Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Full Episode: OWN’s Family or Fiancé's Tracy McMillan, Good Girl Chocolate's Dr. Tabatha Carr, Forgotten Harvest's Kirk Mayes & Performance Paradigm's Reggie Butler

Transcript

Full Episode: OWN’s Family or Fiancé's Tracy McMillan, Good Girl Chocolate's Dr. Tabatha Carr, Forgotten Harvest's Kirk Mayes & Performance Paradigm's Reggie Butler · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: to you by the Accouncil. Welcome to Money Making Conversations.
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Speaker 1: It's the show that she has the secrets of success
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Speaker 1: experience firsthand by marketing and Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I
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Speaker 1: will know he's given me advice on many occasions, and
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Speaker 1: interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what
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Speaker 1: he likes to do, it's what he likes to share.
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Speaker 1: Now it's time to hear from my man, Rashan McDonald,
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Speaker 1: money making conversations. Here we come. Welcome to money making Conversation.
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Speaker 1: I am your host, Rashan McDonald. I say this every
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Speaker 1: week on my show. It's time to stop reading other
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Speaker 1: people's success stories and start writing your own. And people
1:48
Speaker 1: you're to talk about gifts, to talk about passion. If
1:51
Speaker 1: you have a gift, lead with your gift, and don't
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Speaker 1: let your age, free and family or co workers stop
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Speaker 1: you from planning or living your dreams. My interviews for you,
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Speaker 1: whether you're consumed every day for the hour week, guy
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Speaker 1: who works her job, a young lady, a business owner,
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Speaker 1: because I give you access to celebrities, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and
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Speaker 1: what I like to call industry decision makers. My next
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Speaker 1: guest is Tracy McMillan. She's a relationship expert, television writer
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Speaker 1: or dot dot Dot, and author whose credits include Madmen,
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Speaker 1: one of my favorite shows Good Girls, Revoked, Marvel's Runaways,
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Speaker 1: I love anything that's Marvel related, and United States of Tara,
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Speaker 1: which is outstanding. She's the author of three books, a
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Speaker 1: memoir I Love You and I'm Leaving You Anyway, a
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Speaker 1: novel multiple listings, and a relationship book While You're not
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Speaker 1: Married dot dot dot Yet she's on the show because
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Speaker 1: she's the host of owns popular Family of Fiance. Family
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Speaker 1: of Fiance right there. You know there's a choice where
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Speaker 1: the couples have to make a decision family or fiance.
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Speaker 1: Please work with the money making conversations. Tracy macmillan, Hello, Well, Tracy,
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Speaker 1: you're fantastic looking individual. Christ You command the screen, and
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Speaker 1: you are a writer. I am first and foremost. Talk
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Speaker 1: about that, talk about being that that producer, that creative sort,
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Speaker 1: because when you write, you tend to be about yourself
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Speaker 1: a lot unless you're in the writer for you, that's true.
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Speaker 1: So so I started out in journalism. I worked in
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Speaker 1: broadcast journalism for sixteen years. I and you know the
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Speaker 1: thing about being a writer and starting in journalism in
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Speaker 1: particular broadcast, is that you're not writing because you're feeling inspired.
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Speaker 1: You're writing because there's a deadline and you need to
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Speaker 1: get hit your deadline end of story. And so I
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Speaker 1: feel like that was really great background for me because
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Speaker 1: I'm not waiting for something to happen. I'm just doing
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Speaker 1: it um as far as writing is concerned, because you know,
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Speaker 1: procrastination is a really big part of writing potentially, and
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Speaker 1: if you don't make yourself do it, it just doesn't happen. Well.
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Speaker 1: The poet also is that because you hear frame much
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Speaker 1: terms like writer's block. Yeahs about the creative direction. But
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Speaker 1: when I read off your credits, and it's important that
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Speaker 1: you understand why I read them all because they are
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Speaker 1: basically shows where I when I started my writing career
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Speaker 1: Steve Harvey, Me and the Boys, and then went over
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Speaker 1: the Parenthood with Robert Townsend or Seniors Hall sitcom, uh,
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Speaker 1: It's Sister Sister with the Twins, Ta and Tomorrow Maori,
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Speaker 1: and then Jamie Fox Show and The Parkers. All those
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Speaker 1: were urban sitcoms. So I was kind of pigeonhole. You know,
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Speaker 1: if I if I try to write a spec script,
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Speaker 1: they said, uh, to try to get on the jaredstime
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Speaker 1: Field type show or home improvement type show. I had
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Speaker 1: to write those type of specs. How did you get
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Speaker 1: into the writer's game? And let's talk about the different
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Speaker 1: uh fields opportunities you've been given as a writer, because
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Speaker 1: you go from drama to sci fi to UH really
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Speaker 1: interesting platform of writing. Sometimes I feel very lucky, like
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Speaker 1: I'm the Tom Hanks of television writers, Like I just
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Speaker 1: get to do all these different things. And I don't
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Speaker 1: know how I got lucky about way, but I will
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Speaker 1: tell you how I started. So I had I knew
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Speaker 1: one person in the business. It was a mom friend
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Speaker 1: of mine. We had met on a blind mom playdate.
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Speaker 1: This friend of mine said, oh, I met this mom.
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Speaker 1: I think you'd like her. So we went out and
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Speaker 1: our kids were like two, my kids now twenty four.
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Speaker 1: So we're talking and I'm like, so, what are you about.
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Speaker 1: You know I'm living in Los Angeles. She's like, oh,
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Speaker 1: I'm a television writer. I was like, oh, I've always
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Speaker 1: secretly wanted to do that. How do you do that?
5:31
Speaker 1: And she said, well, basically, you have a protagonist and
5:36
Speaker 1: they have a problem. They get themselves up a tree,
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Speaker 1: they try to solve their problem, they get themselves further
5:41
Speaker 1: up the tree, they try to solve the problem again,
5:44
Speaker 1: and they fall out. Of the tree and then that's
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Speaker 1: basically the end of the episode. There's a little epilogue
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Speaker 1: after that. That's it. And I went, okay, that's good.
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Speaker 1: So I went off and I wrote two spec scripts
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Speaker 1: without even knowing what I was doing. This isn't like
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Speaker 1: the year two thousand. I wrote a dharmind Greg and
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Speaker 1: a Drew Carey and Populace. But and so I showed
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Speaker 1: them to her and she said, wow, everyone thinks they
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Speaker 1: can do my job. That you actually could now in
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Speaker 1: a perfect story, that would be it. I got a job.
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Speaker 1: I didn't get a job. In fact, I went, okay,
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Speaker 1: that's nice to know. But I'm like very busy being
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Speaker 1: a mom, and I didn't have the self esteem. I
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Speaker 1: had a lot of stuff I had to work on
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Speaker 1: internally before I was going to be able to say
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Speaker 1: yes to that kind of career move or that life. Um.
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Speaker 1: So I got busy with all that work, not even
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Speaker 1: knowing that's what I was doing. And the opportunity came
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Speaker 1: around again in two thousand five. So five years later,
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Speaker 1: I was going through a big my ending of my
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Speaker 1: third marriage. I was in a real soul searching moment
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Speaker 1: and I decided to write something a drama of a
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Speaker 1: movie to work my way through the process. And when
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Speaker 1: I was done with it, I sent it to this woman.
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Speaker 1: We weren't close because her career had taken off and um,
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Speaker 1: but she was like, I know you can write, so
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Speaker 1: I'll send it to my agent and he likes it'll
7:11
Speaker 1: call you and if he doesn't, he won't. And eight
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Speaker 1: months later he called me and that was the beginning.
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Speaker 1: And it took another year after that to get my
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Speaker 1: first job. But once I started, and at that time
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Speaker 1: I was forty two, so I was like the wrong age,
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Speaker 1: the wrong color, went to the wrong school, the wrong everything.
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Speaker 1: But it did not matter. There was still rooms for me. Well,
7:31
Speaker 1: you know, it's really interesting that big lesson. I always
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Speaker 1: tell people like, um, I found myself my voice in
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Speaker 1: my forties. You know, despite success, I had a success
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Speaker 1: that people considered was incredible. I really didn't. Um, I
7:46
Speaker 1: guess you have the confidence, a climpse of direction that
7:50
Speaker 1: I could do that. And so the reason I bring
7:53
Speaker 1: that up because a lot of people limit their sales
7:55
Speaker 1: when he hit a certain age. You know, they don't
7:57
Speaker 1: do it in the twenties or their thirties. Day Oh
7:59
Speaker 1: time is up. I can't do it. And what you
8:01
Speaker 1: and I are saying in our forties, we found our voice,
8:04
Speaker 1: and we found our voice. Basically, our careers took off,
8:08
Speaker 1: and it took off because we finally believed in each other.
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Speaker 1: You know, I was still I was managing Steve Harvey
8:12
Speaker 1: at the time, and and we was in l A
8:15
Speaker 1: and I was making some decisions, positive decisions. But again
8:18
Speaker 1: I was had written all these sitcoms. You know, we've
8:21
Speaker 1: done all these concerts, sold in my nationwide. But in
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Speaker 1: the end, I had thrown myself into a world that
8:27
Speaker 1: I was successful. I didn't understand. And so with that,
8:31
Speaker 1: insecurities are there even though your TIEV is success. So
8:34
Speaker 1: you overcame your security insecurities. And so you walk into
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Speaker 1: a writer's room first time only talk about the experience. Well,
8:42
Speaker 1: my first writer's room. Everybody went around the table and
8:44
Speaker 1: they were introducing themselves and each they had a lot
8:48
Speaker 1: of them had come from the West Wing because the
8:50
Speaker 1: show runner had run the West Wing. They are incredibly smart,
8:56
Speaker 1: Mary established very successful TV writers and you know it's
9:00
Speaker 1: very common for those people to have gone to Ivy
9:03
Speaker 1: League schools, specifically Harvard, And so they each go around
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Speaker 1: and there's twelve writers on the show, and literally the
9:12
Speaker 1: first nine writers I'll say, you know, I went to
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Speaker 1: Harvard or whatever, and my dad's a doctor, and I
9:20
Speaker 1: was like, this was when I first realized that television
9:23
Speaker 1: writers disproportionately have dads who are doctors. So anyway you
9:27
Speaker 1: get to me and I'm like, well, I went to
9:30
Speaker 1: the University of Utah and my dad's in federal prison.
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Speaker 1: It was like, okay, but there was a way in
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Speaker 1: which that I was owning it and that it was
9:43
Speaker 1: just like I was like, all right, and from really
9:46
Speaker 1: even before that, I had learned that the things that
9:50
Speaker 1: I thought were the most um not necessarily shameful, but
9:54
Speaker 1: the things that I thought I would be least understood for,
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Speaker 1: which is my history as a foster child, my dad
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Speaker 1: in prison, you know, all these things, my mom a prostitute,
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Speaker 1: Like all these things turned out to be the things
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Speaker 1: that Hollywood loved me for. Right, They not get enough
10:10
Speaker 1: my story, but my three husbands and everything that had
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Speaker 1: gone on. So it's the other big lesson was just
10:18
Speaker 1: a lean into who you are, because who you are
10:21
Speaker 1: is perfect for whatever dream is on your high Well,
10:24
Speaker 1: you know, I really, first of all, your honesty is
10:27
Speaker 1: what also is your blessing, Okay, because a lot of
10:30
Speaker 1: people high from their background, high from because they feel
10:32
Speaker 1: that maybe damaging to the opportunity. And like I said,
10:36
Speaker 1: you know, if you working for IBM, if you working
10:38
Speaker 1: for Google's problems matter anymore now because everybody's like to
10:42
Speaker 1: be yourself where what you want to wear? The type
10:44
Speaker 1: attitude nowadays, but back then, when you're talking about trying
10:48
Speaker 1: to break into an industry, that's true. I've been in
10:50
Speaker 1: these writer's room and then you were in for a drama.
10:53
Speaker 1: That's to me. Sitcom has always had a lot of
10:55
Speaker 1: writers dramas. And you said he was a room with
10:57
Speaker 1: twelve people. That's a lot of writers. That was the
11:00
Speaker 1: end of the old era. It literally was the very
11:03
Speaker 1: end of the old era two thousand and seven, and
11:06
Speaker 1: then we had the writer's strike and from that point on,
11:08
Speaker 1: the writer's ship was like six pole right right. And
11:11
Speaker 1: so so I was just letting everybody know there was
11:13
Speaker 1: a transition period because in sitcoms you need more writers
11:16
Speaker 1: because of the fact you're pitching jokes and you're pitching
11:19
Speaker 1: a faster moon moving process and so you so you
11:23
Speaker 1: need people not to burn out and not to be
11:25
Speaker 1: pitching the same jokes, but in dramas it's really tied
11:28
Speaker 1: to the emotion of the writer and you can shape
11:30
Speaker 1: the moment and the scenes and all that. Now I'm
11:33
Speaker 1: gonna sitcom guy, you're a drama person, that's your first
11:35
Speaker 1: writer's job. Then you get then you realize you can
11:37
Speaker 1: do this. That's just what I want to talk about. People.
11:39
Speaker 1: You were talking to Tracy McMillan. She is the host
11:42
Speaker 1: of Family of Fiance, which is on own network. We're
11:45
Speaker 1: gonna talk about that in a minute, which an amazing show,
11:47
Speaker 1: but often on my show and say, people say, how
11:50
Speaker 1: did they get there? How did she get that opportunity?
11:52
Speaker 1: How did she overcome the odds? She just told you, you
11:54
Speaker 1: you know, you know. The premise is that she from
11:57
Speaker 1: you graduated from Utah or dad from for went to prison.
12:00
Speaker 1: Her mom was a prostitute, but she didn't limit that sale,
12:03
Speaker 1: limit her opportunities foster child and all those are negatives.
12:07
Speaker 1: How do you start sliding those negatives, Tracy into a
12:10
Speaker 1: positive side of the box. I think it's really about
12:14
Speaker 1: understanding and embracing that if this is your story, it's
12:18
Speaker 1: for good, and that everything is happening for you not
12:22
Speaker 1: to you, you know. I mean, the fact of the
12:24
Speaker 1: matter is I had some amazing foster homes. Like I
12:27
Speaker 1: always say, um, there's one version of my life where
12:30
Speaker 1: I got born and then my mother gave me up
12:33
Speaker 1: at three months and I was abandoned and victimized, you know. Um,
12:38
Speaker 1: but there's another story where I got born. I took
12:41
Speaker 1: a look around and I said I can do better
12:44
Speaker 1: than this, and I got out of there and I
12:47
Speaker 1: started getting exposed to some different things at the age
12:50
Speaker 1: of three months. So it's all about how you freem it.
12:53
Speaker 1: As I'm concerned, right, I see animation in your future too,
12:57
Speaker 1: because you're just have a really huge bin of animation,
13:01
Speaker 1: and what in my future animation? Animation? Okay, I just
13:07
Speaker 1: say yes to everything. I remember people used to say
13:10
Speaker 1: to me many years ago in TV news and You're like,
13:12
Speaker 1: you know what you should know, Oprah, you should have
13:14
Speaker 1: your own show. I'm like, yeah, you know what, I
13:16
Speaker 1: probably should like that sounds good. I was not saying
13:20
Speaker 1: no to anything. I was just like, all right, yeah,
13:23
Speaker 1: I'm done with that. Even though I think it's not
13:26
Speaker 1: about looking at the how. You have to take your
13:29
Speaker 1: focus off the how and keep your focus on the
13:31
Speaker 1: what and then raise your own vibration to where you're
13:36
Speaker 1: matching whatever it is that you want. And I know
13:39
Speaker 1: that sounds kind of woo woo. The other thing I'll
13:42
Speaker 1: say is I kind of work harder than other people.
13:44
Speaker 1: It's like I get a tremendous amount of work done.
13:48
Speaker 1: I crank out the writing, like there was a period
13:51
Speaker 1: of eight years where I wrote three books. I was
13:54
Speaker 1: on a whole bunch of TV shows, like it was
13:57
Speaker 1: I mean as a writer. And then I ended up
13:59
Speaker 1: writing the piece that went viral and it was on
14:05
Speaker 1: the Huffington Post. Maybe it was the most read for
14:08
Speaker 1: almost three years. It just turned into this huge thing.
14:11
Speaker 1: And all it was was me sitting down to write
14:14
Speaker 1: my truth as though nobody was watching, and I put
14:19
Speaker 1: it in the Huffington Post and the rest is history.
14:21
Speaker 1: And that's where this on air career came from. Now,
14:25
Speaker 1: the thing is is I've gone to broadcast journalism school.
14:28
Speaker 1: I've worked in TV news for sixteen years. I knew
14:31
Speaker 1: what to do. I had just been saying no to
14:34
Speaker 1: on camera my whole life because I was like, I
14:37
Speaker 1: don't know, I'm a virgo. I like being behind the scenes.
14:40
Speaker 1: I'm kind of a weirdly um internal. I know I
14:45
Speaker 1: looked like I'm an extrovert, but actually I'm sort of bookish.
14:48
Speaker 1: I just want to read and be back here and
14:49
Speaker 1: have nobody pay attention to me. Um So there was
14:53
Speaker 1: a part of me that didn't want to do it.
14:55
Speaker 1: But you know, God or the universe, what I want
14:58
Speaker 1: to call it, divine intelligence, it whatever the plan is,
15:02
Speaker 1: that that's gonna happen. It doesn't really matter what you say, right,
15:06
Speaker 1: we know something, you know some situation when I when
15:07
Speaker 1: I looked at you. You know, one of my gifts
15:10
Speaker 1: is just a perception, and I just recognized people when
15:13
Speaker 1: I and I really could, I can basically said I
15:15
Speaker 1: don't need to talk to you because I just know
15:17
Speaker 1: who you are. You know, based on when I look
15:20
Speaker 1: at you when I watched the shows. You have a
15:22
Speaker 1: zen about you, and it's a it's a Zin that
15:25
Speaker 1: you know, it's like a sixties types zin, which is
15:29
Speaker 1: a laid back but very confident, but very relaxed personality,
15:34
Speaker 1: which means that if I have any defenses, you immediately
15:37
Speaker 1: relax them. So that when that was important to me
15:41
Speaker 1: to see that. Because you're in a relationship expert, how
15:44
Speaker 1: did you become a relationship scept we talk about your life,
15:47
Speaker 1: we talked about the writers, you talked about that story.
15:49
Speaker 1: Didn't helping the post but a relationship expert. How did
15:52
Speaker 1: that happen? Well, it happened because I made so many
15:56
Speaker 1: mistakes in my relationships. And then I'm the kind of
15:59
Speaker 1: person who is going to take a mistake and go, Okay,
16:02
Speaker 1: what did I do around here? Like what do I
16:04
Speaker 1: need to learn? How am I here to up level?
