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Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she

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Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and

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Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me

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Speaker 1: advice on many occasions. In the case you didn't notice,

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Speaker 1: I'm not broke, you know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs,

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Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do.

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Speaker 1: It's what he likes to share. Now it's time to

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Speaker 1: hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money making Conversations. Here

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Speaker 1: we come. Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I am your host,

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Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. And it's time to stop reading other people's

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Speaker 1: success stories. I got successful people who come over here.

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Speaker 1: I want you to hear their stories, but I don't

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Speaker 1: want you to be enamored by these stories. I want

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Speaker 1: you to work your own stories because you can be

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Speaker 1: motivated by their success, because their stories can offer you

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Speaker 1: direction and help you reach your goals through your planning.

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Speaker 1: Now hear what I'm saying, you're planning and your committed effort.

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Speaker 1: My interviews are really is about. If you want to

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Speaker 1: hear about successful stories, go to people who are successful.

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Speaker 1: They are they are celebrities, they're CEO entrepreneurs. And my

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Speaker 1: next person, she is what I call an industry decision maker.

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Speaker 1: My next guest is Dr Jennifer Ashton. Dr Aston is

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Speaker 1: a double Board certified physician as an O B, G

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Speaker 1: Y N and Obesis and Obesity medicine and the nutritionist

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Speaker 1: with a master's degree in nutrition or She hate the

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Speaker 1: fact that I actually have a christpe Creeme on my app.

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Speaker 1: I have Krispy Kreme donup. She is ABC news Chief

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Speaker 1: Medical Correspondent. Dr jennerfer Aston has been a trusted voice

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Speaker 1: providing vital health and medical information that's g M A

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Speaker 1: three what you need to Know and constant coverage on

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Speaker 1: ABC's News on the COVID nineteen pandemic. She released saw

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Speaker 1: the latest book, The New Normal and roll Back to

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Speaker 1: Resilience in the Pandemic Era, a must read God and

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Speaker 1: I must say it is a must read guy to

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Speaker 1: dealing with the continued challenges of the pandemic because tell

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Speaker 1: you what, folks is not going anywhere, and we discussed

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Speaker 1: she discusses that in the book. She's one of those

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Speaker 1: trusted health personalities on TV today. She's an active medical

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Speaker 1: practice is a leading voice in a new book, The

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Speaker 1: New Almost out now, and we teach us how to

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Speaker 1: think like a doctor, which I never ever thought about,

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Speaker 1: the whole principle to help us stay inform, make decisions

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Speaker 1: about your health, and better navigate the new normal. Please

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Speaker 1: welcome to Money Making Conversation. Dr Jennifer Aston. How you doing, sir?

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Speaker 1: Thank you for that very kind intro, and I'm so

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Speaker 1: glad to be able to talk with you. Well, you

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Speaker 1: know that I think that you have been probably first

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Speaker 1: of all, I feel fortunate to have you on this show.

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Speaker 1: You know, it was either you or Dr Foulcher. You you,

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Speaker 1: you and my people know what I'm saying. You know,

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Speaker 1: because of the the fact that, Okay, let's have gone back

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Speaker 1: when it all happened, because that's what this book is about,

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Speaker 1: the new normal. Okay, when I thought it was just

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Speaker 1: gonna be two months. I can tell you this, Dr Ashton.

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Speaker 1: When I first went out, I live in Houston, and

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Speaker 1: I live in Atlanta, Georgia. My headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia,

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Speaker 1: and I was in Houston, and I drove down surprised

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Speaker 1: my family because you know, nobody wanted to fly, so

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Speaker 1: I just drove I just up, woke up and drove

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Speaker 1: to Houston from Atlanta, and I went inside my first

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Speaker 1: home depot. I had a mask, I had rubber gloves.

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Speaker 1: I had my uh little peril I had because before

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Speaker 1: it got cleared off the shift, I just happened to

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Speaker 1: have some parrel. And when I got back to my truck,

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Speaker 1: I didn't know what to do. I didn't know do

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Speaker 1: I take my gloves off, do I do I do

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Speaker 1: I put the lotion on my hands. It was that

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Speaker 1: whole I guess uncertainty. That's unsafe zone. Now I'm a

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Speaker 1: lot more comfortable not saying that I'm not wearing a mask.

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Speaker 1: I wear a mask. I understand my understanding respect social

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Speaker 1: distancing now, but that's something that you have the educators

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Speaker 1: on and you had to live through the process of

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Speaker 1: dealing with a political system at the time that was

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Speaker 1: in denial by COVID, and eighteen talked to us about that. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think it was more than denial. I mean, first

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Speaker 1: of all, I you've heard me say in my book,

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Speaker 1: You've heard me say on national television, I stay in

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Speaker 1: my lane. Um, you know, I'm a doctor. I speak

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Speaker 1: about medicine, health, wellness, public health, science. That's it, Thank goodness.

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Speaker 1: I am not a politician. I don't know anything about

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Speaker 1: finances like you do. Um. I don't know about whether entertainment.

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Speaker 1: Don't ask me the latest show except for Britain. I

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Speaker 1: haven't watched any TV in the last year. Um. But

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Speaker 1: when this all started, the issue I think was that

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Speaker 1: the masks was not communicated well. And so that was

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Speaker 1: one of those really seminal moments in the pandemic where

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Speaker 1: we lost a lot of trust um, and by we,

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Speaker 1: I mean everyone in science and medicine. And the reason

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Speaker 1: for that, let me just explain, is that we did

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Speaker 1: not know before April of last year that so many

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Speaker 1: p bowl could be infected with COVID and show no

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Speaker 1: symptoms at all and spread the virus. We also didn't

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Speaker 1: know that it would shut down the entire world because

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Speaker 1: we had never seen that in anyone's lifetime, right Molesque

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Speaker 1: influenza pandemic, And so prior to April, in medicine, the

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Speaker 1: only time we put a mask on someone was a

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Speaker 1: sick person in the hospital to protect others. So even

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Speaker 1: though a lot of people would say, well, isn't it

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Speaker 1: common sense to put a mask on? Yes, and no,

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Speaker 1: but in science and medicine we go by data, not

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Speaker 1: just well something looks like it makes sense. And also

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Speaker 1: remember that those types of supplies were in a very

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Speaker 1: very high demand, so we couldn't say to the entire

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Speaker 1: country million people, yeah, everyone put a mask on UM

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Speaker 1: because A we didn't have the science to support that.

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Speaker 1: Be we didn't know that so many people could be

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Speaker 1: in fact did with COVID and NAT show symptoms and

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Speaker 1: see we had a ppe shortage. So until we learned

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Speaker 1: what we learned in the first three months, the recommendation was, no,

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Speaker 1: this is not necessary. I know it makes people feel better,

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Speaker 1: but there's no science to support this. And I have UM,

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Speaker 1: you know, I go through in the book. I have

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Speaker 1: a lot of these ashton Is Isms, as I like

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Speaker 1: to call them, which are these medical sayings that I've

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Speaker 1: said in the last sixteen years of being a doctor,

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Speaker 1: and and one of them is that I really believe

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Speaker 1: you can communicate any level of complex medical or scientific

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Speaker 1: information to anyone, including a child, if the messenger is

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Speaker 1: the right person or you know, uses the right communication skills.

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Speaker 1: And to be honest, the right communication skills were not

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Speaker 1: used early on in the pandemic UM, but as I

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Speaker 1: also say in the book, we have a big weaver

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Speaker 1: in that saying, be careful when you point a finger,

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Speaker 1: because three are usually pointing back at you. And so

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Speaker 1: I don't. I'm not one that says, well, it was

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Speaker 1: this person's fault or that fault or whatever. We've got

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Speaker 1: more than enough to handle right now by staying in

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Speaker 1: the present and looking in the future. Well, I here's

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Speaker 1: the thing I'm talking to Dr Jennifer Aston, the New Normal,

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Speaker 1: that's the name of our book. Uh, I'm gonna go

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Speaker 1: some things that really are stood out to me, the

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Speaker 1: importance of laughter and love. Talk to me about that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, anyone who's been through a crisis or a

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Speaker 1: trauma in their life knows that, Um, you know, laughter

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Speaker 1: can be more than just an icebreaker, right, It can

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Speaker 1: be therapeutic. Um. Anyone who's been to a week of

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Speaker 1: funeral um and it stood vigil in a hospital while

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Speaker 1: someone is in the operating room knows that. You know,

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Speaker 1: sometimes that's a really powerful way to kind of release

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Speaker 1: a lot of tension and its stress, and it can

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Speaker 1: be very healing. Um. So I think if we can't

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Speaker 1: laugh usually, you know, I say, at ourselves and for

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Speaker 1: me that's an endless supply of material. Let's just put

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Speaker 1: it that way. You know, then then we're really in trouble.

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Speaker 1: And in terms of love, I think that you know,

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Speaker 1: this is an area that does cross, you know, straddle

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Speaker 1: lanes between medicine and public health and and the rest

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Speaker 1: of our society. Is that I really do believe that

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Speaker 1: if you act with love as your primary motivation, you

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Speaker 1: will never go wrong. Well, the thing about it is

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Speaker 1: there you are a real doctor. Will emphasize that because

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Speaker 1: the fact that the reason to say that because you

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Speaker 1: have to deal with certain levels of anxiety here you

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Speaker 1: have to deal with real patients okay o b g.

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Speaker 1: Ryan uh, and then your nutritionists. And then also you

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Speaker 1: have to come on TV because some of your life

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Speaker 1: was flipped from just being a periodically on TV the

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Speaker 1: TV all the time, which in turn meant that you

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Speaker 1: became an authority on something that you were developing information

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Speaker 1: as you were along, and people will hold you accountable

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Speaker 1: for if you said something and again you're still in

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Speaker 1: the learning process, which in turn put stress on you.

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Speaker 1: How did that stress create anxiety in your life? You

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Speaker 1: talk about it. There's certain instances in your book, Um,

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Speaker 1: in my situation. If I gained weight, you know, my

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Speaker 1: whole life had suddenly become at the house I picked

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Speaker 1: up five pounds, I realized I was even three meals

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Speaker 1: a day. So that was the stress that was that

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Speaker 1: was brought into my life. Your stress was because your

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Speaker 1: face was now recognizable an America's authority on that I'm

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Speaker 1: used to work. Correctly, you are an authority on COVID

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Speaker 1: naighteen and that was not fair. Correct. Well, let me personal.

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Speaker 1: It's my job, so I and I really feel incredibly

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Speaker 1: blessed to have the responsibility that I have. You know,

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Speaker 1: in medicine, um, we take this Hippocratic oath, and that

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Speaker 1: is primarily to be a teacher of what we know,

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Speaker 1: whether it's teaching our patients or teaching other student doctors.

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Speaker 1: But I would also if I could revise the Hippocratic

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Speaker 1: oath today, I would add student to it. And that's

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Speaker 1: what I've been doing for over a year. And people say, well,

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Speaker 1: you're not a specialist in infectious disease. Absolutely correct, But

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Speaker 1: a lot of people don't know that in medical school

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Speaker 1: we have to learn every specialty. We just don't learn

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Speaker 1: one body part and take it four years and then

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Speaker 1: that's it. Um. You know, there's a human being connected

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Speaker 1: to that body part, so we have to learn every

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Speaker 1: specialty and then in covering this pandemic. UM, I was

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Speaker 1: literally speaking to Tony Fauci by personal cell phone either

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Speaker 1: every week or every other week at nine o'clock at

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Speaker 1: night at seven o'clock in the morning. And you're right,

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Speaker 1: there was a massive responsibility that came um on my

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Speaker 1: shoulder is to not only understand this rapidly evolving and

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Speaker 1: changing information, but to communicate it in the right way.

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Speaker 1: And as you were asking your question, I couldn't help

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Speaker 1: but think, you know when you said I I am

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Speaker 1: an actual, real doctor and not just playing one on TV.

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Speaker 1: I do speak to real patients who I'm responsible for

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Speaker 1: their lives, and when they get scared and they get anxious,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't matter that we're one on one. I have

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Speaker 1: to answer their questions and put them at ease both

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Speaker 1: in their mind and in their spirit. And there's absolutely

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Speaker 1: no difference between doing that and what I do on

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Speaker 1: national television. So it's like when we have people leaders

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Speaker 1: of faith on g M A three, and every single

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Speaker 1: time we say, gosh, that person is a really good speaker,

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Speaker 1: and then I laugh and I say to myself, of

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Speaker 1: course they're a good speaker. That's what they do for

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Speaker 1: a living. They speak to their congregation every week. So um,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think that the recognizing that people were

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Speaker 1: scared and anxious and felt this degree of uncertainty was

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Speaker 1: something that I realized literally from the first minute. And

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Speaker 1: I realized it because I was feeling the same thing.

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Speaker 1: You know. The interesting thing about your book when I

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Speaker 1: first read it, and because it hit home with me

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Speaker 1: because it talked about you know, COVID nineteen and high effects. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, people of color, African American black men especially.

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Speaker 1: You know, it affects men differently than it affects women.

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Speaker 1: In fact, the impacts me in a lot more. Picked

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Speaker 1: it up from your book, Dr Aston, thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Didn't know that, So I'm just letting everybody know a

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Speaker 1: very informative book. But the thing about is that when

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Speaker 1: we hear the story about Jason the bus driver who

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Speaker 1: made national news. I remember I saw his video when

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Speaker 1: he was complaining about the person who was coughing on

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Speaker 1: the bus, and then weeks later he died. But it

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Speaker 1: was not only tied to COVID, but we started to

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Speaker 1: realize COVID affected people for different ways. And then in

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Speaker 1: a book you started, you start talking about how you

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Speaker 1: can create change, and one of the great changes is

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Speaker 1: weight loss. Right, So I want to unpack two really

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Speaker 1: important things that you say. There is Shawn Number one,

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Speaker 1: race okay, UM, the effects, the disproportionate effects on people

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Speaker 1: of color, black and brown populations for this virus. Uh

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Speaker 1: was should have been seen and expected. Oh that's my

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Speaker 1: little doggie here and um. And so it was not

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Speaker 1: a surprise that we were seeing more obesity, more high

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Speaker 1: blood pressure, UM, more heart disease, coexisting medical conditions, pre

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Speaker 1: existing medical conditions in people of color. Therefore, it's not

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Speaker 1: a surprise when you saw more disproportionate rate of death

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Speaker 1: amongst black and brown people with this pandemic. Also, their

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Speaker 1: jobs which put them at risk, their access to testing

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Speaker 1: and medical care put them at risk. And right now,

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Speaker 1: I think we're in a very interesting but precarious position

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Speaker 1: in medicine because on the one hand, there are people

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Speaker 1: who think that you should not identify someone at all

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Speaker 1: by their race or ethnicity in medicine, and everyone should

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Speaker 1: just you know, be you should be blinded to that

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Speaker 1: and treat everyone the same. I fundamentally disagree with that,

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Speaker 1: because what that does is it throws out all of

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Speaker 1: the knowledge that we have about what constitutes you at

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Speaker 1: being at a higher risk than a thirty year old

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Speaker 1: Asian woman for example. Right, And if we can't identify

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Speaker 1: risk factors, then we can't take aggressive preventative steps to

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Speaker 1: protect you. So I do think, and I talk about

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Speaker 1: Jason's story in the book about how when he died

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Speaker 1: of COVID we didn't even know. Being male put you

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Speaker 1: at risk at greater risk, Being black put you at

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Speaker 1: greater risk. Being obese put you a greater risk. Having

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Speaker 1: diabetes put you a greater risk. Now we do so

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Speaker 1: as individuals and as doctors, we can take steps to

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Speaker 1: lower that risk. You can never make it zero, right,

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Speaker 1: I can't. I can't make you not male, I can't

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Speaker 1: make you not black. I can't make someone who is

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Speaker 1: seventy five not seventy five. But we can take steps

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Speaker 1: to reduce the conditions of overweight and obesity. So I

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Speaker 1: go through those dietary steps. Some of them are easy.

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Speaker 1: Believe me, this is not a major overhaul. These are

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Speaker 1: baby steps. Um, But who do you know someone who's

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Speaker 1: not concerned about their weight? Because I don't literally everyone is.

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Speaker 1: You know, interesting thing about it is that you're absolutely right.

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Speaker 1: Like you say in your book, you say what you

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Speaker 1: can't change is your age, but everything else you can

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Speaker 1: have an impact on. When you discuss the diabetes, you

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Speaker 1: talk about lower load sugar, nutrition, more exercises, saying weight loss,

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Speaker 1: but the big thing is the weight loss, you know.

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Speaker 1: And I'm not African American, and I know my sisters,

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Speaker 1: I know my family, I know the history of African Americans.

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Speaker 1: Our diets, UH tend to run open's, high blood pressure,

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Speaker 1: cholesterol levels, tend to run higher diabetes, and suddenly this

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Speaker 1: pandemic comes into our lives. And I remember I was

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Speaker 1: watching the news and it was based in Atlanta. There

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Speaker 1: was an eight of the tend um patients checked into

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Speaker 1: hospital or African America. I was actually stunned. I couldn't

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Speaker 1: believe it. But from a media standpoint, do you think

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Speaker 1: there was not recognized early on? All the world was

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Speaker 1: just confused, that's what was going on, and especially just

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Speaker 1: seeing African Americans rolling into a hospital blaming it own,

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Speaker 1: you know, large households, UH, mass transit services and things

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Speaker 1: like that. I think there was a lot of blame.

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Speaker 1: It goes back to what I said about pointing the finger, right.

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Speaker 1: I mean, in my opinion, I have looked at this

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Speaker 1: pandemic and our country like it's one big patient. And

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Speaker 1: so when someone, for example, who has been a lifelong

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Speaker 1: smoker comes into the hospital with lung cancer, we don't

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Speaker 1: blame the person for smoking cigarettes for thirty years. We

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Speaker 1: treat their lung cancer. And so I think that you know,

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Speaker 1: pointing out the reasons why it is important so you

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Speaker 1: can try to fix them. But if it's done with

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Speaker 1: the intention of shifting responsibility, then I think that's a problem.

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Speaker 1: And UM, you know, I'll share with you something that

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Speaker 1: I hope will inspire your viewers. Um like it has

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Speaker 1: inspired me and my family. But in the last week,

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Speaker 1: I've been yet on quarantine again for sean again, even

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Speaker 1: though I've had both doses of the vaccine UM. I

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Speaker 1: was exposed to someone who has COVID at work and

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Speaker 1: I had quarantine, and I decided that I wanted to

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Speaker 1: do my own dietary ironment during this period of quarantine.

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Speaker 1: And I had watched the movie Game Changers, which I

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Speaker 1: don't know if you've seen it, but if you haven't,

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Speaker 1: I recommended, and it's about all of these elite athletes

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Speaker 1: and normal people who change their diet and become vegan. Now,

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Speaker 1: I will tell you I was the about as far

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Speaker 1: from a vegan as it is possible to be. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I ate chicken every single day, eggs every single day, pork.

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Speaker 1: I loved pork. I was trying to cut down on

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Speaker 1: red meat, but I was I mean every meal, I

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Speaker 1: was eating head animal protein in it. This is just

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Speaker 1: ten days ago, by the way. You're the first person

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Speaker 1: I'm discussing this one. And I said, let me get

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Speaker 1: my kids who are in college, and you know they're

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Speaker 1: around obviously because they're not in school, and I said,

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Speaker 1: let's try this experiment. Let's do it together. And I've

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Speaker 1: got all these kind of frozen fake meat things and

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Speaker 1: looked up some recipes and whatever. And I'm ten days in.

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Speaker 1: I have not had an egg, i have not had chicken,

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Speaker 1: I've not had dairy, and I've not had pork. And

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Speaker 1: I'm still alive and actually I feel pretty good. Now

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Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting that you have to go to that extreme,

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Speaker 1: but my point with that, and I go through this

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Speaker 1: in the book and in my other books also, but

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Speaker 1: specifically in the new normal, is that you can This

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Speaker 1: is one of those silver lining blessings I believe in

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Speaker 1: this pandemic. Is we're all at home a lot more,

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Speaker 1: and you know, we're all concerned with our health. So

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Speaker 1: now is the time to try one of these experiments

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Speaker 1: because you literally have nothing to lose other than a

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Speaker 1: couple of pounds. And that is a major, major way

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Speaker 1: that anyone can improve their health, lower their cholesterol, lose

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Speaker 1: a couple of pounds, and protect the environment. Believe it

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Speaker 1: or not. Um Even though that wasn't my primary motivation,

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Speaker 1: the more I learned about it, the more it's getting

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Speaker 1: up there. But listen, if I can do it, anyone

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Speaker 1: can do it. I'm gonna be honest with you. I

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Speaker 1: started my own little home garden. I had to look

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Speaker 1: at three tomato pots. I harvested over a hundred tomatoes.

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Speaker 1: I had my Popolamo peppers. I have my Haalapeenia peppers

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Speaker 1: cilantro uh. And so now I bought a new building

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Speaker 1: in Atlanta, and so I have a certain area because

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Speaker 1: it's a private lot that I'm on. One of a

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Speaker 1: private life I've set aside. I told my staff that's

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Speaker 1: going to be our garden where I'm going to have

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Speaker 1: potatoes out there. I'm going to have Atlantash cabbages, excuse me,

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Speaker 1: and it's about eight different vegetables. Because I want agree

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Speaker 1: with you. This is the time when you want to

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Speaker 1: change your habits, change your life, your life. I am

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Speaker 1: going all live and I would tell you this homegrown

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Speaker 1: tomato is a lot sweeter than a store about tomato.

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Speaker 1: So when you buy stuff from an organic is not

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Speaker 1: chemically induced. So I am your pain and I read

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Speaker 1: it in your book. I went, you know, because I

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Speaker 1: read that about the pandemic field. It's physical. I did

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Speaker 1: the pandemic physical. I did that December and so so

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Speaker 1: I would like going through your book on tick tick okay,

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Speaker 1: doctor chick check. And then also I got to the

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Speaker 1: point we said the pros and cons of te telemedicine

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Speaker 1: because you are a real doctor, talkers talked to us

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Speaker 1: about the whole pros and cause of telemedicine. Well, the

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Speaker 1: first thing I would say to your to your viewers

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Speaker 1: is whether it's telemedicine or texting or just a local

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Speaker 1: clinic that you like, make sure you have a connection,

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Speaker 1: a relationship, ideally with some kind of healthcare provider. UM.

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Speaker 1: That's another one of the wake up calls of this pandemic.

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Speaker 1: People get sick, they don't know who to call. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know, I and I do believe that telemedicine, as

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Speaker 1: I talked about in the in the book, is a

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Speaker 1: silver lining of this pandemic because there's a lot that

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Speaker 1: you can accomplish with the telemedicine visit with a provider

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Speaker 1: that you don't have to go a long distance way,

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Speaker 1: it in a waiting room, etcetera, etcetera. There's a tremendous

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Speaker 1: amount that can be done via telemedicine. UM. In the past,

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Speaker 1: people were kind of intimidated by it, but we had

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Speaker 1: no choice in this pandemic. UM. You know, I saw

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Speaker 1: my patients that way for three months when we were

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Speaker 1: on lockdown in New York City. So, UM, look, you

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Speaker 1: can't do any kg, you can't draw blood via telemedicine yet,

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Speaker 1: but you can accomplish a lot. And I think that

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Speaker 1: the key and why I wanted to write the book

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Speaker 1: and really explain to people how to think like a

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Speaker 1: doctor is so that they could understand when do I

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Speaker 1: need to go to the emergency room, When do I

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Speaker 1: need to go to urgic here When do I need

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Speaker 1: to call my own doctor? You know, if you have one,

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Speaker 1: um how to assess these things? Is it really bad?

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Speaker 1: Is it? You know? Emergency room level? And you don't

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Speaker 1: have to be a doctor to learn to think like one,

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Speaker 1: and that can help alleviate a lot of the anxiety

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Speaker 1: and the uncertainty, not only for us, but for our family.

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Speaker 1: You talk about your anxiety moment in the book where

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Speaker 1: you thought you may have have COVID because your blood

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Speaker 1: parents has changed. You called for your children, they called

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Speaker 1: the emergency, and then you refused to go because then

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Speaker 1: you intend the discussion about e R when you should

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Speaker 1: go to the hospital. That's the whole process of what

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Speaker 1: you're talking about in the book to talk about that moment,

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Speaker 1: because I think we all because I would I be

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Speaker 1: telling you this doctor, asking I remember when when COVID,

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Speaker 1: when we was being quarantined, if I got a cough,

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Speaker 1: I really was a high level paranoid about what was

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Speaker 1: happening to me, you know, you know, because I didn't know.

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Speaker 1: Nobody was giving the information, so I didn't know. And

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Speaker 1: I'm a guy who knows my body, I really do.

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Speaker 1: And I love what you're talking about knowing your body, exercise,

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Speaker 1: talk to yourself, and walk through the whole process. Because

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Speaker 1: that's what this book breaks down. It's when you said

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Speaker 1: thinking like a doctor, and when you had that moment,

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Speaker 1: I could, I could. I was so sympathetic in your

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Speaker 1: whole process because of the fact that one you're dealing

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Speaker 1: with it all the time. You said, rashand in your book,

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Speaker 1: act like you're talking to me. You said, either breeding

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Speaker 1: ground for pandemic is cruise, ships, prisons, nursing, the holds

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Speaker 1: and households. Here you are thinking you have COVID eighteen

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Speaker 1: workers through that process, so you know when I well,

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Speaker 1: First of all, my brother, who's also a doctor in

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Speaker 1: the bronx Um up here in New York, had COVID

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Speaker 1: in March Um. He got exposed taking care of patients

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Speaker 1: in the emergency room. And soon after that, I had

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Speaker 1: an episode that one night that I talked about in

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00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:33,720
Speaker 1: the book. It turned out to be an allergic reaction,

429
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:37,400
Speaker 1: but my blood pressure dropped and my heart rate went

430
00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:41,840
Speaker 1: pretty high, and I almost fainted. I almost lost consciousness.

431
00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 1: And I was just home with um, my two children

432
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:48,119
Speaker 1: who are in college, and my daughter's boyfriend, also a

433
00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:51,399
Speaker 1: college student, and I'm the only parent my kids have,

434
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:54,240
Speaker 1: so there's a lot of pressure that's in the back

435
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:58,119
Speaker 1: of my mind always, right. I mean, the only reason

436
00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 1: most parents, I think would agree with this, that I

437
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,920
Speaker 1: really care about my health is because of my kids, right,

438
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 1: because if I die, I'm dead. But I don't want

439
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:12,040
Speaker 1: to leave my kids without a parent. So um. I

440
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:14,320
Speaker 1: was on the phone with my boyfriend at the time,

441
00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:17,760
Speaker 1: who's also a doctor, and he said, you don't sound good.

442
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:20,400
Speaker 1: You should call nine one one. And I have never

443
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:24,080
Speaker 1: called nine one one in my life, so right there,

444
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:26,840
Speaker 1: it tells you kind of what level I was at.

445
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:31,359
Speaker 1: And the paramedics came into my apartment and they checked

446
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:33,920
Speaker 1: my blood pressure and I started to feel better. My

447
00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 1: vital signs were normal, and they said I told him

448
00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:39,240
Speaker 1: I was a doctor, And they said, do you want

449
00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:43,399
Speaker 1: to go to the emergency room? And I said absolutely

450
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:50,320
Speaker 1: not because New York City was on lockdown at this point.

451
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:54,359
Speaker 1: I did not want to be exposed to COVID, and

452
00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 1: I knew based on my vital signs that I was

453
00:25:57,359 --> 00:26:00,919
Speaker 1: okay that it was likely just a a reaction to

454
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:03,600
Speaker 1: some bena drill that was probably expired that I took.

