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Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

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Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador

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Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with

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Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just

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Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President

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Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States

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Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border

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Speaker 1: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over

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Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you

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Speaker 1: are here illegally, your next you will be fined nearly

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Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will

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Speaker 1: never return. But if you register using our CBP home

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Speaker 1: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.

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Speaker 1: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws,

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Speaker 1: border and families will be protected.

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Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

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Speaker 3: All right, guys, welcome back. E y L.

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Speaker 4: South Beach Edition. And you can't tell by the backdrop

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Speaker 4: because he's going to do the other side. But we

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Speaker 4: in Miami right now, the rain is outment. It's still

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Speaker 4: better weather than New York.

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Speaker 2: We'll any day. We'll take that for sure.

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Speaker 4: So, you know, we try to do interviews when we're

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Speaker 4: on the road, and we know sometimes we have it planned,

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Speaker 4: sometimes just impromptu. So this is an impromptu. We met

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Speaker 4: a superstar in the tech world and somebody that we

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Speaker 4: really thought we would add value to the podcast. So

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Speaker 4: kwame Uncle just a brilliant star in the tech world.

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Speaker 4: He was actually just found out. He was a start

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Speaker 4: the co founder of Black Angel Tech Fund, which was

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Speaker 4: the first tech fund in America that was focused on

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Speaker 4: African American entrepreneurs, right, and now he's the CEO of

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Speaker 4: Black Star Fund, which is a tech fund that looks

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Speaker 4: for predominantly is where black people aretists are.

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Speaker 5: The start is top twenty five black venture venture capitalists

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Speaker 5: to watch from pitch book.

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Speaker 2: That's right, man.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and Stanford, Stanford alumni. So we're gonna talk about

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Speaker 4: that because that's an interesting within itself.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 4: But so yeah, yeah, and you're currently your firm is

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Speaker 4: currently invested in nine companies.

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Speaker 2: Right, nine companies that's right all over the country. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you know, I mean humbly met you.

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Speaker 5: We were at an event and we walked over like, hey, guys,

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Speaker 5: I'm a huge fan. I'm like, Okay, this is great,

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Speaker 5: and then as we spoke more, I'm like, wait, this

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Speaker 5: guy is a superstar.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate it.

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Speaker 6: Before we jump into I want to say, you know,

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Speaker 6: you got fans all over the world.

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Speaker 2: I was just in Ghana, and.

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Speaker 6: I just want to say, as a fan myself, I'm

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Speaker 6: so proud of you all of the work you're doing

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Speaker 6: and the impact that you're having on the consciousness, the

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Speaker 6: business consciousness, the mindset of our people, not only in

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Speaker 6: the United States but all over the world.

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Speaker 4: No, I appreciate that. Thank you, and shout out to

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Speaker 4: Ghana too. We're gonna talk about Africa a little later too,

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Speaker 4: because I know your roots are from Ghana, right, your

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Speaker 4: African American, first generation African America, your family, your parents

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Speaker 4: have roots in their families from Ghana.

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Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. Yeah, return, we just passed. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: we just stopped there for that.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, talking about Yeah, yeah, so I definitely want to

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Speaker 4: talk about Ghana. But yeah, so, first and foremost, thank

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Speaker 4: you for joining us.

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Speaker 3: Appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: It's my pleasure, of my honor.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: So we're gonna jump right into the tech world because

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Speaker 4: we haven't really covered tech that much and a lot

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Speaker 4: of people have been asking us. So the first I

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Speaker 4: want to start at Stanford because this is something not

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Speaker 4: to graze over.

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Speaker 3: People don't understand how powerful that school is.

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Speaker 4: I think like thirty something billionaires in the tech world

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Speaker 4: to have graduated from Stanford. Guys a lot of even

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Speaker 4: so I think one particular professor still is a professor

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Speaker 4: at Stanford, and a lot of guys take his class

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Speaker 4: because he's a VC guy too, and he gives money

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Speaker 4: to different the Airbnb through that today somebody, somebody did that.

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Speaker 4: They Yeah, but I say that to say a lot

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Speaker 4: of times people don't fully understand how networking is and

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Speaker 4: network So coming out of such a prestigious claw off.

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Speaker 4: As far as going to Stanford as an African American,

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Speaker 4: I'm assuming you was in a minority. How has how

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Speaker 4: was that experience and how has that experience helped you

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Speaker 4: now that you're in the VC world yourself.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, that's a great, great question. So lots of pieces,

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Speaker 6: lots of parts there. You got to keep in mind

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Speaker 6: that the times are very different. You know, I'm not

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Speaker 6: sixty or seventy years I'm forty seven, so early nineties. Yeah,

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Speaker 6: but the times were different. I meaning the first time

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Speaker 6: I saw the Internet, I was a senior in college. Right,

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Speaker 6: So when we talk about networking today and the ability

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Speaker 6: to get connected to people through these incredible social networks

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Speaker 6: that we have and it's easy, that was not our reality.

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Speaker 6: That was not our world at the time. So it's

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Speaker 6: much harder to get connected to people. And I'm fully

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Speaker 6: transparent with you, I did not understand the power and

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Speaker 6: prestige each of the Stanford name when I graduated as

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Speaker 6: a minority student there there was a lot of the turmoil,

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Speaker 6: and so when we graduated, we weren't thinking about, well,

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Speaker 6: how can we start donating back to Stanford?

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Speaker 5: It was expensive. I mean a lot of people get

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Speaker 5: closer than that. Like a lot of times the schools

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Speaker 5: have boosters right there, alumni and all their boosters. Like

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Speaker 5: where we come from, it's like once we graduate schools, like, how.

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Speaker 2: Can we pay it back?

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Speaker 5: That's the loans, that's not to the school, that's right.

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Speaker 6: And you don't understand that, like and part of the problem,

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Speaker 6: I think again, it's a mindset.

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Speaker 2: Right, I'm twenty two.

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Speaker 6: I don't understand at that point in my life that

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Speaker 6: I'm part of the elite country club, because in my mind,

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Speaker 6: even though I was there, even though I have the diploma,

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Speaker 6: I was not a part of the country club. I

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Speaker 6: just didn't realize.

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Speaker 3: It didn't feel like that.

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Speaker 6: It didn't feel like it. So I didn't realize it,

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Speaker 6: and it didn't feel like it. Now later in my

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Speaker 6: professional life, I'm maturing. I'm understanding the power of networks.

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Speaker 6: I'm understanding what I call success by association. I'm starting

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Speaker 6: to understand those.

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Speaker 4: Principles success by association. Can you explain, I interres I've

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Speaker 4: never heard that before, but I understand what it means.

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Speaker 4: But you explain that.

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Speaker 2: I think we've got plenty of arguments about this.

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Speaker 6: Okay, Yeah, So it doesn't mean that you will be

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Speaker 6: successful simply because I'm Rashad's friend. But what it means

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Speaker 6: is that I'm accelerating my ability to get to that

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Speaker 6: place of success, and I'm establishing this intense credibility that

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Speaker 6: I might not have on my own, but because I'm

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Speaker 6: with you. So when I was a kid, my mom

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Speaker 6: my mom even though she's half going to aint half British,

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Speaker 6: so she had a British accidents, so she'd always go, well,

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Speaker 6: you know, kwame buds of a feather flown.

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Speaker 3: Together everybody in London?

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Speaker 2: I mean, like what does that mean?

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Speaker 6: But then you know, you get older, you figure out

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Speaker 6: I was good.

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Speaker 2: The cats that you roll with speak to who you.

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Speaker 4: Are because I like what you said, because it's like

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Speaker 4: a lot of times, how you look and how your

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Speaker 4: word things is extremely important. So peer pressure is something

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Speaker 4: that we hear a lot growing up, and we always

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Speaker 4: look at it from a negative connotation, like, but it's

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Speaker 4: positive peer pressure. We spoke about that the podcast before

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Speaker 4: and which you said as far as six by association.

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Speaker 4: All the time growing up we had guilty by association.

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Speaker 4: That happens all the time. You're guilty by association. You mean,

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Speaker 4: like the people that you hang out with, you're going

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Speaker 4: to be guilty just by hanging out with them. I

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Speaker 4: never heard anybody say success by association. So it's like

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Speaker 4: you got to change the way that we actually use

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Speaker 4: words where we look at things, and it's like if

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Speaker 4: we could be guilty by association, we could be successful.

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Speaker 2: Bad language is important, it's triven.

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Speaker 6: The thing is a lot of times it's math, right,

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Speaker 6: what I guarantee you, you and your audience I already

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Speaker 6: understand principles around the people you hang that. There's a

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Speaker 6: phrase that we hear all the time and money, Right,

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Speaker 6: your net worth is the average of the five people

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Speaker 6: you spend the most time with. Right now, most people

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Speaker 6: have heard that and know that what I'm saying, I'm

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Speaker 6: just adding those two concepts together. Well, wait a second,

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Speaker 6: Like you said, if we always talk about guilt by association,

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Speaker 6: but we also know that your your net worth is

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Speaker 6: the average of the five people you spend the most time with,

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Speaker 6: then that means if you're around successful people, you're going

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Speaker 6: to be successful by association. How they think about money,

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Speaker 6: how they think about life, how they live life, the

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Speaker 6: decisions that they make. It becomes a part of your

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Speaker 6: process because you're around them.

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Speaker 2: Right I'll give you an example.

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Speaker 6: I'm reading a book right now called The One Thing

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Speaker 6: by Gary Keller, and it's this whole we've already heard

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Speaker 6: about time management and prioritizing.

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Speaker 2: He makes it really simple.

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Speaker 6: He say, look, you know, every day when you wake up,

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Speaker 6: there's one thing that you need to do that will

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Speaker 6: help you.

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Speaker 2: To be to get the success faster. Focus on that.

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Speaker 3: That's it.

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Speaker 6: Focus on that thing, one thing at a time. Yeah,

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Speaker 6: right right, So he said we got to do lists.

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Speaker 6: He said, you need to start writing down success lists.

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Speaker 6: What are the successful steps? And sometimes, like in my world,

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Speaker 6: it's as easy as making one phone call. If you

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Speaker 6: call this one person who you know loves you, supports you,

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Speaker 6: is extremely successful and extremely well connected. But you're doing

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Speaker 6: five other things under the pretense, well, I got these

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Speaker 6: other things I gotta do, but do this one first,

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Speaker 6: so that at the end of the day, even if

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Speaker 6: you haven't finished your to do list, the fact that

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Speaker 6: you made that one call and got an appointment to

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Speaker 6: go see that person is going to start.

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Speaker 2: To open up opportunities.

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Speaker 7: Right.

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Speaker 5: So that's that's that's that's what you said that you

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Speaker 5: were part of the country club but you didn't feel

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Speaker 5: like it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what what was that like? Because this is.

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Speaker 5: Cali in the early nineties. How did you fight to

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Speaker 5: fight that that barrier?

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Speaker 2: How did how did I start to feel like I

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Speaker 2: was part of the country club?

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Speaker 5: Well both so, so like not feeling like it and

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Speaker 5: being it and then actually becoming aware of it, and

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Speaker 5: like how did that?

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Speaker 2: Yes?

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Speaker 6: Well, I mean the thing is is funny, man. It

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Speaker 6: feels like ancient history. But like when we saw all

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Speaker 6: the the barrage of those pain, painful videos of police brutality.

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Speaker 6: Right a couple of years ago now Ferguson and the

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Speaker 6: brother in Louisiana, and it was just like this, day

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Speaker 6: after day after day when I was in school, is

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Speaker 6: the first time we had a global viral video of

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Speaker 6: police brutality.

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Speaker 5: R king, I'll never forget it. Actually happened on my

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Speaker 5: birthday and like ninety one, that's right. I was like

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Speaker 5: that crazy, I'll never forget it, And that's what I'm

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Speaker 5: thinking at that time. This is the timate of California.

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Speaker 6: That's exactly right, right, So for us, it was this

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Speaker 6: feeling of like, wait a second, this is the stuff

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Speaker 6: that was supposed to be happening in the sixties and

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Speaker 6: the seventies. I personally had experienced these issues with the police,

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Speaker 6: being profiled, being in a very I had guns put

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Speaker 6: in my head when I was in LA when I

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Speaker 6: was in high school, I had gotten attacked by the police.

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Speaker 6: They thought I'd stolen stuff. So it really hit home

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Speaker 6: and we and basically the feeling was if we're here

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Speaker 6: at this most elite school where we have all this power,

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Speaker 6: but we could be anywhere and be treated like a

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Speaker 6: Rodney King. Something's gotta change, right, But we weren't connected

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Speaker 6: to other campuses because again we didn't have the technology.

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Speaker 6: So that was a lot of the thing of feeling

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Speaker 6: like is this really for us? Do they let a

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Speaker 6: couple of us in? Are we really a part of

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Speaker 6: the thing?

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Speaker 4: So at what point do you get into tech then?

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Speaker 4: Because I know so obviously tech wasn't your main focus

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Speaker 4: going into college since it was just starting out things

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Speaker 4: on nature. So at what point do you decide I

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Speaker 4: want to be have a benure capital fund and invest

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Speaker 4: money into tech entrepreneurs.

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Speaker 2: It's funny.

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Speaker 6: A friend of mine always says that the dots don't

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Speaker 6: connect when you look in front of you. So when

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Speaker 6: I look back, I actually got into tech when I

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Speaker 6: was ten years old. I literally started to learn how

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Speaker 6: to code when I was ten. I went to a

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Speaker 6: computer coding camp when I was in fifth grade. This

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Speaker 6: is like green screen, yeah you know what I mean.

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Speaker 6: And I was fascinated Star Wars. I was fascinated by technology,

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Speaker 6: and I was fascinated by production and just you know,

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Speaker 6: green screen and the whole creating of production through technology.

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Speaker 6: So it was actually in me when I was when

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Speaker 6: I was a younger person, and I believe it or not,

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Speaker 6: the editing software popular editing software used today, Adobe Premiere.

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Speaker 6: Right when I was in school, I was part of

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Speaker 6: the beta testing team of Adobe Premiere at one point,

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Speaker 6: oh of college. Yeah, so the idea that you know,

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Speaker 6: we can we can edit video using computers when I

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Speaker 6: went into college, that didn't exist by the end I

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Speaker 6: was testing that stuff. So technology had always been interesting

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Speaker 6: to me. I was working with Prince is how I

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Speaker 6: actually got into the tech world in a serious business way.

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Speaker 6: And he was obviously an extraordinary artist, but as a businessman,

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Speaker 6: he used to say, if you don't own your masters,

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Speaker 6: your masters own you. And when we see so many

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Speaker 6: artists today like Jay Z and all these incredible artists

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Speaker 6: who own their own stuff, they'll all say it was

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Speaker 6: because they talk to Prince. And he was an evangelist

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Speaker 6: for that for these younger artists. So he was in

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Speaker 6: the tech, he was in the ownership. My father grew

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Speaker 6: up in a village in Africa, in Ghana, no running water,

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Speaker 6: no electricity, and came to the States, got scholarships, became

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Speaker 6: a physician, and started buying land back home in Ghana

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Speaker 6: in the nineties. I know you guys do a lot

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Speaker 6: of stuff on real estate in the nineties. What's going

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Speaker 6: on now in twenty twenty. So my point is, as

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Speaker 6: a child, when I was see my dad at work,

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Speaker 6: it had his name, Vincent Aku md Inc on the door.

