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Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Rashan McDonald host the weekly Money Making Conversation

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Speaker 1: Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show provides

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Speaker 1: off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's

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Speaker 1: success stories and start living your own now. If you

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Speaker 1: want to be a guest on my show, Money Making

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Speaker 1: Conversations Masterclass, please visit our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and

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Speaker 1: click the be a Guest button. If you are a

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Speaker 1: small business owner, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, influencer, or nonprofit I

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Speaker 1: want you on my show. Now, let's get started. My

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Speaker 1: guess is the founder of green Book Global, the first

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Speaker 1: and owner travel review website and mobile app that enables

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Speaker 1: black travelers to plan trips with confidence and less anxiety

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Speaker 1: by providing user generated travel insights from the black perspective,

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Speaker 1: particularly about what it is to be traveling while black.

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Speaker 1: Green Book Global is to participant in Black Ambition. Let

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Speaker 1: me tell you about Black Ambition. Black Ambition was founded

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Speaker 1: by Grammy Award winning artists and producer for Real Williams. Happy.

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Speaker 1: Black Ambition is a national initiative that funds and mentors

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Speaker 1: black and brown entrepreneurs to build the future of innovation.

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Speaker 1: The program has awarded millions in capital and support to

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Speaker 1: founders across the industries to discuss green Book Global and

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Speaker 1: the significance of black ambition. Please welcome to the Money

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Speaker 1: Making Conversation Masterclass, Lawrence Phillips. How are you doing, Lawrence?

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Speaker 2: All right? All right, so thank you, thank you so

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Speaker 2: much for having me. Just a pleasure to be here.

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Speaker 1: Well, first of all, let's get a little background on you.

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Speaker 1: I'm based in Atlanta, Georgia, and there's some history with

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Speaker 1: you in Atlanta. Let's talk.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So I'm actually in the a myself. I went

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Speaker 2: to Georgia Tech, but I still got a rep hometown first,

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Speaker 2: So I'm originally from Boston. I grew up in Boston

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Speaker 2: with the high school in Boston, graduated from a math

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Speaker 2: science high school. I put Boston on the map. And

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Speaker 2: then after high school, I graduated and did electrical engineering

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Speaker 2: at Georgia Tech. So I'm a yellow jacket.

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Speaker 1: So I'm gonna tell you something, brother, there's no joke, brother,

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Speaker 1: electrical engineering the Georgia Tech, that fifteen hundred SAT school

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Speaker 1: you got to got to have for sure.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of I made it out. I

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Speaker 2: made it out, but it's done well. For my career.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's good, it's good, it's good. You know you

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Speaker 1: say electrical engineering, yes, correct, yep, Okay, now we're talking

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Speaker 1: about spreamebook Global, Yes, a traveling app so marriage the

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Speaker 1: two for me with that degree plan and now you're

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Speaker 1: in the traveling business. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So I always heard when I went to technis

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Speaker 2: like people want the engineering mindset right, and in college

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Speaker 2: I was like, I never really understood what that meant.

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Speaker 2: But as I after I graduated from college, I worked

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Speaker 2: at Accenture doing IT consulting, and so I did system integration,

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Speaker 2: so I didn't do electrical engineering, but the mindset that

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Speaker 2: I had being an engineer, I went to IT consulting

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Speaker 2: and with that we did SAP implementations. So basically I

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Speaker 2: wanted to different clients, looked at their applications and helped

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Speaker 2: redesign them and redevelop them for them to make them

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Speaker 2: more efficient. And so had an amazing career at at Accenture.

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Speaker 2: About eight or nine years in though I kind of

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Speaker 2: got burnt out, so they're promoted me to managers. Again,

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Speaker 2: amazing career, but about three months I was like, hey, guys,

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Speaker 2: I'm tired.

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Speaker 1: I quick, you know, I'm gona tell youself this found

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Speaker 1: this sounds very famili I want to cut you off

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Speaker 1: because I was at IBM. My career is in mathematics,

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Speaker 1: modern sociology, you know. And there's a creative block because

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Speaker 1: because I want you to finish your story. But let's

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Speaker 1: talk about it. Being happy. You know you can be successful,

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Speaker 1: and you you were being successful, laurn Okay, great job,

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Speaker 1: you know all the things that people tell you you're

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Speaker 1: supposed to be doing in life, and then all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, but you're not happy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And.

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Speaker 1: Talk about that transition, because that's when you start talking

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Speaker 1: to your friends and they started asking you what's wrong?

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Speaker 2: Man?

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Speaker 1: You got everything you want. Great job, you know, you're

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Speaker 1: graduating from a great school, So why you trip it?

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Speaker 2: Right?

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Speaker 1: Right right?

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Speaker 2: I'm not telling you what to quit their job. It

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Speaker 2: was my personal. Uh, you don't say I listen to

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Speaker 2: I am? I am, I am.

