55] People were getting a lot of value. Um, and then in 2020 when the [00:08:00] world started doing what it was doing, we launched a community because people wanted to know how they could be a part of it. And that's when we launched the first paid MEM podcast membership community. Um, at the time a lot of people were doing, um, free Facebook pages and it just wasn't something I ever had an interest in.
[00:08:16] And so out the gate I said, you know what? People are asking for this. Let's create tears and. At our height, we had a little over 582 paid members throughout the globe, meaning people in Japan, people [00:08:30] in Nigeria. Um, we had people all over the world who were members of the community.
[00:08:35] Sidney: So, so I'm, I'm glad you were able.
[00:08:38] 'cause and you mentioned in that like the free, the Facebook groups, the free Facebook groups, like people come up with these ideas and they're good ideas, but then, you know, uh, at some point, like, you know, in, in order something for something to really be valuable and to be mutually beneficial, to be honest, like you have to, you have to turn it into a business.
[00:08:57] So. And before you got to that point of turning [00:09:00] into a business, you, you mentioned that, uh, people were getting a lot of value out of it. Like what, um, what exactly like were you sharing or what they learned were, or what were they learning? Was it things that were, was like curation of stuff that's going on in the industry?
[00:09:14] Was it things that you actually, you actually created yourself to teach people? 'cause I know you said you were still in the learning process as well, and I would assume I, I, I wasn't a huge part of it at that time, but as you're. You know, I feel like you're transparent enough to know, like as you're [00:09:30] learning, you can be honest with your audience about like, I don't know everything.
[00:09:35] Like this is why this is a collective. It's not me just, you should do, you should do this, you should do that, and you basically just doing exactly what I'm doing. But it's a community where you can like, share ideas, could be a share space for people to. Sure. Okay. What, what works for somebody may not work for somebody else, but to really just kind of put everything out there, you decipher like, okay, what's gonna work for you?
[00:09:58] So what were some of like the offerings that people got [00:10:00] the most value out of originally before you decided to do the paid membership? I.
[00:10:04] Ona: Um, honestly, all of those things can be found on our Instagram. So it's one of those things that I keep everything out there. So it still exists for the world, um, because of the fact that for us it was just Instagram.
[00:10:15] It was just sharing what we were finding in the community. Um, so what that looked like was if we found information, we shared it. Um, what I know is that a lot of people don't have the time or the bandwidth to do research, whereas it's something I genuinely [00:10:30] enjoy. So as I found out, you know, whether it's.
[00:10:32] Industry insights, whether it was new ways of doing this, whether it was new technologies, um, whatever that entailed, we shared it freely on Instagram. From that, it gave people interest, which then led us to doing the events. And so I wanna say I launched this in April of 2019 and our first event was a meetup in May.
[00:10:51] Then after that we started working with local podcasters local, um. Really industry leaders to then for them to host. And so with [00:11:00] that in mind, we were doing live events where they were sharing about their insights. Um, one of those was like cocktails and dirty discussions, I think is the name of the podcast.
[00:11:08] And she was one of the panelists. One was While Black. And they were basically talking about how they had monetized, how they had built their audience, how they were able to sustain. So I always say as a community builder, it's not always your job to be the one to share the information, but it's your job to curate the.
[00:11:26] Experiences for that community. And so in that stage, that was [00:11:30] mainly my experience and my, um, focus. But let's not forget, I did have an audio background, so it's not that I was a complete novice to the industry, it was just in the grander scheme of it. 'cause I did work at our college radio station. I've edited other people's podcasts before that point.
[00:11:47] But it was, as I broke into it from a marketing perspective, from a understanding like how to build the audience. That's not something you really know as a person who just edits podcasts. And so that's where I was seeing [00:12:00] the need for that. But a lot of our offerings that we had back then is still a hundred percent on our Instagram page for the audience to see.
[00:12:07] Um, and then the things behind the paywall was more so that direct. Access to community. So that's those monthly meetups, we would work with different organizations for them to come in and teach different things. So we partnered with the podcast academy, we partnered with the script, like we've partnered with a lot of different organizations for them to have access to the community.
[00:12:29] And then in turn, [00:12:30] we often got discounts. Forcep community to be able to utilize. So in essence, your, um, access and your paid membership, which went from about $5 to 20, gave you access to a range of things that you wouldn't have had before.
[00:12:44] Sidney: Um, so you to, you touched on a lot of things, but first I wanna, uh, mention the, the a stage that I'm in right now that I want to acknowledge from basically doing like production and editing and.
[00:12:55] Working for other companies who do all of the, the, the concepting and the, [00:13:00] you know, getting the team together for production and the marketing and the analytics and all that. Like I was. I kind of removed from that. But the moment I decided to do this podcast, it was, uh, it was, it was definitely an awakening.
[00:13:14] It was like, okay, I've been working in this space so much that I could be honest with myself. I don't know a lot about all this other stuff. Like all that goes into, obviously we have a team. It is, it is easier, but to like kind of do all this stuff on your own. For somebody who's started off, [00:13:30] like, I just like the, the technical and production part of it has been a challenge and, and preparing for this interview, I went on your, uh, your sites and just kind of get a feeling kind of where I wanted to take the interview.
[00:13:41] But I saw that you have like the tool kits for like, all these different stages and I'm like, man, um, this super, this is very affordable. I not, I might need to invest in some of this stuff. So I can definitely see like the value, um, as far as what you're, uh. What you've been doing, and especially at, at, at that stage.
[00:13:59] Like, I know, [00:14:00] I just appreciate you like taking this seriously and, and being professional and like you said, doing it. If you're gonna do it, do a hundred to a hundred percent, because I know that's a lot of people in this space. That kind of, I mean, knowing what I know now, I don't know why you getting podcast and if you try, if you think you're just gonna like strike gold, like it, it doesn't work like that in this industry.
