# turning points

[00:00:00] **Tony Tidbit:**

## [00:00:03] Introduction to the Podcast

[00:00:03] **Tony Tidbit:** Welcome to a Black

[00:00:04] **Les Frye:** executive perspective, the podcast that explores the black executive experience with your host, Tony Tidbit.

[00:00:13] **Tony Tidbit:** In a world where glass ceilings

[00:00:15] **Les Frye:** still exist, where disparities persist, and where diversity and inclusion initiatives are finding their space at the table, this podcast seeks to amplify the voices of those who have not only risen through the ranks, but have shattered those barriers, taken their seats, and laid the foundations for lasting change.

[00:00:34] They're sharing their stories so you can too. With over 30 years in the corporate world, Tony Tidbit brings you dynamic insights that infuse life into challenging conversations. He's a firm believer and campaigner of diversity and inclusion, extending his live weekly series and open conversation about race to this powerful podcast [00:01:00] platform.

[00:01:00] Tony is a master at creating the space for open dialogue because he knows that it's through frank conversations and powerful stories that change happens. So whether you

[00:01:11] **Tony Tidbit:** are an aspiring leader,

[00:01:13] **Les Frye:** a privileged advocate, a mover, and a shaker, or an innovator. This podcast is a safe space, allowing you to learn, grow, address, mindsets, and overcome challenges through the intentional explorations of the black executive experience.

[00:01:30] Be sure to follow us on

[00:01:32] **Tony Tidbit:** social at Tony Tidbit, BEP,

[00:01:34] **Les Frye:** and visit

[00:01:35] **Tony Tidbit:** a black executive perspective.com

[00:01:37] **Les Frye:** for exclusive content. Let's create the space for conversation. Let's share our stories. Let's talk about

[00:01:45] **Tony Tidbit:** it.

## [00:01:56] The Host's Background and Mission

[00:01:56] **Tony Tidbit:** Welcome to a Black Executive perspective [00:02:00] podcast. A safe space where we discuss all matters related to race, especially race in corporate America. I'm your host and your guide, Tony Tidbit, and I've had extraordinary journey on this thing we call life. I'm an advertising media executive. I'm an army veteran, I'm a father, I'm a husband, I'm a friend, and I'm a black man.

[00:02:32] And a black man for over 30 years who was so silent when it came to talking about race at work. Well, today that is over. I'm here to use my voice and platform to create a lasting change through storytelling from the beginning of time.

## [00:02:58] The Importance of Open Conversations about Race

[00:02:58] **Tony Tidbit:** We are always afraid [00:03:00] to talk about race, our fear. My fear of not having open and honest conversations hasn't brought people together.

[00:03:09] It's only widening the gap. Between the races, will that change today? Because we're gonna have these type of conversations. More importantly, we're gonna have conversations that make people feel uncomfortable, but we're gonna have a goal to help educate. We're gonna have a goal to help everyone learn, help everyone be able to hear different perspectives.

[00:03:36] And when we look into inspire everyone to finally come together as one race, the human race. Today, you're going to hear a little of my story and what inspired me to do something. As I said before, I was so uncomfortable to do, and more importantly, why you should listen to this [00:04:00] podcast moving forward.

[00:04:02] However, this is not gonna be Tony Tidbit doing this all alone. I have some remarkable guests who's going to help us navigate these choppy waters. In each episode, we will be sitting down with these compelling storytellers to hear their unique experiences, their challenges, and their triumphs on their pathway to success.

[00:04:28] These are not average folks. These are people who are experts in a lot of different subject matter. We're gonna discuss here from DEI to alliedship Assimilation, authenticity, colorism. The whole nine yards. However, today this episode is a little bit about me and my encounters with race as a young kid in Detroit, Michigan, and how it affected me, not just at that [00:05:00] time, but also through my personal career.

## [00:05:04] Introducing the Co-host

[00:05:04] **Tony Tidbit:** You're also going to meet somebody that I am very close to. I am blessed that she's sitting here to my right, a lady that I met three and a half years ago. Yeah, three years ago. And how did I meet her conversation on race? Yep. And this lady, I have learned so much from her. I am just excited that she's here because she brings so much energy.

[00:05:33] Oh, she brings a passion. I. She brings a love to people and she's gonna bring all those things here to help us be able to help you reach the goals that we're looking to do here. So without further ado, I. I want everyone to meet the legendary Les Fry.

[00:05:54] **Les Frye:** Thank you.

## [00:05:55] The Power of Conversations in the Workplace

[00:05:55] **Les Frye:** I, oh goodness, that's such an illustrious introduction, [00:06:00] but I do wanna speak to the fact that how we met each other, we were doing such good work and we continued to do such good work in the workplace.

[00:06:08] You obviously saw something, me and I saw something you, for us to partner together to do these conversations in our workplace that has been transformative. I mean, people's lives have been changed. People have found out things in this very safe space, inclusive environment that we've created. Mm-Hmm. to talk about race within the workplace.

[00:06:30] Mm-Hmm. and race in general around the world, within our own communities, within America. Mm-Hmm. . When you asked me to do this podcast, there was no hesitation. There was no hesitation. And this was based on the fact that I've seen success in the conversations that we've had previously at the workplace.

[00:06:49] Mm-Hmm. . We will go into a little bit about that. What it has done, how inclusive the environment has been, and the success of those conversations. Mm-Hmm. [00:07:00] that we've had in the workplace. And basically kind of bring some of that here too for our audience so that they know that this is going on maybe to create that own environment Correct.

[00:07:10] Within their own workplace. But you asked me to give a little bit of a background about myself, so I am. Right now, 61 years old. I'm somebody who was born in the sixties. Had

[00:07:21] **Tony Tidbit:** you not said nothing Yeah. you wouldn't have thought nothing. Okay. Because you I'm very proud of that. Beautiful. Yeah, man. You should be proud of it.

[00:07:28] You look awesome.

[00:07:29] **Les Frye:** Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you so much. I wanna bring that into context here because that, that perspective is important here. Yep. But I'm someone who was raised in the sixties, but also lives with a modern day mindset. Mm-Hmm. . And I say this because I consider myself someone who is a huge geek, and being a geek is timeless.

[00:07:49] Basically, I am a working actor here in New York City. Mm-Hmm. . I am the content creator and executive producer of Native Brown Media and Cliff Eye Productions. [00:08:00] Mm-Hmm. .

## [00:08:00] Understanding the Term 'Bipoc'

[00:08:00] **Les Frye:** And I consider myself to be a Bipoc individual. And let me explain, chose that. Moniker for myself. Mm-Hmm. . Just recently. Just recently, based on some things that I learned, and I've decided to embrace that about myself.

[00:08:18] Embrace everything about myself.

[00:08:20] **Tony Tidbit:** So real quick, just so we make sure our audience understands what Bipoc means, because you know this, I didn't even know what it meant two weeks ago. So can you tell us what is Bipoc? It's an acronym.

