Lila Brown

“ As I continue to learn more about our history, and our place in this world, I'm discovering how prominent we have been across various empires. We're excellent people.

Q. Tell everyone who you are and what you do?

A. Hi, my name is Lila Brown. I am an entertainment publicist, a Sports

Agent and overall a business executive. I am located in Los

Angeles, California.

Q. What made you want to be a publicist?

A. My roots, starting out way back to elementary school. I went to a Crispus Attucks Mass

Communication and Writing

Magnet School. So, I learned a lot about content creation, working behind the scenes in media journalism, news writing and news reporting at an early age. I kind of matriculated on, went throughout high school, and then when I got to college and had to pick a major.

I knew I wanted to be in the mass media arts. But I was learning a working with athletes. A particular athlete and Olympian wanted my agency to do more work for her outside the scope of just PR and Marketing. It was then that I really started thinking more seriously about Management. I knew it would be a huge undertaking because you really have to care for your talent and nurture them. I've been able to nurture a lot of talent in this industry, but more so my focus is on sports. That eventually rolled over to me becoming a sports agent to where I'm just like, I just love business. So, I treat my company, agency, just as any other business. It needs so much in terms of accounting, it needs its own Marketing and PR, social media. It's fun, I love it; it's not work for me, I really do love it.

lot more about the different areas within journalism. It was so funny coming out of high school because I remember watching "Sex and the City", the character Samantha worked in public relations and I was like, let me explore that. And when I got deeper into it, I realized how important public relations is to the overall field of journalism. We are the people that feed the media the news stories. We get the press releases and media alerts out about our clients. If you have major clients, especially like a corporation, or celebrity-there's always somebody in the press that wants to speak to them, do interviews- so we're always feeding them the latest in what's going on. Representing organizations and talent is pretty much my background and then that transitioned over the years into

Q. Can you tell us more about what a publicist does differently from a manager? Because everybody thinks that a publicist and a manager are kind of the same thing; So, what differentiates the two?

A. So public relations is definitely just more focused on working with the media and how we can relate you to your fans and public overall.

So, we're just making talent more relatable. For example, in order to reach the fans, and how do we do that is through a medium.

Sometimes that medium is social media. On a micro scale, we can't reach every single fan. We cant reach every person in our target market who we're trying to reach. So, you use widely distibuted publications such as

Vogue Magazine to reach as many people as possible within the fashion industry or those with fashion interests. So, we can touch millions, just through a few publications and outlets. A manager is managing your entire business, your manager is going to be the person that counsels you, guides you, and helps you maintain all incoming inquiries and requests. So, then management can break off into so many other things, maybe a PR manager or maybe a brand manager, social media manager; but just a general manager, should be that talent's, most trusted confidant and advisor.

I've worked in the industry for all these years and the best decisions

I've seen. You'll see someone with a smart career, they've made a lot of smart decisions and choices and it reflects in their work. I love creative genius, but for me, when I'm solely working just in public relations for a talent, my main concern is how do we reach the audiences just through a few means, just through a few media outlets and publications. It's so much more intricate than that, but the functions are different, the focus is different.

Q. What are your goals for the next three years?

A. Well, for me, my life is chopped up into every two years because both the Summer and Winter Olympics.

On the sports side, it is the

Olympics, but on the entertainment side, it's annual for me. I would say every two to four years, I'm working on an Olympics, but what I'm really getting ready for is the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. It seems so far away, but I'm thinking, 'How do I get there?', I have to have my mental health, my dietary health, I need to make sure my business is strong enough to sustain the next couple of years. So, I'm getting ready for another Olympics, but the big one for me is Los Angeles 2028.

Within the next couple of years, Los

Angeles is getting a Super Bowl and then there are still those things in between. I'm thinking ahead, but then I work my way backwards and say, 'Okay, what do I want my life to look like in the next couple of years?' 'What type of talent what type of clients do I want to have?' 'What type of partnerships do I want to have intact?' and then I start working on it right now. People are always thinking 'you think too far ahead'; so, I got to operate both in the present and in the future. It's really tricky sometimes.

