I'm so pleased he's with us today, and we're so proud of his accomplishment, his entrepreneurship, everything about him.
He is the definition of a mogul.
As chairman and CEO of Colton's Enterprises, he has a diverse portfolio of businesses and investments,
covering music, fashion, great ones, beverage, marketing, film, television, and media industries,
with companies such as Bandboy, Worldwide Entertainment Group, Sean John Holmes, Wine and Spirits,
AQU, The Blue Flame Agency, we both live and we both media and TV and on and on and on.
Give him a big round of applause!
Woo!
Woo!
Woo!
Woo!
Excuse me.
You know, we want so much about how he has come to this point in your life. We're so proud of you.
And I guess the first thing to ask is, this question may even be unfair. Do you know how important you are to him?
Thank you.
With success and the support from your community, co-users and responsibilities,
and you know, when you're younger, you're kind of like running from that responsibility. And at this point, I know how important I am.
And I know that I'm ready for the responsibility to lead. I'm ready for the responsibility to teach.
And it's something that I embrace and I'm proud of him. He gave all glory to God that I even had the opportunity to make a change. So, you know, through God and my faithful God,
I'm very, very clear about how important I am, most importantly, how important and powerful we are as a community.
Thank you.
Why did you believe you could be successful? We know, and everybody knows, how talented you are and that you are one of the greatest performers in the world
and all of that, but how do you know you can be successful in business?
I know I could be successful in business because one morning I woke up and I had these roaches crawling on my face.
And a lot of us have experienced that.
I don't like this right now. This is not going to be my reality. And I knew I was ready to put into work at a very, very young age because I wanted to change.
I wanted to be accountable and responsible for my future. I wanted to have nobody else's hands. I didn't want to ask for nothing.
I wanted, I knew that in order for me to make sure that my kids didn't have to experience the roaches, you know, I had to go out and I had to make something happen.
So, I didn't know I was going to be a successful businessman, but I knew that I had the work ethic and I knew that I was ready to do what it took.
I had this thing, don't be afraid to close your eyes and dream, but then open your eyes and see.
So, I dreamt about being this, but I dealt with the reality of what it would take.
It took a lot of sacrifice. You know, I couldn't hang out with my friends all the time. I couldn't deal with the corner.
I didn't have time to play. To me, it was a very serious situation.
And so, I think it's that passion and that drive, but I educated myself about the businesses that I would go into.
I didn't go blind. I didn't go to wake up and say, oh, I'm going to be the next very good. I studied very good.
I wanted to study music. I read books about the business of music. I empowered myself with the knowledge.
I viewed myself that I'm going to be in the boardroom with some very educated and experienced white men this time.
And I was like, I have to be able to compete and I have to be able to be greater.
And so, empowering that and understanding that, that put me on my mission. And I knew from that, you know, that I had the potential for success.
So, talking about education, you attended this university.
Yes.
Woo!
Thank you!
No, not very often.
Anybody who goes to Howard University, they know that it's, for some of us, I didn't have a big family.
So, for some of us, it's the first time we really get to experience family.
So, that was the first thing. You know, I'm going to Howard and it changed my life.
My dream of being in the music industry, I couldn't have done it without, you know, my family at Howard University.
Because I got a chance to get an internship with Andre Harrell, working for free.
Working for free.
And I would have to take the train, you know, every Thursday and be back to school by Monday for my schoolwork on Thursday and Friday.
You know, I had to be covered and supported by my teachers and my fellow students.
And I would walk around the campus and with my briefcase, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be in the music industry.
I'm going to manage people, you know, I'm going to be the next very gaudy.
They didn't really think I was crazy.
They saw in my eyes that, you know, I had something there.
So that that support, if I was anywhere else, I wouldn't have gotten that support.
I wouldn't have been able to do that.
So that support, you know, empowered me to be able to give the opportunity to go and learn and pursue my true dream.
You know, you may have a true dream, but you may be taking philosophy, but that's not really your dream.
When I went to Howard, I was like, my dream is to be able to understand the business side of Howard.
Then I want to go into the record industry and get some hands-on experience.
And I was only able to do that through my Howard family.
Wow.
Well, you know, I've talked to many talented individuals.
And sometimes, I've always known, I was two, I was three years old, I was trying to sing, I was trying to dance.
Others would say, other people would tell me, I see something in that child.
I think that child has a talent.
When did you discover you had talent?
I would probably say when my dream got deferred.
I knew I was going to be a pro NFL football player.
Oh, that's funny.
My dream got deferred.
I broke my leg in my last year.
I kind of got abandoned by the culture and the system.