[00:14:18] But a lot of people see things that are like hot and trend and they kind of just, oh, I just want to do it to, you know, grab what I can and just. Make my exit basically. But you have, uh, [00:14:30] respected your community, respected the medium, and, and really taken it seriously. Um, so I definitely wanted to give you appreciation for that.
[00:14:37] So, um, things are growing. Um, you're seeing the interest there, the people are seeing the value in what you're doing. Um, you started off small and kind of like as. Things progressed and needed to evolve and become different. Um, you did that. So I, I guess now we're kind of getting to the point where you had the, the idea to do the, the, the festival, [00:15:00] black Pot Fest.
[00:15:01] Like when did you, the Black
[00:15:02] Ona: Pot Festival. So I wanna make sure.
[00:15:03] Sidney: Okay. Um,
[00:15:04] Ona: only because of the fact that somebody does have the trademark for Pod Fest. So we have mindful about that as Black Pod Fest.
[00:15:11] Sidney: That's a, that's a good point. Black Pod Festival. So when, when did you decide, like, okay. This is something I need to do and kind of share like the process and the logistics.
[00:15:21] 'cause doing something in general, but then to have, make it do be a live experience and for it to be multiple [00:15:30] panels and multiple days and you have to figure out where you're gonna have there a lot of logistic logistics involved. Um, so I just want you to give like a realistic perspective of like what that takes and what all that entails for anyone who may be considering doing the same thing.
[00:15:45] Ona: Most definitely. So something I always like to make sure people know is that I was an event planner at a certain point, so I've planned over 30 weddings to date. So I do have a background that does allow for that. So I always say, if you don't have any experience in [00:16:00] that at all, please for the love of God, get somebody who does.
[00:16:03] Um, and it, 'cause it shows, it will show in the experience, it will show in the product of what you are putting out there. And that's just the truth of the situation. Now, black Pod Festival honestly came to life from the needs of the community. Um, I always say, you know, I don't take action unless the community asks for it, as well as if God gives me direction to do it.
[00:16:22] So the community was very vocal about like, Hey, all of these workshops that we do, they're absolutely amazing, but we, we think it could [00:16:30] be this and that, and all of these things. And mind you, we hosted monthly workshops every month. So the thought of doing it virtual to me was like, oh, no big deal. I can easily put that together.
[00:16:41] And so my first thing was, okay, if we're doing something virtually, is there somebody we can partner with? So our very first one we did partner with Pod Fest and so that was with their virtual one back in 2020. And in just that virtual one, we had a little over 800 people who signed up just for ours. [00:17:00] And so that let me know that one, our audience was engaged too.
[00:17:04] We had something good on our hands and that meant like, you know, curating who the speakers would be. I am very big on your network. Is your net worth. And so with that in mind, I had already made sure that I networked with people. So we had a panel talking about the diaspora. We had people who, you know, um, at the time they had started the International Podcast Day in, um, Africa, Africa Pod Day.
[00:17:28] Um, we had different [00:17:30] panel conversations. We had something on sponsorship. All of those details, and people loved it. The survey feedback was that it was absolutely amazing. Then the next year it was like, okay. We did it with somebody as a partnership, it's time for us to do this on our own. And that first step was, okay, the cost of doing a technical live event in essence, but virtually you have to pay for the platform, all of these things.
[00:17:54] So I said, okay, let's go ahead and find sponsors to pay for the platform itself. And at the time, um, [00:18:00] streamy Yard had just purchased a platform called hopin and they came on as sponsors. And everything else was more of like logistics. And I'm a certified project manager. I'm a certified process improvement specialist.
[00:18:12] So a lot of my experience in the corporate world has lended well for my creative, um, services, my creative abilities, because I already built that foundation of my skillset. So in college I was an vet planner. I sat on the committee that planned homecoming, that planned all of the step shows, [00:18:30] all of the different things that happened on campus, coupled with in my career.
[00:18:34] I also was a certified project manager. I looked at processes. So kind of translating those skill sets over was fairly easy to do when it came down to it. So it's about making those connections and then when you understand project management, it's looking at times, it's looking at workflows, it's looking at understanding, okay, if this session ends at this time, people are gonna want time to like interact, have fun, those things.
[00:18:58] And then of course, after [00:19:00] two years of virtual, it felt like it was time to bring it to life, and that was the one. That we reached out to you for you to be a part of, which I'm still very appreciative. I feel like you did a really great job. I did not know it was your first speaking engagement. And with that one, you know, we had a total of 68 sessions, and mind you, on the hour.
[00:19:20] Every hour, there were six sessions running at the same time. We had a little over 400 people there on Memorial Weekend. Um, quite frankly, [00:19:30] we did an amazing job with just a team of three people. And so that's where you have to have systems in place and you have to underst understand logistics if that is not your strong suit once again.
[00:19:41] I'm a firm proponent of, I think we, in this industry, so many people try to do everything that they don't end up doing it with quality. And if you recognize that you don't have the skill sets, maybe that's just not for you. You can have the vision, but every vision does not mean it's meant for you to carry out.
[00:19:59] [00:20:00] And so what I've been blessed with is that my corporate life lended very well into my creative endeavors, and I've. Used to manage teams of 50 to a hundred people. So managing people is a strong suit that I have. So having a team of people to support me throughout this process has also made it very much so attainable.
[00:20:21] Sidney: So, so, uh, I would definitely say you definitely have a, uh, a ability to break things down. Um. But I could and, [00:20:30] and, and, and kinda, uh, confirming what you said, like when I came across you, just your brand and any thing, the things that you do is from a business point, I can tell that they're 'cause in podcasting a lot of it, or creative outlets, it's like people are the creatives first and they gotta try to figure out all the other stuff, the business.
[00:20:48] But for you, like. I just got this energy that, like you already had the business stuff down pat, like the processes, how to monetize as you spoke about getting sponsors, which I do want to, uh, [00:21:00] touch on a little bit, but like knowing how to do something and how to. In a, in a business-like way, in a way that's like not putting you in a hole in a way, the way that you can actually profit from, but also give value to what you're providing.