455
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 1: But the point is that I explained in the book

456
00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:10,240
Speaker 1: is that I have that medical knowledge, but the average

457
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 1: reader doesn't. So when you get scared or when you

458
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:16,600
Speaker 1: have a symptom, how should you decide where to take it?

459
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,960
Speaker 1: And I go through a lot of those ashton is ms,

460
00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:23,320
Speaker 1: like you know, really bad things don't get better on

461
00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:27,760
Speaker 1: their own, get worse. So if you're getting worse and

462
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:31,040
Speaker 1: not better, you should get it checked out. If you

463
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 1: would have gone to the emergency room for this issue

464
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 1: in then you should probably go now because now hospitals

465
00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:43,320
Speaker 1: are much safer, you know, And if you're having chess

466
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:46,119
Speaker 1: pain or the worst headache of your life, something that

467
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:50,800
Speaker 1: could literally kill you, you should one call nine one

468
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:53,240
Speaker 1: one and get yourself to an emergency. We talked about

469
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:56,480
Speaker 1: so I kind of talk people through that, right, Yeah, absolutely,

470
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:59,280
Speaker 1: you do do a very fantastic job. I talked about

471
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 1: the pros and car of telemedicine. Where you are an

472
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:08,200
Speaker 1: official doctor, you are double Board certified, nutrition nutrition iss

473
00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:12,200
Speaker 1: Where should we not get this is my favorite chapter book.

474
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:14,919
Speaker 1: We're not to get your medical news that so you know,

475
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:16,800
Speaker 1: I was deep in a book, so you know, doctor Aston,

476
00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:18,119
Speaker 1: I was deep in the book when I got to

477
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:20,399
Speaker 1: that part and I just wanted to talk about that

478
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:22,199
Speaker 1: before we leave. And I want to also thank you

479
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:23,720
Speaker 1: for taking the time to be on the show to

480
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: bring my view was a very heartwarming book and also

481
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:29,480
Speaker 1: informative book. But before you go from talk about we're

482
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 1: not to get medical news, well, don't get it from

483
00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:35,520
Speaker 1: your next door neighbor unless they're a doctor. Don't get

484
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:37,960
Speaker 1: it from your friend unless they're a doctor. Don't get

485
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:44,320
Speaker 1: it from any um like non credential social media sites. Right, um,

486
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,879
Speaker 1: you know it should be CDC or someone with an

487
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:51,679
Speaker 1: m D after their name that has the position like

488
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:54,960
Speaker 1: I do, where you know, millions and millions of people

489
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:58,679
Speaker 1: are listening, so I have to make sure every single

490
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,960
Speaker 1: word I say is accurate and correct to the best

491
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 1: of our knowledge based on scientific data. I mean, it

492
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:10,000
Speaker 1: is unbelievable how many times I speak to real people

493
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 1: who say, well, I heard that dot dot dot and

494
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:16,439
Speaker 1: I and I say, this is not a game of telephone,

495
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:18,399
Speaker 1: you guys, like, what do you mean you heard it?

496
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:22,520
Speaker 1: This isn't a gossip story. This is your health. So

497
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:26,800
Speaker 1: I do go through that in the book, and you know, listen,

498
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 1: we learn every day we don't know everything in medicine.

499
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 1: And science, and any doctor who says that they do

500
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 1: either hasn't been a doctor for very long or is

501
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: not one you should listen to. Well, you're doctor, I

502
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:41,560
Speaker 1: listened to all the time. You know. I have two

503
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:44,239
Speaker 1: doctors I love and pandemic as Dr Aston was one

504
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 1: and Dr Fauci is the other. And thank you for

505
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:49,200
Speaker 1: this new book, The New Normal. Uh. I have a

506
00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: fan club of ninety thousand fans. I'm gonna put it

507
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 1: in the book. I have at one point six million follows.

508
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:59,680
Speaker 1: I'm supported that way. But more importantly, I just wanted

509
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:02,320
Speaker 1: to share your world so with my world, and also

510
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,480
Speaker 1: thank you written and listen. Please let's stay in touch.

511
00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:10,400
Speaker 1: I I usually only use Instagram. My handle is at

512
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 1: d r j Ashton, and I'd love to hear from

513
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:19,200
Speaker 1: your followers and your viewers. And I don't look at

514
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:21,960
Speaker 1: Twitter or Facebook that much because I feel like people

515
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,640
Speaker 1: are mean and I feel like we need a lot

516
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 1: more nice in the world today. But um, I really

517
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: appreciate you having me on. And next time I come

518
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:33,120
Speaker 1: to Atlanta or Euston, I want one of those backyard tomatoes.

519
00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:36,920
Speaker 1: Thank you, appreciate you, stay strong and stay say more importantly,

520
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 1: see your TV Dotor. We will be right back with

521
00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 1: more money Making Conversations with your host, Rashan McDonald. Him.

522
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:48,680
Speaker 1: Rushan McDonald's the host of Money Making Conversation. The Cafe

523
00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:51,239
Speaker 1: Mocha Swag Award is a celebration of black men who

524
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:53,960
Speaker 1: will make it a difference in our community by empowering

525
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:58,080
Speaker 1: others to reach their life goals from civic leaders, businessmen, activists,

526
00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: celebrities and everyday days. The Cafe Moka Swag Award winner

527
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 1: this week is Reginald Hutlin. He is the director of

528
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Speaker 1: House Party, Boomerang, producer of Django on Chain, The a

529
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Speaker 1: d Oscars Broadcast, then Double A CP Image Award, Showtime

530
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Speaker 1: at the Apollo, The Black Panther Comic Book, and The

531
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Speaker 1: Black Girldfather. I'm really grateful that the movies having the

532
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Speaker 1: impact that it is. Well, I'm so grateful for is

533
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Speaker 1: the response to the public. I've got people who said,

534
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:28,120
Speaker 1: I get something different out of it every time some

535
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:29,840
Speaker 1: people hit me and do you know what I need

536
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,480
Speaker 1: to be a little more generous that I'm being with

537
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:35,800
Speaker 1: people who are coming up behind me. It's transforming people.

538
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Speaker 1: The Cafe Moka Swag Award represents men who have strength,

539
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540
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543
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574
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Speaker 1: dot Ai. Welcome back to money Making Conversations with your host,

575
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:48,360
Speaker 1: Rashaan McDonald. My next gigs is Michael Scholson. The Showson Collected.

576
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 1: That's what we're gonna talk about today is the restaurant

577
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 1: empire that's built in his vision and has made him

578
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 1: want of Philadelphia's most successful hospitality professionals. We also discussed

579
00:32:57,640 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 1: COVID eighteen. When you're in the restaurant business, you have

580
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:01,840
Speaker 1: to bring up that whole thing. But most importantly we

581
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:05,400
Speaker 1: talk about he's made these business adjustments because we're hear

582
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:07,400
Speaker 1: about it on the news. You can hear about how

583
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:11,360
Speaker 1: the you know, social distancing, limiting and sometimes even shutting

584
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:15,280
Speaker 1: down service in the restaurant business has been overtly affected

585
00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 1: by COVID nineteen. But more importantly, during this period of

586
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,120
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen where everybody in the world, including me, was

587
00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 1: gaining weight, Michael decided it was time to lose thirty

588
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:26,440
Speaker 1: five hounds. So we're gonna learn about that, and he

589
00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:28,920
Speaker 1: did it in less than three months. So please welcome

590
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:32,480
Speaker 1: to Michael Money Making Conversations, my good friend, Michael Scholtzen.

591
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:35,200
Speaker 1: How you doing, Michael, good good, Thanks for having me on.

592
00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 1: How are you doing well? You know, you know, I'm

593
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 1: a big I'm a big restaurant guy. Really, let me

594
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,200
Speaker 1: get personal a little bit about COVID ninteen and uh

595
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:44,000
Speaker 1: my wife. I have a wife, and I have a

596
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:47,800
Speaker 1: lovely daughter who's wrapping up college years and you know,

597
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: at least once or twice a week, we will always

598
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,720
Speaker 1: go to one of our favorite restaurants, and COVID hit

599
00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:55,800
Speaker 1: and uh it just like the world. It flipped us

600
00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:58,000
Speaker 1: all and gave us a new approach to the whole

601
00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:00,840
Speaker 1: business accurate. In fact, my wife's deal will not go

602
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,520
Speaker 1: to an audoor restaurant. And she still, you know, we

603
00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 1: can do take away, take out and curveside, but she

604
00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:08,719
Speaker 1: will not go in a restaurant. And with that, I

605
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:11,439
Speaker 1: was want to open up the whole journey of being

606
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:14,240
Speaker 1: shut down if you could share with us the shock

607
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:17,359
Speaker 1: of how COVID ainteen, how you kind of built your

608
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:19,719
Speaker 1: way out of it and started read I guess, I

609
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:23,280
Speaker 1: guess reassessing a new way of doing business moving forward

610
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:27,239
Speaker 1: with your shows and collective empire. Yeah. So when we

611
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:30,120
Speaker 1: first tarned about it, the thought process was like, Okay,

612
00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:32,759
Speaker 1: we're gonna have two or three weeks of something will

613
00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:35,399
Speaker 1: be shut down, um, and then we'll go from there

614
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:39,839
Speaker 1: and see how it goes. And unfortunately three weeks has

615
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:44,000
Speaker 1: turned into two over a year now, so we're every

616
00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:46,640
Speaker 1: day it's kind of a new lesson and what we're

617
00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:49,880
Speaker 1: gonna do, and we're big into setting goals for ourselves

618
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,920
Speaker 1: here as a company. The first goal was to make

619
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 1: sure to just take care of everyone, to be safe

620
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:57,680
Speaker 1: and set up systems where people felt comfortable, whether it

621
00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:00,799
Speaker 1: was coming to work, um, whether they didn't have food

622
00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:03,880
Speaker 1: and they needed food. Whatever our resources were. Is to

623
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:06,480
Speaker 1: take care of the employees. And that was kind of

624
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:09,920
Speaker 1: the beginning, and as we kind of progress through the process,

625
00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:13,319
Speaker 1: it was Okay, we kind of see this is it's

626
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:16,640
Speaker 1: not gonna be a money making thing, unfortunately. It's about

627
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: survival and getting to the other side. And we kind

628
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:21,680
Speaker 1: of put in some goals for ourselves if what does

629
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:23,279
Speaker 1: it look like for us when we get to the

630
00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 1: other side. The biggest goal that we put in there

631
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:29,080
Speaker 1: was to have the best people that we could possibly

632
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,359
Speaker 1: have working for us, and that has kind of been

633
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:35,760
Speaker 1: our our whole theme during this. We've hired some new people,

634
00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 1: we've hired some better people. Um. The good thing about this,

635
00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:43,319
Speaker 1: unfortunately is unemployment. You think about what the unemployment rate

636
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:46,360
Speaker 1: was going into this and now what it is on

637
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,759
Speaker 1: the other side of it, and if we could hire

638
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:51,239
Speaker 1: good people to come out of this, we're going to

639
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,359
Speaker 1: be a better company at the end than when we were.

640
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:55,440
Speaker 1: When we started, and that's kind of what our goal

641
00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:57,960
Speaker 1: has been through. It really is because you know there

642
00:35:57,960 --> 00:35:59,319
Speaker 1: are a lot of them. I'm not trying to get

643
00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:02,799
Speaker 1: any financials or anything like that. He's just talking about

644
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:05,640
Speaker 1: the attitude and the approach to this because when I

645
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:08,399
Speaker 1: invite people on money making conversation, not just want other

646
00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 1: people to know that other people, whether it's successful or

647
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:15,080
Speaker 1: they're small individual entrepreneurs, they were impacted by COVID eighteen.

648
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:17,640
Speaker 1: And we all have different stories and how we will

649
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:21,080
Speaker 1: impact it also affects how we can be successful. Now

650
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:24,399
Speaker 1: from a personal standpoint, can you walk us through those

651
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,279
Speaker 1: steps how you and your and your immediate family was

652
00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:30,040
Speaker 1: dealing with COVID nineteen before you can go back to

653
00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:32,600
Speaker 1: the first first it was, I mean our immediate family

654
00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:36,399
Speaker 1: when we were in knee deeperness was dred employees UM.

655
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:38,840
Speaker 1: And now we're down to about we're back up to

656
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:42,719
Speaker 1: about five now and our college to get again UM.

657
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:45,960
Speaker 1: So it was to protect everybody and make everyone feel safe.

658
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:48,840
Speaker 1: And at the beginning of this, we were opening up

659
00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:50,840
Speaker 1: a couple of the restaurants and giving away food to

660
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:52,640
Speaker 1: the staff for phrase so this way they can take

661
00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:54,520
Speaker 1: it home and give it to their families and feed

662
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:56,839
Speaker 1: their families. So that was the first step of trying

663
00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 1: to make sure everyone has a place to go, in

664
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 1: place to eat. UM. And then as we got through this,

665
00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:03,799
Speaker 1: it was with our family. It was we have two

666
00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:07,279
Speaker 1: boys fourteen years old and ten years old, UM, and

667
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:10,120
Speaker 1: it was making sure that they felt comfortable and we

668
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:13,600
Speaker 1: were being safe and wearing your mask and understanding the

669
00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:15,960
Speaker 1: importance of this and getting out to the other side

670
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:20,920
Speaker 1: and not becoming computer zombies and dealing with electronics every day.

671
00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:23,920
Speaker 1: And it was entertaining them and and keeping busy and

672
00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:27,319
Speaker 1: doing our thing together as a family. And we made

673
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 1: a lot of bread, we made a lot of pizza.

674
00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 1: It was kind of things that would take us a

675
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 1: long time. I mean, I think red was that thing

676
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:35,840
Speaker 1: that's like red could be a three day process between

677
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:39,200
Speaker 1: the starter, letting it rest and letting it rise and

678
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:42,759
Speaker 1: breaking it down and baking it. So it kept us busy.

679
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:44,680
Speaker 1: But but after a while we said, like, what are

680
00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:46,759
Speaker 1: we doing here? We're just gonna get into this rut

681
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:49,320
Speaker 1: of figuring it out or are we gonna have a purpose.

682
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:52,960
Speaker 1: And I'm definitely a person about purpose. Usually it's let's

683
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:56,000
Speaker 1: open a restaurant, this is our goal. Uh, let's get

684
00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 1: it going. We're gonna open the next one. So you can't, unfortunately,

685
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:01,960
Speaker 1: do that during this time. So the purpose shifted to

686
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:05,799
Speaker 1: the family and shifted to myself of I'm gonna eat better,

687
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:09,040
Speaker 1: I'm gonna exercise, I'm gonna take care of myself. Um,

688
00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:11,400
Speaker 1: and we're gonna work together as a family to make

689
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:13,600
Speaker 1: sure that we're playing some board games, doing puzzles and

690
00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:16,200
Speaker 1: all that stuff to entertain ourselves and not get caught

691
00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:20,560
Speaker 1: up in depression and electronics. I would tell you this, Michael. Uh,

692
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:22,920
Speaker 1: you know when it when I like you, like all

693
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:24,920
Speaker 1: of America, when the COVID and eighteen hid and just

694
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: not going anywhere, it's going to change the way we

695
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:30,640
Speaker 1: we have handed a lot of hygiens publicly and privately

696
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:33,920
Speaker 1: moving forward. I know I would always approach things differently.

697
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:36,759
Speaker 1: I don't think I would hug strangers like I used

698
00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:39,759
Speaker 1: to come close to people that I don't know, even

699
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:42,360
Speaker 1: people I do know. I'll be cautious in my behavior.

700
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,320
Speaker 1: But as a leader, you know, we all look for guidance,

701
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:46,920
Speaker 1: we all and you're a leader. You're a leader of

702
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,960
Speaker 1: a successful collective is based out of the restaurant collective

703
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:53,160
Speaker 1: that's based out of Philadelphia, and were one of those, uh,

704
00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:56,080
Speaker 1: one of those proud chields. You know there's out there

705
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,000
Speaker 1: a success story. I should say, how did that really

706
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:02,960
Speaker 1: affect you emotionally? When you say did you get into uh?

707
00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:06,640
Speaker 1: Why me? Why now? Are you just look? I'm never

708
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:09,480
Speaker 1: that guy? I mean I'm not. I'm not a pity guy.

709
00:39:10,120 --> 00:39:12,640
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to be that pitty guy. Nobody wants to

710
00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:15,560
Speaker 1: be around that pitty guy. Nobody pity doesn't get you

711
00:39:16,200 --> 00:39:19,480
Speaker 1: success fighting through it. And I think one of the

712
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:22,920
Speaker 1: greatest quotes I've got who it was, um said the

713
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:26,080
Speaker 1: best thing that you could do during adversity is the

714
00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:28,920
Speaker 1: right thing. The second best thing that you could do

715
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:32,440
Speaker 1: is the wrong thing, And the worst thing that you

716
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:36,319
Speaker 1: could do is nothing. And I think that was kind

717
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:39,279
Speaker 1: of our message to live by. Let's try and do

718
00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:41,719
Speaker 1: the right thing. If it's the wrong thing, then we'll

719
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,920
Speaker 1: readjust and do something else. But we're not gonna sit

720
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,840
Speaker 1: around do nothing and have a pity party and just

721
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:51,640
Speaker 1: sit here and life stinks. Um, We're all dealing with it.

722
00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:54,200
Speaker 1: It was the reality of the situation. COVID is terrible.

723
00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:58,400
Speaker 1: It's not fun nobody is having fun. It's a nightmare.

724
00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:01,920
Speaker 1: But how do you adjust your life to survive? Not

725
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:04,399
Speaker 1: just to survive, but you kind of have to try

726
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:07,560
Speaker 1: and thrive through it. And my wife and I would

727
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:09,399
Speaker 1: like to travel a lot, and we like to ski

728
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:12,239
Speaker 1: and do things with the kids and be outside and

729
00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:15,399
Speaker 1: take trips and all that stuff. And what have we done,

730
00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:17,600
Speaker 1: Like I'm not a camping guy, but we started to

731
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:21,040
Speaker 1: go to airbnbs and go camping up state New York.

732
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:23,440
Speaker 1: And we stayed in a York for the first time

733
00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:25,480
Speaker 1: in my life, which I never thought I would do.

734
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:27,600
Speaker 1: We stayed on a farm, which I never thought I

735
00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:30,520
Speaker 1: would do. But to do these things and just figure

736
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:32,239
Speaker 1: out how to live your life. I mean, we just

737
00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:34,640
Speaker 1: drove to Bramant. The longest car out I ever did

738
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:37,879
Speaker 1: in my life was three hours. We just drove eight

739
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,080
Speaker 1: hours with two kids in the back. I got a

740
00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:41,839
Speaker 1: hitch on the back of my car, which I never

741
00:40:41,960 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 1: thought I would do. I mean, my friends are laughing

742
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:46,360
Speaker 1: at me, But you know what, you have to adjust

743
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:49,239
Speaker 1: and like get through this, not just survive and have

744
00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:52,239
Speaker 1: a pity part. And I laughed because I was an

745
00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:54,640
Speaker 1: old school road comic when I was out when I left,

746
00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:56,840
Speaker 1: I be able to pursue left IBM to be a

747
00:40:56,880 --> 00:40:59,200
Speaker 1: standard comedian, and I was on the road, so I

748
00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:02,360
Speaker 1: know about those uh eight ten hour Johnson did, but

749
00:41:02,440 --> 00:41:05,000
Speaker 1: I didn't have two kids in the back, okay. And

750
00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:07,719
Speaker 1: that's the different story of the restaurant. The restaurant. The

751
00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:10,440
Speaker 1: restaurant stops. You know, when you can go from four

752
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:12,720
Speaker 1: or five hours, they want to stop, they want to complain,

753
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:15,839
Speaker 1: And I think that's what it's about. It's about it's

754
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:19,440
Speaker 1: about persevering and getting to the other side. And UM

755
00:41:19,719 --> 00:41:21,920
Speaker 1: have goals. I mean, what am I gonna sit here

756
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 1: and yell at the gun? I mean, you can't. We

757
00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:26,080
Speaker 1: can't sit here. Everyone wants to yell at the cities

758
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 1: or the states or or the federal government. You're not

759
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:32,279
Speaker 1: doing enough. You're not doing this, you're not doing that.

760
00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:35,360
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to suggest that I disagree or agree.

761
00:41:36,239 --> 00:41:38,239
Speaker 1: What I am gonna tell you is the only person

762
00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:42,680
Speaker 1: who could control what you do is you. And that's

763
00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:44,880
Speaker 1: kind of the goal, is to get control what you

764
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:48,600
Speaker 1: could do, do the best of your ability, and don't

765
00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:50,640
Speaker 1: sit there at the end of the day going I

766
00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:55,080
Speaker 1: wish I would have, right, Really, I'm talking to Michael

767
00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:58,920
Speaker 1: schultzon UH the Showson collected with restaurant chain, which is

768
00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:00,960
Speaker 1: based out of It's a chain because he has It's

769
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:02,440
Speaker 1: not like a burger king because he had a lot

770
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:06,000
Speaker 1: of different restaurants. Let's talk about the whole creative process

771
00:42:06,040 --> 00:42:09,440
Speaker 1: of doing so many different styles and not being a chain. Well,

772
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:11,839
Speaker 1: you know, going one location you get the same thing.

773
00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:15,760
Speaker 1: Why the versatility, why the different approaches to these different restaurants.

774
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:18,279
Speaker 1: You know, some people call me an idiot for doing it.

775
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:22,719
Speaker 1: I don't have it figured out. It's like you figure

776
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:26,480
Speaker 1: out the business model, you like, put it in a box,

777
00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:30,080
Speaker 1: and then you do it again and again and again

778
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,680
Speaker 1: and again, and it's just like right across level Field

779
00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:37,640
Speaker 1: and they nail it. Um the US creative people and

780
00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:40,240
Speaker 1: people who have passionate about what we do in terms

781
00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:45,120
Speaker 1: of creating something that's unique and different. That's why we

782
00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:48,120
Speaker 1: do this. We we just have this passion of creating

783
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:50,640
Speaker 1: an experience and we like I like to say, it

784
00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:55,160
Speaker 1: transports the customer to a different place and they feel special.

785
00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:57,759
Speaker 1: And I think that that's why COVID has been so

786
00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:01,600
Speaker 1: hard is people don't feel like they're being transported anymore.

787
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:05,120
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel like, it's this unique experience and that's

788
00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:07,719
Speaker 1: what we like to do and here here at the collective.

789
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:10,600
Speaker 1: And I think the thing that people miss often is

790
00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:14,120
Speaker 1: the concept doesn't come first. The space comes first. And

791
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:16,480
Speaker 1: you can look at a space and it doesn't speak

792
00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:20,160
Speaker 1: to a pub, it doesn't speak to a French restaurant.

793
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:22,040
Speaker 1: So you kind of have to see the space. You

794
00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:24,200
Speaker 1: look around, you see what you feel. You come up

795
00:43:24,239 --> 00:43:26,279
Speaker 1: with these ideas and then it's like okay, then you

796
00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:29,040
Speaker 1: plug away and figure out what's next. But each one

797
00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:32,160
Speaker 1: has a different uh you know, profit margin or profit

798
00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:35,719
Speaker 1: and loss margin. So that's what I guess when people say, okay, hi,

799
00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:38,719
Speaker 1: how can you define success when you know you can

800
00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:42,959
Speaker 1: put state restaurant has a different uh profit margin versus

801
00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:46,719
Speaker 1: a Chinese restaurant. I'm just using an example or text

802
00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:49,800
Speaker 1: mex restaurant and all those proper margin different. How do

803
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:52,840
Speaker 1: you balance that? Michael, Look, I think you have to

804
00:43:52,920 --> 00:43:56,440
Speaker 1: take each one individually. Um. I think sometimes some of

805
00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:59,680
Speaker 1: the things that that's more challenging is the smaller the restaurant,

806
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:02,280
Speaker 1: the there it is to create a larger profit margin,

807
00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:05,640
Speaker 1: which people don't realize. But the other difficulty with that

808
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:07,880
Speaker 1: is in order to do a bigger restaurant, you need

809
00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:11,319
Speaker 1: to raise more capital. So it's like that double edged

810
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:13,640
Speaker 1: sort of do I raise more capital and money that

811
00:44:13,719 --> 00:44:17,840
Speaker 1: I have to pay off via returns or am I

812
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:21,880
Speaker 1: raising less money the returns are lower? So yeah, you

813
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:23,440
Speaker 1: kind of have to figure it out that way, and

814
00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:25,480
Speaker 1: you want to balance it. I mean, if you're nobody.

815
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:27,880
Speaker 1: I mean people talk about it to get into politics,

816
00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 1: but people talk about like, Okay, we're gonna raise the

817
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:33,359
Speaker 1: tax rates, we're gonna raise minimum wage, we're gonna raise

818
00:44:33,440 --> 00:44:36,480
Speaker 1: all that stuff. And I always say to people who

819
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:39,200
Speaker 1: want to get in this conversation, let's not kid ourselves.

820
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:42,719
Speaker 1: People who are in business, who are operating, say at

821
00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:47,279
Speaker 1: a ten percent margin, if they raise taxes and they

822
00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:51,600
Speaker 1: raise employment, payroll and they raise all that stuff, we're

823
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:55,200
Speaker 1: not going to operate a two We're gonna still operate

824
00:44:55,239 --> 00:44:57,839
Speaker 1: a ten percent. And something is going to be cut

825
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:01,000
Speaker 1: if you want to. It is a minimum wage to

826
00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:04,360
Speaker 1: fifteen dollars an hour, Like okay, but but let's be realistic,

827
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:06,319
Speaker 1: like you're not gonna have two employees to do that job.

828
00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:09,480
Speaker 1: You're gonna have one employee to do or the guests

829
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:11,480
Speaker 1: is gonna have to pay twice as much to get

830
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:15,120
Speaker 1: that food. The the operator or the business person or

831
00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:19,600
Speaker 1: owner isn't gonna let it hit their pockets totally. Now

832
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:23,280
Speaker 1: when we talk about the whole process, because in my mind,

833
00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:27,080
Speaker 1: you know, for a restaurant business, like because you're not

834
00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:30,839
Speaker 1: a casual restaurant business, you know, and so the whole

835
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:34,319
Speaker 1: take out of the whole curve side experience wasn't part

836
00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:38,000
Speaker 1: of the business model before COVID nineteen. How is that

837
00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 1: settling into your business model now? Well, I think I

838
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:45,120
Speaker 1: think for us, our business model is there is design,

839
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:53,080
Speaker 1: there's service, yeah, lighting which creates this beautiful ambiance, okay. Um,

840
00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:56,400
Speaker 1: you have music, which creates this other piece of the

841
00:45:56,480 --> 00:46:00,359
Speaker 1: ambiance okay, and then you have food. Right, So if

842
00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:03,880
Speaker 1: you take all of those pieces, those five pieces, the

843
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:06,600
Speaker 1: only one that you could put in a box is food.

844
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:10,239
Speaker 1: So if you think about a business model of like,

845
00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:12,919
Speaker 1: only one fit of the things that we do well

846
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:15,839
Speaker 1: can translate to a house, and that's not even going

847
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:18,719
Speaker 1: to translate into the house as well, it's a really

848
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:22,000
Speaker 1: difficult situation for us. So, I mean it's pivoting in

849
00:46:22,160 --> 00:46:26,000
Speaker 1: terms of, um, what what we put into that box,

850
00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:29,920
Speaker 1: the type of box that we use um but honestly,

851
00:46:30,040 --> 00:46:33,600
Speaker 1: like we we haven't made a huge push to get

852
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:36,719
Speaker 1: into that takeout delivery because I just think that it

853
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:40,239
Speaker 1: really destroys the brand. And as you know, it's like

854
00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:44,400
Speaker 1: you your brand is is something that you could never recreate. Well,

855
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:48,120
Speaker 1: once you get that negative opinion on that or that

856
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:51,400
Speaker 1: piece on that, you're screwed. Well, you know it's really uh.