[00:08:33] **Les Frye:** Okay. And it means black, indigenous people of color. Gotcha. So just to give a little context about that.

[00:08:41] We as black people here in America, or people who have identified or have been labeled as African American here in the United States, we were given that label. We weren't able to choose that.

[00:08:53] **Tony Tidbit:** You mean the label of being black,

[00:08:54] **Les Frye:** but the label of being black because of how we look, how we phenotypically look.

[00:08:59] Mm-Hmm. , [00:09:00] we've been labeled as black. And if you think about that color, black, you are not black. And I'm definitely not that color. Right. So we've been labeled this, I. Historically, and what I do know is that black people here, even if you have of African origin, if you came here during the trans Atlantic slave trade, or if you just came here as family coming here to live the American dream.

[00:09:27] 'cause there were plenty of us that did. Or if you were indigenous to America and you appear to be black. You had dark skin. You had dark skin. So we are of a mixed race. Mm-Hmm. . But we are not able to claim that about ourselves. All the different parts, all the different parts of ourselves. Now, it does not in any way negate my European heritage.

[00:09:52] Mm-Hmm. because I'm very proud of that as well. Mm-Hmm. . But how you see me as being black and possibly [00:10:00] being mixed with something else as indigenous, I'm claiming that as a person of color and this is what it means. So a lot of us here in America consider ourselves to be black, indigenous people of color.

[00:10:12] Mm-Hmm. Because we are people of color. Mm-Hmm. , not necessarily black, but people of color with a huge, more richer heritage of mixture of family that are indigenous European and such. And we'll get into that a little bit later. Absolutely. Into our conversations. Absolutely. I consider myself to be Bipoc and why I decided to take on that name about myself and identifier as myself in such a late age.

[00:10:42] And the results of that as well. Some of the things that have happened to me as when I say that, but that is a little bit about myself and when we go further into these conversations, I will kind of, you know, share a little bit more. But thank you so much for having me as a host. I think we're gonna do good work here.

## [00:10:58] The Podcast's Purpose and Audience

[00:10:58] **Les Frye:** No,

[00:10:58] **Tony Tidbit:** no, no. You already started [00:11:00] us off. Right? And this is one of the reasons that. You should tune into a Black executive perspective podcast, just as Les was giving her background. And she just talked about things that the majority of people don't know, right? And it's no different than somebody being Irish and Catholic, having some Spanish background that makes you up in your totality of who you are.

[00:11:27] So this podcast is really for you, right? And it's very important that you understand what we're gonna put together here, and more importantly, why it's going to be beneficial for you to be able to come and watch on a weekly basis. Right? First is first. One of the things that we wanna, we wanna break a stronghold is, is that most people feel uncomfortable talking about race.

[00:11:57] If you think about it, it boggles the mind, [00:12:00] right? And let's just talk a little bit about being labeled certain things in the whole nine yards. We have, since we've been in this country, we have never really, the majority of us never really have honest and open conversations about race. So we're gonna do that here to make people, to be more comfortable, to talk about the topic.

[00:12:22] We talk about everything. We talk about everything else, but when it comes to this, we avoid it, right? So we're asking you to come with an open mind and be willing to listen and learn from a black executive perspective. Podcast, right? All the things about race. The other thing is that. A lot of my white brothers and sisters, and that's people we know and people that we don't know.

[00:12:52] Mm-Hmm. , they have real questions. There's stuff that they wanna know about, about people of color or their [00:13:00] background. Should I call you this? Are you that? But they're afraid to ask those questions because they, you know, are gonna be judged as a racist. Right. Right. Not here. So you'll have that ability to ask stuff that you think about that you wanna know, because if you think about it, if you are able to do that.

[00:13:20] What does that do? It educates you and it brings us all closer together. Right. Les? I agree

[00:13:26] **Les Frye:** with you. Totally. I think one of the best things about this podcast is that we are gonna discuss our real authentic experiences in a very candid way. Mm-Hmm. . We are not going to shy away from some of the things that have been triumphant for us, hurtful for us.

[00:13:44] Our perspectives on things are our misconceptions of things. So this is part of what this podcast is about. We wanna get our audience members engaged in these experiences because I'm quite sure some people out there have had [00:14:00] these same experiences that we've had and haven't been able

[00:14:02] **Tony Tidbit:** to talk about 'em.

[00:14:03] There's no question. And when we talked about this is gonna be through storytelling. We're gonna tell our stories. Our guests are gonna tell their stories. They're gonna get vulnerable here. They're gonna open up. We're gonna open up. Because at the end of the day, we're all human. Mm-Hmm. . And we can't learn from one another unless we share what those vulnerabilities are.

[00:14:24] Because believe it or not, the stuff that we go through, you go through and a lot of times we think, oh, it just must be me, . Right? Or I'm the only one going through this. Right. And at the end of the day, it's not. So being able to tell those stories that we went through is gonna really, really be something that you're gonna wanna listen to.

[00:14:47] 'cause I'm pretty sure it's gonna be very relatable. Right.

[00:14:50] **Les Frye:** And we're gonna have guests on here that might not necessarily agree with our own beliefs. Correct. So we're gonna stand our grounds, but basically what we're here to do is [00:15:00] to educate one another. The whole . Essence of what we are is educating each other.

[00:15:05] So even though we may stand our ground, we are also wise enough to realize that there are some things that we do not know that's correct, and maybe our guests don't know either. So we're gonna have this conversation in this space so that we can come to a meeting of minds basically. We also know that by having these conversations, it will help us to successfully navigate the world as a.

[00:15:30] **Tony Tidbit:** Or the other reason why you want to watch a black executive perspective is exactly piggybacking off what Les talked about by coming here and learning different perspectives, it's going to make you have a deeper, more understanding of the people around you. Right? It's going to, you don't have to listen to politicians or somebody else try to tell you about a certain group, right?

[00:15:56] You are going to now, because at work we don't have, even though we [00:16:00] work with one another, even though we work with people from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, it's all surface. We chat, we talk about a little bitty things. Hey, how's the weather? How's your family? Blah, blah, blah. But then when work is over, the majority of us go to our own neighborhoods, so there's no real deep connection.

[00:16:18] Okay. So by attending and listening and watching a black executive's perspective, you'll be able to get that deep connection, which will help break down stereotypes and misnomers.

[00:16:30] **Les Frye:** That's right. We gonna keep it 100, no cap, because I'm telling you, no, I think there's just a misconception about being somebody in of color in an executive position that we.

[00:16:41] Don't identify with our blackness or our experience, but we're definitely going to show you all our authentic self

[00:16:48] **Tony Tidbit:** here. Exactly. Exactly. And now listen, I know it's labeled, the title is a Black Executive perspective podcast, but this is not just for people of color, this is for [00:17:00] everyone, right? So we're gonna talk, and we're gonna dive in to all backgrounds.

[00:17:05] We're gonna talk about what black people or people of color go through. But then we are also going to discuss from our white brothers and sisters, their perspectives, what is important to them, how to be an ally, how to understand more of the people that you work with on a daily basis, or your neighbors, you know, what their perspectives is.