16:07
Speaker 1: You know? Um, that's just my nature. So as I
16:11
Speaker 1: learned things, naturally, I would just start talking to people
16:14
Speaker 1: about them. I worked in newsrooms, as I said, for
16:18
Speaker 1: many years. Newsrooms are rooms with sixty people all having
16:23
Speaker 1: trouble in their relationships. You know, I'm just kidding, But
16:26
Speaker 1: you would naturally be in the conversations where I'm talking
16:30
Speaker 1: to the reporters or the other writers about their love
16:33
Speaker 1: relationships when I'm supposed to be doing my real job,
16:36
Speaker 1: and they would be helped. They'd be like, while you're
16:38
Speaker 1: really helping me. And a lot of it was all
16:41
Speaker 1: the things that I was learning. Because I say, I'm
16:44
Speaker 1: the jail house lawyer of relationship experts. I had to
16:47
Speaker 1: do so much work on my own keys, now I
16:50
Speaker 1: can help you with yours. And the other thing about
16:53
Speaker 1: me is I'm not the person who got married once
16:55
Speaker 1: and has been married thirty years. I'm still working it out,
16:59
Speaker 1: and I think people can feel the non judgment and
17:02
Speaker 1: they relate to somebody who's still working on it even
17:06
Speaker 1: though they've made a lot of mistakes as I have,
17:09
Speaker 1: and I don't carry shame around it. I cary forgiveness
17:12
Speaker 1: for myself, compassion for other people. I really think it's
17:16
Speaker 1: just like relationships are a spiritual path and that if
17:20
Speaker 1: you allow them to, they will grow you, unlike any
17:24
Speaker 1: other aspect of your life. So that just became where
17:28
Speaker 1: I was releasing. My gifts were that I could understand
17:32
Speaker 1: what's going on with people's relationships. And then I had
17:35
Speaker 1: all this sort of I'm a big reader, and um,
17:40
Speaker 1: you know, I teach myself a lot. I basically sort
17:43
Speaker 1: of a self taught marriage and family therapist. Now I
17:47
Speaker 1: always am in therapy, and like my current therapist, sometimes
17:50
Speaker 1: they'll be like, Wow, that's really good. Can I use that?
17:54
Speaker 1: You're funny? How whatever you want? I managed Steve Harvey.
18:01
Speaker 1: We released the book Act like a Lady, Think like
18:03
Speaker 1: a Man. It's sold three million copies. And again you
18:06
Speaker 1: know people threw whom in that box of relationship expert?
18:09
Speaker 1: Yeah he did, and then he immediately here is well, hell,
18:13
Speaker 1: he can't keep on marriage going. Okay, how can you
18:16
Speaker 1: tell me what's going on in my life? And then
18:18
Speaker 1: of course your situation. You know, you've had three divorces
18:21
Speaker 1: in your life, so that's a negative, but also it's
18:24
Speaker 1: a that's a positive too, correct. I mean I always
18:28
Speaker 1: say you learn more from failure than you do from
18:30
Speaker 1: success if you're there for the lesson. Now. The other
18:34
Speaker 1: thing is is that I've learned. So I got married
18:36
Speaker 1: at nineteen, I got married at thirty two, and I
18:39
Speaker 1: got married at For you, I have not been married
18:42
Speaker 1: in sixteen years. I learned my lesson right, I stopped
18:46
Speaker 1: getting married. I stopped moving in with people. Now for
18:50
Speaker 1: the that is just shifting now. So I've been very
18:55
Speaker 1: um rigorous with myself about what I need to learn
19:00
Speaker 1: and not repeating the same mistake. Now we should shifting? Now?
19:03
Speaker 1: We should we? We? You said shifting? Now? What did
19:05
Speaker 1: you mean when you said shifting? Now? I am in
19:08
Speaker 1: a relationship together and that's brand new. It's okay, So
19:16
Speaker 1: what we gotta do is in the fall. I'm I'm
19:18
Speaker 1: a reachback. We're gonna be my shows still here. Find
19:22
Speaker 1: out every six I think you know you're gonna be
19:24
Speaker 1: my six month interview. Six months, will check in and
19:28
Speaker 1: find out the relations You're gonna help me out and
19:30
Speaker 1: help you out because I've been I've been blessed. I've
19:32
Speaker 1: been married thirty three years and you know, in that
19:34
Speaker 1: whole process, there hasn't been rosy along the way and
19:37
Speaker 1: every near catastrophes along the way. But you know, being
19:41
Speaker 1: that that that is my hook, my claim to fame
19:44
Speaker 1: in the relationship. I've been able to hold it together.
19:46
Speaker 1: Now your claim to fame right now is on Own.
19:49
Speaker 1: It's a show called Family of Fiance. And I laugh
19:53
Speaker 1: a little bit because the fact that, uh, you know,
19:57
Speaker 1: you know, family does play a role. And let's let
19:59
Speaker 1: me give about the premise of Family or Fiance. It's
20:02
Speaker 1: Own Own Network, hosted by Tracy McMillan. One engaged couple too,
20:06
Speaker 1: families who object, One engaged couple, Two families who object,
20:11
Speaker 1: Three days under one roof and a wedding on the line.
20:16
Speaker 1: Will they earn their families blessing? I'll be forced to
20:20
Speaker 1: choose family or Fiance. How did you get involved with
20:24
Speaker 1: this project? Well, I got a call, so I did
20:27
Speaker 1: Oprah Super Soul Sunday and that was a great experience.
20:32
Speaker 1: And then, uh, probably three years maybe more later, I
20:36
Speaker 1: got a call that OWN wanted to do this show
20:40
Speaker 1: called Family or Fiance, and I was like, okay, and
20:43
Speaker 1: would I come in and meet? And so I came
20:47
Speaker 1: in and I met, and really from that first day,
20:51
Speaker 1: I really just felt like, Wow, they're the specific things
20:55
Speaker 1: that I know about, and I'm here to do I
21:00
Speaker 1: can do those things here. And really our show is
21:03
Speaker 1: about healing families. It's about setting up couples for really
21:09
Speaker 1: the deep work of GDGE and um, you know, people learn.
21:17
Speaker 1: It's it's an incredible show. Every episode gives me chills
21:21
Speaker 1: at least funds because these couples are so courageous and
21:24
Speaker 1: these families are so courageous and courageous you see people
21:29
Speaker 1: who don't want to do the work. Courageous or outrageous.
21:34
Speaker 1: We can put the word outrageous in there too, because
21:36
Speaker 1: some of the things outrageous because you're coming in with
21:40
Speaker 1: a set mind, you know, set this set attitude. That's
21:43
Speaker 1: what I come about. And but here's the thing, I
21:46
Speaker 1: like about the show and just what I love about you,
21:48
Speaker 1: and I'm so happy I'm interviewing you. It's your personality.
21:52
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's so disarming, and I think it's
21:56
Speaker 1: important for this type of show because it's not a
21:59
Speaker 1: combative show. I'm just let you. Let me just tell you, guys,
22:01
Speaker 1: when you watch this show. Um, she almost I want
22:05
Speaker 1: to use the word disappears, but she kind of like
22:07
Speaker 1: goes into the fabric of the show. She said, to
22:10
Speaker 1: everything and every and so we allow ourselves to see
22:13
Speaker 1: the problem. We allow ourselves to see the couple's work
22:15
Speaker 1: through the problems, and we allow ourselves to find out
22:19
Speaker 1: maybe they are the problem. And that's part of what
22:22
Speaker 1: this show was about because we're not trying to point
22:25
Speaker 1: a finger. That's why that was my greatest take. Aware
22:27
Speaker 1: of your show, Tracy, you know, which is h which
22:30
Speaker 1: is a family of fiance, which is don't own network.
22:33
Speaker 1: Is that you're not here to be Uh, you're wrong,
22:36
Speaker 1: you're right, But the resolve issues that make this couple
22:39
Speaker 1: lasts a long time. And that's the purpose of getting married.
22:41
Speaker 1: You don't get married to get a di vorce. You
22:43
Speaker 1: get married to to you know, to death. Do his part.
22:46
Speaker 1: That is the premise of marriage to talk about am
22:48
Speaker 1: I missing the points of of what you're trying to
22:52
Speaker 1: do in the show. And I think that's part of
22:54
Speaker 1: my approach to relationship coaching is that I already know
23:00
Speaker 1: from being a girlfriend, you know, being just the ff
23:03
Speaker 1: with people. Nobody can tell anybody anything what I'm saying.
23:08
Speaker 1: No one ever changed their behavior in a relationship because
23:11
Speaker 1: their friends said, girl, you're going down the wrong path.
23:15
Speaker 1: That's not how it works. How it works is you
23:17
Speaker 1: allow people to come to their own conclusion. You give
23:20
Speaker 1: them the dignity of their own process, and you just
23:24
Speaker 1: hold up the mirror and you hold a space. It's
23:28
Speaker 1: almost like parenting. You hold a space for this person
23:32
Speaker 1: who has decided to come on the show, so you
23:35
Speaker 1: know the willingness is there at some level, and you
23:39
Speaker 1: got what is inside of them. Pull them across the
23:42
Speaker 1: finish line, pull them into the change. Not me being sassy,
23:47
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying that I'm just a facilitator.
23:51
Speaker 1: The real healing is the couples and the families themselves.
23:54
Speaker 1: We know the interesting fun point because I used to
23:57
Speaker 1: work fun. It's entertainment. There's a social you know that
24:01
Speaker 1: we get to see. Is that just to see the
24:04
Speaker 1: journey of black reality shows? Yes, you know, and you
24:08
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Child, it was one time, you know,
24:10
Speaker 1: you threw a glass, you cut somebody out, you punch
24:12
Speaker 1: them in the face, and that's a black reality show.
24:15
Speaker 1: They you know Jerry Springer Bringer on Black Steras. That's
24:19
Speaker 1: where our reality shows work. And so you you being
24:22
Speaker 1: invited into this environment, did you have any uh any
24:26
Speaker 1: uh questions about what type of what type of premise
24:30
Speaker 1: we're doing with this because you're not gonna get involved.
24:32
Speaker 1: I mean I could tell from the first meeting with
24:35
Speaker 1: the producers and you know just what owned the network
24:38
Speaker 1: is about, what Obrah Winfrey is about. It's like we
24:43
Speaker 1: were here for what is highest in people. I'm here
24:46
Speaker 1: for what highest and me I want the couples to
24:49
Speaker 1: be here for what's the highest in themselves and each
24:51
Speaker 1: other and the families. So that's the space I'm holding. Um,
24:56
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean people aren't gonna act outrageous at times.
24:59
Speaker 1: They ou that's how people are because people are you know, humans,
25:04
Speaker 1: They do that. But um, we're not sitting here. That's
25:08
Speaker 1: not the level that we're um resting in that's just
25:14
Speaker 1: a place people sometimes go. And but I'd say that
25:17
Speaker 1: our show it people grow, people heal, and it's real.
25:24
Speaker 1: The look in their eyes when we take the family
25:26
Speaker 1: photo at the very end we do the blessing ceremony,
25:29
Speaker 1: that we go outside, immediately take the family photo, and
25:33
Speaker 1: the look that they give me is always, even if
25:37
Speaker 1: the relationship fell apart, even if things didn't get fully resolved,
25:43
Speaker 1: the look in their eyes, whether it's family or the couples,
25:46
Speaker 1: is thank you. And I always want to say, it's
25:49
Speaker 1: not me, I'm just the channel. I'm just here. You
25:52
Speaker 1: did the way you know my background of stand up coming,
25:55
Speaker 1: I started out just the end up comedy. And when
25:58
Speaker 1: I look at you almost you know because she's Tracy
26:02
Speaker 1: mc she has a very popular ted ax. She did
26:04
Speaker 1: called with the Person You Really Need to Marry Wildly
26:08
Speaker 1: When Wildly viral and you can find it a li
26:10
Speaker 1: Tracy McMillan Tedex's talk The Person you Really Need to
26:13
Speaker 1: Marry and When, and watching that, I felt like I
26:17
Speaker 1: was watching a monologue. I felt like I was watching
26:20
Speaker 1: without the jokes. Now you know you know this, but
26:23
Speaker 1: it felt like I was being entertained and carried on
26:26
Speaker 1: a journey. That's what great comedians do, whether you David Chappelle,
26:28
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey, or Chris Rock, they tell a story to
26:31
Speaker 1: take you on a journey. And even talking to you now,
26:35
Speaker 1: I feel myself being caught up into the mystique that
26:39
Speaker 1: the aura of Tracy McMillan. What is that Tracy before
26:42
Speaker 1: we wrapp what is that about you? You? You know
26:44
Speaker 1: it's real, you know it's real. Come on, I don't know.
26:47
Speaker 1: You know what my dad would say, it's the McMillan chime.
26:50
Speaker 1: I have to say that. He's like, it's that McMillan chime,
26:54
Speaker 1: not necessarily about me. He's probably talking about himself. What
26:57
Speaker 1: you do have? You do? Have an it? You do?
27:00
Speaker 1: We're having factor correct? I don't know. You know. One time,
27:05
Speaker 1: thirty years ago, I was in New York and I
27:07
Speaker 1: was I was living in New York and I was
27:09
Speaker 1: looking for an apartment and it was a roommate situation.
27:13
Speaker 1: And this girl, I'll never forget it, she said to me,
27:16
Speaker 1: after like ten minutes of visiting, she goes, You're a star.
27:21
Speaker 1: And I remember thinking, what is she talking about? You know,
27:24
Speaker 1: because that is not how I saw myself. But it's
27:28
Speaker 1: interesting that I remember that, and so I'm willing to
27:31
Speaker 1: be a star. If it's here, I'm here to use
27:34
Speaker 1: whatever for the good. And if that's you know, I
27:38
Speaker 1: feel like I know my purpose. And sometimes I say,
27:42
Speaker 1: you know what, I wasn't gonna be on TV, but
27:44
Speaker 1: God gave me TV hair And so you just have
27:46
Speaker 1: to surrest that you have and be like, all right,
27:50
Speaker 1: I'm here tv C and you got a lot going
27:52
Speaker 1: on there. Tracy McMillan, I want to say this about you.
27:56
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on the show. You know, you
28:00
Speaker 1: do have the RR you do have the if factor
28:02
Speaker 1: and more important to the host of a hit shown
28:05
Speaker 1: own called Family and Fiance, you're wonderful. Remember every six months,
28:08
Speaker 1: we're gonna do our check in trades every six months
28:11
Speaker 1: because you're wonderful. Continue to write on those dramas and
28:14
Speaker 1: changing the game and actually changing the game with television.
28:17
Speaker 1: You are a this is a positive word. You are
28:19
Speaker 1: a beast. And the key to your success is you
28:21
Speaker 1: said it, I work hard, and you all work people
28:24
Speaker 1: and everybody that I've known who's a very top of
28:27
Speaker 1: the game star, that's the same thing they said over
28:30
Speaker 1: and over. You're not gonna out work when you can
28:32
Speaker 1: talk to Kevin hard You're not gonna to work, Steven A. Smith.
28:34
Speaker 1: You're not gonna to work, Stephen, Steve Harvey, You're not
28:37
Speaker 1: gonna work into these guys, Washington, Samuel Jackson. So hard
28:42
Speaker 1: work is always applied to longevity and you have it.
28:45
Speaker 1: And congratulations. Okay, thank you, appreciate. We will be right
28:51
Speaker 1: back with more money making conversations with your host, ros
28:54
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. It's finally here, the season of celebration, and
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Speaker 1: no matter how you celebrate with family and friends, whether
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Speaker 1: dot com. What grows in the forest trees, Sure no
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Speaker 1: tuned into the Money Making Conversations Minute of Inspiration with
30:57
Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald's recently interview retired NBA star Al Heritage. He
31:02
Speaker 1: is the CEO and founder of Harrington Wellness, employing over
31:05
Speaker 1: one hundred plus individuals operating in California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon,
31:10
Speaker 1: and Washington. He's on the show to talk about the
31:12
Speaker 1: exclusivity of the cannabis industry and how he's achieved his
31:15
Speaker 1: vision to bring a representation and reform to the industry,
31:19
Speaker 1: which has historically left the black community disenfranchise. When I
31:23
Speaker 1: jumped in, it was not popular. You know. Now every entertainer, athlete,
31:27
Speaker 1: everybody's making investments and you know, trying to endorse products.
31:32
Speaker 1: You know, when I did this, you know I was
31:33
Speaker 1: I put my contract at risk. Um, I put my
31:36
Speaker 1: freedom at risk essentially, right, you know, and we still do.
31:39
Speaker 1: I mean, it's still federally illegal. I had seen that
31:42
Speaker 1: help my grandmother. That's what it's really inspired me. If
31:44
Speaker 1: you want to listen to the full interview with Al
31:47
Speaker 1: Heritan is available on money Making Conversation dot com. Welcome
31:53
Speaker 1: back to Money Making Conversations with your host, Rashaan McDonald.
31:58
Speaker 1: My next guest is Dr Tapatha car. Indeed, she's the
32:02
Speaker 1: leading authority in the field of women's health and wellness.
32:05
Speaker 1: She's the founder of the vegan based Good Girl Chocolate,
32:08
Speaker 1: a best selling author. After high school, let's talk about
32:11
Speaker 1: all this and continue to battle high blood pressure and
32:14
Speaker 1: blood were all nobody in the black community or the
32:16
Speaker 1: minority community. High blood persons always out there, and sugar
32:20
Speaker 1: and balances. Dr Tapatha decided not only to focus on
32:24
Speaker 1: her diet and desire to contribute to positive energy to
32:27
Speaker 1: the community, but through studies with the focus on women's
32:30
Speaker 1: health and wellness, she created. She created Good Girl Chocolate
32:35
Speaker 1: to thrive at the intersection of science, simplicity, and flavor.
32:39
Speaker 1: Good Girl Chocolate has been featured in the Grammys Gift
32:41
Speaker 1: Giving Sweet and select Oscar nominee gift bags, and was
32:44
Speaker 1: the grand recipient of Beyonce's Be Good Foundation. Our interviews
32:50
Speaker 1: about I'm following your dreams that leads to a healthy
32:53
Speaker 1: lifestyle and becoming a leading authority in the field of
32:56
Speaker 1: women's health and fitness. Please welcome to Money Making Conversation.
32:59
Speaker 1: For the ever first time, I feel like I've known
33:01
Speaker 1: that because we've had some technical glitches Dr Tabatha car Indeed,
33:05
Speaker 1: how you doing? Good morning? Good morning, I am fantastic.
33:10
Speaker 1: How are you doing well? I'm doing good. You know
33:13
Speaker 1: some of your chocolate. So I was kind of like,
33:15
Speaker 1: you know, one thing I've learned now, when you eat
33:17
Speaker 1: something that good, you shouldn't like immediately going to introducing someone.
33:21
Speaker 1: So in between between certain sentences, I was just getting
33:25
Speaker 1: that that that nice taste was just rushing through my mouth.
33:28
Speaker 1: And so I want to apologize to anybody going. Richard
33:31
Speaker 1: doesn't sound like he normally sounds when he introduces people. Well,
33:34
Speaker 1: I was enjoying Good Girl chocolate. That was all in
33:38
Speaker 1: my mouth. It was all in my system, and I'm
33:41
Speaker 1: having a good time. I apologize. I apologize to everybody
33:44
Speaker 1: who's watching and everybody who's listening. I a some come
33:48
Speaker 1: to Good Girl chocolate, and that's a good thing. By
33:50
Speaker 1: the way. I love it. I love it. I love it. Hey,
33:54
Speaker 1: you're not the first one, and you are not the
33:57
Speaker 1: first one to taste Good Girl chocolate and absolutely loved it.
34:01
Speaker 1: I'm thrilled that you like it. Well, you know you,
34:04
Speaker 1: thank you for sending me something. This is another packaging
34:06
Speaker 1: that she sent me. But I was dyning on this
34:08
Speaker 1: because the whole brownie batter. And this is this is
34:11
Speaker 1: the sweetest item that you make right here? Correct it is?
34:15
Speaker 1: It is. I started out making seventy percent dark chocolate,
34:19
Speaker 1: and that's not your average grocery story dark chocolate because
34:23
Speaker 1: folks can claim dark chocolate and have sixty percent sugar
34:27
Speaker 1: in it. So I have real seventy percent dark chocolate.
