>> I'm Dr.

Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., and this is "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> It is -- In my opinion, the greater part of life itself and success are the people you surround yourself with and, in many cases, the people you get to be in the same room with.

>> Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following.

At Wells Fargo, we continue to look for ways to empower our customers.

We seek broad impact in our communities, and we're proud of the role we play for our customers and the US economy.

As a company, we are focused on supporting our customers and communities through housing access, small-business growth, financial health, and other community needs.

Together, we want to make a tangible difference in people's lives.

Wells Fargo -- the bank of doing.

American Petroleum Institute -- our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental, and sustainability progress throughout the natural gas and oil industry.

Learn more -- api.org/apienergyexcellence.

Reynolds American -- dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed to ensuring your money, health, and happiness live as long as you do.

♪♪ >> We're very honored to have on "The Chavis Chronicles" one of our nation's leading entrepreneurs in entertainment and in sports, Paxton Baker.

Welcome to "The Chavis Chronicles.

>> Thank you.

Honored to be here.

>> Look, man, you have over 30 years in the industries -- entertainment and sports.

But you are originally from Compton, California.

>> Absolutely.

that got out and made a big difference.

>> Thank you, sir.

Yeah.

It's a beautiful place to be from.

I love California, but I've had a chance to live in 11 states now.

And in 2016, I finished visiting all 50 of them.

And that was a joy.

>> What brought you to the nation's capital?

>> I lived in D.C.

between '82 to '84, in between junior college and college in Pittsburgh.

And then I went to Temple University and studied African-American studies.

And so I lived in D.C.

in that interim period in the early '80s.

And then I moved back And I've been back here ever since.

When I originally moved, I moved here from Miami Beach and worked with an organization called The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, which has now been renamed The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz.

>> Well, you know Thelonius Monk was a native of North Carolina.

>> That's right.

Rocky Mount, right?

>> Yes.

>> Okay.

Yeah.

>> Carolina.

>> [ Laughs ] Gotta love it.

>> Home state.

>> Yeah.

This is my favorite city in the world.

I love it.

It's so many different communities and different elements in one and from the local government to the sports community to the international community, with the ambassadors, and then of course Congress and the Senate, different administrations that kind of come and go.

Wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

>> Well, obviously, you have a very diverse background.

You mentioned that key to business is building relationships.

>> Yes, sir.

>> You were an executive of Black Entertainment Television, BET, at a time that the notion that African-Americans would own a channel on television was unheard of.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> Talk to us about your relationship building that led to you being one >> My relationship with BET started in 1991.

I was producing a music festival that year in Aruba, the Aruba Jazz & Latin Music Festival.

And BET sent a magazine show down to cover it, the festival.

Most of them were kind of centered on interviewing the musicians who were there for the festival, but also a lot of color shots about the island.

Aruba was an incredible place.

And they came down and shot a show.

And then the next year, I worked with the tourist board in St.

Lucia to start the St.

Lucia Jazz Festival and ended up producing that for 24 years.

And BET came back, and they came back as a sponsor.

So, it was a gentleman named Allen Chastanet, who was the director of tourism.

We pitched Bob Johnson on coming down to being a sponsor for the festival.

They came down and embraced it, loved the island.

incredibly beautiful island.

and we went from there.

We ended up pitching them the next year to produce a TV show called "Caribbean Rhythms," which ended up being shot across the whole of the Caribbean.

And so it was kind of a nice blend.

The start of the relationship started with culture.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> And it was figuring out a way to marry music, entertainment itself, and then with the natural beauty of the islands.

And so that's how my relationship with BET started.

And then in '99, I was offered the opportunity to run the Jazz Channel, which I had helped start a few years earlier.

And it was kind of a game-changing piece for me financially on kind of growing from that.

>> Yes.

>> And started from there.

>> When Viacom bought BET, it was global news.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> And then you make the transition to sports.

You explained how you rose to the top of BET, but how do you get into professional sports.

Particularly at one time, was fairly exclusive.

>> It still is exclusive.

But as you talked about when we were talking earlier, it is -- In my opinion, the greater part of life itself and success are the people you surround yourself with and, in many cases, the people you get to be in the same room with and grow from a relationship basis.

My mother was the greatest influence in my life -- Amelia Baker.

And secondary to that would be Harry Belafonte and also Clarence Avant, were my two -- Harry was my father, and Clarence was my godfather.

And I met both of them -- >> Two giants.

>> Yes, they helped me grow as a human being, as a man, and helped me see things the way they saw them, and also the possibilities of what you could do with your life by way of kind of guiding stars, if you will.

