143: Kenneth “ToJo Bigg Dawg” Gibson (Bigg Dawg Entertainment)

Kenneth “ToJo Bigg Dawg” Gibson on Innovation City

“My purpose is to be a better person every day that I wake up.” – Kenneth “ToJo Bigg Dawg” Gibson

Welcome to Season 3 of Innovation City, a podcast featuring innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency in cooperation with Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community. Venture Cafe is the largest combined gathering of entrepreneurs and innovators anywhere in the world. Events are held every Thursday in St. Louis, Miami, and other leading innovation cities around the globe.

Today’s guest is Kenneth “ToJo Bigg Dawg” Gibson, CEO of Bigg Dawg Entertainment. Gibson is from St. Louis and his hometown connections helped him see the opportunities needed to start his business. He built his business plans while serving an 8 year incarceration. He says he used his time in prison as “training for manhood” skipping card games and hang outs to spend time in the library, taking cues from mentors and learning about accountability and spirituality. In this episode, Tyler and Leigh-Ann invite the “Bigg Dawg” to take the stage on entrepreneurship, lessons learned from the school of life, finding purpose and much more!

They discuss:

• Why finding a niche that fits life experience and personal interests is the right move
• Being present helps you see more opportunities
• The importance of learning from your mistakes
• The importance of having mentors
• How tough it is to work in the entertainment business
• How introspection can help keep focus in difficult situations
• Getting comfortable with discomfort
• Getting an education in the school of hard knocks (or school of life)
• Community engagement and mentorship as a way to combat crime
• How maturity and personal accountability help in business and life
• The importance of using each day to get better
• His venture with podcasting and the Bigg Dawg’s Playhouse Podcast
• Understanding the function of business and knowing not to take it personal
• Why honesty is the best policy
• Kenneth’s feature in Dj Quik’s “Jus Lyke Compton” music video

Lightning Round:

• What is your superpower?
  • Experience
• What is one thing you do too much of?
  • Eat
• If you could solve one problem in the world what would it be?
  • Poverty and homelessness
• What do you spend too much time doing?
  • Thinking
• What is the best advice you ever received?
  • Always be honest