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talking huge hits streaming on Hulu whenever you're

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talking. Now

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join Kevin Hart as he dives

0:56

into the minds of some of

0:58

your favorite celebrities. This

1:00

is Gold Minds with Kevin Hart.

1:21

Gold and Give Some Gold. How do we do

1:23

that? We do that by

1:25

talking to amazing individuals, personnel,

1:29

people, talent, creatives.

1:32

I can go down the goddamn list. It

1:34

all happens here on Gold Minds and today's show

1:36

will be no different. Another amazing

1:39

mind we have, another creative mind. I

1:41

get to dig on this one. I

1:44

get to dig guys. I'm talking about a

1:46

writer, director. I'm talking

1:48

about a man who's accomplished some amazing

1:50

things in the business, who's made some

1:52

pivots, who's done some redirecting and chose

1:55

paths to make new paths, only

1:57

to create better paths. Writer.

2:00

and director of American fiction. Ladies

2:02

and gentlemen, I'm talking about the one and only

2:04

Kord Jefferson is all gold mines. Welcome to the

2:06

show Kord. How you doing, man? I'm doing all

2:08

right. Thank you so much for having me. That's

2:11

right. Take that energetic introduction. You take

2:13

it. Yeah, it's a real honor. I

2:16

was not expecting that. It's early in the morning

2:18

on Memorial Day weekend. There

2:22

you go. You got to get it done before

2:24

you get to the fun. The

2:27

fun comes after the work, man. It

2:30

is not until the work

2:32

is done that you truly sit down

2:34

and relax. And this is a moment

2:36

to celebrate you, to celebrate the work

2:38

that you've done. I

2:42

know where I want to start, but what I want

2:44

you to be aware of is that it's

2:47

about flowers on this podcast. And

2:49

I've talked to a variety

2:51

of people and the dope thing

2:54

is always understanding the story attached

2:56

to the person before the success.

2:58

And this is an opportunity for

3:00

people to get

3:03

to know you that don't know you

3:05

and people to fall

3:07

for you after understanding more

3:09

of you. And what I want to

3:12

do is start, of course, at the beginning. I love to go to

3:14

the beginning because nobody necessarily

3:17

knows at the gate what it is that

3:19

they want to do. When you talk about

3:21

writing and directing, sometimes

3:23

those things are discovery. Sometimes they aren't.

3:26

For you, I feel

3:28

like they kind of were more of a

3:30

discovery because you started in

3:32

the space of journalism, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah,

3:34

absolutely. I was a journalist for about eight or

3:37

nine years before I started working in entertainment. And

3:40

out the gate, was that the choice? Was

3:42

that a love or that was something that

3:44

you fell for out of school? So this

3:46

really, if we want to start at the

3:49

beginning, beginning, it's like my mom said that she knew

3:51

that I was going to be a writer when I

3:53

was in third grade. And it just took me a

3:57

couple of decades to realize that she was correct. I

3:59

always writing. But the problem

4:02

for me was that,

4:04

you know, I didn't know artists growing up.

4:06

I knew people who like played in bar

4:08

bands on the weekend. And I knew people

4:10

who like, you know, painted as

4:13

a hobby. But I didn't know anybody who made

4:15

money from creativity. And so I think when you

4:17

don't, when you don't meet those kinds of people,

4:20

when you're younger, that it starts to feel

4:22

like that's not for you, like that life path

4:24

is that life path is for people who live

4:26

in New York and Los Angeles and Paris. And

4:29

I was from Tucson, Arizona, and I didn't know anybody

4:31

like that. And so it took me

4:33

forever to realize that you could

4:35

actually, I could actually make a living from

4:37

writing. And so journalism,

4:39

to me was a was a

4:42

good place to start, because it felt like it was

4:44

a professional career, it felt like I could tell my

4:46

parents what I was doing, and that they could tell

4:48

their friends what I was doing. And it

4:50

wouldn't sound so crazy. So journalism

4:53

was just kind of me pussy

4:56

footing around the idea that maybe I could make

4:58

money from writing. And so I did that for

5:00

about eight or nine years before I fully

5:02

kind of leapt into the deep end and said,

5:05

like, actually, I'm gonna go full on and try

5:07

try screenwriting as well. You

5:10

know, it's funny, like when you say journalism,

5:12

it's like, when you found out that you

5:14

can make money. Yeah, I

5:16

attach it to stand up comedy.

5:19

And the reason why, and

5:21

stand up when you first start is like, well, how the fuck

5:23

am I gonna get paid? Right? Like, where's

5:25

the money come from? When does it come

5:28

in? Because everything is pretty much an

5:31

opportunity. Everything is like, well, I'm doing this

5:33

to hopefully get seen so that I can

5:35

then do or so that

5:37

I can then become. With writing,

5:39

where are the breaks in the

5:42

beginning? Where are the, you know,

5:45

like, what's the road to

5:47

the dollar? It's like, you know, you start off,

5:49

of course, I would assume with

5:52

any type of editorial or any

5:54

type of, you know, job

5:56

search for and is it is it just like a

5:58

lot of test

6:00

pieces that you're writing to see if you can get hired.

6:03

Just explain that to me a little bit. Yeah.

6:05

It was just, so I just started out

6:07

as a freelance journalist. That was my, that

6:09

was my first foray into journalism. It was,

6:11

I had a day job. I was working

6:14

at a, a very small nonprofit in

6:17

Venice beach, California, and

6:19

that was my day job. And I really disliked

6:21

it. I felt unfulfilled. And so every night I

6:23

would come home and just write, and I

6:25

would just write on my own and I would write articles

6:28

or essays or sort of whatever was moving me. And

6:30

I wasn't writing them for anybody to be published. I

6:32

was just writing them because I felt like I had

6:34

to write them. And so one

6:36

day at a party, I just met this

6:39

guy who was a magazine editor of a

6:41

music magazine. And he told me, he

6:43

told me that he was looking for writers. And I said, you

6:45

know, I've, I've always been interested in, in writing. Could I,

6:49

could I write something for you? And he said, absolutely. And

6:51

so he paid me $50 for my

6:54

first ever published article at $50.

6:57

And we went from

6:59

there. And so eventually I started

7:01

doing enough freelance journalism that the amount of money

7:03

that I was making was I was making so

7:05

much, I was making so little

7:07

money at my day job that it felt like I'd

7:11

reached a point in my freelance journalism career where I

7:13

was making around the same amount of money. And I,

7:15

I was like, well, I'm

7:17

making so I'm making no money in my day

7:19

job. And I hate it. Why don't

7:22

I try sort of like making no money? It's something that

7:24

I'm enjoying. And so that was, so I just quit my

7:26

day job and I just decided to write full time. And

7:28

it was like writing an article

7:30

here and there for a music magazine and

7:32

writing an article here and there for a

7:35

different newspaper and then writing an article for

7:37

a different music magazine and a website. And

7:39

I slowly started cobbling together a

7:41

career in writing, but it was like, you know,

7:43

I was making like $25,000 my first, my first

7:46

year. What,

7:50

what, why, why the music and

7:52

why like, uh, was it

7:54

that pretty much what, was that what was

7:56

presenting itself or was that kind of where

7:58

your passion was at the Yeah I would.

8:00

I was was presenting itself. I just did. I

8:03

did anything I did anything I'm sure like the

8:05

way that you did as a comedian. I'm sure

8:07

you played some wild spots like I'm sure the

8:09

unsullied for no money. I'm sure you played like

8:12

barbershop are weird play of yeah exactly exactly And

8:14

so I was doing the same shit. I was

8:16

just like. I will write

8:18

anything for anybody. You don't have to pay

8:20

me. You can pay me five dollars like

8:23

I will just do anything because you just

8:25

need that read: a. You. Need to

8:27

sort of like to have club soda so you

8:29

have them. You know it's like the way actors

8:31

have real we use journalists have clamps, you send

8:33

out your clips to people in see like yours

8:36

my resume his work that I've done within be

8:38

you just need lay reps in the gym but

8:40

you just have to issue you know you have

8:42

to sort of I can get ready, get better

8:44

at it. Sort of like start understand that the

8:47

technique more start to understand the m, the craft

8:49

more and and just start to feel better as

8:51

you do and start to find your voice. That's

8:53

also what you're doing the entire time. The writing

8:55

is finding what your voices. As a

8:57

writer and find out what kind of ours you want

8:59

to be So. I was just doing that

9:02

for everybody I was. do you know? I.

9:04

Was doing the free writing for exposure

9:06

thing like that? I just i fully

9:08

i fully. Involved. Myself in

9:10

that and like, yeah, it's embarrassing and it's

9:12

and it's He certainly end up writing stuff

9:14

that you don't wanna write and you work for

9:17

people that you don't want to work for.

9:19

But. Overall. Sort of

9:21

it. That's what really helped me get on my feet

9:23

when it came to being professional. Our

9:25

even our even remove the word embarrassing

9:27

my how him and ah attaching the

9:29

word a mass into in a sad

9:31

because see affiliates that it has made

9:34

a sound like you're building a resume

9:36

more poorly you guinea and legs, you

9:38

getting your voice and you're You're getting

9:40

your reps in what what would you

9:42

say at that point right arm although

9:44

it's the like you said you coming

9:47

up putting like to know thousand now

9:49

the year when it's all said and

9:51

done at that point with as soon

9:53

as your big breakthrough in journalism. Was

9:55

there moment where was like oh shit.

9:58

Like. you ever oh shit when this is

10:00

going to get better or be better? Or

10:02

was it kind of like a

10:06

pretty even kill for you? Like just a

10:08

street with not too many peaks, hills and

10:11

valleys? Just kind of one level? No,

10:13

no. It just, you slowly start to

10:15

see that, you know, all

10:18

of a sudden it's like, you're

10:20

not out there hustling anymore. All of a sudden people

10:22

are emailing you and asking you to write for that.

10:24

Like, right? Like, so all of a sudden that happens.

10:27

It's just sort of like a slow progressive build. And

10:29

so all of a sudden it's like, oh, okay, they're

10:31

asking me now. And it's like, oh,

10:33

okay. And it's like bigger editors, like from

10:36

like more well known publications are reaching out

10:38

to me to ask me to sort of

10:40

write for them. And it's just this slow

10:42

accumulation where, you know, it's one of these

10:44

like overnight success things where it's

10:46

like there is no overnight success, right? It's

10:48

like you just slowly chip

10:51

away at the sort

10:53

of like, you slowly chip

10:55

away. It's sort of like dig

10:57

and dig and dig for the sort of, for the pot

10:59

of gold. Like that is every

11:01

day you just get closer to it. And so

11:03

it was a slow accumulation for me to the

11:05

point where it was like, I don't know if

11:08

I ever feel like there was like a real

11:11

perfect breakthrough moment. It just

11:13

felt like, okay, I'm

11:15

building a profile. I'm building a profile.

11:17

And then by the time my journalism

11:19

crew was over, I'd reached

11:22

a pretty, I'd reached a pretty comfortable point. I

11:24

was making, I was

11:26

making enough money to sort of like provide

11:28

for myself. And I had started to, I

11:31

started to feel really financially comfortable, but not like,

11:33

I wasn't like wealthy by any means, but I

11:35

just, I wasn't, I wasn't

11:37

scrimping to get by the way that I

11:39

had started. Yeah, exactly. And then, and

11:42

then also I had people reaching out to me and

11:44

so it felt like, okay, this is, that's what, that

11:46

was the scary, that was, you know, that was the

11:48

real scary thing about jumping into. Entertainment

11:51

was because it felt like I had

11:53

finally reached, I had finally found my

11:55

footing in journalism. Like I

11:58

had, it had taken me like nine. years

12:00

to get there and I finally had it. And

12:02

then somebody came to me and they

12:05

were like, you know, what do you want to start

12:07

over in this other career and entertainment and sort of

12:09

like, see if you can do it here. And I was

12:12

like, you know what, I'm going to take

12:14

the leap. Let's try it. And that, and

12:17

I think that that was again, terrifying to

12:19

start over, but, you know, it

12:21

was, it made all the difference. It totally

12:23

changed my life too. Thank

12:26

you for listening to this episode of Gold Mines

12:28

with Kevin Hart. You can catch the rest of this

12:30

episode exclusively on the Sirius XM

12:32

app. We'll see you next week

12:34

for a full episode of Gold Mines with Kevin

12:36

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