857
00:46:51,880 --> 00:46:53,560
Speaker 1: I have to agree with you, Michael. You know, I

858
00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:56,200
Speaker 1: was just so my wife and I we have a

859
00:46:56,239 --> 00:46:58,719
Speaker 1: favorite restaurant. We well, tell your restaurant we go to,

860
00:46:59,360 --> 00:47:01,360
Speaker 1: and of course she doesn't want to go in the restaurant,

861
00:47:01,440 --> 00:47:04,000
Speaker 1: so we did. We did curbside and well when we

862
00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:07,279
Speaker 1: picked it up and and brought it home again and

863
00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:09,560
Speaker 1: for the second time in a row, it didn't taste

864
00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:12,120
Speaker 1: like the experience that we had in the restaurant, and

865
00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:13,960
Speaker 1: I had to tell the last like hebe you know,

866
00:47:14,680 --> 00:47:17,880
Speaker 1: when we get it, it's usually warmer, you know, usually

867
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:21,640
Speaker 1: dealing with a nice atmosphere. Were having a conversation, there's

868
00:47:21,640 --> 00:47:23,719
Speaker 1: a lot of people around. It feels, you know, like

869
00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:25,840
Speaker 1: you're saying, I have to agree with you, Michael, because

870
00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:29,040
Speaker 1: a lot of things go goes into the food experience.

871
00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:33,480
Speaker 1: Sometimes people want the romance. Sometimes people want the the music,

872
00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:36,719
Speaker 1: the loudness, the activity. I'm an activity guy. I like.

873
00:47:37,120 --> 00:47:39,600
Speaker 1: I like to walk into a bustling. I like to

874
00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:42,040
Speaker 1: play with the waiter or waitress. You know. I'd like

875
00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:44,800
Speaker 1: to have a relationship with that person. And I like

876
00:47:44,920 --> 00:47:47,680
Speaker 1: to be around people who are talking. And that's lost

877
00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:51,600
Speaker 1: if you do a curbside so so. But it all

878
00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:54,120
Speaker 1: comes back to the food. The food did not taste

879
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:57,160
Speaker 1: like the same experience I have when I go into

880
00:47:57,239 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 1: that restaurant. It's one of our favorite restaurants. And that's

881
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,560
Speaker 1: all us right now. Rich we can do that, but

882
00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:04,840
Speaker 1: something's gonna be missing, and you don't want to be

883
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:08,400
Speaker 1: victimized by the missing part of saying your food quality

884
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:11,160
Speaker 1: has changed all the experiences you think about it. You

885
00:48:11,239 --> 00:48:14,040
Speaker 1: look at the food. It comes out on a plate, right,

886
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:16,320
Speaker 1: you're not doing anything too, and you don't have to

887
00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:19,240
Speaker 1: clean it up. You have great music, you have great lighting,

888
00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:22,480
Speaker 1: you have great ambiance, you're in energy like all of

889
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:25,160
Speaker 1: those pieces are part of the puzzle. When you take that,

890
00:48:25,360 --> 00:48:27,520
Speaker 1: you have to literally get in your car, you drive

891
00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:29,879
Speaker 1: to the place, you get home, you take it out,

892
00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:31,839
Speaker 1: you open it up, it doesn't look as good as

893
00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:33,400
Speaker 1: it looked on a plate. You have to put it

894
00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:35,799
Speaker 1: on a plate. You have to get your silverware out.

895
00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:38,560
Speaker 1: Your kids are yelling and screaming because they're hungry, like

896
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:42,360
Speaker 1: something has missed, something's not at your disposal. It's just

897
00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:45,200
Speaker 1: like the whole process is just lost. And by the

898
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:48,040
Speaker 1: time you eat the food, you're like, yeah, this isn't

899
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:51,640
Speaker 1: working for me right. And you know, first of all,

900
00:48:51,719 --> 00:48:53,880
Speaker 1: you you hit so many positive nerves would be right

901
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:56,160
Speaker 1: now because I experienced this last night, Michael, and I'm

902
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:58,680
Speaker 1: going like I put the pepper on the pizza, I

903
00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:02,640
Speaker 1: put the I was you, and again it was you know,

904
00:49:03,200 --> 00:49:05,440
Speaker 1: I'll pull up. I'm setting it up myself. So I've

905
00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:08,279
Speaker 1: lost some of the ambiance because I'm doing all the work.

906
00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:10,440
Speaker 1: And you know for a fact, when you do all

907
00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:13,320
Speaker 1: the work, you're gonna do it or whatever style, whatever

908
00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:15,880
Speaker 1: gets whatever gets the job done, you're gonna do it.

909
00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:19,440
Speaker 1: You've lost all standards of service for yourself. And that

910
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:21,960
Speaker 1: that's really funny because like I said when I when

911
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:24,440
Speaker 1: I pushed the idea, and I'm always talking to different

912
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:26,920
Speaker 1: people about how they are trying to be successful with

913
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:29,600
Speaker 1: their business. But you're the first person I've talked to it.

914
00:49:29,640 --> 00:49:33,000
Speaker 1: They really hit a button with me to say, Riso,

915
00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:36,239
Speaker 1: the problem you have it is that curve side work.

916
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:39,160
Speaker 1: But you lost the experience when your turn affected high

917
00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:42,080
Speaker 1: and joined the food. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I

918
00:49:42,160 --> 00:49:45,200
Speaker 1: say to my business partners and I'm a chef. Okay,

919
00:49:45,239 --> 00:49:48,240
Speaker 1: I've been cooking my whole life. I went to culinary school.

920
00:49:49,239 --> 00:49:52,440
Speaker 1: I worked in restaurants, some of the top restaurants in America.

921
00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:55,520
Speaker 1: I worked in Japan. Blah blah blah. Okay, there's three

922
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:59,880
Speaker 1: elements to a restaurant. Okay. There's food, there's service, and

923
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 1: there's design. Okay, I'm gonna ask you this question. I'm

924
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:08,480
Speaker 1: a chef. What's the most important piece in my mind? Food?

925
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:14,759
Speaker 1: To me, no design? What's the second most important in

926
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:19,720
Speaker 1: my mind? I'm a chef. Well, when when you say service,

927
00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:21,680
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna tell your food is third. And I'm

928
00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:24,480
Speaker 1: gonna tell you why you walk into a design service

929
00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:28,800
Speaker 1: then food, design, service, food and that one walking to

930
00:50:28,920 --> 00:50:31,480
Speaker 1: a restaurant. It's the most beautiful restaurant in the world.

931
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:35,239
Speaker 1: It's fun, there's like great people in there. You're having

932
00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:38,840
Speaker 1: a great time. It's energetic, the hospitality is off the

933
00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:41,120
Speaker 1: charts and you're like, oh my god, Like, I'm playing

934
00:50:41,160 --> 00:50:43,640
Speaker 1: with this server. The server was awesome. I'm having such

935
00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:46,120
Speaker 1: a great time. I'm smiling. You get the food, you're

936
00:50:46,160 --> 00:50:49,120
Speaker 1: with your friends, You're like, it's okay, it's okay. You

937
00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:51,120
Speaker 1: walk out, You're like, wow, I had a great time.

938
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:54,520
Speaker 1: The place was good looking, it was fun, it was awesome. Okay,

939
00:50:55,000 --> 00:51:02,480
Speaker 1: are you going back? Wow? You know you're going back? Well,

940
00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:05,080
Speaker 1: this is web called of right now, Michael, because you

941
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:08,640
Speaker 1: hit me in the jaw right now because I lost

942
00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:13,239
Speaker 1: the design and I lost the service when I did

943
00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:16,759
Speaker 1: curve side and and guess what, I don't want to

944
00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:19,160
Speaker 1: do that anymore. I don't want to go back and

945
00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:22,920
Speaker 1: have that experience because I don't know. So so it's

946
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:25,239
Speaker 1: left a bad tasted my mom because it's happened two

947
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:28,480
Speaker 1: times in a row. So so you're fighting for that.

948
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:32,239
Speaker 1: Has it been successful for you? Look, it's nothing is

949
00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:34,920
Speaker 1: successful right now? I mean to be the definition of

950
00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:38,279
Speaker 1: success is survival and getting to the other side. Um,

951
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:42,680
Speaker 1: we're not. I mean our food isn't doesn't translate into takeout.

952
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:44,840
Speaker 1: Most of our restaurants, I mean, the only one that

953
00:51:44,920 --> 00:51:47,480
Speaker 1: we have that really works for takeout that people get

954
00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:49,600
Speaker 1: take out of is sushi. I mean, if you think

955
00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:52,279
Speaker 1: about takeout, it's like we want some pizza, we want

956
00:51:52,320 --> 00:51:56,200
Speaker 1: some sushi, we want some burgers. Like you find that

957
00:51:56,480 --> 00:51:59,960
Speaker 1: Italian restaurant, You're never gonna compete with the local Italian

958
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:03,440
Speaker 1: a place that does chicken farm for twelve dollars, So

959
00:52:03,719 --> 00:52:06,120
Speaker 1: like why why try and compete with them? Like it's

960
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:08,920
Speaker 1: just gonna lose. It's a losing mob. So you know,

961
00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:11,320
Speaker 1: when you talk about ambiance, you talked about the experience,

962
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:14,240
Speaker 1: you talk about servers, your your time you spend in Japan,

963
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:16,239
Speaker 1: talk to us about that because this seems like it

964
00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:19,080
Speaker 1: shaped a lot of your vebes. So so for me,

965
00:52:19,239 --> 00:52:21,759
Speaker 1: living in Japan was just the most amazing experience. I

966
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:24,320
Speaker 1: worked at the Spotto over there in the four seasons,

967
00:52:24,400 --> 00:52:29,520
Speaker 1: and it wasn't necessarily about working in those restaurants. To me,

968
00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:33,200
Speaker 1: it was about understanding the culture. And once you understand

969
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:37,600
Speaker 1: culture of what something is, you could create something here

970
00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:41,399
Speaker 1: in the States that that feels authentic. And I think

971
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:44,400
Speaker 1: that's what people are really looking for in today's society.

972
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:48,800
Speaker 1: They want something that feels authentic um and not like

973
00:52:48,960 --> 00:52:53,000
Speaker 1: it's contrived or made up. Or or just or Disney

974
00:52:53,080 --> 00:52:56,200
Speaker 1: World or something they wanted to feel authentic. Um, and

975
00:52:56,320 --> 00:52:59,000
Speaker 1: that's probably what we do really well, and I think

976
00:52:59,040 --> 00:53:02,040
Speaker 1: it's really important to us. Is a business, Well it

977
00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:05,200
Speaker 1: works for me. Now. Before we got on there, I

978
00:53:05,280 --> 00:53:08,680
Speaker 1: brought up the fact that, uh, you know, doing COVID hit.

979
00:53:08,840 --> 00:53:10,520
Speaker 1: You know, I'm at the house and my wife is

980
00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:12,719
Speaker 1: asking me what I want for breakfast, what I want

981
00:53:12,760 --> 00:53:14,279
Speaker 1: for lunch, And I'm gonna tell you, I'm kind of

982
00:53:14,320 --> 00:53:17,600
Speaker 1: a one and a half meal a day guy. So

983
00:53:17,880 --> 00:53:20,800
Speaker 1: finally I was eating a breakfast and then a lunch

984
00:53:20,920 --> 00:53:23,640
Speaker 1: and a dinner, and all of a sudden I realized

985
00:53:23,680 --> 00:53:27,279
Speaker 1: I was gaining weight, and I went, hold up, hold a,

986
00:53:27,320 --> 00:53:29,279
Speaker 1: holda hold on, hold over. We gotta cut out one

987
00:53:29,320 --> 00:53:31,000
Speaker 1: of these meals. So I got rid of the because

988
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:33,000
Speaker 1: usually what I do, Michael, I get up, I get

989
00:53:33,080 --> 00:53:34,759
Speaker 1: up at four o'clock Monday to Friday, get up at

990
00:53:34,800 --> 00:53:37,759
Speaker 1: four o'clock, and so usually I eat about about ten

991
00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:40,440
Speaker 1: and eleven o'clock. And she had me eating about eight

992
00:53:40,480 --> 00:53:42,320
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, and then she came back with

993
00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:45,040
Speaker 1: another meal a right noontime, and then she wrapped up

994
00:53:45,360 --> 00:53:48,720
Speaker 1: the third meal about six o'clock. Now, then I switched

995
00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:51,320
Speaker 1: this story because here you are about to embarrass me

996
00:53:52,040 --> 00:53:55,760
Speaker 1: because instead of gaining way, you lost thirty five pounds

997
00:53:55,840 --> 00:53:59,600
Speaker 1: and three months during the COVID, this COVID timeline. Let's

998
00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:02,160
Speaker 1: talk what made you do that? And what was the motivation.

999
00:54:02,200 --> 00:54:04,040
Speaker 1: Did you gave weight and you said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

1000
00:54:04,360 --> 00:54:07,320
Speaker 1: I'm gonna lose weight. What was the motivation? Yeah? So

1001
00:54:07,520 --> 00:54:10,040
Speaker 1: so for me, it's we do restaurants, and we're opening

1002
00:54:10,040 --> 00:54:12,880
Speaker 1: a lot of restaurants, and in restaurants, you're obviously tasting

1003
00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:16,040
Speaker 1: tons of food every day. So when I'm able to

1004
00:54:16,120 --> 00:54:18,840
Speaker 1: eliminate the tasting of food, that was just a huge

1005
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:22,560
Speaker 1: starter for me. The other pieces pre COVID, I mean

1006
00:54:22,640 --> 00:54:25,480
Speaker 1: we had we had fourteen restaurants, we were looking open more,

1007
00:54:25,640 --> 00:54:28,640
Speaker 1: we were we were burning it all hours of the day,

1008
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:30,520
Speaker 1: and finding time to go to the gym was just

1009
00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:34,160
Speaker 1: a nightmare. So I started to eat well, I ate

1010
00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:36,759
Speaker 1: the right foods. I stopped the tastings. I started to

1011
00:54:36,880 --> 00:54:40,480
Speaker 1: exercise more. UM and it was figuring out. I mean

1012
00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:43,480
Speaker 1: everyone has these diets that are like they're literally like

1013
00:54:43,680 --> 00:54:46,960
Speaker 1: this um, like I'm gonna do with this juice in

1014
00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:49,200
Speaker 1: the morning and I'm gonna starve myself and then I'm

1015
00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:51,880
Speaker 1: gonna eat it now like everyone has something for me,

1016
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:54,480
Speaker 1: it was finding something where it's just like eating well,

1017
00:54:55,320 --> 00:54:58,879
Speaker 1: eating at the right times, and exercising. And the key

1018
00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:02,200
Speaker 1: keeping in there is the exercising as long as you're exercising.

1019
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:05,560
Speaker 1: And I'm not a big runner. I don't enjoy running.

1020
00:55:06,040 --> 00:55:08,480
Speaker 1: I find it exhausting. So I would literally do a

1021
00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:10,560
Speaker 1: mile on the treadmill in the morning, and then I

1022
00:55:10,600 --> 00:55:12,480
Speaker 1: would do a mile on the treadmill at night. I

1023
00:55:12,560 --> 00:55:14,920
Speaker 1: put some weights in there and I was good to go.

1024
00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:18,920
Speaker 1: So you you work out like me? That's me now

1025
00:55:19,239 --> 00:55:22,800
Speaker 1: with somehow my show has become a nice haven for

1026
00:55:23,280 --> 00:55:26,440
Speaker 1: to talk two shifts. So the Roco comes on my show, Uh,

1027
00:55:26,560 --> 00:55:28,680
Speaker 1: Donna Teller comes on my show, and just to name

1028
00:55:28,719 --> 00:55:31,359
Speaker 1: a few, sandwich soon comes on my show, and now

1029
00:55:31,600 --> 00:55:33,839
Speaker 1: are you on my show? When I get the word

1030
00:55:33,960 --> 00:55:37,759
Speaker 1: eat whale, see, I need to define to me what

1031
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:40,960
Speaker 1: does that mean when you say eating whale? Eating well?

1032
00:55:41,040 --> 00:55:43,200
Speaker 1: To me, it is clean. I think it's it's for breakfast.

1033
00:55:43,480 --> 00:55:46,719
Speaker 1: I think it's eating some yogurts, some barrious period and

1034
00:55:46,880 --> 00:55:50,360
Speaker 1: the in the conversation having a coffee and not putting

1035
00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:52,640
Speaker 1: creamer in there and sugars in there, Like I put

1036
00:55:52,680 --> 00:55:55,480
Speaker 1: a little non dairy creamer in there. Fine for launch.

1037
00:55:55,560 --> 00:55:58,320
Speaker 1: It's like, have a nice salad, maybe you're cheating on

1038
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:00,640
Speaker 1: some dressing, have a grill, piece of chicken, have some

1039
00:56:00,719 --> 00:56:04,279
Speaker 1: grilled shrimp, doing whatever you want dinnertime, having normal meal,

1040
00:56:04,760 --> 00:56:07,680
Speaker 1: having normal meal, have some carbo hydrates, have some vegetables,

1041
00:56:07,760 --> 00:56:10,239
Speaker 1: have some fruits. But to me, eating well is like

1042
00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:13,200
Speaker 1: you're eating a little cleaner. You're not depriving yourself. Your

1043
00:56:13,239 --> 00:56:16,640
Speaker 1: portion size is normal, meaning like you're not having sixteen

1044
00:56:16,760 --> 00:56:19,439
Speaker 1: ounces of steak, you're having six to eight, and you're

1045
00:56:19,480 --> 00:56:22,120
Speaker 1: not eating past eight o'clock. It depends on what time

1046
00:56:22,120 --> 00:56:24,240
Speaker 1: you go to bed, but like seven or eight o'clock

1047
00:56:24,280 --> 00:56:28,200
Speaker 1: should be in. Like, if you're done at seven eight o'clock,

1048
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:31,279
Speaker 1: give up the beg of a tady chips, give up

1049
00:56:31,320 --> 00:56:34,880
Speaker 1: the swedes, give up the sugars. Like I guarantee you

1050
00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:39,600
Speaker 1: you will lose weight. Well, you know I naturally drink

1051
00:56:39,600 --> 00:56:41,360
Speaker 1: a lot of water. I know we're not getting into it.

1052
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:43,440
Speaker 1: I know you're not a diet expert, Michael, but you

1053
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:48,040
Speaker 1: know we're talking about losing weight. So, Mike, thirty five

1054
00:56:48,120 --> 00:56:50,440
Speaker 1: pounds and three much you kind of you kind of

1055
00:56:51,239 --> 00:56:53,440
Speaker 1: level it into a diet expert range and you like

1056
00:56:53,520 --> 00:56:55,480
Speaker 1: to say what and I drink you want to naturally.

1057
00:56:55,520 --> 00:56:57,840
Speaker 1: But I'm a big dessert guy. I I eat by

1058
00:56:57,920 --> 00:57:00,759
Speaker 1: dessert before my meals. It's done. People, I go to

1059
00:57:00,880 --> 00:57:03,239
Speaker 1: the restaurant. I come to a restaurant and say, excuse me,

1060
00:57:03,360 --> 00:57:05,040
Speaker 1: can you give me the the dissert menu before I

1061
00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:07,640
Speaker 1: start arguing my meal. I'm that guy. I'm that guy

1062
00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:11,560
Speaker 1: and so so a person like me who enjoys desserts.

1063
00:57:11,920 --> 00:57:14,000
Speaker 1: What does that play out in your menu world? In

1064
00:57:14,080 --> 00:57:16,920
Speaker 1: your restaurant world? Am I gonna come to your restaurant,

1065
00:57:17,080 --> 00:57:20,520
Speaker 1: Michael and be like, man, you got the dessert from me?

1066
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:24,000
Speaker 1: Are you more of an You can't. This is the

1067
00:57:24,080 --> 00:57:27,120
Speaker 1: problem with all diets, right. Everyone wants to go on

1068
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:30,840
Speaker 1: this extreme diet, like you can't stop eating, like if

1069
00:57:30,880 --> 00:57:32,400
Speaker 1: they give you a cho I mean, you go to

1070
00:57:32,520 --> 00:57:36,680
Speaker 1: these restaurants and half these restaurants are enough for three people,

1071
00:57:37,560 --> 00:57:40,480
Speaker 1: and people are eating the whole cake. So it's like

1072
00:57:40,680 --> 00:57:42,600
Speaker 1: eat the cake, just just have a piece of it.

1073
00:57:43,160 --> 00:57:44,760
Speaker 1: Have a piece of the cake. Every day. I have

1074
00:57:44,840 --> 00:57:48,560
Speaker 1: a piece of chocolate like chocolate is good for you. Chocolate,

1075
00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:50,440
Speaker 1: it's not bad for you. Berries are not bad for you.

1076
00:57:50,760 --> 00:57:53,400
Speaker 1: Some real ice cream is not bad for you. Have it,

1077
00:57:53,520 --> 00:57:56,400
Speaker 1: but you don't need a pint of ice cream. A

1078
00:57:56,560 --> 00:58:01,600
Speaker 1: cake like a box of cookies at a reads like

1079
00:58:02,040 --> 00:58:04,480
Speaker 1: that's what you need right right. But I am a

1080
00:58:04,560 --> 00:58:06,280
Speaker 1: guy that I will tell you, Mike, I'm a guy.

1081
00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:11,000
Speaker 1: You know. I think I've accidentally uh eating correctly because

1082
00:58:11,040 --> 00:58:13,120
Speaker 1: I'm a guy. I ordered three different things, but I

1083
00:58:13,160 --> 00:58:16,800
Speaker 1: won't complete the meal, so I called myself a sampler,

1084
00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:19,480
Speaker 1: you know. I was sample this dessert or a sample

1085
00:58:19,640 --> 00:58:23,240
Speaker 1: that that, uh that advertiser or that sample that meal.

1086
00:58:23,640 --> 00:58:25,360
Speaker 1: You know. But I'm a big bread guy. I love

1087
00:58:25,440 --> 00:58:28,479
Speaker 1: bread to death. I bread this type of corn bread.

1088
00:58:28,520 --> 00:58:31,480
Speaker 1: I love that. I love veggies. But these are things,

1089
00:58:31,560 --> 00:58:34,320
Speaker 1: like I said, I just accidentally eat, which I guess

1090
00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:38,320
Speaker 1: in a way allows me to maintain someone healthy lifestyle.

1091
00:58:38,720 --> 00:58:40,280
Speaker 1: But I drink a lot of water. Like you said,

1092
00:58:40,320 --> 00:58:42,760
Speaker 1: you held up your bottle of water. But I want

1093
00:58:42,800 --> 00:58:44,720
Speaker 1: to transition to because you do a lot of uh.

1094
00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:48,440
Speaker 1: You've hosted several competitions and these and I'm a big

1095
00:58:48,520 --> 00:58:52,200
Speaker 1: fan of competition shows, Michael, and so but there's always

1096
00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:56,640
Speaker 1: some uh winner and a loser. Winner and loser. How

1097
00:58:56,720 --> 00:58:59,280
Speaker 1: do you handle that in the judging process, because you

1098
00:58:59,440 --> 00:59:03,600
Speaker 1: know the decision that you make, you can to tell

1099
00:59:03,680 --> 00:59:06,919
Speaker 1: somebody to walk away from walk off the show. Listen.

1100
00:59:07,040 --> 00:59:09,680
Speaker 1: I teach my kids at a young age like as

1101
00:59:09,760 --> 00:59:14,520
Speaker 1: look like work your ass off, practice, try hard, and

1102
00:59:14,680 --> 00:59:16,840
Speaker 1: like if you're good enough, you're gonna win, and if

1103
00:59:16,840 --> 00:59:18,760
Speaker 1: there's somebody better than you, they're gonna lose. And when

1104
00:59:18,800 --> 00:59:22,160
Speaker 1: you're judging, it's kind of like, look like you're either winner,

1105
00:59:22,240 --> 00:59:24,320
Speaker 1: you lose. I mean this whole thing where everybody gets

1106
00:59:24,360 --> 00:59:26,760
Speaker 1: a trophy today and like kids come home and you

1107
00:59:26,840 --> 00:59:28,720
Speaker 1: came in last place and you've got a trophy, Like

1108
00:59:28,920 --> 00:59:32,240
Speaker 1: like it's b s. It's not teaching people to be

1109
00:59:32,360 --> 00:59:35,440
Speaker 1: able to lose. People ask me all the time you

1110
00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:37,560
Speaker 1: play games with your kids, like do you lose on purpose? No,

1111
00:59:37,600 --> 00:59:39,960
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lose on purpose. Why would I do that?

1112
00:59:40,080 --> 00:59:45,240
Speaker 1: You need to teach them like practice, practice, practice, and

1113
00:59:45,520 --> 00:59:47,920
Speaker 1: like when you do all of those things, you'll figure

1114
00:59:47,960 --> 00:59:49,800
Speaker 1: it out. And it's the same thing with cooking. It's

1115
00:59:49,840 --> 00:59:51,440
Speaker 1: like there are gonna be people who are better than

1116
00:59:51,480 --> 00:59:54,800
Speaker 1: me of cooking and you may lose, but it is

1117
00:59:54,880 --> 00:59:56,680
Speaker 1: what it is. And and look, one of the biggest

1118
00:59:56,760 --> 00:59:58,320
Speaker 1: one of the questions that I always ask you is

1119
00:59:59,120 --> 01:00:01,840
Speaker 1: in interviews that us to do with that is what

1120
01:00:02,800 --> 01:00:05,280
Speaker 1: do you not allow in your life? Is it harder

1121
01:00:05,320 --> 01:00:07,520
Speaker 1: for you? Is it which is true? For you? I

1122
01:00:07,680 --> 01:00:13,400
Speaker 1: hate to lose or I'd love to win. And for me,

1123
01:00:13,680 --> 01:00:16,760
Speaker 1: the answer is I hate to lose lose. Losing is

1124
01:00:16,840 --> 01:00:20,120
Speaker 1: just not an answer, like I expect to leave. So

1125
01:00:20,240 --> 01:00:22,320
Speaker 1: winning when I win, it's like, Okay, let me get

1126
01:00:22,400 --> 01:00:24,280
Speaker 1: up again and play again, let me play again. But

1127
01:00:24,360 --> 01:00:28,800
Speaker 1: when I lose, I'm curious. And I think that's kind

1128
01:00:28,800 --> 01:00:31,240
Speaker 1: of just a mentality of people. Before we go, I

1129
01:00:31,280 --> 01:00:33,280
Speaker 1: want to talk about you have a new restaurant concept

1130
01:00:33,360 --> 01:00:36,640
Speaker 1: opening in Philadelphic called Midtown Village. Tell us about that

1131
01:00:37,120 --> 01:00:40,920
Speaker 1: and why now? Yeah, so we're so so it's interesting.

