Sian Morson: Founder and CEO
Episode Description:
Sian Morson wears many hats. She is an entrepreneur, investor, producer and story-teller. She’s launched a number of companies and is the co-founder of the Starfish Accelerator. She’s a filmmaker whose film, “A Luv Tale,” is currently streaming on Amazon. She’s also an expert on Web3. If you’ve ever wondered what exactly Web3 is or “what’s a NFT” listen to this episode because Fanshen and Sian break it all down.
TRANSCRIPT:
00:00:11:05 - 00:00:44:23
FANSHEN: Hi, you're listening to Sista Brunch, the podcast about Black women and gender expansive people thriving in entertainment and media. I'm your host, Fanshen Cox, and today's guest is my friend, my colleague, certainly a person that I look up to. Sian Morson. So Sian, is the definition of multi-hyphenate personified. She is a change agent, entrepreneur, investor, producer and storyteller. She's launched a number of companies and is the co-founder of the Starfish Accelerator.
00:00:44:25 - 00:00:56:18
FANSHEN: She's also a filmmaker, and she and I are actually working on a project together. We met several years ago at South by Southwest and always knew we'd find something to work on together. So welcome, Sian.
00:00:56:26 - 00:01:00:09
SIAN: Thank you for having me. It's so wonderful to be here.
00:01:00:11 - 00:01:13:29
FANSHEN: Sian is entering into the world of podcast too, so this is a great kind of a great guinea pig for you to see that you know, we're going to demystify the process for you and say, you too can do this.
00:01:14:01 - 00:01:19:20
SIAN: I think this is a way for you to keep me on the hook because now that it's been announced, then I can't really back out of it, can I?
00:01:19:22 - 00:01:21:18
FANSHEN: That was pretty much my plan.
00:01:23:18 - 00:01:43:13
FANSHEN: So, Sian, I realized that I know so much about you as a business person because I've always admired everything you do, but I also don't know a whole lot about where you're from and where you were born and what was life like for you and how what was your journey to get to where you are today?
00:01:43:15 - 00:02:13:28
SIAN: Wow. Mean where do I start? I was born actually in Antigua in the Caribbean. And the story is, is that my my father is from Curacao and my mother is from Montserrat. So my mom got pregnant in Curacao and she was traveling back to Montserrat. And I decided that. I needed to be born. So she had to get off the plane and have me in Antigua, which is funny. So, yeah.
00:02:14:00 - 00:02:47:08
SIAN: And I have no relatives there or anything. So actually a few years ago I went back and spent two weeks in Antigua by myself, and it was wonderful. It was wonderful. We left. We left Montserrat, and then we went to Saint Thomas, the Virgin Islands. So that's where I spent most of my formative years. And then I moved to New York when I was 11. And that was pretty interesting because we moved, you know, you picture growing up on islands where everyone's Black, basically. Right? And that was I think that really sort of shaped me.
00:02:47:10 - 00:03:20:10
SIAN: And then I landed on Staten Island, New York, which is like working class Italians and Irish people and people telling me I was African. And I was like, What? No, I'm not African. It was just talk about culture shock. But it was I wouldn't I wouldn't really change my upbringing for anything, you know. So I spent all my time in New York junior high school, high school, and went to NYU. I studied film there. I went to High School of Art and Design. So I'm a proud product of the New York City public school system.
00:03:20:26 - 00:03:32:08
SIAN: Um, and then I got my masters in, in London, so I've moved around quite a bit, quite a bit. But it wasn't until I landed in California that things started to crystallize with regards to tech and all of that good stuff.
00:03:32:10 - 00:03:50:03
FANSHEN: What were the storytelling sparks for you? How did you know that, you wanted to go into filmmaking? How did you know that you wanted to go to the High School of Art and Design? Like what? What were those? Were seeds planted from your family or was it I want to do something that I don't see people like me doing, Right?
00:03:50:05 - 00:04:22:27
SIAN: Right. So, um, I'm sure, you know, when you grow up with immigrant parents, they sort of chart your course For you and for me, I was meant to be a doctor, and my brother was meant to be a lawyer. And I was washing dishes actually one day and I cut my finger and it appeared that because I was washing dishes and the water was warm, it appeared that the entire sink was like filled with my blood and keeled over. So I was like, okay, medicine is not going to work for me at all.