34:31
Speaker 1: And what I found is some people like a semi sweet,
34:34
Speaker 1: some people like a really sweet. So I go from
34:37
Speaker 1: seventy percent all the way down to thirty percent coco
34:42
Speaker 1: so I can bless everyone's palate absolutely. You know the
34:46
Speaker 1: whole thing about it. When you put the word vegan
34:48
Speaker 1: from anything, people tend to run off or tend to
34:51
Speaker 1: think it doesn't taste the same, or it doesn't it's
34:54
Speaker 1: not going to taste as good. And right now this
34:57
Speaker 1: is like, this is a veganvased, gluten free, dairy free,
34:59
Speaker 1: and or free. Talk about being able to deliver something
35:03
Speaker 1: I'm eating right now to tastes so very good, but
35:06
Speaker 1: also overcoming the stigma that if you go vegan, it
35:09
Speaker 1: will not taste as good. Here's the thing. I have
35:14
Speaker 1: been on a different diet, like every single day of
35:18
Speaker 1: my life. I was sixteen when I was put on
35:22
Speaker 1: my very first blood pressure pill, and I was a
35:24
Speaker 1: woman's size. So I've been on the keto diet, the
35:29
Speaker 1: cabbage soup diet, raw plant based, Pestcterian, everything you can
35:34
Speaker 1: think of. So I actually wanted to create a chocolate
35:38
Speaker 1: that would basically fit into everyone's healthy lifestyle. So what
35:43
Speaker 1: it actually is is a plant based chocolate that supports
35:49
Speaker 1: all healthy lifestyles. You can be vegan, you can be paleo,
35:54
Speaker 1: you can be whole thirty. It's soy free, it's gluten
35:57
Speaker 1: free for those who can't tolerate utan or or um celiacs.
36:02
Speaker 1: It's story free, it's it's non GMO, it's uh made
36:06
Speaker 1: with organic ingredients, it's single origin, fair trade, and it's
36:10
Speaker 1: being too bar So this is about really spreading this
36:14
Speaker 1: to everyone, not just vegans. Well, the thing about it
36:19
Speaker 1: is that I'm gonna be honest with you. You know
36:22
Speaker 1: when I talk about I'm a meat either, I'm a
36:24
Speaker 1: buy who goes out there. I have fallen in with
36:27
Speaker 1: products like Beyond Meat. I love, I love enjoy my
36:30
Speaker 1: Beyond the Burger. Now they've got Beyond Me chicken. So
36:33
Speaker 1: I'm excited. About trying that out, but then we talk
36:35
Speaker 1: about vegan and you talk about vegetarian. So you know,
36:38
Speaker 1: I really want to get a clarification cause I ran
36:40
Speaker 1: into a friend of mine and she went over to
36:42
Speaker 1: JRS Barbecue and she said, well, I'm a I'm a
36:45
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a vegetarian. So what's the difference between
36:47
Speaker 1: a vegan and a vegetarian or is there or is
36:50
Speaker 1: there a difference there? There is a difference, And I
36:54
Speaker 1: first want to start out by saying I identify with
36:57
Speaker 1: being plant based. So a vegan is truly a person
37:02
Speaker 1: who supports animals. I mean it's it's a movement. So
37:06
Speaker 1: they don't eat anything as it relates to animal products.
37:11
Speaker 1: They don't wear anything as it too, um relates to
37:14
Speaker 1: animal products. They are true animal activists. Um. They don't
37:18
Speaker 1: even consume honey um because it's produced from bees, which
37:24
Speaker 1: I don't use honey in my product as well, because
37:26
Speaker 1: I want to make sure it's still supports that vegan lifestyle.
37:30
Speaker 1: A vegetarian is a non meat eater. However, they do
37:34
Speaker 1: consume things like cheese. They do consume things um like eggs,
37:39
Speaker 1: but vegans will not consume dairy. They will not consume eggs,
37:43
Speaker 1: so there is a difference. And then there's a pescatarian um,
37:47
Speaker 1: you know, and they eat fish. So there's so many
37:50
Speaker 1: out there. But the good thing about Good Girl Chocolate
37:53
Speaker 1: is whichever one you fall in, whichever bucket you fall in,
37:57
Speaker 1: you can enjoy Good Girl Chocolate because free of any
38:02
Speaker 1: animal products. Well, you know, interesting thing about your brand,
38:05
Speaker 1: you know, I know we're talking about the Good Girl
38:07
Speaker 1: Chocolate brand right now. But you as a person has
38:10
Speaker 1: always been about uplifting individuals, especially empowering female. You did
38:14
Speaker 1: the book Believe in Seen with My Girl Kim Cole, actress,
38:18
Speaker 1: Fame of Living Single, about the Open your Gifts g
38:22
Speaker 1: I F T S twenty two lessons on finding and
38:24
Speaker 1: Embracing your personal power. We find so much that is
38:28
Speaker 1: so much in the forefront of conversation, right, personal power,
38:31
Speaker 1: uher leading with your gifts, leading with your passions. What
38:35
Speaker 1: what is the book about? Why did you feel the
38:38
Speaker 1: need to do a book and then you did a
38:40
Speaker 1: book with a did the book with a very very
38:42
Speaker 1: funny actress named Kim Cole's So I I want to
38:47
Speaker 1: know the basis of your whole structure of of empowering
38:51
Speaker 1: people why is it so important to empower Because, like
38:53
Speaker 1: you said, at the age of sixteen, you own blood
38:56
Speaker 1: pressure pills, So right there, that means that you are
38:59
Speaker 1: the pointed your life where you need to be empowered
39:02
Speaker 1: both physically mentally. It had to be an understanding that
39:06
Speaker 1: it was all right, you were beautiful as you are.
39:08
Speaker 1: Nobody nobody needed to tell you how you look, to
39:11
Speaker 1: be special and things like that. So talk about the
39:14
Speaker 1: whole empowerment and embracing your personal personal power. I tell
39:19
Speaker 1: you what this is actually the book right here. I
39:21
Speaker 1: don't know if you can sit, but and it was.
39:26
Speaker 1: It was so important, And Kim is a dear, dear
39:28
Speaker 1: friend of mine, and it was so important to write
39:32
Speaker 1: this chapter because I know there are women out there
39:37
Speaker 1: that are going through the same things that I went through.
39:41
Speaker 1: And the name of my chapter is about triumph. And
39:43
Speaker 1: the name of the chapter is are you ready to
39:46
Speaker 1: free yourself? And let me just read you the first
39:48
Speaker 1: sentence it says, I'm free, I'm finally free. That's two sentences. Actually,
39:53
Speaker 1: are you ready to free yourself? And triumph from weight challenges,
39:57
Speaker 1: from hormone challenges, from fibroids, for insists, from lack of energy,
40:02
Speaker 1: from blood pressure challenges, from blood sugar challenges. These are
40:06
Speaker 1: all the things that affected me. I remember that day
40:10
Speaker 1: when I was at the doctor's office and she said
40:13
Speaker 1: that she was putting me on a blood pressure pill.
40:15
Speaker 1: And I asked her, Okay, why, you know, why do
40:18
Speaker 1: I have to take medicine? I'm sixteen? And she said,
40:21
Speaker 1: so you don't have a stroke at the age of thirty.
40:27
Speaker 1: And you know, when I look back, you know, I
40:30
Speaker 1: I come from the South, and we come from you know,
40:34
Speaker 1: a family of just rich cooking rich foods. Uh. You know,
40:37
Speaker 1: we cook with fat back and pork and bacon and
40:40
Speaker 1: things like that. And when I looked back, there was
40:44
Speaker 1: an opportunity there to figure out why was a sixteen
40:49
Speaker 1: year old having blood pressure problems? You know, it couldn't
40:53
Speaker 1: be clogg dotteries. You know, I wasn't old enough. But
40:57
Speaker 1: because things did not change, by the time I was thirty,
41:01
Speaker 1: I was on three different blood pressure pills. And when
41:05
Speaker 1: you are a large child, um, when you're getting teased
41:09
Speaker 1: about your weight, being almost three hundred pounds, being on
41:13
Speaker 1: blood pressure pills, that affects you and and that that
41:17
Speaker 1: just carries on into your adulthood. Um. So the self doubt,
41:23
Speaker 1: the lack of confidence. All of that carried on into
41:26
Speaker 1: my adulthood. I majored in pre med I ended up
41:30
Speaker 1: getting a masters in health administration, but I did not
41:33
Speaker 1: go into the medical field because I felt like a hypocrite.
41:38
Speaker 1: I felt like someone, you know, I can't tell anyone
41:41
Speaker 1: how to eat and how to live, and here I
41:44
Speaker 1: am three hundred pounds. So I actually ended up working
41:47
Speaker 1: for a technology company for eleven years before I really
41:52
Speaker 1: started having panic attacks and hormone problems. And it was
41:56
Speaker 1: the hormone problems and being on a cycle for three
41:59
Speaker 1: months that really really made me realize and say, Okay,
42:03
Speaker 1: enough is enough. I have got to deal with this
42:06
Speaker 1: because I want kids. And my grandmother, my mother, my aunt,
42:11
Speaker 1: I had cousins, all have hystrectomies before the age of
42:17
Speaker 1: forty and they had kids, you know, and so of
42:20
Speaker 1: course they just followed their doctor's orders and you know,
42:24
Speaker 1: telling them, okay, we need to have a hystor directed me.
42:28
Speaker 1: But I didn't want my options taken away from me.
42:32
Speaker 1: And that's why I said, Okay, I need to go
42:34
Speaker 1: back to the roots. I need to go back to
42:37
Speaker 1: natural health. And within thirty days because my doctor basically
42:41
Speaker 1: suggested to me surgery or more medication to fix my
42:45
Speaker 1: hormone problems. And within thirty days of natural health and
42:50
Speaker 1: researching it myself, um, I stopped the cycle and I
42:55
Speaker 1: ended up losing over eighty pounds. And that's when I
43:00
Speaker 1: actually went back to school to study nature apathy because
43:04
Speaker 1: there are so many of women in our community. I'm
43:07
Speaker 1: suffering from the estrogen dominant, suffering from the fibroids, the cysts,
43:12
Speaker 1: the blood pressure, the blood sugar, and I wanted to
43:16
Speaker 1: let women know through this book that there is hope,
43:20
Speaker 1: there's another way. Now that doesn't mean that you can
43:24
Speaker 1: one percent get off all of your medication. Fortunately enough,
43:28
Speaker 1: I was able to, but it took some work, it
43:32
Speaker 1: took exercise. I mean a complete lifestyle change for me.
43:38
Speaker 1: So when if somebody says, okay, complete lifestyle change, and now,
43:42
Speaker 1: how do we tie Good Girl Chocolate into the Because
43:45
Speaker 1: when people here to work Good Girl Chocolate, they hear sweets,
43:48
Speaker 1: they hear fat, they hear weight gain, all those things.
43:52
Speaker 1: And so that's why I wanted people to hear your
43:54
Speaker 1: story because when we when we go on these journeys
43:57
Speaker 1: and I'm able to do on my show money making conversation.
43:59
Speaker 1: I like to be able to tie things together and
44:02
Speaker 1: why there is a purpose behind the actual creation of
44:05
Speaker 1: this product. Now, let's talk about the evolution of Good
44:08
Speaker 1: Girl Chocolate from the conversation we just had about your
44:12
Speaker 1: journey of being a sixteen year old nearly through urgy pounds,
44:16
Speaker 1: being bullied, being ostracized, and then your family history with
44:20
Speaker 1: all your relatives or nearly an age of forty uh
44:24
Speaker 1: and not and you also wanted to have a normal life.
44:28
Speaker 1: Talk about that and then into Good Girl chocolate. And
44:31
Speaker 1: I think the journey of our conversation would have a
44:33
Speaker 1: certain motivational tone to it and as well as a
44:38
Speaker 1: product that we all should buy are all considered buying
44:43
Speaker 1: absolutely so. So, like I said, I have been on
44:46
Speaker 1: a diet every single day of my life, a different
44:49
Speaker 1: diet every year of my life. And one year, over
44:53
Speaker 1: ten years ago, I decided to go raw. And of course,
44:57
Speaker 1: when you're on a raw diet, you know you don't
45:00
Speaker 1: eat meat unless you're gonna eat it raw. Uh. You know,
45:03
Speaker 1: you don't eat cheese and dairy and things like that.
45:06
Speaker 1: So it was a truly raw diet. And I said, Okay,
45:10
Speaker 1: you know I need something sweet to eat, you know,
45:13
Speaker 1: to really wash down all the raw food. I'm telling you.
45:17
Speaker 1: I'm telling you those raw diets. They are good in theory,
45:20
Speaker 1: but you gotta have something to get rid of that taste.
45:23
Speaker 1: Thank you, Yes, you do. So I started making raw chocolate.
45:28
Speaker 1: I mean seriously. I would melt down cocoa butter at
45:31
Speaker 1: a hundred and twelve degrees because when you dehydrate your
45:34
Speaker 1: food on a raw diet, you have to keep it
45:37
Speaker 1: at that one hundred twelve degree temperature, so it's still
45:40
Speaker 1: um is a raw food. But I would melt down
45:42
Speaker 1: my cocoa butter, you know, mixing my cocoal powders and
45:45
Speaker 1: and coconut oils, and I would use organic raw agavey
45:50
Speaker 1: and all of this to mix up this chocolate. I
45:52
Speaker 1: brought bought equipment to mold the chocolate and it just
45:56
Speaker 1: started from there. And I kept this chocolate to myself
46:00
Speaker 1: for years. My mom loved it, and she was like,
46:03
Speaker 1: you know what, you need to spread this chocolate to
46:05
Speaker 1: the world. Let her okay. So back in tween, I
46:14
Speaker 1: went to the Texas Women's Conference and applied to present
46:19
Speaker 1: in front of QBC, and the food buyer loved the chocolate,
46:27
Speaker 1: and she said was actually like the best chocolate um
46:31
Speaker 1: or plant based chocolate that shit ever tasted. And that
46:36
Speaker 1: was my confirmation that I'm onto something. I ended up
46:40
Speaker 1: quitting my my technology job and started my own business,
46:45
Speaker 1: and by the time rolled around, I was online, I
46:49
Speaker 1: had my own packaging and I was selling Good Girl chocolate.
46:53
Speaker 1: But it's called good Girl chocolate because you can eat
46:57
Speaker 1: it every single day and still say you've been good.
47:01
Speaker 1: So it's about clean eating. It doesn't have the hydrogenated
47:06
Speaker 1: oils in it. The sugar that I use is coconut sugar.
47:10
Speaker 1: It doesn't have table sugar in it. It's free from gluten,
47:14
Speaker 1: it's free from soy, it's single origin, it's fair trade,
47:18
Speaker 1: so the workers are treated equally, and we make it ourselves.
47:23
Speaker 1: So it takes four days. That brownie batter bar that
47:25
Speaker 1: you're eating, it takes four days to make that chocolate
47:29
Speaker 1: because we actually roast the beans ourselves and we put
47:32
Speaker 1: it into our grinders and we grind the beans, we
47:36
Speaker 1: grind the coke chocolate. Keep talking, good Girl frying George chocolate.
47:41
Speaker 1: Come on, now, that's right, and it is the best
47:44
Speaker 1: chocolate ever. And let me tell you if that one
47:48
Speaker 1: is too sweet for you, then I'll put you in
47:50
Speaker 1: the semi sweet. I love being able to figure out
47:53
Speaker 1: what people like from the seventy dark to the dark
47:58
Speaker 1: to the thirty percent dark and just really enjoying chocolate.
48:03
Speaker 1: You know, we have one life to live and I
48:06
Speaker 1: believe in the twenty room anyway. Um, you know you
48:10
Speaker 1: eat clean eight percent of your your your life. But
48:14
Speaker 1: that because we have first days, we have Christmas Is,
48:17
Speaker 1: we have Thanksgiving, and let me tell you, I get
48:20
Speaker 1: down during those days. But clean, Dr Vin, I just
48:26
Speaker 1: had gallbladder survery surgery, you know, my gall bladder removement.
48:29
Speaker 1: What for the of course that's when you usually the
48:32
Speaker 1: symptoms of having a gallbladder issue. Now me, even good
48:35
Speaker 1: girl chocolate should be a good thing, right, so let
48:40
Speaker 1: me tell you this. Everything and moderation, and as a
48:45
Speaker 1: naturalpathic doctor, I do have to tell you, Um, when
48:49
Speaker 1: you do not have a gall bladder, it's harder for
48:52
Speaker 1: you to digest facts. And that's why for all of
48:56
Speaker 1: my clients I recommend a food ensign that has life
49:01
Speaker 1: paste in it because life paste actually helps you digest fat.
49:05
Speaker 1: But everything, no matter what you're eating, whether it's the
49:08
Speaker 1: beyond sausager meat that we're talking about. You know, eat
49:13
Speaker 1: everything in moderation. Just because it's plant base doesn't mean
49:17
Speaker 1: that you should be eating a whole wagon full of it.
49:20
Speaker 1: A potatorship is plant base, but you shouldn't eat the
49:23
Speaker 1: whole higher a big bag of them, right right. And
49:27
Speaker 1: that's me And as I'm saying, one of those people,
49:29
Speaker 1: I eat out of control. Like when you said you
49:32
Speaker 1: can eat this every day, I went, okay, But you
49:35
Speaker 1: need to get the whole story before you start just
49:38
Speaker 1: jumping into the wagon and having a party and destroying
49:41
Speaker 1: all the good things that can happen in your life
49:44
Speaker 1: by misinterpreting what you're trying to say in this interview
49:47
Speaker 1: or want anybody's ever trying to say. It's about moderation.
49:50
Speaker 1: Weight loss is about moderation. Living a comfortable life is moderation.
49:55
Speaker 1: They always tell you, don't over drink, don't over party,
49:58
Speaker 1: don't overdo it, don't overex. A size can leave the
50:01
Speaker 1: knee injuries, pulled muscles. You know, people out there they
50:04
Speaker 1: want to become young in the day by going into
50:07
Speaker 1: the gym and trying to run a mile when they
50:09
Speaker 1: only should be walking a mile instead of running the
50:11
Speaker 1: mill and so the whole the whole purpose of when
50:14
Speaker 1: I look at the whole platform of what you've done
50:17
Speaker 1: with good gle chocolate is tied to good health and
50:20
Speaker 1: good healthy lifestyle with moderation and a product that allows
50:25
Speaker 1: you to eat. I've never used the word healthy to
50:28
Speaker 1: and mislead people, but this is a naturally Sweden. It
50:32
Speaker 1: is vegan based, and it's free of gluten, dairy, and
50:35
Speaker 1: story and it's made with our GMOs. That's pretty good
50:39
Speaker 1: to me, doctor, thank you. And I want to pay
50:43
Speaker 1: back on what you just said. Don't use the term
50:46
Speaker 1: healthy and and and I don't. I don't say, oh,
50:50
Speaker 1: I have a healthy chocolate. What I do is I
50:54
Speaker 1: say I have a chocolate that supports this lifestyle that
51:00
Speaker 1: free of the gluten, the soy, you know, the dairy,
51:04
Speaker 1: is supporting the vegan, the paleo and the whole thirty lifestyle.
51:07
Speaker 1: And it's sweetened with coconut sugar which is a low
51:12
Speaker 1: work like seamake sugar. And while we're at it, we
51:15
Speaker 1: also have sugar free. Um. One of the things that
51:18
Speaker 1: my my diabetics are my keto's told me, they said, hey, um,
51:22
Speaker 1: you know, Dr T we really want something free of sugar.
