A Muganzo Revolution (with Melissa Muganzo)

The Queen has returned. THE Melissa Muganzo of Muganzo Entertainment is back with us this week to talk about wrapping her tour for The Big Hysto. Catch up with us on the closing of The Big Hysto's tour, what's next, and new ways to look at our aWeSomE healthcare system.

Thanks to our Amazing Guest: Melissa Muganzo
Website: muganzoentertainment.com
LinkedIn/Instagram: @muganzoentertainment
Mindy's Kitchen of California
Instagram: @mindyskitchen_ca

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Transcript

0:43

Everybody. I'm Brandon Fox. This is another episode of Grandpa and Chill here with my amazing co-host. As always, Phines, our amazing producer, Sierra, my grandfather, and our amazing guest, Melissa, who was on almost two years ago now. Crazy. Crazy. What's going on, everybody? I'm excited to return home with my folks. Yeah. If you could recap the audience a little bit on sort of your background, your project where we talked about last time and sort of like where you've been at since. Yeah, if I was one of your Melissa Muganzo, pronouns She/They/Sis. CEO and founder of Muganzo Entertainment, founder of Mindy’s Kitchen

and executive producer of the Big Hysto: 1:31

A Black Womb Revolution. It's really wild to think that almost two years ago we connected and started building rapport with one another because in my mind I thought it was just months ago. But we're talking comments at this point. So I'm like, Oh, okay, okay, years. Okay. So I think the last time we spoke, I was talking about how I was in post-production and trying to get approvals and trying to find a space to have the premiere and now, almost two years later, on the brink of my last tour stop, we've gone through 13, we've had 13 tour stops, over 35 speeches, radio show conversations being contracted to talk about justice in this way. And the tour is wrapping up next month. I've got into really beautiful acting opportunities and I love to do it. And I'm also I'm in the beginning stages of launching a mobile vegan food line, so I'm just really grateful. I'm in a really great space and I just can't believe it's been almost two years. Like I'm processing that in real time. I actually. Felt. Yeah. Just for the people that are having listened to the last episode, the project that you're touring with, could you tell the name and specifics and all of that? Yeah, big bet.

