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Welcome to the show. I am Rashan McDonald,

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the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,

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Masterclass. Hello,

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this is Rashan McDonald. Thank you, thank

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you, thank you for joining us the fiftieth anniversary

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twenty twenty four Fall Membership

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Benefits Drive. I'm hosting this out.

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I'm also hosting Money Making

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Conversations Masterclass. I have two

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fantastic guests that are joining me on the show

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today. I am Rashan McDonald. I host

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the weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass

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show. The interviews and information that this

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show provides offer everyone. It's

1:00

time to start reading other people's success

1:02

stories and start living your

1:04

own. I'm here to help you reach your

1:07

American dream. Just keep listening.

1:09

If you want to be a guest on my show, please

1:11

visit Moneymakingconversation dot Com

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and click the BS guest button and

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fill out your information. It'll be emailed

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1:22

you did not fill out a BS guest form.

1:25

I met him in Austin, Texas at

1:28

the south By Southwest event. Let

1:30

me give give you a little background on him.

1:32

He serves as the executive vice President

1:34

of Operations and Finance for

1:37

Penske Media Corporation that's PMC.

1:40

In this role, he oversees all

1:42

operations and financial decision

1:44

makers affecting the various

1:46

operating companies across pmc's

1:49

portfolio of award winning brands.

1:52

Check out some of the brands, y'all get closer to

1:54

this Radio rolling

1:58

Stone, bill Board Variety,

2:01

The Hollywood Reporter, Vibe,

2:03

the Rob Report, she S

2:06

h E Media, Dick Clark Productions,

2:08

Illuminate, Sporty Coal,

2:11

and south By Southwest. That's where

2:13

I met him. Please welcome to the Money Making Conversation

2:15

Masterclass. Paul Raining.

2:17

How you know, Paul, I'm

2:20

doing very well. Thanks so much for having me on the show.

2:22

I didn't set you up too big, did that?

2:24

Paul, No, no, I appreciate,

2:26

you know, giving up flowers while I'm still living.

2:29

Well.

2:29

You know, here's the great

2:31

thing about it, Paul, you got more to do,

2:34

you know. And but we're gonna

2:36

talk about this journey. When I say things

2:38

like that, and you're an African American man,

2:40

does it? Does there's

2:43

a journey to get there? Can you give us your

2:45

academic background and how how

2:48

you got this all started to get to this point.

2:51

I know this is going to be steps, but

2:53

I want to get to the opening south of

2:55

your academic training.

2:57

Yeah, you know, I would say my first training

2:59

was at home, thank you, from

3:02

a large family and a rural part of Arkansas,

3:05

Cleveland, Arkansas, with fifteen brothers and sisters.

3:07

And know, my dad had his own logging company,

3:09

So starting out at a very early age really

3:12

learning how to treat other people, treat clients,

3:14

and just really learn about business from that perspective

3:17

at home from him and my mom. But then I

3:19

did go into the University of Notre Dame and received

3:22

a bachelor's in finance and

3:24

computer applications and then got a master's

3:26

in accounting at the University of Notre Dame as

3:28

well.

3:29

Now let's talk about to your father. That's entrepreneurship,

3:32

right, a business, small business owner in Arkansas.

3:35

Yeah, absolutely, entrepreneurship. You

3:37

know, he did a lot of different things, whether it was early

3:39

in his life. You know, he's talking about the nineteen

3:42

forties fifties, helping people get out to

3:45

the workplaces, whether that's a sawmill

3:47

or out into the fields. And then he dis continued

3:49

that journey on to tarten his own logging company

3:52

for over twenty five years.

3:53

That's that's really amazing. I always hear these stories

3:56

about, you know, black men because

3:58

we know Arkansas rule

4:00

and I'm from the south eastern Texas, so I understand

4:03

racism. I understand areas

4:05

of the country that treat black

4:07

people a little bit different and certain

4:09

situations, especially when they don't consider

4:11

us deep to be equal. And

4:13

he was being successful on entrepreneur

4:16

in an time period in

4:18

a area of country that one would say, wow,

4:21

how was he able to pull that off?

