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Speaker 1: He everybody, Welcome to another episode of Butter. I'm the host,

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Speaker 1: Brandon Butler, founder CEO of Butter atl And today got

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Speaker 1: somebody special in the building, man, the one only, mister

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Speaker 1: Omar Lee. Man, Omar, how you doing, brother.

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Speaker 2: I'm doing pretty good today. Man. Good to be here.

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Speaker 1: Man, I'm glad to have you in now. Now, Omar,

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Speaker 1: you are the president and founder of the Ali Development Corporation, Right, yes, man,

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Speaker 1: So you do an amazing work around here. And you know,

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Speaker 1: I know you said you've heard the podcast. We do

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Speaker 1: a little something different around here with folks, right. So

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Speaker 1: what I do is I went to chat cheapt and

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Speaker 1: I asked chat ChiPT to write me a bio about

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Speaker 1: you and tell me. So, I'm gonna tell you what

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Speaker 1: chat Have you ever chat cheept yourself before?

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Speaker 2: It's been a while, but I'm interested to see what

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Speaker 2: I had to say.

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Speaker 1: Okay, this is what chat chibt had to say about you.

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Speaker 1: Omar Lee is an Atlanta based builder, developer, and economic

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Speaker 1: architect whose work sits at the intersection of business, infrastructure

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Speaker 1: and community impact. He is a founder and president of

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Speaker 1: the Ali Development Corporation, where he leads large scale real

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Speaker 1: estate and redevelopment efforts focused on turning underutilized assets into

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Speaker 1: engines for long term wealth creation and local growth. Over

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Speaker 1: his career, Omar has overseen more than one billion with

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Speaker 1: a B in construction and development projects, spanning everything from

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Speaker 1: mixed use developments in Atlanta to global infrastructure and US

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Speaker 1: government projects. Beyond the work itself, Omer operates in rooms

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Speaker 1: where policy, capital.

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Speaker 3: And community meet.

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Speaker 1: He's a good natorial appointee to multiple Georgia state boards,

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Speaker 1: including the World of Georgia World Congress Center Authority, where

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Speaker 1: he helped stewart some of the state's most significant economic assets.

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Speaker 1: Perspective blends private sector execution with public sector responsibility, offering

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Speaker 1: a grounded view on how cities actually get built, who benefits,

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Speaker 1: and what sustainable growth really looks like in practice. That's

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Speaker 1: what Chad had to say about you. What do you

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Speaker 1: think about that?

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Speaker 4: Well, let me make more correction. First of all, I

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Speaker 4: need to back off chat GPT because no, that was

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Speaker 4: pretty impressive. I've overseen one billion. That doesn't mean that

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Speaker 4: I own one billion, So I want to make that distinction.

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Speaker 4: What I own is close to about seventy million. It's

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Speaker 4: not bad, it's not but you know, I don't want

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Speaker 4: to mislead people, but I do oversee close to one

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Speaker 4: point four billion, including the state's assets.

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Speaker 3: That's amazing, man, it's amazing. Man. So look, let's get

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Speaker 3: into this. Thank you for coming out.

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Speaker 1: Man, it's gonna be a great conversation seeing some of

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Speaker 1: amazing stuff you're doing.

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Speaker 3: Man.

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Speaker 1: So let me ask you just like you know, when

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Speaker 1: you kind of look back at your career from all

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Speaker 1: the things you've worked on, you know, from real estate

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Speaker 1: to public boards, like what's that thing that kind of

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Speaker 1: what's that connection point to you?

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Speaker 2: Like?

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Speaker 3: What problem have you been trying to solve over your career?

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Speaker 4: One problem economics the unless we're talking business related wwise

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Speaker 4: personally are just from the.

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Speaker 3: Community to stand both of them, man, both of them.

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Speaker 4: So business wise, the problem that I want to resolve

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Speaker 4: is how do you truly leave a legacy? And a

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Speaker 4: lot of people when they talk about a legacy, that

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Speaker 4: they can't see a legacy past their immediate family. And

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Speaker 4: so like with my family, we have a three hundred

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Speaker 4: year plan. When we talk about legacy, what is that

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Speaker 4: going to look like three hundred years from now? And

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Speaker 4: so I want to leave a meaningful impact, not for

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Speaker 4: just my kids with their kids and their kids kids.

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Speaker 4: And from a community standpoint, I believe that the problem

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Speaker 4: that plagues our community, from police brutality, education problems, lack

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Speaker 4: of jobs, whatever it is, I think it is a

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Speaker 4: symptom from the lack of economics. And so if we

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Speaker 4: can root out that disease first, you know, which is

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Speaker 4: the lack of economics, I believe that we can solve

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Speaker 4: most of the problem that plagues the black community.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Now, how did you first get involved in real estate

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Speaker 1: and development? Was this something that you all we wanted

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Speaker 1: to do? Did you kind of fall into it just

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Speaker 1: by different situations? Like how'd they get started?

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Speaker 2: Totally an accident.

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Speaker 4: So my original company was the Steal Fabrication Company, and

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Speaker 4: we can get into that in a second. But under

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Speaker 4: the Trump first administration, when he and natok the steel

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Speaker 4: tariffs and the cancelation of the NAFTA agreement. It took

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Speaker 4: me two years to get the NAFTA agreement, and I

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Speaker 4: did work for the US government over eighteen different countries.

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Speaker 4: But when he did the steel taroffs, we woke up

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Speaker 4: with a deficit. At that time, we had about eighteen

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Speaker 4: million in back law work. With a deficit of thirty

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Speaker 4: six percent on that backlog, and then the stell industry,

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Speaker 4: you're only going to eight percent profit. So there's no

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Speaker 4: way to climb out of that. And so I wanted

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Speaker 4: to shift the company over into real estate development. And

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Speaker 4: I remember it was one property I had years back.

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Speaker 4: I bought the property for three hundred thousand dollars. I

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Speaker 4: put one hundred and fifty thousand dollars into it, and

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Speaker 4: somebody made me an offer of one point five million

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Speaker 4: just at ease. And so I thought, well, you know

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Speaker 4: what I can do this. You know, I'm shutting the

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Speaker 4: steal company down. Let me just transition over into the

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Speaker 4: real estate development because the president inadvertently shut the company down.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, now, and that was something we're kind of talking

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Speaker 1: about before too. Is just the idea with a lot

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Speaker 1: of people, especially like in black communities and just in general.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of times when people think about

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Speaker 1: real estate development, they tend to lean towards the residential stuff,

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Speaker 1: the flips and you know, the renovation. You see all

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Speaker 1: the stuff on TV, all the TV shows. But like again,

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Speaker 1: like there's a whole other side of commercial and getting

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Speaker 1: involved in that right, Like again, like when you started

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Speaker 1: learning like what are the differences and the benefits you

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Speaker 1: kind of see and getting more involved in the commercial

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Speaker 1: side versus the residential side is like you said, you

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Speaker 1: did a flip and that was you know, a pretty big,

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Speaker 1: pretty it was a commercial commercial flip on that right,

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Speaker 1: but that was a pretty big, you know increase, Like

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Speaker 1: what do you see kind of the differences in that

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Speaker 1: and why should people may be considered that is an

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Speaker 1: alternative route to the residential stuff they're probably more familiar with.

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Speaker 4: So residential is great unless you're building subdivisions. Residential is

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Speaker 4: going to always be one hit wonder. You know, you

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Speaker 4: build a home at this particular size, you sell it,

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Speaker 4: you may make one hundred thousand, one hundred and fifty thousand,

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Speaker 4: which is still good money. But on the commercial side

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Speaker 4: of things, you're you're holding onto that particular property, you

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Speaker 4: may not make one hundred thousand dollars each year. You

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Speaker 4: may bring in Hypothetically, let's say if you had a

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Speaker 4: million dollar development, that million dollar development will bring in

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Speaker 4: close to let's go smaller than that, let's say five

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Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars development. That five hundred thousand dollars development

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Speaker 4: will bring you in about seventy million, seventy thousand a year.

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Speaker 4: So that's seventy thousand a year to me, is a

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Speaker 4: lot of money. You hold on to that You hold

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Speaker 4: on to it for ten years, twenty years, and so

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Speaker 4: when you compare that to the residential, to me, it's

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Speaker 4: a no brainer. You have that stability of income consistently

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Speaker 4: coming in over.

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Speaker 2: And over again.

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Speaker 4: You get your commercial property here, you get your commercial

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Speaker 4: property there, and before you know it, you have millions

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Speaker 4: of coming in versus of that hustle and bust of

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Speaker 4: working really hard on the residential just to sell that one.

