Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Full Episode: Grammy Award-winning recording artist Michelle Williams, prison abolitionist Yusef Salaam, wealth manager Branden Thompson & real estate mogul Denise Williams

Transcript

Full Episode: Grammy Award-winning recording artist Michelle Williams, prison abolitionist Yusef Salaam, wealth manager Branden Thompson & real estate mogul Denise Williams · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to
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Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she has the
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Speaker 1: secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and Brandon expert
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Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me advice on
1:21
Speaker 1: many occasions. In the case you didn't notice, I'm not broke,
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Speaker 1: you know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry
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Speaker 1: my man, Rashan McDonald money making conversations. Here we come.
1:38
Speaker 1: Welcome to money making Conversations. I'm your host, Rashean McDonald.
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Speaker 1: I always tell people every time on this show it's
1:44
Speaker 1: time to stop reading other people's success stories and really
1:46
Speaker 1: start writing your own. I always tell people to leave
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Speaker 1: with your gifts. Gifts I call your passion, and don't
1:51
Speaker 1: let your age, friends, family, or coworkers stop you from
1:54
Speaker 1: planning or living your dreams. My next guest is really
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Speaker 1: in that ain't that era where I'm talking about a
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Speaker 1: lot of people can tell you're gifted in certain area.
2:02
Speaker 1: You can go into that direction. I'm gonna talk about
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Speaker 1: some of my experiences. She shared some of experiences, and
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Speaker 1: my next guest is Michelle Williams. Who is Michelle Williams.
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Speaker 1: She's a Grammar Award winning recording artists and actress, one
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Speaker 1: of my favorite people who rose to stardom as the
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Speaker 1: member of the R and B R and B Mega
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Speaker 1: Group or iconic Mega group, Destiny Child, and most recently
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Speaker 1: appeared as the Butterfly I Saw on the hit series
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Speaker 1: Mass Singer Michelle is passionate about raising awareness and mental health,
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Speaker 1: about sharing the lessons she has learned in her own
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Speaker 1: struggle with depression. She's on the show discussed her very
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Speaker 1: first book, checking in How Getting Real About Depression saved
2:37
Speaker 1: My life and can save yours. Michelle says an intermitted
2:41
Speaker 1: never before told stories about how, even in the midst
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Speaker 1: of enormous famous success, she battled depression, leading to her
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Speaker 1: to find a true calling as an advocate for mental health,
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Speaker 1: especially her own. Please work with the money making conversations
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Speaker 1: to Nitra Michelle Williams, how you doing? Yes? Name? You know,
3:07
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start out with the name first, because my
3:09
Speaker 1: name is Rushan McDonald and a lot of people over
3:12
Speaker 1: the years have always remember that. I remember, like twenty
3:15
Speaker 1: two years old and this guy came to me. I
3:17
Speaker 1: was working with what is your name? Because people say
3:19
Speaker 1: I let people say Russian or Rushan or Chin. They
3:23
Speaker 1: just said in any kind of way. He said make it.
3:26
Speaker 1: He said, make make a decision about your name. And
3:29
Speaker 1: when when I made that decision about my name, it
3:31
Speaker 1: really defined who I am today because I stuck with
3:34
Speaker 1: I fought forward and I and I held onto it
3:37
Speaker 1: and that and then today it defines me. I would
3:39
Speaker 1: took people I was a Rickey or Ronald or or
3:42
Speaker 1: anything else, I probably wouldn't be the person I am
3:45
Speaker 1: in some ways I'll be successful. But it gave me
3:47
Speaker 1: an extra bonus. And to here, when I started reading
3:50
Speaker 1: about this in the very early part of the book
3:53
Speaker 1: your name, it played a big role. I want to
3:56
Speaker 1: talk about that whole process because it plays out today.
4:00
Speaker 1: And when I wanted to make sure that I introduce
4:03
Speaker 1: you with your whole name, not just the middle name.
4:05
Speaker 1: Michelle Tunetro a beautiful name. Let's talk about that. Thank
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Speaker 1: you so much. Yes, so my first name is Tunitra,
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Speaker 1: my middle name is Michelle, and I remember having to
4:17
Speaker 1: make that decision on me not using Tantra. And um,
4:25
Speaker 1: if you read the book, you know the reason Ra
4:28
Speaker 1: shine because you read the book. So I don't know
4:31
Speaker 1: if I want to give away the reason, well, I don't.
4:33
Speaker 1: I don't think that I'm not asking you give away
4:35
Speaker 1: a reason, I think because my reason was and there's
4:38
Speaker 1: a lot of people said down there, that's why the
4:40
Speaker 1: book is relatable to me, because you know we do.
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Speaker 1: You know we do. You can continue Michelle, Yes, sir,
4:46
Speaker 1: so I you know making that decision. Well do I
4:50
Speaker 1: want to go by Tuntra or Michelle? Um? Now the
4:54
Speaker 1: reason presented, you're gonna have to get the book because
4:58
Speaker 1: I don't want to if I give it away. Okay,
5:02
Speaker 1: so um I. But what I will say is, obviously
5:10
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't go on to have a problem
5:13
Speaker 1: with the name change because I felt like it afforded me.
5:18
Speaker 1: It afforded my family to have a piece of me
5:23
Speaker 1: still because the world is getting everything right now there,
5:28
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, I'm away from home. I'm
5:30
Speaker 1: having to sacrifice being at graduations, baby showers, fish fries,
5:35
Speaker 1: everything that I normally would be with my family. And
5:38
Speaker 1: so when I come home, I felt like they were
5:42
Speaker 1: getting to Nitra right. But then at the same time,
5:46
Speaker 1: it's like, well, so you're saying, so then what was
5:48
Speaker 1: the world getting? We were getting you and who you
5:51
Speaker 1: really are, And it's like, yes, you were, but there
5:55
Speaker 1: are so many entertainers who I mean, you up, people
6:00
Speaker 1: say The Rock, for instance, You're still getting him, but
6:05
Speaker 1: I don't know if his parents or family members are
6:08
Speaker 1: calling him the Rock. Get what I'm saying. You know.
6:11
Speaker 1: The interesting thing about it is that you're not the
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Speaker 1: first person that deals. I remember talking to him about that.
6:19
Speaker 1: You know, The Rock says called me Dwayne Johnson fifty
6:22
Speaker 1: cents Curtis Jackson. So there are a lot of issues
6:25
Speaker 1: with names because they can't define you. And it's important
6:29
Speaker 1: that people understand that names respect and also accountability. And
6:34
Speaker 1: also in this case, Brandy, you know you're branded right now.
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Speaker 1: Is Michelle Williams and an incredible singer, member of the
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Speaker 1: iconic Destiny's Child, a great actress, a motivator, uh, an entrepreneur.
6:47
Speaker 1: But then there is you know yeah, and I feel
6:52
Speaker 1: like that definitely at least the past ten years, for sure,
6:57
Speaker 1: y'all have been getting to Nitra. And that's the blessing
7:03
Speaker 1: of this conversation because I, you know, because you we
7:06
Speaker 1: just sit in my office and when I was in
7:07
Speaker 1: Chicago all the time and Steve Harvey Talk show, and
7:10
Speaker 1: we have conversations and so and I and I, you know,
7:14
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I noticed anything, but I started seeing
7:17
Speaker 1: a different level of independence. And you're trying to find yourself,
7:20
Speaker 1: your your when you put your footprint in is that
7:23
Speaker 1: my footprint is somebody else's footprint. But we can talk
7:26
Speaker 1: about those journeys. And that's why I want to talk
7:27
Speaker 1: about because it led to your book. It led to
7:30
Speaker 1: the revelations that I'm not being me because success is
7:34
Speaker 1: really and that's what I loved about the book because
7:36
Speaker 1: it talks about success and defining how success can lead
7:39
Speaker 1: to destructive behavior or destructive lifestyle, just emotionally. And sometimes
7:45
Speaker 1: people think destructive physically has to be physical, and but
7:49
Speaker 1: the middle part of it is really the part that
7:51
Speaker 1: can also hurt the most. Correct. Absolutely, there are so
7:56
Speaker 1: many people coming into the entertainment in the street or
8:00
Speaker 1: even in the world of sports. Um Physically, obviously, you
8:07
Speaker 1: might be doing all right and you're strong. In football,
8:10
Speaker 1: you're doing you know, you've got scouts going to the combine,
8:14
Speaker 1: you're you're running fast. Or in the world of entertainment
8:17
Speaker 1: you're looking good, you're singing good, or you act really good,
8:20
Speaker 1: whatever that whatever that is. But so many of us
8:24
Speaker 1: are coming into these spaces, um with dysfunction, with wounds
8:33
Speaker 1: really that stem from childhood and then they start to
8:37
Speaker 1: manifest um tremendously in your adulthood. And when it's gone unchecked,
8:45
Speaker 1: it can lead to some really serious problems, right, you know,
8:50
Speaker 1: and like you have beautiful parents. First for the bookish
8:52
Speaker 1: dedicate to your dad. So let's let's let's make sure
8:55
Speaker 1: we get that clear. You know when she says tho stids,
8:57
Speaker 1: you know, uh, you know brothers and sisters, twin sisters,
9:02
Speaker 1: brother so you know all these the facts you get
9:04
Speaker 1: from the book. See that's how I kind of knowing
9:06
Speaker 1: better that because I read uh and and this book
9:10
Speaker 1: here when I when I started looking at myself as
9:12
Speaker 1: that because this is what I love about the book
9:15
Speaker 1: that we're talking about talking to Michelle Williams checking in
9:17
Speaker 1: how getting real about depression saved my life and can
9:21
Speaker 1: save yours, is that when you live a life out
9:24
Speaker 1: in the open book, that's where it becomes, especially with
9:26
Speaker 1: social media, because you your career was tied to social media.
9:29
Speaker 1: You know, it blew up during that ERAa, the Internet
9:31
Speaker 1: era blew up during this in this child era, so
9:35
Speaker 1: you couldn't hide, you couldn't run. Your photos were taken,
9:38
Speaker 1: they were being posted, so everything. So you almost from
9:41
Speaker 1: an emotional standpoint, you really couldn't live a life of
9:45
Speaker 1: secrecy because you was always being exposed by cameras and
9:49
Speaker 1: paparazzi's and tmz. That led a lot to you trying
9:52
Speaker 1: to define yourself. And let's talk about defining who Michelle
9:56
Speaker 1: is and and when I say that, but I want
9:59
Speaker 1: you to talk little bit. But then I'm gonna go
10:00
Speaker 1: back to you know, you attending Illinois State, because I
10:03
Speaker 1: think that's a part of the conversation we need to
10:05
Speaker 1: talk about because it helps to find where we're gonna
10:08
Speaker 1: go with the future. Because I think your future is
10:11
Speaker 1: going back to college. So that's that's another consisting Rashaan,
10:16
Speaker 1: I kid you not. Literally, maybe about ten minutes before
10:21
Speaker 1: I logged on here, I literally was finishing up my
10:25
Speaker 1: conversation with the university about my fall enrollment to get
10:31
Speaker 1: a bachelors in psychology. Yeah, I was telling my staff,
10:35
Speaker 1: I said, I said, because they always said, Richelle, you
10:37
Speaker 1: know you're gonna tell people what's on your mind anyway,
10:40
Speaker 1: you know you, And I said, I gotta tell us
10:43
Speaker 1: you gotta go back to college, I said, because that's
10:45
Speaker 1: a part of our life. That's important to defying herself
10:49
Speaker 1: because you're successful, Michelle. You know now, I just want
10:52
Speaker 1: you to live your life. Now. You don't have to
10:54
Speaker 1: prove anything to anybody. You're beautiful, you gifted, you care.
10:58
Speaker 1: You have a legacy. Now what is your legacy? But
11:01
Speaker 1: you're you're I'm talking to your legacy. You're like, you know.
11:04
Speaker 1: One of the reasons, you know, when I talk about
11:07
Speaker 1: my my life with Steve Harvey, and I was telling
11:09
Speaker 1: my team was that I remember when, um, you know
11:13
Speaker 1: a lot of people and as a stand up comedian,
11:15
Speaker 1: and so that's how Steve Harvey and I met. We
11:17
Speaker 1: were doing stand up. He was my opening act. And
11:19
Speaker 1: as he became successful and uh, and I was still
11:22
Speaker 1: being the stand up And people just always tell me, what, Sean,
11:24
Speaker 1: you're just as funny as Steve Harvey. I go that
11:27
Speaker 1: I don't want to do stand up. Oh no, why Hey,
11:32
Speaker 1: I don't want to stand up? Okay, just because that's
11:34
Speaker 1: a decision I make. I'm making so and so, and
11:37
Speaker 1: I'm that very happy. I decided not to do stand
11:39
Speaker 1: up because I'm doing what I want to do. I
11:41
Speaker 1: love produce it, I love managing, I love being creative
11:45
Speaker 1: and then God is giving me his gifts. And so
11:47
Speaker 1: God gives us a lot of blessing. That doesn't mean
11:49
Speaker 1: that you have to act on the blessing. And so
11:52
Speaker 1: God is giving this tremendous gift to sing, to entertain,
11:56
Speaker 1: but just one of the blessings. And so that's what
11:58
Speaker 1: my conversation today when I said to my team, as
12:01
Speaker 1: I gotta tell Michelle she gotta go back to college.
12:04
Speaker 1: She gotta go. She had to live out that blessing
12:06
Speaker 1: and God put her down that path and another gift
12:09
Speaker 1: took her offer. But she got to go back to
12:11
Speaker 1: the original blessing, which she wanted to be criminal justice
12:14
Speaker 1: in Illinois State. She has to go back for that.
12:17
Speaker 1: And to hear you say that this perfect phone call,
12:20
Speaker 1: perfect phone, it's amazing And like you said, living a
12:25
Speaker 1: life of you know, being able to do what you
12:28
Speaker 1: want to do. Music has afforded me this chance to
12:33
Speaker 1: you know, a legacy of a person where I feel
12:36
Speaker 1: that I've been resilient, I've displayed courage, and um, I
12:43
Speaker 1: want to make sure that I am excellent in every
12:48
Speaker 1: path that I take. You know, you're being excellent in music,
12:53
Speaker 1: excellent and broadway in theater. You know, now it's time
12:56
Speaker 1: to take that because I get confirmation daily of this
13:01
Speaker 1: next path, and that is to help others. Now I
13:04
Speaker 1: can continue to help others just through my testimony, but
13:09
Speaker 1: a part of me is like, well, what if I
13:11
Speaker 1: want to take it the next step and counsel people legally,
13:16
Speaker 1: you know, because you know you have to have at
13:20
Speaker 1: least some type of certification um to go into counseling.
13:24
Speaker 1: I really want to help people in entertainment and sports
13:27
Speaker 1: because I don't feel like we have to live these
13:32
Speaker 1: lives with so much with with with dysfunction or not
13:37
Speaker 1: identifying hurts that trigger certain behaviors and responses. Because just
13:44
Speaker 1: because I was hurt in my childhood does not mean
13:48
Speaker 1: does not give me the right to go hurting people
13:51
Speaker 1: as an adult. It's like, identify what's got you angry, upset,
13:56
Speaker 1: or sad or depressed or friddled with exist. Ay, let's
14:01
Speaker 1: deal with that. Let's get the proper treatment, whether it's
14:04
Speaker 1: medication or whether it's just because some people may not
14:08
Speaker 1: need medications. Sometimes the root just uprooting something just by
14:13
Speaker 1: talking about something and identifying it, and then I really
14:17
Speaker 1: feel like we can go on to be more whole
14:20
Speaker 1: um and and have great quality relationships because if every
14:26
Speaker 1: relationship around you was crumbling, whether it be in your
14:29
Speaker 1: career or personal relationships, it's okay to sit down and
14:32
Speaker 1: process that with somebody, and for someone to say, Okay,
14:36
Speaker 1: let's get down to the root of it. Now, you're
14:38
Speaker 1: gonna have to make a lot of apologies to some
14:40
Speaker 1: people you hurt, but let's get to the root of it. Wow,
14:44
Speaker 1: this is that the girl who was in my Chicago offense.
14:48
Speaker 1: I love, this is the girl in your Chicago office.
14:51
Speaker 1: I was scared. It was like I wanted to do
14:54
Speaker 1: everything with Shawn. I even ask you, I say, can
14:58
Speaker 1: you help me? And and it's like my mother says,
15:02
Speaker 1: I love when my mother would always say keep living, baby,
15:05
Speaker 1: keep living. You will eventually find that passion in your
15:10
Speaker 1: college because Restan, you could have you told me to
15:12
Speaker 1: do a lot of things you saw. I could have
15:15
Speaker 1: been doing a lot of things. But what is now
15:18
Speaker 1: my passion and what I believe is just another addition
15:23
Speaker 1: to my purpose. And that's the conversation we're having right now. Absolutely,
15:27
Speaker 1: I remember I always tell people that more and more
15:30
Speaker 1: this show has helped me a lot, because the first
15:32
Speaker 1: of all, has allowed me how to see how I've
15:35
Speaker 1: beenpacting a lot of people and then and didn't know
15:38
Speaker 1: that I just gotta get one of those kids. We gotta,
15:43
Speaker 1: you know, for you, I gotta do anything for you.
15:46
Speaker 1: And I always tell people about gifts, and I talked
15:49
Speaker 1: about gifts, and I always says to day about talking
15:51
Speaker 1: about daughter this weekend, because I was talking about empowering
15:54
Speaker 1: her to be more than just an individual tied to
15:57
Speaker 1: one vision. She said, what do you mean? I said, Well,
16:00
Speaker 1: in October nine nine one October, that's a day I
16:03
Speaker 1: was talking to God and I was saying, I said,
16:06
Speaker 1: if you allow me to just explore all of my talent,
16:10
Speaker 1: I would give one to everything. I will not cheat you.
16:13
Speaker 1: I will so over. People always say, why are you multitached?
16:16
Speaker 1: You're such good because I made a commitment. I made
16:18
Speaker 1: a commitment that he he told me, I can do
16:20
Speaker 1: all these things. I have to. I have to do
16:23
Speaker 1: what I say. And so so when I look at you,
16:26
Speaker 1: you're one of those people with a lot of talents.
16:29
Speaker 1: And so now when and just what's been fortunate for me?
16:33
Speaker 1: I've been able to complete some of those things and
16:35
Speaker 1: I got my to college degree. You know, everything that
16:37
Speaker 1: you know, I went to IBY. I wanted to do that.
16:39
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a successful comedian. I wanted to
16:41
Speaker 1: be one. So I'm willing to walk away from certain things.
16:44
Speaker 1: And so when I read the book, this is what's
16:46
Speaker 1: happened to you that I want to use the word courage,
16:50
Speaker 1: but the willingness to look in the mirror. So you know,
16:52
Speaker 1: so I'm good with that. I'm good I can walk
16:55
Speaker 1: away and be Michelle. And when I'm hearing you talk
16:58
Speaker 1: right now, it didn't matter that you. I didn't want
17:00
Speaker 1: to hear you singing. I wanted you were motivating me.
17:03
Speaker 1: You are encouraging me. You were empowering me because I
17:07
Speaker 1: heard an honest tone of like uplift from you and
17:10
Speaker 1: you didn't sing a note. And that's why it was
17:12
Speaker 1: so beautiful. And that's why I was like, this is
17:15
Speaker 1: gonna be a great interview because for the first time,
17:18
Speaker 1: she and I can just talk and talk about my flaws,
17:21
Speaker 1: talk about her flaws, talk about how her book is
17:24
Speaker 1: making me a better person and making me understand that
17:28
Speaker 1: I too walk that journey and how I handle it,
17:32
Speaker 1: and maybe I can help her with some advice on
17:34
Speaker 1: how she can handle it too. But my number one
17:36
Speaker 1: thing is be yourself. M that's so good this. See
17:41
Speaker 1: every time you and I talking, you just give me,
17:44
Speaker 1: even if it's just something practical. I appreciate you for that.
