This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:18] Tonya Pinkins: Tell me about your audience. I want to know how I can give and how I can serve. Oh, I don't know. How do I know about my audience? Who do you imagine? Who are the people that give you feedback? Who are the people that say nobody gives me feedback? Except when I run into people on the street or something, but where would I get feedback from my audience?

[0:34] Erik Cabral: We're recording. Well, they'll reach out to you. You know.

[0:38] Tonya Pinkins: No. No. No. No. I mean, I run into people and they're like, oh my God, your podcast is live. I love it. Nobody run. I mean, occasionally I get emails from people, but they're usually people I know. So I don't know about the strangers who might listen to it. Would you okay? So if you guess, if you had to guess, who do you think your audience is?

[0:57] Erik Cabral: I think my audience is probably smart because I'm really smart. So we're having very elevated conversations. Yeah. Um, I don't know, really. Okay. I honestly I'm, you know, this is I'm the contrarian. So this idea that I have to do something that's only gonna speak to, it just doesn't interest me.

[1:23] Tonya Pinkins: Okay. I mean, I know that's the way to being really successful or making a lot of money. If you can standardize what you do and turn it into a brand, it doesn't interest me because the world that it's creating doesn't interest me. I'm not interested in having the world look more like that.

[1:40] Erik Cabral: Okay. So it's not what I want to put my energy into being a part of.

[1:44] Tonya Pinkins: Gotcha. Okay. Perfect. So we'll just have a conversation. And truly, that's what I do. And I think that, you know, in the beginning, I had a friend who was like, you know, your podcast, I never know what I'm gonna get. And I don't know what it's gonna be. And it always starts out slow. And then, and it's like, yeah, because you gotta move at the speed of trust. And if I knew what my conversation was gonna be about, I wouldn't want to have it. I'm not having a conversation. I want to find out about you. I want you to ask me something that I wasn't expecting. For me, it's about the acoustics that is life, and what can two people share that is a privilege for us to be together and other people get to be like a fly on the wall to this conversation that they're not privy to? I think that that is what moved me to want a podcast. I'm really curious, I really find everyone interesting, and so I want to find out about you, Eric.

[2:47] Erik Cabral: Okay, perfect. I love it. I'm looking forward to it. I'm I am all yours. I'm in the passenger seat. Let's drive.

[2:53] Tonya Pinkins: Well, you didn't start in the passenger seat, and that whole intro I did just went out the way. Oh, like man, she's quick. Right, they've never added anything, so all of this is gonna be there. You know, Simony Pinkins is my podcast, because you can't say that on the Broadway Podcast Network, but today I'm on PodMax, and I am with the founder of PodMax and on Air Brands. Did I get it right this time?

[3:14] Erik Cabral: No, yeah, of course.

[3:15] Tonya Pinkins: Okay, I got it right that time. Um, and I've been learning a lot all today, listening to other podcasters, and so you know, you just heard sort of my life philosophy, and so it's going into this right now. Um, I think like you're a businessman, you're clearly really, really good at it. Um I'm not as good at it. How could I ever match my moral and life philosophy with capitalism?

[3:51] Erik Cabral: I'm with you. Um, I'm gonna borrow this from a friend of mine because his wife calls him this, but my wife does not call me this. But if she should, I should tell her to call me this. But she calls him a filthy capitalist with a hippie heart. And that really sort of sums up like we need to make money. We gotta eat, we got we gotta provide, right? We have families, we have things and responsibilities. Um, but I want to give everything away. Like as soon as I make it, here you go, take it, you know, take it. Let's build something else. Um I wasn't always like that. I was in corporate America working my nine to five, uh, you know, doing what a good boy's told to do, you know, go to school, get a diploma, you know, go get a good job and collect that Rolex watch at the end of your 30 year lifespan.

And um, 20 plus years, Tanya, I was like, I think I'm done. I think I'm bored, I don't think I have passion in this, I don't feel inspired. And I was being laid off for the second time and truly blessed, only to happen twice in over 20 years. And I was like, what's next? Uh my wife's having her second child, you know, or having our second, and I was like, I wanna, I wanna experience something else in this next chapter. Do we have, you know, way a way to for me to explore? And she said, Yeah, let's see. Let's see how much savings do we have. We had, you know, we had about a year or so. Um, she's like, yeah, you got a little bit of cushion. Go figure something out. What do you want to do? So coming from the real estate or the creative space all my life, I'm like, real estate.

