Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Dr. Jennifer Ashton - ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent; Michael Schulson - Owner of Schulson Collective Restaurant Group; Jessica Myers & Davonne Reaves of Epiq Collective; and Justin Dawkins - Managing Partner at Collab Capital

Transcript

Dr. Jennifer Ashton - ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent; Michael Schulson - Owner of Schulson Collective Restaurant Group; Jessica Myers & Davonne Reaves of Epiq Collective; and Justin Dawkins - Managing Partner at Collab Capital · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
0:07
Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
0:10
Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
0:13
Speaker 1: advice on many occasions. In the case you didn't notice,
0:15
Speaker 1: I'm not broke, you know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs,
0:19
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do.
0:22
Speaker 1: It's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
0:25
Speaker 1: hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money making Conversations. Here
0:29
Speaker 1: we come. Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I am your host,
0:31
Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. And it's time to stop reading other people's
0:34
Speaker 1: success stories. I got successful people who come over here.
0:37
Speaker 1: I want you to hear their stories, but I don't
0:39
Speaker 1: want you to be enamored by these stories. I want
0:41
Speaker 1: you to work your own stories because you can be
0:43
Speaker 1: motivated by their success, because their stories can offer you
0:45
Speaker 1: direction and help you reach your goals through your planning.
0:48
Speaker 1: Now hear what I'm saying, you're planning and your committed effort.
0:52
Speaker 1: My interviews are really is about. If you want to
0:54
Speaker 1: hear about successful stories, go to people who are successful.
0:57
Speaker 1: They are they are celebrities, they're CEO entrepreneurs. And my
1:01
Speaker 1: next person, she is what I call an industry decision maker.
1:05
Speaker 1: My next guest is Dr Jennifer Ashton. Dr Aston is
1:08
Speaker 1: a double Board certified physician as an O B, G
1:11
Speaker 1: Y N and Obesis and Obesity medicine and the nutritionist
1:15
Speaker 1: with a master's degree in nutrition or She hate the
1:18
Speaker 1: fact that I actually have a christpe Creeme on my app.
1:21
Speaker 1: I have Krispy Kreme donup. She is ABC news Chief
1:25
Speaker 1: Medical Correspondent. Dr jennerfer Aston has been a trusted voice
1:29
Speaker 1: providing vital health and medical information that's g M A
1:32
Speaker 1: three what you need to Know and constant coverage on
1:35
Speaker 1: ABC's News on the COVID nineteen pandemic. She released saw
1:38
Speaker 1: the latest book, The New Normal and roll Back to
1:41
Speaker 1: Resilience in the Pandemic Era, a must read God and
1:44
Speaker 1: I must say it is a must read guy to
1:46
Speaker 1: dealing with the continued challenges of the pandemic because tell
1:49
Speaker 1: you what, folks is not going anywhere, and we discussed
1:51
Speaker 1: she discusses that in the book. She's one of those
1:53
Speaker 1: trusted health personalities on TV today. She's an active medical
1:57
Speaker 1: practice is a leading voice in a new book, The
1:59
Speaker 1: New Almost out now, and we teach us how to
2:02
Speaker 1: think like a doctor, which I never ever thought about,
2:04
Speaker 1: the whole principle to help us stay inform, make decisions
2:07
Speaker 1: about your health, and better navigate the new normal. Please
2:11
Speaker 1: welcome to Money Making Conversation. Dr Jennifer Aston. How you doing, sir?
2:16
Speaker 1: Thank you for that very kind intro, and I'm so
2:21
Speaker 1: glad to be able to talk with you. Well, you
2:23
Speaker 1: know that I think that you have been probably first
2:27
Speaker 1: of all, I feel fortunate to have you on this show.
2:29
Speaker 1: You know, it was either you or Dr Foulcher. You you,
2:32
Speaker 1: you and my people know what I'm saying. You know,
2:34
Speaker 1: because of the the fact that, Okay, let's have gone back
2:37
Speaker 1: when it all happened, because that's what this book is about,
2:39
Speaker 1: the new normal. Okay, when I thought it was just
2:41
Speaker 1: gonna be two months. I can tell you this, Dr Ashton.
2:44
Speaker 1: When I first went out, I live in Houston, and
2:48
Speaker 1: I live in Atlanta, Georgia. My headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia,
2:50
Speaker 1: and I was in Houston, and I drove down surprised
2:53
Speaker 1: my family because you know, nobody wanted to fly, so
2:56
Speaker 1: I just drove I just up, woke up and drove
2:58
Speaker 1: to Houston from Atlanta, and I went inside my first
3:02
Speaker 1: home depot. I had a mask, I had rubber gloves.
3:08
Speaker 1: I had my uh little peril I had because before
3:11
Speaker 1: it got cleared off the shift, I just happened to
3:13
Speaker 1: have some parrel. And when I got back to my truck,
3:16
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to do. I didn't know do
3:18
Speaker 1: I take my gloves off, do I do I do
3:21
Speaker 1: I put the lotion on my hands. It was that
3:23
Speaker 1: whole I guess uncertainty. That's unsafe zone. Now I'm a
3:28
Speaker 1: lot more comfortable not saying that I'm not wearing a mask.
3:30
Speaker 1: I wear a mask. I understand my understanding respect social
3:34
Speaker 1: distancing now, but that's something that you have the educators
3:37
Speaker 1: on and you had to live through the process of
3:40
Speaker 1: dealing with a political system at the time that was
3:43
Speaker 1: in denial by COVID, and eighteen talked to us about that. Well,
3:47
Speaker 1: I think it was more than denial. I mean, first
3:51
Speaker 1: of all, I you've heard me say in my book,
3:55
Speaker 1: You've heard me say on national television, I stay in
3:58
Speaker 1: my lane. Um, you know, I'm a doctor. I speak
4:01
Speaker 1: about medicine, health, wellness, public health, science. That's it, Thank goodness.
4:07
Speaker 1: I am not a politician. I don't know anything about
4:10
Speaker 1: finances like you do. Um. I don't know about whether entertainment.
4:16
Speaker 1: Don't ask me the latest show except for Britain. I
4:19
Speaker 1: haven't watched any TV in the last year. Um. But
4:22
Speaker 1: when this all started, the issue I think was that
4:29
Speaker 1: the masks was not communicated well. And so that was
4:35
Speaker 1: one of those really seminal moments in the pandemic where
4:41
Speaker 1: we lost a lot of trust um, and by we,
4:45
Speaker 1: I mean everyone in science and medicine. And the reason
4:48
Speaker 1: for that, let me just explain, is that we did
4:54
Speaker 1: not know before April of last year that so many
4:59
Speaker 1: p bowl could be infected with COVID and show no
5:03
Speaker 1: symptoms at all and spread the virus. We also didn't
5:06
Speaker 1: know that it would shut down the entire world because
5:09
Speaker 1: we had never seen that in anyone's lifetime, right Molesque
5:14
Speaker 1: influenza pandemic, And so prior to April, in medicine, the
5:20
Speaker 1: only time we put a mask on someone was a
5:24
Speaker 1: sick person in the hospital to protect others. So even
5:27
Speaker 1: though a lot of people would say, well, isn't it
5:30
Speaker 1: common sense to put a mask on? Yes, and no,
5:33
Speaker 1: but in science and medicine we go by data, not
5:37
Speaker 1: just well something looks like it makes sense. And also
5:40
Speaker 1: remember that those types of supplies were in a very
5:44
Speaker 1: very high demand, so we couldn't say to the entire
5:49
Speaker 1: country million people, yeah, everyone put a mask on UM
5:54
Speaker 1: because A we didn't have the science to support that.
5:57
Speaker 1: Be we didn't know that so many people could be
5:59
Speaker 1: in fact did with COVID and NAT show symptoms and
6:01
Speaker 1: see we had a ppe shortage. So until we learned
6:06
Speaker 1: what we learned in the first three months, the recommendation was, no,
6:10
Speaker 1: this is not necessary. I know it makes people feel better,
6:13
Speaker 1: but there's no science to support this. And I have UM,
6:18
Speaker 1: you know, I go through in the book. I have
6:20
Speaker 1: a lot of these ashton Is Isms, as I like
6:22
Speaker 1: to call them, which are these medical sayings that I've
6:26
Speaker 1: said in the last sixteen years of being a doctor,
6:29
Speaker 1: and and one of them is that I really believe
6:33
Speaker 1: you can communicate any level of complex medical or scientific
6:39
Speaker 1: information to anyone, including a child, if the messenger is
6:46
Speaker 1: the right person or you know, uses the right communication skills.
6:49
Speaker 1: And to be honest, the right communication skills were not
6:53
Speaker 1: used early on in the pandemic UM, but as I
6:57
Speaker 1: also say in the book, we have a big weaver
7:00
Speaker 1: in that saying, be careful when you point a finger,
7:02
Speaker 1: because three are usually pointing back at you. And so
7:07
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm not one that says, well, it was
7:09
Speaker 1: this person's fault or that fault or whatever. We've got
7:12
Speaker 1: more than enough to handle right now by staying in
7:15
Speaker 1: the present and looking in the future. Well, I here's
7:18
Speaker 1: the thing I'm talking to Dr Jennifer Aston, the New Normal,
7:21
Speaker 1: that's the name of our book. Uh, I'm gonna go
7:26
Speaker 1: some things that really are stood out to me, the
7:29
Speaker 1: importance of laughter and love. Talk to me about that. Yeah,
7:33
Speaker 1: I mean, anyone who's been through a crisis or a
7:36
Speaker 1: trauma in their life knows that, Um, you know, laughter
7:40
Speaker 1: can be more than just an icebreaker, right, It can
7:43
Speaker 1: be therapeutic. Um. Anyone who's been to a week of
7:47
Speaker 1: funeral um and it stood vigil in a hospital while
7:51
Speaker 1: someone is in the operating room knows that. You know,
7:55
Speaker 1: sometimes that's a really powerful way to kind of release
8:00
Speaker 1: a lot of tension and its stress, and it can
8:04
Speaker 1: be very healing. Um. So I think if we can't
8:08
Speaker 1: laugh usually, you know, I say, at ourselves and for
8:13
Speaker 1: me that's an endless supply of material. Let's just put
8:16
Speaker 1: it that way. You know, then then we're really in trouble.
8:20
Speaker 1: And in terms of love, I think that you know,
8:24
Speaker 1: this is an area that does cross, you know, straddle
8:28
Speaker 1: lanes between medicine and public health and and the rest
8:31
Speaker 1: of our society. Is that I really do believe that
8:34
Speaker 1: if you act with love as your primary motivation, you
8:38
Speaker 1: will never go wrong. Well, the thing about it is
8:41
Speaker 1: there you are a real doctor. Will emphasize that because
8:44
Speaker 1: the fact that the reason to say that because you
8:46
Speaker 1: have to deal with certain levels of anxiety here you
8:48
Speaker 1: have to deal with real patients okay o b g.
8:51
Speaker 1: Ryan uh, and then your nutritionists. And then also you
8:55
Speaker 1: have to come on TV because some of your life
8:57
Speaker 1: was flipped from just being a periodically on TV the
9:00
Speaker 1: TV all the time, which in turn meant that you
9:03
Speaker 1: became an authority on something that you were developing information
9:06
Speaker 1: as you were along, and people will hold you accountable
9:09
Speaker 1: for if you said something and again you're still in
9:13
Speaker 1: the learning process, which in turn put stress on you.
9:16
Speaker 1: How did that stress create anxiety in your life? You
9:20
Speaker 1: talk about it. There's certain instances in your book, Um,
9:23
Speaker 1: in my situation. If I gained weight, you know, my
9:27
Speaker 1: whole life had suddenly become at the house I picked
9:31
Speaker 1: up five pounds, I realized I was even three meals
9:33
Speaker 1: a day. So that was the stress that was that
9:35
Speaker 1: was brought into my life. Your stress was because your
9:38
Speaker 1: face was now recognizable an America's authority on that I'm
9:43
Speaker 1: used to work. Correctly, you are an authority on COVID
9:46
Speaker 1: naighteen and that was not fair. Correct. Well, let me personal.
9:51
Speaker 1: It's my job, so I and I really feel incredibly
9:55
Speaker 1: blessed to have the responsibility that I have. You know,
10:00
Speaker 1: in medicine, um, we take this Hippocratic oath, and that
10:05
Speaker 1: is primarily to be a teacher of what we know,
10:08
Speaker 1: whether it's teaching our patients or teaching other student doctors.
10:12
Speaker 1: But I would also if I could revise the Hippocratic
10:15
Speaker 1: oath today, I would add student to it. And that's
10:17
Speaker 1: what I've been doing for over a year. And people say, well,
10:21
Speaker 1: you're not a specialist in infectious disease. Absolutely correct, But
10:25
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't know that in medical school
10:28
Speaker 1: we have to learn every specialty. We just don't learn
10:31
Speaker 1: one body part and take it four years and then
10:35
Speaker 1: that's it. Um. You know, there's a human being connected
10:38
Speaker 1: to that body part, so we have to learn every
10:40
Speaker 1: specialty and then in covering this pandemic. UM, I was
10:45
Speaker 1: literally speaking to Tony Fauci by personal cell phone either
10:49
Speaker 1: every week or every other week at nine o'clock at
10:52
Speaker 1: night at seven o'clock in the morning. And you're right,
10:55
Speaker 1: there was a massive responsibility that came um on my
10:59
Speaker 1: shoulder is to not only understand this rapidly evolving and
11:04
Speaker 1: changing information, but to communicate it in the right way.
11:08
Speaker 1: And as you were asking your question, I couldn't help
11:11
Speaker 1: but think, you know when you said I I am
11:14
Speaker 1: an actual, real doctor and not just playing one on TV.
11:18
Speaker 1: I do speak to real patients who I'm responsible for
11:23
Speaker 1: their lives, and when they get scared and they get anxious,
11:28
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter that we're one on one. I have
11:31
Speaker 1: to answer their questions and put them at ease both
11:34
Speaker 1: in their mind and in their spirit. And there's absolutely
11:37
Speaker 1: no difference between doing that and what I do on
11:40
Speaker 1: national television. So it's like when we have people leaders
11:44
Speaker 1: of faith on g M A three, and every single
11:47
Speaker 1: time we say, gosh, that person is a really good speaker,
11:52
Speaker 1: and then I laugh and I say to myself, of
11:54
Speaker 1: course they're a good speaker. That's what they do for
11:57
Speaker 1: a living. They speak to their congregation every week. So um,
12:03
Speaker 1: you know, I think that the recognizing that people were
12:06
Speaker 1: scared and anxious and felt this degree of uncertainty was
12:11
Speaker 1: something that I realized literally from the first minute. And
12:14
Speaker 1: I realized it because I was feeling the same thing.
12:19
Speaker 1: You know. The interesting thing about your book when I
12:21
Speaker 1: first read it, and because it hit home with me
12:23
Speaker 1: because it talked about you know, COVID nineteen and high effects. Uh,
12:28
Speaker 1: you know, people of color, African American black men especially.
12:31
Speaker 1: You know, it affects men differently than it affects women.
12:34
Speaker 1: In fact, the impacts me in a lot more. Picked
12:36
Speaker 1: it up from your book, Dr Aston, thank you very much.
12:38
Speaker 1: Didn't know that, So I'm just letting everybody know a
12:40
Speaker 1: very informative book. But the thing about is that when
12:43
Speaker 1: we hear the story about Jason the bus driver who
12:46
Speaker 1: made national news. I remember I saw his video when
12:48
Speaker 1: he was complaining about the person who was coughing on
12:52
Speaker 1: the bus, and then weeks later he died. But it
12:54
Speaker 1: was not only tied to COVID, but we started to
12:56
Speaker 1: realize COVID affected people for different ways. And then in
13:00
Speaker 1: a book you started, you start talking about how you
13:02
Speaker 1: can create change, and one of the great changes is
13:05
Speaker 1: weight loss. Right, So I want to unpack two really
13:11
Speaker 1: important things that you say. There is Shawn Number one,
13:13
Speaker 1: race okay, UM, the effects, the disproportionate effects on people
13:19
Speaker 1: of color, black and brown populations for this virus. Uh
13:24
Speaker 1: was should have been seen and expected. Oh that's my
13:28
Speaker 1: little doggie here and um. And so it was not
13:33
Speaker 1: a surprise that we were seeing more obesity, more high
13:38
Speaker 1: blood pressure, UM, more heart disease, coexisting medical conditions, pre
13:44
Speaker 1: existing medical conditions in people of color. Therefore, it's not
13:48
Speaker 1: a surprise when you saw more disproportionate rate of death
13:53
Speaker 1: amongst black and brown people with this pandemic. Also, their
13:56
Speaker 1: jobs which put them at risk, their access to testing
13:59
Speaker 1: and medical care put them at risk. And right now,
14:03
Speaker 1: I think we're in a very interesting but precarious position
14:08
Speaker 1: in medicine because on the one hand, there are people
14:11
Speaker 1: who think that you should not identify someone at all
14:15
Speaker 1: by their race or ethnicity in medicine, and everyone should
14:18
Speaker 1: just you know, be you should be blinded to that
14:21
Speaker 1: and treat everyone the same. I fundamentally disagree with that,
14:25
Speaker 1: because what that does is it throws out all of
14:28
Speaker 1: the knowledge that we have about what constitutes you at
14:33
Speaker 1: being at a higher risk than a thirty year old
14:36
Speaker 1: Asian woman for example. Right, And if we can't identify
14:40
Speaker 1: risk factors, then we can't take aggressive preventative steps to
14:45
Speaker 1: protect you. So I do think, and I talk about
14:49
Speaker 1: Jason's story in the book about how when he died
14:53
Speaker 1: of COVID we didn't even know. Being male put you
14:56
Speaker 1: at risk at greater risk, Being black put you at
14:59
Speaker 1: greater risk. Being obese put you a greater risk. Having
15:01
Speaker 1: diabetes put you a greater risk. Now we do so
15:04
Speaker 1: as individuals and as doctors, we can take steps to
15:10
Speaker 1: lower that risk. You can never make it zero, right,
15:12
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't make you not male, I can't
15:16
Speaker 1: make you not black. I can't make someone who is
15:20
Speaker 1: seventy five not seventy five. But we can take steps
15:25
Speaker 1: to reduce the conditions of overweight and obesity. So I
15:29
Speaker 1: go through those dietary steps. Some of them are easy.
15:33
Speaker 1: Believe me, this is not a major overhaul. These are
15:36
Speaker 1: baby steps. Um, But who do you know someone who's
15:40
Speaker 1: not concerned about their weight? Because I don't literally everyone is.
15:45
Speaker 1: You know, interesting thing about it is that you're absolutely right.
15:48
Speaker 1: Like you say in your book, you say what you
15:50
Speaker 1: can't change is your age, but everything else you can
15:53
Speaker 1: have an impact on. When you discuss the diabetes, you
15:56
Speaker 1: talk about lower load sugar, nutrition, more exercises, saying weight loss,
16:01
Speaker 1: but the big thing is the weight loss, you know.
16:03
Speaker 1: And I'm not African American, and I know my sisters,
16:05
Speaker 1: I know my family, I know the history of African Americans.
16:08
Speaker 1: Our diets, UH tend to run open's, high blood pressure,
16:11
Speaker 1: cholesterol levels, tend to run higher diabetes, and suddenly this
16:15
Speaker 1: pandemic comes into our lives. And I remember I was
16:18
Speaker 1: watching the news and it was based in Atlanta. There
16:21
Speaker 1: was an eight of the tend um patients checked into
16:24
Speaker 1: hospital or African America. I was actually stunned. I couldn't
16:26
Speaker 1: believe it. But from a media standpoint, do you think
16:29
Speaker 1: there was not recognized early on? All the world was
16:33
Speaker 1: just confused, that's what was going on, and especially just
16:36
Speaker 1: seeing African Americans rolling into a hospital blaming it own,
16:40
Speaker 1: you know, large households, UH, mass transit services and things
16:45
Speaker 1: like that. I think there was a lot of blame.
16:49
Speaker 1: It goes back to what I said about pointing the finger, right.
16:53
Speaker 1: I mean, in my opinion, I have looked at this
16:56
Speaker 1: pandemic and our country like it's one big patient. And
17:02
Speaker 1: so when someone, for example, who has been a lifelong
17:05
Speaker 1: smoker comes into the hospital with lung cancer, we don't
17:09
Speaker 1: blame the person for smoking cigarettes for thirty years. We
17:13
Speaker 1: treat their lung cancer. And so I think that you know,
17:18
Speaker 1: pointing out the reasons why it is important so you
17:21
Speaker 1: can try to fix them. But if it's done with
17:24
Speaker 1: the intention of shifting responsibility, then I think that's a problem.
17:29
Speaker 1: And UM, you know, I'll share with you something that
17:32
Speaker 1: I hope will inspire your viewers. Um like it has
17:37
Speaker 1: inspired me and my family. But in the last week,
17:41
Speaker 1: I've been yet on quarantine again for sean again, even
17:46
Speaker 1: though I've had both doses of the vaccine UM. I
17:50
Speaker 1: was exposed to someone who has COVID at work and
17:54
Speaker 1: I had quarantine, and I decided that I wanted to
17:58
Speaker 1: do my own dietary ironment during this period of quarantine.
