(light music) - [Speaker] "Workin' it Out," a podcast show about diversity, equity, and inclusion in our workplaces, our communities, and our lives.

A show where we put diversity and inclusion to work.

(light music) ♪ Got problems on the job ♪ ♪ We're workin' it out ♪ ♪ Workplace got you stressin' ♪ ♪ We're workin' it out ♪ ♪ Yeah we're workin' it out ♪ ♪ Workin' it out ♪ ♪ Workin' it out ♪ - Hi, I'm Dr. Weaver.

Vanessa Weaver, your host of "Workin' It Out," is the show where we put diversity and inclusion to work.

On today's show, we're exploring how women master the power game, and we're gonna spotlight how mastering the power game is so critical for women and particular women and Black women and multicultural women.

And mastering the power game in the workplace, in the cultural places that we show up, in the academic places that we show up, and in our personal lives is so critical.

And so, today I'm excited that we're gonna engage in a very up close and personal conversation with Tracey Edmonds.

And Tracey is the CEO of Edmonds Entertainment Group.

Now you remember Tracey Edmonds from that wonderful "Soul Food," now she's done more than "Soul Food," right?

But all of us love that show.

And then a TV show, this is the brainchild and the business woman behind that.

And so we're gonna talk to Tracey about, you know, how she mastered the power game, particularly as a multicultural woman in Hollywood.

So, as you all know, I usually do my research and I said, I'm gonna do a refresh on this show in preparation for my conversation with Tracey.

So, I went to ChatGPT because I'm kinda getting experience with that.

And what I found, I just wanted to read one, wanna read you the paragraphs.

I mean, they have three pages on Tracey.

So, let me just say that.

Three pages on ChatGPT on Tracey.

And I said, "Well, my goodness."

And so, but the first and the closing, the opening and the closing paragraph was just phenomenal.

I had a whole paragraph I was gonna share with you about Tracey, but this was so great, what they had on ChatGPT and I wanna read it to you.

So they said, yes, "Tracey is a prime example of a Black woman who successfully overcame barriers in the entertainment industry."

And I'm holding this paper.

So "she has navigated racial and gender bias to establish herself as a powerful producer, media mogul, and entrepreneur, making significant strides, both in front of and behind the scenes.

Tracey Edmonds," this is the closing paragraph.

Tracey Evdmonds embodies how Black women can master power in entertainment by creating their own paths, leveraging business acumen, and pushing past barriers.

She didn't wait for Hollywood's approval, she built her own empire and proved that Black women can be dominant forces in both entertainment and business."

- [Tracey] Wow.

- Does that person sound familiar to you, Tracey?

- You know, God bless ChatGPT, right?

I had no idea, wow.

That, I mean, that brain of chatGPT is super, super sweet.

And I mean, it was just warming my heart to hear all that.

I was like, aw.

But I'm excited to be here with you, Vanessa.

- So Tracey, we're excited to have you here because you do embody what mastering power is all about.

And in this particular climate that we're operating in, so many people feel powerless and they feel like they can only be the recipient of what other people choose to do to navigate their lives.

So, I thought this topic was particularly important for us to have conversation on.

So, thank you for that.

So tell me, Tracey, 'cause I always ask this why question and why did you choose, with all the things you have to do?

And I know, you know, I'm a big cheese and everything, but why did you choose to engage with our audience on this topic on women mastering power?

- So Vanessa, I'm excited that I get to chat with you about power because power to me is control and power is control over your own life, over your destiny.

And it involves being more proactive with your life instead of reactive.

And I think it's so important for women to take control over their lives and stuff like, and women can do that with making their own decisions, having financial independence, you know, and having autonomy over your own life.

You see, I've felt the need to be empowered ever since I was a young girl, like probably starting around the age of 13 because many people don't know this.

Many people think that I grew up in a upscale household where I had a lot of money, but I didn't.

And so, I grew up in a single-parent household where my mom was constantly struggling to make ends meet.

You know, I grew up seeing eviction notices.

I grew up getting our phone cut off.

I grew up getting our electricity cut off.

And seeing my mom not having the power to be able to help us, you know, was sad for all of us.

And so when I saw everything going on, I said to myself that "When I grow up, I never want to be in that position."

I always want to be in a place where I control my own finances.

I control my life, I control my destiny.

And so, that's why I think it is so important for us to seize power over our own lives so that we never have to wait for somebody to solve our problems.

We know that we have the inherent power that's been given to us by God to make our own decisions and correct problems and control our outcomes and live our best life.

