Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Overcoming the Odds: No student loans, secured $8 million dollars in HBCU scholarships.

Transcript

Overcoming the Odds: No student loans, secured $8 million dollars in HBCU scholarships. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
0:06
Speaker 2: I'm Rashaan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
0:10
Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
0:13
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0:17
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0:23
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0:28
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0:30
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Speaker 2: American dream. Just keep listening. If you want to be
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Speaker 2: a guest on my show, please visit Moneymakingconversations dot com
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Speaker 2: and click the b A guest button. My guests founded
0:55
Speaker 2: the Blurred That's b Lerd Academy That's Black Nerds. It's
1:00
Speaker 2: a wealth building program that helps high achieving Black American
1:04
Speaker 2: youth get scholarships to attend HBCUs. They have secured over
1:09
Speaker 2: eight million dollars. That's since twenty sixteen. I believe eight
1:13
Speaker 2: million dollars in scholarships. Please work with the Money Making
1:16
Speaker 2: Conversation Masterclass Douglas Fort Douglas.
1:19
Speaker 1: Is that number correct? I don't want to underserve you
1:22
Speaker 1: with a number that's incorrect, sir.
1:24
Speaker 3: No, the number is correct, and I'm proud of Yes, sir.
1:28
Speaker 1: Well, you know something I'm telling you this week, I
1:31
Speaker 1: am taking nine students who have a sickle sale trade
1:36
Speaker 1: or cickle Selle. Disney worked out a deal with them
1:39
Speaker 1: and they're going to go to a college fair that's
1:43
Speaker 1: in Orlando. It'll be about forty HBCUs there and it'll
1:48
Speaker 1: be h All they got to do is bringing their
1:50
Speaker 1: you know, the rope SAT scores or ACT scores and
1:54
Speaker 1: high school transcript and they can enroll on the spot
1:57
Speaker 1: and they can qualify for scholarships full half of tuition.
2:01
Speaker 1: So I'm a fan of what you're doing. I just
2:04
Speaker 1: wanted to get that little out the way because that's
2:06
Speaker 1: a proud moment for me, man, because be able to
2:09
Speaker 1: playing that out. So tell us how you got involved, sir.
2:13
Speaker 3: Well, I'm a blurred myself. I'm a black nerd, but
2:15
Speaker 3: I didn't know no better growing up in the hood.
2:17
Speaker 3: It was just you know, you had to mask. You know,
2:20
Speaker 3: you had to compete with tupacs and the snoop dogs
2:22
Speaker 3: at the time. So, you know, when I got of
2:25
Speaker 3: age and got into an argument with my actually one
2:29
Speaker 3: of my best friends about our condition of our community
2:34
Speaker 3: and what we was talking about. We in our community,
2:36
Speaker 3: we highlight the entertainer, the athlete, and the misbehaved, but
2:42
Speaker 3: all of those nerds, they don't pay no attention to us.
2:46
Speaker 3: And so we was talking amongst ourselves. If we created
2:48
Speaker 3: we had this type of insight and information, how much
2:52
Speaker 3: further will be as young men being black nerds in
2:57
Speaker 3: this environment. So we created it and there are to
3:00
Speaker 3: both graduates from HBCUs. He went to Howard University. I
3:03
Speaker 3: graduated from Jackson State University. And we started off just
3:08
Speaker 3: trying to you know, hey, where is the money at right,
3:13
Speaker 3: And we went from there and we was able to
3:17
Speaker 3: build relationships with these sbcus and get these kids in.
3:20
Speaker 3: So that's how it started.
3:22
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I want to say I'm a nerd
3:24
Speaker 1: to my degree is in mathematics. Okay, I'm a black nerd.
3:27
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna claim it. I'm gonna claim it. Douglas.
3:30
Speaker 1: I'm claiming it. Douglas with two esses. By the way,
3:34
Speaker 1: Douglas with two s's Douglas for you know, but the
3:37
Speaker 1: journey man. You know when I look at the you know,
3:40
Speaker 1: the creating change in young people. You know, you know,
3:47
Speaker 1: I think your sister, she's went through this program, correct,
3:51
Speaker 1: my sister, the relative of yours? Does anybody went through
3:55
Speaker 1: this program? My niece, your niece, I apologize your niece
3:57
Speaker 1: went through this program. And when you first started out,
4:01
Speaker 1: you know, everybody has doubts. Everybody go, how can you
4:06
Speaker 1: pull this off? I hear your dreams. How did you
4:09
Speaker 1: overcome that part of a Douglas out comes?