And then I would add Bob Johnson, from a business perspective, because Bob gave me my first real start in the entertainment business.

And as I mentioned, I sold my company to them.

And then I was able to participate in the sale of BET to Viacom.

Bob, of course, became the first African-American billionaire.

And then Sheila became the second African-American billionaire.

>> His wife.

>> His wife.

And then it kind of grew from there with, I think... >> Who's still a major entrepreneur today.

>> Absolutely.

Yeah.

She was right there with it and a wonderful person.

So, that would kind of be the start of it.

Specifically around sports, I call him the most famous dentist in the world.

His name was Dr.

Ronnie Rosenberg.

I was in his chair one day, and he asked me, had I been following the Nationals, who were the former Montreal Expos?

Major League Baseball took over the team in receivership and made a decision to move it to the States.

And they shopped in Portland, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Jacksonville, Florida, Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia, on the possibility of moving the team there.

The city council stepped up and said that they would put up the $650-million bond to build the stadium, which is now Nationals Park, which opened in 2008.

But they wanted to have significant minority participation in the ownership group.

So, I don't mind saying that I'm the benefi-- I've certainly benefited from diversity, and I've tried to live it and preach it every step along the way from my end.

>> In addition to Major League Baseball... >> Mm-hmm.

>> ...you also into tennis and you've been in and out of soccer.

Are there pathways available for people to get into the sports industry, not only, you know, as talent, but also as management and eventually owners?

>> So, the answer is yes, yes, and yes a million different times over.

Here in Washington, for example, the Washington Nationals have the Washington Nationals Academy.

And it's a life training academy.

And our goal is to train people in the business around sports itself, young people and around sports -- so, everything from scorekeeping to groundskeepers to training, physical fitness, physical therapy.

And nutrition is one of the keys to the program there.

So, we've operated that for well over 10 years.

And it's not so much a matter of somebody being less fortunate than you, but, you know, as you grow and get older, you see things and you -- at least, my hope is you want to bring people up with you.

From my crew of people that I've worked with both at BET, where I ended up being executive for 16 years, and all of the productions that I've done around the world, it is, like, I don't want to be the only one that's successful.

I want to make sure the people who are around me have that opportunity of success.

And I feel confident living my life that I've done that.

>> So, the mentee becomes a mentor.

>> Absolutely.

>> You're an insider now... >> Mm-hmm.

>> ...of Major League Baseball and, to some extent, tennis and soccer.

What would you recommend to people in terms of preparation to get into one of these pathways to professional sports?

>> One I would say is being original in your own way, whatever that happens to be.

I think Miles Davis said, [imitating Miles Davis] "People got to play a long time to learn to sound like themselves."

[ Normal voice ] And the premise behind that of, like, learning a long time to sound like yourself you come up emulating somebody who you think is great.

And often in basketball it's the same way.

Like, Kobe Bryant played like Michael Jordan and did interviews like Michael Jordan, studied Michael Jordan meticulously.

And then at some point, he became Kobe Bryant.

Same thing with jazz music.

And so I think in your own life that part of what distinguishes you from anybody else that walks in the room is you, like, your own internal being, your own internal self, like being yourself, learning how to be yourself.

So, that would be one.

And then two would be preparation from the perspective of adding things to the equation.

Why am I going to include you in something?

Why do you need to be included in something?

Like, learning that internal sense of self and having that confidence.

When I walk into the room, my presence alone brings valuable results.

Of getting to that point and actually believing it yourself.

And then financial, being prepared financially, by way of having savings.

One part of my investment piece is I tell people like, never bet or invest in one singular investment that you can't afford to lose.

So, that grows with time if you're successful.

>> Yes.

>> And part of life, as far as the financial successful part of it, that's part of the equation, is when you get that opportunity to be prepared to invest.

>> So, investment is a strategy, not just a one-time contribution to see if you can make something back.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

Most majority sports owners of teams now in all of the major leagues, like baseball, basketball, football, hockey, but also Major League Soccer, most of the principal owners are billionaires across the board.

And as you can see from the top sports, when the sales are going in -- Like, the lowest basketball team recently was the Charlotte Hornets, and that was right around $2 billion, whereas the higher teams now have been in the $6-, $7-billion range, or the Lakers, $10 billion.

And so the range is between $2 to $10 billion.

And so for the NBA, for example, you have to -- To get into an ownership for an NBA team, you have to invest 1% of the ownership.

So you have to have that as ancillary capital that's not what you're eating off of or living off because you're about to invest that.

And so that's $20 million, right, minimum.