[00:21:12] It was just clear that you, you, you, that was something you had to experience in and kind of di differentiated, like what I was seeing in, in the, uh, podcast space from a lot of the other stuff, which was super good as far as creative and stuff, but they had no idea, uh, about the business aspect and.[00:21:30]
[00:21:30] Touching on sponsors. Seems like that may have, you may have some familiarity with that as well, but can you really just kind of break down briefly, because I know we, we don't have time to dive super deep into everything about like, how, what's the best way to do that and to, to secure those, to make sure that you can actually, uh, like have the resources to do what you want to do.
[00:21:53] Ona: Um, unfortunately that's not something I can answer, um, because of the fact that it's honestly one of those things where [00:22:00] sponsorship is not a one size fits all. Like that's, I think that's. That's a misconception as far as I'm concerned. Everybody assumes like there's this one way to go about it and there's not.
[00:22:09] It's based off of you, the individual, it's based off of your show. It's based off of what's in alignment. Like we've had clients who, 'cause, you know, I know we've talked about a of Black PAC Collective, but. Currently what I do for a living, um, full-time is I produce other people's show. I own a studio and we work with a lot of creators who, for example, we have real [00:22:30] estate clients.
[00:22:30] They started off thinking, okay, it's other, um, agents and stuff like that. And well, it changed. So we have law firms closing attorneys, all of these different people who now sponsor their podcast based off of their target market. So there's no one size fits all because of the mere fact that. Oftentimes people are thinking, they pigeon the hole themselves in of this is the process for, it's not.
[00:22:54] It's just not. Um, I've seen people get sponsorships just as a, at an event, they're talking to someone and they're like, [00:23:00] oh, I think this would be good. But I also think sometimes people think too big. Out the gate. You haven't shown the ROI, you haven't shown any of those details. When in actuality if you start local, you start small with the laundromat that's opening down the street with the, um, library, like whatever that may look like.
[00:23:17] There's ways to go about it. Like I know when we were doing Black Podcast Collective, the podcast, which is a how to podcast for podcasters, one of the things that we did is we literally worked with libraries. We worked with, um, [00:23:30] other co-working spaces and we had QR codes there. And how we went about it was that, hey, if people are utilizing your podcast studio or utilizing your space and they have questions about podcasting, they can utilize this QR code, and it basically walks them through it's instructional.
[00:23:47] Well, we got a lot of downloads from that, well, from getting those downloads. Then we said, Hey. Your audience is clearly here. We would love for you to buy ad Space to kind of tell them about the services that you [00:24:00] already offer, what are some of your pain points, and I think oftentimes we focus more on ourselves versus of the pain points of the person that we're in essence asking for money from.
[00:24:09] Sidney: Mm-hmm. Okay. Um. So I, I guess the biggest thing for me is, is um, thinking outside of the box, kind of having more of an open-minded approach and, and, and really recognizing like where you are and where your audience is and serving them as opposed to this self-serving. It's just like, it's kind of an ego boost.
[00:24:27] Like, yeah, I got this big [00:24:30] brand to sponsor me, whatever. But it's like, but it's, if it is not in alignment, first of all, it's gonna be short-lived. 'cause it's not gonna be RROI in it for them. And at the end of the day, like you're, you know. Your v whatever your mission or vision is, is to serve, to help other people.
[00:24:45] But then once you get into the, it just feels good to say that I partner with such and such. And it's not really serving your, your audience, is it? It seems counterproductive, so. Okay. So, uh, we're, we're making progress. We've done, uh, the first and. [00:25:00] Did the, the collective just posting on Instagram, um, the community, the free community, paid community, virtual black pot festival, and then now in person.
[00:25:09] And how many years did, uh, did you do in person? I.
[00:25:14] Ona: So we did two virtual and two in person thus far.
[00:25:17] Sidney: Okay. Um, so things are going well with that. Um, but I saw, um, on your social media that you posted, and I, I want to, I want you to go into it because this is something I kind [00:25:30] of wanna drive home on my episodes too, is that you can definitely be successful doing things and there's a lot of work that goes into.
[00:25:38] Building anything obviously. And there are seasons where you have to sacrifice and, and really grind it out just to get things off the ground. Um, but then there comes a time where I. You may want a little more balance in life. You don't want to be working nonstop. You know, when you're young you can kind of cut corners of like, oh, I'm not getting enough sleep.
[00:25:58] I'm not eating the way I need to [00:26:00] do. Like, just like kind of have like a holistic approach to like your life. Like you don't want to just be good in business, have a lot of money, and then neglecting other areas. And I saw that you mentioned that you were getting burnt out from kind of doing all this. So can you kind of share what it's like to.
[00:26:16] Build something that's successful and maybe you can, can continue to, to live and do things the way that you've been doing it and it'll continue to be successful. But then also finding a balance of like, okay, like maybe some things aren't, [00:26:30] uh, you maybe aren't meant to do it forever. Sometimes you need to take breaks.
[00:26:32] Sometimes you need to step back and reevaluate like, where I want to, what things I want to do and where I want to go from here, even though something may be successful. So, so you can, can you share like your experience with realizing you had burnout and like. What you feel like the next appropriate steps were for you to eliminate it and prevent it from happening again?
[00:26:52] Ona: Um, honestly, I think it's one of those things of, you know, life changes. Um, I think to me, black [00:27:00] PPO Collective, black Pot Festival, those are my past. I have to think of what is in my present. My present is I employ over 25 people. I run a production company that works with Coca-Cola Revolt, iHeart. Then some.
[00:27:14] I own a 2000 square foot studio that sees anywhere from 50 to a hundred people in one month. And all of those things were still going on while running Black Pod Collective and Black Pod Festival. And so over time, you know, first I launched [00:27:30] the collective membership. Membership is still as much as people think, it's a collective community, it's a, a lot of people who want access to you.
