Roland Martin took his own route and has yet to look back since. On April 6, 2013, Martin left CNN and became his own boss when he founded the Black Star Network.
Recently, Martin spoke to rolling out about his media journey and transition to entrepreneurship.
What three tips would you give independent Black media organizations?
The first thing is you have to decide what you’re trying to do and who you’re trying to reach. I think the big mistake for a lot of people is they try to be so broad and so general that they don’t have a clear, concise vision and don’t hone in on who your audience is to understand the technical aspects of the business.
That’s the second thing; you could have a vision for this, but if you don’t understand the technical piece, understand what things cost, or understand stuff along those lines, then you are not properly building.
Then the third thing, which I think is the most important, is to know your business.
You can be a content creator, but have you done all the business of the business? You’re out here creating content, but how can you monetize it? How can you get paid? So that’s the mistake people make. If you don’t understand the business of your business, then you’re asking for failure.
Why is the HOPE Global Forums a conference you cover every year?
This is, I think, our seventh year. When I was at TV One, we started coming here to cover it. Then each year, we sort of expanded our footprint. And maybe it’s important because we also livestream the whole conference, too. So then you can do individual interviews and share the information. Because, as I always say, information is power. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t have quality information. So the ability to be able to come here and hear from folks who have done it, hear from genuine experts, is critically important. The more we’re able to share that information with the public, the more people can benefit from it.