17:47
Speaker 1: Thank you, well, I appreciate you. I've always appreciated you
17:50
Speaker 1: in this book. Um, when I when I when I
17:53
Speaker 1: look at this book, and because I interview a lot,
17:55
Speaker 1: I probably read. I've interviewed probably with six people on
17:58
Speaker 1: money making conversations, read leave a hundred and fifty books
18:01
Speaker 1: and each book tells a different story. But when I
18:04
Speaker 1: get a book like your book that talks about decisions,
18:08
Speaker 1: talked about living your gifts, about making the decisions for you,
18:11
Speaker 1: And that's what this book is about right now, Michelle,
18:14
Speaker 1: So as we as we go into this interview, why
18:17
Speaker 1: was it so important to really write this book? WHOA, Um, Well,
18:25
Speaker 1: you have probably encouraged people to tell their own stories
18:28
Speaker 1: and not to let anybody else tell the story for them.
18:32
Speaker 1: And that's just where I was. UM, when I go
18:36
Speaker 1: back to the year eighteen and when I was when
18:39
Speaker 1: I was hospitalized in you know, I could imagine the
18:44
Speaker 1: thoughts that were running in people's heads, not that it's
18:47
Speaker 1: really anybody's business. But by the time I felt like
18:53
Speaker 1: the way in which I had to release a statement
18:56
Speaker 1: about my hospitalization because TMZ found out and I did
19:02
Speaker 1: not want some narrative out there. So you know, I
19:08
Speaker 1: was able to craft a statement while I'm in the
19:11
Speaker 1: hospital seeking treatment for depression and anxiety. UM. I had
19:17
Speaker 1: to release a statement and tell people, yes, I in
19:20
Speaker 1: fact have been in the hospital. I'm actually you know,
19:23
Speaker 1: taking the advice that I myself give to others, which
19:26
Speaker 1: is to seek help and UM. And then fast forward
19:32
Speaker 1: to the year twenty nineteen when the book process started.
19:35
Speaker 1: It was healing for me and it was restored it
19:38
Speaker 1: for me. And I don't know if it's a part
19:40
Speaker 1: of me that wants to have a little bit of control,
19:43
Speaker 1: but it was to kind of take the power back
19:46
Speaker 1: in the shame that were in those two words checking
19:50
Speaker 1: in because I felt like a hypocrite. I was embarrassed,
19:55
Speaker 1: especially when I people kind of found out. I didn't.
19:59
Speaker 1: Now That's good thing about being Tunitra is you know
20:02
Speaker 1: I called myself being able to check into the hospital
20:05
Speaker 1: under that name, but someone still found out. UM. But
20:11
Speaker 1: it was to take the power back, UM and to
20:14
Speaker 1: tell my own story, but to give another person, maybe
20:20
Speaker 1: a name to maybe what it is they're feeling. Because
20:23
Speaker 1: I didn't get a proper diagnosis until I was in
20:25
Speaker 1: my thirties. So can you imagine a young person right
20:29
Speaker 1: now that's reading that book that can say, oh, my gosh,
20:32
Speaker 1: maybe this is what it is. But I still advise
20:34
Speaker 1: you to go get an assessment. Don't just read my
20:36
Speaker 1: book and say, oh, I'm depressed. It's the same thing
20:38
Speaker 1: as going on Google. Google gonna tell you you fin
20:41
Speaker 1: a die. You know when you try to when you
20:43
Speaker 1: google a symptom or something. So please, by all means,
20:46
Speaker 1: it's just to give a be a supplement and a
20:51
Speaker 1: guide to maybe what someone else is going through and
20:54
Speaker 1: how they can overcome. I am I'm is there and
21:01
Speaker 1: at you and with a smile, I'm actually talking to
21:06
Speaker 1: a beautiful person who is defining their future. This is amazingly,
21:13
Speaker 1: this is an amazing encouragement for me, for anybody who's listening.
21:17
Speaker 1: And because what happens is you know changed. It's a
21:22
Speaker 1: it's a big fear for a lot of people because
21:23
Speaker 1: it walks into our known, and you're walking into our known.
21:26
Speaker 1: And so because knowing is your singer, knowing is you're
21:29
Speaker 1: an actress. Knowing is you're famous, but the unknown is
21:33
Speaker 1: does anybody want to hear this? But I'm gonna just
21:35
Speaker 1: tell you something right now to Nietra, I want to
21:38
Speaker 1: hear it because you are articulating it in such a
21:42
Speaker 1: tone of motivation, of honesty, of uh, your captain might
21:48
Speaker 1: imagine that you you're wanting me. You know, if we
21:51
Speaker 1: was at the church, this this, this is the call
21:53
Speaker 1: to the automo. You know what you said something about
21:59
Speaker 1: defining I'm defining my future and um, a friend of mine,
22:04
Speaker 1: we've been dissecting that word future literally the past few weeks.
22:09
Speaker 1: We've been dissecting that word future and future means um
22:14
Speaker 1: the time or period of time following speaking or writing.
22:21
Speaker 1: M We define our futures by what we speak or
22:26
Speaker 1: what we write. And I was like, wait a minute,
22:30
Speaker 1: because we know the future to be as something to come, Like, oh,
22:39
Speaker 1: I can define my future by what I'm speaking and
22:42
Speaker 1: by what I'm writing. The past. If you look up
22:45
Speaker 1: the word past, it's the same thing. The past is
22:50
Speaker 1: something that was spoken or written. Now, how can I
22:55
Speaker 1: maybe read better from my past? Start speaking, can better,
23:01
Speaker 1: start writing better, start sewing better seeds, and your your
23:07
Speaker 1: future would be a little brighter my thoughts and I
23:11
Speaker 1: see it happening in my life. Wow. T Nitra Michelle Weeves,
23:16
Speaker 1: she's on my show. She's on my show. She's talking
23:19
Speaker 1: about a new book, her first book in fact checking,
23:21
Speaker 1: in how getting real about depression saved my life, meaning
23:24
Speaker 1: to her and can save yours. That was a moment
23:28
Speaker 1: where she had to take control of her life. And
23:30
Speaker 1: this is what this interview is about, taking control of
23:32
Speaker 1: your life and so many people and you know what,
23:35
Speaker 1: I love that perspective, taking control of my life because
23:40
Speaker 1: going on three years now, that's what I've had to do.
23:43
Speaker 1: I didn't have anybody to hold my hand. It was
23:46
Speaker 1: a decision that I made. And Brushing, do you think
23:53
Speaker 1: it's a decision people make as we get older because
23:56
Speaker 1: I'm forty one. Well, I would tell you that I
24:00
Speaker 1: found out who was Sean McDonald was in his forties.
24:03
Speaker 1: In my aforties, you know when I really you know,
24:05
Speaker 1: because I was just going through the process making money.
24:08
Speaker 1: A lot of great decisions were being made in my
24:11
Speaker 1: career for me or by me or and but but
24:14
Speaker 1: people to tell me I was successful, But I didn't
24:16
Speaker 1: understand success. I didn't understand my gifts. And so my
24:20
Speaker 1: whole thing now is that for the for your living,
24:22
Speaker 1: your decisions. So in my forte I started living my
24:25
Speaker 1: life as with Sean McDonald. I stopped using words like
24:27
Speaker 1: lucky right places at the right time, because your book
24:30
Speaker 1: talks about that. And the beginning you look at your
24:32
Speaker 1: book talking about somebody made a phone call and you
24:34
Speaker 1: just happen to get this. Your word luck comes into
24:37
Speaker 1: play there, and it's really not. Your gifts came into
24:40
Speaker 1: play there, but you were not clearly understanding your gifts.
24:44
Speaker 1: They were just it just it just pushed you in
24:46
Speaker 1: certain direction that the opportunity was tied to that, to
24:49
Speaker 1: that moment. And so now in my my aforties, I
24:52
Speaker 1: realized that I'm not lucky, I'm gifted. God is giving
24:56
Speaker 1: me all these gifts. Now I have to apply them
24:59
Speaker 1: properly and under the person who achieved that foundation of me,
25:03
Speaker 1: the resolution of understanding what was with Steve Harvey and
25:06
Speaker 1: so because all those gifts are poured into his career
25:09
Speaker 1: and allowed him to become the person and we both
25:11
Speaker 1: benefited from that level of success. So when you say
25:14
Speaker 1: it's it's a some people get it in eighteen. Some
25:17
Speaker 1: people get in the sixteen, have a clear understanding the direction.
25:20
Speaker 1: All you're getting right now, Michelle is an undis assessment
25:24
Speaker 1: of yourself and what you want to do. That's what
25:27
Speaker 1: you're doing right now. That's why it's important that we talk.
25:31
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see you because I owe you
25:34
Speaker 1: a big hug. I owe you sit down and walk
25:37
Speaker 1: in the park. Just just something normal, Just a normal
25:40
Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald talking to a normal Michelle to Nuetra Michelle Williams.
25:45
Speaker 1: That's what I owe Atlanta. Okay, well come on now,
25:50
Speaker 1: I owe your meal. We will connect this week, seriously.
25:53
Speaker 1: I literally I just became an official Georgia resident. I
25:56
Speaker 1: got my license. Real. Then we won't connect because as
26:00
Speaker 1: I got, I bought a building here. I believe me.
26:04
Speaker 1: We're going to talk because I would love that because
26:07
Speaker 1: before we out of time, I want to talk about
26:09
Speaker 1: the book to it that you're kind of coming up here.
26:10
Speaker 1: You know, the topics ranging for all these celebrities or
26:13
Speaker 1: your book to the story in May eight. You know
26:17
Speaker 1: Roger p Henson, Lacre, that's my boy, Tina Loss and
26:20
Speaker 1: that's mc girl Latonia Lucky. Let's talk about this, uh,
26:23
Speaker 1: this book to which virtual to it? That you're hosted. Correct. Yes,
26:27
Speaker 1: it's uh conversations with Michelle Williams. Um as it relates
26:32
Speaker 1: to my book Checking In. And some of the topics
26:34
Speaker 1: are identity, UM, anxiety, depression, singleness, UM. And we've got
26:41
Speaker 1: some great names. We've got Divon Franklin chand Lamore, Tabatha Brown.
26:45
Speaker 1: She's gonna we're gonna be talking about what the topic
26:47
Speaker 1: was supposed to be community, but she and I just
26:50
Speaker 1: talked about so much her health and um like tag
26:54
Speaker 1: like you said, Lacrai, LaToya luck At, Tina Lost and
26:57
Speaker 1: Chloe Bailey. Dr Caroline Leaf who is a neuroscientist and
27:02
Speaker 1: can break stuff down. She is phenomenal. Dr India Phillips
27:06
Speaker 1: as well. UM, some a great mixture of um, you know, celebrities,
27:13
Speaker 1: you know, giving some practical advice. And then we've got
27:15
Speaker 1: to we've got Dr India Phillips that's a psychologist and
27:18
Speaker 1: I named Dr Caroline Leaf as a neuroscientist, UM who
27:22
Speaker 1: can also kind of scientifically, um kind of break down
27:26
Speaker 1: what the mind and brain goes through. Well, you know,
27:30
Speaker 1: I'm just I am smiling. I am at you because
27:36
Speaker 1: I am talking to I'm talking to you now. I'm
27:39
Speaker 1: talking to the Nutra, I'm talking to a person you
27:42
Speaker 1: know words. Nobody has written a song for you now,
27:46
Speaker 1: Nobody has told you a beat, nobody's told you a
27:48
Speaker 1: chore at graft to move it in this conversation. And
27:52
Speaker 1: I want these interviews. I want you to be you.
27:55
Speaker 1: I want you to be to Nitra. I want you
27:56
Speaker 1: to be that eighteen year old who wanted to go
27:59
Speaker 1: to Illinois stage, who wanted to major in criminal justice.
28:03
Speaker 1: But they had this big old gift, this ability to
28:05
Speaker 1: the same. And you will you and you will and
28:08
Speaker 1: you will. Uh, I say, not sure how to go
28:12
Speaker 1: because you're a church girl and you had that second
28:14
Speaker 1: over there, that secondly that you know, battling that so
28:17
Speaker 1: you always had that battle and so so what God
28:21
Speaker 1: has done for you now and this is what He's
28:23
Speaker 1: done for you. He set you on another path to
28:25
Speaker 1: be you. And these interviews Claude Bailey, you know, J.
28:30
Speaker 1: P hen craz These ain't names you just throw out
28:32
Speaker 1: that people don't. These people, these people, they spend time
28:35
Speaker 1: with you, they love you, they believe in it. And
28:38
Speaker 1: you know Terager, she just finished a healing show for
28:41
Speaker 1: faith Facebook watch. When we was talking about people coming
28:44
Speaker 1: in she just finished a healing show. Look, Craize just
28:46
Speaker 1: came off that book Healing, Finding God, Understanding Religion his Way,
28:50
Speaker 1: you know. And so I just look at all this
28:53
Speaker 1: and Davine frankl we all know about him, and Tamar
28:56
Speaker 1: Bractice interviewed her. You know. So when I look at
29:00
Speaker 1: you and this tour, I just see the next step
29:03
Speaker 1: for you and what I want to say to you, Michelle,
29:06
Speaker 1: be you, Be you girl, Be the person I'm talking
29:09
Speaker 1: to right now. Be honest, uh and lead us and
29:13
Speaker 1: lead these people. Don't be don't don't be caught up,
29:16
Speaker 1: and they might be leading them like I've been leading
29:18
Speaker 1: people for years. Sitting there telling the truth. You are
29:22
Speaker 1: a leader, young lady. You are talking the truth. Share
29:26
Speaker 1: your story and when you share your story, people will listen.
29:29
Speaker 1: And when they listen, they want to hear how they
29:31
Speaker 1: can be led and they be led in a positive manner.
29:35
Speaker 1: You are. You're so close to what you want to
29:38
Speaker 1: be in life. Now, don't stop. You're on the edge.
29:41
Speaker 1: You're looking, You're looking across the mountain top. Go over it. Climate.
29:46
Speaker 1: That's all I'm saying right now, come on, come on,
29:49
Speaker 1: that's saying. Now. When I go over. I'm gonna para.
29:54
Speaker 1: Don't worry about it. Don't worry. It's gounda be so
29:55
Speaker 1: many people waiting on you with their arms open, talking
29:58
Speaker 1: about thank you, talking about I need you, talking about
30:03
Speaker 1: who else you can help. It's gonna be so many
30:06
Speaker 1: people waiting for this, to need your Michelle Williams, this
30:10
Speaker 1: version that you of life, this is your next version
30:13
Speaker 1: of life. This is your conversion. This is I've lived
30:16
Speaker 1: many lives in my and I've been for it. I'm
30:18
Speaker 1: living in another path. When I left Steve, really living
30:20
Speaker 1: a life I wanted to live when I was eighteen
30:23
Speaker 1: to twenty four. That's when I'm living right now. And
30:25
Speaker 1: so I'm just telling you right now, that eighteen year
30:29
Speaker 1: old kid, you're you're living that life right now. And
30:32
Speaker 1: so what happens. I always tell people between eighteen and
30:35
Speaker 1: twenty four, that's really when you wanted to be, when
30:38
Speaker 1: you was ambitious, when you had dreams and that were
30:41
Speaker 1: different from other people. Now you're living a life right
30:45
Speaker 1: now that will make that eighteen to twenty four years
30:48
Speaker 1: work for you. Just leading with honestly, yes, sir, yes, sir, yeah,
30:54
Speaker 1: leading with honesty, leading with the ability to understand that
30:57
Speaker 1: you are great. I just wanted to take the time
31:00
Speaker 1: just to talk to you. You are in Atlanta. We
31:02
Speaker 1: will connect and bringing buy the office when we eat dinner,
31:05
Speaker 1: because I got a built in We're gonna desert you
31:07
Speaker 1: asking for all that people to take photos. But more important,
31:10
Speaker 1: I got a garden in the back. I got ocre back,
31:12
Speaker 1: that tomato us back, that CALLI green back. There all
31:15
Speaker 1: that I need about seven pounds. Word, don't worry about,
31:20
Speaker 1: don't worry about. Help me. When you leave, I'm gonna
31:22
Speaker 1: leave you gonna leave with a cake. Michelle. First of all,
31:24
Speaker 1: I want to wrap in this interview and just say
31:26
Speaker 1: I am so blessed to talk to you now this version.
31:33
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, don't get me wrong. You always
31:35
Speaker 1: be one of my favorite people. But to hear you
31:40
Speaker 1: talking the way you're talking now as tantra, yeah, oh
31:44
Speaker 1: my god, oh my god. The blessings are gonna be
31:49
Speaker 1: just over. So go to that mountaintop when you look over,
31:51
Speaker 1: I swear to you, it's gonna be so many people
31:54
Speaker 1: are gonna make you cry, and you're gonna slide down
31:56
Speaker 1: that here because you're gonna have to. They've got the part.
31:58
Speaker 1: The ways they're gonna go. What what took you so long?
32:01
Speaker 1: It took me forward one year, But I'm here, y'all,
32:03
Speaker 1: I'm here. Come on, Yes, thank you, Thank you, Michelle
32:08
Speaker 1: coming on to Nitra, Michell coming on Money Make Conversations.
32:12
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you Mr Rashaan McDonald for having me
32:15
Speaker 1: on your show, Money Making Conversations. We will be right
32:19
Speaker 1: back with more money Making Conversations with your host, Rashwan McDonald.
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34:20
Speaker 1: Ra Sean McDonald hosting Money Making Conversation dot Com. The
34:23
Speaker 1: Cafe Morcha Swag Award is a celebration of black men
34:26
Speaker 1: making a difference in our community by empowering others to
34:29
Speaker 1: reach their life goals. They can be civic leaders, people
34:31
Speaker 1: in business, activists, celebrities, and everyday dads. The Cafe Marca
34:35
Speaker 1: Swag Award honory this week isd Kevin Blood So Don't
34:38
Speaker 1: limit your dreams. Kevin is a two time Hoodie Awards
34:41
Speaker 1: winner for Best Barbecue in Los Angeles. Blessed So has
34:44
Speaker 1: become a top television personality and food star. He has
34:47
Speaker 1: grown his business from the streets of Compton, California into
34:51
Speaker 1: an international empire, from Librari in Hollywood, The Crowd Casino
34:55
Speaker 1: and Mailbourne, Australia. I don't give to be blessed. I'm blessed,
34:59
Speaker 1: so I give. It's not no secret recipe that is
35:02
Speaker 1: you know, it has to come from your heart. It's
35:05
Speaker 1: more of the good things that our weighed the bad things,
35:08
Speaker 1: and God has put me in position to help like that.
35:11
Speaker 1: The Cafaine Open Swag Award represents men who have strength,
35:14
Speaker 1: whose wisdom is assertive, and who is genuine in their spirit.
35:18
Speaker 1: Welcome back to money Making Conversations with your host Rashan McDonald.
35:23
Speaker 1: My next guest is a combination of celebrity entrepreneurs. She's
35:27
Speaker 1: definitely an industry and decision maker. Denise Williams. She's one
35:30
Speaker 1: of the youngest real estate brokerage owners in the United States.
35:34
Speaker 1: She's a multimillion dollar, top producing real estate agent and
35:37
Speaker 1: has the largest black woman owned real estate brokerage in
35:40
Speaker 1: Atlanta with over sixty sixty agents on her team. Denise
35:45
Speaker 1: is also the chief Information officer for the Rap Snacks
35:48
Speaker 1: Corporation and partnership with master p. She recently launched an
35:51
Speaker 1: online academy to mentor entrepreneurship called the CEE Owner Academy
35:56
Speaker 1: to show entrepreneurs how the transition from working as a
35:59
Speaker 1: CEO to return as an owner through marketing, automation and systems.