So the project is called The Big Hysto: 2:56

A Black Womb Revolution and it talks about how racism, sexism and the various phobias are instituted and embedded in the medical system and how that has been the foundation of why people are going to the hospital and they're like, I don't feel like I was hurt, or that people really cared or people were treating me kind of weird, or I experienced microaggressions as both a physician and a patient. You know, my insurance denied me for something that I should have access to. And that has been a really beautiful story. But it's also been interesting about how many people have been impacted by the subject matter. I mean, the stories are it's everybody. It's everybody. My entire focus was predominantly on womb holders and people that are black identified, but it is really intersectional. It crossed over to so many different people and it's mind boggling how many people have been victimized by the medical industry. And are your coworkers, your grocers, your gas station attendants and we're just all going to work every day, are doing our thing every day. Our creatives, our actors, our doctors, our lawyers. I mean, when you talk about physicians also having medical malpractice or medical mistreatment, when they become a patient, it's like, okay, this is bigger than, you know, anti physician. This is systematic and it's impacting everybody. So, yeah, yeah. Well, weirdly enough, like random, we we've had a lot of medical professionals or people in the know in all those fields and stuff. And it's just made me very cynical about the whole thing because. How can it not? It is crazy how. Yeah, it's very fucked on so many levels. I'm curious like what did you, what surprised you or what did you learn about the process? Like getting this thing out there And like, for instance. You know, one of the two things that took place that I really wanted to have a tour stop with. One is that a hospital I one day like talked to graduate students in medical school. I wanted to talk to physicians and I was like, they're going to burn me at the fucking stake. Like, I know they're going to think to be like you. Absolutely not. But I really wanted to talk to them. And then I really wanted to have conversations with, like medical technology firms who are just like, you know, creating all these devices, but they have to go inside of human bodies or be a part of people's human experiences. And if you don't have cultural humility in that, you could be producing harm even though you're trying to solve an illness or a crisis. And I've gotten to do that in a number of ways. Interfacing with really, really large medical technology firms have been really interesting. Like Medtronic and Johnson and Johnson. And you'd be surprised how many people have totally not been taught about the history of this system, but are actively working in it. And some people that want to do good but don't know where to start and and medical students that are literally writing up research for their fourth year in medical school to get grant funded to solve these crises. And then the people that run the money in the hospital are denying their requests to research the cure for these issues. And I was like, Well, if you don't have the money and you're denying the research for this at the medical level, we're all fucked. And like what or how insurance brokers and boards of hospitals are not clinicians at all. They're businesspeople, and they decide what the hospital will and won't approve insurance wise. It's so interesting. So it's all of that was just like, whoa, this is so much deeper than just like on the ground level. Medical, racism, the sexism. This is a literal system put together for the sake of monetary gain, period. Um, I didn't realize that for fevers were non-medical. I'm sorry. No, no, it's okay. Yeah, I just. The one I. I just like this question I gotta ask now before it gets too far off, But because I'm really interested, what was like the the medical heads up, the ends up being just businessmen, Like, what are business people or whatever? Um, what was there like justification for not funding things. It was just like ignorance and not having eyes open for it. Ah were there like actual like was what were they saying. The, the you know. I so these were people in residency and fourth year graduate students in medical school that were telling me that this is what was going on when they would submit to say, hey, you know, I really want to find a cure for endometriosis. Right? And so this is what I didn't want to dedicate my internship in medical school, and I want to get a residency that focuses on hormone therapy or gynecological practices or all of those things, right. Are uprooting medical racism. And when it comes to like maybe black mortality rates, like people will really be really intentional about their research subject matter and it would get denied and they would be surprised and they would be told that there's not enough money for that or we don't have money at the hospital level or that's not you're not going to get support or there's no doctors in the area that could supervise you. And it's and all of those things are red tape, right? Because you essentially could say, oh, my gosh, this is a great research topic. There's still a lot of issues. How do we partner with colleagues to find the resolution for this person that has an interest? So that to me was interesting or finding out, you know, the hospital's a nonprofit, so it has to report to a board and boards are usually handpicked. Some of them are governor appointees. And