4:23

Paul?

4:23

If you can share that information with.

4:25

My audience, you know

4:27

what I say. One, you know, he had courage, you

4:29

know, the courage to be the first

4:31

man to go into the bank and ask for

4:33

a loan.

4:34

You know, the.

4:34

Courage to step up in his community

4:37

and try to offer a service when

4:40

when no one else was providing that services

4:42

in our community or outside of community, making

4:44

sure people could get to the workplace. So

4:47

I would say, just the courage and then

4:49

leaning in on the community and being

4:51

a part of the community. And I think the community

4:54

leaned into him. And I think that

4:56

especially in that time, the courts

4:59

of his own own family, his own community

5:01

and then having the courage to step out there

5:04

when no one else was really helped us do that

5:06

early on in his life.

5:07

Now, I'll tell you something that Paul, I come from a

5:09

big family. Now, I'm not I'm not tapping into your

5:11

size now, six sisters, two brothers

5:14

now. And I always tell people that, you

5:16

know, usually from an income standpoint, a

5:18

little bit up the food change

5:21

mind. My parents were My father

5:23

was a truck driver, mom was stay at home

5:25

mom, and but it was

5:27

it was something about growing around a lot

5:29

of kids that that that creates

5:31

a certain bond I had. Like I said, I had

5:33

six sisters and two brothers. What was the dynamics

5:36

of growing up in a family their size and what

5:38

did you line up in that number of fifteen

5:41

kids?

5:41

Their Paul, Yeah, I'm

5:43

towards the end there.

5:45

So you had the better clothes. You had the better clothes,

5:49

well.

5:49

A little bit better. That didn't hnd me down for quite

5:51

a while man. And then

5:53

it was only a few of us at home. But no,

5:56

it was a privilege to have. You know, really,

5:58

I consider like so many and dads

6:00

growing up from my older siblings who

6:02

just really looked after me and helped raise me and

6:04

really poured into me at an early age.

6:07

But you're right, just that the community is sticking

6:09

together and helping each other be

6:12

our best.

6:13

Uh.

6:13

But you know it was as you can imagine.

6:15

We we had our fun. It was very competitive

6:18

as well, whether it's for classroom

6:20

and again that also propelled us to be better

6:22

as well, just pushing each other. Uh,

6:24

you know, it's fun. We still get together at large

6:27

holidays and scenes of that. It was just a

6:29

fun time to be together.

6:31

Put the where you all your family is a family

6:33

reunion, you know. You you know, you have to

6:35

gather rowed by a lot of people, A lot

6:37

of people just show up with your family show up, you know what

6:39

I'm saying.

6:39

Paul, No, that's what I tell

6:42

people usually is a family reunion fourth of July.

6:44

Once you and all the in laws and nieces

6:46

and nephews to get to a large number of pretty

6:48

fast, well, let me.

6:49

Let let's talk about you know before, like I said, I'm talking

6:51

to Paul, you know, uh, you know,

6:54

financial decision maker for a lot of great brands

6:56

at PMC. I said them earlier,

6:58

but I still they're still worth mentioning brands

7:01

like Rolling Stone, Billboard,

7:03

Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Vibe,

7:06

rob Report, Sheet Media, Dick

7:08

Clark Productions, illuminate Sportic

7:11

and south By Southwest, which is

7:13

incredibly That's where

7:15

I met you at Tell everybody about

7:18

what exactly is south By Southwest,

7:20

Paul.

7:21

You know, south By Southwest is probably one

7:23

of the largest events in the world where

7:26

you bring technology, music, film,

7:28

and education and culture in a lot of ways

7:30

together, where you have a diverse

7:33

people and diverse thought and just people

7:35

with different experiences come together and

7:37

you have this unexpected discovery that happened

7:40

though it started off thirty five years ago

7:42

where when people would leave Austin,

7:44

Texas, you know, the college town University

7:47

of Texas, and all the bars

7:49

would be empty, and so they started bringing in music

7:51

bands just to entertain people

7:53

and fill up the community that was empty at the

7:55

time. And then that started morphing into

7:58

bringing in no film and that started

8:00

the film Festival, and then we started

8:03

bringing in more and more speakers to really help

8:05

in education and other side where there's technology.