51:26
Speaker 1: I understand you have the coconut sugar in it, but
51:28
Speaker 1: we want something sugar free. So we also have a
51:31
Speaker 1: sugar free chocolate that has xyla tool from Birch which
51:35
Speaker 1: is the best of the best when it comes to
51:37
Speaker 1: alternative sweeteners for um, the diabetic community and for the
51:43
Speaker 1: keto community. Now you're based in Oklahoma, and uh, Good
51:47
Speaker 1: Girl Chocolate is based in Oklahoma. You just open to
51:49
Speaker 1: a rick and mortar in the Pinch Square mall in Oklahoma.
51:52
Speaker 1: And now Dr T let's talk about some good things
51:55
Speaker 1: that have happened that made you smile. Uh. You know
51:58
Speaker 1: Beyonce once Sace, she came to your rescue, but bore
52:01
Speaker 1: her brand really came in and put some love on you,
52:04
Speaker 1: isn't it really? It's not really about the amount of
52:06
Speaker 1: money she gave you. It's the brand association. Don't you agree? Absolutely,
52:12
Speaker 1: it's it's it's just and first of all that that
52:16
Speaker 1: it just felt so good. I didn't receive an email
52:19
Speaker 1: or anything. It was posted on social media who the
52:22
Speaker 1: grant recipients were. And I saw my chocolate and let
52:27
Speaker 1: me tell you that I think I cried. I'm serious,
52:32
Speaker 1: I was crying because it was just so I felt
52:37
Speaker 1: so much overwhelming joy from seeing that and knowing that
52:43
Speaker 1: I'm onto something, I'm doing something right. You know, when
52:48
Speaker 1: I was invited to um the Grammy's Gifting Suite, you know,
52:53
Speaker 1: they tasted it first and said, hey, I, we really
52:56
Speaker 1: don't like healthy chocolate, but your chocolate is awesome. Your
52:59
Speaker 1: energy it's great. We definitely want you here. It's just
53:03
Speaker 1: been confirmation after confirmation and being the first permanently black
53:09
Speaker 1: owned business in my local mall. Oh man, you I'm
53:14
Speaker 1: just I'm just full of joy. I'm very very very grateful,
53:19
Speaker 1: and I'm just excited. I just celebrated a birthday to
53:23
Speaker 1: this past weekend. We've been over open a week, so
53:26
Speaker 1: it was like the perfect birthday gift to me. Well,
53:29
Speaker 1: let's let's let's go and talk about you know, being
53:31
Speaker 1: the first of anything is tied to pressure because you
53:35
Speaker 1: can't be the first to close, you know, the first,
53:38
Speaker 1: So that means that you have to endure uh, you know,
53:41
Speaker 1: internal mental um, sometimes depression. You have to deal with
53:45
Speaker 1: being in an environment that people can surround you positive
53:49
Speaker 1: people and also surround yourself with people who understand your
53:52
Speaker 1: dream Talk about your network of people who support you
53:56
Speaker 1: and also who have been abled you to get to
53:58
Speaker 1: where you are today with good Girl Chocolate. You know,
54:01
Speaker 1: I tell you I I would be remissed if I
54:04
Speaker 1: didn't say my parents first when it comes to support.
54:11
Speaker 1: They are my number one supporters. As a matter of fact,
54:14
Speaker 1: right now, it's so hard to find people to work
54:18
Speaker 1: right now, and my parents, who are retired, have stepped
54:24
Speaker 1: up and have been helping me in the store, you
54:27
Speaker 1: know this past week, keep things together. But I believe
54:32
Speaker 1: your network is very important. You know there's that saying
54:36
Speaker 1: your your network is your net worth, but it really
54:39
Speaker 1: really is about building relationships. Um. I am an alpha
54:45
Speaker 1: calfa alpha woman, and you know I have a network
54:50
Speaker 1: from my sorority sisters, you know, who came together and
54:52
Speaker 1: supported me my first you know week open. You already
54:56
Speaker 1: know my my good friend Kim Cole's you know, she
55:00
Speaker 1: has definitely opened up some amazing, amazing doors for me.
55:05
Speaker 1: But it's really about relationships. You know. I think your
55:10
Speaker 1: character and who you are is very important and people
55:13
Speaker 1: are going to see that. People are going to see
55:16
Speaker 1: that uniqueness about you. And I'm I'm a believer. I
55:21
Speaker 1: believe in God. Um, God is first in my life,
55:25
Speaker 1: and I've just been so blessed with people who love me,
55:29
Speaker 1: people who have embraced me, people who have helped me
55:33
Speaker 1: get to where I am today. I am truly grateful.
55:37
Speaker 1: I went through the Oklahoma City Thunder Accelerator program here
55:40
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City, and I came out with my first investor.
55:45
Speaker 1: And it was that investor who helped me because I
55:48
Speaker 1: had to totally redo the store in Penn Square Mall
55:51
Speaker 1: from drop ceilings to electrical to equipment. That's that's fifteen
55:56
Speaker 1: thousand dollars of peace. Um. So all of that cast money,
56:00
Speaker 1: and I'm just excited. I'm excited about the growth. I'm
56:04
Speaker 1: excited about the wholesale opportunities that are out there that
56:09
Speaker 1: have approached me. Um. It's just an exciting time. UM.
56:13
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about opening up for another investor fund fund
56:17
Speaker 1: here in the fall. And it's just it's truly about relationships.
56:22
Speaker 1: And I'm excited about sitting here with you, talking to
56:26
Speaker 1: you and on your show. And I appreciate the opportunity
56:29
Speaker 1: and thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Well,
56:32
Speaker 1: thank you for this good Girl chocolate. First of all,
56:34
Speaker 1: that's gonna be real. It's a it's a selfish motivation. Here,
56:37
Speaker 1: you give me something good, I gotta talk to you
56:39
Speaker 1: about how good it is. And it's really I can't
56:42
Speaker 1: wait to get in this little this little bag of
56:45
Speaker 1: tricks right here, the little couple with those pecan nuts,
56:48
Speaker 1: this is gonna be my favorite. Let me tell you
56:51
Speaker 1: that pecan fudge. I don't know if we can even
56:53
Speaker 1: let you dig on it, if you can dig in
56:55
Speaker 1: on it on the show, but that pecan fudge truffle
56:59
Speaker 1: that's in that that's probably gonna be your favorite. Because
57:04
Speaker 1: I know you but you know a rich over Rashan,
57:07
Speaker 1: you know, and morsels and in moderation. So I'm working
57:12
Speaker 1: on this. I can't immediately bust open this little package here,
57:15
Speaker 1: especially just just wrapping up surgery. But more importantly, I
57:19
Speaker 1: just I wanted to tell your story. I just you know,
57:21
Speaker 1: and it's there's always a great story. There's always that
57:24
Speaker 1: the product is fantastic. Let's let's move past that. But
57:27
Speaker 1: what made that product a reality? And the reality is
57:30
Speaker 1: through personal triumph. A reality is trying to change not
57:34
Speaker 1: only your lives, but other people alive through your empowerment.
57:37
Speaker 1: And it started with your with your book. It started
57:39
Speaker 1: with sixteen years old. It started with you not accepting
57:42
Speaker 1: the fact that this is going to be your life
57:44
Speaker 1: and you didn't want it to be your life. It
57:45
Speaker 1: started through your education. It started through you realizing that
57:49
Speaker 1: the way you look was living in your dreams and
57:51
Speaker 1: you have to change that. But more importantly, Dr Car,
57:54
Speaker 1: your your product is amazing. Don't let the word vegan
57:57
Speaker 1: run you away from this product. It is what it is,
58:00
Speaker 1: but it's uh, it's it's for you. It tastes good.
58:02
Speaker 1: Everybody knows I'm a dessert nut. I am a foodie.
58:06
Speaker 1: When I say something that's good, and you should stamp
58:08
Speaker 1: that as a reality. I do not allow people to
58:10
Speaker 1: come on my show and then, you know, eat their
58:13
Speaker 1: food and then go around the corner and spread it out.
58:15
Speaker 1: That's not how it works on money making conversation. This
58:18
Speaker 1: is fantastic and I will be dining on this this weekend.
58:22
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for coming to the show. Dr Car.
58:25
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thank you so much for the
58:27
Speaker 1: opportunity I have enjoyed this time. I love talking about
58:31
Speaker 1: health and wellness, I love talking about good Girl chocolate,
58:35
Speaker 1: and I love to inspire and empower women. Well you
58:38
Speaker 1: did it all in this interview. I would like to
58:39
Speaker 1: believe we hit all those touch we had all those
58:41
Speaker 1: touch points. Okay, uh. We will be right back with
58:46
Speaker 1: more money making conversations with your host Rashan McDonald. There's
58:50
Speaker 1: a monumental shift empower at work. Employees are speaking up.
58:54
Speaker 1: Turnover is rising, salaries are increasing, hiring it is tough,
59:00
Speaker 1: and burnout is real. It's time to unleash growth. It's
59:04
Speaker 1: time to transform your HR from powerless to powerful. Join
59:09
Speaker 1: a DP on February reserve you'll spawn now. Go to
59:14
Speaker 1: get the Plan dot IDP dot com to register for
59:17
Speaker 1: the Work Interrupted Summit. Hi everyone, i'l roker here as
59:21
Speaker 1: a guy with his own catchphrase. I appreciate that Smokey's
59:25
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59:28
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Speaker 1: the and there they go, almost on time. This morning.
59:57
Speaker 1: Mom is coming out the front door, strong with a
1:00:00
Speaker 1: double arm kid carry. Looks like Dad has the bags.
1:00:03
Speaker 1: Daughter is bringing up the rear. Oh but the diaper
1:00:06
Speaker 1: bag wasn't closed. Diapers and toys are everywhere. Oh but
1:00:12
Speaker 1: mom has just nailed the perfect car seat buckle for
1:00:15
Speaker 1: the toddler. And now the eldest daughter, who looks to
1:00:18
Speaker 1: be about nine or ten, has secured herself in the
1:00:20
Speaker 1: booster seat. Dad SIPs the bag clothes and they're off. Ah,
1:00:25
Speaker 1: but looks like Mom doesn't realize her coffee cup is
1:00:27
Speaker 1: still on the roof of the car, and there it goes.
1:00:32
Speaker 1: That's a shame that mug was a fan favorite. Don't
1:00:35
Speaker 1: sweat the small stuff. Just nailed the big stuff, like
1:00:37
Speaker 1: making sure your kids are buckled correctly in the right
1:00:39
Speaker 1: seat for their agent's eyes. Learn more n h t
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Speaker 1: s A dot gov slash the Right Seat visits h
1:00:45
Speaker 1: s A dot gov slash the Right Seat. Brought to
1:00:48
Speaker 1: you by Mitza and the AD Council. You are now
1:00:52
Speaker 1: tuned into the money making conversations. Minute of inspiration with
1:00:56
Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. Our recently interviewed Gina yash ray, a British
1:01:00
Speaker 1: comedian of Nigerian heritage. She's the co creator Call Executive,
1:01:04
Speaker 1: But there was a writer and actress on the hit
1:01:06
Speaker 1: CBS series Bob Hart Abber Shouler. Gina is releasing her
1:01:10
Speaker 1: first book, a memoir, Cat Candy, which chronicles her odyssey
1:01:14
Speaker 1: to get to America and break into Hollywood. I wrote
1:01:16
Speaker 1: the book convinually. It started off as just on Instagram.
1:01:20
Speaker 1: There was a hashtag fowback Thursdays, where you past old pictures,
1:01:23
Speaker 1: and I was posting old pictures and writing the story
1:01:26
Speaker 1: behind the pictures, like post a picture and writing elaborate
1:01:29
Speaker 1: post explaining the history behind the picture. And people were
1:01:32
Speaker 1: really interested in saying, oh my god, your story is
1:01:35
Speaker 1: so good, why don't you write a book? So I
1:01:37
Speaker 1: started keeping those and I want to talk about my
1:01:39
Speaker 1: history because people don't seem to realize that the UK
1:01:43
Speaker 1: started safely. If you want to hear the full interview
1:01:46
Speaker 1: with Gina Yasharai, it's available on money Making Conversations dot com.
1:01:51
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Money Making Conversations with your host Rashan McDonald.
1:01:56
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I am your host, Rashan
1:01:59
Speaker 1: mcdonne them. I always tell people every week, you know
1:02:01
Speaker 1: it's time to stop reading other people's sexcess stories to
1:02:04
Speaker 1: start writing your owner. People always talking about gifts and passions.
1:02:08
Speaker 1: If you have a gift, lead with your gift and
1:02:10
Speaker 1: don't let your age, friends, family, or coworkers stop you
1:02:13
Speaker 1: from planning or living your dreams. The people I bring
1:02:16
Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversation or celebrity ceo, entrepreneurs, and people
1:02:19
Speaker 1: I like to call industry decision makers. My next guest
1:02:22
Speaker 1: is what I like to believe is truly an industry
1:02:25
Speaker 1: decision maker. His name is Kurt Mays. He is the
1:02:28
Speaker 1: CEO of Forgotten Horrors, one of Michigan's top nonprofit organizations
1:02:32
Speaker 1: and one of the nation's premier food rescue organizations. Forgotten
1:02:36
Speaker 1: Harvest was formed in eighteen ninety to fight two problems,
1:02:40
Speaker 1: hunger and waste. Forgotten Harvests rescued four to one point
1:02:44
Speaker 1: five million pounds of food last year by collecting surplus
1:02:48
Speaker 1: prepared and perishable food from eight hundred sources that include
1:02:52
Speaker 1: grocery stores, fruit and vegetable markets, restaurants, caterers, dairies, farmers,
1:02:58
Speaker 1: wholesale food distributions, hold holdfil wholesale food distributors, and other
1:03:03
Speaker 1: department approved sources. This donated food which would otherwise go
1:03:07
Speaker 1: to waste. It just delve free of charge to more
1:03:10
Speaker 1: than two hundred and eighty emergency food providers in the
1:03:13
Speaker 1: metro Detroit area. He's on the show to talk about
1:03:16
Speaker 1: the purpose, but also his purpose. Please work with the
1:03:19
Speaker 1: money making conversations, my man, Kurt Maye, thank you so now,
1:03:27
Speaker 1: thank you for having me on the sholve this design
1:03:29
Speaker 1: and Kurt, I had I had to put you out there. Man,
1:03:31
Speaker 1: you don't you change your lives? Brother, Man, just trying
1:03:34
Speaker 1: every day to just do what we can to help. Man.
1:03:37
Speaker 1: We occured when I interview individuals like you, because you're
1:03:41
Speaker 1: such forward thinkers and you're all about what you what
1:03:45
Speaker 1: you can do more, what you can do better? How
1:03:47
Speaker 1: does that start? I'm gonna delve into you a little bit.
1:03:50
Speaker 1: What does that start for you? Who initiated this type
1:03:53
Speaker 1: of behavior or thought process in your life? It comes
1:03:58
Speaker 1: from my home, It comes from my mom. It comes
1:04:00
Speaker 1: from the way I grew up, you know, my mother,
1:04:03
Speaker 1: my family or from Jamaica, and UH really started with
1:04:07
Speaker 1: like you know, third world country poverty just different lovel
1:04:11
Speaker 1: You know, my mom didn't have her first pair of
1:04:13
Speaker 1: shoes until she actually um had to go to school,
1:04:17
Speaker 1: so you know, it's just kind of like having that
1:04:21
Speaker 1: family background of people that started so far away from
1:04:25
Speaker 1: their dreams and ambitions and just taking those one day
1:04:29
Speaker 1: at a time steps towards like progress is something that
1:04:32
Speaker 1: I lived in, lived around my whole life and realizing
1:04:37
Speaker 1: the gift and in the blessing that I had to be,
1:04:41
Speaker 1: you know, in America for them to make the sacrifice
1:04:44
Speaker 1: the day that did to actually I was born here
1:04:46
Speaker 1: to be able to actually realize that every opportunity that
1:04:50
Speaker 1: I had was an extension of the dreams that they
1:04:52
Speaker 1: have for themselves. So it was always and still to
1:04:55
Speaker 1: me to actually stay on the right path and be
1:04:58
Speaker 1: patient about machieving goals because nothing comes, you know, overnight,
1:05:03
Speaker 1: So it really just came from home and how I
1:05:05
Speaker 1: was raised. Well, you know that's important because it shapes
1:05:10
Speaker 1: your vision. Like I said, my service was really introduced
1:05:14
Speaker 1: when I was in college at the University of Houston
1:05:17
Speaker 1: and I played to make a side Fire fraternity and
1:05:19
Speaker 1: all fraternities and sards or service based organizations if anybody
1:05:22
Speaker 1: does know any thing about that, that's what they really are.
1:05:25
Speaker 1: And that's what I really got into community service, giving,
1:05:28
Speaker 1: you know, raising funds for local community activist organizations, donating food,
1:05:33
Speaker 1: I mean we should give away government cheese, was giving
1:05:36
Speaker 1: away water, all those things and seeing how the people react.
1:05:39
Speaker 1: I remember, man, when we had when we loaded up
1:05:41
Speaker 1: that truck, it was giving with that government chiefs man,
1:05:43
Speaker 1: it was a line around the block. And so the
1:05:46
Speaker 1: need is real, and so let's talk about that need. Kurt. Well,
1:05:51
Speaker 1: you know, it starts with a a moment where people
1:05:56
Speaker 1: have to realize that they can't do it on their own,
1:05:59
Speaker 1: and they got to actually figure out who they can
1:06:01
Speaker 1: trust in that moment of vulnerability to get what they need,
1:06:05
Speaker 1: but also try to walk to walk away with enough
1:06:08
Speaker 1: energy and time so they can actually work on the
1:06:11
Speaker 1: root cause, which is how do I make sure I
1:06:13
Speaker 1: don't I don't have to deal with this again. And
1:06:17
Speaker 1: you know, in our lives, we'd be surprised how many
1:06:19
Speaker 1: times people fall into that one scenario where it's like
1:06:22
Speaker 1: I can't do it by myself, whether it's a corporation
1:06:25
Speaker 1: that's doing major layoffs, whether it's the government shutdown that
1:06:28
Speaker 1: we've seen the pandemic or just the regular cycles of
1:06:32
Speaker 1: our economy that are changing every day from local to global. Right,
1:06:37
Speaker 1: So UM, I see, we see UM in our work. Unfortunately,
1:06:43
Speaker 1: the lines wrapped around the corner every day in multiple places.
1:06:47
Speaker 1: So the issue of human needs is persistent, it's constant,
1:06:54
Speaker 1: and unfortunately it's more dynamic than just being able to
1:06:57
Speaker 1: put food in a place for people to get it.