[00:27:37] The person I can't on one side charge $350 an hour for somebody to consult with me at a do media. But then on the collective side, you're paying what, $20 a month and you're picking my brain. Along with that, it becomes. A lot to juggle. So in essence, Monday through Friday, nine to five, I was doing a do day media and then I would get done at five o'clock and then five to [00:28:00] 11 o'clock.
[00:28:00] I'm now doing Black Pot Collective and Black Pot Festival. That was all the time, and that's not sustainable. And so it sounds cute to say I'm a four time founder, but at the same token, that's not really, um, sustainable. So. As much as I love the collective, as much as I love what I built on that side of the world, as I was growing a DDE media and growing my agency and growing my team and growing the studios, like we have expanded the studio year over year, um, and [00:28:30] expanded our offerings year over year.
[00:28:31] We started off as just a production company. Now we do creative marketing, so we do web design, we do graphic design, we do social media marketing and so much more. Well, I can't. Lead a team of 25 over here effectively while still trying to lead a community of 500 people. At some point I have to ask myself, ultimately, what do I want?
[00:28:53] Black P Collective did not make me money. Like I always like to make sure people understand that it sustained itself, [00:29:00] but as far as like, did I take a cut out of that? No. It was a passion project, but I do this full time. I do not. This is not my side project. This is not my, you know, something fun to do.
[00:29:12] And there are people who pay and support their families based off of the work that we do here. And so when you start recognizing that level of responsibility, I was burnt out because I was trying to have one foot in my agency and one foot still in my [00:29:30] past, in essence, of how I got here, because I felt. I felt endeared to it because this is how I, I, I got the opportunity, but in actuality, how I got the two opportunity, if I'm being honest, is off of my own hard work.
[00:29:43] Like that's honestly what it boiled down to. It's not that anybody gave me a leg up, it's none of that. It's off of the hard work that I did. At Black PPO Collective Black Pot Festival that I then translated to hard work here at Adobe Media. So from a burnout perspective, I think for me it was something had to go.
[00:29:59] It could [00:30:00] not be that I was running basically four different entities as a single individual, and Black PPO Collective did not make enough money to have employees. To support that. And when I look at other people's conferences now that are charging 600 and something dollars, and that's for a general admissions ticket.
[00:30:18] Our general admissions was probably $79 and our larger ticket was 2 59. And as much as I wanted to make things accessible for our community, accessible can sometimes also mean [00:30:30] draining of you. 'cause somebody has to basically pour those resources in. Um, I tell the story of. The first in-person one, it cost me $25,000 out of my own pocket.
[00:30:41] That's money that could have gone back into my business. That actually makes me money. And so when your accountant is sitting you down to say, Hey, you know this like side project that you're doing, do you wanna turn it into a nonprofit? Like what are we doing here? Like we're pouring money into it. The team that together, the graphics for Black Pod Festival.
[00:30:58] Is the Adobe media team. [00:31:00] The team that worked on logistical items is Thedo Media team. So in essence, I'm paying my staff in one company off of my own money. 'cause Black PPO Collective didn't have money to pay the staff. And so at some point the burnout came because it was just like. This is not sustainable.
[00:31:18] And I had to make the decision of what does this now look like And what matters most is making sure the people that work here are well taken care of, and that they have a leader who's able to be of present mind and [00:31:30] fully present in the company to help it grow. And I'm happy I made that decision 'cause we've made leaps and bounds since doing so.
[00:31:37] Sidney: So, yeah, I'm, um, I'm, I'm, I'm super, uh. It is refreshing to know that you had, you have and had that perspective. Um, 'cause me and my friends joke a lot about, um, for, we have like these universal life rules and for mine is like for me, mine, my top one is you're gonna pay one way or another. It might not be money, it might not, it, it.
[00:31:59] It, [00:32:00] it could be time, it could be mu, it could be a lot of different things, but you, like, there are no free rides in life. You can't, you can't finesse life. You, it is it you're going to pay in, in, in some shape, form, or facet. So the sooner you can identify and like, okay, I'm, I'm, I. Something, something's off something's, something's not, not working on the outside.
[00:32:20] It's cute. It's, it's, it is all these things, but for me, behind closed doors, like I'm, I'm really going through it because my, because my, my, uh, my partner, she, she had in a point in [00:32:30] her business, she sold, she sold online products and she was a designer and like, but, but the way she really made money was, was selling things online.
[00:32:37] And yes, it was, it, it, she had a lot of followers. She was making money, but having to pack these orders and send all this stuff out and do whatever, like, people don't see that stuff behind the scenes. So you gotta, you gotta make shifts and you gotta make adjustments. So I'm glad you were able to do that.
[00:32:53] And, uh, you've been mentioning a day, day a lot, and I, I think kind of giving a, let you officially like [00:33:00] describe, uh, what you all do there in. When that kind of spawn and, and, and took into form. So can you share that? Um, and then I have some really, really more specific questions about, as far as working with clients, how you, 'cause you originally, I, I'm sure it was like the podcast in terms of a, of a marketing thing, but sometimes you gotta do a lot of convincing to really get people to see what's the benefit of doing it long term.
[00:33:24] Um. Like I briefly mentioned earlier, podcast is not something you do uh, as a money grab. It's a [00:33:30] a long term play and I'm sure you have to communicate that to your clients so they can continue to see the value in it as well. So, uh, can you share a little bit more about what you do at a Dday?
[00:33:39] Ona: Most definitely.
[00:33:40] Um, I've been mentioning a lot 'cause it's like, I think we've been focusing a lot on my past. And I'm very much so like, let's live in the present. Um, and so Adobe Media is a full service, um, creative agency and we specialize in podcast production, video marketing, branding and design, as well as, um, overall holistic, um, lead generation.