18:02
Speaker 1: And I had watched the movie Game Changers, which I
18:05
Speaker 1: don't know if you've seen it, but if you haven't,
18:07
Speaker 1: I recommended, and it's about all of these elite athletes
18:11
Speaker 1: and normal people who change their diet and become vegan. Now,
18:18
Speaker 1: I will tell you I was the about as far
18:21
Speaker 1: from a vegan as it is possible to be. Okay,
18:25
Speaker 1: I ate chicken every single day, eggs every single day, pork.
18:30
Speaker 1: I loved pork. I was trying to cut down on
18:32
Speaker 1: red meat, but I was I mean every meal, I
18:35
Speaker 1: was eating head animal protein in it. This is just
18:37
Speaker 1: ten days ago, by the way. You're the first person
18:39
Speaker 1: I'm discussing this one. And I said, let me get
18:43
Speaker 1: my kids who are in college, and you know they're
18:46
Speaker 1: around obviously because they're not in school, and I said,
18:49
Speaker 1: let's try this experiment. Let's do it together. And I've
18:53
Speaker 1: got all these kind of frozen fake meat things and
18:57
Speaker 1: looked up some recipes and whatever. And I'm ten days in.
19:01
Speaker 1: I have not had an egg, i have not had chicken,
19:04
Speaker 1: I've not had dairy, and I've not had pork. And
19:07
Speaker 1: I'm still alive and actually I feel pretty good. Now
19:12
Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting that you have to go to that extreme,
19:16
Speaker 1: but my point with that, and I go through this
19:19
Speaker 1: in the book and in my other books also, but
19:22
Speaker 1: specifically in the new normal, is that you can This
19:25
Speaker 1: is one of those silver lining blessings I believe in
19:29
Speaker 1: this pandemic. Is we're all at home a lot more,
19:33
Speaker 1: and you know, we're all concerned with our health. So
19:36
Speaker 1: now is the time to try one of these experiments
19:39
Speaker 1: because you literally have nothing to lose other than a
19:41
Speaker 1: couple of pounds. And that is a major, major way
19:45
Speaker 1: that anyone can improve their health, lower their cholesterol, lose
19:50
Speaker 1: a couple of pounds, and protect the environment. Believe it
19:54
Speaker 1: or not. Um Even though that wasn't my primary motivation,
19:57
Speaker 1: the more I learned about it, the more it's getting
19:59
Speaker 1: up there. But listen, if I can do it, anyone
20:03
Speaker 1: can do it. I'm gonna be honest with you. I
20:05
Speaker 1: started my own little home garden. I had to look
20:08
Speaker 1: at three tomato pots. I harvested over a hundred tomatoes.
20:13
Speaker 1: I had my Popolamo peppers. I have my Haalapeenia peppers
20:17
Speaker 1: cilantro uh. And so now I bought a new building
20:21
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, and so I have a certain area because
20:24
Speaker 1: it's a private lot that I'm on. One of a
20:26
Speaker 1: private life I've set aside. I told my staff that's
20:29
Speaker 1: going to be our garden where I'm going to have
20:32
Speaker 1: potatoes out there. I'm going to have Atlantash cabbages, excuse me,
20:35
Speaker 1: and it's about eight different vegetables. Because I want agree
20:39
Speaker 1: with you. This is the time when you want to
20:42
Speaker 1: change your habits, change your life, your life. I am
20:46
Speaker 1: going all live and I would tell you this homegrown
20:48
Speaker 1: tomato is a lot sweeter than a store about tomato.
20:51
Speaker 1: So when you buy stuff from an organic is not
20:54
Speaker 1: chemically induced. So I am your pain and I read
20:57
Speaker 1: it in your book. I went, you know, because I
20:59
Speaker 1: read that about the pandemic field. It's physical. I did
21:01
Speaker 1: the pandemic physical. I did that December and so so
21:04
Speaker 1: I would like going through your book on tick tick okay,
21:07
Speaker 1: doctor chick check. And then also I got to the
21:10
Speaker 1: point we said the pros and cons of te telemedicine
21:13
Speaker 1: because you are a real doctor, talkers talked to us
21:16
Speaker 1: about the whole pros and cause of telemedicine. Well, the
21:19
Speaker 1: first thing I would say to your to your viewers
21:22
Speaker 1: is whether it's telemedicine or texting or just a local
21:27
Speaker 1: clinic that you like, make sure you have a connection,
21:32
Speaker 1: a relationship, ideally with some kind of healthcare provider. UM.
21:38
Speaker 1: That's another one of the wake up calls of this pandemic.
21:40
Speaker 1: People get sick, they don't know who to call. UM.
21:44
Speaker 1: You know, I and I do believe that telemedicine, as
21:47
Speaker 1: I talked about in the in the book, is a
21:49
Speaker 1: silver lining of this pandemic because there's a lot that
21:52
Speaker 1: you can accomplish with the telemedicine visit with a provider
21:57
Speaker 1: that you don't have to go a long distance way,
22:00
Speaker 1: it in a waiting room, etcetera, etcetera. There's a tremendous
22:03
Speaker 1: amount that can be done via telemedicine. UM. In the past,
22:07
Speaker 1: people were kind of intimidated by it, but we had
22:09
Speaker 1: no choice in this pandemic. UM. You know, I saw
22:13
Speaker 1: my patients that way for three months when we were
22:16
Speaker 1: on lockdown in New York City. So, UM, look, you
22:19
Speaker 1: can't do any kg, you can't draw blood via telemedicine yet,
22:23
Speaker 1: but you can accomplish a lot. And I think that
22:26
Speaker 1: the key and why I wanted to write the book
22:29
Speaker 1: and really explain to people how to think like a
22:31
Speaker 1: doctor is so that they could understand when do I
22:35
Speaker 1: need to go to the emergency room, When do I
22:37
Speaker 1: need to go to urgic here When do I need
22:39
Speaker 1: to call my own doctor? You know, if you have one,
22:42
Speaker 1: um how to assess these things? Is it really bad?
22:46
Speaker 1: Is it? You know? Emergency room level? And you don't
22:49
Speaker 1: have to be a doctor to learn to think like one,
22:52
Speaker 1: and that can help alleviate a lot of the anxiety
22:56
Speaker 1: and the uncertainty, not only for us, but for our family.
22:59
Speaker 1: You talk about your anxiety moment in the book where
23:02
Speaker 1: you thought you may have have COVID because your blood
23:04
Speaker 1: parents has changed. You called for your children, they called
23:07
Speaker 1: the emergency, and then you refused to go because then
23:10
Speaker 1: you intend the discussion about e R when you should
23:13
Speaker 1: go to the hospital. That's the whole process of what
23:16
Speaker 1: you're talking about in the book to talk about that moment,
23:18
Speaker 1: because I think we all because I would I be
23:20
Speaker 1: telling you this doctor, asking I remember when when COVID,
23:25
Speaker 1: when we was being quarantined, if I got a cough,
23:27
Speaker 1: I really was a high level paranoid about what was
23:30
Speaker 1: happening to me, you know, you know, because I didn't know.
23:33
Speaker 1: Nobody was giving the information, so I didn't know. And
23:36
Speaker 1: I'm a guy who knows my body, I really do.
23:38
Speaker 1: And I love what you're talking about knowing your body, exercise,
23:42
Speaker 1: talk to yourself, and walk through the whole process. Because
23:44
Speaker 1: that's what this book breaks down. It's when you said
23:46
Speaker 1: thinking like a doctor, and when you had that moment,
23:50
Speaker 1: I could, I could. I was so sympathetic in your
23:53
Speaker 1: whole process because of the fact that one you're dealing
23:56
Speaker 1: with it all the time. You said, rashand in your book,
23:58
Speaker 1: act like you're talking to me. You said, either breeding
24:00
Speaker 1: ground for pandemic is cruise, ships, prisons, nursing, the holds
24:03
Speaker 1: and households. Here you are thinking you have COVID eighteen
24:08
Speaker 1: workers through that process, so you know when I well,
24:13
Speaker 1: First of all, my brother, who's also a doctor in
24:15
Speaker 1: the bronx Um up here in New York, had COVID
24:19
Speaker 1: in March Um. He got exposed taking care of patients
24:23
Speaker 1: in the emergency room. And soon after that, I had
24:28
Speaker 1: an episode that one night that I talked about in
24:30
Speaker 1: the book. It turned out to be an allergic reaction,
24:34
Speaker 1: but my blood pressure dropped and my heart rate went
24:37
Speaker 1: pretty high, and I almost fainted. I almost lost consciousness.
24:41
Speaker 1: And I was just home with um, my two children
24:45
Speaker 1: who are in college, and my daughter's boyfriend, also a
24:48
Speaker 1: college student, and I'm the only parent my kids have,
24:51
Speaker 1: so there's a lot of pressure that's in the back
24:54
Speaker 1: of my mind always, right. I mean, the only reason
24:58
Speaker 1: most parents, I think would agree with this, that I
25:00
Speaker 1: really care about my health is because of my kids, right,
25:04
Speaker 1: because if I die, I'm dead. But I don't want
25:07
Speaker 1: to leave my kids without a parent. So um. I
25:12
Speaker 1: was on the phone with my boyfriend at the time,
25:14
Speaker 1: who's also a doctor, and he said, you don't sound good.
25:17
Speaker 1: You should call nine one one. And I have never
25:20
Speaker 1: called nine one one in my life, so right there,
25:24
Speaker 1: it tells you kind of what level I was at.
25:27
Speaker 1: And the paramedics came into my apartment and they checked
25:31
Speaker 1: my blood pressure and I started to feel better. My
25:34
Speaker 1: vital signs were normal, and they said I told him
25:37
Speaker 1: I was a doctor, And they said, do you want
25:39
Speaker 1: to go to the emergency room? And I said absolutely
25:43
Speaker 1: not because New York City was on lockdown at this point.
25:50
Speaker 1: I did not want to be exposed to COVID, and
25:54
Speaker 1: I knew based on my vital signs that I was
25:57
Speaker 1: okay that it was likely just a a reaction to
26:01
Speaker 1: some bena drill that was probably expired that I took.
26:04
Speaker 1: But the point is that I explained in the book
26:07
Speaker 1: is that I have that medical knowledge, but the average
26:10
Speaker 1: reader doesn't. So when you get scared or when you
26:12
Speaker 1: have a symptom, how should you decide where to take it?
26:17
Speaker 1: And I go through a lot of those ashton is ms,
26:20
Speaker 1: like you know, really bad things don't get better on
26:23
Speaker 1: their own, get worse. So if you're getting worse and
26:27
Speaker 1: not better, you should get it checked out. If you
26:31
Speaker 1: would have gone to the emergency room for this issue
26:34
Speaker 1: in then you should probably go now because now hospitals
26:39
Speaker 1: are much safer, you know, And if you're having chess
26:43
Speaker 1: pain or the worst headache of your life, something that
26:46
Speaker 1: could literally kill you, you should one call nine one
26:50
Speaker 1: one and get yourself to an emergency. We talked about
26:53
Speaker 1: so I kind of talk people through that, right, Yeah, absolutely,
26:56
Speaker 1: you do do a very fantastic job. I talked about
26:59
Speaker 1: the pros and car of telemedicine. Where you are an
27:02
Speaker 1: official doctor, you are double Board certified, nutrition nutrition iss
27:08
Speaker 1: Where should we not get this is my favorite chapter book.
27:12
Speaker 1: We're not to get your medical news that so you know,
27:14
Speaker 1: I was deep in a book, so you know, doctor Aston,
27:16
Speaker 1: I was deep in the book when I got to
27:18
Speaker 1: that part and I just wanted to talk about that
27:20
Speaker 1: before we leave. And I want to also thank you
27:22
Speaker 1: for taking the time to be on the show to
27:23
Speaker 1: bring my view was a very heartwarming book and also
27:26
Speaker 1: informative book. But before you go from talk about we're
27:29
Speaker 1: not to get medical news, well, don't get it from
27:33
Speaker 1: your next door neighbor unless they're a doctor. Don't get
27:35
Speaker 1: it from your friend unless they're a doctor. Don't get
27:38
Speaker 1: it from any um like non credential social media sites. Right, um,
27:44
Speaker 1: you know it should be CDC or someone with an
27:47
Speaker 1: m D after their name that has the position like
27:51
Speaker 1: I do, where you know, millions and millions of people
27:54
Speaker 1: are listening, so I have to make sure every single
27:58
Speaker 1: word I say is accurate and correct to the best
28:03
Speaker 1: of our knowledge based on scientific data. I mean, it
28:06
Speaker 1: is unbelievable how many times I speak to real people
28:10
Speaker 1: who say, well, I heard that dot dot dot and
28:13
Speaker 1: I and I say, this is not a game of telephone,
28:16
Speaker 1: you guys, like, what do you mean you heard it?
28:18
Speaker 1: This isn't a gossip story. This is your health. So
28:22
Speaker 1: I do go through that in the book, and you know, listen,
28:26
Speaker 1: we learn every day we don't know everything in medicine.
28:30
Speaker 1: And science, and any doctor who says that they do
28:32
Speaker 1: either hasn't been a doctor for very long or is
28:35
Speaker 1: not one you should listen to. Well, you're doctor, I
28:38
Speaker 1: listened to all the time. You know. I have two
28:41
Speaker 1: doctors I love and pandemic as Dr Aston was one
28:44
Speaker 1: and Dr Fauci is the other. And thank you for
28:46
Speaker 1: this new book, The New Normal. Uh. I have a
28:49
Speaker 1: fan club of ninety thousand fans. I'm gonna put it
28:52
Speaker 1: in the book. I have at one point six million follows.
28:56
Speaker 1: I'm supported that way. But more importantly, I just wanted
28:59
Speaker 1: to share your world so with my world, and also
29:03
Speaker 1: thank you written and listen. Please let's stay in touch.
29:06
Speaker 1: I I usually only use Instagram. My handle is at
29:10
Speaker 1: d r j Ashton, and I'd love to hear from
29:14
Speaker 1: your followers and your viewers. And I don't look at
29:19
Speaker 1: Twitter or Facebook that much because I feel like people
29:22
Speaker 1: are mean and I feel like we need a lot
29:24
Speaker 1: more nice in the world today. But um, I really
29:27
Speaker 1: appreciate you having me on. And next time I come
29:30
Speaker 1: to Atlanta or Euston, I want one of those backyard tomatoes.
29:33
Speaker 1: Thank you, appreciate you, stay strong and stay say more importantly,
29:37
Speaker 1: see your TV Dotor. We will be right back with
29:41
Speaker 1: more money Making Conversations with your host, Rashan McDonald. Him.
29:45
Speaker 1: Rushan McDonald's the host of Money Making Conversation. The Cafe
29:48
Speaker 1: Mocha Swag Award is a celebration of black men who
29:51
Speaker 1: will make it a difference in our community by empowering
29:54
Speaker 1: others to reach their life goals from civic leaders, businessmen, activists,
29:58
Speaker 1: celebrities and everyday days. The Cafe Moka Swag Award winner
30:01
Speaker 1: this week is Reginald Hutlin. He is the director of
30:05
Speaker 1: House Party, Boomerang, producer of Django on Chain, The a
30:09
Speaker 1: d Oscars Broadcast, then Double A CP Image Award, Showtime
30:12
Speaker 1: at the Apollo, The Black Panther Comic Book, and The
30:15
Speaker 1: Black Girldfather. I'm really grateful that the movies having the
30:19
Speaker 1: impact that it is. Well, I'm so grateful for is
30:22
Speaker 1: the response to the public. I've got people who said,
30:26
Speaker 1: I get something different out of it every time some
30:28
Speaker 1: people hit me and do you know what I need
30:29
Speaker 1: to be a little more generous that I'm being with
30:32
Speaker 1: people who are coming up behind me. It's transforming people.
30:36
Speaker 1: The Cafe Moka Swag Award represents men who have strength,
30:39
Speaker 1: whose wisdom is assertive, and who is genuine in their spirit.
30:42
Speaker 1: It's finally here, the season of celebration, and no matter
30:46
Speaker 1: how you celebrate with family and friends, whether you're preparing
30:49
Speaker 1: for rays magos or Karamu lighting the Manura, are going
30:53
Speaker 1: to midnight mass, Coals has just what you need to
30:56
Speaker 1: make those traditions special. Plus you'll find gifts for all
31:00
Speaker 1: your loved ones. Send warm wishes with cozy fleeces, sweaters, loungeware,
31:05
Speaker 1: blankets and throws. Support minority owned or founded brands by
31:09
Speaker 1: giving gifts from Human Nation and shame moisture, or treat
31:12
Speaker 1: them to everyone's favorite activewear from top brands like Nike, Adidas,
31:17
Speaker 1: and under Armor. And in the spirit of giving, Coals
31:20
Speaker 1: Cares is donating eight million dollars to local nonprofits nationwide
31:24
Speaker 1: committed to the health and well being of our communities.
31:27
Speaker 1: No matter how you celebrate, when you shop at Coals,
31:31
Speaker 1: you're right where you belong. So this season, give with
31:34
Speaker 1: all your heart with great gifts from Coals or Coals
31:37
Speaker 1: dot Com. Whether your event needed one room or an
31:40
Speaker 1: entire conference, under Hoppin has revolutionized the way people come together.
31:45
Speaker 1: With Hoppin, you can host a fully fledged digital meet up,
31:48
Speaker 1: complete with one on one meetings, hands on sessions, and
31:51
Speaker 1: expo booths. And because everything is hosted in a single,
31:55
Speaker 1: easy to use platform, it can be as big or
31:57
Speaker 1: small as you want, remain convenient for any who wants
32:00
Speaker 1: to attend, and give you access to data you never
32:03
Speaker 1: would have known otherwise. Visit hopen dot com to learn
32:06
Speaker 1: more and get started. Still living in and manually taking notes,
32:11
Speaker 1: start the new year with auto dot ai to generate
32:13
Speaker 1: automatic notes for meetings, interviews, or lectures. With auto dot ai,
32:18
Speaker 1: you can search the meeting notes, insert images, playback the audio,
32:21
Speaker 1: and share them with your friends or coworkers. You can
32:23
Speaker 1: capture action items, remember meeting details, and keep everyone informed.
32:27
Speaker 1: Auto dot ai works for in person or virtual meetings
32:30
Speaker 1: like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google meet. Sign up for
32:33
Speaker 1: free at auto dot ai or download the app for
32:36
Speaker 1: free auto dot Ai. That's O T T E R
32:39
Speaker 1: dot Ai. Welcome back to money Making Conversations with your host,
32:43
Speaker 1: Rashaan McDonald. My next gigs is Michael Scholson. The Showson Collected.
32:48
Speaker 1: That's what we're gonna talk about today is the restaurant
32:50
Speaker 1: empire that's built in his vision and has made him
32:52
Speaker 1: want of Philadelphia's most successful hospitality professionals. We also discussed
32:57
Speaker 1: COVID eighteen. When you're in the restaurant business, you have
32:59
Speaker 1: to bring up that whole thing. But most importantly we
33:02
Speaker 1: talk about he's made these business adjustments because we're hear
33:05
Speaker 1: about it on the news. You can hear about how
33:07
Speaker 1: the you know, social distancing, limiting and sometimes even shutting
33:11
Speaker 1: down service in the restaurant business has been overtly affected
33:15
Speaker 1: by COVID nineteen. But more importantly, during this period of
33:18
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen where everybody in the world, including me, was
33:21
Speaker 1: gaining weight, Michael decided it was time to lose thirty
33:24
Speaker 1: five hounds. So we're gonna learn about that, and he
33:26
Speaker 1: did it in less than three months. So please welcome
33:28
Speaker 1: to Michael Money Making Conversations, my good friend, Michael Scholtzen.
33:32
Speaker 1: How you doing, Michael, good good, Thanks for having me on.
33:35
Speaker 1: How are you doing well? You know, you know, I'm
33:37
Speaker 1: a big I'm a big restaurant guy. Really, let me
33:39
Speaker 1: get personal a little bit about COVID ninteen and uh
33:42
Speaker 1: my wife. I have a wife, and I have a
33:44
Speaker 1: lovely daughter who's wrapping up college years and you know,
33:47
Speaker 1: at least once or twice a week, we will always
33:49
Speaker 1: go to one of our favorite restaurants, and COVID hit
33:53
Speaker 1: and uh it just like the world. It flipped us
33:55
Speaker 1: all and gave us a new approach to the whole
33:58
Speaker 1: business accurate. In fact, my wife's deal will not go
34:01
Speaker 1: to an audoor restaurant. And she still, you know, we
34:03
Speaker 1: can do take away, take out and curveside, but she
34:06
Speaker 1: will not go in a restaurant. And with that, I
34:08
Speaker 1: was want to open up the whole journey of being
34:11
Speaker 1: shut down if you could share with us the shock
34:14
Speaker 1: of how COVID ainteen, how you kind of built your
34:17
Speaker 1: way out of it and started read I guess, I
34:19
Speaker 1: guess reassessing a new way of doing business moving forward
34:23
Speaker 1: with your shows and collective empire. Yeah. So when we
34:27
Speaker 1: first tarned about it, the thought process was like, Okay,
34:30
Speaker 1: we're gonna have two or three weeks of something will
34:32
Speaker 1: be shut down, um, and then we'll go from there
34:35
Speaker 1: and see how it goes. And unfortunately three weeks has
34:39
Speaker 1: turned into two over a year now, so we're every
34:44
Speaker 1: day it's kind of a new lesson and what we're
34:46
Speaker 1: gonna do, and we're big into setting goals for ourselves
34:49
Speaker 1: here as a company. The first goal was to make
34:52
Speaker 1: sure to just take care of everyone, to be safe
34:55
Speaker 1: and set up systems where people felt comfortable, whether it
34:57
Speaker 1: was coming to work, um, whether they didn't have food
35:00
Speaker 1: and they needed food. Whatever our resources were. Is to
35:03
Speaker 1: take care of the employees. And that was kind of
35:06
Speaker 1: the beginning, and as we kind of progress through the process,
35:10
Speaker 1: it was Okay, we kind of see this is it's
35:13
Speaker 1: not gonna be a money making thing, unfortunately. It's about
35:16
Speaker 1: survival and getting to the other side. And we kind
35:19
Speaker 1: of put in some goals for ourselves if what does
35:21
Speaker 1: it look like for us when we get to the
35:23
Speaker 1: other side. The biggest goal that we put in there
35:26
Speaker 1: was to have the best people that we could possibly
35:29
Speaker 1: have working for us, and that has kind of been
35:32
Speaker 1: our our whole theme during this. We've hired some new people,
35:35
Speaker 1: we've hired some better people. Um. The good thing about this,
35:39
Speaker 1: unfortunately is unemployment. You think about what the unemployment rate
35:43
Speaker 1: was going into this and now what it is on
35:46
Speaker 1: the other side of it, and if we could hire
35:48
Speaker 1: good people to come out of this, we're going to
35:51
Speaker 1: be a better company at the end than when we were.