8:07

You know, some of the biggest technology

8:10

firms that are out there, they were kind of had that founding

8:13

and start there. So it has really

8:15

grown organically as the Austin

8:17

community has grown. And that's the place

8:19

where now we go and over

8:22

you know, hundreds of thousands of people

8:24

are interacting there with all the events with

8:26

you know, eleven days of music, uh,

8:29

thousands of bands, film festivals

8:31

and world premieres that are happening there. And

8:33

again still some of the greatest political uh

8:35

speakers and leaders of our time will

8:37

come there and grace the stage.

8:40

Yeah, it's an amazing event, ladies and gentlemen.

8:43

Uh. You know, it's interesting when

8:45

Paul describes it because it's it doesn't

8:47

sound no, he's a good story telling

8:49

bum Me tell you'll something huge put

8:51

toward huge tide. In fact,

8:53

seven A Smith broadcast his

8:56

show their Live and it was part of the Softwest

8:58

by Softwest event as well. As other

9:01

premier movies. You know, you've heard a

9:03

lot of great events Sundance.

9:06

It's kind of like a combination of a Sundance

9:08

film festival, a comic con, and

9:11

then you have the Then you're in the heart

9:14

of the Austin, Texas with the

9:16

capital the state of Texas.

9:18

You have of mega sized, massive

9:21

University of Texas footprint right there,

9:24

so it's just a collect and then it just has great

9:26

food. It's a city field with great food.

9:28

And you throw all that combination and all

9:30

that culture and you really,

9:32

really, Paul, have a true diverse

9:35

environment, and I think that's what makes it special.

9:37

Correct, No, absolutely,

9:39

just bringing in that diversity of people

9:42

from industry and experiences where

9:44

you never know who you're going to bump into, whether it's

9:46

the CEO of a major

9:48

studio or the CEO of a technology

9:50

company and someone who just starting up

9:52

their own business and just have these relationships

9:54

they're able to form just from these

9:57

superndicinous interactions.

10:00

You know, as we talk about this similar

10:03

backgrounds in the sense that you know, I

10:06

come from a community, a large

10:08

family African American, and

10:10

then I went to a predominantly white

10:12

school and my school was University of Houston,

10:15

And I'm not saying it was a culture shock, but

10:17

I do know that my entire

10:19

life up to that point was basically black.

10:23

My entire life, but I knew that

10:25

in order for me to succeed, I

10:28

had to have a good understanding of how the

10:30

world worked and how people communicated.

10:33

Talk about your transition from your environment,

10:36

not saying that you came from an all black environment

10:38

like I did, but you did come from an environment

10:40

where your parents were successful, a large

10:43

black family, but also from

10:45

a rural community to Notre

10:47

Dame, which we know is one of the elite

10:50

universities in this country. Florids

10:52

George pot Yeah.

10:54

I would say certainly a very rural

10:57

American centric upbringing for

10:59

the first eighteen years of my life. My eyes

11:01

were opened a little bit as I went to the University

11:03

of Notre Dame, which, as you can imagine, a national

11:06

campus, people from all over the country.

11:09

And you're right, I was a small a

11:12

minority in this large sea

11:14

of majority, and it

11:16

really helps you hon your voice of who

11:18

you are in that environment. But

11:20

I would say my largest learning is when I first

11:22

left the University of Notre Dame and started working with

11:24

General Electric. I went through about

11:26

four years of training programs with the

11:29

General Electric Company and worked in five

11:31

of the seven continents around the world. So

11:33

that experience where I think I became

11:35

a whole lot less American

11:38

centric, really got goose

11:40

to the global perspective now

11:42

as a black person, not just

11:44

a black American experience, which is

11:46

so similar to blacks

11:49

and people of African descent all over the world.

11:52

And seeing that perspective, that's when it really

11:54

began to open up my eyes to just kind

11:56

of the plight of our community locally

11:59

and globally and the power of our community.