1132
01:00:40,960 --> 01:00:43,480
Speaker 1: And you spoke about what happens during COVID. I mean,

1133
01:00:43,520 --> 01:00:45,440
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of restaurants that are going out

1134
01:00:45,480 --> 01:00:47,560
Speaker 1: of business. I think our business model used to be

1135
01:00:48,600 --> 01:00:51,240
Speaker 1: take a space and build out a restaurant. It would

1136
01:00:51,240 --> 01:00:54,000
Speaker 1: cost us a thousands of dollars of square foot to

1137
01:00:54,040 --> 01:00:57,760
Speaker 1: build it out. Now our business model has shifted. We

1138
01:00:57,880 --> 01:01:00,479
Speaker 1: can get restaurants that have clothes, and we could spend

1139
01:01:00,680 --> 01:01:03,840
Speaker 1: three hundreds of five hundreds of square foot on some

1140
01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:07,440
Speaker 1: really good opportunities. Because COVID is gonna be over, We're

1141
01:01:07,480 --> 01:01:10,080
Speaker 1: going to get to the other side. So here are

1142
01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:12,720
Speaker 1: some opportunities that we have, and one of them is

1143
01:01:12,840 --> 01:01:15,120
Speaker 1: it's in an area called Midtown Village. It's gonna be

1144
01:01:15,320 --> 01:01:18,120
Speaker 1: uh the name isn't known yet, We're not sure the name,

1145
01:01:18,160 --> 01:01:21,480
Speaker 1: but it's gonna be a U boutique pizza place, brick

1146
01:01:21,560 --> 01:01:24,880
Speaker 1: up and pizza with some uh lots of seasonal vegetables,

1147
01:01:24,920 --> 01:01:29,280
Speaker 1: seasonales and stuff like that. So it's more casual dining. Yeah,

1148
01:01:29,440 --> 01:01:32,720
Speaker 1: definitely more casual. Think that's kind of where people are

1149
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:35,880
Speaker 1: going right now in terms of the COVID. I'm not

1150
01:01:36,000 --> 01:01:39,080
Speaker 1: looking to do any fancy, high end restaurants right now,

1151
01:01:39,200 --> 01:01:41,560
Speaker 1: but if you could get some casual places in now,

1152
01:01:41,720 --> 01:01:44,360
Speaker 1: like I think we're good. Cool and Michael, thank you

1153
01:01:44,440 --> 01:01:46,320
Speaker 1: man for coming on myne to make conversations. I hope

1154
01:01:46,360 --> 01:01:48,240
Speaker 1: you come back for the skinny here. I don't know

1155
01:01:48,240 --> 01:01:50,800
Speaker 1: if I want you coming back skin here though, Can

1156
01:01:50,840 --> 01:01:54,760
Speaker 1: we stay there? I appreciate you may enjoy yourself and

1157
01:01:54,800 --> 01:01:57,240
Speaker 1: I definitely tell them since I come to Philadelphia a

1158
01:01:57,320 --> 01:02:00,280
Speaker 1: lot because I represents Steven A. Smifflin. We always in

1159
01:02:00,360 --> 01:02:02,360
Speaker 1: an area in New Jersey, New York area, and I

1160
01:02:02,480 --> 01:02:07,560
Speaker 1: love to drop bys. So if okay, okay, appreciate to

1161
01:02:07,600 --> 01:02:11,600
Speaker 1: Michael stay strong. There's a monumental shift in power at work.

1162
01:02:12,040 --> 01:02:16,960
Speaker 1: Employees are speaking up. Turnover is rising, salaries are increasing,

1163
01:02:17,360 --> 01:02:22,040
Speaker 1: hiring is tough, and burnout is real. It's time to

1164
01:02:22,320 --> 01:02:26,280
Speaker 1: unleash growth. It's time to transform your HR from powerless

1165
01:02:26,720 --> 01:02:32,440
Speaker 1: to powerful. Join a DP on February. Reserve your spot now,

1166
01:02:33,120 --> 01:02:35,640
Speaker 1: go to get the Plan dot IDP dot com to

1167
01:02:35,760 --> 01:02:40,480
Speaker 1: register for the Work Interrupted Summit. And we're live here

1168
01:02:40,560 --> 01:02:43,880
Speaker 1: outside the Perez family home, just waiting for the and

1169
01:02:44,120 --> 01:02:47,080
Speaker 1: there they go, almost on time. This morning, Mom is

1170
01:02:47,160 --> 01:02:49,600
Speaker 1: coming out the front door strong with a double arm

1171
01:02:49,720 --> 01:02:52,480
Speaker 1: kid carry. Looks like dad has the bags. Daughter is

1172
01:02:52,560 --> 01:02:56,560
Speaker 1: bringing up the rear. Oh, but the diaper bag wasn't closed.

1173
01:02:56,800 --> 01:03:02,200
Speaker 1: Diapers and toys are everywhere. But mom has just nailed

1174
01:03:02,280 --> 01:03:05,440
Speaker 1: the perfect car seat buckle for the toddler. And now

1175
01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:08,040
Speaker 1: the eldest daughter, who looks to be about nine or ten,

1176
01:03:08,320 --> 01:03:10,960
Speaker 1: has secured herself in the booster seat. Dad zips the

1177
01:03:11,000 --> 01:03:15,120
Speaker 1: bad clothes and they're off, But looks like Mom doesn't

1178
01:03:15,160 --> 01:03:17,280
Speaker 1: realize her coffee cup is still on the roof of

1179
01:03:17,360 --> 01:03:21,800
Speaker 1: the car and there it goes. Oh, that's a shame

1180
01:03:21,920 --> 01:03:25,080
Speaker 1: that mug was a fan favorite. Don't sweat the small stuff,

1181
01:03:25,280 --> 01:03:27,360
Speaker 1: just nailed the big stuff, like making sure your kids

1182
01:03:27,400 --> 01:03:29,520
Speaker 1: are buckled correctly in the right seat for their agent's eyes.

1183
01:03:29,760 --> 01:03:31,760
Speaker 1: Learn more n h t s a dot gov slash

1184
01:03:31,800 --> 01:03:36,360
Speaker 1: the Right Seat visits a dot gov slash the Right

1185
01:03:36,520 --> 01:03:39,840
Speaker 1: Seat brought to you by NITZA and the AD Council. Hi, everyone,

1186
01:03:40,000 --> 01:03:42,560
Speaker 1: Al Roker here as a guy with his own catchphrase.

1187
01:03:42,680 --> 01:03:47,080
Speaker 1: I appreciate that Smokey's only said only you can prevent wildfires,

1188
01:03:47,320 --> 01:03:50,120
Speaker 1: but I'm filling in because there's a lot more to report,

1189
01:03:50,520 --> 01:03:53,320
Speaker 1: like when they're parched her windy conditions out there, you

1190
01:03:53,520 --> 01:03:56,560
Speaker 1: gotta be extra careful with things like burning yard waist.

1191
01:03:57,120 --> 01:04:00,640
Speaker 1: After all, wildfires can start anywhere, even in your neck

1192
01:04:00,720 --> 01:04:03,160
Speaker 1: of the woods. So to Smokey Bear dot com to

1193
01:04:03,320 --> 01:04:06,360
Speaker 1: learn more about wildfire prevention, brought to you by the U. S.

1194
01:04:06,400 --> 01:04:09,200
Speaker 1: Forest Service, your state Forester, and the AD Council. So

1195
01:04:09,280 --> 01:04:11,600
Speaker 1: I got a couple of industry decision makers. As my

1196
01:04:11,720 --> 01:04:15,800
Speaker 1: next guest, they are Jessica Myers and Devon Reeves. Since

1197
01:04:15,840 --> 01:04:20,320
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, principals Jessica Myers and Devon Reeves have acquired

1198
01:04:20,320 --> 01:04:23,760
Speaker 1: more than fourteen million dollars in commercial real estate assets,

1199
01:04:24,120 --> 01:04:28,240
Speaker 1: where they focus on hotels and multifamily structures. The firm

1200
01:04:28,280 --> 01:04:32,480
Speaker 1: works with passive investors seeking attractive, long term investment strategies

1201
01:04:32,520 --> 01:04:36,120
Speaker 1: to grow their real estate portfolio. Jessica, who's a proud

1202
01:04:36,200 --> 01:04:40,320
Speaker 1: member of a k A Africa for Afforts, have already incorporated.

1203
01:04:40,680 --> 01:04:42,880
Speaker 1: That's another word. You know you're gonna do it either way.

1204
01:04:42,920 --> 01:04:44,520
Speaker 1: You know you're gonna have to give it the whole name,

1205
01:04:44,640 --> 01:04:46,160
Speaker 1: or you're just gonna one of them things you want

1206
01:04:46,200 --> 01:04:48,320
Speaker 1: to say. Both of them found it. Both of them

1207
01:04:48,560 --> 01:04:52,280
Speaker 1: founded Epic Collective with her friend Donna Reef. They're all

1208
01:04:52,400 --> 01:04:55,360
Speaker 1: both in based in Atlanta, Georgia, where my show Money

1209
01:04:55,400 --> 01:04:58,320
Speaker 1: Making Conversations originalates. They will be discussing how to raise

1210
01:04:58,440 --> 01:05:01,280
Speaker 1: capital and how to buy a hotel, something I've never

1211
01:05:01,320 --> 01:05:03,480
Speaker 1: thought of. My love, I just bought a building. Now,

1212
01:05:03,800 --> 01:05:06,840
Speaker 1: trying to buy a hotel is not even closely in

1213
01:05:06,960 --> 01:05:09,400
Speaker 1: my whole brain process. Please work with the money making

1214
01:05:09,480 --> 01:05:15,440
Speaker 1: conversation Jessica Myers A k A and Devar Reeves. Hi, Hi,

1215
01:05:15,960 --> 01:05:18,240
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having us. We're so excited

1216
01:05:18,280 --> 01:05:20,600
Speaker 1: to be here. Well, thank you very much. Ms Reeve.

1217
01:05:20,680 --> 01:05:22,200
Speaker 1: Let's start out with you. You know, I put all

1218
01:05:22,240 --> 01:05:24,600
Speaker 1: that a k A love all on Jessica. I gotta

1219
01:05:24,680 --> 01:05:26,440
Speaker 1: move my love of you, just letting you know, you

1220
01:05:26,480 --> 01:05:28,560
Speaker 1: know you're just as important to me as well. You know,

1221
01:05:28,640 --> 01:05:30,840
Speaker 1: I'm just a member of O Maga Side five fraternity,

1222
01:05:30,920 --> 01:05:35,360
Speaker 1: so I always got a shipped right. We're not Greek,

1223
01:05:35,440 --> 01:05:37,800
Speaker 1: but my my, my dad, he's a he's a proud

1224
01:05:38,200 --> 01:05:40,840
Speaker 1: he's a he's a big fan of Pepon. So how

1225
01:05:40,880 --> 01:05:46,920
Speaker 1: about that. I was there with the mothership landed, So

1226
01:05:47,320 --> 01:05:49,240
Speaker 1: I'm all right with your dad. I'm all right with

1227
01:05:49,320 --> 01:05:52,920
Speaker 1: your dad. Those a little background about yourself, Devar, oh sure, Well,

1228
01:05:52,960 --> 01:05:54,400
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having us for sh My

1229
01:05:54,480 --> 01:05:56,680
Speaker 1: name is a Dave and Reeves. I've actually been in

1230
01:05:56,760 --> 01:06:00,720
Speaker 1: a hotel industry for over fourteen years. I got my

1231
01:06:00,760 --> 01:06:03,400
Speaker 1: start off as a front desk agent. Uh so my

1232
01:06:03,520 --> 01:06:09,040
Speaker 1: background includes operations, eat ability studies, asset management and now

1233
01:06:09,080 --> 01:06:12,720
Speaker 1: I can add hotel owner. Now hotel owner, you just

1234
01:06:12,840 --> 01:06:15,680
Speaker 1: throw that out there so casually, and uh, I don't

1235
01:06:15,720 --> 01:06:18,000
Speaker 1: have a clue as to what that means. I bought

1236
01:06:18,040 --> 01:06:21,920
Speaker 1: a car, I bought a boat, I bought clothes on

1237
01:06:22,040 --> 01:06:25,080
Speaker 1: a regular based shoes, I bought a build it. But

1238
01:06:25,360 --> 01:06:27,880
Speaker 1: you just throwing out the word hotel like that's like

1239
01:06:28,040 --> 01:06:30,400
Speaker 1: that's something we just get on a regular basis when

1240
01:06:30,440 --> 01:06:32,440
Speaker 1: we go to a big bath and beyond or something

1241
01:06:32,520 --> 01:06:34,920
Speaker 1: like that. Well, you know what, I'm trying to educate

1242
01:06:34,960 --> 01:06:36,800
Speaker 1: people so they can do that so we can add

1243
01:06:36,880 --> 01:06:44,120
Speaker 1: hotel ownership to the conversation to realize that hotel ownership

1244
01:06:44,280 --> 01:06:48,080
Speaker 1: is actually like you're buinding into a franchise. So hotels, Hi,

1245
01:06:48,280 --> 01:06:51,360
Speaker 1: it's Marriott's Hiltons. They only own less than three percent

1246
01:06:51,720 --> 01:06:54,800
Speaker 1: of hotels in their inventory. So that opens opportunities to

1247
01:06:54,880 --> 01:06:57,200
Speaker 1: people like you and I who are continue we consider

1248
01:06:57,240 --> 01:07:00,800
Speaker 1: ourselves small businesses. Um, we can actually on hotel over

1249
01:07:00,960 --> 01:07:03,000
Speaker 1: sixty percent of the hotel in the United States are

1250
01:07:03,000 --> 01:07:06,920
Speaker 1: actually owned by small small businesses. Jessica, Should I be

1251
01:07:07,080 --> 01:07:10,480
Speaker 1: nervous to even consider the prospect of wanting to get

1252
01:07:10,560 --> 01:07:15,120
Speaker 1: into the franchising business of owning the hotel? Oh? Definitely

1253
01:07:15,680 --> 01:07:19,280
Speaker 1: definitely not, especially when you have the right team around

1254
01:07:19,360 --> 01:07:22,200
Speaker 1: you to make sure it happens. Um and that's the goal.

1255
01:07:22,360 --> 01:07:24,880
Speaker 1: We really want to change the narrative and make it

1256
01:07:25,000 --> 01:07:27,919
Speaker 1: more of a conversational piece. And that's what we hope

1257
01:07:27,920 --> 01:07:30,360
Speaker 1: to do, like blaze the trail so that you now

1258
01:07:30,480 --> 01:07:34,680
Speaker 1: can see, hey, it's attainable. It's about owning franchise opportunities.

1259
01:07:34,720 --> 01:07:38,560
Speaker 1: Look at it that simply, and that's that's really what

1260
01:07:38,680 --> 01:07:41,040
Speaker 1: we look to do, is to raise the narrative so

1261
01:07:41,240 --> 01:07:43,640
Speaker 1: that we're changing the conversation and it is something just

1262
01:07:43,760 --> 01:07:46,080
Speaker 1: like Q tips are now you know, just the thing

1263
01:07:46,160 --> 01:07:48,880
Speaker 1: that you say, I really wanted to be hotel ownerships,

1264
01:07:48,960 --> 01:07:51,800
Speaker 1: Like duh, that's that's what you do. And that's the

1265
01:07:51,840 --> 01:07:55,120
Speaker 1: importance of what we're creating with Epic Collective. Now, Epic Collective,

1266
01:07:55,160 --> 01:07:57,120
Speaker 1: that's a that's a cool name. E p i Q

1267
01:07:57,480 --> 01:08:00,640
Speaker 1: which is an interesting spelling there, and I have to

1268
01:08:00,720 --> 01:08:03,600
Speaker 1: ask why is the spelling that way? We like to

1269
01:08:03,640 --> 01:08:07,840
Speaker 1: be different, don't you think you think of E I C.

1270
01:08:08,080 --> 01:08:14,240
Speaker 1: What we're different? We're too uniquely um doing everything create

1271
01:08:14,360 --> 01:08:16,800
Speaker 1: and doing we're doing it collectively. So that's why we

1272
01:08:16,880 --> 01:08:19,679
Speaker 1: want to be unique and different. Like I just said,

1273
01:08:19,720 --> 01:08:22,960
Speaker 1: as far as you as far as that's why we

1274
01:08:23,040 --> 01:08:25,600
Speaker 1: add the queue to it. Well, it's a great thing

1275
01:08:25,640 --> 01:08:28,280
Speaker 1: about it. I'm in interviewing both of you, your ladies

1276
01:08:28,560 --> 01:08:30,920
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, coming into business. They said the

1277
01:08:31,000 --> 01:08:36,280
Speaker 1: fastest growing uh, the sector of entrepreneurships is females and

1278
01:08:36,439 --> 01:08:40,360
Speaker 1: especially African American females. So I'm looking at through too dynamic.

1279
01:08:40,400 --> 01:08:43,680
Speaker 1: I'm interviewing too dynamic ladies based out of Atlanta. So

1280
01:08:43,800 --> 01:08:46,639
Speaker 1: let's ask you this, Jessica, how did you tube connected

1281
01:08:46,720 --> 01:08:50,160
Speaker 1: to become founders and become business partners. Well, actually, we

1282
01:08:50,280 --> 01:08:53,000
Speaker 1: went to college together and we just stayed in touch

1283
01:08:53,080 --> 01:08:55,400
Speaker 1: through the years, and it came a point where we

1284
01:08:55,479 --> 01:08:59,160
Speaker 1: were both in our entrepreneurial journey. Devon and moved to Boston.

1285
01:08:59,280 --> 01:09:02,040
Speaker 1: I moved to new work, and we moved back to Atlanta,

1286
01:09:02,240 --> 01:09:04,320
Speaker 1: and I was like, Hey, let's meet up for lunch

1287
01:09:04,920 --> 01:09:07,960
Speaker 1: and then lunch day after lunch date. Before you know what,

1288
01:09:08,040 --> 01:09:11,200
Speaker 1: we're exploring dreams, were exploring visions and knowing what they

1289
01:09:11,280 --> 01:09:14,160
Speaker 1: Van was doing in the hospitality space. I started out

1290
01:09:14,200 --> 01:09:16,920
Speaker 1: as a whole seller and she would often tell me like, hey,

1291
01:09:17,040 --> 01:09:19,840
Speaker 1: you know what you're doing in the hotel whole wholesale space.

1292
01:09:20,320 --> 01:09:23,680
Speaker 1: It's still real estate. You can apply those same aspects

1293
01:09:24,000 --> 01:09:26,639
Speaker 1: of what you're doing on you know, the single family side,

1294
01:09:26,840 --> 01:09:29,280
Speaker 1: you can apply that to the commercial side. And I

1295
01:09:29,439 --> 01:09:31,479
Speaker 1: was like, oh, like because in the in the whole

1296
01:09:31,520 --> 01:09:35,400
Speaker 1: stealing space, not many people are talking about owning a hotel.

1297
01:09:35,720 --> 01:09:38,840
Speaker 1: We're doing one family at a time. But that is

1298
01:09:38,880 --> 01:09:41,320
Speaker 1: a great entry way to get into the industry, to

1299
01:09:41,560 --> 01:09:44,240
Speaker 1: learn the lingo and learn the language. But just going

1300
01:09:44,320 --> 01:09:47,880
Speaker 1: to lunch with Devon who has the hotel experience, She's like, Hey,

1301
01:09:48,040 --> 01:09:50,160
Speaker 1: you really need to start looking at these skills and

1302
01:09:50,479 --> 01:09:52,960
Speaker 1: and how to go in and and do these strategies

1303
01:09:53,160 --> 01:09:55,280
Speaker 1: so that you can acquire more units. Because she knew

1304
01:09:55,320 --> 01:09:57,360
Speaker 1: that my passion was to acquire a thousand doors, and

1305
01:09:57,439 --> 01:09:59,320
Speaker 1: she was like, doing it one door at a time

1306
01:09:59,720 --> 01:10:02,400
Speaker 1: is not effective. Hotels will allow you to do it

1307
01:10:02,840 --> 01:10:06,680
Speaker 1: even further um and collectively. So that's that's been a

1308
01:10:07,120 --> 01:10:10,439
Speaker 1: part of our journey. Okay, I'll be even remiss for properties.

1309
01:10:10,600 --> 01:10:13,000
Speaker 1: And from a franchising standport or you guys tied to

1310
01:10:13,479 --> 01:10:17,120
Speaker 1: right now, currently we are tied to Hilton, the Hilton franchise.

1311
01:10:17,240 --> 01:10:21,559
Speaker 1: We acquired an eighty five room um home to suites

1312
01:10:21,600 --> 01:10:25,960
Speaker 1: in Arena Oklahoma, Okay. Cool. Now comes with that is

1313
01:10:26,040 --> 01:10:29,400
Speaker 1: employment and you acquired in them assuming and uh what

1314
01:10:29,560 --> 01:10:33,240
Speaker 1: you did you acquire two thousand twenty So we acquired

1315
01:10:33,280 --> 01:10:39,120
Speaker 1: it during COVID. COVID when um so let's let's talk

1316
01:10:39,120 --> 01:10:41,280
Speaker 1: about that, you know, because you and not you like

1317
01:10:41,360 --> 01:10:44,280
Speaker 1: I bought my building during COVID, So I have been

1318
01:10:44,600 --> 01:10:47,960
Speaker 1: during down economies or when most millionaires are made. It's

1319
01:10:47,960 --> 01:10:51,000
Speaker 1: about seizing and looking for opportunity. But you have to

1320
01:10:51,439 --> 01:10:53,680
Speaker 1: as as I always say, stay ready, don't have to

1321
01:10:53,720 --> 01:10:55,880
Speaker 1: get ready. So it's like when you're already ready to

1322
01:10:55,960 --> 01:10:58,160
Speaker 1: seize the moment, you have your team around you, you're

1323
01:10:58,200 --> 01:11:00,880
Speaker 1: looking for opportunity. That's how I down market. You can

1324
01:11:00,920 --> 01:11:05,280
Speaker 1: now capitalize on those eldents. But you're in the hospitality world,

1325
01:11:05,479 --> 01:11:07,599
Speaker 1: and we know that was hit tremendously, but I always

1326
01:11:07,640 --> 01:11:10,400
Speaker 1: believe that. But you're a different hospitality because you're not

1327
01:11:10,800 --> 01:11:13,439
Speaker 1: tied to vacation and and you're not tied to results.

1328
01:11:13,880 --> 01:11:17,320
Speaker 1: You're tied to daily travelers who are on the road.

1329
01:11:17,439 --> 01:11:20,000
Speaker 1: And that never stopped, you know, the daily on the

1330
01:11:20,120 --> 01:11:24,439
Speaker 1: road travel. In fact, people travel more, increase their road

1331
01:11:24,479 --> 01:11:27,720
Speaker 1: travel and diminished their air travel. So talk about that

1332
01:11:27,840 --> 01:11:31,200
Speaker 1: whole concept of knowing and putting your business plan together

1333
01:11:31,280 --> 01:11:34,560
Speaker 1: saying you know something, we feel we're aligning ourselves with

1334
01:11:34,720 --> 01:11:37,599
Speaker 1: the right format because we're not buying a result, We're

1335
01:11:37,640 --> 01:11:40,200
Speaker 1: buying a I like to say, a business hotel. We

1336
01:11:40,360 --> 01:11:43,640
Speaker 1: deal with daily travels. They're not long term stay you

1337
01:11:43,760 --> 01:11:46,600
Speaker 1: lay day, maybe two days, or we can't stay. Is

1338
01:11:46,640 --> 01:11:49,040
Speaker 1: that part of the process and making that purchase or

1339
01:11:49,120 --> 01:11:53,120
Speaker 1: one that you should pursue. Absolutely, I actually encourage and

1340
01:11:53,160 --> 01:11:55,759
Speaker 1: what you're talking about, you're talking about limited service hotel

1341
01:11:55,920 --> 01:11:58,760
Speaker 1: and I encouraged at the first time hotel owners. And

1342
01:11:58,920 --> 01:12:01,519
Speaker 1: the reason why I encourage that because, like you mentioned,

1343
01:12:01,680 --> 01:12:04,880
Speaker 1: you know, during a downtime, during downturn, even you know

1344
01:12:05,080 --> 01:12:07,920
Speaker 1: teen years ago with the last real estate crash, the

1345
01:12:08,000 --> 01:12:10,679
Speaker 1: hospitiality industry took it hit as well, not as hard

1346
01:12:10,760 --> 01:12:13,080
Speaker 1: as this hit, but it still took a hit. And

1347
01:12:13,400 --> 01:12:15,960
Speaker 1: that's what actually got me thinking because I was actually

1348
01:12:16,000 --> 01:12:18,639
Speaker 1: working in the hotel the last downturn about ten years ago,

1349
01:12:18,720 --> 01:12:22,240
Speaker 1: and I remember jobs being lost hotels know, you know,

1350
01:12:22,360 --> 01:12:25,360
Speaker 1: hotels didn't have to close down, fortunate, but I remember

1351
01:12:25,439 --> 01:12:26,960
Speaker 1: that in that state with me and I said, you

1352
01:12:27,040 --> 01:12:29,960
Speaker 1: know what, the nat opportunity I'm gonna take advantage of that,

1353
01:12:30,000 --> 01:12:32,639
Speaker 1: and I'm looking to limited service hotels and I'm gonna

1354
01:12:32,640 --> 01:12:34,960
Speaker 1: look at those those hotels that are inside of the road.

1355
01:12:35,360 --> 01:12:37,479
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look at those people who were just you know,

1356
01:12:37,560 --> 01:12:39,120
Speaker 1: I want to drive. I want to do this and

1357
01:12:39,200 --> 01:12:41,840
Speaker 1: not necessarily focus on resorts, because the first thing that

1358
01:12:41,920 --> 01:12:45,599
Speaker 1: happens during a downturn people cut their travel budgets. That's

1359
01:12:45,600 --> 01:12:49,080
Speaker 1: the first thing. Right now, It's interesting, now you're in Oklahoma,

1360
01:12:49,320 --> 01:12:52,000
Speaker 1: you basically Atlanta. You bought a hope of the property

1361
01:12:52,000 --> 01:12:55,439
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma. How do you supervise that? How do you

1362
01:12:55,560 --> 01:12:58,519
Speaker 1: maintain quality to control of a property there's you know,

1363
01:12:58,600 --> 01:13:01,240
Speaker 1: several hundred miles away from me. Well, that's why we

1364
01:13:01,520 --> 01:13:05,280
Speaker 1: that's why we emphasized having the right team and having

1365
01:13:05,320 --> 01:13:07,560
Speaker 1: an operator on our team. They handled the day to

1366
01:13:07,680 --> 01:13:11,400
Speaker 1: day so that we can continue on about, you know,

1367
01:13:11,600 --> 01:13:14,479
Speaker 1: the operations of Epic Collective while they're there. You know,

1368
01:13:14,880 --> 01:13:16,360
Speaker 1: we don't get the calls in the middle of the

1369
01:13:16,520 --> 01:13:18,800
Speaker 1: night like, hey, this maid didn't show up for worker,

1370
01:13:18,920 --> 01:13:21,400
Speaker 1: the front nest worker is running late because we have

1371
01:13:21,520 --> 01:13:25,160
Speaker 1: an operator in place that handles that for us. I know,

1372
01:13:25,320 --> 01:13:27,280
Speaker 1: you don't want to get the call that the maid

1373
01:13:27,439 --> 01:13:29,720
Speaker 1: is late and you in Atlanta that that doesn't and

1374
01:13:29,800 --> 01:13:32,280
Speaker 1: it's on it's on sixual time zone two, so they

1375
01:13:32,320 --> 01:13:34,200
Speaker 1: don't want to get that called your eastern time zone.

1376
01:13:34,479 --> 01:13:37,040
Speaker 1: But you have to deal with putting the team together.

1377
01:13:37,600 --> 01:13:42,679
Speaker 1: I'm talking to two fantastic entrepreneurship. What exactly is your team?