35:53
Speaker 1: When we started, and that's kind of what our goal
35:55
Speaker 1: has been through. It really is because you know there
35:57
Speaker 1: are a lot of them. I'm not trying to get
36:00
Speaker 1: any financials or anything like that. He's just talking about
36:02
Speaker 1: the attitude and the approach to this because when I
36:05
Speaker 1: invite people on money making conversation, not just want other
36:08
Speaker 1: people to know that other people, whether it's successful or
36:11
Speaker 1: they're small individual entrepreneurs, they were impacted by COVID eighteen.
36:15
Speaker 1: And we all have different stories and how we will
36:17
Speaker 1: impact it also affects how we can be successful. Now
36:21
Speaker 1: from a personal standpoint, can you walk us through those
36:24
Speaker 1: steps how you and your and your immediate family was
36:27
Speaker 1: dealing with COVID nineteen before you can go back to
36:30
Speaker 1: the first first it was, I mean our immediate family
36:32
Speaker 1: when we were in knee deeperness was dred employees UM.
36:37
Speaker 1: And now we're down to about we're back up to
36:38
Speaker 1: about five now and our college to get again UM.
36:42
Speaker 1: So it was to protect everybody and make everyone feel safe.
36:46
Speaker 1: And at the beginning of this, we were opening up
36:48
Speaker 1: a couple of the restaurants and giving away food to
36:50
Speaker 1: the staff for phrase so this way they can take
36:52
Speaker 1: it home and give it to their families and feed
36:54
Speaker 1: their families. So that was the first step of trying
36:56
Speaker 1: to make sure everyone has a place to go, in
36:58
Speaker 1: place to eat. UM. And then as we got through this,
37:01
Speaker 1: it was with our family. It was we have two
37:03
Speaker 1: boys fourteen years old and ten years old, UM, and
37:07
Speaker 1: it was making sure that they felt comfortable and we
37:10
Speaker 1: were being safe and wearing your mask and understanding the
37:13
Speaker 1: importance of this and getting out to the other side
37:16
Speaker 1: and not becoming computer zombies and dealing with electronics every day.
37:20
Speaker 1: And it was entertaining them and and keeping busy and
37:24
Speaker 1: doing our thing together as a family. And we made
37:27
Speaker 1: a lot of bread, we made a lot of pizza.
37:29
Speaker 1: It was kind of things that would take us a
37:31
Speaker 1: long time. I mean, I think red was that thing
37:33
Speaker 1: that's like red could be a three day process between
37:35
Speaker 1: the starter, letting it rest and letting it rise and
37:39
Speaker 1: breaking it down and baking it. So it kept us busy.
37:42
Speaker 1: But but after a while we said, like, what are
37:44
Speaker 1: we doing here? We're just gonna get into this rut
37:47
Speaker 1: of figuring it out or are we gonna have a purpose.
37:49
Speaker 1: And I'm definitely a person about purpose. Usually it's let's
37:53
Speaker 1: open a restaurant, this is our goal. Uh, let's get
37:56
Speaker 1: it going. We're gonna open the next one. So you can't, unfortunately,
37:59
Speaker 1: do that during this time. So the purpose shifted to
38:02
Speaker 1: the family and shifted to myself of I'm gonna eat better,
38:05
Speaker 1: I'm gonna exercise, I'm gonna take care of myself. Um,
38:09
Speaker 1: and we're gonna work together as a family to make
38:11
Speaker 1: sure that we're playing some board games, doing puzzles and
38:13
Speaker 1: all that stuff to entertain ourselves and not get caught
38:16
Speaker 1: up in depression and electronics. I would tell you this, Michael. Uh,
38:20
Speaker 1: you know when it when I like you, like all
38:23
Speaker 1: of America, when the COVID and eighteen hid and just
38:25
Speaker 1: not going anywhere, it's going to change the way we
38:27
Speaker 1: we have handed a lot of hygiens publicly and privately
38:30
Speaker 1: moving forward. I know I would always approach things differently.
38:33
Speaker 1: I don't think I would hug strangers like I used
38:36
Speaker 1: to come close to people that I don't know, even
38:39
Speaker 1: people I do know. I'll be cautious in my behavior.
38:42
Speaker 1: But as a leader, you know, we all look for guidance,
38:45
Speaker 1: we all and you're a leader. You're a leader of
38:47
Speaker 1: a successful collective is based out of the restaurant collective
38:49
Speaker 1: that's based out of Philadelphia, and were one of those, uh,
38:53
Speaker 1: one of those proud chields. You know there's out there
38:56
Speaker 1: a success story. I should say, how did that really
38:59
Speaker 1: affect you emotionally? When you say did you get into uh?
39:03
Speaker 1: Why me? Why now? Are you just look? I'm never
39:06
Speaker 1: that guy? I mean I'm not. I'm not a pity guy.
39:10
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to be that pitty guy. Nobody wants to
39:12
Speaker 1: be around that pitty guy. Nobody pity doesn't get you
39:16
Speaker 1: success fighting through it. And I think one of the
39:19
Speaker 1: greatest quotes I've got who it was, um said the
39:23
Speaker 1: best thing that you could do during adversity is the
39:26
Speaker 1: right thing. The second best thing that you could do
39:29
Speaker 1: is the wrong thing, And the worst thing that you
39:32
Speaker 1: could do is nothing. And I think that was kind
39:36
Speaker 1: of our message to live by. Let's try and do
39:39
Speaker 1: the right thing. If it's the wrong thing, then we'll
39:41
Speaker 1: readjust and do something else. But we're not gonna sit
39:45
Speaker 1: around do nothing and have a pity party and just
39:47
Speaker 1: sit here and life stinks. Um, We're all dealing with it.
39:51
Speaker 1: It was the reality of the situation. COVID is terrible.
39:54
Speaker 1: It's not fun nobody is having fun. It's a nightmare.
39:58
Speaker 1: But how do you adjust your life to survive? Not
40:02
Speaker 1: just to survive, but you kind of have to try
40:04
Speaker 1: and thrive through it. And my wife and I would
40:07
Speaker 1: like to travel a lot, and we like to ski
40:09
Speaker 1: and do things with the kids and be outside and
40:12
Speaker 1: take trips and all that stuff. And what have we done,
40:15
Speaker 1: Like I'm not a camping guy, but we started to
40:17
Speaker 1: go to airbnbs and go camping up state New York.
40:21
Speaker 1: And we stayed in a York for the first time
40:23
Speaker 1: in my life, which I never thought I would do.
40:25
Speaker 1: We stayed on a farm, which I never thought I
40:27
Speaker 1: would do. But to do these things and just figure
40:30
Speaker 1: out how to live your life. I mean, we just
40:32
Speaker 1: drove to Bramant. The longest car out I ever did
40:34
Speaker 1: in my life was three hours. We just drove eight
40:37
Speaker 1: hours with two kids in the back. I got a
40:40
Speaker 1: hitch on the back of my car, which I never
40:41
Speaker 1: thought I would do. I mean, my friends are laughing
40:44
Speaker 1: at me, But you know what, you have to adjust
40:46
Speaker 1: and like get through this, not just survive and have
40:49
Speaker 1: a pity part. And I laughed because I was an
40:52
Speaker 1: old school road comic when I was out when I left,
40:54
Speaker 1: I be able to pursue left IBM to be a
40:56
Speaker 1: standard comedian, and I was on the road, so I
40:59
Speaker 1: know about those uh eight ten hour Johnson did, but
41:02
Speaker 1: I didn't have two kids in the back, okay. And
41:05
Speaker 1: that's the different story of the restaurant. The restaurant. The
41:07
Speaker 1: restaurant stops. You know, when you can go from four
41:10
Speaker 1: or five hours, they want to stop, they want to complain,
41:13
Speaker 1: And I think that's what it's about. It's about it's
41:15
Speaker 1: about persevering and getting to the other side. And UM
41:19
Speaker 1: have goals. I mean, what am I gonna sit here
41:21
Speaker 1: and yell at the gun? I mean, you can't. We
41:23
Speaker 1: can't sit here. Everyone wants to yell at the cities
41:26
Speaker 1: or the states or or the federal government. You're not
41:29
Speaker 1: doing enough. You're not doing this, you're not doing that.
41:32
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to suggest that I disagree or agree.
41:36
Speaker 1: What I am gonna tell you is the only person
41:38
Speaker 1: who could control what you do is you. And that's
41:42
Speaker 1: kind of the goal, is to get control what you
41:44
Speaker 1: could do, do the best of your ability, and don't
41:48
Speaker 1: sit there at the end of the day going I
41:50
Speaker 1: wish I would have, right, Really, I'm talking to Michael
41:55
Speaker 1: schultzon UH the Showson collected with restaurant chain, which is
41:58
Speaker 1: based out of It's a chain because he has It's
42:01
Speaker 1: not like a burger king because he had a lot
42:02
Speaker 1: of different restaurants. Let's talk about the whole creative process
42:06
Speaker 1: of doing so many different styles and not being a chain. Well,
42:09
Speaker 1: you know, going one location you get the same thing.
42:12
Speaker 1: Why the versatility, why the different approaches to these different restaurants.
42:15
Speaker 1: You know, some people call me an idiot for doing it.
42:18
Speaker 1: I don't have it figured out. It's like you figure
42:22
Speaker 1: out the business model, you like, put it in a box,
42:27
Speaker 1: and then you do it again and again and again
42:30
Speaker 1: and again, and it's just like right across level Field
42:33
Speaker 1: and they nail it. Um the US creative people and
42:37
Speaker 1: people who have passionate about what we do in terms
42:40
Speaker 1: of creating something that's unique and different. That's why we
42:45
Speaker 1: do this. We we just have this passion of creating
42:48
Speaker 1: an experience and we like I like to say, it
42:50
Speaker 1: transports the customer to a different place and they feel special.
42:55
Speaker 1: And I think that that's why COVID has been so
42:58
Speaker 1: hard is people don't feel like they're being transported anymore.
43:01
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel like, it's this unique experience and that's
43:05
Speaker 1: what we like to do and here here at the collective.
43:07
Speaker 1: And I think the thing that people miss often is
43:11
Speaker 1: the concept doesn't come first. The space comes first. And
43:14
Speaker 1: you can look at a space and it doesn't speak
43:16
Speaker 1: to a pub, it doesn't speak to a French restaurant.
43:20
Speaker 1: So you kind of have to see the space. You
43:22
Speaker 1: look around, you see what you feel. You come up
43:24
Speaker 1: with these ideas and then it's like okay, then you
43:26
Speaker 1: plug away and figure out what's next. But each one
43:29
Speaker 1: has a different uh you know, profit margin or profit
43:32
Speaker 1: and loss margin. So that's what I guess when people say, okay, hi,
43:35
Speaker 1: how can you define success when you know you can
43:38
Speaker 1: put state restaurant has a different uh profit margin versus
43:43
Speaker 1: a Chinese restaurant. I'm just using an example or text
43:46
Speaker 1: mex restaurant and all those proper margin different. How do
43:49
Speaker 1: you balance that? Michael, Look, I think you have to
43:52
Speaker 1: take each one individually. Um. I think sometimes some of
43:56
Speaker 1: the things that that's more challenging is the smaller the restaurant,
43:59
Speaker 1: the there it is to create a larger profit margin,
44:02
Speaker 1: which people don't realize. But the other difficulty with that
44:05
Speaker 1: is in order to do a bigger restaurant, you need
44:07
Speaker 1: to raise more capital. So it's like that double edged
44:11
Speaker 1: sort of do I raise more capital and money that
44:13
Speaker 1: I have to pay off via returns or am I
44:18
Speaker 1: raising less money the returns are lower? So yeah, you
44:22
Speaker 1: kind of have to figure it out that way, and
44:23
Speaker 1: you want to balance it. I mean, if you're nobody.
44:25
Speaker 1: I mean people talk about it to get into politics,
44:27
Speaker 1: but people talk about like, Okay, we're gonna raise the
44:30
Speaker 1: tax rates, we're gonna raise minimum wage, we're gonna raise
44:33
Speaker 1: all that stuff. And I always say to people who
44:36
Speaker 1: want to get in this conversation, let's not kid ourselves.
44:40
Speaker 1: People who are in business, who are operating, say at
44:42
Speaker 1: a ten percent margin, if they raise taxes and they
44:47
Speaker 1: raise employment, payroll and they raise all that stuff, we're
44:51
Speaker 1: not going to operate a two We're gonna still operate
44:55
Speaker 1: a ten percent. And something is going to be cut
44:59
Speaker 1: if you want to. It is a minimum wage to
45:01
Speaker 1: fifteen dollars an hour, Like okay, but but let's be realistic,
45:04
Speaker 1: like you're not gonna have two employees to do that job.
45:06
Speaker 1: You're gonna have one employee to do or the guests
45:09
Speaker 1: is gonna have to pay twice as much to get
45:11
Speaker 1: that food. The the operator or the business person or
45:15
Speaker 1: owner isn't gonna let it hit their pockets totally. Now
45:20
Speaker 1: when we talk about the whole process, because in my mind,
45:23
Speaker 1: you know, for a restaurant business, like because you're not
45:27
Speaker 1: a casual restaurant business, you know, and so the whole
45:30
Speaker 1: take out of the whole curve side experience wasn't part
45:34
Speaker 1: of the business model before COVID nineteen. How is that
45:38
Speaker 1: settling into your business model now? Well, I think I
45:41
Speaker 1: think for us, our business model is there is design,
45:46
Speaker 1: there's service, yeah, lighting which creates this beautiful ambiance, okay. Um,
45:53
Speaker 1: you have music, which creates this other piece of the
45:56
Speaker 1: ambiance okay, and then you have food. Right, So if
46:00
Speaker 1: you take all of those pieces, those five pieces, the
46:03
Speaker 1: only one that you could put in a box is food.
46:07
Speaker 1: So if you think about a business model of like,
46:10
Speaker 1: only one fit of the things that we do well
46:13
Speaker 1: can translate to a house, and that's not even going
46:15
Speaker 1: to translate into the house as well, it's a really
46:18
Speaker 1: difficult situation for us. So, I mean it's pivoting in
46:22
Speaker 1: terms of, um, what what we put into that box,
46:26
Speaker 1: the type of box that we use um but honestly,
46:30
Speaker 1: like we we haven't made a huge push to get
46:33
Speaker 1: into that takeout delivery because I just think that it
46:36
Speaker 1: really destroys the brand. And as you know, it's like
46:40
Speaker 1: you your brand is is something that you could never recreate. Well,
46:44
Speaker 1: once you get that negative opinion on that or that
46:48
Speaker 1: piece on that, you're screwed. Well, you know it's really uh.
46:51
Speaker 1: I have to agree with you, Michael. You know, I
46:53
Speaker 1: was just so my wife and I we have a
46:56
Speaker 1: favorite restaurant. We well, tell your restaurant we go to,
46:59
Speaker 1: and of course she doesn't want to go in the restaurant,
47:01
Speaker 1: so we did. We did curbside and well when we
47:04
Speaker 1: picked it up and and brought it home again and
47:07
Speaker 1: for the second time in a row, it didn't taste
47:09
Speaker 1: like the experience that we had in the restaurant, and
47:12
Speaker 1: I had to tell the last like hebe you know,
47:14
Speaker 1: when we get it, it's usually warmer, you know, usually
47:17
Speaker 1: dealing with a nice atmosphere. Were having a conversation, there's
47:21
Speaker 1: a lot of people around. It feels, you know, like
47:23
Speaker 1: you're saying, I have to agree with you, Michael, because
47:26
Speaker 1: a lot of things go goes into the food experience.
47:29
Speaker 1: Sometimes people want the romance. Sometimes people want the the music,
47:33
Speaker 1: the loudness, the activity. I'm an activity guy. I like.
47:37
Speaker 1: I like to walk into a bustling. I like to
47:39
Speaker 1: play with the waiter or waitress. You know. I'd like
47:42
Speaker 1: to have a relationship with that person. And I like
47:44
Speaker 1: to be around people who are talking. And that's lost
47:48
Speaker 1: if you do a curbside so so. But it all
47:51
Speaker 1: comes back to the food. The food did not taste
47:54
Speaker 1: like the same experience I have when I go into
47:57
Speaker 1: that restaurant. It's one of our favorite restaurants. And that's
47:59
Speaker 1: all us right now. Rich we can do that, but
48:02
Speaker 1: something's gonna be missing, and you don't want to be
48:05
Speaker 1: victimized by the missing part of saying your food quality
48:08
Speaker 1: has changed all the experiences you think about it. You
48:11
Speaker 1: look at the food. It comes out on a plate, right,
48:14
Speaker 1: you're not doing anything too, and you don't have to
48:16
Speaker 1: clean it up. You have great music, you have great lighting,
48:19
Speaker 1: you have great ambiance, you're in energy like all of
48:22
Speaker 1: those pieces are part of the puzzle. When you take that,
48:25
Speaker 1: you have to literally get in your car, you drive
48:27
Speaker 1: to the place, you get home, you take it out,
48:29
Speaker 1: you open it up, it doesn't look as good as
48:31
Speaker 1: it looked on a plate. You have to put it
48:33
Speaker 1: on a plate. You have to get your silverware out.
48:36
Speaker 1: Your kids are yelling and screaming because they're hungry, like
48:39
Speaker 1: something has missed, something's not at your disposal. It's just
48:42
Speaker 1: like the whole process is just lost. And by the
48:45
Speaker 1: time you eat the food, you're like, yeah, this isn't
48:48
Speaker 1: working for me right. And you know, first of all,
48:51
Speaker 1: you you hit so many positive nerves would be right
48:53
Speaker 1: now because I experienced this last night, Michael, and I'm
48:56
Speaker 1: going like I put the pepper on the pizza, I
48:58
Speaker 1: put the I was you, and again it was you know,
49:03
Speaker 1: I'll pull up. I'm setting it up myself. So I've
49:05
Speaker 1: lost some of the ambiance because I'm doing all the work.
49:08
Speaker 1: And you know for a fact, when you do all
49:10
Speaker 1: the work, you're gonna do it or whatever style, whatever
49:13
Speaker 1: gets whatever gets the job done, you're gonna do it.
49:15
Speaker 1: You've lost all standards of service for yourself. And that
49:19
Speaker 1: that's really funny because like I said when I when
49:22
Speaker 1: I pushed the idea, and I'm always talking to different
49:24
Speaker 1: people about how they are trying to be successful with
49:26
Speaker 1: their business. But you're the first person I've talked to it.
49:29
Speaker 1: They really hit a button with me to say, Riso,
49:33
Speaker 1: the problem you have it is that curve side work.
49:36
Speaker 1: But you lost the experience when your turn affected high
49:39
Speaker 1: and joined the food. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I
49:42
Speaker 1: say to my business partners and I'm a chef. Okay,
49:45
Speaker 1: I've been cooking my whole life. I went to culinary school.
49:49
Speaker 1: I worked in restaurants, some of the top restaurants in America.
49:52
Speaker 1: I worked in Japan. Blah blah blah. Okay, there's three
49:55
Speaker 1: elements to a restaurant. Okay. There's food, there's service, and
50:00
Speaker 1: there's design. Okay, I'm gonna ask you this question. I'm
50:04
Speaker 1: a chef. What's the most important piece in my mind? Food?
50:08
Speaker 1: To me, no design? What's the second most important in
50:14
Speaker 1: my mind? I'm a chef. Well, when when you say service,
50:20
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna tell your food is third. And I'm
50:21
Speaker 1: gonna tell you why you walk into a design service
50:24
Speaker 1: then food, design, service, food and that one walking to
50:28
Speaker 1: a restaurant. It's the most beautiful restaurant in the world.
50:31
Speaker 1: It's fun, there's like great people in there. You're having
50:35
Speaker 1: a great time. It's energetic, the hospitality is off the
50:38
Speaker 1: charts and you're like, oh my god, Like, I'm playing
50:41
Speaker 1: with this server. The server was awesome. I'm having such
50:43
Speaker 1: a great time. I'm smiling. You get the food, you're
50:46
Speaker 1: with your friends, You're like, it's okay, it's okay. You
50:49
Speaker 1: walk out, You're like, wow, I had a great time.