00:04:22:29 - 00:04:56:06
SIAN: That's not an option. Um, but I used to draw. I was always very creative. And so I think that sort of pointed me towards the High School of Art and Design, which you had to take a little test to get into and, you know, going to that. So I'm not sure how much you know about New York City public school, but you select your high school much like you would select a university, and some of them can be quite competitive. Um, and so I had to take like a test. I had to have a portfolio to get into art and design. And, the thing about art and design was it was, it was in Manhattan at the time.
00:04:56:08 - 00:05:27:06
SIAN: I was living in the Bronx, and it was like an hour to get on the train to go down to the city. But that opened my world in such an incredible way, leaving the Bronx, going downtown and seeing the city, going to the village, seeing, you know, CBGB's and all of that cool stuff just opened my mind up in a way that I'm pretty sure would not have happened if I'd stayed in the Bronx. And so that's when while I was at High School of Art and Design, I was able to select a major as well.
00:05:27:08 - 00:05:58:13
SIAN: So I selected Media Arts, which naturally folded into film. NYU was right there. It was almost like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I applied, I got in. And so I actually was raised Seventh-Day Adventist. And so we were not allowed to go to the movies. Yeah. So I opted to major in something that I had virtually no experience in because we didn't go to the movies growing up, But I just. It was the storytelling. It was it was just being able to tell stories.
00:05:58:15 - 00:06:04:24
SIAN: I was always writing stories. And so I was like, Well, this is a natural extension of that. And so that's how I that's how I landed.
00:06:05:13 - 00:06:08:14
FANSHEN: I love it. We had
00:06:08:16 - 00:06:39:20
FANSHEN: Tamar-kali here, the composer, musician. And I love talking to people who were living in and exposed to New York City because it really is a place where you get exposure to lots of different kinds of people and therefore lots of stories just from walking outside your door, right? Like LA is so spread out that you can be in a neighborhood and always only see the folks in your neighborhood like you barely want to go east of La Brea, as they say.
00:06:39:22 - 00:06:54:15
FANSHEN: Right? Whereas New York really seems to plant those seeds. A question about that. You were an immigrant at 11. How and why did you lose your accent or had you grown up without it?
00:06:54:21 - 00:07:26:15
SIAN: There's so many things I want to expand on. So the accent was something that my father instilled in us. He so when I came up, I had my little West Indian accent. I thought. It was cute. None of the kids thought it was cute. I was constantly getting questions, but my father was like, You're going to speak proper English. And so he basically instilled that into my brother and I. But I will tell you, if I go down to Florida and I'm in a room with my cousins, it's like somebody else completely, you know, having a conversation.
00:07:26:17 - 00:07:40:24
SIAN: It's like it comes right back. And I want to say to Tamar-kali is someone that I'm very familiar with because so we know AfroPunk as this music festival. But James Spooner started AfroPunk back in the day.
00:07:40:26 - 00:07:42:18
FANSHEN: Documentary. Yes.
00:07:42:20 - 00:08:08:11
SIAN: And I was a massive fan of AfroPunk. I think it was like MySpace was out. I remember living in London at the time, but I was completely enamored with Tamar-kali and her music. She did like punk music. It was driving. It was hard. And I was just kind of like, Who is this? She was bald. She had the nose ring. I just thought she was the coolest person ever. And it wasn't until recently that I found out that she's actually a composing music now, which is fantastic.
00:08:08:13 - 00:08:39:03
FANSHEN: She sure is. And that's something we love talking with her about to and I feel like you represent this in so many ways in this conversation we'll have is a non-conformist representation of Blackness of queerness of of tech right like we get siloed and then we get essentialist like, oh, you have to be this certain way. I love knowing you're from the Caribbean and that is that you don't only focus on that.
00:08:39:05 - 00:09:09:26
FANSHEN: And so I feel like you're such a good representation for that, that actually I want to shift right into talking about NFTs the blockchain Web3 because it is a perfect example of something that we don't all see ourselves in Black women, gender expansive people, but we need to be a part of we need to not get left behind in that. So just start with what is it?