[00:17:25] But more importantly, people of color need to understand your perspective too. Because at the end of the day, we're one sided, right? We're one sided. In other words, absolutely this is what I believe, or this is what I think. And then this person over here, this is what I believe and this is what I think.

[00:17:39] And until we sit down and look each other in the eye and have that perspective, and listen more importantly, listen to the other person's perspective, we're not gonna move forward. So we can sit here on a Black Executive's perspective podcast and talk about black people all day long and talk about, you know, things that we deal with, blah, blah, blah.

[00:17:58] But if white people [00:18:00] are not open to listening and we don't also share their perspective, we're still gonna be siloed. So here, this podcast is for

[00:18:07] **Les Frye:** everyone. That's right. And we're not just gonna specifically talk about workplace issues, we're gonna talk about the history behind what shapes the opinions and mindsets Correct.

[00:18:18] Of our culture today. Correct. So we will definitely talk about workplace, you know, navigation and things like that. But we also want you to be able to navigate your space, your community, your world, by talking about our experiences and the history behind why people believe a certain way. Why people treat us a certain way.

[00:18:37] Exactly. Because now we are facing a community. We're facing a world right now where they're taking that out of. High schools and classes. The truth about who are our contributions of people of color to this world, our contributions to people as people of color to America. So we're gonna have these conversations.

[00:18:56] This is a place

[00:18:57] **Tony Tidbit:** of education and knowledge. No question. And when you [00:19:00] talk about education, Les, we're also, and you are a hundred percent right, we're gonna talk about some corporate stuff and a lot of stuff's gonna be outside, however. By watching a Black Executive Perspective podcast, you're gonna be able to learn people of color, how to navigate corporate America, right?

[00:19:16] How to be able to be your authentic self and still be ambitious and still be able to get to where you wanna go. We've had those experiences, we're gonna have people on here that has those experience. So this is when we talk education. We're talking education from all different facets,

[00:19:33] **Les Frye:** right? And if you are a leader, be it a person of color or a person that is not of color, we're gonna help you be able to navigate your workforce, to be able to speak to the people of color within your management realm and how you can approach them through a cultural knowledge and understanding of who they are and their mindset.

[00:19:58] So this, this is a [00:20:00] place where you're going to be able to have those conversations. Like what should I tell my employee, right? Who is coming from an underserved community that is now finding themselves in the position of leadership and how they should react within this community of majority corporate America, which is of course a white corporate America, right?

[00:20:19] How they are now going to transform but still keep. Their authentic self as a leader within this

[00:20:25] **Tony Tidbit:** community? No question. No question. And look, at the end of the day, our country is growing and yes, it is becoming more diverse. I know some people don't want that. Mm-Hmm. They are afraid of that. Right. But at, at the end of the day, you know, in another 20 years, the majority of people will be people of color.

[00:20:43] So it's important that we all finally sit down and discuss and learn from one another so we can have a better perspective and really, really understand where each person is coming from, their culture, their background, their fears, their strengths, the whole nine yards, and [00:21:00] not let politicians dictate that to us because their goal is to divide and conquer at a black executive perspective.

[00:21:10] Our goal. Is to bring people together. Okay. Amen to that. So hopefully we've discussed a lot of things, litany of things, I would say. Mm-Hmm. . Why we feel that this should be a podcast, that you should come on a weekly basis and be able to come and be able to get fed and be able to provide something that's gonna provide value to you in your career, in your family, in your daily walk on this planet.

[00:21:38] And like I said, our goal is to create one race, the human race.

## [00:21:43] The Impact of Turning Points

[00:21:43] **Tony Tidbit:** Now that kind of dovetails in terms of what I wanna ask the legendary Les Fry here, and we call this Turning Points. I would love to hear from you, what was the turning point in your life? A woman who [00:22:00] grew up in St. Louis. The sixties. When did you find out, or what happened to you that you knew that race was gonna be a factor in your life?

[00:22:15] And then more importantly, how did it make you feel? And then what did you do moving forward to deal with that awakeness awareness, I should say?

## [00:22:25] The Co-host's Personal Turning Point

[00:22:25] **Tony Tidbit:** Wow, that's

[00:22:27] **Les Frye:** such a deep conversation to have because I have to tell you that it just wasn't one moment. There were several moments. Mm-Hmm. . But I can tell you about my first moment I.

[00:22:36] And my first moment was that my family, we were a very close-knit family, and during holidays we would all gather together and go into St. Louis. So I grew up, I was born in a small town, it's a river city. It's called Alton, Illinois. Mm-Hmm. . My mother moved us to St. Louis when I was about seven years old, but our families still got together and we went on [00:23:00] picnics and stuff together for holidays.

[00:23:01] So for Memorial Day or 4th of July, we were all together and we had a, I would say a regular, traditional thing where we went to Forest Park, which is in St. Louis every year for maybe 4th of July. And you were allowed to grill and everybody came there. We were all gathered together. Right. My mother, we didn't have very much money, but my mother always made sure that my sister and I were just adorable in how we were presented.

[00:23:28] You know, we had the same kind of clothes on and everything like that. And so while we were in Forest Park. And I would say this was probably maybe late sixties, early seventies. We were in Forest Park. We found two little white girls. They were playing, we were all, everybody was close to each other, you know, it was not like a designated space for specific people that were out there hanging out.

[00:23:49] And we started playing with these two little white girls. We started playing and talking to 'em and everything, befriending them. And at some point, the mother of these two little white girls saw that we were playing [00:24:00] with her daughters, and she came over and grabbed her daughters and slapped my sister and said, get away from her you little n word.

[00:24:08] Now, we didn't realize at that time, my sister and I didn't realize what was really going

[00:24:13] **Tony Tidbit:** on here. So, real quick, how old were you and your sister? So

[00:24:17] **Les Frye:** I think we were about maybe 6, 7, 8 years old, about that time. Gotcha. Uh, we were little kids, right? If you look at the circumstance here, neither of those little children.

[00:24:27] The little white girls, nor did we see color here. Didn't

[00:24:30] **Tony Tidbit:** see color at all. Didn't see color. Just wanted to her parent play with some other kids. Right.

[00:24:34] **Les Frye:** We just came over there and started playing with 'em. Right. And it caused such a ruckus because the lady ended up leaving that our whole family was looking for this lady

[00:24:43] **Tony Tidbit:** Now.

[00:24:43] So you guys went back to your parents and told them what happened? We,

[00:24:46] **Les Frye:** I went back to my mother and told her right that this lady slapped my sister. At that moment, I don't think that we really knew what that was because we were so . Protected. Mm-Hmm. by our family. Mm-Hmm. . And we didn't [00:25:00] identify what, we didn't know what that was, even at that age even.

[00:25:03] It, it had to happen several times before I started realizing that there was an issue Right. With color. And I will talk about some of those incidences in, in our future podcasts, but that was the first incident that I remember. Here I am now remembering at 61. I'm remembering Mm-Hmm. , that particular incident.