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Speaker 1: This is my main compainsays master class Lawrence. I'm used

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Speaker 1: to use an example. Brother. You hear his brother right here,

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Speaker 1: Rashon McDonald did it. Lawrence Phillis did it? Lawrence Phillis

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Speaker 1: tell us your job? How did you go from a

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Speaker 1: guy who was successful elevated eight years living the life

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Speaker 1: of everybody that you went to from Boston to Georgia Tech,

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Speaker 1: one of the top premier engineering schools in the country.

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Speaker 1: But then all of a sudden, it's just my future. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: floorish yours down.

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Speaker 2: So actually I was on a private jet and this

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Speaker 2: last client too. I had to go to my client

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Speaker 2: side and I said, okay, you know, we're boy from

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Speaker 2: Boston from the hood and you made it. You want

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Speaker 2: to little private jet go to me the client. That

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Speaker 2: was the only time I got on the jet too,

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Speaker 2: but it was cool. It was one time that's all

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Speaker 2: I needed. But it really came down to like, hey,

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Speaker 2: like I'm not like this is great, but I'm not happy,

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Speaker 2: Like I feel like I needed something more. I needed

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Speaker 2: a break because there's a lot of work as well too,

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Speaker 2: And so even my girlfriend at the time, right, I said, hey,

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Speaker 2: I'm doing great, but I think I just need to

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Speaker 2: take a break and travel around the world. Like it's

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Speaker 2: just something I had a passion for and so travel's

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Speaker 2: always been something that's been an integral part of me.

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Speaker 2: So my fam is from rob Batos, so going back

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Speaker 2: and forth there and I think I mentioned to you

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Speaker 2: before I was in a program called Summer Search, and

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Speaker 2: that Summer Search program took basically like kids that are

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Speaker 2: in people of color in the city and took them

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Speaker 2: on summer trips into the wilderness, typically for the first year.

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Speaker 2: So I did like a whole thirty day trip in

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Speaker 2: the wilderness, like no showers, no bathrooms, ninety plus miles

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Speaker 2: in the wilderness as a high school kid. And that

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Speaker 2: really built my resiliency up, just to think, like, hey,

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Speaker 2: if just because you mean I think it can happen,

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Speaker 2: doesn't mean it can't, right, So I never would have

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Speaker 2: thought in a million years I could enjoy a thirty

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Speaker 2: day camping trip without having a bathroom in sight, right,

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Speaker 2: And so that confidence is also relaid back over in

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Speaker 2: my career. I was like, listen, although i might be

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Speaker 2: doing well, I'm still not happy. And I'm confident enough

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Speaker 2: to say, hey, I'm gonna put this to the side

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Speaker 2: and focus what I think will make me happier. And

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Speaker 2: that was traveling around the world. So I did that.

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Speaker 2: Now I made a decent amount of money, but I

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Speaker 2: didn't have enough money to travel around the world, so

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Speaker 2: I did hack it as best I could. So Delta

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Speaker 2: had it around the world flight. So I got a

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Speaker 2: lot of miles from doing all this traveling, and so

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Speaker 2: it was actually the year they were ending there around

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Speaker 2: the World program using miles. That kind of pushed me

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Speaker 2: over the top. So me and a buddy of mine

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Speaker 2: that also enjoyed travel, we had enough miles and we

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Speaker 2: used that to do our big flights across the world.

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Speaker 2: And so I did thirty plus countries all seven continents

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Speaker 2: including Antarctica in less than a year.

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Speaker 1: Wow. Wow, and that experience for a person of color. Okay,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about these different lanes of activity, these different environments,

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Speaker 1: these different cultures. What was the reaction to you or

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Speaker 1: your reaction to these different cultures, because when I travel,

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Speaker 1: I am exposed to so much and I feel so comfortable. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: sometimes you ought to don't understand the stress that we

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Speaker 1: live under. Oh and then you and a person of

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Speaker 1: color in America versus when you travel, Please just discuss

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Speaker 1: that the reality to my listeners.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So, I for one, I love culture, right, So

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Speaker 2: just being able to be respectful but also really like

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Speaker 2: learn by other people's cultures I think is just super amazing.

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Speaker 2: But you just don't realize, like you said, like the

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Speaker 2: amount of pressure and stressure on in the USA. When

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Speaker 2: you come out of it, it's like, wait a minute,

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Speaker 2: I don't have to necessarily worry about this as much, right,

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Speaker 2: and so like it definitely was a relief, but I

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Speaker 2: was going also to so many different places. I still

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Speaker 2: wonder because I'm still from the US. I still have

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Speaker 2: like that you know, that lens, and like, well is

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Speaker 2: it okay for us? And there's still like it's still

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Speaker 2: the world, right, so there are some things to be

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Speaker 2: worried about. But would have made me more profitable was like, hey,

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Speaker 2: is there a platform that can tell me what it's

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Speaker 2: like travel well black in some of these cities, what

