Disruption Now

Jason Flom is the former Chairman and CEO at Atlantic Records, Virgin Records, and Capitol Music Group and now the Founder and CEO of Lava For Good Podcasts and Lava Media. He is the founding board member of the Innocence Project and serves on the boards of numerous criminal justice reform organizations

Show Notes

Also, the host of the hit podcast, Wrongful Conviction features interviews with men and women who have spent decades in prison for crimes they did not commit, some even sentenced to death. He started his journey to fight the system's injustice last 1993 when he helped a young kid win his case for a non-violence first offense cocaine possession charge for which he served 15 years to life. He also shared statistics that listeners will be shocked that the United States incarcerates black people at six times South African rate per capita during a partile. Jason Flom believes that we should use the resources to uplift people, police are not the answer, and imprisonment is not the answer. He lives by the saying, "If you can help, help, and you can always help!" He always reminds people that Today is a good day to do something good for someone while expecting nothing in return.

What is Disruption Now?

A podcast to disrupt common narratives and constructs to empower diverse communities. We provide inspirational content from entrepreneurs and leaders who are disrupting the status quo.

So you want to learn more

about living an uncompromising life

and following your why,

make sure you tune in

for the Disruption Now.

We're going to talk more about it

with our special guest, Steve White

listen on the other side

All right, welcome back, everybody.

Disruption Now

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But without any further ado,

Steve White is

one of our is our guest here

that we're going to talk more

about his book Uncompromising.

We're also going to talk

about his experience

from being from the projects

literally to the C-suite.

And we're going to talk

about his experience

and everything in between.

Steve, how are you doing, man?

Good Rob

Thanks for having me.

I'm so glad to be here with you today.

Look, we are very glad to

have you on,

so we definitely want

to dive into your book

and many other things

and about your lessons

and really talk about your upcoming book

and things.

You want people to know about that.

But before we get into that

and the specifics of that,

I'd like to learn

a little more about you.

So

as it's talked about on your website, you

you literally grew up in the projects

and then

you now reach the

highest levels of success

when it comes to

the American Pie,

the American Dream,

you have achieved that .

But I want I want to take your I want.

I want to take you back to.

Your youth when you're there,

you're in the projects and. And

you're going through whatever

is whatever is going through your mind

at that time, I want you to think,

think about that young man.

What advice

would you give your younger self

knowing everything you know now?

And what advice

would you ignore that was given to you?

Well, Rob, first of all, great question.

Unfortunately, like a lot of young kids,

single mother raised

four boys by herself.

She was 29 years old

when she decided to leave

my father, who was. We lived in Florida.

Certainly that was not a popular decision

with me or my three brothers.

But guess what?

She did not run a democratic household,

there was one sheriff in town,

and we did what we were told.

But the advice that I learned

because we started supporting her,

she was a hotel maid.

I'm sorry.

Motel maid

and then she became a high school janitor

for 35 years,

and this is a motel with the M,

not a hotel with an H, a motel.

There's no spa. There's no elevator.

You pull your car right up to the door.

So we're talking about the absolute

bottom of the food chain.

But what I learned in those motels,

some of the advice that I got is

there are only two things

you can control Rob your effort and attitude.

I'm going to outwork you.

And then from an attitude standpoint,

I'm not going to be a victim.

Although the circumstances around me

might say, Steve, you're a victim.

You could give in to that.

Everybody would understand

that you're a victim.

But when you can talk to yourself

and convince yourself

that there are opportunities out there

while difficult opportunities are there.

So that is the advice that I got.

You can control two things your effort

and your attitude.

If you stay in control

of those two things,

then great things will happen.

And then the advice

that we received

that I don't listen to anymore is

you can't do it

because when my mother made

that difficult decision.

Family members said

they're not going to amount to anything

these kids need a father,

and I agree

every child needs two parents,

but guess what?

That was not the situation.

And when people tell you

that you can't accomplish something,

you ignored them.

But here's the piece, Rob

I want to highlight for that.

I started competing

against what people were saying,

so I was saying, I'm

going to prove to you

that I'm better than that.

And that is the wrong thing.

I quickly learned

that I'm competing against myself.

God gave us all a level of talent.

Now my job is to reach the highest levels

of my potential.

And that's where I turn that bad advice

into something that fueled me

in a very positive way.

Yeah.

And so how did you that's

how do you

when you're in this environment?

That's great advice,

but it's very difficult.

I found to navigate outside

of the environment

that you're in, especially.