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Speaker 2: Home and then you move to the next home. You

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Speaker 2: have to do it over and over again.

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Speaker 1: Why do you think people kind of lean more towards

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Speaker 1: the residential than the commercial side. Is it just like

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Speaker 1: fear of being a bigger project or is there something

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Speaker 1: other you might have also seen if you work on

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Speaker 1: those projects.

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Speaker 4: Two things fear that commercial is difficult, and how the

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Speaker 4: residential has become so glorified to where it appears to

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Speaker 4: be set see like that's the place to be, and

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Speaker 4: you shouldn't be afraid to jump in commercial in my opinion,

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Speaker 4: because it's the same process. You just have to understand

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Speaker 4: the commercial aspect of When you're doing residential, you have

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Speaker 4: to get along, you have to build it, and you

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Speaker 4: have to find someone to live in that home.

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Speaker 2: No different from commercial.

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Speaker 4: You have to get along, you have to build it,

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Speaker 4: and you have to find a tenant to get into it.

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Speaker 4: And so if you can do residential, all you have

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Speaker 4: to do just kind of learn the dynamics of the

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Speaker 4: commercial aspects of it, and you can do it too.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, what do you It's not gonna ask like as

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Speaker 1: we're talking about commercial, I think one of the things

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Speaker 1: you hear a lot is this whole idea that there's

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Speaker 1: all this unused commercial space and that you know, people

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Speaker 1: are that's why companies want people to come back to

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Speaker 1: the office because they've got these loans and leases out

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Speaker 1: and all. Like, what do you think about that whole thing?

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Speaker 1: I feel like you have some better, a different perspective

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Speaker 1: on that we might need to consider.

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Speaker 4: So it's difficult to get into the commercial game now

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Speaker 4: unless you're smart on how you diversify it. If you're

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Speaker 4: going to get into the office space, that carries a

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Speaker 4: risk because Atlanta, in most places in the United States

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Speaker 4: now has a lot of office space just out there available,

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Speaker 4: and so when we do development, we try to think

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Speaker 4: a little differently, what does that.

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Speaker 2: Community to need.

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Speaker 4: We're going to do misuse, come in and do MRC

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Speaker 4: one or either MRC two to where we're going to

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Speaker 4: have a residential component to it, but we're also going

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Speaker 4: to have a retail or office component to it, to

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Speaker 4: where we kind of spreading out that risk and not

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Speaker 4: rely solely on the commercial part too. And so one

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Speaker 4: of the buildings that we are known for here in

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Speaker 4: Atlanta is the Alit Lakewood Building. So let's take that building.

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Speaker 4: That building is probably worth about seven million, thirty thousand

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Speaker 4: square foot building. We have a coffee shop in that

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Speaker 4: black Coffee. There's a restaurant in that building. Top floor

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Speaker 4: are practitioners and doctors. We have a new co working

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Speaker 4: space in the building, having an event center in that building.

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Speaker 4: So when we're thinking about doing it, we want to

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Speaker 4: think outside the box and don't just be strictly retail

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Speaker 4: or commercial, which get a lot of people in trouble.

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Speaker 4: Hence the problem that we have now is too much

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Speaker 4: commercial availability on the market.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so it sounds like mixed use is almost kind

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Speaker 1: of a strategy by design, right, absolutely putting those spaces

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Speaker 1: in certain communities and giving them a mix of both

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Speaker 1: residential and different commercial things they might need in those communities.

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Speaker 1: How do you all kind of like curate and figure

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Speaker 1: out what makes sense in a different community.

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Speaker 4: You have to be smart about it. One of the

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Speaker 4: problems Atlanta have, and I think the mayor address this,

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Speaker 4: is that you have developers who come into community ji's

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Speaker 4: and the only thing they think about is what is

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Speaker 4: the most profit that they can make, and they don't

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Speaker 4: think about what can make those business thrive. And so

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Speaker 4: in align to there's a lot of restaurants that are

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Speaker 4: shutting down, and that's because the developers just didn't think through.

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Speaker 4: They jack up the prices because they want to make

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Speaker 4: the most amount of profit that they can, and then

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Speaker 4: they may put a Mexican restaurant right next to another

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Speaker 4: Mexican restaurant. As developers, we have to think outside the box,

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Speaker 4: not only what is longevity for our business, but what

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Speaker 4: is good for the community also. So when we come

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Speaker 4: in we have meetings with the community. What is lacking

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Speaker 4: in this particular community? Okay, is it a food desert?

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Speaker 4: Does it have healthy restaurants in the area, does it

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Speaker 4: have any type of office, or what type of retail

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Speaker 4: does it have, And so we are very thoughtful about

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Speaker 4: how we do it and how we approach every community

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Speaker 4: by starting on the ground first and having community meetings. Now,

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Speaker 4: it's difficult to have that balance of doing what's right

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Speaker 4: for the community and also making a profit at the

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Speaker 4: same time. Some people strictly on the profit side and

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Speaker 4: then some people are strictly on the community side, and

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Speaker 4: both of them are wrong. If you're strictly on the

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Speaker 4: community side, you would end up going broken, going out

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Speaker 4: of business. But then if you strictly on the profit side,

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Speaker 4: you end up doing the wrong thing. And so you

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Speaker 4: have to find that balance in the middle.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Now what did you what did the early

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Speaker 1: version of Omar a Ley like look like? How do

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Speaker 1: you learn how to get into this business and like

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Speaker 1: especially what works especially as a black you know, entrepreneur

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Speaker 1: that was building this out.

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Speaker 4: My father was a phenomenal person. He raised us to

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Speaker 4: think about creating our own business. And many people have

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Speaker 4: heard me say this before. He wouldn't allow us to

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Speaker 4: get a job, He wouldn't allows us to be a doctor, lawyer,

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Speaker 4: none of that. We had to figure out how to

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Speaker 4: own those particular companies. And so my father he owned

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Speaker 4: a construction company and an asbestos abatement company, so I

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Speaker 4: knew the construction arena well.

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Speaker 2: And so when I.

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Speaker 4: Graduated in twenty twenty four, I started my steel company.

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Speaker 4: I didn't want to go and work for my father

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Speaker 4: because I wanted to figure out how do I add

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Speaker 4: to the family legacy, you know. And so when I

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Speaker 4: created the steel company the first time, brandon it fel.

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Speaker 4: I was twenty four years old, just younger, naive file bankruptcy.

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Speaker 4: The second time, two thousand and eight market crash company

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Speaker 4: was doing okay. We grew the company up to about

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Speaker 4: two million, but then the two thousand and eight crash

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Speaker 4: happened and we had to shut it down again. And

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Speaker 4: my wife said, just don't give up, you know, just

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Speaker 4: do it again. And that third time was a home run.

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Speaker 4: Before you knew it, we grew that company up to

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Speaker 4: seventy million. We was operating over eighteen different countries for

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Speaker 4: the US government, supply and steel to the American Embassy

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Speaker 4: of London, Tajikistan, Pakistan nominated by the Department of Defense.

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Speaker 2: OBO.

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Speaker 4: Just fantastic company. But I had the I've never been

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Speaker 4: afraid to try certain things. What really did it was

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Speaker 4: I found a failing company into Katie, Mexico, went down,

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Speaker 4: made them an offer, and bought a company and to Katago.

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Speaker 4: So within six months I had a fully operational steal

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Speaker 4: fabrication plant in Takati in Mexico. And then I got

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Speaker 4: that thirty five and before you knew it, profits went

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Speaker 4: up almost thirty percent.

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Speaker 2: But I wasn't done then.

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Speaker 4: Then I called the US Department of Commerce and asked

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Speaker 4: them how to do business in the Middle East. They said, okay,

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Speaker 4: we have a program. Just pay us five hundred dollars

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Speaker 4: and we would show for you around to any company

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Speaker 4: that you want to do business with in the Middle East.

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Speaker 4: So I did just that, and a lot of people

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Speaker 4: don't know about this program that existed. So I sent

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Speaker 4: them a list and said, are these companies safe to

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Speaker 4: do business with? That's the first thing you have to do.

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Speaker 4: And one of those particular companies owned the list was

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Speaker 4: a company that did about forty million called Jinko Steel.