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Speaker 2: racism like in some of these cities. And so there's

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Speaker 2: plenty of like like there's a troop advisors out there,

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Speaker 2: there's like Yelp and those types of you know, like

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Speaker 2: even like some of the brands that expeeded, they have

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Speaker 2: reviews about hotels, but not about the travel well Black experience,

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Speaker 2: and so that's what I was really looking for. And

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Speaker 2: so I was like, man, I really wish, you know,

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Speaker 2: this was out there. And what really pushed me over

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Speaker 2: the top was I met a young lady in Paris

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Speaker 2: at a hostel and I talked to We started talking

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Speaker 2: about chocolate and I was like, I love chocolate, like

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Speaker 2: I love dark chocolate. There's all the different types of chocolates.

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Speaker 2: And she's like, oh, you should go to Brussels in Belgium.

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Speaker 2: At that point, I had no idea where Brussels was,

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Speaker 2: you know where Belgium was. I was like, okay, is

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Speaker 2: it okay for us? Because she was a black woman,

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Speaker 2: and she's like, oh, no, you'll be good, You'll be good.

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Speaker 2: And literally within twenty four hours I was in Brussels.

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Speaker 2: I needed that co sign to say like, now you're good,

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Speaker 2: You'll be fine over there, and that's all I needed

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Speaker 2: to go forward. So that's kind of the ideas, like

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Speaker 2: that that head and noduct. Now you'll be straight, here's

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Speaker 2: what's to watch out for, but have a good time.

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Speaker 2: And that's kind of what the green book Global like

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Speaker 2: app really is about.

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Speaker 1: France Paris. When I was in high school, I had

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Speaker 1: no clue and I had an opportunity to take French

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Speaker 1: and I went. I would never go to France, and

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Speaker 1: as an adult, I went to France. And if I

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Speaker 1: had to do my life all over again, I would

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Speaker 1: move to France because the culture. That's what I was

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Speaker 1: just talking about, the relaxation and the comfort zone. There

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Speaker 1: are a lot of people walking around France that look

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Speaker 1: like us, okay, and really that's what this conversation I

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Speaker 1: want to make sure people understand, because this interview is

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Speaker 1: about you. You've established a travel company, it's tied to

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Speaker 1: a very effective app but we have to understand that

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Speaker 1: the experience that we often are exposed to in America

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Speaker 1: is not what we would get when you travel to

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Speaker 1: South Africa, where I've been, when I went to France,

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Speaker 1: all the countries I've cruised around the world almost and

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Speaker 1: every time I go somewhere, the experience is different getting

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Speaker 1: off a lot. Long as you're respectful, long as you

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Speaker 1: understand and respect the culture, not walking in looking at

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Speaker 1: all crazy dressed or disrespectfully dressed. That's when issues have

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Speaker 1: become when they feel tourists abuse the culture and I

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Speaker 1: respect the culture. Follow with more detail on that, because

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Speaker 1: I also want to talk about blind You know to

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Speaker 1: me about the Ambition Black Ambition program, because that is

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Speaker 1: significant in that conversation, But I want to talk about

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Speaker 1: the global aspect of you as a young man growing

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Speaker 1: and maturing to understand the value of travel.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and so one thing again, being black in America

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Speaker 2: just makes you look at the world very differently. But

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Speaker 2: being black and having the US passport around the world

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Speaker 2: is almost like it's like it's almost like a free

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Speaker 2: pass in a sense where people just respect at least

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Speaker 2: previously respecting that blue passport. But also when you're an American

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Speaker 2: and you're black, because our culture transcends across borders, you

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Speaker 2: already looked at as cool. We already looked at as

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Speaker 2: someone they want to be a part of and connect with.

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Speaker 2: So there's just like this openness and this insight that

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Speaker 2: they actually want to learn more about you, typically in

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Speaker 2: a respectful way. But again culture normous make them coming

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Speaker 2: to play there. But you want to think that living

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Speaker 2: in the US, you you would you would be caught

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Speaker 2: up with so much fear in the US that you

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Speaker 2: would think everybody hates us, just like the US is

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Speaker 2: like you know what is it? It's racist as apple pie, right,

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Speaker 2: Like that's the core of a unfortunately, with a lot

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Speaker 2: of things happen in the US with our history. So

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Speaker 2: I think it's just that fear that we have. And

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Speaker 2: so that's the idea, is that when you go into

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Speaker 2: a country or a city that's not in the USA

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Speaker 2: and you're disrespectful, you're open to culture, people bring you in. Again,

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Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's one hundred percent of the time,

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Speaker 2: and that's why green Book Global is there, but it's

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Speaker 2: really encouraging. Mike had an amazing year traveling the world. Amazing,

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Speaker 2: very little hiccups happened with me traveling around the world, right,

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Speaker 2: And I hear that from tons of other people as well.

