Speaker 1: Welcome the Money and Wealth with John Hobriant, a production
Speaker 1: of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Yo, John
Speaker 1: hobrian This is Money and Wealth on the Black Effect
Speaker 1: Network and today's episode is quite special. It is the
Speaker 1: answer to DEI. It's Beyonce. Actually, yeah, you heard it right.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it again, the answer to D and
Speaker 1: I diversity, equity and inclusion in the debate raging today.
Speaker 1: What is the answer? It's Beyonce. Actually, what do I
Speaker 1: mean by that? Today we're going to talk about Beyonce
Speaker 1: and her historic album of the Year when at the
Speaker 1: Grammys and what that means for the conversation around diversity,
Speaker 1: equity and inclusion are as. I like to call it
Speaker 1: inclusive economics, a phrase that I began to coin with
Speaker 1: my brothers Charlemagne, that god who has as enormously popular
Speaker 1: morning show The Breakfast Club, where I first broke my
Speaker 1: philosophy around what I thought D E and I really meant,
Speaker 1: which was really research and development for new markets is
Speaker 1: where you cultivate the future. It's R and D for
Speaker 1: companies and for communities and for the country. But it's
Speaker 1: been weaponized and politicized. So let's put it aside and
Speaker 1: have a real conversation about the stuff that really matters,
Speaker 1: and let's get into it right now. Here's the big
Speaker 1: idea again, Beyonce is the answer to D and I.
Speaker 1: We're in this new era. The best way forward for
Speaker 1: African Americans and others isn't about begging for a seat
Speaker 1: at the table. It's about building the table and becoming
Speaker 1: so good that we can't be ignored, or, as my
Speaker 1: friend Stephanie Rule would say, expand the table and add
Speaker 1: a seat. Beyonce just showed the world what it looks
Speaker 1: like when you dominate a space that was historically not
Speaker 1: built for you, and in her particular case, it was
Speaker 1: country music, and became the standard. I'm gonna say it again,
Speaker 1: beyoncey just showed the world what it looks like when
Speaker 1: she dominates a space that was historically not built for
Speaker 1: her country music and became the standard. Think about what
Speaker 1: that means, Think about how serious that is. And there's
Speaker 1: no hate on anybody else's, no no shade on anybody else's.
Speaker 1: Is not putting anybody down. I mean, she paid the
Speaker 1: highest compliment to country music by participating in it, by
Speaker 1: wanting to be part of it. She had already dominated
Speaker 1: other genres. She had already killed it in our popular
Speaker 1: culture for African American music. She could have done a
Speaker 1: lot of different things. She could have done some predictable things.
Speaker 1: She could have gone into spaces that were easier pathways,
Speaker 1: and she went into an area that no one expected,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure most people questioned country music and absolutely
Speaker 1: killed it. Beyonce's trailblazing impact. She just became the first
Speaker 1: black woman to win Album of the Year for a
Speaker 1: country album, something unheard of decades ago. She didn't wait
Speaker 1: for permission. She delivered excellence on her own terms. What's
Speaker 1: the lesson here? Economic power doesn't come from waiting. It
Speaker 1: comes from owning your skills and proving your worth in
Speaker 1: the marketplace, the marketplaces of ideas. What's a patent, It's
Speaker 1: a monetized idea. What's the biggest Country's the biggest economy
Speaker 1: in the world. It also is the places with the
Speaker 1: most patents. Whereas places that have you know, no economictivity,
Speaker 1: they're dying. Paces that have no patents, places that are
Speaker 1: stuck in war, stuck and stupid, arguing about well, arguing
Speaker 1: to argue all the time. These are places in the
Speaker 1: world that are not progressing. But a patent is a
Speaker 1: monetized idea, and Beyonce is a walking, talking, singing patent
Speaker 1: of excellence. Think about this, what's the parallel to business
Speaker 1: and finance? Like Beyonce took over country music, Black entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: and professionals should focus on dominating their industries from real
Speaker 1: estate to technology to finance. You can't change the rules
Speaker 1: by arguing, you can change them by winning. Beyonce's not alone,
Speaker 1: by the way, I'm gonna She's my real framework for
Speaker 1: this conversation, and I'm going to go through a roll
Speaker 1: call of enormous success stories before I finish this podcast
Speaker 1: episode to give you a wider lens of what's possible
Speaker 1: when you focus on the right objective. But we just
Speaker 1: give some easy ones. Doctor Dre dominated in music and
Speaker 1: then pivoted. Anybody who's of color who started off in sports, sorry,
Speaker 1: and music and became a billionaire did it by pivoting
Speaker 1: the business. But it's not an easy pivot. Who did
Speaker 1: that successfully and dominated in two areas Doctor Dre and
Speaker 1: then beats by Dre okay, the headphones, which is now
Speaker 1: you know, a billion dollar enterprise. Michael Jordan basketball and
Speaker 1: then Air Jordan's Okay merchandise tennis shoes in his case,
Speaker 1: Magic Johnson basketball switching to business a multi dimensional measure.
Speaker 1: As a friend and somebody who I work with a
Speaker 1: little bit. After the Roddy King riots in South Central
Speaker 1: a nineteen ninety twould have been admiring his success and
Speaker 1: rooting for him every since. We should be rooting for
Speaker 1: each other's excellence. The Williams sisters dominated in tennis, a
Speaker 1: sport that supposedly black black folks could not, should not,
Speaker 1: would not have not succeeded. Look at the Black Forbes
Speaker 1: fifty lists that just came out in December of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. I happened to be one of the people
Speaker 1: included in that list. Now come back to my story
Speaker 1: in a moment.
Speaker 2: But look at that list.
Speaker 1: That is it's the opposite of mediocrity. It's excellence on steroids.
Speaker 1: No one on that list is going to be denied.
Speaker 1: And they're from a broad cross section of killing it,
Speaker 1: not killing you, not killing me, not killing somebody else.
Speaker 1: Killing it like being the absolute best in their industry
Speaker 1: and their chosen profession. By the way, you can't make
Speaker 1: this up. Coincidence is God's remaining anonymous. That to Andrew
Speaker 1: Young quote while I'm doing this podcast episode, can't make
Speaker 1: this up.
