What Cannes Lions 2026 Taught Our Executive | The FYM Show

And we're back with another episode of the FYM Show with Ty and Yo. That's my man Ty. Um, yo, and this is going to be an ignorant conversation about wellness. That's what FYM the show is about. Us, you know, how allegedly, right? I think our conversations are enriching, I would say. But, uh, it's June, Ty, and I feel like June is ending, getting ready to move into July. And I feel like the summer has been very busy, very hot too, man. It's like 100 degrees in Atlanta right now.

So, uh, summer You say, you say that one time, technically we're only 8 days into the summer. Summer starts June 21st.

Well, man, ain't playing around, let me tell you. All right, anyways, no time. All right, they sweating outside now. Tell me a little bit about your June. You had a lot going on.

Yeah, June was pretty active. I just got back from France, so Oh, we left for France June 20th, landed on the 21st for Cannes Lions, um, advertisement festival. You know, the whole team is out there just trying to advance ourselves in the spaces that we're not seen at as much when it comes to brands, marketing, um, trying to advance brand partnership opportunities for clients, for the company itself, and overall just educating yourself on what's going on in the creative agency marketplace. And so we was there, um, had a few clients in town, bunch of peers in town, and then people usually leave on that Friday and go to Paris for Fashion Week. I think it's Men's Fashion Week, but they usually all— Louis Vuitton just had the crazy waterfall type of runway show. So that's when Pharrell really put on for the city, you know what I'm saying, for the people that he represent during this timeframe. And then simultaneously, BET Awards was happening this weekend as well, which we had coverage there because we had a few clients playing and DJing there as well. So it's been pretty, pretty active, you know what I'm saying? We didn't have anybody in the NBA draft this year. We just had a bunch of family and friends. So shout out LeBron, got drafted, I think number 21, to the Philadelphia 76ers. You know, obviously we got families in Philly, so hopefully they add value to the team. Um, but it was great, it was great. Chance, this is my third year. You know, we're building so much things around IP and creativity and represent talent, so was able to really, really, you know, learn some things. Um, The, the young, the young, the young intern that I had with me that I told you guys about on our last call, our last, um, conversation. He was, he was with me thugging it out in late days, late night, early mornings, flights, trying to keep up, you know what I'm saying. How was he?

How was he?

It was good. He asked a lot of questions, uh, a lot of questions. One time I had him talking with a, with a bunch of the big homies who was talking about you know, uh, being yourself in the space and learning how to interact with different walks of people from different walks of life. So who's at this thing called Sports Beach? And my homegirl Nandi, who books talent for Spotify, but she also just produces, produces shows, like she's a creative producer, she was like, hey, hey, bitch, you said, so what have you learned so far? And little man said, I learned how to code switch. I was like, oh Lord Jesus, oh Lord Jesus, I'm a terrible role model.

How many days in was that?

3, wasn't even a full 3. Oh Lord, you get 16-year-old around you, it make you think about your conversation that you be having on speakerphone a lot different, bro.

I'm crying because Ty does all his talk on speakerphone. Oh man, so how long was he with you? That was like almost 3 days, but how long was the entire trip?

The entire trip was from the 19th until the 30th, so he's still with me. He upstairs. Wow, wow. We shooting our first feature film for our indie film studio that we launching in Atlanta. So I'm going to sit tomorrow with the executive producer that's going to help me put together the soundtrack. So he's still following me, he's still shadowing me. The work's not done. But then he fly back out tomorrow.

How have you liked the experience of having a young man follow you and kind of shadow you like this?

It's been interesting. It was interesting. Uh, I tried to sneak him in the Spotify concert. That didn't happen. Um, I started to realize you can't do a lot of stuff when you got a minor with you. You know. So that was a minor.

Yeah, yeah, he's not 18 yet.