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Speaker 2: So my hope is that this inspires people that give

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Speaker 2: other countries a chance the US and you know that's

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Speaker 2: if that's where you live. Great, there's still things you

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Speaker 2: can do in the USA too, don't get me wrong.

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Speaker 2: Still amazing places there as well. But don't don't think

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Speaker 2: because you might have these problems in the USA, that's

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Speaker 2: it's across the world that these things, similar things are happening.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely talking to my man, Lawrence Phillips, green Book, green

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Speaker 1: Book Global. Now let's talk about Black Ambition. Black Ambition.

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Speaker 1: Felicia Hatcher could producer director of this program, which is

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Speaker 1: founded by Pharrell Williams, has been distributing millions of dollars.

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Speaker 1: It's fifty years is gonna happen in Miami and you're

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Speaker 1: gonna go down there. Tell us about your relationship with

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Speaker 1: Black Ambition and how in what significant role is playing

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Speaker 1: in your brand.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely so Black Ambition that you mentioned has been

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Speaker 2: around for about five years, and so this is my

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Speaker 2: third time applying, So maybe this is also something that

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Speaker 2: you know, listeners can can maybe carry something away from.

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Speaker 2: It's like, I didn't give up. They told me not

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Speaker 2: the first time, get any little bit of feedback, all right,

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Speaker 2: I didn't get sulty, I sad, Let me just keep grinding.

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Speaker 2: I applied the second time, still got another note and

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Speaker 2: I was like, oh, dang, you let another of people

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Speaker 2: in here. Like I think I'm cool, But what I

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Speaker 2: what I use that to say? Like, hey, you might

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Speaker 2: think you better for somebody.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully you get too far down, like what do you

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Speaker 1: what are you applying for in Black Ambition? First of all,

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Speaker 1: let's let's get that cleared up. What are you applying for?

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Speaker 1: What were you applying for that made you apply three times?

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Speaker 2: Well? You apply to get money, right, So that's kind

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Speaker 2: of the ultimate goal is that you would get funding

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Speaker 2: for your your your business, and then you get the

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Speaker 2: exposure of the network, which I can also talk into

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Speaker 2: as well, but ultimately, like there's a big I think

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Speaker 2: the first was a million dollars that you would actually

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Speaker 2: get as a prize winner, and I think they broke

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Speaker 2: it up in the chunks now, but that's what you're

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Speaker 2: really applying for. But I think just that the growth

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Speaker 2: that I had through that period just made me not,

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Speaker 2: you know, think not not to overstep the value that

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Speaker 2: I think I'm bringing with my company that other people are.

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Speaker 2: I'm bringing more value or better value in different areas, right,

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Speaker 2: And so that really gave me humility saying like, hey,

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Speaker 2: you didn't get it the second time, but I'm still

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Speaker 2: going to continue to apply and say this is how

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Speaker 2: I grew the third time, finally got past that first round,

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Speaker 2: got it to the semi finals, which I semi finals,

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Speaker 2: let's do it winning. And then one of the things

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Speaker 2: that they have, which is optional, was called the Evolt

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Speaker 2: Evoke Wellness Program. It was like a three week program

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Speaker 2: that all about wealth this and it was something that

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Speaker 2: you know, typical accelerators that I've been in, they don't

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Speaker 2: have that, right, and I thought that thing it was

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Speaker 2: life changing for me. It really just made me unpack

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Speaker 2: myself in a way that I thought I've already done.

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Speaker 2: And so I would say that my main takeaway was

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Speaker 2: like my white statement for me personally, and essentially they

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Speaker 2: had to go through this exercise where you had to

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Speaker 2: like pick a couple of words and then you had

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Speaker 2: to do a couple of pages and again it was

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Speaker 2: a multi week process. But the end of it, my

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Speaker 2: wife statement was I'm a protective and innovative steward of

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Speaker 2: Black restoration and healing. And so that is what the

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Speaker 2: essence of Green Book Global is. It's all about being

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Speaker 2: innovative where technology. We're trying to make sure we stay

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Speaker 2: with AI and use technology to our advantage. We're protective

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Speaker 2: of our black community, right we need to protection our

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Speaker 2: black women are black men, and so we have a

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Speaker 2: safe space for us to be ourselves but also to

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Speaker 2: learn from each other steward. Like I, although I feel

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Speaker 2: like so much has been pushed into me from God,

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Speaker 2: from my family, my friends, from my environment, that I

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Speaker 2: don't really think this is my own. This is me

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Speaker 2: just being a good steward of what God has given me,

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Speaker 2: and so I'm just trying to, you know, do good

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Speaker 2: by that and then restoration and healing, like the Black

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Speaker 2: community's restoration. We need healing, and so we want to

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Speaker 2: make sure that in a way that we can do

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Speaker 2: it in the travel space, because when you travel, it

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Speaker 2: really is a mental health kind of uplift. You can

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Speaker 2: kind of refill your cup and travel. So that's those

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Speaker 2: are all the different elements of how just that part

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Speaker 2: of the program is super impactful.