- Well, that's an interesting 'cause I was gonna ask you, what is your definition of power to make sure that we were all operating on the same understanding.

So from your perspective, everyone has power.

It's not just inherited power 'cause I was gonna ask you about that, but everybody, you feel that God has embedded in each and every one of us the power to influence and shape our destinies.

- So again, Vanessa, we're talking about power equaling control over your life.

And so, we all have the ability to be proactive and move our lives forward.

And so, we're not stuck.

And so all of us deal with challenges and obstacles, but it's about how we handle those challenges and those obstacles.

Do we sit around and play victim or believe that we're a victim and that we can't correct the situation?

No.

We have to rise up and get up and put our pants back on and take charge of whatever it is that we're presented with.

You know, God gave us the ability to solve problems.

And we can, and we have to have faith and we have to believe in ourselves.

And so again, the theme is taking control.

So if you have a setback, it's okay.

You can get up and you can take control again, and you can move your life forward.

And that's, I think, really the theme of what I wanna say today.

- Well, Tracey, thank you so much for sharing that because one of the aspects of this show that I'm excited about is that we have an opportunity to have these up close and personal conversations with people like yourself who've exercised their power, but, you know, and learned about how to exercise their power along the way.

And so, I was just curious when and how did you master or how did you develop this definition of power?

- I felt like growing up I was very independent.

I grew up in a single-parent household.

My parents split up when I was in elementary school.

And my mom really put me to work at a young age.

I was 13-years-old when I got my first job because I had to contribute to the household income as much as I could.

So, I was probably pretty mature for your average 13-year-old.

So, my mom thought I could handle my first job.

I was a receptionist at a mortgage company at 13-years-old during my- - At 13?

- Yeah, during my summer vacation.

So, I was like taking phone calls and transferring calls and keeping people's schedules and all that kind of stuff at age 13.

It really instilled a work ethic in me, responsibility in me, and independence, and a desire to succeed.

And so, you know, when you go through setbacks when you're young and you see your family struggling or anyone struggling, it makes you desire a better life, you know, for yourself, for your family.

You know, when I grew up and became an adult, first person I helped was my mom, you know, 'cause I never wanted her to worry about finances again.

So yeah, so all that to say, and I forgot what the question was Vanessa, but that gave me my motivation and my drive to succeed.

And so having that basis as a foundation I worked extra, extra hard for everything.

I wanted to be the best student in the class.

You know, I wanted to be valedictorian, I wanted to ace all my exams.

Like I just really, really had a drive to succeed and to win because I wanted to be financially successful when I grew up so that I could help my family.

And so we could all have a better life.

And so consequently, I worked really hard, graduated from high school when I was 16, I got an academic scholarship to Stanford University and graduated when I was 20 and then started off in the work field.

And so I was pre-med in college and I thought I was gonna be a doctor.

And so after I graduated I thought I was gonna take like a gap year before I went on to medical school.

But I decided to just keep working.

And so during my first gap year, I got my real estate broker's license and I started selling real estate and I end up getting this entrepreneurial bug where I grew from selling real estate into creating a real estate company and having employees and doing the home loans for the homes that we sold.

I was doing real estate and we were making money, but I felt like that wasn't my true calling.

And so, I felt like there was something else waiting for me.

I really, really did.

And so, about the end of year three, I decided to move to LA and I just, I had been going to LA on the weekends and meeting people in LA and I felt like LA was more of my vibe than the Newport Beach.

So, moved up to LA, wouldn't you know, the weekend that I moved up to LA I met my future husband, you know, at the time I met Kenneth Babyface Edmonds the weekend that I moved up to LA and you know, life just my whole trajectory just changed.

- Just changed.

- Yeah.

And you know, here I was thinking, oh, okay, I am gonna be a real estate entrepreneur and then God was like, "Nope, mm-mm, nope.

Let me introduce you to Kenneth Babyface Edmonds so that you can have an entree into the entertainment business because that's your plan."

And so, that's exactly what happened.

And so we, I'm sorry, go ahead.

- Before we go into that part of your life, which I'm definitely interested in you talking about, what were the lessons about power that you acquired?

Because I'm just thinking as a 13-year-old, you are a receptionist.

I feel like one of the most impactful positions in a company is the receptionist.

That's the first face that the customer or the client sees.

They have a sense of the tempo what the issues that are being talked about in the reception area.

So, at 13 you must have learned a lot about how adults think and process information and how they interact with each other, at 13.