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Speaker 4: Now this is the catch. Jinko Steel was owned by

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Speaker 4: root Still. Roots Still did nine hundred million. Root Still

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Speaker 4: was owned by Arabian Roots, and Arabian Roots did about

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Speaker 4: one point four billion. But then Arabian Roots was owned

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Speaker 4: by the Southern bin Laden family and all of this

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Speaker 4: was under the blessings of the United States, and so

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Speaker 4: we created a joint venture in Dubai with a very

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Speaker 4: large operation. So now we're just fabricating still all around

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Speaker 4: the world. But then you know, good things come to end.

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Speaker 4: And when Donald Trump his first term in.

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Speaker 3: Office, Solf, Yeah, yeah, man, that's interesting.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 1: You know, you talked about those those first two failures

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Speaker 1: before for the win.

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Speaker 3: It's funny.

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Speaker 1: I I got a friend of mine, he always says,

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Speaker 1: you know, you know what happens when you have two l's,

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Speaker 1: It makes a w and it sounds like that's what

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Speaker 1: happened right now. You kind of mentioned that's really interesting

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Speaker 1: to talk about government programs. He said, for Lula's five

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Speaker 1: hundred bucks, there was a program that you found that

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Speaker 1: they literally took you around and introduce you to companies

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Speaker 1: and stuff like that. A lot I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of times people one don't know these kind of programs exist.

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Speaker 1: They don't know where to look. But also when you

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Speaker 1: think about like government programs, you probably think about a

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Speaker 1: lot of bureaucracy and just what it takes kind of

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Speaker 1: navigate that, like what's the reality of that, and like

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Speaker 1: what can entrepreneurs that maybe want to get into that

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Speaker 1: space do, Because I'm being honest, man, like I never

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Speaker 1: met anybody said they just wanted to start a steel

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Speaker 1: company before. And I think the two that's also interesting too, right,

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Speaker 1: Like I think you know again, like when you look around,

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Speaker 1: like everything is a business and I don't think we

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Speaker 1: think about stuff like that, so you know, like you know,

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Speaker 1: what do people need to know about government programs and

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Speaker 1: how you found those and what other opportunities might exist.

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Speaker 1: But then also yeah, like how did you even side

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Speaker 1: like I'm gonna sort of steal company.

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Speaker 4: I always gravitate toward what it's not oversaturated, you know.

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Speaker 4: I try to find that path that don't have a

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Speaker 4: lot of minorities in there. And when I looked at

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Speaker 4: the still in the struggling wait, just like the residential

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Speaker 4: not the residential, but the real estate development don't have

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Speaker 4: a lot of black center either. So for the still

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Speaker 4: it wasn't a lot. I was like, you know what,

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Speaker 4: I can do this, I can figure this out. I'm

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Speaker 4: going to try to take advantage of some of the

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Speaker 4: federal programs that are out there for small business and

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Speaker 4: minority business and just it's not difficult. Most people make

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Speaker 4: it to be that particular way, but it's not. It's

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Speaker 4: just doing the research, doing recon finding certain programs, and

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Speaker 4: just just going at it. Just like with the Department

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Speaker 4: of Commerce. You know, I just happened to go to

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Speaker 4: their website. It was right there on their website and said, okay,

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Speaker 4: let me just pick up the phone and car all them.

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Speaker 4: Sure enough, it was a center for them because they

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Speaker 4: want more business from the United.

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Speaker 2: States to other countries. And so just doing the research problem.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, like where should people look like you talking about

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Speaker 1: the Department of Commerce just in general? I mean, I

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Speaker 1: know you have a lot of experience in the commercial

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Speaker 1: and real estate space, but just like, what are some

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Speaker 1: other places people might want to look to find that

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Speaker 1: kind of information?

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Speaker 4: DD Department of Defense. Now under this administration, no, so

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Speaker 4: a lot of the government programs are being dismantled. But

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Speaker 4: before the Trump administration, you could go to the d D.

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Speaker 4: The d D had a small business program strictly do

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Speaker 4: work for the Department of Defense. Same thing for the

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Speaker 4: Department of Interior, Department CDC, you just name it, you know,

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Speaker 4: And so we found our niche with the Department of

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Speaker 4: State and Department of Defense, particularly the overseas building operations,

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Speaker 4: but any federal agency you can think of, there's opportunities

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Speaker 4: there and just just figure it out and tackle those

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Speaker 4: particular obstacles that's in your way with it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think when people also probably think about, you know,

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Speaker 1: you said like over a billion dollars in development that

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Speaker 1: you all have done, and they probably think about, you know,

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Speaker 1: skyscrapers and cranes and like all that other kind of

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Speaker 1: big set of stuff like what's what's that actually kind

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Speaker 1: of looked like from a scale and like a more

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Speaker 1: day to day basis.

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Speaker 2: So it's two things.

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Speaker 4: So the projects that I own and control, again we're

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Speaker 4: under that one hundred million, and so we do. I've

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Speaker 4: taken on projects personally for myself as as small as

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Speaker 4: a million to as large as thirty five million for

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Speaker 4: a single single project. But some of the boards that

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Speaker 4: I sit on and what we control. For an example,

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Speaker 4: like the Georgia World Congress Center, the Mercedes Band Stadium

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Speaker 4: is actually owned by the state, so we control that

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Speaker 4: particular development. The World Congress Center itself is three million

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Speaker 4: square feet controlled by the state. The Sick Neil Hilton

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Speaker 4: is controlled by the state as well, and so being

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Speaker 4: on that particular board it gave me even more insight

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Speaker 4: to take my developments from thirty five million, what will

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Speaker 4: it take to actually do a two hundred million or

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Speaker 4: three hundred million project or even more. But the main

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Speaker 4: thing that play people want to come to real estate

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Speaker 4: development is access to capital. Yeah, but there's so many

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Speaker 4: different ways that you can kind of cut that piece

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Speaker 4: of pie up to get it done. And a lot

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Speaker 4: of them goes back to partnerships. And I tell everyone,

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Speaker 4: if you're doing real estate development, don't do crawdfunding.

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Speaker 2: It's not the right way to do it.

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Speaker 4: And if you're going to bring on partners, bring home

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Speaker 4: maybe three or four partners alone, and try to stay

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Speaker 4: away from the hard money alone. If you have to

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Speaker 4: do a hard money loan, then maybe that project is.

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Speaker 2: Too big for you. Scale down a little bit smaller.

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Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, how do you like find projects? There is too?

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Speaker 1: Because I think it's also a thing too, right, Like

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Speaker 1: people deals come from all over the places and kind

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Speaker 1: of hear that, right, So is it relationships? Is it

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Speaker 1: just knowing what to look is it a mix of

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Speaker 1: all that stuff? Like, where do you find some of

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Speaker 1: these opportunities.

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Speaker 4: At amidst of amits of all of those? Now what

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Speaker 4: I do? I am real old school with this. I

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Speaker 4: pull out a map, a little of map, and I

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Speaker 4: lay it out on my truck and I'm a highlight

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Speaker 4: the streets I'm going to turn down. I'm going to

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Speaker 4: go down this street. I'm going to go down this

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Speaker 4: particular street, and I'm looking for a particular project for me.

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Speaker 4: I like to find projects buildings that are extremely dilapidated.

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Speaker 4: So I will ride down these streets, circle this building,

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Speaker 4: circle this building, and go back home. Do research who

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Speaker 4: owns these particular properties because they're not listed in a while,

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Speaker 4: and I will call them personally. Don't use any virtual assistance.

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Speaker 4: Don't use overseas. A lot of people try to use

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Speaker 4: these calling centers overseas to do the research.

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Speaker 2: No, I do it myself.

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Speaker 4: And so I call them up, ask them to meet

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Speaker 4: with them, sit down with them, break bread, have coffee,

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Speaker 4: and make them offer for their particular project. Then once

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Speaker 4: I have that particular property, the next thing is how

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Speaker 4: do I raise capital for it? Knowing that with my

427
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Speaker 4: banking relationships, they're going to give us about sixty percent,

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Speaker 4: so I still have forty percent to cover. And there's

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Speaker 4: so many other programs out there that you can take

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Speaker 4: advantage of, historical tax credits, seepace landing which is green,

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Speaker 4: or partnering with the city you do affordability to where

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Speaker 4: that particular city may loan you twenty percent at a

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Speaker 4: three percent interest rate. All of these type of things

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Speaker 4: exist out there.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So you know, talk about deal making for a second,

436
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Speaker 1: because I think that's interesting too. You talk about how

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Speaker 1: you go around and you know, you find a property,

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Speaker 1: you search for the owner, you get in contact with them.