36:04
Speaker 1: Please working to money Making Conversation for her very first time,
36:07
Speaker 1: and she's looking fantastic. She's looking like an angel. M
36:10
Speaker 1: Denise Williams. How you doing, Denise? Thank you so much.
36:14
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Well. First of all, you know, we're
36:17
Speaker 1: in the era of coming out of We're coming out
36:19
Speaker 1: of COVID, you know, we may we I shouldn't say
36:23
Speaker 1: that the rules have changed the COVID, you know, because
36:25
Speaker 1: we seems like we're gonna exist with COVID throughout at
36:28
Speaker 1: least my lifetime. Because they're talking about booster shots you
36:32
Speaker 1: have to get annually, like the flu shots and things
36:34
Speaker 1: like that. The first out of the box you experienced,
36:38
Speaker 1: like all people were shocked, like all people, But somehow
36:42
Speaker 1: the real estate industry was still booming doing COVID. Talk
36:48
Speaker 1: to me about that, absolutely, so it was definitely a shock. Um.
36:52
Speaker 1: You know, no one really anticipated what COVID would bring
36:56
Speaker 1: us to our lives, right but real estate. We really
37:00
Speaker 1: had an incredible year with regards to real estate. One
37:03
Speaker 1: of the main drivers where that was the fact that
37:06
Speaker 1: interest rates were at such an all time low. I mean,
37:09
Speaker 1: there were so many buyers that were able to enter
37:11
Speaker 1: the market and get you know, less than three percent
37:14
Speaker 1: interest rate on their homes, and then those who already
37:16
Speaker 1: owned homes were able to use the refinancing programs in
37:20
Speaker 1: order to get even lower interest rates than what they
37:22
Speaker 1: currently had. So because of that, there was such a
37:25
Speaker 1: rush of people wanting to buy. Uh that really just
37:29
Speaker 1: increase the purchase prices brought things through the roof. On
37:33
Speaker 1: top of the fact that I'm here in Atlanta, where
37:36
Speaker 1: you know, we make social media. Because of social media,
37:39
Speaker 1: it looks like the best place on Earth, which I'm
37:41
Speaker 1: biased because I live here. I think it is the
37:43
Speaker 1: best place on her to live. And so we have
37:45
Speaker 1: such an influx of people who are coming and relocating
37:48
Speaker 1: here to experience some of this black excellence, to experience
37:51
Speaker 1: the culture and just the energy of the city. So
37:54
Speaker 1: our purchase prices are going through the route. Really not
37:57
Speaker 1: only just in Atlanta. I know, my wife is in
38:00
Speaker 1: Houston and she was selling her mom's home and the
38:04
Speaker 1: asking price was like a hundred and seventy thousand dollars.
38:08
Speaker 1: She sold for over two hundred thousand dollars. And she
38:12
Speaker 1: and it wasn't because she was raising the price. It
38:14
Speaker 1: became a bidding war. It was like it was like
38:17
Speaker 1: the home, I'll be honest with the home was not
38:20
Speaker 1: just a nice little pattio home, single story, you know, uh,
38:23
Speaker 1: nondescript community neighborhood in Houston, Texas. And it was just
38:29
Speaker 1: she had like fourteen buyers, like within three weeks. What
38:33
Speaker 1: is great and the shortest It's incredible how many buyers
38:36
Speaker 1: were overbidding on properties. I have buyers now that are
38:39
Speaker 1: not even asking for a closing costs. That's almost have
38:42
Speaker 1: heard of right now in our market. Uh, the praise
38:45
Speaker 1: values aren't always coming in, but you have buyers now
38:49
Speaker 1: paying the difference between what's being lended to them and
38:52
Speaker 1: that appraise value in order to get into these homes.
38:54
Speaker 1: When you get these titles, you know, one of the
38:57
Speaker 1: youngest real estate brokerage owners in the United State, age,
39:00
Speaker 1: you know, and you can get those financial numbers attached
39:03
Speaker 1: to you, so people expect certain things from you multimillion
39:06
Speaker 1: dollar deal closer, and your woman don't. So let's talk
39:10
Speaker 1: about the youth for the youth part of viewer of
39:13
Speaker 1: your career right now and how the benefits of it
39:16
Speaker 1: and also the building that experience and respect level. Absolutely.
39:21
Speaker 1: So when I became a real estate broker, I was
39:24
Speaker 1: pretty young, and there weren't many other women or black
39:27
Speaker 1: women especially that I could really look at and get
39:31
Speaker 1: experience from. So being a pioneer comes with a lot,
39:35
Speaker 1: especially when you're a black woman. So I had to
39:39
Speaker 1: really just say with it myself that you know what,
39:41
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter if other people have paved the way
39:43
Speaker 1: for me in order to do this. I'm gonna do it.
39:45
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try it. What's the worst that can happen,
39:47
Speaker 1: you know? And so it's been the best decision that
39:50
Speaker 1: I could have made, being able to inspire other women
39:53
Speaker 1: of color to now start other broke bridges, even within
39:57
Speaker 1: my own team, having some of those ages to create
40:00
Speaker 1: under my brokeridge or branching out and starting their own.
40:03
Speaker 1: So it's been a beautiful journey to be able to
40:05
Speaker 1: make that decision and make that happen on the flip
40:08
Speaker 1: side of it, because you don't necessarily have a road map.
40:12
Speaker 1: You have to go through the trials and tripulations on
40:14
Speaker 1: your own. You know, I've had you know, I've lost
40:16
Speaker 1: a ton of money. This is actually my second brokerage
40:19
Speaker 1: because the first brokerage that I had, I went into
40:21
Speaker 1: partnership with someone and it wasn't a good bit, didn't
40:24
Speaker 1: work out. So you have to go through a lot
40:26
Speaker 1: of trials and error, uh, lose a lot of money
40:29
Speaker 1: and then still keep going if it's something that you really,
40:32
Speaker 1: really truly want to do. Okay, So the next question
40:36
Speaker 1: is being that you're female, Like I said, you're young,
40:39
Speaker 1: you're African American, and then the fact that you've already
40:42
Speaker 1: publicly admitted in this interview that just what they're gonna
40:45
Speaker 1: be some hiccups, and some of those hiccups are gonna
40:47
Speaker 1: cost you money. How do you overcome that? It wasn't
40:51
Speaker 1: tied to not having a budget, tied to not going
40:54
Speaker 1: into business with the right person. What what made you
40:58
Speaker 1: stumble on that first? The you also say I won't
41:01
Speaker 1: stumble like that again. Absolutely, So the biggest thing is
41:05
Speaker 1: I didn't take my time and doing my due diligence.
41:08
Speaker 1: So what I encourage people to do is when you
41:10
Speaker 1: decide to start a business, of course you're gonna do
41:13
Speaker 1: due diligence on the industry. You're gonna research, you know
41:16
Speaker 1: how it could be profitable, and things of that nature.
41:19
Speaker 1: But when you're talking about actually starting with a partner,
41:22
Speaker 1: you need to do due diligence on that as well,
41:24
Speaker 1: because that's essentially also a marriage. So the same way
41:27
Speaker 1: you would date someone and you want to know their background,
41:30
Speaker 1: you want to know what their parents are like, you
41:31
Speaker 1: want to know their credit score, you want to know
41:33
Speaker 1: what their personality is. You have to also take that
41:36
Speaker 1: same approach in business and do a lot of due
41:39
Speaker 1: diligence before you sign your name on a got in
41:41
Speaker 1: line with someone, because if you don't, you can end
41:44
Speaker 1: up again losing a business, missing out on a lot
41:47
Speaker 1: of time and a lot of money because you chose
41:49
Speaker 1: to jump at an opportunity um more quickly than you
41:52
Speaker 1: should have. Now, that's really good, good notes, and thank
41:56
Speaker 1: you for telling my my listeners. And also it's my
41:59
Speaker 1: views about this because we're now I earn on a
42:02
Speaker 1: I B t V in the Atlanta market on Comcast
42:05
Speaker 1: tune in in five cuple to million homes and watching
42:07
Speaker 1: us weekly on Thursday night. The show premiers at nine
42:10
Speaker 1: pm Eastern Standard Time. I want to just tell you this, Deniece,
42:14
Speaker 1: when I when I look at you, I look at
42:15
Speaker 1: a talented person. But you know, I just read some
42:18
Speaker 1: nice credits about you. You know that they sent over
42:21
Speaker 1: to me. Who are you? Who am I? So me? Personally,
42:27
Speaker 1: I am obviously a real estate broker here in Atlanta,
42:30
Speaker 1: but more on a personal level, I am a mother
42:34
Speaker 1: before anything. I think that's the most powerful title that
42:36
Speaker 1: I've ever had to a son named Destin who's actually
42:40
Speaker 1: the co owner in my business. And one of the
42:42
Speaker 1: things I want to encourage the listeners out there, especially parents,
42:45
Speaker 1: is that you need to make sure that you're taking
42:48
Speaker 1: your children along the journey. So one of the things
42:50
Speaker 1: that I do with my son is I don't actually
42:52
Speaker 1: make any decisions in my business without his approval. He
42:55
Speaker 1: gets to see every commission check that I earned. He
42:58
Speaker 1: helps me to hire and to fire. Uh, he gives
43:00
Speaker 1: me his opinion on things of that nature. Because I
43:02
Speaker 1: think that it's so important that we stop being just
43:06
Speaker 1: first generation millionaires, our first business owners in our family,
43:09
Speaker 1: or first this and first, that at some point we
43:12
Speaker 1: have to start leaving a legacy where our children are
43:14
Speaker 1: second and third and fourth generations to the businesses that
43:17
Speaker 1: we created. So personally, I'm just so driven by legacy
43:22
Speaker 1: and just teaching not only my students in my c
43:24
Speaker 1: own our academy how to become owners, but also in
43:27
Speaker 1: my very own households. That's something that I'm personally very
43:30
Speaker 1: passionate about. Now being a member of a very powerful sisterhood, uh,
43:37
Speaker 1: the ladies of Delta Stigma Data and come on, I'm
43:45
Speaker 1: a proud member of Maga Side five Fraternity Incorporated. So again,
43:49
Speaker 1: the blessings are we have a certain enough leon is
43:52
Speaker 1: as they say, which just runs back to the fraternity
43:54
Speaker 1: in the sorority, but that helps having that relationship that
43:57
Speaker 1: you can turn to sisters who trust, who want you
44:00
Speaker 1: to have that upwardly mobile mobile concept in life, and
44:05
Speaker 1: also are pushing you with relationships that you can count on.
44:08
Speaker 1: I think that really helped you as well. And I
44:10
Speaker 1: want to talk about the value of relationships as it
44:13
Speaker 1: is with your with your sorority, but also in life,
44:16
Speaker 1: because you gotta have relationships to win. Absolutely so with
44:20
Speaker 1: regard to being in a sorority, it was a beautiful
44:23
Speaker 1: experience to be able to join Delta Sigma Data's already incorporated.
44:26
Speaker 1: It was absolutely amazing. In fact, my first real estate
44:29
Speaker 1: transaction back into thousand and twelve when I got my
44:32
Speaker 1: license was one of my line sisters. So that was
44:35
Speaker 1: the benefit of like actually being in a sorority because
44:38
Speaker 1: you can be honest with him, right, you can tell
44:40
Speaker 1: them it's your first time, and they're gonna be patient
44:42
Speaker 1: with you and they're gonna give you that opportunity versus
44:45
Speaker 1: really going out with a stranger and taking them through
44:47
Speaker 1: the process and making a lot of mistakes. So I
44:49
Speaker 1: really appreciate my line sister for being willing to do
44:53
Speaker 1: that and to trust me in that process, being that
44:55
Speaker 1: it was my very first transaction. And as far as
44:58
Speaker 1: just relationships across aboard, relationships are gonna get you indoors.
45:02
Speaker 1: That money can't buy and I tell people that all
45:06
Speaker 1: the time. But you have to appreciate relationships with people
45:09
Speaker 1: and never play the short game. You always want to
45:12
Speaker 1: make sure that when you're thinking about business, especially in
45:15
Speaker 1: the service based industry, never think about someone as a transaction.
45:19
Speaker 1: Never think about that is just a one time, a
45:22
Speaker 1: one hit wonder if you will, because you're not only
45:24
Speaker 1: servicing that person, they're watching you to be able to
45:27
Speaker 1: service their friends and their family. So, especially in the
45:31
Speaker 1: real estate business, you want to have a repeat and
45:34
Speaker 1: referral business. That's the only way that you can make
45:36
Speaker 1: it through. Okay, let's go and listen. You're an attractive
45:40
Speaker 1: woman and so in the business where people can only
45:42
Speaker 1: see you for being attractive, but you also a businesswoman.
45:46
Speaker 1: So how do you make sure people understand who you are?
45:49
Speaker 1: Who's Denis Williams. You're about business. Don't let the cold food,
45:53
Speaker 1: you don't let the makeup food, you don't let the
45:54
Speaker 1: hair fool you. You know, because some people try to
45:57
Speaker 1: try to blend that, try to make it your your
46:01
Speaker 1: calls or make their business deals. You're trying to close
46:04
Speaker 1: to be more than what it really is. How do
46:06
Speaker 1: you make that define that line about business is business.
46:10
Speaker 1: I respect me for doing good business, all right. So
46:14
Speaker 1: that's an incredible question. I actually never been asked that
46:16
Speaker 1: question before. So one of the things that I take
46:19
Speaker 1: pride and is expect myself on social media. I'm not
46:21
Speaker 1: gonna show a lot of skin on social sure that
46:25
Speaker 1: people are looking at me as a business person, as
46:27
Speaker 1: a professional. We both in personal and professional lifestyles. If
46:32
Speaker 1: you're showing people one thing and you're portraying something that
46:34
Speaker 1: they're gonna try you, uh, that's just the nature of
46:37
Speaker 1: what it is. And even with regard to conversation, you
46:40
Speaker 1: want to make sure that you're keeping all of your
46:42
Speaker 1: conversations about business. If you find that you're working with
46:45
Speaker 1: a client who is taking that conversation to the left field,
46:48
Speaker 1: then you want to check it at that time. You
46:50
Speaker 1: don't want to go down that rabbit hole and entertain
46:52
Speaker 1: it and keep key with this person. Because number one,
46:55
Speaker 1: you have to make sure that you're protecting your reputation,
46:58
Speaker 1: especially as you elevate in the state age that I'm
47:00
Speaker 1: at in business, it's going to be even more important
47:03
Speaker 1: for me to make sure that people aren't saying the
47:05
Speaker 1: wrong things about me and how I've been able to
47:08
Speaker 1: get to where I am. Well, it's important because right
47:10
Speaker 1: now you have like sixty agents said under your business umbrella. Now,
47:16
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest with you. You're doing something I
47:18
Speaker 1: can't do. Okay, I people say, well, it was because
47:21
Speaker 1: it's a unique thought process. You have to you have
47:24
Speaker 1: to be patient. One thing. You have to be patient.
47:26
Speaker 1: You have to be knowledgeable of the of the trends.
47:29
Speaker 1: You have to be like on your feet accountant or
47:33
Speaker 1: because people ask you numbers all the time. What really
47:36
Speaker 1: got you into the business? You know? And being in
47:39
Speaker 1: real estate? Because your your degree was in finance out
47:43
Speaker 1: of Valdosta, right, yes, okay, so that that didn't say
47:46
Speaker 1: anything about real estate. So how did you make the
47:48
Speaker 1: shift to this? Yeah? Absolutely great questions. So when I
47:52
Speaker 1: graduated with a degree in finance from Bladasa State University,
47:56
Speaker 1: I went to Portorate route. I went into a position
47:58
Speaker 1: that I felt was one of the probably the worst
48:01
Speaker 1: jobs I've been And the reason being is not because
48:05
Speaker 1: it was corporate, right. It was because I was actually
48:07
Speaker 1: in an industry where I wasn't helping my culture, I
48:10
Speaker 1: was actually hurting my culture. It was for a title
48:12
Speaker 1: pond company. So I felt like I checked all the
48:15
Speaker 1: boxes with regards to going to college. You know, I
48:17
Speaker 1: pledged in the sorority, I had a high g p A.
48:19
Speaker 1: I you know, join honor societies, did community service. But
48:23
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, I still couldn't find a job that
48:27
Speaker 1: was professional in my opinion, and so I had to
48:30
Speaker 1: find a way to get out of that. And so
48:31
Speaker 1: in doing research, you know, when I looked at millionaires
48:34
Speaker 1: and billionaires, I realized that all of them had their
48:37
Speaker 1: hands in real estate, whether they were investing, whether they
48:40
Speaker 1: were owning, whatever the case may be. And I'm like, wow, Okay,
48:43
Speaker 1: if I know that that is where I want to go,
48:46
Speaker 1: then I need to duplicate the system, right, So I
48:48
Speaker 1: decided to look into real estate. And I was also
48:50
Speaker 1: a single mother at the time, and I needed a
48:52
Speaker 1: job that was gonna give me lexibility with regards to
48:55
Speaker 1: my schedule. And I also don't like people telling me
48:57
Speaker 1: what to do and then telling me what to do.
49:00
Speaker 1: Some one can come to me as my boss and say, well,
49:02
Speaker 1: your only work this X month of dollars per year.
49:05
Speaker 1: I just didn't like that. I wanted to be in
49:07
Speaker 1: an industry that I could choose and dictate what my
49:10
Speaker 1: work and income could be. And so real estate checked
49:13
Speaker 1: all the boxes, especially with being able to be my
49:16
Speaker 1: own boss. You know, I always wanted to become an entrepreneur.
49:19
Speaker 1: I love helping people, and I think this industry matches
49:22
Speaker 1: me perfectly. Well, I'm gonna tell you something. I bought
49:26
Speaker 1: several homes in my life. You go to that title
49:29
Speaker 1: company and they give that piece of that a piece
49:32
Speaker 1: of paper, that book to sign, which I don't know
49:35
Speaker 1: what's in there. I just they say side side, side side.
49:40
Speaker 1: I just start sign it because lord knows, I don't
49:44
Speaker 1: know what I'm signing it. What is in that thick
49:47
Speaker 1: piece of closing paperwork? Can you help a brother? I'll
49:50
Speaker 1: help my viewers out. But listen to because we just
49:52
Speaker 1: signing and trusting broker, our real estate agent to get
49:56
Speaker 1: us through because the title of person, we don't know.
49:58
Speaker 1: That's just a company that you work with on a
50:00
Speaker 1: regular basis. They have their set fees. You have to
50:03
Speaker 1: have them to close or to close on your home.
50:06
Speaker 1: What is that thick piece of paper that I've signed
50:09
Speaker 1: more than six times in my life and still don't
50:12
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Absolutely, So we have a running
50:15
Speaker 1: joke in real estate where it's like, you know, make
50:17
Speaker 1: sure you bring up extra hands the closing because you're
50:20
Speaker 1: gonna have to have so many different documents that you're
50:23
Speaker 1: gonna be signing. So that's a great question. Most of
50:26
Speaker 1: those documents are gonna be documents from your lender. They're
50:29
Speaker 1: gonna make sure, so one of the misconceptions is that
50:31
Speaker 1: when you're purchasing a home, the closing attorney is working
50:34
Speaker 1: on your behalf as a buyer, and that's not the case.
50:36
Speaker 1: The closing attorney actually works for the lender, so all
50:40
Speaker 1: of those documents are lending. Most of those documents rather
50:42
Speaker 1: are lender documents, so that lender is making sure that
50:46
Speaker 1: you're not only telling them over the phone and sending
50:48
Speaker 1: documents that you are who you say you are, but
50:50
Speaker 1: you're actually signing in writing to state that what you
50:54
Speaker 1: gave them is in fact true. They're also making you
50:57
Speaker 1: signed documents that are gonna make sure you understand the
51:00
Speaker 1: details of your loans so that later on you can't say, well,
51:02
Speaker 1: I didn't know that my amatization schedule was gonna do this,
51:06
Speaker 1: or I was actually paying double for the home and
51:08
Speaker 1: this way and that way. So I encourage you to
51:10
Speaker 1: look at the amortization schedule before you sign, so that
51:13
Speaker 1: you have a clear understanding of what you're actually going
51:15
Speaker 1: to be paying back over thirty years. You're also gonna
51:18
Speaker 1: be looking over what we call alto statement, which actually
51:21
Speaker 1: breaks out all the costume fees that you're paying at closing.