00:09:11:02 - 00:09:42:07
SIAN: Well, so there's two things. There are NFTs, right? Non-fungible tokens, but there's also the larger concept, which is web3, which is just basically the next iteration of the Internet, right? So I don't even think we're at Web3 yet. I do feel strongly that we're probably at but like Web 2.5, which is, which is really about ownership and giving ownership back to the individual, um, leveraging blockchain technology.
00:09:42:09 - 00:09:55:22
SIAN: And so the blockchain is just this expansive ledger. One of the words you'll hear being used with the blockchain is transparency, because every transaction is on the ledger, every single transaction. So whatever you do. Everyonecan see it.
00:09:55:24 - 00:09:57:13
FANSHEN: Ledger is an open source.
00:09:58:12 - 00:10:27:22
SIAN: Go on to ether scan and I could see if I have your wallet address, I could see when you've bought an NFT, when you sold an NFT, when you sent something to someone. And that holds true across the board now. Nfts Non-fungible tokens, they're just digital assets. So an NFT can be a film. There's a huge movement right now in this space called Film3 that's being spearheaded by a friend of mine called Jordan Bain. It could be music.
00:10:28:01 - 00:10:48:13
SIAN: And so another friend of mine, Latasha, is was like the first female rapper on the blockchain. She's actually a force in the space. But I think what people know most of all are, you know, what we call PFPs, which are profile picture projects, and those are the bored apes or the cool cats and things like Wait.
00:10:48:15 - 00:10:52:06
FANSHEN: Wait, wait, you say that like we know what it means, What's a bored ape and what's a cool cat?
00:10:52:08 - 00:11:26:26
SIAN: The the bored apes are these pictures of monkeys, right? Don't get me started on that whole thing. That's a whole other thing. Right? But they are probably what probably is one of the most successful NFT projects on the planet. Those things at the height of the market were going for hundreds of thousands of dollars a piece. And so a cool cat is a similar thing. It's about 10,000 different variations of a cool of a cat, a blue cat. I used to work there, actually. Um, just different permutations, you know, some have had, some have scarves, some have glasses, some have four eyes.
00:11:26:28 - 00:11:57:00
SIAN: And so they're algorithmically generated. And so those are profile picture projects. And so there's been a lot of talk about them. And so when you hear about Nfts, I think that is the first thing that people think. I am more interested in artwork, digital artwork, but but one of one artworks, which means that they're real artists creating unique pieces for sale or for collection. And why I am excited about it was I told you I went to film school.
00:11:57:02 - 00:12:28:15
SIAN: I had a spell where I was making video art, and one of the questions that I got from potential collectors was, How do I know you're not going to take this? And sell it, you know, how do I know this is an original? And I actually never had an answer for that question until NFTs came about. Right. So the NFT, the the token itself is like a super long number that is assigned to that digital asset and it cannot be changed. That's, where you get the term non-fungible.
00:12:28:17 - 00:13:04:10
SIAN: So fungibility refers to, you know, if you have a dollar and I have a dollar that's fungible dollars or dollars a dollar, right? This token that's attached to this digital asset can never be changed once it is inscribed on the blockchain. So when you create a piece of art, it's called minting. So you mint it, you place it on the blockchain, it gets assigned this token, it is there forever. It is immutable, it cannot be changed. And so that is that opens up a whole new world, particularly for artists, right? The other thing that's wonderful about that is I meant a piece of artwork.
00:13:04:12 - 00:13:39:20
SIAN: I can then say for the life of that piece, I then can say I would like 5% of royalties every time that piece of art changes hands. And that was really exciting for me because I know lots of artists, I know, I know really famous artists. They don't get paid every time their artwork changes hands, right? I don't know if you remember when Kerry James Marshall sold a piece, I think it was P Diddy that ended up buying it. It was probably one of the highest sales of artworks over Black artists.
00:13:39:22 - 00:14:04:08
SIAN: I think it was like 20 million or something like that. It was just awful to find out that Kerry James Marshall didn't get a penny of that because once you have your relationship with the gallery, the gallery, you know, you get your money off the initial sale, the gallery can, the gallery sells it, that collector then resells it. It continues to go up in value. But that original artist. Exactly. And so that is what's revolutionary as well about NFTs.
00:14:04:17 - 00:14:14:01
FANSHEN: Is is there a way to connect physical art to digital art? Like to to make a physical piece become an NFT?