4:12
Speaker 3: You know what I've learned about working in our community is,
4:16
Speaker 3: you know, we got to just put out outcomes. So
4:18
Speaker 3: what we did was have that conversation, an intellectual conversation
4:23
Speaker 3: with the parent and the child, saying, hey, if you
4:26
Speaker 3: get these certain numbers, we've got a relationship with Prayer
4:28
Speaker 3: of You and you can leave you're debt free. Also,
4:32
Speaker 3: Prayer View offers a one year master's degree in engineering,
4:36
Speaker 3: so you can leave here debt free with a master's
4:39
Speaker 3: degree in engineering and going into your industry with noe debt.
4:43
Speaker 3: By the time you're twenty five, you can buy your
4:45
Speaker 3: first preb by the time you're twenty seven, you can
4:47
Speaker 3: buy your second one by twenty eight, you can be
4:49
Speaker 3: married starting with your children.
4:52
Speaker 1: And so what we've got some great timelines there, Douglas,
4:55
Speaker 1: there's a great timelines.
4:56
Speaker 3: But what it is is that if you have the plan,
4:59
Speaker 3: if you have the schedule in place, instead of we
5:02
Speaker 3: put this out there and we see all these outcomes,
5:04
Speaker 3: you know. So the way what the way it works
5:07
Speaker 3: is when you start seeing the success of all our blurs,
5:11
Speaker 3: then you'll be like, oh, okay, that's how you beat
5:14
Speaker 3: the next Sayers was the outcomes, you know. So for us,
5:19
Speaker 3: we really don't do a lot of talking. It's like
5:20
Speaker 3: you want to go talk to a blur then they
5:22
Speaker 3: could tell you what's going on, so stuff like that.
5:24
Speaker 3: So that's how I got rid of them, got rid
5:25
Speaker 3: of the next sairers were it's simply putting out great outcomes.
5:29
Speaker 1: And that's really important because they sayers, you know, they
5:31
Speaker 1: want to win, man, they want to win they and
5:33
Speaker 1: they have no plan, brother, They says don't have plans, man,
5:36
Speaker 1: they just have negative They have negativity rules, you know,
5:39
Speaker 1: and their fingerpoinners. And I told you so that's their quote.
5:42
Speaker 1: I told you so. And uh, when I look at
5:45
Speaker 1: organizations like yours, you know, because their bootstep organizations, you know,
5:49
Speaker 1: they're they're start with an idea, you have a vision,
5:52
Speaker 1: and then but then you when you start seeing results
5:56
Speaker 1: and your wow. You know, I think about it, man,
5:59
Speaker 1: I think about my life, man when I look back
6:01
Speaker 1: on you know, started the Mentoring cap with Steve Harvey
6:05
Speaker 1: way back in two thousand and seven. You know what
6:07
Speaker 1: I'm saying, and and and and and and and then
6:10
Speaker 1: doing these HBCUs and working with Steven A. Smith with
6:13
Speaker 1: his uh HBCU week, you know, you know what I'm saying,
6:16
Speaker 1: so so and realizing the amount of scholarship dollars that
6:20
Speaker 1: are out there available to students and parents and they
6:23
Speaker 1: don't know how can we can we help them because
6:26
Speaker 1: they don't know, you know. And but these HBCUs are
6:29
Speaker 1: sitting there, they kind of like aren't promoted, they're underfunded,
6:33
Speaker 1: they don't have the endowments. And then they turn around
6:36
Speaker 1: and basically the government, whether it's a president, my fund
6:41
Speaker 1: and I look at the fund they give the government,
6:43
Speaker 1: like I think that the funds they gave HBCUs were
6:46
Speaker 1: like one point three billion dollars or something like that.
6:49
Speaker 1: And you look over the University of Nebraska, their endowment
6:52
Speaker 1: along is one billion dollars. Yeah, you know, and and
6:57
Speaker 1: and so and so when I went so, I get
6:59
Speaker 1: frustrated a little bit. And so when.