51:25
Speaker 1: So some of those fees are gonna be your closing costs,
51:27
Speaker 1: So the closing attorney's fees, you're appro raded taxes, you're
51:31
Speaker 1: they're gonna ask for your homeowners insurance policy, things like that.
51:34
Speaker 1: All of those things have to be outlined that closing
51:36
Speaker 1: in order to protect you and the lending when you signed, brother, NA,
51:44
Speaker 1: what I do look at the amazization amateurization because I
51:46
Speaker 1: won't know what I'm paying. I'll tell you I do that.
51:49
Speaker 1: I do look at the sheet that tells me the taxes,
51:51
Speaker 1: what feeds being there, what the percentage of the of
51:54
Speaker 1: the of the loan is going to be. Because I've
51:56
Speaker 1: been fortunate, I have paid off all my loans ahead
52:00
Speaker 1: of time, and also that most loans nowadays don't have
52:05
Speaker 1: a pre payment penalty. So if you are a buyer
52:07
Speaker 1: out there, then it's awesome. You can definitely pay your
52:10
Speaker 1: loan back early by making additional payments throughout the month.
52:14
Speaker 1: But most people when they look at is just that
52:16
Speaker 1: cost to buyer a line which is at the bottom
52:19
Speaker 1: saying how much you need to actually bring to closing.
52:21
Speaker 1: But I encourage you to also double check and make
52:23
Speaker 1: sure that any credits that you were supposed to receive
52:26
Speaker 1: throughout the process, especially from a seller, if they said
52:29
Speaker 1: that they were going to contribute, say ten thousand dollars
52:31
Speaker 1: towards your closing costs, you want to make sure you're
52:33
Speaker 1: getting credit for that at closing. There have been issues
52:36
Speaker 1: and errors. No one's perfect right where sometimes you might
52:39
Speaker 1: close and you didn't actually get the credit that you
52:41
Speaker 1: were supposed to. So that's why it's very important that
52:44
Speaker 1: you work for the realtor that's gonna double check those
52:46
Speaker 1: documents for you to make sure that you're not overpaying
52:49
Speaker 1: something that you shouldn't have been paying in the first place. Well,
52:52
Speaker 1: miss Williams, let's let's go to this question here. I
52:55
Speaker 1: bought a building in Atlanta last year and I bought home.
53:00
Speaker 1: What is the difference or do you do commercial as
53:04
Speaker 1: well as a residential and what it's a difference between
53:06
Speaker 1: residential being a residential realtor and a commercial realtor. Yeah, absolutely,
53:12
Speaker 1: so I primary service residential clientele. UM. I've done a
53:16
Speaker 1: few commercial transactions. I've actually just become a part of
53:19
Speaker 1: the U. L I. Reek program where I'm learning more
53:22
Speaker 1: about commercial real estate because unfortunately it's one of those
53:26
Speaker 1: industries that we don't really have access to. It is
53:30
Speaker 1: a very tight knit type field, but it's something that
53:34
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna allow to be an excuse for me.
53:37
Speaker 1: So I am diving head first into commercial real estate
53:39
Speaker 1: this year. UM. Now, with regard to the difference, one
53:42
Speaker 1: of the misconceptions about commercial real estate is that you
53:46
Speaker 1: actually need a separate license to be a commercial realtor.
53:49
Speaker 1: That's not true. When you get your real estate license,
53:52
Speaker 1: your your license to sell all real property, so that
53:55
Speaker 1: means buildings, houses, lands, uh, anything that is real estate related.
54:01
Speaker 1: So I think because they've done such a good job
54:03
Speaker 1: of marketing them separately, a lot of agents never think
54:07
Speaker 1: that they can actually learn or sell commercial real estate.
54:10
Speaker 1: So I'm so excited that you actually took a stabb
54:12
Speaker 1: it in and purchased commercial real estate, because even as
54:14
Speaker 1: business owners, a lot of times we don't look at, okay,
54:17
Speaker 1: well how can I own a building? A lot of
54:19
Speaker 1: times we'll just look at okay, I want to fix
54:21
Speaker 1: some flip for property, or I want to buy a house,
54:24
Speaker 1: you know, to add to my portfolio. But I encourage
54:26
Speaker 1: the listeners to think about being a commercial landlord. You
54:29
Speaker 1: can own a commercial building and have tenants paying rent
54:32
Speaker 1: the same way you can own a house and have
54:34
Speaker 1: tenants paying rent. So don't box yourself in and think
54:37
Speaker 1: that you only need to buy residential real estate when
54:39
Speaker 1: commercial real estate can be even more lucrative depending on
54:42
Speaker 1: what you purchased. Absolutely, now you're more than as they said,
54:46
Speaker 1: she's more than a real estate agent, she's more than
54:48
Speaker 1: a brokerage. Now do you have a building? You know
54:51
Speaker 1: you have an officer? Are you virtual? When I see
54:54
Speaker 1: I see sixty ages? Are there's sixty agents located in
54:57
Speaker 1: one location? Or they through virtual they're coming out office?
55:00
Speaker 1: Uh there is there building someplace with your name on it, Denise, Yes,
55:04
Speaker 1: it is. So. After COVID, we've we've taken a higher approach.
55:07
Speaker 1: I've had an office s base since I started my business.
55:10
Speaker 1: We actually just moved out of Buckhead into the West End,
55:13
Speaker 1: which is an amazing up and coming area at the
55:17
Speaker 1: Metropolitan Loss. The reason I left Buckhead not it wasn't
55:20
Speaker 1: anything bad. It was just that I think culturally it's
55:23
Speaker 1: gonna be a benefit for us to be in the
55:25
Speaker 1: West End because of the growth. And then also in
55:28
Speaker 1: my new space, I'm able to have more of a
55:30
Speaker 1: creative environment. So we're actually located at six eight Murphy
55:33
Speaker 1: Avenue Southwest in Atlanta three or three one oh. And
55:37
Speaker 1: in this new space, we're actually gonna have a full kitchen.
55:40
Speaker 1: I'm in my build out phase right now, so I'm
55:42
Speaker 1: so excited about it. We're gonna have a pull kitchen
55:44
Speaker 1: so that when clients closed with my company, they're able
55:47
Speaker 1: to actually get a chef's sponsored dinner, UH at certain
55:51
Speaker 1: price points. We're creating an experience for our clientele. Right
55:54
Speaker 1: there in office, we have a training room, and then
55:57
Speaker 1: we also are gonna have my favorite party, which is
55:59
Speaker 1: a marketing studio, because as you know, marketing is the
56:02
Speaker 1: number one way to grow any business. So my agents
56:05
Speaker 1: are going to actually have the opportunity to come into
56:08
Speaker 1: the office, get photo shoots done, create content. They want
56:11
Speaker 1: to start a YouTube channel, they can do so right
56:13
Speaker 1: in office. If they want to do a podcast, they'll
56:16
Speaker 1: be able to do so in office. So we'll have
56:17
Speaker 1: a dressing room for them to change. And it's just
56:19
Speaker 1: gonna be a whole vibe. And so that's why I
56:22
Speaker 1: had to transition and move to a bigger space. Uh
56:25
Speaker 1: and then also more of a creative space. I'm gonna
56:27
Speaker 1: start calling you Hollywood, Holley Wood, Hollywood, come show call
56:34
Speaker 1: me the marketing studio, come on that. But I love
56:37
Speaker 1: that because first of all, you are your chief of
56:40
Speaker 1: Maation officer for the RAPS Next Corporation and partnership with
56:43
Speaker 1: my board Master Pete. Tell us about that. Yes, um,
56:49
Speaker 1: that has been a life changing experience for me to
56:52
Speaker 1: be a part of the RAPS Next organization. So shout
56:55
Speaker 1: out to Master Pete, to James Lindley who's the owner
56:57
Speaker 1: of Wrap Snacks as well as Wise Intelligent giving me
57:00
Speaker 1: this opportunity. They trusted me to not only partner with me,
57:04
Speaker 1: but to also help them with several different initiatives under
57:07
Speaker 1: their umbrella. So one of the things that I'm working
57:10
Speaker 1: on with them is actually the Buyer blocks UH Incubator,
57:14
Speaker 1: which is going to teach individuals how to purchase their
57:17
Speaker 1: very first property as well as an investment home. So
57:20
Speaker 1: it's it's an extremely beneficial program that I've been rolling
57:24
Speaker 1: out this year. Well, it's great, and I want to
57:26
Speaker 1: close talking about your your mentoring academy called a c
57:29
Speaker 1: Owner CEO owner, which just entrepreneurs how to transition, because
57:33
Speaker 1: that's a problem people transitioning out of a one level
57:36
Speaker 1: to the next, or another job to the next, or
57:38
Speaker 1: being a for the hour week person and not even
57:41
Speaker 1: want to be an entrepreneur. Tell us about the c
57:43
Speaker 1: Owner Academy. So this c own Our Academy is something
57:47
Speaker 1: that's so near and hear to my heart. Is actually
57:49
Speaker 1: something that I've been wanting to do for over a
57:51
Speaker 1: year now, and the premise of the academy is to
57:54
Speaker 1: teach aspiring and current entrepreneurs how to grow and scale
57:57
Speaker 1: their business. I think that a lot of people want
58:00
Speaker 1: to be CEOs, they want to own their own business.
58:03
Speaker 1: But why is it that they don't think beyond that,
58:05
Speaker 1: Because to me, by definition, if you look up you
58:08
Speaker 1: google CEE owner, I mean CEO, then you're still an
58:11
Speaker 1: employee of an organization, even if that means it's your organization,
58:15
Speaker 1: So that doesn't mean freedom. That still means that you
58:18
Speaker 1: have to pick up the phone when people call you.
58:20
Speaker 1: You still can't leave and go on vacation without your laptop.
58:23
Speaker 1: So my goal is to teach people to not just
58:26
Speaker 1: stop there. Don't just say Okay, I have a CEO
58:28
Speaker 1: title and now I've made it. Let's think about how
58:31
Speaker 1: you actually retire as an owner, because in my space,
58:34
Speaker 1: I would never be able to call you know, if
58:36
Speaker 1: you work for Kelly Williams, you can't call Gary Keller.
58:39
Speaker 1: He's been ating to implement systems and automation that allow
58:42
Speaker 1: him to make money without actually being present. And especially
58:46
Speaker 1: in our culture, I think it's important that we stopped
58:48
Speaker 1: working until sixty seventy eight, even if it's within our
58:51
Speaker 1: own business, and really learn systems that are going to
58:54
Speaker 1: allow us true freedom, because that's what I'm working so
58:57
Speaker 1: hard for. The money is gonna come as a byproduct
58:59
Speaker 1: of my hard work and the way that I treat people,
59:02
Speaker 1: But freedom is gonna come by intentions, by systems and automation,
59:06
Speaker 1: and those are the things that I teach in my
59:08
Speaker 1: academy you know. The interesting thing about it, people always
59:11
Speaker 1: look at me and my wife always say you you
59:14
Speaker 1: you spend more time at your off you spend at home. Well,
59:16
Speaker 1: I loved my home, but I also loved my office,
59:19
Speaker 1: you know, And I think that you're what you're creating
59:21
Speaker 1: at the new location. It's gonna be a place where
59:23
Speaker 1: you got the kitchen. There's you want to go in
59:25
Speaker 1: the refrigerator and get yourself. You want to make your
59:27
Speaker 1: own breakfasts at the office, you can do that. You know,
59:30
Speaker 1: you want to bake something. You're just creating a vibe
59:33
Speaker 1: for yourself, and you're you're changing the rules because that
59:37
Speaker 1: when I bought this built out and that was one
59:39
Speaker 1: of the things I wanted a full kitchen in it.
59:40
Speaker 1: I wanted a full kitchen. I come in, my staff know,
59:43
Speaker 1: they got their own refrigerator. I re rebuilt out the
59:46
Speaker 1: basements where they have their own the refrigerator, dishwasher, food
59:49
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. So they come up my kitchen,
59:52
Speaker 1: my refrigerator. We got problems because I told y'all don't
59:55
Speaker 1: go in my refrigerator, not because I got so. So
59:58
Speaker 1: make sure you get there refrigerator and your refrigerator, okay,
1:00:02
Speaker 1: because you know everybody, I'm just telling you that. I'm
1:00:05
Speaker 1: just telling right now in Hollywood. I'm just telling right now, Hollywood,
1:00:08
Speaker 1: how you gotta be now. And then they'd invite you.
1:00:10
Speaker 1: Have me on the computer. I want to come to
1:00:12
Speaker 1: you with the world. You're gonna come back because I
1:00:14
Speaker 1: like you. I like you. I want to invite because
1:00:16
Speaker 1: because see, I always enjoyed this format that I've created
1:00:19
Speaker 1: called money Making Conversation because I learned about people are educated.
1:00:22
Speaker 1: I get educated about the process because I know a lot.
1:00:26
Speaker 1: But like too many other people, I'm just going through
1:00:28
Speaker 1: the motions. I'm going through the motions like by homes
1:00:31
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I know somebody guided me through purchasing this build.
1:00:34
Speaker 1: I really don't know what I signed, but I got
1:00:36
Speaker 1: the right lawyer that got the right person I've known
1:00:39
Speaker 1: for many years who did the commercial loan from me
1:00:42
Speaker 1: and found the building. So I was in good hands.
1:00:44
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of people that are not in
1:00:46
Speaker 1: good hands. And that's why I'm talking to you. I
1:00:49
Speaker 1: feel you're one of those in good hands people. When
1:00:51
Speaker 1: they come to you, there's no agenda. It's about business.
1:00:55
Speaker 1: Is about getting the best deal for the for your client.
1:00:58
Speaker 1: And the client being the person who wants to buy
1:01:00
Speaker 1: the house and your future by the commercial building because
1:01:03
Speaker 1: you're getting into that business. So but I also see
1:01:05
Speaker 1: a dominant amount of people in the commercial side that
1:01:09
Speaker 1: don't look like you. And that's where I want. That's
1:01:11
Speaker 1: why I brought that up, because we out there dominate.
1:01:15
Speaker 1: You're having homes and selling homes and stuff. But I'm
1:01:18
Speaker 1: tell you something, you could have building million dollar building
1:01:21
Speaker 1: for the million dollar billions. You know. That's that to
1:01:24
Speaker 1: keep you busy for a couple of years with that
1:01:25
Speaker 1: commission change changing. That is life changing, And that's the
1:01:30
Speaker 1: route that I'm going because if you want to think
1:01:32
Speaker 1: about it. But if you even with commercial leasing, this
1:01:36
Speaker 1: is something that people don't know. When you lease a
1:01:38
Speaker 1: commercial space for a client, you actually get paid what
1:01:42
Speaker 1: they called first and four, So you get paid the
1:01:44
Speaker 1: first month's rent and then you get four or five
1:01:47
Speaker 1: percent of the least amount for the life of the
1:01:51
Speaker 1: of the the lease. So that's a ten year least.
1:01:54
Speaker 1: You're getting residuals for ten years based on your you know,
1:01:58
Speaker 1: for your commission. And so I think that agents have
1:02:01
Speaker 1: to really start to think about, like, Okay, do I
1:02:04
Speaker 1: just want something real quick, or do I want some
1:02:06
Speaker 1: life changing money? And that's why I'm pivoting more into
1:02:09
Speaker 1: that space because I'm like, you know, we only have
1:02:12
Speaker 1: one house that's the most expensive house on the market
1:02:14
Speaker 1: right now, is worth fifteen point five million dollars on
1:02:17
Speaker 1: the residential side. I mean that's a baby building on
1:02:20
Speaker 1: the commercial side. So you really think about it, It's like, Okay,
1:02:24
Speaker 1: it may take me a year or two to get
1:02:26
Speaker 1: a commission check for thirty forty million dollars, but so
1:02:30
Speaker 1: what you know, we have to think bigger. And that's
1:02:33
Speaker 1: some of the things that I'm exposing my team too.
1:02:35
Speaker 1: And that's why I'm so grateful to have been selected
1:02:37
Speaker 1: into this reprogram because I'm learning so much about commercial
1:02:41
Speaker 1: real estate and it's actually geared tour putting more diversity
1:02:44
Speaker 1: in the space. So it's a really really phenomenal opportunity.
1:02:47
Speaker 1: Well you you know, you're you know, you're in the
1:02:49
Speaker 1: right place and you know that in the right city,
1:02:52
Speaker 1: black excellence doesn't does exhaled in this particular marketing. I
1:02:56
Speaker 1: just wanted to bring on the show the Nie. I
1:02:58
Speaker 1: heard a lot of great things about you, my boy
1:03:00
Speaker 1: Cash with just screaming, screaming the blessings of Denise Wears.
1:03:03
Speaker 1: He's a phenomenal person. You gotta put on your showers,
1:03:05
Speaker 1: I gotta put on yourself. And but more important, but
1:03:08
Speaker 1: what he didn't tell me that I was gonna be
1:03:10
Speaker 1: meeting the Hollywood Then these Hollywood reason he didn't tell
1:03:12
Speaker 1: me about that, I got. I gotta bringing Hollywood by
1:03:17
Speaker 1: my crib over here so we could eat some food
1:03:19
Speaker 1: up stairs and stuff like that. But thank you for
1:03:21
Speaker 1: coming on money making conferences. You're fantastic. H We're definitely
1:03:24
Speaker 1: gonna offline. I definitely want to connect with you. And
1:03:27
Speaker 1: just just you know, I said, alright, my whole life,
1:03:29
Speaker 1: I built this brandom mentor I brought this brand to
1:03:32
Speaker 1: just have people in a position because I've been very
1:03:34
Speaker 1: successful in so many lanes in my life, but more
1:03:37
Speaker 1: importantly being able to share that success, that knowledge. I
1:03:40
Speaker 1: don't want no checks. God is giving me the checks
1:03:42
Speaker 1: I need and it's called relationship. So again, thank you
1:03:45
Speaker 1: for coming on money making conversations. Thank you for having me.
1:03:49
Speaker 1: I had such a blast. Thank you. If I could
1:03:52
Speaker 1: be you and you could be me for just one hour,
1:03:55
Speaker 1: if you could find a way to get inside each
1:03:58
Speaker 1: other's mind, walcome in my shoes, wacome Ole in my shoes, shoes.
1:04:05
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Speaker 1: us Kids, brought to you by the U. S Department
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Speaker 1: of Health, the Human Services Administration for Children and Families,
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Speaker 1: and the ACT Council. Look for your children's eyes to
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Speaker 1: see the true magic of a forest. It's a storybook
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Speaker 1: forest dot org brought to you by the United States
1:05:20
Speaker 1: Forest Service and the Council. My next gist is Yourself Saloon.
1:05:24
Speaker 1: He's an inspirational speaker and prison prison abolitionists who, at
1:05:27
Speaker 1: age fifteen, was one of the five teenage bars wrongfully
1:05:30
Speaker 1: convicted and sentenced to prison in the Central Park Jaga case.
1:05:34
Speaker 1: In seven he left prison as an adult to a
1:05:37
Speaker 1: world he didn't fully recognize, understood, or understand. In two
1:05:41
Speaker 1: thousand two, the sentence for the Central Park five was overturned.
1:05:44
Speaker 1: All five were exonerated for the crime they did not commit.