Speaker 2: One of the.
Speaker 1: Fellow nominees, fellow awardees, and the Forbes Black Fifty List,
Speaker 1: who really, in some ways is in small part are
Speaker 1: now in a part a large part. I'm in a
Speaker 1: small part of our history bro our or a timeline
Speaker 1: of thirty two years in obera show, but a large
Speaker 1: part of a demarcation where I got legitimized of my
Speaker 1: success and really saying to the world, this guy is real.
Speaker 2: Just emailed me. None of them.
Speaker 1: Oprah Winfrey, who's on this list and is one of
Speaker 1: the people I would have planned on identified Actually when
Speaker 1: I send her a note, I said, you are the
Speaker 1: standard bearer for the race, and I mean it. I
Speaker 1: mean she is as close to Black royalty as a
Speaker 1: geinst And she killed it, coming from nothing, being shortchanged
Speaker 1: on her credibility and her talents in Chicago, being short
Speaker 1: shifted by being told that she could only be a
Speaker 1: newscaster or a broadcaster local do this traditionally, read this script,
Speaker 1: don't get off off message. And she decided she was
Speaker 1: going to create a national platform, a national show, and
Speaker 1: then do it her own way and bring spirituality in
Speaker 1: it after you from Initially people did not follow her,
Speaker 1: but she stayed with it and became the absolute best,
Speaker 1: and what she did killed it. Oprah's not black, She's
Speaker 1: global who happens to be proud of the fact that
Speaker 1: she's black. Right, She doesn't run away from it, but
Speaker 1: she doesn't hide underneath it. And she's not trying to
Speaker 1: get a discount because of it.
Speaker 2: She is.
Speaker 1: She stands on this mantle of excellence and says, you
Speaker 1: can do it too. And she gave me the Oprah
Speaker 1: Winter Usual Life Award, which during the op Winfrey Show,
Speaker 1: when she did these awards and I had my mother
Speaker 1: and father of the show, it was a moment I
Speaker 1: absolutely treasure. And she said to the world, John Brian
Speaker 1: is somebody and the rest was up to me. I
Speaker 1: believe in the James Brown version of affirmative action. Open
Speaker 1: a door out, get it myself, and thanks to her
Speaker 1: and others, I have been getting at it. But no
Speaker 1: one gets it there by yourself, right, But but no
Speaker 1: one owes you anything either. When you get that, you
Speaker 1: take it and you own the field. You own the field,
Speaker 1: and you make people who are who are rooting for you,
Speaker 1: proud that they backed you. Don't don't embarrass them, right Uh,
Speaker 1: and always be humble and be appreciative. Quincy Jones another
Speaker 1: mentor mind, another iconic doer who's now doing it in heaven.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Once lifted Oprah winfree and and then of course it
Speaker 1: was so proud of Oprah that he put the Oprah Suite.
Speaker 1: It is home that I've stayed at before, God resting,
Speaker 1: God rest Quincy soul. So Quincy helped Oprah. I think
Speaker 1: it was color purple. Oprah helped me and a range
Speaker 1: of others to come up. Who are you going to help?
Speaker 1: And I'm sure there's no doubt my mind that Beyonce
Speaker 1: is already leaning in. And she said in her acceptance
Speaker 1: and speeches is all about opening doors. Beyonce is blazing
Speaker 1: impact again. She just became this iconic figure that you
Speaker 1: never take this away from her, that went from one
Speaker 1: genre to another and for the first time ever, became
Speaker 1: album of the Year for country music. The new conversation
Speaker 1: is inclusive economics. Whether it's black or white, or red
Speaker 1: or blue meaning race or color that people want to
Speaker 1: argue about. Really the colors green as in US currency
Speaker 1: at least here in the United States of America. Right,
Speaker 1: But it's always been about green. We just have been
Speaker 1: distracted with other well distractions. What did Malcolm X say.
Speaker 1: We've been bamboozo we've been tricked, we've been food, we've
Speaker 1: been hoodwinked, right, and we've been emotional, and we now
Speaker 1: need to get focused on what really mattered. And when
Speaker 1: you get emotional, it's easy to be deceived, to be disillusioned,
Speaker 1: to be dismissed. Dee and I has been weaponized, I
Speaker 1: think for political purposes, but it doesn't matter. It's been weaponized,
Speaker 1: it's been hijacked, and it's been played with and been
Speaker 1: made toxic in many ways as a brand. Some companies
Speaker 1: are rolling back their diversity programs. I've talked to a
Speaker 1: number of these CEOs who run these big companies. They're
Speaker 1: good people. They basically said, I'm still gonna keep I'm
Speaker 1: still committed to these values because it's good for business
Speaker 1: and they're good people, but it's also just good for business.
Speaker 1: They just don't want to have a flag out there
Speaker 1: that says, come hit me over the head if you
Speaker 1: disagree with me politically and making them a target. So
Speaker 1: they've backed away. Most of these CEOs are good people
Speaker 1: backed away from the label but not the cause. There
Speaker 1: are a few of these companies are disingene you didn't
Speaker 1: meaning when they did in the first place, and I
Speaker 1: won't name those companies because that's not the way I roll.
Speaker 2: I talk.
Speaker 1: By the way, here's my philosophy for life. Talk without
Speaker 1: being offensive, listen without being defensive, and always leave even
Speaker 1: your adversary with their dignity because if you don't spend
Speaker 1: the rest of their life trying to make you miserable,
Speaker 1: it becomes personal. So I don't spend time arguing with
Speaker 1: stupid people. I mean to argue with the food prooser
Speaker 1: are too I think again. I like math because it
Speaker 1: doesn't have an opinion that's a melody hops in quota,
Speaker 1: I use a lot, and as you're about to see,
Speaker 1: the math is really here all that matters. So we
Speaker 1: need a new framework. De and I has been weaponized
Speaker 1: and played with. When need a new framework, one based
Speaker 1: on economic empowerment. That's why I call it inclusive economics.