1378
01:13:43,560 --> 01:13:46,840
Speaker 1: So your team would include having a broker, Your team

1379
01:13:46,880 --> 01:13:50,200
Speaker 1: would include having an operator at Jessica just mentioned, and

1380
01:13:50,479 --> 01:13:54,080
Speaker 1: also your team would include having a brand um so

1381
01:13:54,200 --> 01:13:56,760
Speaker 1: we Hilton as a party of the team. I'm also

1382
01:13:56,880 --> 01:13:59,360
Speaker 1: having a lender. So Rashan, you just mentioned how you

1383
01:13:59,439 --> 01:14:01,600
Speaker 1: purchased the building. So if you notice some of the

1384
01:14:01,680 --> 01:14:04,320
Speaker 1: concepts that we're talking about, it probably can translate into

1385
01:14:04,439 --> 01:14:06,920
Speaker 1: because of building, office building or whatever something. Building is

1386
01:14:07,000 --> 01:14:10,240
Speaker 1: still a form of commerc so the fundamentals are definitely

1387
01:14:10,360 --> 01:14:12,960
Speaker 1: the same. So having that team to help you find

1388
01:14:13,000 --> 01:14:15,400
Speaker 1: a location, uh, you know, you start out with having

1389
01:14:15,479 --> 01:14:18,639
Speaker 1: your ownership pieces. You start out with, you know, finding

1390
01:14:18,680 --> 01:14:20,679
Speaker 1: the lender and typically your broker can help you find

1391
01:14:20,720 --> 01:14:23,400
Speaker 1: a lender or working with the hotel consultant or an

1392
01:14:23,439 --> 01:14:25,840
Speaker 1: asset manager. So all of those are the key plea

1393
01:14:26,120 --> 01:14:29,040
Speaker 1: key players to help you find uh, you want to

1394
01:14:29,080 --> 01:14:33,160
Speaker 1: find a profitable hotel. So I teach hotel When I

1395
01:14:33,200 --> 01:14:35,320
Speaker 1: tell people to buy hotels, I teach people so that

1396
01:14:35,400 --> 01:14:38,240
Speaker 1: way they can become successful and profitable hotel owners and

1397
01:14:38,320 --> 01:14:41,000
Speaker 1: not just the regular hotel owner. Well, and it's really

1398
01:14:41,040 --> 01:14:43,960
Speaker 1: interesting when I'm talking to you, because it is a mindset.

1399
01:14:44,200 --> 01:14:46,080
Speaker 1: Let's go and be honest you like you said, uh,

1400
01:14:46,400 --> 01:14:50,000
Speaker 1: you know, you know when you talk about preneurs, they

1401
01:14:50,080 --> 01:14:53,680
Speaker 1: want to buy like a franchi, a casual dining franchise,

1402
01:14:53,840 --> 01:14:58,320
Speaker 1: or fast food franchise or made a made service related franchise,

1403
01:14:58,400 --> 01:15:01,280
Speaker 1: and so, but when you start talking about a building, now,

1404
01:15:01,320 --> 01:15:03,000
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just I try to have on these

1405
01:15:03,040 --> 01:15:06,280
Speaker 1: conversations of that because I can't even fanthom that process

1406
01:15:06,439 --> 01:15:09,240
Speaker 1: and so. And I know you have a history of

1407
01:15:09,280 --> 01:15:12,800
Speaker 1: hospitality service, so you've seen that the technique. And from

1408
01:15:12,840 --> 01:15:15,160
Speaker 1: the same point, Jessica, you have a wholesale But how

1409
01:15:15,240 --> 01:15:18,000
Speaker 1: does a regular person like me, even though I'm successful,

1410
01:15:18,400 --> 01:15:21,720
Speaker 1: become a person who will find interest in the type

1411
01:15:21,760 --> 01:15:26,599
Speaker 1: of long term investment opportunities that you guys provide. Well,

1412
01:15:26,920 --> 01:15:29,240
Speaker 1: as she mentioned, that's where it's important to develop your

1413
01:15:29,240 --> 01:15:31,960
Speaker 1: ownership thesis because the name of the game is cash

1414
01:15:32,040 --> 01:15:35,240
Speaker 1: flow in any industry, and it's now understanding at what

1415
01:15:35,400 --> 01:15:37,880
Speaker 1: point am I willing and looking to come in to

1416
01:15:38,120 --> 01:15:40,679
Speaker 1: this process to go ahead and get it started, which

1417
01:15:40,720 --> 01:15:43,559
Speaker 1: comes with what where where am I? Before you start

1418
01:15:43,600 --> 01:15:46,360
Speaker 1: a destination or if we we set off to go

1419
01:15:46,840 --> 01:15:49,040
Speaker 1: to a road trip to New York, you really want

1420
01:15:49,080 --> 01:15:50,960
Speaker 1: to find out, well where am I right now? I'm

1421
01:15:51,000 --> 01:15:53,280
Speaker 1: in Georgia, I'm in Atlanta, and now I can build

1422
01:15:53,320 --> 01:15:55,680
Speaker 1: the road to success. So that's what she meant as

1423
01:15:55,720 --> 01:15:59,080
Speaker 1: far as um the ownership thesis and understanding where is

1424
01:15:59,120 --> 01:16:01,360
Speaker 1: it that you are right? Tools do you have access

1425
01:16:01,400 --> 01:16:03,640
Speaker 1: to which will help to determine where it is that

1426
01:16:03,720 --> 01:16:06,960
Speaker 1: you're looking to go and grow in your cash flow journey. Well,

1427
01:16:07,000 --> 01:16:09,840
Speaker 1: you know, I remember had an opportunity when I was

1428
01:16:09,920 --> 01:16:12,280
Speaker 1: managing Steve Harvard. You was sitting down and were thinking

1429
01:16:12,280 --> 01:16:15,880
Speaker 1: about buying uh Apolo Local Okay, and then you know,

1430
01:16:15,920 --> 01:16:18,920
Speaker 1: because what we learned from that meeting was that you

1431
01:16:19,040 --> 01:16:22,080
Speaker 1: can't rich get rich off one Appoo Local. You know,

1432
01:16:22,160 --> 01:16:25,200
Speaker 1: You've gotta have several, you know, because when you start

1433
01:16:25,240 --> 01:16:27,519
Speaker 1: talking about you know, the profit margin maybe like fifteen

1434
01:16:27,520 --> 01:16:29,720
Speaker 1: thousand dollars of months, you know, really shook us up.

1435
01:16:29,960 --> 01:16:32,160
Speaker 1: That's not that much money. We started twelve. That's a

1436
01:16:32,200 --> 01:16:34,800
Speaker 1: lot of work for that's your profit margin, you know

1437
01:16:34,880 --> 01:16:36,880
Speaker 1: at the time that we were talking to them, So

1438
01:16:38,040 --> 01:16:41,080
Speaker 1: we're in a franchise Z. So what is that? Is

1439
01:16:41,120 --> 01:16:44,280
Speaker 1: there a magic number of properties that you should own

1440
01:16:44,479 --> 01:16:47,640
Speaker 1: before you really start resonating the calling that you know,

1441
01:16:47,680 --> 01:16:50,120
Speaker 1: because you know, when your own property, you're a millionaire already,

1442
01:16:50,520 --> 01:16:52,840
Speaker 1: but all you're a millionaire in your bank account. That's

1443
01:16:52,880 --> 01:16:54,840
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. When you can when you can

1444
01:16:54,880 --> 01:16:59,720
Speaker 1: flawsh your success. You know, bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger vacations.

1445
01:17:00,200 --> 01:17:03,160
Speaker 1: So is there a model in place now that you go,

1446
01:17:03,600 --> 01:17:05,360
Speaker 1: we got the one in Oklahoma? What day we're gonna

1447
01:17:05,360 --> 01:17:07,680
Speaker 1: get three more properties and we feel that we'll be

1448
01:17:08,080 --> 01:17:10,639
Speaker 1: resonating as a as a as affirm that one day

1449
01:17:10,680 --> 01:17:14,599
Speaker 1: can be you know, a fortune five hundred. So that's

1450
01:17:14,600 --> 01:17:17,320
Speaker 1: actually good point and that's going back to your ownership pieces.

1451
01:17:17,479 --> 01:17:19,960
Speaker 1: So hotels, you can let it look at it a

1452
01:17:20,040 --> 01:17:23,040
Speaker 1: couple of ways. You can focus on cast floads, right,

1453
01:17:23,360 --> 01:17:26,360
Speaker 1: and that's an easier way to build a portfolio probably faster,

1454
01:17:27,120 --> 01:17:29,360
Speaker 1: or you can look at more you mentioned long term

1455
01:17:29,439 --> 01:17:32,519
Speaker 1: hotels are definitely capital intensive and definitely a long term investment.

1456
01:17:32,880 --> 01:17:36,519
Speaker 1: So UM a buying whole strategy. But if you want

1457
01:17:36,520 --> 01:17:39,439
Speaker 1: to really build a portfolio, you start you have a

1458
01:17:39,520 --> 01:17:41,880
Speaker 1: combination of both. You have a combination of having a

1459
01:17:41,960 --> 01:17:44,200
Speaker 1: cash flowing property which is more of a limited service,

1460
01:17:44,320 --> 01:17:46,400
Speaker 1: so maybe even more of economy like a Super eight

1461
01:17:47,000 --> 01:17:49,799
Speaker 1: or a Day's in. Those are which you consider economy.

1462
01:17:49,880 --> 01:17:52,519
Speaker 1: Hotels those are true or even a Moto six, those

1463
01:17:52,520 --> 01:17:55,400
Speaker 1: are good cantlow and property and a lot of folks,

1464
01:17:55,600 --> 01:17:59,280
Speaker 1: UM including the Indian community, they own over the hotel.

1465
01:17:59,680 --> 01:18:02,599
Speaker 1: Using that model. They started off with really small hotels,

1466
01:18:03,160 --> 01:18:05,519
Speaker 1: less than a hundred castle on properties and that's how

1467
01:18:05,560 --> 01:18:08,360
Speaker 1: they were build portfolios. And those are the same techniques

1468
01:18:08,400 --> 01:18:11,839
Speaker 1: that we're using starting off with smaller hotels cash on Hilton.

1469
01:18:12,240 --> 01:18:14,559
Speaker 1: When you start getting into the Hilton and the Marriott,

1470
01:18:14,560 --> 01:18:17,320
Speaker 1: we were fortunate because usually people in their later years

1471
01:18:17,479 --> 01:18:20,320
Speaker 1: and UM the hospitiality industry getting to more of the

1472
01:18:20,400 --> 01:18:22,960
Speaker 1: Hilton and the Marriott. But we've we looked at more

1473
01:18:23,040 --> 01:18:27,120
Speaker 1: of a whole hold approach. Buying hold approach a right.

1474
01:18:27,360 --> 01:18:30,679
Speaker 1: So so Jessica, when I look up, tell everybody Jessica

1475
01:18:30,760 --> 01:18:35,439
Speaker 1: Myers and uh Devon Read the founders of Epic Collective UM.

1476
01:18:35,640 --> 01:18:38,640
Speaker 1: Then in the hospitality business, they buying collect hotels, they

1477
01:18:38,720 --> 01:18:42,120
Speaker 1: cheek out investors to look at the long term investment

1478
01:18:42,160 --> 01:18:46,560
Speaker 1: opportunities they can do working with them. So I'm a

1479
01:18:46,640 --> 01:18:48,719
Speaker 1: good talker, I'm gonna I'm gonna like I'm a good talker,

1480
01:18:48,800 --> 01:18:50,719
Speaker 1: but I don't know if I'm a good enough talker

1481
01:18:50,840 --> 01:18:54,519
Speaker 1: to convince people to give me money. So see that's

1482
01:18:54,520 --> 01:18:56,920
Speaker 1: a say I've heard you See Jessica can talk. You know,

1483
01:18:57,840 --> 01:19:00,360
Speaker 1: you can talk to but Jessica over there, she got

1484
01:19:00,360 --> 01:19:03,519
Speaker 1: a little bit extra in our conversation. So when y'all

1485
01:19:03,560 --> 01:19:06,360
Speaker 1: going there and making apprecientation, who the talker or who

1486
01:19:06,479 --> 01:19:09,800
Speaker 1: was the lead person in the pitch? I mean me

1487
01:19:09,920 --> 01:19:13,960
Speaker 1: when with the hotels. Yeah, I was like, it's a

1488
01:19:14,040 --> 01:19:16,599
Speaker 1: collaborative effort, I feel because I always tell their vying.

1489
01:19:16,960 --> 01:19:19,800
Speaker 1: I mean technically, you know, you're the one who brought

1490
01:19:19,880 --> 01:19:22,479
Speaker 1: me into the hotel space. In the commercial space, it's

1491
01:19:22,520 --> 01:19:24,080
Speaker 1: not something I was looking to. You know, I'm in

1492
01:19:24,160 --> 01:19:26,960
Speaker 1: the single family space. I'm a real estate developer, UM

1493
01:19:27,120 --> 01:19:28,840
Speaker 1: as a whole seller, you know, I was. I was

1494
01:19:28,960 --> 01:19:32,280
Speaker 1: just fine, but someone to shed lightly like, hey, this

1495
01:19:32,400 --> 01:19:34,639
Speaker 1: is could be a lot more exponential. So I would

1496
01:19:34,680 --> 01:19:37,200
Speaker 1: say that she convinced me. And I'm the type person

1497
01:19:37,320 --> 01:19:38,560
Speaker 1: you know I used to I had a career in

1498
01:19:38,640 --> 01:19:41,200
Speaker 1: sales prior to getting to real estate, and I would say,

1499
01:19:41,280 --> 01:19:44,720
Speaker 1: once I see something that works, I'm gonna go tell everybody.

1500
01:19:45,120 --> 01:19:47,439
Speaker 1: And that's and that's the power of what we've been

1501
01:19:47,439 --> 01:19:49,880
Speaker 1: able to create through Epic Collective, because the van is

1502
01:19:49,880 --> 01:19:52,040
Speaker 1: the one that got me into the commercial space, and

1503
01:19:52,160 --> 01:19:54,760
Speaker 1: now we're able to tag team and tell people in

1504
01:19:54,880 --> 01:19:56,880
Speaker 1: our community, like, you know, we knew a lot of

1505
01:19:56,920 --> 01:19:59,680
Speaker 1: people from Georgia State. We knew UM University, which is

1506
01:19:59,720 --> 01:20:01,960
Speaker 1: where we went and where we met. We know a

1507
01:20:02,040 --> 01:20:05,479
Speaker 1: lot of people just from from networking, from building our team,

1508
01:20:05,560 --> 01:20:08,880
Speaker 1: from going to the events, the groundwork. Navan having a

1509
01:20:08,960 --> 01:20:11,960
Speaker 1: fourteen year career in the hotel space, she knew a

1510
01:20:12,040 --> 01:20:15,320
Speaker 1: lot of people. So it's really about identifying the opportunity,

1511
01:20:15,600 --> 01:20:18,680
Speaker 1: providing the education to take advantage of the opportunity, and

1512
01:20:18,840 --> 01:20:24,120
Speaker 1: then executing on the opportunity. Or you know, um, this

1513
01:20:24,240 --> 01:20:27,759
Speaker 1: is Rashan McDonald trying to walk me into the steps

1514
01:20:27,800 --> 01:20:31,200
Speaker 1: of becoming a potential investor or the steps of being

1515
01:20:31,240 --> 01:20:34,240
Speaker 1: a potential hotel owner or with Sean do because like

1516
01:20:34,320 --> 01:20:36,679
Speaker 1: this is what I hear. You know, like you're trying

1517
01:20:36,680 --> 01:20:39,400
Speaker 1: to own a McDonald's. They bring into McDonald's. You have

1518
01:20:39,520 --> 01:20:42,200
Speaker 1: to work so you can understand. I'm sure the same

1519
01:20:42,240 --> 01:20:44,320
Speaker 1: thing with Chick fil A and samething with Burger King.

1520
01:20:44,800 --> 01:20:47,800
Speaker 1: If I want to become a hotel owner, do I

1521
01:20:47,880 --> 01:20:49,880
Speaker 1: gotta go over there and make up bedge, clean out

1522
01:20:49,920 --> 01:20:52,920
Speaker 1: some restrooms or what what might of work do I

1523
01:20:53,080 --> 01:20:55,519
Speaker 1: have to put in to feel that? I need to

1524
01:20:55,640 --> 01:20:59,320
Speaker 1: understand the business of hospitality. That goes back to your

1525
01:20:59,320 --> 01:21:01,840
Speaker 1: ownership if you want to do if you want to

1526
01:21:01,920 --> 01:21:04,880
Speaker 1: become an owner operator, meaning then you will be doing

1527
01:21:04,920 --> 01:21:06,519
Speaker 1: that what you just said, you will be checking in

1528
01:21:06,640 --> 01:21:09,360
Speaker 1: folks and making it big. And that's what you're doing,

1529
01:21:09,640 --> 01:21:10,960
Speaker 1: y'all not doing that. Y'all don't want to be that.

1530
01:21:11,320 --> 01:21:13,360
Speaker 1: We're not doing it now, we're not doing it. I

1531
01:21:13,479 --> 01:21:15,560
Speaker 1: refused to check in and the again, that's why I

1532
01:21:15,720 --> 01:21:17,759
Speaker 1: I here. So if I had to check in games

1533
01:21:17,840 --> 01:21:20,320
Speaker 1: at this point in my career, somebody getting fight and

1534
01:21:20,880 --> 01:21:23,640
Speaker 1: part of my strategy is only my time so that

1535
01:21:23,720 --> 01:21:26,960
Speaker 1: I don't have to work. So I definitely am looking

1536
01:21:27,040 --> 01:21:29,640
Speaker 1: for more, you know, the ladder. As far as you

1537
01:21:29,720 --> 01:21:33,080
Speaker 1: know what I what was on my ownership pieces. I

1538
01:21:33,200 --> 01:21:36,559
Speaker 1: want to add to what you just said. Hotels are

1539
01:21:36,640 --> 01:21:40,240
Speaker 1: operating business where you can own a real estate McDonald's.

1540
01:21:40,280 --> 01:21:42,840
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily own a real estate, right. So that's

1541
01:21:42,880 --> 01:21:46,160
Speaker 1: what makes hotels a very attractive investment because not only

1542
01:21:46,200 --> 01:21:48,720
Speaker 1: are you owning the business, you're owning the real estate,

1543
01:21:48,960 --> 01:21:51,840
Speaker 1: which adds to the valuation. So for someone like yourself

1544
01:21:51,880 --> 01:21:54,759
Speaker 1: who wants to come in and invest, you and especially

1545
01:21:54,800 --> 01:21:56,920
Speaker 1: if you want to invest passively, you like, look, I

1546
01:21:57,040 --> 01:21:59,759
Speaker 1: had some extra funds, you know, I have some retirement

1547
01:21:59,800 --> 01:22:02,759
Speaker 1: funds or whatever. I'm looking to invest long term. Okay,

1548
01:22:02,840 --> 01:22:04,479
Speaker 1: you actually and I want to get more of a

1549
01:22:04,560 --> 01:22:06,479
Speaker 1: how your return to what I'm getting in the market

1550
01:22:06,560 --> 01:22:09,800
Speaker 1: or whatever my my other real estate investments. That's why

1551
01:22:09,880 --> 01:22:12,919
Speaker 1: hotels are a sexy asset because it goes on for performance.

1552
01:22:12,960 --> 01:22:15,880
Speaker 1: So think about it. Just think about it. Nobody's really

1553
01:22:15,920 --> 01:22:19,519
Speaker 1: traveling right now, but in a couple of years, when

1554
01:22:19,560 --> 01:22:22,720
Speaker 1: people feel more comfortable about traveling with COVID, hotels are

1555
01:22:22,760 --> 01:22:27,160
Speaker 1: gonna be booked sully. Right. So when sometimes people they

1556
01:22:27,200 --> 01:22:29,799
Speaker 1: can't wrap their brain around like, oh, nobody's saying the hotels.

1557
01:22:30,280 --> 01:22:32,679
Speaker 1: Right now, nobody's saying the hotels. But in a couple

1558
01:22:32,680 --> 01:22:35,040
Speaker 1: of years, maybe even next year, maybe having the end

1559
01:22:35,080 --> 01:22:37,559
Speaker 1: of this year, people are gonna be traveling in our

1560
01:22:37,640 --> 01:22:40,479
Speaker 1: hotels and our our our investments gonna be nice and

1561
01:22:40,800 --> 01:22:44,000
Speaker 1: beautiful and fact because because of the return on it. Man,

1562
01:22:44,240 --> 01:22:47,080
Speaker 1: you know, i'mnna be honest with you. I see the opportunity,

1563
01:22:47,160 --> 01:22:49,640
Speaker 1: you know, because people are traveling now, people are resisting

1564
01:22:49,720 --> 01:22:52,800
Speaker 1: because it's called cabin fever. I gotta get out. I

1565
01:22:52,880 --> 01:22:55,120
Speaker 1: gotta get out. And it goes back to the marketing

1566
01:22:55,280 --> 01:22:57,880
Speaker 1: of your property. Do you have you guys, because I

1567
01:22:58,120 --> 01:23:00,040
Speaker 1: hear the word team, but you know it's still of

1568
01:23:00,120 --> 01:23:02,719
Speaker 1: the property and the Hilton. You you're part of the registry.

1569
01:23:02,760 --> 01:23:04,679
Speaker 1: You're going there. You do a search and it pops

1570
01:23:04,840 --> 01:23:07,880
Speaker 1: up and and I'm sure you play a royalty fee

1571
01:23:07,960 --> 01:23:11,200
Speaker 1: to them for using their brand relationship because they provide

1572
01:23:11,240 --> 01:23:14,160
Speaker 1: that service to you and to help you, help you win.

1573
01:23:14,720 --> 01:23:19,240
Speaker 1: But in the end, you said something about profitable hotel properties.

1574
01:23:19,360 --> 01:23:20,960
Speaker 1: That's what you should be by. You shouldn't not be

1575
01:23:21,040 --> 01:23:23,880
Speaker 1: trying to build up a property that's not successful. You

1576
01:23:23,920 --> 01:23:26,240
Speaker 1: should go in and look at the portfolio. How does

1577
01:23:26,320 --> 01:23:30,599
Speaker 1: that process work. Well, the three's three things that makes

1578
01:23:30,640 --> 01:23:35,120
Speaker 1: the hotel successful. Location, brand, and operator. So to give

1579
01:23:35,120 --> 01:23:38,200
Speaker 1: you an idea about our hotel. Our hotel is in Oklahoma.

1580
01:23:38,280 --> 01:23:40,880
Speaker 1: Our hotel is right off the exit. So if you're

1581
01:23:40,960 --> 01:23:43,720
Speaker 1: driving by and you want to stop, boom, right off

1582
01:23:43,760 --> 01:23:47,320
Speaker 1: the exit, beautiful new home to sweets, property, extended stay,

1583
01:23:47,400 --> 01:23:49,800
Speaker 1: property with the kitchen net right. So then we have

1584
01:23:50,040 --> 01:23:53,479
Speaker 1: the brand. The brand is a Hilton property. How many

1585
01:23:53,560 --> 01:23:55,920
Speaker 1: people have stayed in Hilton? Brains were Shine, I'm sure

1586
01:23:55,920 --> 01:23:57,960
Speaker 1: you stay to the Hilton brand. You loved it, you

1587
01:23:58,040 --> 01:24:00,320
Speaker 1: felt comfortable. He's like, oh my goodness, I know when

1588
01:24:00,400 --> 01:24:03,120
Speaker 1: I say that Hilton brand, I'm I know what I'm

1589
01:24:03,160 --> 01:24:06,639
Speaker 1: getting into. Then we brought in an operator, Commonwealth Hotels.

1590
01:24:06,720 --> 01:24:08,960
Speaker 1: They manage over They have over a billion dollars in

1591
01:24:09,000 --> 01:24:11,760
Speaker 1: their portfolio. So we have the three components to make

1592
01:24:11,800 --> 01:24:15,040
Speaker 1: a hotel successful. And let gonna tell you something. You

1593
01:24:15,400 --> 01:24:18,680
Speaker 1: at that property, you do the early morning breakfast. We do.

1594
01:24:19,840 --> 01:24:22,040
Speaker 1: See that's that's that's the home run for me. Sam,

1595
01:24:22,240 --> 01:24:23,720
Speaker 1: I'm an old school Back in the day when I

1596
01:24:23,840 --> 01:24:26,040
Speaker 1: was traveling as a stand up comic, I had to

1597
01:24:26,120 --> 01:24:28,120
Speaker 1: stay at the hotel that gave me the free breakfast

1598
01:24:28,160 --> 01:24:30,760
Speaker 1: in the morning, the waffles, the eggs, scrambled eggs, and

1599
01:24:31,160 --> 01:24:33,679
Speaker 1: give me some orange. So that's a big selling point,

1600
01:24:34,040 --> 01:24:38,040
Speaker 1: correct it is. Yes, you know you gotta have those

1601
01:24:38,040 --> 01:24:40,320
Speaker 1: incentives because of the fact that it's a very competitive

1602
01:24:40,360 --> 01:24:42,000
Speaker 1: world like that, but you are hidden. That's all just

1603
01:24:42,040 --> 01:24:45,160
Speaker 1: saying is that I wasn't annoyed that the fact that

1604
01:24:45,160 --> 01:24:47,840
Speaker 1: because I knew you were off the hotel, off the property,

1605
01:24:47,880 --> 01:24:49,880
Speaker 1: seeing you get a lot of people who just I'm

1606
01:24:49,920 --> 01:24:52,839
Speaker 1: tired of driving, pull over. You get that type of customers,

1607
01:24:53,479 --> 01:24:56,080
Speaker 1: get the customers say. I actually had a few friends

1608
01:24:56,120 --> 01:24:59,080
Speaker 1: that were driving across cross country and when the news broke,

1609
01:24:59,240 --> 01:25:01,120
Speaker 1: they were like, I actual was gonna stop off in

1610
01:25:01,360 --> 01:25:04,160
Speaker 1: um Tulsa, but we're actually gonna stop off in Arena,

1611
01:25:04,280 --> 01:25:06,720
Speaker 1: which is just two hours from Tulsa, which was even

1612
01:25:06,800 --> 01:25:10,080
Speaker 1: more impactful. I will say, looking into this deal is

1613
01:25:10,240 --> 01:25:14,120
Speaker 1: understanding that years and years ago my ancestors couldn't walk

1614
01:25:14,160 --> 01:25:17,320
Speaker 1: through the front door, and now here we stand as

1615
01:25:17,439 --> 01:25:21,240
Speaker 1: owners of the property and able to provide jobs. We're

1616
01:25:21,280 --> 01:25:24,040
Speaker 1: able to save jobs like where people are getting acts

1617
01:25:24,120 --> 01:25:27,200
Speaker 1: during during the pandemic. We're able to save jobs and

1618
01:25:27,360 --> 01:25:30,400
Speaker 1: increase their quality of living. There were we we went

1619
01:25:30,439 --> 01:25:32,840
Speaker 1: and talked to the staff and some of them hadn't

1620
01:25:32,840 --> 01:25:36,040
Speaker 1: had vacation in years. Some of them didn't even have

1621
01:25:36,160 --> 01:25:38,320
Speaker 1: a four in one K so we were able to

1622
01:25:38,400 --> 01:25:41,720
Speaker 1: come in provide these resources. So it's the impact to

1623
01:25:41,760 --> 01:25:44,880
Speaker 1: the community as well as um you know, the people

1624
01:25:44,920 --> 01:25:48,599
Speaker 1: that were able to inspire through our story. Well, first

1625
01:25:48,640 --> 01:25:50,799
Speaker 1: of all, thank you for coming on money making conversation

1626
01:25:50,880 --> 01:25:53,000
Speaker 1: because you go your store. I have six sisters and

1627
01:25:53,120 --> 01:25:55,799
Speaker 1: I have I have a daughter, you know, she's graduated

1628
01:25:55,800 --> 01:25:59,280
Speaker 1: from college, and so anytime I I see inspirational stories

1629
01:25:59,400 --> 01:26:02,160
Speaker 1: by female, especially African American female, I want to highlight

1630
01:26:02,200 --> 01:26:04,280
Speaker 1: and that's what I'm doing right now. You know, I'm

1631
01:26:04,320 --> 01:26:06,840
Speaker 1: just one of many opportunities that are coming your way

1632
01:26:07,160 --> 01:26:09,920
Speaker 1: or will come your way in the future. Because your reason.