1:06:59
Speaker 1: We really got to think, um, we got to really
1:07:02
Speaker 1: come together and think about the ways that we can
1:07:05
Speaker 1: help each other even before people as UM, so that
1:07:08
Speaker 1: we can help, you know, stamp some of these gaps
1:07:10
Speaker 1: that people have that sometimes they they don't say anything
1:07:14
Speaker 1: until it's too bad. It's what, it's worse than it
1:07:16
Speaker 1: should have been. UM and UM. If we can work
1:07:19
Speaker 1: together and be that safety net for each other, we
1:07:23
Speaker 1: really can do a lot to reduce the pain that
1:07:26
Speaker 1: a lot of people are actually suffering through quietly. Well,
1:07:28
Speaker 1: let's let's talk about that, because when you said that
1:07:31
Speaker 1: people are wrapped around the building, you know, let's go
1:07:33
Speaker 1: back to when this country was shut down, restaurants could
1:07:38
Speaker 1: even do any business, and so you get a lot
1:07:41
Speaker 1: of your food from these types of what they say
1:07:43
Speaker 1: prepared or preparishable food. And one of the things is
1:07:46
Speaker 1: restaurant caterers, you know, farmers, wholesale and food distributors. Walk
1:07:50
Speaker 1: us through that moment right there in time where you
1:07:52
Speaker 1: had a system in place where you did business with
1:07:55
Speaker 1: and retrieving this type of food. Then when the country
1:07:58
Speaker 1: got set down shut down in twenty when they do
1:08:00
Speaker 1: the COVID, how did that dynamic change and how did
1:08:03
Speaker 1: you walk through the process in dealing with companies now
1:08:06
Speaker 1: who are not even making money, but now you need
1:08:08
Speaker 1: the food that they're offering. Yeah, so that's a good
1:08:11
Speaker 1: that's a good point. So let me just kind of
1:08:13
Speaker 1: level set a little bit on how the whole system
1:08:16
Speaker 1: is set up for us and how we kind of
1:08:18
Speaker 1: approached it first. Um. Over the years that we've become
1:08:23
Speaker 1: more dynamic and have more capacity to serve our community,
1:08:26
Speaker 1: we actually forgotten obvious. It is, for instance, at the
1:08:29
Speaker 1: time that that pandemic winning to play, our largest sources
1:08:33
Speaker 1: of food coming from places like grocery stores, farmers, food
1:08:37
Speaker 1: manufacturers like CANAGRAA and the in the in the places
1:08:40
Speaker 1: where the food getting warehouse. Um, and we have a
1:08:43
Speaker 1: farmer of our own. So when you think about the
1:08:46
Speaker 1: actual prepared foods and stuff that's already cooked. We actually
1:08:51
Speaker 1: specialized um and that other stuff I just talked about.
1:08:55
Speaker 1: And then we have some select partners like certain restaurant groups.
1:08:58
Speaker 1: And when it's like the casino as well, uh you
1:09:01
Speaker 1: know Tiger Stadium, when they when they didn't finish with
1:09:05
Speaker 1: all the hot dogs, we go get those. But because
1:09:07
Speaker 1: of the food safety uh parameters that we want to
1:09:11
Speaker 1: put in place, we didn't really deal with allion share
1:09:15
Speaker 1: of pair food. Now when when the restaurant shut down
1:09:19
Speaker 1: because of the pandemic, we do have the capacity to
1:09:23
Speaker 1: deal with that, and we had to make that adjustment
1:09:25
Speaker 1: so that we could actually go get the stuff that
1:09:27
Speaker 1: was actually gonna go to waste because the restaurants couldn't
1:09:30
Speaker 1: get it out to the community. So there was a
1:09:31
Speaker 1: small flipping time where we got a bunch of the
1:09:35
Speaker 1: restaurants rations and got that back out to the community.
1:09:38
Speaker 1: Right now, our typical way of doing things, as I mentioned,
1:09:41
Speaker 1: is our trucks leave our daily uh the daily picture
1:09:46
Speaker 1: of Forgotten Harvest is our trucks leave our warehouse and
1:09:50
Speaker 1: Metro Detray every day and they go out on routes
1:09:54
Speaker 1: to go pick up food from dedicated grocery store pipers
1:09:59
Speaker 1: and then after didn't go here about twelve or fifteen
1:10:01
Speaker 1: grocery store partners, they didn't turn that food back around
1:10:04
Speaker 1: and drop it off at some of the community organizations,
1:10:07
Speaker 1: the churches, the senior centers throughout the community um in
1:10:11
Speaker 1: order for those organizations and turn back around and then
1:10:14
Speaker 1: redistributed for folks and need in the community. At our
1:10:17
Speaker 1: home warehouse while things are coming in from farmers and
1:10:20
Speaker 1: manufacturers and things like that, we have about sixteen thousand
1:10:24
Speaker 1: volunteers a year that helped us with actually sorting through things,
1:10:28
Speaker 1: making sure we separate the good for the bad, but
1:10:30
Speaker 1: also break down things like the onions and tomatoes and
1:10:32
Speaker 1: corn into smaller bundles so that we're not just taking
1:10:35
Speaker 1: big galors or big boxes to the community and dropping
1:10:38
Speaker 1: them off. We're actually dropping them off, but they're also
1:10:41
Speaker 1: already kind of unitized, so people who walk through the
1:10:44
Speaker 1: line can actually get their portion for themselves. So it's
1:10:47
Speaker 1: kind of a dynamic operation going on a daily basis.
1:10:50
Speaker 1: As we walked into COVID, we had to realize a
1:10:52
Speaker 1: few things. Number One, our distribution network was gonna potentially
1:10:57
Speaker 1: be greatly affective, because if you know how the actual
1:11:00
Speaker 1: emergency food distribution system is set up throughout our communities
1:11:05
Speaker 1: is largely done by volunteers. You know that church group
1:11:08
Speaker 1: that's actually given out the food that's probably you know
1:11:10
Speaker 1: Grandma and the church Ms. Johnson and the church that says,
1:11:13
Speaker 1: you know, this is something that's passionate for her and
1:11:15
Speaker 1: she wants to do that, so just take two hours
1:11:18
Speaker 1: on her Wednesday to give away that free food that
1:11:20
Speaker 1: gets sourced for however that particular location does it. Um
1:11:24
Speaker 1: There's a lot of situations like that. That's actually the
1:11:27
Speaker 1: safety net for our communities. And when COVID came in
1:11:31
Speaker 1: that those were vulnerable populations with very little infrastructure for sustainability,
1:11:37
Speaker 1: and a lot of those folks weren't getting paid so
1:11:39
Speaker 1: they were volunteer roles. So we knew that there was
1:11:41
Speaker 1: gonna be some real instability in our distribution network. A
1:11:46
Speaker 1: lot of our volunteers is the same sixteen thousand volunteers
1:11:49
Speaker 1: a year. We got some great corporate relationships, so our
1:11:53
Speaker 1: volunteers come in bundles of thirty and fifty at a
1:11:55
Speaker 1: time because we got corporate corporations that are sending people
1:11:58
Speaker 1: to us on a daily basis for corporate action shutdown
1:12:00
Speaker 1: and start actually sending people to work from home, changing
1:12:04
Speaker 1: the parameters around how volunteerism and just how people were
1:12:08
Speaker 1: going to be deployed into the community. We had to
1:12:11
Speaker 1: figure out what we're gonna do about volunteers. But that's
1:12:13
Speaker 1: a core way of what we do. Forgotten Harvards distributes
1:12:16
Speaker 1: about fifty million pounds of food last year to our
1:12:19
Speaker 1: community and helped about a million people. We can't do
1:12:22
Speaker 1: that with the eighty staff and ninety five staff that
1:12:24
Speaker 1: we had. We need our volunteers, so we also had
1:12:27
Speaker 1: to come up with a way to address that. In
1:12:29
Speaker 1: addition to all of that, in the working spaces that
1:12:32
Speaker 1: we have, we had some things that we had to consider,
1:12:35
Speaker 1: like ppe like the distance between um, how how far
1:12:39
Speaker 1: people could be when we actually give away the food,
1:12:41
Speaker 1: what's the best ways to give away the food so
1:12:43
Speaker 1: that everybody is actually kept protected. And then when we're
1:12:47
Speaker 1: actually doing our side of the processing, how was our
1:12:50
Speaker 1: space gonna be transformed? So in order to address these things,
1:12:53
Speaker 1: we did a couple of things. The first thing we
1:12:55
Speaker 1: did is we came up away to actually quickly distribute
1:12:57
Speaker 1: the food to the community with assist them that we
1:13:00
Speaker 1: actually ran and control on our own instead of actually
1:13:03
Speaker 1: depending on our typical system of all to our community
1:13:07
Speaker 1: distribution partner. And that was going about because of COVID.
1:13:10
Speaker 1: Right that that was because of COVID. Now we have
1:13:13
Speaker 1: already been kind of working on a model that we
1:13:17
Speaker 1: were actually as a team kind of testing on our own.
1:13:20
Speaker 1: We were kind of doing our own little R and D.
1:13:23
Speaker 1: And it turns out that that little thing that we
1:13:25
Speaker 1: were working on was the that thing that we need
1:13:27
Speaker 1: to do in order to address that particular hole, which
1:13:30
Speaker 1: was how do we actually put distribution mechanisms out there
1:13:33
Speaker 1: to get to the community knowing that the whole distribution
1:13:37
Speaker 1: network that we had in place, we're probably shut down.
1:13:41
Speaker 1: And what we did for that was we we set
1:13:43
Speaker 1: up what we call our mobile pantry, but we basically
1:13:46
Speaker 1: going uh the deployed one of those fifty three ft
1:13:49
Speaker 1: refrigerated trucks into our community with volunteers and it serves
1:13:53
Speaker 1: as at that staging unit. We put all the stuff
1:13:56
Speaker 1: on the on the parking lot on a palette, and
1:14:00
Speaker 1: we have all the distributions with the community coming through
1:14:03
Speaker 1: UM in their cars and we were able to put
1:14:04
Speaker 1: stuff from the trumps. We had to go from fishing
1:14:08
Speaker 1: with a net so to speak, to fishing with the
1:14:10
Speaker 1: hook again with volunteers and calling one at the time.
1:14:13
Speaker 1: So we put um partnerships in place with some of
1:14:16
Speaker 1: our community partners so we can get the volunteers and
1:14:19
Speaker 1: be specific about how we did that. But we're really
1:14:21
Speaker 1: in the middle of all of that. Really had to
1:14:23
Speaker 1: pause and I had to we the team had to
1:14:26
Speaker 1: really get serious about trying to get to every partner
1:14:29
Speaker 1: we could get ppe the whole process of what you're
1:14:35
Speaker 1: talking about. You know, it's fear, you know, COVID because
1:14:38
Speaker 1: like I said, plus Michigan and the state of Michigan.
1:14:41
Speaker 1: Talking to Kurt, maybe he's to see over forgotten the
1:14:43
Speaker 1: Harvest UH runs one of the Michigan's top nonprofit organizations
1:14:47
Speaker 1: where Premier Rescue Food organization. This is a key in
1:14:50
Speaker 1: this conversation. Food that would be perishable food that we'll
1:14:53
Speaker 1: be thrown away, he repurposes and it gets it to
1:14:56
Speaker 1: people in need and it's safe food that's being repurposes
1:14:59
Speaker 1: and deliver free of charge. That's what we're talking about.
1:15:02
Speaker 1: It's not only happens there, but there are the organizations
1:15:04
Speaker 1: in the state of in the state of American this
1:15:06
Speaker 1: world that does that as well. But we're talking to
1:15:08
Speaker 1: Curt made right here, and Kurt one I wanted to
1:15:11
Speaker 1: talk slow down just a little bit because the ready
1:15:14
Speaker 1: made food that you was getting from this restaurant played
1:15:16
Speaker 1: a role because that food went to certain individuals or
1:15:20
Speaker 1: certain groups. What happened there when you didn't have the
1:15:23
Speaker 1: ready made food anymore to be given out to these
1:15:26
Speaker 1: certain groups or individuals that needed or was expecting that
1:15:30
Speaker 1: five days a week. You know, we we relied on
1:15:33
Speaker 1: some of our resistant relationships. We were all at that
1:15:36
Speaker 1: point we realized that we had to change the way
1:15:38
Speaker 1: we looked at bringing in our floe supply. So our
1:15:41
Speaker 1: supply chain partnerships had to actually pivot on the dime.
1:15:45
Speaker 1: So instead of you know, a lot of the food
1:15:47
Speaker 1: came from the grocery store, and grocery store shelves was clear.
1:15:50
Speaker 1: So what we're gonna do. Um, So we have these
1:15:53
Speaker 1: relationships where a lot of food producers and food manufacturers.
1:15:56
Speaker 1: So we started to actually approach some of our partners
1:15:59
Speaker 1: to buy the food because we knew we needed to
1:16:01
Speaker 1: actually start getting out here and actually making sure that
1:16:05
Speaker 1: we were there. We were on the ground with food.
1:16:06
Speaker 1: So There was a portion of time where I had
1:16:09
Speaker 1: to get approval from our board to be able to
1:16:11
Speaker 1: actually go into our cash reserves up to a million
1:16:14
Speaker 1: dollars so that I could actually be able to purchase food,
1:16:18
Speaker 1: so that we could actually feel the gaps we need
1:16:20
Speaker 1: to feel in case we couldn't get the food from
1:16:23
Speaker 1: the food manufacturers and at the same from the from
1:16:26
Speaker 1: the community. The way we were getting in and at
1:16:28
Speaker 1: the same time we started actually putting the word out
1:16:30
Speaker 1: to people. You know what, man, I gotta say, it's
1:16:33
Speaker 1: such a blessing. We never had to dip into that
1:16:35
Speaker 1: million dollars to buy the food. We did have to
1:16:38
Speaker 1: buy food, but we got food that was coming in
1:16:41
Speaker 1: from places that we didn't even expect. We had partners
1:16:44
Speaker 1: that actually stepped up to make sure that we were
1:16:47
Speaker 1: UM in place where we need to be. We have
1:16:49
Speaker 1: a coalition of partners um in the state of Michigan
1:16:52
Speaker 1: called the Food Bank Council of Michigan, which is seven
1:16:55
Speaker 1: organizations and we covered the entire state. We started putting
1:16:58
Speaker 1: our heads together and we went to the governor and
1:17:01
Speaker 1: we started speaking as one voice about the shortfalls that
1:17:03
Speaker 1: were coming to us based on what was going on
1:17:06
Speaker 1: the moves that FEMA did, the moves to be able
1:17:09
Speaker 1: to get the boxes on the ground. A lot of
1:17:11
Speaker 1: that conversation actually started in Michigan and they proliferated throughout
1:17:15
Speaker 1: the rest of the country as as the way that
1:17:17
Speaker 1: everybody would actually get that solution in place, So the
1:17:20
Speaker 1: Karasak program some of the things that happened through FEMA
1:17:24
Speaker 1: ultimately was what actually uh stem the tide to be
1:17:29
Speaker 1: able to give all of us the food we needed.
1:17:31
Speaker 1: So the food boxes then forgotten harvest because we have
1:17:34
Speaker 1: all these relationships with other fresh group providers. Also many
1:17:37
Speaker 1: also supplemented the food boxes with vegetables, fruits, m lunches
1:17:43
Speaker 1: for the kids and all and all we've been giving
1:17:45
Speaker 1: away and averages seventy pounds of food for every family
1:17:49
Speaker 1: that comes through our line. Wow. You know when I
1:17:53
Speaker 1: listened to you talk, you the CEO. Okay, So that
1:17:57
Speaker 1: means there's a journey to become the CEO of forgotten
1:17:59
Speaker 1: the hard vers How is that possible? How does that work?
1:18:04
Speaker 1: You know when that you know your service are a
1:18:06
Speaker 1: young man. You've been honored by your alumni, your school,
1:18:09
Speaker 1: Michigan State University, been honored for other efforts within the community.
1:18:12
Speaker 1: How does Kurt May's become the CEO of Forgotten Harvest?
1:18:19
Speaker 1: And that's the main le of question. You though you
1:18:24
Speaker 1: already you gotta you show me your visionary You showed
1:18:27
Speaker 1: me that you you rather the pivot when when when
1:18:30
Speaker 1: confusion steps in place, you already had places. You already
1:18:33
Speaker 1: had an idea that hey, this is something we need
1:18:35
Speaker 1: to look at. COVID hits it. You already got the model.
1:18:38
Speaker 1: You put the model in place, and then it moves
1:18:40
Speaker 1: you forward, and then you're able to create a one voice.
1:18:43
Speaker 1: You tell the council look notifying them that hate there
1:18:47
Speaker 1: is a problem out there. I'm not saying we're going
1:18:49
Speaker 1: to get the money, but that means that you're a
1:18:51
Speaker 1: guy who foresees the problem with resolution. Yeah, that has
1:18:56
Speaker 1: been your personality. Correct, Yeah, that's that's all. That's all
1:19:00
Speaker 1: you know. Humbly, I can say that's all fair, right,
1:19:02
Speaker 1: so um, but to answer your question, I gotta actually
1:19:06
Speaker 1: go probably a little bit off the script and just
1:19:08
Speaker 1: go say that I've just been trying to make sure
1:19:11
Speaker 1: my fire don't burn me up, and I gotta I
1:19:15
Speaker 1: gotta fire for our people, I gotta fire for our community.
1:19:19
Speaker 1: I understand uh, I think I understand well enough to
1:19:24
Speaker 1: the politics of change. Um My, my greatest focus is
1:19:28
Speaker 1: studying people and trying to understand people so I can
1:19:31
Speaker 1: do as much as I can as a sergment to
1:19:32
Speaker 1: people to help. I started as a grassroots or community
1:19:36
Speaker 1: organizer with the hope that I could actually be a
1:19:40
Speaker 1: part of an effort to you know, twenty years ago,
1:19:43
Speaker 1: I started with a dream that we could recreate Black
1:19:46
Speaker 1: Wall Street and Detroit. And now I see people talking
1:19:50
Speaker 1: about it everywhere. So I honestly is just a young
1:19:54
Speaker 1: man who just want to see change with the people
1:19:56
Speaker 1: around me. I gotta burning fire. I had a great education,
1:19:59
Speaker 1: and I point I realized that I can probably do
1:20:03
Speaker 1: anything and be successful. And I could go sell myself,
1:20:08
Speaker 1: my talent, my ability, my time and somebody and probably
1:20:10
Speaker 1: gonna make a lot of money. But I want to
1:20:12
Speaker 1: I want to leave a legacy. You know. It's life
1:20:14
Speaker 1: that my my child, my family could be proud of.
1:20:17
Speaker 1: And it got to be something more than just cash.
1:20:21
Speaker 1: So I dedicated my life to serving our community. And
1:20:25
Speaker 1: I gotta say it didn't start being a CEO of
1:20:27
Speaker 1: forgotten Harvard. It didn't start being a CEO of nothing.
1:20:31
Speaker 1: And so this dream I had and I was always
1:20:35
Speaker 1: the CEO of that dream, and I never stopped being
1:20:37
Speaker 1: a CEO. And I've always been putting my fire into
1:20:41
Speaker 1: the place where I felt like I could add the
1:20:43
Speaker 1: most value to the moment in the conversation. And it's
1:20:46
Speaker 1: turned out that that service has put as positioned me
1:20:49
Speaker 1: in a place where I've been able to actually be
1:20:52
Speaker 1: in front of a conversation or in front of a
1:20:54
Speaker 1: group and be considered as somebody to be able to be,
1:20:58
Speaker 1: you know, to follow into into the fired. You know,
1:21:00
Speaker 1: before I was at Forgotten Harvest, my job was as
1:21:04
Speaker 1: the grasstop leader for a hard hit community in Detroit
1:21:08
Speaker 1: called Brightmore, And you know, I applied the same kind
1:21:11
Speaker 1: of fire towards community development and made some change and
1:21:16
Speaker 1: made some problems, so you know what I'm saying. And
1:21:20
Speaker 1: that got me a role that was pulled into the
1:21:22
Speaker 1: Mayor's office as the deputy for Economic Development. And I
1:21:26
Speaker 1: think what happened was the powers that be whatever you
1:21:32
Speaker 1: want to call it, the cross section of our community
1:21:34
Speaker 1: in the business world. I got a chance to see
1:21:37
Speaker 1: my my life shining in a lot of different ways
1:21:41
Speaker 1: as they were looking for the person to fulfill the
1:21:44
Speaker 1: role of forgotten the harvest. Um. It wasn't something I
1:21:47
Speaker 1: saw in my future, but when I really understood what
1:21:50
Speaker 1: it could be, I sat down in the interview when
1:21:52
Speaker 1: I gave them everything I had. And I've been doing
1:21:55
Speaker 1: that for the last seven years. UM to try to
1:21:59
Speaker 1: do that through you know, this road to do the
1:22:01
Speaker 1: most I can to continue to change of our community. Man,
1:22:04
Speaker 1: I wish I could tell you a game plan to
1:22:06
Speaker 1: get here, but I was just I've just been trying
1:22:09
Speaker 1: to do as much as i can to get back
1:22:11
Speaker 1: to my people. Well, I tell you, I tell your game.