I mean, there's been studies

shown over and over again.

I've said this many times on my show

that it's been shown

that the environments

that you earn literally affect

how you think and how you view things,

even when you try to fight it.

So how did you

how did you

how were you able to see

the perspective

that you could achieve more

despite your current circumstances?

Like what things did you do

to keep yourself?

Optimistic about the future,

despite your current situation.

Despite the current situation

that wasn't so optimistic.

What a great question,

and I didn't know

this was happening at the time,

but my mother was working

hard to surround us with people

that were doing positive things,

even people

that were living in the projects.

They're not all bad people know now.

That's the stereotype, right,

that if you live in the projects,

you don't have anything going on.

There are a lot of positive people.

And so she would always surround us

with people

that were doing things in a positive way.

She got us enrolled in Big Brother.

So there there was an IBM executive,

Don Jones, who took an interest in me.

And so now the more you start

surrounding yourself

with people that are doing things

in a positive way,

see, because Rob,

we all have a little light inside of us.

Sometimes people turn that light down.

When you can surround yourself

with people that make that light

brighter and brighter.

That's how you make it happen.

So that's what happened to me.

The more and more

I got exposed to people

that were making it happen.

These weren't corporate executives.

They weren't CEOs.

These were just

men and women

that were making a difference.

And that started to rub off on me

that started to give me confidence.

And then when I started,

achieving a little success.

It just starts to feed on itself.

When you have a little success.

Yeah.

one of the sayings that

one of my earliest mentors told me

is that if you show me your friends,

I'll show you your future, right?

So who you surround yourself with

has the most direct effect

on what you're going to be like.

It is a lot of things

that affect it,

but essentially

who you decide to spend your time with,

who you just about,

who you decide to hang out

with like those are.

Those are really important decisions.

And I say to my son all the time, like,

you need to be careful

who you hang around with, hell

who you date.

All these things matter

because they're going to affect

what type of person you become

because you eventually like,

we are tribal animals.

Like,

despite everything that people think

like,

you hang around a tribe,

you're going to absorb

the essence of that tribe, right?

So if you're hanging around

people that are out there

trying to do something,

it doesn't mean that

they all are rich or wealthy.

But people that are just trying

to do something with their lives

improve themselves.

You're going to find yourself that,

oh, in order

to keep with these folks,

I have to keep doing

what they're doing to

be a part of the tribe.

On the other end of that, right,

if you got people

that are doing the opposite,

if you're trying to do well,

you're not going to

you're not going

to stand out in that crowd

and they're going to make you literally

feel bad about achieving

like and that's something that

I had to leave friends

that would tell me all that B.S.

that you're talking

white, all that stuff,

which I'm sure you heard before.

Yeah, all those things,

those toxic things that we internalize

due to our oppression.

We got oppression

and other bad things we've learned.

We got to learn to reject.

That's exactly right, Rob and

one of the things I want to share with

our listeners is in my life,

there are only twelve decisions

that I've made that have really mattered

because we all make decisions.

We all make mistakes.

I certainly have made my share.

But the key thing is to

get the big decisions

right,

and one of those twelve

decisions are my friends.

You show me somebody

that does not have friends,

that they've been friends

with a long time. I worry

who I marry.

So who

you surround yourself with

is probably one of the most important ten

or twelve decisions

you're going to make in your entire life.

You get that right.

Your chances of having impact

and having a legacy and having success

goes up dramatically.

All right.

So this is a good transition

to tell us a little bit about the book

because it sounds like that's

some advice that might have come for

the book. Is that correct?

So tell us a little more

about the book Uncompromising

why you wrote it

and what do you want

people to gain from this book?

Yeah.

Well, the book is called Uncompromising.

If you want to learn more, please

go to SteveWhitespeaks.com.

That's my website.

It's got all the book information.

You can follow me on social media,

but Rob I was

inspired by this quote,

and it's attributed to Mark Twain.

The two most important days

in your life is the day you're born.

And the second is when you find out why.

And for all of us,

we've been placed on this Earth

for a purpose

and a reason

our destiny has been set for us now.

It's our responsibility to identify

that and live it and make it happen.

And so the title Uncompromising focuses

on that second question

when you find out

why you've been placed on this Earth,

when you find out

this is your purpose in life,

that is what you're

uncompromising in your pursuit.

You don't let anything

get in your way now.

You'll get bumped off the road.

No question,

but you got to get back on that.

And that is the focus of the title.