7:00
Speaker 3: I've heard about it, naturally, when I heard.
7:02
Speaker 1: About your program, you know, I want to be able
7:05
Speaker 1: to help you have a voice. And so let's talk
7:07
Speaker 1: about how can people get in touch with your organization.
7:10
Speaker 1: And then we're gonna talk about the qualification because everybody goes,
7:13
Speaker 1: I got a kid with.
7:14
Speaker 3: Every kid Camp, Yeah, everybody.
7:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, we talk aboutainst college, trying to get your kid
7:19
Speaker 1: to finish there.
7:21
Speaker 3: So there's two things. I'm glad you spoke about all that,
7:23
Speaker 3: the funding and all the organizations and all that. So
7:25
Speaker 3: let's break it down in all those categories. So first off,
7:28
Speaker 3: you can reach us at you can see all the
7:30
Speaker 3: work really in two different places. One is our Instagram
7:33
Speaker 3: page and that's just the blurd Academy or Black Nerds,
7:37
Speaker 3: and you'll see all the work there. All are blurts there.
7:39
Speaker 3: You can need to follow us follow us on LinkedIn
7:41
Speaker 3: as well. So those are kind of our two points
7:43
Speaker 3: that you can see the work being done there all right. Now,
7:48
Speaker 3: when it comes to funding, we don't We're not an
7:50
Speaker 3: organization like that where me and my friend kind of
7:53
Speaker 3: did this in the front of a philanthropist standpoint because
7:56
Speaker 3: we wanted to be underni I will leave and unequivocally
8:02
Speaker 3: black empowered, you know. So we wanted to not be
8:08
Speaker 3: someone telling us what we can and cannot do by
8:10
Speaker 3: just because they want to give us some dollars, not
8:13
Speaker 3: saying we don't take any. But that was one of
8:15
Speaker 3: our original things. So we created this, uh hall.
8:20
Speaker 1: This is what we're going to do it this way, right.
8:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah yeah. Because then then then we created something
8:25
Speaker 3: where we always tell our blurs, just create a small
8:28
Speaker 3: business to help fund your other business. So we create
8:30
Speaker 3: a small business called Proud Black Nerds where you can
8:35
Speaker 3: buy our shirts, our mugs, and that's how you give
8:39
Speaker 3: to us. It's through creating companies and small businesses, and
8:44
Speaker 3: then we're showing our blurs. We're not talking about it,
8:46
Speaker 3: we're being abided by creating a small business. So that's
8:49
Speaker 3: how your listeners anybody else can support the BLURD Academy
8:52
Speaker 3: is through the Proud Black Dirts ww dot, Proud Black
8:56
Speaker 3: Dierts dot com and just get our merch and that's
8:59
Speaker 3: how you help us. And so just to just to
9:04
Speaker 3: go right into what you're saying about getting them qualified.
9:08
Speaker 3: So let's use an example. I'm gonna give you primise.
9:10
Speaker 3: I'm gonna use my alma mater for an example. Is
9:11
Speaker 3: that Okay University State right? Yes? Jackson State?
9:16
Speaker 1: Yes?
9:16
Speaker 3: Uh so at Jackson State University, your baby, I'm talking
9:21
Speaker 3: to the kids. Where the kids need to have a
9:23
Speaker 3: three point two five eleven thirty SAT or twenty three
9:29
Speaker 3: ACT and that would get you a full tuition scholarship.
9:35
Speaker 3: So that's number, that's stage one, Stage two. If you
9:40
Speaker 3: got a three point two five with a twelve hundred SAT,
9:47
Speaker 3: that's a full ride scholarship, room board to you know
9:52
Speaker 3: all that. Then if you got a three point five
9:56
Speaker 3: with a twenty eight ACT or a thirteen hundred SAT,
10:00
Speaker 3: it's a presidential scholarship. That's room boards, books, fees, everything.
