Over the years, REVOLT has grown from a media company into a global influencer of culture, music, and business, culminating in its place as the flagship of Offscript Worldwide. At the helm sits CEO Detavio Samuels, a long-time powerhouse of advertising and marketing with an impressive resume that includes companies like AT&T, McDonald’s, Walmart, the NBA, and more. Samuels sat down for an exclusive chat about the company’s evolution and changes to his own REVOLT podcast, “The Blackprint with Detavio Samuels.” The series focuses on letting innovators, disruptors, and changemakers open up about their journey and the obstacles they overcame along the way. Read below to learn more about the executive himself and the values that guide him personally and professionally.
When you open an episode of “The Blackprint,” you have your guests introduce themselves so they can describe who they are in their own words. So, how do you describe, in your own words, who is Detavio Samuels and what does he do?
I love that question. Alright, Detavio Samuels is, first and foremost, a man of God. That is my anchor, my center — that is the core, the foundation of everything that I am and everything that I do flows through that. So, part of that is purpose driven, so that means I’m the CEO of REVOLT and Offscript Worldwide, that means I’m a family man — I love my family, that is key and critical to me. Especially in my role, you don’t always feel like you have safe spaces everywhere out in the world, so family and close friends become important. So, a man of God, CEO, a family man, but also a servant leader. My style of leadership is super important to me, so I want to throw that in there. So, definitely purpose driven and I live for impact, like, if it doesn’t move the needle, if it doesn’t make things better for someone somewhere, then I don’t want to do it and if it makes something better for one person, even if it’s small, then I can be really excited about it.
You also start “The Blackprint” episodes with the quote, “Everybody sees you on the mountaintop, nobody sees you on the climb.” What made you connect with that quote or what made it resonate with you so much when you first came across it?
Yeah, it’s definitely personal. I feel like in my life I run into situations where people are like, “It’s great to be in this position,” or they assume it was almost, like, given to you or they don’t understand the cost of leadership. So, one of my things is everything comes with a price and I think in this Instagram world where we are ... like, I think it was Kenya Barris on set the other day said “We’re doping people up with success and with winning,” like we make it look like everybody’s winning, like everything is all good. So, when people see that and they feel that about you then it’s easy for them to not be sensitive to you, to not be empathetic to you, not care about your well-being. They’re just like, “Oh, he’s good and he’s winning,” and it just isn’t my truth. Like, the cost has been high, the work has been heavy, the losses are many, and so for me it’s always been really personal and that’s why I connected with that quote, and that’s why in every episode I want to pull out the cost of what it took to become Kenya Barris, especially in this fast food, instant gratification culture.
Can you shed some light on your routine, if you have one, or your process for when you’re preparing for a new guest on an episode?
To be very honest, I don’t do a ton of preparation, but that is intentional because it’s important for me to be instantly, like, curious. So, instead of trying to plan out a pathway, I want the conversation to be organic, I want my curiosity around the subject and the human to kind of carry us forward. So, I purposely limit the amount of preparation that I do. But I do try to focus on essentially four things. I try to understand their origin story, finding out where they come from or what were their family dynamics or economic situation. I try to find their biggest wins, I try to find their biggest losses, and I try to find their biggest pivots. I think about it almost like a game of chess and I’m gonna help the audience understand how this person’s life has unfolded. I want to walk them through finding the key lessons and the wisdom and the jewels in those moments to pull out for the audience.
What did you change about “The Blackprint” after the end of Season 3?
Yeah, the first thing we changed is the visual aesthetic. Over the last few seasons, we’ve been shooting in these beautiful houses in Atlanta, GA. But going forward, we really wanted to put the focus on the subject, on the storytelling, on the person, and so the first episode is literally an all-black set. It’s almost like you can’t see. It’s “The Blackprint,” so you got a very black set with very Black executives having a conversation. Number two is that it’s being shot in the REVOLT studio. And number three is, I think it’s a bit more of a return to where I was at Season 1. Which is, again, kind of more of those CEO-to-CEO, executive-to-executive conversations.
For Season 3, since our audience is mainly young millennials and Gen Z, we started focusing on letting them hear from people who reflected them and also people who had sizable audiences, and the show performed incredibly well. But I think where we are focusing energy next is showing them what the people who are at the top of the mountain look like. So, less 25-year-olds, right? And more 40s and 50s. And I would also say the last thing is that I’m just much clearer and sharper on how to guide the conversation. I think that it’s always, for me, about being an anthology, like, how do you capture the stories of these great innovators, disruptors, and executives from Black culture during this moment of the timeline?
Was there a guest you’ve had on “The Blackprint” that really surprised you or said something that really impacted you or stuck with you?