So, between $20 million to $100 million to buy 1% of a basketball team.

Baseball team valuations aren't quite so high, but the minimum -- The Baltimore Orioles just sold for a little south of $2 billion.

And David Rubenstein was the principal buyer and now owner of the Orioles.

So, the Commanders was, what, a little south of $7 billion?

And so these are -- these are real numbers.

And to buy into it, you have to be very well-heeled.

I personally think, just to veer a little bit, that the, upside on a $6-billion investment is going to be limited for a short term because it's gonna go to, what, $7 billion?

And in the case of the Commanders, the principal owners of that don't need to sell that to make any money on it.

They're very well ensconced in being multibillionaires.

So, my premise now is it's the smaller sports where you're gonna give an opportunity to have an entry point to it.

So, I just invested in the Old Glory rugby team, which is in Major League Rugby... >> Rugby?

>> Yeah.

Rugby.

>> That's a growing sport in America?

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

It's in the top 10 most popular sports in the world, maybe even like six or seven.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> But it's very big in Scotland.

It's very big in South Africa and Australia and New Zealand.

The New Zealand All Blacks are probably the most popular rugby team in the world.

Pretty amazing.

So, rugby.

Cricket is about to start in the US.

They're about to start that.

That's one of the top 10 sports in the world, as well.

Women's soccer -- In my opinion, right now women's sports are probably the greatest opportunity, both from a soccer perspective, and then there's now women's rugby.

There's two different leagues for women's rugby.

I'm sorry.

Women's rugby is one league.

Women's volleyball is two leagues.

And I think it's those sports right now that give somebody the greatest opportunity to kind of grow.

Depending on where it's at, investment could start somewhere around $100,000 on up in the smaller sports, whereas for the larger sports, that wouldn't get you in the door.

>> We live in a nation where, on the one hand, diversity is celebrated, but on the other hand, sometimes diversity is seen as a sign of weakness rather than a sign of strength.

How do you, Paxton, value diversity?

>> I think it's everything.

the bulk of the opportunities that I've had.

I mentioned being born in Compton, and I was born in 1960.

So I've seen segregation firsthand from my youth kind of coming up.

My family was one of two Black families in 1966 that integrated a Seventh-day Adventist -- I was raised Seventh-day Adventist and -- a Seventh-day Adventist private school in San Bernardino, California.

We moved out of California -- I mean out of Los Angeles after the '65 Watts riots and moved to San Bernardino.

And my family integrated a white Christian school, private school.

And inasmuch as public schools got a whole lot of, you know, appropriate energy for when they were integrated -- in particular like in Arkansas and Alabama and Mississippi -- California was no joke, either, on the pervasiveness of racism... >> Yes.

>> ...and what it felt like.

And so there was no big cameras around or anything like that when we did ours, but it was really kind of going through it.

So, I have faced and had to participate in diversity the whole of my life.

I'm glad that the neighborhood that I lived in, that I was able to kind of come out of that neighborhood and be very comfortable in white and Black environments.

And it's made all of the difference in my life.

Many who did not get that opportunity never made it out of the neighborhoods that I was born into.

And it would have been my fate had it not been for my mother having the foresight to say, "Hey, I want my children to have an opportunity to be diverse and be in an environment that's better, from a life perspective, than the neighborhoods that we're living in right now."

>> Well, I know your mother would be very pleased with you now.

>> Thank you, sir.

She was before she passed.

>> Yes.

Tell us a little bit more about PKB Enterprises.

I started a production company would have been in 1988.

And I was working with Philip Michael Thomas.

It was toward the end of "Miami Vice."

And Philip was a family friend from California and always challenged me and pushed me.

I hadn't seen him in years.

We ran back together in Atlanta in '88, and he had a theater in North Miami Beach.

And I ended up becoming general manager of his theater, and we started a children's youth foundation, named after him, the Philip Michael Thomas Foundation.

And Philip really is a preacher of entrepreneurial-ism.

And he refreshed me with the book that's made -- I would say, certainly outside the Bible, is the most prolific book in my life, that's called "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.

It's sold more copies and -- probably now hundreds of millions of copies.

There was a brother named Dennis Kimbro who rewrote it, called "Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice."

And he gave examples, whereas Napoleon Hill, he was challenged to write the book by Andrew Carnegie, who gave him a challenge and wrote introductions to people like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, a wide array of great magnates in American history at the time, and introduced him to them.

And then he compiled -- It took him about 30 years to write the book, and he compiled this book called "Think and Grow Rich."

And it's basically success secrets.

I started reading it at 17 years old.

I was a high-school dropout living between Arkansas and Alabama.