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Speaker 1: For I know you have an app. How can we

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Speaker 1: reach out to you and start using your services? Lawrence?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So if you go to iOS or Android and

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Speaker 2: type in green Book Global, you will find the iosp

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Speaker 2: and Android app there. We actually had over one hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty thousand downloads just this year. We ranked top

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Speaker 2: thirty in the App Store for travel this year as well.

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Speaker 2: Partner with Expedia. I went through the Expedy Accelerator and

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Speaker 2: I've done multiple campaigns and partnerships with them. So I'm

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Speaker 2: looking forward to really twenty twenty six and continue.

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Speaker 1: Excuse me, Lawrence, excuse me, Laurence. I did love people

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Speaker 1: who are humble. We've had over one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: thousand downloads this year, you know, brother, congratulations, thank you,

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Speaker 1: thank you. Congratulations the team off the harget. Okay, so

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Speaker 1: how are you marketing it. What how are you getting

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Speaker 1: the word out that you can achieve such a significant

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Speaker 1: download number for a new app, and a travel app

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Speaker 1: in a very competitive field.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, so we are unapologetically black and all

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Speaker 2: about safety. So I think there's there's richest and niches, right,

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Speaker 2: So we're I'm very comfortable. It took a while. I'm

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Speaker 2: not gonna lie the evolution of just being unapologetically saying

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Speaker 2: where a black travel review app. You know, we want

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Speaker 2: all users to you know, get insights from it, but

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Speaker 2: our target demographic are black travelers, and so really our

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Speaker 2: social media has done that for us, right, So we

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Speaker 2: have over one hundred and fifty thousand followers on Instagram

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Speaker 2: and just those videos going viral. And also we've been

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Speaker 2: in the game for a while, right, So twenty fifteen

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Speaker 2: it's when I did happen. Took until twenty eighteen for

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Speaker 2: the website to be stable and all through. At that time,

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Speaker 2: I'm posting on social media getting really Actually I went

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Speaker 2: to Brazil and I ran to someone for a travel

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Speaker 2: conference and they said, hey, I actually used your app

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Speaker 2: like eight years ago, and I've been following your journey, right,

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Speaker 2: And so people have been followed our journey as we

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Speaker 2: kind of grew, and so I think being in the

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Speaker 2: game long enough and just leveraging social media to allow

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Speaker 2: us to get that exposure has been why you know,

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Speaker 2: we've been able to get you know, that opportunity to

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Speaker 2: get those many eyeballs, and we're just offering something that's

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Speaker 2: not available in the market, Like you can't find the

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Speaker 2: twoes that we have in the market outside of our app.

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Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere. We will be right back with more

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Speaker 1: insights from Money Making Conversation master Class. Welcome back to

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Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation master Class hosted by me Rashaun McDonald.

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Speaker 1: Let's get back into it. Let's talk about the history

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Speaker 1: of the Green Book. We have to talk about the

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Speaker 1: history the significance of it. You are a modern day

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Speaker 1: version of it because you're using the app, but it

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Speaker 1: was started why back in the day the floor.

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Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, So I always thought, like you know, sometimes

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Speaker 2: people like, why aren't you calling it the Black Book? Right, Like,

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Speaker 2: so there's a history behind while we're called the Green Book.

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Speaker 2: So Victor Hugo Green and Alma Green essentially started the

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Speaker 2: Green Book. So it was actually a physical book that

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Speaker 2: was distributed between nineteen thirty six and nineteen sixty six

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Speaker 2: in the USA to help black people travel safely. It's

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Speaker 2: really about driving while black, right, So it told you

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Speaker 2: what restaurants you can go to, hotels, gas stations, even

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Speaker 2: towns to avoid. It really was like that Black tribal Bible.

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Speaker 2: And so again Sundowntowns was something on the list, right,

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Speaker 2: but it had a directory of restaurants and hotels where

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Speaker 2: you can stay safely. And so we're continue on that

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Speaker 2: legacy but in a mobile app, and so we also

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Speaker 2: do it outside of the US as well. So we

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Speaker 2: have a lot of tools dedicated to the US, but

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Speaker 2: we also have a lot of like for example, AI

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Speaker 2: can build you and that tenerrate to Paris in about

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Speaker 2: thirty seconds right using the reviews from our app. So

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Speaker 2: we definitely continuing the legacy. But that also is what

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Speaker 2: emboded me and gave me the permission, if you will,

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Speaker 2: to be unapologetically black, because we're continuing the legacy of

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Speaker 2: the Green Book just in an app form.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, in technology and technology, which is important. So give

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Speaker 1: me an example of how your app works. Dan, you know,

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Speaker 1: you know I'm a black person and let's use you.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'm not trying to point out anything in

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Speaker 1: a landmark a place you shouldn't go. But how exactly