And the reason I wrote the book

Rob is to go from the housing project

to the C-suite where I was.

President of our Comcast West Group.

18 billion dollar business.

30,000 employees.

one of the top

five executives in one of the top

20 companies in America.

You don't get there by yourself.

And there were so many men

and women that gave me a hand up.

I didn't say handout.

Now, a hand up

a hand up is an opportunity.

And I was smart enough

to seize those opportunities

and pursue them.

And so this is my love

letter to all those men and women

who gave me a hand up.

What better way to recognize them

than to share with others?

My life lessons.

And so in the book,

I talk about successes

I certainly talked about failures

in the book

is built around these seven pathways

seven pathways

that I believe if you adhere to,

you can lead a life

or impact legacy and success.

And so that's why I wrote the book.

That's where the title came from,

because we're taught.

Often compromise is the way to make it,

particularly in America.

Yeah, and I'm saying that's true.

But when it comes to your purpose in why

there's no compromise in there,

you're ruthless in your pursuit

of pursuing your purpose in why?

No.

I mean,

it brings me back to what

I think about my time in a former life.

When I ran for public office

and one of my favorite books was a book

was by the author who wrote

who wrote about the life of Lyndon

Johnson and Lyndon Johnson

has this statement

about what convinced

what convinces is conviction .

People have to believe

that you believe in what.

in whatever you're selling

and whatever you're putting forward.

And I thought

about how I evaluate specifically

public leaders,

but also leaders in general.

Like,

yes, you have to compromise

a lot of a lot of a part of life

and moving forward.

But then there has to be some things

that you will be willing to

walk over fire for.

And if I don't know what that is for you,

I have trouble trusting people

that don't have something

at least one or two things to say.

These are things that I will not move on.

Like a lot of things, like 90% things,

you can figure out ways to compromise.

But there should be some things

that are just

part of the core system of your beliefs

and who you are.

I think to be effective,

to be an effective leader because people,

even if they don't agree with you,

on those core convictions,

I found that they respect you

because this is a person

that actually has some integrity

for their beliefs.

They're not just going to

say whatever

I want to hear in order

to get a sale in order to get a vote.

So I am definitely with you on that.

I'd like to ask you a question, though

a couple of questions.

As I looked

into researching your book,

it seems like a lot of your book

with Uncompromising.

You've indicated

this is really about finding that

why and you're compelling mission

and not moving from that first question.

How do you find that?

I have no problem with that,

but I found when I tell that to people.

I can't tell you how many people

have told me

they don't know what their why is

and they're trying to figure it out.

What would you tell those people?

Yeah.

Well, here's how I think about it.

If find out what you're good at

and would you do it for free,

because then that's what that's passion.

And so for me, Rob,

I found mine through

adversity and heartache.

When I left Indiana

University,

I started working for a company

called American Hospital Supply.

I started in sales.

I was the rookie of the Year.

I was the top quota breaker.

I got promoted.

I moved from New Jersey back

to Chicago, worked in our home office

and then I went to Michigan

as the youngest sales manager

in the company's history,

23 years old at the time,

and I was leading ten to twelve employees

and I got fired a year in the job

and the reason I got fired, Rob,

and it was

it was just

I didn't think it was just at

the time is everything was focused on me.

I was looking at everything.

What was I getting out of this job?

What could I do

to promote myself,

to make myself look better?

And I was not serving my team

and they were not growing.

They were not realizing their journey.

And so I got fired.

And so it became clear to me

that leadership is a privilege.

And the reason leadership is a privilege

is that you're making the difference

in the lives of others.

So there's a book called Leaders

Eat Last.

So I started embracing

That's exactly right.

So when you start serving men and women,

what happens, Rob?

They start serving you

and they push you up

the corporate ladder, not you.

They start to push you up.

Where I got confused was,

I believed that the next step to success

was all about what I did and what I did.

Got me to that position.

But once you're in a position

of leadership, it's

not about you anymore.

So this idea of serving others

the way others had served me

and helping me get to where I was going,

the way my mother worked in a motel

and then as a high school janitor

for 35 years,

so I could have a better life.

That's what started getting me jazzed

when I started investing in other people

and they were enjoying success.

I started to get really

excited

and I said I would do that for free

and what I did.

The book is not about making money,

the website. It's not about making money.

The social media

is not about making money,

it's about pouring into other people.

And so that crystallized for me.

So most people

find their why through adversity.

But if you're struggling to find your,

why carve out some time,

every day,

every week, even if it's for ten minutes?