[00:25:19] Mm-Hmm. . Mm-Hmm. .

[00:25:21] **Tony Tidbit:** That moment. So like you said, you still remember it. Mm-Hmm. . When it happened, obviously it was a shock, right? You didn't think of color at that timeframe. It was just, we just, kids we wanna play. Exactly. And that was the first. Turning point that you still remember, however, you said there were multiple, right.

[00:25:43] And give me another one and then tell me a little bit, did you carry it? Did it make you think differently? Did you, did it make you act differently? Give us a little bit more. So,

[00:25:53] **Les Frye:** and I'm gonna fast forward now to grade school. Okay. One of the things that my mother did and I, I kind of recall. [00:26:00] Asking my mother why she did this, because St.

[00:26:04] Louis was not racially integrated at the time. So it was segregated. It was very segregated. But my mother chose to move us from our small community, our sheltered community, and move us to St. Louis and the places that she moved us to, which was called North County. At the time, the schools were not integrated.

[00:26:24] Matter of fact, the schools that we went to, there might've been maybe like three black kids. Mm-Hmm. at the whole entire school. Mm-Hmm. . So my second incident that I recall was, I might've been in probably about the third grade. I was going to a predominantly white school. And I had a teacher that did not like me.

[00:26:43] And sh I didn't understand that she was racist. I did not know that because I wasn't taught that. Mm-Hmm. in my house. My mother always told us we could be whatever we wanted to be. Right. Do whatever we wanted to do. Little did I know that my mother had kind of forged the way and [00:27:00] for us to be protected in the sense that we weren't, you know, experiencing those kind of things.

[00:27:04] And the incident, I recall, and I remember the teacher's name and you know who she's probably not living anymore. Her name was Mrs. Romaine. I'll never forget this. Mm-Hmm. . We were doing an art project and we had to use a potato. I don't know why we were using potato, but we had to use a potato and we all had to bring a potato to school.

[00:27:22] To school. Right. Okay. And when everybody got doled out their little potato to start the art project, I didn't have a potato. I took the potato, but it was mine. And one of the other little girls was a white girl, did not have her potato.

[00:27:35] **Tony Tidbit:** So she didn't bring a potato in. You brought one in. I bought a potato in.

[00:27:39] **Les Frye:** But that's not what my teacher Yep. Told everybody. She told me, and let me just preface this by saying that whenever I got up on the board to do anything or whatever, she would shame me. So, oh my gosh, it was so awful. I'm even to this day, a little stigmatized by that.

[00:27:57] **Tony Tidbit:** A little trying to, um, you say shame you, like, gimme [00:28:00] an example.

[00:28:00] Does

[00:28:00] **Les Frye:** that not stigmatized? But, you know, I, no, I, I have some issues, residual issues as a result of that, math was not always my best subject. Okay. You know, it's not that I'm incapable of doing math or anything, but it's, you know, kids, some things that just excel in other things. Right. We have strengths and weaknesses, but when it came to me doing math, she would just say like horrible things like, you're stupid or you don't know that.

[00:28:23] Why aren't you studying this? She would not do that to the other children in the class at all. But when I got up there to do my math, it was extra pressure upon me. Right, right. To succeed. And it was very nasty, but I didn't see it at this way. I just saw her as being a very mean teacher. Right, right. I didn't see her as being a racist.

[00:28:42] 'cause I didn't identify with that. You didn't identify with. So going back to the potato incident, she basically said you didn't bring a potato. And I said, but I did. And she said, no you didn't. 'cause you don't have potatoes in your house. Y'all don't have money to have potatoes. She said that, oh

[00:28:57] **Tony Tidbit:** yeah,

[00:28:58] **Les Frye:** you don't have money to have [00:29:00] potatoes in your house.

[00:29:01] And finally, let me tell you what my saving grace was. The little girl who did not bring a potato said No, that is her potato. I didn't bring a potato, I forgot

[00:29:12] **Tony Tidbit:** it. And then what did she say?

[00:29:15] **Les Frye:** She basically just kind of said, alright, well I'll give you a potato. She had extra potatoes.

[00:29:22] **Tony Tidbit:** Kidding me?

[00:29:23] **Les Frye:** Yeah, but I'm telling you, I didn't recognize that until I got older.

[00:29:28] Then I started realizing that this was a racial incident here. What possessed this woman to hate me so much for no reason. A child, for no reason, for no reason. And you were, how old were you? 10. I must've been in the third grade at that time. Okay, so you're eight. Yeah, about an eight or something like that.

[00:29:44] But my point, I, I guess what I'm, I'm flabbergasted about. At this time is that one, I still remember that. Yep. I remember the teacher. I remember the incident. Yep. I remember everything that happened in that class. It stuck with me. Mm-Hmm. . And [00:30:00] even though I don't carry it into who I was, and like I said, there are other incidents, not until I got older to become a lot more profound in me.

[00:30:08] And then I started taking action as an older adult, you know, saying, okay, I'm gonna have to stop this, or I'm gonna have to, you know, use my rights to do this. But those moments of racist intent stay with us. And that's the important thing to remember here. And I don't know if it's intended. I don't know if it shapes who we are today.

[00:30:30] And I don't know if it shapes the mindset. It is definitely, my mindset has definitely changed about that. I could have taken that moment as a child and said, all white people are bad, but I didn't. Right. Because my family didn't, wouldn't allow me to do Right. To do that. Right. You know, later I found out why, and it's because we are of mixed race in our family.

[00:30:48] Mm-Hmm. . But that was never the issue there. They, my mother's, her important thing to us was how are you going to navigate this world? Right. Knowing that someone's going to see you [00:31:00] differently because you're a black child. Right. And she did a great job in doing that. God rest her soul. She did a great job in helping us navigate that because I don't think I would be in the position that I'm in today or have been able to succeed right in life the way that I have.

[00:31:15] But Missouri was just like a hot pot of racism. Mm-Hmm. at that time. And it's getting better. It's becoming a little bit more diverse. Mm-Hmm. , but. I have so many incidences that

[00:31:29] **Tony Tidbit:** occurred to me. Yeah. The reason I wanted to share this with our audience today, we have, and I think a lot of people of color have what we call turning points.

[00:31:41] Mm-Hmm. , right. I think all in general, I think all human beings have some type of turning point if they were poor or whatever, something, right? Mm-Hmm . But when it came to race, the majority of us woke up one day and all of a sudden we had an incident happen and it let us know that what we thought or [00:32:00] how innocent we thought everything was, or we, how we were a part of the community.

[00:32:05] We were just like everybody else. That moment. Changed us. What was yours?

## [00:32:11] The Host's Personal Turning Point

[00:32:11] **Tony Tidbit:** It's interesting. I'll tell it. Mine was similar growing up in Detroit, Michigan. Mm-Hmm. . But also that turning point. And you talked a little bit about it, that turning point. I never forgot it. I did suppress it and I'll, I'll get into that.