1:05:48
Speaker 1: He's on the show to talk about his new book
1:05:50
Speaker 1: Better Not Better, Living on Purpose in the pursuit of
1:05:53
Speaker 1: racial justice. It is the first time that wanted a
1:05:55
Speaker 1: new exonerated or the now exonerated five is telling their
1:05:59
Speaker 1: individuals story in his own works, Yourself Rights. His narrative
1:06:03
Speaker 1: growing up black and central, all of them and in
1:06:06
Speaker 1: the eighties being raised by a strong, fierce mother and grandmother,
1:06:10
Speaker 1: his years of incarceration, his re entry into the world,
1:06:13
Speaker 1: and of course exoneration. Please welcome to money making conversation.
1:06:17
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call him correctly like his grandmother called him,
1:06:20
Speaker 1: master yourself. Salon, how you doing, sir, show? I think
1:06:26
Speaker 1: you for having this is a great moment, great opportunity
1:06:28
Speaker 1: to really talk to the power and retialized story for
1:06:32
Speaker 1: what it's really for, right to shine light in the
1:06:35
Speaker 1: dcness and world. Absolutely, and uh and I were talking
1:06:39
Speaker 1: off air, but let's bring everything on there. Like I
1:06:41
Speaker 1: moved to New York. I wasn't living in New York
1:06:43
Speaker 1: between eight and nineteen, and I went up there to
1:06:46
Speaker 1: pursue my comedy career. Felt I was gonna be the
1:06:48
Speaker 1: next Eddie Murphy, you know, Richard Pryor, he was the legend.
1:06:51
Speaker 1: I knew I couldn't be the next Richard Pryor, but Murfer,
1:06:54
Speaker 1: I thought I could get to him, and I would.
1:06:56
Speaker 1: So I lived that life, you know. And if you
1:06:58
Speaker 1: was in downtown Manhattan, you could not catch a cab.
1:07:00
Speaker 1: They would not stop and give you a cab for
1:07:03
Speaker 1: you trying to go to Hall. It was just ridiculous
1:07:05
Speaker 1: how blacks were being treated at that time and being uh,
1:07:09
Speaker 1: second class citizens and in the city. And so I
1:07:13
Speaker 1: was there living in the city. I was living at
1:07:15
Speaker 1: eighty six and first was just York Town right there.
1:07:18
Speaker 1: So I was living in a little you can call
1:07:21
Speaker 1: it a one bear room, you said, But there wasn't
1:07:24
Speaker 1: no one bar room. There's a room. It was a room, brother,
1:07:26
Speaker 1: it was a room. But it CAUs like eight hundred dollars. Well,
1:07:31
Speaker 1: not in the rest of the country, right, examples of
1:07:34
Speaker 1: what one brooms are really one room. Right. I know
1:07:38
Speaker 1: exactly what you mean when you're saying New York City.
1:07:41
Speaker 1: You know I'm living in Atlanta now and any like
1:07:44
Speaker 1: if you look at my house, my house in New
1:07:46
Speaker 1: York will be over a million dollars five from my
1:07:49
Speaker 1: house in Atlanta. Absolutely, well, I live in Atlanta. We
1:07:54
Speaker 1: have to connect. So I didn't know you were down
1:07:56
Speaker 1: in definitely got to connect. Bring you by my office
1:07:58
Speaker 1: and sit down. Because I read the book Man Better
1:08:01
Speaker 1: not Bitter, And based on what happened to you at
1:08:04
Speaker 1: such a young age, one would think this would be
1:08:06
Speaker 1: a book about anger by hate, a book about hobb
1:08:09
Speaker 1: and done wrong. It's a book about motivation, a book
1:08:12
Speaker 1: about slice of life, telling your story to people were
1:08:15
Speaker 1: important in your life. People were important your life when
1:08:18
Speaker 1: you're incarcerated. But also it's a celebration of overcoming the odds.
1:08:23
Speaker 1: Talk to us. You know what, I what I really
1:08:26
Speaker 1: want to expose and better not better my memoir is
1:08:30
Speaker 1: I want folks to know that when you fall in life,
1:08:33
Speaker 1: and it's not a matter of if you fall, because
1:08:35
Speaker 1: my good friend Let's Brown always reminded me, it's about
1:08:38
Speaker 1: when you fall, try to land your back and leanding
1:08:41
Speaker 1: on your back is about trying to find a good
1:08:44
Speaker 1: trying to find the blessings and everything right looking at
1:08:46
Speaker 1: the experience that not necessarily seeing to yourself, Oh my goodness,
1:08:50
Speaker 1: this is terrible, but looking at the experience of understanding
1:08:53
Speaker 1: that God is making sure that you become a survival. Right.
1:08:58
Speaker 1: And so I looked at my story and I heard
1:09:01
Speaker 1: the words of Dr Maya Angelo and my angel. You know.
1:09:04
Speaker 1: Dr Na Angelo said something so powerful. She said, you
1:09:07
Speaker 1: should be angry, but you must not be bitter. She said,
1:09:10
Speaker 1: bitterness is like a cancer eats upon the host. It
1:09:13
Speaker 1: doesn't do anything to the object of this displeasure. Then
1:09:16
Speaker 1: she teaches us the alchemy. She said, use that anger.
1:09:20
Speaker 1: You're dancing, you watch it, you voted, you do everything
1:09:24
Speaker 1: about it. She said and then she said, you're talking.
1:09:28
Speaker 1: Never stopped talking. I found that black men rarely get
1:09:31
Speaker 1: the opportunity to really talk about the experiences that are
1:09:35
Speaker 1: plaguing us, especially in America. But when we do get
1:09:38
Speaker 1: that opportunity, it becomes so transformed intive, it's therapeutic, it's
1:09:42
Speaker 1: it's a it's a beautiful thing. And you can talk
1:09:45
Speaker 1: about these experiences to get them off the chest. And
1:09:47
Speaker 1: then when you can look at it from a different anger,
1:09:50
Speaker 1: you get the opportunity you can see the hand of
1:09:52
Speaker 1: God in the You know, they're important, the important, The
1:09:56
Speaker 1: important part of that this conversation that we're having is
1:09:59
Speaker 1: your faith, because it drove you to a point to
1:10:04
Speaker 1: uh a sense of security, a safe zone, and and
1:10:08
Speaker 1: and being thrown into an environment that you knew you
1:10:11
Speaker 1: were innocent, um you knew it would changed even when
1:10:16
Speaker 1: you got out, it would change the way your perception
1:10:18
Speaker 1: of opportunities in their life. At what point did it
1:10:21
Speaker 1: start to come together that, hey man, this is my life.
1:10:25
Speaker 1: And you started building this support system in the prison
1:10:28
Speaker 1: because you have a support system outside your sister, your mom,
1:10:31
Speaker 1: your grandmother that was strong, but inside you also have
1:10:34
Speaker 1: to build a support system. Tell us about that. Yeah,
1:10:38
Speaker 1: you know the beautif thing about being insulated in the fire, right,
1:10:42
Speaker 1: And I call it that I saved that way, because
1:10:44
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like the system created this this condition,
1:10:49
Speaker 1: and then they created they said, we're gonna put him
1:10:51
Speaker 1: in the fire. This situation that we're gonna put the
1:10:54
Speaker 1: five of them in is going to be so terrible,
1:10:58
Speaker 1: so difficult. They will never be able to escape. And
1:11:00
Speaker 1: if they happen to miraculous miraculously survived, they will never
1:11:05
Speaker 1: be able to be successful in life. And a beautiful thing,
1:11:09
Speaker 1: like I said, is that being in that fire. I
1:11:12
Speaker 1: remember reading a poem and the poem said prison life
1:11:14
Speaker 1: in many ways to be likened to them, if the
1:11:17
Speaker 1: life inside becomes still, the wound becomes the tomb. And
1:11:21
Speaker 1: so this this idea that you do not want to
1:11:24
Speaker 1: die physically, mentally or spiritually in the womb of amount. Right,
1:11:30
Speaker 1: many people go in and they physically die in that room.
1:11:33
Speaker 1: They come out alive, but they avoid any life. And
1:11:38
Speaker 1: I think that when I looked at my situation, I said, man, well,
1:11:40
Speaker 1: what can I do? How can I talk two people
1:11:44
Speaker 1: to let them know that I missed? And what I
1:11:46
Speaker 1: found out is that me telling people that I'm innocent.
1:11:49
Speaker 1: The officers said to themselves, this guy is not supposed
1:11:52
Speaker 1: to be I mean the officers, the inmates of course
1:11:55
Speaker 1: as well, but that power of being able to have
1:11:59
Speaker 1: them see me for the first time as opposed to
1:12:02
Speaker 1: seeing what the system wanted to be, wanted to define
1:12:05
Speaker 1: me as they said, no, this guy is not who
1:12:09
Speaker 1: the system the same year is he started, you know,
1:12:13
Speaker 1: And and it really allowed us to become modern day
1:12:16
Speaker 1: shot druck in the vigna, you know. And I think
1:12:19
Speaker 1: that that's one of the hours of story, um that
1:12:22
Speaker 1: I'm telling you in this particular book and utilizing what
1:12:25
Speaker 1: I understand about what happened to me. Well, you know,
1:12:28
Speaker 1: one thing you did lose going to prison was your
1:12:30
Speaker 1: sense of style, you know, your sense of you know,
1:12:33
Speaker 1: the shoes, you know, the tie, the suit. You know
1:12:36
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. You said, I'm looking at you smiling,
1:12:38
Speaker 1: not because you know you know what I'm talking about
1:12:40
Speaker 1: coming on my show. No tie on every every picture
1:12:44
Speaker 1: I see this brother in he wearing shoes I wear.
1:12:46
Speaker 1: You know, I was told, man, I'm looking at the funk.
1:12:48
Speaker 1: I said, look at them. Two tones right there on
1:12:50
Speaker 1: two tones right there. Every picture you take with the
1:12:53
Speaker 1: exonerated five. He the only one got to suit on.
1:12:56
Speaker 1: He's he's he's the class, he's the appear to be
1:12:58
Speaker 1: of excellence. He articulated got's degree. Why I was in college,
1:13:02
Speaker 1: took advantage of the system. So let's talk about this
1:13:05
Speaker 1: style that you are, that you are, that you are
1:13:10
Speaker 1: that resonates your personality. Why is that important? Yeah? So
1:13:14
Speaker 1: I think I think it's important because you know, it
1:13:17
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with, um, what other people see.
1:13:21
Speaker 1: It has everything to do with what you see when
1:13:24
Speaker 1: you look at yourself in the mirror. Right, people say
1:13:27
Speaker 1: all the time how you clean up nights? And I'm
1:13:29
Speaker 1: not talking about me, but I'm talking about any one
1:13:31
Speaker 1: of us who chooses to We find ourselves, right. We
1:13:35
Speaker 1: put a suit and we put a tie on. Um,
1:13:37
Speaker 1: we we we clean our hair up, we clean our
1:13:40
Speaker 1: face up. You know, whatever it is that we do,
1:13:43
Speaker 1: we look at ourselves first of all. We other people
1:13:46
Speaker 1: look at us and see how you clean up nice?
1:13:48
Speaker 1: But what happens is the most powerful thing when you
1:13:51
Speaker 1: look in the mirror at your own self. I often
1:13:55
Speaker 1: think about my circumstances and say to myself, thank God,
1:13:58
Speaker 1: I don't look like what I've right. Most people look
1:14:01
Speaker 1: at me and they say, no, this guy had he
1:14:03
Speaker 1: could have never gone to prison. He doesn't sound like
1:14:05
Speaker 1: a person with prison. He doesn't look like or act life.
1:14:10
Speaker 1: Nothing about him says prison. M But I think that
1:14:14
Speaker 1: that's the beauty of God. God has allowed me to
1:14:18
Speaker 1: be a shining example of what could be possible for
1:14:21
Speaker 1: all of us. Right, we can reject, literally throw back
1:14:25
Speaker 1: the definition of life that they want to give us,
1:14:28
Speaker 1: and know that we were born on purpose and with
1:14:30
Speaker 1: the purpose, as opposed to being relegated to the modern
1:14:33
Speaker 1: big deals of America. Right, that's what they want for
1:14:36
Speaker 1: us to believe. So so many many of the stories
1:14:40
Speaker 1: that I've heard have been stories where people have said, no,
1:14:44
Speaker 1: we are supposed to be dead or in jail before
1:14:46
Speaker 1: we reached the age of twenty one, and many of
1:14:49
Speaker 1: us played into that false narrative. And I'm gonna say
1:14:52
Speaker 1: false narrative again because it absolutely is. When you think
1:14:56
Speaker 1: about the grand, miraculous thing that happens to all of us,
1:15:00
Speaker 1: our mothers and fathers get together, we become one of
1:15:03
Speaker 1: over four hundred million options, race into the egg, and
1:15:06
Speaker 1: we are chosen to me. Look at the odds. That
1:15:11
Speaker 1: means that we are born on purpose. And if we're
1:15:13
Speaker 1: born on purpose, we have a purpose. And so the
1:15:16
Speaker 1: psycho social reality of being able to really understand that
1:15:20
Speaker 1: the system, the system, they tell you you're not worth nothing.
1:15:24
Speaker 1: And if you believe, if you believe, you're gonna move
1:15:28
Speaker 1: throughout your life but your mistakes. But once you believe
1:15:31
Speaker 1: that you're worth everything, once you believe that you are
1:15:33
Speaker 1: the future mover and Sha go up tomorrow, you will
1:15:36
Speaker 1: begin to move throughout your life with a different type
1:15:39
Speaker 1: of purpose. And that's what this book is all about.
1:15:41
Speaker 1: It's about me understanding what happened to me, me understanding
1:15:45
Speaker 1: that I had to remember what my mother told me
1:15:48
Speaker 1: the very last instruction she gave me. She said, they
1:15:52
Speaker 1: need you to participate, and whatever it is that they're
1:15:54
Speaker 1: trying to do, not participate, refuse And so how does
1:16:01
Speaker 1: that show up? It shows up by you were using
1:16:03
Speaker 1: to accept the box that they want to put you.
1:16:07
Speaker 1: You need to be that NAT. I forget the name
1:16:10
Speaker 1: of the the study that they've done, but there's a
1:16:12
Speaker 1: study where they put a net, you know, a container,
1:16:15
Speaker 1: and the NAT only jumped so high, but then that
1:16:17
Speaker 1: can jump ten times higher than that. M hm. That
1:16:21
Speaker 1: be loves only that they can jump that high, and
1:16:23
Speaker 1: then Na teaches the children of the nat that can
1:16:26
Speaker 1: only jump that high. Imagine if we teach people that
1:16:30
Speaker 1: we can uh, I mean we see this in sports, right.
1:16:34
Speaker 1: We see Michael j Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, any
1:16:38
Speaker 1: of the great shot. Right. We see them doing sacred
1:16:41
Speaker 1: geometry on the core. It looks magnificent. But when we
1:16:45
Speaker 1: when we understand what we're looking at, we know that
1:16:48
Speaker 1: that is us as a people. That's what it is. Wow.
1:16:53
Speaker 1: You know when I'm talking to Usef Salon, Master, Usef
1:16:56
Speaker 1: Salon and your mother your grandmother, Well, well always say
1:16:59
Speaker 1: that to you, and you say, and your chapter you're
1:17:01
Speaker 1: talking about? A name is important. My name is Rushan McDonald.
1:17:03
Speaker 1: I thoroughly believe that if my name is Ricky McDonald,
1:17:06
Speaker 1: I would be a different person. My name's Rashwan. I've
1:17:08
Speaker 1: always been treated different. I've always been noted. You know,
1:17:12
Speaker 1: people can't spell it or have to I have to
1:17:14
Speaker 1: correct them, or they learn how to spell it and
1:17:16
Speaker 1: they respect me or understand my brand. Talk about the
1:17:20
Speaker 1: why are your grandmother who passed away? I think correct?
1:17:26
Speaker 1: And uh, why was master important to her? In front
1:17:28
Speaker 1: of your name. I think she was doing which was
1:17:31
Speaker 1: so important and really so impactful, but that she needed
1:17:36
Speaker 1: for one thing she needed to do was to make
1:17:38
Speaker 1: sure that the people who are holding me capital needed
1:17:43
Speaker 1: to know who they had. I always thought by male.
1:17:47
Speaker 1: And I'm saying that because for those who don't know,
1:17:50
Speaker 1: when you write to a person in prison, that letter
1:17:54
Speaker 1: is fondle is read by the prison officials before it
1:17:59
Speaker 1: gets to the person that is supposed to get to.
1:18:02
Speaker 1: I always got my male. So imagine the officer getting
1:18:05
Speaker 1: the mail and saying, this is to master you, SEPs
1:18:07
Speaker 1: all reason sends it off. The content of the letter
1:18:15
Speaker 1: is what is important, over and above the title. It's
1:18:19
Speaker 1: addressed to me because the title is telling me to
1:18:21
Speaker 1: stricken ut back. The title is telling me to remember,
1:18:25
Speaker 1: not just remember who I am, but remember in a
1:18:29
Speaker 1: sense called for a kind of moment member who you
1:18:33
Speaker 1: are is attached to the people you come from. Even
1:18:36
Speaker 1: though Dr James Baldwin said to be African American is
1:18:41
Speaker 1: to be African without memory, in American without privilege, and
1:18:46
Speaker 1: so we experienced this right. Many of us know we're
1:18:49
Speaker 1: not supposed to be under these kinds of conditions, but
1:18:52
Speaker 1: imagine when when you are told that by one of
1:18:55
Speaker 1: your elders who knows the truth right, he's seeing you messages,
1:19:01
Speaker 1: She's sending you seeds. She's allowing those seeds to blossom
1:19:05
Speaker 1: and bloom in this dark space called the womb of America,
1:19:08
Speaker 1: so that you can metamorphosize into the butterfly that you
1:19:11
Speaker 1: need to be. And it's so important because if you
1:19:15
Speaker 1: if somebody calls you out of your name, usually you
1:19:18
Speaker 1: get upset until you begin to accept it. Right. And
1:19:21
Speaker 1: so the cutter can say, knowing that he's a prence,
1:19:25
Speaker 1: knowing who he is and who's he is and where
1:19:28
Speaker 1: he comes from, being told you know your name is
1:19:31
Speaker 1: now too, he fights tooth and nail until miraculously we
1:19:36
Speaker 1: see something, and we don't see it until later. He
1:19:39
Speaker 1: buries the truth inside of self, even though we accept
1:19:43
Speaker 1: outward believe what they are saying, But inwardly he never
1:19:46
Speaker 1: accepts that his names. He knows who is, he knows
1:19:50
Speaker 1: he's a press, he knows that his people are looking
1:19:52
Speaker 1: for He was kidnapped, just like people get kidnapped in
1:19:56
Speaker 1: a memory. Now today, as part of the great Transatlantic
1:20:01
Speaker 1: slave true many of us are importunately had that reality
1:20:05
Speaker 1: keeped upon us, and so we don't know where we
1:20:07
Speaker 1: came from, we don't know who we are. We actually
1:20:10
Speaker 1: begin to hate ourselves and everything we have been told
1:20:13
Speaker 1: about us, because what as we looked out of the
1:20:16
Speaker 1: window of life, we see others looking in the mirror.
1:20:21
Speaker 1: Every advertised with white skin, everything is talked about the
1:20:27
Speaker 1: white skin, and so we live a dark skin. And
1:20:29
Speaker 1: we said we must be cursed. We don't get the
1:20:32
Speaker 1: opportunity to understand that the absolute antithesis is the truth
1:20:39
Speaker 1: that we are not cursed, but we are blessed and
1:20:41
Speaker 1: highly favored. How do we know that, because as we
1:20:44
Speaker 1: are born out of our mother's womb, we are automatically
1:20:49
Speaker 1: born on the right side of everything, because we look
1:20:54
Speaker 1: at us and judge us by the color of our skin,
1:20:57
Speaker 1: not the content of our cap There, you're absolutely correct.
