January 28, 2025 • 32 mins
The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Derek Lewis To Discuss 'Survive and Advance,' Corporate America, Entrepreneurship, PepsiCo. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Everybody is thej Envy Jess, hilarious, Charlamage, the guy. We
are the breakfast Club, just as out lawn, the roaster Filline.
And we got a special guest in the building. We
got the good brother, Derek Lucon Lewis. Welcome brother, Good
on my brothers.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
How you doing that?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
How you doing now?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm doing great?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Excellent, excellent. Man.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Now For people that don't know who Derek Lewis is,
besides going to the greatest university and college.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
In the world, Oh, which is that? Does State? Definitely
not Delawes.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
State, Hampton University.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
That's right. Breakdown who Derek Lewis is.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Derek Lewis is a inspirational leader. Grew up in Chocolate
City back in the sixties seventies, single parent, familyhood lifestyle.
Decided I wanted to be something different. I want to
dream big for myself despite the circumstances I was under
in the Chocolate City back at that time, and was
inspired by getting a great education, inspired by joining a
(00:55):
big company, inspired by putting that work in to coome
who I wanted to be, my best version of myself
to lead others be not only a go getter, but
also a go give her and strive for excellence. And
I was able to do that over a thirty five
year career at PEPSI. Since then, I've retired now and
I keep doing my work. I'm i'll sere released in
a book that launches tomorrow. Thank you for the opportunity
to talk about that today. And also I'm launching cheese
(01:18):
Steak restaurants in Orlando, Big Dave's Cheese Steak. So you
know brother Derek Hayes who azos. Yeah, I love him too,
So Ivins first franchise E. I'm bringing ten units to
central Florida. I've already opened up four locations, two in
the Kia Center and two in Campbeld Stadium. We're off
and running. I got two brick and mortars that open
up at the end of marsh beginning of April and
the Sky's limit. I'm also obviously serving on boards. I'm
(01:40):
back of my alma mater, serving as a trustee and
putting in the work there more nonprofit boards, doing the
family thing. So life has been great, but I'm also
maybe we'll still contributing the ways that satisfied me and
my family.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, let's go back a little bit the way you
got your job at PEPSI. Break that down and explain
that a little bit. How you got that job and
how you grew from you know, starting off there to
damn running what you did at PEPSI.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Well, look, it was back in the late eighties. Job
mark was pretty good.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I was interviewing my second semester. Interesting enough, I had
PEPSI to come down, I had interview. I stayed up
late the night before, kind of party in came to
the career. It came to career fair and I failed
the interview. I basically got a rejection letter. I want
to say a week or so later in the mail,
I was one of the most disappointing days of my life.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Why did they decide not to go with you?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
At the time, Well, I think I was. I was
not my best an interview, and I think for people
having a lesson, when you're going in for an interview,
you need to be at your best, and I was
at my best. I took it for granted. I took
as though I can stay up all night and party
and not do all the research, and it's not be
buttoned up, you know, and so I went in probably
at a you know, one to ten, probably went into
five or six, and guess what, that's just not good enough,
not gonna be good enough for anybody, much less even
(02:45):
a PEPSI. So I sort of retooled. They were coming
back down a different sort of area was coming down
from Baltimore. I hunkered down, very disciplined, studied my butt
off that night, made sure I was as sharp as
I could be, wanted and nail that interview, got subsequent
follow up interviews, and got the job offer to start
in Baltimore, Maryland. Three weeks out of college. I was
(03:05):
a management trainee. Got out the car going into my
first day of the office and prayed to God and said, God,
I like for this to be the first day of
my next forty years, because at the time you think
it'll retire when you're sixty two, mid sixties whatever. And look,
I prayed in that parking lot. I got in my maximum,
my new maxim, I bought my advance, and uh, you know,
the rest was history. And the day I felt the
(03:26):
first day, I felt like I belonged there. I felt
like this was the place for me. I learned a lot.
I still wled a lot, but also if you read
the book, you'll learn how being a paysetter mattered in
that company, and showing early on that I'm willing to
be a paysetter. I have the courage to be a
pay set. I'm not worried about circumstances surrounding me. I'm
going after it. That was a catalyst for me to
really embrace the growth that came along the way throughout
(03:47):
the entire journey.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
And you said you want you said, you said a
prayer to God to be there for the next forty years?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Were you there for forty I was a thirty five?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Thirty five? Wow? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
So what made you find what made you say, you
know what? Let me for golds last five? Like with
pivoty Well, I mean I was a good point.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Fifty five was the normal number. A lot of the
guys I came in with. The campus program was really strong,
robust at the company throughout the eighties and early nineties,
was really strong program in the company, and so a
lot of us that were there in my peers, fifty five.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Was a number.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Because the grind the business is a very intense business,
hyper competitive, you know, going against our primary competitors and
other competitors, and so there is some wear and tear.
We traveled a lot. We moved eight times. It gets
to a point where you have a next chapter. I've
read the book Strength to Strength by author Brooks, and
it opened my eyes to say, there is life beyond
the thirty five years of the years, the time you
(04:35):
spent at Pepsi, and so I wanted to always be
an entrepreneur. I was talked about my book being an
entrepreneur when I was a kid selling Dorito chips to school,
selling Jolly ranchers and gum right as a side hustle.
I needed to do that because I need to put
money in my pocket, right, and so always had this
itch to be an entrepreneur. The authorship piece just came
from be retirement and kids and colleagues asking me, you
(04:56):
can't leave without you know, so you're gonna bollow us
up and take it away. You have to leave us
with with some insight. You have to leave us with
perspective on your journey. And so that's what I considered doing.
The book was really the January of twenty twenty three
and got with a ghostwriter and pace through publishing company
and the rest is history. And here I am today.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
What was your title at PEPSI right before you the.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Last title, I was President of PepsiCo Multicultural North America,
So for the entire corporation, basically before D it wasn't D.
So I want to clarify the D and I there
it was D, and I had its own department. I
was all about focusing on consumer, culture and community, and
so I was primarily throughout my career, I was an
operating executive, so I ran the P and L. I
had billions of dollars responsibility. A one point, I was
(05:35):
running North America, and then we did a restructure and
I went I assume the South the South responsibility as
president and then at the tail in that run, which
is about three years, we delivered fantastic results and we
developed such a good playbook at the time because COVID
was involved in George Floyd, situations evolved and we had
developed such a good model on you know, culture, community
and company that the company asked me to step in
(05:57):
and create this big role for the entire corporation. Use
the best practices that we developed in sort of the
Southern United States and be able to start to implement that.
So that was the last role that I had had
in coming primarily throughout my career, I was I was
all putting sales and driving profit, driving market share. It
was getting after it in the trenches each and every
single day.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
You were one of the first people, you know, corporate wise, right,
I graduated from Hampton a long time ago, so I
would go to all these different homecomings, but you would
probably want of the first to bring huge corporations to
all the HBCUs, right, not just the big ones, because
you know, it's easy to just to go to the
big ones where North Carolina A and T, which is
the biggest university as far as students are, you know, concerned,
(06:35):
or FAMU which is a big university. Why was it
so important to you to do that HBCU run and
to show up at those HBCU schools when other corporations weren't,
but they started following after you did.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Absolutely it's all about legacy, right, and so my SPCU
experience at Hampton was absolutely fascinating, incredible, and so to
be able to take that experience build that you know,
sort of legacy, not only through the corporate side, investing
not only just events, activational camps, but also recruitment. I
recruited heavily on HBCU campuses. I pushed hard to have
recruitment centers go down to these schools, not just in
(07:08):
called Mid Atlantic area, but also down throughout the Southwest.
I was responsible for setting up the Swack partnership that
we still enjoy today. That has been now a long
term partnership and agreement based on the schools that are
in Swack. Great schools, great campuses. Certainly the activation mainly
revolves around sports, but I took that and extend that
to recruitment and also community effort right and so me,
(07:29):
it's a whole sort of end to end proposition, not
just about the parties and social side. It's also about jobs.
