Edition Magazine Amplifying Black Creatives

Show Notes

•  Isoul Harris is the Editor and Chief of EDTION. Edition’s mission to uplift and amplify Black creatives across industries. Isoul brings a vast array of expertise in the space – from serving as a multimedia content producer, to fulfilling award-winning journalist roles in which he was able to tell powerful stories disrupting cultural narrative. Prior to joining EDITION, Isoul served as the editor-in-chief at UPTOWN, where furthered the national magazine’s mission profiling affluent African American life in partnership with the world’s leading celebrities, philanthropists, creatives, futurists across industries throughout the diaspora. Isoul also served as Deputy Editor of exclusive luxury lifestyle magazine, Mosaic where he worked to bring the profiles of LGBTQIA+ people of color front-and-center within the magazine.

• What you will learn:

• Why we need to embrace our beaty not just our struggle. 
• The importance of owning your truth 
• The power of being uncomfortable

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.

I just feel like you should always

tell your truth.

I just feel

you should always speak up

and say what you mean, how you,

how you feel.

And so

most people are so non-confrontational,

and I don't think

you have to be confrontational

to tell your truth.

Welcome to disruption now

I'm your host,

and moderator, Rob Richardson, as always,

it's an honor to be here with you.

I'm here with a Isoul

Harris, who is the editor

in chief and founder of Edition Magazine.

We have a lot to talk about with him.

But before that,

if you're watching us here

on YouTube, please,

hit that like button, please

hit that subscribe button, we want to

make sure more people can know about Isoul

all and all the great disruptors

we've had on the show.

If you're listening to us on

Apple iTunes, please like us, please

hit a review.

That's how more people can learn about

what we're doing to help

change the world change constructs

and make sure we can get all of these

inspiring stories out there.

So we appreciate you as always.

Also want to make sure

we give a shout out

to many of our our sponsors,

Martin Logistics, P&G Ventures,

as well as fifth third Bank

and many others.

We're thankful for your support.

Definitely support these vendors.

They've been supportive of us.

So but for now, Isoul Harris.

How are you doing, brother?

I'm good. I'm good.

How are you?

I'm doing well.

You know, I can't complain. It's

wrapping up the end of the year,

been a very good year.

And,

you know,

looking forward to 2022 and hope,

hopefully we're not still talking

about the coronavirus.

So no, exactly, exactly.

But you're right,

2021 has been a great year.

It has.

Yeah, it has.

So you launched a Edition magazine,

lots of other things.

And I want to get to all of that.

And all the great work

that you're doing to support

black creatives means a lot to us here.

We do a lot to support black creatives

and anybody doing that.

I'm very happy about so.

Well, let's talk

about how you even got

into this business, into this,

into a Edition magazine.

So how did you end up like envisioning,

in Edition magazine

in terms of like what, what,

what was the thought process?

What was the vision

that you

that that you thought about

and how was that coming so far as you,

as you got,

as you just had your launch this year?

Okay.

So Edition

I'm going to backtrack just a little

Editions I'm not actually the founder. So OK.

So the publishers of modern luxury,

which is the largest publishing.

You're the editor in chief.

I'm the Editor in chief exactly

Yeah. So I didn't.

I was.

I upgraded you my bad. I know.

I know, I know.

I just I just put it out there.

The future you're going to be

founder of some other things

in the future, but go ahead.

Absolutely. I believe in manifestation.

So that's why there you go.

That's fine.

So, yeah,

so they the publishers of modern luxury,

the they have their largest chain of

luxury magazines in the country,

and they had an idea to basically

basically connect black people

or people of color, rather

to the luxury space

and historically

and traditionally black people

and people of color

have been disconnected from that space,

and they have been

basically disillusioned

and not from that.

So they came to me, I was

I had just come back left Atlanta

was there for COVID

stayed and helped my parents

everything and came back to New York

because I'm

working on some other projects

and they just called me out of the blue

and they told me that they had this idea

to do a magazine that blends

luxury with,

you know, with black culture.

And I was like, Whoa,

that's basically my career,

in a nutshell.

So I think everything that I've done

so far has brought me to this point.

And it's not a coincidence.

I think that

also working with

Roc Nation,

who are partners in this venture.

Jana Flieshman

I've known Jana for, I guess, 20 years.

You know,

we've worked together over the years.

So just in working with people

who I've known for so long

who have been supportive of my career,

you know, it's been really great.

But I would like to know part

of your journey with you know

So you've been in fashion for a while,

I guess in.