439
00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:22,520
Speaker 1: I think one thing that comes to business too. A

440
00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:24,520
Speaker 1: lot of people don't understand. I always say, like business

441
00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:27,240
Speaker 1: is about creativity, you know, like when you're doing a deal,

442
00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:28,879
Speaker 1: like a deals whatever y'all come up with, you know

443
00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:30,399
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like, it's all kinds of ways you do,

444
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:32,480
Speaker 1: Like how do you kind of approach deal making in

445
00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:33,280
Speaker 1: those situations?

446
00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:33,520
Speaker 2: You know?

447
00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:36,160
Speaker 4: I just did a post to where where the young

448
00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,880
Speaker 4: people came at me from talking about AI and chat GPT.

449
00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:42,120
Speaker 2: So I was doing a deal.

450
00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:47,080
Speaker 4: To where the other people on the other end didn't

451
00:19:47,160 --> 00:19:50,880
Speaker 4: understand the art of negotiating. They was using chat GPT

452
00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:54,479
Speaker 4: to negotiate with me. Now, it's okay to do recon

453
00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:58,720
Speaker 4: but it can't understand the nuances. So this particular deal,

454
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:03,200
Speaker 4: what they didn't understand is that the only path to

455
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:06,840
Speaker 4: this particular deal was through me. Now at the same time,

456
00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:09,000
Speaker 4: I understand that, but that doesn't necessarily mean I want

457
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:11,119
Speaker 4: a bad deal. That doesn't necessarily mean that they wouldn't

458
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:13,760
Speaker 4: walk away because they don't realize that. And because of

459
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:16,080
Speaker 4: Jack chie chat GPT that was about to lose the

460
00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:18,680
Speaker 4: deal because they didn't realize they had no other path,

461
00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:21,800
Speaker 4: which would have made me lose the deal also, And

462
00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:23,679
Speaker 4: so you have to humble yourself down. And when I

463
00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:26,840
Speaker 4: go onto deal, I am always prepared to give up

464
00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:30,080
Speaker 4: something and to lose something. Yeah, and that should be

465
00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:32,960
Speaker 4: true for the opposite side that the ultimate goal is

466
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:34,760
Speaker 4: to come out with the deal.

467
00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:36,160
Speaker 2: Do your research.

468
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:38,960
Speaker 4: If you're going to use the tools that's at hand,

469
00:20:39,119 --> 00:20:41,240
Speaker 4: those tools are for recome But when it comes down

470
00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:44,280
Speaker 4: to it, it is that human touch, looking somebody in

471
00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:48,000
Speaker 4: the eye, assuring them that they're getting a good deal,

472
00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:51,040
Speaker 4: and that you're getting a good deal, and that together

473
00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:53,520
Speaker 4: it would either be a good partnership or would benefit

474
00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:54,359
Speaker 4: them or benefit you.

475
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:56,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, now I got to ask too, and this is

476
00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:59,800
Speaker 1: just and I gotta ask this man like you going

477
00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:02,280
Speaker 1: to these deals as a black man, And you know,

478
00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:04,080
Speaker 1: I kind of wonder too. When you're riding through some

479
00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:06,320
Speaker 1: of these areas, some of these places are dilapidated. You're

480
00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:08,200
Speaker 1: probably looking at people dealing people that might not look

481
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:11,399
Speaker 1: like you. Like, how has that played into your ability

482
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:14,360
Speaker 1: to make deals and get stuff done and maybe acquire

483
00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:17,320
Speaker 1: properties that you know, again, people may have overlooked in

484
00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:17,880
Speaker 1: the past.

485
00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:18,960
Speaker 2: Goes both ways.

486
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:22,440
Speaker 4: Sometimes people don't want to do business with them because

487
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:25,360
Speaker 4: of my skin color, and then sometimes they don't care.

488
00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:28,720
Speaker 4: Even if they don't like black people, they still want

489
00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:32,840
Speaker 4: to make money. I like green, you know, And that's true,

490
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:36,640
Speaker 4: And so I tried to go into deals. I never

491
00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:40,000
Speaker 4: I'm never intimidated by whom ever is on the other side.

492
00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:41,600
Speaker 4: I don't care if that person on the other side

493
00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,120
Speaker 4: is a billionaire. I'm just never. When it comes down

494
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:46,080
Speaker 4: to it, we both want to get the deal done

495
00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:48,840
Speaker 4: and what suits both sides.

496
00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:49,280
Speaker 2: Of the parties.

497
00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:54,439
Speaker 4: But you run into a lot of racism in the

498
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:57,119
Speaker 4: world period, and then you run into a lot of

499
00:21:57,119 --> 00:21:59,679
Speaker 4: people that you assume is that particular way, but they're not,

500
00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:02,000
Speaker 4: you know, and once you get to know them, they

501
00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:03,639
Speaker 4: love the art of the deal as well.

502
00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:07,600
Speaker 1: Do you see any difference in deal making like here

503
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:09,720
Speaker 1: in the US versus some of the international deals you've

504
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:12,240
Speaker 1: worked on and they're like different cultural differences just the

505
00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:13,760
Speaker 1: way people kind of move and so I mean, now,

506
00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:15,480
Speaker 1: if you're dealing with the Sali family, you know, they

507
00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:17,320
Speaker 1: make like a billion dollars a day, so they probably,

508
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:19,919
Speaker 1: but like, have you seen notice, like any differences in

509
00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:21,679
Speaker 1: deal making when it comes to like maybe people here

510
00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:24,200
Speaker 1: in the US versus like international projects unequivent.

511
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:26,480
Speaker 4: Let me give you an example, so with the steel company,

512
00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:28,960
Speaker 4: and it still baffles me that it was that way.

513
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:33,679
Speaker 4: If I'm doing a contracting a construction project here, so

514
00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:36,240
Speaker 4: we had net thirty turns, which means I had to

515
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 4: work for thirty days, and then I had to wait

516
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:41,000
Speaker 4: for thirty days to get paid, so about sixty days

517
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:43,520
Speaker 4: before I receive any money, so I had to pay

518
00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:45,600
Speaker 4: for the steal, had to pay for my payroll. We

519
00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:47,560
Speaker 4: can be out of a pocket hundreds of thousand dollars

520
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:50,639
Speaker 4: of millions of dollars before we receive a dime. Those

521
00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,000
Speaker 4: same contrasts that I was doing work for when I

522
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:57,919
Speaker 4: moved things overseas, we were able to negotiate money up

523
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:00,960
Speaker 4: front before we did anything. That's for thirty three percent

524
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,320
Speaker 4: out front. They will pay us thirty three percent out front,

525
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 4: we would say before this still leads the port of origin,

526
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,919
Speaker 4: which here in the United States, we want another up

527
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:14,760
Speaker 4: to ninety percent paid. We would take the risk of

528
00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:16,960
Speaker 4: you guys holding on to ten percent once to reach

529
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,840
Speaker 4: overseas and you do your research and make sure that

530
00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:22,720
Speaker 4: what we delivered is proper. And so the level of

531
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:26,200
Speaker 4: respect once you go to the international market is totally different.

532
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:29,560
Speaker 4: And even the US companies they realize that, and they

533
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:33,200
Speaker 4: negotiate differently when you're doing work overseas. But here in

534
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:36,159
Speaker 4: the United States they will treat their own colleagues and

535
00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:39,399
Speaker 4: their own citizens just totally different because the laws are

536
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:40,159
Speaker 4: more in their favor.

537
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:41,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I was.

538
00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:43,840
Speaker 1: I was talking to some friends about mind about this

539
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:45,800
Speaker 1: the other day, just like I think for some reason,

540
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:49,000
Speaker 1: people throw around these numbers and they don't think like

541
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:51,919
Speaker 1: a million dollars is a lot of money, you know.

542
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:53,560
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, it's just a million, or it's just this,

543
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: And I'm like I don't know about y'all. Million dollars

544
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:55,639
Speaker 1: a lot of money to me.

545
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:57,199
Speaker 2: It's a lot to me too, you know.

546
00:23:57,600 --> 00:23:59,360
Speaker 1: But like I think also when you talk about these

547
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:02,080
Speaker 1: side of these DALs, right, and like for example, you said,

548
00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:03,879
Speaker 1: you know you have a banking relationship where you might

549
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 1: be able to get sixty percent so you get funded.

550
00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:08,119
Speaker 1: Let's say it's a let's say, you know, let's use

551
00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 1: some big let's say it's a ten million dollar deal

552
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:10,119
Speaker 1: or something like that.

553
00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:11,800
Speaker 3: Like I think, I think just.