It's also about what we're doing in the community. It's
also about setting up legacy for the future.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Will You in the open end of your book, you
talk about going through like all of the pandemic and
the riots that happened after George Floyd and my Ibbury,
and you realizing like, I'm not an activist, but I
do want to do something because I know what it's
like to not know what's going to happen tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
When did you get to.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
A point of your career where you felt empowered to
be like, my activism is in the boardroom, and this
is what I'm going to do, because being like only
or like one a few in a big corporation like
a PEPSI, it's not easy to be like, you know what,
you all listening to me, This is what we need
to do, This is how we should get back, this
how we should help.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
That's a great question. I think mid career I felt
that responsibility now because I was starting to really move
up in your organization, and there weren't many people at
the top, and so a lot of the younger associates
looked for me for a guidance direction, and so I
just started creating networks across. I moved around a lot,
so you know, when I ended up in the West Coast,
I would we would be at a national meeting and
it would not be uncommon for me to call all
(08:29):
the Black Associates to a hospitality event at the end
of the night and we would have like one hundred
people in the suite. I'd just go up and go
run a suite, going to everybody together and just talk
to them about their journey, what's going on, how I
see the future of the company. I'm a historian of
the culture at PEPSI. Going back to the forties, I
had a relationship with Alan mckeller junior. He was the
first person hired in Corporate America as an intern in
(08:51):
nineteen forty two, along with Jeanette Mount. She went to Hampton,
he went to South Carolina State, so first two interns
of the corpor America. I had a relationship with him
up until you passed away into twenty eighteen. I spoke
at his homegoing service, which I was very honored to do.
A lot of his family did you know the impact
he had not only just the company, but in Corporate American.
So you got to think for generation out of generation,
(09:12):
the legacy of impact and evolution of the movement from
the forties of the fifties to the Civil rights era.
You started seeing more and more investment in advertising for
the company did leaning and heavily. Wasn't all received well
because there was a lot of tension back then. And
you get to the eighties and you saw the Michael
Jackson endorsement that was obviously a big breakthrough for pop
culture and the company really saying entertainment music matters us.
(09:34):
You know, the Afrimaric Court is a priority cohort. You
got to the nineties of Elevator and the hip hop
it started transforming in then you get to twenty two thousand,
twenty ten, it became a core principle inside the company
that it flowed through all the businesses. So anybody, any
functional leader or any leader around the world basically had
to embrace Varas City as a core priority and principle.
And then you got to twenty twenty. I was right
(09:55):
in the middle of all that because I was the
top executive at the time to really sort of lead
that and guide that, insuring that one I'm looking after
the company, I'm also looking after the associates, I'm also
looking after the community. Right. That takes a hell of
a lot of courage because of the only time I'm worried,
I have my own concerns in my own life about
what's happening. But the time when someone leadership is needed,
(10:16):
it was time for me to step in and step up.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
And I did that.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I did it honorably and gracefully, humbly, and I was
excited to do that. I was excited company gave me
the platform to do that, and I think it turned
out very very well for.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Everybody question did did did Michael Jackson?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I guess you could call it a controversy when he
got his head set on fire film the commercial.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Did that hurt help Pepsi?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
I don't know if it did. Want to know, other
brought show, they brought a lot of attention. You know,
I brought a lot of attention, and sometimes you know,
when you get attention, that's that's really what matters. But
I can think about all the iconic commercials in media
that he did. When I think about, you know, choice
of new generation PEPSI generation, I think about him a
lot with that, and so that's what resonates for me.
That incident. While it does get talked about, I don't
(10:55):
think certainly overshadowed the the the the brilliance and sort
of the scale of his awareness and what he brought
to the company into one of the obviously our biggest
brand at the time.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
The reason I asked is random as hell.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
That's why when you brought up I was like, damn,
me and my guy glasses from alone, we were having
this discussion.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
We were having it in the group chat. I got Sallas,
djhad all of us.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
We were talking about Michael Jackson and DJ head was
I mean, hey, Glasses was saying, how after that commercial,
after his handcut on fire and everything, that's when Thriller
really started to take off.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
And that's true.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
So I wonder if it was the Pepsi campaign or
was it that controversy, Like what was it?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I know what helped Michael.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I think it was all the above. I mean, obviously
he got a ride. We got a ride for it
because we were one of the first ones to really
get behind pop star of that magnitude, right, we signaled
that that's our thing. Again, he was black, and you know,
all the other cultural things that went around that surrounded
that were started to become beneficial to the company as well.
So there was just a series of statements made in
the evolution going back to the forties. That's deep, that's
(11:54):
rich history that I felt like I had to carry
that on. So answer your question. I felt from guys
like Alan, hey, the torch got handed you. It's your
time now to step up like he did and others
did back in the forties.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I wanted to go back to the DEI conversation, slo
May mentioned with companies taking off the table, how will
that affect a company like Pepsi, How would that affect
those big companies Since you've been there and you've seen
whether they hired African Americans or minorities, how does that
affect that? And do you think it's a good idea.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I think they'll be fine because again, they're going back
to the history. The history is so strong, and the
torch passing from CEO to CEO has been really strong
and solid. So it's like runs relay erase that that
never stops, right, So I feel like they'll be in
good shape. But I think for what I'm seeing now,
it's not Obviously it's unfortunate, but a the same time,
as I talk about my book a lot, it's an opportunity. Right.
(12:41):
So while there, you know, looks appear to be a setback,
there's times for now leaders, companies, cultures to step up
to the plate. I do think it's weak that when
you know there's bandwagoning and this student bodies, student body left,
student body right. I think all the knee jerk reactions
I think is not good. It's not healthy. I think
it's not the ideal leader you need now in this
era of time. So I do think that that, you know,
(13:04):
while companies are pulling back, they in my might haven't
articulated what they're doing with that right, So yes, I
agree that that D and I EI playbook needs to
have evolved. I think it was dated. I think the
circumstances in the sixty seventies are very different than the
circumstances now. Back then, we obviously had you know, extreme tension,
unlawful things happening. Social norms were accelerating very rapidly and different.
(13:25):
We're in a different era now, not that those things
still don't exist, but not certainly at the intensity level
they did back in sixteen seventy. So this agenda should
have evolved from where it is. It's it's a sixty
year old playbook. This playbook needs to be more comprehensive.
So it needs to account for the greater good, because
that's how the world is moving now. It needs to
be more collaborative. People need to work together more. Yes, okay,
(13:46):
so comprehensive, collaborat It needs to be compassionate. You need
to have an agenda where you are it's about people
and so even in this case where you're telling a
cohort that we're demphasizingself to deprioritize in, you haven't necessarily
come back with something you're doing to to offset that,
something in that revolves greater good, more collaboration, sort of
more sensitivity around things are going on. That's how you
(14:07):
treat people. And right, so that lack of sort of
compassion that is being shown in the we're cutting it
and we're not talking about really anything else, I think
is just not good. So I think this is a
time for leadership to step up to the plate. It's
not hard to write this new play with by the way,
it should have been read a long time ago, at
least like myself could have done it. I saw, I
could almost feel in twenty twenty what was happening. It
(14:27):
was a more in your face moment. Everybody was going
to get on board because no one wanted to be
left behind or deal with the rash of being sort
of on the outside looking at And then obviously what
happens is time moves on, Things move on. There really
really weren't any call it scorecard metrics or calibration against
what you said and what you were going to go
do to now can anybody go back and even remember
(14:49):
what people said back in twenty twenty, right, So there
was always a question around sustainability of that effort.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I can't remember.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
I can remember then plaguing all that money to them
qualifications and not delivering, right.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, r a lot of money, a lot of checks written, Yeah,
a ton of checks written. But we're already a lot
of pleasures with checks exactly exactly exactly you had. You
had to happen too, right, And so you have people,
you know, in a quiet way, resisting or just reacting
instead of really reimagining what the new playbook be. So
we actually took the time to reimagine the old d
(15:19):
n I into something more modern that focused again on
being more comprehensive, certainly being more collaborative, and being more compassionate.
We can get there. That's not hard to do, by
the way, like that, it's not hard also to execute
that plan. What's hard is getting everybody on board.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
But do you know I always said that the problem
I had a corporate DEI. It didn't feel for us,
by us like it should have been more. It should
have been black people right telling these corporations right, what
is needed right, not in these corporations saying Okay, here
is what we're going to.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Well, that's the difference with a PEPSI is that we
were always at the table, you know, throughout the history
of time, whether it was a black salesforce back in
the back in the forties or up until modern era.
I was at the table when these programs are being
developed and had a point of view and have perspective.
And I give all the cities credit to all the
CEOs who listened, who adapted, who empowered the executives take charge.
And I would do the same thing. I would ask
(16:09):
the employees instead of putting your head down with all this,
now you're empowered to do something about it. I believe
in the structure of erg's employee resource groups, and I
believe you have to have places to be safe where
you're if you feel isolated in the company, no matter
where you come from, you have to have a place
to go and should go. And so those things should
structurally stay in place. But it's up also incoming upon
those groups to lead a new agenda for the future,
(16:32):
not keep looking up going where we're going, where we're going,
guess gout you're looking up. There's nobody. There's nobody looks
like you up at the top. Okay, think about it.