1633
01:26:09,960 --> 01:26:13,040
Speaker 1: I say that, because I'm always about trying to see

1634
01:26:13,200 --> 01:26:16,560
Speaker 1: the different way with lanes of opportunity. Because you know,

1635
01:26:17,040 --> 01:26:20,280
Speaker 1: people tend to pigeonhole black people or African Americans. You know,

1636
01:26:20,680 --> 01:26:23,400
Speaker 1: they say, we don't do we don't understand technology. So

1637
01:26:23,520 --> 01:26:26,840
Speaker 1: they that's why silcome Valance, And we weren't looking to

1638
01:26:26,920 --> 01:26:28,760
Speaker 1: hire you guys because we didn't think you guys wanted

1639
01:26:28,760 --> 01:26:31,519
Speaker 1: to technology opportunities. We thought y'all just wanted to use

1640
01:26:31,600 --> 01:26:34,400
Speaker 1: the phone and so so it's the same thing here

1641
01:26:34,479 --> 01:26:37,439
Speaker 1: with this hotel opportunity is that I'm just trying to

1642
01:26:37,520 --> 01:26:40,719
Speaker 1: answer common sense questions because I want you to understand

1643
01:26:40,800 --> 01:26:44,160
Speaker 1: that this is incredible what you're doing. It really is incredible.

1644
01:26:44,439 --> 01:26:46,320
Speaker 1: And I say that because of the fact that it's

1645
01:26:46,360 --> 01:26:49,400
Speaker 1: not normal. And that's a positive thing, because I think

1646
01:26:49,439 --> 01:26:52,840
Speaker 1: African Americans, in order to achieve ultimate success in this country,

1647
01:26:53,240 --> 01:26:55,479
Speaker 1: have to do against the norm and the norm and

1648
01:26:55,560 --> 01:26:57,760
Speaker 1: what you guys are achieving against the norm. But you're

1649
01:26:57,760 --> 01:27:01,760
Speaker 1: also taking your experience as former and eployees and say, hey,

1650
01:27:02,160 --> 01:27:04,400
Speaker 1: I want to I want to bet on myself and

1651
01:27:04,640 --> 01:27:06,240
Speaker 1: and and and close it. I want to talk about

1652
01:27:06,280 --> 01:27:08,760
Speaker 1: that betting on yourself and walking through the unknown. So

1653
01:27:09,040 --> 01:27:11,200
Speaker 1: I want to start I know, Jessica, I'm gonna start

1654
01:27:11,240 --> 01:27:14,040
Speaker 1: with you on bedding on yourself and because that's what

1655
01:27:14,120 --> 01:27:15,960
Speaker 1: you're happening right now. You're betting on your stuff and

1656
01:27:16,000 --> 01:27:17,840
Speaker 1: a hotel business. But you're betting on your stuff as

1657
01:27:17,840 --> 01:27:21,200
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. You're betting on yourself by convincing people they

1658
01:27:21,200 --> 01:27:24,200
Speaker 1: should invest their money into you. For long term opportunity.

1659
01:27:24,479 --> 01:27:28,240
Speaker 1: How does that work? Uh, whether the stages that just

1660
01:27:28,360 --> 01:27:31,559
Speaker 1: slow you down to go, wow, I'm doing this well?

1661
01:27:31,640 --> 01:27:34,680
Speaker 1: I mean really, we're still in the midst of doing this.

1662
01:27:34,800 --> 01:27:37,000
Speaker 1: I mean my head is very much still down. Um

1663
01:27:37,120 --> 01:27:40,120
Speaker 1: as I am a real estate developer and investor, but

1664
01:27:40,240 --> 01:27:43,000
Speaker 1: it started out being a whole seller. That journey of

1665
01:27:43,520 --> 01:27:47,200
Speaker 1: investing in myself and believing in myself once I closed

1666
01:27:47,280 --> 01:27:49,680
Speaker 1: my first wholesale deal. And whole selling is the act

1667
01:27:49,760 --> 01:27:52,639
Speaker 1: of finding an opportunity and passing out onto a buyer.

1668
01:27:53,000 --> 01:27:56,880
Speaker 1: And it's about understanding the language. It's about understanding you

1669
01:27:57,000 --> 01:27:59,360
Speaker 1: can make money off your assets and let your assets

1670
01:27:59,439 --> 01:28:02,320
Speaker 1: pay for your liabilities. That's when I started to change

1671
01:28:02,320 --> 01:28:04,840
Speaker 1: the narrative in the conversation. And then I realized, like

1672
01:28:05,520 --> 01:28:07,680
Speaker 1: it took me three weeks to come up with my

1673
01:28:07,800 --> 01:28:11,080
Speaker 1: first wholesale deal after getting the education, how long am

1674
01:28:11,120 --> 01:28:13,200
Speaker 1: I working in corporate America to make the same type

1675
01:28:13,200 --> 01:28:16,639
Speaker 1: of money. That's when I understood it's the conversation of time,

1676
01:28:17,280 --> 01:28:19,960
Speaker 1: where am I putting my time to invest to get

1677
01:28:20,040 --> 01:28:22,439
Speaker 1: me greater? And that's how I saw whole selling as

1678
01:28:22,439 --> 01:28:24,760
Speaker 1: a way to get in and bet on myself. That

1679
01:28:24,960 --> 01:28:27,800
Speaker 1: worst case, no matter where I grew to, which is now,

1680
01:28:28,280 --> 01:28:30,719
Speaker 1: you know, from whole seller to a hotel owner. Actually

1681
01:28:30,800 --> 01:28:34,719
Speaker 1: have a course teaching your start in real estate investing

1682
01:28:35,080 --> 01:28:38,000
Speaker 1: from whole seller to hotel owner, because I never knew

1683
01:28:38,040 --> 01:28:40,240
Speaker 1: that that was possible. But I knew that if I

1684
01:28:40,320 --> 01:28:43,719
Speaker 1: take the bet on myself, I at least have whole

1685
01:28:43,800 --> 01:28:47,000
Speaker 1: selling that I can fall back on to make my money,

1686
01:28:47,120 --> 01:28:49,880
Speaker 1: to make my income. And the sky has been the limit.

1687
01:28:49,960 --> 01:28:52,160
Speaker 1: I haven't had to go back to corporate America since

1688
01:28:52,200 --> 01:28:54,439
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen. If don't get me wrong, there have

1689
01:28:54,520 --> 01:28:56,960
Speaker 1: been times where I come home like, let me just quit.

1690
01:28:57,360 --> 01:28:59,479
Speaker 1: I can get back into sales, I can get back

1691
01:28:59,520 --> 01:29:01,599
Speaker 1: to doing what I do. But I'm like, just as

1692
01:29:01,680 --> 01:29:04,280
Speaker 1: hardy as I was about working for Fox, as hardy

1693
01:29:04,280 --> 01:29:06,840
Speaker 1: as I was about working for CBS, I'm just as

1694
01:29:06,920 --> 01:29:11,800
Speaker 1: grateful to work for Jessica Myers. And that's betting on yourself. Wow,

1695
01:29:12,360 --> 01:29:17,680
Speaker 1: MS reeves, betting on myself. It was just more of

1696
01:29:17,720 --> 01:29:20,840
Speaker 1: a motivation thing. I looked around and I saw all

1697
01:29:20,920 --> 01:29:25,200
Speaker 1: these people hotel owners or potential hotel owners, and all

1698
01:29:25,280 --> 01:29:28,759
Speaker 1: of them were white, and they own hundreds of acres

1699
01:29:28,800 --> 01:29:31,280
Speaker 1: in land, some even thousands of acres of land, and

1700
01:29:31,360 --> 01:29:33,479
Speaker 1: a lot of them inherited, a lot of them bought it.

1701
01:29:34,360 --> 01:29:36,240
Speaker 1: And I said, wait a minute, I can do this.

1702
01:29:37,280 --> 01:29:39,760
Speaker 1: I'm helping them do it. So why am I helping

1703
01:29:39,800 --> 01:29:42,240
Speaker 1: somebody else be wealthy when I can help myself be wealthy.

1704
01:29:42,920 --> 01:29:45,640
Speaker 1: And I thought about people like my grandmother who at

1705
01:29:45,720 --> 01:29:48,360
Speaker 1: our age, she couldn't check in at a Hilton property.

1706
01:29:48,640 --> 01:29:51,080
Speaker 1: She couldn't check in, you know what, days in because

1707
01:29:51,120 --> 01:29:53,160
Speaker 1: of the color of her skin. She couldn't even when

1708
01:29:53,200 --> 01:29:56,760
Speaker 1: my grandmother was on the on uh, she wasn't. Back

1709
01:29:56,800 --> 01:29:59,960
Speaker 1: in those days, in the fifties and sixties and forties,

1710
01:30:00,160 --> 01:30:02,160
Speaker 1: you had to have a certain level of education to

1711
01:30:02,280 --> 01:30:04,920
Speaker 1: even work in the hotel. And my grandmother that only

1712
01:30:04,960 --> 01:30:07,760
Speaker 1: had an eighth grade education. So I had to bet

1713
01:30:07,840 --> 01:30:10,400
Speaker 1: on myself for my grandmother. That's what I was doing

1714
01:30:10,479 --> 01:30:12,120
Speaker 1: so that way, and not even that I wanted to

1715
01:30:12,160 --> 01:30:14,560
Speaker 1: help other people get to the table. I noticed I

1716
01:30:14,640 --> 01:30:17,639
Speaker 1: was the only person of color. Sometimes I was the youngest,

1717
01:30:17,920 --> 01:30:20,280
Speaker 1: the only person of color, and the woman. Sometimes all

1718
01:30:20,360 --> 01:30:22,200
Speaker 1: three at the table. And I said, this is not right.

1719
01:30:22,880 --> 01:30:26,200
Speaker 1: My mentor told me, She said, Davine, she said, when

1720
01:30:26,320 --> 01:30:28,479
Speaker 1: you are sitting at the table and you notice that

1721
01:30:28,560 --> 01:30:30,560
Speaker 1: there's no other people looking like you. You need to

1722
01:30:30,640 --> 01:30:32,880
Speaker 1: change that. And she said, when you don't notice it,

1723
01:30:33,280 --> 01:30:35,519
Speaker 1: then that's the problem. Then you become the problem if

1724
01:30:35,560 --> 01:30:37,759
Speaker 1: you don't keep that door open. She told me. She said, Davine,

1725
01:30:37,840 --> 01:30:40,080
Speaker 1: I helped open the door for you. Now I was

1726
01:30:40,080 --> 01:30:41,880
Speaker 1: typing for you to keep that door open. So I

1727
01:30:42,000 --> 01:30:44,640
Speaker 1: had to bet on myself. And I realized from all

1728
01:30:44,720 --> 01:30:47,559
Speaker 1: the encouraging words and the love and support, I realized

1729
01:30:47,600 --> 01:30:49,320
Speaker 1: that this is bigger than me. This is bigger than

1730
01:30:49,360 --> 01:30:51,840
Speaker 1: me and Jessica. We have people who are looking at

1731
01:30:51,920 --> 01:30:54,200
Speaker 1: us who were like, Wow, you know what, I can

1732
01:30:54,280 --> 01:30:57,080
Speaker 1: own a hotel. I can do the impossible. You know,

1733
01:30:57,200 --> 01:31:00,519
Speaker 1: front desk agents and housekeeping supervisors. They're like, you know what,

1734
01:31:01,120 --> 01:31:03,400
Speaker 1: I can literally do this. I can create my own

1735
01:31:03,479 --> 01:31:07,439
Speaker 1: hotel and create possibilities. Because think because hotels is actually

1736
01:31:07,760 --> 01:31:10,400
Speaker 1: brings over eight million jobs to the to the economy,

1737
01:31:11,520 --> 01:31:13,960
Speaker 1: and people don't even think that. You know, if you

1738
01:31:14,080 --> 01:31:15,960
Speaker 1: are if you're an artist, or if you have a

1739
01:31:16,040 --> 01:31:18,760
Speaker 1: skin care line, or or if you have lotions, if

1740
01:31:18,800 --> 01:31:21,000
Speaker 1: you have all these different products, you can become a vendor.

1741
01:31:21,040 --> 01:31:23,280
Speaker 1: And you can become a vendor to a hotel but see,

1742
01:31:23,400 --> 01:31:25,679
Speaker 1: people don't know that. So now when you have faces

1743
01:31:25,760 --> 01:31:27,720
Speaker 1: like us who can help get you in that door,

1744
01:31:27,800 --> 01:31:31,519
Speaker 1: we're creating more opportunities and creating more possibilities. So that's

1745
01:31:31,520 --> 01:31:34,479
Speaker 1: why I had to better myself, not only too, so

1746
01:31:34,640 --> 01:31:36,880
Speaker 1: I can create a seat at the table so people

1747
01:31:36,920 --> 01:31:38,840
Speaker 1: can listen to me. Because when I noticed, when I

1748
01:31:38,880 --> 01:31:42,120
Speaker 1: didn't have any ownership rights, nobody wasn't listening to anything

1749
01:31:42,200 --> 01:31:44,320
Speaker 1: that I said. But now people are knocking down the

1750
01:31:44,400 --> 01:31:48,240
Speaker 1: doors to hear what I have to say. We've been

1751
01:31:48,400 --> 01:31:50,560
Speaker 1: We've been like a few years overnight success. You know

1752
01:31:50,600 --> 01:31:52,960
Speaker 1: how people say, oh it's overnight success, Like this is

1753
01:31:53,120 --> 01:31:55,679
Speaker 1: years and years of work. You know, Devon putting fourteen

1754
01:31:55,840 --> 01:31:58,800
Speaker 1: fifteen plus years into the industry. Need five years into

1755
01:31:58,800 --> 01:32:02,280
Speaker 1: the industry. This is is a journey of overnight success.

1756
01:32:02,439 --> 01:32:05,080
Speaker 1: This isn't just something that popped up in microwave. Well,

1757
01:32:05,240 --> 01:32:07,120
Speaker 1: I love it. And by the way, I said, you

1758
01:32:07,160 --> 01:32:09,639
Speaker 1: could talk Jessica, I have to slide it back over

1759
01:32:09,760 --> 01:32:11,920
Speaker 1: the day ball. She just showed me that she has

1760
01:32:12,000 --> 01:32:15,679
Speaker 1: the ability to articulate and great Lanthen put a sentence.

1761
01:32:17,560 --> 01:32:20,680
Speaker 1: I'll just say right now, you know, I thought I

1762
01:32:20,720 --> 01:32:22,760
Speaker 1: was listening with Stephen A Smith in real estate right there.

1763
01:32:22,840 --> 01:32:25,160
Speaker 1: You know, she just articulating, just throwing down with the

1764
01:32:25,240 --> 01:32:28,000
Speaker 1: words and the verbs, and I'll see that the table

1765
01:32:28,040 --> 01:32:30,280
Speaker 1: and black America, I gotta kick the door in and

1766
01:32:30,400 --> 01:32:32,800
Speaker 1: all that good of stuff. She was talking real stuff

1767
01:32:32,880 --> 01:32:36,280
Speaker 1: right there. When they say iron shoprins aren't really has

1768
01:32:36,439 --> 01:32:40,240
Speaker 1: been that between us and that, you know, us working together,

1769
01:32:40,320 --> 01:32:43,559
Speaker 1: the synergy we helped to exchange. You know, she's more

1770
01:32:43,600 --> 01:32:46,519
Speaker 1: of the numbers, the data, you know. Cool And then

1771
01:32:46,680 --> 01:32:49,280
Speaker 1: you know I have the background in television and media,

1772
01:32:49,400 --> 01:32:52,080
Speaker 1: so that's where I have developed my storytelling skills. But

1773
01:32:52,240 --> 01:32:55,360
Speaker 1: we we beat off each other and her energy and

1774
01:32:55,479 --> 01:32:57,800
Speaker 1: my energy, and that's how we created something effic Well,

1775
01:32:57,800 --> 01:33:00,240
Speaker 1: I would tell you created something You open my mind because,

1776
01:33:00,280 --> 01:33:02,840
Speaker 1: like I said, thank you for allowing me to dive

1777
01:33:02,920 --> 01:33:06,479
Speaker 1: into your story honestly, you know that as honest questions.

1778
01:33:06,520 --> 01:33:09,320
Speaker 1: And if they because I didn't know, I didn't know

1779
01:33:09,400 --> 01:33:12,280
Speaker 1: there was a possibility. Was I wanted to bring you

1780
01:33:12,320 --> 01:33:15,280
Speaker 1: on the show to expose people to another level. And

1781
01:33:15,400 --> 01:33:18,160
Speaker 1: you said something about the impossible when you were when

1782
01:33:18,200 --> 01:33:20,600
Speaker 1: you were speaking, and what you've really showed us is

1783
01:33:20,680 --> 01:33:23,800
Speaker 1: that the possible is possible. And if we understand the

1784
01:33:23,880 --> 01:33:26,800
Speaker 1: possible is possible, then it's not impossible. And that's what

1785
01:33:26,920 --> 01:33:29,839
Speaker 1: I gathered from this interview is that we're sitting around

1786
01:33:30,400 --> 01:33:32,960
Speaker 1: and we're limiting our opportunity because we don't see that

1787
01:33:33,080 --> 01:33:38,520
Speaker 1: the possibilities of achieving another lane of opportunity economically, entrepreneurially

1788
01:33:38,920 --> 01:33:41,680
Speaker 1: is out there. We will achieve it if we meet

1789
01:33:41,720 --> 01:33:45,320
Speaker 1: people like you, take courses that you guys recommend you take,

1790
01:33:45,600 --> 01:33:48,080
Speaker 1: and also become a potential investor. You don't have to

1791
01:33:48,160 --> 01:33:50,840
Speaker 1: drop a million dollars down or two million dollars now,

1792
01:33:51,240 --> 01:33:54,840
Speaker 1: you can become a passive investor and build a portfolio

1793
01:33:54,960 --> 01:33:56,960
Speaker 1: with you guys and allow you guys to build that

1794
01:33:57,040 --> 01:34:00,599
Speaker 1: through your strategies. That's really what we're talking about right now. Yes,

1795
01:34:00,800 --> 01:34:03,720
Speaker 1: oh absolutely, we we focus on collectively a lot of

1796
01:34:03,800 --> 01:34:06,760
Speaker 1: people because one of the barriers that people they don't

1797
01:34:06,800 --> 01:34:08,640
Speaker 1: want to get in the hotel business or even get

1798
01:34:08,720 --> 01:34:11,320
Speaker 1: into commercial real estate because they may not have millions

1799
01:34:11,360 --> 01:34:14,000
Speaker 1: and millions of dollars or access to capital. Well, I'm like,

1800
01:34:14,240 --> 01:34:16,920
Speaker 1: wait a minute. If you have ten of your friends

1801
01:34:17,080 --> 01:34:18,920
Speaker 1: or five of your friends, and y'all have you know,

1802
01:34:19,760 --> 01:34:23,120
Speaker 1: five thousand a piece, you know, that's what fifty thou right,

1803
01:34:23,880 --> 01:34:26,040
Speaker 1: or if you have, you know, a hundred thousand, if

1804
01:34:26,040 --> 01:34:27,960
Speaker 1: you got ten of your friends and that's a hundred

1805
01:34:27,960 --> 01:34:29,600
Speaker 1: thous that's a million dollars that you can do some

1806
01:34:29,760 --> 01:34:32,360
Speaker 1: damage and you can get some stuff done. But people,

1807
01:34:32,520 --> 01:34:34,680
Speaker 1: but it's a whole mindset thing, right, So it's a

1808
01:34:34,720 --> 01:34:37,639
Speaker 1: whole thing of educating people. So I have courses as well,

1809
01:34:37,680 --> 01:34:40,800
Speaker 1: also offer one on one coach coaching for people they're like.

1810
01:34:41,000 --> 01:34:43,519
Speaker 1: And another thing that people don't realize, it's folks who

1811
01:34:43,560 --> 01:34:47,000
Speaker 1: have twenty Airbnb units, thirty Airbnb units. I'm like, you

1812
01:34:47,040 --> 01:34:50,400
Speaker 1: know you own a small hotel? Wait what you know that?

1813
01:34:50,640 --> 01:34:53,320
Speaker 1: There are different creative ways and creative finances to help

1814
01:34:53,360 --> 01:34:56,200
Speaker 1: you get into the hotel space. But people don't realize that.

1815
01:34:56,320 --> 01:34:58,439
Speaker 1: And the reason why I'm so passionate about it because

1816
01:34:58,520 --> 01:35:02,240
Speaker 1: I see, I see how hotels can create so much

1817
01:35:02,439 --> 01:35:08,320
Speaker 1: generational wealth, so much. It's it's corporations of fortune companies

1818
01:35:08,479 --> 01:35:11,759
Speaker 1: who own hotels. People may not know it. High network

1819
01:35:12,080 --> 01:35:15,800
Speaker 1: individuals they own hotels. People don't know it. So I'm

1820
01:35:15,840 --> 01:35:18,000
Speaker 1: here like, hey, I know it, so let so let

1821
01:35:18,040 --> 01:35:20,639
Speaker 1: me help my people. Let me help y'all get into

1822
01:35:20,720 --> 01:35:23,560
Speaker 1: this space. So y'all can get not just bags, but

1823
01:35:23,720 --> 01:35:27,479
Speaker 1: create generational wealth. So I'm like, hey, you said this bag,

1824
01:35:27,680 --> 01:35:29,519
Speaker 1: invest in the hotel. So that way, it's a long

1825
01:35:29,640 --> 01:35:32,400
Speaker 1: term strategy. That's that's how I look at this, and

1826
01:35:32,520 --> 01:35:35,880
Speaker 1: I love the way you look at it, Jessica. They

1827
01:35:35,960 --> 01:35:40,000
Speaker 1: do it collaborative, collaborative economics. That's the biggest key is

1828
01:35:40,040 --> 01:35:43,400
Speaker 1: coming together and creating the synergy, creating your investor group,

1829
01:35:43,600 --> 01:35:46,880
Speaker 1: you know, connecting with Epic collective to show you how

1830
01:35:47,040 --> 01:35:49,320
Speaker 1: to do this, how to take your community and your

1831
01:35:49,360 --> 01:35:51,439
Speaker 1: small pot wherever you are, and how we can do

1832
01:35:51,600 --> 01:35:54,639
Speaker 1: this together. Um, that's really the big thing of changing

1833
01:35:54,680 --> 01:35:57,479
Speaker 1: the narrative of we work apart, we don't work together,

1834
01:35:57,720 --> 01:35:59,679
Speaker 1: we don't come together. Well, no, we're coming to show

1835
01:35:59,720 --> 01:36:01,600
Speaker 1: you that we do do in a major way and

1836
01:36:01,720 --> 01:36:03,920
Speaker 1: this is how you can be apart awesome. I want

1837
01:36:03,960 --> 01:36:06,840
Speaker 1: to thank you for coming on money making conversation, jess

1838
01:36:06,880 --> 01:36:09,560
Speaker 1: because your girls are amazing or you know, in the summertime.

1839
01:36:09,720 --> 01:36:12,400
Speaker 1: Love to invite you back, just that everybody knows should

1840
01:36:12,439 --> 01:36:15,080
Speaker 1: become a hotel owner. This conversation isn't over. I'm gonna

1841
01:36:15,080 --> 01:36:19,040
Speaker 1: tell you something please. You know you're in the Atlanta

1842
01:36:19,160 --> 01:36:21,160
Speaker 1: so you come by the office, show me some stuff.

1843
01:36:21,320 --> 01:36:25,040
Speaker 1: I will be writing some checks, because again, you only

1844
01:36:25,240 --> 01:36:28,320
Speaker 1: go with what you know. And so you're telling me, Rashan,

1845
01:36:28,960 --> 01:36:31,000
Speaker 1: slow it down, brother, come on over here and sit down.

1846
01:36:31,040 --> 01:36:33,519
Speaker 1: So I do want to become a hotel owner. I know.

1847
01:36:33,960 --> 01:36:36,479
Speaker 1: What I've learned is you know, God ain't making no

1848
01:36:36,600 --> 01:36:38,920
Speaker 1: more land out here, ain't making no more new land.

1849
01:36:39,200 --> 01:36:41,080
Speaker 1: And so you you're telling me I can buy some

1850
01:36:41,200 --> 01:36:43,560
Speaker 1: of that land that he's made, and that means that

1851
01:36:43,640 --> 01:36:46,120
Speaker 1: becomes an asset. And if an asset, that I can

1852
01:36:46,160 --> 01:36:49,000
Speaker 1: will down to my family members, to my daughter. And

1853
01:36:49,120 --> 01:36:52,360
Speaker 1: that's how you build legacy. And so sometimes you can

1854
01:36:52,479 --> 01:36:54,840
Speaker 1: keep it simple, you know some and not it can

1855
01:36:54,880 --> 01:36:57,599
Speaker 1: be go beyond my house. I can. I'm buying all

1856
01:36:57,640 --> 01:37:00,559
Speaker 1: these houses out here, but ain't nobody rent them? Okay,

1857
01:37:00,720 --> 01:37:03,559
Speaker 1: nobody's staying in them. No, I'm not making any money

1858
01:37:03,640 --> 01:37:06,080
Speaker 1: all my home purchases. So you said reach out if

1859
01:37:06,080 --> 01:37:09,040
Speaker 1: you if you decided to stop buying a house, invest

1860
01:37:09,120 --> 01:37:11,680
Speaker 1: that money in the hotel. Then guess what, as we

1861
01:37:11,840 --> 01:37:15,000
Speaker 1: say mailbox money, you start making that mail box money

1862
01:37:15,120 --> 01:37:18,840
Speaker 1: checks me coming in the mail. So Divine, he ain't

1863
01:37:18,880 --> 01:37:21,600
Speaker 1: scared me. You ain't scared me. You just need to

1864
01:37:21,680 --> 01:37:24,120
Speaker 1: find me so we can talk about that hotel. I'm

1865
01:37:24,160 --> 01:37:29,680
Speaker 1: fine now, I don't watch out, all right? Thank you

1866
01:37:29,720 --> 01:37:31,800
Speaker 1: all for coming on Money Making Conversations. I appreciate you

1867
01:37:32,560 --> 01:37:36,720
Speaker 1: right opportunity and also too. We just want to add

1868
01:37:36,720 --> 01:37:38,840
Speaker 1: that if you are looking to invest, if you're looking

1869
01:37:38,880 --> 01:37:41,479
Speaker 1: to connect with our team, please please please follow us

1870
01:37:41,760 --> 01:37:45,799
Speaker 1: at Epic Collective with a que on Instagram. Also email

1871
01:37:45,920 --> 01:37:49,880
Speaker 1: us at invest at epic Collective dot com. That's Epic

1872
01:37:50,000 --> 01:37:54,400
Speaker 1: with a que Epic Collective dot com. Let's do this collectively.

1873
01:37:54,920 --> 01:37:57,920
Speaker 1: We will be right back with more money Making Conversations

1874
01:37:58,000 --> 01:38:01,720
Speaker 1: with your host, Roshan McDonald. Hi. Roshan McDonald's the host

1875
01:38:01,800 --> 01:38:04,720
Speaker 1: of money Making Conversation. The Cafe Mocha Swag Award is

1876
01:38:04,760 --> 01:38:07,040
Speaker 1: a celebration of black men who are making a difference

1877
01:38:07,080 --> 01:38:10,360
Speaker 1: in our community by empowering others to reach their life goals.

1878
01:38:10,760 --> 01:38:14,720
Speaker 1: From civic leaders, businessmen, activists, celebrities and everyday dad's. The

1879
01:38:14,800 --> 01:38:18,160
Speaker 1: Cafe Mocha Swagg Award winner this week is Bubba Wallace.