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Speaker 6: I never heard my dad talk about a boss. He

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Speaker 6: was the boss. My mother was the office manager and

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Speaker 6: the business operations first.

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Speaker 2: So at dinner they were talking business at old times.

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Speaker 6: When I was ten, I learned how to balance the

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Speaker 6: corporate checkbook on the computer and got paid. So I

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Speaker 6: was on my parents' business payroll doing there at ten

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Speaker 6: at ten years old. At this point, are they familiar

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Speaker 6: with computers the way you know it? A lot of

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Speaker 6: times kids know more about technology than parents. I'm so

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Speaker 6: grateful they didn't know anything about computers except how important

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Speaker 6: it was. Yeah, and they bought me my first computer when.

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Speaker 2: I was nine.

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Speaker 4: How Prince. People talk about Prince a lot, like you said,

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Speaker 4: as far as being one of the greatest musicians of

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Speaker 4: all time. But I'm a huge Nas fan. And I

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Speaker 4: remember Nas was on another podcast s Frank Champs, and

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Speaker 4: he was talking about when he first met Prince and

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Speaker 4: years ago, like in ninety nine, and he asked Prince

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Speaker 4: to do a record with him, and Prince told them.

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Speaker 4: He was like, do you own your masters? And now

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Speaker 4: I said, I own my masters, and he was like,

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Speaker 4: when you own your masters? We could have a conversation

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Speaker 4: and he was like that really inspired. So it's like

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Speaker 4: being around Prince. How was he as far as the

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Speaker 4: business acumen the business side of things?

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Speaker 2: Extraordinary? Man.

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Speaker 6: I remember I had a conversation with him one time

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Speaker 6: in his office, just the two of us. He said, look,

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Speaker 6: let me tell you something. He said, I usually end

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Speaker 6: the show playing purple rang, he said, within an hour.

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Speaker 6: I don't care if I'm playing in front of two

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Speaker 6: hundred people or if I got sold out at the stadium.

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Speaker 6: I know how many T shirts were sold. I know

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Speaker 6: how much merchandise were sold. I know how many Coca

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Speaker 6: colas were bought.

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Speaker 2: We spoke about that when we were talking.

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Speaker 5: I think it's like a very first episode right when

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Speaker 5: we talked about how innovative he was when he was

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Speaker 5: packaging tickets, merchandise, all these things at the vendings, all

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Speaker 5: packaged all together as one thing, and how now that's

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Speaker 5: the standard. Twenty years later, people are just realizing, like

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Speaker 5: what he set forth.

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Speaker 6: Exactly I mean you think about subscriptions now Netflix and

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Speaker 6: everything else. He created the New Power Generation music club

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Speaker 6: in the late nineties where you'd pay nine dollars a

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Speaker 6: month or whatever it was, and then you get music

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Speaker 6: and you get merch and everything else.

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Speaker 2: He created that.

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Speaker 4: It's crazy, so before streaming, before it was Apple for

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Speaker 4: any of that.

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Speaker 6: So my point in terms of the tech stuff is

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Speaker 6: that as a child, when you're raised with a parent

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Speaker 6: who not only had a business, but more importantly came

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Speaker 6: from nothing and created that, and then I got to

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Speaker 6: work in it on the business side, and then as

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Speaker 6: an adult, I'm working with Prince who's so adamant about ownership.

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Speaker 6: So we were working with an organization that he and

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Speaker 6: Van Jones found it called Yes Week Code, teaching African

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Speaker 6: American kids in the hood how to code and become

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Speaker 6: technology people. I'm not working with Facebook, I'm working with Google.

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Speaker 6: I'm working with the Obama White House Office of Science

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Speaker 6: and Technology. And then we start to put two and

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Speaker 6: two together.

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Speaker 2: We said, wait a second.

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Speaker 6: We went to school with the people who created Google, Yahoo, PayPal, LinkedIn, pallunteer, YouTube.

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Speaker 6: We went to school with all these guys. They understood

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Speaker 6: right like that let's not breeze over there. That's crazy. Literally,

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Speaker 6: there's a cat that's in my class nineteen ninety four

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Speaker 6: who's a co founder of WhatsApp.

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Speaker 5: Now owned by Facebook, which was.

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Speaker 6: Sold for nineteen billion dollars. Yeah right, Jerry Yred Yahoo

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Speaker 6: was two years ahead of me in college in Stanford.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thirty year reunions.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, oh, I'll see if we can get an invite

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Speaker 5: to that.

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Speaker 4: Honorary brother Stanford alumni is crazy.

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Speaker 3: So all right.

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Speaker 4: So, so you build your relationships working with Prince and

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Speaker 4: Van Jones, and you're on the tech side. So at

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Speaker 4: what point do you to say, Okay, I want to

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Speaker 4: start my own venture capital firm with other people. I

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Speaker 4: think this is a good idea to do that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: So basically, we were having a Black alumni reunion and

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Speaker 6: it was a summit. It was in twenty fifteen, and

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Speaker 6: we were in Atlanta, and I was on a panel.

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Speaker 6: The numbers had come out around how in Silicon Valley

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Speaker 6: less than one percent of the tech employees at these massive,

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Speaker 6: big tech companies is African American. The less than one

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Speaker 6: percent of venture capital going to African Americans. So I

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Speaker 6: was on a panel and there was a conversation about that,

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Speaker 6: and you know, you got some of the most successful

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Speaker 6: black people in the country all sitting in that room,

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Speaker 6: so there's a lot of anger. But then that turned to, well,

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Speaker 6: what do we do. We need to put pressure on Google,

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Speaker 6: we need to get them to hoid on black people.

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Speaker 2: I was like, hey, wait a second.

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Speaker 6: If we went to school with the people who created

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Speaker 6: all this stuff, they had two very simple things. They

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Speaker 6: had an idea and they had a little bit of

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Speaker 6: Angel investment money two hundred three hundred five hundred thousand dollars.

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Speaker 2: And then they were up and running.

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Speaker 6: We need to be focusing on doing that for our

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Speaker 6: black tech entrepreneurs.

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Speaker 2: So I didn't even say, hey, we need a fund.

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Speaker 6: I just kind of put that out there, and literally

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Speaker 6: a group of us got together and by the next

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Speaker 6: day it was like the light bulbs are going off.

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Speaker 2: And we said, hey, why.

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Speaker 6: Don't we pull money together and create a fund so

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Speaker 6: that we can start to do these investments in these

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Speaker 6: tech entrepreneurs. So that's literally, as literally how it started

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Speaker 6: Atlanta in twenty fifteen.

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Speaker 5: Wow. We spoke about Angel Investing with John Henry a

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Speaker 5: few months ago and he was talking about how it started.

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Speaker 6: Now he's a phenomenal, phenomenal young man.

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Speaker 2: How many how many people are with you when you start?

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Speaker 6: Yeah, So when we initially started with Black Angel Tech

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Speaker 6: on us five of us and we literally, you know,

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Speaker 6: we did We raised a couple million dollars. We did

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Speaker 6: five deals in my fund now Blackstar Fund. I'm still

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Speaker 6: in three of those deals.

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Speaker 5: OK.

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Speaker 2: So there's a.

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Speaker 6: Longevity there in terms of relationships with those founders. But yeah,

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Speaker 6: it really and it wasn't people who had investing experience.

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Speaker 6: That's one thing I think I love about your show

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Speaker 6: is that this is not for people who already know

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Speaker 6: all this stuff. It's for people who want to understand

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Speaker 6: how it works. If you look at someone like Arlen Hamilton,

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Speaker 6: Arln Hamilton does not come out of institutional investing. She

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Speaker 6: doesn't have an economics study. Arlen Hamilton the founder of

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Speaker 6: Backstage Capital. So she African American woman. She has invested

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Speaker 6: in over a hundred companies of diverse founders and women.

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Speaker 6: She raised four million dollars four or five years ago.

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Speaker 6: She was living out of her car. Well, she was

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Speaker 6: in the music industry and promotions, and she got the

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Speaker 6: Silicon Valley and again it's math. She's looking around, going

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Speaker 6: there's billions of dollars here where the black people. There's

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Speaker 6: a disconnect. We should do something about that. And she

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Speaker 6: got people to believe in her and her vision. Well,

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Speaker 6: what if we were getting this money, same thing with

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Speaker 6: we did with Black Angel Tech Fund into the folks.

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Speaker 6: I love what she says. We talked about underrepresented minorities.

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Speaker 6: She calls us underestimated. It's not underrepresented, right, it's underestimated.

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Speaker 6: So my point is that people like Arlen Hamilton, she

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Speaker 6: doesn't come out of investing Black Angel Tech Fund, None

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Speaker 6: of the founders came out of investing. But we wanted

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Speaker 6: to respond to a need and an opportunity. It wasn't

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Speaker 6: simply that the numbers were rescued so that black people

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Speaker 6: were not getting the cash. But sat wait a second.

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Speaker 6: From a business standpoint, that's an incredible opportunity. If Silicon

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Speaker 6: Valley is not paying attention to our genius and we

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Speaker 6: can get in early, we can support our genius, and

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Speaker 6: we can profit from our genius being successful.

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00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:46,040
Speaker 5: I think you gave a great analogy. You said you're

443
00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:49,280
Speaker 5: like an A and R like in music just in tech. Right,

444
00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:51,560
Speaker 5: you go out, you look for the talent, you say

445
00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:52,399
Speaker 5: that's it.

446
00:20:52,359 --> 00:20:54,280
Speaker 2: Like, that's something that we're good at. Right.

447
00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:56,359
Speaker 5: We know good music when we hear it, and you

448
00:20:56,440 --> 00:20:58,639
Speaker 5: know good ideas when you see them, right, Can you

449
00:20:58,680 --> 00:20:59,760
Speaker 5: talk about that a little bit?

450
00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:00,760
Speaker 2: Yeah? You know.

451
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:03,600
Speaker 6: It's like so when people say, you know, wikim, what's

452
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:06,200
Speaker 6: your secret? As an investor said, I'm like an old

453
00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:10,000
Speaker 6: school an R person in the music industry. And for

454
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:12,640
Speaker 6: the young heads that that means artists and repertoire. That's

455
00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:14,199
Speaker 6: when the cats who would go to the club, they

456
00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:18,560
Speaker 6: go to the church, they go to the yeah, and

457
00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:20,920
Speaker 6: they would hear the sound. Now, could a lot of

458
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,560
Speaker 6: us sing really well? Absolutely? Could a lot of us play? Absolutely?

459
00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:29,000
Speaker 6: But there's something called what the it factor? So when

460
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:31,840
Speaker 6: you think about back in the day with Motown, you

461
00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:36,720
Speaker 6: got Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, the Jackson Five, Stevie.

462
00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:37,240
Speaker 5: Wonder, Plantations.

463
00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:40,480
Speaker 6: Okay, they were all phenomenal singers, but they all had

464
00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:43,840
Speaker 6: the it factor. There's something special about certain people that

465
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:45,240
Speaker 6: you just know that.

466
00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:47,359
Speaker 2: They were born to be leaders.

467
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:48,400
Speaker 3: No, I say that all the time.

468
00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:51,800
Speaker 4: Is that we live in a world now like I

469
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:57,159
Speaker 4: have a son and everybody gets award to participate and

470
00:21:57,280 --> 00:21:59,960
Speaker 4: everybody's like it's made just feel everybody's equal.

471
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:00,880
Speaker 2: Now you're singing my song.

472
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,399
Speaker 3: Now, everybody's not equal.

473
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:06,280
Speaker 4: There's some people that's that's made to excel others, and

474
00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:09,159
Speaker 4: that's okay because some people like Lebron James might not

475
00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:12,320
Speaker 4: be the best piano player, right, but as far as basketball,

476
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,760
Speaker 4: he's he was built to excel. He still had to

477
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:17,879
Speaker 4: put the work in. But you could have worked just

478
00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:19,840
Speaker 4: as hard as Lebron. You're not going to be Lebron.

479
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:22,800
Speaker 4: And it's the same thing with business people. It's like

480
00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:24,520
Speaker 4: even on the podcast, like we've had people on the

481
00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:27,480
Speaker 4: podcast before and be like, he's special or she's special.

482
00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:30,480
Speaker 3: Just has an it factor, right, and it's like you

483
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:32,080
Speaker 3: don't you can't really put your finger.

484
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:33,800
Speaker 2: On it, but you know it.

485
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,720
Speaker 3: The people know it. They resonate toward and they just

486
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 3: they just have it.

487
00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:39,280
Speaker 2: And the person sitting here knows it too.

488
00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:40,880
Speaker 5: Like when they walk in and we talk as soon

489
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:43,040
Speaker 5: as like we have conversations after what they leave, it's

490
00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:45,200
Speaker 5: like he was he's special, she's special.

491
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:46,400
Speaker 2: You can feel it. That's the thing.

492
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:48,719
Speaker 6: So then now let's look at it in the context

493
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:50,760
Speaker 6: of wait a second, if what we're all saying is true,

494
00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:53,439
Speaker 6: how is it that you have less than one percent

495
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:57,040
Speaker 6: of the venture capital going to African Americans. Right, That's

496
00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:00,480
Speaker 6: why I was saying that there's the opportunity. Greatest things

497
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:02,680
Speaker 6: I ever learned from one of my mentors, he said,

498
00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:05,240
Speaker 6: a small mind focus is on the problem. Big mind

499
00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:08,880
Speaker 6: focuses on the solution. A genius mind sees the opportunity

500
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:14,160
Speaker 6: that lies in the problem. Right, So that's how I functions. Wait, wait,

501
00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:16,919
Speaker 6: less than one percent. We know our genius, We know

502
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,280
Speaker 6: our talent when we see it. So you're telling me,

503
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:21,800
Speaker 6: I'll give you example. Mary spiel who's actually in town.

504
00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:24,399
Speaker 6: She's got a virtual reality company and she's doing virtual

505
00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:27,840
Speaker 6: reality content for the halftime show at the Super Bowl.

506
00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,560
Speaker 6: So she has a company called seek Vr. Okay, so

507
00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 6: let me just give you the background. Here's an African

508
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:37,520
Speaker 6: woman born New York, raised in Ghana. Dual degree, master's

509
00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:41,040
Speaker 6: degree in from Georgia Tech and Electrical Engineering and Computer science.

510
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:44,320
Speaker 6: Seven year veteran of the United States Air Force, had

511
00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 6: a satellite communications. Oh and by the way, she invented

512
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,920
Speaker 6: the digital cinema system for Boeing, which bounces the movie

513
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:52,840
Speaker 6: signal off of satellite.

514
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:54,960
Speaker 2: To the movie theater big time.

515
00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:58,119
Speaker 6: So you meet this woman who's got a VR company

516
00:23:58,160 --> 00:23:59,520
Speaker 6: and you find out that she got a deal with

517
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,800
Speaker 6: Universe Soul Music and she beat out Oculus to get

518
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:06,800
Speaker 6: that deal. Does that sound you know what I mean?