CEOs right now fourteen five hundred less than two percent,
So how much progress is that really from the nineteen
sixties and now we have two percent less than two
percent of people running the top five run the companies
in the world. They're qualified people out there, there's all
doubt about I'm one of those qualified people are going
(16:53):
to run a forty five hundred company. So I'm not
trying to do that now. But I'm out here and
there's hundreds, if not thousands of people like me. There
are quality, but they're not getting the opportunities. So in
some some regard, you can look at, did the d
I structure actually hurt progress from people over and because
of this perceived you're getting an express card, check the box,
you know, a fast mover, you know, without sort of
(17:15):
having the merit and having the credential do that. I
think there were a lot of conservas and it actually
held a lot of people back. So let's reimagine this,
Let's rebuild it. Let's not while we respect the ground
and nature of how it was built, Let's evolve into
a way that is more comprehensive, more collaborative, and more compassionate,
and we get there everybody wins. You can't have winners
and losers in the space. You can't have mandates in
(17:37):
the space. I was there.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
I mentored, you know what you just said, true, it
can't just be a mandate, right, because a lot of
it was just pr for these corporations.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, checked the b I mentored just as many call
it Caucasian h executives as I do block executives or
other executives for that matter, because they want to really
learn how to get this done. And so my teachings
were always more open to the greater good because I
as you teach people, especially where there's majority representation, they're
likely going to affect. They're going to be able he
(18:06):
effect change, and they feel like they're part of the process.
But when you're alienate and told you have to do this, man,
that resistance is high. People going, Man, I ain't doing that,
I ain't doing that. I don't have to do it.
I'm not gonna go do it. It's the wrong thing
to do. It should always be about best talent, So
what are you doing? My book is all about what
are you doing to one better than yourself? What are
you doing to believe in yourself? And what are you
(18:28):
doing to be yourself? Right? That's been my mantra my
whole life. I'm investing myself. I have to get better.
I have to take risk. I have to invest myself
to get But I have to have discipline, I have
to have commitment, I have to dream big, and I
have to be authentic and stay authentic. And that's why
I try to roll model myself my entire life. And
all that book tells you about the lessons on maintaining
those disciplines and those principles.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
I want to ask you this right because I love
the title of the book, Survive and Advanced lessons on
living a life without compromising. It's rooted in the DEI think.
Right now, you have a lot of people saying they
want a boycott Target, right because they rolled back their
di initiatives, which I.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Don't get it.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
You know, it's a lot of different companies that roll
back the why just Target, But what they're saying is
they want to make an example out of this one company.
But then now people are saying, hey, let's meed, let's
do a compromise. Let's support the.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Black brands in target with boycott everything else. What do
you what do you think the best course of action?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I think the best course of action again is I
think I think leaders around the space, people who have experienced,
people who have you know, dealt with struggle in their
life like I have, who've been through a journey. I've
been through HBCUs. You know, I have this experience. I
serve a trust the HBCU. So people that have the
experience out there need to lead a new agenda, need
to lead a more modern agenda. That again, I go
(19:41):
back to these same three c's right, that is absolutely
more comprehensive going this this boycott angle and only supporting
this support and that that's not the answer. That's not
the answer. That's very short term. Uh yeah, it drives
a lot of engagement, but it's not the right answer.
You're going to increase even increase polarization to even a
greater extent when you do that. Our chance, our time
is now to look at this as a positive in
(20:02):
terms of change and creating new change for the culture
and do it in the right way that's going to
create sustatement. Doing these sort of side hustles and taking
these tactics that are abrupt, abrasive, temporary don't solve the
long term problems. I'm into solving the long term problem.
Let's solve the long term problem. Let's get people leaders
together with the corporation and say, hey, we want to
take a different cut at this, looking at it again,
(20:24):
looking at all your cohorts, looking at all the people
that matter, looking at all the things that you're going
to do, look at the money as you spent before,
and giving you opportunities and ideas of how to spend
that money a little bit differently, maybe to create programs
that everybody can win, to create programs everybody's working together.
Our uniqueness is the one thing that we actually all
have in common. Our uniqueness is the one that everybody
brings that to the table. If we use that to
(20:44):
our advantage, the teamwork will be unparalleled in this entire country.
But instead we look at it only in the basis
of really gender and race, that's how we sort of
measure uniqueness. Really, we need to look at a cross
the spectrum. Everybody has different lived experiences, everybody has different backgrounds,
everybody thinks differently. We need to celebrate that in a
very different way where everybody at the table is being represented.
(21:04):
That's going to give your greatest output. That's going to
give your big greatest culture. That's going to give you
the best results. It's proven when you have people that
celebrate you uniqueness or really value uniqueness at the table,
it drives the best business results. So you have this
triangle where you got consumer, if you're a brand company,
you got sole the consumer, you sort of got the company,
and you got the community.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
That's the sort of three legg of stool inside that
is culture. Get your culture right, you focus, you spend
the right money against the consumer to drive the behaviors
you need and to sales you need. You focus on company.
You're getting representation right. You just look like the market.
There's some markets aren't going to look like every market.
Every market is like go to look the same. But
you're looking like the market you operate in and you
represent right, that's going to be different. And then you
obviously have the community. We want to lift all the
(21:47):
communities out. We don't want to just be sort of
separate and discrete and carve out and say we only
care about these communities we only care about these black
brands in these stores. We want to make sure we're
evolving the greater good and everybody gets go along for
the rock. That takes real courage, that takes real strategic leadership,
that takes real sort of collaboration and maturity to to
pull this off and not look at it with your
(22:08):
head down, look at what your head up on. What's
the future look like in the space and having people
to ta able to do that, we'll get us to
the right space.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I want you know, I wanted to talk about you
your first paying job for people that don't know, what
was your first paying job and who gave you that job?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
My first paying job was under leadership of Mayor Marion Barry.
The legend, the legend you know, daddy was in the rehabit.
Marion Barry wasn't Jesus Danian South Carolina. Marion Barry was respect,
struggles mad respect. That guy is a is a legend
for the DC culture. Legend. He's a legend. To me,
(22:44):
I realize that it's not about the mistakes he made.
We're all making mistakes. But he cared about people, man,
He cared about kids. He knew the risk of kids
venturing off and not having time filled in throughout the day.
So he created this sort of summer program every kid
for we're teening up, guaranteed the summer job. I just
got to fill out the paperwork. So I had my
(23:04):
first paying job at fourteen. I was making three thirty
five an hour. I was getting on the subway. I
was excited every day I got to go up and
go to I'm going to work every day, get on
the subway and go to Brooklyn. And I was going
to school or administrative place in filing papers. I mean,
it wasn't like I was doing a lot of you know,
strategic and heavy lifting work. But I had a job
I was taught to be. I was already responsible going that,
by the way, so it wasn't a matter Derrick Lewis
(23:25):
understanding the role of having a job. I was already
like the dad have the house and the big brother house,
you know, when I was ten years old. But this
was important to me now because it really defined and
started elevating the sort of professional and as you're gonna
be working with other people, you be working for people
this and just the side house. Are you cutting grass,
washing cars, cleaning houses, selling doritos at school like you were.
(23:45):
This is now a professional job and sort of really
shape my mindset around what I wanted to go do.
I thought I was going to be a government worker
up until I went to Hampton, and then I was
able to dream bigger when I got school, saying all
these companies come down here and they offer these kinds
of moneies. And because all my family was the government jobs, right,
so I thought that was my path. I dreamt I
was going one day make one hundred thousand dollars, live
in a single family home and be a happy guy.
(24:06):
And that was at my age. Now you know, guess what,
life took a very different circumstance, God have my back.
