Speaker 1: Welcome to my show.
Speaker 2: I'm Rashaun McDonald a host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
Speaker 2: stories and start planning your own.
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Speaker 2: advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's
Speaker 2: get this podcast started. My next guest role is from
Speaker 2: inconserration to receiving the President's Lifetime Achieving Award. She built
Speaker 2: a company in the cleaning industry and also provides architectural
Speaker 2: and construction camps inspire the next generation of architects and
Speaker 2: builders through design experiences. Let's hear our story and the
Speaker 2: inspiration that changed her life. Please work with the Money
Speaker 2: Making Conversation Masterclass. Robin Donaldson. How you doing, Robin?
Speaker 3: I am amazing. I am amazing.
Speaker 2: Well, Robin talked to you offline and you got a
Speaker 2: lot of energy, So I would get that same energy
Speaker 2: today because you went, I'm amazing. That was kind of
Speaker 2: low key that.
Speaker 1: There you go. Now, Robert, where are you based at?
Speaker 3: I'm in Tampa, Florida.
Speaker 1: Born and raised.
Speaker 3: Down in Tampa, Florida, born and raised.
Speaker 2: Tell me about your life growing up that nothing an't
Speaker 2: conservation part, just a part that when you grew up,
Speaker 2: any potential college in your life. Talk about your life
Speaker 2: as a teenager.
Speaker 3: Well, my life as a teenager was really sheltered. So
Speaker 3: I grew up in a very strict religious household and
Speaker 3: education was not something that was even really spoke of, right,
Speaker 3: and so for me, I went to a train school
Speaker 3: where I learned industrial electricity, and so that is really
Speaker 3: where the love of construction came from. As a result
Speaker 3: of me graduating, I did have an opportunity to attend
Speaker 3: Georgia Tech because I was the first female to complete
Speaker 3: you know that program. However, again my mom, she was
Speaker 3: very religious, and they did not believe in going off
Speaker 3: to college. She felt that you know, a trade was
Speaker 3: sufficient and that I needed to get to work.
Speaker 1: So trade versus going to Georgia Tech.
Speaker 3: I didn't go off to college. I just got a
Speaker 3: job locally with the Electrical Fund and that's where I learned,
Speaker 3: you know, more hands on about industrial electricity. After a
Speaker 3: couple of jobs, I decided I didn't like being out
Speaker 3: in the sun, thank you and so, and actually I
Speaker 3: had at a temple right right, and I'm talking about
Speaker 3: being in a small quarters. It was that was not
Speaker 3: what I wanted to do for a long term. So
Speaker 3: I changed my focus to being a hairstylist. And so
Speaker 3: I had gotten my license for cosmetology and for barbering,
Speaker 3: and for a while I was doing hair and that
Speaker 3: was until I got connected with my kid's father. Actually
Speaker 3: that's one of the reasons how I ended up in jail.
Speaker 1: Now you come into this relationship.
Speaker 2: What did your values change the led you being incarcerated.
Speaker 1: Was it easy money?
Speaker 2: Was it the thought process that hey, I was just
Speaker 2: gonna do it for a little bit and get out.
Speaker 3: Talk to is Robin, Well in order for you to
Speaker 3: understand them and have to back it up, let's back
Speaker 3: it up. Do so. Because I was in such a
Speaker 3: strict of household, right, Okay, the moment I graduated. I
Speaker 3: had my certificate in one hand and I had my
Speaker 3: luggage in the next. I had to give him away,
Speaker 3: and so from that I ran to the arms of
Speaker 3: an older guy, and he happened to be a drug dealer,
Speaker 3: and things just really spiraled out. I mean from me
Speaker 3: selling drugs from him, to using drugs, to making stupid
Speaker 3: decisions in the way of using my account to harbor
Speaker 3: money to write checks. So I was just really running
Speaker 3: from one situation to the other, and being with that
Speaker 3: my kid's father. I was involved in a lot of
Speaker 3: illegal activity that's finally caught up to me, and as
Speaker 3: a result, I did go to prison.