519
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:09,679
Speaker 6: That's that's Dana Ross in the tech world exactly. Exactly

520
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:12,520
Speaker 6: in the tech world. That's who you invested, not just

521
00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 6: the money, the time, the relationships, the business coaching. So

522
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:19,160
Speaker 6: we've got that level of talent and my belief, whether

523
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:23,000
Speaker 6: it's it's John Henry and Harlem Capital, Plexo Capital Precursor,

524
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 6: Arlend with Backstage Capital, Blackstar Fund, that we are all

525
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,080
Speaker 6: going to be turning the industry on its head and

526
00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:32,560
Speaker 6: in the next three to five years because we knew

527
00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:35,119
Speaker 6: where the talent was that nobody else was paying attention to,

528
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 6: and we invested early, and when as those companies grow

529
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:41,719
Speaker 6: and have significant exits, everybody's going to come and look

530
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:45,080
Speaker 6: at us as geniuses. Look, weren't geniuses. We paid attention

531
00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:47,560
Speaker 6: to the people you were not paying attention to. We

532
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,000
Speaker 6: invested in the people you were overlooking.

533
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,040
Speaker 5: The same dudes. You gave nothing. I made something.

534
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:52,639
Speaker 2: What I do?

535
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:55,640
Speaker 3: That's it? So all right.

536
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:57,520
Speaker 4: In the next in the next segment, we're going to

537
00:24:57,600 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 4: go through the process as far as you know, he says,

538
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:02,760
Speaker 4: the part process and like your day to day and

539
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:06,639
Speaker 4: then some mindset opportunities that you that you coach people

540
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:08,959
Speaker 4: on as well. So yeah, we're gonna go into that next.

541
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 4: All right, So you told us off camera that there's

542
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,480
Speaker 4: really three phases of your VC, and what you do

543
00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:18,159
Speaker 4: with Black Star Fund is, you know, you raise money,

544
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 4: you find find founders. You raise money, you find founders,

545
00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:25,679
Speaker 4: and you help them be successful. So the interesting thing

546
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:28,120
Speaker 4: for me is that you raise money before you find

547
00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:29,840
Speaker 4: the founder the founders of the people that you're giving

548
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 4: money to or you're investing money with. But you're raising

549
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 4: money before you actually have the people in play, and

550
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:39,400
Speaker 4: then you're not only just giving them money, but you're

551
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 4: coaching them. Because I always look at it like it's

552
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 4: like talent, right, we can't where I like to talk

553
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:48,440
Speaker 4: in sports and entertainment metaphors a lot because we understand

554
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:52,959
Speaker 4: that we as a culture, but world culture, we understand that, right.

555
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 4: So it's like me, I used to play sports. So

556
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:58,280
Speaker 4: you see it's called the dominant rough Like you see

557
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:02,359
Speaker 4: somebody like they might be phenomenal player, basketball player, but

558
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:05,160
Speaker 4: they're not polished. They need work they need to coach,

559
00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:06,879
Speaker 4: they need a trainer, they need somebody. But they already

560
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:09,680
Speaker 4: have potential, they have raw potential, but they're gonna get

561
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,080
Speaker 4: demolage if they just go to the league. They have to,

562
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 4: they have to. They gotta practice, right, they gotta they

563
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:16,840
Speaker 4: gotta refine. Same thing with business. Somebody could be the

564
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:21,359
Speaker 4: most talented entrepreneur and be the most elegant speaker and

565
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 4: powerful networker and just have a presence, but that still

566
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 4: might not make them ready for the big league.

567
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:28,960
Speaker 5: Credit as you're saying that, the first thing that came

568
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:31,879
Speaker 5: out of mind were talking team was when Puff found it.

569
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 2: It was like this gritty dude off the corner becomes

570
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:35,880
Speaker 2: this guy who.

571
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:37,720
Speaker 5: Knows where his besogy. He's an icon because of it.

572
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,480
Speaker 5: He found a dirt, he shined it up, and now

573
00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:41,399
Speaker 5: he's an icon forever.

574
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:43,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that happens. But there's a bunch of

575
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,520
Speaker 4: people that just you know, everybody needs some level of coaching.

576
00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 4: Whether it's like nah said, large professor told him not

577
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:52,720
Speaker 4: to pop his p's and the poof like you don't

578
00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 4: think about that, but it's like little stuff like that.

579
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,119
Speaker 4: It's like you you you actually have talent, but you

580
00:26:57,240 --> 00:26:59,440
Speaker 4: still need to be refined. So can you talk about

581
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 4: that as far as the process, your process being the

582
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:07,679
Speaker 4: CEO of a VC fund and actually working with the entrepreneurs,

583
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 4: not just like one hundred miles away, just do your

584
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:11,159
Speaker 4: own thing.

585
00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:12,159
Speaker 2: There's the money, go ahead.

586
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 6: Yeah, So let me say this first of all, there's

587
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,960
Speaker 6: a debate actually within our investment community where people even

588
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,720
Speaker 6: within African American investors around spending a lot of time

589
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 6: with the entrepreneurs, and some people's philosophy is, but if

590
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 6: we decided to make a deal with you, we're giving

591
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 6: you the capital and you figure it out. We'll make

592
00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:31,639
Speaker 6: some phone calls for you, but we're not here to

593
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:34,640
Speaker 6: hold your hand through the process. The way that VC

594
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:38,120
Speaker 6: normally works, the philosophy is you invest in ten companies,

595
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:43,200
Speaker 6: seven of them will fail, two of them will do okay,

596
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 6: and one of them will be a unicorn and make

597
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 6: everybody all the money. So what they do is they

598
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 6: wait to see who pulls ahead, and then the bottom

599
00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 6: seven they kind of abandon most of the time.

600
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:57,639
Speaker 2: Could we afford to do that with African American tech founders?

601
00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:02,280
Speaker 2: Absolutely not? Okay, absolutely that what are we talking about? Right?

602
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 2: That just makes no sense. We can't do that ten

603
00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 2: percent to talk about ten companies exactly.

604
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 6: So when you talk about you know, we're looking for

605
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:11,720
Speaker 6: the krem de la creme de la creme, the top

606
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 6: of the top of the top, and so a lot

607
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:15,399
Speaker 6: of times you know even how we got connected.

608
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,359
Speaker 2: You had one of our companies on EUYL the Win

609
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 2: Win company. It stands on.

610
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 6: Phenomenal guy, the true talented tech developer. True he was

611
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 6: a two time All American at Duke with a full

612
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:36,760
Speaker 6: ride and made it to the NFL. The work ethic

613
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 6: of an individual like that, you put that person in

614
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 6: tech and business, you're dealing with it a force you

615
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:46,240
Speaker 6: can't even imagine, you see what I mean? So that,

616
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,680
Speaker 6: but everybody has reshards to your point, everybody has areas

617
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:52,920
Speaker 6: that they need help with. Some of it might be

618
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 6: to be polished and refined in business. But what I

619
00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 6: find that I think the most value that I bring,

620
00:28:58,440 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 6: and this is something I think that could help all

621
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:03,280
Speaker 6: of your listeners, is that I say, the wider and

622
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 6: deeper your relationships are, the easier your life is. And

623
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 6: it translates to business, The wider and deeper your relationships

624
00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 6: are the easier your businesses. So when I invest in

625
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 6: a company and I can leverage my relationships to help

626
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:21,200
Speaker 6: them grow. It makes a huge difference we invest in.

627
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:22,720
Speaker 6: I'll give you an example. We invest in a company.

628
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:27,880
Speaker 6: One of my investors made one phone call. That company

629
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,200
Speaker 6: was able to get their product into the top grocery

630
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:33,280
Speaker 6: store in northern California.

631
00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:34,680
Speaker 5: Just from the resources.

632
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 2: That's you Okay, you see what I mean.

633
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:39,960
Speaker 6: It wasn't heavy lifting, but because I had that relationship

634
00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 6: and I could leverage that relationship for my founder that

635
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 6: I invested in, she was able to have a breakthrough in.

636
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:48,600
Speaker 2: The California market. You see what I mean.

637
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:50,880
Speaker 6: So it's not just the coaching, like we're helping you

638
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:52,959
Speaker 6: with mindset and we'll get into some of that hopefully too,

639
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:58,040
Speaker 6: but it's how can I act as almost your VP

640
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:01,920
Speaker 6: of business development? How can I get you in rooms

641
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:04,320
Speaker 6: and how can I connect you with people to help

642
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 6: you to grow your business? And then sometimes you know,

643
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,760
Speaker 6: we do what I call CEO coaching. It's the behind

644
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:12,440
Speaker 6: closed door. Its tough conversations where we got to look

645
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 6: in the mirror, We got to do an assessment. Where

646
00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 6: are your blocks, how are you getting in your own way?

647
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:20,360
Speaker 6: What story are you telling yourself? That's not serving you

648
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:22,560
Speaker 6: or your company. You see what I mean?

649
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 4: So what is some CEO coaching that you do or

650
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:29,040
Speaker 4: that you know, because, like I said, a lot of

651
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:31,720
Speaker 4: times people you start a business, there's no roadmap to

652
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:35,680
Speaker 4: be successful, and coaching is extremely important, right, Like even

653
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 4: Lebron reportedly spends a million dollars on his body where

654
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,040
Speaker 4: he has like massage therapists and trainers and things of

655
00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 4: that nature. And it's like business, this is important too,

656
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 4: business podcast is that top level business people spend money

657
00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 4: on coaches. That's right, because they want to improve, whether

658
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 4: it's a variety of different things that they can improve

659
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:55,800
Speaker 4: and become more efficient, things of that nature. And so

660
00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:59,480
Speaker 4: as far as like CEO coaching, what is that? What

661
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:02,160
Speaker 4: does that look like from your standpoint?

662
00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:04,960
Speaker 6: That's a great, great question. So there's not for me,

663
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 6: there's not a cookie cutter formula. It's like you got

664
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,400
Speaker 6: to assess the person in front of you. Where are

665
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 6: their strengths, where are their weaknesses? And you hear me

666
00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:17,080
Speaker 6: use this word, where are their blocks? And a block

667
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 6: is a mental idea that you have in your head

668
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:23,200
Speaker 6: that's preventing you from moving forward, and oftentimes it's subconscious.

669
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:26,239
Speaker 6: So how do you find out where those blocks are.

670
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,880
Speaker 6: It's based on output. I'm looking at what the entrepreneur

671
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 6: is doing, and I'm looking at the output, and in

672
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:35,000
Speaker 6: certain areas I'm not seeing good results.

673
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:37,280
Speaker 2: And then I'm asking them, what is it that you want?

674
00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 2: I want this?

675
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 6: It's okay, Well, I'm looking at six months of activity.

676
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 6: I'm not seeing a lot of the thing that you

677
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 6: say that you want. So we have to go into

678
00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:46,840
Speaker 6: why is that now? Some of it is because they

679
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:49,240
Speaker 6: haven't designed a plan to be able to get there well,

680
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 6: but a lot of times there's a block, and it's

681
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 6: almost like be honestly, it's almost like being a psychologist

682
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 6: where you got to go in and start to figure

683
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:58,239
Speaker 6: out what is preventing you from doing what you need

684
00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 6: to do, and then you forty seven. So I've seen

685
00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:04,400
Speaker 6: a lot. I've had some great successes. I've had some

686
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:05,560
Speaker 6: painful failures.

687
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:07,720
Speaker 5: That's exactly where I was going because I'm thinking, like,

688
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 5: this sounds very well organized, very well planned. In order

689
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:13,280
Speaker 5: to coach, sometimes you had to have made some mistakes

690
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:15,880
Speaker 5: that you know that play doesn't work, that's the thing.

691
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:18,360
Speaker 2: So what are some of the mistakes that you've made

692
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 2: along the way. So I'll give an example. I see

693
00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:20,560
Speaker 2: this a lot.

694
00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 6: Actually, when you're building a team as a leader, there's

695
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 6: a mistake that people make where they build a team

696
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 6: based on people who look up to them and who

697
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:33,600
Speaker 6: want to follow them. And part of it is an

698
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 6: ego thing. Right, So I'm the CEO and founder. You're

699
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 6: working for me. Maybe you haven't had this level of

700
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 6: success that I've had, and you just want to be down.

701
00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 6: I'm bringing you on same thing. So what these guys

702
00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 6: do a lot of times they'll build a team of

703
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,000
Speaker 6: people who are kind of not at their level and

704
00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:53,479
Speaker 6: look up to them and kind of idolize them. Huge mistake.

705
00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:57,160
Speaker 6: I made that mistake. When you're in business, you want

706
00:32:57,160 --> 00:32:59,240
Speaker 6: to build a team. And I tell peoples all the time,

707
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:01,560
Speaker 6: when you look on the table your management team, you

708
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,320
Speaker 6: should be in awe of the people on your team.

709
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 6: You should literally be in awe of them. Get this,

710
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:12,040
Speaker 6: howe how is it possible that you're sitting at the

711
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:14,840
Speaker 6: table actually building this company. See, that's a mindset shift,

712
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 6: and again sometimes it's ego. Sometimes people don't know better.

713
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:20,520
Speaker 6: The problem with the first way is that that team

714
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:23,000
Speaker 6: is always looking for you to make all the decisions

715
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:26,680
Speaker 6: and they and they're not really solving problems. Okay, so

716
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 6: you need people who are better than you to do

717
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 6: the things that you need to do to build your business.

718
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,120
Speaker 6: Steve Jobs was a genius at that and you probably

719
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:35,080
Speaker 6: have seen that meme. He said, you know, we hire

720
00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 6: people who are smarter than us to tell us what

721
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 6: to do, right, not the other way around.

722
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:39,560
Speaker 8: Right.

723
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:42,120
Speaker 6: So that's that's a problem that I see. If you

724
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:43,560
Speaker 6: want to get in the nitty gritty in terms of

725
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:46,600
Speaker 6: cash flow management. One of the folks, one of the

726
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:48,720
Speaker 6: one of the things I think are our folks have

727
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:52,320
Speaker 6: a challenge with is that when money comes in, they'll

728
00:33:52,360 --> 00:33:54,240
Speaker 6: operate the business kind of how they operate it on

729
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 6: their life, okay, without having a budget, without having strict

730
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 6: controls of that money.

731
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:03,480
Speaker 2: And so what I do with the entrepreneur is, look,

732
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:05,560
Speaker 2: we have to have the budget set with the X amount.

733
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:07,520
Speaker 2: I go over that with them.

734
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:08,719
Speaker 6: On some of the companies, I'm on the board, so

735
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:10,560
Speaker 6: it's a little easier because I can do board approvals

736
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,320
Speaker 6: of the budget. But we make sure that the cash

737
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:17,360
Speaker 6: is accounted for every week. If something comes up and

738
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 6: we need to make a shift, we need to have

739
00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 6: a board decision to make a shift in the expenditures.

740
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 6: But we've got spreadsheets to see where everything is. I've

741
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:27,840
Speaker 6: seen so many companies that are raised five hundred thousand

742
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:32,200
Speaker 6: dollars a million dollars. Ten months later, money's gone and

743
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:35,160
Speaker 6: the company is gone. Was it because their burn rate

744
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:37,800
Speaker 6: was so high? No, because they didn't have good financial

745
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:40,200
Speaker 6: systems in place, or they were saying, well, we don't

746
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:41,800
Speaker 6: need a CFO, we can't afford a CFO.

747
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:43,920
Speaker 2: Well, you don't need to hire a CFO.

748
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:48,040
Speaker 6: You need to have a fractional CFO, somebody that you

749
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:50,600
Speaker 6: can hire ten hours a month that will help to

750
00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:52,120
Speaker 6: make sure all the financial.

751
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:52,479
Speaker 2: Things are in place.

752
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:53,600
Speaker 5: A fractional CFO.