[00:32:26] But that turning point is the main inspiration that made me do what we're doing today. Mm-Hmm. . Right. And so sometimes a negative, not sometimes, a lot of times a negative can turn into a positive. A positive. Right. But growing up in Detroit, even though at that time, you know, I'm talking in the seventies, Detroit was the fifth, sixth largest city in the United States.

[00:32:51] Mm-Hmm. . All right. It was 1.6, 1.7 million people that lived in Detroit. Mm-Hmm. . And then obviously, you know, a lot of times people think that, oh, the South, you know, [00:33:00] segregation and Jim Crow and stuff like that, at the end of the day. Detroit was segregated too. . Alright,

[00:33:06] **Les Frye:** well let's, let's hear the commonality here.

[00:33:09] Midwest.

[00:33:10] **Tony Tidbit:** Yeah. Midwest on our yards. Right. However, you know, my mother, who is from New York. Mm-Hmm. . She grew up in Long Island and she moved to Detroit when my grandmother passed away when she was 13. Mm-Hmm. . And she went to live with her aunt in Detroit, Michigan. My mother, because she grew up in New York, she had a a, a different perspective.

[00:33:32] She had a broader perspective. Right. I should say. Right. So, and obviously she had her things that she went through, so, and as all parents do you wanna make things a lot better for your kids? Right. So we never, I think it's one time when my mother was having some, some economic challenges. It was a little later, but for the most part we lived in the.

[00:33:53] Integrated side of Detroit. Mm-Hmm. . Right. So my neighborhood, you know, there were black, white kids, Jewish kids, we were all playing together. [00:34:00] Right, right. I mean, you know, it is different today because kids don't go outside , they don't play outside. Right. You know, in my neighborhood, you, you would have 30, 40, 50 kids on a Sunday running up and down the street riding their bikes.

[00:34:14] Their parents would sit on, on the front porch and in the whole night yards. Right. So my turning point happened when we were, I was 10, my brother was nine, I'm the oldest and my mother sent us to McDonald's to, uh, pick up some food. And we were walking, me and my brother went to, and then, this is not, we did it before.

[00:34:32] It was, and we were walking to McDonald's and we got the food and we're walking back and then these white kids were riding their bike. They rode past us. Mm-Hmm. . And they knocked the bags out of our hand, knocked our food on the ground, and then we heard them say, we got those N words. Right. And when they said it, I didn't even know what they were talking about.

[00:34:55] So my brother was crying. So we went home, it was just a couple blocks from our [00:35:00] house. So we went home and we told my mother what happened, and she sat us down. And at first, to be honest, I was like, it was an accident. . Okay. I just thought it was an accident. And then my mother said, no, it wasn't an accident.

[00:35:16] You know, we didn't know what the N word meant. Mm-Hmm. . Okay. So then that's when she sat down. Talk to us about race. And she told us that people wouldn't, some people would not, they wouldn't accept us just because of how we looked. Right. And then she talked about the police and she talked, and my mother, she, I wouldn't say she was militant, but she wanted her kids to know, you know, what time it was.

[00:35:43] Right? Right.

## [00:35:43] Childhood Lessons on Race

[00:35:43] **Tony Tidbit:** So she, this is 10 years old. I'm 10, my brother's nine, my sister's eight, and my other sister is five. And she sat this all down and she had this conversation. And then here's the kicker. She said, however, you can be whatever you want to be. [00:36:00] And do not use race as an excuse. Mm-Hmm. on why you can't get ahead.

[00:36:05] So she was telling us to horror us. Okay. She was telling us all the things, but she said, regardless of that, you still can be successful. And more importantly, don't never use race as an excuse. So. I took that literally Mm-Hmm.

## [00:36:20] Journey in Corporate America

[00:36:20] **Tony Tidbit:** when I opened up in this podcast and I said, you know, I've been in corporate America for almost 35 years and I never talked about race.

[00:36:28] I was silent on it. A lot of that was because of what my mother said to me, and it was in the back of my head. Right. And my mother wanted us to be better than her, so I was very ambitious. Mm-Hmm. Okay. So let's fast forward. Like I said, I've been very blessed on this journey and I've been able to overcome a lot of things.

[00:36:49] And you know, I'm currently a VP at a major media organization. I've been in the advertising industry since 1998. I've been a vice president since 2009, [00:37:00] so been very blessed, however.

## [00:37:02] Experiences as a Black Executive

[00:37:02] **Tony Tidbit:** The majority of places I've, I've been at, I've been the only black person. Oh yes. Okay. And what's that old saying? Uh, you know, new levels, new devils

[00:37:12] So, so the higher I went up, the less people of color I saw you saw, right? Mm-Hmm. . Now did I have a lot of people that were white that helped me out? Helped? Absolutely. Mm-Hmm. There's a ton of people who saw stuff in me that I didn't see in myself, right? Mm-Hmm. . But there is something to seeing people that look like you.

[00:37:30] Alright. Right now let's fast forward, and this speaks, this will go into how we met.

## [00:37:36] Starting a New Job During the Pandemic

[00:37:36] **Tony Tidbit:** So in March of 2020, I started this company called Xandr. Mm-Hmm. , which you are working at. Yes. And I'll use the date again March of 2020. So I hopefully that may ring a bell because that's when the pandemic started. Right?

[00:37:51] Right. And I'm talking the thick of it in New York City. I started March 9th. Our office was in Rockefeller Center. I started [00:38:00] that Monday. Mm. And then that Wednesday we went to work and they said, take your stuff. And then, wow, we worked from home for a couple of years. Right? Okay. And so I didn't know anybody.

[00:38:12] I didn't know you. Why? 'cause I didn't meet anybody in the office. I didn't meet nobody. Everything was virtual. I had to build out a sales team. I had to do all these things. I had to do it virtually. Even somebody on my team, she started, she, I interviewed her. She quit her job. She was supposed to start, uh, she didn't start till April 6th, but she started virtually and almost didn't start because they wasn't built right to onboard people from a virtual standpoint.

[00:38:36] The only reason she was able to keep the job is because she had already quit her job. Right. So, fast forward, here comes March of 2020 and then you shaking your head.

## [00:38:47] Impact of George Floyd's Death

[00:38:47] **Tony Tidbit:** So, you know, this is when the George Floyd right situation happened. And you know, it's interesting that Friday. Me and my new boss, great guy, excellent guy, Jason Brown.[00:39:00]

[00:39:00] He was like, Tony, let's get together. We talked about this a week or two ago. He wanted to build a relationship with me. We wasn't going into the office. Mm-Hmm. . So he said, Hey, let's go hiking. We, he lived in Connecticut. I lived in Connecticut. So you know, he picked a place. We went hiking just to be able to spend time on that.

[00:39:17] He was our chief revenue officer. Right. So we did that, and then him and I, you know, we left and then I got home and we saw how everybody was going off over the George Floyd thing. Right, right. And I was sitting there watching the television, and I can tell you flat out, all of a sudden this emotion started coming to the forefront.