Circumstances were very very different. As a child growing up,
I knew I would to be have a different life
for myself. I put a lot of faith in him
and took that journey. And here I am today and
still now you know, much more into go give her
mode than go get her mode. For years I was
go get her, I mean hyper go get her because
(24:28):
we didn't have much. So I was never going to
let something go by because of performance. And now my
mindset is really shifted as I've aged and matured, and
I've grown to paying it forward. So I was in
pay it now for mode for many many years. Now
I'm in pay it forward mode and I'm having the
time in my life doing that. Hopefully this book will
inspire many others. You know, whether you're a child going
through the struggle as I did, if you read the book,
(24:48):
a lot of struggles, a lot of dark days. There
a lot of days where I didn't know if I
was going to make it out to becoming you know,
one of highest ranking executives in corporate America in a
very recognizable organization that had my back. I had their
It was a great run.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Create a lot of I want to talk about your
your You come up with your wife as well.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, okay, how long you've been married. We've married thirty
two years.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Now, Explain how that is having the right partner by
your side. It's been everything. It's been me and showing
me talk about it all the time. With the right
partner that keeps you out of trouble. I'm doing foolish
and sometimes she got a smack in.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
The back of your head.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
So talk about that journey about having that right partner
on your side to make sure that.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
You yeah, I mean, it really has been the key
to the success I've had. And I talk about this
a lot, especially recently. We've been talking about a lot
is our line shared vision on how we want to
do liberal lives. Now. The story at Hampton, you know,
it was volatile.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
We met.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
I was a senior, she was a freshman. Things didn't
work out. They worked out great at the beginning, but
as you know, those things are temporary down there, didn't
work out. I moved on. I wanted to be this
Go get my job, go establish some income, go buy
my first house. Before I started taking relationship seriously, it
was a big mistake that I'm glad didn't cost me
because I wouldn't be here now if if she was
a part of my life. But we reunited, Tom take
(25:59):
Tom Heels. I matured, I came back. I saw the value,
true value, she brought to the table. And I knew
all along that our vision on family, our vision on career,
our visional community, our visional faith were so aligned that
it was it was obvious for me to say, hey,
we need I need to lock this down right because
I knew that the place I wanted to go go.
(26:20):
I absolutely had to have a partner that was willing
to go along with that ride, and that that ride
wasn't gonna have lumps to it. The rod has had
lumps to it. But we've been there for each other
the whole time because we never wavered on the share
of vision. You know, she had to quart her job
when we had our third child. That was not an
easy time for her to do that. I talked into
doing that, but it was it was again, it was
a tough time. We adjusted to it. Obviously have come
(26:41):
out fine with that, but that was the time where
I had to really sort of lean in with her.
There's times she had a leaning with me. We moved
around a lot of new communities. Can imagine how sisters
are going to place like Portland, Oregon, where it's two
percent block and trying to find a place to get
your hair done. You know, you get the town. Well, okay,
we're here now, Where I get my haircut? Where do
we get our hair done? What're we get nails done?
Where are we socialized? What do we do to sort
(27:01):
of relax and become ourselves in the culture. We found ways,
we found places, We eventually would make our way around there.
But then by the time we got comfortable, it was
time to move again and again and again again. So
a lot of sacrifice that we had, but we've built
the family we wanted to build. We call ourselves Team Lewis.
She's the co captain or she's actually the chief household
officers I would tell it, would say to her, and
been an ogal part of all that. But shared vision
(27:24):
has been the absolute focal point of our success. Leaning
on each other, trusting each other, grinding each other. She's
made me better. I would like to see have made
her better, but she certainly has made me better in
this whole journey.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
And there's a.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
Point in the book. Sorry, there's a point in the book,
not the statistic, and this point in the book just
talking about your wife and leaning on her. You talk
about like your journey with like finding out that you
had a cancer's mass, and just things you overlooked because
you were working and just you know, just in day
to day and the title of the book survived in
advance you talked about feeling like you survived and you
got away from a lot of things you didn't have
(27:57):
to worry about, what was going to happen next to
your life, and then you're successful and then cancer comes
and your wife is there any families They're like, can
you talk to me about, like what that journey was
like for you? Yeah, all the way so that you're
still you kind of get emotional.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Right, Yeah, that was great. That was It was a
tough time, right. I mean, I'm retired now, I'm playing
a lot of golf and I'm having the time of life.
And then I started seeing blood in my stool. And again,
sloppy for me, undisciplined for me. I never had a kolonoscary,
you know, And so here I am fifty six and
every year I go get my executive physical, check in
the box and doctor's like, hey, Derek, is you over
(28:30):
fifty hours? Time to get your colonoscar. I'm like, I
got you, I got you, I got you. But I'm
going back to the grind. I'm going back to grind.
I'm focused on people. I wasn't scared. I just ignored.
I deprioritized it. I made it feel like my executive
physical was good. I'm feeling good. The boxes were.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
Checked, said you had all the best doctors.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yeah, your cognitive skills were good. Your motor skills the
highest they've ever been. You know, your blood comes back fine,
you're good. So I'm like, I'm good man. I got
to get back to the grind, and I ignored it was.
It was a terrible, terrible decision. I don't want anybody
out there that is fifty or over and has not
had a coldonoscary. Now a matter of fact, you need
you start getting younger. Now, starting to get a lot younger.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I think it went down to forty five.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Depending on your family history. A lot of it has
to do with your family history. But the earlier the better.
So there's no there's no such thing as an early
start with checking out your checking out yourself in that regard.
And so it was. It was a terrible decision. It
would have cost my life. It would have cost my life.
But the beauty came out at all my relationship. That
we sat in the car, this was the story I found.
I had the tumor. We got in the car and
(29:30):
we're looking for like the the basically the doctor was
basically very store because like, hey, you have a cancer.
As a cancer's tumor, I suggest that you look into
an on collegist. Now, you made need surgery, made need radiation.
Here's a recommendation we give you guys that down the street.
You know, you can pop in there. Here's your paperwork.
I hope to see you a year from now. That
was really the conversation.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
That's how it is.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
So we get out of there and we go walk
down the block to go see the guy because obviously like, hey,
I needed like set something up. My urgency is you
know high right now. And it's okay, it's like three
o'clock closes. We get in the car and I could
feel that moment where like it's silenced for like a
minute or two, trying to collect everything, like ourselves, like
what's going on here? And so I taught called a friend.
(30:13):
I had a friend phone, a friend who I know
and had gone through cancer, and boy, she bailed me out.
And by that time, three or four hours later, I
was on the phone the chief medical officer of the
advent Health Network, my eventual surgeon, an oncologists, all within hours,
uh to talk about my problem. Get them the paperwork.
They died. They did early diagnosis over the phone. They said, hey,
(30:33):
it's serious, but it's not like we can fix this.
So you need to have the faith. We got you,
We got your back, and so I never got scared.
I never had that moment. I'm like, Okay, it's like,
is this a six month thing? Is that? Am I
on o'clock?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Now?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Like?
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Really?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Amoun o'clock? Because I had so much in front of me.
God has sent me a lot of signals about what
I was going to do in my next chapter, and
I feel like, you're not gonna You're not gonna show me.
All have to take that away from me. But this
is a chance to reset your life. We set your health.
Prioritize your health to your health needs to be prioritized
because I didn't prioritize it the way I needed to.
And I would tell everybody, everybody, make sure your health
(31:06):
is the number one thing. If you can't be the
best version of yourself, you can't be there for everybody else.
So how in the hell can I become a hypocrite?
I'm out out, I'm out here for everybody, but I'm
not here for myself. And so self care is really
elevated in my life in a big, big way. And
obviously the health part of that, not only the physical part,
but the mental part and emotional part very important for
me now and it's given me the foundation now to
(31:27):
do things I actually haven't done before in many, many years. So,
but my wife was fully behind me. She took it
actually hard, and I did. We talked about that a lot.
You know, She's like, Derek, I'm going through this too.
You know, when I would get short with her, I'd say,
it's okay, trying to not make it a big deal.
But it was a big deal and needed to be
talked about. But she was a rock of strength for
me in ways that I would never ever forget. You know,
(31:48):
I know if it was reversed, I'd be there the
same way for her, and God forbid it. It gets
that way, So let me take all that pain for
the family to keep the family going. But she was
the rock and this whole thing and wouldn't have got
through it in that at that level if it wasn't
for her and her support. She came through big time,
and my network came through big time. And it was
one of the most incredible experiences. I say, I say
in the same breath it was the hardest lesson I learned.
(32:10):
It's also the greatest lesson I learned the same time
because I got a lot of runway left, and that
you just motivated me now for the next thirty some
years of my life to go after in ways that
I haven't gone before. It refueled me and re energized me.
It put me in a different space and again this
whole notion of going being a go giver. Man, I'm
in that space and I see the vision of what
the future holds for that.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
That's right, all right, Well, pick up the book his memoir,
Survive and Advance Lessons on Living a Life without Compromise.
It's out right now, Derek Luis.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
We appreciate it. Thank you, thank you so much for
what y'all do.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Man, it's the break good morning, wake that ass up
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Breakfast club.
Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Everybody is thej Envy Jess, hilarious, Charlamage, the guy. We
are the breakfast Club, just as out lawn, the roaster Filline.
And we got a special guest in the building. We
got the good brother, Derek Lucon Lewis. Welcome brother, Good
on my brothers.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
How you doing that?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
How you doing now?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm doing great?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Excellent, excellent. Man.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Now For people that don't know who Derek Lewis is,
besides going to the greatest university and college.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
In the world, Oh, which is that? Does State? Definitely
not Delawes.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
State, Hampton University.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
That's right. Breakdown who Derek Lewis is.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Derek Lewis is a inspirational leader. Grew up in Chocolate
City back in the sixties seventies, single parent, familyhood lifestyle.
Decided I wanted to be something different. I want to
dream big for myself despite the circumstances I was under
in the Chocolate City back at that time, and was
inspired by getting a great education, inspired by joining a
(00:55):
big company, inspired by putting that work in to coome
who I wanted to be, my best version of myself
to lead others be not only a go getter, but
also a go give her and strive for excellence. And
I was able to do that over a thirty five
year career at PEPSI. Since then, I've retired now and
I keep doing my work. I'm i'll sere released in
a book that launches tomorrow. Thank you for the opportunity
to talk about that today. And also I'm launching cheese
(01:18):
Steak restaurants in Orlando, Big Dave's Cheese Steak. So you
know brother Derek Hayes who azos. Yeah, I love him too,
So Ivins first franchise E. I'm bringing ten units to
central Florida. I've already opened up four locations, two in
the Kia Center and two in Campbeld Stadium. We're off
and running. I got two brick and mortars that open
up at the end of marsh beginning of April and
the Sky's limit. I'm also obviously serving on boards. I'm
(01:40):
back of my alma mater, serving as a trustee and
putting in the work there more nonprofit boards, doing the
family thing. So life has been great, but I'm also
maybe we'll still contributing the ways that satisfied me and
my family.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, let's go back a little bit the way you
got your job at PEPSI. Break that down and explain
that a little bit. How you got that job and
how you grew from you know, starting off there to
damn running what you did at PEPSI.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Well, look, it was back in the late eighties. Job
mark was pretty good.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I was interviewing my second semester. Interesting enough, I had
PEPSI to come down, I had interview. I stayed up
late the night before, kind of party in came to
the career. It came to career fair and I failed
the interview. I basically got a rejection letter. I want
to say a week or so later in the mail,
I was one of the most disappointing days of my life.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Why did they decide not to go with you?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
At the time, Well, I think I was. I was
not my best an interview, and I think for people
having a lesson, when you're going in for an interview,
you need to be at your best, and I was
at my best. I took it for granted. I took
as though I can stay up all night and party
and not do all the research, and it's not be
buttoned up, you know, and so I went in probably
at a you know, one to ten, probably went into
five or six, and guess what, that's just not good enough,
not gonna be good enough for anybody, much less even
(02:45):
a PEPSI. So I sort of retooled. They were coming
back down a different sort of area was coming down
from Baltimore. I hunkered down, very disciplined, studied my butt
off that night, made sure I was as sharp as
I could be, wanted and nail that interview, got subsequent
follow up interviews, and got the job offer to start
in Baltimore, Maryland. Three weeks out of college. I was
(03:05):
a management trainee. Got out the car going into my
first day of the office and prayed to God and said, God,
I like for this to be the first day of
my next forty years, because at the time you think
it'll retire when you're sixty two, mid sixties whatever. And look,
I prayed in that parking lot. I got in my maximum,
my new maxim, I bought my advance, and uh, you know,
the rest was history. And the day I felt the
(03:26):
first day, I felt like I belonged there. I felt
like this was the place for me. I learned a lot.
I still wled a lot, but also if you read
the book, you'll learn how being a paysetter mattered in
that company, and showing early on that I'm willing to
be a paysetter. I have the courage to be a
pay set. I'm not worried about circumstances surrounding me. I'm
going after it. That was a catalyst for me to
really embrace the growth that came along the way throughout
(03:47):
the entire journey.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
And you said you want you said, you said a
prayer to God to be there for the next forty years?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Were you there for forty I was a thirty five?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Thirty five? Wow? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
So what made you find what made you say, you
know what? Let me for golds last five? Like with
pivoty Well, I mean I was a good point.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Fifty five was the normal number. A lot of the
guys I came in with. The campus program was really strong,
robust at the company throughout the eighties and early nineties,
was really strong program in the company, and so a
lot of us that were there in my peers, fifty five.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Was a number.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Because the grind the business is a very intense business,
hyper competitive, you know, going against our primary competitors and
other competitors, and so there is some wear and tear.
We traveled a lot. We moved eight times. It gets
to a point where you have a next chapter. I've
read the book Strength to Strength by author Brooks, and
it opened my eyes to say, there is life beyond
the thirty five years of the years, the time you
(04:35):
spent at Pepsi, and so I wanted to always be
an entrepreneur. I was talked about my book being an
entrepreneur when I was a kid selling Dorito chips to school,
selling Jolly ranchers and gum right as a side hustle.
I needed to do that because I need to put
money in my pocket, right, and so always had this
itch to be an entrepreneur. The authorship piece just came
from be retirement and kids and colleagues asking me, you
(04:56):
can't leave without you know, so you're gonna bollow us
up and take it away. You have to leave us
with with some insight. You have to leave us with
perspective on your journey. And so that's what I considered doing.
The book was really the January of twenty twenty three
and got with a ghostwriter and pace through publishing company
and the rest is history. And here I am today.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
What was your title at PEPSI right before you the.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Last title, I was President of PepsiCo Multicultural North America,
So for the entire corporation, basically before D it wasn't D.
So I want to clarify the D and I there
it was D, and I had its own department. I
was all about focusing on consumer, culture and community, and
so I was primarily throughout my career, I was an
operating executive, so I ran the P and L. I
had billions of dollars responsibility. A one point, I was
(05:35):
running North America, and then we did a restructure and
I went I assume the South the South responsibility as
president and then at the tail in that run, which
is about three years, we delivered fantastic results and we
developed such a good playbook at the time because COVID
was involved in George Floyd, situations evolved and we had
developed such a good model on you know, culture, community
and company that the company asked me to step in
(05:57):
and create this big role for the entire corporation. Use
the best practices that we developed in sort of the
Southern United States and be able to start to implement that.
So that was the last role that I had had
in coming primarily throughout my career, I was I was
all putting sales and driving profit, driving market share. It
was getting after it in the trenches each and every
single day.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
You were one of the first people, you know, corporate wise, right,
I graduated from Hampton a long time ago, so I
would go to all these different homecomings, but you would
probably want of the first to bring huge corporations to
all the HBCUs, right, not just the big ones, because
you know, it's easy to just to go to the
big ones where North Carolina A and T, which is
the biggest university as far as students are, you know, concerned,
(06:35):
or FAMU which is a big university. Why was it
so important to you to do that HBCU run and
to show up at those HBCU schools when other corporations weren't,
but they started following after you did.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Absolutely it's all about legacy, right, and so my SPCU
experience at Hampton was absolutely fascinating, incredible, and so to
be able to take that experience build that you know,
sort of legacy, not only through the corporate side, investing
not only just events, activational camps, but also recruitment. I
recruited heavily on HBCU campuses. I pushed hard to have
recruitment centers go down to these schools, not just in
(07:08):
called Mid Atlantic area, but also down throughout the Southwest.
I was responsible for setting up the Swack partnership that
we still enjoy today. That has been now a long
term partnership and agreement based on the schools that are
in Swack. Great schools, great campuses. Certainly the activation mainly
revolves around sports, but I took that and extend that
to recruitment and also community effort right and so me,
(07:29):
it's a whole sort of end to end proposition, not
just about the parties and social side. It's also about jobs.