1:21:01
Speaker 1: You know, when you're in the book you was talking
1:21:02
Speaker 1: about sixteen years old, you're standing in the hallway and
1:21:05
Speaker 1: they said that that they have a verdict, and you
1:21:08
Speaker 1: went back into the courtroom and it was announced guilty,
1:21:12
Speaker 1: and they sent you to Rikers. And why is Rikers
1:21:16
Speaker 1: such a horrible prison? Let me ask you that question first.
1:21:21
Speaker 1: You know, Rikers is there's so many facets. I think
1:21:24
Speaker 1: that makes Rikers one of the most horrible places on
1:21:28
Speaker 1: But I think part of it is because you have
1:21:30
Speaker 1: the proximity of people being able to go right to
1:21:35
Speaker 1: or talk right to, or be connected right to the
1:21:38
Speaker 1: people who they want were when we come home from prison.
1:21:43
Speaker 1: One of the most transformative things a person can do
1:21:47
Speaker 1: is to lead the communities that they can. And I'm
1:21:50
Speaker 1: not saying that because I want you to to to
1:21:53
Speaker 1: take away your your your your your value. Right. If
1:21:56
Speaker 1: you know, like a lot of people in their entertainment industry,
1:22:01
Speaker 1: they happen to leave because they know that they have
1:22:03
Speaker 1: to insulate themselves. Right. Why do they have to insulate themselves?
1:22:06
Speaker 1: Because America has created poverty and pushed it upon the
1:22:12
Speaker 1: people in the margins of life, and the people in
1:22:15
Speaker 1: the margins of life are now responding in a way
1:22:19
Speaker 1: where we call it the struggle or the survival mentality.
1:22:23
Speaker 1: What happens when you struggle, what happens when you have
1:22:25
Speaker 1: to survive and that's the only thing that you can do,
1:22:28
Speaker 1: you do anything and so on. Prison a place like
1:22:32
Speaker 1: Rikaziland right as Island, is a place where people sometimes
1:22:36
Speaker 1: have not yet been convicted of the crimes that they
1:22:39
Speaker 1: have so called committed. That's a so called because we
1:22:42
Speaker 1: find out that there's so many people. You look at
1:22:45
Speaker 1: the colored brothers of the world who are not supposed
1:22:47
Speaker 1: to be there right right, and then you have other
1:22:50
Speaker 1: people who are actually criminals who have gotten caught, but
1:22:55
Speaker 1: they are still doing criminal things. They are running the jails.
1:22:58
Speaker 1: Everybody has this false narrative when they see people show
1:23:02
Speaker 1: photos of the prisons that they're in. They looked strong
1:23:05
Speaker 1: and buff and they posed and and everything like that
1:23:07
Speaker 1: that I never forget hearing a conversation that Ross Baraka
1:23:12
Speaker 1: had put on his albums and he said, nobody talks
1:23:16
Speaker 1: about the grown men. Client I was. I was in
1:23:20
Speaker 1: Clinton with two PS. I think Danna more with two PS.
1:23:25
Speaker 1: And I remember hearing him say on the gate, that's
1:23:28
Speaker 1: something that people in the officers say to the inmates.
1:23:31
Speaker 1: He said, you're on the gate, and everybody got on
1:23:33
Speaker 1: the gate and he said, listen, man, I'm just trying
1:23:36
Speaker 1: to do my bed, just like y'all. Everybody was sending
1:23:39
Speaker 1: him pieces of the magazines that they would ripped out
1:23:42
Speaker 1: and sent to him and say, hey, can you sign
1:23:43
Speaker 1: that sign this to my family, my daughter, my friends.
1:23:47
Speaker 1: I just want to let them know that I'm in
1:23:48
Speaker 1: here with you, you know. And when you look at prison,
1:23:52
Speaker 1: prison has a way of turning people into criminals, even
1:23:56
Speaker 1: if you were not mhm right, even why why do
1:24:00
Speaker 1: I say that? I say that because it is the
1:24:02
Speaker 1: absolute worst place that you can go. Once you've gone there,
1:24:06
Speaker 1: you're gone. You know that that's the worst that can
1:24:09
Speaker 1: happen outside of them. And so when you're in a struggle, right,
1:24:15
Speaker 1: you have to understand that in the struggle, the struggle
1:24:17
Speaker 1: is not about physicality. It's not about war in terms
1:24:21
Speaker 1: of fighting in terms of beating someone. Right, war its
1:24:27
Speaker 1: greatest tool is the mental to get you to accept defeat.
1:24:35
Speaker 1: We know. The thing about it is that I had
1:24:38
Speaker 1: a younger brother. He went to prison, and I went
1:24:41
Speaker 1: to visit him in prison, and you know, like you said,
1:24:44
Speaker 1: you know, I wasn't. I was in tears watching him,
1:24:47
Speaker 1: and he was saying, I can't cry, I gotta stay hard,
1:24:51
Speaker 1: and that false narrative. And then he said he had
1:24:54
Speaker 1: to connect with some certain people in the prison so
1:24:57
Speaker 1: he can stay safe. He had to get into or
1:25:00
Speaker 1: a click or run so he can be able to
1:25:03
Speaker 1: have somebody to have his back. And then you talk
1:25:05
Speaker 1: about it, as you say, when your time becomes short,
1:25:08
Speaker 1: people can do things to make your time extend or
1:25:12
Speaker 1: attempt to kill you. So there's a mindset that operates
1:25:15
Speaker 1: in prison. I'm just taking knowledge from your book. Your
1:25:17
Speaker 1: book is amazing, and the book is called better not Better,
1:25:21
Speaker 1: Living on the Purpose, Living on the Purpose in the
1:25:23
Speaker 1: pursuit of racial justice, and the story you take away,
1:25:26
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a humble man, looking at the educated man,
1:25:29
Speaker 1: and you're right, you don't fit the example of somebody
1:25:31
Speaker 1: who's been wronged, who's been in prison, and then actually
1:25:36
Speaker 1: taking away some really key developmental years. You know, fifteen
1:25:40
Speaker 1: to eighteen is when you really start learning about responsibility,
1:25:44
Speaker 1: learning about being a man, learned about trying to go
1:25:46
Speaker 1: to college, learning about trying to trying to if I'm
1:25:49
Speaker 1: gonna have a wife in my life. You was in
1:25:51
Speaker 1: jail during that period, and so what allowed you to
1:25:54
Speaker 1: be able to I know, your your faith, I know
1:25:58
Speaker 1: you're the Muslim community was there for you, your your
1:26:01
Speaker 1: your parents were there, but you have to be there
1:26:02
Speaker 1: for yourself. How did you, as a mature young man,
1:26:07
Speaker 1: be there for yourself? So I think I think a
1:26:10
Speaker 1: lot of that was when you asked me about the name, right,
1:26:13
Speaker 1: what do you respond to? I was told this, but
1:26:17
Speaker 1: I didn't yet really truly know this, And what I
1:26:19
Speaker 1: mean by it is that I was told that in
1:26:22
Speaker 1: the community where I came from, my parents had to
1:26:25
Speaker 1: observe me for seven days. They knew just like African
1:26:29
Speaker 1: communities know that the child that is born is actually
1:26:32
Speaker 1: a gift from the creator. But in the Islamic community,
1:26:36
Speaker 1: what happens is that you have to observe the child
1:26:39
Speaker 1: to figure out who this is so that you can
1:26:42
Speaker 1: need it. You don't want to name it Hennessy. And
1:26:45
Speaker 1: I'm not saying anything bad about anyone who names their
1:26:48
Speaker 1: child Henessy, but I want you to understand that when
1:26:51
Speaker 1: you give a person a name of person I name,
1:26:56
Speaker 1: that defines who they are. And so my parents named
1:27:01
Speaker 1: me us. I never knew what use have meant. My
1:27:04
Speaker 1: middle name is Injuries, my other middle name is father,
1:27:07
Speaker 1: and my last name is Sala. Oftentimes people will say, hey,
1:27:11
Speaker 1: what's your name, and I would say use. Sometimes they
1:27:14
Speaker 1: would call me Joseph, and I got upset because Joseph
1:27:17
Speaker 1: won't sound nothing like you. So I got the prisoner
1:27:22
Speaker 1: I found out in the Bible there was a young
1:27:24
Speaker 1: man named Usa in the Bible. And I found out
1:27:27
Speaker 1: in the Koran there's a young man named Joseph in
1:27:30
Speaker 1: the Koran. And I'm mixing it up, of course, because
1:27:33
Speaker 1: I found out the Arabic equivalent to the word use
1:27:37
Speaker 1: of is Joseph in English, but the definition was never there.
1:27:43
Speaker 1: Reading books about baby names, I found out that use
1:27:46
Speaker 1: of means God will increase that Injurius means the teacher
1:27:50
Speaker 1: for otherly with justice and Salami's peace. My parents named
1:27:55
Speaker 1: me seven days after I was born. God will increase
1:28:00
Speaker 1: the teacher with justice and peace. When you are looking
1:28:05
Speaker 1: for purpose, quite often times it's not until later in
1:28:09
Speaker 1: our lives we try to say to ourselves, what am
1:28:11
Speaker 1: I supposed to be doing? What's my purpose in life?
1:28:15
Speaker 1: But imagine finding purpose in the value the value of despair,
1:28:22
Speaker 1: you know. Dr King said, when you find your purpose
1:28:25
Speaker 1: in life, do it as if God himself called you
1:28:28
Speaker 1: to do it at this very month. And he gave
1:28:31
Speaker 1: us this beautiful example, not of the greatest purpose, but
1:28:34
Speaker 1: of what purpose still is? He said, If your purpose
1:28:38
Speaker 1: in life is to become a street speet, he said,
1:28:41
Speaker 1: sweep the streets like Michael Langelo painted pictures, sweep the
1:28:45
Speaker 1: streets like they told when composed music like Leal Tom
1:28:48
Speaker 1: Price saying before the opera. Imagine that kind of individual
1:28:53
Speaker 1: turning up their life in dark spaces. Imagine that person
1:28:57
Speaker 1: raising their vibrations. And collectively we can always our workers. Collectively,
1:29:03
Speaker 1: we can altern up our life. And I think that
1:29:06
Speaker 1: when I looked at, you know, being associated right in prison,
1:29:10
Speaker 1: it wasn't that I was just defining myself as Muslim,
1:29:15
Speaker 1: but I was born must but now I was studying.
1:29:19
Speaker 1: Anytime you have a people tell you what something is.
1:29:22
Speaker 1: Often times you say if I don't want to be
1:29:24
Speaker 1: that you hear the word Muslim, and you say, those
1:29:27
Speaker 1: are terrorists. I don't remember telling about my daughters once
1:29:30
Speaker 1: I said, listen, if you know, was very busy. If
1:29:34
Speaker 1: I'm running towards a plane and I got to connect
1:29:36
Speaker 1: to other planes and all of this stuff, imagine this scenario,
1:29:39
Speaker 1: money to a plane and I get to the plane,
1:29:42
Speaker 1: about the clothes that doing. I get just in the
1:29:44
Speaker 1: mid at the time, and wow, so really just about
1:29:47
Speaker 1: the closest doing you've made it. And I said, wow, God,
1:29:50
Speaker 1: it's the greatest. I get on the plane, I see
1:29:54
Speaker 1: somebody in the first class. They had yet open their water.
1:29:56
Speaker 1: I grabbed their water, say said okay, They said yeah.
1:30:00
Speaker 1: I say thank you, I open the water. Drink of water.
1:30:02
Speaker 1: Says wow, Gods degrees home scenario. Same scenario. Remind you
1:30:08
Speaker 1: there are Christians in Arabia. Same scenario. They speak Arabic,
1:30:14
Speaker 1: they say Allah for God. Christians. Same scenario. I'm running
1:30:21
Speaker 1: to the plane. I keep it saying, wow, sir, you
1:30:25
Speaker 1: chest made me. We were just about to close the door.
1:30:28
Speaker 1: I say, alaw, who I thought, I just missed my plant.
1:30:37
Speaker 1: But you know, you know what happens. And I'm saying
1:30:40
Speaker 1: that the definitions right as soon as people understand. Oh,
1:30:45
Speaker 1: they're just saying God, there's a lot who I. For me,
1:30:49
Speaker 1: it means God is the greatest or God is greater
1:30:54
Speaker 1: than anything. So when you hear the call to prayer,
1:30:57
Speaker 1: which says a lot who I thought, say yourself, I'm
1:31:00
Speaker 1: supposed to stop everything and turned to God and thankful.
1:31:07
Speaker 1: That's absolutely true. But I have to give. When you're thankful,
1:31:12
Speaker 1: God war some beautiful process. We know. The thing about
1:31:17
Speaker 1: it is that because I want to wrap up, but
1:31:19
Speaker 1: I want to say a few things that I want
1:31:20
Speaker 1: you to respond to it. You know it's incarcerated. Uh
1:31:23
Speaker 1: then uh, Donald Trump to got an add eighty five
1:31:28
Speaker 1: dollars and ads calling you guys everything, every every bad
1:31:32
Speaker 1: name he could say that he could put it in
1:31:33
Speaker 1: the newspaper. He then become our president, so we know
1:31:36
Speaker 1: the values he had for men of color. Inten seven,
1:31:40
Speaker 1: you walked out of prison, um spend time in prison
1:31:43
Speaker 1: for a crime he didn't do, two thousand two years exonerated,
1:31:47
Speaker 1: Then you received the settlement and then um Aba Duvenat,
1:31:51
Speaker 1: I think what Ava Duvena did you guys was like
1:31:54
Speaker 1: for me visual and a global perspective. Really freed you guys,
1:31:59
Speaker 1: I said, free you guys from an immediate standpoint, in
1:32:03
Speaker 1: a and a standpoint. You know, the court can say
1:32:06
Speaker 1: you're free, but what she did was set you all free.
1:32:09
Speaker 1: And that's important to know. And now with that freedom
1:32:12
Speaker 1: that you now have the intellect that you gained being
1:32:15
Speaker 1: educated in prison, being educated by life, being exonerated, getting
1:32:19
Speaker 1: some money for for being in jail for a crime
1:32:21
Speaker 1: you didn't commit, which we know is never enough because
1:32:24
Speaker 1: those years to value years. What is the purpose? What
1:32:28
Speaker 1: is your goal? Because you talked about purpose. As we
1:32:31
Speaker 1: close out this interview. What is your purpose? Master yourself?
1:32:35
Speaker 1: Sala I think my greatest purpose is to fall people
1:32:39
Speaker 1: to God. The greatest purpose is to utilize my story
1:32:42
Speaker 1: and tell people. Like I've always said in more recent
1:32:45
Speaker 1: times that the Center Park Jogy case is not what
1:32:48
Speaker 1: you think it is. It's actually a love story between
1:32:51
Speaker 1: God and the people Center Park Jogragh case. The case
1:32:55
Speaker 1: is a case where God has used it in place
1:32:59
Speaker 1: the whole system on trial in order to produce some miracles.
1:33:01
Speaker 1: A lot of times. It's a story of how people
1:33:05
Speaker 1: can be buried alive and for God the system for
1:33:09
Speaker 1: good we will see. And it's the story of a
1:33:11
Speaker 1: people who have been given a social death and instead
1:33:17
Speaker 1: of being buried alive and forgotten, they emerged like the
1:33:19
Speaker 1: phoenix from the ashes because as they built the buyer
1:33:22
Speaker 1: to consume us, they forgot that God is the owner
1:33:25
Speaker 1: of the action. If we believe again and we're thankful
1:33:31
Speaker 1: and we say to ourselves, help me, right when you
1:33:35
Speaker 1: say to God, help me, guess what happens? God helps you.
1:33:40
Speaker 1: That's so beautiful. Like I said, it's it's one of
1:33:42
Speaker 1: those things that it's not until you are tested that
1:33:46
Speaker 1: you can really say I got to testify, because you
1:33:50
Speaker 1: can't testify unless you've been tested. You know, I was
1:33:53
Speaker 1: listening to my my inspiration, e T. And he said
1:33:56
Speaker 1: something to the fact to said, you know, everybody wants
1:33:58
Speaker 1: to be a guy, but nobody wants the pressure. Nobody
1:34:02
Speaker 1: has the pressure, and then the more pressure, and then
1:34:05
Speaker 1: the more pressure that's added to create a diamond out
1:34:08
Speaker 1: of that piece of cold. And then after the pressure,
1:34:11
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1:34:15
Speaker 1: cold into the shape of the diamond is what proves
1:34:20
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1:34:24
Speaker 1: one of those things that you say to yourself, Wow,
1:34:26
Speaker 1: this is one of the most rarest things for the planet.
1:34:30
Speaker 1: And I think that what we need to understand is
1:34:32
Speaker 1: that all of us are dying. We're just in the
1:34:35
Speaker 1: rock that we're still did and we see ourselves. Is
1:34:40
Speaker 1: that we get the opportunity to give ourselves back to egree, Well,
1:34:45
Speaker 1: you are a great, my friend again, better that bitter.
1:34:48
Speaker 1: Living on purpose in the pursuit of racial justice. Master
1:34:52
Speaker 1: didn't say master right there on the book, but it
1:34:54
Speaker 1: should say that you should say humble, you should say
1:34:57
Speaker 1: it should say a representation, a presentative of blackness. Who
1:35:02
Speaker 1: over let's just say overcoming to odds. Chiefs say, it's
1:35:05
Speaker 1: just say so many blessings, a blessed man, It's just
1:35:07
Speaker 1: say that too, because that's what you are. Thank you
1:35:10
Speaker 1: for coming on money making Conversations. We will be right
1:35:14
Speaker 1: back with more money making conversations with your host ras
1:35:17
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. Hi. Everyone, i'l roker here as a guy
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Speaker 1: ad Council. Hi I am Ra Sean McDonald hosts of
1:37:21
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation dot com. The Cafe Mocha Swag Award
1:37:24
Speaker 1: is a celebration of black men making a difference in
1:37:26
Speaker 1: our community by empowering others to reach their life goals.
1:37:30
Speaker 1: They can be civic leaders, people in business, activists, celebrities,
1:37:33
Speaker 1: and everyday dads. The Cafe Moka Swag Award honorary this weekend.
1:37:37
Speaker 1: Maul and Evans he is more than a farmer athlete
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1:38:00
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1:38:07
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1:38:09
Speaker 1: help that grow. And that's what we're due through the
1:38:12
Speaker 1: HBC Founders Program. The Captain Open Squared award represents men
1:38:15
Speaker 1: who have strength, whose wisdom is assertive, and who is
1:38:18
Speaker 1: genuine in their spirit. Welcome back to money Making Conversations
1:38:22
Speaker 1: with your host, Rashan McDonald. My next guest is Brendan Thompson.
1:38:26
Speaker 1: He is a native Houstonian. You know I got it,
1:38:29
Speaker 1: so you know I love him already because I'm from
1:38:30
Speaker 1: Houston Texts. He graduated from Preview and m that's an
1:38:33
Speaker 1: HBCUTH for for anybody who don't know about the power
1:38:37
Speaker 1: of a of a of a HBCU that's privy and
1:38:40
Speaker 1: m used to degree was an electrical engineering. My degree
1:38:43
Speaker 1: was from Universe Houston and mathematics. We talked about in
1:38:46
Speaker 1: the minute. While he was able to finish through with
1:38:48
Speaker 1: this engine and degree, I couldn't make it past physics.
1:38:52
Speaker 1: He found a trade House, a company that partnered with
1:38:54
Speaker 1: an educational platform to be to teach people how to
1:38:58
Speaker 1: properly invest in the foreign change market. Within only two
1:39:02
Speaker 1: years of its exception, trade House, a wealth management organization,
1:39:06
Speaker 1: has grown to eighty thousand active members. In fact, the
1:39:10
Speaker 1: co founders and Brendon are actively engaging daily. They help
1:39:13
Speaker 1: mentor and coach new members who joined their wealth management group.