10:06
Speaker 3: So these are things that when you partnership with these
10:08
Speaker 3: types of schools, they saying, hey, Dougie or Dougie, that's
10:11
Speaker 3: my name, doug go get go get If you got
10:15
Speaker 3: some babies like this, we got the brand form because
10:18
Speaker 3: those type of kids literally would go in especially be
10:21
Speaker 3: in Georgia. They say, Okay, I'd rather go to University
10:23
Speaker 3: of Georgia or right, that's fine, that makes sense. I'm
10:25
Speaker 3: not mad at you going to those what they would
10:27
Speaker 3: call the higher branded schools. But I'm just saying, look
10:30
Speaker 3: at our schools as an option, because I'd rather you
10:35
Speaker 3: leave debt free at Jackson State than being debt at
10:37
Speaker 3: Georgia University of Georgia, because it just stops you from
10:42
Speaker 3: and now stops you It just slows you down from
10:44
Speaker 3: the economic sides, buying the home, all these other things,
10:47
Speaker 3: starting a small business and all that. So that is
10:50
Speaker 3: kind of the matrix on is in one institution as
10:53
Speaker 3: an example of how do you get money at HBCUs.
10:55
Speaker 1: You know, it's really interesting now, Douglas, you got it
10:59
Speaker 1: called with that? Dougie, Hey, Dougie, what's up?
11:01
Speaker 4: What's that? What's that?
11:02
Speaker 1: What's up? Now? You know you man, your your your story,
11:06
Speaker 1: your backstory? Now you was you got the streets won
11:09
Speaker 1: the streets one when you know the team. You know,
11:12
Speaker 1: I look back on my life and uh, I grew
11:14
Speaker 1: up in Fifth Ward in Houston, Texas. So when you
11:16
Speaker 1: say prayer View, there's just wrong hold. You know that
11:18
Speaker 1: bail boy, he all in my neighborhood preview in Houston, Texas.
11:23
Speaker 3: And and I, you.
11:25
Speaker 1: Know, my school, and and I didn't get the HBCUs
11:28
Speaker 1: coming out of college. You know how the high school,
11:31
Speaker 1: you know they were they're recruiting me. And I wound
11:33
Speaker 1: up going to I went to enrolled in the Southern
11:36
Speaker 1: University in Baton Rouge, and then at the last minute
11:38
Speaker 1: opted out and eventually got my degree at the University
11:41
Speaker 1: of Houston in Houston, Texas. But because I didn't understand,
11:45
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I didn't value what an HBCU was and
11:50
Speaker 1: didn't understand what it brought to the table. And you're
11:55
Speaker 1: talking about tier one students, and that is the most
11:58
Speaker 1: value student that every college wants in this situation. That
12:04
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're a tier one student at a predominant
12:07
Speaker 1: white institution. You're going to get a scholarship, that doesn't
12:10
Speaker 1: mean you're going to get a full ride. And I
12:12
Speaker 1: was talking to a good friend of mine, doctor Sonya Lewis,
12:14
Speaker 1: out of Philadelphia. She said, reach out, I'm gonna tell
12:16
Speaker 1: you something. Student loans are the only thing in college now.
12:23
Speaker 1: If you try to get a student loan, and you
12:26
Speaker 1: and look at for a house, you have nothing to
12:30
Speaker 1: offer for a student loan. They don't really check your credit.
12:34
Speaker 1: They don't ask you do you have any equity, They
12:37
Speaker 1: don't ask you're gonna put up any collateral. They just
12:40
Speaker 1: give you the money. She said, when you look at
12:43
Speaker 1: the hides works out. It is the craziest system in
12:46
Speaker 1: the world. And people are driving up forty thousand and
12:51
Speaker 1: fifty half a million dollars worth of student loans.
12:55
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, insane. And we use that matrix too. We
13:00
Speaker 3: use the d the debt to income racio analogy when
13:05
Speaker 3: we say, yeah, you graduated from Stanford with four hundred
13:10
Speaker 3: thousand in debt, but I graduated from Jackson State. But
13:13
Speaker 3: you go into the bank, your debt to income ratio matters,
13:17
Speaker 3: your credit matters, the amount of money that you get
13:21
Speaker 3: from your house. So I'm not knocking those branded schools,
13:24
Speaker 3: of course, but if you can't get in and leave
13:26
Speaker 3: your undergrad but little to no debt, that's the go
13:29
Speaker 3: for all the institutions, especially for Black Americans. So we
13:33
Speaker 3: created this well building conversation to have with those kids
13:37
Speaker 3: that actually qualified for the Yales. The Princeton's the staffords
13:40
Speaker 3: to say, hey, yeah you got in the Stanford, you
13:42
Speaker 3: got any Yale. But those same numbers are full rides
13:46
Speaker 3: at our institutions, the Tuskegees, the Tennessee States. So just
13:50
Speaker 3: consider these as an option and then whenever the financial
13:53
Speaker 3: aid come out, you can determine as a family what
13:56
Speaker 3: is best and also tell parents, hey, that same amount
13:59
Speaker 3: of money you to pay for that brand, you can
14:01
Speaker 3: use it on the back end to cover either graduate
14:03
Speaker 3: school or get them a their startup condo or house.