you don't have to be someone that's in the industry to be on the board. Just like high level colleges. You do not have to be anyone that ever had an academic, any type of experience to be on the board for a university, because they're usually fundraising boards. Kind of who you know and, and then that of what you know and the experience that you have. And so like, you know, all that stuff. Absolutely. And all that. Absolutely. That's one. Yeah. And you know on that and none of Facebook yeah I'm glad I'm so. Well I'm you know I'm not opposed to nepotism because if I see a friend that I think is a good fit for something, I'm going to hire them. Like, that's what's going to happen if I were to have a niece that was like, whether they have the experience, I'm going to hire them. And so I think what we have seen is there's a lot of white nepotism and it's sustained in that way. But I don't think the concept of nepotism is bad. I feel like if it's only for a certain type of person, then that's where we get into challenges. Like if you want to keep a family business and you hired your sibling. Yeah, like, okay, hire them. But we can't say that it's bad when it's other people and we also can't give other people a chance. So watching that is like, Oh, there's a certain type of nepotism that has worked in society for a really long time and people are calling that out right? MM Yeah, I agree. Cause or like nepotism when you just have no desire to do well at the job, like if you literally just like, you know, I just want a job and then someone gives you a job, you know, you have no. And if depending on who that person is, I gave you the job. You have no incentive to do it well or to care what happens within it. That's like the big thing. Because like you said, if your niece is like, bomb as hell, like, yeah, higher than that, they're going to do a great job. They just, you know, need a job. This is a great opportunity for it. But if your niece like but you know, if your niece or somebody just like sucks, like just sits there and it's like, well, Melissa hired me, so I don't know what to tell you. So, you know, they just keep sitting there then. Yeah. And, and then, you know, I mean, I know also the vice president, it's like, What? No. Mhm. Yeah. Uh, definitely unavoidable to do that. The nepotism is stuff cause it's like again, it's like there's this being like social and talking to other groups because I could like, who do I know besides my family and friends, you know, the people I know close to me. Who do I think, you know, I think these people are the, the best of their job. I'm sure are. I think they're the best candidates. But they like you were saying, it gets real negative once you get too far gone. Like if you, you know, to separate it from the people, especially the people that need help. If someone's out here saying like, hey, we're being mistreated and disenfranchized are, you know, all that other stuff. Yeah, yeah. You just got to I think you just need to, like, let them have a seat at the table right at that point. Yeah. But then it's hard because people are like, I got a standard of living. I don't want to lose my job. Yeah, I mean, I. Man, I've been doing this for years, um, and in my family lineage for years. This is what we do. Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, that's it. All right. Absolutely. I know what kind of hard. I didn't want to kind of hear what they had to say. Um, all right. Yeah. Yeah, no worries. Is this what you call favoritism? And I don't. I don't know. I feel like it's favoritism, nepotism. It kind of draws the line, but I guess I think both of them are really depend on the approach and what's being offered. Right. So like we were saying, if we have a family member or a friend or a neighbor who is like, Oh, you need a job, I can hire you for a front desk role if you just need a job versus I'm going to make you second in command and you have no experience and no talking point for the job itself, then would that's considered favoritism. And this is doing a lot. But if you just gave somebody a job because they needed it and they have background experiences or they have a potential to do it, and yes, they just so happen to know you, why would I not hire you? Like I don't see an issue with that at all. Sometimes you only trust the people closest to you to do some of the most protective work, you know? So yeah, especially if you're starting out like who are the people closest to you? You're going to ask your friends, your people from college, maybe your partner, maybe some nieces, maybe some siblings. You're going to ask them to kind of ride the wave until you have the confidence or even the money to hire somebody professionally at a salary that's actually livable. So yeah, but it can be pretty complicated if if the approach is negative. And I think sometimes say a business owner might higher family members and it's not always true, but they may feel that they can trust them more. Yeah, to do a good job. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we all know that family is. 50, 50. 5050 when it comes to family. So. Right, exactly. Literally. Yeah. That's why I said maybe. Maybe they will be right. More trustworthy, maybe not. You know? Right. Did you get any sort of, uh, negativity or pushback from people like these board members or, you know, the industry that you were trying all this fucked up stuff about or. No, everybody was like, Yep, that happens. Yep. Here's humility. Hand-Holding Roundtable Discussion. I mean, I, I felt really affirmed in a lot of these spaces where I told you I was originally like, Well, this is the end if I'm going to go out. At least I went out on a high, you know, So I know people were like, This is necessary. These are real stories and it's current stories. And I think that was something that people were processing to like, Oh, this just happened last year. Oh, this is not a 19 in 1920 story that's in a history book somewhere. This is not even something that's in the 1900 period like this is in 2020 that is currently happening. And that's been beautiful. And I grew a lot as a business owner. I grew a lot as an entrepreneur, as a supervisor, as a boss, as a creative, as an artist. I grew a lot in those areas. So yeah. Yeah. This was so long ago. We the last time we thought, Oh my God, the last time we talked to you, we had a board, a ship right now, you know. Rovers with. Yeah. What does that affect the way that you went through visiting these different places and your travel and your stories. Absolutely. I remember presenting at a college. It was like a medical racism and healthcare class for an HBCU in Atlanta. And they got me and you know, to present and it was this two hour class. And, you know, students are curious. Georgia can be a very controversial state depending on religious belief. Political beliefs like literally county to county, you just don't know. And so I'm in, you know, having a conversation and they're like, yes, yes, yes, yes. And they immediately want to know my thoughts on Roe v Wade. And it took me a while to be like, Oh, my gosh, I'm I'm sharing my opinion as a Californian. I didn't even realize that this opinion is absolutely different as is. Is it Georgian? Is that the terminology? Georgian? I didn't even realize that. So is it, is that is that what is Georgian? I think I my probably. Okay I was like I don't want to say it. Wrong. Or like how different politics are. And this is someone who's born in Florida, but like Floridians, like Florida has a way different mindset on pushing the needle forward. Not everybody, but politically, like it's known to be controversial and even pockets of California, like all depending on which county region I'm in. People have very different opinions about Roe v Wade and how this relates to that, so that the timing of that was wild. It was so wild. And I think it's still like up in the air California, we've we still have rights. You do still have abortion. You know, it's access to medical care, but in very close neighboring states, that's not the truth anymore. So it's wild. We're you still in the post-production process when that happens, or had the film already been done and like pouring and. Yes, that post-production, that film was already done when chaos was unraveling. So I think it gave me more bookings to actually have conversations about medical racism, and it's connected to all of that as a whole. But I just was like, Okay, Universe, the timing couldn't have been more aligned in my life. You know? Yeah. I think our week we were like, Oh my gosh, we have more tobacco. That's crazy. It felt crazy. So that's why it. Is it. Is like, Oh, oh, sorry. You said you went to 13 different places to stop in and in L.A. was one of them. Uh, where else did you go? You know? So I went, I went, I engage with Atlanta virtually, but I went to Dallas, Texas in person, and that was beautiful. I also went to Southern California virtually. Of course, I connected with some East Coast state, but it was predominantly on the West Coast. So up and down the California coast, from universities to medical organizations to technology firm to private screenings for like different women's groups. And yeah, it's it's just been so interesting. Somebody that even know existed I was by way, this is a multimillion dollar business that's underground in running all of this and nobody knows about you. Like what? Yeah. Yeah. No so interesting this is I mean, because, you know, a lot of this stuff, there's, uh, more ears is the better, because I want to also, I want to nerd out about what you look like you learned as a creative an artist through all this and this two years of actually getting your hands dirty. Yeah. So creativity is one thing, but everything is business. Everything is business. And I've had to sharpen my head, like straighten my back up and being more confident about talking business because people love talking about creativity, the artistry, the visionary part. People love that. That's the fun start. You get to be creative and but when it comes to like executing a contract, that was something I was like, Oh, people, everybody with the blazer on is not running the money. Everybody with the blazer on doesn't have any say. So at work they could literally just have an email signature and a blazer like they don't run anything. And so and they're usually the front facing folks that come with the smiles and the small talk. But when it comes down to actually executing a contract, there's a lot less people that have the ability to do that than more. And so I started reducing my frequency and going to different mixers and stuff and starting to get a little more intentional because at this point I was like, This is something I'm not playing around with. It's one thing to build relationship rapport, but it's another thing to build a relationship with a purpose. And you'd be surprised how many people just want to build relationships with you just to say they know you, not because they actually want to do business. And that that was probably the biggest lesson I've learned. The biggest. You're talking about money, right? Yeah, I'm