1:22:14
Speaker 1: Then you know, it's like a lot of people because
1:22:16
Speaker 1: you're grinder. I call you grinders, people that just put
1:22:18
Speaker 1: their head down and they like I always always tell
1:22:21
Speaker 1: people when I look back on my life, I've been
1:22:23
Speaker 1: doing what I'm doing today since I was eighteen years old, uplifting,
1:22:26
Speaker 1: you know, stepping beyond the word asked. I just did
1:22:29
Speaker 1: it uh seeing a problem and creating a resolution. And
1:22:33
Speaker 1: yes I did rub people the wrong way, but it
1:22:36
Speaker 1: was always but I walked away with respect. The thing
1:22:39
Speaker 1: about it, when you hear the word rubbing people the
1:22:41
Speaker 1: wrong way, these are people don't want to change, and
1:22:43
Speaker 1: change is usually tied to putting forth effort. And when
1:22:46
Speaker 1: you ask people put forth effort, that means they have
1:22:48
Speaker 1: to think about the resolution or the new concept, and
1:22:51
Speaker 1: that creates resistance, and that's when you get bumped. And
1:22:54
Speaker 1: so when you create resistance, that means you have to
1:22:57
Speaker 1: have a plan in place. And that's what he does.
1:22:59
Speaker 1: She he doesn't create resistance without a plan. And so
1:23:02
Speaker 1: while people are there with their lips stuck out, he's
1:23:04
Speaker 1: he's so were telling people this is how I could
1:23:06
Speaker 1: be operated or executed. And then they then they calmed
1:23:09
Speaker 1: down and they have to come to the table at
1:23:11
Speaker 1: least listen to you. And while they're listening, did you
1:23:14
Speaker 1: have their attention in their ear? And we can move forward?
1:23:18
Speaker 1: That is who Kurt made it mazes. He may not
1:23:21
Speaker 1: want to say that one of the piece of the piece.
1:23:24
Speaker 1: If you don't agree and I really believe that this
1:23:27
Speaker 1: is the thing, I build it myself, people like jumping
1:23:32
Speaker 1: on bad wagon. You might have been the one of
1:23:34
Speaker 1: the tables said no, no, but if and I'm like, look,
1:23:37
Speaker 1: let's see if you don't want to if you don't
1:23:39
Speaker 1: want to jump down this roller, staying with me, I
1:23:41
Speaker 1: don't gonna do as much as I can. I got
1:23:43
Speaker 1: enough capacity to build it so that this wagon is
1:23:46
Speaker 1: wobbling and I'm gonna get somebody else to fix that way.
1:23:49
Speaker 1: You're gonna by action if you don't believe by word.
1:23:53
Speaker 1: And that's what really is my hidden I think, Joel,
1:23:56
Speaker 1: I can do it. See I finally got the real
1:23:59
Speaker 1: cur the pop out in this interview. You just just
1:24:01
Speaker 1: say you move forward. He started pointing at me, telling me,
1:24:05
Speaker 1: if you don't do it, I get the nail and
1:24:07
Speaker 1: the hammer and the sawt I build it myself. And
1:24:10
Speaker 1: that's really what Why are you the CEO? That's all that,
1:24:13
Speaker 1: That's all I was asking because sometimes along the way,
1:24:16
Speaker 1: it's your passion, your desire to get out of the
1:24:18
Speaker 1: way and function as a as a leader. It's why
1:24:22
Speaker 1: we're here today. We're talking about Kirk Mays and nineteen
1:24:25
Speaker 1: Naty for God and Harvest was was founded. Is dedicated
1:24:28
Speaker 1: to leaving hunger and preventing food waste and for they
1:24:32
Speaker 1: deliver a hundred and thirty thousand pounds per day, five
1:24:37
Speaker 1: days a week to families in need and recently, I
1:24:40
Speaker 1: shouldn't say recently, within this past year, you guys received
1:24:43
Speaker 1: a twenty five million dollar grant from for Latrobus for kids.
1:24:46
Speaker 1: They Scott walk us through that process and what how
1:24:48
Speaker 1: would the money will be used and forgotten harvest? Well,
1:24:52
Speaker 1: first it was as absolute blessing, right, so, um, well,
1:24:57
Speaker 1: many people may not realize is that no process for us.
1:25:02
Speaker 1: This was literally an angel that dropped million dollars on
1:25:06
Speaker 1: that lab. And when I found out it was a
1:25:10
Speaker 1: call like literally the decision was already made and it
1:25:14
Speaker 1: was like one of it was an email that I
1:25:15
Speaker 1: could have missed, and it was just like, hey, you
1:25:19
Speaker 1: got a woman that wants to talk to you tomorrow
1:25:21
Speaker 1: about a gift. And I've gotten anonymous gifts before. So
1:25:24
Speaker 1: I get on the phone and she's like is this
1:25:29
Speaker 1: Kirk Maydom Like yeah, it's like it's Mr Mayzed. This
1:25:31
Speaker 1: conversation has to be confidential. I'm like, okay, no problem,
1:25:34
Speaker 1: and she says, do you know who Mackenzie Scott is.
1:25:37
Speaker 1: I'm like no, I don't, and she's like, well she's
1:25:40
Speaker 1: an author and missed that another and she didn't tell
1:25:43
Speaker 1: me about her affiliation with Mr Bezos or nothing like that.
1:25:47
Speaker 1: And then she's like, well, Mr Mays, We've done our
1:25:51
Speaker 1: research and we've heard about you. So we want to
1:25:53
Speaker 1: give you a gift. We're gonna give you twenty five
1:25:55
Speaker 1: million dollars. I was like, what, okay, let's back that up,
1:26:00
Speaker 1: because numbers, see see see see you you you know, mad,
1:26:04
Speaker 1: you've heard numbers. You know, we've we've heard twenty dollars,
1:26:07
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars. What somebody says twenty five million dollars
1:26:12
Speaker 1: to you over the phone with the word give? Where
1:26:15
Speaker 1: were you ad mentally? I was? I was? I was
1:26:19
Speaker 1: kind of dumbfound because it stopped me because one, I
1:26:22
Speaker 1: don't think it's ridiculous to say that's the biggest gift
1:26:25
Speaker 1: I've ever gotten. It's the biggest gifted organization has ever gotten. Um,
1:26:30
Speaker 1: you know what, you don't understand getting something when you
1:26:33
Speaker 1: didn't go through the process and ask for anything like that.
1:26:36
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. If somebody came up to
1:26:39
Speaker 1: you and knocked on your door and say, hey, you
1:26:41
Speaker 1: just want the lottery, here's a hundred million dollars, you
1:26:44
Speaker 1: kind of be suspicious if you didn't buy that ticket.
1:26:48
Speaker 1: At that point, I was like, are you for real?
1:26:50
Speaker 1: What five million dollars? And I immediately I have to understand,
1:26:54
Speaker 1: I have to admit I immediately picked up my phone.
1:26:56
Speaker 1: I was like, McKenzie Scott, who is this. The first
1:27:00
Speaker 1: thing that came up was Mackenzie Scott value that sixty
1:27:04
Speaker 1: billion dollars. I put the phone down. I was like, well,
1:27:08
Speaker 1: tell me more. And what she told us was they
1:27:14
Speaker 1: have been she has been going through a process to
1:27:18
Speaker 1: give away all her her cash. And what she's doing
1:27:22
Speaker 1: is she's going through and doing her own assessment of
1:27:26
Speaker 1: organizations and based off a leadership, based off a track record,
1:27:31
Speaker 1: based off an impact, there are certain areas that she
1:27:34
Speaker 1: actually um It's focused on. And we were one of
1:27:39
Speaker 1: six thousand plus organizations that got scrutinized, that got boiled down.
1:27:44
Speaker 1: The three hundred and eighty four that got to get
1:27:46
Speaker 1: it was an absolute honor, one of seven in the
1:27:49
Speaker 1: state of Michigan. UM and I gotta say, one of
1:27:54
Speaker 1: few brothers in the work out of all food organizations
1:27:58
Speaker 1: and feeding America is too hundred plus food organizations that
1:28:01
Speaker 1: be in America, only forty five gotta get right. So
1:28:06
Speaker 1: it was it was quite a It was quite a
1:28:10
Speaker 1: head jerking moment because you gotta understand, I'm in the
1:28:13
Speaker 1: middle of there, in the middle of this pandemic. We
1:28:17
Speaker 1: we have a vision for the future that got interrupted
1:28:20
Speaker 1: because we had to turn to the community to help
1:28:23
Speaker 1: doing everything we're doing. We have a vision that involves
1:28:26
Speaker 1: us building a brand new facility to really change the
1:28:30
Speaker 1: way that we systemically actually serve the community. And with
1:28:34
Speaker 1: everything going on, it's like, how are we gonna do
1:28:36
Speaker 1: all of this? How are we gonna do all of
1:28:38
Speaker 1: this in this moment? And that gift was like the
1:28:45
Speaker 1: It was more than just help right now, it was
1:28:51
Speaker 1: verification and validation that every decision I made up to
1:28:55
Speaker 1: now I was right that fire, That fire was burning
1:28:58
Speaker 1: for the right reasons. It's the best award I've ever gotten,
1:29:02
Speaker 1: and not and not just because of the money. It's
1:29:04
Speaker 1: the gesture. The gesture, you know what I'm saying, It
1:29:08
Speaker 1: was backed up by a magnificent dollar amount that right now,
1:29:13
Speaker 1: what we're doing is you know, you ask how are
1:29:17
Speaker 1: we going to spend the money? You know that starts
1:29:19
Speaker 1: with conceptually understanding how we look at it, and if
1:29:22
Speaker 1: I can break that down, it's try to do it
1:29:26
Speaker 1: in a short way. First and foremost um the effort
1:29:31
Speaker 1: we're here right now to transform how we deliver food
1:29:35
Speaker 1: to the community. It's inherent that we have to have
1:29:39
Speaker 1: a new facility forgotten harvest going out and getting food
1:29:43
Speaker 1: every day from food providers, but also food coming in
1:29:46
Speaker 1: from the gross like from the boat and commodity providers.
1:29:51
Speaker 1: We don't really have a capability inside of our existant
1:29:54
Speaker 1: warehouse to mix all of that so that everybody can
1:29:57
Speaker 1: get what I would call an equitable mix of everything
1:29:59
Speaker 1: we get on the day any basis, those those route
1:30:02
Speaker 1: drivers go out and actually pick up from each of
1:30:05
Speaker 1: those grocery stores and they just give to like a
1:30:07
Speaker 1: three or four community partners on their route. What what
1:30:11
Speaker 1: what we're gonna do in the future is We're gonna
1:30:14
Speaker 1: bring everything from every grocery store that we touched, all
1:30:17
Speaker 1: the farms, all the manufacturers. We're gonna use the processes
1:30:19
Speaker 1: we have with our volunteers to actually mix all of
1:30:23
Speaker 1: that stuff so that there's not a line somewhere on
1:30:26
Speaker 1: the east side of town that only got from those
1:30:28
Speaker 1: couple of Croker's, a couple of Maya, or a couple
1:30:30
Speaker 1: of grocery stores, and there's another line over here that
1:30:33
Speaker 1: just getting them from the farms. We want everybody get
1:30:36
Speaker 1: as much as possible because the nature of food rescue
1:30:39
Speaker 1: is we don't really know what we're gonna get on
1:30:41
Speaker 1: a daily basis, but we get so much that if
1:30:44
Speaker 1: we mix it all, people will be able to make
1:30:46
Speaker 1: the right decisions to be able to get the meals
1:30:48
Speaker 1: they need so they can go home and make and
1:30:50
Speaker 1: solve the problem of food and security. And I got
1:30:53
Speaker 1: to talk about that. Food and security for us is
1:30:56
Speaker 1: a person or a family not knowing what our next
1:30:59
Speaker 1: meal the future. It is coming from an anxiety that
1:31:01
Speaker 1: comes from that is that simple. So I use that
1:31:04
Speaker 1: to hold us, myself and our organization accountable. How do
1:31:07
Speaker 1: we address that definition and broken into that is knowledge, access, proximity,
1:31:13
Speaker 1: and then supply. So the way that translates into the
1:31:16
Speaker 1: way that that forgotten harvest is going to actually transform
1:31:19
Speaker 1: and address that from a systemic level is we've got
1:31:21
Speaker 1: to change our communication. We also been looking at and
1:31:25
Speaker 1: analyzing the distribution territory that we're working in, and we've
1:31:29
Speaker 1: actually created data systems to help us understand and qualify,
1:31:33
Speaker 1: but also quantify what food and security actually looks like
1:31:36
Speaker 1: in our community. We're collecting data from our community UM
1:31:41
Speaker 1: members that are getting the food so that we can
1:31:43
Speaker 1: actually now have firsthand information about where people are coming
1:31:46
Speaker 1: from where some of their health mechanisms are, where some
1:31:49
Speaker 1: of their particular cultural um preferences may be, and how
1:31:53
Speaker 1: we could potentially bring food closer to the actual places
1:31:57
Speaker 1: where people are actually in need instead of just folks
1:32:00
Speaker 1: on the place where people are picking up the food. So,
1:32:03
Speaker 1: when we look look at this combination of being able
1:32:07
Speaker 1: to change the way we move plus being able to
1:32:10
Speaker 1: change the way we think as an organization, for Gotten
1:32:13
Speaker 1: Harvest is actually transforming into a thinking and data driven organization,
1:32:17
Speaker 1: and the new facility is actually gonna actually help enable
1:32:20
Speaker 1: us to make that turn. That's already plan in place.
1:32:24
Speaker 1: That's already what I was doing, right, and we're already
1:32:27
Speaker 1: raising the money for that. We already got cash coming
1:32:29
Speaker 1: in for that. And then we get this magnificent get
1:32:32
Speaker 1: from Ms Scott in the middle of all this, and
1:32:34
Speaker 1: my board is like not what I'm like, Well, yo,
1:32:37
Speaker 1: were already going deep. So now the question is how
1:32:40
Speaker 1: do we go why? So they are now there's some
1:32:42
Speaker 1: additional questions that we have about whether the throughput of
1:32:45
Speaker 1: a distribution um outlets that we get the food to
1:32:49
Speaker 1: actually adequate in their capacity in order to actually start
1:32:53
Speaker 1: the community. One of the largest challenges in the and
1:32:56
Speaker 1: and people being able to get the food that they
1:32:58
Speaker 1: need is to being able to get to the play.
1:33:00
Speaker 1: It's where it is in time. So it's like I said,
1:33:02
Speaker 1: back to the example I had earlier, If Grandma can
1:33:05
Speaker 1: only come to the church on Wednesday from tow to
1:33:08
Speaker 1: four to be able to get food out, what about
1:33:11
Speaker 1: the working family that can't actually get there. So what
1:33:15
Speaker 1: we would like to see is a distribution network that
1:33:17
Speaker 1: has something closer than to retail hours. I'd like to
1:33:21
Speaker 1: eliminate the line. And the way that I think that
1:33:24
Speaker 1: we can eliminate that line that that wraps around the
1:33:26
Speaker 1: corner is we need to have places that look a
1:33:28
Speaker 1: lot more like grocery stores that have hours that are
1:33:32
Speaker 1: a lot more like a retail establishment, but still give
1:33:35
Speaker 1: food away for free, but still has an actual high
1:33:38
Speaker 1: quality staff working and they're treating people with dignity and
1:33:41
Speaker 1: like their customers that people come in there and they
1:33:44
Speaker 1: go get that food and they go home and they
1:33:46
Speaker 1: go home with enough variety and enough volume so they
1:33:50
Speaker 1: can fix that problem and thereby and not have to
1:33:53
Speaker 1: worry about where the next meal, future meal is coming from.
1:33:57
Speaker 1: So everything that we do going forward were forgotten Hartists
1:34:00
Speaker 1: is gonna actually help us actually widen our ability to
1:34:04
Speaker 1: affect the need that we're addressing. And the next step,
1:34:07
Speaker 1: I believe is when we move out of the building
1:34:09
Speaker 1: we're in it was about thirty thousand square feet and
1:34:12
Speaker 1: move into our seventy seven thousand square foot facility. I
1:34:17
Speaker 1: want to turn this old facility into into a community
1:34:20
Speaker 1: care center and not only allows people to come in
1:34:23
Speaker 1: and shop at their at their regular pace like they
1:34:26
Speaker 1: will that they went to any grocery store, but check
1:34:29
Speaker 1: out for free. And before you leave, there's gonna be
1:34:31
Speaker 1: officers in here where some of our community partners. We
1:34:34
Speaker 1: don't do this, but we can invite partners in to
1:34:37
Speaker 1: work on mental health services, housing, get to get get
1:34:42
Speaker 1: the lights cut on. I want to bring our partners
1:34:44
Speaker 1: in to do that. So that will be one facility
1:34:47
Speaker 1: to come um you know immediately, I mean, and then
1:34:51
Speaker 1: we can talk about other ways to expand. But brother,
1:34:53
Speaker 1: as you may already know, um, everybody can can't really
1:34:57
Speaker 1: absorb the whole vision all that, so I just give
1:35:00
Speaker 1: it out there. So we moved to the next stage,
1:35:04
Speaker 1: and then we can see the other horizon. We can
1:35:06
Speaker 1: see the horizon differently once we get down the road.
1:35:08
Speaker 1: So that's what it looks like in the short term.
1:35:11
Speaker 1: In the midst of all of that, we've got some
1:35:13
Speaker 1: cash managing to do to make sure we stay in
1:35:15
Speaker 1: our position and strength. And I'm gonna continue to just
1:35:17
Speaker 1: beat the streets and I love to talk to our communities.
1:35:19
Speaker 1: I'm gosta continue to be the street make sure I
1:35:22
Speaker 1: got the approval and the sanction from our community as
1:35:25
Speaker 1: we make this turn. But Kurt, I'm gonna just tell
1:35:27
Speaker 1: you this, man, thank you for coming on the show.
1:35:29
Speaker 1: That fire I got to I got to. It warmed me, okay,
1:35:32
Speaker 1: it warmed me, okay, So I know it's it's it's
1:35:36
Speaker 1: it's out there warming a lot of people and changing
1:35:38
Speaker 1: lives man. And definitely I want to come up there
1:35:41
Speaker 1: and visit you and Detruge de Charge one of my
1:35:43
Speaker 1: favorite cities, and and and see that thirty or three
1:35:45
Speaker 1: thousand squarefoot facility, and you're gonna move to the eventual
1:35:48
Speaker 1: the seven or seven thousand squarefoot facility. And I think
1:35:50
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right repurposing that old facility into a care center,
1:35:55
Speaker 1: a life center. I think just basically what you're saying, well,
1:35:58
Speaker 1: you can you can be educated and nourish, not from
1:36:01
Speaker 1: from your body, in your head. And that's what we
1:36:03
Speaker 1: need in these diverse communities that are being undeserved again
1:36:07
Speaker 1: forgotten the harvest. He is the CEO. I know how
1:36:09
Speaker 1: you got there. I just had to let you guys
1:36:12
Speaker 1: hear how he got there and let him drop that
1:36:14
Speaker 1: harumble veil and tell us this story on money making conversation.
