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RISK TAKER
Welcome to the Risk Taker Podcast—the podcast that celebrates the stories of daring individuals! Join us as we dive into the inspiring stories of successful risk-takers, those extraordinary individuals who fearlessly embraced opportunities and reaped the rewards. Get ready to be motivated, uplifted, and empowered to take your own leap of faith.
RISK TAKER
S4 EP.03 30 Years of Overnight Success
Ivan “Big Ive” Thomas is a Delaware media visionary, award-winning producer, and respected community leader. He is the founder of DETV, Delaware’s leading broadcast and digital network seen across Comcast, Verizon, and every major social platform. What began in his basement has grown into a powerhouse that reaches hundreds of thousands with local news, sports, culture, and original shows like Good Morning Wilmington and Every Woman.
Ivan’s story is rooted in grit, creativity, and persistence. His work has earned major honors, including Delaware Press Association Awards, national recognition from the National Federation of Press Women, and the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award.
His impact extends far beyond the camera. Ivan is committed to giving back through initiatives like Big Ive’s Turkey Drive, which has fed thousands of families, and through educational partnerships that create hands-on media opportunities for students across Delaware.
Today, Ivan is a sought-after speaker, mentor, and entrepreneur known for his honesty, his heart for the community, and his belief that local media can change lives.
Website: DETVCH.COM
Instagram: @ivanthomasmedia
Business IG: @detvch
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Welcome, welcome to the Risk Taker Podcast. I'm your host, Evans, man. How y'all guys feeling today? I hope y'all guys are feeling amazing, having an amazing week, having an amazing weekend, man. Listen, each day that God gives you, man, bless somebody, man. Bless somebody with what you have. It could be a gift, could be a skill. Each day that God gives you, man, man, I have my brother in this podcast, man. We've been waiting for this one, man. So I have my brother, Ivan, in this podcast, man. How you doing, my brother? How you feeling?
SPEAKER_03:Good, man. I'm good. I'm glad to be here. Risk, um, come on. Risk, risk, risk. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love what you're doing. I'm a huge fan, man. Let's go. Let's go. Let's do it, man.
SPEAKER_05:Let's do it, man.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to the Risk Taker Podcast. Made for those who've taken the leap and those who are ready to bet on themselves and chase their dreams.
SPEAKER_03:Who's Ivan Thomas, man? Ivan Thomas is a businessman. Comma businessman, right? I am the founder and creator of DETV. Uh, a broadcast has a broadcast side and a digital side. We specialize in making content for communities. Not underserved, but communities, right? Tying communities together. Um, I created Good Morning Delaware, The Agenda, DETV Kids, DETV Sports. Like, um, I have an entire network, uh a plethora. We're an award-winning station. Um, we are our Every Woman Network just won second place um uh national award. Like, we're we we create stuff. I have fun creating stuff, and the stuff that I make changes lives.
SPEAKER_05:I gotta ask you this. I've been watching you, right? And I don't know too much of the of your story, man. What made you take on that risk? What made you go after your dream? What was that one thing that said, you know what, this is it? I'm gonna take a risk, I'm gonna bet on myself, man.
SPEAKER_03:Um, I always bet it on myself, no matter what it looks like. Like, I I have I have this thing that I don't believe anything.
SPEAKER_02:I know.
