Devin Wilkins

Introduction and Who Is Devin Wilkins

Taryell Simmons: Good morning, Rise Urban Nation. It's your host, Taryell Simmons, in the building, and we have an amazing special guest today, Mr. Devin Wilkins. I'm getting all my DMV brothers in the house. Devin, how are you today?

Devin Wilkins: Man, I'm great. I'm feeling blessed, feeling good, feeling strong. Great on a Monday.

Taryell Simmons: You were introduced to me by a good friend of ours. Tell the people who that is.

Devin Wilkins: Ed, a great man from DC doing great work. I met him in college. Good people.

Taryell Simmons: We just did an episode with Ed, and he told me, I've got to introduce you to my boy Devin. So for the people who don't know, who is Devin?

Devin Wilkins: First of all, a Black man navigating this world. A father, a son. A person of the people, an all-around giver, whether that's money, time or energy. A person who's there when I can be there and willing to help. That's who I am in the grand scheme of things.

The Black Baltimore Renaissance Coloring Book

Taryell Simmons: I was looking at your website the other day: The Black Baltimore Renaissance, Coloring the Faces of Change. It's a beautiful thing. How did you birth it?

Devin Wilkins: It came from seeing what's going on in the Black community across the board. My city always has a negative connotation, but there are good things going on. We have artists, clothing designers, scientists, poets, culinary arts, everything. I wanted to highlight those people and show that the people you see every day are stars. You don't have to go to LA, Miami or Atlanta to see stars. Coloring the Faces of Change is coloring people you know who are doing the work. In any city, if we know somebody, we don't give them credit, but if we don't know them, it's all love. I didn't agree with that. And this is only the first volume. There's more to come, more women, more people doing great work.

Taryell Simmons: I resonate with everything you're saying, because that's why I started this podcast. When I moved up in my career and got into entrepreneurship, I kept seeing Black people doing great things who didn't get the credit. When I speak to students in underserved communities, they have limiting beliefs about what they can be, and the adults do too, based on the representation they see.

Mentoring Young People and Being Your Authentic Self

Devin Wilkins: And you have to make it cool. This work started with me going into detention centers and working with young people. I graduated from Delaware State in 2007, and in college I was doing the SGA thing and helping out. So I said, if I helped people in college, I've got to come back home and do something. It's about being an example, not someone flawless, but someone showing their flaws. The main thing is be yourself, your authentic Black self, and you'll find your way.

Taryell Simmons: I struggled with that through college and the corporate world. There isn't always a place to be your authentic Black self and still grow, unless you have your people around you for guidance and mentorship. How was it for you?

Devin Wilkins: I went to Delaware State University, an HBCU, so college was Black majority. The hard part was being professional while being myself, and learning that all Black people are not the same. We don't all come from the same background. I'd get into positions like the board of trustees and had to adjust how I articulated and carried myself. I have a father, but I never met him, so everything I learned about being a man, how to dress, how to tie a tie, how to present myself in a suit, I picked up from people I saw and added to my toolbox. I'm saying what I'm saying, but I adjust when I'm talking to different people. Coming from the hood, I had to learn that not everybody is from the hood.

Taryell Simmons: Even without a steady dad figure, you come back and mentor in a dad kind of way. What made you do that?

Devin Wilkins: Seeing my peers. I was born and raised in Northwest Baltimore, and growing up I dumbed myself down a lot. I liked both sides, the street music and Kanye when he came out, but in that world you had to put a mask on. I know smart people who ended up in prison or died early, and getting accepted to college was the main thing for me. So it's about coming back and showing other options. I'm not trying to be a dad, and I don't even like the word mentor. I'm just trying to be a helping person. If you come back and say, bro, you helped me, that's all I need.

Taking Off the Mask

Taryell Simmons: Each one teach one. Going back to the mask: the block doesn't see my man's other side because he's being the tough dude in the streets. Why do Black men feel the need to be that way, and will we ever unmask and be vulnerable with each other?

Devin Wilkins: It's happening, slowly but surely. Look at our generation. Black men are being transparent about their feelings and what they want in life and in a partner. For the people who still have the mask on, it's environmental. If I'm in a hard place, I can only be weak so long before the wolves try to eat me alive. It's a survival tactic. So it's about taking some of those young people out of that environment and showing them there's more. Show them the multimillion-dollar homes and the wealth gap that's right in their face. The money we're trying to make on the streets is small. The things we value don't really mean anything.

Taryell Simmons: Jay-Z said it best: don't die over the neighborhood your mama rents in. In my dad's generation, you didn't talk about therapy and self care. Why do you think we're seeing that transition now?

Devin Wilkins: People are speaking about it more. They want to unpack those traumas, like on that Kendrick album, and Jay-Z, and men we admire in entertainment and in professional life. The generations before had the mask on even more. Our uncles couldn't be their authentic selves. After this pandemic, people don't want to hold on to that old guard. We're just being ourselves now.