1880
01:38:18,400 --> 01:38:20,600
Speaker 1: He's the only black driver who raises full time in

1881
01:38:20,680 --> 01:38:23,840
Speaker 1: NASCAR's Top three series and has been outspoken about racial

1882
01:38:23,920 --> 01:38:27,599
Speaker 1: injustice in the wake of George Floyd's killing on Bubba

1883
01:38:27,600 --> 01:38:30,360
Speaker 1: Wallace was a strong advocate for NASCAR's decision to ban

1884
01:38:30,479 --> 01:38:33,320
Speaker 1: the Confederate flag from his properties on June ten. It's

1885
01:38:33,320 --> 01:38:36,240
Speaker 1: been a long process, a hard thought process, but it's

1886
01:38:36,240 --> 01:38:38,320
Speaker 1: all part of it and looking back on and I

1887
01:38:38,360 --> 01:38:40,560
Speaker 1: wouldn't trade it for anything. Athletes are put on a

1888
01:38:40,600 --> 01:38:43,200
Speaker 1: pedestal which we have to have to take that initiative

1889
01:38:43,240 --> 01:38:45,280
Speaker 1: and take that next step of being that role model

1890
01:38:45,600 --> 01:38:48,080
Speaker 1: and representing the best way we can to make sure

1891
01:38:48,120 --> 01:38:50,599
Speaker 1: we've come across and the most positive light. The Cafe

1892
01:38:50,680 --> 01:38:53,960
Speaker 1: Moka Swag Award represents men who have strength, whose wisdom

1893
01:38:54,040 --> 01:38:57,479
Speaker 1: is assertive, and who is genuine in their spirit. Welcome

1894
01:38:57,520 --> 01:39:01,520
Speaker 1: back to money making conversations with your most Rashwan McDonald.

1895
01:39:02,439 --> 01:39:05,320
Speaker 1: Look for your children's eyes to see the true magic

1896
01:39:05,479 --> 01:39:08,840
Speaker 1: of a forest. It's a storybook world for them. You

1897
01:39:09,040 --> 01:39:12,000
Speaker 1: look and see a tree. They see the wrinkled face

1898
01:39:12,080 --> 01:39:15,400
Speaker 1: of a wizard with arms outstretched to the sky. They

1899
01:39:15,479 --> 01:39:18,560
Speaker 1: see treasure and pebbles. They see a windy path that

1900
01:39:18,720 --> 01:39:23,000
Speaker 1: could lead to adventure, and they see you. They're fearless. Guide.

1901
01:39:23,240 --> 01:39:26,439
Speaker 1: Is this fascinating world? Find a forest near you? And

1902
01:39:26,560 --> 01:39:29,560
Speaker 1: start exploring. A Discover the Forest dot org brought to

1903
01:39:29,600 --> 01:39:32,120
Speaker 1: you by the United States Forest Service and the ad Council.

1904
01:39:32,960 --> 01:39:35,560
Speaker 1: Adoption of teams from foster care is a topic not

1905
01:39:35,760 --> 01:39:37,800
Speaker 1: enough people know about, and we're here to change that.

1906
01:39:38,120 --> 01:39:41,600
Speaker 1: I'm April Dinnuity, host of the new podcast Navigating Adoption,

1907
01:39:41,680 --> 01:39:45,320
Speaker 1: presented by adopt Us Kids. Each episode brings you compelling,

1908
01:39:45,439 --> 01:39:48,479
Speaker 1: real life adoption stories told by the families that lived them,

1909
01:39:48,520 --> 01:39:52,280
Speaker 1: with commentary from experts. Visit adopt us Kids dot org,

1910
01:39:52,400 --> 01:39:56,160
Speaker 1: slash podcast, or subscribe to Navigating Adoption presented by adopt

1911
01:39:56,240 --> 01:39:58,439
Speaker 1: Us Kids, brought to you by the U. S Department

1912
01:39:58,479 --> 01:40:01,200
Speaker 1: of Health, the Human Services Ministry for Children and Families,

1913
01:40:01,280 --> 01:40:06,400
Speaker 1: and the Council. What grows in the forest trees, Sure

1914
01:40:06,760 --> 01:40:09,440
Speaker 1: you know what else grows in the forest, Our imagination,

1915
01:40:09,800 --> 01:40:12,880
Speaker 1: our sense of wonder, and our family bonds grow too,

1916
01:40:13,280 --> 01:40:18,280
Speaker 1: because when we disconnect from this and connect with this,

1917
01:40:19,720 --> 01:40:23,160
Speaker 1: we reconnect with each other. The forest is closer than

1918
01:40:23,240 --> 01:40:26,600
Speaker 1: you think. Find a forest near you and start exploring.

1919
01:40:26,760 --> 01:40:29,280
Speaker 1: I Discover the Forest dot org brought to you by

1920
01:40:29,320 --> 01:40:32,880
Speaker 1: the United States Forest Service and the ad Council. My

1921
01:40:33,040 --> 01:40:36,320
Speaker 1: next guest is Justin Dawkins. He most recently launched and

1922
01:40:36,400 --> 01:40:39,679
Speaker 1: serving his managing partner for Collab Capital and investment firm

1923
01:40:39,760 --> 01:40:43,080
Speaker 1: that focuses on providing black entrepreneurs to social, human and

1924
01:40:43,160 --> 01:40:46,720
Speaker 1: financial capital. Can I repeat that, the social, human, and

1925
01:40:46,840 --> 01:40:50,479
Speaker 1: financial capital and need to build profitable businesses. The goal

1926
01:40:50,600 --> 01:40:53,160
Speaker 1: is to help solve the growing racial wealth gap in America.

1927
01:40:53,360 --> 01:40:56,200
Speaker 1: Please walking to money making conversation. Long time, my friend

1928
01:40:56,520 --> 01:41:00,519
Speaker 1: Justin Dawkins. How you doing, sir? And to make that

1929
01:41:00,560 --> 01:41:02,200
Speaker 1: little pivot in the chair, you know, so I can

1930
01:41:02,479 --> 01:41:05,080
Speaker 1: really really look at you right quick. You know, because

1931
01:41:05,080 --> 01:41:07,840
Speaker 1: we're in the pandemic year. Man, the racial gap we

1932
01:41:07,920 --> 01:41:11,640
Speaker 1: got further apart, Unemployment got further apart, and uh, the

1933
01:41:11,760 --> 01:41:14,400
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen has made us to be and we've been

1934
01:41:14,479 --> 01:41:17,599
Speaker 1: victimized by health and uh, whether it's our past bad

1935
01:41:17,680 --> 01:41:21,000
Speaker 1: health habits, but COVID nineteen is really attacked the black

1936
01:41:21,040 --> 01:41:23,560
Speaker 1: community and the community of color. So how do we

1937
01:41:23,680 --> 01:41:26,200
Speaker 1: come out of this? Because you said by the year

1938
01:41:26,680 --> 01:41:33,200
Speaker 1: fifty three, the medium network for black households will be zero. Yeah. Um, well,

1939
01:41:33,240 --> 01:41:35,439
Speaker 1: let's let's start with with the elephant in the room.

1940
01:41:36,160 --> 01:41:40,040
Speaker 1: Uh was a wake up call for everybody. It was

1941
01:41:40,120 --> 01:41:43,479
Speaker 1: an opportunity you were forced to sit down, you know,

1942
01:41:43,560 --> 01:41:45,639
Speaker 1: as my grandmother would say, and some of my elders

1943
01:41:45,680 --> 01:41:48,400
Speaker 1: would say, Um, if you don't if you don't rest,

1944
01:41:48,479 --> 01:41:50,639
Speaker 1: if you don't sit down your body or sit you down. Yes,

1945
01:41:51,240 --> 01:41:53,760
Speaker 1: And that to me is where where Black America is

1946
01:41:53,800 --> 01:41:58,120
Speaker 1: experienced um, and a lot of other communities within the country. Uh.

1947
01:41:58,200 --> 01:42:01,759
Speaker 1: And it's exacerbated, it's highlighted and illuminated what has already

1948
01:42:01,800 --> 01:42:05,479
Speaker 1: been bad or wrong or where there were disparities, we

1949
01:42:05,640 --> 01:42:09,160
Speaker 1: were seeing it more. Uh. And I think now is

1950
01:42:09,200 --> 01:42:12,880
Speaker 1: the time to be hyper intentional. I think you're intro

1951
01:42:13,200 --> 01:42:16,800
Speaker 1: was eloquent and elegant and point, and it was you

1952
01:42:16,880 --> 01:42:20,360
Speaker 1: gotta establish these dreams. We gotta start with baby steps,

1953
01:42:20,439 --> 01:42:23,160
Speaker 1: smart goals, you know, to take those big dreams and

1954
01:42:23,200 --> 01:42:25,240
Speaker 1: break them down into pieces things as that we can

1955
01:42:25,280 --> 01:42:28,240
Speaker 1: manage and do. Um. But that's where that's where it

1956
01:42:28,320 --> 01:42:32,160
Speaker 1: starts for me going forward. One for Black entrepreneurs and

1957
01:42:32,240 --> 01:42:35,400
Speaker 1: innovators is take those big grand ideas, break them down

1958
01:42:35,439 --> 01:42:37,920
Speaker 1: into smart goals and get to work. Well you know

1959
01:42:38,040 --> 01:42:40,080
Speaker 1: that that that the key word, get to work, you know.

1960
01:42:40,240 --> 01:42:43,720
Speaker 1: And so it's been interesting year because as as you

1961
01:42:43,840 --> 01:42:46,639
Speaker 1: move forward, you know, it's not the pandemic is almost

1962
01:42:46,640 --> 01:42:49,400
Speaker 1: put like everybody on a new welfare system because everybody's

1963
01:42:49,439 --> 01:42:52,280
Speaker 1: been asking for a hand down. Everybody has been complaining that,

1964
01:42:52,800 --> 01:42:55,200
Speaker 1: you know, they can't find a job that they want,

1965
01:42:55,280 --> 01:42:57,400
Speaker 1: maybe the job that they need. Because in the end,

1966
01:42:57,479 --> 01:42:59,200
Speaker 1: you want to be able to do something that makes

1967
01:42:59,240 --> 01:43:01,960
Speaker 1: you happy. You know, that's why we become entrepreneurs. We

1968
01:43:02,280 --> 01:43:05,360
Speaker 1: generally left jobs is we didn't feel satisfied in and

1969
01:43:05,479 --> 01:43:08,280
Speaker 1: start relying on our own personal skills. We'll just the

1970
01:43:08,320 --> 01:43:13,360
Speaker 1: motivating factor, for one, for African Americans to change the

1971
01:43:13,439 --> 01:43:18,519
Speaker 1: game for themselves. I think the primary motivating factor is

1972
01:43:19,400 --> 01:43:23,680
Speaker 1: taking into taking our own destiny and putting it in

1973
01:43:23,760 --> 01:43:26,599
Speaker 1: our own hands. I think we've I think we've looked

1974
01:43:26,800 --> 01:43:30,680
Speaker 1: for other communities and other people, whether it be politicians,

1975
01:43:30,800 --> 01:43:34,200
Speaker 1: whether it be more fluent people. We've always looked at

1976
01:43:34,240 --> 01:43:37,640
Speaker 1: them to figure it out for us. Um and you

1977
01:43:37,720 --> 01:43:40,559
Speaker 1: know that that was one of the greatest lives ever told.

1978
01:43:41,000 --> 01:43:43,639
Speaker 1: UH is that at the end of the day, you've

1979
01:43:43,680 --> 01:43:46,200
Speaker 1: got to, you know, pull yourself up. You do have to,

1980
01:43:46,840 --> 01:43:50,840
Speaker 1: um be wary of those that promised things. So we

1981
01:43:51,000 --> 01:43:52,559
Speaker 1: do have to be mindful of that and look out

1982
01:43:52,640 --> 01:43:56,200
Speaker 1: for the traps. But Ultimately, we have to center ourselves

1983
01:43:56,280 --> 01:43:59,479
Speaker 1: on our goals and what we want to accomplish as

1984
01:43:59,520 --> 01:44:02,599
Speaker 1: a people, and that's collective and I think that's important. Well,

1985
01:44:02,680 --> 01:44:05,080
Speaker 1: it's so much important. Here's an interesting thing. That's why

1986
01:44:05,120 --> 01:44:08,280
Speaker 1: I get to know. When people give millennials a bad rap.

1987
01:44:08,320 --> 01:44:11,639
Speaker 1: They always say millennials want to skip steps. You know, well,

1988
01:44:11,720 --> 01:44:14,240
Speaker 1: I guess what. You know, when you looked at me

1989
01:44:14,600 --> 01:44:16,920
Speaker 1: growing up, because I'm older than you, you know, I was,

1990
01:44:17,120 --> 01:44:19,760
Speaker 1: I was somewhat hindered. I was told to play a

1991
01:44:19,880 --> 01:44:22,640
Speaker 1: certain role in life, to be a certain person that

1992
01:44:23,080 --> 01:44:26,200
Speaker 1: you know, Entrepreneurship wasn't even pitched to me, wasn't even

1993
01:44:26,320 --> 01:44:28,200
Speaker 1: thought of in my process. You know. I came from

1994
01:44:28,240 --> 01:44:31,080
Speaker 1: the hood. That was my number one guard. Was just

1995
01:44:31,120 --> 01:44:32,519
Speaker 1: to get out the hood. You know. Then when they

1996
01:44:32,600 --> 01:44:34,320
Speaker 1: got my degree, I was supposed to get married and

1997
01:44:34,360 --> 01:44:36,400
Speaker 1: then I was supposed to settle down and be happy

1998
01:44:36,479 --> 01:44:40,120
Speaker 1: in the corporation. Millennials don't think that way. They believe

1999
01:44:40,160 --> 01:44:43,439
Speaker 1: in mentors. They believe in skipping steps. It's possible. What's

2000
01:44:43,439 --> 01:44:45,519
Speaker 1: wrong with skipping the step? If somebody can show you

2001
01:44:46,000 --> 01:44:48,719
Speaker 1: you can avoid that. That's what mentorship is all about.

2002
01:44:49,400 --> 01:44:53,040
Speaker 1: Talk about the bad rap that millennials get because they

2003
01:44:53,720 --> 01:44:56,280
Speaker 1: have more access to tech, they have more access to

2004
01:44:56,640 --> 01:44:59,920
Speaker 1: clear understanding of social media, a better understanding of mark,

2005
01:45:00,479 --> 01:45:03,400
Speaker 1: and a better understanding of what an entrepreneurship. Being an

2006
01:45:03,520 --> 01:45:06,040
Speaker 1: entrepreneur is not just a it's bigger than it's more

2007
01:45:06,080 --> 01:45:09,519
Speaker 1: than just a running the business. It's running the brand. Yeah,

2008
01:45:10,600 --> 01:45:13,320
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing and I think ething thatil

2009
01:45:13,360 --> 01:45:16,240
Speaker 1: on here. I'm a millennial. I'm at the very very

2010
01:45:16,320 --> 01:45:19,519
Speaker 1: beginning of it. Uh and uh, we get a bad

2011
01:45:19,680 --> 01:45:23,679
Speaker 1: rap because we don't we're not necessarily we're not aware

2012
01:45:23,800 --> 01:45:27,320
Speaker 1: of where we actually fit in in the spectrum of

2013
01:45:27,439 --> 01:45:31,040
Speaker 1: time and influence, and so we're actually in the middle. Right.

2014
01:45:31,120 --> 01:45:34,439
Speaker 1: We were the very first generation, in the last generation

2015
01:45:34,479 --> 01:45:36,719
Speaker 1: in some ways. Right, So we were the the last

2016
01:45:36,760 --> 01:45:42,439
Speaker 1: generation to understand what analog meant. Right. We we were

2017
01:45:42,560 --> 01:45:45,960
Speaker 1: born analog, grew up digital. So we fit this really

2018
01:45:46,080 --> 01:45:48,920
Speaker 1: interesting space so where we know what a cassette tape

2019
01:45:49,000 --> 01:45:51,879
Speaker 1: is and the VCR is, but we also understand streaming

2020
01:45:51,960 --> 01:45:56,280
Speaker 1: content Netflix and DVD and digital streaming. Right, we understand

2021
01:45:57,000 --> 01:46:00,479
Speaker 1: both of these worlds and how those two things eventually

2022
01:46:00,600 --> 01:46:04,960
Speaker 1: came together. And so the bad rap is we none

2023
01:46:05,000 --> 01:46:08,400
Speaker 1: of us have ever been here before, right, And what

2024
01:46:08,680 --> 01:46:12,439
Speaker 1: what wisdom is supposed to do? The purpose of wisdom

2025
01:46:12,640 --> 01:46:16,400
Speaker 1: is to be transferred. That's what wealth is all about, right,

2026
01:46:16,479 --> 01:46:20,439
Speaker 1: It's about having something to transfer. And one of the

2027
01:46:20,520 --> 01:46:23,560
Speaker 1: things we don't we don't necessarily give enough credit for,

2028
01:46:23,880 --> 01:46:27,639
Speaker 1: give enough value to, is information. Right, is the things

2029
01:46:27,720 --> 01:46:31,840
Speaker 1: that we've learned, And millennials have just done a great job,

2030
01:46:31,920 --> 01:46:35,560
Speaker 1: in my opinion, humble opinion, of taking the lessons that

2031
01:46:35,680 --> 01:46:39,760
Speaker 1: we've learned, whether intentionally from our from our elders or unintentionally,

2032
01:46:39,880 --> 01:46:42,240
Speaker 1: and applied it to what it is the lives that

2033
01:46:42,360 --> 01:46:43,800
Speaker 1: we want to live and the things that we want

2034
01:46:43,840 --> 01:46:48,280
Speaker 1: to create. To me, that is the greatest wealth generation

2035
01:46:48,520 --> 01:46:51,600
Speaker 1: or wealth practice that we have actually been able to

2036
01:46:51,640 --> 01:46:53,960
Speaker 1: transfer from generation to generation. And I think that's a

2037
01:46:54,040 --> 01:46:57,160
Speaker 1: great place to start to continue to build in other areas.

2038
01:46:57,240 --> 01:46:58,960
Speaker 1: We know, it's really interesting when you were talking about

2039
01:46:59,000 --> 01:47:00,800
Speaker 1: you know, you was born in the analog and you

2040
01:47:00,840 --> 01:47:05,240
Speaker 1: know I grew up in the A track A track

2041
01:47:05,360 --> 01:47:09,640
Speaker 1: and the rotary dial telephone and then pushed the touchstone.

2042
01:47:09,680 --> 01:47:11,679
Speaker 1: You know, that was a lot we can to be compressed.

2043
01:47:11,760 --> 01:47:14,599
Speaker 1: Numbers not baby, come on now, but the last twelve

2044
01:47:14,720 --> 01:47:17,840
Speaker 1: years when you've seen the the iPhone come out. You know,

2045
01:47:18,000 --> 01:47:21,200
Speaker 1: we've seen technology just you know, I think that's that's

2046
01:47:21,800 --> 01:47:24,120
Speaker 1: at warp speed. I guess you could use the terminology

2047
01:47:24,200 --> 01:47:27,080
Speaker 1: because of the fact that you know, you can the

2048
01:47:27,479 --> 01:47:31,120
Speaker 1: c d kme out. Then it's basically outdated because its streaming. Okay,

2049
01:47:31,479 --> 01:47:34,439
Speaker 1: so right now, you know, the streaming services have told

2050
01:47:34,479 --> 01:47:36,120
Speaker 1: you why do you need the CD player? Why do

2051
01:47:36,200 --> 01:47:38,400
Speaker 1: you need to buy CDs? And so it has changed

2052
01:47:38,439 --> 01:47:41,040
Speaker 1: the music game because you have more more more independent artists.

2053
01:47:41,080 --> 01:47:43,160
Speaker 1: They use their social media to drop their own sales

2054
01:47:43,520 --> 01:47:46,960
Speaker 1: and things like that, and so that technology. Man, you know,

2055
01:47:47,160 --> 01:47:50,280
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Collab Capital talk about in this new era,

2056
01:47:50,600 --> 01:47:53,040
Speaker 1: you know, because trying to do what you're trying to do,

2057
01:47:53,280 --> 01:47:55,479
Speaker 1: what I was growing up may not have been possible,

2058
01:47:55,560 --> 01:47:57,599
Speaker 1: but you can do it now. Talk about the whole

2059
01:47:57,640 --> 01:48:02,800
Speaker 1: basis and the reason that that that that company was founded. Yeah,

2060
01:48:03,280 --> 01:48:07,200
Speaker 1: I love telling our story. Uh. Collab Capital was birthed

2061
01:48:07,240 --> 01:48:10,679
Speaker 1: out of three good friends who started their companies around

2062
01:48:10,720 --> 01:48:13,960
Speaker 1: the same time I started my tech startup in two

2063
01:48:14,040 --> 01:48:17,000
Speaker 1: thousand and twelve. Jewel Burt Solivan she started hers in

2064
01:48:17,040 --> 01:48:20,080
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve, and Barry givings. Our third partner

2065
01:48:20,720 --> 01:48:23,800
Speaker 1: who really is the brainchild of bringing us together, he

2066
01:48:23,880 --> 01:48:26,200
Speaker 1: started his business around the same time. So about six

2067
01:48:26,320 --> 01:48:29,080
Speaker 1: months we were all starting our our business in a

2068
01:48:29,280 --> 01:48:35,599
Speaker 1: very young tech entrepreneurial city, Atlanta, twelve or twelve years ago,

2069
01:48:36,479 --> 01:48:40,040
Speaker 1: excuse me, eight years ago was um just what we

2070
01:48:40,120 --> 01:48:42,560
Speaker 1: call like a fledgling tech hub. Like we were just

2071
01:48:42,640 --> 01:48:46,439
Speaker 1: starting to form. And we realized that as we were

2072
01:48:46,479 --> 01:48:49,439
Speaker 1: building our businesses, uh, it would have been great to

2073
01:48:49,640 --> 01:48:53,519
Speaker 1: have a greater community and connectivity to those that could

2074
01:48:53,600 --> 01:48:56,519
Speaker 1: write checks, right so investors, um, those that could be

2075
01:48:56,560 --> 01:49:01,120
Speaker 1: our customers for our adventures uh, and really the right talent.

2076
01:49:01,439 --> 01:49:03,879
Speaker 1: And so we realized that as we're going our businesses

2077
01:49:04,280 --> 01:49:07,200
Speaker 1: that when we exited those businesses and we were to

2078
01:49:07,280 --> 01:49:10,280
Speaker 1: whatever height level of success, we want to make sure

2079
01:49:10,320 --> 01:49:14,439
Speaker 1: that the next group of innovators, tech entrepreneurs, brand builders,

2080
01:49:14,840 --> 01:49:17,280
Speaker 1: they actually had some shoulders to stand on. They didn't

2081
01:49:17,320 --> 01:49:19,679
Speaker 1: have to start where we started. Um, they were able

2082
01:49:19,720 --> 01:49:22,759
Speaker 1: to start where we left off. And so we built

2083
01:49:22,800 --> 01:49:27,839
Speaker 1: collab Capital to be a bridge for as far as knowledge,

2084
01:49:28,040 --> 01:49:31,960
Speaker 1: social capital, and financial capital to help a lot of

2085
01:49:32,120 --> 01:49:35,839
Speaker 1: early stage ventures and innovators avoid some of the traps

2086
01:49:36,320 --> 01:49:38,160
Speaker 1: UM and some of the things that they're likely going

2087
01:49:38,240 --> 01:49:41,639
Speaker 1: to run into, but then also uh to catalyze more

2088
01:49:41,720 --> 01:49:43,759
Speaker 1: of the community to get behind some of the brands

2089
01:49:43,800 --> 01:49:46,519
Speaker 1: and the companies that they're building. So that was kind

2090
01:49:46,560 --> 01:49:49,240
Speaker 1: of the quick abridge version. But that's that's at the

2091
01:49:49,320 --> 01:49:51,240
Speaker 1: epicenter of why we do what we do. Okay, let

2092
01:49:51,280 --> 01:49:53,920
Speaker 1: me just read this over. The team announced the launch

2093
01:49:53,960 --> 01:49:57,439
Speaker 1: of creating the largest fund for black founders in June

2094
01:49:57,760 --> 01:50:00,840
Speaker 1: June this year. COLLAB is an entity founders to support

2095
01:50:00,920 --> 01:50:03,200
Speaker 1: black owned businesses in a way that would create and

2096
01:50:03,280 --> 01:50:06,160
Speaker 1: sustained wealth within the Black community. I ask you this,

2097
01:50:06,520 --> 01:50:08,519
Speaker 1: and this is just an honest question. What is the

2098
01:50:08,560 --> 01:50:11,240
Speaker 1: black community? Is it a neighborhood or is it people?

2099
01:50:11,720 --> 01:50:15,519
Speaker 1: Is the movement? What is the black community? That's a

2100
01:50:15,560 --> 01:50:19,599
Speaker 1: great question. I wish I had like a more eloquent answer. Um.

2101
01:50:19,760 --> 01:50:22,040
Speaker 1: I will say that, you know, when I when I

2102
01:50:22,120 --> 01:50:24,799
Speaker 1: think about black I think about the diaspora, and particularly

2103
01:50:25,439 --> 01:50:28,240
Speaker 1: the portion that's here on this continent right that's in America.

2104
01:50:28,920 --> 01:50:32,320
Speaker 1: Many of us are descendants of UM slaves in one

2105
01:50:32,360 --> 01:50:35,960
Speaker 1: way or another, UM or another form of immigration. Uh

2106
01:50:36,160 --> 01:50:39,240
Speaker 1: so uh, not another form of immigration or immigration that

2107
01:50:39,840 --> 01:50:42,040
Speaker 1: slavery is not a form of immigration, to be clear,

2108
01:50:44,240 --> 01:50:47,840
Speaker 1: right right, UM, So when I think about Black I

2109
01:50:47,920 --> 01:50:51,799
Speaker 1: think about the mindset and I think about the community.

2110
01:50:51,880 --> 01:50:55,439
Speaker 1: I think about a group of people, uh that was

2111
01:50:56,000 --> 01:50:58,760
Speaker 1: given much and yet we still have to find a

2112
01:50:58,800 --> 01:51:02,360
Speaker 1: way and make away. Uh and um that is at

2113
01:51:02,400 --> 01:51:06,200
Speaker 1: the epicenter and then from there and obviously fragments and

2114
01:51:06,640 --> 01:51:09,200
Speaker 1: it comes a little bit more diverse depending on you know,

2115
01:51:09,560 --> 01:51:12,200
Speaker 1: where you were able to do that. So the southern

2116
01:51:12,800 --> 01:51:15,439
Speaker 1: UM Black individual is going to be have a different

2117
01:51:15,479 --> 01:51:18,280
Speaker 1: mindset than the Northern Black individual. But we're still a

2118
01:51:18,320 --> 01:51:20,479
Speaker 1: part of a greater community of folks who are who

2119
01:51:20,520 --> 01:51:24,519
Speaker 1: are connected by blood honestly, UM in a in a

2120
01:51:24,640 --> 01:51:27,160
Speaker 1: very unique way. And we were challenged in charge to

2121
01:51:27,800 --> 01:51:29,799
Speaker 1: um conceive to find a way to move forward despite

2122
01:51:29,840 --> 01:51:34,440
Speaker 1: the history. You know, resized that from a financial percent standpoint,

2123
01:51:35,120 --> 01:51:36,760
Speaker 1: of the banks that have closed in the country have

2124
01:51:36,840 --> 01:51:39,479
Speaker 1: closed in black neighborhoods. That's a black neighborhood. That's why

2125
01:51:39,479 --> 01:51:41,360
Speaker 1: I talk about community. Now we're gonna go back to

2126
01:51:41,439 --> 01:51:45,639
Speaker 1: the black neighborhood. Were where if that's what we're talking about,

2127
01:51:46,000 --> 01:51:50,120
Speaker 1: how does one invest in the black neighborhood to uplift

2128
01:51:50,160 --> 01:51:52,360
Speaker 1: you know, we always use these terminals creating jobs in

2129
01:51:52,439 --> 01:51:54,880
Speaker 1: the black community. That's what I always saying, what what,

2130
01:51:55,200 --> 01:51:57,599
Speaker 1: Because there's a difference between a community which you can

2131
01:51:57,680 --> 01:52:01,439
Speaker 1: be fluid, and a neighborhood, which is an actual physical location.