Speaker 1: It's about participation, not politics. The data that proves this
Speaker 1: approach works is from the Business Plan for America, which
Speaker 1: I wrote, and you can look up on my website
Speaker 1: Operation Hope and download all of the data and go
Speaker 1: through it for yourself in as much detail as you like.
Speaker 1: It is there, and it is unimpeachable. It's sourced, it's
Speaker 1: fact based. It's not emotional. It's not partisan. It's not
Speaker 1: Republican or democrat, or black and white or urban liberal.
Speaker 1: And it's not rich and poor. It's just data.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: And no one's ever argued with these numbers. I've never
Speaker 1: had one person, institution, what ever, tell me that the
Speaker 1: numbers are wrong. They just try to ignore me and
Speaker 1: hope I'll go away. I'm not going anywhere again. We're
Speaker 1: just getting louder with this message. But you don't need
Speaker 1: to scream and hollow it because when you got the power,
Speaker 1: you don't need to use it. Step over messing, not
Speaker 1: in it. Here's some power for you, black buying power
Speaker 1: over one point eight trillion dollars, yet underutilized in asset building,
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship growth. Black businesses are growing at the fastest rate ever,
Speaker 1: but face major capital access gaps. In fact, after the pandemic,
Speaker 1: the fastest growing group coming out of the pandemic were
Speaker 1: African American black owned businesses and the fastest group amongst
Speaker 1: all fastest group were black women own businesses. In fact,
Speaker 1: there was the fastest group. It was a fastest growing
Speaker 1: group of small business owners since two thousand and four
Speaker 1: after the pandemic. And now I believe it's latinos by
Speaker 1: the way, So kudos there. Home ownership impact. Closing the
Speaker 1: Black home ownership gap could add over three trillion dollars
Speaker 1: to the US economy. Did you hear what I just said?
Speaker 1: This is these are real numbers. Closing the black home
Speaker 1: ownership gap with financially literate, well prepared new home buyers
Speaker 1: could add over three trillion dollars to the US economy.
Speaker 1: So the delta, the difference between Black home ownership and
Speaker 1: their mainstream counterbarts read white, it's about thirty percent. And
Speaker 1: that's where this three trillion dollars comes from. You know,
Speaker 1: fighting the good fight's not just about fighting in the
Speaker 1: streets in the suite. Sometimes you got to fight the
Speaker 1: argument with your brothers and sisters in the streets. So
Speaker 1: sometimes I'll be talking about this stuff about homeownership and
Speaker 1: brother will say, oh, you know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: no home. That open home is stupid.
Speaker 2: You own home.
Speaker 1: The bank owns a home if you don't pay about
Speaker 1: excellence people is about stepping up. You gotta look pay
Speaker 1: your bills right if you as long as you pay
Speaker 1: your bill, the bank does not own that home. They
Speaker 1: own the mortgage, the rights to the mortgage on a home.
Speaker 1: You get the benefits of that mortgage through tax right
Speaker 1: off and all that stuff and appreciation from owning that
Speaker 1: home right. And some people will tell you not to
Speaker 1: own a home on major TV broadcasts, These wealthy people
Speaker 1: telling you own you shouldn't own a home, own a
Speaker 1: home right. So I have no idea what's going on
Speaker 1: there other than the fact that they don't look at
Speaker 1: their forty year OO mansions as primary assets that they've
Speaker 1: grown on that long time ago they remember. They don't
Speaker 1: remember their humble beginnings. But for most people, home ownership
Speaker 1: is the user way to build well AI in the
Speaker 1: future of work. The next frontier isn't just d E NI,
Speaker 1: it's AI literacy and ownership in emerging markets, emerging industries.
Speaker 1: Here's the message to corporate America. Also, companies should shift
Speaker 1: from diverse optics diversity optics to economic outcomes. Who's getting contracts?
Speaker 1: My brother Roland Martin and I have this conversation often
Speaker 1: about in his case advertising contracts. He just wants a
Speaker 1: reasonable piece of the pie for the market of the
Speaker 1: AFT American consumer. You know, again, one point six one
Speaker 1: point seven to one point eight trillion dollars consumer spending
Speaker 1: force would be one of the largest nations in the
Speaker 1: world if we were a country, and ninety percent of
Speaker 1: what we get is we generates consumption, which is typically
Speaker 1: not good news, but in this particular case, it is
Speaker 1: good news because we're buying stuff and those folks are consuming.
Speaker 1: And Rowland Martin and other minority media companies just want
Speaker 1: a fair share, reasonable share of the economic pie with
Speaker 1: an allocation of advertising dollars. But there's so many other examples,
Speaker 1: and participating supporting institutions that can give you access to
Speaker 1: these emerging markets is good, but it's not only the
Speaker 1: right thing to do. It'll pay dividend because they'll bring
Speaker 1: you more customers. Corporate America, So who's on your supply chain,
Speaker 1: who's building wealth as a result of this platform? You
Speaker 1: have these major major company because you have vendors up
Speaker 1: and down the chain in this company. Who you're hiring, right,
Speaker 1: does it reflect your communities? Does it reflect your customer base,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean you do business with people you
Speaker 1: reflect back to understand, appreciate, right, and they appreciate and
Speaker 1: respect you in return. Right, So it's doing well and
Speaker 1: doing good. It's good capitalism. Just don't talk about inclusion.
Speaker 1: Invest in it, action steps how to win like Beyonce
Speaker 1: for entrepreneurs and professionals, be the best in your space,
Speaker 1: period over to rounded through it. You're gonna get to it.
Speaker 1: I believe an entrepreneur works eighteen hours a day to
Speaker 1: keep from getting a job.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: I have a tea shirt sometimes just it's built on failure, right,
Speaker 1: I mean I just I just never give up. I
Speaker 1: take no for vitamins. Right, you got to just com
Speaker 1: it to being the absolute best. Read the book The Outliers, right,
Speaker 1: and it talks about the exceptions of the rule. The
Speaker 1: folks who put in a little bit more time, a
Speaker 1: little bit more and invest a little bit more time
Speaker 1: and energy to train up to be the best, the
Speaker 1: very best that they can be. And it pays off
Speaker 1: because they become the NBA players, the pro league of
Speaker 1: their sector, and don't have to worry about somebody cutting
Speaker 1: number break they become they're breaking for the whole. They
Speaker 1: are creating new holes. They're creating a wake behind them
Speaker 1: that other people can follow through. They're not following others.