1:36:17
Speaker 1: Thank you, Kurt Mays. We will be right back with
1:36:21
Speaker 1: more money making conversations with your host Rashaan McDonald. What
1:36:26
Speaker 1: grows in the forest trees? Sure you know what else
1:36:30
Speaker 1: grows in the forest. Our imagination, our sense of wonder,
1:36:34
Speaker 1: and our family bonds grow too, because when we disconnect
1:36:37
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1:36:44
Speaker 1: The forest is closer than you think. Find a forest
1:36:47
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Speaker 1: windy path that could lead to adventure, and they see you.
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Speaker 1: They're fearless. Guide. Is this fascinating world? Find a forest
1:37:19
Speaker 1: near you and start exploring a Discover the Forest dot
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1:37:24
Speaker 1: and the AD Council. Adoption of teens from foster care
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1:37:51
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1:37:58
Speaker 1: are now tuned into the money, make conversations, Minute of
1:38:01
Speaker 1: Inspiration with Rushan McDonald's Molly Music is a Grammy Award
1:38:05
Speaker 1: winning musician, songwriting and producer. He is an artist first
1:38:08
Speaker 1: and foremost, but he will not be put in the box.
1:38:11
Speaker 1: He loves the freedom of creating amazing music, no matter
1:38:14
Speaker 1: whether it's gospel, R and B, hip hop or rock.
1:38:17
Speaker 1: You open up the doors to be heard out by
1:38:19
Speaker 1: a different race, and then it gets uncomfortable for just
1:38:22
Speaker 1: because you start bringing out different issues. I recently traveled
1:38:26
Speaker 1: to Nashville to do some songwriting Chad Leave saying a
1:38:30
Speaker 1: Christian rock fand Unspoken, and it was a challenge for me,
1:38:33
Speaker 1: especially coming from soul background gospel background, but I had
1:38:37
Speaker 1: to remember I have songs that have rock feels for it.
1:38:40
Speaker 1: So man, the spreading and the falling of the genres,
1:38:43
Speaker 1: it's definitely good. I've been watching it happened in hip
1:38:46
Speaker 1: hop and other genres for a long time, and I'm
1:38:48
Speaker 1: glad that it's finally made it to gospel. If you
1:38:51
Speaker 1: want to hear the full interview with Molley Music, it's
1:38:54
Speaker 1: available on money Making Conversations dot com. Welcome back to
1:38:58
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations with your host Sean McDonald. Welcome to
1:39:02
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation. I am your host, ra Sean McDonald.
1:39:06
Speaker 1: Like I said every episode, it's time to stop reading
1:39:09
Speaker 1: other people's success stories and start writing your own. And
1:39:12
Speaker 1: when you talk about your passions, you talk about your gifts.
1:39:15
Speaker 1: Lead with your gifts and don't let your age, friends, family,
1:39:18
Speaker 1: or co workers stop you from planning or living your dreams.
1:39:21
Speaker 1: My interviews on money making conversation with celebrities, ceo, entrepreneurs,
1:39:26
Speaker 1: and people I like to call industry decision makers. My
1:39:29
Speaker 1: next guest is Reggie Butler. Reggie is the founder and
1:39:32
Speaker 1: CEO or Performance Paradigm LLC and Executive Education Human Capital Consultancy.
1:39:38
Speaker 1: Its areas of expertise included high performing, high performing team development,
1:39:42
Speaker 1: organizational change management, diversity and inclusion, which is really important
1:39:46
Speaker 1: in these days since has become the forefront of all
1:39:50
Speaker 1: major corporations. Tone of employment and understanding, their color and
1:39:55
Speaker 1: the way people speak should not be a differentiator. It
1:39:58
Speaker 1: should be treated as equal. Training, development, workforce retention strategies,
1:40:02
Speaker 1: emotional intelligence, and executive coaching. Reggie believes the human connection
1:40:07
Speaker 1: and understanding that the cornerstone of changing life and behavior.
1:40:11
Speaker 1: Wheggie works in collaboration with executive leadership teams to develop
1:40:14
Speaker 1: and execute strategies to change organizational culture, build leadership bench strength,
1:40:20
Speaker 1: and increase human capital effectiveness. Please work with the money
1:40:24
Speaker 1: Making Conversations by Man Reggie Butler. He's on, Reggie, I'm
1:40:28
Speaker 1: doing well, Man. Good to be with you today. You're
1:40:30
Speaker 1: doing some important work and you gotta keep doing what
1:40:32
Speaker 1: you're doing. We need you in this space to not
1:40:35
Speaker 1: stop or back down. Well, I can't back down. And
1:40:38
Speaker 1: if I bring individuals on the on the show like you, Reggie,
1:40:40
Speaker 1: so you can support what I'm trying to do because
1:40:44
Speaker 1: you know, uh, you're not both are living a long
1:40:48
Speaker 1: life and uh and we live even longer life. But
1:40:51
Speaker 1: somewhere along the line, as as people are put qualifiers,
1:40:55
Speaker 1: if you haven't done certain things at a certain age,
1:40:57
Speaker 1: then you stuff and and and that's where I wanted
1:41:00
Speaker 1: to talk about initially with you, because that's the whole
1:41:03
Speaker 1: part about pushing beyond what you're capable of because people
1:41:07
Speaker 1: can limit it. So and you you reach your limit,
1:41:10
Speaker 1: talk to us about that. Yeah, So, first of all,
1:41:13
Speaker 1: I just have this really strong belief that another person's
1:41:17
Speaker 1: perception of me shouldn't define where I go. And you
1:41:20
Speaker 1: got to think about what that actually looks like. In
1:41:22
Speaker 1: some spaces, there are people who wind up in careers
1:41:26
Speaker 1: or in positions only to find out later in their
1:41:29
Speaker 1: careers that's not what they wanted to do, where they
1:41:31
Speaker 1: wanted to go, where they wanted to be, how they
1:41:34
Speaker 1: wanted to do it because they were listening to somebody
1:41:36
Speaker 1: else's narrative that was based on someone else's perception of
1:41:41
Speaker 1: their value or their worth. So I spend time in
1:41:44
Speaker 1: this space um trying to get to people to understand
1:41:47
Speaker 1: and see things they can't see for themselves, so they
1:41:50
Speaker 1: not only can explore, but reach whatever next is for
1:41:53
Speaker 1: them by choice. Do talk about the path of resistance?
1:41:56
Speaker 1: Sometimes we live our lives through the past of Lea's resistance. Reggie, Okay,
1:42:00
Speaker 1: And that means that, like you said earlier, were relationship
1:42:04
Speaker 1: we go deep like that. There people in relationship they
1:42:06
Speaker 1: should be getting out of, and there are people who
1:42:08
Speaker 1: are a job they should be walking away from, but
1:42:11
Speaker 1: they stay there out of fear. They stayed out there
1:42:13
Speaker 1: because they don't want to hear somebody complaining, and stay
1:42:16
Speaker 1: there because they don't want to hear somebody tell them
1:42:19
Speaker 1: that they question their decision making. How in your coaching
1:42:24
Speaker 1: do you push people past that? Because you're like, you're
1:42:26
Speaker 1: like a a new modern day therapists. You know you're
1:42:29
Speaker 1: not putting those on the couch. Yeah, so you know, Rishan,
1:42:36
Speaker 1: So first of all, I gotta get people to be
1:42:37
Speaker 1: honest with themselves, and I take people through you know,
1:42:40
Speaker 1: a framework. They help them understand what their truth is
1:42:44
Speaker 1: about how they're seeing the world, what the truth of
1:42:47
Speaker 1: somebody else is, like managing their perspectives. And then the
1:42:49
Speaker 1: highest order I try to get people to is accepting
1:42:52
Speaker 1: what they need to accept in order to move forward
1:42:54
Speaker 1: and make a difference. So if I view that, if
1:42:55
Speaker 1: I look at that, there are some people that haven't
1:42:58
Speaker 1: accepted what they need to accept about themselves. And one
1:43:02
Speaker 1: of the big things that people don't accept is that
1:43:04
Speaker 1: they are much better than anybody else says they are.
1:43:08
Speaker 1: Because we let people define who we are and what
1:43:10
Speaker 1: our world and I put people into situations that say,
1:43:13
Speaker 1: let me show you not only what your worth is,
1:43:16
Speaker 1: but you'll be able to articulate that value. Not somebody
1:43:20
Speaker 1: else do that for you. And once a person starts
1:43:22
Speaker 1: to accept that, they also start to see those things
1:43:25
Speaker 1: that they know they have to move past. And that's
1:43:27
Speaker 1: that thing you're talking about about resistance. Resistance comes at
1:43:30
Speaker 1: you when you are solid and your confidence has no competition.
1:43:34
Speaker 1: You know that you're confident in yourself and your abilities.
1:43:39
Speaker 1: Resistance goes around you go right through it. You've got
1:43:42
Speaker 1: to get people to see that. You get people to
1:43:44
Speaker 1: see that. It's that, it's that, it's that. It's like,
1:43:47
Speaker 1: that's why a ship has a point, you know, when
1:43:49
Speaker 1: it goes to the water. You know, it cuts through
1:43:52
Speaker 1: the resistance. That's what you're talking about, you know, And
1:43:55
Speaker 1: as it cuts to the resistance, it gets to the
1:43:57
Speaker 1: destination a lot faster. Now you've had over twitter was
1:44:01
Speaker 1: in the Baio. But I'm sure it's more years of
1:44:03
Speaker 1: experience and delivering this transformative Like I told you, I've
1:44:07
Speaker 1: been doing this so as anything, when you really look
1:44:09
Speaker 1: at it, who you are, you don't really be defined
1:44:12
Speaker 1: by the moment you defined out how you were raised
1:44:15
Speaker 1: and who put these I'd say, these seeds in you?
1:44:18
Speaker 1: Who's put these seeds in you? Let's let's take a
1:44:20
Speaker 1: journey back a little bit, Reggie, who put these seeds
1:44:23
Speaker 1: in you? Yeah? So if I look at I'm gonna
1:44:26
Speaker 1: start back. So I started off as a classically trained musician,
1:44:29
Speaker 1: so classical training pianists, and for years, um I thought
1:44:33
Speaker 1: that that was my path. And my father, who was military,
1:44:37
Speaker 1: I was raised military. I've never served, but I was
1:44:39
Speaker 1: raised military and the discipline that he instilled in me
1:44:44
Speaker 1: about how to be successful through discipline and doing what's
1:44:48
Speaker 1: necessary do, but you have to do so you can
1:44:50
Speaker 1: do what you want to do, and instilled that in
1:44:52
Speaker 1: me once I had made the decision, with his help
1:44:55
Speaker 1: and the help of some other colleagues, that a classically
1:45:00
Speaker 1: rain pianist in this body. At that time in my life,
1:45:04
Speaker 1: there was a high probability I was not going to
1:45:06
Speaker 1: be as successful as I wanted to be because of
1:45:08
Speaker 1: the constructs of race around who I was. But my
1:45:12
Speaker 1: father looked at me and he says, but that doesn't
1:45:14
Speaker 1: mean you still can't be a musician like oh and
1:45:18
Speaker 1: my mom, wonderful woman that she is. They created what
1:45:23
Speaker 1: I'm going to call some of the things you do.
1:45:25
Speaker 1: They decided to manage my life at a young age
1:45:28
Speaker 1: of fifteen, had a band. Here I am having a
1:45:32
Speaker 1: band and fifteen and work and use that bed, played
1:45:35
Speaker 1: every weekend eleven pm to two am, just doing all
1:45:40
Speaker 1: the things. But what it taught me was the organization
1:45:43
Speaker 1: of skills and the discipline of creating a team. Because
1:45:46
Speaker 1: you know this about music. Music is from my heart
1:45:49
Speaker 1: and from my soul, but it is the foundation of
1:45:51
Speaker 1: everything we do. Because that band would not be the
1:45:54
Speaker 1: band it is and was the music. The music we
1:45:58
Speaker 1: created would not have landed the way it was posted
1:46:00
Speaker 1: if we didn't have structure. I was leading that band.
1:46:03
Speaker 1: So from that it took me all throughout my life.
1:46:06
Speaker 1: I used those tenants of what it means to create
1:46:08
Speaker 1: a high performing team, what it means to lead a team,
1:46:11
Speaker 1: what it means to deal with dysfunction, what it means
1:46:13
Speaker 1: to deal with change when change change comes up. And
1:46:16
Speaker 1: I've taken that all the way throughout my professional life.
1:46:19
Speaker 1: Wound up being so interesting. I wound up was a
1:46:24
Speaker 1: was a choir director at a church and one of
1:46:28
Speaker 1: my one of my choir members, said, you realize you
1:46:31
Speaker 1: have a gift for speaking, Um, you should come, you know,
1:46:35
Speaker 1: not out of the church, but you should come, you know,
1:46:37
Speaker 1: speaking in corporate America. I fought. I resisted that forever
1:46:42
Speaker 1: school teacher, a school teacher I had that means I
1:46:46
Speaker 1: had twelve months of pay and three months off. I'm like,
1:46:49
Speaker 1: I'm not messing up this formula. And then realized, you know,
1:46:52
Speaker 1: after I substitute substituted as an instructor as a trainer
1:46:58
Speaker 1: UM for this utique firm in Cincinnati, Ohio called Globally
1:47:03
Speaker 1: Management Consulting. At the time, I'll never forget it. I
1:47:07
Speaker 1: I gotta check for that day of training that I did.
1:47:12
Speaker 1: I got it like three or four weeks later. I
1:47:14
Speaker 1: looked at it, I gave it back. I was like,
1:47:16
Speaker 1: that's way too much money. That wasn't for me. It's
1:47:20
Speaker 1: like now, teacher, only to realize that what she was
1:47:24
Speaker 1: trying to introduce me to, which is what everyone has
1:47:27
Speaker 1: in their life. They have what's called insight humans people
1:47:30
Speaker 1: that continue to give you insights for things you can't
1:47:33
Speaker 1: see for yourself. I wind up transitioning from being a
1:47:36
Speaker 1: school teacher into the corporate space and doing training and development,
1:47:40
Speaker 1: and at that firm at that time, I had sent
1:47:43
Speaker 1: it throughout that firm with some great mentors Vincent Brown,
1:47:46
Speaker 1: Janet Reid, Sam Lynch, John People. All the people that
1:47:49
Speaker 1: were back at that firm at that time trained me,
1:47:53
Speaker 1: mentored me, helped me develop the skill that I have
1:47:56
Speaker 1: now now that I use in my own human capital consultancy.
1:48:00
Speaker 1: So a lot of people along the way shaped me.
1:48:03
Speaker 1: And I tell this to people all the time, never
1:48:05
Speaker 1: forget who shaped you. Right, You didn't get where you
1:48:08
Speaker 1: are by yourself, and now you owe well you know
1:48:12
Speaker 1: the thing about it. I agree, that's why because You're
1:48:16
Speaker 1: a unique individual because you bet on yourself and you
1:48:19
Speaker 1: can't really tell people how you generate income. You know,
1:48:22
Speaker 1: you can say it, but they for the average person,
1:48:23
Speaker 1: can't put the how does he make money? Does he
1:48:26
Speaker 1: have a ninety five? Does he work Monday through Friday?
1:48:28
Speaker 1: When does he have off? Does he say vacation? Does
1:48:31
Speaker 1: he took of insurance? So you're that individual that really
1:48:34
Speaker 1: steps out use the You're the word a lot on
1:48:37
Speaker 1: faith and faith to the side to you gifts. But
1:48:39
Speaker 1: I go back to when you were fifteen year old
1:48:41
Speaker 1: and fifteen years old and your parents managing you. They
1:48:44
Speaker 1: were shaping the gift because I know the power of
1:48:47
Speaker 1: music because I was played B flat clarinet. I played
1:48:51
Speaker 1: tennant saxophone, so I knew that. I know the power
1:48:54
Speaker 1: of music. Music is so incredible from from an intellectual
1:48:59
Speaker 1: and also from a discipline standpoint. And as we see
1:49:02
Speaker 1: you today, I'm seeing that same discipline. I'm seeing that
1:49:05
Speaker 1: same skill set up live performances. I'm watching it right
1:49:09
Speaker 1: now that we're just incubated into you at such an
1:49:12
Speaker 1: early age. Now is translating those gifts. And I see you, Reginald,
1:49:18
Speaker 1: and I can call your Reginald your parents, but it's
1:49:21
Speaker 1: Reggie Butler. Excuse me for stepping out into that parent land.
1:49:25
Speaker 1: But I want to just say that in talking to you,
1:49:28
Speaker 1: how do you get people to understand their value? Because
1:49:32
Speaker 1: you're in a human capital and sometimes and I want
1:49:35
Speaker 1: to just say this real quick before we get this clear.
1:49:38
Speaker 1: We can blame a lot of issues on the company
1:49:40
Speaker 1: we work for. We can blame a lot of issues
1:49:43
Speaker 1: on race, We can bring a lot of issues on
1:49:45
Speaker 1: a gender, but the core are making that change has
1:49:49
Speaker 1: to start with how we value ourselves. That's right, talk
1:49:53
Speaker 1: to us. Yeah, And so one of the frames trying
1:49:57
Speaker 1: to put people through, so there's two ways to look
1:49:59
Speaker 1: at it. One way is to look at your lived
1:50:02
Speaker 1: experiences and the comfort zone radius you have around your
1:50:05
Speaker 1: lived experience. So let's say you grew up in a
1:50:07
Speaker 1: dual family household, you you went to college. You have
1:50:10
Speaker 1: all these lived experiences that shape who you are and
1:50:12
Speaker 1: give you the messages. That's that's only one version of
1:50:16
Speaker 1: the lived experiences. We occupy and cohabitate a world with
1:50:20
Speaker 1: people that have very different lived experiences. And so how
1:50:24
Speaker 1: you find your value is you look at the comfort
1:50:26
Speaker 1: zone radius you have around your own life, your lived experiences,
1:50:29
Speaker 1: and you overlay that on the people that you need
1:50:32
Speaker 1: to interact with to get you to next or to
1:50:34
Speaker 1: be in service as somebody else, and you look up,
1:50:37
Speaker 1: you step back one day and go, I actually have
1:50:40
Speaker 1: a purpose, like I'm supposed to be here in this
1:50:43
Speaker 1: space doing this thing because it serves something. Tell people
1:50:48
Speaker 1: all the time, always be in service of changing an outcome,
1:50:52
Speaker 1: not in service of yourself. Some people get um bristle
1:50:56
Speaker 1: at that because they start to think of themselves, Well,
1:50:59
Speaker 1: that's just being self I'm saying. It's not about being
1:51:02
Speaker 1: selfish or not being selfish. But when you live through
1:51:05
Speaker 1: the lens of who are you helping what or what
1:51:10
Speaker 1: what condition are you improving, you live a much you
1:51:14
Speaker 1: live a much richer life. And that's where you start
1:51:17
Speaker 1: to look back at yourself and say, now I know
1:51:19
Speaker 1: what my value proposition is. One thing I tell entrepreneurs
1:51:23
Speaker 1: all the time, don't negotiate your price and then go blah,
1:51:28
Speaker 1: But I have to because negotiation is part of the thing.
1:51:30
Speaker 1: It's like, every time you leave with the negotiation, that
1:51:32
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that means you don't know what you're worth.
1:51:35
Speaker 1: You know what you're worth first and then negotiate from that,
1:51:39
Speaker 1: and negotiation from that could be but then I must
1:51:41
Speaker 1: not be your person for today because you can't afford you.