554
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,879
Speaker 1: The idea for people of where am I going to

555
00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:17,600
Speaker 1: come up with four million dollars from may seem intimidating

556
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:19,479
Speaker 1: to them and may keep them out of that. Like,

557
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:22,760
Speaker 1: what would you tell somebody that feels intimidated? Because I

558
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:24,399
Speaker 1: think that also again obviously you got to build your

559
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:25,600
Speaker 1: way up to that. You're not going to start off

560
00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:27,679
Speaker 1: for those kind of deals, right, But like you know,

561
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:29,840
Speaker 1: you also you know, also playing with big numbers here,

562
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:31,119
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? So like, would you tell

563
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:32,880
Speaker 1: somebody that kind of feels intimidated? Because I'm not gonna

564
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:33,040
Speaker 1: lie to you.

565
00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:34,240
Speaker 3: I'm listening. I'm like, man, I want to do some

566
00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:36,000
Speaker 3: commercial real estate, but I'm like, I ain't got an

567
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:37,440
Speaker 3: extra four million to put in this stuff.

568
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:38,879
Speaker 2: You know what did it for me?

569
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 4: When I studied my competitors are our colleagues and realize

570
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 4: that they're doing one hundred million dollar days. And then

571
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:49,400
Speaker 4: they don't have the money either. And then I realized, Okay,

572
00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:51,080
Speaker 4: if they don't have all of the money, how are

573
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:53,400
Speaker 4: they doing these particular deals. Surely I can figure out

574
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:55,480
Speaker 4: the same thing, just on a much smaller scale.

575
00:24:55,760 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 2: Give me this, doample historical tax credits? Do you know

576
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:02,119
Speaker 2: much about historical tax.

577
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:03,359
Speaker 3: I do not? Please educate me.

578
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:06,680
Speaker 4: So if you find a building, and this particular building

579
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:10,920
Speaker 4: is on a historical tax registered list, you can apply

580
00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:14,720
Speaker 4: for twenty percent of free money from the state and

581
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,159
Speaker 4: twenty three percent of free miny from the federal government.

582
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:19,880
Speaker 4: I may have those reversed, but either way, forty three

583
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 4: percent overall. And if that project is on that you

584
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 4: would get forty three percent of your project the construction

585
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:27,960
Speaker 4: costs free and tax credits.

586
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:28,440
Speaker 3: Wow.

587
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:32,119
Speaker 4: And so you can take that money and sell it.

588
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,960
Speaker 4: You will have say if you have a million a

589
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 4: million dollar project, and so you have four hundred and

590
00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:40,680
Speaker 4: thirty thousand dollars of free you take that you sell

591
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 4: it to the bank, and the bank would give you

592
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,720
Speaker 4: eighty percent of that four hundred and thirty thousand dollars

593
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:48,240
Speaker 4: in cash form because they want their historical tax credits.

594
00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:49,959
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one way to do it.

595
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 4: You can go to sea pace funding, which is anything

596
00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:56,440
Speaker 4: that you put into your project that is energy efficient

597
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:59,360
Speaker 4: and just by code not almost everything is energy efficient.

598
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:01,000
Speaker 2: They would loan you.

599
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 4: Twenty percent of the construction calls at four percent over

600
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 4: the four points over the ten year treasury note. But

601
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:11,960
Speaker 4: the point I'm making is banks would beat your door

602
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,119
Speaker 4: down if you're doing either one of these, and so

603
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 4: you just have to understand it. How do you do

604
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:19,760
Speaker 4: your capital stats? So let's add up the number sixty

605
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,560
Speaker 4: percent from the bank. We just got forty three percent

606
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:23,919
Speaker 4: from historical tax credit.

607
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:25,680
Speaker 3: We already we already winning.

608
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:29,439
Speaker 4: So let's say if the bank are playing hard they

609
00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:31,119
Speaker 4: said I'm going to give you thirty percent, It's okay.

610
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:33,399
Speaker 4: You know, there's so many different ways that you can

611
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:35,639
Speaker 4: still do your capital stack to get to that. But

612
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 4: what I love doing more is mission driven project to

613
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:42,240
Speaker 4: where we partner with municipalities and we go to the

614
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 4: cities and we say that we're going to do x

615
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,600
Speaker 4: amount with affordability, and the city will loan you money

616
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 4: sometimes between ten to twenty percent. If you're doing affordability

617
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,400
Speaker 4: at a three percent interest rate depending upon the municipality.

618
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 4: That's a huge advantage also, and it doesn't take people

619
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:01,000
Speaker 4: think you need to know this particular person like, no,

620
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:04,680
Speaker 4: they want what's right for their city. Just make the call,

621
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:05,440
Speaker 4: make the connection.

622
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:08,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know I was gonna and you know, you

623
00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:11,680
Speaker 1: talk about access to capital, you know, I think about

624
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 1: I had a conversation with somebody talking about like banking

625
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:16,919
Speaker 1: relationships and how that's important too, right, because you know,

626
00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:19,440
Speaker 1: how does a person go about establishing a banking relationship

627
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:20,840
Speaker 1: in your opinion when it comes to these kind of

628
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:22,160
Speaker 1: you know, projects and deals.

629
00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 4: Some of my mentees every two years I do a

630
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 4: mentorship program and the first thing that asked, can you

631
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:30,439
Speaker 4: introduce me to bankers? I was like, I can, But

632
00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:32,000
Speaker 4: they don't mean they're going to loan you the money.

633
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:34,280
Speaker 4: They're going to do the same criteria that they do

634
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:36,080
Speaker 4: for everyone. You have to go through underwriting. And so

635
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:38,639
Speaker 4: you're no matter even if I still know that banker,

636
00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:40,280
Speaker 4: he's not going to loan your money just because he's

637
00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:43,440
Speaker 4: my friend. Do you have the credit, What is your collateral?

638
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:46,360
Speaker 4: So it always come back to that. And now that

639
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:50,400
Speaker 4: can be challenging for small businesses getting into real estate development.

640
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:52,880
Speaker 4: But get in where you fit and start small.

641
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:53,159
Speaker 2: You know.

642
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:56,120
Speaker 4: I have a friend him years ago, he was trying

643
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:58,960
Speaker 4: to do a twenty million dollar deal, but his net

644
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:01,120
Speaker 4: worth at that time was right around one point one meal.

645
00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 2: I was like, how are you going to do this deal? Man?

646
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,359
Speaker 2: I was like, start smaller. He never listened to me.

647
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 4: Ten years later he never got the deal done.

648
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:10,760
Speaker 2: And I've had did multiple smaller deals, and.

649
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:13,880
Speaker 4: So I'm not ashamed if when I first started out

650
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:16,320
Speaker 4: with the real estate I had no problem with doing

651
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:18,640
Speaker 4: a three hundred thousand and four hundred thousand dollars a deal,

652
00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:21,959
Speaker 4: even if that only brought me in forty or fifty

653
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:24,920
Speaker 4: thousand dollars a year, that's forty fifty thousand dollars I

654
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 4: didn't have. Pretty soon, you just grow to the point

655
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 4: to where you need to get Yeah.

656
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:31,639
Speaker 3: Yeah, Now you sit on a lot of boards too.

657
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:33,480
Speaker 1: On one of the big ones you talked about is

658
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,359
Speaker 1: the Georgia Orld Congress Center Authority, Like, tell me about that.

659
00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:41,760
Speaker 4: Yeah, so, Governor Kemp And by the way, politically I'm independent.

660
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:42,560
Speaker 2: I sit in the middle.

661
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:46,920
Speaker 4: I supported Governor Kemp heavily and I also supported VP Harris,

662
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 4: so I aligned myself for what is the best interest

663
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:53,440
Speaker 4: for small business. So Governor Kemp, this is the second

664
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 4: board he appointed me to. He appointed me to the

665
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 4: Georgia Ward Congress Center. So we control the Mercedes Being

666
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 4: Stadium ar Blank is a tenant. We control and own

667
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:06,440
Speaker 4: the sick near Hilton in Atlanta, and in Savannah. There's

668
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:09,120
Speaker 4: a convention center in a Savannah as well, and the

669
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:13,280
Speaker 4: War Congress Center here, Centennial yards and home depot backyards.

670
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:16,720
Speaker 4: So about one point four billion and state assets. That

671
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:19,720
Speaker 4: contributes to about two point three two point four billion

672
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 4: and income to the state of Georgia. But I thoroughly

673
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 4: enjoy that board. It fits right up my alley. It's

674
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 4: just more development because when you look at the campus

675
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:32,560
Speaker 4: of the Georgia War Congress Centers, it's buildings pretty much

676
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:36,920
Speaker 4: all development, although they're responsible for the tourism aspect of

677
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 4: their campus.