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Speaker 1: does your app work when I come on as a

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Speaker 1: traveler looking for places where I feel comfortable that I

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Speaker 1: can get great food or great hotel stay, a great

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Speaker 1: vacation activity, talk to me. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So I'll give you maybe a couple of examples. So

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Speaker 2: the first one, which is really our flagship product, is

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Speaker 2: our Driving while Black road Trip Planner. So literally, if

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Speaker 2: you go onto the app, there's a road trip, there's

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Speaker 2: a car icon there because relating again to like driving

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Speaker 2: will black, especially in the USA. And you'll see a

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Speaker 2: map of the United States. You also see a lot

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Speaker 2: of pins that represent different colors, so you'll have green, yellow,

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Speaker 2: and red. So green means great. And so these are

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Speaker 2: scores that happen from black people that have been to

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Speaker 2: these cities, right, and so it's on a five star scale.

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Speaker 2: So I always say this, we don't encourage or discourage

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Speaker 2: anyone to go anywhere. We'll just giving you information that

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Speaker 2: you typically won't have to make a more well informed decision.

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Speaker 2: So green means great, it's four point five or above.

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Speaker 2: Yellow meants average four dot O to four point five

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Speaker 2: and below it four you're red, and so it's not

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Speaker 2: necessarily as black friendly per our community, but also could

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00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:45,000
Speaker 2: be a sundowntown. And so you go on that road

431
00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:47,080
Speaker 2: trip planner, you can plan a trip, let's say from

432
00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:50,080
Speaker 2: Atlanta to Houston. You'll be able to see all these

433
00:20:50,119 --> 00:20:52,840
Speaker 2: pins colors of cities that you're going through. In two.

434
00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:55,520
Speaker 2: You also can out on black on the restaurants onto

435
00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:57,920
Speaker 2: your right as well. So we have twenty five hundred

436
00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:00,119
Speaker 2: of the top black on the restaurants. We partnered with

437
00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:02,960
Speaker 2: another company called eat Oprah and they have about twenty

438
00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:04,879
Speaker 2: thousand black on the restaurants and we took like, you know,

439
00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:06,800
Speaker 2: the krem de la Creme of all those restaurants and

440
00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,399
Speaker 2: put them on our app. But you also have cities

441
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,000
Speaker 2: that again while you're trying to not maybe red. So

442
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:15,000
Speaker 2: one city in particular, Vidora, Texas, is one that is

443
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:17,560
Speaker 2: kind of renowned for its being in sundown town. Uh.

444
00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:19,800
Speaker 2: And so if literally if you're driving through by door,

445
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:21,960
Speaker 2: you can actually hit a button and say avoid, and

446
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:24,000
Speaker 2: our app will actually re route you around y door

447
00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:26,040
Speaker 2: and it'll give you the turn by turn navigation.

448
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:27,960
Speaker 1: He let me let me just let me correct here.

449
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:32,000
Speaker 1: It's Vida buy no via textass right outside the bone,

450
00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:34,480
Speaker 1: that's via the right via the Texas I'm gonna Houston,

451
00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:38,840
Speaker 1: Texas born Oh okay, y to Texas is right between. Absolutely,

452
00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:43,760
Speaker 1: that's East Texas, Brother Vida. Even to this day, that's sad.

453
00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:45,160
Speaker 1: We can talk about it as soon as you get

454
00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:48,320
Speaker 1: outside across the border of Lake Charles Louisiama. First cit

455
00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:50,960
Speaker 1: you're gonna look at it's gonna be Vida, and then

456
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:54,720
Speaker 1: you hit the Beaumont. If Beaumont, you're ninety miles from home, Houston, Texas.

457
00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:56,880
Speaker 1: That's how I used to see it. And so yes,

458
00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:02,840
Speaker 1: it has always had a reputation, whether it's uh deserved

459
00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:05,600
Speaker 1: or not, of being a place that people of color

460
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:07,280
Speaker 1: should feel uncomfortable.

461
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:09,840
Speaker 2: Right. And so another thing with the app too is

462
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:12,719
Speaker 2: we try to get recent reviews. Right. So for example,

463
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,160
Speaker 2: I think I had a recent one from Coleman, Alabama

464
00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:17,760
Speaker 2: that was renowned for a sundown town and in the

465
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:19,800
Speaker 2: black family stayed there and they said, hey, felt a

466
00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:22,359
Speaker 2: little awkward, but we were okay, right, And so the

467
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:24,560
Speaker 2: whole idea is like we have a historical view of it,

468
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:26,840
Speaker 2: we also want to get recent reviews to say, hey,

469
00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:28,840
Speaker 2: has the town changed? Or is it still about the

470
00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 2: same bier am I saying it right? Is the recent

471
00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:37,800
Speaker 2: reviews don't don't seem like much a change from what

472
00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:38,280
Speaker 2: I've said.