Q. Tell us about the CBD and the line you have?

A. So, I have a cannabis product line, it's called Mood Sticks. Mood

Sticks is a pre-roll brand. And we use glass tips with vegan papers to roll it in, I really try to move away from using any type of tobacco because those additives are still very cancerous. I want to give the cleanest smoke possible for whoever wants to consume it and, however. So you know how people will take like a Swisher Sweet or something and they'll cut it open, they'll dump the content, and then they'll go in smoke exactly, essentially what they just dumped. They're still using those tobacco leaves as paper. So, I don't want to get into what's good, what isn't good when it comes to tobacco versus cannabis, because those are two different sectors, but tobacco has shown to be cancerous. And Mood Sticks are something that's just giving you pure cannabis smoke via vegan papers. The glass tips, extracts all that tar from the THC; you get the very pure smoke. We do a lot of branding in this area, it's a new concept and so, right now just educating audiences is important. People want to know, is this going to make me sleepy, is this going to make me hyper is it an upper or a downer. With Mood Sticks, it's color coordinated. Our blue and purple Mood Sticks, are Indica, our orange our golden and red are our Sativa brands and then our green will be our hybrid strains. So, people can kind of get the typ strains; orange/golden and red are our Sativa strains and then our green are Hybrid strains. Consumers can expect the type of smoke they want based on what type of Mood Sticks they purchase. It's highly interactive, but it's also about you controlling the high or stoned effect you get based on the color you pick. Shoppers are becoming more educated about cannabis; they say, 'Hey, I have this ailment or this issue and I want to solve it, how can I get more energy?' or 'How can I relax and calm down because they may have anxiety?' So, it isn’t all about recreational smoking, it's also about what can benefit you medicinally.

Q. What has been the biggest challenge for you in your career?

A. First, the cannabis industry, I would say because of all the regulations and I'll go into the sports and entertainment side as well but being on the forefront of something and you're trying to do things while it's not federally regulated is most challenging. It's still a Schedule one drug and they list it with opioids and barbiturates; however, cannabis is more medicinal. Trying to have a bank account in an industry where it's not accepted federally is complicated. So that's the challenge, but it makes you more of an advocate and makes you more of a fighter. You may become discouraged thinking you can't do business. But at the same time, I'm also advocating for 'free the weed dealers'-- get those people out of jail that were prosecuted. It's just disappointing, I would say in the sports and entertainment industry, being a black woman working in sports, in an industry where, for one, it's so funny, because athletes, trust people that don't even look like us with their money and their careers is mind-boggling. Sometimes I see a lot of mismanagement and that frustrates me the most. My agency tries to provide unique services, where some kind of just treat our athletes as property. I call them our athletes because these are our brothers and our sisters, these are friends, these are people that grew up in our neighborhood, and we cheer them on. Then when they go to the pros, I'm kind of that person in the industry, like, don't forget to give back. And not just for tax purposes. You will find a lot of athletes, male or female athletes, it doesn't matter, I should say, men or women, it doesn't matter; they want to give back to the people and sometimes they just don't know how. They know that they've had a great career, but they don't know how to leverage it in giving back. So, there's a lot of ways to give back; it's not always about hosting a camp, sometimes you just being vocal on matters that affect our communities, or being an advocate, or using your celebrity and your influence to positively impact what's happening to us. At the end of the day, sports and entertainment, it's folly, It's fun, it's a distraction, and its escapism from some real stuff that's going on with us right now. So that will probably have been my biggest challenge in trying to still work and play in the entertainment and sports industry, while there are some real serious things happening in our communities. Sometimes you

want to just put that aside. But I will give the best example: everything that was happening last year with Black Lives Matter. LeBron James saying 'we're just not going to play anymore' and then he has a phone conversation with former President Barack Obama and then he talks to him about 'No, use your power to turn stadiums into voting/polling stations in your cities'. There will be times that we want to give up, but I think at the same time, you got to confront the issues, tap in, be creative, and figure out how can we use whatever influence and power we have to really help our people. So that'd be my best example.

Q. Who would you consider your top five athletes?

A. We got to go with Michael Jordan, because what he was able to do business-wise, and not just on the court, but also what he was able to do with his whole Jordan

Brand. I think Tiger Woods for how he transformed an entire sport that has excluded us, Many don;t realize that what's rooted in those golf and country clubs is various forms of discrimination.

So sometimes we can't even get to the green.His father just did not take that, didn't take exclusion, and being discriminated against. He didn't let that stop them. Number three Serena Williams. Just the power and just watching her grow up seeing two black girls her and

Venus, I'll put them both at three.

With their beadss and the beads flying all over the court during competition. I was like that's some real sisters. How involved, their father was in their careers. They were just game changers. Plus, to see the longevity in their career, they've been playing probably as long as most people have been alive, like, probably half my life.