678
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, now I got to ask too, man. I mean,

679
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:42,400
Speaker 1: you tell me as much you can tell me. But

680
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:45,000
Speaker 1: as I just think about all the development going on

681
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 1: here Atlanta, what's Atlanta gonna look like in the next ten,

682
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:49,560
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty years.

683
00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 4: I don't think if we don't continue to have great

684
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:56,680
Speaker 4: mayors like a Mayor Dickens right now, it's going to

685
00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:59,800
Speaker 4: be unaffordable what the development is. And you started to

686
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:02,520
Speaker 4: see these signs of that just a little. And what

687
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 4: Mayor Dickis is doing is trying to reel that back in.

688
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:08,080
Speaker 4: But if we're not careful ten to fifteen years now,

689
00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:11,120
Speaker 4: we're going to see prices similar to California or New

690
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 4: York to where it's really unaffordable. Before COVID, you can

691
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:18,840
Speaker 4: get a nice apartment for nine hundred thousand, nine hundred

692
00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:22,000
Speaker 4: dollars or one thousand dollars. That same apartment now it's

693
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:26,280
Speaker 4: going for two thousand dollars. That's yeah, it's stupid, you know,

694
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 4: wages having an increase that much. You go from nine

695
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:33,240
Speaker 4: hundred dollars to two thousand dollars a month for the

696
00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 4: same apartment. How can people afford that? And if we

697
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 4: continue to go in the direction that we're going and

698
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 4: without thinking about affordability, we're going to be priced out

699
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 4: and that it's a doubly sore. You want some affordability

700
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 4: and you want some market rate if you have too

701
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:53,520
Speaker 4: much affordability in certain neighborhoods, that neighborhood become a neighborhood

702
00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 4: that will never have banking, never have grocery stores, And

703
00:30:57,040 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 4: so you need a combination of both. So I'm an

704
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:02,920
Speaker 4: advocate of mixed use when it comes to income.

705
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:07,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, what don't people understand about how all this is

706
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:10,720
Speaker 1: happening in Atlanta, how the city's growing, who's influencing this stuff,

707
00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:12,880
Speaker 1: the money that's coming in from that? Like what people

708
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:14,840
Speaker 1: don't understand about that? Based on what you see from

709
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:15,480
Speaker 1: your perspective.

710
00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 4: A lot of blame is placed on the government institutions,

711
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:23,080
Speaker 4: But you have to remember there's only so much they

712
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:23,400
Speaker 4: can do.

713
00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:24,320
Speaker 2: There's so much.

714
00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 4: Private land out there. If private land is out there,

715
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:28,680
Speaker 4: how are you're going to tell the way that America

716
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:33,240
Speaker 4: is built it's a free capitalistic society. How are you

717
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 4: going to tell somebody to go and build something and

718
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 4: don't charge whatever he want to charge.

719
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 2: They can do that.

720
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 4: And so people get upset at government institutions because they

721
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 4: think they're the blame. But there are certain regulations that

722
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:49,800
Speaker 4: can be put in place to help incentivize those particular

723
00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:52,240
Speaker 4: developers to do the right thing. And you have to

724
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:54,680
Speaker 4: find the right developers to do the right thing. Because

725
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,120
Speaker 4: there's been huge developers that came to the city of

726
00:31:57,120 --> 00:31:59,360
Speaker 4: Atlanta and just lied to the city who said they're

727
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:03,400
Speaker 4: going to afford ability. The community voted for them, and

728
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:05,480
Speaker 4: they turned their back some of the community and did

729
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:06,680
Speaker 4: whatever the hell they wanted to do.

730
00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:10,040
Speaker 1: Now when you think about again, and because of that,

731
00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:11,920
Speaker 1: a lot of developers probably get a bad rap. And

732
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:13,440
Speaker 1: I mean, like one of the things you try to

733
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:15,600
Speaker 1: talked about was you do a lot of mission driven

734
00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:18,920
Speaker 1: work is kind of your specific specific thing like when

735
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:21,200
Speaker 1: you're you know, from your perspective, like what what should

736
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 1: developers be doing differently to kind of help make sure

737
00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 1: that Atlanta states affordable and that you know, these spaces

738
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:28,720
Speaker 1: don't just price everybody out.

739
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 4: When I started to develop my wealth when I was younger,

740
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 4: I it was one thing that I pursue profit. When

741
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,560
Speaker 4: you change that more to purpose, the profit is going

742
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 4: to come. You know, when you're doing developments, you got

743
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:44,800
Speaker 4: to have a purpose behind it. What is going to

744
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:48,080
Speaker 4: be best for that community. The building that you and

745
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:51,320
Speaker 4: I met at the ALI development, uh the ALI at

746
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 4: Lakewood building. I had the opportunity to turn that entire

747
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:59,560
Speaker 4: building into manufacturing Delta. At one point wanted to come

748
00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:03,200
Speaker 4: in retrofit the building to put a manufacturing arm in there,

749
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:06,160
Speaker 4: and I would have made probably twice the amount that

750
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 4: I'm making right now, you know. So you have to

751
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:11,280
Speaker 4: ask yourself, is that good for the community. Do I

752
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:14,600
Speaker 4: want to make that type of profit to step all

753
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,000
Speaker 4: over the community down? Says no, you know, And so

754
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:19,560
Speaker 4: you make some profit, but just don't try to hit

755
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:23,760
Speaker 4: a home run every time. And development is not for

756
00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:25,840
Speaker 4: the faint hearted. Brand now, I showed up one day

757
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:30,920
Speaker 4: I was driving. I saw a picture of a picture

758
00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:31,840
Speaker 4: of me on a pole.

759
00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 2: That can't be me.

760
00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:38,479
Speaker 4: So I kept driving every pole for a mile. Somebody

761
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 4: was just pissed off of me. A group of people

762
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:41,760
Speaker 4: were pissed off of me and said Omer is an

763
00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:45,240
Speaker 4: evil developer and put my photo on every damn pole

764
00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:47,440
Speaker 4: they can think of, you know. And I tried to

765
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:49,240
Speaker 4: have a meeting with them, and then I just realized,

766
00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 4: you're dealing with ideal loogs. You can't reason with them.

767
00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:55,680
Speaker 4: They wanted their particular way, and one of them had

768
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:58,920
Speaker 4: the nerves to tell me that my buildings don't have

769
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:03,360
Speaker 4: enough diversity, when most of all buildings are eighty percent

770
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:06,600
Speaker 4: to one hundred percent minority. Right, So what do you

771
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 4: mean that my building doesn't have enough diversity?

772
00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:13,680
Speaker 3: Right? Yeah, and say that to somebody and said it

773
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 3: to my face.

774
00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:18,719
Speaker 4: Now, I am a firm believer in diversity. Developers make

775
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:22,720
Speaker 4: a mistake. Let's take like the people at the Black

776
00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:27,360
Speaker 4: Wall Street over in a stone stone crust. Now, great concept,

777
00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:29,839
Speaker 4: but it was a mistake in my opinion. You don't

778
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:32,400
Speaker 4: want to have a development that's one hundred percent centered

779
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:33,800
Speaker 4: around on the blacks.

780
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:35,759
Speaker 2: The idea is you have.

781
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 4: A majority, but how do you welcome other races in

782
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:40,920
Speaker 4: there to spend their money as well? And then the

783
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,200
Speaker 4: majority of those dollars flow back to the majority of

784
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:45,520
Speaker 4: the tenants who are black. And so you have to

785
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,600
Speaker 4: find that combination, that particular way and kind of welcome

786
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:51,640
Speaker 4: diversity into your developments.

787
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, you build all kind of relationships across you know,

788
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:58,640
Speaker 1: government and business community, like other people probably want to,

789
00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:00,759
Speaker 1: you know, fallow those footsteps and get those kind of rooms.

790
00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 1: Like how do those opportunities even come? Like how do

791
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:05,080
Speaker 1: you even get in a situation where Governor Kemp is

792
00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:06,040
Speaker 1: saying I want you.

793
00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:07,759
Speaker 3: On the board for the World Congress Center.

794
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,000
Speaker 4: All right, So before I tell that story, I want

795
00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:11,960
Speaker 4: to tell you about the other board that he appointed

796
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:14,880
Speaker 4: me too. So I sit on the state's general contract

797
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:16,360
Speaker 4: thing a residential contracting.

798
00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 2: So anyone in the.