753
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:55,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is a new thing to be helpful

754
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:56,239
Speaker 2: your listener. Yes, I've heard of it.

755
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:59,759
Speaker 6: We call it fractional c suite. So we're starting off.

756
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:02,960
Speaker 6: We can't hire necessarily a chief marketing officer CMO, a

757
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:04,840
Speaker 6: chief financial officer CFO.

758
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:05,719
Speaker 2: We don't have to.

759
00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:09,160
Speaker 6: There's now people who have positioned themselves to be fractional

760
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:13,200
Speaker 6: C level managers. I'll give you ten hours a month

761
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:16,880
Speaker 6: to be your chief marketing officer, right because you're just

762
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:20,720
Speaker 6: getting started, and so that's a great bit earners.

763
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:21,120
Speaker 2: What's up.

764
00:35:21,239 --> 00:35:23,640
Speaker 5: You ever walk into a small business and everything just

765
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 5: works like The checkout is fast, the seats are digital,

766
00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:30,520
Speaker 5: tipping is a breeze, and you're out the door before

767
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:34,680
Speaker 5: the line even builds. Odds are they're using Square. We

768
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:37,360
Speaker 5: love supporting businesses that run on Square because it just

769
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 5: feels seamless. Whether it's a local coffee shop, a vendor

770
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:42,960
Speaker 5: at a pop up market, or even one of our

771
00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:46,640
Speaker 5: merch partners, Square makes it easy for them to take payments,

772
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:50,600
Speaker 5: manage inventory, and run their business with confidence, all from

773
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:54,120
Speaker 5: one simple system. If you're a business owner or even

774
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:57,719
Speaker 5: just thinking about launching something soon, Square is hands down

775
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 5: one of the best tools out there to help you start, run,

776
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:04,359
Speaker 5: and grow. It's not just about payments, it's about giving

777
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,040
Speaker 5: you time back so you can focus on what matters

778
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:10,320
Speaker 5: most ready. To see how Square can transform your business,

779
00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:15,239
Speaker 5: visit Square dot com backslash go backslash eyl to learn

780
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:20,480
Speaker 5: more that Square dot com backslash, go backslash eyl. Don't wait,

781
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:23,600
Speaker 5: don't hesitate, Let Square handle the back end so you

782
00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:29,960
Speaker 5: can keep pushing your vision forward. This episode is brought

783
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Speaker 5: to you by P and C Bank. A lot of

784
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 5: people think podcasts about work are boring, and sure, they

785
00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:39,400
Speaker 5: definitely can be, but understanding a professional's routine shows us

786
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:43,080
Speaker 5: how they achieve their success little by little, day after day.

787
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:45,719
Speaker 2: It's like banking with P and C Bank.

788
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:49,000
Speaker 5: It might seem boring to save, plan and make calculated

789
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:52,120
Speaker 5: decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is

790
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Speaker 5: what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P

791
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792
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793
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794
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795
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:15,040
Speaker 8: You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday.

796
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Speaker 8: How can you find amazing candidates fast?

797
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Speaker 2: Easy?

798
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,720
Speaker 8: Just use Indeed stop struggling to get your job posts

799
00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:26,440
Speaker 8: seen on other job sites. With Indeed sponsored jobs, your

800
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Speaker 8: post jumps to the top of the page for your

801
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802
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 8: According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed

803
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Speaker 8: have forty five percent more applications than non sponsored jobs.

804
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805
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806
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Speaker 8: seventy five dollars sponsored job credit to get your jobs

807
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808
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Speaker 8: Just go to indeed dot com slash pod katz thirteen

809
00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:03,160
Speaker 8: right now and support our show by saying you heard

810
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:06,960
Speaker 8: about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring

811
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 8: Indeed is all you need.

812
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:10,879
Speaker 6: Just for people to be in because they can work

813
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:13,600
Speaker 6: for five sixty seven companies and get paid for those

814
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:16,000
Speaker 6: companies doing fractional work in the week.

815
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:16,480
Speaker 2: It's great.

816
00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:18,719
Speaker 6: It's great, right, and it's great for the company because

817
00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:21,680
Speaker 6: you're getting high level professional services but you're not paying

818
00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 6: out the nose to be able to get that.

819
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:27,360
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like a consultant or MVP most viable product.

820
00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:29,200
Speaker 4: When we say a lot on the podcast, it's like

821
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:31,120
Speaker 4: you have to work with the resources that's available to you.

822
00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:33,840
Speaker 4: So you might not have one hundred and fifty thousand

823
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:36,840
Speaker 4: dollars to pay somebody full time, but you might have

824
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 4: twenty thousand that you can break. And like you said,

825
00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 4: it's kind of a win win because it's like you're

826
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:46,719
Speaker 4: still getting some level of help and that person might

827
00:38:46,840 --> 00:38:50,319
Speaker 4: get twenty thousand from ten different people. Now that's two

828
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:53,080
Speaker 4: hundred thousand as opposed to just the one fifty that

829
00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 4: they were going to get. But they got to focus

830
00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:56,080
Speaker 4: all of their time just on one company.

831
00:38:56,160 --> 00:38:57,759
Speaker 6: That's right, absolutely. And there's one other thing I want

832
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:00,359
Speaker 6: to say quickly about some of the coaching. It's life style.

833
00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:02,680
Speaker 6: One of our companies you've invested in a great friend

834
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:05,879
Speaker 6: of mine, Don Dixon, and she has a company called

835
00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:10,919
Speaker 6: Popcom and it's an incredible you know, AI interactive vending

836
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:14,200
Speaker 6: machine software system that she's created. And you know, she

837
00:39:14,239 --> 00:39:17,440
Speaker 6: always talks about, especially to younger entrepreneurs in the early twenties,

838
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:21,120
Speaker 6: this idea that you're grinding, you know, ninety one hundred

839
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:24,399
Speaker 6: hours a week and that somehow we romanticize that that's

840
00:39:24,440 --> 00:39:27,319
Speaker 6: how you're supposed to be successful. That is a way

841
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:30,600
Speaker 6: to have an imbalanced life, and that is a way

842
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:33,840
Speaker 6: to burn out. And so I really work with my

843
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:37,600
Speaker 6: founders in terms of their life balance. Me personally, I

844
00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:41,000
Speaker 6: don't work on Sundays. I will not work on Sundays.

845
00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:44,960
Speaker 6: I only started doing that in twenty nineteen, you see

846
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:46,600
Speaker 6: what I mean. So I don't want to see my

847
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:48,480
Speaker 6: founders like as an investor, I don't want to hear

848
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:49,320
Speaker 6: oh yeah, kwami.

849
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:50,040
Speaker 2: Man. We grind it out.

850
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 5: Man.

851
00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:51,839
Speaker 6: We put a one hundred hour week. I had three

852
00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 6: nights with no sleep.

853
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:55,759
Speaker 2: I don't want to hear that. I want to know.

854
00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:57,920
Speaker 2: Like Mike Brown, I'll just throw his stuff out.

855
00:39:57,960 --> 00:39:59,239
Speaker 6: I'll talk. I'll call Mike, I say hey, can we

856
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:00,880
Speaker 6: do a meeting. It's like can my son in taekwondo?

857
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:05,719
Speaker 6: I don't say, well, can you step outside? Because I've

858
00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:09,080
Speaker 6: taken my son when he was five to taekwondo? Right,

859
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:12,360
Speaker 6: And it's so important that as a founder, as an

860
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:15,160
Speaker 6: investor with the founder, I'm expecting you to work hard.

861
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:18,480
Speaker 6: I'm not expecting you to burn yourself out. I'm not

862
00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:21,680
Speaker 6: expecting you to have your life out of balance because

863
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:24,520
Speaker 6: I care about you as a human being first and foremost.

864
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:29,239
Speaker 2: But second, it's painfully inefficient. It's not sustainable. It's not sustainable.

865
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:30,960
Speaker 2: I need you to be here for the long haul,

866
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:32,280
Speaker 2: and I need you to bring.

867
00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:34,600
Speaker 4: To the best of your abilities, the best of you,

868
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:39,040
Speaker 4: and then also to play devil's advocate. I think there's

869
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:41,920
Speaker 4: different systems for different people because, like we talked about sports,

870
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 4: there's the Belichick way right, Patriots way, but it's really

871
00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:50,400
Speaker 4: Belichick's way and he's a much different coach than Phil Jackson.

872
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 4: He's a much different coach than Andy Reid. Right with Belichick,

873
00:40:56,880 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 4: it's no alternative. He's about t trying to get rid

874
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:00,799
Speaker 4: of Tom Brady. You don't care.

875
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:01,600
Speaker 3: This is my way.

876
00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:03,879
Speaker 4: And people say they hate playing for the everybody that's

877
00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:06,360
Speaker 4: played for the Patriots city that's not on the Patriots anymore.

878
00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:10,080
Speaker 4: So they hated it, but they win. They win, right,

879
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:15,040
Speaker 4: It's like sometimes the win and it's it's hard for

880
00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:17,520
Speaker 4: people to fully understand that too, because it's like it's

881
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:19,920
Speaker 4: it's it's kind of disy. I think businesses like sports

882
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:22,800
Speaker 4: where it's like sometimes you go to extra mind and

883
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:26,560
Speaker 4: every everybody, everybody's not balanced.

884
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:29,600
Speaker 6: So let me let me expound on that, because, believe

885
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:32,120
Speaker 6: it or not, I agree with you one hundred percent,

886
00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:34,200
Speaker 6: and I'm glad you said that because I need to

887
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:37,600
Speaker 6: qualify what I said because it goes to your point

888
00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:40,160
Speaker 6: about it. It's not sustainable. I want to see it

889
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:43,640
Speaker 6: being seasons. Okay, there's a season to go in the

890
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:46,759
Speaker 6: overdrive and then there's a season to pull back, and

891
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:48,800
Speaker 6: the Bible says it's time to place for everything. So

892
00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:50,920
Speaker 6: what I'm not saying as a startup founder, you should

893
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:54,200
Speaker 6: comfortably just do for hours a week, clock out at

894
00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:56,920
Speaker 6: five o'clock on Friday. I don't think about working all weekend.

895
00:41:57,040 --> 00:42:02,160
Speaker 6: I've got yoga tonight. No, no, right, But this idea

896
00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:04,600
Speaker 6: that like I'm not doing, I'm not a good founder

897
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:07,160
Speaker 6: of a startup if I'm not working ninety hours a week,

898
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:12,000
Speaker 6: never take a break, always grind and always reading. That mindset. See,

899
00:42:12,120 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 6: that's different than the athlete that is doing waking up

900
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:18,880
Speaker 6: at four in the morning every day. It's even that

901
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:21,640
Speaker 6: athlete still takes their family on vacation, you see what

902
00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:25,080
Speaker 6: I mean? Even that athlete reads books instead of playing. Right.

903
00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 6: So there's grind season, there's recovery season, there's we're going

904
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:32,200
Speaker 6: to pull out all the stops, and then this we're

905
00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:36,080
Speaker 6: gonna reflect. Steve Jobs one of the most innovative entrepreneurs

906
00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:40,640
Speaker 6: on the planet earth, Bill Gates, the minor standing I

907
00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:41,759
Speaker 6: just start documenting on him.

908
00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:42,440
Speaker 2: He still does it.

909
00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:48,239
Speaker 6: They read for over an hour a day. Now, how

910
00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:50,960
Speaker 6: in the world would you be Bill Gates with networth

911
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:54,839
Speaker 6: of thirty plus billion dollars, with all the global responsibilities

912
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:58,359
Speaker 6: he has, and he reads an hour day. Steve Jobs

913
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:02,399
Speaker 6: would walk for an hour a day, not take phone calls.

914
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:05,440
Speaker 2: Now you have steve jobs, rest and soul. Why do

915
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:06,200
Speaker 2: you do that? He said?

916
00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:09,440
Speaker 6: Because that's where I can think, and that's where I

917
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:10,560
Speaker 6: come up with ideas.

918
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?

919
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 5: You have to allocate this time. Oh, you definitely will

920
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:17,840
Speaker 5: burn out. That's like Shoy's coming from the Bisweld educational

921
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:19,600
Speaker 5: I see it all the time. Like I have teachers

922
00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:21,560
Speaker 5: that are thirty and forty and they're like, I can't

923
00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:22,240
Speaker 5: do this anymore.

924
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:24,080
Speaker 2: Well, I'm like, well, what are you gonna do? I

925
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:24,440
Speaker 2: don't know.

926
00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:27,080
Speaker 5: I'm like, well, then you're gonna be doing this right.

927
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:29,399
Speaker 5: Like it's like most teachers think that they're gonna work

928
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:32,319
Speaker 5: till the retirement age fifty five fifty sevens for something,

929
00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:33,960
Speaker 5: and they're like, all right, it's great, But I'm like,

930
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:36,200
Speaker 5: you're thirty now, you're twenty seven years away.

931
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:38,040
Speaker 2: What are you gonna do if you burnt out now?

932
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:40,239
Speaker 5: And it's like they haven't allocated the time or the

933
00:43:40,320 --> 00:43:41,799
Speaker 5: resources to look at anything else.

934
00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:42,760
Speaker 2: That's so powerful.

935
00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:48,800
Speaker 4: Yeah, So as far as raising money, right, what's the

936
00:43:48,880 --> 00:43:52,960
Speaker 4: process as far as that is concerned for you personally?

937
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:56,240
Speaker 4: Like you guys, now, do you tap into your network

938
00:43:57,200 --> 00:43:59,520
Speaker 4: that you've built up over the years. There's alumni association,

939
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:01,960
Speaker 4: it's just random people that you come in contact with.

940
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:03,520
Speaker 4: Do you have email marketing?

941
00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:03,640
Speaker 2: Like?

942
00:44:03,719 --> 00:44:05,480
Speaker 4: How do you we calling this stand for the lum

943
00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:08,640
Speaker 4: How do you raise money for you for these businesses

944
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:09,480
Speaker 4: that you're giving money to.

945
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:12,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's two sides of it.

946
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:14,799
Speaker 6: Let's talk about on the fund side and then also

947
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:16,719
Speaker 6: talk about how I help some of the companies to

948
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:20,239
Speaker 6: raise money themselves right on the fun side. It goes

949
00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:22,320
Speaker 6: back to what I said, the wider and deeper the

950
00:44:22,360 --> 00:44:25,960
Speaker 6: relationships you have our the easier your life is easier

951
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 6: your businesses. And remember I said success by association. So

952
00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 6: let's say I've got a good relationship with somebody's business guy.

953
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:35,319
Speaker 6: It knows me, trusts me, likes me, admires my work.

954
00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:36,920
Speaker 6: Talk to him, he says, calling out, man, I.

955
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:37,560
Speaker 2: Want to invest.

956
00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:39,800
Speaker 6: I don't just say hey, thank you so much for that.

957
00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:41,799
Speaker 6: I really appreciate it, and then try to find other people.

958
00:44:42,400 --> 00:44:45,320
Speaker 6: Then we sit down, who else in your network do

959
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:46,520
Speaker 6: you think would be interested in this?

960
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:48,040
Speaker 2: Right?

