YouSaid · the spoken record

Sheila Johnson

lines on the record: 43
first: 2023-09-25
most recent: 2023-09-25
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yes, today's show is produced by Naeem Araza, Christian Castro Rosell, Megan Cunane, and Megan Burney. Special thanks to Cody Nelson, Andrea Lopez Crusado, our engineers are Fernando Aruda and Rick Kwan. Our theme music is by Trachadamics. If you're already following the show, you get the whole ball of wax. If not, your reservation at salamander is canceled. Go wherever you listen to podcasts, search for On with Carou Swisher and hit follow. Thanks for listening to On with Kara Swisher from New York Magazine, the Box Media Podcast Network, and us. We'll be back on Thursday with more.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Now, in her hotels are like that when you go in there, you should go sometime because I remember thinking, how did she do this? It's so comfortable for everyone. And it was, I don't, I remember looking around and going, wow, it's in Virginia, of Middleburg, Virginia, and trust me, you know, that's not what I was expecting. And it was a really interesting, diverse. Place. It felt had a vibe of Nobody caring. I don't know what to say because I was in Virginia, I was very cognizant of, you're very cognizant in certain parts of the South about that. And so it was interesting.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes Yeah, that's a really smart. We should pursue that topic because I do think the idea of, of all people, Walter Isn't asked me to ask about that, how do you integrate going forward? And I think young people do it effortlessly in a lot of ways. Yeah. Not every young person, but I think in my kids and the music they like, they don't even think about it. And, you know, and it's really interesting of how people identify. And at the same time, you do need to identify their obviously systemic issues around racism and sexism and everything else. But it's an interesting question is how we can reach those levels so everybody has dignity.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She's right I think it's very difficult to figure out how you can reach people when so much of it has been absorbed into the mainstream media. I think about gay media all the time. There used to be tons of it. Now it's much less than it was because there's places to go and people have absorbed it into the mainstream media. So I think it's hard and you can reach audiences in different ways, that's for sure.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it is. It's everybody. Everybody didn't have choices that they do today. And I think she articulated that rather well. Her mother, less so than her. You know what I mean?”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The sports teams, it's just like really interesting, and I think we don't tell stories of these people as much as someone, you know, who sleeps all night at a factory full and then yells at people. I don't know who that would be. You know what I mean? Like, why is that any less worthy than in terms of creating value? And I think these stories don't get told. And she at least admits vulnerability.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. No, but that's difficult, I think, especially for women, and part of her, I think, doesn't think she deserves it in some way still. And I think a lot of women can relate to that. You don't have to, even though she's a billionaire and very lucky and has done a lot of stuff, she still has an imposter syndrome, but has a lot of accomplishments. And they're so varied. And it shows you whether it's the violin stuff, which was very entrepreneurial, whether it's the hotels, BET. Or the way she's”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of you just as a child sitting on the floor, showing up at some of my bedrooms. No, she didn't remember me whatsoever. It's okay. I remember Bob Johnson too. He was quite. How old are you?”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Explain the scenario. My friend's mother worked with her on the was doing music and she was very pioneering in music. Again, entrepreneurial at the time, but she was doing all kinds of creative things and it was starting to get really known for how she taught and her music teaching. And we went down there because this parent of my friend Carla, who I just saw this weekend, actually, was involved with a lot of that.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No. Go there. I think several hotels in India are my favorite. I'm blanking on the chain, but they're beauty Aman or whatever.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I do. I love hotels. I do. I use Airbnb and other things like that, but I've always been interested in the business, the hospitality business. And seeing the differences and how they rise and fall. I love Sheila's hotels. And I also love, recently, I took my mom for tea at the Crosby hotel. I knew she looked great. Kit Kemp stuff. I like that. I just like to see new ideas in hospitality. I do.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of the things you've done is donate to your wealth of philanthropies, New York University's global poverty charities. Talk about your theories of giving and how they're different from, say, the tech bros.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Stroke of luck, it's interesting. You seem, I mean, it's interesting because when your book was like, I can't believe I did this, but you sort of keep doing it, which is interesting. I'm like, I always say, is it smarter to be luckier or is it lucky to be smart?”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, yes, you were. So talk about that idea of where sports is going. Are you investing in women's soccer? I know that Cheryl Sandberg invested in one. There's all kinds of soccer things, not just women's, but in sports in general. Is this an important part of your empire, I guess?”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Talk about why you wanted to get into the sports business. And you did. You did a very sharp deal there in terms of getting a piece of all of them versus just one.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, so another place you moved into is sports. You were offered a stake in the mystics, which is a women's basketball team by Abe Pollen, who'd been the longtime owner of several of the sports teams in Washington. You didn't want to do that because it didn't make money, but you wanted a piece of the men's sports teams in order to go there. You understand why a little bit they wanted a woman. They wanted a woman of color to be one of the stakeholders, presumably, in Washington. Talk about that because you made yourself a really sweet deal because now sports teams are quite valuable.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you don't think about selling it? I mean, it's been a very successful, interesting chain that you've created from nothing.