50:51
Speaker 1: The place was good looking, it was fun, it was awesome. Okay,
50:55
Speaker 1: are you going back? Wow? You know you're going back? Well,
51:02
Speaker 1: this is web called of right now, Michael, because you
51:05
Speaker 1: hit me in the jaw right now because I lost
51:09
Speaker 1: the design and I lost the service when I did
51:13
Speaker 1: curve side and and guess what, I don't want to
51:16
Speaker 1: do that anymore. I don't want to go back and
51:19
Speaker 1: have that experience because I don't know. So so it's
51:23
Speaker 1: left a bad tasted my mom because it's happened two
51:25
Speaker 1: times in a row. So so you're fighting for that.
51:28
Speaker 1: Has it been successful for you? Look, it's nothing is
51:32
Speaker 1: successful right now? I mean to be the definition of
51:35
Speaker 1: success is survival and getting to the other side. Um,
51:39
Speaker 1: we're not. I mean our food isn't doesn't translate into takeout.
51:42
Speaker 1: Most of our restaurants, I mean, the only one that
51:44
Speaker 1: we have that really works for takeout that people get
51:47
Speaker 1: take out of is sushi. I mean, if you think
51:49
Speaker 1: about takeout, it's like we want some pizza, we want
51:52
Speaker 1: some sushi, we want some burgers. Like you find that
51:56
Speaker 1: Italian restaurant, You're never gonna compete with the local Italian
52:00
Speaker 1: a place that does chicken farm for twelve dollars, So
52:03
Speaker 1: like why why try and compete with them? Like it's
52:06
Speaker 1: just gonna lose. It's a losing mob. So you know,
52:08
Speaker 1: when you talk about ambiance, you talked about the experience,
52:11
Speaker 1: you talk about servers, your your time you spend in Japan,
52:14
Speaker 1: talk to us about that because this seems like it
52:16
Speaker 1: shaped a lot of your vebes. So so for me,
52:19
Speaker 1: living in Japan was just the most amazing experience. I
52:21
Speaker 1: worked at the Spotto over there in the four seasons,
52:24
Speaker 1: and it wasn't necessarily about working in those restaurants. To me,
52:29
Speaker 1: it was about understanding the culture. And once you understand
52:33
Speaker 1: culture of what something is, you could create something here
52:37
Speaker 1: in the States that that feels authentic. And I think
52:41
Speaker 1: that's what people are really looking for in today's society.
52:44
Speaker 1: They want something that feels authentic um and not like
52:48
Speaker 1: it's contrived or made up. Or or just or Disney
52:53
Speaker 1: World or something they wanted to feel authentic. Um, and
52:56
Speaker 1: that's probably what we do really well, and I think
52:59
Speaker 1: it's really important to us. Is a business, Well it
53:02
Speaker 1: works for me. Now. Before we got on there, I
53:05
Speaker 1: brought up the fact that, uh, you know, doing COVID hit.
53:08
Speaker 1: You know, I'm at the house and my wife is
53:10
Speaker 1: asking me what I want for breakfast, what I want
53:12
Speaker 1: for lunch, And I'm gonna tell you, I'm kind of
53:14
Speaker 1: a one and a half meal a day guy. So
53:17
Speaker 1: finally I was eating a breakfast and then a lunch
53:20
Speaker 1: and a dinner, and all of a sudden I realized
53:23
Speaker 1: I was gaining weight, and I went, hold up, hold a,
53:27
Speaker 1: holda hold on, hold over. We gotta cut out one
53:29
Speaker 1: of these meals. So I got rid of the because
53:31
Speaker 1: usually what I do, Michael, I get up, I get
53:33
Speaker 1: up at four o'clock Monday to Friday, get up at
53:34
Speaker 1: four o'clock, and so usually I eat about about ten
53:37
Speaker 1: and eleven o'clock. And she had me eating about eight
53:40
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, and then she came back with
53:42
Speaker 1: another meal a right noontime, and then she wrapped up
53:45
Speaker 1: the third meal about six o'clock. Now, then I switched
53:48
Speaker 1: this story because here you are about to embarrass me
53:52
Speaker 1: because instead of gaining way, you lost thirty five pounds
53:55
Speaker 1: and three months during the COVID, this COVID timeline. Let's
53:59
Speaker 1: talk what made you do that? And what was the motivation.
54:02
Speaker 1: Did you gave weight and you said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
54:04
Speaker 1: I'm gonna lose weight. What was the motivation? Yeah? So
54:07
Speaker 1: so for me, it's we do restaurants, and we're opening
54:10
Speaker 1: a lot of restaurants, and in restaurants, you're obviously tasting
54:13
Speaker 1: tons of food every day. So when I'm able to
54:16
Speaker 1: eliminate the tasting of food, that was just a huge
54:19
Speaker 1: starter for me. The other pieces pre COVID, I mean
54:22
Speaker 1: we had we had fourteen restaurants, we were looking open more,
54:25
Speaker 1: we were we were burning it all hours of the day,
54:28
Speaker 1: and finding time to go to the gym was just
54:30
Speaker 1: a nightmare. So I started to eat well, I ate
54:34
Speaker 1: the right foods. I stopped the tastings. I started to
54:36
Speaker 1: exercise more. UM and it was figuring out. I mean
54:40
Speaker 1: everyone has these diets that are like they're literally like
54:43
Speaker 1: this um, like I'm gonna do with this juice in
54:47
Speaker 1: the morning and I'm gonna starve myself and then I'm
54:49
Speaker 1: gonna eat it now like everyone has something for me,
54:52
Speaker 1: it was finding something where it's just like eating well,
54:55
Speaker 1: eating at the right times, and exercising. And the key
54:59
Speaker 1: keeping in there is the exercising as long as you're exercising.
55:02
Speaker 1: And I'm not a big runner. I don't enjoy running.
55:06
Speaker 1: I find it exhausting. So I would literally do a
55:08
Speaker 1: mile on the treadmill in the morning, and then I
55:10
Speaker 1: would do a mile on the treadmill at night. I
55:12
Speaker 1: put some weights in there and I was good to go.
55:15
Speaker 1: So you you work out like me? That's me now
55:19
Speaker 1: with somehow my show has become a nice haven for
55:23
Speaker 1: to talk two shifts. So the Roco comes on my show, Uh,
55:26
Speaker 1: Donna Teller comes on my show, and just to name
55:28
Speaker 1: a few, sandwich soon comes on my show, and now
55:31
Speaker 1: are you on my show? When I get the word
55:33
Speaker 1: eat whale, see, I need to define to me what
55:37
Speaker 1: does that mean when you say eating whale? Eating well?
55:41
Speaker 1: To me, it is clean. I think it's it's for breakfast.
55:43
Speaker 1: I think it's eating some yogurts, some barrious period and
55:46
Speaker 1: the in the conversation having a coffee and not putting
55:50
Speaker 1: creamer in there and sugars in there, Like I put
55:52
Speaker 1: a little non dairy creamer in there. Fine for launch.
55:55
Speaker 1: It's like, have a nice salad, maybe you're cheating on
55:58
Speaker 1: some dressing, have a grill, piece of chicken, have some
56:00
Speaker 1: grilled shrimp, doing whatever you want dinnertime, having normal meal,
56:04
Speaker 1: having normal meal, have some carbo hydrates, have some vegetables,
56:07
Speaker 1: have some fruits. But to me, eating well is like
56:10
Speaker 1: you're eating a little cleaner. You're not depriving yourself. Your
56:13
Speaker 1: portion size is normal, meaning like you're not having sixteen
56:16
Speaker 1: ounces of steak, you're having six to eight, and you're
56:19
Speaker 1: not eating past eight o'clock. It depends on what time
56:22
Speaker 1: you go to bed, but like seven or eight o'clock
56:24
Speaker 1: should be in. Like, if you're done at seven eight o'clock,
56:29
Speaker 1: give up the beg of a tady chips, give up
56:31
Speaker 1: the swedes, give up the sugars. Like I guarantee you
56:35
Speaker 1: you will lose weight. Well, you know I naturally drink
56:39
Speaker 1: a lot of water. I know we're not getting into it.
56:41
Speaker 1: I know you're not a diet expert, Michael, but you
56:43
Speaker 1: know we're talking about losing weight. So, Mike, thirty five
56:48
Speaker 1: pounds and three much you kind of you kind of
56:51
Speaker 1: level it into a diet expert range and you like
56:53
Speaker 1: to say what and I drink you want to naturally.
56:55
Speaker 1: But I'm a big dessert guy. I I eat by
56:57
Speaker 1: dessert before my meals. It's done. People, I go to
57:00
Speaker 1: the restaurant. I come to a restaurant and say, excuse me,
57:03
Speaker 1: can you give me the the dissert menu before I
57:05
Speaker 1: start arguing my meal. I'm that guy. I'm that guy
57:08
Speaker 1: and so so a person like me who enjoys desserts.
57:11
Speaker 1: What does that play out in your menu world? In
57:14
Speaker 1: your restaurant world? Am I gonna come to your restaurant,
57:17
Speaker 1: Michael and be like, man, you got the dessert from me?
57:20
Speaker 1: Are you more of an You can't. This is the
57:24
Speaker 1: problem with all diets, right. Everyone wants to go on
57:27
Speaker 1: this extreme diet, like you can't stop eating, like if
57:30
Speaker 1: they give you a cho I mean, you go to
57:32
Speaker 1: these restaurants and half these restaurants are enough for three people,
57:37
Speaker 1: and people are eating the whole cake. So it's like
57:40
Speaker 1: eat the cake, just just have a piece of it.
57:43
Speaker 1: Have a piece of the cake. Every day. I have
57:44
Speaker 1: a piece of chocolate like chocolate is good for you. Chocolate,
57:48
Speaker 1: it's not bad for you. Berries are not bad for you.
57:50
Speaker 1: Some real ice cream is not bad for you. Have it,
57:53
Speaker 1: but you don't need a pint of ice cream. A
57:56
Speaker 1: cake like a box of cookies at a reads like
58:02
Speaker 1: that's what you need right right. But I am a
58:04
Speaker 1: guy that I will tell you, Mike, I'm a guy.
58:06
Speaker 1: You know. I think I've accidentally uh eating correctly because
58:11
Speaker 1: I'm a guy. I ordered three different things, but I
58:13
Speaker 1: won't complete the meal, so I called myself a sampler,
58:16
Speaker 1: you know. I was sample this dessert or a sample
58:19
Speaker 1: that that, uh that advertiser or that sample that meal.
58:23
Speaker 1: You know. But I'm a big bread guy. I love
58:25
Speaker 1: bread to death. I bread this type of corn bread.
58:28
Speaker 1: I love that. I love veggies. But these are things,
58:31
Speaker 1: like I said, I just accidentally eat, which I guess
58:34
Speaker 1: in a way allows me to maintain someone healthy lifestyle.
58:38
Speaker 1: But I drink a lot of water. Like you said,
58:40
Speaker 1: you held up your bottle of water. But I want
58:42
Speaker 1: to transition to because you do a lot of uh.
58:45
Speaker 1: You've hosted several competitions and these and I'm a big
58:48
Speaker 1: fan of competition shows, Michael, and so but there's always
58:53
Speaker 1: some uh winner and a loser. Winner and loser. How
58:56
Speaker 1: do you handle that in the judging process, because you
58:59
Speaker 1: know the decision that you make, you can to tell
59:03
Speaker 1: somebody to walk away from walk off the show. Listen.
59:07
Speaker 1: I teach my kids at a young age like as
59:09
Speaker 1: look like work your ass off, practice, try hard, and
59:14
Speaker 1: like if you're good enough, you're gonna win, and if
59:16
Speaker 1: there's somebody better than you, they're gonna lose. And when
59:18
Speaker 1: you're judging, it's kind of like, look like you're either winner,
59:22
Speaker 1: you lose. I mean this whole thing where everybody gets
59:24
Speaker 1: a trophy today and like kids come home and you
59:26
Speaker 1: came in last place and you've got a trophy, Like
59:28
Speaker 1: like it's b s. It's not teaching people to be
59:32
Speaker 1: able to lose. People ask me all the time you
59:35
Speaker 1: play games with your kids, like do you lose on purpose? No,
59:37
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lose on purpose. Why would I do that?
59:40
Speaker 1: You need to teach them like practice, practice, practice, and
59:45
Speaker 1: like when you do all of those things, you'll figure
59:47
Speaker 1: it out. And it's the same thing with cooking. It's
59:49
Speaker 1: like there are gonna be people who are better than
59:51
Speaker 1: me of cooking and you may lose, but it is
59:54
Speaker 1: what it is. And and look, one of the biggest
59:56
Speaker 1: one of the questions that I always ask you is
59:59
Speaker 1: in interviews that us to do with that is what
1:00:02
Speaker 1: do you not allow in your life? Is it harder
1:00:05
Speaker 1: for you? Is it which is true? For you? I
1:00:07
Speaker 1: hate to lose or I'd love to win. And for me,
1:00:13
Speaker 1: the answer is I hate to lose lose. Losing is
1:00:16
Speaker 1: just not an answer, like I expect to leave. So
1:00:20
Speaker 1: winning when I win, it's like, Okay, let me get
1:00:22
Speaker 1: up again and play again, let me play again. But
1:00:24
Speaker 1: when I lose, I'm curious. And I think that's kind
1:00:28
Speaker 1: of just a mentality of people. Before we go, I
1:00:31
Speaker 1: want to talk about you have a new restaurant concept
1:00:33
Speaker 1: opening in Philadelphic called Midtown Village. Tell us about that
1:00:37
Speaker 1: and why now? Yeah, so we're so so it's interesting.
1:00:40
Speaker 1: And you spoke about what happens during COVID. I mean,
1:00:43
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of restaurants that are going out
1:00:45
Speaker 1: of business. I think our business model used to be
1:00:48
Speaker 1: take a space and build out a restaurant. It would
1:00:51
Speaker 1: cost us a thousands of dollars of square foot to
1:00:54
Speaker 1: build it out. Now our business model has shifted. We
1:00:57
Speaker 1: can get restaurants that have clothes, and we could spend
1:01:00
Speaker 1: three hundreds of five hundreds of square foot on some
1:01:04
Speaker 1: really good opportunities. Because COVID is gonna be over, We're
1:01:07
Speaker 1: going to get to the other side. So here are
1:01:10
Speaker 1: some opportunities that we have, and one of them is
1:01:12
Speaker 1: it's in an area called Midtown Village. It's gonna be
1:01:15
Speaker 1: uh the name isn't known yet, We're not sure the name,
1:01:18
Speaker 1: but it's gonna be a U boutique pizza place, brick
1:01:21
Speaker 1: up and pizza with some uh lots of seasonal vegetables,
1:01:24
Speaker 1: seasonales and stuff like that. So it's more casual dining. Yeah,
1:01:29
Speaker 1: definitely more casual. Think that's kind of where people are
1:01:32
Speaker 1: going right now in terms of the COVID. I'm not
1:01:36
Speaker 1: looking to do any fancy, high end restaurants right now,
1:01:39
Speaker 1: but if you could get some casual places in now,
1:01:41
Speaker 1: like I think we're good. Cool and Michael, thank you
1:01:44
Speaker 1: man for coming on myne to make conversations. I hope
1:01:46
Speaker 1: you come back for the skinny here. I don't know
1:01:48
Speaker 1: if I want you coming back skin here though, Can
1:01:50
Speaker 1: we stay there? I appreciate you may enjoy yourself and
1:01:54
Speaker 1: I definitely tell them since I come to Philadelphia a
1:01:57
Speaker 1: lot because I represents Steven A. Smifflin. We always in
1:02:00
Speaker 1: an area in New Jersey, New York area, and I
1:02:02
Speaker 1: love to drop bys. So if okay, okay, appreciate to
1:02:07
Speaker 1: Michael stay strong. There's a monumental shift in power at work.
1:02:12
Speaker 1: Employees are speaking up. Turnover is rising, salaries are increasing,
1:02:17
Speaker 1: hiring is tough, and burnout is real. It's time to
1:02:22
Speaker 1: unleash growth. It's time to transform your HR from powerless
1:02:26
Speaker 1: to powerful. Join a DP on February. Reserve your spot now,
1:02:33
Speaker 1: go to get the Plan dot IDP dot com to
1:02:35
Speaker 1: register for the Work Interrupted Summit. And we're live here
1:02:40
Speaker 1: outside the Perez family home, just waiting for the and
1:02:44
Speaker 1: there they go, almost on time. This morning, Mom is
1:02:47
Speaker 1: coming out the front door strong with a double arm
1:02:49
Speaker 1: kid carry. Looks like dad has the bags. Daughter is
1:02:52
Speaker 1: bringing up the rear. Oh, but the diaper bag wasn't closed.
1:02:56
Speaker 1: Diapers and toys are everywhere. But mom has just nailed
1:03:02
Speaker 1: the perfect car seat buckle for the toddler. And now
1:03:05
Speaker 1: the eldest daughter, who looks to be about nine or ten,
1:03:08
Speaker 1: has secured herself in the booster seat. Dad zips the
1:03:11
Speaker 1: bad clothes and they're off, But looks like Mom doesn't
1:03:15
Speaker 1: realize her coffee cup is still on the roof of
1:03:17
Speaker 1: the car and there it goes. Oh, that's a shame
1:03:21
Speaker 1: that mug was a fan favorite. Don't sweat the small stuff,
1:03:25
Speaker 1: just nailed the big stuff, like making sure your kids
1:03:27
Speaker 1: are buckled correctly in the right seat for their agent's eyes.
1:03:29
Speaker 1: Learn more n h t s a dot gov slash
1:03:31
Speaker 1: the Right Seat visits a dot gov slash the Right
1:03:36
Speaker 1: Seat brought to you by NITZA and the AD Council. Hi, everyone,
1:03:40
Speaker 1: Al Roker here as a guy with his own catchphrase.
1:03:42
Speaker 1: I appreciate that Smokey's only said only you can prevent wildfires,
1:03:47
Speaker 1: but I'm filling in because there's a lot more to report,
1:03:50
Speaker 1: like when they're parched her windy conditions out there, you
1:03:53
Speaker 1: gotta be extra careful with things like burning yard waist.
1:03:57
Speaker 1: After all, wildfires can start anywhere, even in your neck
1:04:00
Speaker 1: of the woods. So to Smokey Bear dot com to
1:04:03
Speaker 1: learn more about wildfire prevention, brought to you by the U. S.
1:04:06
Speaker 1: Forest Service, your state Forester, and the AD Council. So
1:04:09
Speaker 1: I got a couple of industry decision makers. As my
1:04:11
Speaker 1: next guest, they are Jessica Myers and Devon Reeves. Since
1:04:15
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, principals Jessica Myers and Devon Reeves have acquired
1:04:20
Speaker 1: more than fourteen million dollars in commercial real estate assets,
1:04:24
Speaker 1: where they focus on hotels and multifamily structures. The firm
1:04:28
Speaker 1: works with passive investors seeking attractive, long term investment strategies
1:04:32
Speaker 1: to grow their real estate portfolio. Jessica, who's a proud
1:04:36
Speaker 1: member of a k A Africa for Afforts, have already incorporated.
1:04:40
Speaker 1: That's another word. You know you're gonna do it either way.
1:04:42
Speaker 1: You know you're gonna have to give it the whole name,
1:04:44
Speaker 1: or you're just gonna one of them things you want
1:04:46
Speaker 1: to say. Both of them found it. Both of them
1:04:48
Speaker 1: founded Epic Collective with her friend Donna Reef. They're all
1:04:52
Speaker 1: both in based in Atlanta, Georgia, where my show Money
1:04:55
Speaker 1: Making Conversations originalates. They will be discussing how to raise
1:04:58
Speaker 1: capital and how to buy a hotel, something I've never
1:05:01
Speaker 1: thought of. My love, I just bought a building. Now,
1:05:03
Speaker 1: trying to buy a hotel is not even closely in
1:05:06
Speaker 1: my whole brain process. Please work with the money making
1:05:09
Speaker 1: conversation Jessica Myers A k A and Devar Reeves. Hi, Hi,
1:05:15
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having us. We're so excited
1:05:18
Speaker 1: to be here. Well, thank you very much. Ms Reeve.