I've grown up watching them.I just love tennis.Growing up I didn't understand why my grandmother, my great aunt and my mom loved tennis so much. They would watch it all the time then I started to learn the history of it. Just all the black women that have paved the way for Venus and Serena. Even as a member of my sorority Alpha

Kappa Alpha had Althea Gibson breaking barriers and being the first to win a Grand Slam title. Just thinking 'Wow, black people are 2014. It was my first time out of the country, I went to Russia. That was tough I didn't know the language or anything about the country. This story is special because it goes back to my upbring as well. I was listening to the news and they were saying don't go to Russia for the Olympics. They really try to scare people from traveling to the games. I was determined to attend because I worked hard for my Olympians. We we’re going to Russia and that was final. It was challenging to even plan, but a simple reminder is what helped me get through it. Paul Robeson. I attended a school for his namesake titled Paul Robeson Classical Greek Middle School. Paul Robeson was received by the Russians. I went back to his life story and he became a guiding light for me. It felt like an Ancestral Spirit, that told me to 'go for it, they are going to tell you that Russians don't like black people, they're going to tell you that you're not safe in Russia'. but he was well-received in Russia, so much so that they thought he was a communist. When he came back to the States, he had to go in for a congressional hearing. Thinking back on my time in Russia, the experience was amazing. People were in awe. Walking around town, I had a black Olympian with me, and even my business partner who is Liberian- American.The locals were so drawn to us and wanted their families to take pictures with us. I broke down-even for myself so many stereotypes about what I thought I knew about Russia, and I definitely want to go back. I was near the Black Sea. When we came back home and shared our experiences only but a few could relate. There was an Olympic welcome home event hosted by Sal Masekela for Microsoft. While speaking on stage about his experience during the Russian Olympics he was just as culture shocked. He recalled, 'Man, the way the Russians treated me as a black person was amazing. Then he was like, wait, see those black people in the back of the room that's listening. He was like, y'all know what was up? Y'all were there too'. And he shouted us out. Like in front of all the guests. He was like, 'aren't I telling the truth?'

still continuing a legacy'. I would say number four, Simone Biles. Just watching her career, that's somebody I really wanted to work with, she's amazing, she changed the sport of gymnastics on a global scale, she will forever go down as the best gymnast who has ever lived male, female doesn't matter. Number five, this is crazy. I'm going to say, Michael Phelps. Because for swimming, he got people interested in the sport from the United States perspective, because a lot of European nations were doing well, then he got out there. And what I love about Michael Phelps, and what I can even take away for even black athletes is that he's tall. I tell people he's successful in this sport because he's tall. So, he's lean, he can touch that wall before anybody. We are known for having tall men and women, so I'm like, 'Come on, guys. he's just showing you it's not even who he is. It's the body type that helps him succeed'. So, I feel like maybe you didn't have a basketball career, maybe you're tall, but you're not even interested in basketball as a sport and you want to try another sport, get into swimming. if I could I want to change that number five, and say, Simone Manuel instead. Simone Manuel, because a black woman again, breaking stereotypes in the world, and winning a gold medal for swimming is why I love the Olympics. It expands to other sports that are not popular in the United States, but internationally, man, black people dominate. We dominate in marathon running, dominate track and field. So, that was a tough five because I was thinking of so many sports, but those people to me were gamechangers, and then they have the business behind them to kind of go for it. Simone Biles and Simone Manuel, I wish they had a little bit better business plans for engaging with our communities; but thats where we need more black people to get into the business of sports. So, we can really just knock it out of the park. I have some ideas that will be coming up in the next couple of years.

Q. So, being in the sports and the

Olympics, what has been one of your memorable experiences?

A. Going to the Winter Olympics in

and we were like happy to agree. Over time we bonded over the experience, but I didn't even know his father was the famous South African musician Hugh Masekela who used his art to tell the stories about apartheid in South Africa. Naysayers are going to tell us that we are not safe in this world. They will tell us that there's no place for us to go. But my team and I shattered all those myths for so many others who wants to travel. I can attest that we were well received. As I continue to learn more about our history, and our place in this world, I'm discovering how prominent we have been across various empires. We're excellent people. So, I love it. Black pride.

But flashing back, yeah it was my first time out of the country. My next time will be Bejing then Paris. Thanks to the Olympics I've also been to Brazil and South Korea even with the same narratives and fear tactics telling us not to go to the favelas, you might get robbed, don't tell people you're Americans, etc. I just learned not to listen to people, just go with my own gut instinct.

Q. Do you have any projects or upcoming events?

A. A lot of things I can't really talk about because my business partner, Richard Thorpe, Jr says wait until the ink is dry. This is with a major company and they want to be the first to break the news. But the project is for my client Jasmine

Fenlator who was on the USA women's bobsled team. She did well, she made the Olympics. And then she came back home, and she was still facing a lot of the same discrimination, prejudice, racism, things like that. And I said, 'Isn't your father Jamaican?' You're a female bobsledder with a Jamaican father, why don't you leave team

USA and go help develop a black nation? Why don't you forget Team

USA; and then we started the first-ever women's bobsled team for Team Jamaica. And so, they competed at the 2018 Olympics.