961
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:50,040
Speaker 6: So, now when we go and meet with that person,

962
00:44:51,120 --> 00:44:53,160
Speaker 6: these are people he's done deals with, These are people

963
00:44:53,239 --> 00:44:55,200
Speaker 6: she's done deals with. So they know them, they like them,

964
00:44:55,239 --> 00:44:57,359
Speaker 6: they trust them, and a lot of times they've made

965
00:44:57,400 --> 00:45:00,399
Speaker 6: money together. So now it's not just what, hey, here's

966
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:01,239
Speaker 6: this guy you don't know.

967
00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:02,600
Speaker 2: Do you want to do this?

968
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,560
Speaker 6: It's hey, man, I just get in this deal. You

969
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:07,680
Speaker 6: gotta see this, you gotta meet this guy. I'm in

970
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:10,200
Speaker 6: and I want to bring you in with me. So

971
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:14,719
Speaker 6: so much of the deal is done before the meeting

972
00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:18,120
Speaker 6: simply because again it's success by association. So that's really

973
00:45:18,200 --> 00:45:20,919
Speaker 6: my strategy on the fundraise. And the cool thing about

974
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:24,080
Speaker 6: that too, is that you meet extraordinary people doing amazing things.

975
00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:27,520
Speaker 6: Like I'm in town to help my two companies. Those

976
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:32,239
Speaker 6: events were Thursday and tomorrow. I planned my trip to

977
00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:35,200
Speaker 6: leave on Tuesday. Why because I knew I was going

978
00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:38,400
Speaker 6: to be meeting people, and I got some business partners

979
00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:40,040
Speaker 6: down here that I said, I'm coming for a week.

980
00:45:40,320 --> 00:45:42,560
Speaker 6: Ta Kama will get you some meetings so we can

981
00:45:42,640 --> 00:45:43,799
Speaker 6: help you to raise some money down here.

982
00:45:44,239 --> 00:45:46,200
Speaker 4: You see what I mean, And you never know what

983
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 4: can happen, like I I was just saying earlier, like

984
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:50,680
Speaker 4: somebody who was asked me, like you lest, I'm not

985
00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:54,840
Speaker 4: leaving leave Miami until I'm supposed to leave because already

986
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:55,600
Speaker 4: I know it's in New York.

987
00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:57,920
Speaker 3: I'm in New York all year.

988
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:01,400
Speaker 4: I might just randomly walk outside and meet a random

989
00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:03,680
Speaker 4: person that could change my life, like you know what

990
00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 4: I mean. And I think people don't fully understand that either.

991
00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:08,759
Speaker 4: It's like it's important to travel and it's important and

992
00:46:08,840 --> 00:46:11,040
Speaker 4: like we just met you two days ago. Who knows

993
00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:12,879
Speaker 4: where this relationship can go. But a lot of times

994
00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:16,000
Speaker 4: we just so can find average person only leaves for

995
00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 4: like two weeks a year, and their day to day

996
00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:21,200
Speaker 4: is exactly the same. And that's why it said, like

997
00:46:21,239 --> 00:46:23,360
Speaker 4: even take a different route to work, because it's like

998
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:26,520
Speaker 4: you kind of just get programmed to wake up, walk

999
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:28,359
Speaker 4: your dog, take your kid to school, pick a kid

1000
00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:30,440
Speaker 4: up from school. And then like you're you're only interacting

1001
00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:34,560
Speaker 4: with ten people every day for your whole entire year.

1002
00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:37,000
Speaker 3: How are you going to change your life? Of course,

1003
00:46:37,040 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 3: your life is going to be the same.

1004
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:40,400
Speaker 5: You're only talking to ten people, That's right, that's the

1005
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:43,000
Speaker 5: allocation part. It was like most people who work in

1006
00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:45,800
Speaker 5: corporate worlds, they'll tell you you got two weeks of

1007
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:48,880
Speaker 5: vacation for the year, so choose it wisely. You know

1008
00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:51,000
Speaker 5: what I'm saying. So it's like it's tough because it's

1009
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:52,719
Speaker 5: like we're trying to figure out, this is how much

1010
00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:54,719
Speaker 5: time we have, and oh, I got to put it

1011
00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:56,480
Speaker 5: with my friends and my family because this is the

1012
00:46:56,520 --> 00:46:58,239
Speaker 5: only time I have. It's like if you get sick,

1013
00:46:58,440 --> 00:46:59,600
Speaker 5: good luck, you know what I mean.

1014
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:02,279
Speaker 6: It's it's true, but I think that this goes back

1015
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:05,000
Speaker 6: to the shifting mindset. Right, if we're working a job

1016
00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:07,399
Speaker 6: and we only have two weeks allocated for vacation, that's

1017
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:09,719
Speaker 6: kind of what the rules are. But the reality is

1018
00:47:09,719 --> 00:47:12,520
Speaker 6: we also got fifty two weekends, right, And if you'd

1019
00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:15,759
Speaker 6: make a decision every other month, I'm going somewhere. Does

1020
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:17,440
Speaker 6: that mean that you got to spend two grand to

1021
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:19,880
Speaker 6: go out of the country or go to Mexico? Not necessarily,

1022
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:22,120
Speaker 6: But if you live in New York, you got a

1023
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:24,799
Speaker 6: friend in DC, you take that train down to DC

1024
00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:27,520
Speaker 6: and you stay with them, and it's exactly what you're saying.

1025
00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:30,279
Speaker 6: You're in you're at a different party, you're at someone

1026
00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 6: else's house for dinner, and it's natural things.

1027
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:34,359
Speaker 2: So what is it that you do right?

1028
00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:35,840
Speaker 6: And then having a consent where you go to school,

1029
00:47:36,280 --> 00:47:38,000
Speaker 6: and then once you start making those common links, hey,

1030
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:38,560
Speaker 6: do you know so and so?

1031
00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:39,960
Speaker 2: No, Man, I got to.

1032
00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:41,880
Speaker 6: Introduce you to a friend of mine, right, that's we

1033
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:43,800
Speaker 6: got to be in that mindset totally. How do you

1034
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:47,080
Speaker 6: put yourself in places and spaces where you're meeting new people,

1035
00:47:47,440 --> 00:47:50,120
Speaker 6: having new conversations and then having new realities for you.

1036
00:47:50,280 --> 00:47:52,320
Speaker 4: You know what's crazy too, is like we're so programmed,

1037
00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:54,920
Speaker 4: and it's like the people start looking at you crazy.

1038
00:47:54,960 --> 00:47:56,759
Speaker 4: Like when you start traveling a lot, you start doing things,

1039
00:47:56,800 --> 00:47:58,520
Speaker 4: they start looking at you crazy, like why are you

1040
00:47:58,600 --> 00:47:59,319
Speaker 4: traveling so much?

1041
00:47:59,520 --> 00:47:59,719
Speaker 2: Yeah?

1042
00:48:00,280 --> 00:48:02,160
Speaker 3: You know you need to travel slow down a little bit?

1043
00:48:02,640 --> 00:48:02,960
Speaker 2: Why not?

1044
00:48:03,760 --> 00:48:05,200
Speaker 3: Like there was literally people.

1045
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:08,040
Speaker 4: Will and then it's like even for you guys, not

1046
00:48:08,239 --> 00:48:10,960
Speaker 4: for me, but it's even relationships with people, like you know,

1047
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:13,600
Speaker 4: you never know. It's like why are you traveling again?

1048
00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:17,359
Speaker 4: Or you're traveling again? Or and people it's like, yeah,

1049
00:48:17,760 --> 00:48:19,200
Speaker 4: why not travel?

1050
00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, if I can, I'll get like, hey, you

1051
00:48:23,680 --> 00:48:26,160
Speaker 5: gotta slow down. You need to slow down, man, you're

1052
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:28,600
Speaker 5: moving around too much. And I'm like, na, man, we're

1053
00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:30,480
Speaker 5: trying to change the world here, like what I'm doing

1054
00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:33,640
Speaker 5: in education, like I don't go to work tomorrow. In school,

1055
00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:36,279
Speaker 5: somebody eventually will be the new teacher there, but like

1056
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:39,160
Speaker 5: nobody's doing, we're doing, so I gotta advocate. I gotta

1057
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:41,200
Speaker 5: allocate time for this because this is super important.

1058
00:48:41,239 --> 00:48:42,839
Speaker 2: You know, it's so it's so true, man.

1059
00:48:42,960 --> 00:48:44,800
Speaker 6: But that goes back to what we talked about success

1060
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:48,720
Speaker 6: by association, right, is that there's a painful reality.

1061
00:48:48,719 --> 00:48:49,200
Speaker 5: And I learned this.

1062
00:48:49,400 --> 00:48:51,600
Speaker 2: I'll be honest with you, man. I remember being in Baltimore.

1063
00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:55,320
Speaker 2: It was a tough time in my life and I

1064
00:48:55,520 --> 00:48:57,239
Speaker 2: was in I was in.

1065
00:48:57,239 --> 00:49:03,120
Speaker 6: A motel and I had audio recording of one of

1066
00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:09,320
Speaker 6: Tony Robbins's programs and he said, write down.

1067
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:12,600
Speaker 2: The most.

1068
00:49:14,239 --> 00:49:19,360
Speaker 6: Write down how you would describe success in business and

1069
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:23,160
Speaker 6: health in relationships, and basically through one to five of

1070
00:49:23,239 --> 00:49:26,000
Speaker 6: where you are, and then you do the average of that.

1071
00:49:27,560 --> 00:49:30,200
Speaker 6: I was like at one point two of everything.

1072
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:31,160
Speaker 2: Wow.

1073
00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:33,720
Speaker 6: And one of the things that he was talking about,

1074
00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:36,160
Speaker 6: and this isn't just you know, we say, like we

1075
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:38,320
Speaker 6: said earlier, that your net worth is the average of

1076
00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:40,520
Speaker 6: five people that you spend most time with. But the

1077
00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:46,520
Speaker 6: deeper level of that concept is your net consciousness is

1078
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:48,120
Speaker 6: the average of the five people you spend the most

1079
00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:48,400
Speaker 6: time with.

1080
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:50,400
Speaker 2: Okay, so what that means is.

1081
00:49:52,600 --> 00:49:55,319
Speaker 6: One of my favorite rappers of Chuck D Public Enemy

1082
00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:57,840
Speaker 6: right from Public Enemy, and Chuck D said, if I

1083
00:49:57,880 --> 00:50:00,600
Speaker 6: can't change the people around me, I changed people around me.

1084
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:04,120
Speaker 6: I'm in a situation where I can't change the people

1085
00:50:04,160 --> 00:50:06,799
Speaker 6: around me. I change the people around me. And when

1086
00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:09,040
Speaker 6: you hear things, no diside of your friends and people

1087
00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:11,719
Speaker 6: that love you. But when you hear things like you

1088
00:50:11,840 --> 00:50:14,759
Speaker 6: need to slow down, you're traveling too much, and you're

1089
00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:18,200
Speaker 6: not hearing the choruses telling you, Man, I'm so proud

1090
00:50:18,239 --> 00:50:18,360
Speaker 6: of you.

1091
00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:20,000
Speaker 2: Man, do it.

1092
00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:20,279
Speaker 5: Man.

1093
00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:22,160
Speaker 6: Every time I see a picture of you somewhere else,

1094
00:50:22,400 --> 00:50:24,960
Speaker 6: I get excited for you. What's the next thing you're doing.

1095
00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:27,080
Speaker 6: You're doing great now, but what's the next level you're

1096
00:50:27,120 --> 00:50:29,120
Speaker 6: trying to go to. If you don't have that courus

1097
00:50:29,160 --> 00:50:33,839
Speaker 6: around you, it's time to shift the team. It's time

1098
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:35,959
Speaker 6: to shift the team. I learned this early in my career.

1099
00:50:36,040 --> 00:50:37,840
Speaker 2: Man. Remember one of my mentors, SA Kwami.

1100
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:39,960
Speaker 6: The team that gets you from A to B, it's

1101
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:41,360
Speaker 6: not the same team that's gonna get you from B

1102
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:43,120
Speaker 6: two C or C D or D two E. And

1103
00:50:43,200 --> 00:50:45,640
Speaker 6: you as a leader, you have to be prepared. Doesn't

1104
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:47,080
Speaker 6: mean there's not some people gonna go all the way

1105
00:50:47,120 --> 00:50:49,920
Speaker 6: with you. But for the most part, the whole team's

1106
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:50,319
Speaker 6: not coming.

1107
00:50:50,840 --> 00:50:52,120
Speaker 3: Everybody might not gonna make it.

1108
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:55,000
Speaker 2: That everybody's not gonna make it. It's not gonna happen.

1109
00:50:55,320 --> 00:51:02,920
Speaker 9: It's okay, right, we're only laughing because we say that

1110
00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:10,799
Speaker 9: all the time. Everybody's not come make so clearly, man,

1111
00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:16,520
Speaker 9: I say, I hit a nerve that is that is

1112
00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:17,840
Speaker 9: a that's a mantra that we.

1113
00:51:17,960 --> 00:51:21,400
Speaker 2: Are kind of kind of live back. You gotta get

1114
00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:24,000
Speaker 2: some of the the teacher. Everybody ain't coming.

1115
00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:29,680
Speaker 7: It'll be only it'll be only that's gonna be the shirt.

1116
00:51:29,719 --> 00:51:33,160
Speaker 7: It'll be only be only bus stops here, right, you're

1117
00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:37,640
Speaker 7: getting off. You get no transfers, no transfers.

1118
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:42,160
Speaker 4: So from your perspective, as far as mindset, is mindset

1119
00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:47,040
Speaker 4: more more important than the information that people receive. But

1120
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:49,520
Speaker 4: does it go hand in hand to make the information

1121
00:51:49,719 --> 00:51:50,479
Speaker 4: useful for people.

1122
00:51:50,640 --> 00:51:52,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hard to quantify.

1123
00:51:52,160 --> 00:51:54,160
Speaker 6: But just to make the point, I mean, in my

1124
00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:57,560
Speaker 6: life experience, I always say in life, love and business,

1125
00:51:58,520 --> 00:52:01,560
Speaker 6: I would say ninety is mindset and ten percent is

1126
00:52:01,600 --> 00:52:05,200
Speaker 6: the info. Because if you don't have the right mindset,

1127
00:52:05,600 --> 00:52:08,759
Speaker 6: then you don't know how to digest the info.

1128
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:10,319
Speaker 2: And we were kids.

1129
00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:11,960
Speaker 6: Memember of parents used to said, man, it's in one air.

1130
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 6: I tell you the same thing over and over. It's

1131
00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:15,840
Speaker 6: in one ear and out the other. Okay, you're getting

1132
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:18,880
Speaker 6: the info, you're not retaining it, you're not digesting it,

1133
00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:21,719
Speaker 6: you're not processing it, and most importantly, you're not using

1134
00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:25,560
Speaker 6: it for the transformation. So the mindset, you know great.

1135
00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:29,319
Speaker 6: Wayne Dyer said, when you change the way you see things,

1136
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:33,080
Speaker 6: the things that you see change. That had a profound

1137
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:35,759
Speaker 6: impact on my life. So when you change whey you

1138
00:52:35,800 --> 00:52:37,280
Speaker 6: see things, the things that you see change.

1139
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:38,800
Speaker 2: That is mindset.