Speaker 1: They people are following them, and people are investing in
Speaker 1: them because they're the best at what they do and
Speaker 1: they're creating as a result of that, economic opportunity. Beyonce
Speaker 1: has created economic opportunity. She just opened a whole new
Speaker 1: door just with this most recent shift, which was very
Speaker 1: risky again into country music, which she bet on herself.
Speaker 1: What would happen if you bet on yourself multiple income
Speaker 1: streams all right, real estate, UH, investing, entrepreneurship, learning, AI,
Speaker 1: and tech. Because the economy is shifting, for business leaders
Speaker 1: and corporations move beyond U d n our programs and
Speaker 1: invest in economic participation contracts with diverse applies. As I
Speaker 1: mentioned funding black entrepreneurs. You can do it actually through
Speaker 1: minority participation contracts or minority women own businesses. If you
Speaker 1: don't have to target minority in women own businesses. If
Speaker 1: you're you're targeting underserved communities, you're going to get minority
Speaker 1: in women owned businesses who are in those communities. By
Speaker 1: by the way, this includes poor whites in West Virginia
Speaker 1: I'm not excluding anybody. If you're talking about inclusive economics,
Speaker 1: it's just really repairing the ladder from the bottom to
Speaker 1: the top. And as you're trying to get the folks
Speaker 1: at the bottom, you can naturally sweep up as a
Speaker 1: result of that, best in class potential leaders and doers
Speaker 1: of the future who happen to also be black, brown,
Speaker 1: and different without targeting black people. Okay, but that's a
Speaker 1: whole nother podcast for another time. But you know, one
Speaker 1: of my businesses, the Promise Homes Company, which I sold
Speaker 1: the majority of a couple three years ago, still on
Speaker 1: mistake in it. When I was the chairman CEO, we
Speaker 1: made sure that half of all contracts went to minority
Speaker 1: and women in small businesses in communities where we invested in.
Speaker 1: Because we were invested in underserved communities, I didn't have
Speaker 1: to say, where's the black business. That's not the way
Speaker 1: we worked it. You had to be competent, you know,
Speaker 1: it was really where's a competent business. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to go to a national company. I want to go
Speaker 1: to small businesses in my neighborhood where I invest in
Speaker 1: these affordable house signal in underserved community homes where I grew,
Speaker 1: you know, where I Atlanta in North Florida, and the
Speaker 1: likelihood I was going to hit up. You know, if
Speaker 1: I throw a rock at a business in the underserved
Speaker 1: area affordable workforce development community area where I'm invested in
Speaker 1: bought seven hundred homes, the likely that is going to
Speaker 1: hit you know, if I threw a rock, close my
Speaker 1: eyes and hit a business, there's going to be a
Speaker 1: minority of women.
Speaker 2: It's fairly high.
Speaker 1: And it just turned out that plumbing, heating, electrical landscaping, roofing, painting,
Speaker 1: these are things I had to get done every month anyway,
Speaker 1: and so we end up doing a few million dollars
Speaker 1: a year, like just under five million dollars a year
Speaker 1: in contracts every year, these repeatable, reboutable philanthropy, which is
Speaker 1: just contracts I would give the contract to somebody when
Speaker 1: not to give it to people who who in many
Speaker 1: cases look like me, without me targeting anybody, just really
Speaker 1: emphasizing where the dollars should also have a shot to.
Speaker 2: Empower, versus just.
Speaker 1: Doing the easy, lazy thing of giving that contract to
Speaker 1: a one big national company who wouldn't even notice that
Speaker 1: I gave them a contract. Whereas we gave contracts where
Speaker 1: it literally changed folks's world and made some people millionaires.
Speaker 1: For everyday people, turn your income into wealth, save invest
Speaker 1: Oh and get my book Financial Leuwacy for All. It's
Speaker 1: a great place to start as a best seller, by
Speaker 1: the way, been the best seller for a year now.
Speaker 1: Support businesses that support your community. I'm not down with
Speaker 1: the boycotton thing. I mean, everybody do their do their situation,
Speaker 1: do their thing. I don't say, don't boycott the company.
Speaker 1: Clean the shelves right there are there are black owned
Speaker 1: products of minority with Latino, whatever, Asian, whatever, your whatever,
Speaker 1: your cause. Azure is if there are products for those
Speaker 1: good companies that are on the shelves of these companies
Speaker 1: at Target, Tarja, Walmart, or wherever it is you shop,
Speaker 1: clean the shells, go buy all of them. Send the
Speaker 1: message that that you've got the area is buying power
Speaker 1: and support either the brands and or companies that support
Speaker 1: your community by giving them your dollars and then writing
Speaker 1: a letter to the CEO, writing a letter to the
Speaker 1: store manager whoever you can get to, and let them
Speaker 1: know that you back your values up with your dollar
Speaker 1: bill buy a share of stock in that company, if
Speaker 1: it's a publicly traded company, and now you have a
Speaker 1: voice as a shareholder as well. You can talk with
Speaker 1: the shareholder meeting. It's a whole another conversation with another time.
Speaker 1: But be a positive force for good, not just an irritant.
Speaker 1: I mean being an irritant is productive and useful. There
Speaker 1: is a time for protesting. By the way, where will
Speaker 1: we be without I was talking to Charlottvigne today about
Speaker 1: the legacy of Al Sharton and Jesse Jackson's not the
Speaker 1: way I roll, but you know them shaking trees twenty
Speaker 1: thirty years ago, and Reverend Sharpton's case ten years ago,
Speaker 1: and now I mean in many cases that opened the
Speaker 1: door for Aerial Capital Management, which is now doing billions
Speaker 1: and billions of dollars of management of mutual funds. They're
Speaker 1: they're doing on merit, but they couldn't get the attention
Speaker 1: way back when. And it was you know, it was
Speaker 1: doctor King had these visions as well, of bringing attention
Speaker 1: to companies that would not pay attention just because they
Speaker 1: were well, in that particular case racist, just to call
Speaker 1: it what it is. If you're competent and no one
Speaker 1: will pay you any attention and will actually actively ignore
Speaker 1: you and call you incompetent.
