Entrepreneurs received master-class advice from some of the most successful people in business during this year’s Hope Global Forums conference.
Media mogul Byron Allen was among the headline speakers at the three-day event held at the Signia by Hilton Atlanta. The billionaire urged the crowd of more than 1,000 attendees to know their value.
“You are the commodity,” Allen said. “And your reputation is your greatest currency.”
Allen’s cable television portfolio includes ten 24-hour HD networks, according to Allen Media Group Broadcasting. His company, Entertainment Studios Inc., purchased The Weather Channel in 2018 for $300 million.
Allen told the audience that he was at first dismissed by Morgan Stanley, the firm hired years earlier by The Weather Channel to advise on a potential sale.
“Morgan Stanley said, ‘You’re competing with billions of dollars,’” Allen recalled. “I said ‘money is not the commodity. I’m the commodity.’ I have access to plenty of money. They didn’t want to let me in the process.”
Allen said he had five years to repay lenders for the purchase of The Weather Channel, but repaid it in five months. He added that Wall Street bankers who had been watching his journey have now given him unlimited capital.
Other notable guests at this year’s Hope Global Forums included CNN’s Abby Phillip and Van Jones, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Roland Martin, real estate developer Don Peebles, and more.
Allen appeared twice during the conference’s Tuesday afternoon programming — first in a one-on-one conversation with Charlamagne tha God, and later in a panel moderated by The Breakfast Club co-host with Allen, Stephen A. Smith, and Sarah Jakes Roberts.
Allen’s journey
Allen recounted his early life story to the audience, sharing that when he was seven years old, he and his mother moved from Detroit to Los Angeles after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and riots spread across Detroit. They planned to stay only two weeks, but never left.
His mother eventually earned a master’s degree in cinema and TV production from UCLA. She later convinced NBC to hire her as an unpaid intern. She went on to become a tour guide at the network and eventually worked in the marketing department.
Allen often accompanied her to work, where he visited shows such as “The Tonight Show,” “Sanford and Son,” and “The Flip Wilson Show.” He also saw personalities like Bryant Gumbel, Pat Sajak, Bob Hope and Richard Pryor.
Allen said those early experiences shifted what he imagined his future could be. Before moving to Los Angeles, he believed he would return to Detroit as a young adult and work at Ford Motor Company like his father. But as a teenager, he became fascinated by the inner workings of television shows and decided he wanted to become a comedian and produce TV.
Actor and comedian Gabe Kaplan told him to go to The Comedy Store if he was serious about comedy. Allen was 14 years old, but he went and sat outside writing jokes before performing for fewer than 20 people. But, his performance caught someone’s attention, and soon after, comedian Jimmy Walker called him.
Allen said his mother drove him to Walker’s home. Inside were Jay Leno and David Letterman, in their very early days on the comedy scene.
Allen sold Walker a joke for $25. After the check cleared, he asked for the canceled check so he could frame it. He still has it today and said he showed the check to Walker last month on his show “Comics Unleashed.”
Business wisdom
Allen said he learned early on that to succeed in show business, he needed to understand the business itself. At age 18, he was cast on the show “Real People,” a precursor to today’s reality TV genre. He earned $2,500 per episode while other co-hosts earned as much as $12,000. By his third year, he was making $4,000 an episode and asked for a raise to match what others made in their first year.
He was fired for asking, he said.
“I thought it was the worst thing that could happen to me,” he told the audience. “It was the best thing that could happen to me.”
He encouraged the crowd to embrace authenticity as a driver of success.
“Be yourselves, be authentic, and you will be well-positioned to succeed,” he said. “You have unlimited amounts of capital available to you if your hustle is at the highest level.”
