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What Black Week LA Taught Me About Building Something That Outlasts You

October 14, 2026 by
What Black Week LA Taught Me About Building Something That Outlasts You
Terence Latimer

Last week I spent two days at Black Week LA with a camera in my hand, mostly listening. Firesides, panels, a master class, a stand-up set. I came home with hours of footage and five lines I haven't been able to put down:

  • “Your work is so good, it's putting you on the mind of people you don't even know are thinking about you.” — DeVon Franklin, The Future Is Ours to Build
  • “Culture deserves more than a post. Culture deserves a countdown.” — Joe Anthony, The Creator Economy Was Never Built for Creators
  • “There is growth in specificity.” — Roy Wood Jr., The Joke Has a Point
  • “It don't cost no more money than ugly does.” — Ron Finley, Form Follows Human Performance
  • “…the ability to execute no matter what's staring you in the face.” — Omar Bailey, Form Follows Human Performance

The idea that followed me home came from Blacc Sam, on the Built to Outlast panel with Bino Rideaux: the brand has to exist outside of the person. He was talking about Nipsey and the Marathon, and about building the business with his brother so it could carry on past any one of them.

That's the problem I work on, at a much smaller scale. A lot of small businesses and nonprofits run on one person's memory. The founder knows where everything is, so the system is the founder. It works until that person gets sick, burns out, or wants a week off. The CRM, the documentation, the names that make things findable: that unglamorous layer is how a brand starts to exist outside of the person who started it.

Joe Anthony put numbers on the other half of the problem. The average Instagram ad gets about 1.8 seconds, and engagement fell 40% from 2024 to 2025. Audiences are scrolling more and noticing less. Posting more won't fix that. Being specific might — which is Roy Wood Jr.'s line again, from a different stage.

It was also good to see my old friend Darnell Brisco there, moderating a panel on diversity in Hollywood. We grew up together, and I'm writing more about that soon.

Two of the talks are up as short clips on my Instagram: Joe Anthony on the creator economy and Blacc Sam on building to outlast.

I went to listen, and came home with work to do. Good rooms do that.

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