[00:33:59] Um, [00:34:00] the thing about us is we started off as a podcast production company and we really just expanded from there because oftentimes our clients would see that we were really good at one at this element. And they're like, can you just, and can you just, and I was like, well, instead of just, can you just.
[00:34:13] Let's just go ahead and add that as a service offering and expand from there. Um, right now our team consists of video editors, graphic designers, social media marketers, production assistants, videographers, copywriters, audio engineers. Um, we are a expansive team and. [00:34:30] Um, I'm just excited for the growth. And now the thing I'll say to answer your question is thankfully I don't have to convince clients.
[00:34:36] We have three different departments here at a donate media. Um, one department is what we call our enterprise department, and that consists of the revolts, the Ks, the Emory universities, um, pretty much our larger corporate clients. Um, I focus in on those clients solely and oftentimes they have campaigns and campaign dollars that they're trying to pull to life and it.
[00:34:57] Typically going to be a large, [00:35:00] um, I would say it's a, they come in for two, three days. A lot of them fly in to work with us, and from there we're going to kind of. Really crazy production day, but we're gonna get it all done over the course of a week to make sure we have everything we need. And then our backend team takes it from there to, um, put together the remaining assets, whether that's the editing, the thumbnail designs, the graphics, the banners, all those details.
[00:35:24] Um, our next department is what we call our brand department, and that's for small organizations, nonprofits. [00:35:30] Um, that's for entrepreneurs. Now, for them, they're typically utilizing the podcast or honestly, the content we create for them as their content for marketing, whether that's on their website, their newsletter, their social media.
[00:35:43] Um, we basically work with them month over month to make sure they have the content that they need. Um, some of these people are thought leaders within their industry, provosts within universities who are basically utilizing the podcast as they're. Some of them is their, their newsletter, like we work [00:36:00] with the hospital here, who their, um, hospital, CEO does a weekly newsletter, but we technically record it once a quarter.
[00:36:08] Um, they do a weekly podcast that basically goes out almost like a newsletter format match to the employees. Um, and then lastly, our last, um, department is for creators. And the reason I call it departments is because there's different people assigned to each one of these departments. Um, our creative department is a little bit more fluid.
[00:36:25] A lot of times there are people who are just utilizing the studio. Um, they're just looking for a [00:36:30] place to bring their content to life. If they have a special guest, they might pay for us to edit it, but the studio space is a, and those, um, digital resources you saw, so you saw how we had toolkits and all of those things.
[00:36:41] They typically can't afford our 30 to 50, $60,000 budget, but. I wanna make sure, 'cause I started off as an independent creator, that they still have tools available to them so that this way they can build from there. And so that's where we have the YouTube videos that are on our website. We also have the digital resources and as well as the studio.[00:37:00]
[00:37:00] So that's what I call our low hanging fruit. But we still love to work with creators. But I always think it's important to know if your goal is to work with creators, your goal is not to make money. Mm-hmm. It's just the truth of the situation.
[00:37:14] Sidney: Yeah. Oh man. Um, I'm kind of just going to my Rolodex of man, and, and like you said, in this space, like I kind of was, I kind of, I kind of was in the same boat as you, like when I first got into this [00:37:30] space, it was just, you know.
[00:37:33] Editing for people, recording outta their office like I'm doing now. Um, you know, you, you're in a bit more of a fancy setup and all that stuff, but, um, hopefully we can all get to there at, at some point. But for some people they have no desire to. It's like, I have a, you know, I have a business, um, or like a solopreneur or whatever the term is, and you know, like I have a message and I want to get it out.
[00:37:55] And, you know, I, I think sometimes we're, we've gotten to the space where [00:38:00] it's just like, oh, you know. This is a marketing, if you want to convert and you wanna do this and have it lead to business. And some people are just like, man, I just wanna do a podcast. Like, I thought it was cool. I don't wanna spend too much time on it.
[00:38:11] I do want it to sound a little polish, so I throw you a couple dollars. Do it. Like that's, that's how I got in the game doing stuff like that. And then, um, mostly like interview style stuff. And then you get exposed, like podcasting evolves, and then all these true crime shows come out and it's just. These audio documentaries and it is just like more sophisticated ways of [00:38:30] podcasting.
[00:38:30] And I'm like, I wanna work on that type of stuff. So I, you know, started putting together my own stuff, finding a client here or there who's like you. I'll, this is all I got, but I wanna do a more creative style of a, of a podcast. And then, you know, I got my, my job with FRQNCY where. My first foray into like branded podcast and these budgets, and I'm seeing these numbers and I'm like, oh, I need to, this is where I, I should have been at the whole time.
[00:38:57] So you get exposed to that world [00:39:00] and then it's like you're trying, you're kind of trying to find a balance. 'cause you do have an appreciation for how you got into it. But at the end of the day, especially for me, like somebody who does editing and mixing, and I don't have an agency, it's really just me at this point.
[00:39:12] Like I can only do so much editing and. Mixing and all this stuff in a day, like I have a limited amount of time, so I'm just gonna try to make the most per project, so it's more worth my time. And then you get to the point where you start a podcast, I'm, I'm only 10 episodes in, but maybe [00:39:30] by the time I get to a hundred, it's like, I.
[00:39:31] I may want to go the route you, you are like, I wanna start an agency. 'cause I've done this for a hundred episodes and beyond and it's a lot of value when I, and I do, it's just so many different ways you can go. So I'm kind of glad that you know what the bread and butter is, you know what the, the, you know, the.
[00:39:48] Top tier is, you know, the levels, but then you also incorporate all the, all of those so you can serve multiple different people or, or brands or organizations where they're at. So I'm glad, [00:40:00] um, you were able to figure out that, that that kind of, uh, how you wanna run your business in that capacity. But then also the question I want to lead into is.
[00:40:10] Obviously the goal of of, of a business to make money, but all money is not good money. And you have a lot, lot of opportunities, especially when you get to the level that you are, where you're not always searching for work. Like it can come in your lap. People are wanting to work with you. Um, but you can't say you, you can't say yes to everyone because of workload and [00:40:30] because of just lack of alignment.