Speaker 2: Okay, now, how many children did you have at the
Speaker 2: time when you went to prison.
Speaker 3: I had two kids and I was pregnant with one.
Speaker 1: Now, when you.
Speaker 2: Say the word drug dealer, that's such a broad word.
Speaker 2: You know that you can say that people who are
Speaker 2: these pharmaceutical companies are drug dealers the way because they
Speaker 2: got to pay out these money. But you are more
Speaker 2: along the lines of the street. What type of drugs
Speaker 2: were you guys? Selling crack cocaine?
Speaker 1: And you are a user?
Speaker 3: Yes, I was.
Speaker 2: At one point, did you not say to yourself very smart,
Speaker 2: young lady, this is not good.
Speaker 3: I was at that smart thing now that I was
Speaker 3: book smart, but street smart. I had no idea. I
Speaker 3: was looking for love. I was looking for a father figure,
Speaker 3: and that is what I received.
Speaker 1: And so you are.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure you're a mentor. How do you feel
Speaker 2: when you communicating your story to young ladies who you
Speaker 2: don't want to see go down the same path you
Speaker 2: went down?
Speaker 1: Robin? How do you connect with them by.
Speaker 3: Keeping it real? One time? I was shamed. I was
Speaker 3: shamed to tell my story and then also to talk
Speaker 3: about all of the mental variable abuse that I had
Speaker 3: to undergo just the just in the name of love.
Speaker 3: Like I really get some crazy things like from the abuse.
Speaker 3: I thought that was his way of showing me that
Speaker 3: he loved me to the point that I would instigate
Speaker 3: an argument so he can whoop my behind.
Speaker 2: Stay with us more money Making Conversation master Class coming
Speaker 2: up next. Welcome back to money Making Conversation master Class
Speaker 2: hosted by me Rashaun McDonald. Money Making Conversation master Class
Speaker 2: continues online at Moneymaking Conversations dot com and follow money
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Speaker 2: I ate that stupid Uh No, Now, when you got incarcerated,
Speaker 2: you said you were pregnant at two children.
Speaker 3: Okay, So before I got incarcerated, before because I had
Speaker 3: to turn myself in, I was afcluding the authorities until
Speaker 3: I had my daughter because I did not want to
Speaker 3: have my daughter in the penitentiary. So after I gave
Speaker 3: birth and I was cleared, I turned myself in.
Speaker 2: Now you have your child, you turn yourself in. How
Speaker 2: many years were you incarcerated? Five five years?
Speaker 1: Which that through?
Speaker 2: Did you get out early through probation or you did
Speaker 2: the entire sentence.
Speaker 3: I did the entire sentence.
Speaker 2: Now I have asked the question, did you learn anything
Speaker 2: while you were in pression?
Speaker 3: That's what it all changed.
Speaker 1: Talk to me.
Speaker 3: I had time to think, I had time to explore.
Speaker 3: I had an opportunity to advance.
Speaker 1: My education well a while in prison.
Speaker 3: While in prison.
Speaker 2: When you say advance your education, tell us about what
Speaker 2: level of education you advanced.
Speaker 3: Too, associate degrees. So for me, prison was very hard
Speaker 3: and I spent a lot of time. I'm in concern
Speaker 3: and I made the best use of confinement. I'm confined
Speaker 3: for twenty three hours. I go out for a hour.
Speaker 3: My time my days was meditating and learning. Then I
Speaker 3: had guards. We became very very close and a couple
Speaker 3: of them they were attending their local community college, and
Speaker 3: I would assist them with their books. In return, I'm
Speaker 3: able to read their books, you know. So if I'm
Speaker 3: going to help tutor you on business law, well guess
Speaker 3: what I know business law.
Speaker 1: Now I'm talking to Robin Donaldson.