My parents were from the South.

And I went there, and, it put me back on track and helped almost, like, change the whole of my life trajectory, this book.

>> So, reading... >> Oh, reading, yeah.

>> ...and reading the right book... >> Right.

Exactly.

>> ...can make a life-changing difference.

>> 100%.

I mean, and that's part of -- that's part of -- Like, when you asked me the question about getting into ownership, it's, like, the preparation that I'm talking about.

And so for that book, the core of it is what Napoleon Hill called a positive mental attitude.

And then the second is sound physical health.

Third is harmony in human relationships.

So, there's 12 success secrets.

And the last of this is economic security.

It's like, there's so many different things that go into being a wealthy and successful that have nothing to do with money.

Money for Napoleon Hill was the last part of the component.

So, when I mention -- And that's part of what I was getting at, sir, when you asked me earlier about, like, you know, "How do you get there?"

-- it's being prepared Like, you being prepared.

And ultimately, for Napoleon Hill, he's like, "You will know when you're ready.

And then the opportunities that come along then, you're prepared to actually participate with them because you're prepared internally."

So, I'm a big believer in that preparation component for it.

And you feel it.

Like, you feel -- Like, it's -- He called it working yourself into a white heat of desire for success.

And my competition is -- Now, at this point, for a long time, it's been within myself to be prepared, to be successful, to be hungry, to challenge myself.

I don't need that from anything externally.

It's all internal.

>> You mentioned that at one point you were a high-school dropout.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> What turned you around?

>> Well I would certainly say the anchor and core of it for me has been the love of my mother, by way of that's always been there for me.

And even after she passed, it's still there for me now 'cause I feel it every single day.

It's been that.

And then friends and encouragement and then putting the resources, putting the plan in place, being very fastidious and dogged about those steps along the way to get there.

And it can happen for you.

My life is a true example of that because, like, I wasn't supposed to necessarily be where I am based on where I was born and based on the circumstances that I was born into.

So, it's possible.

>> Well, absolutely it's possible.

You're a living example that it's possible, a manifestation of success.

So, what gives you your greatest hope for the future?

>> Where we're at right now in our country's history -- in Washington, D.C., to be very specific about that -- is the foundational -- the foundational guidance that the country was actually started for.

I mentioned earlier in the conversation that I've been to all 50 states.

And I see people in rural Vermont, rural Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, California, I think are the hope and vision that our country was originally founded on and the institutions that were put in place will endure regardless of who's leading the country.

>> So, you're optimistic?

>> Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And then, I mean, as a people, Doc, you more than anybody, candidly, would know, as far as living icons and living legends and the legend that people have, like, lived through in their life -- I mean, you think about what you went to jail for and what you fought for and the difference between now -- You're hosting a TV show.

You're leading the National Newspaper Association.

And the successes that you've had and the things that you've been able to have seen -- Back in the '60s and '70s, some of your successes weren't even humanly possible.

>> Yes.

>> And you're hosting today.

You went to prison for 10 years.

>> Well, we all stand on shoulders.

>> Yeah, we stand on the shoulders of great people, but as far as where things were to what they are now, I wouldn't exist.

There's no way you'd have -- I'm in six sports ownership groups right now.

There's no way that 50 years ago, 30 years ago, that that would have been even humanly possible for us as Black people.

>> Yes.

>> As minorities in this country, that would not have been possible.

So, it is possible today, and we're living it.

And my partners, when given opportunities for me, I'm generally told, "You can come in by yourself or you can bring people."

I bring people every time.

>> That's great.

>> I've never gone into one group since the beginning and didn't bring partners in with me and give people opportunities to come along with me for the doors that were open for me to bring other people along with me.

So, it is that hope for me that I continue to live with and hope to share and imbue and share with other people to give that same opportunity that I've been given.

>> Paxton Baker, thank you for joining >> Thank you, sir.

Honored to be here.

>> For more information about "The Chavis Chronicles" and our guests, visit our website at TheChavisChronicles.com.

Also, follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following.

At Wells Fargo, we continue to look for ways to empower our customers.

We seek broad impact in our communities, and we're proud of the role we play for our customers and the U.S.

economy.

As a company, we are focused on supporting our customers and communities through housing access, small-business growth, financial health, and other community needs.

Together, we want to make a tangible difference in people's lives.

Wells Fargo -- the bank of doing.

American Petroleum Institute -- our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental, and sustainability progress throughout the natural gas and oil industry.

Learn more -- api.org/apienergyexcellence.

Reynolds American -- dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed health, and happiness live as long as you do.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