Speaker 2: Then what do you call that? Right?
Speaker 1: But today you can increasingly carbon path based on your excellence.
Speaker 1: Artificial intelligence is going to change everything. It's my friend
Speaker 1: Vans Jones said that nine nine percent of black folks
Speaker 1: on North thing about AI. And they paused and looked
Speaker 1: to me and said, but nine percent of white folks
Speaker 1: on North thing about AI either. It levels the playing
Speaker 1: field for everybody. So what are the key takeaways here?
Speaker 1: The answer to d E and I, it's Beyonce.
Speaker 2: Why.
Speaker 1: Because it's about winning, It's about becoming undeniable. This is
Speaker 1: about inclusive economics, participating, not pleading. Here's your call to action.
Speaker 1: If you're serious about your money and your future, I
Speaker 1: want you to follow this movement. Check out my business
Speaker 1: plan for America at Operation Hope and join the conversation.
Speaker 1: Get my book, tell your friends, subscribe to this podcast,
Speaker 1: and like Beyonce said, you won't break my soul. Keep winning,
Speaker 1: keep building, and let's create real economic future. Now, let's
Speaker 1: give you some stats, facts and details that are an
Speaker 1: inspiration and sends a message that your undeniable right, black
Speaker 1: economic power in financial gaps, right, black economic power twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three number is one point eight that's mad to
Speaker 1: be one point eight trillion dollars. It's greater than the
Speaker 1: GDP gross domestic product, the income of a nation of
Speaker 1: Mexico or Canada.
Speaker 2: Did you hear what I just said? All Right?
Speaker 1: Black economic power, the buying power of black folks, a
Speaker 1: group of people that people continue to dismiss, is greater
Speaker 1: than the GDP of Mexico or Canada.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: The wealth gap. The median black household wealth is twenty
Speaker 1: four one hundred dollars, is nearly eight times lower than
Speaker 1: the white household wealth of one hundred and eighty eight thousand,
Speaker 1: two hundred as the Federal Reserve twenty twenty three data.
Speaker 1: That's a problem, and it's an opportunity. Business ownership, Black
Speaker 1: owned businesses are growing at an incredibly fast rate, again,
Speaker 1: one of the fastest rates in the country. In the
Speaker 1: fact of twenty twenty three, it was the fastest rate
Speaker 1: in the country plus thirty eight percent since twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two alone. Yet they receive less than two percent of
Speaker 1: all venture capital funding. Right, you can't tell me they're
Speaker 1: not you know, future apples and future you know big
Speaker 1: businesses and of all.
Speaker 2: Sectors and industries.
Speaker 1: Inside of these, you know group of black businesses, there's
Speaker 1: you know, about three point one ish million black businesses
Speaker 1: in America. I think I've got that number right. I mean,
Speaker 1: Operation Hope a Loon has helped to inspire four hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand businesses since the pandemic. And I could
Speaker 1: tell you there's a whole bunch of she ros and
Speaker 1: heroes in that list that are that. They're not black businesses.
Speaker 1: They're great businesses that happen to be black, and they're
Speaker 1: killing it. We don't need to ask for a seat
Speaker 1: at the table. We need to own the building. Let's
Speaker 1: try that for a change. Home ownership and generational wealth.
Speaker 1: Black home ownership rate is forty five percent, give or
Speaker 1: take between forty one, forty two, forty three, forty four
Speaker 1: percent fluctuates. Versus White home ownership rates are pretty stable
Speaker 1: at seventy five percent. That's the Urban Institute twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three as a source. White folks owning the homes because
Speaker 1: it works right, you know, homemwondership values that had not
Speaker 1: gone down since the beginning of time. There's been recessions.
Speaker 1: They received right, recession recede, but then they correct above
Speaker 1: the line every time. Right, They're not growing any more.
Speaker 1: Land by yourself a home, and I'm a landlord, so
Speaker 1: I should want to encourage you to do nothing but rent.
Speaker 1: But I want you to rent, to own, rent for me,
Speaker 1: and then prepare to own. I want to run out
Speaker 1: of people who want to rent, but I want to
Speaker 1: empower you to go up that economic ladder just like
Speaker 1: I did. Closing the Black home ownership gap could generate
Speaker 1: Listen now, three trillion dollars in economic growth. That's tay,
Speaker 1: that's the Mackenzie and Company statistic. Renders are ten times likely.
Speaker 1: How do I say this? They're less likely than homeowners
Speaker 1: to be wealth creators. So they're ten times less likely
Speaker 1: to build intergenerational wealth than a homeowner. I hope that
Speaker 1: made some sense. So it's not just that you're renting,
Speaker 1: is that your mindset is different. When you're a homeowner,
Speaker 1: you're ten times less likely to build integer generational wealth
Speaker 1: if you're rendered.
Speaker 2: Then if you're a homeowner, the.
Speaker 1: Next civil rights movement just might be financial literacy, home
Speaker 1: and ownership of homes, businesses and assets, AI, and automation
Speaker 1: of the future. Eighty five percent of jobs in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three will require AI.
Speaker 2: Digital or tech skills.
Speaker 1: That's right, eighty five percent of jobs in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: thirty five will require AI artificial intelligence, digital or tech skills.
Speaker 1: Think about pookying them and what skills that our cousins have. Right,
Speaker 1: if you're working at the local convenience store, you got
Speaker 1: a high school education, that job is gone, it's been.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be automated into zero within five years. So
Speaker 1: I want you to be part of the future, now
Speaker 1: part of the past. Black and Latino workers are the
Speaker 1: highest risk of automation replacing their jobs, but less than
Speaker 1: five percent of work of them working AI related fields.
Speaker 1: That's a problem and an opportunity because I just told
Speaker 1: you nobody knows about AI and everybody understands it's about
Speaker 1: to come and change everything. Folks arguing about Dee and
Speaker 1: I should be talking about AI. If really, that's a
Speaker 1: drop the mic for you right there, that's like no
Speaker 1: different than Beyonce is Lata, y'all talking about R and
Speaker 1: B and hip hop and rap cool. I'm going to
Speaker 1: talk about country music and do that too, bi lingual.
Speaker 1: It's an and not an ore. By investing in AI education,
Speaker 1: black wealth could increase by three point five trillion dollars
Speaker 1: by twenty forty five. If we don't do that, black
Speaker 1: wealth will be zero by twenty fifty three. There's your
Speaker 1: difference right there. Investing in AI education is we're dealing
Speaker 1: with the AILP THREEI Pipeline of Prosperity project's part of
Speaker 1: the AI Ethics Council. I co chair with Sam Altman
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta and my partnership with Dean Phillips and
Speaker 1: Georgia State University and Clark Atlanta University, and Moorhouse and
Speaker 1: Spelman and Atlanta Public Schools, Doctor Johnson and Mayor Andrea
Speaker 1: Dickens here as a model for a pipeline of new
Speaker 1: prosperity and jobs. Don't wait for folks to destroy jobs
Speaker 1: and destroy your life. Go and take control of your
Speaker 1: life and be the future you want to see and
Speaker 1: be excellent. When folks are running out of get running
Speaker 1: you out of town, Get in front of the crowd,
Speaker 1: made like a parade. D E and I is being
Speaker 1: replaced by AI. The real issue is in representation. It's
Speaker 1: ownership of the future economy. You can do that, and
Speaker 1: there's time. Nobody has this figured out yet. Beyonce didn't
Speaker 1: demand the seat of the table of country music. She
Speaker 1: just took it over. That's the mindset we need. She's
Speaker 1: not diverse, she's undeniable, and that's how we win. Don't
Speaker 1: wait for permission to be great, just do it. This
Speaker 1: isn't about handouts. It's about leveling the economic playing field
Speaker 1: with real participation. We don't need more Dee and I panels.
Speaker 1: We need black businesses with billion dollar valuations and asset panels.
Speaker 1: When black and brown communities build wealth, America wins. I've
Speaker 1: often joked, but I'm sort of serious. If black folks
Speaker 1: succeed economically, even the racist wins, because all economic boats rise.
Speaker 1: Money has no color, but economic access has always been
Speaker 1: black and white. When you win in the economy, they
Speaker 1: have no choice but to open the door. Excellence is
Speaker 1: the new activism. Ownership is a new protest. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of folks who wanted to deny my Jewish brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters. I mean, I've been They've been run out
Speaker 1: of every place in the world. I just we just
Speaker 1: came from Poland last week. I mean, what was that?
Speaker 1: What happened to them in Auschwartz is just undeniable were
Speaker 1: placed with there. A million people were murdered, a million
Speaker 1: in one location and one little forget a city. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just a few football fields, right. A million people
Speaker 1: were murdered in Auschwitz. I mean, and that's just one
Speaker 1: of the tragedies that's been visited upon my Jewish brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters. And by the way, did you know that
Speaker 1: half of Jews in Israel or dark skin. That's a
Speaker 1: whole another conversation for another time. They've been to run
Speaker 1: out of every place. But look, but still they rise
Speaker 1: because they become excellent at a dozen different industries and
Speaker 1: self reliance and they demand respect. And we could take
Speaker 1: a page out of that book two or two, or
Speaker 1: three or eight or ten. So she didn't fight for inclusion.
Speaker 1: She made inclusion irrelevant by winning. This is a Beyonce
Speaker 1: in her story with this win for Country Music of
Speaker 1: the Year album, Black economic strength is already here. We
Speaker 1: just need to activate it through ownership. You make money
Speaker 1: during the day, you build wealth in your sleep. Black
Speaker 1: businesses had equal access to capital. If black businesses had
Speaker 1: equal access to capital, GDP would increase by one point
Speaker 1: five trillion dollars a year. That's a City Group report.
Speaker 1: My brother Ray McGuire author that report when he was
Speaker 1: vice chairman of City Group. You should read that report.
Speaker 1: Inclusive economics means we stopped waiting and start winning. What
Speaker 1: will you build next? As I wrap up, here's some
Speaker 1: outlier winners who also killed it in their area. Just
Speaker 1: to show you there's not just about Beyonce, who is amazing, right,
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods killed it in golf when there was no
Speaker 1: black people playing golf at that level. What's his impact?
Speaker 1: Became one of the greatest golfers of all time, winning
Speaker 1: fifteen major championships and revolutionizing the sports appeal and broadening
Speaker 1: the field of merchandising, of bringing blacks and brown people
Speaker 1: into the sports watching it, you know, watch it, contributing
Speaker 1: to the Nielsen ratings on television, buying merchandise, going to tournaments,
Speaker 1: becoming golfers swinging. I mean you can black people swinging
Speaker 1: golf clubs all or all all this across this country.
Speaker 1: You know, tens and tens of millions of dollars of
Speaker 1: economic industry energy, maybe more than that, in large part
Speaker 1: because Tiger Woods made it cool. That's economics.
Speaker 2: People.
Speaker 1: Serena and Venus Williams they did the same thing in tennis.
Speaker 1: Tennis was not a sports where black athletes were dominant
Speaker 1: when they emerged. What's the impact? Together they changed the
Speaker 1: game with power, athleticism and mental toughness with While Serena
Speaker 1: became arguably the greatest female athlete of all time with
Speaker 1: respect or impact in tennis, Wilma Rudolph track and field
Speaker 1: overcame childhood polio in a racially segregated athletic system to
Speaker 1: become the first African American women to win three gold
Speaker 1: medals in a single Olympics that was nineteen sixty and
Speaker 1: inspired generations of black female athletes in track and beyond.
Speaker 1: Arthur Ash tennis, the first black man to win Wimbledon
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five, the US Open and the Australian Open.