00:14:14:03 - 00:14:29:04
SIAN: You can what I'm seeing more of is when you when you purchase the digital piece, the artist will then send you the physical piece as well. But it is possible. But the challenge there is that, you know, I can I can destroy that physical piece.
00:14:29:06 - 00:14:32:20
FANSHEN: Right, Right? It's fungible to your point. [1]
00:14:32:22 - 00:14:33:25
FANSHEN: Right, Right, right.
00:14:37:15 - 00:15:00:29
FANSHEN: Hi, family. This is Sista Brunch, the podcast by and about Black women and gender expansive people thriving in entertainment and media. And stay tuned for more of this conversation with our guest, the visionary tech leader Sian Morson. And if you love the show, go ahead and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts on Spotify and share your favorite episode with your friends and family.
00:15:04:04 - 00:15:10:00
FANSHEN: Welcome back. And we hope you are as excited as we are to continue this conversation with Sian Morson.
00:15:12:23 - 00:15:21:23
FANSHEN: Let's talk about the BlkChain. So what do you do with the BlkChain? Where can folks follow you? Learn more, follow the BlkChain and be part of that community.
00:15:21:29 - 00:15:52:28
SIAN: So you know me Fanshen and you know that the long thread that goes through my entire career is there's a few things. There's one is I'm used to being the only which I don't like and I'm always looking for people that look like me because I'm tired of being the only. And so when I came into the space, you know, I'm sitting on clubhouse and there were some wonderful Black voices, but I didn't feel like there were enough. So there were wonderful people who were explaining the technology. There's a guy called Black Dave who was a musician.
00:15:53:00 - 00:16:15:06
SIAN: There's a woman called Lady Phoenix who's actually a pioneer in the space. And those were those were some of the Black people that I saw in this space. But I was like, Well, where is everyone else? And there weren't. And because I was interested in art and I knew that there was so much talent out there. As with everything, if I see a gap in the market, I think it's my job to fill it. And so-
00:16:17:08 - 00:16:21:22
FANSHEN: You do! Thank the Goddess for people like Sian Morson was like, well, we need to do something about this.
00:16:21:24 - 00:16:53:11
SIAN: Yeah, exactly. It's like, where's the Black artists at and where are the Black collectors at? And so I was seeing so much great art on Twitter and on Discord. There was a community called One Off that was founded by 2 brothers, and they they were spending a lot of time like showcasing Black art. And I was like, where can I just who's amplifying these people? This art is it's fantastic. And so I was like, Well, I'll just do it. I'll just start a newsletter. You know, I'm just going to slide into people's DMS and say, Hey, I really like your work. Let me send you some questions.
00:16:53:13 - 00:17:26:17
SIAN: And that is literally what I did. That is, that is how the BlkChain started. I needed a witty name, BllChain just sort of fell into my lap and that was it. I published it every Friday featuring a different artist in the space. Some of the artists that I've actually featured are now some of the big names in the space. So you have people like Dianna Sinclair, who is an 18 year old photographer who now shows with Christy. Andre O'Shay is another creator. He's done stuff for the Academy Awards and for the Grammys I mean.
00:17:26:19 - 00:18:02:23
SIAN: And so it's been really wonderful to see this community of talented, talented artists really start to finally get their due. And so what I've expanded the BlkChain to do is because I really believe in supporting artists. At one point I had this big dream of having a gallery, and this is sort of the next best thing because I don't need a physical space. And so I'm showcasing artists, But I really do also feel like the only way to support artists is to buy their work. And so as a part of that, what I'm doing is I am building what I hope will be the largest and most diverse digital art collection on the planet.
00:18:02:25 - 00:18:33:09
SIAN: And so I'm self-funding it myself. I just I just buy art that I love that resonates with me. So a part of the mission of the BlkChain is to build that collection, to support artists, to elevate artists as well, and to onboard collectors. Right? Because how are we going to create that virtuous circle? That ecosystem is to onboard more collectors that look like us and expose them to this wonderful community of artists so that they can sell work. So that is what I'm doing with the BlkChain.
00:18:33:11 - 00:18:34:09
FANSHEN: Yes.
00:18:34:22 - 00:18:35:07
FANSHEN: She's a badass.