[00:40:31] So. How do you really, what are the criteria you based on? Um, money is an aspect of it, but there are other things to consider as well to whether you will or will not take on projects.
[00:40:42] Ona: Um, I think. Oftentimes if you're a solopreneur, that's really a conversation. But when you have a team, there's typically somebody who better alignment with on team.
[00:40:52] So there it, you're not really working with me. I remember I said I only work with the enterprise clients, um, [00:41:00] other people I. I'm not typically the one involved in your day-to-day. So we may not be aligned, but I'm 95% sure there's somebody on my team who you're better alignment with and I will assign that to 'em.
[00:41:11] Um, and that's part of that intake process. So I always say like there's a difference between being a solopreneur and then being a business owner. And being an entrepreneur. There's are three different distinctions, but I think everybody just kind of calls themselves the same thing. But as a business owner, um, think about it like this, like.
[00:41:29] You can't go to [00:41:30] Nike and Nike say, oh, I'm not selling you shoes 'cause you're not in alignment with me. Like it's not the same concept. It's one illegal, like if somebody were to come to say, I want services from you, you're not able to just be like, well, you have to actually give them genuine reason. Now, if it's that you want to work with me specifically, well me specifically, there's a certain dollar amount and so then that's different if you don't qualify based off of the dollar amount.
[00:41:54] Of course, but as far as like alignment, as long as you're not like out here worshiping the [00:42:00] devil or anything like that, and you're not like a KKK supporter, like, you know, there are things from a moral perspective, but as far as like from a creativity perspective, there. There's 25 people that work here, there's more than enough people who can help you meet your di um, vision.
[00:42:17] And I think we have more of those conversations around alignment when you are working with someone one-on-one. And that's just not what I do. Um, and so it, it, and even when you're working with corporations, you're typically have a point of contact. [00:42:30] So yes, I'm involved from like, we have team huddles to kind of talk about like, okay, what's the status?
[00:42:35] What's going on? I give my insights. But it's technically the account managers, uh, the producers, it's their responsibility to really bring that project to fruition. Um, it being in alignment with me and whether it works for me and my schedule, that's not how this works. Um, and so I don't typically fall into that realm if I'm being honest.
[00:42:56] Sidney: Okay. Um, well, yeah, I appreciate your clarification on that because a [00:43:00] lot of people, I guess, especially with people I've interviewed, like I just did a, I actually had another interview today, was talking to a guy, he's like a, a composer, sound designer, and he's kind of doing everything. So that stuff kind of matters more.
[00:43:11] But when you actually have like. Do what you do have an agency and employees and things like that. You're not as hands-on like with each individual project unless you start getting into like the enterprise tier that you mentioned. So that makes a lot of sense. Um, and speaking of like having a team, and like you said, you're sure that I.
[00:43:28] Somebody on the team that you [00:43:30] feel like, uh, is more fit for, for this particular client or that particular client, you'll assign them to 'em. So like what are your, I guess what are some some top criteria you look for as a part as, as far as bringing people along? Are, are these people that, um, do you have some type of connection to, do you, you know, just like, okay, well I have this role, you can apply.
[00:43:48] Like how, what is your process for like making sure you have the right people in, in, in, in your company?
[00:43:55] Ona: I do not hire anybody. I know. Um, I'm sure you saw [00:44:00] my face when you said that. Um, because one, I'm, I'm, I think I'm even flabbergasted at the thought. Um, but no, for me it's honestly one of those things where I believe in one nurturing talent.
[00:44:14] So I've had people who, they have no experience in podcasting. They have no experience in this realm at all. But at the end of the day, I see. I see their, their ability to work hard. And, um, as a person whose background was in training and project management, I know one of my big [00:44:30] strong suits is the ability to train you to get to that point.
[00:44:33] So one of our production assistants, like for example, she had, she's a makeup artist, a content creator. She had no video experience. Now she's able to run the studio by herself, run the switcher board, run the cameras, all of those details. And so for me, it's. I can't train you on how to be a good person. I can't train you on how to be a good communicator.
[00:44:52] I can't train you on how to be hardworking. I cannot train you on certain fundamental things that I do think is starting to be missing in our workforce. [00:45:00] So if I see that you have those skillsets, everything else I can train you on, because I had to learn those things myself. I didn't know video. I didn't know a lot of these things.
[00:45:08] And so I don't hire in the same way as probably most people. Most people are looking for those who like have all the skillset. Yes, there's certain roles, but like our lead video editor, he started off as a documentary filmmaker. Now he understands this like nobody's business because we also have our own style of how we do things and.
[00:45:27] Having a training and project management background. [00:45:30] We have an SOP document. We have an extensive onboarding and training process. Everything we do here is documented in some capacity, whether that's an SOP, whether that's a workflow document, and so it's one of those things where I do think I. On some levels, business has been a little easier for me because of my corporate experience, and so corporate America gave me the foundation and I've been able to utilize that to build my business on top of, and so I used to train new employees that [00:46:00] started off in the hospital system.
[00:46:01] That was literally how I started. Well. That now helps me train my own team, make sure that they're set up in the right way. My job was process improvement, meaning I used to look at where there was breakdowns in the process, in the systems and how to optimize it. We, I have done those same things in the business, so when I'm hiring people, I'm looking for those who have the drive, and that's more important to me than the actual skillset, but.
[00:46:26] At the same token, you still need to be able to like take direction and do [00:46:30] things well. And I'm a firm believer of I'm going to hire quick and fire quick. I know people are like slow to hire, quick to fire. No, because the interview process, everybody's going to be their best version of themselves. I. And everybody can do everything until it's time to actually do it.