Speaker 1: Impact uses his platform uses platform for civil rights, AIDS
Speaker 1: awareness and racial justice. My mentor in Bassor, Andrew Young,
Speaker 1: worked with Arthur Ash on work around civil rights and
Speaker 1: social justice in Africa. I was with Van Jones and
Speaker 1: Poland last week against I mentioned and I remember Ben
Speaker 1: looked at me and looked at it. At what was
Speaker 1: then during nineteen forty five period, what happened in Poland
Speaker 1: with Germany. It was really Austras was the most technologically
Speaker 1: advanced death camp in the world. And he looked at
Speaker 1: me and said, this is what happens when you have
Speaker 1: technology and no humanity.
Speaker 2: Hello.
Speaker 1: So that's why what author ashe did with his talents
Speaker 1: and his gifts used it for public good. I think
Speaker 1: it's incredibly commendable. I think the whole purpose of power
Speaker 1: is to collected so you can give it away. Bubba
Speaker 1: Wallace at NASCAR, NASCAR has been historically a white, Southern
Speaker 1: dominated sports with very few black drivers. By the way,
Speaker 1: the president of NASCAR, Steve Phelps, good friend is on
Speaker 1: my board of directors at Operation Hope. What's the impact
Speaker 1: the only black driver currently racing full time in NASCAR's
Speaker 1: Cup Series and an outspoken avagainst advocate against racism in
Speaker 1: the sport. And who is his big backer now? Hello,
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan. Can't make this up. Debbie Thomas. Debbie with
Speaker 1: an I. By the way, the EBI. We should know
Speaker 1: these figures are. She was a figure skating phenom, the
Speaker 1: first black figure skater to win the US national title
Speaker 1: of the nineteen eighty six and Olympic medal in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight. Impact broke barriers in a sport with few
Speaker 1: after American athletes at the time. George Foreman boxing and
Speaker 1: business success post sports, came from an underprivileged background, became
Speaker 1: an Olympic gold medal listener, two time heavyweight champion, reinvented
Speaker 1: himself with a George Forman grill, making more money in
Speaker 1: business than boxing. By the way, I should throw in
Speaker 1: my brother Reggie. Reggie Jackson who mister October did this
Speaker 1: incredible stuff in baseball, broke all these records and then
Speaker 1: went on to business. And he's still in businesses day.
Speaker 1: And they also whenever I talked to him, he's all
Speaker 1: about giving back. In fact, he tracked me down on twitterus.
Speaker 1: I became friends because he was talking about he was
Speaker 1: looking at my work in financial literacy and wanted to
Speaker 1: find a way to partner. Now we bug each other
Speaker 1: all the time, trun trigger out how we can help
Speaker 1: our community be better. Here's some business legends for you,
Speaker 1: right who won against the odds and created their own
Speaker 1: affirming action. They were their own mechanisms of inclusion. Reginald
Speaker 1: Lewis and Finance, one of my heroes, one of the
Speaker 1: first black billionaires in America. Well he created a billion
Speaker 1: dollar company, first black billion dollar company, which was he
Speaker 1: acquired Beach's International, backed by my friend Michael Milkin, by
Speaker 1: the way, for nine or eighty five million in the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. They might as well call that twenty billion dollars.
Speaker 1: To today, it's a lot of you know, billion dollars.
Speaker 1: Nineteen eighty was unheard of for black man to secure
Speaker 1: financing to buy a global company. By the way that
Speaker 1: the Beaches worked in forty different states, sorry, forty different countries,
Speaker 1: proved that black entrepreneurs could operate at the highest level
Speaker 1: of Wall Street and global business, going from them from
Speaker 1: Main Street to Wall Street in one lifetime, really killing
Speaker 1: it from the neck up using his brain lawyer Harvard educated.
Speaker 1: I just killed it and proved that a black man
Speaker 1: can produce some green internationally. Ursula Burns became the CEO
Speaker 1: of Xerox in two thousand and nine, the first black
Speaker 1: black woman to lead a fortune five hundred company, paved
Speaker 1: the way for more black women and executives leadership with
Speaker 1: you're about to hear about in a second, but you know,
Speaker 1: you know, she got a lot of arrows when she
Speaker 1: went in there, and no one gave her a thing.
Speaker 1: When I went in every business I've been in, I've
Speaker 1: seen nothing but headwinds. When I built Operation Hope, and
Speaker 1: I build Promise Homes Company, Brian goreod Ventures, all these
Speaker 1: things I've done, people just laughed at me. When I
Speaker 1: went into the federal banking regulators and said I want
Speaker 1: to put a nonprofit inside of a bank branch, people
Speaker 1: literal really laughed at me. Now we're the only nonprofit
Speaker 1: ever allowed to operate out of a bank branch in
Speaker 1: US history. With our Hope and Side model, fifteen hundred
Speaker 1: locations across the country, empowering you to get your credit
Speaker 1: screw up, your debt down, your savings up, and turning
Speaker 1: you into a customer. I'm not going and I'm saying
Speaker 1: you're a black person. I'm saying you're a good customer
Speaker 1: who pay your loan back. And here's all the data
Speaker 1: they give you the loan. Did it happened to be
Speaker 1: you're also black or brown?
Speaker 2: Hello?
Speaker 1: Isn't that a win for everybody? All right, here's another
Speaker 1: couple winners for you. Just a new friend of mine,
Speaker 1: Robert F. Smith, just met him, spent some time with
Speaker 1: him in Poland last week. Founder of Vista Equity Partners,
Speaker 1: one of the most successful private equity firms in tech
Speaker 1: in the world. Became one of the richest black men
Speaker 1: in America and famously paid off the student loan debt
Speaker 1: at Morehouse College for an entire graduating class. Multi billionaire, today,
Speaker 1: philanthropist and a good man. Kathy Hughes in Media founded
Speaker 1: Radio One now Urban One, first black woman to lead
Speaker 1: a publicly traded media company, created one of the most
Speaker 1: influential black owned media companies in the country. Ava DuVernay
Speaker 1: from Film and Entertainment, first black woman to direct a
Speaker 1: film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, which is
Speaker 1: the film Selma twenty fourteen. What's the impact broke berries
Speaker 1: in Hollywood creating platforms for black voices in film, not
Speaker 1: just black films, all films. Of course, you got to
Speaker 1: give Tyler Perry at honorable mentioned here. I think the
Speaker 1: first black owned major movie studio, Tyler Perry Studios, is
Speaker 1: not the Homeboy Shopping net Work. Here is a major
Speaker 1: studio major here in Atlanta. It's like going to Disneyland.