It's also about what we're doing in the community. It's
also about setting up legacy for the future.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Will You in the open end of your book, you
talk about going through like all of the pandemic and
the riots that happened after George Floyd and my Ibbury,
and you realizing like, I'm not an activist, but I
do want to do something because I know what it's
like to not know what's going to happen tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
When did you get to.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
A point of your career where you felt empowered to
be like, my activism is in the boardroom, and this
is what I'm going to do, because being like only
or like one a few in a big corporation like
a PEPSI, it's not easy to be like, you know what,
you all listening to me, This is what we need
to do, This is how we should get back, this
how we should help.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
That's a great question. I think mid career I felt
that responsibility now because I was starting to really move
up in your organization, and there weren't many people at
the top, and so a lot of the younger associates
looked for me for a guidance direction, and so I
just started creating networks across. I moved around a lot,
so you know, when I ended up in the West Coast,
I would we would be at a national meeting and
it would not be uncommon for me to call all
(08:29):
the Black Associates to a hospitality event at the end
of the night and we would have like one hundred
people in the suite. I'd just go up and go
run a suite, going to everybody together and just talk
to them about their journey, what's going on, how I
see the future of the company. I'm a historian of
the culture at PEPSI. Going back to the forties, I
had a relationship with Alan mckeller junior. He was the
first person hired in Corporate America as an intern in
(08:51):
nineteen forty two, along with Jeanette Mount. She went to Hampton,
he went to South Carolina State, so first two interns
of the corpor America. I had a relationship with him
up until you passed away into twenty eighteen. I spoke
at his homegoing service, which I was very honored to do.
A lot of his family did you know the impact
he had not only just the company, but in Corporate American.
So you got to think for generation out of generation,
(09:12):
the legacy of impact and evolution of the movement from
the forties of the fifties to the Civil rights era.
You started seeing more and more investment in advertising for
the company did leaning and heavily. Wasn't all received well
because there was a lot of tension back then. And
you get to the eighties and you saw the Michael
Jackson endorsement that was obviously a big breakthrough for pop
culture and the company really saying entertainment music matters us.
(09:34):
You know, the Afrimaric Court is a priority cohort. You
got to the nineties of Elevator and the hip hop
it started transforming in then you get to twenty two thousand,
twenty ten, it became a core principle inside the company
that it flowed through all the businesses. So anybody, any
functional leader or any leader around the world basically had
to embrace Varas City as a core priority and principle.
And then you got to twenty twenty. I was right
(09:55):
in the middle of all that because I was the
top executive at the time to really sort of lead
that and guide that, insuring that one I'm looking after
the company, I'm also looking after the associates, I'm also
looking after the community. Right. That takes a hell of
a lot of courage because of the only time I'm worried,
I have my own concerns in my own life about
what's happening. But the time when someone leadership is needed,
(10:16):
it was time for me to step in and step up.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
And I did that.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I did it honorably and gracefully, humbly, and I was
excited to do that. I was excited company gave me
the platform to do that, and I think it turned
out very very well for.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Everybody question did did did Michael Jackson?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I guess you could call it a controversy when he
got his head set on fire film the commercial.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Did that hurt help Pepsi?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
I don't know if it did. Want to know, other
brought show, they brought a lot of attention. You know,
I brought a lot of attention, and sometimes you know,
when you get attention, that's that's really what matters. But
I can think about all the iconic commercials in media
that he did. When I think about, you know, choice
of new generation PEPSI generation, I think about him a
lot with that, and so that's what resonates for me.
That incident. While it does get talked about, I don't
(10:55):
think certainly overshadowed the the the the brilliance and sort
of the scale of his awareness and what he brought
to the company into one of the obviously our biggest
brand at the time.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
The reason I asked is random as hell.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
That's why when you brought up I was like, damn,
me and my guy glasses from alone, we were having
this discussion.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
We were having it in the group chat. I got Sallas,
djhad all of us.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
We were talking about Michael Jackson and DJ head was
I mean, hey, Glasses was saying, how after that commercial,
after his handcut on fire and everything, that's when Thriller
really started to take off.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
And that's true.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
So I wonder if it was the Pepsi campaign or
was it that controversy, Like what was it?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I know what helped Michael.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I think it was all the above. I mean, obviously
he got a ride. We got a ride for it
because we were one of the first ones to really
get behind pop star of that magnitude, right, we signaled
that that's our thing. Again, he was black, and you know,
all the other cultural things that went around that surrounded
that were started to become beneficial to the company as well.
So there was just a series of statements made in
the evolution going back to the forties. That's deep, that's
(11:54):
rich history that I felt like I had to carry
that on. So answer your question. I felt from guys
like Alan, hey, the torch got handed you. It's your
time now to step up like he did and others
did back in the forties.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I wanted to go back to the DEI conversation, slo
May mentioned with companies taking off the table, how will
that affect a company like Pepsi, How would that affect
those big companies Since you've been there and you've seen
whether they hired African Americans or minorities, how does that
affect that? And do you think it's a good idea.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I think they'll be fine because again, they're going back
to the history. The history is so strong, and the
torch passing from CEO to CEO has been really strong
and solid. So it's like runs relay erase that that
never stops, right, So I feel like they'll be in
good shape. But I think for what I'm seeing now,
it's not Obviously it's unfortunate, but a the same time,
as I talk about my book a lot, it's an opportunity. Right.
(12:41):
So while there, you know, looks appear to be a setback,
there's times for now leaders, companies, cultures to step up
to the plate. I do think it's weak that when
you know there's bandwagoning and this student bodies, student body left,
student body right. I think all the knee jerk reactions
I think is not good. It's not healthy. I think
it's not the ideal leader you need now in this
era of time. So I do think that that, you know,
(13:04):
while companies are pulling back, they in my might haven't
articulated what they're doing with that right, So yes, I
agree that that D and I EI playbook needs to
have evolved. I think it was dated. I think the
circumstances in the sixty seventies are very different than the
circumstances now. Back then, we obviously had you know, extreme tension,
unlawful things happening. Social norms were accelerating very rapidly and different.
(13:25):
We're in a different era now, not that those things
still don't exist, but not certainly at the intensity level
they did back in sixteen seventy. So this agenda should
have evolved from where it is. It's it's a sixty
year old playbook. This playbook needs to be more comprehensive.
So it needs to account for the greater good, because
that's how the world is moving now. It needs to
be more collaborative. People need to work together more. Yes, okay,
(13:46):
so comprehensive, collaborat It needs to be compassionate. You need
to have an agenda where you are it's about people
and so even in this case where you're telling a
cohort that we're demphasizingself to deprioritize in, you haven't necessarily
come back with something you're doing to to offset that,
something in that revolves greater good, more collaboration, sort of
more sensitivity around things are going on. That's how you
(14:07):
treat people. And right, so that lack of sort of
compassion that is being shown in the we're cutting it
and we're not talking about really anything else, I think
is just not good. So I think this is a
time for leadership to step up to the plate. It's
not hard to write this new play with by the way,
it should have been read a long time ago, at
least like myself could have done it. I saw, I
could almost feel in twenty twenty what was happening. It
(14:27):
was a more in your face moment. Everybody was going
to get on board because no one wanted to be
left behind or deal with the rash of being sort
of on the outside looking at And then obviously what
happens is time moves on, Things move on. There really
really weren't any call it scorecard metrics or calibration against
what you said and what you were going to go
do to now can anybody go back and even remember
(14:49):
what people said back in twenty twenty, right, So there
was always a question around sustainability of that effort.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I can't remember.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
I can remember then plaguing all that money to them
qualifications and not delivering, right.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, r a lot of money, a lot of checks written, Yeah,
a ton of checks written. But we're already a lot
of pleasures with checks exactly exactly exactly you had. You
had to happen too, right, And so you have people,
you know, in a quiet way, resisting or just reacting
instead of really reimagining what the new playbook be. So
we actually took the time to reimagine the old d
(15:19):
n I into something more modern that focused again on
being more comprehensive, certainly being more collaborative, and being more compassionate.
We can get there. That's not hard to do, by
the way, like that, it's not hard also to execute
that plan. What's hard is getting everybody on board.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
But do you know I always said that the problem
I had a corporate DEI. It didn't feel for us,
by us like it should have been more. It should
have been black people right telling these corporations right, what
is needed right, not in these corporations saying Okay, here
is what we're going to.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Well, that's the difference with a PEPSI is that we
were always at the table, you know, throughout the history
of time, whether it was a black salesforce back in
the back in the forties or up until modern era.
I was at the table when these programs are being
developed and had a point of view and have perspective.
And I give all the cities credit to all the
CEOs who listened, who adapted, who empowered the executives take charge.
And I would do the same thing. I would ask
(16:09):
the employees instead of putting your head down with all this,
now you're empowered to do something about it. I believe
in the structure of erg's employee resource groups, and I
believe you have to have places to be safe where
you're if you feel isolated in the company, no matter
where you come from, you have to have a place
to go and should go. And so those things should
structurally stay in place. But it's up also incoming upon
those groups to lead a new agenda for the future,
(16:32):
not keep looking up going where we're going, where we're going,
guess gout you're looking up. There's nobody. There's nobody looks
like you up at the top. Okay, think about it.