1:39:17
Speaker 1: Regardless of one's location or age, Please work with the
1:39:20
Speaker 1: money making conversations straight out of family family prayer of
1:39:25
Speaker 1: view and m thinking about my boy Will Packer, who's
1:39:27
Speaker 1: also electrical engineer. Brendon Thompson. How are you doing, sir?
1:39:31
Speaker 1: You don't how you doing? Sign well? First of all,
1:39:34
Speaker 1: you know what part of used to you from? I
1:39:35
Speaker 1: gotta break it down because I'm a fifth ward boar.
1:39:37
Speaker 1: What what part of used? Do? You? Grew up in
1:39:40
Speaker 1: City Texas? You know the same most cities see right
1:39:44
Speaker 1: there right then? See I'm Houston, Texas. You know, eve
1:39:47
Speaker 1: me saying mo, I said fear forlid? You know, all
1:39:50
Speaker 1: of a sudden I asked him, say were you oh?
1:39:52
Speaker 1: Most city? But it so you're gonna start at change.
1:39:55
Speaker 1: But that's a great area I grew up. I knew
1:39:57
Speaker 1: a fair familiar with that area of the kind of
1:40:00
Speaker 1: grew up before being counted in Houston, Texas. And so
1:40:03
Speaker 1: would you been with what what has inspired you? You
1:40:06
Speaker 1: went to HBC you school, which is previewing them, which
1:40:09
Speaker 1: is like forty five minutes outside of Houston, Texas. You
1:40:12
Speaker 1: have Texas Southern right there in Houston, Texas. Down the
1:40:16
Speaker 1: road you got Southern University up the road. You got
1:40:18
Speaker 1: grambling why privew A and m so we Shawn, if
1:40:22
Speaker 1: I could just give you a little backstory on, you know,
1:40:25
Speaker 1: my college journey. I started off at Hampton University, to
1:40:29
Speaker 1: be honest with you, start off at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia.
1:40:34
Speaker 1: And for those of you that know about Hampton, it's
1:40:36
Speaker 1: a private school HBCU as well, but very very expensive.
1:40:41
Speaker 1: So you know, I couldn't you know, continue because of
1:40:43
Speaker 1: financial roles. So I decided to transfer. And when I
1:40:47
Speaker 1: was looking at schools to transfer to in Texas, you know,
1:40:51
Speaker 1: I looked at you of h, I looked at t
1:40:53
Speaker 1: s U, and I also was looking at prevew You
1:40:57
Speaker 1: know you have ah you know, not to say anything.
1:41:00
Speaker 1: Ain't bad about the school, but I just heard that
1:41:01
Speaker 1: you would get swallowed up. You would just be like
1:41:04
Speaker 1: another number. It wouldn't give you that same HBU HBCU
1:41:08
Speaker 1: feel t SU didn't have my my degree. They had
1:41:13
Speaker 1: electronic engineer, but they didn't have electrical engineer. Prav you
1:41:16
Speaker 1: happened to be the only school within that Houston area
1:41:20
Speaker 1: that that accepted the bulk of my transfer credit. So
1:41:23
Speaker 1: I went ahead and I became the panther rolled up
1:41:27
Speaker 1: that rolled down to the baby. Don't from panthers up there.
1:41:30
Speaker 1: Now it's the cool thing about it. Like a good
1:41:32
Speaker 1: friend of my Lonny Love, she graduated from PREV and
1:41:36
Speaker 1: m she's blending Love. She's the one of the co
1:41:38
Speaker 1: host of the talk show The Real and she graduated
1:41:40
Speaker 1: electrical engineering. So they now prayer of view has been known.
1:41:44
Speaker 1: When I gradu from high school, a lot of my
1:41:45
Speaker 1: friends went down to preview and have I'm living very
1:41:49
Speaker 1: successful lives. But you were talking about the culture. Like
1:41:51
Speaker 1: I graduated from University Houston. You can't get into the
1:41:54
Speaker 1: numbers game. Forty thousand students walking around on that campus.
1:41:57
Speaker 1: And when I would, I was there. They didn't have
1:41:59
Speaker 1: that college life. It is much more of a commuter school.
1:42:02
Speaker 1: And so my executive producer of Money Making Conversation, she's
1:42:06
Speaker 1: a Hampton grad So when you said happened though, she
1:42:08
Speaker 1: all are dancing in the studio throwing our hands up
1:42:11
Speaker 1: in there and so all right, so I got a
1:42:14
Speaker 1: lot of pride. And then my boy, Will Packer, he
1:42:16
Speaker 1: graduated with electrical engineering degree from FAM. You now you
1:42:22
Speaker 1: got electrical engineering degree, but you're not doing as they
1:42:25
Speaker 1: say electrical engineering, So tell me about that transition. So
1:42:31
Speaker 1: when I transferred to to PV, you know, I went
1:42:34
Speaker 1: ahead and finished off and I got my degree in
1:42:37
Speaker 1: electrical engineering, as you mentioned. And before I even walked
1:42:40
Speaker 1: across the state, the stadiums are already had an offer
1:42:44
Speaker 1: to the Bone Company. So the Boning Company offered me
1:42:46
Speaker 1: a full time position where I started my journey in
1:42:49
Speaker 1: Long Beach, California. So I hadn't, you know, um ever
1:42:54
Speaker 1: been to California before in my life, and it was
1:42:56
Speaker 1: a dream of mine to go and lived there. But
1:42:59
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't know exactly how I was gonna
1:43:01
Speaker 1: get there, so Long Behold. You know, Boning offered me
1:43:03
Speaker 1: a full time positions, like maybe a month or two
1:43:06
Speaker 1: after I graduated from p V, I moved out to
1:43:08
Speaker 1: Long Beach started my journey, and I'll be real with you, Rashawn.
1:43:13
Speaker 1: You know, it didn't take me too long to figure
1:43:15
Speaker 1: out that corporate America just wasn't fit for me. Right.
1:43:18
Speaker 1: I found I found that I was like a shark
1:43:20
Speaker 1: in a swimming pool. I was the youngest blackest person
1:43:24
Speaker 1: on my team and every team I was on, and
1:43:28
Speaker 1: I started to feel like, you know, my my gifts
1:43:30
Speaker 1: and talents just weren't being put to good use. Um.
1:43:34
Speaker 1: You know, maybe I wasn't the smartest in the company,
1:43:36
Speaker 1: but I had the most I feel like uh business
1:43:40
Speaker 1: stavvy I was. I was more of a person that
1:43:42
Speaker 1: can solve problems. Maybe not you know, mathematical, I could,
1:43:46
Speaker 1: but my best you know strengths were you know, business.
1:43:50
Speaker 1: And I saw that I was on the wrong side
1:43:51
Speaker 1: one of the company and just the wrong side of
1:43:54
Speaker 1: you know, uh, becoming successful and how to approach it.
1:43:57
Speaker 1: So when I came across you know, the foreign exchange market,
1:44:02
Speaker 1: you know, it was like a lightbulb that went off.
1:44:04
Speaker 1: I said, Wow, I said, this is something that I
1:44:07
Speaker 1: can actually use as an exit strategy. Because I was
1:44:10
Speaker 1: I was, no, no dummy. I wasn't about to just
1:44:13
Speaker 1: quit a six figure job. But you know what, if
1:44:17
Speaker 1: I can really hone onto this skills, if I could
1:44:20
Speaker 1: really understand this industry, I could use this as a
1:44:24
Speaker 1: exit strategy to go full time investor entrepreneur. So I
1:44:29
Speaker 1: came across the foreign exchange market about seventeen so I
1:44:33
Speaker 1: have been working at Bone for maybe like eight or
1:44:35
Speaker 1: nine months, and as soon as I really understood what
1:44:38
Speaker 1: the industry was, I said, you know what, I'm walking
1:44:40
Speaker 1: off my job in about a year and a half.
1:44:43
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't do this anymore. You know, I'm
1:44:45
Speaker 1: not as happy as I thought I would be. I
1:44:47
Speaker 1: thought making six figures would be you know that golden ticket.
1:44:50
Speaker 1: You want to be a six figure on it. That's
1:44:51
Speaker 1: what everybody wants to be in college, you know, coming out.
1:44:55
Speaker 1: And so as I realized that, you know, it wasn't
1:44:57
Speaker 1: about the money. It was more so about the fulfillment
1:45:00
Speaker 1: and what you were doing on a daily basis. And
1:45:02
Speaker 1: I wasn't getting fulfilled as a person. And so, you know,
1:45:05
Speaker 1: as I began to get im mercy the skill set
1:45:07
Speaker 1: and I got better and better, I said, you know what,
1:45:09
Speaker 1: this is something that I could really take all the way.
1:45:13
Speaker 1: And at the top of twenty nineteen, I went ahead
1:45:15
Speaker 1: and fired my boss before they fired me and I
1:45:20
Speaker 1: and I took my talents all the way to full
1:45:23
Speaker 1: time entrepreneurship and I didn't look back. Now, you know,
1:45:27
Speaker 1: let's go, let's go and talk about where he was
1:45:29
Speaker 1: at a six figure in Houston, Texas salary and a
1:45:32
Speaker 1: six figure salary in California to them salars. Now the
1:45:37
Speaker 1: housing the rent, the taxes is super crazy in California
1:45:44
Speaker 1: right there, you know, is a game changer right there,
1:45:47
Speaker 1: just putting just buying tags for your call. It's crazy
1:45:51
Speaker 1: in California. I'll just let you know. I think I
1:45:53
Speaker 1: was paying like I paid up my tax on my
1:45:55
Speaker 1: car like forty dollars in Texas it was like a
1:45:58
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. And the point it's just the numbers are
1:46:01
Speaker 1: just different. And how you living. Yeah, you got the
1:46:04
Speaker 1: numbers on your paycheck, but you giveing it out as
1:46:06
Speaker 1: soon as you cash it. So that was part of
1:46:09
Speaker 1: the process too as a forty hour week got now
1:46:12
Speaker 1: as an entrepreneur. The reason I brought you on the show,
1:46:15
Speaker 1: I never the foreign exchange market. I don't know what
1:46:18
Speaker 1: that is. I'll be perfectly honest with you, Brandon, I
1:46:21
Speaker 1: don't know what you when you start talking like that,
1:46:23
Speaker 1: you you come on, You've coming. You know. I brought
1:46:25
Speaker 1: you in the show to educate me as well as
1:46:27
Speaker 1: my viewers and listener. What is the hard exchange market?
1:46:32
Speaker 1: So the foreign exchange market is it is the largest
1:46:35
Speaker 1: financial market in the world, the largest financial liquid market
1:46:38
Speaker 1: in the World's generating you know, anywhere from six point
1:46:41
Speaker 1: five to seven point seven trillion dollars a day on
1:46:44
Speaker 1: that giving day. This is in volume. So we're talking
1:46:47
Speaker 1: about you know, trading. You know, in the foreign exchange market,
1:46:50
Speaker 1: you are literally trading you know, currency payers, you know,
1:46:53
Speaker 1: in their exchange rate. So as currency payers, you know,
1:46:56
Speaker 1: uh exchange rate fluctuate, you can make money on the
1:47:00
Speaker 1: rise and fall. So you know, just like stocks or
1:47:02
Speaker 1: something like that, you only make money, you know, on
1:47:05
Speaker 1: the rise of a share you get in that five
1:47:07
Speaker 1: dollars a share, if it goes up ten ten dollars
1:47:09
Speaker 1: to share, you make money where well as in whereas
1:47:12
Speaker 1: in the point exchange market, you can make money on
1:47:15
Speaker 1: the rise and fall of an exchange. Right. So for example,
1:47:17
Speaker 1: if we were to go out of the country, let's
1:47:21
Speaker 1: say from from Houston, Texas, we fly to Italy, right,
1:47:24
Speaker 1: a lot of Italy there there there. Um, I want
1:47:27
Speaker 1: to say that their currency is the euro, right, the
1:47:29
Speaker 1: currency is the euro. So when we get there, we
1:47:32
Speaker 1: can't spend US dollars. We have to convert our US
1:47:35
Speaker 1: dollars to their primary currency. So just for simplistic you know,
1:47:41
Speaker 1: simplistic understanding, let's say it's a two to one ratio
1:47:45
Speaker 1: for every two U. S. Dollars We give them equals
1:47:48
Speaker 1: one euro, so we give them a thousand U S.
1:47:50
Speaker 1: Dollars in return, they'll give us five hundred euros. Now,
1:47:53
Speaker 1: let's say we're on that trip, is all expense paid.
1:47:56
Speaker 1: You know, we're just having a good time. We don't
1:47:58
Speaker 1: have to worry about anything. We just have some spending cash,
1:48:01
Speaker 1: that five hundred EUROLD that we converted over from a
1:48:03
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Let's say at the end of that trip
1:48:06
Speaker 1: we end up spending nothing. We still have that five
1:48:08
Speaker 1: hundred year old We get back to the States and
1:48:10
Speaker 1: we realized that we cannot spend euro in the United States.
1:48:13
Speaker 1: So all we have to do is, you know, I'm
1:48:15
Speaker 1: pretty sure people have seen it in the airport. Go
1:48:17
Speaker 1: to those foreign Exchange center booths and say, I want
1:48:20
Speaker 1: to exchange my five hundred YEARROLD back to U. S. Dollars.
1:48:23
Speaker 1: I didn't spend any of it when I was on
1:48:25
Speaker 1: the trip. Now, logically thinking people are gonna be expecting
1:48:29
Speaker 1: a thousand U S. Dollars back, but what can happen
1:48:33
Speaker 1: to things can happen. You can get more or less
1:48:36
Speaker 1: than what you exchange. You can give them that five
1:48:39
Speaker 1: hundred year old and they give you two thousand U S.
1:48:41
Speaker 1: Dollars back and you profit a thousand dollars. Or you
1:48:43
Speaker 1: can give them that five hundred year old and they
1:48:45
Speaker 1: give you five hundred U S. Dollars, where you lost
1:48:47
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars. The education, and that is where you
1:48:51
Speaker 1: understand what's going on. So if I understand the foreign
1:48:55
Speaker 1: exchange market, I see that, you know, the euro can
1:48:58
Speaker 1: get stronger to the US dollar, meaning that when I
1:49:01
Speaker 1: exchange it over it can double triple whatever what I did,
1:49:07
Speaker 1: what it was before I exchanged it, So at first
1:49:09
Speaker 1: it was two dollars, but when I exchange it back,
1:49:12
Speaker 1: it's four dollars. So I can actually make money, not
1:49:14
Speaker 1: by spending it, not by necessarily working, but just by
1:49:18
Speaker 1: exchanging currency at the right time. I don't know if
1:49:21
Speaker 1: you caught the rashan, but you know that's the basis
1:49:24
Speaker 1: of what the foreign exchange market is. It's just buying
1:49:26
Speaker 1: and selling currency and making money off of the fluctuation
1:49:30
Speaker 1: of the value. Well, you know, because you know, you know,
1:49:33
Speaker 1: I travel or been to Mexico, been to Europe. You
1:49:36
Speaker 1: know the currency exchange, and I never really pay an
1:49:39
Speaker 1: attention to it, you know, other than the when them
1:49:41
Speaker 1: there in the moment, and so a lot of people don't.
1:49:43
Speaker 1: A lot of people, African Americans especially, they travel and
1:49:46
Speaker 1: they either get get caught up in the complications or
1:49:49
Speaker 1: they're just spen spend cash, and especially go to Mexico.
1:49:52
Speaker 1: You giveaway with just spending cash a lot of a
1:49:54
Speaker 1: lot of places that you go. But I've never heard
1:49:57
Speaker 1: this because I'm an stock buyer. You know, by stop,
1:50:00
Speaker 1: I got buy mutual funds, investing insurance policies that that
1:50:04
Speaker 1: that that that give me a secured interest on my
1:50:08
Speaker 1: on my money that I invested as a universe or
1:50:11
Speaker 1: a whole, you can get a secured interest usually about
1:50:13
Speaker 1: four percent. So that's for Rashan McDonald's mindset has always
1:50:17
Speaker 1: been when it comes to investing, you said, hold up,
1:50:19
Speaker 1: put the brakes on the pump. The break of Sean.
1:50:22
Speaker 1: The far Exchange is also a market that I can
1:50:25
Speaker 1: invest my money into. Are you saying that as well? Absolutely?
1:50:30
Speaker 1: How so do I come to you? Do I they've
1:50:34
Speaker 1: got stockbroker officers open like they do it. I know
1:50:38
Speaker 1: you can. You can definitely come to me. That's that's
1:50:40
Speaker 1: exactly what we do. We teach people how to you know,
1:50:43
Speaker 1: um start participating. So to be completely honest with you,
1:50:47
Speaker 1: you don't have to pay anybody to to get started
1:50:50
Speaker 1: and start trading in the foreign exchange market. It but
1:50:53
Speaker 1: but who's you to get some education and get a
1:50:55
Speaker 1: mentorship and be attached to some type of platform that
1:50:58
Speaker 1: can give you guidance. But honestly, you can go start
1:51:01
Speaker 1: a startup broker right There's there's thousands of brokers online.
1:51:05
Speaker 1: If you just Google for egg broker, you can start
1:51:07
Speaker 1: an account for free and you can put as little
1:51:10
Speaker 1: as Some brokers allow you to put as little as
1:51:13
Speaker 1: tim bucks in your account to get started summer fifty.
1:51:16
Speaker 1: It just depends on the broker. And once you get
1:51:20
Speaker 1: that broker, you then attach that broker to your your
1:51:24
Speaker 1: trading platform, which we use either metatrator for or mediatrtor five.
1:51:28
Speaker 1: These are actually actual apps on your phone that you
1:51:31
Speaker 1: can download for free. So once you get your broker,
1:51:33
Speaker 1: they'll give you some credentials to connect that broker account
1:51:36
Speaker 1: to your trading app, which is could be mediatrator for
1:51:39
Speaker 1: metatrtor five and then you start trading. It's as simple
1:51:43
Speaker 1: as that, you know. But what we do is we
1:51:46
Speaker 1: we we give you that guidance. We give you that
1:51:48
Speaker 1: you know, that mentorship to show you not only you
1:51:51
Speaker 1: know how to just put money in your account, but
1:51:53
Speaker 1: how to actually make it grow consistently. And that's what
1:51:56
Speaker 1: that's what, that's what trade House is all about. Right absolutely,
1:51:59
Speaker 1: okay to so you know, let's let's talk about your
1:52:02
Speaker 1: background here a little bit. You know, you what the
1:52:03
Speaker 1: prayer of you what the Hampton first, and it was
1:52:06
Speaker 1: also money has always been to the forefront of your
1:52:08
Speaker 1: conversation because, like you said, it was too expensive. So
1:52:11
Speaker 1: you had to come back to the Houston area and
1:52:13
Speaker 1: uh consider texas southern, but it didn't hit your major
1:52:17
Speaker 1: and then you wanted to like that HBCU culture. That
1:52:20
Speaker 1: that that's structure that felt you walk around and he
1:52:23
Speaker 1: is a competitive environe with people that look like you.