Speaker 2: She went from incarceration to be honored by the President
Speaker 2: with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and all she does camps,
Speaker 2: mentoring camps for youth in architecture and instruction design in
Speaker 2: the area of Tampa, Florida. She's not only turned her
Speaker 2: life around, but now she's turning other young people's lives around.
Speaker 1: And she's really to tell her story.
Speaker 2: That's why she's on money Making Conversation master classes to
Speaker 2: tell our story. She's not trying to hide her situation.
Speaker 2: She's trying to convey from authentic matter that you don't
Speaker 2: want to live the life that she lived. But if
Speaker 2: you live this life, you can't turn your life around.
Speaker 2: And that's the story I want to tell. On the
Speaker 2: shoulder day, Robin, you turning your life around now when
Speaker 2: you got out of prison, you learned a lot while
Speaker 2: you were in prison. Robin was there steps as you
Speaker 2: were seeing you, they come up preparing for the exit.
Speaker 3: Well, at the time, I didn't really have an exit plan.
Speaker 3: And the exit plan came when I learned how to
Speaker 3: strip in buffs floors in prison at the highest level,
Speaker 3: I mean the floor's glass, right, So what I did?
Speaker 3: I took that knowledge.
Speaker 1: Did they ask you to do that or you just
Speaker 1: stepped it up?
Speaker 3: Okay, So you want to get back to that story.
Speaker 2: Okay, absolutely, you don't go to the why are you
Speaker 2: doing it at this level?
Speaker 1: But I know you could have just done it at
Speaker 1: this level.
Speaker 3: Okay, you want to know the story story because I
Speaker 3: again I frequent confined it a lot, right. And it
Speaker 3: was one incident where I was allowed to be released
Speaker 3: to the compound and the Wharton had stopped me, he said,
Speaker 3: missus in McDonald's. And you have a problem with, you know,
Speaker 3: instigating things on the compound. He said, I got I
Speaker 3: got a solution for you. While everybody's woe from to
Speaker 3: put you on third shift, you go stripping wax the
Speaker 3: administrator build it right, all right? So again that is
Speaker 3: where I learned how to strip wax. And buff floors
Speaker 3: like no other on the third shift, on the third
Speaker 3: shift when everybody was sleeping, when the compound was open
Speaker 3: an hour of sleep.
Speaker 2: So he saw your true gift was to stop you
Speaker 2: from having personal contact and put you to work when
Speaker 2: everybody else was sleep and when everybody would uh you
Speaker 2: were asleep.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir.
Speaker 2: Now as you came out, because I mentioned in your
Speaker 2: intro you have you have a cleaning bit. But when
Speaker 2: you come out, we know that's not an easy accent.
Speaker 2: You know you have three children out there. Way know
Speaker 2: you what was the man of your life at that point?
Speaker 2: Was he still in your life?
Speaker 3: He was doing time as well?
Speaker 1: Okay? Cool?
Speaker 2: So you came out by yourself basically, how did you
Speaker 2: start getting those feet and putting those feet down on
Speaker 2: that concrete and start walking forward like you know you
Speaker 2: belong there?
Speaker 1: Talk to me, Robin.
Speaker 3: So what happened was I was able to get on
Speaker 3: work release. It was six months prior to my release date.
Speaker 3: They allowed me to go to a work least program
Speaker 3: where I would be local, not in prison. It's a
Speaker 3: halfway house.
Speaker 1: It's transitioning there.
Speaker 3: You go a transitioning house and one of the requirements
Speaker 3: is you had to have a job, and so right
Speaker 3: up the street there was a homewood Suites by Hilton,
Speaker 3: right and I applied, and that's where I learned how
Speaker 3: to clean at the highest level. Hilton is by far
Speaker 3: one of the cleanest chains that I know. And again,
Speaker 3: learning how to clean at the highest level, plus knowing
Speaker 3: how to strip wax and buff at the highest level,
Speaker 3: it only made sense for me to be a cleaning service. Reason.