12:01

We'll be right back with more money Making Conversation

12:04

Master Class. My guess, Paul Rainey,

12:06

he's the executive vice president, not gonna

12:08

mess up his titles Executive vice President

12:10

of Operation and Finance for Penske

12:13

Media Corporation. Be right back.

12:15

Please don't go anywhere. We'll

12:17

be right back with more money Making Conversations

12:20

Masterclass. Welcome

12:28

back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass,

12:30

hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money

12:32

Making Conversations Masterclass

12:34

continues online at Moneymakingconversations

12:37

dot com and follow money Making Conversations

12:40

Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and

12:42

Instagram.

12:43

My guess is Paul Rainey. He is the

12:45

executive vice president of Operations and Finance

12:48

for Penskey Media Corporation.

12:50

Paul, excuse me, Paul. When you talk

12:53

about success, you talk about the individual

12:55

who's risen to the level of

12:58

where you at. You know, we came from humbles

13:00

even though your father was an entrepreneur, and

13:03

fifteen siblings went

13:05

to from a rural community to a massive,

13:08

popular university called

13:11

University of not your dame there.

13:13

And now you talk

13:15

about navigating in today's environment,

13:17

that work balance, that work life balance,

13:20

because you have a lot of things that you have to

13:22

deal with and a lot of brands that are like

13:25

got the word A in the let up in

13:27

the plus next room A plus brands?

13:29

How do you handle that work life balance?

13:34

You know, for me is something that's always

13:36

a challenge to get the prioritization right.

13:39

But you know I handled me personally the

13:41

same way. When people asking me for professional

13:43

advice, I tell them like, I won't

13:45

give you any professional advice until you tell

13:47

me what your personal goals are, because

13:49

I can give you professional advice that will wreck

13:51

your personal life. And you might be the

13:54

CEO of a company. But you know your kids don't

13:56

like your spouse is going away.

13:58

So I try to live by the same model

14:00

myself, just really keeping at the forefront

14:03

of my mind. What are my personal goals,

14:05

My relationship with my wife

14:08

of twenty one years here on Friday, you know,

14:10

my relationship with my three teenage

14:12

children, and know in my family,

14:14

my sending family that I still want to have meaningful

14:16

relationship with and friends. So for

14:18

me, it is sometimes we'll see

14:20

imbalance when I'm on the road for ten

14:23

days or days at a time, but

14:25

it's something that I that I keep in

14:27

mind. You know, the prioritization

14:30

of those relationships are the ones

14:32

that are most important to me, and I have to

14:34

make sure that I'm investing the time and

14:36

energy in those relationships if I

14:38

want them to continue to thrive.

14:40

No, you said your kids with ten you can I ask how

14:42

old they are? You say that teens?

14:45

Uh yeah, seventeen, fifteen

14:47

and twelve, almost thirteen or soon.

14:49

You know, we all know about internship,

14:52

being able to have a door open. That's

14:55

how I got into a lot of opportunities.

14:57

Do you see do you are your kids

14:59

interesting in the area of success

15:01

that you are achieving because you've got so many

15:03

options here. You know, popular magazines,

15:06

you have production companies, you know, you

15:08

have live live event and

15:10

activations. There's so many options. Have

15:13

you kids even do they have a clear

15:15

understanding what their father is doing to consider

15:17

their available options that you can probably

15:20

you know, get you know, guide them into

15:22

possible career opportunities.

15:25

You know, no, absolutely, I exposed them

15:27

to some of the events. I will take my kids

15:30

with you on their tent and they kind of give them a sense

15:32

of what I do at my job and what

15:34

my brand do the brands do. But also

15:36

I feel a service and advisor

15:39

and a consultant and on whether it's on board

15:41

of directors or things of that nature of companies,

15:43

and I share and even helping

15:45

my own son who is starting his own

15:48

entrepreneurial endeavors and

15:50

encouraging that and giving him an investment

15:52

in a company that he wants to do. Maybe it

15:55

starts off small, but even when I do

15:57

that, I say, hey, listen, you can get

15:59

these fine answers in several different ways.