[00:39:39] Hmm. Years of all the things that I had to deal with that I kept, stuff you repressed that I held within. Right? It's hard to explain. Nobody said nothing to me. Nobody said, oh, I Kim. It was just, just, and I just became disgusted and then I remembered it never went away. [00:40:00] What happened when I was 10 years old?

[00:40:02] Yep. I carried that for a long period of time and I carried it because my mother said, don't ever let race become an excuse. So I didn't say a lot. Okay. Right. Didn't say a lot. So at that moment, Les, I didn't wanted to do something. I didn't know what to do. Right.

## [00:40:25] Sharing Personal Experiences with Race

[00:40:25] **Tony Tidbit:** So I went upstairs in my office and I wrote.

[00:40:29] I wrote it on a, on a Microsoft Word document of what happened to me when I was a kid, because this is the thing, when that happened, I changed. Mm-Hmm. . Mm-Hmm. . I immediately knew, everybody knew me in my neighborhood as Tony. Mm-Hmm. . Once that incident happened, I was no longer Tony. I was the black kid. Right.

[00:40:47] And this is the thing that people don't recognize. We have kids, all of our kids grow up with different issues and as a parent, you're trying to build their confidence. We go to school, we have self-esteem issues, [00:41:00] we wanna fit in and we have insecurities. I'm too, I'm too fat. I'm this and my nose ain't right.

[00:41:05] You have all those things that you are developing through as a kid. So. I was called the N word, and now my mother told me how people are gonna look at me differently. That had a huge effect right on me. Huge. I never said anything, but a lot of the things that I did after in terms of, you know, how I looked worrying about white people are gonna think this.

[00:41:30] I wasn't thinking that before, but now I was thinking it, right? Mm-Hmm. .

## [00:41:33] The Power of Open Conversations on Race

[00:41:33] **Tony Tidbit:** So I wrote that story and I posted it on Facebook and I wrote this story. My wife didn't even know anything about it. My kids didn't know anything about this story. Put it on Facebook. Everybody started reaching out. Right. Now, here's the irony.

[00:41:48] Jason Kyler became the CEO of Warner Media. Yeah. That week he had just started. Yeah. So he sent an email to everybody, you know, and for our audience [00:42:00] at that time, Warner Media, which you probably know owned, CNN Turner, T-B-S-H-B-O, the whole nine yards, 25,000 employees.

## [00:42:09] Continuing the Conversation in a New Company

[00:42:09] **Tony Tidbit:** Right. This is the, he became the CEO and he sent the email out to all the employees and said, you know, I'm here and I don't like what happened, and blah, blah.

[00:42:21] All of a sudden I was like, I'm gonna send this to him. So I remember me and my wife we're going on a walk and I was like, you know my wife Gail, right? Right. And I said, Hey, I'm thinking about sending this to Jason Kyler. And she said, you should. Right. And I remember going up to my, uh, office and I wrote the email and I put that, and I was, it took a minute to hit Sin

[00:42:43] What? Well, I'll tell you why. Because I don't, I don't got no leverage. I don't know nobody. Right. I'm emailing the CEO EO. Right. You know, I don't know him, so I'm like, this could be it, , you know, easy. Nice knowing you. I mean, great to meet you. Nice knowing you. Right? I, I don't know, but I didn't care. So I sent it to him and [00:43:00] since he's in LA I think he emailed me back, you know, at two, three in the morning.

[00:43:05] And Go ahead. The fact that he emailed you, he emailed me back. So, so

[00:43:10] **Les Frye:** him was such a good dude. I mean about him. There's so many things I can say about Jason Kyler. I don't know where he is right now, but

[00:43:18] **Tony Tidbit:** he was awesome. Exceptional leader. And he was all about, he was that, and you said it, he was an exceptional leader.

[00:43:23] Yeah. He was all about culture. Right. Email me back, Tony. Thank you for sending this. Really? Sorry. What happened to you as a kid? I'm here now. I wanna make things change. I wanna make changes here. I wanna make this an inclusive organization and trust me, he put stuff together, right? Mm-Hmm. . Net net. Then I, I, my boss, Jason Brown, who, him and I were on a hike.

[00:43:45] I sent it to him. So JB Yeah, jb, yeah. I sent it to jb. JB called me and he was crying. Tony, I'm so sorry. He was like, I had my head in the sand, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he said, what do you wanna do? I. At that time, all I was [00:44:00] thinking, I just want to share this, what happened, the story, right? So I can just let people know what happens to black people, what we go through, right?

[00:44:08] What we don't tell you all these things, right? We hold these things in. And what happens is, is because, you know, most people, most white people think that everything is equal,

[00:44:17] **Les Frye:** right? Well, because we, they see us succeeding, but they don't understand the underlying

[00:44:22] **Tony Tidbit:** all the hoops, all the stuff, right? So he said, what do you wanna do?

[00:44:27] And I was like, I just really wanna share this story to the company, right? Right. And he said, let me think about it. Lemme get back to you in a couple days later. He said, Hey man, would you be open to, you know, chatting with everybody? And I was like, absolutely right. Hmm. So, and you may not know this, and let me introduce, our executive producer is Adrian Alvarado.

[00:44:49] He's sitting behind the background, right. Call him. He's the one, he's, he's the one that makes all this happen. His name, we call him double A. So remember. We're virtual . Right? Right. Alright. [00:45:00] So we need a place where me and JB can meet together and we can, you know, chat and do this. So my wife knew AA and she said, Hey, you should get with, you know, Adrian, he, you know, he has a podcast studio, he's working with a company that has a studio, blah, blah, blah.

[00:45:15] So I got with him and we went into their office. You know, they let us be able to broadcast, you know, for a fee. Mm-Hmm. . Well, sometimes we're, we're it

[00:45:26] **Les Frye:** cost? Wait, wait,

[00:45:27] **Tony Tidbit:** it cost to be the box? Yeah. Yeah. For a fee, right? Mm-Hmm. . But it didn't matter. Mm-Hmm. . So, I remember we was gonna do this, and we had like 10 minutes before we're gonna go on.

[00:45:36] So we didn't even, I was just going, we were just gonna chat. Right. So I created this, I was like, no, we gotta have something. So I created this deck, and on the deck I wrote an open conversation on race. Hmm. Okay. And then. Because I knew it was important to make people feel comfortable because we never talked about race at work at [00:46:00] all.

[00:46:00] **Les Frye:** Can I interject here? Yeah, go ahead. Let me interject here. And same similar with me, but I didn't have the same type of, you had a lot more connections and so I grew up right on the border of Ferguson and Florissant in Missouri. So the incident that happened with Michael Brown and Ferguson was very dear to my heart.

[00:46:18] Mm-Hmm. . There was a lot of things that went on with that, that the media was showing, but was not about the community itself. There were a lot of, I would say, red herrings there because the com, that community, even though the police force was.

[00:46:34] A racist police force. The community was mixed, but you didn't see that on the media, right?