Speaker 2: I liked listening to you because that's to say, that's
Speaker 2: a smile on your face, because that means you good
Speaker 2: at it. You know, it's always great to be good
Speaker 2: at something. You know, I'm gonna take the word out.
Speaker 2: I'm like saying good she's smiling because she's great at it.
Speaker 2: Because she uses the word highest level, she's never used to,
Speaker 2: I'm undermining her talents.
Speaker 1: And I apologize. She kif used the word I learned at.
Speaker 2: The highest level. I buff at the highest level. So
Speaker 2: those skills you recognize were different from everybody else because
Speaker 2: you put in more effort.
Speaker 1: Are you just naturally talented at it?
Speaker 3: Well? See, it's part of a bigger plan. When I
Speaker 3: came home, I said, I opened the cleaning service, but
Speaker 3: the ultimate goal was to be into the construction industry.
Speaker 3: That has been the overarching goal. And what better way
Speaker 3: to get into the construction industry is by cleaning the
Speaker 3: construction trailers. I mean, because that's where all the decision
Speaker 3: makers are, that's where all action happens. And so I
Speaker 3: started cleaning trailers. Then I developed relationships, and then they
Speaker 3: had me doing final clean, post construction clean.
Speaker 1: Please don't go anywhere.
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Speaker 3: And from that, that is how I was able to
Speaker 3: secure the contract for the Tempa Convention set.
Speaker 1: Congratulations.
Speaker 3: I had three shifts. Three shifts with sixty five employees.
Speaker 3: And then from that, I was selected by the NFL
Speaker 3: as the premium cleaning company for the Super Bowl and
Speaker 3: telp for Florida. They like job that I did so
Speaker 3: well they called me back for the NFL kickoff. From that,
Speaker 3: I was on the news channel thirteen. I get a
Speaker 3: phone call. Somebody said, I'm called her from Home Depot.
Speaker 3: I want to make you a distributor. I said him,
Speaker 3: I'm getting pranked this upthing right now, Like, how did
Speaker 3: you get my number? He said, I saw you on
Speaker 3: the news and we wanted to follow the money trail.
Speaker 3: And as a result of that, I'm a distributor from
Speaker 3: Home Depot. So now all of the clients that I
Speaker 3: cleaned for now I supply them with their supplies and
Speaker 3: their paper products.
Speaker 2: Now, Robin, first of all, you've been incarcerated five years.
Speaker 1: How do you get past that?
Speaker 2: Because I'm sure there's a trust factor that people a stereotype.
Speaker 2: You're black, omer, drugs, incarcerated five years? How do you
Speaker 2: start getting past those negative points that stop a lot of.
Speaker 3: People start with it? Like I don't. I don't tiptoe
Speaker 3: around it. I mean, that is not a selling point,
Speaker 3: but it's nothing that I'm ashamed of either. Right, So
Speaker 3: for for a long time I would never use my
Speaker 3: government name because I didn't want anyone doing any type
Speaker 3: of research that I don't care. This is who I am, right,
Speaker 3: And it was one superintendent who told me something. He says, Robin,
Speaker 3: that's what you were, not who you are. And he said,
Speaker 3: there is nobody walking, living, breathing that does not have
Speaker 3: a family member or have been affected by such. But
Speaker 3: you are a sterling example of what you could, what
Speaker 3: you were, what you could be. And I took it
Speaker 3: for what it was. And so again I have no
Speaker 3: problem introducing myself as inmate four, seven, five, nine to
Speaker 3: eleven because that's not who I am today. And if
Speaker 3: you want to stick to what I was when maybe
Speaker 3: we're not, we don't need to work together. And that's
Speaker 3: just how it is.
Speaker 1: In your beating days, how were you securing jobs?
Speaker 2: And as a rf P they call it request for
Speaker 2: proposed Right, what does that?