Talk to me about a time

when, you know, things

didn't go according to plan.

It might have been a setback,

and you now see that as

an opportunity

that actually made you better.

Can you think about the time that

sticks out of your mind?

Well, I think

anything ever goes as planned.

No, a dull life is definitely not linear.

Nothing goes according to plan.

But let's say

something like a major setback,

something that really didn't

go according to plan.

And you're like, OK,

this is not

how I envisioned it to happen.

Well,

I think my whole career is really that I

I went to grad school,

I went to the Morehouse

then I went to grad school.

You are Morehouse. OK?

And so after grad school,

I decided that I wanted to teach.

I've always wanted to teach.

It wasn't like some kind of

fallback career.

I actually did want to have

a teaching experience.

And so I did that for two years.

And while I was teaching,

I quickly realized

that this is not something

I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

And so when my kids were sitting there

like working,

I would

look out the window of my patio,

that was attached to the classroom,

and I could see

the whole world out there like,

what am I doing?

What am I going to do beyond this?

And so I would complain to my parents

all the time. You know.

And one of my birthdays my 24th birthday came around

and I was complaining to my father

and my father said, he's basically

like Isoul just stop it.

What in the hell do you want to do?

And I said, I want to write.

And he was like, Well, just write.

And I said, well it's not that easy Dad.

He said, It is.

It is that easy. Go do it. And so

Right exactly

Like our parents to tell you

they don't allow you to get it, get it.

Make that excuse. Like, No, it is.

Exactly

According to my dad I can just go

by a magazine to say,

Hey, give me the editors job

But so I was in Atlanta at the time

and I was literally

walking down the street

and I saw this newspaper.

It's like one of those free weeklies,

you know?

And I picked it up

and I looked at the message

and I found the editor's name

and I called her

I just called her out of the blue

and I just told her

who I was, who was nobody, really.

And so

and so I told her what I wanted to do.

And she she said, Come down, talk to me.

So I went and talked to her.

And from that day

on, I became her assistant

So I would teach from like seven to three

and then I would work.

It was

the paper was Rolling Out

that was the up,

and I was working for Rolling Out from like four

to like two in the morning,

and I did that for two years straight.

And so after that,

I had they gave me

the managing

the managing editors position and I actually replaced her after two years

Wow. So that's yeah.

So that's how I got into it.

That's how I got into, you know, into it.

I started as an entertainment journalist.

Yeah, I mean, are so many lessons

in what you just said, right?

I mean,

you know,

your father just told you to go out

and do it.

You saw an opportunity

and an opportunity

wasn't like the most glorious thing.

Being an assistant is hard, hard work.

But you put everything into that,

and I tell people this all the time,

especially early on in their

in their career,

that you value learning over money

because if you learn

and you put everything into it,

the money will follow.

Especially if you're passionate

about it, right?

Absolutely. Like, I have to be here.

I have to be editor in chief right away

because I have the talent

It's not how it works that way, right?

I mean.

That's that's such a great point.

And I have this conversation with people

all the time about don't

be married to titles

like so many people are married

to titles all the time.

And I understand why because, you know,

especially people of color,

you do want to have respect.

You do want to have that attached to it.

You want your experience

and your title

to speak to your experience.

And I get that right.

But I would not be sitting here right now

if I was married, or attached to titles.

Now I've taken the job

that got me back to New York.

that got me to become the editor

in chief of Uptown.

It was actually a demotion in a sense to,

I guess, in a traditional sense

because I was a managing editor

at a magazine called 944.

But when the opportunity

came up for uptown,

it was for a senior editor.

I had already been senior editor

maybe two or three years before that,

but I saw beyond that.

I saw this as a chance to get me

to the media capital of the world again.

And then I knew I could go on from there.

So I took it.

You know,

and people are like,

Why are you doing that?

I said, Because I have a plan, you know,

and it worked

you know,

within a year and a half, I was Editor and Chief of Uptown.

So.

Yeah, I mean, people get into these paths

like they get caught up in titles

and Isoul

I think the other problem is people

also get into what I call

the golden handcuffs.

You have a

you have a job that you don't like,

but it pays well and you stay there

and you think, like, Well,

I need to have a job

that pays just as good as this

before I move on and look,

bills are there realities are there,

but also I mean your life is there.

If you stay tied to something

that have these golden handcuffs,

you will have a whole lot of regrets

10 15 years from now

that you weren't able

to fulfill your purpose.