And she's like, I have you lost your mind, you don't know anything about real estate. And I'm like, but I want to figure it out. I'm very eager to learn something new, and that's what just broke everything open for me, Tanya. That whole mindset and being around those folks changed my world.

[5:46] Tonya Pinkins: Okay, so you're gonna have to tell me that because I have tried my hand at real estate. Yeah, I have made money in real estate, and I've lost even more. Um, you know, I used to have a lot of properties and property managers and terrible tenants and all of that. So I have just said I'm never gonna own real estate again. Oh no, I may build one more house before I die. I GC, you know, construction, all of that, and I'm just like, um not doing it. So what did you love? Tell me what you love.

[6:18] Erik Cabral: So please come back to us. Um, because I think there's something there where when I went into it, I wanted to make sure I didn't lose our savings. So I did a lot of research, right? I did a ton of networking. I tried to surround myself with people that were doing it successfully, and I asked them how they're doing it. What are you doing that's right? And the main thing, which was not my wheelhouse and not my superpower at all, I was totally uncomfortable, but that's how we grow, right? Doing things that we're comfortable with.

[6:50] Tonya Pinkins: Absolutely.

[6:51] Erik Cabral: Analyzing the numbers and making sure that all the due diligence is done and that the rent versus the expenses and then like contingencies and savings, and making sure you had enough, you know, the rent versus how much it's going to cost to maintain the property. That was huge. So they were, they would give me spreadsheets. I would do the, I would do the work and analyze the details about that. I would give it to them.

[7:19] Tonya Pinkins: What's that? But that's not fun. You had fun with that. You like those numbers like that?

[7:23] Erik Cabral: I had fun trying to figure out how to make money. Right. So that was the fun part. Um, but then honestly, I thought that I was retired from creative. Like I was like, I'm gonna do a full-time real estate investing thing. That's that's my new life. Um, but you're right, it wasn't really my calling or passion. Uh I did it and then I paused on it because that industry, all those people who were very left-brained analytical people, which I am not, but I can do it if I had to. Um, they were asking me for help. Like, who's doing your logos? Who's doing your branding, your website, your social media marketing, your podcast.

[8:03] Tonya Pinkins: And you were doing all of that.

[8:04] Erik Cabral: So you already had a skill set that you could bring to a new business. So you're a give or a give or a gift. You see, that's a very special and unique. That's like a synchronicity. Like you were born to do that's like a connection, a destiny connection.

[8:20] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah, absolutely. I didn't realize that what I started to be called was a unicorn in that space because it's all left brain analytical, boring real estate investors. And now there's this guy who's coming in with his blazer and like, hey, I'm creative, I could paint this, I could create that, I'll do this, I'll do whatever you do, you know. And they're like, we need it. And that's what built the business, real estate investors who don't have a problem spending money. And they're like, here you go, create this, create that, create this, create that. I'm like, I can't do all this work. I need to hire people. Became a business, became on air brands.

[8:54] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah. Very cool. And unusual that most of us don't have that specific advantage. So I still wanted to be tough with you. First of all, just because I'm curious, because I always am. What is your family's ancestry? Where do they come from on the planet?

[9:09] Erik Cabral: Yeah, I love this. Um, so I'm I'm a Filipino American. I was born and raised in Yonkers. I like to say it's the Bronx because we were literally on the border and you know, in the project in the boogie down. And we were in the booger. Absolutely. So there from, you know, born and raised until I was uh second or third grade, I think. And you know, after after several run-ins um with with the neighborhood, one time my bike pretty much almost being stolen from me, but I I was too fast for them. Um, my parents were like, let's go to upstate New York, where maybe it's safe. But when we got there, there weren't a ton of people that looked like me. Um so that was the thing. It was like I had to figure out how to fit in.

I had to figure out who was my tribe, you know. It was like, you know, there was a good chunk of time where I was like, I'm all in, I'm breakdancing, I'm in the hip-hop community. I would I'm I was loved and embraced. I would I would lie to the kids and be like, yeah, I'm half black. And they'd be like, and it was so funny. I'll never forget the kids would pull me aside and be like, Come here, I gotta tell you a secret. My dad just told me. And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, we'd huddle together. But then I started to like get older and go to high school, and like I was like attracted to all these different types of people. And this one girl, uh, Maria Leachardello was her name, and she was interested in me.