1140
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:41,279
Speaker 6: If I can think about this in a different way,

1141
00:52:41,840 --> 00:52:44,640
Speaker 6: then I can have a different result. There's another reason

1142
00:52:44,680 --> 00:52:47,000
Speaker 6: why you've got to have different people around you, because

1143
00:52:47,040 --> 00:52:49,319
Speaker 6: if you fall in the trap of commiserating, oh man,

1144
00:52:49,360 --> 00:52:51,440
Speaker 6: things are really tough right now, and you get a

1145
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:54,480
Speaker 6: bunch of people that are supporting that song, you go

1146
00:52:54,560 --> 00:52:57,400
Speaker 6: deeper down that hole. You have some people say, man,

1147
00:52:57,440 --> 00:53:00,520
Speaker 6: stop complaining. Okay, that is that really helpful? You really

1148
00:53:00,640 --> 00:53:02,640
Speaker 6: need There's people who said, let me help you to

1149
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:05,160
Speaker 6: see this thing differently. What you think is the problem

1150
00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:09,640
Speaker 6: could be an incredible opportunity. And because your mindset changes,

1151
00:53:10,239 --> 00:53:12,640
Speaker 6: then you look at the thing differently, You deal with

1152
00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:15,160
Speaker 6: the thing differently, and then you get different results.

1153
00:53:15,680 --> 00:53:18,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember to end it on that.

1154
00:53:18,200 --> 00:53:20,880
Speaker 4: No, I was years ago. I was working at this

1155
00:53:21,400 --> 00:53:25,719
Speaker 4: play this company, and this guy he was like one

1156
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:30,120
Speaker 4: of the top people, big time producer, and he was

1157
00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:33,640
Speaker 4: in the bathroom and another person came in the bathroom

1158
00:53:34,120 --> 00:53:38,319
Speaker 4: and started complaining about like the manager and was saying like, hey,

1159
00:53:38,320 --> 00:53:39,759
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. Like he's like, don't stop.

1160
00:53:41,320 --> 00:53:44,400
Speaker 4: I can't process any negative information. Can't process it.

1161
00:53:44,640 --> 00:53:47,200
Speaker 3: He stopped him, like aptitudes like Nope, not doing that.

1162
00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:50,200
Speaker 4: It's not it's not gonna be beneficial and it's only

1163
00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:52,680
Speaker 4: going to be negative and it's gonna lower my frequency

1164
00:53:53,320 --> 00:53:54,239
Speaker 4: and I can't.

1165
00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:54,800
Speaker 3: I can't do it.

1166
00:53:55,320 --> 00:53:57,560
Speaker 4: And when it was so profound because he didn't give

1167
00:53:57,600 --> 00:54:00,120
Speaker 4: him apology here and he just and for him to

1168
00:54:00,160 --> 00:54:02,160
Speaker 4: be at that level and just let me know, like,

1169
00:54:02,239 --> 00:54:05,040
Speaker 4: you know, everything that you put in your brain is important,

1170
00:54:05,120 --> 00:54:06,560
Speaker 4: and it's a lot of times we put so much

1171
00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:09,600
Speaker 4: negativity in our brain without even fully understanding what we're doing,

1172
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:12,560
Speaker 4: and then we're wondering while we're not getting the positive results.

1173
00:54:12,880 --> 00:54:14,399
Speaker 2: That's that's right, that's right. Yeah.

1174
00:54:14,400 --> 00:54:16,120
Speaker 6: I think I did a social media post recently, and

1175
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:17,600
Speaker 6: I was saying, you know, in order to kind of

1176
00:54:17,640 --> 00:54:19,799
Speaker 6: have a new reality, you have to have a new

1177
00:54:19,880 --> 00:54:23,440
Speaker 6: song in your head. Right, what's the story you're telling yourself.

1178
00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:26,759
Speaker 6: What's the song that you're singing. I've literally lost friendships

1179
00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:30,200
Speaker 6: and relationships saying similar things where people I was hearing

1180
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:32,239
Speaker 6: a lot of gossip. I can't hear that right now. Nope,

1181
00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:33,960
Speaker 6: a matter of fact, I can't ever hear it.

1182
00:54:37,920 --> 00:54:38,840
Speaker 3: No, that's powerful.

1183
00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:40,919
Speaker 4: So all right, in the last segment, we're gonna close

1184
00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:45,439
Speaker 4: it out. We're gonna go to Mother Africa home. Yeah,

1185
00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:48,640
Speaker 4: the return for sure, awesome. All right, So in the

1186
00:54:48,680 --> 00:54:50,560
Speaker 4: last segment, we're gonna close it out and we're gonna

1187
00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:52,600
Speaker 4: go into national And this is something that I really

1188
00:54:52,719 --> 00:54:55,319
Speaker 4: I really like enjoying having these conversations because I always said,

1189
00:54:55,400 --> 00:54:58,600
Speaker 4: like the vision of we can never limit ourselves, we

1190
00:54:58,640 --> 00:55:02,480
Speaker 4: can never limit ourselves as far as like geographically or

1191
00:55:02,640 --> 00:55:07,080
Speaker 4: culturally or anything like the world is our oyster. I

1192
00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:08,880
Speaker 4: think it's important for people to understand that, and that's

1193
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:10,880
Speaker 4: something that we really proud ourselves on. As far as

1194
00:55:11,040 --> 00:55:15,040
Speaker 4: your leisure, it's not just in America. We're in you know,

1195
00:55:15,280 --> 00:55:17,239
Speaker 4: we're blessed me and some of the top charts all

1196
00:55:17,320 --> 00:55:21,080
Speaker 4: over the world act and one continent specifically that we

1197
00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:23,320
Speaker 4: have reached the top charts in a lot of countries,

1198
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:28,080
Speaker 4: it's Africa. So shout out to everybody in Africa, all countries,

1199
00:55:28,120 --> 00:55:31,880
Speaker 4: all over all countries in Africa. We definitely have to

1200
00:55:31,960 --> 00:55:32,799
Speaker 4: come to Africa soon.

1201
00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:33,919
Speaker 2: I'd love to be your host.

1202
00:55:34,239 --> 00:55:35,840
Speaker 4: Yeah, looking forward to that. A lot of people have

1203
00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:38,160
Speaker 4: been hitting us up asking to come to Africa. And

1204
00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:42,320
Speaker 4: as I said, you're African American, you have roots in Ghana,

1205
00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:45,360
Speaker 4: That's where your family is from, and I know you

1206
00:55:45,480 --> 00:55:47,120
Speaker 4: go back there pretty regularly, right.

1207
00:55:47,239 --> 00:55:48,799
Speaker 2: I do. Yeah, I'm there usually two or three times

1208
00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:50,279
Speaker 2: a year. It was it was a big event this

1209
00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:51,320
Speaker 2: this December.

1210
00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:54,680
Speaker 5: It was the year return in Africa and Ghana specifically,

1211
00:55:54,840 --> 00:55:57,560
Speaker 5: and you were holding a text onment you were speaking there.

1212
00:55:57,520 --> 00:55:58,440
Speaker 2: Right, I was, Yeah.

1213
00:55:58,640 --> 00:56:00,720
Speaker 6: I'm the US ambassador for the on A Tech Summit.

1214
00:56:01,120 --> 00:56:04,000
Speaker 6: The co founders Einstein and Christine and Tim have created

1215
00:56:04,040 --> 00:56:07,200
Speaker 6: this incredible vision of tech summits all over the continent.

1216
00:56:07,680 --> 00:56:10,480
Speaker 6: And this was the second annual Ghana Tech Summit that

1217
00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:11,799
Speaker 6: happened just last month.

1218
00:56:12,480 --> 00:56:14,200
Speaker 4: So can we talk about all right, can we talk

1219
00:56:14,239 --> 00:56:16,920
Speaker 4: about that as far as what's going on in Africa

1220
00:56:17,040 --> 00:56:18,520
Speaker 4: right now. And I think it's important to have these

1221
00:56:18,560 --> 00:56:21,440
Speaker 4: conversations because it's like for us being an African American

1222
00:56:22,160 --> 00:56:25,480
Speaker 4: and then from the continent people that's of African descent.

1223
00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:28,000
Speaker 4: On the continent, it's only a body of water that

1224
00:56:28,160 --> 00:56:30,759
Speaker 4: separates us, but a lot of times it seems like

1225
00:56:30,840 --> 00:56:33,680
Speaker 4: it's much further, but it's really not. We're not that separated.

1226
00:56:35,080 --> 00:56:36,920
Speaker 4: So it's important I want to bridge this gap for

1227
00:56:37,120 --> 00:56:41,080
Speaker 4: people in America and for people in Africa. What's going

1228
00:56:41,120 --> 00:56:45,000
Speaker 4: on in Ghana specifically as far as the tech boom

1229
00:56:45,080 --> 00:56:47,960
Speaker 4: that's happening there and the entrepreneur and what did you

1230
00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:50,239
Speaker 4: see when you go out there and you know, being

1231
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:52,040
Speaker 4: out there giving a ted talk and things of that nature.

1232
00:56:52,200 --> 00:56:54,880
Speaker 6: Sure, so I'm so excited to have a chance to

1233
00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:59,719
Speaker 6: share and really making an open invitation. But piggyback and

1234
00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:01,920
Speaker 6: O's what you said is that twenty nineteen was the

1235
00:57:01,960 --> 00:57:04,600
Speaker 6: year of Return. And it was the President of Ghana

1236
00:57:04,880 --> 00:57:07,200
Speaker 6: who said, look, this is it's the four hundred year

1237
00:57:07,880 --> 00:57:11,880
Speaker 6: mark of the first African Africans who were brought to

1238
00:57:12,440 --> 00:57:15,600
Speaker 6: the United States or to North America as slaves. And

1239
00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:17,439
Speaker 6: so we're going to put our flag in the ground

1240
00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:19,240
Speaker 6: and say hey, we're marking this and we want you

1241
00:57:19,360 --> 00:57:19,840
Speaker 6: to come home.

1242
00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:20,560
Speaker 2: That's what he said.

1243
00:57:21,240 --> 00:57:25,160
Speaker 6: Come make cultural connection, Come learn how to invest, come

1244
00:57:25,240 --> 00:57:27,720
Speaker 6: to reconnect with the motherland.

1245
00:57:28,800 --> 00:57:29,200
Speaker 2: Post that.

1246
00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:31,479
Speaker 6: Now that we're going in twenty twenty, it's now called

1247
00:57:31,680 --> 00:57:34,600
Speaker 6: the Year of the Birthright, and we're taking it even

1248
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:37,439
Speaker 6: further and saying the Decade of the Birthright. That means

1249
00:57:37,480 --> 00:57:41,640
Speaker 6: that you, as descendants of Mother Africa, your birthright is

1250
00:57:41,680 --> 00:57:43,880
Speaker 6: there waiting for you, so you got to come back

1251
00:57:43,960 --> 00:57:47,400
Speaker 6: and connect with it and build. What's happening in Ghana.

1252
00:57:47,480 --> 00:57:50,200
Speaker 6: First of all, it's the fastest growing economy on the

1253
00:57:50,360 --> 00:57:54,040
Speaker 6: continent of Africa. Okay, so on any given year it's

1254
00:57:54,080 --> 00:57:59,320
Speaker 6: doing six to eight percent growth. Billions of dollars are

1255
00:57:59,360 --> 00:58:03,720
Speaker 6: coming from all over the world building infrastructure, building gorgeous

1256
00:58:03,720 --> 00:58:08,320
Speaker 6: buildings and hotels, our family businesses, building affordable housing units

1257
00:58:08,680 --> 00:58:09,520
Speaker 6: and neighborhoods.

1258
00:58:11,080 --> 00:58:12,920
Speaker 2: You know, there's so much in any sector.

1259
00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:15,600
Speaker 6: It could be gold, it could be technology, it could

1260
00:58:15,600 --> 00:58:20,520
Speaker 6: be textiles, it could be five G anything. It's all

1261
00:58:21,120 --> 00:58:23,760
Speaker 6: in the early stages for people to get in and

1262
00:58:23,880 --> 00:58:27,120
Speaker 6: to build. And it's a beautiful country. And now granted

1263
00:58:27,120 --> 00:58:29,560
Speaker 6: I'm biased because my family is from there, But what

1264
00:58:29,720 --> 00:58:31,400
Speaker 6: I found is a year of return because we had

1265
00:58:31,640 --> 00:58:37,160
Speaker 6: thousands of African Americans coming that the mines were blown.

1266
00:58:38,200 --> 00:58:41,840
Speaker 6: But more importantly, what I knew was going to happen,

1267
00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:45,800
Speaker 6: and I watched it happen. There's a feeling when you

1268
00:58:45,960 --> 00:58:48,680
Speaker 6: get your feedback on that soil that you didn't know

1269
00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:50,840
Speaker 6: that you had the capacity to feel.

1270
00:58:51,320 --> 00:58:54,960
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I mean just thinking visually, like every time,

1271
00:58:55,080 --> 00:58:56,840
Speaker 5: especially when we were growing up, there was just one

1272
00:58:56,920 --> 00:58:58,680
Speaker 5: image of what people thought Africa was.

1273
00:58:58,800 --> 00:58:58,920
Speaker 2: Right.

1274
00:58:58,960 --> 00:59:02,280
Speaker 5: It was like donated dollar to a child, right, or

1275
00:59:02,360 --> 00:59:03,920
Speaker 5: it was like you were in a safari And like

1276
00:59:04,040 --> 00:59:06,280
Speaker 5: when we saw the images coming back, especially like on

1277
00:59:06,360 --> 00:59:07,760
Speaker 5: social media, and I think that's the beauty of it,

1278
00:59:08,200 --> 00:59:10,760
Speaker 5: it was just like, wait, why are we not there?

1279
00:59:10,960 --> 00:59:11,520
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?

1280
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:14,280
Speaker 5: And I'm sure that when people got there, like you

1281
00:59:14,400 --> 00:59:15,560
Speaker 5: saw that firsthand, right.

1282
00:59:15,880 --> 00:59:17,400
Speaker 2: I didn't. But it was literal, man.

1283
00:59:17,440 --> 00:59:20,040
Speaker 6: I mean there was people I had so many friends

1284
00:59:20,320 --> 00:59:24,720
Speaker 6: that literally canceled their return flights to stay another week

1285
00:59:25,440 --> 00:59:31,000
Speaker 6: or indefinitely. I watched people who have full time jobs

1286
00:59:31,560 --> 00:59:36,600
Speaker 6: writing emails and proposals to their bosses with ideas of

1287
00:59:36,720 --> 00:59:40,800
Speaker 6: how they could be working in Africa for three months.

1288
00:59:40,520 --> 00:59:41,120
Speaker 2: Out of the year.

1289
00:59:41,760 --> 00:59:44,560
Speaker 6: I watched it happen, So in the feeling, I was

1290
00:59:44,600 --> 00:59:49,200
Speaker 6: there with my buddy too, Shaka Sangor, incredible author, New

1291
00:59:49,280 --> 00:59:51,840
Speaker 6: York Times bestseller One Man Show All over the World,

1292
00:59:51,960 --> 00:59:55,480
Speaker 6: amazing friend of mine, and we did a film with him.

1293
00:59:56,200 --> 00:59:57,920
Speaker 6: So he came back to for the first time and

1294
00:59:58,000 --> 01:00:00,920
Speaker 6: we shot a docu film of him being over there,

1295
01:00:01,400 --> 01:00:03,520
Speaker 6: and he said something really deep he said when he said,

1296
01:00:03,520 --> 01:00:04,600
Speaker 6: what the feeling I thought I was going to have

1297
01:00:04,640 --> 01:00:05,840
Speaker 6: when I got back is that I'm home.