There are so many other things, a lot of projects with our athletes, As endorsement deals roll out, we'll announce the news, but there is so much that we dont dwell on it. We simply mark it off our list and keep it moving.

Q. Do you think that publicists get enough credit for what they do?

A. They don't get any credit, you barely see them. If it were me, I would want to give a special credit to everybody that has helped me.

This is evident when talent wins an Academy Awards. They never say 'I want to thank my publicist.'

Even though the publicist is the one that makes sure they hit the red carpet for awards show season, they look good during campaign bids and nomination season. Publicists make sure that the media is being utilized for them to even get the votes because people don't realize when you're going for an Oscar that you have to go do alot of press. The PR is the one helping you promote your show PR is the one helping you promote your projects, film, or show. Publicists will promote your new single, and then that song will go on and do well, yet they won't even put their publicist in their Instagram bios. Celebrities don't neccessarily need to say thank you to my publicist for securing the cover of this magazine, because we work behind the scenes, it's our job, but what I've realized is that especially being a black woman in this entertainment industry, is that they will try to make us hidden figures. The other executives will try to make it where we do the work and somebody else takes the credit

But I always want to give good examples too. An A-list such as Halle Berry during a red carpet for a movie premiere will be guided by studio executives who will tell her 'Oh, you don't have time to talk to the black media', but she pushes back and recognizes our brothers and sisters on the red carpet working to secure interviews. Hollywood executives want top-tier celebrities to skip over black media on the red carpet and she has been noted for having the attitude of asking 'How much time do you need?' If they need 15 minutes, she will give them 30. When helping one another we must be that aggressive. We have to go above and beyond to really show appreciation for black media. Lastly, I just want to shout out to billionaire Byron Allen, because he is going hard for black media right now saying 'Why aren't you giving your advertising dollars to black media? If your budget for advertising is $2 billion this year, 25% of that should be going to black media'. Can you imagine black magazines receiving multi-million dollar from advertising budgets, per outlet or publication on average? I love his approach. When we rise up in our careers, is not good enough just for one of us to rise up. I need my brothers and sisters to be doing well, too, We must. It is great to see our billionaires also fighting for us. Also, we still keep in mind our beginners- those who are starting to find their place in this industry. We got to work together. We have to. I, in particular have no target audience. I have a diverse range of clients from Latina, to Italian, but at the Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission, and they also have a Lakers all-access where volunteers could come out because they were trying to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles. So, there's a lot of opportunities, I used to volunteer for the Chick-Fil-A, I would work in the media hospitality suite. Volunteering can really help you break into some rooms. Because when it comes time, now that you have the experience, now you can turn that into a job, hopefully, within media opportunties. I would say the same thing. Start local, every city/town has a local news station, learn about what they do, ask especially if you're in college and you're interning or even before internship, explain that you just want to get more experience, you might want to shadow somebody for a day. So, get involved, be a helping hand. And that's what we're all in business to do is to help people, help assist and support. So as long as you're helping people, you will always have work, you'll always be able to get clients and gain new business. So, whatever it is, you do start local, it might seem something small, but small blogs, small newspapers feed into a services such as the Associated Press. In media everyone is working together. So never think that something is too small because it can feed into a larger machine. We are so interconnected, we need one another. So, you being really excellent, even if it's in a small market or space can still get the attention because we all came from somewhere. So, you'll be surprised some of the most prominent people started at HBCUs or they started with a small local newspaper or they started entry-level. So, we all grow in progress. So that is the gist. That's like the infinite loop. It's like the circle of life. It just doesn't stop going. So, what goes around comes around.

same time, we're multicultural. Everything I do, I do it for us. It might take me longer to get to the top of where I'm going, but I will get there. I'm extremely persistent.

Q. What advice can you give to somebody that wants to be in the sports industry or want to be a publicist?

A. For one for the sports industry, I always say start local. Start with your local team, for example, if

I was in Atlanta, and let's say I wanted to work with the Falcons,

I would probably seek out some volunteer opportunities while

I was in college, or even high school, summer jobs. Companies are always extending volunteer opportunities, you'll come to find out, there are 50- and 60-yearold people that are volunteering, because they have experience and they want to stay active in the field, so they volunteer their time. The Superbowl that's coming to LA, there are some instances where companies can get paid for their services. But there'll be some volunteer opportunities,

I volunteered with the Los

Q. Tell everybody where they can follow you?

A. Follow me at @LadyLilaBrown on Instagram and Twitter and my agency Instagram account is at @ TeamEBMG for EB Media Group on Twitter.