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So instead of you could identity politics is a very strong thing in this country, the idea of it. And it does. It does separate people in a way that's especially reasonable people, which is interesting. But then you took over the Marin Oriental Hotel. Everywhere you go, I'm like, huh, that's interesting. Aspen Institute, when you told me that, I was like, Boy, you must really like white people, but it was interesting. Talk about that, your business strategy here. Now have top rank luxury hotels in, I think, Charleston, New Orleans, Jamaica. But what's the goal here? Because there's a lot of, I mean, I know Pierre Omediar, who was an internet billionaire, is in the montage area. Is your theory here of what you're trying to do? I love your hotels. I think they are quite diverse without trying to be.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, right. Which is easy. You could have gotten angry. I mean, talk about your concept. It's interesting of being drawn to places that black people don't normally go or try to go to because of these obstacles.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What did you do to get that? What did you do? This is to be able to build the property. It's a large property. It's not that large, but it's large. What took it over the ledge with people saying, you know, we like our way of life, which is a code word, obviously.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is. No, I've been there. It's a wonderful place. But explain to me what was the backlash? Was this Black Lady Buys Harriman property and bothers white bothers white people, right?”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Be back in a minute Mentioned your hospitality business. You took the money, and now is the status as the richest black woman in America. You moved to Middleburg, which I was not a place I would see you going to. You bought the giant Harriman property. You got a lot of backlash, racist backlash, I think, correct?”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's going to not work. To the broader question, not just this identity, but the idea of programming to identity. Is that effective anymore? Your perspective”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. So since you sold it, you had been critical of the network, but and pave the way for media Alice to catered to specific audiences. There were a lot of them based on race or identity. Is that pertinent anymore when you look at it? And if so, how? And if not, why?”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The whole ball of wax. I got the whole ball of wax. So you were one of the things, though, is this is something you'd built, BET, and you were very flexive. You wrote in your memoir, you had hoped more for BET. You wanted it to become the Black CNN. Why did that fail and was that the right goal? Because it became more, you talked about the music videos getting worse. This sort of prurient part that brings in money and maybe viewership.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Were you this sudden windfall changing your life allowed you some leeway and out of the shadow? What did you think? Because in a lot of ways, as much as you put up with, this was something important for you.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. So one of them was an affair with a top executive Deborah Lee who wrote about it recently. And accused him of sexual, I guess, workplace harassment over a long period of time. Did you read that book? And what did you think? You didn't know about it at the time.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You were also very involved in the company itself, as you said. I want you to, I think a lot about Melinda Gates, Lorraine Jobs, Mackenzie Scott, all of whom were integral and yet sort of sidelined in different ways. Now quite a force, which I want to get into. When you think about that role of a wife at a company, even though they're critical and some more critical than others, no question, how do you escape that idea of here's the wife? Because, you know, there was a lot of that happening and how do you assess your role at that company and what you contributed to it?”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, you let him be the face of the company. You were a cheerleader. I really did. And you faded into the background, even though, talk about what you...”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah. And you were, which was, you were very accomplished violinist. Right. Talk a little bit about that because you didn't think of yourself as an entrepreneur, you thought of him as one.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You were going to power through it. And you did that, and you were an accomplished music teacher, your husband, and you sort of worked together on your way up as a young couple in Washington. You cobble together $30,000 to start BET Black Entertainment Network in 1979, included selling your instruments, correct?”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Incredible story. So you picked yourself up, you helped your mom get, you got her off the floor, correct, and moved her forward. But then you did just what she did when you met Bob in college. Talk about that. Or maybe you don't think you did, but you fell prey to what turned out to be quite an abusive relationship.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She's a very good friend of mine and also a very good author on her own. But this is Sheila's voice. It really is. You can really hear it if you know her a little bit.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The spouses of people that get more attention. And in the tech, it's very, it's sort of Mackenzie Scott is really interesting to me. I was around. She was around in the early days of Amazon and I think quite important. Melinda Gates was an executive at Microsoft. You know, Lorraine Powell jobs to a lesser extent. But they all have become Sheila to me is the clearest case of someone who didn't get credit for the things she did. Is now using, and it's she's now proving herself to be, and much less so Bob Johnson, a really interesting entrepreneur. And full disclosure, the person who worked on this book with her is someone who worked on my first book, actually, on AOL, Lisa Dickey, and super familiar with tech and other areas in business. And she worked on this as a book collaborator with Sheila.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A channel, you can have a channel on YouTube that's accessing so many people. Much cheaper a lot on that. So we wanted to talk to her about that idea of identity programming and whether it feels as urgent now as it did in the 1980s when she started this thing and also to speak to her about her memoir, which is out this month, Walkthrough Fire. It's a memoir of love, loss, and triumph. That is the first subtitle before it says the first black woman billionaire of America. Carrie, you were really excited about this memoir. Yeah, I am. I am. I like Sheila. I think she's really interesting. And I do tend to focus in on.