[00:46:39] You only saw the black folks on the media. But there were people, white people that lived in that community too. Businesses that white people owned, that had been in that community for, for years. And there were actually people coming in from other states to cause ruckus when you know, the city was on fire, Ferguson was on fire.

[00:46:58] But coming back to [00:47:00] this discussion on race at the time when this whole incident happened with Michael Brown and this huge implosion of racial chaos that was happening in our country. People were hurt.

[00:47:14] **Tony Tidbit:** There's no question. People

[00:47:16] **Les Frye:** were in pain. And I'm not just talking about

[00:47:18] **Tony Tidbit:** white. I'm not on black people.

[00:47:20] I'm talking about white people. White people. There's no

[00:47:22] **Les Frye:** question. So you would not have been able to have that format if people were not, because they were like, okay, obviously we've been living in a bubble here.

[00:47:31] **Tony Tidbit:** Exactly. We we're totally not aware of what's going on. Exactly.

[00:47:34] **Les Frye:** And that space was created for you by white people.

[00:47:38] There's no question. 'cause they themselves were like, I did not know this was going on in the community.

[00:47:44] **Tony Tidbit:** You hit it right on the head. The majority of people were white and they really, I told you JB cried. Right? And he said, I had my head in the sand. Great guy. Nice guy. Right, right. Not Ara, none of that.

[00:47:56] But just not aware. Not aware. Right. So we [00:48:00] started this, I wrote an open conversation of race, but one of the things, and you noticed, one of the things I thought . 10 minutes before we were supposed to go on is that for this to really work where people can open up, where white people can open up and feel comfortable talking about it without worrying about being judged a racist, right?

[00:48:21] I came up with ground rules. Oh yes. Remember the ground rules? Ground rules. I came up, I didn't read a book and say, this is what you do. I just thought of it real quickly and the first ground rule was .

## [00:48:34] The Importance of Active Listening and Non-Judgment

[00:48:34] **Tony Tidbit:** Actively listen. Right, right. Listen. And what for our audience who may not know, what actively listening is, actively listening is to listen, to understand the complete message, right?

[00:48:47] That's being said. If you don't know it, you ask questions. Mm-Hmm. , right? So that was the first thing. And then I forgot about this. JB had me because I had done training in terms of [00:49:00] actively listening and stuff to that nature. So he said, Tony, can you train everybody on actively listening? I was absolutely.

[00:49:05] Mm-Hmm, . So we did that first. So then it was no politics. That was one of the ground rules, right? 'cause guess what? Unfortunately, when you bring people together, politics, politics plays. Yes. Politic gonna, yes. And it's a hot topic issue, and people don't listen. If you throw politics, it was no politics, no judging, no judgment.

[00:49:24] You can be open, nobody's gonna judge you here. Right,

[00:49:27] **Les Frye:** right. It was a safe space. Judgment

[00:49:29] **Tony Tidbit:** created zone, safe space. Right Now, in the beginning, I don't know how safe they thought it was. Right. But that was, well, no, there was some hesitancy. There's no question. Right. People were like, okay, can I

[00:49:40] **Les Frye:** really? Right.

[00:49:41] If my manager's in this meeting, how am I gonna be able to ask a question and stuff, you know? But when they started seeing that people were having, it took one person to ask a question that was uncomfortable for us to begin to have these

[00:49:53] **Tony Tidbit:** conversations. And while I'll say, and that's where you was instrumental.[00:50:00]

[00:50:00] Is that, so in the beginning, I had to be the Guinea pig. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. . I had to share my story. I had to talk about my vulnerabilities. I had to talk about the things that I was afraid of that I never told anybody. Right. Never, never told anyone I had to do this. Because that was the only way if people were like, well, Tony's, oh my God, , I even, I talked about my biases, right?

[00:50:24] 'cause as human beings, we all got biases. Right? Right. So I talked about my biases. I had to be the Guinea pig. But back to the point, the point is you started joining. Mm-Hmm. And then you were just, you jumped right in until, and you just said why, right? The experiences you had through your life, the Michael Brown incident, the whole nine yards.

[00:50:44] But the end of the day, the goal was to educate white people. And let me tell you why. Because what Les just got finished saying the first session that we had, I. That's what we, I was hearing, right. A lot of white people saying, I didn't know this was going on. I didn't know, [00:51:00] I can't believe this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:51:02] Right. And at first, my first reaction was, I didn't say nothing, but I was like, how don't you know? Mm-Hmm. . Okay. But here's the kicker. I then thought about my wife. 'cause you know, and, and my audience may not. My wife is white. Okay. And she grew up in a small town outside of Boston, Maynard, Massachusetts.

[00:51:21] Right. There was one black family in the whole town of 10,000 people. Right. She didn't know this was going on either until we started dating , but so we went to a restaurant.

[00:51:35] Right. Exactly. Exactly.

[00:51:37] **Les Frye:** That's funny because now you just basically reminded me of the initial conversation that you and I had. I wasn't saying anything in our first meeting.

[00:51:47] And then when you told me you were married to a white woman, I said, oh, well let's talk about the racism towards you from the black community because you're married to a white woman. We Exactly, how many stares have you

[00:51:57] **Tony Tidbit:** gotten? The whole nine yards of sisters. The whole nine

[00:51:59] **Les Frye:** yards. [00:52:00] That broke it right there.

[00:52:01] Exactly. That was like, you know. Exactly. Because we had a, we were making it real.

[00:52:04] **Tony Tidbit:** But that was the point I'm making. I had to be vulnerable. Right. I had to throw my cards on the table. I had to let you know, this is a thing and you know this. I was so, and let me tell you, I'm telling you the story, but let me tell you the mo the real motivation.

[00:52:20] 'cause I didn't tell you. I told you that when that McDonald's incident happened to me and my brother. Mm-Hmm. . My mother sat us down and told us about race. When the George Floyd thing happened, me and my wife had to sit down with our 12 and 11-year-old daughters and tell them. About race 40 years later.

[00:52:51] Yes. 40 years later. I had the same conversation my mother had with me [00:53:00] 40 years later. I had to have that conversation with my daughters. Yeah. That was it. I was done. Done. I don't care what it took. Yeah. I don't, and I sat back, didn't say nothing and nothing changed. Yes. We got iPhones, right, right. Yeah. . Yes.

[00:53:18] We can send a rover to Mars. Yes. The Dow went up from 2000 to 26,000. Right. But at the end of the day, when it comes to race, we're still divided. And

[00:53:29] **Les Frye:** not only that, yes we have successful black people in positions of authority and companies and stuff like that, but we are still talking about race in America

[00:53:38] **Tony Tidbit:** flat out.

[00:53:38] And that percentage is 0.08. Okay. Yeah. Which we'll talk about that at another time. But my point is sitting back. 40 years, nothing changed. Wow. So that was the motivation. Yeah. To finally do something, not wait on a politician to, oh, we're gonna write this legislation. No, no. You know what? Been writing, and it don't matter if you are a [00:54:00] democrat, republican, or independent.