1:05:20
Speaker 1: Let's start out with you. You know, I put all
1:05:22
Speaker 1: that a k A love all on Jessica. I gotta
1:05:24
Speaker 1: move my love of you, just letting you know, you
1:05:26
Speaker 1: know you're just as important to me as well. You know,
1:05:28
Speaker 1: I'm just a member of O Maga Side five fraternity,
1:05:30
Speaker 1: so I always got a shipped right. We're not Greek,
1:05:35
Speaker 1: but my my, my dad, he's a he's a proud
1:05:38
Speaker 1: he's a he's a big fan of Pepon. So how
1:05:40
Speaker 1: about that. I was there with the mothership landed, So
1:05:47
Speaker 1: I'm all right with your dad. I'm all right with
1:05:49
Speaker 1: your dad. Those a little background about yourself, Devar, oh sure, Well,
1:05:52
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having us for sh My
1:05:54
Speaker 1: name is a Dave and Reeves. I've actually been in
1:05:56
Speaker 1: a hotel industry for over fourteen years. I got my
1:06:00
Speaker 1: start off as a front desk agent. Uh so my
1:06:03
Speaker 1: background includes operations, eat ability studies, asset management and now
1:06:09
Speaker 1: I can add hotel owner. Now hotel owner, you just
1:06:12
Speaker 1: throw that out there so casually, and uh, I don't
1:06:15
Speaker 1: have a clue as to what that means. I bought
1:06:18
Speaker 1: a car, I bought a boat, I bought clothes on
1:06:22
Speaker 1: a regular based shoes, I bought a build it. But
1:06:25
Speaker 1: you just throwing out the word hotel like that's like
1:06:28
Speaker 1: that's something we just get on a regular basis when
1:06:30
Speaker 1: we go to a big bath and beyond or something
1:06:32
Speaker 1: like that. Well, you know what, I'm trying to educate
1:06:34
Speaker 1: people so they can do that so we can add
1:06:36
Speaker 1: hotel ownership to the conversation to realize that hotel ownership
1:06:44
Speaker 1: is actually like you're buinding into a franchise. So hotels, Hi,
1:06:48
Speaker 1: it's Marriott's Hiltons. They only own less than three percent
1:06:51
Speaker 1: of hotels in their inventory. So that opens opportunities to
1:06:54
Speaker 1: people like you and I who are continue we consider
1:06:57
Speaker 1: ourselves small businesses. Um, we can actually on hotel over
1:07:00
Speaker 1: sixty percent of the hotel in the United States are
1:07:03
Speaker 1: actually owned by small small businesses. Jessica, Should I be
1:07:07
Speaker 1: nervous to even consider the prospect of wanting to get
1:07:10
Speaker 1: into the franchising business of owning the hotel? Oh? Definitely
1:07:15
Speaker 1: definitely not, especially when you have the right team around
1:07:19
Speaker 1: you to make sure it happens. Um and that's the goal.
1:07:22
Speaker 1: We really want to change the narrative and make it
1:07:25
Speaker 1: more of a conversational piece. And that's what we hope
1:07:27
Speaker 1: to do, like blaze the trail so that you now
1:07:30
Speaker 1: can see, hey, it's attainable. It's about owning franchise opportunities.
1:07:34
Speaker 1: Look at it that simply, and that's that's really what
1:07:38
Speaker 1: we look to do, is to raise the narrative so
1:07:41
Speaker 1: that we're changing the conversation and it is something just
1:07:43
Speaker 1: like Q tips are now you know, just the thing
1:07:46
Speaker 1: that you say, I really wanted to be hotel ownerships,
1:07:48
Speaker 1: Like duh, that's that's what you do. And that's the
1:07:51
Speaker 1: importance of what we're creating with Epic Collective. Now, Epic Collective,
1:07:55
Speaker 1: that's a that's a cool name. E p i Q
1:07:57
Speaker 1: which is an interesting spelling there, and I have to
1:08:00
Speaker 1: ask why is the spelling that way? We like to
1:08:03
Speaker 1: be different, don't you think you think of E I C.
1:08:08
Speaker 1: What we're different? We're too uniquely um doing everything create
1:08:14
Speaker 1: and doing we're doing it collectively. So that's why we
1:08:16
Speaker 1: want to be unique and different. Like I just said,
1:08:19
Speaker 1: as far as you as far as that's why we
1:08:23
Speaker 1: add the queue to it. Well, it's a great thing
1:08:25
Speaker 1: about it. I'm in interviewing both of you, your ladies
1:08:28
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, coming into business. They said the
1:08:31
Speaker 1: fastest growing uh, the sector of entrepreneurships is females and
1:08:36
Speaker 1: especially African American females. So I'm looking at through too dynamic.
1:08:40
Speaker 1: I'm interviewing too dynamic ladies based out of Atlanta. So
1:08:43
Speaker 1: let's ask you this, Jessica, how did you tube connected
1:08:46
Speaker 1: to become founders and become business partners. Well, actually, we
1:08:50
Speaker 1: went to college together and we just stayed in touch
1:08:53
Speaker 1: through the years, and it came a point where we
1:08:55
Speaker 1: were both in our entrepreneurial journey. Devon and moved to Boston.
1:08:59
Speaker 1: I moved to new work, and we moved back to Atlanta,
1:09:02
Speaker 1: and I was like, Hey, let's meet up for lunch
1:09:04
Speaker 1: and then lunch day after lunch date. Before you know what,
1:09:08
Speaker 1: we're exploring dreams, were exploring visions and knowing what they
1:09:11
Speaker 1: Van was doing in the hospitality space. I started out
1:09:14
Speaker 1: as a whole seller and she would often tell me like, hey,
1:09:17
Speaker 1: you know what you're doing in the hotel whole wholesale space.
1:09:20
Speaker 1: It's still real estate. You can apply those same aspects
1:09:24
Speaker 1: of what you're doing on you know, the single family side,
1:09:26
Speaker 1: you can apply that to the commercial side. And I
1:09:29
Speaker 1: was like, oh, like because in the in the whole
1:09:31
Speaker 1: stealing space, not many people are talking about owning a hotel.
1:09:35
Speaker 1: We're doing one family at a time. But that is
1:09:38
Speaker 1: a great entry way to get into the industry, to
1:09:41
Speaker 1: learn the lingo and learn the language. But just going
1:09:44
Speaker 1: to lunch with Devon who has the hotel experience, She's like, Hey,
1:09:48
Speaker 1: you really need to start looking at these skills and
1:09:50
Speaker 1: and how to go in and and do these strategies
1:09:53
Speaker 1: so that you can acquire more units. Because she knew
1:09:55
Speaker 1: that my passion was to acquire a thousand doors, and
1:09:57
Speaker 1: she was like, doing it one door at a time
1:09:59
Speaker 1: is not effective. Hotels will allow you to do it
1:10:02
Speaker 1: even further um and collectively. So that's that's been a
1:10:07
Speaker 1: part of our journey. Okay, I'll be even remiss for properties.
1:10:10
Speaker 1: And from a franchising standport or you guys tied to
1:10:13
Speaker 1: right now, currently we are tied to Hilton, the Hilton franchise.
1:10:17
Speaker 1: We acquired an eighty five room um home to suites
1:10:21
Speaker 1: in Arena Oklahoma, Okay. Cool. Now comes with that is
1:10:26
Speaker 1: employment and you acquired in them assuming and uh what
1:10:29
Speaker 1: you did you acquire two thousand twenty So we acquired
1:10:33
Speaker 1: it during COVID. COVID when um so let's let's talk
1:10:39
Speaker 1: about that, you know, because you and not you like
1:10:41
Speaker 1: I bought my building during COVID, So I have been
1:10:44
Speaker 1: during down economies or when most millionaires are made. It's
1:10:47
Speaker 1: about seizing and looking for opportunity. But you have to
1:10:51
Speaker 1: as as I always say, stay ready, don't have to
1:10:53
Speaker 1: get ready. So it's like when you're already ready to
1:10:55
Speaker 1: seize the moment, you have your team around you, you're
1:10:58
Speaker 1: looking for opportunity. That's how I down market. You can
1:11:00
Speaker 1: now capitalize on those eldents. But you're in the hospitality world,
1:11:05
Speaker 1: and we know that was hit tremendously, but I always
1:11:07
Speaker 1: believe that. But you're a different hospitality because you're not
1:11:10
Speaker 1: tied to vacation and and you're not tied to results.
1:11:13
Speaker 1: You're tied to daily travelers who are on the road.
1:11:17
Speaker 1: And that never stopped, you know, the daily on the
1:11:20
Speaker 1: road travel. In fact, people travel more, increase their road
1:11:24
Speaker 1: travel and diminished their air travel. So talk about that
1:11:27
Speaker 1: whole concept of knowing and putting your business plan together
1:11:31
Speaker 1: saying you know something, we feel we're aligning ourselves with
1:11:34
Speaker 1: the right format because we're not buying a result, We're
1:11:37
Speaker 1: buying a I like to say, a business hotel. We
1:11:40
Speaker 1: deal with daily travels. They're not long term stay you
1:11:43
Speaker 1: lay day, maybe two days, or we can't stay. Is
1:11:46
Speaker 1: that part of the process and making that purchase or
1:11:49
Speaker 1: one that you should pursue. Absolutely, I actually encourage and
1:11:53
Speaker 1: what you're talking about, you're talking about limited service hotel
1:11:55
Speaker 1: and I encouraged at the first time hotel owners. And
1:11:58
Speaker 1: the reason why I encourage that because, like you mentioned,
1:12:01
Speaker 1: you know, during a downtime, during downturn, even you know
1:12:05
Speaker 1: teen years ago with the last real estate crash, the
1:12:08
Speaker 1: hospitiality industry took it hit as well, not as hard
1:12:10
Speaker 1: as this hit, but it still took a hit. And
1:12:13
Speaker 1: that's what actually got me thinking because I was actually
1:12:16
Speaker 1: working in the hotel the last downturn about ten years ago,
1:12:18
Speaker 1: and I remember jobs being lost hotels know, you know,
1:12:22
Speaker 1: hotels didn't have to close down, fortunate, but I remember
1:12:25
Speaker 1: that in that state with me and I said, you
1:12:27
Speaker 1: know what, the nat opportunity I'm gonna take advantage of that,
1:12:30
Speaker 1: and I'm looking to limited service hotels and I'm gonna
1:12:32
Speaker 1: look at those those hotels that are inside of the road.
1:12:35
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look at those people who were just you know,
1:12:37
Speaker 1: I want to drive. I want to do this and
1:12:39
Speaker 1: not necessarily focus on resorts, because the first thing that
1:12:41
Speaker 1: happens during a downturn people cut their travel budgets. That's
1:12:45
Speaker 1: the first thing. Right now, It's interesting, now you're in Oklahoma,
1:12:49
Speaker 1: you basically Atlanta. You bought a hope of the property
1:12:52
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma. How do you supervise that? How do you
1:12:55
Speaker 1: maintain quality to control of a property there's you know,
1:12:58
Speaker 1: several hundred miles away from me. Well, that's why we
1:13:01
Speaker 1: that's why we emphasized having the right team and having
1:13:05
Speaker 1: an operator on our team. They handled the day to
1:13:07
Speaker 1: day so that we can continue on about, you know,
1:13:11
Speaker 1: the operations of Epic Collective while they're there. You know,
1:13:14
Speaker 1: we don't get the calls in the middle of the
1:13:16
Speaker 1: night like, hey, this maid didn't show up for worker,
1:13:18
Speaker 1: the front nest worker is running late because we have
1:13:21
Speaker 1: an operator in place that handles that for us. I know,
1:13:25
Speaker 1: you don't want to get the call that the maid
1:13:27
Speaker 1: is late and you in Atlanta that that doesn't and
1:13:29
Speaker 1: it's on it's on sixual time zone two, so they
1:13:32
Speaker 1: don't want to get that called your eastern time zone.
1:13:34
Speaker 1: But you have to deal with putting the team together.
1:13:37
Speaker 1: I'm talking to two fantastic entrepreneurship. What exactly is your team?
1:13:43
Speaker 1: So your team would include having a broker, Your team
1:13:46
Speaker 1: would include having an operator at Jessica just mentioned, and
1:13:50
Speaker 1: also your team would include having a brand um so
1:13:54
Speaker 1: we Hilton as a party of the team. I'm also
1:13:56
Speaker 1: having a lender. So Rashan, you just mentioned how you
1:13:59
Speaker 1: purchased the building. So if you notice some of the
1:14:01
Speaker 1: concepts that we're talking about, it probably can translate into
1:14:04
Speaker 1: because of building, office building or whatever something. Building is
1:14:07
Speaker 1: still a form of commerc so the fundamentals are definitely
1:14:10
Speaker 1: the same. So having that team to help you find
1:14:13
Speaker 1: a location, uh, you know, you start out with having
1:14:15
Speaker 1: your ownership pieces. You start out with, you know, finding
1:14:18
Speaker 1: the lender and typically your broker can help you find
1:14:20
Speaker 1: a lender or working with the hotel consultant or an
1:14:23
Speaker 1: asset manager. So all of those are the key plea
1:14:26
Speaker 1: key players to help you find uh, you want to
1:14:29
Speaker 1: find a profitable hotel. So I teach hotel When I
1:14:33
Speaker 1: tell people to buy hotels, I teach people so that
1:14:35
Speaker 1: way they can become successful and profitable hotel owners and
1:14:38
Speaker 1: not just the regular hotel owner. Well, and it's really
1:14:41
Speaker 1: interesting when I'm talking to you, because it is a mindset.
1:14:44
Speaker 1: Let's go and be honest you like you said, uh,
1:14:46
Speaker 1: you know, you know when you talk about preneurs, they
1:14:50
Speaker 1: want to buy like a franchi, a casual dining franchise,
1:14:53
Speaker 1: or fast food franchise or made a made service related franchise,
1:14:58
Speaker 1: and so, but when you start talking about a building, now,
1:15:01
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just I try to have on these
1:15:03
Speaker 1: conversations of that because I can't even fanthom that process
1:15:06
Speaker 1: and so. And I know you have a history of
1:15:09
Speaker 1: hospitality service, so you've seen that the technique. And from
1:15:12
Speaker 1: the same point, Jessica, you have a wholesale But how
1:15:15
Speaker 1: does a regular person like me, even though I'm successful,
1:15:18
Speaker 1: become a person who will find interest in the type
1:15:21
Speaker 1: of long term investment opportunities that you guys provide. Well,
1:15:26
Speaker 1: as she mentioned, that's where it's important to develop your
1:15:29
Speaker 1: ownership thesis because the name of the game is cash
1:15:32
Speaker 1: flow in any industry, and it's now understanding at what
1:15:35
Speaker 1: point am I willing and looking to come in to
1:15:38
Speaker 1: this process to go ahead and get it started, which
1:15:40
Speaker 1: comes with what where where am I? Before you start
1:15:43
Speaker 1: a destination or if we we set off to go
1:15:46
Speaker 1: to a road trip to New York, you really want
1:15:49
Speaker 1: to find out, well where am I right now? I'm
1:15:51
Speaker 1: in Georgia, I'm in Atlanta, and now I can build
1:15:53
Speaker 1: the road to success. So that's what she meant as
1:15:55
Speaker 1: far as um the ownership thesis and understanding where is
1:15:59
Speaker 1: it that you are right? Tools do you have access
1:16:01
Speaker 1: to which will help to determine where it is that
1:16:03
Speaker 1: you're looking to go and grow in your cash flow journey. Well,
1:16:07
Speaker 1: you know, I remember had an opportunity when I was
1:16:09
Speaker 1: managing Steve Harvard. You was sitting down and were thinking
1:16:12
Speaker 1: about buying uh Apolo Local Okay, and then you know,
1:16:15
Speaker 1: because what we learned from that meeting was that you
1:16:19
Speaker 1: can't rich get rich off one Appoo Local. You know,
1:16:22
Speaker 1: You've gotta have several, you know, because when you start
1:16:25
Speaker 1: talking about you know, the profit margin maybe like fifteen
1:16:27
Speaker 1: thousand dollars of months, you know, really shook us up.
1:16:29
Speaker 1: That's not that much money. We started twelve. That's a
1:16:32
Speaker 1: lot of work for that's your profit margin, you know
1:16:34
Speaker 1: at the time that we were talking to them, So
1:16:38
Speaker 1: we're in a franchise Z. So what is that? Is
1:16:41
Speaker 1: there a magic number of properties that you should own
1:16:44
Speaker 1: before you really start resonating the calling that you know,
1:16:47
Speaker 1: because you know, when your own property, you're a millionaire already,
1:16:50
Speaker 1: but all you're a millionaire in your bank account. That's
1:16:52
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. When you can when you can
1:16:54
Speaker 1: flawsh your success. You know, bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger vacations.
1:17:00
Speaker 1: So is there a model in place now that you go,
1:17:03
Speaker 1: we got the one in Oklahoma? What day we're gonna
1:17:05
Speaker 1: get three more properties and we feel that we'll be
1:17:08
Speaker 1: resonating as a as a as affirm that one day
1:17:10
Speaker 1: can be you know, a fortune five hundred. So that's
1:17:14
Speaker 1: actually good point and that's going back to your ownership pieces.
1:17:17
Speaker 1: So hotels, you can let it look at it a
1:17:20
Speaker 1: couple of ways. You can focus on cast floads, right,
1:17:23
Speaker 1: and that's an easier way to build a portfolio probably faster,
1:17:27
Speaker 1: or you can look at more you mentioned long term
1:17:29
Speaker 1: hotels are definitely capital intensive and definitely a long term investment.
1:17:32
Speaker 1: So UM a buying whole strategy. But if you want
1:17:36
Speaker 1: to really build a portfolio, you start you have a
1:17:39
Speaker 1: combination of both. You have a combination of having a
1:17:41
Speaker 1: cash flowing property which is more of a limited service,
1:17:44
Speaker 1: so maybe even more of economy like a Super eight
1:17:47
Speaker 1: or a Day's in. Those are which you consider economy.
1:17:49
Speaker 1: Hotels those are true or even a Moto six, those
1:17:52
Speaker 1: are good cantlow and property and a lot of folks,
1:17:55
Speaker 1: UM including the Indian community, they own over the hotel.
1:17:59
Speaker 1: Using that model. They started off with really small hotels,
1:18:03
Speaker 1: less than a hundred castle on properties and that's how
1:18:05
Speaker 1: they were build portfolios. And those are the same techniques
1:18:08
Speaker 1: that we're using starting off with smaller hotels cash on Hilton.
1:18:12
Speaker 1: When you start getting into the Hilton and the Marriott,
1:18:14
Speaker 1: we were fortunate because usually people in their later years
1:18:17
Speaker 1: and UM the hospitiality industry getting to more of the
1:18:20
Speaker 1: Hilton and the Marriott. But we've we looked at more
1:18:23
Speaker 1: of a whole hold approach. Buying hold approach a right.
1:18:27
Speaker 1: So so Jessica, when I look up, tell everybody Jessica
1:18:30
Speaker 1: Myers and uh Devon Read the founders of Epic Collective UM.
1:18:35
Speaker 1: Then in the hospitality business, they buying collect hotels, they
1:18:38
Speaker 1: cheek out investors to look at the long term investment
1:18:42
Speaker 1: opportunities they can do working with them. So I'm a
1:18:46
Speaker 1: good talker, I'm gonna I'm gonna like I'm a good talker,
1:18:48
Speaker 1: but I don't know if I'm a good enough talker
1:18:50
Speaker 1: to convince people to give me money. So see that's
1:18:54
Speaker 1: a say I've heard you See Jessica can talk. You know,
1:18:57
Speaker 1: you can talk to but Jessica over there, she got
1:19:00
Speaker 1: a little bit extra in our conversation. So when y'all
1:19:03
Speaker 1: going there and making apprecientation, who the talker or who
1:19:06
Speaker 1: was the lead person in the pitch? I mean me
1:19:09
Speaker 1: when with the hotels. Yeah, I was like, it's a
1:19:14
Speaker 1: collaborative effort, I feel because I always tell their vying.
1:19:16
Speaker 1: I mean technically, you know, you're the one who brought
1:19:19
Speaker 1: me into the hotel space. In the commercial space, it's
1:19:22
Speaker 1: not something I was looking to. You know, I'm in
1:19:24
Speaker 1: the single family space. I'm a real estate developer, UM
1:19:27
Speaker 1: as a whole seller, you know, I was. I was
1:19:28
Speaker 1: just fine, but someone to shed lightly like, hey, this
1:19:32
Speaker 1: is could be a lot more exponential. So I would
1:19:34
Speaker 1: say that she convinced me. And I'm the type person
1:19:37
Speaker 1: you know I used to I had a career in
1:19:38
Speaker 1: sales prior to getting to real estate, and I would say,
1:19:41
Speaker 1: once I see something that works, I'm gonna go tell everybody.
1:19:45
Speaker 1: And that's and that's the power of what we've been
1:19:47
Speaker 1: able to create through Epic Collective, because the van is
1:19:49
Speaker 1: the one that got me into the commercial space, and
1:19:52
Speaker 1: now we're able to tag team and tell people in
1:19:54
Speaker 1: our community, like, you know, we knew a lot of
1:19:56
Speaker 1: people from Georgia State. We knew UM University, which is
1:19:59
Speaker 1: where we went and where we met. We know a
1:20:02
Speaker 1: lot of people just from from networking, from building our team,
1:20:05
Speaker 1: from going to the events, the groundwork. Navan having a
1:20:08
Speaker 1: fourteen year career in the hotel space, she knew a
1:20:12
Speaker 1: lot of people. So it's really about identifying the opportunity,
1:20:15
Speaker 1: providing the education to take advantage of the opportunity, and
1:20:18
Speaker 1: then executing on the opportunity. Or you know, um, this
1:20:24
Speaker 1: is Rashan McDonald trying to walk me into the steps
1:20:27
Speaker 1: of becoming a potential investor or the steps of being
1:20:31
Speaker 1: a potential hotel owner or with Sean do because like
1:20:34
Speaker 1: this is what I hear. You know, like you're trying
1:20:36
Speaker 1: to own a McDonald's. They bring into McDonald's. You have
1:20:39
Speaker 1: to work so you can understand. I'm sure the same
1:20:42
Speaker 1: thing with Chick fil A and samething with Burger King.