16:01

You know, this is how much you can do if

16:03

you went and bought it from a credit card. This is how

16:06

much you do it if you went and bought it from a bank.

16:08

You know, if you get it for me, that's called venture

16:10

capital. I am investing in you

16:13

in that rate is typically going to be this much

16:15

of a return. And so now I

16:17

might believe in you more than a credit card

16:19

company or a bank. But start to sow

16:22

those seeds of how business works,

16:24

how the world works, so when they see

16:26

it later in life, it's not foreign

16:28

to them and they know how to navigate those

16:30

risk and opportunities.

16:32

Wow, you do you smile when you're

16:34

talking to it, because, like you said, my

16:37

daughter, when she talks to me about business or

16:39

talks about career, I always lighten

16:41

up a little bit. What are your thoughts when your kids

16:43

come to you and you realize that you

16:45

know, your father laid the season

16:48

to you because you were He was an entrepreneur,

16:50

so you saw it. You saw what hard work

16:52

can do. You saw how a

16:55

black man, despite the odds, despite

16:57

people telling them what they can't do, what can

17:00

be achieved because you're doing it right now, you're

17:02

doing incredible things. And

17:04

their dad is their dad? Talk

17:06

to us about that?

17:08

Yeah, you know, I want to instill in them that you

17:10

know that everybody is an

17:12

independent you know, contractor if you

17:14

will. It's I view myself like and you have to be

17:17

entrepreneur. Whether you're working at a company forty

17:19

hours a week, what are the other things that you're doing

17:22

so that you're not putting all your eggs in one basket

17:24

with that company. And we all have this creative

17:27

innovation inside of us. So you

17:30

know, as a father, I want to continue to

17:32

instill in them the gifts and my kids

17:34

have very different gifts, so me looking

17:37

into their life and encouraging the ways

17:39

that they are, the strengths that they do have and

17:41

where they have more creativity in one era of

17:43

another, so that they don't lose sight of

17:45

that, because the world has a way

17:47

of trying to take you down conson

17:49

and you have to believe in yourself. And so I want them

17:51

to be able to identify those strengths and

17:54

lean into those strengths and always

17:56

have different things

17:58

that they know they can go do regardless

18:00

of what a company or a studio

18:03

or a label comes back and tells them. They

18:05

can have their own and a drive to go and achieve

18:08

the goals that they want to have. So that is very

18:10

important to do that as a parent as

18:12

well, and to be that mentor.

18:14

I'm telling you that that's incredible. I

18:16

get that my daughter, she works for my

18:18

wife and our company, and I

18:20

convinced her to come

18:22

work for us, and she tells me every

18:24

day this is the greatest move that she's done in her

18:26

young life with to come under and

18:28

be mentored by me. And that's

18:32

interesting because that's what I've been doing all my life, is

18:34

mentoring. I want to use the word stranger

18:36

of the people that didn't know and by

18:38

giving them advice and by this is a

18:40

show about mentorship. And when I when I

18:42

crack the mic every Tuesday, every

18:44

time I podcast adds, anytime

18:46

my voice is heard on an HBCU campus,

18:49

hopefully I'm providing mentorship.

18:51

But here's the thing you hear a lot, Paul,

18:53

the word passion. People always talk about

18:55

passion. Follow your passion, How to can

18:57

one pursue passion? And I'm sure what you

19:00

doing is pursuing your passion and pay bills.

19:03

Yeah, you know you have to balance it out

19:06

because you do have to pay the

19:08

bills now, but also

19:12

thinking about ways that you can lean in the things

19:14

that you're creatively good at, and

19:16

how you can that's usually what you're gonna love

19:19

to do, and you're gonna work harder at those things.