Speaker 1: I mean, you come to Atlanta, you want to tour
Speaker 1: Coca Cola and Civil Rights Museum and King Center natural
Speaker 1: center for several human rights. Go do all of that,
Speaker 1: and then go by Tyler Perry Studios and have your
Speaker 1: mind blown. Doctor Patricia Bath in medicine invented the laser
Speaker 1: cataract surgery, becoming the first black woman to receive a
Speaker 1: medical patent.
Speaker 2: You're hearing me.
Speaker 1: Here, this is like, this is an unbelievable revolutionized eye
Speaker 1: surgery and access to vision care. Roslind Brewer who lives
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, who I know, CEO of Walgreens and
Speaker 1: previously see Starbucks COO. The only black woman that have
Speaker 1: led to fortune five hundred companies, broke corporate glass ceilings
Speaker 1: in retail and health care. And if you don't think
Speaker 1: that she was inspired and led and had help from
Speaker 1: Ursula Burns and what she did, you would be mistaken.
Speaker 2: And it was a white man that helped her out too.
Speaker 2: His name was DOUGLC.
Speaker 1: Millan, the CEO Walmart, who made her CEO of a
Speaker 1: major division at Walmart before she went on to do
Speaker 1: her stuff independently and become the star on the global stage.
Speaker 1: And so goodness can come from everywhere and often does
Speaker 1: in both sports and business. These individuals excelled in fields
Speaker 1: where their success was not expected. In fact, in many
Speaker 1: ways it was an attempt to deny them. First people
Speaker 1: to ignore you, then they will criticize you, and then
Speaker 1: you if you keep moving, keep trying, you win. But
Speaker 1: you know their success was not expected. But proving that
Speaker 1: that talent, resilience, and vision can overcome historical barriers. What
Speaker 1: can you do? Where can you succeed? How can you
Speaker 1: use the tenants and the philosoph he's of inclusive economics
Speaker 1: to prove and not just black lives matter, but black
Speaker 1: capitalists matter more. In other words, you don't need anybody
Speaker 1: to like you.
Speaker 2: You like you.
Speaker 1: I don't care if you like me. I like me
Speaker 1: over the rounded, through it. I'm gonna get to it right.
Speaker 1: I'm not as good as my compliments, are not as
Speaker 1: bad as my criticism, but I am God's child and
Speaker 1: I will not be denied. I'll get up earlier. Stay up, lady,
Speaker 1: I'll work harder. I'm going to outwork anybody, anytime, any place,
Speaker 1: any race. Black folks are born the hustle. We've been
Speaker 1: doing so much with so little for so long. We
Speaker 1: can almost do anything with nothing. And you just seeople
Speaker 1: outrun everybody else. You'll outwork them, and you'll outthink them.
Speaker 1: That is that immigrant up from nothing diversity story. People
Speaker 1: come to this country and they got nothing to be ignored,
Speaker 1: and they work hard to prove they could make it.
Speaker 1: I mean go in Sacks, which we all talk about,
Speaker 1: is a guy named Goldman, a guy named Sas. Literally,
Speaker 1: these Jewish up from nothing business people were running selling
Speaker 1: stuff's door to door with a briefcase because they couldn't
Speaker 1: get a job in the skyscraper. Now they own the skyscraper, right,
Speaker 1: And so you can do this. Whoever we're listening is
Speaker 1: wherever you are quotation marks, you can do this. Women
Speaker 1: were denied at a credit card, couldn't get a credit
Speaker 1: card in nineteen seventy two, could can get along without
Speaker 1: her husband co signing it in nineteen seventy two, not
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy two. Nineteen seventy two, a white woman, all women, right,
Speaker 1: and because of affirmative action, which was designed for black people,
Speaker 1: and denied us after it was designed for us, after
Speaker 1: Kennedy started in and Johnson, President Johnson advanced it, and
Speaker 1: actually Nixon came in and he codified it as well.
Speaker 1: But the courts said eh, and tried to stamp out
Speaker 1: the support that was giving the blacks.
Speaker 2: That sounded like a familiar environment.
Speaker 1: By the way, just too much, I guess progress too
Speaker 1: soon or too fast or whatever. Then there was pushback,
Speaker 1: like there's pushback now, But white women actually got the
Speaker 1: benefit of that and was and then white women then
Speaker 1: led to Black women, Latino women, and Indian women and
Speaker 1: other and then all Asian women, all women getting into
Speaker 1: the benefit from what was called affirmative action. And what's
Speaker 1: the benefit of the day of the country making the
Speaker 1: right decision. A third of the US economy or women? Hello,
Speaker 1: seven eight trillion dollars almost ten trillion dollars and a
Speaker 1: twenty seven trillion dollars almost thirty trillion dollars economy. Without women,
Speaker 1: we'd be an also ran nation, we'd be a third
Speaker 1: world country. And once again today, diversity has to win,
Speaker 1: otherwise we'll be speaking Mandarin in ten or twenty years,
Speaker 1: making meaning Chinese. We're already chinae that war with us.
Speaker 1: They want to be us, and the only way they
Speaker 1: are not going to be us is if we all
Speaker 1: stick together and row this boat into the same direction
Speaker 1: of progress and realize that we are all in this
Speaker 1: thing together. Everybody wants to be an American and except Americans.
Speaker 1: Thank you Beyonce for inspiring us to realize we're all
Speaker 1: God's children and racism is actually signed typically intellectually and
Speaker 1: spiritually stupid. We love her music. It brings us together.
Speaker 1: Let this message be a lighthouse for your future. This
Speaker 1: is John O'Brien. I'm out. This is Money and Wealth.
Speaker 1: Tell your friends to follow. The series Money and Wealth
Speaker 1: with John O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect
Speaker 1: Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.