[00:46:45] So I'd rather just hire you and see what you do. And if it's in alignment, then it works. If it's not, we see if we can train through it. If you can't, then you leave. And so I think oftentimes people are very delayed in hiring and also very apprehensive in [00:47:00] firing. But when you're not a big corporation, you cannot afford to have bad apples in seats for too long.
[00:47:07] Sidney: Right, right, right. Yeah. I, I never, I didn't look at it from their perspective, but yeah. Uh. Hi, Jamaya. This, uh, scene from Jamie Fox where, uh, he was like, hi, your ass. Fire your ass. But, um, like, yeah, I, you just gotta get people to, uh, jump in to see what they can do. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't.
[00:47:27] Um, I. It's business at the end of the day. Obviously you can [00:47:30] do that. You don't have to be an an, an a-hole about letting people go and you know, I'm sure you do. That's, you know, people think of fire and they think of this big scene where you're walking in, you un ripping out, uh, people's com course from their computer and, and kicking 'em out the door.
[00:47:44] But, um, that, that's not how it works in reality. So, uh, sometimes those things are necessary. So I definitely get it. So we we're getting to the end here, but I guess. Overarching, like, the reason why I, another reason why I wanted to start the [00:48:00] podcast is not just to get the experience from people that's in the industry, but to be a, a, a resource and inspiration for people wanting to get into the industry no matter what capacity.
[00:48:09] So what would be just your, I guess, top tips for someone who just maybe getting introduced to the world of audio, whether it be podcasting, music, in, in whatever capacity and like I. I don't know, just like I kind of guess general mindset things or like what, what would just be like, how would you, what would you [00:48:30] recommend they to do when they just jump into it?
[00:48:33] Ona: Um, research and read as much as possible. Um, I think people, I think in this day and age, the art of research and really, um, understanding a process before jumping into it is lost. I think oftentimes people want to jump off of the plane and then build it. Like build their parachute as they're free falling.
[00:48:54] And I think there's certain things that you can do to cushion that along the way. And to me that's the [00:49:00] research and understanding. Um, the second thing I would say is understand like, what lane do you wanna be in? You know, like right now we're able to expand and do a lot more things and that's because there's a team supporting this.
[00:49:12] But when it was just, well, it was never just me by myself out the gate. I hired two people, but when it was just the three of us. I knew that we couldn't do the graphics. Like we had an audio engineer, we had a show note writer and myself, and I knew then I can do graphics, like there's certain pieces [00:49:30] that were not included because of the fact that realistically speaking, it wasn't the strong suit.
[00:49:34] And I think your reputation is always going to be what's important. So never just try to grab the money and, and I think that's what I see a lot of is that people just want to grab the money that's out there. So they commit to things that they know they do not have this. Skillset set to do. And I would highly recommend that you, you build a portfolio and you build a name that is synonymous with excellence and synonymous with, um, going above and beyond.
[00:49:59] [00:50:00] So like, I remember the first website I built, I remember I did it for free 'cause I was like, you know what? I've never done it before, but it's something I want us to see if we can do. The client absolutely loved it. And still like, I think they pay me $500. 'cause they're like, oh my God, you deserve something.
[00:50:13] Well now we build websites that are like $10,000. And so it's one of those things of you have to be willing to like put yourself aside when you're starting in something new. Um, because it's easy to think to yourself, I'm an expert in this piece. But if you've never done the other pieces, you have to kind of humble yourself.
[00:50:29] [00:50:30] So those would be like, my advice is like, be humble, do the research as well as, um, be realistic.
[00:50:37] Sidney: Okay. Yeah, I'm glad. 'cause, um, again, it goes to that you have that balance between, you know, knowing what you're good at, uh, charging accordingly, but then staying away from the things that you, that you aren't good at.
[00:50:50] Um. Right now that's supposed to say you might not, you know, have the capacity to, to learn it or bring on someone who does know. Um, [00:51:00] me growing up, growing within a, uh, a sports background and playing sports my whole life is like people have natural goods and talents, things that, that they're, they're just better at.
[00:51:08] Um. You know, I'm a tall guy, but I was, I wasn't a, a, uh, I wasn't jumping out of the gym. I wasn't, you know, I, I didn't have a, a grown man body when I was 14. Like, some, some, some, some guys have that. It's just like, you're strong and athletic and that's just what you do. Like, nah, for me, it was like I understood the game.
[00:51:27] I, I had skill. I could shoot, I could play in, [00:51:30] in different styles of offense. I could take a bat seat. I didn't necessarily have to be the. You know, the person taking all the shots. So there are other areas that you can be stronger in that may not be as like sexy or as appealing to the outside, but at the end of the day, they're still valuable.
[00:51:46] So, um, we did want to want to point that out as well. Um, but before, so we we're getting to the last segment of the show. Uh, I know we've been. Basically talking, uh, more business and journey, but love to end on a much [00:52:00] lighter note, um, just to get an idea as far as your taste. And hopefully we share some similarities in these answers or you can put me onto something that, that I'm not too familiar with.
[00:52:10] So, uh, first question. Uh, favorite album or albums? 'cause the original question was album, but people love so many different things and sometimes it's hard to narrow it down. So if you have a, a short list, I'm, I'm willing to compromise.
[00:52:25] Ona: My favorite album, so I'm an RB girl, like through and through, and my favorite [00:52:30] RB group is Silk and I will honestly have to say is their Silk Time in 2003, um, album, or their tonight album in 1999, which I was all of a baby, but that's not the point.
[00:52:42] It's still my favorite album, so don't you worry about how old I am.
[00:52:46] Sidney: Silk. Okay, that's a new one. Um, you
[00:52:49] Ona: said that's a Yeah, I'm like an old lady on,
[00:52:52] Sidney: you know, I, no, I mean, a lot of my, a lot of my answers come from around that era as well, so I'm, I'm not gonna judge you based on that, but, um, [00:53:00] and I have a deep appreciation for the r and b music of that era, just not that particular group or project as much.