1:20:44
Speaker 1: If I want to become a hotel owner, do I
1:20:47
Speaker 1: gotta go over there and make up bedge, clean out
1:20:49
Speaker 1: some restrooms or what what might of work do I
1:20:53
Speaker 1: have to put in to feel that? I need to
1:20:55
Speaker 1: understand the business of hospitality. That goes back to your
1:20:59
Speaker 1: ownership if you want to do if you want to
1:21:01
Speaker 1: become an owner operator, meaning then you will be doing
1:21:04
Speaker 1: that what you just said, you will be checking in
1:21:06
Speaker 1: folks and making it big. And that's what you're doing,
1:21:09
Speaker 1: y'all not doing that. Y'all don't want to be that.
1:21:11
Speaker 1: We're not doing it now, we're not doing it. I
1:21:13
Speaker 1: refused to check in and the again, that's why I
1:21:15
Speaker 1: I here. So if I had to check in games
1:21:17
Speaker 1: at this point in my career, somebody getting fight and
1:21:20
Speaker 1: part of my strategy is only my time so that
1:21:23
Speaker 1: I don't have to work. So I definitely am looking
1:21:27
Speaker 1: for more, you know, the ladder. As far as you
1:21:29
Speaker 1: know what I what was on my ownership pieces. I
1:21:33
Speaker 1: want to add to what you just said. Hotels are
1:21:36
Speaker 1: operating business where you can own a real estate McDonald's.
1:21:40
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily own a real estate, right. So that's
1:21:42
Speaker 1: what makes hotels a very attractive investment because not only
1:21:46
Speaker 1: are you owning the business, you're owning the real estate,
1:21:48
Speaker 1: which adds to the valuation. So for someone like yourself
1:21:51
Speaker 1: who wants to come in and invest, you and especially
1:21:54
Speaker 1: if you want to invest passively, you like, look, I
1:21:57
Speaker 1: had some extra funds, you know, I have some retirement
1:21:59
Speaker 1: funds or whatever. I'm looking to invest long term. Okay,
1:22:02
Speaker 1: you actually and I want to get more of a
1:22:04
Speaker 1: how your return to what I'm getting in the market
1:22:06
Speaker 1: or whatever my my other real estate investments. That's why
1:22:09
Speaker 1: hotels are a sexy asset because it goes on for performance.
1:22:12
Speaker 1: So think about it. Just think about it. Nobody's really
1:22:15
Speaker 1: traveling right now, but in a couple of years, when
1:22:19
Speaker 1: people feel more comfortable about traveling with COVID, hotels are
1:22:22
Speaker 1: gonna be booked sully. Right. So when sometimes people they
1:22:27
Speaker 1: can't wrap their brain around like, oh, nobody's saying the hotels.
1:22:30
Speaker 1: Right now, nobody's saying the hotels. But in a couple
1:22:32
Speaker 1: of years, maybe even next year, maybe having the end
1:22:35
Speaker 1: of this year, people are gonna be traveling in our
1:22:37
Speaker 1: hotels and our our our investments gonna be nice and
1:22:40
Speaker 1: beautiful and fact because because of the return on it. Man,
1:22:44
Speaker 1: you know, i'mnna be honest with you. I see the opportunity,
1:22:47
Speaker 1: you know, because people are traveling now, people are resisting
1:22:49
Speaker 1: because it's called cabin fever. I gotta get out. I
1:22:52
Speaker 1: gotta get out. And it goes back to the marketing
1:22:55
Speaker 1: of your property. Do you have you guys, because I
1:22:58
Speaker 1: hear the word team, but you know it's still of
1:23:00
Speaker 1: the property and the Hilton. You you're part of the registry.
1:23:02
Speaker 1: You're going there. You do a search and it pops
1:23:04
Speaker 1: up and and I'm sure you play a royalty fee
1:23:07
Speaker 1: to them for using their brand relationship because they provide
1:23:11
Speaker 1: that service to you and to help you, help you win.
1:23:14
Speaker 1: But in the end, you said something about profitable hotel properties.
1:23:19
Speaker 1: That's what you should be by. You shouldn't not be
1:23:21
Speaker 1: trying to build up a property that's not successful. You
1:23:23
Speaker 1: should go in and look at the portfolio. How does
1:23:26
Speaker 1: that process work. Well, the three's three things that makes
1:23:30
Speaker 1: the hotel successful. Location, brand, and operator. So to give
1:23:35
Speaker 1: you an idea about our hotel. Our hotel is in Oklahoma.
1:23:38
Speaker 1: Our hotel is right off the exit. So if you're
1:23:40
Speaker 1: driving by and you want to stop, boom, right off
1:23:43
Speaker 1: the exit, beautiful new home to sweets, property, extended stay,
1:23:47
Speaker 1: property with the kitchen net right. So then we have
1:23:50
Speaker 1: the brand. The brand is a Hilton property. How many
1:23:53
Speaker 1: people have stayed in Hilton? Brains were Shine, I'm sure
1:23:55
Speaker 1: you stay to the Hilton brand. You loved it, you
1:23:58
Speaker 1: felt comfortable. He's like, oh my goodness, I know when
1:24:00
Speaker 1: I say that Hilton brand, I'm I know what I'm
1:24:03
Speaker 1: getting into. Then we brought in an operator, Commonwealth Hotels.
1:24:06
Speaker 1: They manage over They have over a billion dollars in
1:24:09
Speaker 1: their portfolio. So we have the three components to make
1:24:11
Speaker 1: a hotel successful. And let gonna tell you something. You
1:24:15
Speaker 1: at that property, you do the early morning breakfast. We do.
1:24:19
Speaker 1: See that's that's that's the home run for me. Sam,
1:24:22
Speaker 1: I'm an old school Back in the day when I
1:24:23
Speaker 1: was traveling as a stand up comic, I had to
1:24:26
Speaker 1: stay at the hotel that gave me the free breakfast
1:24:28
Speaker 1: in the morning, the waffles, the eggs, scrambled eggs, and
1:24:31
Speaker 1: give me some orange. So that's a big selling point,
1:24:34
Speaker 1: correct it is. Yes, you know you gotta have those
1:24:38
Speaker 1: incentives because of the fact that it's a very competitive
1:24:40
Speaker 1: world like that, but you are hidden. That's all just
1:24:42
Speaker 1: saying is that I wasn't annoyed that the fact that
1:24:45
Speaker 1: because I knew you were off the hotel, off the property,
1:24:47
Speaker 1: seeing you get a lot of people who just I'm
1:24:49
Speaker 1: tired of driving, pull over. You get that type of customers,
1:24:53
Speaker 1: get the customers say. I actually had a few friends
1:24:56
Speaker 1: that were driving across cross country and when the news broke,
1:24:59
Speaker 1: they were like, I actual was gonna stop off in
1:25:01
Speaker 1: um Tulsa, but we're actually gonna stop off in Arena,
1:25:04
Speaker 1: which is just two hours from Tulsa, which was even
1:25:06
Speaker 1: more impactful. I will say, looking into this deal is
1:25:10
Speaker 1: understanding that years and years ago my ancestors couldn't walk
1:25:14
Speaker 1: through the front door, and now here we stand as
1:25:17
Speaker 1: owners of the property and able to provide jobs. We're
1:25:21
Speaker 1: able to save jobs like where people are getting acts
1:25:24
Speaker 1: during during the pandemic. We're able to save jobs and
1:25:27
Speaker 1: increase their quality of living. There were we we went
1:25:30
Speaker 1: and talked to the staff and some of them hadn't
1:25:32
Speaker 1: had vacation in years. Some of them didn't even have
1:25:36
Speaker 1: a four in one K so we were able to
1:25:38
Speaker 1: come in provide these resources. So it's the impact to
1:25:41
Speaker 1: the community as well as um you know, the people
1:25:44
Speaker 1: that were able to inspire through our story. Well, first
1:25:48
Speaker 1: of all, thank you for coming on money making conversation
1:25:50
Speaker 1: because you go your store. I have six sisters and
1:25:53
Speaker 1: I have I have a daughter, you know, she's graduated
1:25:55
Speaker 1: from college, and so anytime I I see inspirational stories
1:25:59
Speaker 1: by female, especially African American female, I want to highlight
1:26:02
Speaker 1: and that's what I'm doing right now. You know, I'm
1:26:04
Speaker 1: just one of many opportunities that are coming your way
1:26:07
Speaker 1: or will come your way in the future. Because your reason.
1:26:09
Speaker 1: I say that, because I'm always about trying to see
1:26:13
Speaker 1: the different way with lanes of opportunity. Because you know,
1:26:17
Speaker 1: people tend to pigeonhole black people or African Americans. You know,
1:26:20
Speaker 1: they say, we don't do we don't understand technology. So
1:26:23
Speaker 1: they that's why silcome Valance, And we weren't looking to
1:26:26
Speaker 1: hire you guys because we didn't think you guys wanted
1:26:28
Speaker 1: to technology opportunities. We thought y'all just wanted to use
1:26:31
Speaker 1: the phone and so so it's the same thing here
1:26:34
Speaker 1: with this hotel opportunity is that I'm just trying to
1:26:37
Speaker 1: answer common sense questions because I want you to understand
1:26:40
Speaker 1: that this is incredible what you're doing. It really is incredible.
1:26:44
Speaker 1: And I say that because of the fact that it's
1:26:46
Speaker 1: not normal. And that's a positive thing, because I think
1:26:49
Speaker 1: African Americans, in order to achieve ultimate success in this country,
1:26:53
Speaker 1: have to do against the norm and the norm and
1:26:55
Speaker 1: what you guys are achieving against the norm. But you're
1:26:57
Speaker 1: also taking your experience as former and eployees and say, hey,
1:27:02
Speaker 1: I want to I want to bet on myself and
1:27:04
Speaker 1: and and and close it. I want to talk about
1:27:06
Speaker 1: that betting on yourself and walking through the unknown. So
1:27:09
Speaker 1: I want to start I know, Jessica, I'm gonna start
1:27:11
Speaker 1: with you on bedding on yourself and because that's what
1:27:14
Speaker 1: you're happening right now. You're betting on your stuff and
1:27:16
Speaker 1: a hotel business. But you're betting on your stuff as
1:27:17
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. You're betting on yourself by convincing people they
1:27:21
Speaker 1: should invest their money into you. For long term opportunity.
1:27:24
Speaker 1: How does that work? Uh, whether the stages that just
1:27:28
Speaker 1: slow you down to go, wow, I'm doing this well?
1:27:31
Speaker 1: I mean really, we're still in the midst of doing this.
1:27:34
Speaker 1: I mean my head is very much still down. Um
1:27:37
Speaker 1: as I am a real estate developer and investor, but
1:27:40
Speaker 1: it started out being a whole seller. That journey of
1:27:43
Speaker 1: investing in myself and believing in myself once I closed
1:27:47
Speaker 1: my first wholesale deal. And whole selling is the act
1:27:49
Speaker 1: of finding an opportunity and passing out onto a buyer.
1:27:53
Speaker 1: And it's about understanding the language. It's about understanding you
1:27:57
Speaker 1: can make money off your assets and let your assets
1:27:59
Speaker 1: pay for your liabilities. That's when I started to change
1:28:02
Speaker 1: the narrative in the conversation. And then I realized, like
1:28:05
Speaker 1: it took me three weeks to come up with my
1:28:07
Speaker 1: first wholesale deal after getting the education, how long am
1:28:11
Speaker 1: I working in corporate America to make the same type
1:28:13
Speaker 1: of money. That's when I understood it's the conversation of time,
1:28:17
Speaker 1: where am I putting my time to invest to get
1:28:20
Speaker 1: me greater? And that's how I saw whole selling as
1:28:22
Speaker 1: a way to get in and bet on myself. That
1:28:24
Speaker 1: worst case, no matter where I grew to, which is now,
1:28:28
Speaker 1: you know, from whole seller to a hotel owner. Actually
1:28:30
Speaker 1: have a course teaching your start in real estate investing
1:28:35
Speaker 1: from whole seller to hotel owner, because I never knew
1:28:38
Speaker 1: that that was possible. But I knew that if I
1:28:40
Speaker 1: take the bet on myself, I at least have whole
1:28:43
Speaker 1: selling that I can fall back on to make my money,
1:28:47
Speaker 1: to make my income. And the sky has been the limit.
1:28:49
Speaker 1: I haven't had to go back to corporate America since
1:28:52
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen. If don't get me wrong, there have
1:28:54
Speaker 1: been times where I come home like, let me just quit.
1:28:57
Speaker 1: I can get back into sales, I can get back
1:28:59
Speaker 1: to doing what I do. But I'm like, just as
1:29:01
Speaker 1: hardy as I was about working for Fox, as hardy
1:29:04
Speaker 1: as I was about working for CBS, I'm just as
1:29:06
Speaker 1: grateful to work for Jessica Myers. And that's betting on yourself. Wow,
1:29:12
Speaker 1: MS reeves, betting on myself. It was just more of
1:29:17
Speaker 1: a motivation thing. I looked around and I saw all
1:29:20
Speaker 1: these people hotel owners or potential hotel owners, and all
1:29:25
Speaker 1: of them were white, and they own hundreds of acres
1:29:28
Speaker 1: in land, some even thousands of acres of land, and
1:29:31
Speaker 1: a lot of them inherited, a lot of them bought it.
1:29:34
Speaker 1: And I said, wait a minute, I can do this.
1:29:37
Speaker 1: I'm helping them do it. So why am I helping
1:29:39
Speaker 1: somebody else be wealthy when I can help myself be wealthy.
1:29:42
Speaker 1: And I thought about people like my grandmother who at
1:29:45
Speaker 1: our age, she couldn't check in at a Hilton property.
1:29:48
Speaker 1: She couldn't check in, you know what, days in because
1:29:51
Speaker 1: of the color of her skin. She couldn't even when
1:29:53
Speaker 1: my grandmother was on the on uh, she wasn't. Back
1:29:56
Speaker 1: in those days, in the fifties and sixties and forties,
1:30:00
Speaker 1: you had to have a certain level of education to
1:30:02
Speaker 1: even work in the hotel. And my grandmother that only
1:30:04
Speaker 1: had an eighth grade education. So I had to bet
1:30:07
Speaker 1: on myself for my grandmother. That's what I was doing
1:30:10
Speaker 1: so that way, and not even that I wanted to
1:30:12
Speaker 1: help other people get to the table. I noticed I
1:30:14
Speaker 1: was the only person of color. Sometimes I was the youngest,
1:30:17
Speaker 1: the only person of color, and the woman. Sometimes all
1:30:20
Speaker 1: three at the table. And I said, this is not right.
1:30:22
Speaker 1: My mentor told me, She said, Davine, she said, when
1:30:26
Speaker 1: you are sitting at the table and you notice that
1:30:28
Speaker 1: there's no other people looking like you. You need to
1:30:30
Speaker 1: change that. And she said, when you don't notice it,
1:30:33
Speaker 1: then that's the problem. Then you become the problem if
1:30:35
Speaker 1: you don't keep that door open. She told me. She said, Davine,
1:30:37
Speaker 1: I helped open the door for you. Now I was
1:30:40
Speaker 1: typing for you to keep that door open. So I
1:30:42
Speaker 1: had to bet on myself. And I realized from all
1:30:44
Speaker 1: the encouraging words and the love and support, I realized
1:30:47
Speaker 1: that this is bigger than me. This is bigger than
1:30:49
Speaker 1: me and Jessica. We have people who are looking at
1:30:51
Speaker 1: us who were like, Wow, you know what, I can
1:30:54
Speaker 1: own a hotel. I can do the impossible. You know,
1:30:57
Speaker 1: front desk agents and housekeeping supervisors. They're like, you know what,
1:31:01
Speaker 1: I can literally do this. I can create my own
1:31:03
Speaker 1: hotel and create possibilities. Because think because hotels is actually
1:31:07
Speaker 1: brings over eight million jobs to the to the economy,
1:31:11
Speaker 1: and people don't even think that. You know, if you
1:31:14
Speaker 1: are if you're an artist, or if you have a
1:31:16
Speaker 1: skin care line, or or if you have lotions, if
1:31:18
Speaker 1: you have all these different products, you can become a vendor.
1:31:21
Speaker 1: And you can become a vendor to a hotel but see,
1:31:23
Speaker 1: people don't know that. So now when you have faces
1:31:25
Speaker 1: like us who can help get you in that door,
1:31:27
Speaker 1: we're creating more opportunities and creating more possibilities. So that's
1:31:31
Speaker 1: why I had to better myself, not only too, so
1:31:34
Speaker 1: I can create a seat at the table so people
1:31:36
Speaker 1: can listen to me. Because when I noticed, when I
1:31:38
Speaker 1: didn't have any ownership rights, nobody wasn't listening to anything
1:31:42
Speaker 1: that I said. But now people are knocking down the
1:31:44
Speaker 1: doors to hear what I have to say. We've been
1:31:48
Speaker 1: We've been like a few years overnight success. You know
1:31:50
Speaker 1: how people say, oh it's overnight success, Like this is
1:31:53
Speaker 1: years and years of work. You know, Devon putting fourteen
1:31:55
Speaker 1: fifteen plus years into the industry. Need five years into
1:31:58
Speaker 1: the industry. This is is a journey of overnight success.
1:32:02
Speaker 1: This isn't just something that popped up in microwave. Well,
1:32:05
Speaker 1: I love it. And by the way, I said, you
1:32:07
Speaker 1: could talk Jessica, I have to slide it back over
1:32:09
Speaker 1: the day ball. She just showed me that she has
1:32:12
Speaker 1: the ability to articulate and great Lanthen put a sentence.
1:32:17
Speaker 1: I'll just say right now, you know, I thought I
1:32:20
Speaker 1: was listening with Stephen A Smith in real estate right there.
1:32:22
Speaker 1: You know, she just articulating, just throwing down with the
1:32:25
Speaker 1: words and the verbs, and I'll see that the table
1:32:28
Speaker 1: and black America, I gotta kick the door in and
1:32:30
Speaker 1: all that good of stuff. She was talking real stuff
1:32:32
Speaker 1: right there. When they say iron shoprins aren't really has
1:32:36
Speaker 1: been that between us and that, you know, us working together,
1:32:40
Speaker 1: the synergy we helped to exchange. You know, she's more
1:32:43
Speaker 1: of the numbers, the data, you know. Cool And then
1:32:46
Speaker 1: you know I have the background in television and media,
1:32:49
Speaker 1: so that's where I have developed my storytelling skills. But
1:32:52
Speaker 1: we we beat off each other and her energy and
1:32:55
Speaker 1: my energy, and that's how we created something effic Well,
1:32:57
Speaker 1: I would tell you created something You open my mind because,
1:33:00
Speaker 1: like I said, thank you for allowing me to dive
1:33:02
Speaker 1: into your story honestly, you know that as honest questions.
1:33:06
Speaker 1: And if they because I didn't know, I didn't know
1:33:09
Speaker 1: there was a possibility. Was I wanted to bring you
1:33:12
Speaker 1: on the show to expose people to another level. And
1:33:15
Speaker 1: you said something about the impossible when you were when
1:33:18
Speaker 1: you were speaking, and what you've really showed us is
1:33:20
Speaker 1: that the possible is possible. And if we understand the
1:33:23
Speaker 1: possible is possible, then it's not impossible. And that's what
1:33:26
Speaker 1: I gathered from this interview is that we're sitting around
1:33:30
Speaker 1: and we're limiting our opportunity because we don't see that
1:33:33
Speaker 1: the possibilities of achieving another lane of opportunity economically, entrepreneurially
1:33:38
Speaker 1: is out there. We will achieve it if we meet
1:33:41
Speaker 1: people like you, take courses that you guys recommend you take,
1:33:45
Speaker 1: and also become a potential investor. You don't have to
1:33:48
Speaker 1: drop a million dollars down or two million dollars now,
1:33:51
Speaker 1: you can become a passive investor and build a portfolio
1:33:54
Speaker 1: with you guys and allow you guys to build that
1:33:57
Speaker 1: through your strategies. That's really what we're talking about right now. Yes,
1:34:00
Speaker 1: oh absolutely, we we focus on collectively a lot of
1:34:03
Speaker 1: people because one of the barriers that people they don't
1:34:06
Speaker 1: want to get in the hotel business or even get
1:34:08
Speaker 1: into commercial real estate because they may not have millions
1:34:11
Speaker 1: and millions of dollars or access to capital. Well, I'm like,
1:34:14
Speaker 1: wait a minute. If you have ten of your friends
1:34:17
Speaker 1: or five of your friends, and y'all have you know,
1:34:19
Speaker 1: five thousand a piece, you know, that's what fifty thou right,
1:34:23
Speaker 1: or if you have, you know, a hundred thousand, if
1:34:26
Speaker 1: you got ten of your friends and that's a hundred
1:34:27
Speaker 1: thous that's a million dollars that you can do some
1:34:29
Speaker 1: damage and you can get some stuff done. But people,
1:34:32
Speaker 1: but it's a whole mindset thing, right, So it's a
1:34:34
Speaker 1: whole thing of educating people. So I have courses as well,
1:34:37
Speaker 1: also offer one on one coach coaching for people they're like.
1:34:41
Speaker 1: And another thing that people don't realize, it's folks who
1:34:43
Speaker 1: have twenty Airbnb units, thirty Airbnb units. I'm like, you
1:34:47
Speaker 1: know you own a small hotel? Wait what you know that?
1:34:50
Speaker 1: There are different creative ways and creative finances to help
1:34:53
Speaker 1: you get into the hotel space. But people don't realize that.