- Well, you know what, it's funny that you said that because at 13 when I'm going through that, I don't realize that all of that is happening.

But, the crazy thing for me, if I'm going back and looking back at my memories and stuff, you know, I was 13 and I was basically a kid, you know, but to your point, you know, I'm like this 13-year-old and, you know, being asked to call and schedule appointments and you know, and rearrange schedules.

And they actually started me maybe about six months into the job to learning how to, believe it or not, Vanessa, process loans at this mortgage company.

They kept training me on all this adult stuff and I was like, this kid, you know?

- At 13.

- And so, it did give me, I guess some sense of power because I was this young kid with all this responsibility to all of adults that were counting on me.

- Absolutely.

- And so, yeah, I don't think I realized I had any power at the time, but I guess I did.

- Yeah.

Okay, so fast forward, so you graduate at 16, you go to one of the most prestigious universities in the world, not just in the United States, but Stanford, in the world.

And you graduate there at what, 20?

- Yeah, 20.

- So, you're still younger than most people.

They don't get out before they're 21 or 22 or sometimes later than that.

And you start a real estate company.

So, what were the power lessons?

And I ask you that because you know, not only are you very smart, but you're very attractive and you have such a pleasant disposition and demeanor about yourself.

So, how did you navigate the feminine side of that?

Being a female in a relatively male-dominated real estate market like Newport Beach?

- Well, I mean the one thing that I learned is to embrace your uniqueness.

- Okay.

- And that's, again, that's gonna be a theme that we're gonna continue talking about.

And so, that was another scenario where I learned to embrace my uniqueness.

So Vanessa, if you know anything about Newport Beach, it's a predominantly conservative, White area.

- Yes.

- Absolutely gorgeous waterfront, beautiful homes, beautiful shopping, beautiful restaurants.

And so, enter this Black girl into the real estate community.

And they hadn't seen anyone that looked like me in the real estate community out there, you know, 'cause it was very few people of color out there.

- I was gonna say, Tracey, because in my career with Procter and Gamble, I worked out there near Newport Beach and you didn't see a whole lot of us out there.

- No.

- And so, I'm sitting up here thinking she's selling real estate?

- Yeah.

- And in the 80s and the 90s, homes out in Newport Beach were already three to five to $7 million, if not more.

- Oh yeah, it was, I mean it was a very, very lucrative market at the time.

- Yes.

- And you know, again, Vanessa, embracing your uniqueness.

I'm like, "Okay, hey, I'm young, I'm Black, I know what I'm doing.

I know how to connect with people.

I know how to market.

I know how to brand, so I'm unique."

- Yeah.

- I'm unique in this area.

- Yes.

- And so, nobody looks like me 'cause I'm a person of color and a young female and all this.

And I'm going to embrace it and not be scared of it.

You know, I'm not gonna be scared to be the fish outta water.

I'm going to embrace being the fish outta water because when I walk into a room, nobody looks like me.

You know, there are no other people of color or anything there.

So, I'm gonna take my confidence and my energy and walk into a room with confidence and with swag and sell something or sign you on as a client.

And that worked for me.

Again, we're talking about this theme of power is the ability to embrace your authenticity.

And, you know, and I just was my authentic self, you know, even starting in the real estate community and stuff.

And so, and I've always been a people person.

That's one thing I can say, like, I won't say which sorority I was in in college, but being in a sorority in college, also too, people don't realize it, but it gives you your early networking skills and your communication skills and stuff.

And so, when you're going through pledging and all that kind of stuff and it really kind of teaches you, you know, how to be engaging with people conversationally and stuff, you know, early on.

- And how to work in teams.

- Yeah.

Exactly.

- In groups, yeah.

- Yeah, exactly.

So, all those little things in my foundation, you know, kind of gave me the confidence to be able to enter any room and I was always prepared too though, and do what you need to do and influence the outcome with your knowledge, with your expertise.

And again, by being you.

- Well, so you go to LA, you decide I'm gonna move to LA because that's more my vibe, Newport Beach is all of that, but it's not LA.

- Yep.

- And you meet your future husband.

- Yes.

- With the confidence, with the swag you have, with the experience, with the intellect.

Oh my goodness.

He must have been smitten off his feet.

(Tracey laughing) He had to be.

- We definitely hit it off pretty quickly.

Kenny, and he knows this, we're still great friends.

Kenny was extremely shy during that chapter of his life.

And so, you know, I met Kenny right as he was rising as an artist, you know, with the "Whip Appeal" song.