So a lot of my meetings, I was like, wait a minute, he get in here? And so, um, you know, that was good. But, but what I noticed is when people was talking, who's in a car van with 3, 4 people having discussions, I look out of my, my peripheral and I see him just taking notes. Like, he was always taking notes, you know, and journaling every— he was— he's journaling every day. About what's going on, taking photos, just trying to figure out what he want to do at 16 years old. I know I didn't know. I thought I was going to the NFL at 16, so I did know what I wanted to do, but I don't know if that was a realistic thing at the time. But 16, that's what I was like, know what I was on. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. So he's like figuring it out, but it was cool. So got through that, you know, obviously played some golf while I was out there.

And how was that?

It was good. It was hot, very hot in France right now. Very, very hot. Yeah, very hot in France, to say the least.

Yeah, they don't, they don't believe in air conditioning, right?

Well, it's not that they don't believe in air conditioning because we had air conditioning wherever I went, but it was hot, you know, outside, walk around from one activation to the next. It was hot, you know what I'm saying? But it was great. We had, we had a lot of great people with us, made a lot, some great new connections with people. Um, company building, getting educated. I got a chance to see— I think his last name is, uh, Stephen, the founder of Diary of a CEO. So I got a chance to see him speak live with Sharice from Harborview. So that was a great talk. Um, I missed Jada and Joe. Um, live talk with Harborview. Um, I met some, met some new contacts, uh, things of that nature. But it was cool though, man. Like, I encourage all Black people that's in entertainment— it doesn't matter what you do— you should find some time, save up some coins, plan in advance to go to Cannes Lions, uh, advertisement festival. It's very, very impactful. It's a lot of, a lot of, a lot of relationships and a lot of things you can learn. And when you start to get there, you start seeing the people that are there every year, you start realizing the people that are not there, you know. And when you work in entertainment, like I, like, like I said, this is my third year. I'm gonna go every year until I can't anymore because it's just that impactful for our team. But we're gonna have some presence there every year. Next year we're going to aim to do some level of events. Some level of like private dinners, something of that nature. But it's going to be something that we try to like build on and catch momentum every year because, um, that's where CMOs, brand managers, agencies, talent, um, investors, big companies go and they, and they try to connect with their partners, you know. No, but yeah.

So tell me, Ty, what percentage of people who like us do you see at Cannes during these events?

It's a little tricky because you naturally gravitate to your people and you see them, oh, what's up, what's good, let's get some lunch. But the truth of the matter is I'll be surprised if 5% of the total attendance is Black and brown people, specifically from the United States of America. I'll be surprised if it's, if it's more than 5%. Um, yeah.

Now, have you seen that number change since your first time going, or has it been kind of persistent?

I feel like it's been the same. I feel like it's been the same. I don't think it's like changed, or if this year maybe, but I feel like it's been the same. I don't think it kind of grew since I've been gone, you know what I'm saying? I think it's just like same people know about it, you know, you tell people about it, but it is an investment, you know what I'm saying? Like you have to fly to France, you have to fly to Nice, you know, your average flight is going to be— if you get it early, early, you might get a flight for $1,800 round trip. But housing in a close enough area, it's probably going to be $4,000 or $5,000 for 4 or 5 days. If you stay at the— if you stay at the, um, uh, what's the name of the hotel? The hotel is, is, is, is, is, is literally escaping my mind, but it's a hotel that's about 30 minutes from Cairns. That cost €170 a night. It don't matter what, it, it always cost that amount because the drive from there to Cannes Lions is like 30 minutes one way. So people rarely try to stay there. But if you wanna, if you own a budget, you know, you stay there, then you just have to Uber down, and then you got to find somewhere to camp out at, you know, if you don't want to, you know, if you don't want to be going back and forth, back and forth. But I think that overall it's a great experience, um, to help you build more relationships, um, especially if you manage talent or if you're— if you are talent. Um, the things about even your documentaries, you know, things you do, you can't find brands that's interested in those different things. We met— we met a guy there who did the Meal Ticket documentary. Oh yeah, about the McDonough All-American game, high school game. So, so you have filmmakers out there. That's the second— like, we— you see so many different people, walks of life, because traditionally that's where the money is at. Brands are there, they're figuring out where their budget is going to be for the next year. And you know, it's a lot of moving and shaking there. So we don't always get invited to those movements and shaking, but the more and more you're, you're involved, you kind of find yourself being in rooms that are very helpful for you, you know.

All right, two questions. Question one: how did you get introduced to CANs?

It's interesting because, uh, 3 years ago Steve Stout told me about it. No, 4 years ago. So 4 years ago. So I went this summer, so I went 2026 2025 and 2024, my first year. The summer of 2023, Stout was like, yo, I'm taking you to Cannes Lions with me. So I was like, okay, I don't, I don't know what that means, right? But then I hired a PR company around July, August of 2023, uh, Latonya, Gabrielle, and Ashley. I just seen Ashley was there, we kicked it a little bit while this week, but Gabrielle was like, you all need to be at Cannes Lions Film Festival. I was like, man, you're the second person who said that. So when she said it to me, I literally got online and I booked hotels. I booked the hotels. And that year, first year, only me and Jane went. And I got into this CMO accelerator program. It was like $7,500, and you basically are in the room, in a classroom with CMOs for 2 days listening to speeches, to having conversations and things of that nature. Oh, but that's how I heard about it. First I heard about it from Stout, then I— then when I heard about it from my PR, I was like, I'm gonna go myself. I'm not gonna wait on nobody.

Now, did you think from the moment you got there, you had that first experience, that it was a good investment?

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. It was fast-paced the first time. Like, this time I had like 7 of my team members with me, so 7 including me. So everybody was moving around, meeting, connecting with people, and coming back being like, okay, this is who we met, these are the different connectivity we made. And it made it a lot more easier on me, especially since I had a mentor with me shadowing me around to different things we was going to. Uh, it's a lot going on, so the more teammates you can have there The more impactful it can be, the better, the better.

Um, I mean, man, that sounds amazing. I did wonder, did you see anyone that you knew from working on the music side of entertainment?

Um, I did not see anybody aside from Britney from, uh, Avant Garde and Emotional Oranges, but, but I invited them. I was like, y'all need to come, you know what I'm saying? Okay. Um, I seen Cersei, right? But yeah, but Cersei is an advisor for Harborview, and Harborview had their second year activations out there, right? So he was basically out there with his, with his, uh, with his team. Um, and you do see, like, I see Jeff Chaka, but they OG. Like, in my peer group Didn't see many people in my peer group, you know, that's out there, um, that work in music. I mean, you can say, you know, like Nandi, she does talent booking for Spotify, but I didn't see no talent managers, you know. Uh, J. Irvin was out there, but like I said, a lot of the older— like Luda had a show, Nelly had a show, Fat Joe, Pun, like all them old school Like, they out there getting it, catching that bag. Jerkin' Joloff was out there as well. Jerkin' Joloff had a show two nights in a row. Uh, so I seen, uh, I think it's Samuel from, um, I forget my man name from Jerkin' Joloff, but see him.

I was just trying to point out that it does seem like a lot of legacy acts or a lot of OGs will be in that type of space, but a lot of younger emerging, or even established but still on the younger side, probably haven't been told to go or prioritize going, you know. But it does seem like where you are, you're like, you're trying to tell everybody, if you're able to make that investment, to make that move.

Yeah, think about like this. Chris Paul played in the league like 20, 21 years. Chris Paul, that was his first time out there. He was speaking on the panel. He's like, yo, this is my first time out here. But guess who's out there? Cooper Flagg. Cooper Flagg was there. He only been in the league one year. He's out there moving around, you know, him and his twin brother, you know. So like, they just give you like a gauge of like Chris Paul been in the league for that long. And he never been out there where you have. I, I think Kevin Durant has been there every year that I've been out there. Kevin Durant has been there, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, and your team, you, the connectivity and the people you know, it's like really truly trying to connect those dots to, to expand your brand, which expands your wealth, which expands your reach, which gives your family opportunity. So you go out there with your team gives your team opportunity to move around, try to find opportunities for you to bring back to the home.