1298
01:00:06,520 --> 01:00:08,480
Speaker 2: He to to be honest with you, I didn't actually

1299
01:00:08,520 --> 01:00:10,040
Speaker 2: feel that. He said.

1300
01:00:10,080 --> 01:00:14,320
Speaker 6: What I felt was that I belonged here, And I

1301
01:00:14,360 --> 01:00:16,920
Speaker 6: think that is the thing for African Americans when they go.

1302
01:00:17,600 --> 01:00:20,240
Speaker 6: It's the sense that you belong there. You don't have

1303
01:00:20,320 --> 01:00:24,400
Speaker 6: to move, but that feeling. The reality is most Black

1304
01:00:24,400 --> 01:00:28,400
Speaker 6: Americans have never felt that their whole life. Very true,

1305
01:00:28,600 --> 01:00:31,640
Speaker 6: so that I think that's the massive opportunities in every sector.

1306
01:00:31,960 --> 01:00:35,160
Speaker 6: I'm obviously on the tech space, but whatever you're into,

1307
01:00:35,760 --> 01:00:38,480
Speaker 6: you will find a place, you will find the feeling

1308
01:00:38,560 --> 01:00:40,440
Speaker 6: of belonging, and you're going to want to be doing

1309
01:00:40,480 --> 01:00:44,920
Speaker 6: business and building this next civilization in Africa.

1310
01:00:45,240 --> 01:00:48,120
Speaker 4: So what is the opportunities as far as for foreigners,

1311
01:00:48,160 --> 01:00:51,360
Speaker 4: Because I've heard Akon say, like, anybody that's doing business

1312
01:00:51,400 --> 01:00:53,880
Speaker 4: in America, you got to come to Africa and do business,

1313
01:00:53,920 --> 01:00:56,400
Speaker 4: and I guarantee like your business like boom like, you'll

1314
01:00:56,440 --> 01:00:59,960
Speaker 4: be way more successful doing anything, whether it's doing insurance,

1315
01:01:00,080 --> 01:01:03,320
Speaker 4: whether it's real estate, whether it's writing, whatever, doing in Africa.

1316
01:01:03,360 --> 01:01:04,200
Speaker 3: He said that before.

1317
01:01:04,400 --> 01:01:08,600
Speaker 4: So what are the opportunities and how welcoming is it

1318
01:01:08,800 --> 01:01:13,960
Speaker 4: for foreigners, specifically Americans that may be in business to

1319
01:01:14,080 --> 01:01:16,440
Speaker 4: come to Africa because obviously you don't know that the

1320
01:01:16,960 --> 01:01:18,800
Speaker 4: dynamics of it. You got to like partner up and

1321
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:19,880
Speaker 4: meet people out there.

1322
01:01:20,560 --> 01:01:25,240
Speaker 6: Yeah, so two parts of that I always tell people.

1323
01:01:25,440 --> 01:01:27,920
Speaker 6: There's there's the what, the why and the how, So

1324
01:01:28,040 --> 01:01:30,960
Speaker 6: the what is other opportunities The answer is absolutely yes,

1325
01:01:31,480 --> 01:01:33,680
Speaker 6: But then we get into the why. It is easy

1326
01:01:33,720 --> 01:01:35,800
Speaker 6: I want to reconnect with Africa and be part of

1327
01:01:35,920 --> 01:01:38,000
Speaker 6: creating the change that we want to see. The how

1328
01:01:38,400 --> 01:01:41,880
Speaker 6: is about who do you know? Who do you know

1329
01:01:42,040 --> 01:01:44,960
Speaker 6: over there that can help you to be able to

1330
01:01:45,120 --> 01:01:49,400
Speaker 6: navigate through It's difficult to do business in Ghana and

1331
01:01:49,520 --> 01:01:51,960
Speaker 6: quite frankly on the continent when you don't know people

1332
01:01:52,520 --> 01:01:54,520
Speaker 6: because you don't have access and you don't know how

1333
01:01:54,560 --> 01:01:55,440
Speaker 6: to navigate through there.

1334
01:01:56,000 --> 01:01:57,480
Speaker 2: But it's it's the same here. I mean, if I

1335
01:01:57,880 --> 01:01:59,640
Speaker 2: you know, I've never been in New York and I'm trying.

1336
01:01:59,440 --> 01:02:01,640
Speaker 6: To do business and or stop, I know a whole

1337
01:02:01,640 --> 01:02:05,560
Speaker 6: lot of people well connected business, finance, city Hall. I'm

1338
01:02:05,560 --> 01:02:06,720
Speaker 6: gonna get some subst out quickly.

1339
01:02:06,880 --> 01:02:07,120
Speaker 5: Yeah.

1340
01:02:07,320 --> 01:02:08,959
Speaker 2: So it's really important to connect with people.

1341
01:02:09,080 --> 01:02:11,080
Speaker 6: And Joe, when you mentioned about seeing the social media,

1342
01:02:11,520 --> 01:02:13,080
Speaker 6: if you have friends that you saw over there with

1343
01:02:13,160 --> 01:02:16,240
Speaker 6: social media, I guarantee you they were making relationships and

1344
01:02:16,280 --> 01:02:18,320
Speaker 6: friendships over there, you need to get in touch with

1345
01:02:18,400 --> 01:02:20,480
Speaker 6: them and say, hey, I'm interested in doing business.

1346
01:02:20,840 --> 01:02:22,560
Speaker 2: Who do you know over there? Now?

1347
01:02:22,760 --> 01:02:24,680
Speaker 6: You know, I'll do a little bit of promotion because

1348
01:02:24,680 --> 01:02:26,360
Speaker 6: I want people to be connected to me as well.

1349
01:02:26,720 --> 01:02:28,520
Speaker 6: But then we can help to get you connected to

1350
01:02:28,600 --> 01:02:30,840
Speaker 6: folks that can help you based on the things that

1351
01:02:30,880 --> 01:02:31,480
Speaker 6: you're interested in.

1352
01:02:31,600 --> 01:02:32,520
Speaker 3: Oh, your company does that?

1353
01:02:32,920 --> 01:02:35,040
Speaker 2: So I work with folks. I've got partners over there. Ok.

1354
01:02:35,240 --> 01:02:37,440
Speaker 6: Yeah, so we you know, we've got a consulting company too,

1355
01:02:38,000 --> 01:02:40,200
Speaker 6: so we help people that are interested in doing business

1356
01:02:40,240 --> 01:02:41,880
Speaker 6: in Africa, specifically in Ghana.

1357
01:02:42,000 --> 01:02:44,000
Speaker 3: You bridged that gain absolutely what's the name of the company.

1358
01:02:44,080 --> 01:02:46,439
Speaker 6: Yeah, so my partner with there is black Band. Black

1359
01:02:46,480 --> 01:02:50,040
Speaker 6: Band Terry Opong, He's the CEO and founder of black Band.

1360
01:02:50,600 --> 01:02:54,760
Speaker 4: What are some industries that they definitely need like right away?

1361
01:02:54,840 --> 01:02:56,640
Speaker 4: That's the opportunities for entrepreneurs.

1362
01:02:56,800 --> 01:03:00,959
Speaker 6: Oh, well, you'll be happy. I think the real estate

1363
01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:02,760
Speaker 6: and obviously our family is in the real estate business.

1364
01:03:02,800 --> 01:03:07,560
Speaker 6: But the real estate opportunities in Ghana are extraordinary. It's

1365
01:03:07,640 --> 01:03:09,760
Speaker 6: just extraordinary. You got to need right now for a

1366
01:03:09,920 --> 01:03:12,680
Speaker 6: million people for affordable housing.

1367
01:03:14,560 --> 01:03:16,120
Speaker 5: That's a Cilian Presidentirey.

1368
01:03:16,200 --> 01:03:18,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, development, real estate development.

1369
01:03:18,640 --> 01:03:22,240
Speaker 6: Real estate development is huge. But I mean, honest with you,

1370
01:03:22,320 --> 01:03:23,880
Speaker 6: the thing is so wide that it's what are you

1371
01:03:24,040 --> 01:03:26,760
Speaker 6: what are you passionate about? People interested in fashion, the

1372
01:03:26,840 --> 01:03:30,160
Speaker 6: textile industry, fashion explosive. The other area we need to

1373
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:33,560
Speaker 6: really start thinking about is the cocoa industry. Coco Ghana

1374
01:03:33,640 --> 01:03:37,760
Speaker 6: producers three percent of the global supply excuse me, seventy

1375
01:03:37,800 --> 01:03:40,560
Speaker 6: percent of the global supply of coco, but we're only

1376
01:03:40,640 --> 01:03:43,160
Speaker 6: participating in three percent of the supply chain benefit of

1377
01:03:43,200 --> 01:03:47,120
Speaker 6: that seventy seventy percent, and between Ghana and Ivory Coast,

1378
01:03:47,240 --> 01:03:50,640
Speaker 6: it's ninety percent of the entire planet's coco comes from

1379
01:03:50,680 --> 01:03:54,240
Speaker 6: those two places, but we're participating in a minuscule part

1380
01:03:54,280 --> 01:03:57,080
Speaker 6: of the profit because we're not processing.

1381
01:03:56,600 --> 01:03:57,320
Speaker 3: It there correctly.

1382
01:03:57,440 --> 01:04:01,160
Speaker 2: We're just we're just growing the coco, sending it to

1383
01:04:01,560 --> 01:04:04,080
Speaker 2: out there's no infrastructure to properly.

1384
01:04:04,680 --> 01:04:07,840
Speaker 4: It's like the diamonds in South Africa, and then they

1385
01:04:08,040 --> 01:04:10,080
Speaker 4: send it to Israel to actually get cut and all

1386
01:04:10,120 --> 01:04:10,240
Speaker 4: of that.

1387
01:04:10,520 --> 01:04:12,680
Speaker 5: That's that's exactly like when we spoke about spoke about

1388
01:04:12,920 --> 01:04:16,640
Speaker 5: Elco Dangote when he was when he changed his country's

1389
01:04:16,760 --> 01:04:20,240
Speaker 5: export to import policy, right, like they were putting out

1390
01:04:20,280 --> 01:04:23,400
Speaker 5: so much oil. He built the infrastructures so now they're

1391
01:04:23,480 --> 01:04:25,800
Speaker 5: able to export it to countries and make money. It

1392
01:04:25,880 --> 01:04:28,360
Speaker 5: completely changes the income for the entire country.

1393
01:04:28,440 --> 01:04:30,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, Nigeria is one of the they have one of

1394
01:04:30,480 --> 01:04:33,600
Speaker 4: the largest oil reserves in the world, but they don't

1395
01:04:34,560 --> 01:04:37,120
Speaker 4: produce a lot of oil. Now they're starting to change that,

1396
01:04:37,240 --> 01:04:39,600
Speaker 4: but because the refineries just wasn't enough to cove and

1397
01:04:39,680 --> 01:04:43,880
Speaker 4: they couldn't actually produce it well, efficiently, well and efficiently.

1398
01:04:43,960 --> 01:04:47,280
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. So yeah, so look, whether it's oil, whether.

1399
01:04:47,120 --> 01:04:51,479
Speaker 6: It's solar, agriculture, real estate tech, which is my world,

1400
01:04:52,240 --> 01:04:55,360
Speaker 6: our developers over there are coders over there. There's so

1401
01:04:55,440 --> 01:04:58,200
Speaker 6: many incredible opportunities. So when you think about the United States,

1402
01:04:58,240 --> 01:04:59,959
Speaker 6: the people really made money back in the day build

1403
01:05:00,080 --> 01:05:02,800
Speaker 6: the railroads and everything else. Those families and the oil families.

1404
01:05:03,400 --> 01:05:06,200
Speaker 6: We can be those families in Ghana right now in

1405
01:05:06,320 --> 01:05:06,880
Speaker 6: twenty twenty.

1406
01:05:07,120 --> 01:05:11,880
Speaker 4: And media opportunities are there, Media opportunities and god, oh.

1407
01:05:11,840 --> 01:05:17,120
Speaker 2: Absolutely, media infrastructures.

1408
01:05:17,120 --> 01:05:18,360
Speaker 6: And I think that's one of the things that trips

1409
01:05:18,400 --> 01:05:19,840
Speaker 6: people out, man, when they get the gun and they

1410
01:05:19,880 --> 01:05:23,840
Speaker 6: flip on the television and everything. It's like everything here,

1411
01:05:24,000 --> 01:05:28,000
Speaker 6: your sports center, your news, But it's us. It's hosting,

1412
01:05:28,200 --> 01:05:31,400
Speaker 6: that's producing, that's running those stations and those networks.

1413
01:05:31,600 --> 01:05:33,320
Speaker 2: I think it's exciting for content creators.

1414
01:05:33,480 --> 01:05:36,800
Speaker 4: No, I think creators and I see you firsthand as

1415
01:05:36,840 --> 01:05:39,240
Speaker 4: far as we're earn your leisures because like I see,

1416
01:05:39,280 --> 01:05:41,439
Speaker 4: it's a need for what we do in different parts

1417
01:05:41,480 --> 01:05:43,400
Speaker 4: of the world, Like people can't wait for us to

1418
01:05:43,440 --> 01:05:47,120
Speaker 4: come to Toronto, Canada. Same thing with London, England, Africa.

1419
01:05:47,360 --> 01:05:50,720
Speaker 4: And it's like we're highlighting entrepreneurs and we're explaining different

1420
01:05:50,720 --> 01:05:52,880
Speaker 4: business ventures in a way that people can understand it.

1421
01:05:53,200 --> 01:05:55,600
Speaker 4: And it's just like music, right, like you might be

1422
01:05:56,160 --> 01:06:00,320
Speaker 4: a huge jay Z fan, but you're from London and

1423
01:06:00,400 --> 01:06:03,480
Speaker 4: he's from Brooklyn. It's just a little different as far

1424
01:06:03,520 --> 01:06:05,880
Speaker 4: as the dialect, the things that he's rapping about is

1425
01:06:05,960 --> 01:06:08,640
Speaker 4: not the same. But you genuinely you got to love

1426
01:06:08,720 --> 01:06:11,040
Speaker 4: for the music and I feel like that the podcast

1427
01:06:11,160 --> 01:06:13,680
Speaker 4: is the same thing like people. It might not be

1428
01:06:13,800 --> 01:06:15,800
Speaker 4: specific as far as the stuff that we're talking about.

1429
01:06:15,800 --> 01:06:18,040
Speaker 4: A lot of this stuff is just is geared towards America.

1430
01:06:18,520 --> 01:06:22,720
Speaker 4: We're working on getting more international content, but they just

1431
01:06:22,760 --> 01:06:28,400
Speaker 4: sty're encouraged by us by our delivery. And so our

1432
01:06:28,480 --> 01:06:30,880
Speaker 4: goal with Earn Lisia is is to take this all

1433
01:06:30,920 --> 01:06:35,880
Speaker 4: over the world and to have Summits platforms, podcast shows

1434
01:06:36,360 --> 01:06:39,280
Speaker 4: in different countries and highlight entrepreneurs. Don't We're not going

1435
01:06:39,360 --> 01:06:41,560
Speaker 4: to do the chrystical Columbus thing and just come with

1436
01:06:41,720 --> 01:06:44,600
Speaker 4: people from America and shove all way of thinking on

1437
01:06:44,960 --> 01:06:47,680
Speaker 4: other countries. We want to actually invite people that's doing

1438
01:06:47,720 --> 01:06:50,600
Speaker 4: their thing in their countries and break it down because

1439
01:06:50,600 --> 01:06:52,440
Speaker 4: a lot of times people business owners, they don't have

1440
01:06:52,520 --> 01:06:54,520
Speaker 4: a platform and the people don't have a way to

1441
01:06:54,560 --> 01:06:58,800
Speaker 4: get the information from those people. So it's a disconnecting Yeah.