00:18:35:19 - 00:19:23:29
FANSHEN: Okay. Now let's talk about the risks. Sure. And you know, because we couple or blend together Web3, NFTs, blockchain and crypto. Right? Like in our minds, that's what we see. And of course, we hear what's happening with crypto right now, which is like folks are deeply bankrupted and once again it's us, right? Because either we didn't, we don't have the inherited wealth to for the safety net, right? For us making investments and then losing everything. So how does that all work together? How can we make sure that we're not taking that kind of risk, but we're also part of this new way of doing things?
00:19:24:02 - 00:19:26:23
SIAN: I think any way you slice it, it's a risk.
00:19:27:09 - 00:19:57:18
SIAN: And I'm not going to sit here and pretend that there's not a little bit of privilege associated with this. Right? It takes disposable income to buy JPEGs, right? It's just any way you slice it. But the numbers bear out that African Americans believe in this technology and trust this technology because it can represent an opportunity to build generational wealth. What I love about it is that so there are these things on the blockchain called smart contracts.
00:19:57:28 - 00:20:29:19
SIAN: They're not really smart and they're not really contracts. What they are are code, right? That basically stipulates when a condition has been met, the code runs autonomously and something happens, right? And so that represents, I think, to a lot of us in this space who are Black, who understand this challenge that we have had being shut out of, you know, loans, buying homes, you name it, we've been discriminated against. Now we have homes, but they're appraising them for less.
00:20:29:21 - 00:20:39:23
SIAN: And so it's like I think the more that the reason why this technology is so appealing to us is because it removes the human element. And so it removes that opportunity for that.
00:20:40:02 - 00:20:40:17
FANSHEN: Bias?
00:20:40:19 - 00:20:41:04
SIAN: Exactly.
00:20:41:06 - 00:21:13:19
SIAN: Yes, exactly. Exactly. And so the smart contracts just they just run. Now, they're not perfect, but I think that there's enough of us in the space that see the possibility and the promise that Web3 holds for us. And I think the way that you minimize harm is education, right? And so I think most of us need to be really educated about this technology. What are the pitfalls, what are the risks, but also what are the possibilities, right? A lot of the folks in the space are on the younger side.
00:21:13:21 - 00:21:21:03
SIAN: And I would love to see, you know, more people our age get involved as well because think that is where that's where we win.
00:21:21:05 - 00:21:55:19
FANSHEN: Well, so hence the podcast. We're putting it out there in the world that Sian is making a podcast about this specifically to help educate, to help inspire. And yes, it's so exciting. Young people are doing it. But yes, the rest of us don't want to get left behind. And we and, you know, we deserve to kind of understand this and be part of this world as well. All right. So we're going to go to our listener question. We have a lovely listener named Latasha, and she has left us a voicemail.
00:21:55:21 - 00:21:59:24
FANSHEN: So we're going to play the voicemail and then we'll come back and hear your answer.
00:22:00:13 - 00:22:30:27
LATASHA: Hi, my name is Latasha Stephenson. And the question that I wanted to ask today is, within this industry, as you know, there are a lot of moving parts and you typically work with other people. So I would love to know what are three things that someone that's working with you could do to make your job easier? Thank you so very much for answering the question.
00:22:30:29 - 00:22:32:05
LATASHA: I do appreciate it.
00:22:33:06 - 00:22:33:24
SIAN: Dude.
00:22:34:11 - 00:23:05:26
SIAN: That's it's the perfect question because I struggle struggle with this. A lot of people don't know that the BlkChain is a complete labor of love for me, and I do all of it myself. I write the articles, I do the interviews, I built the website. And so I think the biggest thing that anyone can do is just ask me how they can help because I am not very good at asking for help. I'm just kind of like, Oh, I'll just do it. And what I'm learning is that that is not sustainable at all.
00:23:05:28 - 00:23:36:21
SIAN: I am like literally trying to keep the plates spinning and it is a challenge. So I think the only thing someone can do is just ask me how you can help. And let me let me figure out a way to answer that question, because if not, then I will just put my head down and barrel through. And it's just it's not good, especially. And it's funny because I mentor a lot of founders, Black women founders especially. And it's the first thing that I tell them, learn to delegate, but I never take my own advice.