473
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:42,200
Speaker 1: I don't think if I don't think people of color

474
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:44,879
Speaker 1: want I want to test it out. Let's put it

475
00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:47,320
Speaker 1: that way, because we just blow on past that little city,

476
00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:50,359
Speaker 1: like I said, Beaumont, then you hit the Golden Triangle,

477
00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,720
Speaker 1: then you're in Baytown. Then you're in Houston, Texas. And

478
00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:55,359
Speaker 1: if you got to go to Sanatoia, you just stay

479
00:22:55,359 --> 00:22:57,880
Speaker 1: I ten West and take your Sanatoia then their passo.

480
00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:00,879
Speaker 1: Next thing you know, you're in Los Angeles. So I

481
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,440
Speaker 1: just want to let you know I truly understand exactly.

482
00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:08,639
Speaker 1: That sounds fantastic because when you travel, man, you know

483
00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:10,600
Speaker 1: he's running out of the gas, a long gas. You're

484
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:12,520
Speaker 1: trying to get someplace to eat. You want to go

485
00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:16,560
Speaker 1: in places that you feel want your business not staring

486
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 1: at you because of the color of your skin. And

487
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:24,520
Speaker 1: that's what green Book Global gives you a using modern technology, correct.

488
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:27,080
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and so like that's our flags, your product. But

489
00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:29,439
Speaker 2: then internationally, we don't have a roach your planet. But

490
00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:31,359
Speaker 2: you can look at cities, right, so Paris, if you

491
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:34,200
Speaker 2: look at Paris, for example, we got two hundred reviews

492
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:36,359
Speaker 2: on Paris from black people, and so what makes it

493
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:39,520
Speaker 2: unique is that we don't review hotels or restaurants, you

494
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:42,280
Speaker 2: might offer those, but we review cities. So every city

495
00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 2: has a Black Friendly score based off our community, right,

496
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:47,520
Speaker 2: so Paris would have one, London has one. I mean,

497
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 2: we have tons, thousands of reviews on the app, and

498
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:52,320
Speaker 2: so that's the way you can use it internationally too.

499
00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:54,080
Speaker 2: So if you're thinking about a city to travel to

500
00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 2: in Europe or in Asia or even in Africa Australia, like,

501
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:01,160
Speaker 2: we have reviews and Black Friendly scores based on our community,

502
00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 2: and then they also have like recommendations and warnings as well,

503
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:06,560
Speaker 2: so you actually can see pictures from people's trips. You'll

504
00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:09,520
Speaker 2: give you specific information outside of those scores too, and

505
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:11,440
Speaker 2: then we have AI for you.

506
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:15,600
Speaker 1: Let me just let everybody know you cause who I'm

507
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,800
Speaker 1: talking to her Lawrence. I'm talking Lawrence Phillips. He's the

508
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:21,320
Speaker 1: founder of green book Global, the first and only travel

509
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:25,439
Speaker 1: review website and mobile app that enables black travels to

510
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:30,280
Speaker 1: plan trips with confidence and less anxiety by providing user

511
00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:36,040
Speaker 1: generated travel insights from the black perspective. I want to

512
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:39,159
Speaker 1: keep emphasizing that being the person as I remember when

513
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,520
Speaker 1: I left five BM I was, I left and pursued

514
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:44,160
Speaker 1: a career as a stand up comedian. And so I've

515
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:45,880
Speaker 1: been on into a lot of cities, and I'm gonna

516
00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:48,560
Speaker 1: tell you, I've been in cities where black people did

517
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:50,480
Speaker 1: walk on the certain side of the street. I'm gonna

518
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:53,200
Speaker 1: tell you. And so because that's the community that they

519
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:55,119
Speaker 1: grew up here, and they understood that there are certain

520
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:58,639
Speaker 1: communities right now where people live on one side of

521
00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:00,240
Speaker 1: the track and other people live on the others side of

522
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:04,280
Speaker 1: the trade. You just understood is understood. And so but

523
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:07,760
Speaker 1: I do know this. When you develop a platform like

524
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:11,199
Speaker 1: this and you start signaling out good and bad, have

525
00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 1: any cities reached out to you and try to change

526
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:18,560
Speaker 1: their THEIRMO on your platform?

527
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:21,119
Speaker 2: So it kind of the reverse is what happens. We

528
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 2: actually talk to cities about their Black friendly scores and say, hey, like,

529
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:27,600
Speaker 2: we can work with you to help your city become

530
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:31,959
Speaker 2: you better rated. And so that's actually part of our

531
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:35,120
Speaker 2: strategy for systemic change. Right, so part one is making

532
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:37,439
Speaker 2: sure black people feel more comfortable to travel because we

533
00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:39,840
Speaker 2: deserve it, right, we deserve to travel wherever we want

534
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 2: to go, and I understand that there's fears and concerns,

535
00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 2: and so green Book Global is first trying to help

536
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:49,720
Speaker 2: kind of reduce that fear and increase that confidence when

537
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:53,520
Speaker 2: you travel. Part two for the systemic change is really

538
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:56,359
Speaker 2: the work with destinations to help them be more black friendly.