Speaker 1: What does that look like? What did you have to submit?
Speaker 3: So's I start before the RFP ever comes out. So,
Speaker 3: to be very frank, it's like playing chess instead of
Speaker 3: playing checkers. When an RFP hits the streets, right, you
Speaker 3: have to maybe a month to respond, depending on the
Speaker 3: scope of work. I don't I don't want to. I
Speaker 3: don't wait for those opportunities. I know first of all,
Speaker 3: I have a goal. I have a plan as to
Speaker 3: who I would like to work with and the type
Speaker 3: of work that I want to do. So I study
Speaker 3: those individuals, I understand what the forecast looks like for them,
Speaker 3: and I'm going to go ahead and develop the relationships.
Speaker 3: So when opportun when of these do arise, my name
Speaker 3: Renewed Construction Services is the first one on your tongue.
Speaker 3: You're going to notify me. And then also I attend
Speaker 3: events in understanding again the forecast of a found projects
Speaker 3: and again cultivating those relationships, and that's how I am
Speaker 3: able to secure most of the contracts. But I think
Speaker 3: that something else that I learned in prison, and it's
Speaker 3: the art of collaboration. Because one thing I do, I
Speaker 3: do not play small. However, I understand my limitations and
Speaker 3: my strengths. So one thing that I have done is
Speaker 3: other smaller construction companies that are looking to scale. I
Speaker 3: will respond to a large RFP that would require me
Speaker 3: collaborating with smaller fetoms. Right, and so now they have
Speaker 3: an opportunity to put on their resume that they have
Speaker 3: done or as a part of a project of such magnitude.
Speaker 2: Now, men at your you've been blessed, how do you
Speaker 2: share those blessings with the young people in a community.
Speaker 3: Of Every time I can, I can get the ear
Speaker 3: of a youth, I impart something from nugget. However, either
Speaker 3: the focus or the majority of the impact would be
Speaker 3: through the nonprofit which is called STEM Exposure, and STEM
Speaker 3: Exposure is a non as a nonprofit whose mission is
Speaker 3: to expose black girls to unrepresented STEM careers as it
Speaker 3: relates to architecture, construction, beauty sports. I can honestly say
Speaker 3: that after I did start my business, I had a mentor.
Speaker 3: And my mentor, her name is an mc mill down
Speaker 3: in South Florida. She's an amazing individual. She took me
Speaker 3: around the country and exposed me to different fastest of
Speaker 3: construction until I found my calling. If that is the
Speaker 3: same thing that I do to others, Basically, I encourage
Speaker 3: people to bring their talents to the construction industry. Right,
Speaker 3: So whatever it is you're good at it, let's see
Speaker 3: how it applies to the construction industry. And then from
Speaker 3: that I also teach the construction trades. So it's all
Speaker 3: about whether you are a third through twelfth grader or
Speaker 3: you are an adult. I'm going to inspire you one
Speaker 3: way or the other.
Speaker 2: You rose from a conservation to getting the President's Lifetime
Speaker 2: Achievement of War. Now, it wasn't about getting the contract
Speaker 2: for an NFL the Tampa or the Tampa Convention Center,
Speaker 2: all your all your legacies that you created.
Speaker 1: It's about those kids that you're changing, those.
Speaker 2: Girls who you were inspiring to pursue a stam opportunities.
Speaker 1: That's what makes you special. When you got the President's award,
Speaker 1: did you understand that?
Speaker 3: I don't think you understand that, Lusha, the same that
Speaker 3: locked me up was the same agency that gave me
Speaker 3: a Presidential Lifetime Achievement award. And I'm a posed on
Speaker 3: that one.
Speaker 1: No polls keep speaking.