It kind of broke my heart.
I kind of danced my way out of the history when the club scene was really kind of rockin'
because you had house music, and DC, and go-go, and you had hip-hop, all of these beautiful,
different categories of artistry shining.
I started dancing, and I started dancing because no one of the girls would like me.
I started getting recruited by the casting directors for videos.
Once I hit the front of that camera, I felt so at home.
I was like, this is where I belong.
I was blindsided by the visual of what was going on behind the camera.
I saw André Garell walk in, and he had an entrepreneurship in the white community for us to own.
That's really important.
Why do you just have to do the job?
If we want to stay in the same condition that we've been in,
you and me have been a freedom fighter for us for a long time.
One of the things that you recognize early on that I don't think we pay enough attention to is our economic power.
The only way for us to make it out this condition, number one, is time for us to come together as a family real quick
and start looking at each other as a family, as a tribe, and that we are self-supported,
and we do business with each other, and we hire each other, and we empower each other.
I think entrepreneurialism is really one of the solutions to parking,
because it's a place where you're really, really, really ready to get busy.
You can control your own destiny, and you can make money.
There's nothing that's going to change without money.
I respect a lot of the protests and everybody that really stands up for everything that's going on,
but the only way we're going to really make some changes is by really building up our own economic system.
We only have one percent of the wealth in this country, and when we got three slaves, we had one percent of the wealth.
So, I'm here to change that, and you're all here to change that.
Thank you.
I love developing businesses that have been around my experience, for example.
Because of your style, you have taken that business to a new level, and it's talked about a little bit today.
How do you describe your style?
I'm from Harlem, New York.
I love being clean, I love expressing myself through fashion.
I love really, really being well put together. I like this money.
You know, we have a lot of young people in the audience, many are one of the entrepreneurs, and many have thoughts, but they have not pursued them.
Do you think that everybody, and many people have some kind of uniqueness, that if they just tap into it and be positive about the possibility for development,
that that uniqueness can turn into business or to money or to profits? Do you believe that?
What does it take?
For us to really come up, for anybody in the area, a successful businessman or woman that can really make a difference,
it's a lot of sacrifice, a lot of hard work.
I think Will Smith has said that it's not his talent, you know, that makes it special.
It's his dedication and his preparation.
So I feel like a lot of people who have that thing, yes we have that, but what you're going to do with it, are you ready to go past that?
It really do the work that it takes, because when you're hitting those books together and searching those different information,
maybe uniqueness, if you can do something that doesn't come to help you.
We all have to go through the same thing to kind of get to where we need to get to.
I think that if we focus on the work that it's going to take, sometimes we do focus on how special we are and things like that.
I'm going to pay speaking confidence, but there's nothing too small for me to do.
I don't have no ego when it comes to business.
You may have an ego with my style of dress.
But when it comes to business, I don't have no ego, like I have to clean the kitchen, pick something up.
I started from cleaning gas station bathrooms and keep waiting behind the gas.
I just wanted to make sure that everybody mentioned gas station bathrooms.
It's the worst.
It's just, I just can't believe it.
And so I was trying to clean the bathrooms.
And my thing was that I wanted to have that bathroom so clean that I would actually watch people ask me,
where's the bathroom? Is the bathroom minister to the right? And they would come out and be like, who came down?
You have to be ready to do that. You can't have that ego.
You have to make sure that you're ready to start off small.
Start it off working free.
And so a lot of people don't understand.
They want to be businessmen.
They want to get straight to a job where you really need to get straight to knowledge and experience.
That's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about.
There's this obstacle that you have encountered on the matter to success.
The business answer is time and money.
The real answer is recent.
Wow.
She's so good.
And would you say that there are those who actively want some opportunity that you were pursuing or ignored, some request that you were making, who actively worked against you being able to do something?
How did that play itself out?
I really just connected from the very racist. I really didn't have time for that.
You were saying the challenge. It was just a challenge.
It was just a challenge. It wasn't something that was going to stop me.
I would tell people that put me in that position because there's people that put you in that position and they'll be in the same position.
I need you to understand that if it's between me and you getting out this room and you're in the way of the door, you can do your stomach.
Yes, that really stuck in there.
You're in the way of the door.
We know that it is and you have to have good people and dedicated people and committed people and people who are willing to work hard. What are you looking for?
I can trust to get the task done. I need people that I can trust to be able to fail and fall down, but to be able to have the strength to get back up.
I really look for that tenacious spirit. I really look for also intelligence. I want to work with swampy people.
I can't go any further. None of us can go any further. We can't go to another level alone.