799
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 4: State of Georgia who is seeking to get their general

800
00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:24,640
Speaker 4: contracting or light general contracting or residential have to come

801
00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:27,960
Speaker 4: before our board. And I thoroughly enjoy that board too,

802
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:31,000
Speaker 4: because we want to get as many small business possible

803
00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:32,080
Speaker 4: to become contractors.

804
00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:35,279
Speaker 2: But the way that you do it is you.

805
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 4: My father told me a long time ago, if you

806
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:41,440
Speaker 4: get to know someone, truly know them, even if you

807
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 4: guys have different of opinions, it makes it just a

808
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,200
Speaker 4: little more difficult for them to tell you no. And

809
00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:51,080
Speaker 4: so that is my approach. You know, when we supported

810
00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:54,239
Speaker 4: Governor Kemp, I was nervous. You know, it was my

811
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:58,000
Speaker 4: first time supporting a Republican and someone of that size.

812
00:35:58,040 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 4: But we had a meeting with them and we under

813
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:02,880
Speaker 4: stood at the dynamics of small business and we understood

814
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,879
Speaker 4: that the plight or even black business, and so that

815
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:08,560
Speaker 4: was enough for me. And so I try not to

816
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:12,160
Speaker 4: make any of my relationship transactional. I meaning if it's political,

817
00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:13,680
Speaker 4: I'm not just gonna pick up the phone just to

818
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 4: ask you something. How you're doing, you know, how's your

819
00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 4: family doing, how's your kids doing.

820
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:19,200
Speaker 2: I build relationship that way.

821
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:22,520
Speaker 4: But the only way that's gonna work for us more,

822
00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:26,600
Speaker 4: particularly as blacks, we cannot solely rely on Democrats and

823
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:29,880
Speaker 4: we cannot solely rely on Republicans. If we want to,

824
00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:33,920
Speaker 4: we have to become friends with both sides. If that

825
00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:35,080
Speaker 4: person is a good person.

826
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's interesting too, Like I'm just even

827
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:42,440
Speaker 1: thinking about sitting in the room across from a governor

828
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:44,799
Speaker 1: or governor camp whoever it is, right, Like I think again,

829
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:46,520
Speaker 1: like a lot of people because they only maybe see

830
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:48,000
Speaker 1: that person on the news or TV.

831
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:51,400
Speaker 3: But like, these people are are smart. They know what

832
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:51,879
Speaker 3: they're doing.

833
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:54,959
Speaker 1: Like what's that experience like like actually kind of having

834
00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:56,759
Speaker 1: that meeting, you know with somebody at that like literally

835
00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:57,959
Speaker 1: the highest office in the state.

836
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:01,239
Speaker 4: You remember the mercier that he had where he had

837
00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:08,000
Speaker 4: the shotgun. Now I can relate to that because I

838
00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:10,239
Speaker 4: love guns. I'm a country where most most black men

839
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:12,120
Speaker 4: from the country, we like our guns.

840
00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:12,359
Speaker 2: Yeah.

841
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:15,600
Speaker 4: Also, but I didn't know what to expect when I

842
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:18,520
Speaker 4: first met him. I was like, Okay, is this the

843
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 4: type of person I'm about to me who actually had

844
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:24,520
Speaker 4: the shotgun? You know, it's exact opposite. You know, when

845
00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:27,840
Speaker 4: you when they let their guards down, you realize that,

846
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,440
Speaker 4: wait a second, here, they're no different than us. They

847
00:37:30,520 --> 00:37:34,520
Speaker 4: actually are. You see the human side to them. And

848
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:37,000
Speaker 4: it makes it more easier to have a conversation, makes

849
00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:39,319
Speaker 4: it more easier to even negotiate certain things when it

850
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:41,680
Speaker 4: comes down to that, and most people don't. You have

851
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:47,920
Speaker 4: to really set party politics aside. And in Georgia up

852
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,680
Speaker 4: until twenty twenty, two thousand and four, it was a

853
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:54,160
Speaker 4: democratic led state. You have to ask yourself what was

854
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,080
Speaker 4: done under the Democrats and what was done after that

855
00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 4: under the Republicans, And so I set it aside and

856
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,359
Speaker 4: say what is this individual person going to do? Because

857
00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:05,120
Speaker 4: even with the government camp, they don't talk about it.

858
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:09,160
Speaker 4: The most amount of minorities and women ever appointed to

859
00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:14,120
Speaker 4: boards was done by governor Camp combined by all of them.

860
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:15,839
Speaker 2: And we're not talking about just knowing.

861
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:18,439
Speaker 4: We're talking about, if you want to use the term woke,

862
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:23,319
Speaker 4: people like myself, you know, that care about the community. Yeah,

863
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:25,319
Speaker 4: and so just don't be afraid when it come to

864
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:29,279
Speaker 4: these politicians. And besides you know, four eight years, they're

865
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:30,080
Speaker 4: not going to be an office.

866
00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 1: So right, you know, you mentioned your dad and you

867
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:36,000
Speaker 1: mentioned this idea of a three hundred year plan, which

868
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:38,839
Speaker 1: is which is really interesting to me. One I'd love

869
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:40,879
Speaker 1: to hear about, you know, as much as you're willing

870
00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:42,640
Speaker 1: to share about what that three hundred year plan is,

871
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,839
Speaker 1: but also kind of wonder too, like did your dad

872
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:48,000
Speaker 1: start that or was he you know, the second generation

873
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:50,279
Speaker 1: of that, you know, just like because now I'm like,

874
00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:51,320
Speaker 1: I need a three hundred.

875
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:52,279
Speaker 3: Year plan, you know what I mean?

876
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:55,320
Speaker 4: My dad started it. I was born and raised in Griffin, Georgia.

877
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:56,520
Speaker 4: It's it's different there.

878
00:38:56,520 --> 00:38:56,719
Speaker 2: Man.

879
00:38:57,520 --> 00:38:59,879
Speaker 4: Griffin had a lot of entrepreneurs and he just came

880
00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:03,319
Speaker 4: from that age to where it was just in him.

881
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:06,120
Speaker 4: He just taught his kids that too. But one of

882
00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:09,960
Speaker 4: the things that he realized was that how do his

883
00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:10,760
Speaker 4: kids get.

884
00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:11,279
Speaker 2: A leg up?

885
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,319
Speaker 4: And how does his grandkids get a leg up? So

886
00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:17,000
Speaker 4: this used me as an example. When I graduated college,

887
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:19,040
Speaker 4: there was no way I would be in a position

888
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:22,239
Speaker 4: that I am today. I graduated college, went into my

889
00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:24,640
Speaker 4: father office, didn't have to pay an overhead in the

890
00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:27,759
Speaker 4: rent or anything like that. Then use his accountant. That's

891
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 4: a huge advantage that we have. And so his philosophy

892
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:33,640
Speaker 4: when it comes to the three hundred year plan, what

893
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:37,600
Speaker 4: can we do to ensure for three hundred years that

894
00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:42,759
Speaker 4: our ancestors will always have a leg up economically, And

895
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:44,960
Speaker 4: he came up with a phenomenal plan and we live

896
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:49,000
Speaker 4: by that even when times are tough. You understand, you

897
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,000
Speaker 4: can see this pool of mine is sitting over there,

898
00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:54,120
Speaker 4: and all of our friend you have the family trust

899
00:39:54,200 --> 00:39:58,759
Speaker 4: overall globally, and then each individual family have their own

900
00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:01,239
Speaker 4: like my household have one, my sister have one, my

901
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:03,759
Speaker 4: brothers have one, and you see this pool of mine

902
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:06,560
Speaker 4: is sitting over there. Like man, but I can't touch that.

903
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:09,160
Speaker 4: You know, it's not just for me. I need to

904
00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:11,960
Speaker 4: figure out another way. That's for my kids, kids and

905
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:12,840
Speaker 4: their kids kids.

906
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:15,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, how does how do mean? Like you talk

907
00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:17,640
Speaker 3: about you know, your dad didn't have chat gpt your

908
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:20,000
Speaker 3: dad have that? You know? Like, how does how do

909
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 3: you know?

910
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:22,239
Speaker 1: Do you understand how even like came up with that

911
00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:24,120
Speaker 1: idea and even got that perspective in the first place.

912
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:24,640
Speaker 2: Reading.