[00:54:01] It don't matter who's in charge, who's been in charge. We've had the same issues. Okay. That was it for me. So I was willing to do whatever it took to try to bring people together, because for 30 something years, I didn't say nothing and nothing changed. Right. And so, as you know, Mm-Hmm. .

## [00:54:26] The Impact of Open Conversations on Race in the Workplace

[00:54:26] **Tony Tidbit:** We started this thing at work in corporate America where we can now, instead of sitting in the living room, we sat in the conference room, conference room, and we talked openly and honestly about race.

[00:54:40] Guess what? Nobody died. Nobody got into a fight. No negatives. Education. Now this wasn't for ought to be fair. I thought it was just for a week. . Oh, yes. All right. It kept going. I started doing it each week. People kept [00:55:00] showing up at work. At a Fortune five. We're talking a huge organization at and t owned, Warner Media, Xander, DirecTV.

[00:55:10] I'm talking we put this on and people kept coming. Then the kicker, go ahead.

[00:55:16] **Les Frye:** Let's let,

[00:55:16] let me just say this. The kicker is the at and t sold. Xander sold Warner Media, and we still have people coming from those countries still kept people going. Those companies going, yes. Right. Still coming to, to have these conversations and new people.

[00:55:29] We're introducing new people. So right now my space is Microsoft. We have people from Microsoft attending these meetings because like I didn't know that there was a place for us to have this conversation. Exactly.

[00:55:42] **Tony Tidbit:** When I knew that we were making an impact is when white people started raising their hands.

[00:55:48] Yeah. And said, Hey, I wanna present something. Oh, I wanna put content together. I wanted Tony can. I was like, absolutely right. And I'll tell you this real quickly. [00:56:00] We talked about it, white supremacist. We, we talked about everything, right? Everything right. And couple things. When the president of our, or Tony Clock, Tony G Mm-Hmm , he reached out to me and he was like, Tony, we still pandemic.

[00:56:15] He said, Tony, I'm hearing what you're doing. Can you come and have coffee with me? Oh, right at Hudson Yards. Right. And we couldn't even go in the office. So he, him and I met him outside and he said, man, I really, you know what you're doing is fantastic. He said, I wanna take what you're doing and scale it all across the organization.

[00:56:37] Right. Okay. And unfortunately, we weren't able to do that because we got sold off. Right. We got sold off. Unfortunately, all that being said, we did this for almost three and a half years now. Right. Three and a half years we've sat down and had open and honest conversations with all different types of people [00:57:00] in multiple organizations.

[00:57:02] Right. And what we found out is this, it's okay to talk about race. Race, it's okay not to know. It's okay to wanna know more. It's okay to ask uncomfortable questions. It's okay. Because by doing that. People come together. Mm-Hmm. .

## [00:57:28] The Launch of the Black Executive Perspective Podcast

[00:57:28] **Tony Tidbit:** And this is why we've launched this podcast of Black Executive Perspective podcast because we wanna scale this out and we wanna touch more lives, and we wanna help educate people because at the end of the day, unless you know this.

[00:57:48] The majority of people are not bad people. You know, they're not racist on both sides. And when we talk of race, we're not talking about white people. There's issues with Asians. There's Mm-Hmm. , there's all issues. [00:58:00] There's inter color challenges between Hispanics and blacks and you name it, there's

[00:58:05] **Les Frye:** an issue.

[00:58:05] There's racism within

[00:58:07] **Tony Tidbit:** our own races. That's what I'm saying, with blacks, right? Yeah. With everything. So, so at the end of the day, what the key is, is people are ignorant. Yeah. Because they don't know. And they're letting other people dictate to them what other groups are, or what they're trying to take from you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:58:24] So that's why me and the legendary Les Fry are gonna be your host with a litany of other guests to come on here to be able to help educate. Have these uncomfortable conversations that become comfortable. Okay. I wanna say

[00:58:46] **Les Frye:** that our success is dictated in all of us coming together as a workforce, as a people.

[00:58:53] And it doesn't matter what color it is, we must depend upon each other to, to be successful.

[00:58:58] **Tony Tidbit:** Exactly. We we need [00:59:00] one another. Yes. Right? And we can't put follow the strategy that's been put in place since they started, unless it's gonna talk more about this in other episodes since they started calling people black, white.

[00:59:16] 'cause there was no such thing. There was no such thing. Okay? And that was on purpose. Remember, the strategy is divide and conquer, and we're gonna dive into more of that. And that hasn't changed since this country, since it's been populated. All right. From a European standpoint. Okay, so let's fry. My sister from another Mister

[00:59:41] This, as you can see here. Smart, passionate, big heart love, and if there's anybody that I'm glad that's gonna partner with me, and more importantly, that you get a chance to listen to on a weekly basis and learn from. [01:00:00] Is the legendary Les Fry, Les final

[01:00:03] **Les Frye:** words? Uh, I could say the same about you. I would not go on this journey with anybody else or find this.

[01:00:09] I mean, I think we are gonna do great work. I know your track record, so I am in for the long haul. And I just wanna close by saying, listen to this podcast, join this podcast, ask us questions, things that we may not even talk about on this podcast. We're gonna give you an authentic, honest response. And if we don't know, we're gonna find out exactly.

[01:00:31] We'll find out and we'll come back and we'll educate you a little bit. But I think based on what we are presenting here, we are hoping or no, I am convinced that we're gonna change lives

[01:00:42] **Tony Tidbit:** and perspectives. There's no question. And one of the other things that we're gonna do, we're not in a vacuum. Hmm. So there's always things that's happening.

[01:00:52] From a world perspective, hot topic issue. So we're gonna discuss those in real time here on a black executive perspective, right? So you [01:01:00] can hear our perspectives and not the spin that somebody is trying to give you. So you can find out more at our website of black executive perspective.com, and then also you can follow us wherever you get your podcast at BP podcast.

[01:01:22] In addition, you can follow us on Instagram. X, which is now, it used to be Twitter, but now they call X or whatever. I don't know. What next thing you know is we call something else or whatever social, YouTube or whatever social media platform you follow. So really, I'm so excited that we're launching this.

[01:01:40] I'm so excited that you're gonna be on this journey with us For my co-host, the legendary. Les Fry, I'm Tony Tidbit. Come and join us and let's talk about it. We're out.

## [01:01:55] Closing Remarks and Future Plans

[01:01:55] **Les Frye:** Thank you for tuning

[01:01:56] **Tony Tidbit:** into

[01:01:56] **Les Frye:** this episode of Tony Tidbit, a black executive [01:02:00] perspective, and for joining in today's conversation with every story we share.

[01:02:05] Every conversation we foster and every barrier we address, we can ignite the sparks that bring about lasting change. And this carries us one step closer to transforming the face of corporate America. If today's episode resonated with you, consider subscribing and leaving us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[01:02:29] Share this

[01:02:30] **Tony Tidbit:** episode with your circle.

[01:02:31] **Les Frye:** With your support, we can reach more people and tell more stories.