14:07
Speaker 3: So let's use our money efficiently as we're trying to
14:10
Speaker 3: make long term economic gains for our children. I'd rather
14:14
Speaker 3: you spend that one hundred thousand going to spend at
14:17
Speaker 3: these other institutions on the back end, at for his
14:21
Speaker 3: starter home in roll Up, North Carolina, or outside of Atlanta,
14:24
Speaker 3: or somewhere you know in Houston, outside of Houston where
14:27
Speaker 3: he can buy and own. Those are life changing things.
14:31
Speaker 3: And so that's what we leveraging our conversations, and we're
14:33
Speaker 3: talking about money. At the end of the day. Let's
14:35
Speaker 3: get this.
14:36
Speaker 1: Money and throw some facts at the Douglas. Okay, this
14:39
Speaker 1: is blacks who attend HBCUs.
14:43
Speaker 3: Come on.
14:44
Speaker 1: Of the people who are black that are as they
14:48
Speaker 1: say is in stem come from HBCUs. Seventy percent of
14:52
Speaker 1: the doctors who are black come from HBCUs. Seventy of
14:56
Speaker 1: the dentists who are black con from HBCUs. The lawyers
15:00
Speaker 1: who are black come from HBCUs. Seventy percent of the
15:03
Speaker 1: judges who are black come from HBCUs. Do you see
15:07
Speaker 1: where I'm going? Educational system sixty percent of the black
15:10
Speaker 1: teachers come from HBCUs. So in this conversation, what I'm
15:15
Speaker 1: just trying to tell everybody, we're not just hyping. And
15:18
Speaker 1: I didn't go to an HBCU, but I gotta talk.
15:20
Speaker 1: I gotta state the facts when I start seeing the facts.
15:23
Speaker 1: And the facts is that your child can go to
15:27
Speaker 1: an HPCU. Your child can walk out of there with
15:30
Speaker 1: a degree and get hired, and you'll be competitive, you
15:34
Speaker 1: get hired and also debt free. Come on that. When
15:40
Speaker 1: we get back, we're gonna talk to some more with
15:41
Speaker 1: Douglas with two S is a dougie. Like he likes
15:43
Speaker 1: to say it, it broke me down with the dougie.
15:45
Speaker 1: Na Douglas Fort come back, man, this is great. The
15:48
Speaker 1: black nerd I got them on my show money Making
15:50
Speaker 1: Conversations Master Class.
15:52
Speaker 3: Go.
15:52
Speaker 1: Hear about how those streets almost swallow them up, but
15:55
Speaker 1: he fall back and he created this organization, this academy
15:57
Speaker 1: to day with his boy.
15:59
Speaker 4: Please go anywhere. We'll be right back with more money
16:02
Speaker 4: Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
16:15
Speaker 4: hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass continues online
16:20
Speaker 4: at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making Conversations Masterclass
16:25
Speaker 4: on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
16:28
Speaker 1: I am a black nerd. I am not a member
16:30
Speaker 1: of the Blurred Academy because it was founded after I
16:34
Speaker 1: went to college Douglas. After I went to college, it
16:39
Speaker 1: was good. I'm going to tell you some way after
16:42
Speaker 1: because I graduated seventy six. So you you you have
16:46
Speaker 1: a long time ago, brother. But along the way, man,
16:49
Speaker 1: I understood the value of HBCUs and I'm an advocate.