913
00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:29,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, my father was a very advocate reader, just studying

914
00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:34,040
Speaker 4: up and and finding out what our counterparts are doing

915
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:36,880
Speaker 4: and how they're getting ahead, you know, and just studying that. Now,

916
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:38,600
Speaker 4: how do you apply that for yourself? How do you

917
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:40,960
Speaker 4: apply that for your own people in your own community

918
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,200
Speaker 4: with it? My father he's only worked for himself. No,

919
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:46,399
Speaker 4: he had when he was younger, he had he worked

920
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:49,399
Speaker 4: for someone else. But he's always been an entrepreneur, and

921
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:50,960
Speaker 4: just he instilled that in us.

922
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:52,279
Speaker 2: You know, that is the way to go.

923
00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:57,760
Speaker 4: I tell people that who are afraid of their business

924
00:40:57,800 --> 00:40:59,680
Speaker 4: shutting down, how is that different than you working for

925
00:40:59,719 --> 00:41:02,640
Speaker 4: someone to get fired. That's the way my brain has

926
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:06,359
Speaker 4: been programmed. I don't I don't fear it at all.

927
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:09,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, man, we'll look lo Mark, It's been a

928
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:10,200
Speaker 1: great conversation.

929
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:12,319
Speaker 3: Man. Again, I don't know about you, but I'm about

930
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:12,400
Speaker 3: to go.

931
00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:14,319
Speaker 1: I'm about to go work free of your plan, man,

932
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:15,800
Speaker 1: Like I don't know about what the rest of you

933
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:17,560
Speaker 1: often to do, but I know I'm gonna start that today.

934
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:19,279
Speaker 1: But let me ask you, man, look before we get

935
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:21,440
Speaker 1: out of here, which is a piece of advice that

936
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:23,240
Speaker 1: you will give somebody that wants to, you know, following

937
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:25,279
Speaker 1: kind of similar footsteps or a similar path to what

938
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:26,000
Speaker 1: you've done.

939
00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:33,840
Speaker 4: Start small, don't be afraid to fail. More importantly, find

940
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:38,239
Speaker 4: partnerships in business. You cannot do it on your own.

941
00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:42,080
Speaker 4: We as black, sometimes we feel that we have to

942
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 4: do it on our own just to have that banner,

943
00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:48,200
Speaker 4: it's gonna slow you down. I would rather take less

944
00:41:48,239 --> 00:41:51,160
Speaker 4: profit to have a partner, a true partner, as I

945
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:53,239
Speaker 4: continue to grow the company. When you think about it,

946
00:41:53,280 --> 00:41:57,040
Speaker 4: when you look at all these large other corporations, Elon

947
00:41:57,120 --> 00:41:59,440
Speaker 4: Muster don't own all of his. Mark Zuckerberg don't own

948
00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:02,239
Speaker 4: all even if you want to say Peter thell if

949
00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:06,680
Speaker 4: you wanted to, they don't. But we always want to

950
00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:09,240
Speaker 4: own one hundred percent. And so I will have no problem.

951
00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:10,759
Speaker 4: Like if you came to me and say, hey, oh ma,

952
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:13,040
Speaker 4: I have this particular deal, I'm not going to look

953
00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:14,920
Speaker 4: at it and say, you know what, although I have

954
00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:17,200
Speaker 4: the money to help brand New, I'm not going to

955
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:20,360
Speaker 4: try to control your particular deal. You know, I'm satisfied

956
00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:23,719
Speaker 4: with the smaller percent of the profit. And when you

957
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:27,600
Speaker 4: think like that, our community can grow much more. I

958
00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:32,320
Speaker 4: am one hundred percent okay with any man a woman outdoing.

959
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:34,799
Speaker 4: Men outshine to me as long as they are still

960
00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:36,560
Speaker 4: part of the community. And that's what we have to

961
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:38,719
Speaker 4: think about. And that's what we have to do and

962
00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:40,839
Speaker 4: we can't be fake about that at all.

963
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 3: Yeah. Man, no, that's amazing.

964
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:46,000
Speaker 1: Again, but they say, if you want to go fast,

965
00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 1: go alone, If you want to go far.

966
00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:48,879
Speaker 3: Go with others, right, that's right.

967
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:50,960
Speaker 1: So again I think to your point, Like, you know,

968
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:52,960
Speaker 1: it's funny because I talk to people all the time

969
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:55,239
Speaker 1: about different business stuff and people throw around terms like

970
00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:57,120
Speaker 1: equity and I want this stuff, and I tell people,

971
00:42:57,120 --> 00:42:59,279
Speaker 1: I'm like, look, man, like what equality is one thing?

972
00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:01,359
Speaker 1: But at the same time, too, it doesn't mean nothing

973
00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:02,960
Speaker 1: if you're not selling a company, you don't have a

974
00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:05,480
Speaker 1: liquidity event, you know what I'm saying. So, like it's

975
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:07,200
Speaker 1: cool to have an ownership. But like I remember, I

976
00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:09,200
Speaker 1: had a conversation with a boy of mine, and you know,

977
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:11,120
Speaker 1: he was like, you know, we got to be you know,

978
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:12,840
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty or you know on this thing. And

979
00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:15,440
Speaker 1: I was like, well, this is my thing, you know,

980
00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:17,360
Speaker 1: Like I don't mind being a partner with you. But

981
00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:18,880
Speaker 1: like I just asked him, where'd you come up with

982
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:19,279
Speaker 1: that number?

983
00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:20,080
Speaker 2: From? Right?

984
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:20,040
Speaker 1: Right?

985
00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:21,880
Speaker 3: You know what I mean, Like, let's explain to me

986
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:23,960
Speaker 3: why all of a sudden, you know we can be

987
00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:26,399
Speaker 3: partners because I've owned businesses, but I've owned as little

988
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:29,560
Speaker 3: as three to five percent. It had very good situations

989
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:30,279
Speaker 3: that came out of it.

990
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:32,520
Speaker 4: I just signed a deal with a company to where

991
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:35,279
Speaker 4: I own three percent of this particular company. If this

992
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:37,560
Speaker 4: company hit a home run, and if they go public,

993
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:39,800
Speaker 4: that's going to be about thirty seven million dollars.

994
00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:43,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's small three percent of it, right. Yeah.

995
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:45,799
Speaker 4: Now, had I taken their approach to where I want

996
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:47,840
Speaker 4: to own more, they probably would have said no.

997
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:49,799
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes it's okay to own less.

998
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:51,719
Speaker 4: And then you have to understand you have to respect

999
00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:54,920
Speaker 4: what the other side is built like, and you're you

1000
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:57,759
Speaker 4: built that it's your deal, and just because somebody have

1001
00:43:57,800 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 4: the money doesn't necessarily mean that they should own all

1002
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:01,799
Speaker 4: of the controlling interest of it.

1003
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:04,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, we look. Man, it's been a great conversation. Man.

1004
00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:07,439
Speaker 1: You know, before we get out of here, please tell

1005
00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:10,239
Speaker 1: people how they can find you, how they can learn more,

1006
00:44:10,239 --> 00:44:12,319
Speaker 1: how they can killed it on social media if we

1007
00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:13,719
Speaker 1: were just talking about that too. Just give them all

1008
00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:14,960
Speaker 1: the things, man, give them all the things.

1009
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:15,200
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1010
00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:17,879
Speaker 4: Just like I mentioned, I just created an Instagram like

1011
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:20,560
Speaker 4: a year ago. But on Instagram, you can find me

1012
00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:24,800
Speaker 4: at Omar Ali Underscore AA and then I have my

1013
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:28,920
Speaker 4: own personal website which is Omar dash Ali dot com.

1014
00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:31,920
Speaker 4: But I am I'm a humble concho boy from Griffin,

1015
00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:35,360
Speaker 4: Georgia and so extremely reachable. You know, you send me

1016
00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:37,480
Speaker 4: an email, you will get a response back to it.

1017
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:38,200
Speaker 2: I promise you that.

1018
00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:40,239
Speaker 3: So look I got attest to it.

1019
00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:41,960
Speaker 1: I met him at Black I was in Black Coffee,

1020
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:43,640
Speaker 1: just hanging out one day and we started talking and

1021
00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 1: look at us now, man, So definitely, man, oh my man.

1022
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:47,800
Speaker 1: Look this is great and it's been a great conversation.

1023
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:49,680
Speaker 1: I know I learned a lot and I hope people

1024
00:44:49,800 --> 00:44:51,360
Speaker 1: learned this watching this learn a lot too, man. And

1025
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:53,840
Speaker 1: so thank you so much for coming out. Congratulations on everything.

1026
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:56,839
Speaker 1: Can't see what gets gonna happen next. And with that said, y'all,

1027
00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:57,680
Speaker 1: that's the pod we got