I'm as strong as the team. That's around me. I would like to give my team a round of applause if they spoke.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, you've heard from Sean Collins himself. Give him a big round of applause.
Thank you.
That's what I wanted to do. I started out with that. As far as getting as hard as big, he kind of pushed me hard.
He kind of just said, you don't have to get on the stage.
That's how I became an artist. I knew I had some special magic. I knew I had some special powers.
I don't think I'm unique. I think a lot of us are afraid to tap into those powers.
It's like Superman. We can fight with volumes. I don't want to be scared to fly. But when they say that black magic, it's really real.
There's not one of us that's more special. Your special is what you believe and what's in your mind.
I just started believing the craziest to most people, unattainable things that got me to this point.
I was really manifesting them. I was tapping into my magic. I was tapping into this black spiritual power in my relationship with God.
I was like, oh, I'm invincible. I can do anything. I'm God.
But it seems that as your talent developed, you were also paying attention to, as you said, the business aspect of entertaining it.
I saw Andre, that suit, and that briefcase. And so business has been on your mind for a long time.
I remember when I first went to meet with Andre and Aurella, I had white shirt and this polka dot tie.
Excuse me, during the time when we weren't really wearing a lot of suits, that era was coming in. We were expressing ourselves through fashion, waiting to express ourselves.
But I kind of understood. I needed to go from the block to the border on the same day.
And I understood that if I went into an interview, I was presenting myself. I was presenting my friend. But most importantly, I was presenting my family name, my mother, and my grandmother.
And so I used to have to, I went to Catholic school, and I was an altar boy. And then I had to go to the 11 o'clock service. I shot a backwards church with my grandmother, and I was there until midnight.
And so I knew about wearing this suit and presenting myself, and looking and feeling the part, the role that I wanted to play.
So from an early age, my briefcase was in hand, and I was living out the dream, and I was making it happen visually through my actions.
What was your very first business that you acquired, or you joined venture, or you invested here? What was your very first business?
My very first business was I had a franchise of the Pinkle Rocks. One day, I asked my mother to give me some sneakers, and she didn't have money for it, so I saw this real loop of disappointment on her face.
It was a very, very strong black woman, and I didn't want to see that loop on her face anymore. And so I felt like it's time, I'm only 12, but I could start to step up as a man.
I had to come and support my mother. You know, I got too late, and I'm healthy, and I have a mind, but you couldn't work at the age of 12.
It was illegal to work at the age of 12 and have a paper route. So I went in and contacted the different paper boys that I knew were graduating from college.
And I presented them to an offer that made them come to college and deliver their papers, and I said, you have money.
So I got like two, three, four, five, six paper routes, you know, a franchise of the man.
And my mother, she just makes sure that I keep buying her shoes. She remembers that significant situation. You know, it's been great.
That was my first business ever since he told me about, you know, ownership, he told me about customer service. If any of you have seen it.
When I would deliver papers, I would deliver to a lot of elderly clients, and the paper boys would just throw them on the lawn.
They would just ride by the car, you flip it while you're driving, just a little bit longer. I actually would go and put it in between the screen door and the door, because I didn't want the number on either side.
So that, that attention to detail, that extra care of me, and kind of told me customer service at the early age.
Wow, that's, I like that.
Thank you.
If someone asks you to join with them or invest in something, or you just decide to acquire something and create something, what do you look for?
Number one, I'm only really challenged to go into industries where I feel like I could actually change the game, and I can.
I actually, you know, break down the batteries, and so when I went into fashion, that was something that people were really crazy, you know,
when I went to starting to do my show in fashion in New York, and, you know, unapologetically black and hip hop, was the time where, you know,
everything is all white and fashion, every last thing.
And I believe in the power of the community, I believe in the power of hip hop.
I saw it as this multi-billion dollar business, I saw it as it is today.
But I knew that I could only get into things that I felt I could be great at.
You know, it's not about making money for me as much as it is as far as, like, I need to be great at being able to change the game and create opportunities.
And so, like, when I did that with fashion, and then I went, I mean, I did it with records in the music industry, as far as understanding ownership.
That was a big thing, and that's a big thing for me to express here.
The only way we are going to change our course is by being fearless enough to become owners, to be able to handle that responsibility, to be able to take that risk.
Because I'm sitting here because I got five.
Anybody out there got five?
Yeah.
And I didn't want to get out of here.
I wanted to be in control of my destiny.
So, you know, winning some records, and fashion, and went into spirits.
And now my biggest adventure is in media, because we don't have a voice.
I'm proud to say that I'm proud, well, it's also troubling to say that I'm the only African-American majority owner of a network.