16:53
Speaker 1: I am an ambassador. One could say that, you know,
16:55
Speaker 1: because of the fact that I see the value as
16:58
Speaker 1: Hee Tier one students see the quality of it. Do
17:03
Speaker 1: my research, like you said, do your research. A lot
17:05
Speaker 1: of people don't do the research. Now and when I
17:08
Speaker 1: was interviewing doctor Sony Lewis when she really broke it
17:11
Speaker 1: down about how they just be passing out these student
17:14
Speaker 1: loans and these people just be just accepting and guess
17:17
Speaker 1: what you need them. But then you don't know the
17:20
Speaker 1: consequences because they do impact your lifestyle. When you try
17:24
Speaker 1: to move on, you can't. True, it's true, and you know,
17:29
Speaker 1: but you came from California and the streets almost swallowed
17:34
Speaker 1: you up. And help us understand what mentor saved you
17:38
Speaker 1: and how did you make it to Jackson State.
17:41
Speaker 3: Well, two things. I'm born and raised in the city
17:45
Speaker 3: of East Palazzo, California, predominantly black institution right on the
17:50
Speaker 3: South Plinch was right in the heart of Silicon Valley.
17:54
Speaker 3: And at the time I grew up, it was the
17:55
Speaker 3: middle of the crack apademic And in nineteen ninety one
17:59
Speaker 3: I got shot in the face twice. The bullet is
18:01
Speaker 3: still in my neck by well, one of the bullets
18:02
Speaker 3: is still in my neck. And how I transitioned. I
18:07
Speaker 3: was always a nerd. It was just that environment turns.
18:10
Speaker 3: You have to become something to defend it, to make
18:12
Speaker 3: it in that environment. Did a lot of fighting growing
18:16
Speaker 3: up and doing these things, and so how I got
18:20
Speaker 3: to the journey. How I got to Jackson State is
18:22
Speaker 3: very interesting because I remember in nineteen ninety five, our
18:26
Speaker 3: crack house got raided. It is a true story, y'all.
18:29
Speaker 3: This is what happened. And I remember one of the
18:32
Speaker 3: homies that one of the homies that was one of
18:35
Speaker 3: my big homies at the time, he went to the penitentiary,
18:38
Speaker 3: so that house was shut down. And I'm walking down
18:42
Speaker 3: the street and I ran into another big homye of mine.
18:44
Speaker 3: He like, my nickname from the neighborhood is called Fresh.
18:46
Speaker 3: If they call me Fresh. Fred's getting the car and
18:50
Speaker 3: he like, what you up to? And I'm like nothing, man,
18:51
Speaker 3: I'm just trying to get this money because I was
18:53
Speaker 3: rocked in my pocket. I'm about to go hustle at
18:54
Speaker 3: the park at Jackville Park at the time. And he's like, hey, man,
18:57
Speaker 3: what you got going. I'm like, noney, Like you think
19:00
Speaker 3: you think about going to school. I'm like, nah, bro,
19:03
Speaker 3: I'm making too much money out here. And my old
19:05
Speaker 3: g told me this. He said this, and he said, look,
19:08
Speaker 3: promise me this. You go off to college and you
19:11
Speaker 3: put the same energy putting into this block, and if
19:14
Speaker 3: it don't work out, you can come home. It is
19:17
Speaker 3: what it is. So my old gene told me, you
19:22
Speaker 3: need to go off to college, and that's when I met.
19:24
Speaker 3: I went, I went, and I never looked back because
19:26
Speaker 3: I put the same energy I put in the hustling
19:29
Speaker 3: into into college and I became an honor student. I'm
19:32
Speaker 3: an honors college graduate from jack State Magnan Cumlati. Uh
19:36
Speaker 3: and uh that's how I got to jack State University.
19:39
Speaker 1: You know. The sad part of that story is he knew.
19:42
Speaker 1: He knew what he was doing was a dead end.
19:47
Speaker 1: And I always talk about people get to a point
19:49
Speaker 1: in life where they think that's all they can do,
19:52
Speaker 1: or they go, this is me, and that's not true.
19:55
Speaker 1: I don't care what you do. We're getting out of jail.
19:57
Speaker 1: That does to mean that it's the end of the
19:59
Speaker 1: row when you get in jail, or living it, because dude,
20:02
Speaker 1: I lived. I look at it my life today and
20:06
Speaker 1: I go, yeah, it was probably three times in my life.
