CYLS 202: Africa X Radio - Why Africa X? with Calvin Wanguku

2023-10-17

Episode Summary This special episode of the Africa X series features Kevin Y. Brown’s recent appearance on Trace FM with Calvin Wanguku. They talk about the personal and professional opportunities that drew Kevin back to Kenya, the evolution of Create Your Life, and the power of the grind. Kevin shares his excitement for the Africa X series and where it’s going, why podcasting is an ideal medium to preserve African history, language, culture, and traditions, and why when we’re looking to create our lives the most valuable question we can ask is ‘how.’

Episode Summary

This special episode of the Africa X series features Kevin Y. Brown’s recent appearance on Trace FM with Calvin Wanguku. They talk about the personal and professional opportunities that drew Kevin back to Kenya, the evolution of Create Your Life, and the power of the grind. Kevin shares his excitement for the Africa X series and where it’s going, why podcasting is an ideal medium to preserve African history, language, culture, and traditions, and why when we’re looking to create our lives the most valuable question we can ask is ‘how.’

Kevin Y. Brown

Kevin is a seasoned multi-media executive who is passionate about Africa’s digital future. As an award winning entrepreneur, podcast producer (over 1,000 episodes across different genres with over 30 million downloads across clients) and tech veteran, Kevin is the Chief Content officer and Head of Strategy at Afripods leading their multi-country strategy and product vision.

Kevin is the host of the Create Your Life Series podcast and has been featured or spoken in Forbes, Black Enterprise, Essence, Podcast Movement, Podcast Sessions, Ted X, Sirius XM, Inc. magazine and many more…

Insights From the Episode

What makes African storytelling unique
The opportunity for creators in Africa in the podcasting industry
Tips for how creatives can get paid for their work

Quotes From the Show

“I went on a journey of finding what was exactly was going on with me, but also I had the opportunity to really see Black legacy here, for generations and generations of people who have these families who have been doing striving and excellence. So because of that I wanted to come back and really be immersed in blackness in a place where I don’t have to worry about my skin complexion, where I don’t have to worry about so many things and I’m allowed to just exist.” - Kevin Y. Brown, Create Your Life Series, #202
“I was so keen on helping to amplify African stories, but also I think that podcasting is a low-cost way to save and preserve African history, language, culture and tradition so that those in the future can have authentic African experiences. To me that matters a lot.” - Kevin Y. Brown, Create Your Life Series, #202
“The ability to be able to adapt, listen, and then actually move into learning about these other stories you haven’t heard about, you have Hollywood and these other stories that are coming from the West, but it’s Africa’s time to hear these stories from the source.” - Kevin Y. Brown, Create Your Life Series, #202
“The biggest thing for me with Create Your Life is that a lot of times when they’re interviewing people ask ‘why’ and ‘what’ you do, but they never ask ‘how’, and the ‘how’ is the only thing that can be duplicated. So as I talk to amazing trailblazers and I also have conversations with the youth, a lot of times the youth are asking, ‘hey, what about the how?’ or my peers are asking ‘how?’. How did you do this? How did you do that? So I said, why don’t I open up a space where you can hear from people who have walked your walk… I think Africa X is that way for people to be able to create their life, and that’s my whole thing: create the life you’ve always wanted to live. I live by that; I’m a product of that; I am that; so I wanted to share it.” - Kevin Y. Brown, Create Your Life Series, #202
“I think one of the biggest things to keep in mind as a creator is ‘don’t complain about not getting the rewards you didn’t work for.’ If you’re going to become a podcaster, you’ve got to be committed to the grind, and being ‘committed to the grind’ looks like doing the work and being consistent and understanding your audience, understanding your listener, understanding what guests you should have on your show. Those are the important pillars of having a good show.” - Kevin Y. Brown, Create Your Life Series, #202
“You’ve got to grind it out in order to get these results. Money is the result of hard work and dedication. I remember my high school principal said, ‘There’s no job called “make money. You make money by being good at what it is that you do.’” - Kevin Y. Brown, Create Your Life Series, #202