Taryell Simmons: You continuously do the work on yourself. What helped you become the person you are today?

Devin Wilkins: Talking to myself, honestly. I'm 33, and over the past couple of years I asked myself: am I really who I'm saying I am? Am I becoming the man I want to be? And I wasn't. I have two sons, and I didn't want to be a character for them. Then ten years passed, and I realized nothing was changing in my city and the people in position don't really care. I'm not a saint, but I said, forget it, I'm going to help how I can. Understanding I wasn't perfect is what made me who I am now. I'm no longer trying to be anything but me.

Real and Genuine Will Take You Far

Taryell Simmons: I resonate with that. I was a knucklehead growing up, but when I spoke at schools I only talked about my professional self. A teacher told me, these kids aren't resonating with you because you aren't being true to all of you. Tell them how you used to be running the streets and how you transitioned.

Devin Wilkins: It's real, Taryell, because people know realness. Real and genuine will always take you far. People see through the fluff, and they can smell it. Overcoming things resonates more than saying you were perfect.

Taryell Simmons: Most of us got it out the mud. What was your first job?

Devin Wilkins: I was a pool attendant at the Druid Hill Park pool from fourteen until my freshman year of college. Working there and at rec centers is where I got my passion for helping young people. The lesson was hard work. It was hot, and I was kind of lazy, trying to avoid lifting chlorine in the summertime. But a man there, Mr. Don, stayed on me. You've got to be here at seven in the morning. With overtime, I could get a fifteen-hundred-dollar check at fourteen. It taught me dedication, discipline and doing the things you don't want to do. Today I'm a benefit authorizer at the Social Security Administration, and an entrepreneur on top of that.

Just Do It: Turning an Idea Into a Business

Taryell Simmons: What advice would you give somebody who has a passion to help their community and wants to turn a small idea into a business?

Devin Wilkins: Not to be corny, but like Nike: just do it. I had so many ideas that fell short because I didn't do them. In 2010, a friend of mine in college had Campus Runner, basically a pre-Uber Eats, picking up food from Wendy's and McDonald's for students. He stayed an extra year to build it and asked me to invest and help, and I didn't stick with it. When the coloring book came to me, I told one friend and nobody else. I made the plan last year and just did it. I didn't want anybody to cloud my vision. You know what you want and how you want it to look, so go for it.

Taryell Simmons: Sometimes we let fear get in the way, or we look for validation, when the validation you need is within yourself. I was speaking in schools, and teachers kept telling me to start a podcast because I had stories for days. When COVID hit, I said, I'll do it, but it won't just be about me. I've got to highlight my people.

Patience, a Plan and the Future of Meeting Where You Are

Taryell Simmons: What's one good lesson life has taught you?

Devin Wilkins: Be patient. I used to shoot dice in the streets, wanting quick money, always trying to make something happen faster than I needed to. I never got caught, but I saw peers lose their patience trying to make a flip and end up in jail, or dead, or caught up in violence from a quick temper. Patience is being clear minded and not letting anybody ruffle your feathers. You might not get it fast. Be patient and put the work in. Nothing comes to you.

Taryell Simmons: Shout out to the late, great Nipsey Hussle. The marathon continues. What advice would you give a young person just out of high school who doesn't know what they want to do?

Devin Wilkins: Have a plan, early. My mother always told me that, and I give her credit. I tell my son, who's eleven, the same thing, and he just gave me a Father's Day card thanking me for making him the young man he is. You might not know exactly what you want, but have a direction, whether it's getting your CDL or something else, and have a second plan. Write your plan down daily. Plan your life early so you don't have to fix it later.

Taryell Simmons: You're dropping gems today. What do you envision for the future of your community?

Devin Wilkins: In a perfect world, people who really care being in positions of power. And don't count yourself out. It doesn't have to be at a high level. Help five people, or one. If you see trash, pick it up. I want this book in different cities, a DC one, an Atlanta one. I didn't draw these pictures. I had the vision and an artist brought it to life, so I want to connect with more artists and keep connecting the dots across the country, the same way Ed connected me to you.

Taryell Simmons: Whatever I can do to support, you've got me. What projects are you working on, and where can people find you?

Devin Wilkins: I'm working on the second volume, but right now I'm pushing this one out to the masses. I want at least 5,000 copies out in this city and a six-figure contract by the end of the year. I'm speaking it so it can happen. I want these books in stores, schools, detention centers and prisons. You can find me at Meeting Where You Are on Instagram, and the website is there too.

Taryell Simmons: Target, if you're listening, he said five thousand. I'll put his bio, website and socials in the show notes. Devin, any last words of wisdom?

Devin Wilkins: Make it work for yourself in whichever way that is. Even if you're down bad, the only way is up. Much love.

Taryell Simmons: Much love to you. That's Devin Wilkins, ladies and gentlemen. Take hold of your life.