20:08
Speaker 1: I honestly couldn't tell you. I probably should be dead
20:12
Speaker 1: at least three times. Yeh, at least three times. And
20:15
Speaker 1: I think about it and I tell people when I
20:19
Speaker 1: wake up in the morning. You know, there's an earnest
20:22
Speaker 1: to me waking up because I have to accomplish something,
20:25
Speaker 1: to have to do something, Douglas. And when I heard
20:28
Speaker 1: that you was coming on my show and I heard
20:30
Speaker 1: your backstory, you know, it almost brought me to tears
20:34
Speaker 1: because I knew somebody pushed you out the door, but
20:38
Speaker 1: didn't pushed himself out the door. Yeah, and his story
20:43
Speaker 1: is a sad story because it ain't gonna aat good
20:45
Speaker 1: because he stayed. Yeah.
20:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think that if you add it,
20:51
Speaker 3: you know, coming back and forth to school and just growing,
20:54
Speaker 3: you know, when it would really changed the whole thing.
20:56
Speaker 3: When I started my first company when I was twenty
20:58
Speaker 3: years old, when I got to that was one of
21:00
Speaker 3: the things that really changed my life. When I gave
21:02
Speaker 3: my life over to Jesus Christ in nineteen ninety eight
21:05
Speaker 3: and I created a nonprofit Call for Youth by Youth
21:08
Speaker 3: that was a reentry in youth development and healing traumas
21:11
Speaker 3: and trauma program in the city of East Palalato. And
21:14
Speaker 3: I ran that for twelve years and I've done so
21:16
Speaker 3: much great work in that thing. So it was more
21:18
Speaker 3: or less Jackson State allowed me to be in a
21:22
Speaker 3: safe place to grow my spirituality and my friendships and
21:25
Speaker 3: my black love, and it allowed me to go back.
21:28
Speaker 3: It's like an incuebaker that they created them in there
21:31
Speaker 3: where I could be completely myself there and I was
21:35
Speaker 3: able to take that those teachings and those friendships and
21:37
Speaker 3: all that do Christians cruse safe for Christ and come
21:40
Speaker 3: on back home and really trying to rebuild my whole community,
21:44
Speaker 3: like you know I created. I helped launch a program
21:46
Speaker 3: called Living Peace. I helped launch another program called the
21:49
Speaker 3: East Palato Greyhounds that got a bunch of NFL players.
21:52
Speaker 3: I even helped through one of the peace treaties I
21:54
Speaker 3: did in the neighborhood. The director of the US Marshals
21:58
Speaker 3: right now, doctor RONA. Davis, we did some work together
22:04
Speaker 3: in the neighborhood and he's where he's acted some of
22:06
Speaker 3: the work we did in the neighborhood. So God has
22:08
Speaker 3: put our hands on all these people I just named
22:10
Speaker 3: through the Worker for Youth by Youth and what I
22:13
Speaker 3: did in our neighborhood. So I'm excited about all the
22:17
Speaker 3: things that I was able to put my hands on.
22:19
Speaker 3: And it's pretty much leave it back to what God
22:21
Speaker 3: has put on my heart to do. Right.
22:23
Speaker 1: I want to have a quote that I have of yours, Douglas,
22:27
Speaker 1: this is a spiritual calling. My mission is to rebuild
22:30
Speaker 1: our community and then start with young men because they're
22:34
Speaker 1: the ones who will be the providers for their families.
22:37
Speaker 1: We exist as an organization to build a healthy community
22:40
Speaker 1: that is black, educated, resourceful, and determined. And we're doing
22:45
Speaker 1: it as black nerds are blurred at a time.
22:51
Speaker 3: That's my quote.
22:53
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you something, brother. I don't get too
22:56
Speaker 1: emotional on this show, but you get me there because
23:01
Speaker 1: it almost makes me feel like I'm not doing enough.
23:03
Speaker 1: And you know, you know what I'm saying. You know,
23:07
Speaker 1: you know it. You've seen it, man, You know when
23:09
Speaker 1: you grew because a lot of people don't know when
23:11
Speaker 1: you grow up in the hood. Man, you go back, brother,
23:14
Speaker 1: it ain't it ain't got it hadn't gotten better, It
23:16
Speaker 1: hadn't gotten better. You know, it might be Hispanic now,
23:19
Speaker 1: it might be Hispanic, Like my hood is e Hispanic now.
23:22
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You know what I'm talking about.