Speaker 2: Because there was pain and fear there was tied to
Speaker 2: that agency. Now there was celebration and hope there was
Speaker 2: tied to that same agency. That's why I don't have
Speaker 2: to pause, because I know when you go out the
Speaker 2: front door, sometimes going out that back door, it's the
Speaker 2: same house.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: That's why I wanted to interview you, because see, we
Speaker 2: all got these stories out here, because your story is
Speaker 2: going their movie. I'm just let you know that darn
Speaker 2: that movie now, cause you because you were combative in jail,
Speaker 2: and you know, you didn't get along with nobody. They
Speaker 2: had to put you in confinement all the time. That
Speaker 2: means that you didn't talk to nobody, couldn't nobody tell
Speaker 2: you nothing. You were just robbing on headed dogs, that's
Speaker 2: who you were. But somebody saw something me you put
Speaker 2: you on that third.
Speaker 1: Shift, and the rest is history.
Speaker 3: Rest is history.
Speaker 1: So what's the future for Robin?
Speaker 3: Well, remember I told you in the beginning, the whole
Speaker 3: the overarching goal was to be a contractor, and you know,
Speaker 3: start my construction company. And I am glad to say
Speaker 3: that twenty nineteen is when actually we started the construction company.
Speaker 3: And I always knew what it was going to be,
Speaker 3: so I named it as such, Renewed Construction Services. We
Speaker 3: are licensed rufirst, we are licensed contractors and architectural designers.
Speaker 1: Now I can pause. Now I'm pausing, not because you
Speaker 1: know you got that little smirk.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna tell you some if I wish I
Speaker 2: was like, that's the only inview iver done about life.
Speaker 2: I wish our lives like ye r I five hug
Speaker 2: and because it's just so calm about it, because but
Speaker 2: you know the hard work being put in place.
Speaker 1: When will you celebrate, Robin or you've not at the
Speaker 1: finish line yet.
Speaker 3: Well, I celebrate all the time. I celebrate my little wins.
Speaker 3: But I'm gonna tell you which one it had the
Speaker 3: most impact. Okay, when I was able to put my
Speaker 3: bills on auto pay, Yes, let me know that I
Speaker 3: was doing.
Speaker 2: Something which is very smart, by the way, and you
Speaker 2: know it's a piece of piece.
Speaker 3: He's like, I don't have to even think about my
Speaker 3: bills like that gives me space to think about other
Speaker 3: creative things that I need to do. But that was
Speaker 3: again something that I struggled with, you know, Robin Paul
Speaker 3: to pay Peter, not knowing how I was going to
Speaker 3: but to now know that I can financially sustain myself
Speaker 3: not have to worry.
Speaker 2: Hey, Robert, you have a foundation. Can we tell everybody
Speaker 2: how they can find your foundation?
Speaker 3: Stem exposure ww dot stem s t E m x
Speaker 3: p O s U r E dot org.
Speaker 1: Cool.
Speaker 2: Now, what about your business? If you want to go
Speaker 2: down there and see this great business and learn more
Speaker 2: about you. Robert Donaldson. Tell us your website that.
Speaker 3: Would be ww dot renew Construction Services dot com. Would
Speaker 3: it be renewed r E W R U R E
Speaker 3: N e W.
Speaker 2: There you go, my friend. I know you were recommended
Speaker 2: to come on my shall. I've never had a guest
Speaker 2: like you or Mishell, which is always a new experience
Speaker 2: for me, which is good for me because there's so
Speaker 2: many paths in life that people deal with to be
Speaker 2: successful or to achieve happiness. I'm seeing both happiness and success,
Speaker 2: and more importantly, to be recognized by a lifetime achieving
Speaker 2: award for the work that you're doing in the community
Speaker 2: and how you turned your life around and becoming an
Speaker 2: AX paying hiring individual just recognized from the NFL to
Speaker 2: the Center of Tampa.
Speaker 1: Congratulations, Robin, Thank you so much. Thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to this episode.
Speaker 2: No, I need for you to do me a favor
Speaker 2: right now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversation.
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