1:52:25
Speaker 1: With the prayer of you got that degree, I went
1:52:28
Speaker 1: to California Snoop Dogg Country realized that okay, cool Snoop Stoop,
1:52:33
Speaker 1: I gotta go, brother, gotta go. I gotta get out
1:52:36
Speaker 1: of California, gotta get out of Compton. Their air where
1:52:38
Speaker 1: I'm out. And so now you're back in Houston, most
1:52:41
Speaker 1: city boy and trade House. You know the reason I
1:52:45
Speaker 1: say that because you seem like an innovative, You seem
1:52:47
Speaker 1: like a person who sits around. Who is your core group,
1:52:51
Speaker 1: who w was your thinking team, Who was inspiring you
1:52:54
Speaker 1: in your group to be able to take a lot
1:52:56
Speaker 1: of these ideas to the next level, because you know,
1:52:58
Speaker 1: like with all of my Apple Michael's off they just
1:53:00
Speaker 1: start by themselves. They had a little core group of
1:53:02
Speaker 1: fellows that that managed to build these franchises out. Who
1:53:07
Speaker 1: who is your team? Absolutely? You know, my my younger brother,
1:53:11
Speaker 1: Bryce Thompson, he was actually one of the first people
1:53:14
Speaker 1: that I introduced, you know, to the skill set. And
1:53:17
Speaker 1: you know, he was in college at the time, struggling
1:53:21
Speaker 1: college student at more House College, and um, you know,
1:53:25
Speaker 1: when I've seen this, I said, man, if I would
1:53:26
Speaker 1: have had this in college, this is definitely something that
1:53:29
Speaker 1: would have changed the trajectory of my finances. And you know,
1:53:32
Speaker 1: I always wanted to put him on something, but I
1:53:35
Speaker 1: wanted to make sure it was sustainable, and I knew
1:53:37
Speaker 1: that he can have, you know, a long longevity in it,
1:53:41
Speaker 1: and so I passed this along to him and then
1:53:44
Speaker 1: you know, he got a few of his friends on
1:53:47
Speaker 1: shout out to Nathan Samuel Ian Jackson right now, though,
1:53:51
Speaker 1: Perez just to name a few, started with about four
1:53:55
Speaker 1: or five of us, but you know, I was the
1:53:56
Speaker 1: one that kind of spearheaded it brought it to everybody.
1:54:00
Speaker 1: Then we started to you know, collaborate and you know,
1:54:03
Speaker 1: amongst us, we we started spreading it to the colleges.
1:54:06
Speaker 1: I called it the rich college Kids tour Um because
1:54:10
Speaker 1: simply I didn't I didn't want to. I didn't want
1:54:13
Speaker 1: to start, you know, and my my uh demographic because
1:54:17
Speaker 1: we were already in college, I said, I mean I
1:54:19
Speaker 1: already graduating college. I was looking for people that were
1:54:22
Speaker 1: already in the lining environment and we're looking for extra money.
1:54:26
Speaker 1: So I feel like that was the best market to start, Like,
1:54:28
Speaker 1: we can get you here in college where you're already
1:54:31
Speaker 1: in a in a in a mindset to learn something new,
1:54:33
Speaker 1: and you you want to get more money because we
1:54:36
Speaker 1: know the struggling college student story. I said, this would
1:54:39
Speaker 1: be the perfect, you know, demographic to start at and
1:54:42
Speaker 1: really take this to the next level. Wow. So you
1:54:44
Speaker 1: guys have been view and your brother Bright's have been
1:54:46
Speaker 1: featured in Forest magazine. Now what did that do for
1:54:49
Speaker 1: your brain? Come on now, Forbes, man, it definitely legitimizes it.
1:54:54
Speaker 1: You know. Um, you know, like you said, are are
1:54:58
Speaker 1: our people don't really understand and you know, the the
1:55:01
Speaker 1: investment world, I feel like we've we've taken over a
1:55:03
Speaker 1: lot of different industries from entertainment, sports, you know, but
1:55:06
Speaker 1: I feel like business and and the finance well is
1:55:09
Speaker 1: something that we're still you know, competing to really you know,
1:55:12
Speaker 1: hold the crowning. So like to have that article written
1:55:15
Speaker 1: for both of us in that light, you know, just
1:55:17
Speaker 1: just it gives validity that that we can be you know,
1:55:21
Speaker 1: on top in that space and that you know, it's
1:55:24
Speaker 1: it's a lot more room for us. We just have
1:55:26
Speaker 1: to you know, put ourselves around the right people that
1:55:29
Speaker 1: had the right information. You know, it's really interesting when
1:55:31
Speaker 1: I hear you talk because you're young, which is a blessing,
1:55:34
Speaker 1: but you but you figured it out. You know. I
1:55:36
Speaker 1: always tell people you can just figured it out. I
1:55:39
Speaker 1: will give you four just sit down and figure it out.
1:55:42
Speaker 1: But don't you have to trust yourself? And then when
1:55:45
Speaker 1: I say trust yourself, obviously you graduated, you went to California,
1:55:49
Speaker 1: was living to quote unquote plan and then you said
1:55:53
Speaker 1: the plan is not working for me. So when did
1:55:56
Speaker 1: you start trusting yourself. Brendon, Well, you know, I always
1:56:03
Speaker 1: was was one of those people that I wasn't necessarily
1:56:09
Speaker 1: like a logical thinking. I'm a logical thinking, but I'm
1:56:12
Speaker 1: very intuitive, right, I'm very intuned with with with with
1:56:15
Speaker 1: the spirit, right and and and my inner self. And
1:56:20
Speaker 1: one of the people that I looked up to one
1:56:21
Speaker 1: of my I guess you could say my virtual mentors
1:56:24
Speaker 1: is Napoleon Hill. And I probably start watching um and
1:56:28
Speaker 1: reading some of his material. Back in TWI and uh,
1:56:33
Speaker 1: I watched the video on YouTube called the Seventeen Keys
1:56:36
Speaker 1: to Success by Napoleon Hill, and I will watch, you know, uh,
1:56:40
Speaker 1: I guess an excerpt every day before I went to class.
1:56:43
Speaker 1: It was seventeen of them. And you know, once I
1:56:47
Speaker 1: realized some of the things I was doing was actually
1:56:49
Speaker 1: on accident, like you know, manifesting things, and he actually
1:56:53
Speaker 1: made it like an actual thing. While I was like, Wow,
1:56:56
Speaker 1: I can actually be intentional about manifesting my life. I
1:56:59
Speaker 1: could be intentional about, you know, the things I do
1:57:02
Speaker 1: to get success. So once I understood that there's intentionalism
1:57:06
Speaker 1: behind succeeding, then I start doing those things on a
1:57:09
Speaker 1: on a daily basis. And I realized that okay. Cool.
1:57:12
Speaker 1: If I want to do something that's outside of the normal,
1:57:15
Speaker 1: that that might look crazy to other people, it's okay
1:57:18
Speaker 1: because if I'm intentional enough and I understand the formula
1:57:21
Speaker 1: and the recipe to success, it's gonna all make sense
1:57:25
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. We know. An interesting
1:57:27
Speaker 1: thing of what I love about you, first of all,
1:57:29
Speaker 1: is that you don't forget the value of being an
1:57:32
Speaker 1: hbc You graduated and then your your scholarship that you
1:57:35
Speaker 1: created to fund HBCU students in the stillm uh lane,
1:57:41
Speaker 1: why is that important? It's it's super important. Um, it's
1:57:47
Speaker 1: it's not enough of us in that space. One. And
1:57:51
Speaker 1: so I wanted to be a an example to say, hey,
1:57:54
Speaker 1: look I'm somebody that yeah, I'm not in the field anymore.
1:57:58
Speaker 1: But I did use it as a for him, um,
1:58:02
Speaker 1: and you can do it too. And then I also
1:58:05
Speaker 1: know that you know, it's a lot of it's a
1:58:07
Speaker 1: lot of smart kids out there that are struggling in
1:58:10
Speaker 1: school and they want to be able to focus. I
1:58:14
Speaker 1: remember struggling at Hampton more specifically, UM, when I was
1:58:19
Speaker 1: going from my electrical engineering degree, and it was so
1:58:23
Speaker 1: it was such a different experience because my finances weren't
1:58:26
Speaker 1: in order. Your finances are in order. In school, it's
1:58:31
Speaker 1: hard to to, I guess, focus on the scholastics. It's
1:58:36
Speaker 1: hard to focus on the curriculum. You're more so focusing on, Man,
1:58:39
Speaker 1: how am I gonna even buy the book? How am
1:58:41
Speaker 1: I gonna pay my rent? How am I gonna eat?
1:58:43
Speaker 1: You know, am I even gonna have enough money to
1:58:45
Speaker 1: go to school the next semester? So it's a lot
1:58:47
Speaker 1: of the it's a lot of distractions when you don't
1:58:49
Speaker 1: have your finances in order. And so if I could
1:58:52
Speaker 1: take that that thought away from a student and say, hey,
1:58:55
Speaker 1: you know, college is is your semester is paid for?
1:58:58
Speaker 1: Just focus on the on the books, just focus on
1:59:00
Speaker 1: getting the internship, and and that's gonna do you well
1:59:04
Speaker 1: off well, way way more well. You're gonna be way
1:59:06
Speaker 1: more well off if you're able to focus just on
1:59:09
Speaker 1: school then focusing on finances. So that was really big
1:59:12
Speaker 1: for me to be able to, you know, give back
1:59:14
Speaker 1: to two people that I know have been in my
1:59:16
Speaker 1: shoes before and understand the power of them, you know,
1:59:20
Speaker 1: taking that that that whole out of their life, so
1:59:23
Speaker 1: that could really focus on what's important. You know, Um,
1:59:27
Speaker 1: I enjoy reading your synopsis that were sent on about
1:59:31
Speaker 1: you because you talked about your mom and uh, you
1:59:34
Speaker 1: and your brother Bryce, and I remember my mom, you know,
1:59:37
Speaker 1: like if we were born, and fear for my father
1:59:39
Speaker 1: passed before she passed. She's passed now. And one of
1:59:43
Speaker 1: the things she wouldn't move out of that house. You know,
1:59:45
Speaker 1: we grew up with a you know, a window, our
1:59:47
Speaker 1: condition and unit. And she moved the stove. You know
1:59:51
Speaker 1: what we do, you lean on you're gonna get burned,
1:59:53
Speaker 1: you know, gas stove. You know, the whole thing was hot.
1:59:57
Speaker 1: And I told us, say, hey, I to tear down house.
2:00:00
Speaker 1: She would let me tear out of house. That's okay, cool,
2:00:03
Speaker 1: because I wanted her to live and experience central air conditioning,
2:00:06
Speaker 1: central heat, you know, just just you walk into a
2:00:09
Speaker 1: room and it's warm, you know. And uh. And I
2:00:11
Speaker 1: was able to do that and now and and before
2:00:14
Speaker 1: she passed, because that was that was one of my
2:00:16
Speaker 1: you know, dreams of giving her that life. Of course,
2:00:18
Speaker 1: she never went back into the old part of the
2:00:20
Speaker 1: house that she wouldn't let me tear out. Basically, I
2:00:22
Speaker 1: build a new part of the house onto an old
2:00:24
Speaker 1: part of the house. When I read about you know,
2:00:26
Speaker 1: unless you with your mom and how you and your
2:00:28
Speaker 1: brother Bryce were able to retire her allowed her to
2:00:31
Speaker 1: follow her or live her passage. Talk about that, the
2:00:33
Speaker 1: importance of that, Oh man, I think I think every
2:00:38
Speaker 1: child wants to be able to pay homage to their parents,
2:00:42
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's financially or it's them just succeeding
2:00:47
Speaker 1: at a high level to make them proud. So, you know,
2:00:49
Speaker 1: graduating college was definitely one of the things that you know,
2:00:54
Speaker 1: um that motivated me to finish. You know, graduating college
2:00:58
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, I gotta do it. My mom, she
2:01:01
Speaker 1: she didn't she didn't get to go, So you know,
2:01:03
Speaker 1: she made it important that I made it importance on
2:01:06
Speaker 1: it that I should go and I should finish so
2:01:08
Speaker 1: I can have more opportunities than she did. But you know,
2:01:12
Speaker 1: getting into a space where I was financially you know, sustained,
2:01:17
Speaker 1: sustained enough to not only take care of myself, but
2:01:19
Speaker 1: then trickle it down and be like, hey, mom, you
2:01:22
Speaker 1: don't have to work anymore. You know, I'm making enough
2:01:25
Speaker 1: money where I could send you, you know, allowance every
2:01:28
Speaker 1: week for you to not only cover your bills, but
2:01:30
Speaker 1: for you to actually live a better lifestyle than you've
2:01:33
Speaker 1: been living. And you know that's always been a dream
2:01:36
Speaker 1: of mine. You know, they say you gotta have a whip.
2:01:38
Speaker 1: You don't have a while, you know what I'm saying,
2:01:40
Speaker 1: Then it's gonna be hard to really push through those
2:01:43
Speaker 1: tough times. You know, the hire stands for will help you, right,
2:01:45
Speaker 1: So on those tough times, you gotta have something that
2:01:47
Speaker 1: you're anchored to, that you're you're pushing for as bigger
2:01:50
Speaker 1: than yourself. And so, you know, just having my mom
2:01:52
Speaker 1: in the back of my mind, knowing all the sacrifices
2:01:55
Speaker 1: that she made for me to even you know, get
2:01:57
Speaker 1: to college, you know, it made me feel like a
2:02:01
Speaker 1: sense of responsibility that I had to at least try
2:02:04
Speaker 1: to pay it back. I know I can never pay
2:02:05
Speaker 1: it back, but I could at least, you know, you know,
2:02:08
Speaker 1: try my hardest to to to give her, like you said,
2:02:11
Speaker 1: an experience that she probably wouldn't have gotten if I didn't,
2:02:14
Speaker 1: you know, make that um the forefront of my goals. Well,
2:02:17
Speaker 1: you know, before COVID, that's what they said, no mask
2:02:20
Speaker 1: And we've been doing doing virtual and events for the
2:02:23
Speaker 1: past year. You got the I Millennial three conference happening
2:02:26
Speaker 1: this month, in Miami, my favorite city. By the way,
2:02:29
Speaker 1: I don't know why you're doing it down there, brand
2:02:31
Speaker 1: I know why. I love why you're doing it down there.
2:02:34
Speaker 1: It's happening again. Talk about how it started though, you know,
2:02:37
Speaker 1: because the keyword you are millennial, and so you you know,
2:02:41
Speaker 1: literials get a bad rap bum rap, And I think
2:02:43
Speaker 1: they're easing up now because the fact that you understand mentorship,
2:02:48
Speaker 1: You crave me mentorship, you seek out mentorship, and I
2:02:51
Speaker 1: think that's something that's important. It was something I didn't do.
2:02:54
Speaker 1: I didn't understand when I was growing up, and you
2:02:56
Speaker 1: guys understand the value of mentorship and just hanging around
2:03:00
Speaker 1: people were experienced. Talk about the Millennial Millennial three conferences
2:03:03
Speaker 1: happening in Miami this month. Oh, I'm super super excited
2:03:07
Speaker 1: about I AM three. You know, it's gonna be a
2:03:11
Speaker 1: industry shifting event, you know, just to give you a
2:03:14
Speaker 1: little backstory on I AM you know, it is a
2:03:18
Speaker 1: you know, essentially an event where we come together as
2:03:21
Speaker 1: an organization and we just give value from you know,
2:03:25
Speaker 1: teaching how to market mindset, you know, you know, strategies
2:03:30
Speaker 1: on you know, looking at the market and becoming more
2:03:33
Speaker 1: profitable and then as well as entertainment. You know, we
2:03:35
Speaker 1: want to have fun while we're there. But you know,
2:03:37
Speaker 1: we started off I Am One in Atlanta, Georgia at
2:03:41
Speaker 1: the Four Seasons Hotel downtown and we had about maybe
2:03:45
Speaker 1: eleven d people show up, very great turn out, you know,
2:03:48
Speaker 1: for our first one. And then the second one we had,
2:03:52
Speaker 1: I Am Too was in Houston, Texas at the Marriott
2:03:55
Speaker 1: Hotel in West Chase District in Houston, Texas, and um
2:03:59
Speaker 1: it was about fourth doulland over four thousand people, you know,
2:04:03
Speaker 1: and then the pandemic hit right after that. So now
2:04:07
Speaker 1: you know, we've been able to finess our way into
2:04:10
Speaker 1: the hard Rock Stadium, you know, where the Dolphins play
2:04:14
Speaker 1: in Miami, Florida, and you know, we're expecting you know,
2:04:18
Speaker 1: anywhere from fifteen thousand and twenty thousand people in attendance.
2:04:21
Speaker 1: We're having performers like the Baby Uh come out and
2:04:25
Speaker 1: give us entertainment as well as I'm actually performing on
2:04:29
Speaker 1: on one of those days as well, which is something
2:04:31
Speaker 1: I don't know if you you knew that I got
2:04:33
Speaker 1: into music as well. But you know this, this is
2:04:36
Speaker 1: gonna be a life changing event for not only people
2:04:38
Speaker 1: that are there, but the people that have been looking
2:04:41
Speaker 1: at this industry and at this lane of investing in
2:04:44
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship and say wow, like maybe this is something I
2:04:47
Speaker 1: should get in, Like it's becoming mainstream, Like your favorite
2:04:51
Speaker 1: rappers and entertainers are now starting to become more you know,
2:04:55
Speaker 1: more keen to to getting getting informed and getting educated
2:04:59
Speaker 1: on space. So I think it's it's well needed because
2:05:03
Speaker 1: you know, the culture needs needs influencers and people that
2:05:07
Speaker 1: are in the industry that that we look up to
2:05:09
Speaker 1: to say, you know what, this is the right way
2:05:11
Speaker 1: to go. Learning how to invest is cool, Learning about
2:05:13
Speaker 1: cryptocurrency is something that you need to take serious. And
2:05:17
Speaker 1: so I'm truly excited for this event and I know
2:05:20
Speaker 1: that it's gonna be the catalyst that text me, my organization,
2:05:23
Speaker 1: my family to the next level where you know, you
2:05:24
Speaker 1: have me at rock Star the Baby you know right there.
2:05:27
Speaker 1: But my staff they always laughing, they that's that's my
2:05:30
Speaker 1: song man, rock Star the Baby got in performing and
2:05:33
Speaker 1: doing this thing, and that I would laughing. When they
2:05:36
Speaker 1: had that Super Bowl commercial, I said, see, I told
2:05:38
Speaker 1: you that's my part, rock Star. But it's really great. Inclosed, man,
2:05:42
Speaker 1: what what's your advice for the younger generation in terms
2:05:44
Speaker 1: of creating generational wealth. When you talk about this, Brendon,
2:05:49
Speaker 1: if there's any advice I can give h You know,
2:05:52
Speaker 1: the younger generation out there is you know when you
2:05:55
Speaker 1: when you're growing up and you have dreams, whether you're
2:05:57
Speaker 1: a years or nine years or you have dreams a
2:05:59
Speaker 1: big aimes and as you go go into real life,
2:06:02
Speaker 1: you know you you tend to get jaded because of
2:06:05
Speaker 1: the people around you, the media and all that. You know,
2:06:08
Speaker 1: keep listening to that voice inside of your head, still
2:06:10
Speaker 1: staying at that that that dreaming phase, and understand that
2:06:13
Speaker 1: you cannot listen to people that don't have the information,
2:06:16
Speaker 1: the resort, the results, or the lifestyle that you that
2:06:19
Speaker 1: you want right that if you're listening to them, ask yourself,
2:06:22
Speaker 1: when I switch lifestyles with this person, when I switch
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Speaker 1: bank accounts with this person? If the answer is no,
2:06:28
Speaker 1: and keep following your heart. I love it. Thank you
2:06:31
Speaker 1: again for coming on the show Money Making Conversation. I'm
2:06:34
Speaker 1: based in Atlanta. I still at home in Houston, so
2:06:37
Speaker 1: if you come through Atlanta, please drop out Money Making Conversation.
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Speaker 1: the bank? We're gonna do it like that. Thank you,
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Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming on money making conversation. Okay. Please
2:07:16
Speaker 1: remember always lead with your gifts and don't let your age, friends, family,
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Speaker 1: or co workers stop you from planning or living your dreams.
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Speaker 1: from Coals or Coals dot Com. I'm Tanya sam Post
2:07:54
Speaker 1: of The Money Moves Podcast powered by Greenwood. This daily
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