00:23:36:23 - 00:23:41:03
SIAN: So it's a really good question and I need to spend more time thinking about that as well.
00:23:41:13 - 00:24:14:09
FANSHEN: Thank you so much, Latasha, for that question. If you have a question, you can leave your question on our on our voicemail number, which is (424) 587-4870. And we will probably play your question on the air with a guest. Let's talk about the Starfish Accelerator. You really kind of helped this organization get off and running and you all provide support for creatives of color, which is like everything that we need because too often, even when when we're the creative, we try to get funding.
00:24:14:11 - 00:24:28:27
FANSHEN: And when that funding comes in, it comes in with limitations in terms of what we get to say and do from there. And that's the word I'm looking for conditions. So talk to us about what Starfish Accelerator does.
00:24:28:29 - 00:24:52:21
SIAN: You know, a few years ago I got this call, I got a message on Twitter from a woman that I was in a Twitter group with a ,Twitter DM group. And she said, Oh, I have this friend and he wants to learn more about, you know, Silicon Valley and blah, blah, blah. You connect us. And so connected. His name is Mahyad Tousi. He's brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And we started talking.
00:24:52:23 - 00:25:41:11
SIAN: And he said, I want to build this accelerator, but I want to build it for creators of color. And so we started riffing on how this could be had a wonderful team that he had put together. Most of those folks had been rooted in production, film production. Etcetera. Um, of course I'm not in that world, but I have a passion for that given my background. What I brought to the table was an understanding of accelerators from Silicon Valley. I've been an advisor and a mentor for Digital Undivided in Atlanta, which Kathryn Phinney founded, and, now she's got a fund as well as a mentor for Techstars as well. So I have some understanding as well, mentor for backstage. So that's sort of my sweet spot.
00:25:41:13 - 00:26:17:16
SIAN: But we wanted to do things a little differently, right? The traditional accelerator model is you come to my accelerator, I give you money, I take equity in your project, right? Which means that I am now super invested in your success. But I've carved out a little. I've got skin in the game, basically. And you know, there have been varying degrees of success with that. You know, it works for some people. So you look at Y Combinator works really, really well. Airbnb, some of the biggest companies, you know, came out of that doesn't work so well for some other people, right? And so what we wanted to do was take that model and spin it on its head.
00:26:17:18 - 00:27:08:28
SIAN: The first thing that we wanted to do was we wanted to teach creatives to think like entrepreneurs. And what we found was that particularly for creatives of color and we've we heard this story because we did research right prior to actually launching it. So we heard this recurring story, particularly from creators of color, that when the, you know, they're working, they're working, they're working. The deal finally comes along and they kind of just give everything away. They don't think about down the road. This could potentially be a graphic novel or maybe I could spin it off and do a podcast or maybe could do. It's not just the TV show and they give all of it away. And some of these organizations I'm not naming names quite predatory, right? And so you end up selling this thing and you think, I've reached the mountaintop, but then it's the last thing that you've sold or the first and the last and so and.
00:27:09:00 - 00:27:12:14
FANSHEN: You watch them make all the money. All the derivatives.
00:27:12:16 - 00:27:32:19
SIAN: Exactly exactly. And so what we wanted to do was we wanted to flip that model on its head. We wanted to train creatives to think like entrepreneurs, to think about the possibilities of what they're creating, but also to maintain ownership. Right? Because that's the winning thing. The IP is everything. That is what they want.
00:27:33:03 - 00:27:33:18
SIAN: Um.
00:27:34:03 - 00:27:36:22
SIAN: And so we spun up the accelerator. We got some.
00:27:36:24 - 00:28:11:03
SIAN: We got some great grant money to do that. And so what we decided to do was we decided to give the money free and clear. We didn't take equity in any of these projects at all. And what we did was we created a wonderful creative village around these creative entrepreneurs to help grow them, to help get the projects out into the world. And that's exactly what we did. And that was basically our pilot to test our thesis, to understand, does this really work? And it does work. It really, really does work, right? We had a wonderful first cohort, you know, women, queer folks, Black.
00:28:11:05 - 00:28:42:10
SIAN: It was just great. And so we prove that the model works. And so now what we want to do with the Starfish Fund is there is a mutually beneficial relationship between the fund and the accelerator, right? You come through the accelerator and you've got your MVP, you've got your project. So the fund then says, Hey, we we saw the progress that you've made. You've got this wonderful thing we would like first, right, of refusal to invest now in this project and help you to sell the IP in its various permutations.
00:28:42:12 - 00:29:06:08
SIAN: Right. And that's one of the big things that we try to arm them with is really understanding. Yes, you've written a screenplay or. Yes. You have a graphic novel. It doesn't just have to be that. There are so many different avenues for you to then capitalize and build wealth right at the end of the day from your own IP. And so that is extensively the mission of the Starfish accelerator and the Starfish Fund. Yeah.
00:29:07:01 - 00:29:43:19
FANSHEN: Whoa. So the huge difference there is that you instill that confidence with them in that first project by letting them run with it, right? It's like, here's your funding, go for it. You don't have all the stress of right, I need to give back to the investors. I need any of that. So you really are free to to make it happen. And then you know that you have the support of the of Starfish afterwards to to help continue to guide you so that you don't give it all over to somebody else. We all of our guests always say we actually I'll transition to this next question question for you, too.
00:29:43:27 - 00:30:17:08
FANSHEN: But all of our guests always say to have a rep, an attorney that you love and, you know, have a good rapport with to negotiate your the money questions and support you and protect you so that you can stay creative. But so many times we don't have access to that even or we don't have access to anyone to tell us. Don't give your stuff away. Right. This is yours. That means you're in the power position and they are going to take advantage of you.
00:30:17:10 - 00:31:01:14
FANSHEN: If if you know, if you don't show that, you know that if you don't have that confidence. So we're switching over into the salary range. QUESTION mean something that I think is so important for you is that you are many things. And as you've mentioned, you do a lot of these things yourself. And so there's a shoestring budget because there's a limit. Um, so it could be either in the sense of like what the, the range that Starfish can offer or you Sian, what is it like for you to get through your daily life salary wise? Like how do you how do you finagle this? How do you do it?
00:31:01:16 - 00:31:34:29
SIAN: Well, so, you know, like I said, the BlkChain is completely labor of love. There is literally no money coming from that. Incidentally, the Starfish fund at the moment is mostly sweat equity that myself and my two partners have put into it. As you know, with a fund, you were you were always raising money. And so that is that is what we're doing currently. We are trying to raise a fund. We got a little bit of money that we will then just put right back into creative entrepreneurs. Right? We are investing all of that. We're not taking anything right now. I have a company.
00:31:35:13 - 00:32:06:16
SIAN: I have a mobile development company, a software development company that I started 11 years ago called Collective Mobile that is running at a wonderful clip. Don't have to interact with it as much as I would. And then I also have a full time job, believe it or not. So I'm the VP of Community at Science Magic Studios, which is a Web3 advisory that helps brands that are moving into Web3. So. The plates are spinning. The plates are spinning. That's all will say. They're spinning financially.
00:32:07:09 - 00:32:08:14
FANSHEN: They're spinning.
00:32:08:16 - 00:32:32:11
FANSHEN: And you know, you you have a roof over your head, a lovely one. And you have, you know, and you survive and thrive on it and think that's. I'm glad you shared that. It is my ultimate passion and wish for we Black women, gender expansive people to not have to work three jobs man because it's
00:32:32:16 - 00:32:33:01
SIAN: Three jobs, ya mon!
00:32:33:03 - 00:33:16:24
FANSHEN: Three, four, five, six jobs, mon! Right? Because the stuff that the work that we do in one of them run circles around all the other folks that we're working with, especially when there are higher ups and don't look like us and haven't had the same kind of. So it and at the same time, I we asked that question to let folks know, yeah, it's going to take spinning all those plates. We trying to get the build the wealth so that our, you know, our nieces and nephews and grandchildren don't have to do all of this. But we are in a place in an era right now where we got to keep them spinning with all these different things.
00:33:20:27 - 00:33:29:18
FANSHEN: Hey, it's Fanshen Cox and you're listening to Sista Brunch. Sign up for our monthly newsletter on our website, SistaBrunch.Com. And we'll be right back.
00:33:43:17 - 00:33:50:13
SIAN: This is Sian Morson, and you're listening to Sista Brunch, the Podcast all about Black women thriving in entertainment and media.
00:33:53:12 - 00:34:11:19
FANSHEN: All right. So, Sian, you are sitting down to a Sista Brunch with young Sian and we want to know, what do you both order for brunch? What do you eat? What do you drink? And then what do you tell young Sian?
00:34:12:06 - 00:35:20:08
SIAN: First I have to ask if my therapist put you up to this question because she has this thesis that our inner child pretty much govern how we live our lives. And if that inner child did not receive what they needed to receive at that time, she can wreak havoc so she's always telling me to think about little Sian. So I have a picture. I have a picture of my little self right by my desk that you can't see, that. I look up from time to time when I'm feeling, you know, like, okay, what does little Sian need in this moment? Okay, so we're at we're at brunch or whatever. Little Shawn loved ginger ale, so she would probably have ginger ale. I don't drink soda, so I would probably have just water or something. Um, and I think both of us would be having pancakes because I love Pancakes. I don't eat it often because I can't make pancakes. I make the worst pancakes ever. But if I'm sitting down with my inner child, my little self, it's pancakes. She's got some ginger ale and I have water. But we are tearing those pancakes up.
00:35:20:11 - 00:35:34:01
FANSHEN: And I'll say, Sian can afford to have pancakes because she's a runner. She'd be burning off those pancakes. She's a runner. Are there. Is. Are there flavors in your pancakes? No, no. Or the.
00:35:34:03 - 00:35:39:03
SIAN: Plain. Just plain pancakes. Syrup and butter. Yes.
00:35:39:14 - 00:35:40:26
FANSHEN: What's your favorite syrup?
00:35:41:01 - 00:35:42:05
SIAN: Just maple syrup.
00:35:42:08 - 00:35:42:24
FANSHEN: Okay.
00:35:42:29 - 00:35:44:01
SIAN: Just maple syrup. Yeah.
00:35:44:03 - 00:35:46:29
FANSHEN: All right. Yeah. Okay. And what do you tell her?
00:35:47:09 - 00:36:25:18
SIAN: I tell her lighten up a little bit. I was really, really serious as a kid. Probably too serious. I was just always thinking. Just sitting in a corner by myself, just plotting world domination and think that I didn't have as much fun as I should have as a child. And so I make up for that now. And so I think I would say to her, you know what, lighten up a little. It's going to be okay. Don't worry so much. I think I was a worrier as well. You know, just brooding. Just brooding. Just processing. I would tell her, you know what? It's going to be okay. Just lighten up and have some fun.
00:36:26:20 - 00:36:32:18
FANSHEN: I love it. Thank you so much, Sian Morson. I'm so proud for you to be on the podcast.
00:36:32:20 - 00:36:39:13
SIAN: Thank you for asking me. It's a great honor. I listen to the podcast. I love it. I love it. So kudos to you.
00:36:39:27 - 00:36:41:03
FANSHEN: Oh, thank you.
00:36:42:18 - 00:37:23:12
FANSHEN: Sista Branch, family, Sistren, Sistas, thank you so much for listening to Sista Brunch, the podcast, bringing you all the stories of Black women who are breaking barriers and bringing joy to the entertainment and media industries. You know what? This is our fourth season. If you didn't know that, go back and listen to all of the amazing women we've had in seasons one through three. You can read the transcript of this show and all of our other shows on our website at SistaBrunch.Com. We so appreciate your support by subscribing to the podcast, leaving us a great review and sharing the podcast with your friends, your family, your colleagues.
00:37:23:14 - 00:37:57:00
FANSHEN: Sista Brunch is by and about Black women, but it is for everybody. You can follow us and interact with us on Instagram at Sista Brunch Podcast. Also support the podcast by subscribing and rating and reviewing our show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Thank you so much. And we appreciate you. Sista Brunch is brought to you by TruJuLo Productions. Our senior producer is Sonata Lee Narcisse. Our co-producer is Brittney Turner. Our associate producers are Farida Abdul-Wahab and Mimi Slater.
00:37:57:02 - 00:38:12:18
FANSHEN: Our executive producers are Christabel Nsiah-Buadi and Anya Adams. We acknowledge that the land we record our podcast on is the original land of the Tongva and the Chumash People. That's our show for this week. We will catch you next time on Sista Brunch.