Here I am in uh, I don't know, I've never told this story before, Tanya. Um, I don't know, I think I was in 10th grade, maybe or 11th grade. I don't know, I was very young, and she looked like a heavy metal girl. Like, she wasn't, but she looked like it, you know, had long hair or fringe leather jacket, white leather jacket. Who's wearing fringe? She looked like a rock star to me. I we started dating, and then I all of a sudden I was like, I'm gonna grow my hair, I'm gonna become a headbanger. I'm gonna start getting it. I'll never forget this. One of my old friends, uh Brian Tracy's name. I was looking at heavy metal magazines. It's so funny. I'm telling you the story. Looking through metal heavy metal magazines, he's whispering behind me, he's going, Come back to us, Eric.

Come back to us. Because I was all into hip hop. And the thing is, this is in the 80s, and uh yeah, yeah. I just defected, went over there and became a stoner, you know, smoking and doing bad things and causing trouble. But anyway, I developed the skill set to be able to connect with people and be a chameleon. I think that really is what helped me through life. And I got into corporate America. I was able to blend in and and and and not pretend, but you know, yeah, yeah, I can do that. Say what I needed to do in order to cart climb that corporate ladder. I can do that. I am I am one of those people I can hang out with any group of people and feel really at home and just have a good time with them.

[11:52] Tonya Pinkins: I remember once I went to uh Turkey, I was in Cappadocia and I was hanging out with some Muslim men. There were no women but me. I was really clear that they probably did not respect me as a woman, but we played cards all day. They took me out to the club where there were only men there dancing with men, you know, that's how I roll. I'm just gonna flow with the people that are there and I'm going with it. So I totally, totally get that. I love that. Um, so I'm not, you know, I'm terrible at this thing, so I'm gonna I'm gonna just make you work for me here. Yeah, I and I do hire people. I don't even know how you hire good people. I mean, I have hired so many people, and because I don't know what it is that I want them to do or how they do it. It doesn't, my hiring hasn't been great.

[12:41] Erik Cabral: It's tough, right? That is one of the hardest things about building a business. Um, I'll tell you this, Tonya. The networking aspect, I mean, it happens slowly, but you begin to find your tribe, right? You put the vibration and the frequency out there, and the people vibrating at that frequency start to recognize the song, right? They start to tune into that radio dial, like, "Tonya, oh, here we go. It's zero sixty-five." You know what I mean? And they start, the more and more I did that, the more I put my message out, the more I networked, the more I connected with people, and never really looked at the time. You know, I'm like, we're talking. Oh, three hours passed. I'm sorry, and they're like, "No, it's amazing."

I just put, I just invested in people, I invested in conversations and relationships over time. The you see the room, the people come, you know, put that beacon of light out there, shout from the mountaintops. This is who I am. There's nothing fake here. This is all real, and I'm gonna be vulnerable and I'm gonna share and I'm gonna give, give, give, give with no expectation of return. And then they show up, and then I'm like, this is it. Like, "Tonya, let's work together," you know, things like that. And I'm like, I love you, let's do this, you know. And then that's where you see everybody. That's when magic happens. We start to build together, we have a mission, we're all on the bus. I can do that because I feel like my most favorite thing is just giving.

Like giving. I mean, the podcasts I do now, it's not monetized for me. I just give. I'm just giving it away because I have a gift. People have the most interesting conversations with me. And I love for people who maybe aren't as adventurous or as flexible to be able to have an experience of something that is out a little out of their wheelhouse, but they can still get a taste of that and maybe the next time they'll push themselves a little bit to try something because they experienced a conversation with me.

[14:35] Erik Cabral: You know, there's a Filipino posse in New York, and I know a bunch of people in the Filipino posse. Yeah, I tried to break in there. You know what's so funny? That was the one group that didn't accept me. It's so weird. I'm like, I remember when I started going to school in New York City. Um, you know, I didn't experience, I never dated a Filipino. It was just weird because anyone who is Filipino felt like family. So I did it, they, it just wasn't a thing. It didn't connect with me for some weird reason. Um, and when I got to New York City and I met all these Filipinos, I was so desperate to be part of them. I think they smelled it. They're like, "Oh, get away from us, man. You're just, it's sad."

[15:15] Tonya Pinkins: Well, look, if you have not yet cultivated the Filipino posse, that is a powerful community. You do want to talk about an audience. That is a powerful, faithful, loyal, honest community of people who would support you because you are part of the family.