SPEAKER_03:Right? Believe is an action. I know that whatever I touch works. Um I got started, my I I was in depression. Um my daughter was born one pound, three ounces, and I lost everything. I lost everything. And I I said it in my TED talk, and people were like, really? Like, it took me about 30 years to be an overnight success. Wow. You know what I mean? And long story short, I had to close my business um in 2011. Uh, 2012, I had to revent reinvent myself. My wife went to the doctors and she came out like she called me, was like, she went for her annual visit, and she's like, I'm pregnant, I'm not coming home. And I'm like, what do you mean you're not coming home? But most of all, what do you mean you're pregnant? She was four months pregnant, the baby was coming out, so she was bedridden. And I had, we lost our house, we lost the cars, we we moved into an apartment, and now she said, I'm pregnant in four months. I went to a serious place of depression, and how I got out was just taking videos of my daughter. And um in those taking those videos of my daughter, someone, a friend of mine, Tiffany Chalk, saw it and sent it to um um the March of Dimes. And what it was was my daughter was, again, premature baby, 289 days in the NICU, and I am just taking video. Um and I'm trying to inspire fathers, right? Not mothers, mothers gotta do, but fathers that were going through the same thing. So I started getting good at it. And then um I met a filmmaker, and then I uh I had a friend that uh did journalism, and they just started teaching me how to make the videos better, how to make things better. And then when I started like really looking at it, you know, a a business person, a businessman says, Where's the gap, where's the hole, and how do I fill it? And I started thinking about media um when I was on set of a reality show. And when I started thinking about the media that we were being we we would consume in the in the hood, right, it is different than the media that's being consumed in the suburbs. And then I had to start looking about who was writing the media, right? And are they being biased or are they being unbiased? And I started seeing like, wow, my people, and when I mean my people, I'm not just talking about the black and brown people, I'm talking about the people that are middle class or below middle class, that they're getting a different set of stories or narratives. And I said, dang, what if I can create something that can bring people together, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, right, and politics? What about like the human spirit? So at that time also, I was I pledged to be a Mason. Um I was in the Buddhist temple, and that's when things just started like really clicking for me, and understanding that everything in life has a science wrapped around it.
SPEAKER_01:Today's episode is brought to you by OWIG Multimedia Audiovisual, trusted by industry leaders for premium audio, visual, and event experiences. Check them out at Owigmultimedia.com.
SPEAKER_03:Um, the filmmaker Tim Fontaine, it was his name, and he started teaching me how like camera angles and lenses, but what he also taught me was the science of like how to tell a story, but most of all, like how to change minds in the edit with the edit. And that's the part that I fell in love with, right? So I came out and um I started doing like social experiments with it with the camera, and things just started getting better and better, and people started following. And um, when people started following, I started realizing that I had now have uh responsibility to make the world that I live in and that you live in and that your wife lives in a better place, right? And especially for my daughter that I wanted her to see. Um, and I didn't have any money, I just had a basement, right? I set a studio up in the basement, and everyone came to the basement. Everyone. I mean, I mean everyone, I mean the governor, the mayor, the janitor. Like everyone came to the basement, like, yo, I'm rocking in the basement with DE TV. Like it was so dope. It was so dope. And uh one thing I had Ashley Biden, the president's daughter, in the basement. And it was like I didn't care. You, you risk, risk, risk takers, risk makers, risk takers, risk makers, right? It's one and the same. Like, when you understand that to me, the risk is not having a risk. To me, is my vantage vantage points are different. I look, I look at the journey and not the outcome. The journey, like this journey, I'm here with you because I took a risk. Right? I'm I'm happy, like I am really, really happy that I'm sitting in your van doing this, right? There's no ego.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Like, like I'm here because I'm like, yo, that thing God gave me, it evolved. And when it evolved, I'm now I'm the the kin of Noah. And what and what I mean by that is we're all risk takers, right? We're we're risk makers, we're we're we're we're risk junkies. But what about Noah? God gave Noah a vision. Noah wasn't, he wasn't a carpenter, he wasn't a math, he was a mathematician, he didn't, he didn't even know, probably know what wood was, probably didn't have a name, didn't know what a giraffe was, didn't know what this was, but he had a vision. So all the entrepreneurs out there, what I call entrepreneurs out there, are arc builders. God gave me this vision, and look at my arc, it's floating. I didn't, I wasn't a mathematician, I wasn't a camera, I had no money. I had an I had a vision. And when you understand that the vision that God gives you aligns with the mission that is that that you have becomes a blueprint to success. Simple. One and one is two.
SPEAKER_05:You inspire. Man, just I'm just I'm just thinking that you inspire. You said something that just blows my mind. You say you lost everything. Everything, everything. Go on, poof. Go on. People some I know some people wouldn't come back from that. Like wouldn't come back, like because they wouldn't make that as an excuse that because I lost everything, I can't come back from it. But you you did that. You had a, well, plus you had a family, you had, you had stuff that you that that you had responsible. You you can't say, no, I I'm not gonna take that risk. I'm not gonna, I I can't, I can't make it, or you got up. And just show me that anything that's possible, man. Anything possible. Uh, and you mentioned another thing too, like the power of mentoring. Because you say some, you met somebody, yeah, and they start teaching you the power of mentoring. Yeah. Uh, can you speak more like more on that as an entrepreneur?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:We we can't do it by ourselves. We know that. No, no. First, God give us the vision, but we gotta find out who can help us along the way.
SPEAKER_03:So it depends how best you want me to get down into this, right? Because there, so let's take, let's take, let's take your wife, for example, right? Let's take us. Us men and women. Men are for women, I think women are for Mars. I think is the chef, is the name of the book, right? All right. I feel like you need to put a disclaimer up here. Like, this is really great, just strong, right here, right? This will change everything in your life right here. All right.
SPEAKER_02:Um, God gives men the vision. The women in our lives, birth division. They are created for the pain.
SPEAKER_03:They are created for the long duration of holding something that they don't know what it is or what it's going to become. God gives us a baby. I got an idea. And she says, What's the idea? And when she says, What's the idea? She's now, okay, all right. She's trusting and believing. The Bible said, if two or more gather, that woman that we have in our lives, right, are the ones that says, go get them. You need something to eat. I know you've been knocked down, but go make it happen. You got it in you. And so that's one part of mentorship. The other part of mentorship is understanding and having the people around to teach you. What they call mentorship, and then another word called apprenticeship. A lot of people today don't believe that they need apprenticeship to make it because they want to get paid for learning. Back in the day, people would say, let me teach me, and I work for free because I want to understand that skill. So when Homeboy took me under his wing, I had to find a way from Delaware to Philadelphia to sit underneath him for over 10,000 hours to learn what a 50 millimeter lens on a half crop sensor does versus a 35 millimeter lens on a full crop sensor. How does this tone of music change the person's thinking on this side versus their livelihood versus this over here? Learning that, and I learned it for free. And then I was able to go back years later and say, bro, I got a job. I got a job. I need your help. You know what I mean? Like, we have to understand that in today's society that we do need people. Like, you're talking about me inspiring you. Bro, I remember when I met you, and I think it was Clayton, and now that I'm sitting in your van telling my story to your audience. Come on, man.
SPEAKER_02:Come on, man. This is inspiring.
SPEAKER_03:Look out my studio, my office in a high rise to see your van, WIG in front, like come out and do a podcast. I was like, bro, look, my meeting, I got to get the going. You know what I mean? I'm like, bro, I'm sorry, but look, you can email me the rest. I got a podcast to do. So mentorship, apprenticeship, it's very important in the growth of a person. And especially if you're in a brand, if you're trying to understand or build a brand, a lot of people don't know, like, they don't know the rules. Learn the rules first, then break them. People just want to go in and break rules and break rules, but they don't understand that everything in life and everything in science and everything that we do has a foundation. And the foundation is go to the wise, go to the older and learn, and then come back and create. You know.
SPEAKER_06:Have fate. Because throughout your journey, right?
SPEAKER_05:Throughout your journey, how fate plays a part on your journey. Have any fate? Because you know, we get sometime as entrepreneurs, man. We we be in the dark. Like we don't know how we're gonna make, I always say this, how we gonna make payroll, how we gonna pay this, how we're gonna do this, how we gonna do this, like how we gonna, how we're gonna come out of this, like how fate play a part on your on your journey, man.
SPEAKER_03:So so it's two parts of this. So faith is a huge part. Understanding how the brain works is another part, right? Like, there's there's neurological connections that one has to place, and I trained myself along with other mentors on how to rethink situations, right? So I have, so let me tell you, this roller coaster hasn't been easy. And this journey is not built for everyone. True. As an entrepreneur, it's not for everyone.
SPEAKER_05:Nope.
SPEAKER_03:You know, I called a friend of mine, I called a mentor of mine and said, Hey, um, you ever have a problem with with payroll?
SPEAKER_02:He looked at his brother and he said, Hey, I want to know, have we ever had a problem with with cash flow?
SPEAKER_03:And I'm sitting there like, wow, a lot of people in business don't understand the jargon of payroll versus cash flow and how far how important cash flow is to your PL. Like, so I had to go back and learn that. You know what I mean? Yep. To understand why am I having a problem with payroll? Yep. You know what I mean? There's money coming in to sell. It's it's it's a thing, and that's the science of business that people. So I went and I asked them, and he turned his brother, and his brother said, We're having a pro we're having a cash flow problem now. Because when we do a net a net 60, people take net 90 to pay us. And I have other, I have, I have, I think he said he had like a hundred thousand dollars in salary, not 100,000, um, like 1.5 million in salary to pay every month. And I he was like, Yeah, but it happens. When you hear stories of an entrepreneur from another entrepreneur, it does something into you that gives you the faith you need to say, I'm not the only one. So that's why it's important. Let's go back and circle back to mentorship. Because you we need to understand that we aren't the only one that has a had a problem or having a problem, but most of all, we need to know how to get out of it. You know what I mean? So I've created, and back to your question, my faith is I know I can do everything.
SPEAKER_02:Right?
SPEAKER_03:My no is I done everything. You know what I mean? The the can the neurological connections, for example, and what I mean is going to touch a stove, right? You touch that stove, that stove, it has a consequence. If that stove is, I said touch a stove. I didn't say if the stove was on or on or off. But whatever you do, whatever action has a reaction. So you touch that stove when it's off, the consequence is what? You don't feel anything. But you turn it on and you touch that stove, it says, whoo! Now that that neurological connection created says, when I do that, when the stove is on, my subconscious says, it's hot, it's gonna burn you. You know what I mean? So what I try to do is take, instead of that stove being off, look at my being on, is looking at my situations as an opportunity versus a bad consequence. So if I have a cash flow problem, I say, hmm, what caused this cash flow problem? How can I get out of this cash flow problem? And what solves this cash flow problem? Or I'll try to do a reverse engineering, but like, I need more sales. I need more sales. Let me create a 30-day plan to get more sales. So I don't have this, and but also taking getting the data, understanding when did this cash flow problem happen? Did it happen in the fall? Did it happen in the spring? Because now I know, like the ant, I need to work all summer to chill all winter. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? So we my faith plays a huge part because it was something that grandmom put in me.
SPEAKER_05:It's Evans, host of the Wrist Taker Podcast. And this episode is sponsored by Owig Apparel. If you've been building, grinding, embetting on yourself, it's time your wardrobe matches your mindset. From the Bull Wrist Taker hoodie to the signature Dream Chaser T and Jugger set, every piece is designed to remind you why you started. Head over to OwigApparel.com and use code RiskTaker to get 20% off of your order. Because when you work in purpose, your clothes should speak before you do. Let's get back to the episode.
SPEAKER_03:But my no is something that I learned on how to retrain my faith.
SPEAKER_06:Me.
SPEAKER_02:Me. I'm a six billion dollar man. You didn't hear from me, you heard from him. Yeah, me. Me, me.
SPEAKER_06:I like that. I like that confidence. That belief.
SPEAKER_02:No belief. No. I know.
SPEAKER_03:And it's called call it a stain of arrogance, if you will. But I know. I know you. I know not you. But I know people will not outwork me. They will not outshoot me. They I win.
SPEAKER_02:And when I win, everybody wins. I know.
SPEAKER_06:What's one of your greatest?
SPEAKER_05:Because we always talk about the success. Like that's one as an entrepreneur. We talk about the success, man. What's one of your greatest failures?
SPEAKER_03:It depends how we look at failure. Failure again says I have an opportunity to fix what was wrong. Bro, I'll have a high school diploma.
SPEAKER_02:I have a high school diploma.
SPEAKER_03:Tell me why my company did two something million. Exactly. I had to learn what was holding me back. I had to learn what curses I had over my life. I had to learn why didn't my dad succeed? I had to learn why, like, why didn't my grandfather succeed? I had to learn like what makes Ivan the bum he is. And then I had to invest in making him the man he is today. You feel me? So it's it's greatest failure, Ivan. Greatest accomplishment, Ivan Thomas.
SPEAKER_06:How do you invest in yourself?
SPEAKER_03:Reading, being around mentors, being around people that love you, giving love, giving everything to people that need, just giving. God can't give you if your hands are full. You know what I mean? You like we all come have some type of trauma in our life. But we have to understand and we have to learn how to recognize that we are the best investments. And if we don't invest in our health, our spirituality, our friendships, our relationships, our workmanships, our we lose. We have to get in the mind of you want to be a better business person, be a better human. You know what I mean? Simple. The math is simple.
SPEAKER_05:You say it brings me back, like, because I had a quote that said, your mind is worth millions, even billions, why not invest in it? Yeah. You know? It's almost like uh for a person to write you a check. Yeah, I always say this. They gotta see that Ivan is doing something you already invest in yourself. You already invest in your business. For somebody else to come along and say, What? I'm gonna write you a check. Whatever you need, I'm gonna write the check.
SPEAKER_03:They invest in you. They don't invest in the business. They have people invest when you two go to places I watch, I'm on the sideline. People love you. You can have any go like, oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna sell some uh some uh seashells by the seashore. Are you selling it? Yeah. How much you need? Yep. They invest in you. You know what I mean? And people would uh we need to entrepreneurs need to understand that people invest in you.
SPEAKER_04:That's so true, man. That's so true, baby.
SPEAKER_05:Man, this is this is an awesome conversation, man. I have we could go on and on, but man, I have what advice would you give somebody that's watching this, right? A seasoned entrepreneur that's watching this, man, like they they want to go to the next level, but they don't know how to, right? Uh they have success, but they want to go to the next level, they don't know how to. We have a new entrepreneur that wanna take a risk. Now they're on the sign line, but they don't know how, they don't know how to go about doing taking their risk to better on themselves. Like what advice would you give for the season one and for the new one?
SPEAKER_02:Read. Read successful is break runs. Read for the new one, I would say leadership. Business new new one in season.
SPEAKER_03:Business, your business is a repli uh uh a mirror of your leadership. Your leadership is a mirror of your life. It all ties everything's a circle, it all ties together. We have to understand as a new business person, and I and and I can only I will only talk to you about the failures and give you advice from my failures, right?
SPEAKER_02:Learn it before you jump in.
SPEAKER_03:Learn it, learn your craft, learn the business. I get a lot of questions from creators, right? To say, you know, what advice would you learn? Learn the business. It's not show business, it's the business of show. Learn the business, learn, learn what a PL is, learn what accounting is. And you don't have to learn 100%, learn 20 and let someone hire someone to do the 80, right? But you better learn it because from my failures, people took advantage of what I didn't know. And don't be vulnerable, don't tell everyone everything about you.
SPEAKER_02:They will use that against you.
SPEAKER_03:They didn't, but now I know. So I had to go learn, and now bam. Season. It depends where the seasoned person is, but advice that I would give them.
SPEAKER_05:Somebody that's in five take that's been in business for over five, ten years. Like, I mean, you have I have people that I talk to that been in business five years, ten years, they want to go to that next level. They they have a big goal, big thing to do.
SPEAKER_03:Look at the numbers. Easy. Does the numbers say you're ready to go to the next level? Sometimes we scale, we're not ready to scale. Learn the numbers. Men lie, women lie, numbers don't. Right? The numbers are gonna dictate everything that you need to do in your business. If you if you have the ability to hire someone, should you fire someone? Should you give rid of the whole department? Learn the numbers, and that's it. Learn the numbers.
SPEAKER_05:How do you get in contact with you?
SPEAKER_03:Instagram, Instagram, um, P-E-T-V, everything D E T V. All social media, D E T V. Um, my personal is Ivan Thomas Media.
SPEAKER_05:I'm gonna leave this, man. When God gives you something, we talk about in the podcast, the vision, the goals, you gotta go out there and create it. You can't it can't just sit on your parking lot or sitting, you sitting on it. It can't just be that. Now you go out, go out there and create it, and you you you doing it, man. You doing it.
SPEAKER_03:I'm just no you doing it. You doing it. I'm just loving it, man. You doing it, man. No, my blessings, man. My blessings. Anything I can do for y'all, which y'all, y'all let me know. I'm in. Real, real. Because people do that to me. Yo, people that's different when people say, I want nothing for from you. Whatever I could do, good spirit recognizes good spirit.
SPEAKER_05:There you go, man. There you go. Ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. There you have it, man. I will see you guys in the next episode.
SPEAKER_00:You've been listening to the Risk Taker Podcast, created for those who bet on themselves and build beyond limits. Make sure to follow us at Risk Taker Podcast, leave a review, and let us know how this episode inspired you. To get in touch, email teams at owmultimedia.com. Until next time, keep taking the risks and keep tasting your dreams.