1:34:56
Speaker 1: And the reason why I'm so passionate about it because
1:34:58
Speaker 1: I see, I see how hotels can create so much
1:35:02
Speaker 1: generational wealth, so much. It's it's corporations of fortune companies
1:35:08
Speaker 1: who own hotels. People may not know it. High network
1:35:12
Speaker 1: individuals they own hotels. People don't know it. So I'm
1:35:15
Speaker 1: here like, hey, I know it, so let so let
1:35:18
Speaker 1: me help my people. Let me help y'all get into
1:35:20
Speaker 1: this space. So y'all can get not just bags, but
1:35:23
Speaker 1: create generational wealth. So I'm like, hey, you said this bag,
1:35:27
Speaker 1: invest in the hotel. So that way, it's a long
1:35:29
Speaker 1: term strategy. That's that's how I look at this, and
1:35:32
Speaker 1: I love the way you look at it, Jessica. They
1:35:35
Speaker 1: do it collaborative, collaborative economics. That's the biggest key is
1:35:40
Speaker 1: coming together and creating the synergy, creating your investor group,
1:35:43
Speaker 1: you know, connecting with Epic collective to show you how
1:35:47
Speaker 1: to do this, how to take your community and your
1:35:49
Speaker 1: small pot wherever you are, and how we can do
1:35:51
Speaker 1: this together. Um, that's really the big thing of changing
1:35:54
Speaker 1: the narrative of we work apart, we don't work together,
1:35:57
Speaker 1: we don't come together. Well, no, we're coming to show
1:35:59
Speaker 1: you that we do do in a major way and
1:36:01
Speaker 1: this is how you can be apart awesome. I want
1:36:03
Speaker 1: to thank you for coming on money making conversation, jess
1:36:06
Speaker 1: because your girls are amazing or you know, in the summertime.
1:36:09
Speaker 1: Love to invite you back, just that everybody knows should
1:36:12
Speaker 1: become a hotel owner. This conversation isn't over. I'm gonna
1:36:15
Speaker 1: tell you something please. You know you're in the Atlanta
1:36:19
Speaker 1: so you come by the office, show me some stuff.
1:36:21
Speaker 1: I will be writing some checks, because again, you only
1:36:25
Speaker 1: go with what you know. And so you're telling me, Rashan,
1:36:28
Speaker 1: slow it down, brother, come on over here and sit down.
1:36:31
Speaker 1: So I do want to become a hotel owner. I know.
1:36:33
Speaker 1: What I've learned is you know, God ain't making no
1:36:36
Speaker 1: more land out here, ain't making no more new land.
1:36:39
Speaker 1: And so you you're telling me I can buy some
1:36:41
Speaker 1: of that land that he's made, and that means that
1:36:43
Speaker 1: becomes an asset. And if an asset, that I can
1:36:46
Speaker 1: will down to my family members, to my daughter. And
1:36:49
Speaker 1: that's how you build legacy. And so sometimes you can
1:36:52
Speaker 1: keep it simple, you know some and not it can
1:36:54
Speaker 1: be go beyond my house. I can. I'm buying all
1:36:57
Speaker 1: these houses out here, but ain't nobody rent them? Okay,
1:37:00
Speaker 1: nobody's staying in them. No, I'm not making any money
1:37:03
Speaker 1: all my home purchases. So you said reach out if
1:37:06
Speaker 1: you if you decided to stop buying a house, invest
1:37:09
Speaker 1: that money in the hotel. Then guess what, as we
1:37:11
Speaker 1: say mailbox money, you start making that mail box money
1:37:15
Speaker 1: checks me coming in the mail. So Divine, he ain't
1:37:18
Speaker 1: scared me. You ain't scared me. You just need to
1:37:21
Speaker 1: find me so we can talk about that hotel. I'm
1:37:24
Speaker 1: fine now, I don't watch out, all right? Thank you
1:37:29
Speaker 1: all for coming on Money Making Conversations. I appreciate you
1:37:32
Speaker 1: right opportunity and also too. We just want to add
1:37:36
Speaker 1: that if you are looking to invest, if you're looking
1:37:38
Speaker 1: to connect with our team, please please please follow us
1:37:41
Speaker 1: at Epic Collective with a que on Instagram. Also email
1:37:45
Speaker 1: us at invest at epic Collective dot com. That's Epic
1:37:50
Speaker 1: with a que Epic Collective dot com. Let's do this collectively.
1:37:54
Speaker 1: We will be right back with more money Making Conversations
1:37:58
Speaker 1: with your host, Roshan McDonald. Hi. Roshan McDonald's the host
1:38:01
Speaker 1: of money Making Conversation. The Cafe Mocha Swag Award is
1:38:04
Speaker 1: a celebration of black men who are making a difference
1:38:07
Speaker 1: in our community by empowering others to reach their life goals.
1:38:10
Speaker 1: From civic leaders, businessmen, activists, celebrities and everyday dad's. The
1:38:14
Speaker 1: Cafe Mocha Swagg Award winner this week is Bubba Wallace.
1:38:18
Speaker 1: He's the only black driver who raises full time in
1:38:20
Speaker 1: NASCAR's Top three series and has been outspoken about racial
1:38:23
Speaker 1: injustice in the wake of George Floyd's killing on Bubba
1:38:27
Speaker 1: Wallace was a strong advocate for NASCAR's decision to ban
1:38:30
Speaker 1: the Confederate flag from his properties on June ten. It's
1:38:33
Speaker 1: been a long process, a hard thought process, but it's
1:38:36
Speaker 1: all part of it and looking back on and I
1:38:38
Speaker 1: wouldn't trade it for anything. Athletes are put on a
1:38:40
Speaker 1: pedestal which we have to have to take that initiative
1:38:43
Speaker 1: and take that next step of being that role model
1:38:45
Speaker 1: and representing the best way we can to make sure
1:38:48
Speaker 1: we've come across and the most positive light. The Cafe
1:38:50
Speaker 1: Moka Swag Award represents men who have strength, whose wisdom
1:38:54
Speaker 1: is assertive, and who is genuine in their spirit. Welcome
1:38:57
Speaker 1: back to money making conversations with your most Rashwan McDonald.
1:39:02
Speaker 1: Look for your children's eyes to see the true magic
1:39:05
Speaker 1: of a forest. It's a storybook world for them. You
1:39:09
Speaker 1: look and see a tree. They see the wrinkled face
1:39:12
Speaker 1: of a wizard with arms outstretched to the sky. They
1:39:15
Speaker 1: see treasure and pebbles. They see a windy path that
1:39:18
Speaker 1: could lead to adventure, and they see you. They're fearless. Guide.
1:39:23
Speaker 1: Is this fascinating world? Find a forest near you? And
1:39:26
Speaker 1: start exploring. A Discover the Forest dot org brought to
1:39:29
Speaker 1: you by the United States Forest Service and the ad Council.
1:39:32
Speaker 1: Adoption of teams from foster care is a topic not
1:39:35
Speaker 1: enough people know about, and we're here to change that.
1:39:38
Speaker 1: I'm April Dinnuity, host of the new podcast Navigating Adoption,
1:39:41
Speaker 1: presented by adopt Us Kids. Each episode brings you compelling,
1:39:45
Speaker 1: real life adoption stories told by the families that lived them,
1:39:48
Speaker 1: with commentary from experts. Visit adopt us Kids dot org,
1:39:52
Speaker 1: slash podcast, or subscribe to Navigating Adoption presented by adopt
1:39:56
Speaker 1: Us Kids, brought to you by the U. S Department
1:39:58
Speaker 1: of Health, the Human Services Ministry for Children and Families,
1:40:01
Speaker 1: and the Council. What grows in the forest trees, Sure
1:40:06
Speaker 1: you know what else grows in the forest, Our imagination,
1:40:09
Speaker 1: our sense of wonder, and our family bonds grow too,
1:40:13
Speaker 1: because when we disconnect from this and connect with this,
1:40:19
Speaker 1: we reconnect with each other. The forest is closer than
1:40:23
Speaker 1: you think. Find a forest near you and start exploring.
1:40:26
Speaker 1: I Discover the Forest dot org brought to you by
1:40:29
Speaker 1: the United States Forest Service and the ad Council. My
1:40:33
Speaker 1: next guest is Justin Dawkins. He most recently launched and
1:40:36
Speaker 1: serving his managing partner for Collab Capital and investment firm
1:40:39
Speaker 1: that focuses on providing black entrepreneurs to social, human and
1:40:43
Speaker 1: financial capital. Can I repeat that, the social, human, and
1:40:46
Speaker 1: financial capital and need to build profitable businesses. The goal
1:40:50
Speaker 1: is to help solve the growing racial wealth gap in America.
1:40:53
Speaker 1: Please walking to money making conversation. Long time, my friend
1:40:56
Speaker 1: Justin Dawkins. How you doing, sir? And to make that
1:41:00
Speaker 1: little pivot in the chair, you know, so I can
1:41:02
Speaker 1: really really look at you right quick. You know, because
1:41:05
Speaker 1: we're in the pandemic year. Man, the racial gap we
1:41:07
Speaker 1: got further apart, Unemployment got further apart, and uh, the
1:41:11
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen has made us to be and we've been
1:41:14
Speaker 1: victimized by health and uh, whether it's our past bad
1:41:17
Speaker 1: health habits, but COVID nineteen is really attacked the black
1:41:21
Speaker 1: community and the community of color. So how do we
1:41:23
Speaker 1: come out of this? Because you said by the year
1:41:26
Speaker 1: fifty three, the medium network for black households will be zero. Yeah. Um, well,
1:41:33
Speaker 1: let's let's start with with the elephant in the room.
1:41:36
Speaker 1: Uh was a wake up call for everybody. It was
1:41:40
Speaker 1: an opportunity you were forced to sit down, you know,
1:41:43
Speaker 1: as my grandmother would say, and some of my elders
1:41:45
Speaker 1: would say, Um, if you don't if you don't rest,
1:41:48
Speaker 1: if you don't sit down your body or sit you down. Yes,
1:41:51
Speaker 1: And that to me is where where Black America is
1:41:53
Speaker 1: experienced um, and a lot of other communities within the country. Uh.
1:41:58
Speaker 1: And it's exacerbated, it's highlighted and illuminated what has already
1:42:01
Speaker 1: been bad or wrong or where there were disparities, we
1:42:05
Speaker 1: were seeing it more. Uh. And I think now is
1:42:09
Speaker 1: the time to be hyper intentional. I think you're intro
1:42:13
Speaker 1: was eloquent and elegant and point, and it was you
1:42:16
Speaker 1: gotta establish these dreams. We gotta start with baby steps,
1:42:20
Speaker 1: smart goals, you know, to take those big dreams and
1:42:23
Speaker 1: break them down into pieces things as that we can
1:42:25
Speaker 1: manage and do. Um. But that's where that's where it
1:42:28
Speaker 1: starts for me going forward. One for Black entrepreneurs and
1:42:32
Speaker 1: innovators is take those big grand ideas, break them down
1:42:35
Speaker 1: into smart goals and get to work. Well you know
1:42:38
Speaker 1: that that that the key word, get to work, you know.
1:42:40
Speaker 1: And so it's been interesting year because as as you
1:42:43
Speaker 1: move forward, you know, it's not the pandemic is almost
1:42:46
Speaker 1: put like everybody on a new welfare system because everybody's
1:42:49
Speaker 1: been asking for a hand down. Everybody has been complaining that,
1:42:52
Speaker 1: you know, they can't find a job that they want,
1:42:55
Speaker 1: maybe the job that they need. Because in the end,
1:42:57
Speaker 1: you want to be able to do something that makes
1:42:59
Speaker 1: you happy. You know, that's why we become entrepreneurs. We
1:43:02
Speaker 1: generally left jobs is we didn't feel satisfied in and
1:43:05
Speaker 1: start relying on our own personal skills. We'll just the
1:43:08
Speaker 1: motivating factor, for one, for African Americans to change the
1:43:13
Speaker 1: game for themselves. I think the primary motivating factor is
1:43:19
Speaker 1: taking into taking our own destiny and putting it in
1:43:23
Speaker 1: our own hands. I think we've I think we've looked
1:43:26
Speaker 1: for other communities and other people, whether it be politicians,
1:43:30
Speaker 1: whether it be more fluent people. We've always looked at
1:43:34
Speaker 1: them to figure it out for us. Um and you
1:43:37
Speaker 1: know that that was one of the greatest lives ever told.
1:43:41
Speaker 1: UH is that at the end of the day, you've
1:43:43
Speaker 1: got to, you know, pull yourself up. You do have to,
1:43:46
Speaker 1: um be wary of those that promised things. So we
1:43:51
Speaker 1: do have to be mindful of that and look out
1:43:52
Speaker 1: for the traps. But Ultimately, we have to center ourselves
1:43:56
Speaker 1: on our goals and what we want to accomplish as
1:43:59
Speaker 1: a people, and that's collective and I think that's important. Well,
1:44:02
Speaker 1: it's so much important. Here's an interesting thing. That's why
1:44:05
Speaker 1: I get to know. When people give millennials a bad rap.
1:44:08
Speaker 1: They always say millennials want to skip steps. You know, well,
1:44:11
Speaker 1: I guess what. You know, when you looked at me
1:44:14
Speaker 1: growing up, because I'm older than you, you know, I was,
1:44:17
Speaker 1: I was somewhat hindered. I was told to play a
1:44:19
Speaker 1: certain role in life, to be a certain person that
1:44:23
Speaker 1: you know, Entrepreneurship wasn't even pitched to me, wasn't even
1:44:26
Speaker 1: thought of in my process. You know. I came from
1:44:28
Speaker 1: the hood. That was my number one guard. Was just
1:44:31
Speaker 1: to get out the hood. You know. Then when they
1:44:32
Speaker 1: got my degree, I was supposed to get married and
1:44:34
Speaker 1: then I was supposed to settle down and be happy
1:44:36
Speaker 1: in the corporation. Millennials don't think that way. They believe
1:44:40
Speaker 1: in mentors. They believe in skipping steps. It's possible. What's
1:44:43
Speaker 1: wrong with skipping the step? If somebody can show you
1:44:46
Speaker 1: you can avoid that. That's what mentorship is all about.
1:44:49
Speaker 1: Talk about the bad rap that millennials get because they
1:44:53
Speaker 1: have more access to tech, they have more access to
1:44:56
Speaker 1: clear understanding of social media, a better understanding of mark,
1:45:00
Speaker 1: and a better understanding of what an entrepreneurship. Being an
1:45:03
Speaker 1: entrepreneur is not just a it's bigger than it's more
1:45:06
Speaker 1: than just a running the business. It's running the brand. Yeah,
1:45:10
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing and I think ething thatil
1:45:13
Speaker 1: on here. I'm a millennial. I'm at the very very
1:45:16
Speaker 1: beginning of it. Uh and uh, we get a bad
1:45:19
Speaker 1: rap because we don't we're not necessarily we're not aware
1:45:23
Speaker 1: of where we actually fit in in the spectrum of
1:45:27
Speaker 1: time and influence, and so we're actually in the middle. Right.
1:45:31
Speaker 1: We were the very first generation, in the last generation
1:45:34
Speaker 1: in some ways. Right, So we were the the last
1:45:36
Speaker 1: generation to understand what analog meant. Right. We we were
1:45:42
Speaker 1: born analog, grew up digital. So we fit this really
1:45:46
Speaker 1: interesting space so where we know what a cassette tape
1:45:49
Speaker 1: is and the VCR is, but we also understand streaming
1:45:51
Speaker 1: content Netflix and DVD and digital streaming. Right, we understand
1:45:57
Speaker 1: both of these worlds and how those two things eventually
1:46:00
Speaker 1: came together. And so the bad rap is we none
1:46:05
Speaker 1: of us have ever been here before, right, And what
1:46:08
Speaker 1: what wisdom is supposed to do? The purpose of wisdom
1:46:12
Speaker 1: is to be transferred. That's what wealth is all about, right,
1:46:16
Speaker 1: It's about having something to transfer. And one of the
1:46:20
Speaker 1: things we don't we don't necessarily give enough credit for,
1:46:23
Speaker 1: give enough value to, is information. Right, is the things
1:46:27
Speaker 1: that we've learned, And millennials have just done a great job,
1:46:31
Speaker 1: in my opinion, humble opinion, of taking the lessons that
1:46:35
Speaker 1: we've learned, whether intentionally from our from our elders or unintentionally,
1:46:39
Speaker 1: and applied it to what it is the lives that
1:46:42
Speaker 1: we want to live and the things that we want
1:46:43
Speaker 1: to create. To me, that is the greatest wealth generation
1:46:48
Speaker 1: or wealth practice that we have actually been able to
1:46:51
Speaker 1: transfer from generation to generation. And I think that's a
1:46:54
Speaker 1: great place to start to continue to build in other areas.
1:46:57
Speaker 1: We know, it's really interesting when you were talking about
1:46:59
Speaker 1: you know, you was born in the analog and you
1:47:00
Speaker 1: know I grew up in the A track A track
1:47:05
Speaker 1: and the rotary dial telephone and then pushed the touchstone.
1:47:09
Speaker 1: You know, that was a lot we can to be compressed.
1:47:11
Speaker 1: Numbers not baby, come on now, but the last twelve
1:47:14
Speaker 1: years when you've seen the the iPhone come out. You know,
1:47:18
Speaker 1: we've seen technology just you know, I think that's that's
1:47:21
Speaker 1: at warp speed. I guess you could use the terminology
1:47:24
Speaker 1: because of the fact that you know, you can the
1:47:27
Speaker 1: c d kme out. Then it's basically outdated because its streaming. Okay,
1:47:31
Speaker 1: so right now, you know, the streaming services have told
1:47:34
Speaker 1: you why do you need the CD player? Why do
1:47:36
Speaker 1: you need to buy CDs? And so it has changed
1:47:38
Speaker 1: the music game because you have more more more independent artists.
1:47:41
Speaker 1: They use their social media to drop their own sales
1:47:43
Speaker 1: and things like that, and so that technology. Man, you know,
1:47:47
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Collab Capital talk about in this new era,
1:47:50
Speaker 1: you know, because trying to do what you're trying to do,
1:47:53
Speaker 1: what I was growing up may not have been possible,
1:47:55
Speaker 1: but you can do it now. Talk about the whole
1:47:57
Speaker 1: basis and the reason that that that that company was founded. Yeah,
1:48:03
Speaker 1: I love telling our story. Uh. Collab Capital was birthed
1:48:07
Speaker 1: out of three good friends who started their companies around
1:48:10
Speaker 1: the same time I started my tech startup in two
1:48:14
Speaker 1: thousand and twelve. Jewel Burt Solivan she started hers in
1:48:17
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve, and Barry givings. Our third partner
1:48:20
Speaker 1: who really is the brainchild of bringing us together, he
1:48:23
Speaker 1: started his business around the same time. So about six
1:48:26
Speaker 1: months we were all starting our our business in a
1:48:29
Speaker 1: very young tech entrepreneurial city, Atlanta, twelve or twelve years ago,
1:48:36
Speaker 1: excuse me, eight years ago was um just what we
1:48:40
Speaker 1: call like a fledgling tech hub. Like we were just
1:48:42
Speaker 1: starting to form. And we realized that as we were
1:48:46
Speaker 1: building our businesses, uh, it would have been great to
1:48:49
Speaker 1: have a greater community and connectivity to those that could
1:48:53
Speaker 1: write checks, right so investors, um, those that could be
1:48:56
Speaker 1: our customers for our adventures uh, and really the right talent.
1:49:01
Speaker 1: And so we realized that as we're going our businesses
1:49:04
Speaker 1: that when we exited those businesses and we were to
1:49:07
Speaker 1: whatever height level of success, we want to make sure
1:49:10
Speaker 1: that the next group of innovators, tech entrepreneurs, brand builders,
1:49:14
Speaker 1: they actually had some shoulders to stand on. They didn't
1:49:17
Speaker 1: have to start where we started. Um, they were able
1:49:19
Speaker 1: to start where we left off. And so we built
1:49:22
Speaker 1: collab Capital to be a bridge for as far as knowledge,
1:49:28
Speaker 1: social capital, and financial capital to help a lot of
1:49:32
Speaker 1: early stage ventures and innovators avoid some of the traps
1:49:36
Speaker 1: UM and some of the things that they're likely going
1:49:38
Speaker 1: to run into, but then also uh to catalyze more
1:49:41
Speaker 1: of the community to get behind some of the brands
1:49:43
Speaker 1: and the companies that they're building. So that was kind
1:49:46
Speaker 1: of the quick abridge version. But that's that's at the
1:49:49
Speaker 1: epicenter of why we do what we do. Okay, let
1:49:51
Speaker 1: me just read this over. The team announced the launch
1:49:53
Speaker 1: of creating the largest fund for black founders in June
1:49:57
Speaker 1: June this year. COLLAB is an entity founders to support
1:50:00
Speaker 1: black owned businesses in a way that would create and
1:50:03
Speaker 1: sustained wealth within the Black community. I ask you this,
1:50:06
Speaker 1: and this is just an honest question. What is the
1:50:08
Speaker 1: black community? Is it a neighborhood or is it people?
1:50:11
Speaker 1: Is the movement? What is the black community? That's a
1:50:15
Speaker 1: great question. I wish I had like a more eloquent answer. Um.
1:50:19
Speaker 1: I will say that, you know, when I when I
1:50:22
Speaker 1: think about black I think about the diaspora, and particularly
1:50:25
Speaker 1: the portion that's here on this continent right that's in America.