539
00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 2: And so that might be with marketing materials, but there's

540
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:01,760
Speaker 2: also a lot of data that shows that US based

541
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:04,800
Speaker 2: black travelers spent over one hundred and forty billion dollars

542
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:08,399
Speaker 2: on travel each year, and so with that there's a

543
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:11,520
Speaker 2: monetary value to being inclusive, and so that's what we're

544
00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:14,600
Speaker 2: pushing with destinations to say, hey, not only should you

545
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:17,200
Speaker 2: be inclusive, but it actually pays you to be inclusive.

546
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:20,760
Speaker 2: And so an example of that is Portland, Maine. That's

547
00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:23,119
Speaker 2: been our long term part of the last two years.

548
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:25,920
Speaker 2: And I'm from Boston too. I ain't never stepped foot

549
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,960
Speaker 2: in Portland, Maine. It's still like two years ago, and

550
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:32,639
Speaker 2: I'm from Boston, right, and so Portland's predominantly Maine's is

551
00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:34,880
Speaker 2: predominantly it's like one of the whitest states in America.

552
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:38,280
Speaker 2: And so I already had my preconceived notions about Portland, Maine, like,

553
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:40,440
Speaker 2: I don't really know how to like think about it

554
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,040
Speaker 2: a little bit. And I had an amazing time when

555
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 2: I was there, right, And so we spent about maybe

556
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:48,400
Speaker 2: four or five days built out in that tenterary, talked

557
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 2: about the black history, and so we did some social

558
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,240
Speaker 2: media content rants and ads on our app as well,

559
00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:55,720
Speaker 2: and people started going to Portland and people are like, oh,

560
00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 2: my gosh, Portland's actually kind of amazing, right, And so

561
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:02,280
Speaker 2: it's the whole idea of just being able to have

562
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:05,960
Speaker 2: a pathway to talk to destinations that want more travelers

563
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:08,480
Speaker 2: there to understand that there is power in that black

564
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:11,160
Speaker 2: travel dollar. But now we can say, well, what are

565
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:12,760
Speaker 2: you doing for the black community if we were to

566
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 2: come there, right, like, do you have your version of

567
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,640
Speaker 2: Black Wall Street where you're black owned businesses, because that's

568
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 2: what our consumers are, our travelers are going to want

569
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:21,640
Speaker 2: to see. If you don't have that, well, maybe talk

570
00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:23,720
Speaker 2: to us next year when you do. Right, that's going

571
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 2: to be kind of the goal that we have long

572
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:28,480
Speaker 2: term to really bring about systemic change on a destination level,

573
00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 2: because if we can get our community to really book

574
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:33,520
Speaker 2: on our app be part of our community. On the

575
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,040
Speaker 2: app right, we have more leverage to talk to destinations

576
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,800
Speaker 2: and that can drive systemic change in those places.

577
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:42,679
Speaker 1: Wow thinking the Lawrence Phillips. He's part of the Black

578
00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 1: Ambition event. But more importantly, this is a program where

579
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:50,000
Speaker 1: he tried three times. The third time to be a

580
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 1: part of this program. They rejected them twice, which is

581
00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:54,120
Speaker 1: a testament to what we talk about on Money Making

582
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 1: Conversation Masterclass. You know, just because somebody said no doesn't

583
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 1: mean they said no to you. Just know that at

584
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:02,840
Speaker 1: that time, and you're up against a lot of the

585
00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:05,680
Speaker 1: world is about competition. If you're not willing to compete,

586
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:09,400
Speaker 1: then stay employed, staying there for the hour job, there's

587
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:11,240
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with it. But when you get in an

588
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:15,760
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial space, the competition goes through the roof and you

589
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:18,719
Speaker 1: have to be prepared to understand that. Because you are

590
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 1: now in a competitive world. Then know the resistance, the

591
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:28,200
Speaker 1: people telling you, asking you, questioning your decisions happen all

592
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,480
Speaker 1: the time. But he has a great app travel app.

593
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:35,320
Speaker 1: You know he's based now in Atlanta, Georgia Tech Graduate

594
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 1: by way of Boston six one seven area code. I

595
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 1: know it by the way. I have been to Portland, Maine,

596
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 1: beautiful state going to winter time. It is just like

597
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:48,000
Speaker 1: a Christmas card. Thank you, my man Lawrence Phillips for

598
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 1: coming on Money Making Conversations Master Play. This has been

599
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:55,040
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me Rashaun McDonald. Thanks to

600
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:59,680
Speaker 1: I Guess and our audience. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com to

601
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:02,560
Speaker 1: listen or registered to be a guest on my show.

602
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 1: Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning,