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Damon Young, the founding editor of VerySmartBrothas.com, recently visited Point Park University to talk about starting a business, selling his business and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Damon has a story on his website that explains the black lives matter movement. I thanked him for doing that. It's not always easy for everyone to understand exactly a grassroots movement like this, and Damon's strong, unique voice provides valuable perspective.

During his campus talk, which was with Trib Total Media interns and a few employees, Damon covered a lot of ground. I had three main takeaways:

  1. Start creating high-quality content consistently before the spotlight finds you. That way when fame comes along, you will have a body of work to show for it.
  2. Know your own bandwidth. This hit home for me. Everyone needs to know when it's time to shut down, go home and see your family. Damon recently turned down a White House town hall meeting because it would mean another night away from his wife and daughter (and his basketball league).
  3. Conversations about race, gender and sexual orientation can be difficult - but they are essential. Everyone has prejudices. The real harm comes from using them to hurt other people - or, just as importantly, pretending like they don't exist.

Blog by Andrew Conte, director of Point Park University's Center for Media Innovation

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