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“BT was this big identity play and I haven't, and there's a question of whether or not there needs to be more ownership rather than just more programming. Yeah, these niche things, whether it's gay or black or whatever, tend to the one that's really succeeded, Telemundo, obviously, which is quite popular for Latino audiences. But a lot of this stuff has gotten integrated into other media, the higher up the sort of more general chain. And so it's a really difficult situation. But yes, you're right. But there are owners certainly by Ren Allen or Oprah certainly. There's all kinds of owners, but it's just, we'll see where it goes. But those are not identity-driven channels that they are owning. But they might want to buy this. And I don't know if these things can survive, honestly. I don't know if they can. I mean, with social media streaming, you're actually able to find your audiences in a real way. And so all of a sudden, you know, you don't need to.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I mean, I can think in our history. We've talked to Patrick Swinchein from the LA Times, Carlos Slim, of course, was a big investor in the New York Times.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He puffed outdo. I don't even know what to call him these days. And Byron Allen, who you just mentioned, who these days is now trying to buy ABC for $10 billion. Yeah, there is a value to these things. If you manage them for the cash flow, I'm going to go into why doing that, but they can really be in a very similar thing. AOL's been managed really well for cash flow, for dial-up, et cetera. And so you can do a lot with these things if you bring them together. And that's the current thinking. So it will get sold. There's a lot on the market. Someone will roll these all up and buy them. And then there's a question if there's a need for these identity cables channels. And not just BET, but lots of them. There's lots of them. Well, I think that's the really important conversation here because while there's been a desire to pull in minority voices in American media through programming, so whether it's news anchors or shows that are more reflective of the culture, there's actually very little ownership of media outlets by minorities.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And they tend to therefore go to a person who wants the power of owning a media entity. And in the case of BET, Black Entertainment Television, there was a bidding war between the likes of Tyler Perry, Shaquille O'Neill, I think, was involved. Sean Byron Combs, aka Diddy, aka.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, yeah, I opted not to play basketball on the Golden State Warriors. That's the kind of thing. Shocking because you're six foot four and so good at sported. I think it's a really difficult time because it's not just a BET, which is down the chain from a lot of others, but ABCs for sale and a bunch of others. So a lot of these linear networks or cable networks are in real trouble. And the prices are going down rather precipitously. And also their ability to make money. They used to be money makers and they're not. They're losing. They're either losing money or their income is down rather considerably. And so everyone from Bob Eiger to the people to Paramount is struggling with what to do with these properties.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Viacom for two or three billion dollars. Yeah, it depends on the debt. There was debt and stock, but she got a big chunk of change because she owned half of it. And she got half of it. And so she went off and showed that she can be an entrepreneur in starting a new hotel chain in this environment, especially as she ran right into the pandemic. Very difficult. But she's been expanding rather nicely. Hard thing to do and has a real style. There's a real boom in these boutique hotels, and Sheila is one of the many people at the forefront of this. She's, I think, honed her entrepreneurship even more since then. And she's been critical of BET over the years. BET has struggled. Johnson will talk about that. But there was a moment earlier this year when Paramount was thinking of selling. Well, they are thinking, they're still thinking of selling it. Just nobody wants to buy it. Well, they opted not to sell because they said that it wouldn't, the offers they were getting in, which I think were around $2 or $3 billion, were not enough to deleverage their balance sheet, right?”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Lot with her money, and she has a very different attitude towards wealth than other people of her level, I guess, in that financial level. And so I really wanted to talk to her to talk about this. She's written a memoir that's pretty eviscerating of her husband and talking about herself too, the vulnerabilities that she has. She doesn't love that title. No. It is always everywhere you see her, like a Wall Street Journal article. It'll say Sheila Johnson, America's first woman Black billionaire. It's also on the book cover. Okay. It's a useful mechanism, but maybe she doesn't want to be defined just like that. No, she doesn't. She is often sidelined in the telling of the BET story. And so timely for her to be telling her story herself, she was ultimately ousted by her husband after an acrimonious marriage. But she was an integral part of making that network and making a mint of it, BTIPO'd in 1991 and then sold 10 years later.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hi everyone from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is on with Kara Swisher and I'm Kara Swisher. And I'm Nay Araza. Today our guest is Sheila Johnson, a mega entrepreneur who is big in hospitality. She's the CEO of Salamander Hotels and Resorts where you've stayed. Yes, I love it. It's a fantastic change. She is also the only black woman to ownership in three professional sports teams, which include the WNBA's Washington Mystics, the NBA's Washington Wizards, and the Washington Capitals. I had to look that up, but it's a hockey team. It is indeed. It's a very good one. But she's most famous for starting BET in 1980 with her now ex-husband. Yes, Bob Johnson. Yeah, they had a very acrimonious divorce. But one of the things that's important is she's also known as America's first woman black woman billionaire, which is a very small group of people. And she's, you know, she's on.”
2023-09-25 · On with Kara Swisher · Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire” · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT