Meet Richard Autry

We were lucky to catch up with Richard Autry recently and have shared our conversation below.

Richard, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I grew up in a blue-collar household with both parents and three brothers in a rough neighborhood in Toledo, OH. I am the son of Patrick and Sandra Autry. I was taught hard work at an early age. In a blue-collar household, I witnessed honest, hard work from two parents who worked in factories to make ends meet. There were no shortcuts.

I watched my dad sit at the dining room table balancing his checkbook and paying bills every Sunday; while also watching my mom clean and prepare meals from groceries my father bought, essentially turning our house into a home.

I was blessed to grow up with both parents in my household in addition to having my older brother Robert, my baby brother PJ and being born with my best friend- my twin brother Raysean Autry. Many people can go a lifetime not knowing what it’s like to have a strong bond with someone. I was fortunate enough to experience this right out of my mother’s womb.

My twin brother Raysean Autry had a huge impact on my work ethic. Though we were different in a lot ways, we matched each other’s drive. They say iron sharpens iron. We both challenged each other to aim higher. This really countered any negative influences I might’ve come across growing up. We were each other’s inspiration to become the best versions of ourselves.

I learned from my father to be a leader, and never a follower. That is a lesson that is sometimes hard for any kid to follow especially when you want to fit in. I was lucky to have a highly respected twin brother. Who you’re around can really dictate your decision-making in life. I didn’t care to be influenced by anyone except my twin brother Ray. This prevented me from giving into the temptations of peer pressure, and falling victim to the pitfalls that come with growing up in the inner city.

I also was inspired by my twin brother’s high school football career. I watched him bounce back from an unsuccessful Junior season to recording his best stat-sheet ever on defense his senior year. His stellar senior-year season earned him Toledo All-Blade Football Team honors with 80 tackles (15 for losses), eight sacks and four forced fumbles. I saw my brother work his ass off in the off-season in order to have a great senior year season, proving that with hard work anything is possible.

The root of my work ethic comes from my parents, particularly my mom, teaching me how to read, write and learn math via flash cards before even setting foot in a classroom. This led to me getting a high sense of self-satisfaction when earning good grades growing up. This positive reinforcement made me want to study hard to continue making good grades. This ultimately earned me a scholarship to attend Bowling Green State University, where I majored in Journalism with a minor in Telecommunications and Sociology. My brother Ray also attended BGSU where he majored in Telecommunications. Our media degrees combined with our creative spirit, drive and desire to be content creators propelled us to start our media company Kollege Kidd LLC. Naming our company Kollege Kidd LLC was special to us because BGSU was a place that blossomed our media skills and creativity. During my time at BGSU, I was editor-in-chief of The Obsidian, the university’s multicultural publication. My brother founded his own campus organization “CNTv,” where he produced campus-related film content.

Prior to starting our media company Kollege Kidd LLC, I was a Metro Reporting Intern for the Greater New York Desk at The Wall Street Journal. Ray developed his editing and camera operating skills while working at WBGU-PBS in Bowling Green in addition to interning at CBS Television Distribution in Los Angeles, NATPE in Las Vegas and CNN in Atlanta.

I learned early on that you can succeed in spite of any tough obstacle as long as you keep God first and work smart/hard.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Kollege Kidd LLC is a media company launched on November 11, 2011. It began as a music news media company, and I hope to one day make it a premier media production company.

I recall in high school stating that I would one day like to own my own television network. At BGSU, I recall speaking with my newspaper advisor Bob Bortel about my goals, and he mentioned to me that I should look into starting a webcast tv network. I didn’t necessarily know what that was at the time, but I knew it was related to digital media. From that moment on I knew that digital media and social media would one day take off, and I fixated my media goals around that.

While operating my web company Kollege Kidd years later, I saw in real-time the growing popularity of smartphones, streaming and social media. I knew while witnessing this boom of digital media that me and Ray made the right decision in starting a media company.

I’ve always been adept at writing, which is why I decided to major in Journalism at Bowling Green State University. During my time at BGSU, I was editor-in-chief of The Obsidian, the university’s multicultural publication. My hard work landed me an internship as a Metro Reporter for the Greater New York Desk at The Wall Street Journal in summer 2011.

My brother Raysean Autry majored in Telecommunication, where he learned camera operation and editing. Ray further developed his editing and camera operating skills while working at WBGU-PBS in Bowling Green, OH, and by starting his own campus organization “CNTv,” where he produced campus-related film content.

Ray’s vast knowledge in media landed him an internship at CBS Television Distribution in Los Angeles, NATPE in Las Vegas and CNN in Atlanta.

Ray and I decided to combine our talents to form our media company Kollege Kidd LLC. In the early years of our company, we covered the Drill genre on Chicago’s underground music scene.

Being from the inner city ourselves, I recall me and Ray having a special attachment to the young artists in Chicago’s underground music scene. We provided them extensive coverage because we wanted to keep them out of the streets, and give them positive reinforcement via our articles to let them know good fortune will come as long as they stay in the studio and work hard, all while avoiding negative influences in the streets.

We’ve now expanded to covering all up-and-coming musicians as well as veteran musicians in the realm of Hip Hop, which happens to be music’s most popular genre right now.

Kollege Kidd is present all throughout social media. Our viral brand has 1.2M followers on Instagram, nearly 1.4M followers on Facebook, over 200K followers on Twitter and 380K subscribers on YouTube.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Qualities I possess include being ambitious, maintaining my integrity, being creative and having perseverance. Skills I possess include writing and my music knowledge. These qualities and skills have propelled me far in life. I’ve gotten far staying true to myself, and being open to meeting people from diverse walks of life.

I grew up in a musical household. My mother loves music, and she had a large stereo system where she would blast current and old school Hip Hop and R&B music around the house. Not only that, I grew up in an environment where Hip Hop and R&B was popular. Hip Hop and R&B was the soundtrack to our daily living. Growing up in a household and community enriched with Hip Hop and R&B allowed me and Ray to develop an ear for it. It really paved the way for us building our music brand. We covered artists who reminded us of the music we grew up listening to.

My advice to people who are early in their journey would be to celebrate and embrace your uniqueness and talents you bring to the world. A lot of people spend so much time trying to be like other people than just being themselves. I think the beauty of everyone growing up in unique households and environments adds to the diversity of the world. America is a unique diverse melting pot.

Despite being from a little-known neighborhood in a little-known town, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet people from different walks of life through my life’s journey. College was my portal to stepping out of my community and expanding my horizons.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
My twin brother Raysean Autry has been the most instrumental figure in my life helping me overcome challenges, and driving me to become the best version of myself. We were Yin and Yang. Though our personalities were polar opposites, we matched each other’s drive. Our differences allowed us to sharpen one another.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
I own images.

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