Oh, yes, that always happens. A person that immediately jumps out at me, though, is Angie [Nwandu] from The Shade Room. Her origin story is ... so much trauma and pain, I think her father murdered her mother when she was like 10 or 12 years old — again as someone who’s not doing a lot of research before because I want my curiosity to drive it because I think it helps me understand the curiosity of the audience. Having that moment, being in the room and finding out that this happened to her as a child was, like, mind-blowing and to then see her go from there to who she is now ... incredible. Caroline Wanga, who’s the CEO of Essence, just had so much wisdom, bars, and useful information for the audience. I just thought she was an incredible guest during our time together.
Ray J was incredible. I think Ray J really gave a different side of him — he was vulnerable, he was strategic, I just felt like it was a look at Ray J I had never seen before, so I love that one. LaVar Ball was so intriguing because of his intentionality. There’s no other father who has produced three kids that all made it to the NBA, right? Like, that is an incredible accomplishment, you’re lucky if you get one right, getting three in is crazy. And everything from the woman he married, like the man is saying stuff like, “I knew I wanted to produce basketball players, so I needed a woman that was at least 5'10” or taller.” I thought it was incredibly surprising and impressive. And then I just loved my interview with Da'Vinchi. I honestly didn’t really know what to expect and he is such an incredibly gifted, talented, well-read, brilliant young man. It was such a pleasant surprise to sit down with him and go back and forth on our favorite books and our favorite quotes.
Do you have any advice for podcast hosts or for podcast guests on how they can potentially turn controversial debates into constructive conversations?
Yeah, absolutely, because I think about this for REVOLT every day. Because we are the place where we have those conversations. I think it’s understanding everybody sees the world completely different from their own personal world. So, what’s important is not just to help people hear the point of view, but to understand the point of view, the worldview from which it comes, how the person got there. And then healing, that doesn’t mean that at the end the two people have to agree, but it means that at the end two people have to be willing to shake hands, to hug, they have to be willing to dap each other up and say, “Yo, great conversation, bro, like, hit me next week.” And if you’re doing it as a podcast host, you have to build tolerance for different ideas, understanding of different perspectives, and promote healing and love when you close out and wrap up the conversation.
Your book, “Exist No More: The Art Of Squeezing The Most Out Of Life,” was published in 2013, and it was essentially about how to live life through your passions and not be on autopilot. If you were to update the book over 10 years later, what would you change?
So, it’s funny that you asked that question, because the answer is we’re all about to find out (laughs). I literally am about to sign the contract to re-release the book. So, those are definitely some things I’ve thought through. Part of me said, “It’s already built for this generation, it’s already built for this moment,” because the book is a very different idea. Most books, you get one big idea, and it takes 10 to 15 chapters to explain it over 200 pages, right? So, the way the book is written is, instead of one idea across 20 chapters, it’s 20 chapters that are all completely separate ideas, and no chapter is longer than five pages.
Looking back on the first three seasons of “The Blackprint,” do you see any recurring themes?
Yeah, there’s definitely a theme around the people who accomplished the most amazing things being, like, the biggest dreamers — the people who dream without limitations and didn’t let fear of the unknown or being uncomfortable stop them... The power of relationships is also a massive one. The way people at 40, 50, or whatever age they are can connect the dots between people who they met and interacted with when they were younger.
You know, I’ll even tell you the story really quickly as an example and then I’ll stop. Like, even me getting this job at REVOLT, so I used to work at Urban One with Cathy Hughes and Alfred Liggins and they brought in a consultant to help work their enterprise digital strategy, and this is like 2017, 2018. I befriend him over the next two years, and when you look up in 2019 and Puff calls an executive recruiter looking for a new COO to, you know, potentially become a CEO and he calls that guy. And so, the only reason I get to REVOLT is because I befriended a guy who was doing enterprise digital strategy at a radio company, but he then becomes the person who is hiring the role that I am now in. If we don’t have friendship, if we don’t have relationship, then I never even know this job exists. So, you hear those stories consistently throughout “The Blackprint.”
What do you see REVOLT accomplishing as the company continues to grow and evolve?
World domination! (Laughs). What do I see us accomplishing? What I will say is that, you know, the world is changing from up under us, right? The marketplace has changed. I always say, like, streamers came and took a whole bunch of inventory and money out of the ecosystem. DEI, which was helping to drive a lot of growth for Black-owned media is now experiencing this incredible backlash and people are reversing it. So, what people should expect from REVOLT is that we are not going to die and we are not going anywhere passively. And we are not playing this game to survive — we are playing this game to thrive. And so, we are sitting on so many big announcements that I’m so excited to put out into the world and see how they respond. I’m excited about REVOLT pivoting in ways that allow us to still be who we are, we are the for the culture, by the culture brand, but pivoting in a way that allows us to thrive in this very changing dynamic and difficult marketplace. We come to play to win, and we’re gonna make more moves than you know.