[00:53:07] So I'm a, uh, I'm gonna do my due diligence and, you know, I'm, I'm gonna see if that holds up or not. So. Uh, I'm gonna get back to you on that one. All right. Uh, next favorite, uh, music producer or producers?
[00:53:20] Ona: I probably don't have one. I probably do. I don't think I have one. I.
[00:53:25] Sidney: So you, so you're more of a, uh, which is, I was like this early on, just more like a artist.
[00:53:29] You [00:53:30] didn't, you didn't even realize there was somebody who actually made the music.
[00:53:32] Ona: I knew there was somebody who made it, but I feel like I don't think about them. I know that sounds horrible as a producer myself, but it's the same way that I have clients who, like people absolutely love their podcast, but they don't know that I make the podcast.
[00:53:44] They dunno that I'm the one writing the questions. They dunno any of that. And so I think it's the same concept. I don't think I've ever, wow. I feel like a little, a bit of an asshole. I don't think I've ever actually taken the time to go look at who is the producer for some of my favorite [00:54:00] songs.
[00:54:02] Sidney: Oh, that's cool.
[00:54:02] You know, I, I, I, some people had a level of curiosity. I definitely was one, but it's not for everybody, so, so I get it. It is. So we just move on. Um, so next, what, uh, your favorite film score or soundtrack.
[00:54:17] Ona: Lord, you are asking me things that I'm like, hold on. My favorite soundtrack is probably, actually I do have a favorite soundtrack.
[00:54:27] Okay. So something to note about me is I like, [00:54:30] like comedies and stuff like that. I'm very big on, like, my family says I'm into white people comedy and just to give you some context, and so I really, it's, ah, it's Catherine Hegel was in it.
[00:54:46] Sidney: Is it knocked up the ugly truth?
[00:54:48] Ona: No, Catherine, he, hold on.
[00:54:51] Sidney: I know her.
[00:54:51] She was in both of those movies, so, and I, and I had like a little, you know, you had a crush on her. A little crush on her. So,
[00:54:56] Ona: because I was like, how did you, how did you just pick that up out of nowhere?
[00:54:59] Sidney: I'm a, I'm a, [00:55:00] I'm a, I'm a nerd when it comes to stuff like that. Yo, you may not have known before, but not, but now, you know.
[00:55:05] I know. Random stuff. 27, justice
[00:55:06] Ona: and The Ugly. It was The Ugly Truth. Ugly truth. Yeah.
[00:55:09] Sidney: The Ugly Truth. Yeah. That was the second one I said. Yeah. With the guy from 300 and Law Abid Citizen. That was a good movie.
[00:55:15] Ona: It was a good movie, but I really loved that soundtrack.
[00:55:17] Sidney: Yeah. Um, yeah, it really did. It did really 'cause it, it, it was a simple movie, but the contract, the, the con, the soundtrack really did elevate it and bring it to lifestyle.
[00:55:26] I agree. That's it. Good answer. Good answer. Okay, last one. [00:55:30] Um, then I'm letting you off the hook. Uh, favorite TV theme song, I.
[00:55:34] Ona: It might be Golden Girls. Ooh, thank you for a being. Just go with
[00:55:38] Sidney: that
[00:55:41] man. That's, that's one that I had not thought of in, in
[00:55:46] Ona: cus think about it and asking
[00:55:47] Sidney: these questions, but it's definitely classic.
[00:55:49] Ona: It's a classic, like my friend's birthday, uh, was just like last week and at the end she likes it was a karaoke birthday party. And so at the end she sung the whole like, thank you [00:56:00] for being a friend.
[00:56:00] And everybody like knew it and everybody got into it. I don't know a lot of like theme songs that everybody just knows internationally at that. Like, I'm Nigerian and my mother even like, you know, my grandmother even knows it, which is saying a lot 'cause she's old.
[00:56:18] Sidney: But yeah, that's the, the golden, that's a, yeah, that's, that's, that's definitely a classic shout out to Golden Girls man.
[00:56:23] First reference on the pod. Um, well, uh, yeah, I think that's it. I definitely have a, a [00:56:30] good idea of your taste and, um. In, in your life. Music producers don't exist, so, oh. Um, I don't,
[00:56:38] Ona: don't try to get me jumped in the streets. Okay. Like, let's start off there. That's not what I said. No,
[00:56:44] Sidney: I'm not, I'm just, I'm, I'm just playing with you.
[00:56:46] It's not a particular, it's not something you're gonna seek out, so,
[00:56:49] Ona: yes. Yeah.
[00:56:50] Sidney: Um, I, I, I, I respect it, but, um, yeah, I, I think that's it. We can pretty much, we're pretty much done, but, but before we, uh, end completely, can you please share. [00:57:00] Where the, where everybody can, can connect with you, find you, follow you, uh, digitally on the internet and, and social media and all that type of stuff.
[00:57:08] Please share.
[00:57:08] Ona: Most definitely. So, um, you can find me everywhere at Ona Oghogho. So that's my Instagram, my personal website. Um, and from there you'll be able to find my brands from Adobe Media, Adobe Studios, black Pod Collective, black Pod Festival, all the things I always just say a Ona Oghogho is the. Hub for all things.
[00:57:28] Sidney: Alright, well, I [00:57:30] appreciate you joining us and I appreciate you sharing and diving into the present, but as you said, uh, really focusing, I, I'm sorry, diving on the past, but really focusing more on the present. So i appreicate you coming on everybody for listening. And tuning in and uh, yeah. We'll catch you on the next episode.
[00:57:51] Thank you for joining us on today's episode. Please don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave us a review. If you'd like to work with [00:58:00] me or connect, please go to sound by sit.com and schedule a call there. You can also check out the full list of productions I've worked on. If you'd like to connect on social media.
[00:58:11] My handle is soundbysid.com on Twitter and Instagram. I'm Sydney Evans on LinkedIn. Don't forget to follow beyond the threshold on Instagram as well. I'll catch you on the next episode.