2132
01:52:02,120 --> 01:52:06,360
Speaker 1: Now I'm talking about the neighborhood. They're trying to change

2133
01:52:06,400 --> 01:52:11,200
Speaker 1: the game, trying to create UM. Tax about properties, whether

2134
01:52:11,280 --> 01:52:14,160
Speaker 1: it's uh putting properties that can be taxed, which in

2135
01:52:14,280 --> 01:52:18,200
Speaker 1: turn will give you better educational system, gether city service systems,

2136
01:52:18,240 --> 01:52:20,760
Speaker 1: and things like that. Generally, what happens is white people

2137
01:52:20,800 --> 01:52:22,880
Speaker 1: do that, they come back in the black neighborhood, they

2138
01:52:22,960 --> 01:52:24,760
Speaker 1: upgrade and they say, hey, black people, you gotta roll

2139
01:52:25,200 --> 01:52:28,080
Speaker 1: or the taxes get too high that they're forced to roll.

2140
01:52:28,680 --> 01:52:31,479
Speaker 1: So when when when you collab came on board, what

2141
01:52:31,640 --> 01:52:33,599
Speaker 1: do you what just the ultimate goal? Because you said,

2142
01:52:33,680 --> 01:52:36,080
Speaker 1: like I said, by the year the medium that it

2143
01:52:36,160 --> 01:52:38,920
Speaker 1: worked for black households with zero, how do you get

2144
01:52:38,960 --> 01:52:44,280
Speaker 1: to that number in so it won't be zero? Yeah, Well,

2145
01:52:44,360 --> 01:52:47,080
Speaker 1: we recognize that that's a great question. We recognize that

2146
01:52:47,200 --> 01:52:52,680
Speaker 1: we are we are one pillar of a multi institution

2147
01:52:52,760 --> 01:52:55,719
Speaker 1: that we need to build UM. It's not just about

2148
01:52:55,880 --> 01:52:58,600
Speaker 1: financial capital to innovators. We recognize that There needs to

2149
01:52:58,640 --> 01:53:02,000
Speaker 1: be grassroots efforts, There needs to be neighborhood initiatives. We

2150
01:53:02,080 --> 01:53:05,160
Speaker 1: need to continue to fight for political representation so that

2151
01:53:05,320 --> 01:53:09,559
Speaker 1: laws can favor UM favorite black businesses and black communities. UM.

2152
01:53:09,800 --> 01:53:12,760
Speaker 1: For for us, when we think about the local neighborhood,

2153
01:53:12,880 --> 01:53:15,800
Speaker 1: we think about um main Street, Right. We talk about

2154
01:53:15,880 --> 01:53:18,559
Speaker 1: Main Street and law Street all the time, especially during

2155
01:53:18,640 --> 01:53:22,400
Speaker 1: COVID That's been a topic of conversation quite a bit. UM.

2156
01:53:22,720 --> 01:53:24,840
Speaker 1: One of the things that we we focus on with

2157
01:53:24,960 --> 01:53:27,880
Speaker 1: Main Street is the digitization, right, like, how how are

2158
01:53:27,920 --> 01:53:30,519
Speaker 1: these businesses going to continue to compete in the world

2159
01:53:30,600 --> 01:53:33,800
Speaker 1: with amazons and ubers and lifts and all these other

2160
01:53:33,920 --> 01:53:38,200
Speaker 1: technologies seemingly disrupting their flow and operations? How do they

2161
01:53:38,320 --> 01:53:40,240
Speaker 1: How do we make sure that those businesses are digital?

2162
01:53:40,280 --> 01:53:41,800
Speaker 1: And what are the new businesses that are going to

2163
01:53:41,840 --> 01:53:44,519
Speaker 1: come out of this this digital world? And so when

2164
01:53:44,560 --> 01:53:47,360
Speaker 1: we think about Main Street, I think I reimagine Main

2165
01:53:47,439 --> 01:53:51,240
Speaker 1: Street being filled with innovators that are building products and

2166
01:53:51,320 --> 01:53:54,240
Speaker 1: brands that are still able to employ all. Right, it's

2167
01:53:54,280 --> 01:53:58,920
Speaker 1: still um um influence property values and hopefully there are

2168
01:53:58,960 --> 01:54:01,280
Speaker 1: these are neighborhoods and can comunities that are owned by

2169
01:54:01,320 --> 01:54:04,800
Speaker 1: black people. Right. That's the that's the big, big piece

2170
01:54:05,040 --> 01:54:08,320
Speaker 1: is our part, you know, our small part, along with

2171
01:54:08,560 --> 01:54:12,840
Speaker 1: what black banks can do, along with other high network individuals,

2172
01:54:13,000 --> 01:54:16,519
Speaker 1: real estate people. It's all in concert. It's all a

2173
01:54:16,600 --> 01:54:19,080
Speaker 1: part of it. But if we do it well, we'll

2174
01:54:19,120 --> 01:54:22,000
Speaker 1: be able to put some cornerstones with some black innovators

2175
01:54:22,000 --> 01:54:24,640
Speaker 1: building great businesses that can employ people from the neighborhoods,

2176
01:54:25,200 --> 01:54:28,760
Speaker 1: recent college grads, um et cetera, and really start to

2177
01:54:28,800 --> 01:54:32,360
Speaker 1: build neighborhoods from the from the people up again the neighborhood.

2178
01:54:32,440 --> 01:54:34,520
Speaker 1: You know, I'm really interested. You know, I come from

2179
01:54:35,000 --> 01:54:38,200
Speaker 1: originally born in Houston, Texas. Field Ford was my neighborhood,

2180
01:54:38,840 --> 01:54:41,720
Speaker 1: you know, and now they put a giant freeway through there.

2181
01:54:41,920 --> 01:54:44,840
Speaker 1: That was always the sign. Okay, let's be real, the

2182
01:54:44,880 --> 01:54:48,400
Speaker 1: white people are coming once they once they put Interstate

2183
01:54:48,440 --> 01:54:50,360
Speaker 1: through your neighborhood. That means they have ramps that can

2184
01:54:50,400 --> 01:54:53,080
Speaker 1: get off. They didn't build that because it was for us,

2185
01:54:53,080 --> 01:54:55,200
Speaker 1: Because that neighborhood was there before they built the interstate.

2186
01:54:55,560 --> 01:54:59,000
Speaker 1: That means they created traffic flow. That means they eventually, uh,

2187
01:54:59,440 --> 01:55:02,400
Speaker 1: the people who are playing these homes, they maybe fifty thousand,

2188
01:55:02,440 --> 01:55:04,600
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand, that property value might go up to

2189
01:55:04,760 --> 01:55:07,760
Speaker 1: fifty and fifty to three hundred thousand, which means that

2190
01:55:08,200 --> 01:55:11,960
Speaker 1: those communities that weren't prepared for that elevation and taxes

2191
01:55:12,360 --> 01:55:15,320
Speaker 1: will be disenfranchised again. And so when I when I

2192
01:55:15,400 --> 01:55:18,200
Speaker 1: look at what you're trying to do, your partners, what

2193
01:55:18,320 --> 01:55:21,920
Speaker 1: does the ultimate goal to protect the black community or

2194
01:55:22,000 --> 01:55:25,200
Speaker 1: the black neighborhood? Let me just say black community. What

2195
01:55:25,360 --> 01:55:27,920
Speaker 1: is the ultimate goal to protect the black neighborhood? Because

2196
01:55:28,320 --> 01:55:30,240
Speaker 1: we say a lot of great things justin you know,

2197
01:55:30,360 --> 01:55:33,960
Speaker 1: we say trying to create jobs. You know, we're trying

2198
01:55:34,000 --> 01:55:36,840
Speaker 1: to create uh infrastructures where you don't have to go

2199
01:55:36,960 --> 01:55:40,480
Speaker 1: out of your neighborhood to generate revenue. That's good in theory,

2200
01:55:40,920 --> 01:55:44,680
Speaker 1: because but black neighborhoods unbuilt like that. Then I'm built

2201
01:55:44,800 --> 01:55:48,760
Speaker 1: for buildings that have multiple layers of stories. You know,

2202
01:55:48,880 --> 01:55:51,960
Speaker 1: they usually maybe two stories at the most. And so,

2203
01:55:52,400 --> 01:55:55,120
Speaker 1: how do we protect the black neighborhood? How should I say,

2204
01:55:55,120 --> 01:55:58,640
Speaker 1: I'm putting on you? How does collapse capital capital protect

2205
01:55:58,680 --> 01:56:02,560
Speaker 1: the black neighborhood? Great question, Man, hit me with the

2206
01:56:02,640 --> 01:56:05,520
Speaker 1: heavy one, But I ain't mad, and I love it. Well,

2207
01:56:05,880 --> 01:56:07,760
Speaker 1: I would just tell you something I can only hit

2208
01:56:07,840 --> 01:56:10,800
Speaker 1: you because I know who you are and our true

2209
01:56:10,840 --> 01:56:14,040
Speaker 1: respect what you're trying to do. But it's because when

2210
01:56:14,080 --> 01:56:16,280
Speaker 1: you and I saw at the front of this whole,

2211
01:56:16,920 --> 01:56:19,200
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's greenwood and kill a mic and

2212
01:56:19,520 --> 01:56:21,720
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, see what cash app is doing.

2213
01:56:22,080 --> 01:56:25,640
Speaker 1: Technologists telling you now we're in a mobile world, we

2214
01:56:25,720 --> 01:56:28,160
Speaker 1: don't you don't need to bank in the neighborhood anymore,

2215
01:56:28,560 --> 01:56:30,880
Speaker 1: but you need to bank with technology. And that's what

2216
01:56:30,960 --> 01:56:33,200
Speaker 1: you guys are doing right now. That's why I'm hitting

2217
01:56:33,240 --> 01:56:35,560
Speaker 1: with these questions because I'm just letting people know that

2218
01:56:36,080 --> 01:56:38,480
Speaker 1: there's a different communications out there that we need to understand.

2219
01:56:38,520 --> 01:56:41,080
Speaker 1: There's a black community and there's a black neighborhood. Now

2220
01:56:41,120 --> 01:56:44,120
Speaker 1: the black community is gonna get right first. Now that

2221
01:56:44,240 --> 01:56:47,400
Speaker 1: black neighborhood is going to continue to struggle until we

2222
01:56:47,520 --> 01:56:51,000
Speaker 1: get the technology accepted in the black neighborhood. That's right,

2223
01:56:51,520 --> 01:56:53,240
Speaker 1: And I think you hit the nail on the head.

2224
01:56:53,320 --> 01:56:55,600
Speaker 1: I mean, when it comes to protecting the black neighborhood,

2225
01:56:55,640 --> 01:56:58,360
Speaker 1: it all starts with knowledge, right, It starts with information,

2226
01:56:58,880 --> 01:57:01,760
Speaker 1: and we have to be um open minded. I think

2227
01:57:01,800 --> 01:57:04,440
Speaker 1: one of the things that we uh we we've done

2228
01:57:04,480 --> 01:57:07,760
Speaker 1: over over the years as of people is sometimes we

2229
01:57:08,480 --> 01:57:11,960
Speaker 1: are apprehensive to accept technology. You know, we we don't

2230
01:57:12,320 --> 01:57:15,720
Speaker 1: We don't trust it for various various reasons, real reasons.

2231
01:57:16,280 --> 01:57:18,200
Speaker 1: But I think that there's an opportunity as long as

2232
01:57:18,280 --> 01:57:22,120
Speaker 1: we have equity and parity within ownership of technology. The

2233
01:57:22,200 --> 01:57:25,600
Speaker 1: more technology that we are building and we own, uh,

2234
01:57:25,720 --> 01:57:27,720
Speaker 1: then we can start to build those lines of trust.

2235
01:57:27,800 --> 01:57:29,600
Speaker 1: And three is we don't have to rely on the

2236
01:57:29,680 --> 01:57:31,320
Speaker 1: facebooks of the world. We don't have to rely on

2237
01:57:31,400 --> 01:57:33,560
Speaker 1: the Instagrams or the twitters of the world to determine,

2238
01:57:33,920 --> 01:57:37,120
Speaker 1: you know, our financial outcomes and the voices and the

2239
01:57:37,200 --> 01:57:39,680
Speaker 1: things that we want to see represented. If we own

2240
01:57:39,760 --> 01:57:42,600
Speaker 1: those technologies, were invested in those technologies, then we can

2241
01:57:42,680 --> 01:57:46,840
Speaker 1: influence how those things are, how they're built, and how

2242
01:57:46,920 --> 01:57:49,440
Speaker 1: they grow and are prevalent and present in our communities.

2243
01:57:49,640 --> 01:57:52,600
Speaker 1: So knowledge transfer is the very first things we have

2244
01:57:52,720 --> 01:57:54,160
Speaker 1: to We have to be open to it, We have

2245
01:57:54,280 --> 01:57:56,040
Speaker 1: to be open to exploring and learning, and then we

2246
01:57:56,120 --> 01:57:57,840
Speaker 1: have to get into a position in place where we

2247
01:57:57,840 --> 01:58:00,240
Speaker 1: actually own some of it. Cool. Now, then us and

2248
01:58:00,360 --> 01:58:02,080
Speaker 1: I got to got to do this interview, right, They're

2249
01:58:02,120 --> 01:58:03,560
Speaker 1: gonna say, how do we get in touch with you

2250
01:58:03,640 --> 01:58:06,120
Speaker 1: who you know? When you say something like providing black

2251
01:58:06,160 --> 01:58:09,680
Speaker 1: founders with both social and economic capital they need to scale.

2252
01:58:10,160 --> 01:58:12,760
Speaker 1: How does want to gain access or is it something

2253
01:58:12,800 --> 01:58:15,200
Speaker 1: that once feels out an application wasn't going online? What

2254
01:58:15,400 --> 01:58:19,760
Speaker 1: exactly is collab Capital Yeah, so we we are a

2255
01:58:20,320 --> 01:58:23,760
Speaker 1: highly visible and highly accessible investment funding. UM. We do

2256
01:58:23,880 --> 01:58:27,400
Speaker 1: focus on black innovators. So we are looking for technologies

2257
01:58:27,920 --> 01:58:30,800
Speaker 1: in the future of work. UM, so think think about

2258
01:58:31,240 --> 01:58:35,000
Speaker 1: how people will work in the future. Future of care, so,

2259
01:58:35,120 --> 01:58:36,920
Speaker 1: how people will care for themselves and how we will

2260
01:58:36,960 --> 01:58:39,760
Speaker 1: care for each other. UM, in the future of education, right,

2261
01:58:39,800 --> 01:58:42,960
Speaker 1: how we will learn and so those are our primary errors.

2262
01:58:43,000 --> 01:58:46,240
Speaker 1: But we're happy to talk to founders across UM various

2263
01:58:46,320 --> 01:58:48,480
Speaker 1: verticals and industries, particularly ones that we may not be

2264
01:58:48,560 --> 01:58:51,640
Speaker 1: aware of, so they're always curious. UM. How people get

2265
01:58:51,680 --> 01:58:53,800
Speaker 1: in touch with us is UM. Like I said, we're

2266
01:58:54,000 --> 01:58:57,680
Speaker 1: pretty easy to find. UM. This collab dot capital is

2267
01:58:57,760 --> 01:59:00,400
Speaker 1: our website where you can learn more about our mission,

2268
01:59:00,800 --> 01:59:03,520
Speaker 1: our team and what we're building. UH. And if you're

2269
01:59:03,560 --> 01:59:05,800
Speaker 1: if you're interested, if you have a company, UH, there's

2270
01:59:05,840 --> 01:59:08,919
Speaker 1: a few different forms and race links on that website

2271
01:59:09,040 --> 01:59:10,480
Speaker 1: you can you can reach out to us and let

2272
01:59:10,600 --> 01:59:14,400
Speaker 1: us know what you're thinking. Um, we also have social

2273
01:59:14,480 --> 01:59:17,760
Speaker 1: media handles, so we're on Instagram and collab dot collaub

2274
01:59:17,840 --> 01:59:21,480
Speaker 1: dot Capital on Instagram and m on Twitter as well.

2275
01:59:21,560 --> 01:59:23,960
Speaker 1: So if you just search for collab it's uh, you'll

2276
01:59:24,000 --> 01:59:27,680
Speaker 1: see three Rings. The three Rings is our our logo,

2277
01:59:27,760 --> 01:59:30,200
Speaker 1: and so we're easy to find and we're always happy

2278
01:59:30,280 --> 01:59:32,800
Speaker 1: to talk to innovators and those that are, you know,

2279
01:59:32,960 --> 01:59:36,200
Speaker 1: interested in helping black innovators succeed. Well, I know, you know,

2280
01:59:36,400 --> 01:59:38,000
Speaker 1: like said, it was great. I wanted to get you

2281
01:59:38,120 --> 01:59:39,760
Speaker 1: on because I saw you a long time, but I

2282
01:59:39,800 --> 01:59:41,920
Speaker 1: want to bring you other two parts back on, you know,

2283
01:59:42,440 --> 01:59:44,320
Speaker 1: in the first quarter, so we can just talk about

2284
01:59:44,360 --> 01:59:46,480
Speaker 1: because that's really key. You know, they've just signed off

2285
01:59:46,560 --> 01:59:50,240
Speaker 1: on and gotten the you know, the new uh pandemic

2286
01:59:50,360 --> 01:59:53,200
Speaker 1: financial package rolling, and so a lot of people won't

2287
01:59:53,240 --> 01:59:55,760
Speaker 1: be hopefully won't be thrown out of their homes and

2288
01:59:55,880 --> 01:59:58,480
Speaker 1: we will not be do all these quote of our

2289
01:59:58,560 --> 02:00:01,400
Speaker 1: benefits they gave, you know, the in the rental rental

2290
02:00:01,440 --> 02:00:05,600
Speaker 1: payment to land, your financial taxes from your pay road checks,

2291
02:00:05,920 --> 02:00:08,080
Speaker 1: all that is come and do. And so in the

2292
02:00:08,160 --> 02:00:10,400
Speaker 1: first of the year, that first quarter, we're gonna need

2293
02:00:10,520 --> 02:00:13,840
Speaker 1: you not so much lending, but just giving advice because

2294
02:00:14,200 --> 02:00:16,640
Speaker 1: it goes back to what I'm saying is that I'm

2295
02:00:16,680 --> 02:00:18,960
Speaker 1: just letting everybody know there's a black community and there's

2296
02:00:19,000 --> 02:00:21,840
Speaker 1: a black neighborhood, and we need to understand that conversation.

2297
02:00:21,880 --> 02:00:24,240
Speaker 1: When we're talking about how do we change the way

2298
02:00:24,280 --> 02:00:27,040
Speaker 1: we walk? The black community can be changed, it's the

2299
02:00:27,040 --> 02:00:30,440
Speaker 1: black neighborhood that's still struggling. The black community is actually

2300
02:00:30,520 --> 02:00:33,640
Speaker 1: coming out of the black neighborhood and also understands the

2301
02:00:33,760 --> 02:00:36,720
Speaker 1: value of social media, understand the value of change, how

2302
02:00:36,840 --> 02:00:39,400
Speaker 1: understanding how to pivot. You go to a black neighborhood,

2303
02:00:39,440 --> 02:00:42,360
Speaker 1: it's the same black neighborhood. Violence is there, the limited

2304
02:00:42,440 --> 02:00:46,280
Speaker 1: job opportunities there, there's an inability to understand that that

2305
02:00:46,440 --> 02:00:49,520
Speaker 1: there there goals outside of that black neighborhood. And so

2306
02:00:49,800 --> 02:00:54,000
Speaker 1: that's where I really uh applaud you and what you're

2307
02:00:54,000 --> 02:00:55,400
Speaker 1: trying to do. And that's why I want to bring

2308
02:00:55,520 --> 02:00:56,800
Speaker 1: the thrie of you back on the show in the

2309
02:00:56,880 --> 02:01:01,040
Speaker 1: first quarter so you know we can really we're gonna

2310
02:01:01,040 --> 02:01:03,440
Speaker 1: we gotta get people like vaccinating. No black people have

2311
02:01:03,520 --> 02:01:06,440
Speaker 1: a concern about getting vaccinated. You know I have a

2312
02:01:06,480 --> 02:01:08,680
Speaker 1: concerned I'm just gonna gonna throw it off on black people. Okay,

2313
02:01:08,680 --> 02:01:11,280
Speaker 1: we're trying McDonald concerned. Okay, when I see a lady

2314
02:01:11,320 --> 02:01:16,120
Speaker 1: faint on TV, okay, you know, Okay, will that be

2315
02:01:16,280 --> 02:01:18,880
Speaker 1: me fainting? Or will I faint and not get back up? Okay,

2316
02:01:18,960 --> 02:01:21,240
Speaker 1: I have the right to say that when you have

2317
02:01:21,360 --> 02:01:24,440
Speaker 1: not given a period of test period to say this

2318
02:01:24,640 --> 02:01:26,840
Speaker 1: is uh and usually to turn something round. And I

2319
02:01:26,920 --> 02:01:28,880
Speaker 1: knew you had to turn it around quickly. And that's

2320
02:01:28,920 --> 02:01:31,120
Speaker 1: why I'm glad we have options here. You know, a

2321
02:01:31,280 --> 02:01:35,600
Speaker 1: fire came out tests. Uh. Now we've got the modern

2322
02:01:36,200 --> 02:01:38,560
Speaker 1: modermour coming out now with the drug and the third

2323
02:01:38,600 --> 02:01:41,080
Speaker 1: one's coming to astra zenecas coming out. So when I

2324
02:01:41,200 --> 02:01:43,400
Speaker 1: come back, we're gonna have a different world that we're

2325
02:01:43,440 --> 02:01:46,760
Speaker 1: talking into. Well, we should have a run of vaccinations.

2326
02:01:46,880 --> 02:01:49,800
Speaker 1: People will will hopefully be still in the level of

2327
02:01:49,920 --> 02:01:51,960
Speaker 1: confidence because they would have gotten that three hundred dollar

2328
02:01:51,960 --> 02:01:54,560
Speaker 1: a week check that we've gotten the right there, would

2329
02:01:54,560 --> 02:01:56,680
Speaker 1: have gotten that six hundred dollar a week, six hundred

2330
02:01:56,680 --> 02:02:00,640
Speaker 1: dollar stimulus check which was cut down from twelve and

2331
02:02:00,640 --> 02:02:02,440
Speaker 1: six hundred dollars. Six hundred dollar a week check was

2332
02:02:02,480 --> 02:02:04,920
Speaker 1: cut down the three hundred dollars, so you're getting half

2333
02:02:04,960 --> 02:02:06,640
Speaker 1: of what you got when he shut us down. But

2334
02:02:07,120 --> 02:02:08,880
Speaker 1: I think that's all right because guess what, we're not

2335
02:02:08,960 --> 02:02:11,480
Speaker 1: shutting down. We're moving forward. And I think and I

2336
02:02:11,560 --> 02:02:13,560
Speaker 1: think that's what you're doing right now. My whole thing

2337
02:02:13,640 --> 02:02:15,400
Speaker 1: and talking to you justin was bringing you on the

2338
02:02:15,440 --> 02:02:17,880
Speaker 1: show just to talk about your brand. See that. See

2339
02:02:17,960 --> 02:02:20,160
Speaker 1: I would like your style. You got that smooth little

2340
02:02:20,440 --> 02:02:22,080
Speaker 1: you know a little I want to say that, Marvin Gay,

2341
02:02:22,080 --> 02:02:27,680
Speaker 1: You're the Marvin Gay of financials. Okay, I appreciate that. Well,

2342
02:02:27,720 --> 02:02:29,680
Speaker 1: you know, you got that that tone I would love

2343
02:02:29,720 --> 02:02:32,440
Speaker 1: about You got that right tone. And and it's it's

2344
02:02:32,440 --> 02:02:34,360
Speaker 1: a it's a it's a bedside tone. You know. If

2345
02:02:34,360 --> 02:02:36,360
Speaker 1: I if I, if you are a doctor and you

2346
02:02:36,480 --> 02:02:39,240
Speaker 1: came in, you you you you you treat me right

2347
02:02:39,280 --> 02:02:41,600
Speaker 1: because you let me know the facts. But you have

2348
02:02:41,880 --> 02:02:43,840
Speaker 1: a settling voice to let me know that you can

2349
02:02:43,880 --> 02:02:46,160
Speaker 1: still be a participant. And that's really what this is

2350
02:02:46,200 --> 02:02:48,360
Speaker 1: all about. My conversation with you is letting people know

2351
02:02:48,560 --> 02:02:50,480
Speaker 1: that if you don't get the facts, you don't get

2352
02:02:50,480 --> 02:02:52,520
Speaker 1: the information, you don't talk to the right people, then

2353
02:02:52,520 --> 02:02:55,080
Speaker 1: you're gonna continue to struggle. It's at the bottom line,

2354
02:02:56,400 --> 02:02:58,840
Speaker 1: that's it. Uh that that's that's I mean, you hit

2355
02:02:58,840 --> 02:03:01,440
Speaker 1: the nail on the head. Well, and I appreciate the compliment.

2356
02:03:01,840 --> 02:03:03,960
Speaker 1: I've never been told I have a good bedside manner,

2357
02:03:04,640 --> 02:03:08,040
Speaker 1: but I appreciate that. Uh, and yeah, I am happy

2358
02:03:08,120 --> 02:03:11,000
Speaker 1: to continue to teach. Um. I come from a long

2359
02:03:11,080 --> 02:03:13,120
Speaker 1: line of teachers on my mother's side of the family.

2360
02:03:13,160 --> 02:03:16,440
Speaker 1: Is is a large family of teachers, and so I

2361
02:03:16,520 --> 02:03:19,280
Speaker 1: feel it's my responsibility, you know, is I continue to

2362
02:03:19,400 --> 02:03:21,640
Speaker 1: learn to share that knowledge. And yeah, I'm happy to

2363
02:03:21,720 --> 02:03:24,560
Speaker 1: continue to do that for our for our communities and

2364
02:03:24,600 --> 02:03:26,760
Speaker 1: for our people. Cool, well, my man, you know, and

2365
02:03:26,920 --> 02:03:29,120
Speaker 1: I already told your first quarter bringing all through you

2366
02:03:29,200 --> 02:03:31,120
Speaker 1: guys on you're gonna sit down. I have a round

2367
02:03:31,160 --> 02:03:34,200
Speaker 1: table talk about the future of Black American black neighborhoods

2368
02:03:34,240 --> 02:03:36,800
Speaker 1: and also where capital stands at that poem moving forward

2369
02:03:36,840 --> 02:03:39,280
Speaker 1: in one But again, thank you for coming on Money

2370
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Speaker 1: Making Conversations, Thank you for having Shan's good to see

2371
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Speaker 1: and uh, yeah, I'll be by something real sense. Absolutely,

2372
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Speaker 1: my friend. You got to got to If you don't

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Speaker 1: need more money Making Conversations interviews, please go to money

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Speaker 1: Making Conversation dot com. I with Sean McDonald. I'm your

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