The Dancehall CEO Untapped Conversations

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i welcome you all

to tedx aston university 2021

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let me see a show of hands for anybody

who has enjoyed the talk so far round of

applause

all right fantastic

so here we go i’m here to close the show

so let’s go

bob marley in his song exodus

sings open your eyes and look within

are you satisfied with the life you’re

living but let’s remix that a little

i’m going to ask you to close your eyes

like actually close your eyes

and look within

ask yourself

are you feeling fulfilled

with the life you’re living

my name is zachary harding i’m the

founder and executive chairman of delta

capital partners a private equity firm

based in kingston jamaica

today i’m here however as your dancehall

ceo

to share with you a decision-making

model that i’ve come up with

based on dancehall culture

dancehall is jamaican’s

urban music culture and this is what the

dancehall looks like

you’ve probably enjoyed the music before

and maybe didn’t even realize it

have you ever heard of sean paul

i was sean paul’s first manager before

my brother german hiring

and they won a grammy and a bunch of

awards what about shaggy

spice stef london

born tequila or biedemann

right will we produce being a man

simsimo on a two hard records label

in other cultures

dancehall has been called

raga or reggaeton

and is often incorporated into pop or

afrobeats

so songs like justin bieber’s sorry

and drake’s controller are both set to

dance albeit

dancehall has become a mainstream way of

life for jamaicans

the music reflects the experience

the expressions of contemporary jamaican

life

in fact in jamaica’s last general

elections members of parliament even had

an informal versa style battle

for whose campaign had the best dancer

remix or dub plates as we call them

i can’t make this a true story

i started my career as a dancer dj

otherwise known as a selector and for me

dancehall artists are really

contemporary philosophers

explaining highly complex

real life scenarios

dancehall provides a unique lens

to help us think and act differently

for me dancehall has been my corporate

master class

and being a selector dj has greatly

influenced the way i think and act in

the business arena

i started out my career in marketing

i had a lot of success

in turning companies around and even

making some brands into household names

in jamaica

and at that time i had a very young

family tori and zaro

and i never really stopped to think much

about how i was doing it and how i was

making it all happen

and one day somebody asked me

what do you think is your secret to

success

and to my own surprise i answered

it’s from being a dj

so let me explain

as a dj

i’m continuously reading the crowd

or target market

to deliver the right product

such as song

to get the right bind

like response

to

the song to say that they like it any

jamaicans in a host

you know that song that we make right we

call it a forward

so wanting a crowd reaction is normal

for all djs across genres

but for dancehall

songs are often played in a musical

battle format called a zone clash

where the crowd has veto power

so if you’re lame the crowd will

actually boo you off the stage

so a dj

is ending up a winner or a loser if

they’re not just good or bad and it’s

the same with being a ceo

you have to make good decisions and if

you don’t you won’t last very long on

the corporate stage

so in my corporate life i have to make

the right decisions in real time to make

all my stakeholders satisfied

so

in both cases the pressure is always on

to win

so the question is how do i do it

today i’m here to share my answer to

that question

how do we consistently make

good decisions

but good decisions has to be good for

you

right it’s subjective

what might be right for me might not be

right for you

smaller decisions aren’t so scary

because we learn how to make them at a

young age and then we practice them

building a ton of experience

but for more complex decisions ones that

will change our lives trajectory we go

overboard we panic we poll our friends

we open 27 tabs on google

and when we have to make really big

decisions we often even feel lost

we don’t know where to start we either

freeze up

or employ the more famous hit or miss

strategy

which sometimes works and sometimes

doesn’t

well what if there was a formula that

could help you make better decisions in

your life consistently

i’ve developed such a formula based on

my dj experience and i’m about to share

with you here tonight for the first time

this is a world premiere

and i hope it will make you make better

decisions as much as it has helped me to

make decisions in my life

i call it the

careful decision making formula

that is decisions made with c

a r e care that leave you feeling full

fulfilled

c

is for crossroads

a is for authenticity r is for risk

and e is for emotion so let’s break it

down

starts by recognizing when you’re at a

crossroads you have to look past the

distractions

and become aware of when it’s time to

make a decision

and then commit to that decision in

order to get the desired result

the greatest tool

for personal power is deliberate

decision making so when people say take

control of your life what they really

mean is be deliberate about how and when

you make decisions

by acknowledging the decision point we

accept that the source of our power is

in the decisions that we make

so always tell my daughters life is just

a series of decisions and choices so

make sure you make good ones

i learned to time these decision points

from being a dj

it all has to do with when to drop the

beat and when to mix it out

but luckily we all have that intuitive

sense of when it’s time for a change

we’re all knowing something just doesn’t

feel right i can’t prove it

let’s say i listen to a playlist and

a certain song comes on and you

loved it a month ago he even had it on

repeat but no it offends your entire

soul

your very sensibilities you know you

don’t want to hear that song you want to

hear a different song

that is a decision point instinct

needing to change our song

is not so different we need to change

something in your life

what do you really want in life

versus what are you just tolerating

you have to listen to your own needs and

wants

when you feel stuck and you keep

thinking

i need a change or i feel something was

different

then you’re at a crossroads it’s

decision time so just accept it

we make 90

of our decisions subconsciously where to

sit what to eat i guarantee you right

now somebody’s thinking

when is a good time to sneak off to the

loo

but you have to be able to follow

through because without committing a

decision is just a random thought

and without that commitment that random

thought is a set up for just future

regret

if somebody needs to go to the loo now

and doesn’t follow through i think we

might all regret it

after the crossroads the next formula

in it is a authenticity

people throw this word around a lot

authenticity according to dr brene brown

is

the daily practice of letting go who we

think we’re supposed to be

and embracing who we are

in the dancehall

one of my favorite singers chronix

explains that authenticity is critical

he says in a dancehall style honor

everybody will go like we but we’re well

irie

meaning in the dancehall not everyone is

going to like us but we’re still fine

iri because we don’t love likes

he goes on may not do it for the love we

do it for the likes meaning i do it for

the love of it but not just for the

social media likes or clicks

then he sings success doesn’t come

overnight

let them know it’s success over hype

we do it for the love not do it for the

likes

so again authenticity is subjective

right

where i come from

it can look like this

almost comical without the authenticity

but with dancehall’s authenticity this

is self-expression

when you make authentic decisions ask

yourself how will you feel after

make sure you can live with it because

as chronic said others may not like the

decisions you make in the sports arena

naomi osaka made a careful

see what that did there

decision to skip press conferences after

tournaments due to anxiety

now

many people would have thought that that

was a wrong decision to make and many

people would have you know discredited

her for that but whether we like it or

not

she didn’t do it for the love

or the likes she did it for her mental

health her peace and her stability

if you find yourself making lots of

lesser of two evil decisions this might

mean your authenticity

is out of alignment

so with covert c

a now it’s time for our risk

george bernard shaw said the reasonable

man

adapts himself to the world the

unreasonable one adapts the world to

himself

therefore all progress depends on the

unreasonable man

so i think he’s right because the

unreasonable man

or woman

usually takes the biggest risks

risk is usually why we avoid making

tough decisions

that lead to a change when most people

hear risk they think of what could go

wrong

right

but today let’s

remix the risk jamaican style

because we don’t really culturally

identify with risk imagine we’re a

tropical island with no snow

yet we formed a bobsled team

and entered the winter olympics which

inspired the entire world and even led

to a disney movie

so what at first opened us up to

criticism eventually opened us up to

admiration

remixing risk is about gauging the

reward no one expects us

to continually

beat our global counterparts but we

often do

we start with less but we focus on what

we have to gain

young jamaican footballer

leon bailey

recently signed with aston villa

recently signed and cracked our goal in

a three-long

i guarantee that he wasn’t thinking

about what could go wrong

and he baked that shot

right he was just focusing on the win

and that’s how

people with our winning mindset operate

so

when you’re making decisions ask

yourself what could go right

what could it be worth to me

jamaica’s just a little over double the

size of birmingham but we punch way

above our weight class

and has everything to do with an

attitude we call being

bossy

bose is a type of bravado powered by the

ability to execute and back it up

jamaicans expect that once you’ve chosen

to go for the reward you must follow

through with confidence

aside from leon bailey perhaps the best

example of jamaican boastiness is

usain bolt

in his first olympics in 2004

bolt was only 18 years old

and touted as the next legend of the

track

but

he was eliminated in the first round

and at home we gave him a really hard

time for it

if bolton looked at risk as everything

that could go wrong then he would have

just given up he would have just quit

accepted his failure and walked away

but when bolt hears risk he gets

bossy

when the question how he was doing it he

got

bossy

and when

he said when they said it was a fluke

and he went on to win every world title

and even reset his own olympic and world

records he got

bowser

so

always assess the risk

but be sure to consider the upside of

the win

you’ve come to the crossroads with your

most authentic self

and remix the risk

now for the final piece

you must fuel the decision with e the

right emotion

how are you preparing your emotions to

match your decisions

you must be emotionally aligned with

your decisions

in order to sustain the desired outcomes

if you want to be powerful you have to

conquer fear

if you want to be a leader

you have to control your anger

and if you want to be influential you

may need to practice great appreciation

like sir willowd he had to overcome

challenges to become a winner

so ask yourself are my emotions

compatible with my decisions

are the emotions behind my decision

mostly positive

or negative

and what emotional support do i need to

sustain the outcome

no matter how logical we think we are

we’re all emotional beings

success depends on navigating our own

emotions

as well as those of others

this is known as emotional intelligence

empathy someone said earlier

understanding this is absolutely

critical because you cannot control

other people’s behavior

but you can control how you react to

their behavior

your ability to control your own

emotions in any decision-making

situation

is actually your hidden superpower

practicing emotional intelligence will

not only turn you into a decision-making

machine

it will also make you an unstoppable

magnetic force

capable of attracting all your desires

and manifesting your wireless dreams

dancehall university

teaches us that we are in control of our

destiny

in sizzla calandre’s song rise to the

occasion he says it’s for you

to make the best in life know that

you’ve got the chance

get up and step towards your goal it’s

all right

fulfill your needs

and wants

in the dancehall

the dj is accountable for the vibe

and in business

the ceo

is accountable for the company’s

performance

in your life

the only person responsible for that

decision is you

as my dad used to say to me son it takes

many to deliberate

but one to decide

remember

you get to choose your own theme song in

life

and you get to decide when to drop that

beat

thank you very much

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you