[15:32] Erik Cabral: I know, you're so right. I know. It's so weird. I have not tapped into that demographic.

[15:36] Tonya Pinkins: Well, see there, look, I just gave you a big lead right there.

[15:39] Erik Cabral: Thank you. Make sure they listen to this episode. There are probably some Filipinos who listened to this because I do know a lot of Filipino friends. Actually, when I was growing up in Chicago, there were a lot of Filipinos who were immigrating. And so we had many who might, we would take into our home, you know, while they were, you know, trying to wait for their status.

[16:01] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah. Um, stuff like that. That's cool. Um, so tell me what On Air Brands does. I looked at it and I'm like, are you also a marketing company? Because PodMax is something else.

[16:14] Erik Cabral: Yeah, we've got a lot of companies. Help me.

[16:16] Erik Cabral: I know. So to keep it simple, On Air Brands right now, it started as a traditional marketing agency, but then I had to pivot and pause on everything we were doing because PodMax was starting to grow. But right now it focuses on creative and production for podcasts. So we create them and we produce them, right? And all the social media promotions behind it, right? So we produce your show, you know, we record it, we do it right? We edit it, we make it look pretty, and then we create content and we put it out there to promote the podcast. That's really what the crux of what we do and all we do right now. Um, and then PodMax is an event, it's an experience as we're experiencing. But I've done today.

So the podcasts that I got to the privilege of doing today, they will be on PodMax, they will be on your platform, they'll go out as well, or just on mine. It could be on yours, it could be on ours, you know, however we want to slice it. But yeah, yeah. You usually what happens is a host like such as yourself will come in and release it on their platform. Um, but there are some that are like, "Hey, can you also release it? Or can we just record on one of your shows?" So then we'll just bring you in as a guest host to one of our shows.

[17:24] Tonya Pinkins: Well, I'd love to. You'd have to release them on your platform. I have, I know people who have like five and six podcasts. Why is that?

[17:33] Erik Cabral: Good question. Oh man. Um, yeah, I'm guilty. I'm one of those.

[17:38] Tonya Pinkins: Five or six podcasts? Really?

[17:39] Erik Cabral: I do. Tell me, tell me why.

[17:42] Erik Cabral: Well, as you mentioned, I have multiple businesses. So I understand and I'm a firm believer in every business has to treat themselves as a marketing agency, right? And they have to create content, which we so happen to be a marketing agency. So we have to, and people expect us to have podcasts that are the brand, are the company. So we have On Air Brands Podcast, the PodMax podcast, we have our personal brands. So my Entrepreneurs Circle show, which is my brand, Josh's The Hidden Entrepreneur. And then we say you're on our team. We create, I believe in, I don't know if you're a fan of all the Marvel movies and The Avengers, Iron Man, you know, Thor. I just worked with the cyborg. So I watched this.

[18:24] Tonya Pinkins: Oh, yeah.

[18:35] Erik Cabral: There you go. Imagine that. Like everyone has their own franchise, everyone has their own brand, everyone has their own show, right? And then when we come together, like you see here in PodMax, we create magic. It's the Avengers, it's Justice League of America, right? People are more powerful together, so separately. That's what we're doing.

[18:57] Tonya Pinkins: Now you got my brain is percolating. So what is this explosion of podcasts? Because literally everybody has a podcast.

[19:05] Erik Cabral: Okay.

[19:05] Erik Cabral: It's not, I mean, like every human being has at least one. You got five. Everybody has one. Why suddenly the podcast? And how do these people get audiences if everybody's got a podcast?

[19:15] Erik Cabral: Yeah, yeah. Well, the thing is, audience is all relative, right? I always encourage people to create a podcast. A, you're gonna learn a ton from it, right? You're, and B, you're gonna start to build strong relationships with people on the other side of the mic. Okay. And C, it gives you a reason to create content and to be consistent with it and to get your voice out there, okay? So then, like I always tell people don't worry about who's listening, don't worry about how many people are watching. If you're speaking to one or a hundred or a thousand, they're going to come. You have to stick with it for the long beam because think about it. Even if you have 50 people listening to you every episode, which doesn't seem like a lot to most, but on average, podcasts only get about 250 downloads per episode.