CEOs right now fourteen five hundred less than two percent,
So how much progress is that really from the nineteen
sixties and now we have two percent less than two
percent of people running the top five run the companies
in the world. They're qualified people out there, there's all
doubt about I'm one of those qualified people are going
(16:53):
to run a forty five hundred company. So I'm not
trying to do that now. But I'm out here and
there's hundreds, if not thousands of people like me. There
are quality, but they're not getting the opportunities. So in
some some regard, you can look at, did the d
I structure actually hurt progress from people over and because
of this perceived you're getting an express card, check the box,
you know, a fast mover, you know, without sort of
(17:15):
having the merit and having the credential do that. I
think there were a lot of conservas and it actually
held a lot of people back. So let's reimagine this,
Let's rebuild it. Let's not while we respect the ground
and nature of how it was built, Let's evolve into
a way that is more comprehensive, more collaborative, and more compassionate,
and we get there everybody wins. You can't have winners
and losers in the space. You can't have mandates in
(17:37):
the space. I was there.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
I mentored, you know what you just said, true, it
can't just be a mandate, right, because a lot of
it was just pr for these corporations.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, checked the b I mentored just as many call
it Caucasian h executives as I do block executives or
other executives for that matter, because they want to really
learn how to get this done. And so my teachings
were always more open to the greater good because I
as you teach people, especially where there's majority representation, they're
likely going to affect. They're going to be able he
(18:06):
effect change, and they feel like they're part of the process.
But when you're alienate and told you have to do this, man,
that resistance is high. People going, Man, I ain't doing that,
I ain't doing that. I don't have to do it.
I'm not gonna go do it. It's the wrong thing
to do. It should always be about best talent, So
what are you doing? My book is all about what
are you doing to one better than yourself? What are
you doing to believe in yourself? And what are you
(18:28):
doing to be yourself? Right? That's been my mantra my
whole life. I'm investing myself. I have to get better.
I have to take risk. I have to invest myself
to get But I have to have discipline, I have
to have commitment, I have to dream big, and I
have to be authentic and stay authentic. And that's why
I try to roll model myself my entire life. And
all that book tells you about the lessons on maintaining
those disciplines and those principles.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
I want to ask you this right because I love
the title of the book, Survive and Advanced lessons on
living a life without compromising. It's rooted in the DEI think.
Right now, you have a lot of people saying they
want a boycott Target, right because they rolled back their
di initiatives, which I.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Don't get it.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
You know, it's a lot of different companies that roll
back the why just Target, But what they're saying is
they want to make an example out of this one company.
But then now people are saying, hey, let's meed, let's
do a compromise. Let's support the.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Black brands in target with boycott everything else. What do
you what do you think the best course of action?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I think the best course of action again is I
think I think leaders around the space, people who have experienced,
people who have you know, dealt with struggle in their
life like I have, who've been through a journey. I've
been through HBCUs. You know, I have this experience. I
serve a trust the HBCU. So people that have the
experience out there need to lead a new agenda, need
to lead a more modern agenda. That again, I go
(19:41):
back to these same three c's right, that is absolutely
more comprehensive going this this boycott angle and only supporting
this support and that that's not the answer. That's not
the answer. That's very short term. Uh yeah, it drives
a lot of engagement, but it's not the right answer.
You're going to increase even increase polarization to even a
greater extent when you do that. Our chance, our time
is now to look at this as a positive in
(20:02):
terms of change and creating new change for the culture
and do it in the right way that's going to
create sustatement. Doing these sort of side hustles and taking
these tactics that are abrupt, abrasive, temporary don't solve the
long term problems. I'm into solving the long term problem.
Let's solve the long term problem. Let's get people leaders
together with the corporation and say, hey, we want to
take a different cut at this, looking at it again,
(20:24):
looking at all your cohorts, looking at all the people
that matter, looking at all the things that you're going
to do, look at the money as you spent before,
and giving you opportunities and ideas of how to spend
that money a little bit differently, maybe to create programs
that everybody can win, to create programs everybody's working together.
Our uniqueness is the one thing that we actually all
have in common. Our uniqueness is the one that everybody
brings that to the table. If we use that to
(20:44):
our advantage, the teamwork will be unparalleled in this entire country.
But instead we look at it only in the basis
of really gender and race, that's how we sort of
measure uniqueness. Really, we need to look at a cross
the spectrum. Everybody has different lived experiences, everybody has different backgrounds,
everybody thinks differently. We need to celebrate that in a
very different way where everybody at the table is being represented.
(21:04):
That's going to give your greatest output. That's going to
give your big greatest culture. That's going to give you
the best results. It's proven when you have people that
celebrate you uniqueness or really value uniqueness at the table,
it drives the best business results. So you have this
triangle where you got consumer, if you're a brand company,
you got sole the consumer, you sort of got the company,
and you got the community.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
That's the sort of three legg of stool inside that
is culture. Get your culture right, you focus, you spend
the right money against the consumer to drive the behaviors
you need and to sales you need. You focus on company.
You're getting representation right. You just look like the market.
There's some markets aren't going to look like every market.
Every market is like go to look the same. But
you're looking like the market you operate in and you
represent right, that's going to be different. And then you
obviously have the community. We want to lift all the
(21:47):
communities out. We don't want to just be sort of
separate and discrete and carve out and say we only
care about these communities we only care about these black
brands in these stores. We want to make sure we're
evolving the greater good and everybody gets go along for
the rock. That takes real courage, that takes real strategic leadership,
that takes real sort of collaboration and maturity to to
pull this off and not look at it with your
(22:08):
head down, look at what your head up on. What's
the future look like in the space and having people
to ta able to do that, we'll get us to
the right space.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I want you know, I wanted to talk about you
your first paying job for people that don't know, what
was your first paying job and who gave you that job?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
My first paying job was under leadership of Mayor Marion Barry.
The legend, the legend you know, daddy was in the rehabit.
Marion Barry wasn't Jesus Danian South Carolina. Marion Barry was respect,
struggles mad respect. That guy is a is a legend
for the DC culture. Legend. He's a legend. To me,
(22:44):
I realize that it's not about the mistakes he made.
We're all making mistakes. But he cared about people, man,
He cared about kids. He knew the risk of kids
venturing off and not having time filled in throughout the day.
So he created this sort of summer program every kid
for we're teening up, guaranteed the summer job. I just
got to fill out the paperwork. So I had my
(23:04):
first paying job at fourteen. I was making three thirty
five an hour. I was getting on the subway. I
was excited every day I got to go up and
go to I'm going to work every day, get on
the subway and go to Brooklyn. And I was going
to school or administrative place in filing papers. I mean,
it wasn't like I was doing a lot of you know,
strategic and heavy lifting work. But I had a job
I was taught to be. I was already responsible going that,
by the way, so it wasn't a matter Derrick Lewis
(23:25):
understanding the role of having a job. I was already
like the dad have the house and the big brother house,
you know, when I was ten years old. But this
was important to me now because it really defined and
started elevating the sort of professional and as you're gonna
be working with other people, you be working for people
this and just the side house. Are you cutting grass,
washing cars, cleaning houses, selling doritos at school like you were.
(23:45):
This is now a professional job and sort of really
shape my mindset around what I wanted to go do.
I thought I was going to be a government worker
up until I went to Hampton, and then I was
able to dream bigger when I got school, saying all
these companies come down here and they offer these kinds
of moneies. And because all my family was the government jobs, right,
so I thought that was my path. I dreamt I
was going one day make one hundred thousand dollars, live
in a single family home and be a happy guy.
(24:06):
And that was at my age. Now you know, guess what,
life took a very different circumstance, God have my back.