19:21

And the things that I like to tell people early in your

19:24

career, try to expose yourself to

19:26

many different things. You'll see things that you like, and you

19:28

see things that you don't like, but you

19:30

also may find an avenue the

19:33

things that you're passionate about that can

19:35

connect in the job market

19:37

in a way that you weren't even aware of, but just

19:39

because you have that exposure to that experience

19:42

early on in your career. But it

19:44

is one where you have to really balance that and

19:47

it takes a long time. You have to continue

19:49

to invest in yourself and

19:51

those pass that you have, because

19:53

you know, if you don't take control

19:55

of your own career, no one will care about your

19:58

career more than you, and

20:00

so you have to be in the driver's seat

20:02

of that. And that includes all of the different

20:04

various passions that you have about how you want

20:06

to achieve that as well. But I do

20:08

think it's just be patient with yourself, give

20:10

yourself time, make those small investments

20:13

over time so you can continue to

20:15

build up the momentum and then you'll

20:17

be surprised when you look down the road with

20:20

that intentionality of how your passions

20:22

begin to align with what you're doing

20:24

in your everyday job as well.

20:26

I'm gonna tell y'all something. You've heard the word

20:28

the man. You know, you say he

20:31

is the man, she is the one.

20:33

You know, I am talking to the

20:36

man. You can actually give the man title to

20:38

Paul Rady when you're saying he overseeing

20:41

brands, operations and

20:43

finances for Rolling

20:45

Stone, Billboard, Variety,

20:47

The Hollywood Reporter, Five, Rob

20:50

Report, Sporty Code, Dick

20:52

Clark Production, She Media, which is

20:54

she? And then the

20:56

incredible multi day event south

20:59

By Southwest. As we close out this interview,

21:01

Paul Wealth Building give

21:05

our audience some advice on generating

21:08

keys and keys to investing not only in

21:10

yourself but also hopefully in some financial

21:12

options, not trying to tell them what stock to pick,

21:15

but that the terms of how one does it

21:17

over a long period of time.

21:20

Yeah, I think the point you said at the end

21:22

is most important over a long period

21:24

of time, and so it really starts

21:27

off with that dynamic of budgeting

21:29

and just really having the self control

21:31

to spend less than you make and do that over a

21:33

long period of time and then you invest, and

21:36

you invest in a diversity of things

21:38

very early, and I would say as

21:40

you begin to build up those

21:43

multiple revenue streams of the

21:45

call of people call it passive income.

21:47

But just think about those ways that

21:49

again that you can continue to lean into

21:52

your passions, lean in the things that your

21:54

strengths that you have, so that maybe

21:56

it is you may own run on property, maybe

21:58

it is that you're investing in that get back

22:00

divotings and things of that nature, but you're

22:03

allowing yourself on opportunity to have multiple

22:05

things that can provide

22:08

income for you. You know, a lot of people have a

22:10

lot of work experience and expertise and

22:12

they undervalue it because they can be

22:14

doing advising services

22:16

to other people that can come along and

22:18

help them along the way. And it always doesn't have to

22:20

be cash in return. Like

22:22

I advise some companies today and

22:25

I'll say, hey, listen, give me a stake

22:27

in the company and I will help you grow your

22:29

company a

22:31

longer time. But when you do

22:33

that small stole in those seats earlier

22:35

on, you know the payback will be greater

22:38

because you let them grow in. As that company

22:40

grows, you look up and now you own equity

22:42

in an entity. And so those are

22:45

the things that I would say is

22:47

number one. You know that however

22:49

you want to budget, but just spend less than

22:51

you make. That's how you create wealth over

22:53

time, investing over a long

22:56

period of time. It doesn't happen overnight,

22:58

and just making sure you have a diverse to the things that

23:00

you're working with and you'll be surprised

23:03

at how that momentum and the compound and interest

23:05

in returns will grow over time.

23:07

My man, Paul Rainey brother,

23:12

I know you're busy, and in fact, you took

23:14

time to talk to my audience Money Making Conservations

23:16

master Class. That's my show, the show I mentor

23:19

people who call in, people who stop

23:21

me and say thank you, I say thank you, thank

23:24

you for taking time to come on my show and give worldly

23:26

advice, international advice, advice

23:29

that as an African American man, you out

23:31

there making a difference and raising a family

23:33

where you're mentoring kids to make a difference

23:36

in our future. Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation

23:38

Masterclass. Paul.

23:39

Now, thank you so much for the opportunity