So you're getting there, right? If you have 50. If you were in a room and there were 50 people sitting in the chairs, that's nothing to say. Yeah, but you know, when you listen online, they say, "Man, if you don't have 10,000 downloads a day, then nobody's advertising on your show." So I'm like, "Oh, you're a failure until you get to 10,000 downloads a day." I'm like, "Look, that doesn't even ever seem possible."

[20:29] Erik Cabral: Well, that's the thing. I think people are starting to recognize that this is not radio, it's not traditional radio, and how that was formulated and that was what the goal was was to get sponsors and ads, right? This is much deeper. This is about connections, building relationships, nurturing, fostering partnerships, building a team. You know, I use it as I've, everyone that you've met mostly in PodMax, they were on my podcast. They were in some form or version on the show. Everyone that we co-create with, they're creators, right? They're entrepreneurs. So I mean, it's awesome.

[21:05] Tonya Pinkins: So are people paying you to do this for them?

[21:09] Erik Cabral: Our clients pay us. But if you become part of the team, no. If you're on our team, you're On Air Brands or you're PodMax, we produce and create for you.

[21:20] Tonya Pinkins: Really?

[21:20] Erik Cabral: Yeah.

[21:24] Tonya Pinkins: I need my own podcast. It's just me. I was thinking of doing what's called Mississippi, goddamn from my time in Mississippi the last three months. I met so many amazing people down there in Mississippi, um, which is two steps out of slavery, I'll have you know. Um, so I was looking on your Facebook and I saw that you used audiograms.

[21:43] Erik Cabral: Yes.

[21:44] Tonya Pinkins: And then I saw that you put your all of the places where you could find it on top of there. How'd you do that?

[21:51] Erik Cabral: I so I used to do it. I used to do everything. Um, you know, fast forward three or four years, and I have a team now, right?

[21:58] Tonya Pinkins: Oh, so somebody else does that for you.

[21:59] Erik Cabral: Oh, yeah. It's funny. Uh, Tonya, when I first started hiring teams and they were starting to create and produce for me, and this is ideally where you eventually get to any podcaster or a content creator, is you hire someone, right? Wonderful Filipinos in the Philippines, you know, they're VAs. We have a team in the Philippines. Well, people would push out my content, and friends would text me at two in the morning. I'd see it in the morning. I'm not up, hopefully, and they're like, "Go to sleep." I'm like, "What are you talking about? I saw you posting." It's two o'clock, go to sleep. I'm like, "That wasn't me. That's my team." I'm like, "It's working."

[22:34] Erik Cabral: It's working.

[22:35] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah. Okay. Well, I might need to connect with this team in the Philippines. Um, I have a lot of content, don't really know how to use it, don't really know. I mean, I just, I'm always generating content. I like to create, and I'm up, I'm probably up at two o'clock in the morning who'd be seeing that and telling you about it because I just was kind of born to create and I like to create.

[22:58] Erik Cabral: Yes, yeah. But you have another head going beyond the creator head.

[23:04] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah, I had to because I created all my life for others. And um, and it was something that I was, um, I was like, there's gotta be something bigger and better than this, right? Creating and making money for other people. I realized I was like, if I could do that for them, why don't I do for me?

[23:25] Erik Cabral: How come you say well? You was kind, you were smart, you is important, you is dead.

[23:35] Tonya Pinkins: Tonya Pinkins' horror film Red Pill brings African American perspective to progressive movement.

[23:44] Erik Cabral: We are a majority in this country.

[24:05] Tonya Pinkins: This place is spooky.

[24:07] Erik Cabral: Some people like to live dangerously.

[24:07] Tonya Pinkins: Yes, why are you so jumpy tonight?

[24:11] Erik Cabral: You know what, guys? I'm gonna go back tomorrow.

[24:13] Tonya Pinkins: Did you hear about the creature woman that attacked a father and son hunting down here?

[24:18] Erik Cabral: I don't see the case.

[24:20] Tonya Pinkins: This place creeps me out.

[24:25] Erik Cabral: I think we should call the sheriff's office.

[24:42] Tonya Pinkins: The only people missing or dead are brown people.

[24:47] Erik Cabral: They're after all of us.

[24:51] Tonya Pinkins: What do we do, Amelia?

[24:53] Erik Cabral: We die.

[24:55] Tonya Pinkins: But we take some of them with us.

[25:00] Tonya Pinkins: Hi, I'm Tonya Pinkins, and I would love to hear from you. You can text me at 917-724-8998. Tell me what you're up to, and I'll let you know what I'm up to. Text me. Let's keep in touch.