1442
01:06:58,720 --> 01:07:01,880
Speaker 5: There's people doing amazing things. Like you said, the woman

1443
01:07:01,880 --> 01:07:04,320
Speaker 5: you spoke about earlier, who is the Oprah Winfrey in

1444
01:07:04,400 --> 01:07:07,080
Speaker 5: the text space that was unfamiliar to us. You know

1445
01:07:07,120 --> 01:07:09,840
Speaker 5: what I'm saying, there's no platform for her to be.

1446
01:07:10,960 --> 01:07:13,360
Speaker 5: It's not exploited, but displayed her greatness.

1447
01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:13,920
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.

1448
01:07:14,400 --> 01:07:16,080
Speaker 5: I think it's so important at what we're doing here,

1449
01:07:16,360 --> 01:07:18,600
Speaker 5: and to do it internationally will be even more incredible.

1450
01:07:18,720 --> 01:07:20,600
Speaker 6: Well, I tell you, I was really moved by what

1451
01:07:20,680 --> 01:07:22,120
Speaker 6: you both just said, and I'm going to make a

1452
01:07:22,120 --> 01:07:24,000
Speaker 6: commitment to you. One of the reasons why a lot

1453
01:07:24,000 --> 01:07:25,439
Speaker 6: of people want to be on your show is because

1454
01:07:25,480 --> 01:07:27,880
Speaker 6: you give them a platform and you give them exposure.

1455
01:07:28,440 --> 01:07:30,160
Speaker 6: I want to be able to make a commitment to

1456
01:07:30,240 --> 01:07:33,360
Speaker 6: you all and to help on the international scene. I've

1457
01:07:33,400 --> 01:07:37,280
Speaker 6: got great friends and great relationships with entrepreneurs in Toronto,

1458
01:07:38,120 --> 01:07:40,920
Speaker 6: in London, and in Ghana. Okay, so I'm going to

1459
01:07:41,000 --> 01:07:46,800
Speaker 6: help you breaking news alert, breaking news. I'm going to

1460
01:07:46,880 --> 01:07:51,200
Speaker 6: help you to put those events together in Toronto, in London,

1461
01:07:51,840 --> 01:07:52,760
Speaker 6: but in Ghana.

1462
01:07:53,480 --> 01:07:54,439
Speaker 2: I'm gonna host you guys.

1463
01:07:54,600 --> 01:07:57,760
Speaker 6: Oh we'll tell you haven't oh man, I'm hosting you

1464
01:07:57,840 --> 01:07:59,400
Speaker 6: and our family are gonna host you and bring you

1465
01:07:59,520 --> 01:08:02,320
Speaker 6: all out so you can experience the country the way

1466
01:08:02,360 --> 01:08:04,080
Speaker 6: it was supposed to be experienced.

1467
01:08:04,640 --> 01:08:06,919
Speaker 2: And will get you connected. And then but your job

1468
01:08:07,080 --> 01:08:07,920
Speaker 2: is to just do what you do.

1469
01:08:08,480 --> 01:08:10,320
Speaker 3: That's it. We're going to do it big en after.

1470
01:08:11,720 --> 01:08:12,680
Speaker 7: A big.

1471
01:08:15,520 --> 01:08:17,680
Speaker 2: World. Why for real?

1472
01:08:17,920 --> 01:08:19,400
Speaker 3: Oh Man Kwalme.

1473
01:08:19,560 --> 01:08:22,080
Speaker 4: I appreciate you, and like I said, this is all

1474
01:08:22,160 --> 01:08:24,160
Speaker 4: it's all about relationships, and it's like we just met.

1475
01:08:24,800 --> 01:08:26,360
Speaker 3: You were actually, you know.

1476
01:08:26,400 --> 01:08:28,840
Speaker 4: An advocate for the podcast before we met you, which

1477
01:08:28,920 --> 01:08:30,840
Speaker 4: is really dope because you're on the whole different coast

1478
01:08:31,280 --> 01:08:33,519
Speaker 4: and it's all you know, a couple of degrees of separation.

1479
01:08:33,600 --> 01:08:33,720
Speaker 2: You know.

1480
01:08:33,800 --> 01:08:36,920
Speaker 4: We interviewed Mike Brown, which you're invested in his company,

1481
01:08:37,680 --> 01:08:41,719
Speaker 4: and we met you at his event and you spoke

1482
01:08:42,120 --> 01:08:44,200
Speaker 4: and kicked it off and then shout out to Mike

1483
01:08:44,240 --> 01:08:46,200
Speaker 4: Brown also because even when you spoke, we still have

1484
01:08:46,479 --> 01:08:49,360
Speaker 4: tie the dots on that and he's like, yo, yeah,

1485
01:08:49,360 --> 01:08:51,160
Speaker 4: should have called me on the podcast. I'm like, all right,

1486
01:08:51,240 --> 01:08:53,479
Speaker 4: let's do it, and so yeah, shout out to Mike

1487
01:08:53,520 --> 01:08:54,360
Speaker 4: for actually quarterback.

1488
01:08:54,400 --> 01:08:57,880
Speaker 5: And on top of that, one of your students tell

1489
01:08:57,960 --> 01:09:00,280
Speaker 5: us really quickly, I have a.

1490
01:09:00,240 --> 01:09:00,800
Speaker 2: Couple of mentees.

1491
01:09:00,840 --> 01:09:02,719
Speaker 6: I'm on the board of a university called North Central

1492
01:09:02,760 --> 01:09:06,400
Speaker 6: University in Minneapolis, and a couple of students, young couple.

1493
01:09:07,400 --> 01:09:10,519
Speaker 6: They're my mentees. So I was in town having dinner

1494
01:09:10,600 --> 01:09:14,000
Speaker 6: with them, and they had invested in Mike's company. So

1495
01:09:14,240 --> 01:09:15,080
Speaker 6: I'm having dinner with.

1496
01:09:15,120 --> 01:09:16,439
Speaker 2: Them and I said, oh, man, I'm so excited. You

1497
01:09:16,520 --> 01:09:17,240
Speaker 2: guys invested in.

1498
01:09:17,280 --> 01:09:20,200
Speaker 6: Win Win and which which one of my social media

1499
01:09:20,320 --> 01:09:23,439
Speaker 6: posts influenced you to make a decision? And they call

1500
01:09:23,520 --> 01:09:26,479
Speaker 6: me uncle Kwame, Uncle Kame, what do you mean? I

1501
01:09:26,560 --> 01:09:29,280
Speaker 6: was like, didn't you invest because of me working with them?

1502
01:09:30,560 --> 01:09:31,240
Speaker 2: You work with him?

1503
01:09:33,240 --> 01:09:34,960
Speaker 6: I was like, how did you find out about when Win?

1504
01:09:35,400 --> 01:09:38,639
Speaker 6: And he Michael. It's a couple of Michael and Grace.

1505
01:09:38,680 --> 01:09:42,120
Speaker 6: They just got engaged. Michael brings out his phone and

1506
01:09:42,240 --> 01:09:45,720
Speaker 6: shows me the screenshot that a friend of his had

1507
01:09:45,800 --> 01:09:50,320
Speaker 6: sent him of the EYL episode, and all she said

1508
01:09:50,479 --> 01:09:52,519
Speaker 6: was you need to invest in this right now.

1509
01:09:54,160 --> 01:09:54,799
Speaker 2: That's crazy.

1510
01:09:54,920 --> 01:09:58,280
Speaker 6: We watched the episode. We love those guys, and we invested.

1511
01:09:59,120 --> 01:10:00,600
Speaker 6: So I'm very grateful to.

1512
01:10:00,600 --> 01:10:05,680
Speaker 2: You for what you told us the story. I was

1513
01:10:05,760 --> 01:10:09,080
Speaker 2: just like, WHOA, yeah, No, your reach is incredible.

1514
01:10:09,120 --> 01:10:11,160
Speaker 6: That's probably I was saying with Toronto man literally had

1515
01:10:11,160 --> 01:10:13,759
Speaker 6: a friend of mine was talking to and to recommend podcasts.

1516
01:10:13,840 --> 01:10:16,200
Speaker 2: And she's like, the number one was Eyl.

1517
01:10:16,000 --> 01:10:18,880
Speaker 3: She from Toronto. Shout out in Toronto, the first one.

1518
01:10:22,800 --> 01:10:24,919
Speaker 3: So now a shout to Toronto.

1519
01:10:25,160 --> 01:10:25,720
Speaker 2: Man, thank you.

1520
01:10:26,640 --> 01:10:30,320
Speaker 4: But yeah, so how can people contact your information on

1521
01:10:30,360 --> 01:10:33,840
Speaker 4: you on your your business, different business ventures and uh yeah,

1522
01:10:33,920 --> 01:10:35,599
Speaker 4: any information that you want to give the public?

1523
01:10:35,760 --> 01:10:38,040
Speaker 6: Sure, man, very very easy. First thing on the business side,

1524
01:10:38,080 --> 01:10:40,639
Speaker 6: get connected with me on LinkedIn. So it's just quime

1525
01:10:40,800 --> 01:10:43,240
Speaker 6: k w A m E. Last name a n k

1526
01:10:43,439 --> 01:10:46,040
Speaker 6: u ku. You definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. That's

1527
01:10:46,080 --> 01:10:50,799
Speaker 6: the best platform for business networking in my opinion. Instagram,

1528
01:10:50,880 --> 01:10:52,800
Speaker 6: you know, we'll post this, my link will be there.

1529
01:10:53,240 --> 01:10:57,360
Speaker 6: And then the website is Blackstar that fund? Black Star

1530
01:10:57,680 --> 01:10:58,200
Speaker 6: that fund.

1531
01:10:58,439 --> 01:11:00,679
Speaker 3: And what about the what's the company that you connect

1532
01:11:00,680 --> 01:11:01,639
Speaker 3: people with in Africa?

1533
01:11:01,840 --> 01:11:05,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, black band dot co. Black black Band dot Co.

1534
01:11:06,160 --> 01:11:12,280
Speaker 6: Terry Apong phenomenal, phenomenal business leader and entrepreneur over there

1535
01:11:12,520 --> 01:11:14,360
Speaker 6: on the ground making stuff happen.

1536
01:11:15,280 --> 01:11:18,879
Speaker 5: I appreciate that, Troy shout out to everybody on Patreon

1537
01:11:18,920 --> 01:11:19,280
Speaker 5: dot com.

1538
01:11:19,400 --> 01:11:21,120
Speaker 2: Y'all know that it is our proud to pay program.

1539
01:11:21,640 --> 01:11:23,120
Speaker 5: It has grown over the months.

1540
01:11:23,160 --> 01:11:23,280
Speaker 2: Man.

1541
01:11:23,360 --> 01:11:25,639
Speaker 5: We are so happy that everybody's come along the ride

1542
01:11:25,680 --> 01:11:27,920
Speaker 5: with us. As you know, we have switched it up

1543
01:11:27,920 --> 01:11:29,720
Speaker 5: a little bit giving you more content, so be on

1544
01:11:29,760 --> 01:11:31,479
Speaker 5: the lookout for that. And I want to just give

1545
01:11:31,479 --> 01:11:35,559
Speaker 5: a quick shout out to Havana. Uh we got Jessica

1546
01:11:35,760 --> 01:11:38,360
Speaker 5: and Justin are new members. Man, y'all are Tier four

1547
01:11:38,439 --> 01:11:40,479
Speaker 5: Tier five members, so you obviously know you have access

1548
01:11:40,600 --> 01:11:43,479
Speaker 5: to Early Legion University. That is our online school where

1549
01:11:43,479 --> 01:11:46,960
Speaker 5: we have webinars three times a week, real estate on Monday.

1550
01:11:47,080 --> 01:11:49,320
Speaker 5: We have a guest webinar every Wednesday, and shouty myself.

1551
01:11:49,360 --> 01:11:51,479
Speaker 5: We always do a business related one on Thursdays. And

1552
01:11:51,640 --> 01:11:54,759
Speaker 5: ey Spno is out there, so be on the lookout

1553
01:11:54,880 --> 01:11:57,200
Speaker 5: and thank you for supporting. Everybody's supporting the merchan only

1554
01:11:57,280 --> 01:11:59,519
Speaker 5: leisure dot com new merch is on the way all

1555
01:11:59,600 --> 01:12:02,599
Speaker 5: our earning. Be sure to cop the new merge. It's

1556
01:12:02,600 --> 01:12:05,360
Speaker 5: specifically made for you by us, so thank you.

1557
01:12:05,439 --> 01:12:06,000
Speaker 2: Please report.

1558
01:12:06,240 --> 01:12:09,799
Speaker 4: Yeah, everybody asks you about the track suit, so episode

1559
01:12:09,840 --> 01:12:12,040
Speaker 4: comes out. Hopefully the tracksuit will be on the website

1560
01:12:12,640 --> 01:12:16,160
Speaker 4: EYL University. Yes, make sure you stay in tune with that.

1561
01:12:17,400 --> 01:12:20,519
Speaker 4: And the book tip of this week recommended by our guests.

1562
01:12:20,600 --> 01:12:23,479
Speaker 4: The one thing, the one thing correct that's it. Yes,

1563
01:12:23,640 --> 01:12:26,160
Speaker 4: so yes, Thank you guys for rocking with us. We'll

1564
01:12:26,200 --> 01:12:26,880
Speaker 4: see you next week.

1565
01:12:26,960 --> 01:12:27,800
Speaker 2: Peace, Peace, Peace.

1566
01:12:28,400 --> 01:12:32,040
Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

1567
01:12:32,120 --> 01:12:35,880
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from El Salvador

1568
01:12:36,160 --> 01:12:40,240
Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas. Man of Venezuelan charged with

1569
01:12:40,360 --> 01:12:44,200
Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just

1570
01:12:44,360 --> 01:12:48,080
Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President

1571
01:12:48,160 --> 01:12:51,679
Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christine Noman, the United States

1572
01:12:51,760 --> 01:12:56,519
Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border

1573
01:12:56,560 --> 01:13:00,240
Speaker 1: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded o where

1574
01:13:00,240 --> 01:13:03,360
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you

1575
01:13:03,479 --> 01:13:07,280
Speaker 1: are here illegally, your next you will be fine nearly

1576
01:13:07,400 --> 01:13:11,360
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported, you will

1577
01:13:11,479 --> 01:13:15,080
Speaker 1: never return. But if you register using our CBP home

1578
01:13:15,160 --> 01:13:18,479
Speaker 1: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.

1579
01:13:18,880 --> 01:13:23,559
Speaker 1: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws,

1580
01:13:23,800 --> 01:13:25,720
Speaker 1: border and families.

1581
01:13:25,439 --> 01:13:27,800
Speaker 2: Will be protected. Sponsored by the United States Department of

1582
01:13:27,840 --> 01:13:28,439
Speaker 2: Homeland Security,