1:51:45
Speaker 1: But that people have to You have to get there first.
1:51:49
Speaker 1: And it's not doesn't happen by accident. It's very intentional.
1:51:53
Speaker 1: And what I'm trying to get people to really understand
1:51:56
Speaker 1: Brushan and you, of all people, I know, you know
1:51:58
Speaker 1: this that different people because that they're different life experiences.
1:52:01
Speaker 1: I think there's only one or two ways to do things.
1:52:04
Speaker 1: It's not true. There are multiple ways to get to
1:52:07
Speaker 1: certain locations. There's it's not just one way. And you
1:52:11
Speaker 1: have to own this thing called change. And I even
1:52:16
Speaker 1: took this. Most recently I've started doing it. I've created
1:52:18
Speaker 1: a module again using music. Uh that's called find your
1:52:22
Speaker 1: Rhythm and find your Rhythm. It literally is about any
1:52:26
Speaker 1: change management principle and organizational designs and things like that.
1:52:29
Speaker 1: What people have to do is find their rhythm. So
1:52:31
Speaker 1: I want you to think about people who because of
1:52:33
Speaker 1: the pandemic. You know, there's three pandemics out there. There's
1:52:36
Speaker 1: the health pandemic, there's a racial pandemic, there's an economic pandemic.
1:52:41
Speaker 1: And in the last fifteen months, we've seen people have
1:52:43
Speaker 1: to deal with that, that those pandemics and they've lost
1:52:47
Speaker 1: their rhythm. Now everybody's talking about it, let's go back
1:52:50
Speaker 1: to work, and people up going back to work, Like,
1:52:52
Speaker 1: how do you find your rhythm to get back into
1:52:55
Speaker 1: what I tell people to stop saying, which is the
1:52:58
Speaker 1: new normal? Stop it, Stop saying the new normal because
1:53:03
Speaker 1: most of you didn't like the last normal and we're
1:53:06
Speaker 1: about to go. So you have to find your rhythm.
1:53:08
Speaker 1: And it's not returned to work, it's returned to life.
1:53:12
Speaker 1: You know when I want to want to deal with that.
1:53:14
Speaker 1: You know when I hear you say that, you know
1:53:16
Speaker 1: I did the thing that because I've been fortunate in
1:53:20
Speaker 1: my life. I worked for the post Office, I work
1:53:23
Speaker 1: for IBM, so I've worked a fort the hour shift.
1:53:25
Speaker 1: I don't understand hourly wage. You understand how to work
1:53:27
Speaker 1: over time. And then the process of individual and a
1:53:31
Speaker 1: personal job frustration because you deal with a lot of
1:53:34
Speaker 1: individuals who live in at forty hours structure. Because we're
1:53:39
Speaker 1: gonna talk about Google contracts you just recently to develop
1:53:42
Speaker 1: their own diversity, equity and inclusion programs. I talked about
1:53:46
Speaker 1: that because when you come in and do a program
1:53:48
Speaker 1: like that, there has to be two sides of this development.
1:53:52
Speaker 1: That has been an acknowledgement that just because of you
1:53:57
Speaker 1: feel that another person always. Let me just share this
1:53:59
Speaker 1: quick story with you, right quick. When I did I
1:54:01
Speaker 1: m um, I got hired with two other white guys,
1:54:05
Speaker 1: and I came in simultaneously, and my supervisor asked me, oh,
1:54:09
Speaker 1: my goal? What I want to do? And I told
1:54:12
Speaker 1: him I didn't know at the time. Okay, he said, okay,
1:54:15
Speaker 1: whenever you figured out, Rashan, come back and I coming
1:54:17
Speaker 1: just tell me that my door's open. Well too much
1:54:21
Speaker 1: went by. Three months went by. I still hadn't went
1:54:23
Speaker 1: back in that door, and the white guys started getting
1:54:26
Speaker 1: other assignments, and guess what. I started huddling up with
1:54:29
Speaker 1: my Hey, this is wrong. It's a racial thing going
1:54:32
Speaker 1: on here, Rachiel. What's going on here? And I went
1:54:35
Speaker 1: and storming in that office and set down with my supervisor. Hey, man,
1:54:37
Speaker 1: look we started at the same time. Why are they
1:54:40
Speaker 1: doing more than I am doing? He said. Rashaan, I
1:54:45
Speaker 1: asked you on your first day, what were your goals?
1:54:48
Speaker 1: What did you want to do with this company? You
1:54:49
Speaker 1: told me you're gonna get back with me when they
1:54:51
Speaker 1: got back with me that their very first day, and
1:54:54
Speaker 1: they're only doing the things that they I'm helping them
1:54:57
Speaker 1: do the things that they say they wanted to complish.
1:54:59
Speaker 1: That the copy I say that, to put that statement
1:55:01
Speaker 1: out in front of you, just say, I'm not gonna
1:55:03
Speaker 1: point in their fingers on this, Reggie, I'm gonna tell
1:55:06
Speaker 1: you I've been the I want to say, the person
1:55:08
Speaker 1: who sitting in the corner mad, but I didn't do
1:55:12
Speaker 1: my job, So who am I mad at? So that
1:55:16
Speaker 1: now you have to come in with a company like
1:55:18
Speaker 1: Google try to change the environment. But no, there are
1:55:22
Speaker 1: some rushawn shitting out there who had told Google or
1:55:25
Speaker 1: darn thing about what they want to do. Yeah, and
1:55:30
Speaker 1: I will tell you one of the things. So there
1:55:32
Speaker 1: are a lot of companies in the portfolios, you know,
1:55:36
Speaker 1: always from big tech and healthcare and retail and you know,
1:55:40
Speaker 1: professional services, automotive, all the things. But here's here's what
1:55:43
Speaker 1: happens when you have an organization that that's big, like
1:55:46
Speaker 1: like a Google. They had the resources to actually investigate
1:55:50
Speaker 1: and use data to actually drive towards the source of
1:55:53
Speaker 1: what the issue is. So they had a hypothesis that
1:55:57
Speaker 1: the people that are black Latin x UM and women
1:56:01
Speaker 1: are having different lived experiences inside the organization, and instead
1:56:04
Speaker 1: of going to the mad Rushians, instead of going to
1:56:07
Speaker 1: the people in the organization and trying to focus on
1:56:10
Speaker 1: making them feel better, they decided, let's go to the
1:56:12
Speaker 1: manager population who makes decisions about them every day and
1:56:17
Speaker 1: get them to understand that the lived experiences aren't the same.
1:56:21
Speaker 1: And it was It's amazing when a when an organization
1:56:24
Speaker 1: understands that it's about shifting the culture, not changing the people.
1:56:29
Speaker 1: And that's what I do at the firm. We actually
1:56:32
Speaker 1: work across change management, but we do it through the
1:56:35
Speaker 1: lens of culture. So if there's a people issue to address,
1:56:39
Speaker 1: we address it through the culture. We don't address it
1:56:41
Speaker 1: through the people. We address it through the culture. And
1:56:43
Speaker 1: sometimes the culture will will dictate to us after we
1:56:47
Speaker 1: do some audit or something like that. It's that to
1:56:49
Speaker 1: find out where where is the issue, where is the problem?
1:56:52
Speaker 1: Let's solve it and so what we what we wind
1:56:55
Speaker 1: up doing, which is why the Ford's article we got highlighted.
1:56:58
Speaker 1: We we created a very experiential program that was the
1:57:03
Speaker 1: at the intersection of understanding the experience of black and
1:57:08
Speaker 1: brown people, of women and anybody that was in an
1:57:12
Speaker 1: underrepresented group and taking it through the lens of art.
1:57:15
Speaker 1: So we use performance artists, we use singers, we use musicians,
1:57:20
Speaker 1: we use drummers, we use interpretive dancers, same type of
1:57:24
Speaker 1: diversity training that most people would say, So let's talk
1:57:27
Speaker 1: about what it's like to be black here at this organization.
1:57:29
Speaker 1: Let's talk about what it's like. Instead of just talking
1:57:32
Speaker 1: to them, we showed them. We created an experience. So
1:57:36
Speaker 1: just think you have a room of dominant culture people,
1:57:38
Speaker 1: mostly white, sitting there trying to understand what is like
1:57:42
Speaker 1: to be somebody that's not them, that doesn't have the
1:57:44
Speaker 1: lived experience they do. But the way they get the
1:57:47
Speaker 1: message it's through through art. So we have someone curate
1:57:51
Speaker 1: an art piece and explain why this piece of art
1:57:54
Speaker 1: was done and the reason it was done because this
1:57:56
Speaker 1: person feels invisible and that's why this piece of art
1:57:59
Speaker 1: looks like that. We would then turn to the audience
1:58:01
Speaker 1: and say, is there anybody on your team that feels
1:58:04
Speaker 1: like they are invisible? And what's that reason? Can you
1:58:07
Speaker 1: do anything about it? It's so different. We took some
1:58:10
Speaker 1: survey results. This was one of one of the most
1:58:12
Speaker 1: interesting things. You know, how you do these inclusions or
1:58:14
Speaker 1: every organization that's surveys to see how the people there
1:58:17
Speaker 1: people feel. And one of the questions was about inclusion.
1:58:20
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you feel included? And the score
1:58:22
Speaker 1: was was pretty low. We took some of the comments
1:58:25
Speaker 1: from the survey that said, this is what it feels
1:58:28
Speaker 1: like for me to be here, I don't feel like
1:58:29
Speaker 1: I'm seeing etcetera, etcetera. We took those comments, we strung
1:58:33
Speaker 1: them together, put a music bed under it, and then
1:58:36
Speaker 1: had dancers do interpret the dance to it to show
1:58:39
Speaker 1: the emotion. Because as long as it's just data in
1:58:42
Speaker 1: one dimension on a page, in a survey, in a spreadsheet,
1:58:46
Speaker 1: you can't feel that. So we created a story and
1:58:51
Speaker 1: the narrative that allowed people to feel. That's the next
1:58:55
Speaker 1: space we sit in. I am rush and you know this.
1:58:58
Speaker 1: You can talk and complain all you want and who
1:59:00
Speaker 1: you get somebody to feel mean, connect the emotion with
1:59:03
Speaker 1: the intellect. You won't get changed to happen, you know,
1:59:07
Speaker 1: And you're absolutely correct, And because this is what this
1:59:10
Speaker 1: interview is about. Change, also about acceptance, also about recognizing,
1:59:14
Speaker 1: like you said, you're not invisible and and and so
1:59:17
Speaker 1: you know being that I I've walked these different lanes
1:59:20
Speaker 1: and entertainment, you know, and you uh, the corporate where
1:59:23
Speaker 1: I've been an entrepreneur. And then but that work space,
1:59:26
Speaker 1: that's really the key dynamic, especially have working remotely, that's
1:59:31
Speaker 1: the that's the that's the other part of the conversation.
1:59:33
Speaker 1: Maybe you broke down the three that working remotely now
1:59:37
Speaker 1: also leads to damage because of the fact that how
1:59:40
Speaker 1: do you how do you properly supervise somebody who's working
1:59:45
Speaker 1: from home? How do you properly promote somebody who's working
1:59:47
Speaker 1: from home? Which creates another ant? And am I being
1:59:51
Speaker 1: treated right? Am I gonna get a proper recognition for
1:59:55
Speaker 1: the work I'm producing? Your world has gotten even more
1:59:58
Speaker 1: complicated in a good way. That's right. With the remote tool,
2:00:03
Speaker 1: there's suddenly been thrown into your little two box. Yeah, yeah,
2:00:07
Speaker 1: I've got I have no charge of examples of people
2:00:10
Speaker 1: doing the un ramped back into work. So you do
2:00:13
Speaker 1: realize that, I think everybody knows it. So a lot
2:00:15
Speaker 1: of companies actually experienced exponential growth over the last fifteen months,
2:00:19
Speaker 1: and they hired a lot of people virtually and they
2:00:21
Speaker 1: never met them, so they have to deal with that.
2:00:25
Speaker 1: Then you have some companies that decided, hey, I didn't
2:00:28
Speaker 1: know this flexible work thing was actually gonna work, and
2:00:30
Speaker 1: now there's working, I don't need him to come back
2:00:33
Speaker 1: and need him to stay home. Okay, So now you
2:00:35
Speaker 1: got that population, then you have the what everybody's saying
2:00:39
Speaker 1: is the hybrid population where your own rotation that comes
2:00:41
Speaker 1: to the building, but you only have to come in
2:00:43
Speaker 1: for two days and you have to rotate with somebody else.
2:00:46
Speaker 1: Now you've got a manager who's never ever had to
2:00:50
Speaker 1: do that before. They don't know how to do that,
2:00:53
Speaker 1: and they are ill equipped. They're they're well intended though,
2:00:57
Speaker 1: because they are trying. And what we try to do
2:01:00
Speaker 1: was put some framing around to say just the just
2:01:03
Speaker 1: all of the different versions and iterations you're gonna have
2:01:06
Speaker 1: to go through. Do not look for a new normal soon.
2:01:09
Speaker 1: Because it's a phased approach. You still have to create
2:01:13
Speaker 1: human connection and you have to do it through screens.
2:01:16
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you. I give you a tip. I
2:01:18
Speaker 1: told the manager the other day, I said, when you
2:01:21
Speaker 1: everybody's back, you've been doing all these things, would you
2:01:24
Speaker 1: stop asking people on Mondays how their weekend was. It's
2:01:29
Speaker 1: not inclusive? What are you talking about? I said, think
2:01:32
Speaker 1: about the pandemic all of them. Do you realize that
2:01:35
Speaker 1: some people the last thing they want to talk about
2:01:38
Speaker 1: what they had to deal with on the weekend. I
2:01:41
Speaker 1: lost somebody to COVID, I'm going through a divorce, my
2:01:44
Speaker 1: friends are out of jobs. I'm still trumping my still
2:01:46
Speaker 1: doing zoom school. But I hear some of my colleagues
2:01:49
Speaker 1: on the car when you ask what did you do
2:01:51
Speaker 1: over the weekend, They's like, oh, I was able to
2:01:53
Speaker 1: go high game. I feel so much better now. It's like,
2:01:56
Speaker 1: that's not my experience. I'm telling managers now, pay attention
2:02:01
Speaker 1: to the questions you asked. A much better question is
2:02:04
Speaker 1: not how is your weekend? A better question as a
2:02:07
Speaker 1: leader right now is to say, what's important to you
2:02:10
Speaker 1: this week? And how can I help? And also it
2:02:12
Speaker 1: was important how are you doing? That's important too, because
2:02:16
Speaker 1: what happens is The interesting thing about the work and
2:02:19
Speaker 1: at home dynamic Reggie, as we wrapped us up, is
2:02:21
Speaker 1: that you got kids. You might have a wife running
2:02:25
Speaker 1: around in the background, you might have a dog barking.
2:02:28
Speaker 1: You might you know, your electrician might show up at
2:02:31
Speaker 1: the same time that your beetings going over your zoom call.
2:02:35
Speaker 1: It's bringing on a whole slew of dynamics that can
2:02:39
Speaker 1: make you look unprofessional, which can in turn impact how
2:02:43
Speaker 1: you think you're being perceived by the company that's hiring you.
2:02:47
Speaker 1: So when you lay out these shields and when you
2:02:49
Speaker 1: when you get hired by our company like Google, like
2:02:51
Speaker 1: I said, they brought you in, and you use these
2:02:53
Speaker 1: bigger words diversity, training, equity, inclusion, that's a lot to
2:02:58
Speaker 1: put on your plate. How do you how do you
2:03:02
Speaker 1: not replicate because every every situation different. Always health companies,
2:03:07
Speaker 1: you you don't bring the same model in. How do
2:03:11
Speaker 1: you bring a model in? And how do you survey
2:03:13
Speaker 1: the right approach to that particular company's needs. Well, some
2:03:17
Speaker 1: of it is is most companies already have identified what
2:03:20
Speaker 1: the problem is. They're still working on this source. So
2:03:22
Speaker 1: we try to go in and say, I don't need
2:03:24
Speaker 1: you to do new work with me. I don't need
2:03:25
Speaker 1: you to go look up stuff that you've already looked up.
2:03:28
Speaker 1: I need to start where you are and which I
2:03:29
Speaker 1: try to get. Uh, you know, companies, businesses, people's individuals
2:03:33
Speaker 1: start where you are, not where you were right. Way
2:03:36
Speaker 1: too many people going well, let's go back and let's
2:03:39
Speaker 1: study the past so we can figure out how to
2:03:42
Speaker 1: deal with now. And I'm going, can we start with
2:03:44
Speaker 1: now and focus on the future. Think about the past
2:03:48
Speaker 1: already happened. You have so much data, so much surveys.
2:03:52
Speaker 1: How much data do you need to know that things
2:03:54
Speaker 1: are just a little messed up and that there is
2:03:58
Speaker 1: an answer. Let's go with what we know and move forward.
2:04:01
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, create forward momentum. If
2:04:04
Speaker 1: you're not creating forward momentum, you're holding things back. Answer
2:04:08
Speaker 1: the question every single day, what did I do this
2:04:11
Speaker 1: this week that created traction and momentum. I call it
2:04:14
Speaker 1: the irrelevancy paradigm. You spend a lot of energy on
2:04:16
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. You do a lot of actions.
2:04:18
Speaker 1: If it's not having any impact and you're not creating
2:04:21
Speaker 1: any momentum, then make the business choice and the human
2:04:24
Speaker 1: choice to stop focusing energy on it. Focus on where
2:04:29
Speaker 1: you create momentum. You're standing there, and it's engaging me
2:04:34
Speaker 1: so much because you probably know that yourself. You know,
2:04:37
Speaker 1: I've never interviewed anybody's standing. That is so important and
2:04:41
Speaker 1: so powerful because I feel like you're communicating with me.
2:04:44
Speaker 1: I feel like that if you extended your hand right now,
2:04:47
Speaker 1: read you, I would probably how I'd probably stand my
2:04:50
Speaker 1: hands trying to shake it because it feels so natural.
2:04:53
Speaker 1: You feel me. So if if you're doing it like this,
2:04:57
Speaker 1: keep doing it like this. This is fantastic. You're very
2:05:00
Speaker 1: welcoming personality. You feel with the world world of information.
2:05:04
Speaker 1: I will be the first to lie or whatever you do.
2:05:07
Speaker 1: Send me your flyers, send me all your information so
2:05:09
Speaker 1: I can put it on my social media. And let's
2:05:11
Speaker 1: keep building your brand and also changing lives, because that's
2:05:14
Speaker 1: what you're doing. You're changing black and brown people. We're good.
2:05:18
Speaker 1: We're good man, and you keep doing what you're doing.
2:05:20
Speaker 1: I'm telling you what you do matters. I know you
2:05:23
Speaker 1: may not get that a lot, but I'm telling you
2:05:24
Speaker 1: it does work. I don't care. I don't care what
2:05:27
Speaker 1: you say. I don't care if you don't get the
2:05:30
Speaker 1: accolades you think you deserved. You are making a difference.
2:05:33
Speaker 1: We need you to be you in this space. No will,
2:05:35
Speaker 1: but thank you, thank you for everything, and thank you
2:05:38
Speaker 1: for coming on money Making Conversation. If you want to
2:05:40
Speaker 1: see this interview or hear this interview on Money Making Conversation,
2:05:43
Speaker 1: please go to money Making Conversation dot com. I'm with
2:05:45
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. I am with McDonald with the Legy Media
2:05:53
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Speaker 1: his star rolling Steven Starterburgs new crime drama No Sudden Moves,
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