You know, I have other brothers and sisters that have networks, but it's just different when you have a final say.
Because I don't have to censor it, so we have an issue and we want to talk about it.
I don't have Viacom calling me.
I don't have nobody calling me to tell me that you went too far.
I just feel like we haven't gone far enough, as far as...
But we also haven't had the platform or voice, so that's what I wanted to do with both.
And that kind of speaks to the industries, those different industries, I was motivated by making changes, creating opportunities, and, you know, hiring a lot of black folks.
Yes, yes.
Well, you have alluded to it, and I'd like you for entrepreneurship and the right to do what you trust to own things.
Is that really important? Why do you just have to do the job?
If we want to stay in the same condition that we've been in, we have been a free and fighting force for a long time.
And one of the things that you recognize growing on, and I don't think we pay enough attention to, is our economic power.
You know, and the only way for us to make it out this condition, number one, is it's time for us to come together as a family, real quick, and start looking at each other as a family, as a tribe.
And that we are self-supported, and we do business with each other, and we hire each other, and we empower each other.
And I think entrepreneurialism is really one of the solutions to parking, because it's a place where you're really, really, really ready to get busy.
You can control your own destiny, and you can make money.
There's nothing that's going to change without money. I respect a lot of the protests, and everybody that really stands up for everything that's going on.
But the only way we're going to really make some changes is by really building up our own economic system.
We only have one percent of the wealth in this country, and when we got freed slaves, we had one percent of the wealth.
So I'm here to change that, and y'all are here to change that.
Some of us believe that you have been able to attract a particular style, that your style has helped to enhance, broaden, develop businesses that have built up our spirits, for example.
Because of your style, you have taken that business to a new level, and it's talked about a little bit today. How do you describe your style?
I'm from Harlem, New York. I love being trained. I love expressing myself in fashion. I love really, really being wealthy together.
You know, we have a lot of young people in the audience that may or want to be entrepreneurs, and many have thoughts, but they have not pursued them.
And do you think that everybody, or many people, has some kind of uniqueness, that if they just tap into it and be positive about the possibility for development,
then that uniqueness can turn into business or to money or profits. Do you believe that? What does it take?
For us to really come up, and for anybody in the area, a successful businessman or woman that can really make a difference, it's a lot of sacrifice, a lot of hard work.
I think Will Smith has said that it's not his talent that makes him special. It's his dedication and his preparation.
So I feel like a lot of people can have that, and yes, we have that, but what you're going to do with it, are you ready to go past that and really do the work that it takes because when you're hitting those books and searching for that information,
I get a uniqueness if you can do something that doesn't come to help you. We all have to go through the same thing to kind of get to where we need to get to, and I think that if we focus on the work that it's going to take,
sometimes we do focus on how special we are and things like that, and I know I'm going to pay speaking confidence, but there's nothing too small for me to do.
I don't have no ego when it comes to business. You may have ego with my style of dress, but when it comes to business, I don't have no ego. I have to clean the kitchen and pick something up.
I have to clean the gas station bathroom to keep away from the gas. I just want to make sure that everybody in the gas station bathroom is the worst. It's just, I just can't believe it.
My thing was that I wanted to have that bathroom so clean that I would actually wash people after they come to this bathroom and serve to the right, and they would come out and be like, who can take that bathroom?
You have to be ready to do that. You can't have that ego. You have to make sure that you're ready to start off small, start it off working free.
And so I think people don't understand, they want to be businessmen. They want to get straight to a job where you really need to get straight to knowledge and experience.
It's just an obstacle that you have encountered on the matter to success.
Business answer is time and money. Real answer is racing.
And would you say that there are those who actively want some opportunity that you were selling, who ignored some requests that you were making, who actively worked against your being able to do something? How did that play itself out?
I really disconnected from the race. I really didn't have time for that. You were saying the challenge. It was just a challenge. It wasn't something that was going to stop me.
I would tell people, you know, that kind of put me in that position because there's people that put you in that position and they'll be in the same room.
I need you to understand that if it's between me and you getting out this room and you're in the way of the door, you can do your stomach.
Yes, I realize that.
Being a business man, we know that it is and you have to have good people and dedicated people and committed people and people who are willing to work hard.
What are you looking for? I look for accountability. I look for people that's really ready to be responsible.
People around me that I can trust to get the task done. I need people that I can trust to be able to fail and fall down.
To be able to have the strength to get back up. I really look for that tenacious spirit. I really look for some intelligence.
I want to work with smart people. I can't go any further. None of us can go to another level alone.
I'm as strong as the team that's around me. I want to give my team a round of applause.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