Mhm. But yeah, well, yeah, man, I think it's, I think it's really interesting having that, that experience. And at the same time, the BET Awards had just passed. And you know, so I know about the BET Awards. I have known about the BET Awards since I was a kid, you know what I'm saying? Everybody knows about the BET Awards.

You go on Twitter, You know what I'm saying?

Trophies, entertainment, like that experience is something that I feel like we're kind of embedded with knowing that like you want to go, right? You want to be an artist that gets on that red carpet or can even sit in the stands. And I think those experiences are amazing and they're incredible and they're necessary, but there are also other things that feel a little bit more like outlier experiences that you might not hear about, you might not know about, but can be just as impactful. As a BET Award.

Yeah, 1,000%. I mean, listen, um, one of the things that we always going to talk about, which is very, very important from a standpoint of like, um, getting FYI, get some FYI, some F, F you money, you know, it is, um, you have to know what diversification look like for you, right? So You can be making your money in one sector, but you can go and diversify your relationships, right? Diversify your relationships and add more value to the one stream of revenue that you have, you know. And so for me, you know, next year I'm going to the Sundance Film Festival. They moving it to Colorado, right? It's going to be moved to Colorado. It's not going to be in Utah anymore. And one of the reasons we're going is because, you know, as we speak, we're shooting our first feature film, you know. And so as a company, we want to be in a place where we can take our content and our IP and find ways to monetize it so we can grow our business year over year. You know, the, the indie way is became a very valuable way. It's a very valuable route. So when we start talking about how to set ourselves up for success so we can retire comfortably, provide opportunities for our family while we're on the route of retiring ourselves and getting some FYI, getting some F-you money, so that, you know, you find yourself being able to remove yourself from things that don't serve you. And these, these, these events like you know, Cannes Lions, these events like Possible, these events like, you know, um, um, uh, I think it's a Black Film Festival, it's down here in Miami, um, I think it's called ABF or something like that, uh, Tribeca, you know, BET. BET is not a bad place as well, but you just can't just not know about all the other things, you know what I'm saying? Um, like I said, Sundance, you know, a lot of these— South by Southwest— a lot of these festivals, they have these panel aspects of it. Essence Festival, right? You know, you're gonna have, um, the, the Global Black, um, Economic Forum that's going to be held down in, in Essence, where they're going to be live streaming all of their talks globally through— powered by Essence Festival, right? So when we start thinking about advancement, we have to know sometimes it's about being in the right place. And it's not always about just going to the concert, you know, trying to find the different connectivities and connect— connective points. I mean, Invest Fest is the same way down here in Atlanta with Earn Your Leisure. So I think these are like tentpole cultural events. Matter of fact, I think we're going to do a, um, we should, we should write a, um a, um, Substack about it, yo. We should write a Substack on our, on our FYM Substack channel about some of the cultural things that people should be thinking about and give them a list, you know, annually and kind of update it every year if we can, you know. So I just think that it's the right place, right time, you know.

I like that.

Um, it really does add value in, in those different things. And a lot of these stuff be scriptures, man, like be in the right place at the right time, you know what I'm saying? Everything is, everything is new under the sun, you know, nothing is new under the sun. So if we following what our spirit is leading us on, all of these things are relevant. So it is, it is important to know that these things are happening so that you can kind of like tap in because it might be in your city. There's people that probably live in Miami that have no clue that POSiBLE goes on. It's only the third year And it's basically a baby, a baby version of Cannes Lions. The same people that's here are the same people that go to Cannes Lions. Wow.

I mean, there's probably people that don't know about the Earn Your Leisure Fest in Atlanta, you know.

That's 10,000 people a day.

So, but I wanted to ask you, you're speaking at Essence Fest this year, right?

So the 5th There is a conjunction with the Essence Festival that the, the, um, Global Black Economic Forum is attached to. I don't know the inner, inner workings of it, but that is who, who asked me to speak, is that, that, that, that conference. I don't know how tied in they are with the Essence Festival. There is some tie-in, but I don't know if it's like I'm speaking at the Essence Festival because, you know, okay, okay.