At least that's how I feel.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And I see it all the time

and I have conversations with friends.

You know, some of my friends.

from back in the day,

they no longer my friends,

but they questioned my decisions,

you know they're like, why are you leaving?

Like a secure a job in teaching,

you know, you have your summers off

as if that's like, that's like this.

That's like, yeah.

yeah you got your summers off. I'm like.

But now I think about it,

had I listened to them.

I would not have.

Any of the experiences I've had,

like I literally

have traveled the world.

They're speaking out of their own fears

and insecurities,

whether they realize it or not,

and these can be well-meaning friends

and they could also

be parents or loved ones,

they're speaking out of their fear

to take that leap.

And they're,

I mean, secretly kind of like,

have a little bit of misunderstanding.

Sometimes there's jealousy,

there's levels to that.

I'm not saying people are going out

hating on you,

but I'm saying, like, there's like,

I wish

I could be that person to take that leap.

And if someone's taking that leap,

they must not be thinking it through.

Or at least they say that in their mind

to justify why they haven't taken

why they haven't taken that leap,

why they haven't

lived to their full purpose.

And look, I tell people like,

you can make every excuse

you want to in the world,

but you do not have to stay in the job.

The world is really, really abundant.

The world is more abundant

than it's ever been.

It's just your mindset

and how you approach things.

So, so my really

good friend of mine, Nikia Hicks

We always say to each other

whenever we start to talk about

what we don't have or

what doesn't exist

and we stop ourselves

because we don't live in lack

But you just

you cannot live in any kind of deficiency

like, we are not deficient in

anything like if you're rushing.

Stop, breathe.

You have enough time

to do what you're doing

and to get where you're going.

You know, stop breathe.

You know,

you have enough time

to make your deadlines you know

But when we start acting so frantic

and so frenetic.

That's when everything just crumbles.

You know and other things just fall apart.

So you're.

Absolutely right. I completely agree.

That's good advice for me

because we all get overwhelmed sometimes.

too I feel that way

like you're

not going to be able to hit it?

You got to just sit back,

breathe when you get to that point

and have yourself enough time

to be able to see the whole.

The vision and then step back.

Right? Exactly, exactly.

All right.

So let's talk a little

bit about Edition. So you

you're the editor in chief.

Mm-Hmm.

What do you see

as the vision for Edition

right now in the next five years?

Like, what is it

that you want Edition to be known for?

So I was talking about this

with our vice

president of marketing, Eric.

Who's a really brilliant guy.

So we share the same vision

about Edition. Originally

So I have a envisioned Edition

as a place where

a platform where black people of color

can come together

and really have the support.

And the resources to create

and to be on the same playing field

as their mainstream counterparts

have over time.

You know, I feel like we've had

we've had great black publications, you know,

Ebony, Jet, Essence, Black Enterprise,

all these

great publications

but we all know that they have

a certain set of problems

that other mainstream

publications do not have.

And I feel like

that is something

that we need to address.

And so what do you think that it is?

But you can get to that too finish your point,

but I want to know what you think.

Those problems are.

What it means to me.

Well, the main problem is, you know,

everything comes down to money, right?

And so it's advertising

and it's advertising and.

Corporate America,

looking at certain magazines

as not being luxury

or black people

not understanding luxury

or our understanding of luxury

being different

than our white counterparts understanding of luxury.

I've experienced this firsthand.

I've worked throughout my entire career.

I've worked at black publications

I've worked at niche publications,

I've worked at mainstream publications,

I worked at one of the top architecture

magazines in the world.

And during my time there, I realized that

I would talk

to people in the sales department

and they would ask, or

let's find someone to do like this spread.

So I would find someone.

And then they would say, well,

they're not really our esthetic.

And what would that esthetic be?

So it's things like that.

It's like that coded language

that's created

to keep certain people

outside of this world.

And I feel like Edition is that.

They're getting to define

what luxury is,

and that luxury is a very

narrow point of view.

Exactly, exactly. Exactly.

So I feel like

we want to give people the codes

we want to give people the tools to decipher

all these things

that have been working against you

as a creator.

All this time, you know,

So I feel like Edition is really that

So how will you?

Because I think one of the issues with

some of our traditional publications,

they've done a lot of

great work, obviously.

But I also believe that

they don't innovate fast enough

or fail to really innovate.

I think as part of the issue, right,

they want to.

I mean, I've seen this

a lot of our legacy

civil rights institutions, the NAACP,

you know,