1:50:28
Speaker 1: Many of us are descendants of UM slaves in one
1:50:32
Speaker 1: way or another, UM or another form of immigration. Uh
1:50:36
Speaker 1: so uh, not another form of immigration or immigration that
1:50:39
Speaker 1: slavery is not a form of immigration, to be clear,
1:50:44
Speaker 1: right right, UM, So when I think about Black I
1:50:47
Speaker 1: think about the mindset and I think about the community.
1:50:51
Speaker 1: I think about a group of people, uh that was
1:50:56
Speaker 1: given much and yet we still have to find a
1:50:58
Speaker 1: way and make away. Uh and um that is at
1:51:02
Speaker 1: the epicenter and then from there and obviously fragments and
1:51:06
Speaker 1: it comes a little bit more diverse depending on you know,
1:51:09
Speaker 1: where you were able to do that. So the southern
1:51:12
Speaker 1: UM Black individual is going to be have a different
1:51:15
Speaker 1: mindset than the Northern Black individual. But we're still a
1:51:18
Speaker 1: part of a greater community of folks who are who
1:51:20
Speaker 1: are connected by blood honestly, UM in a in a
1:51:24
Speaker 1: very unique way. And we were challenged in charge to
1:51:27
Speaker 1: um conceive to find a way to move forward despite
1:51:29
Speaker 1: the history. You know, resized that from a financial percent standpoint,
1:51:35
Speaker 1: of the banks that have closed in the country have
1:51:36
Speaker 1: closed in black neighborhoods. That's a black neighborhood. That's why
1:51:39
Speaker 1: I talk about community. Now we're gonna go back to
1:51:41
Speaker 1: the black neighborhood. Were where if that's what we're talking about,
1:51:46
Speaker 1: how does one invest in the black neighborhood to uplift
1:51:50
Speaker 1: you know, we always use these terminals creating jobs in
1:51:52
Speaker 1: the black community. That's what I always saying, what what,
1:51:55
Speaker 1: Because there's a difference between a community which you can
1:51:57
Speaker 1: be fluid, and a neighborhood, which is an actual physical location.
1:52:02
Speaker 1: Now I'm talking about the neighborhood. They're trying to change
1:52:06
Speaker 1: the game, trying to create UM. Tax about properties, whether
1:52:11
Speaker 1: it's uh putting properties that can be taxed, which in
1:52:14
Speaker 1: turn will give you better educational system, gether city service systems,
1:52:18
Speaker 1: and things like that. Generally, what happens is white people
1:52:20
Speaker 1: do that, they come back in the black neighborhood, they
1:52:22
Speaker 1: upgrade and they say, hey, black people, you gotta roll
1:52:25
Speaker 1: or the taxes get too high that they're forced to roll.
1:52:28
Speaker 1: So when when when you collab came on board, what
1:52:31
Speaker 1: do you what just the ultimate goal? Because you said,
1:52:33
Speaker 1: like I said, by the year the medium that it
1:52:36
Speaker 1: worked for black households with zero, how do you get
1:52:38
Speaker 1: to that number in so it won't be zero? Yeah, Well,
1:52:44
Speaker 1: we recognize that that's a great question. We recognize that
1:52:47
Speaker 1: we are we are one pillar of a multi institution
1:52:52
Speaker 1: that we need to build UM. It's not just about
1:52:55
Speaker 1: financial capital to innovators. We recognize that There needs to
1:52:58
Speaker 1: be grassroots efforts, There needs to be neighborhood initiatives. We
1:53:02
Speaker 1: need to continue to fight for political representation so that
1:53:05
Speaker 1: laws can favor UM favorite black businesses and black communities. UM.
1:53:09
Speaker 1: For for us, when we think about the local neighborhood,
1:53:12
Speaker 1: we think about um main Street, Right. We talk about
1:53:15
Speaker 1: Main Street and law Street all the time, especially during
1:53:18
Speaker 1: COVID That's been a topic of conversation quite a bit. UM.
1:53:22
Speaker 1: One of the things that we we focus on with
1:53:24
Speaker 1: Main Street is the digitization, right, like, how how are
1:53:27
Speaker 1: these businesses going to continue to compete in the world
1:53:30
Speaker 1: with amazons and ubers and lifts and all these other
1:53:33
Speaker 1: technologies seemingly disrupting their flow and operations? How do they
1:53:38
Speaker 1: How do we make sure that those businesses are digital?
1:53:40
Speaker 1: And what are the new businesses that are going to
1:53:41
Speaker 1: come out of this this digital world? And so when
1:53:44
Speaker 1: we think about Main Street, I think I reimagine Main
1:53:47
Speaker 1: Street being filled with innovators that are building products and
1:53:51
Speaker 1: brands that are still able to employ all. Right, it's
1:53:54
Speaker 1: still um um influence property values and hopefully there are
1:53:58
Speaker 1: these are neighborhoods and can comunities that are owned by
1:54:01
Speaker 1: black people. Right. That's the that's the big, big piece
1:54:05
Speaker 1: is our part, you know, our small part, along with
1:54:08
Speaker 1: what black banks can do, along with other high network individuals,
1:54:13
Speaker 1: real estate people. It's all in concert. It's all a
1:54:16
Speaker 1: part of it. But if we do it well, we'll
1:54:19
Speaker 1: be able to put some cornerstones with some black innovators
1:54:22
Speaker 1: building great businesses that can employ people from the neighborhoods,
1:54:25
Speaker 1: recent college grads, um et cetera, and really start to
1:54:28
Speaker 1: build neighborhoods from the from the people up again the neighborhood.
1:54:32
Speaker 1: You know, I'm really interested. You know, I come from
1:54:35
Speaker 1: originally born in Houston, Texas. Field Ford was my neighborhood,
1:54:38
Speaker 1: you know, and now they put a giant freeway through there.
1:54:41
Speaker 1: That was always the sign. Okay, let's be real, the
1:54:44
Speaker 1: white people are coming once they once they put Interstate
1:54:48
Speaker 1: through your neighborhood. That means they have ramps that can
1:54:50
Speaker 1: get off. They didn't build that because it was for us,
1:54:53
Speaker 1: Because that neighborhood was there before they built the interstate.
1:54:55
Speaker 1: That means they created traffic flow. That means they eventually, uh,
1:54:59
Speaker 1: the people who are playing these homes, they maybe fifty thousand,
1:55:02
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand, that property value might go up to
1:55:04
Speaker 1: fifty and fifty to three hundred thousand, which means that
1:55:08
Speaker 1: those communities that weren't prepared for that elevation and taxes
1:55:12
Speaker 1: will be disenfranchised again. And so when I when I
1:55:15
Speaker 1: look at what you're trying to do, your partners, what
1:55:18
Speaker 1: does the ultimate goal to protect the black community or
1:55:22
Speaker 1: the black neighborhood? Let me just say black community. What
1:55:25
Speaker 1: is the ultimate goal to protect the black neighborhood? Because
1:55:28
Speaker 1: we say a lot of great things justin you know,
1:55:30
Speaker 1: we say trying to create jobs. You know, we're trying
1:55:34
Speaker 1: to create uh infrastructures where you don't have to go
1:55:36
Speaker 1: out of your neighborhood to generate revenue. That's good in theory,
1:55:40
Speaker 1: because but black neighborhoods unbuilt like that. Then I'm built
1:55:44
Speaker 1: for buildings that have multiple layers of stories. You know,
1:55:48
Speaker 1: they usually maybe two stories at the most. And so,
1:55:52
Speaker 1: how do we protect the black neighborhood? How should I say,
1:55:55
Speaker 1: I'm putting on you? How does collapse capital capital protect
1:55:58
Speaker 1: the black neighborhood? Great question, Man, hit me with the
1:56:02
Speaker 1: heavy one, But I ain't mad, and I love it. Well,
1:56:05
Speaker 1: I would just tell you something I can only hit
1:56:07
Speaker 1: you because I know who you are and our true
1:56:10
Speaker 1: respect what you're trying to do. But it's because when
1:56:14
Speaker 1: you and I saw at the front of this whole,
1:56:16
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's greenwood and kill a mic and
1:56:19
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, see what cash app is doing.
1:56:22
Speaker 1: Technologists telling you now we're in a mobile world, we
1:56:25
Speaker 1: don't you don't need to bank in the neighborhood anymore,
1:56:28
Speaker 1: but you need to bank with technology. And that's what
1:56:30
Speaker 1: you guys are doing right now. That's why I'm hitting
1:56:33
Speaker 1: with these questions because I'm just letting people know that
1:56:36
Speaker 1: there's a different communications out there that we need to understand.
1:56:38
Speaker 1: There's a black community and there's a black neighborhood. Now
1:56:41
Speaker 1: the black community is gonna get right first. Now that
1:56:44
Speaker 1: black neighborhood is going to continue to struggle until we
1:56:47
Speaker 1: get the technology accepted in the black neighborhood. That's right,
1:56:51
Speaker 1: And I think you hit the nail on the head.
1:56:53
Speaker 1: I mean, when it comes to protecting the black neighborhood,
1:56:55
Speaker 1: it all starts with knowledge, right, It starts with information,
1:56:58
Speaker 1: and we have to be um open minded. I think
1:57:01
Speaker 1: one of the things that we uh we we've done
1:57:04
Speaker 1: over over the years as of people is sometimes we
1:57:08
Speaker 1: are apprehensive to accept technology. You know, we we don't
1:57:12
Speaker 1: We don't trust it for various various reasons, real reasons.
1:57:16
Speaker 1: But I think that there's an opportunity as long as
1:57:18
Speaker 1: we have equity and parity within ownership of technology. The
1:57:22
Speaker 1: more technology that we are building and we own, uh,
1:57:25
Speaker 1: then we can start to build those lines of trust.
1:57:27
Speaker 1: And three is we don't have to rely on the
1:57:29
Speaker 1: facebooks of the world. We don't have to rely on
1:57:31
Speaker 1: the Instagrams or the twitters of the world to determine,
1:57:33
Speaker 1: you know, our financial outcomes and the voices and the
1:57:37
Speaker 1: things that we want to see represented. If we own
1:57:39
Speaker 1: those technologies, were invested in those technologies, then we can
1:57:42
Speaker 1: influence how those things are, how they're built, and how
1:57:46
Speaker 1: they grow and are prevalent and present in our communities.
1:57:49
Speaker 1: So knowledge transfer is the very first things we have
1:57:52
Speaker 1: to We have to be open to it, We have
1:57:54
Speaker 1: to be open to exploring and learning, and then we
1:57:56
Speaker 1: have to get into a position in place where we
1:57:57
Speaker 1: actually own some of it. Cool. Now, then us and
1:58:00
Speaker 1: I got to got to do this interview, right, They're
1:58:02
Speaker 1: gonna say, how do we get in touch with you
1:58:03
Speaker 1: who you know? When you say something like providing black
1:58:06
Speaker 1: founders with both social and economic capital they need to scale.
1:58:10
Speaker 1: How does want to gain access or is it something
1:58:12
Speaker 1: that once feels out an application wasn't going online? What
1:58:15
Speaker 1: exactly is collab Capital Yeah, so we we are a
1:58:20
Speaker 1: highly visible and highly accessible investment funding. UM. We do
1:58:23
Speaker 1: focus on black innovators. So we are looking for technologies
1:58:27
Speaker 1: in the future of work. UM, so think think about
1:58:31
Speaker 1: how people will work in the future. Future of care, so,
1:58:35
Speaker 1: how people will care for themselves and how we will
1:58:36
Speaker 1: care for each other. UM, in the future of education, right,
1:58:39
Speaker 1: how we will learn and so those are our primary errors.
1:58:43
Speaker 1: But we're happy to talk to founders across UM various
1:58:46
Speaker 1: verticals and industries, particularly ones that we may not be
1:58:48
Speaker 1: aware of, so they're always curious. UM. How people get
1:58:51
Speaker 1: in touch with us is UM. Like I said, we're
1:58:54
Speaker 1: pretty easy to find. UM. This collab dot capital is
1:58:57
Speaker 1: our website where you can learn more about our mission,
1:59:00
Speaker 1: our team and what we're building. UH. And if you're
1:59:03
Speaker 1: if you're interested, if you have a company, UH, there's
1:59:05
Speaker 1: a few different forms and race links on that website
1:59:09
Speaker 1: you can you can reach out to us and let
1:59:10
Speaker 1: us know what you're thinking. Um, we also have social
1:59:14
Speaker 1: media handles, so we're on Instagram and collab dot collaub
1:59:17
Speaker 1: dot Capital on Instagram and m on Twitter as well.
1:59:21
Speaker 1: So if you just search for collab it's uh, you'll
1:59:24
Speaker 1: see three Rings. The three Rings is our our logo,
1:59:27
Speaker 1: and so we're easy to find and we're always happy
1:59:30
Speaker 1: to talk to innovators and those that are, you know,
1:59:32
Speaker 1: interested in helping black innovators succeed. Well, I know, you know,
1:59:36
Speaker 1: like said, it was great. I wanted to get you
1:59:38
Speaker 1: on because I saw you a long time, but I
1:59:39
Speaker 1: want to bring you other two parts back on, you know,
1:59:42
Speaker 1: in the first quarter, so we can just talk about
1:59:44
Speaker 1: because that's really key. You know, they've just signed off
1:59:46
Speaker 1: on and gotten the you know, the new uh pandemic
1:59:50
Speaker 1: financial package rolling, and so a lot of people won't
1:59:53
Speaker 1: be hopefully won't be thrown out of their homes and
1:59:55
Speaker 1: we will not be do all these quote of our
1:59:58
Speaker 1: benefits they gave, you know, the in the rental rental
2:00:01
Speaker 1: payment to land, your financial taxes from your pay road checks,
2:00:05
Speaker 1: all that is come and do. And so in the
2:00:08
Speaker 1: first of the year, that first quarter, we're gonna need
2:00:10
Speaker 1: you not so much lending, but just giving advice because
2:00:14
Speaker 1: it goes back to what I'm saying is that I'm
2:00:16
Speaker 1: just letting everybody know there's a black community and there's
2:00:19
Speaker 1: a black neighborhood, and we need to understand that conversation.
2:00:21
Speaker 1: When we're talking about how do we change the way
2:00:24
Speaker 1: we walk? The black community can be changed, it's the
2:00:27
Speaker 1: black neighborhood that's still struggling. The black community is actually
2:00:30
Speaker 1: coming out of the black neighborhood and also understands the
2:00:33
Speaker 1: value of social media, understand the value of change, how
2:00:36
Speaker 1: understanding how to pivot. You go to a black neighborhood,
2:00:39
Speaker 1: it's the same black neighborhood. Violence is there, the limited
2:00:42
Speaker 1: job opportunities there, there's an inability to understand that that
2:00:46
Speaker 1: there there goals outside of that black neighborhood. And so
2:00:49
Speaker 1: that's where I really uh applaud you and what you're
2:00:54
Speaker 1: trying to do. And that's why I want to bring
2:00:55
Speaker 1: the thrie of you back on the show in the
2:00:56
Speaker 1: first quarter so you know we can really we're gonna
2:01:01
Speaker 1: we gotta get people like vaccinating. No black people have
2:01:03
Speaker 1: a concern about getting vaccinated. You know I have a
2:01:06
Speaker 1: concerned I'm just gonna gonna throw it off on black people. Okay,
2:01:08
Speaker 1: we're trying McDonald concerned. Okay, when I see a lady
2:01:11
Speaker 1: faint on TV, okay, you know, Okay, will that be
2:01:16
Speaker 1: me fainting? Or will I faint and not get back up? Okay,
2:01:18
Speaker 1: I have the right to say that when you have
2:01:21
Speaker 1: not given a period of test period to say this
2:01:24
Speaker 1: is uh and usually to turn something round. And I
2:01:26
Speaker 1: knew you had to turn it around quickly. And that's
2:01:28
Speaker 1: why I'm glad we have options here. You know, a
2:01:31
Speaker 1: fire came out tests. Uh. Now we've got the modern
2:01:36
Speaker 1: modermour coming out now with the drug and the third
2:01:38
Speaker 1: one's coming to astra zenecas coming out. So when I
2:01:41
Speaker 1: come back, we're gonna have a different world that we're
2:01:43
Speaker 1: talking into. Well, we should have a run of vaccinations.
2:01:46
Speaker 1: People will will hopefully be still in the level of
2:01:49
Speaker 1: confidence because they would have gotten that three hundred dollar
2:01:51
Speaker 1: a week check that we've gotten the right there, would
2:01:54
Speaker 1: have gotten that six hundred dollar a week, six hundred
2:01:56
Speaker 1: dollar stimulus check which was cut down from twelve and
2:02:00
Speaker 1: six hundred dollars. Six hundred dollar a week check was
2:02:02
Speaker 1: cut down the three hundred dollars, so you're getting half
2:02:04
Speaker 1: of what you got when he shut us down. But
2:02:07
Speaker 1: I think that's all right because guess what, we're not
2:02:08
Speaker 1: shutting down. We're moving forward. And I think and I
2:02:11
Speaker 1: think that's what you're doing right now. My whole thing
2:02:13
Speaker 1: and talking to you justin was bringing you on the
2:02:15
Speaker 1: show just to talk about your brand. See that. See
2:02:17
Speaker 1: I would like your style. You got that smooth little
2:02:20
Speaker 1: you know a little I want to say that, Marvin Gay,
2:02:22
Speaker 1: You're the Marvin Gay of financials. Okay, I appreciate that. Well,
2:02:27
Speaker 1: you know, you got that that tone I would love
2:02:29
Speaker 1: about You got that right tone. And and it's it's
2:02:32
Speaker 1: a it's a it's a bedside tone. You know. If
2:02:34
Speaker 1: I if I, if you are a doctor and you
2:02:36
Speaker 1: came in, you you you you you treat me right
2:02:39
Speaker 1: because you let me know the facts. But you have
2:02:41
Speaker 1: a settling voice to let me know that you can
2:02:43
Speaker 1: still be a participant. And that's really what this is
2:02:46
Speaker 1: all about. My conversation with you is letting people know
2:02:48
Speaker 1: that if you don't get the facts, you don't get
2:02:50
Speaker 1: the information, you don't talk to the right people, then
2:02:52
Speaker 1: you're gonna continue to struggle. It's at the bottom line,
2:02:56
Speaker 1: that's it. Uh that that's that's I mean, you hit
2:02:58
Speaker 1: the nail on the head. Well, and I appreciate the compliment.
2:03:01
Speaker 1: I've never been told I have a good bedside manner,
2:03:04
Speaker 1: but I appreciate that. Uh, and yeah, I am happy
2:03:08
Speaker 1: to continue to teach. Um. I come from a long
2:03:11
Speaker 1: line of teachers on my mother's side of the family.
2:03:13
Speaker 1: Is is a large family of teachers, and so I
2:03:16
Speaker 1: feel it's my responsibility, you know, is I continue to
2:03:19
Speaker 1: learn to share that knowledge. And yeah, I'm happy to
2:03:21
Speaker 1: continue to do that for our for our communities and
2:03:24
Speaker 1: for our people. Cool, well, my man, you know, and
2:03:26
Speaker 1: I already told your first quarter bringing all through you
2:03:29
Speaker 1: guys on you're gonna sit down. I have a round
2:03:31
Speaker 1: table talk about the future of Black American black neighborhoods
2:03:34
Speaker 1: and also where capital stands at that poem moving forward
2:03:36
Speaker 1: in one But again, thank you for coming on Money
2:03:39
Speaker 1: Making Conversations, Thank you for having Shan's good to see
2:03:42
Speaker 1: and uh, yeah, I'll be by something real sense. Absolutely,
2:03:44
Speaker 1: my friend. You got to got to If you don't
2:03:46
Speaker 1: need more money Making Conversations interviews, please go to money
2:03:48
Speaker 1: Making Conversation dot com. I with Sean McDonald. I'm your
2:03:51
Speaker 1: host in this season of giving Cools has gifts for
2:03:55
Speaker 1: all your loved ones. For those who like to keep
2:03:58
Speaker 1: it cozy, find fleeces, sweaters, loungeware, blankets and throws. Or
2:04:02
Speaker 1: support minority owned or founded brands by giving gifts from
2:04:05
Speaker 1: Human Nation and Shame Moisture and in the spirit of giving,
2:04:09
Speaker 1: Coals Cares is donating eight million dollars to local nonprofits nationwide.
2:04:14
Speaker 1: Give with all your heart this season with great gifts
2:04:17
Speaker 1: from Coals or coals dot Com. Still living in manually
2:04:21
Speaker 1: taking notes, there is a better way to start the
2:04:23
Speaker 1: new year with auto dot ai automatically get meeting notes.
2:04:26
Speaker 1: Auto dot ai works for virtual meetings like Zoom, Microsoft Teams,
2:04:30
Speaker 1: and Google Meet. Sign up on the web for free
2:04:31
Speaker 1: or download in the app stores auto dot ai. That's
2:04:34
Speaker 1: O T T E R. Dot Ai. Sticky notes, email
2:04:38
Speaker 1: alerts a string around your finger. They're just not big enough.
2:04:42
Speaker 1: So here's a big reminder from the California Lottery. Tomorrow's
2:04:45
Speaker 1: Megamillions jack Potties, which three million play now, Please play responsibly.
2:04:49
Speaker 1: Must be eighteen years older to purchase player PI