- Oh yeah.

And the "Tender Lover" album.

- Yeah.

- And so, and you know, and so he was rising as I met him, and the fame was like hitting him really, really hard.

And he wasn't quite ready for all of that 'cause he was just kind of a just a shy guy at heart from Indianapolis.

And so, when we met, definitely we had very different personalities, but we connected through conversation and we found out that we actually liked a lot of the same things, especially music.

And so, when I met him, it was a whirlwind romance.

We met and started dating, moved in together, got married, and I was married by the time I was 24.

I think I was, I was 24-years-old.

And so, so yes, when we met, I took a complete career trajectory.

I had moved up to LA to rebrand my real estate brand, and I was gonna become the expert real estate agent to the stars.

And so, I was gonna be the celebrity real estate agent.

And so we moved our office up there and I continued selling real estate for a while and sold real estate to a few celebrities.

But once Kenny and I got together, I started, you know, learning more and more about the music business and learned all about music publishing and record labels and all of that.

And so, that's what kind of took me into starting my own publishing company, which became a record label, which became me music supervising films and doing soundtracks through that record label to me producing films and producing TV shows, which brings us through today actually.

And so, I know that was long-winded, but that's my history.

- Well, it's really, it's fascinating.

And again, I was so intrigued by what ChatGPT was saying about you, and not only did they share those paragraphs, but I wanna share with you, I mean, they went into detail and I'm gonna send this to you 'cause I want you to see it.

- Okay.

- But they went into detail and they said that this is how Tracey Edmonds overcame barriers in Hollywood.

Number one, she broke into Hollywood as a Black female producer, and she challenged stereotypes and she controlled her narrative.

Three, you were able to transition into the business and executive leadership.

And four, you navigated industry bias and overcame challenges.

And so, and then the last, they said, you expanded your brand and your influence.

- Wow.

- And so again, and they put it in all caps that you are a trailblazer for Black and all women in entertainment.

- I'm so grateful for those words.

And so- - I'm telling you.

- I mean, I had no idea that ChatGPT had all that in there.

But it's really beautiful and humbling and I really appreciate it.

But you know- - Yeah, it's amazing.

- Yeah, so I mean, I think a thing that I should mention is that I always had a really curious brain, you know, and so I was always kind of seeing things in my head and wanting to know more, wanting to see if I could do this or wanting to see if I could do that.

I mean, if you look at some of the books that I would read when I was a kid.

I was just super nerdy and always just curious, "Oh, let me, what about this?

What about that?"

So, that carried me through my entire life.

And so, when I say that I met Kenny when I was 22.

I met Kenny when I was 22, and I became curious about the music industry.

- Right.

- And so I wanted to know, wow, you're a songwriter, how does publishing work?

So, I'd go and get all these books, you know, everything you need to know about the music business and read it from cover to cover and, you know- - Prepared yourself.

- Yeah, yes.

- Prepared, yeah.

- Yeah.

- That's not just the connection you had, but you had the preparation.

- Yes, exactly.

So for me, gaining knowledge in the area that I wanna go into, or in the field that I wanted to go into is very, very important because that gives you confidence.

And so, when you feel like you don't know what you're doing, you can tell.

You know, you can tell when somebody's kind of scrambling or unprepared, you know, or whatever.

And so for me, you know, even when I entered a new field going from real estate into entertainment, I wanted to like be prepared.

And so, I didn't wanna be that girl that came in the room and everyone was like, "Oh, the only reason she's here is because of her husband."

But I wanna encourage everyone to keep your eye on the prize and to really stay focused.

And if you have to get rid of anything, get rid of the nonsense, block the noise so that you can stay focused on what you need to do, what you need to accomplish, and so you can live in your purpose.

- Wow.

Well, Tracey Edmonds, I thank you so much.

I mean, this is a masterclass that we just had from you on mastering women mastering power, but frankly, it's the lessons that anybody can employ, but particularly women, because we, although we want power, sometimes we feel very uncomfortable acting on it and exercise it.

And you've just given us such a very natural, easy kinda explanation and showcase of how that can be done.

So I just wanna, again, thank you on behalf of my "Workin' it Out" team, and also all of the listeners in the audience that's really just benefiting from this conversation.

Thank you again for being part of our show.

- Oh, thank you.

- So I'm gonna close out, I'm Dr. Vanessa Weaver, your host of "Workin' it Out," and I wish each of you what I call a be happy week.

Goodbye.

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