I didn't mean— I didn't even put you on the spot like that, but you will be speaking this weekend. Essence will be happening in New Orleans.

Okay, there is affiliation, I just don't know how deep it is at this point.

I got you. Now, how'd you get involved and what is your panel on?

So the panel is on rap lyrics in the courtroom, and it's basically this conversation about are Black artists, specifically rappers, targeted when it comes to their lyrics. Um, I hired a company in January to help come into our organization to help us with more governance and structure and, and code of ethics for our executive level staff, and, and then for it to kind of like go downhill to our, our staff members. And so the company and the team that has been running this program for us for the last like 4 and a half months, almost 5 months, they're the ones that after going through our business and having a whole bunch of conversations with us, um, one of the leaders was just like, yo, I think you'll be good for this, this talk. So that's how I, you know, um, got invited to speak on.

Now for panels like that, Cyd, how do you prepare? Do you just— you go in there, you go off the dome? Do you do some research? Like, how does, uh, how does one prepare for a panel with such an interesting topic like that, right?

So this panel is interesting because it deals with courtroom. So I gotta, you know, I gotta, I gotta be more prepared than me just freestyling because it deals with speaking on law. And speaking on rights. So last thing I want to feel like is like a snitch, you know what I'm saying? Like, I feel like I say something that's like not aligned with how I live my life, right? So being that I don't— I'm not a criminal, I never— I've never been to prison, so, um, and I don't do no type of criminal activities. Um, but I do think there's a real conversation to be had about, uh, why Black artists are targeted for their lyrics but, uh, alternative rock artists are not. And in this country, it is, it is astonishing and it is very obvious. It's not being hidden, right? Um, Young Thug is a case study in one of the in the talk for our documents that we're getting prepared. So we're just preparing to bring more light to it. I'm actually speaking on the panel with one of our clients, Bash for the World, who's a Spanish rapper who don't rap in Spanish. So he raps like he's from East Dallas. I think Bash is from East Dallas. So he rapped like he's where he grew up is a representation of what he saw growing up. And so he could easily be a victim of that, you know, um, being judged by his lyrics when he's entertaining a demo. So, so it should be a good— it should be a good conversation. But I do— I will be trying to be very prepared for this one because they're screaming it globally. So you don't know how many people might see— I might see you, might see you. It's not just about who's sitting in the room.

Well, please, Ty, make sure you share that link so we can be posting on all our socials, because I'm— I know that our audience would love to see you talk. Um, but yeah, man, I mean, I think this has been a great conversation about how to position yourself in places where, you know, you can get the most from the experience. And, uh, sounds like you've been doing that throughout your summer.

Yeah, man, you know, the second half of the year is, is, is, is one day away before we get into July. Um, we have some really dope stuff coming up on the second half of the year. Um, I'm super excited about it, super excited about— I'm just super excited about life as a whole. Um, to be able to give, be in a position to help people, you know, get information and get opportunities or whatever the case might be. So it's so much to catch up on. But it's so much to be grateful for, and there's so much to keep praying about. So, man, I hope that everybody can kind of take these conversations, you know, and see how they can add value to your life. Because I'm pretty sure me and Yo have a lot more views if we was on here just bashing people and talking about people's dirty laundry and things of that nature. And, um, that's just not in our character. And then— and I don't knock anybody that does it That's just their approach to their marketing, but we're hoping to just keep building from a standpoint of awareness and education and, uh, what's— what are the best practices in life, you know what I'm saying, to try to add more value to your, your family's well-being.

So yeah, man, straight like that. So this is another episode of the FYM Show with Ty and Yo. Please share, like, subscribe. Let someone know what we doing on this platform, what we're building. And we're just trying to help empower and educate. So you down with us, please just keep on rocking.

Yeah, go grab a book, Volume 1, Volume 2.

Oh yeah, Volume 1, Volume 2 out right now. Please, if you got one, buy one for somebody else that needs it. Like, we, we pushing these books.

Quick read.

Yes, sir.

All right, peace.

Peace.