Circumstances were very very different. As a child growing up,
I knew I would to be have a different life
for myself. I put a lot of faith in him
and took that journey. And here I am today and
still now you know, much more into go give her
mode than go get her mode. For years I was
go get her, I mean hyper go get her because
(24:28):
we didn't have much. So I was never going to
let something go by because of performance. And now my
mindset is really shifted as I've aged and matured, and
I've grown to paying it forward. So I was in
pay it now for mode for many many years. Now
I'm in pay it forward mode and I'm having the
time in my life doing that. Hopefully this book will
inspire many others. You know, whether you're a child going
through the struggle as I did, if you read the book,
(24:48):
a lot of struggles, a lot of dark days. There
a lot of days where I didn't know if I
was going to make it out to becoming you know,
one of highest ranking executives in corporate America in a
very recognizable organization that had my back. I had their
It was a great run.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Create a lot of I want to talk about your
your You come up with your wife as well.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, okay, how long you've been married. We've married thirty
two years.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Now, Explain how that is having the right partner by
your side. It's been everything. It's been me and showing
me talk about it all the time. With the right
partner that keeps you out of trouble. I'm doing foolish
and sometimes she got a smack in.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
The back of your head.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
So talk about that journey about having that right partner
on your side to make sure that.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
You yeah, I mean, it really has been the key
to the success I've had. And I talk about this
a lot, especially recently. We've been talking about a lot
is our line shared vision on how we want to
do liberal lives. Now. The story at Hampton, you know,
it was volatile.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
We met.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
I was a senior, she was a freshman. Things didn't
work out. They worked out great at the beginning, but
as you know, those things are temporary down there, didn't
work out. I moved on. I wanted to be this
Go get my job, go establish some income, go buy
my first house. Before I started taking relationship seriously, it
was a big mistake that I'm glad didn't cost me
because I wouldn't be here now if if she was
a part of my life. But we reunited, Tom take
(25:59):
Tom Heels. I matured, I came back. I saw the value,
true value, she brought to the table. And I knew
all along that our vision on family, our vision on career,
our visional community, our visional faith were so aligned that
it was it was obvious for me to say, hey,
we need I need to lock this down right because
I knew that the place I wanted to go go.
(26:20):
I absolutely had to have a partner that was willing
to go along with that ride, and that that ride
wasn't gonna have lumps to it. The rod has had
lumps to it. But we've been there for each other
the whole time because we never wavered on the share
of vision. You know, she had to quart her job
when we had our third child. That was not an
easy time for her to do that. I talked into
doing that, but it was it was again, it was
a tough time. We adjusted to it. Obviously have come
(26:41):
out fine with that, but that was the time where
I had to really sort of lean in with her.
There's times she had a leaning with me. We moved
around a lot of new communities. Can imagine how sisters
are going to place like Portland, Oregon, where it's two
percent block and trying to find a place to get
your hair done. You know, you get the town. Well, okay,
we're here now, Where I get my haircut? Where do
we get our hair done? What're we get nails done?
Where are we socialized? What do we do to sort
(27:01):
of relax and become ourselves in the culture. We found ways,
we found places, We eventually would make our way around there.
But then by the time we got comfortable, it was
time to move again and again and again again. So
a lot of sacrifice that we had, but we've built
the family we wanted to build. We call ourselves Team Lewis.
She's the co captain or she's actually the chief household
officers I would tell it, would say to her, and
been an ogal part of all that. But shared vision
(27:24):
has been the absolute focal point of our success. Leaning
on each other, trusting each other, grinding each other. She's
made me better. I would like to see have made
her better, but she certainly has made me better in
this whole journey.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
And there's a.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
Point in the book. Sorry, there's a point in the book,
not the statistic, and this point in the book just
talking about your wife and leaning on her. You talk
about like your journey with like finding out that you
had a cancer's mass, and just things you overlooked because
you were working and just you know, just in day
to day and the title of the book survived in
advance you talked about feeling like you survived and you
got away from a lot of things you didn't have
(27:57):
to worry about, what was going to happen next to
your life, and then you're successful and then cancer comes
and your wife is there any families They're like, can
you talk to me about, like what that journey was
like for you? Yeah, all the way so that you're
still you kind of get emotional.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Right, Yeah, that was great. That was It was a
tough time, right. I mean, I'm retired now, I'm playing
a lot of golf and I'm having the time of life.
And then I started seeing blood in my stool. And again,
sloppy for me, undisciplined for me. I never had a kolonoscary,
you know, And so here I am fifty six and
every year I go get my executive physical, check in
the box and doctor's like, hey, Derek, is you over
(28:30):
fifty hours? Time to get your colonoscar. I'm like, I
got you, I got you, I got you. But I'm
going back to the grind. I'm going back to grind.
I'm focused on people. I wasn't scared. I just ignored.
I deprioritized it. I made it feel like my executive
physical was good. I'm feeling good. The boxes were.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
Checked, said you had all the best doctors.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yeah, your cognitive skills were good. Your motor skills the
highest they've ever been. You know, your blood comes back fine,
you're good. So I'm like, I'm good man. I got
to get back to the grind, and I ignored it was.
It was a terrible, terrible decision. I don't want anybody
out there that is fifty or over and has not
had a coldonoscary. Now a matter of fact, you need
you start getting younger. Now, starting to get a lot younger.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I think it went down to forty five.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Depending on your family history. A lot of it has
to do with your family history. But the earlier the better.
So there's no there's no such thing as an early
start with checking out your checking out yourself in that regard.
And so it was. It was a terrible decision. It
would have cost my life. It would have cost my life.
But the beauty came out at all my relationship. That
we sat in the car, this was the story I found.
I had the tumor. We got in the car and
(29:30):
we're looking for like the the basically the doctor was
basically very store because like, hey, you have a cancer.
As a cancer's tumor, I suggest that you look into
an on collegist. Now, you made need surgery, made need radiation.
Here's a recommendation we give you guys that down the street.
You know, you can pop in there. Here's your paperwork.
I hope to see you a year from now. That
was really the conversation.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
That's how it is.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
So we get out of there and we go walk
down the block to go see the guy because obviously like, hey,
I needed like set something up. My urgency is you
know high right now. And it's okay, it's like three
o'clock closes. We get in the car and I could
feel that moment where like it's silenced for like a
minute or two, trying to collect everything, like ourselves, like
what's going on here? And so I taught called a friend.
(30:13):
I had a friend phone, a friend who I know
and had gone through cancer, and boy, she bailed me out.
And by that time, three or four hours later, I
was on the phone the chief medical officer of the
advent Health Network, my eventual surgeon, an oncologists, all within hours,
uh to talk about my problem. Get them the paperwork.
They died. They did early diagnosis over the phone. They said, hey,
(30:33):
it's serious, but it's not like we can fix this.
So you need to have the faith. We got you,
We got your back, and so I never got scared.
I never had that moment. I'm like, Okay, it's like,
is this a six month thing? Is that? Am I
on o'clock?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Now?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Like?
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Really?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Amoun o'clock? Because I had so much in front of me.
God has sent me a lot of signals about what
I was going to do in my next chapter, and
I feel like, you're not gonna You're not gonna show me.
All have to take that away from me. But this
is a chance to reset your life. We set your health.
Prioritize your health to your health needs to be prioritized
because I didn't prioritize it the way I needed to.
And I would tell everybody, everybody, make sure your health
(31:06):
is the number one thing. If you can't be the
best version of yourself, you can't be there for everybody else.
So how in the hell can I become a hypocrite?
I'm out out, I'm out here for everybody, but I'm
not here for myself. And so self care is really
elevated in my life in a big, big way. And
obviously the health part of that, not only the physical part,
but the mental part and emotional part very important for
me now and it's given me the foundation now to
(31:27):
do things I actually haven't done before in many, many years. So,
but my wife was fully behind me. She took it
actually hard, and I did. We talked about that a lot.
You know, She's like, Derek, I'm going through this too.
You know, when I would get short with her, I'd say,
it's okay, trying to not make it a big deal.
But it was a big deal and needed to be
talked about. But she was a rock of strength for
me in ways that I would never ever forget. You know,
(31:48):
I know if it was reversed, I'd be there the
same way for her, and God forbid it. It gets
that way, So let me take all that pain for
the family to keep the family going. But she was
the rock and this whole thing and wouldn't have got
through it in that at that level if it wasn't
for her and her support. She came through big time,
and my network came through big time. And it was
one of the most incredible experiences. I say, I say
in the same breath it was the hardest lesson I learned.
(32:10):
It's also the greatest lesson I learned the same time
because I got a lot of runway left, and that
you just motivated me now for the next thirty some
years of my life to go after in ways that
I haven't gone before. It refueled me and re energized me.
It put me in a different space and again this
whole notion of going being a go giver. Man, I'm
in that space and I see the vision of what
the future holds for that.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
That's right, all right, Well, pick up the book his memoir,
Survive and Advance Lessons on Living a Life without Compromise.
It's out right now, Derek Luis.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
We appreciate it. Thank you, thank you so much for
what y'all do.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Man, it's the break good morning, wake that ass up
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Breakfast club.
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