Think about what makes you happy.

Think about what your passion is.

Think about what you're good at.

And if you're good at something

and you're passionate about it

and you would do it for free, I promise

you you're starting to narrow in

on your why

and most whys, involves

serving someone else.

It's very rarely about you

or serving yourself right.

It is always about serving

and impacting other people.

It's only about you

in terms of your journey

to find it right.

Exactly right.

It's about you

in terms of understanding

your personal connection

to how you got to that why.

But that why is only a

why if it has an impact on others?

Because that's. Exactly right.

Because there's a song

that says you die twice,

you die the day

they put you in the ground.

The second day you die is

when the last person mentions your name.

We should all be striving for legacy

long after we're gone.

There are people talking about us

in a positive way in

how we impacted their life.

That is legacy that is living your why.

Yeah, I'm

it's so interesting

how you looked at your situation

and you saw the most

you took the most positive aspect

and you also did

what I believe is the most mature

level of self-awareness.

You know, self-awareness is not

how we hope others to see us,

but how others actually do see us.

And then being able

to see it through that

very challenging lens, right?

Because if we're honest,

there's some things that

we can be better at that we don't like.

And so anytime

you have these conflicts, it's easy.

And I'm sure there also was some merits

to when you talked about

you were 23 you said that

Yeah, like

I think about the culture climate,

most salespeople,

I think or how you describe yourself.

So I think there

is also some other things

that you were held

to a higher standard on

than other people.

If I can be very direct

because I know a lot of salespeople

that the only thing that ever matters

is how much money you bring in

I don't think that should be the case.

Yeah,

I guess

there's a lot of corporations

still view it that way sometimes.

Give us the additional burden

of mean things.

But what good does it

Do you to view it that way? Right?

How could you grow from that experience

if you just said,

if you just looked at it

in terms of I was done wrong,

even if you were?

The question is.

What can you learn from this situation?

That's exactly right, and it's all about

finding your purpose and living it

because it's hard enough to live one life

trying to live somebody else's life.

It makes it even harder.

So just focus on you being you.

Yep, no, I totally agree.

So, all right,

I want to do a couple lightning

round questions,

I always ask people,

So what is an important conviction

you have or truth

that very few people agree with you on?

No matter what my circumstances,

I'm not going to be a victim.

Unfortunately, Rob, there's a lot about

what are you going to do for me?

It's all about radical responsibility,

and I see what's in front of me.

I'm a realist.

I've got a nine year old son.

I'm

I got to teach how to live in this world,

but I have to do it

with the lens that it's about you

and what you can accomplish.

And let's not worry about somebody else.

Condoleezza Rice.

I was at one of her presentations

that she said her family taught her.

Look, if somebody don't want to sit by,

you let them move. Don't you move?

I like that.

That's good.

Actually, that's good in my life.

Yeah, it was like,

You don't move who you are.

You don't move

where so it's like metaphorically

and actually literally

like if they don't want to sit by you. Fine.

But also,

that means they don't like who you are.

You don't have to change who you are.

Because it doesn't matter,

because they probably ain't going to like you

anyway way

even if you try to change

for what they want you to be.

That's exactly right,

so best advice is sometimes

people don't always agree with,

I'm going to own me,

I'm going to take radical responsibility

and I'm not going to be a victim

no matter what my circumstances are.

Yeah, that's powerful.

You have a committee of three

living or dead to advise you

on life, business, personal, whatever.

Tell me who these three people are and why.

Wow, that's a hard question.

But the two most important

women in my life is my Mom

and my wife, Barbita.

So I got two women. Good answer.

So I mean.

You better.

You better make it both of them

And my

my nine year old son.

But but if I don't have those three,

I've got three friends Ron, Teddy

and Stanford.

Collectively,

we've been friends for over 150 years

when you take it all together.

Those are three what I call road dogs.

I talk about in the book Commit

to road dog relationships.

Those are three of my road dogs

that I would definitely have them

as the backup to my wife

and my mother and my son.

Yep.

So final question here you have a.

Billboard or

or Google ad or saying

whatever you want to say that symbolizes

what you stand for,

what does that say and why?

He lived his purpose.

He lived his why

he achieved the American dream.

Why can't I?

All right.

Stephen White,

pleasure having you on the show.

Make sure you check out his new book,

Uncompromising Coming out

February 22nd, is that correct?

That's exactly right

and go to the website.

SteveWhitespeaks.com

If you want to learn more.

I appreciate having you on Steve. Thank you.