23:26
Speaker 1: It's like they moved out and I don't know where
23:27
Speaker 1: the black people went. But they ain't in my hood
23:29
Speaker 1: no more. Okay, you know, and uh and so but
23:35
Speaker 1: but I but I won't stop, man, I won't stop, Dougs,
23:38
Speaker 1: I can't stop. But I love the fact that you
23:40
Speaker 1: encourage your students to buy property. I love the fact
23:45
Speaker 1: that you tell them to secure that bag of money
23:47
Speaker 1: through graduate school. There's not there's more to your academy
23:51
Speaker 1: than just education. It's a story about life. As we
23:54
Speaker 1: wrap up, just tell everybody what drives you. What's your
23:58
Speaker 1: vision for the future for the blur to cad me.
24:04
Speaker 3: Calling, you know, to rebuild our community, one blurred at
24:06
Speaker 3: a time. And my goal is to make all these
24:11
Speaker 3: blurres be happily married and wealthy. To build each black family.
24:15
Speaker 3: I've seen it growing up in these palanza before crack hit.
24:18
Speaker 3: I've seen a vision of a healthy black family. And
24:21
Speaker 3: so for me, that's my mission is to see black
24:24
Speaker 3: men be provider males so they can leave their families,
24:30
Speaker 3: uh to the next next to the next day. So
24:33
Speaker 3: that's my mission.
24:34
Speaker 1: Well, bro, brother, if you don't have my cell numb,
24:37
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give it to you. And if you ever
24:39
Speaker 1: need me, uh, you know, to say, Rashaan, could you
24:42
Speaker 1: you know, break me off some of I'll go talk
24:44
Speaker 1: to the wife's and wife uh the nerds. The black
24:47
Speaker 1: nerds need me, baby, they need to.
24:49
Speaker 3: Proud black Just go to Look you can, like I said,
24:52
Speaker 3: proud of your crew. Look, go to the w W dot.
24:55
Speaker 2: Buy some of that, Buy some of that swag, some
24:57
Speaker 2: of that some cups and T shirts, you know.
25:00
Speaker 1: And also, man, I want to sit down. Man if
25:02
Speaker 1: I can help you with a sponsor, you know that
25:05
Speaker 1: understands what you're trying to do, because you got history,
25:08
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And uh, there are a
25:10
Speaker 1: lot of corporations out there, you know, despite their rhetoric
25:13
Speaker 1: out there, by diversity, equity, inclusion, understand the value of diversity,
25:19
Speaker 1: understand the value of educating, and understanding by creating qualified
25:24
Speaker 1: student citizens who want to vote, they'll pay these taxes.
25:27
Speaker 1: And so I want to sit down and talk to
25:29
Speaker 1: you about it. So yeah, you know what I'm saying,
25:31
Speaker 1: that's the game. But more importantly, Man, I'm glad you
25:35
Speaker 1: took the time to call in my show so we
25:38
Speaker 1: can hear the story of Douglas Ford. Man, you're a
25:40
Speaker 1: powerful brother, and I'm happy I'm able to share my
25:44
Speaker 1: story over my airways and it's pretty big airways, my brother, and.
25:48
Speaker 3: Uh, I appreciate it.
25:49
Speaker 1: And again thank you for calling money Making Conversations massic class.
25:52
Speaker 1: My brother, We talked soon, all right. This has been
25:56
Speaker 1: another edition of money Making Conversations Master Class hosted by
25:59
Speaker 1: me rashand thank you to our guest on the show
26:02
Speaker 1: today and thank you our listening audience now. If you
26:05
Speaker 1: want to listen to any episode or want to be
26:07
Speaker 1: a guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our
26:12
Speaker 1: social media handle is money Making Conversations. Join us next
26:15
Speaker 1: week and remember to always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
26:19
Speaker 1: Their American Dream is available to you, just keep listening.
26:23
Speaker 2: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
26:27
Speaker 2: posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
26:30
Speaker 2: on the show today and thank you our listening to
26:32
Speaker 2: audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
26:35
Speaker 2: I want to be a guest on the show, visit
26:37
Speaker 2: Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversations.
26:42
Speaker 2: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
26:45
Speaker 2: your gifts.
26:46
Speaker 1: Keep winning.