talking about money. I'm talking about executing. People love to process. People love to talk visionary. But when it comes to actually getting it done, completing it completion, that's where people have anxiety. People get scared of their own greatness. People are like, I'm not ready yet. People will back out of their own thing. I'm like, What? What are we talking for? I don't I don't want to philosophize for a year. I want to get it done. Are you can you do it or not? Can you can you go just use an attorney or. I know they're expensive or can you go like, go on Google and find a contract that, you know, a pre written contract or something of that nature? Yes. So I have an attorney. I have a legal team, and I also have to get sharper with contracts, too, because emails are great. But some people won't follow through because there was no fine print about what their expectation is or people will talk. And people will also be afraid to tell, you know, via email. So they'll just like, stop talking because they don't want the email track record to say that they denied something. They just want to stop communication. Because legally, if you say that we're not able to handle you, then it's like if you were ever going court, right? It was like, Oh, this company said right here, they wouldn't hire you, and they didn't state why. So it's interesting how I've just learned that. So. So was it better off to just drop your expectations with that sort of a person or to go ahead with them with, you know, limited, you know, compromise with regard to the legality of the whole thing? I think what I've learned is that you're smarter than you think and you don't need anybody else's affirmation to get what you want to do done. People feel like you have to partner with an organization to get something done, but your creativity is enough and you need to be selective with who you want to partner with versus you being. I'm being honest, being healthy about trying to hurry up and partner with larger brands because that's where you get vulnerable and that's where you feel like you're not good enough and you're not strong enough. And you feel like you can't do anything if you don't have this type of backing. But in reality, these organizations, these brands, they need you. The independent creative that has probably way more traction, way more say so over your own life, over your own creativity. You can actually get it done versus them running this seven person email chain up to get a yes when you could just say yes for yourself. So, you know, entrepreneurship and business ownership is really the journey of self esteem, and the journey is self-actualization. If you believe that you can do it, then you are enough. And to do it, you don't need anybody else to give you a yes. You don't need anybody else to tell you it's a good idea. If you thought about it, it's probably a good idea and that's all you need to know. And so run with that. It makes me think of a song I believe I can fly. If you think you can fly that you can fly. Yeah. I recently I think just this morning I was watching a, uh, Oprah, uh, speech, uh, a love me out, that Oprah speech. And it sounded like a lot of the stuff she's preaching that it should he sound. I found a like I mean that the highest. Oh, really? Because Oprah Oh, yeah. You know, but but also. Yeah, yeah, you have enough the same, uh, like you got to self advocate for yourself. You can, you know, you have to be like, really intense to move intentionally, you know, through all this stuff and, and learning to say yes and no with, with intention and knowing what to what and how clear, um, how that self-worth, self esteem just make things is so much, uh, you know Springsteen lot streamline a lot of your, your happiness I guess or, or at least, uh it's you know, it's pretty cool you. Have more control over your life than you think. Yeah. Yeah, you really do. You know, sort of backing off on what it started. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, no, no. I was just gonna make a joke about, uh, how I think I'm doing the right thing because I don't like doing a bunch of stuff. I'm like, uh, no, no, but, like, a scrap of. What I was going to say, I was kind of backing towards the beginning of. Of this show about talking about how, uh, your situation may, may be somewhat controlled by your, by prejudice or what For whatever. I can tell you that I've gone into to a doctor's office, and I was told by another doctor who I won't mention who it was, that if I didn't go in with that other doctor, I would be treated differently than that when I did go in with the doctor. Other words, uh, had nothing to do with, with the racial thing or anything like that. It just, uh, you know, somebody thinks that you're important or you're not important. Mm. Have money or you don't have money, you know? What are you, what are you worth to them? Mm. Sense. And it's so interesting, right? Because you're, you're just there to get a service, right? You're there to get help from a doctor. But the fact that you have to think through how you need to approach the doctor to receive optimal care is wild. That's a problem, right? Because now you're psychologically thinking like that. I dressed the part to get help. Did I say the right thing that I mentioned the right person? Could things have been better versus like, Hey, my arm is broken, I just need to get it fixed? Like, that's the only reason I'm here, right? So, yeah, well, yeah, I have a 5:00 that I have to read to. Oh, you got to get out in five now say the 5:00 because that had to do. Yeah. Yeah.

She said she has a 5: 27:35

00. Yeah. Yeah. Got you got you know my sorry my, my question real quick was just, um. Do you think that there's a solution? Are these changes can be, like, fully resolved in like a for profit hospital system? Yes. I feel like this is my personal, my personal speech that I am. This is the hill that I'm willing to die. The United States loves, you know, providing choice and option. But there's just some things that need to be automatic. Yeah. Part of the infrastructure and that's health care. We all need it no matter who we are, no matter our status, our religion, our political beliefs, our income bracket, we all need access to health care and that something that should be universal. And for folks that want to, you know, access private care, do your thing like nobody's mad. You want to have a private specialist. Like. It's just that idea that there's people without health care and they only don't have health care due to economic challenges that were put in place by racism and sexism and all these phobias. That's the challenge, right? I have I had somebody asked me like, well, how do we address that? I said, Well, instead of running from a conversation of racism being the root of this entire industry, we need to start all conversations with foundationally. Like this is what the history is. This is what the perceived harm is, This is what optics look like. Then move from there. But you have to get a place of acceptance and comfort around that. We've all been a part of racist ways, you know, religious ways, political way, anti something ways, because that's the nature we were brought up in. Right. The media alone has shaped the way that we automatically are afraid of people or think differently about people. So if we don't acknowledge that we all were born with bias, we were all reared and raised with bias, and we need to be intentional about addressing those biases from the very beginning. And if somebody brings something to us and says, Hey, did you think about this instead of being offended, saying, Oh my goodness, we did not think about that, but we the A course, correct. Because that's where we have an issue is that we don't like anybody to tell us that we were wrong as a country, as organization, because we just want to be right. We just want to be right in like the sound of our own voice. So and it's going to take time. It took time to get to this space. It's going to take time to turn it over. But we got to acknowledge the facts, right? We've got to work with that. The response was that the response that you got from a lot of the people in the medical field that you talked to was like, well, you know, I'm right like that kind of thing. Or were people very receptive? Oh, so at first it was very much like, well, this is what the science says, this is what the needs are, this is what the racial breakdown is. And I'm like, yes, all of those can be facts. But let's also talk about the foundation, right? These are you're giving me present day facts without acknowledging the foundation or how like redlining plays a part, how there's hospitals in certain areas and only clinics and other areas. Right. You know, we need to talk about that and how these cities are built, like there's city planners in every city that intentionally are building these areas up to have certain resources on purpose with a certain demographic in mind. If we don't acknowledge that from the very beginning, of course you're going to have a hard time getting more patients of color or more patients of various gender backgrounds in here, it's 100 miles from the house, right? So it's stuff like that where we were having honest conversation about like let's let's just acknowledge the foundation. We need universal health care. Absolutely. We all we all know we're the only industrialized country in the world that doesn't have universal healthcare. How are we going to be number one, the plain number seven? Like what's going on? So, yeah. It's 5050. Okay, listen, we're lastly the last place that you could ever be in black places in history. So does that make any sense? But so yeah. We love you. Got to head out. You said that. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Bring. She's got to head out. I was just going to say you you said it. You said you have to leave shortly. I do not know whether we should leave now. Could we do last thoughts and just where everybody can find you and all of your projects and all that stuff. One more time. Yeah, 100%. Just so we have. Yes, of course. I love my grandpa. And so family and fun fact, everybody out there, they were one of the first people to be an income sponsor of the film and just show me that love and support. So you all are actually on all of my fliers and my original branding. So that cross collaboration was really important to me. So thank you all so much. You probably should be receiving an email from my chief of staff with a huge thank you attached to that because I just have so much love and admiration for y'all and I love that Grandpa was involved with this. I told you I was panicking when Grandpa wasn't on the scene when we first logged in. So I just think it's really cool and I love that it had created its own longevity. And so for folks that are interested in following my journey, it's muganzoentertainment.com or you can follow me, Muganzo Entertainment, on Instagram and LinkedIn. You can also follow me via Mindy's Kitchen, and that's at Mindy's Kitchen of California on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. And I'm just so, so, so, so, so, so honored to know you all. And I wish you all nothing but success. Thank you so much. You are so upbeat. That's nice. Very nice. Yeah. Rhino. Really? Yeah. That's so amazingly kind of you to say. You're really incredible. So I really. I didn't even know all the branding stuff that's, like, so so kind. Yeah, we love obviously. So y'all are dope. So I could send you all of that too, if you just want to have it for your own, you know, podcast archives. I could send you all that stuff. Yeah, that be amazing. Thank you so much. Yeah, I appreciate. And I'm donating my last thought. So, Melissa, we have you just going to I'm just going to piggyback right on that because I don't have whenever you come on here, it's so positive. I just oh, and every the last like three weeks we've just been like talking about how we live in hell. And like, every day gets worse with some. Piggybacking on to your positive Last thought and congratulations on all your success. You're in your bag. Keep doing it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If y'all are ever in California, please hit me up. Please, please, please, please, please. I would love to just grab drinks and have dinner with you and just vibe in person, so please don't hesitate to reach out. Being totally so much. Yeah. Grandpa? Yeah, I just. I've enjoyed this program. It's nice to be on with somebody that is upbeat and seeing you again. You know, it's true. All right. We're going to have to do it. We are going to have to do it. So it sounds like this summer got to reconnect. While I'm writing you someone I. This to. See out casting.