Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Former NBA star, Al Harrington, works to empower his community now employing over 100 individuals

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Former NBA star, Al Harrington, works to empower his community now employing over 100 individuals · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: Making Conversations. Here we come, Hell Lor, Atlanta, Georgia. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversation. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald. As
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Speaker 1: I say it every week, it's time to start reading
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Speaker 1: other people's success stories and start writing your own. People
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Speaker 1: always talking about their gifts. They pass and leave with
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Speaker 1: your gifts. Stop talking about it and don't let your age, friends, family,
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Speaker 1: My interviews, I bring on money making conversations for you
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Speaker 1: my celebrity friends. Some celebrities I don't meet him for
2:13
Speaker 1: the first time on my show, but there for you CEOs, entrepreneurs,
2:17
Speaker 1: and industry decision makers. My next guest is a guy
2:20
Speaker 1: I've seen it a long time. He's one of my
2:22
Speaker 1: favorite people. Al Harrington. He has a retired NBA star
2:26
Speaker 1: as the CEO and founder of the premium cannabis company
2:29
Speaker 1: Viola Incorporative. Inspired the name in honor of his grandmother,
2:33
Speaker 1: Viola Harrington after seeing how cannabis helped Viola, who suffered
2:37
Speaker 1: from glaucoma and diabetes. Als entrepreneur endeavors begin and doing
2:41
Speaker 1: his NBA career when he strategically invested in startups across
2:45
Speaker 1: the cannabis industry. Then in t al bought Bought brought
2:49
Speaker 1: Viola to the market after overseeing the carefully created cultivation
2:53
Speaker 1: and extraction and production. This part of his mission is
2:56
Speaker 1: to say this entrepreneur opportunity is for everybody. He's there,
3:00
Speaker 1: he's a leader in the business. He's throughout this country.
3:02
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the locations that he's grown his
3:04
Speaker 1: business over one hundred employees. Wow, please walcome to the show.
3:09
Speaker 1: My man, he's an entrepreneur. Don't like I said, Well,
3:12
Speaker 1: she said, Lebron said, more than the athlete. That's my
3:14
Speaker 1: man right here. Al Harriton, I ain't doing all you know,
3:21
Speaker 1: I I had to bring it up man more than
3:23
Speaker 1: an athlete, man, because I was interviewing, um, Chris Paul
3:27
Speaker 1: and Chris Paul he was in the interview he talked
3:29
Speaker 1: about the guy said, guy was caught off guard that
3:32
Speaker 1: he knew more than just about the game that he played.
3:35
Speaker 1: He said, Man, we do we dribble, We do want
3:37
Speaker 1: to just dribble a basketball. Man. We eat, we live,
3:39
Speaker 1: we have family, we do business deals, and that's really
3:43
Speaker 1: sometimes you can get caught off by that. People just
3:45
Speaker 1: kind of like short change you because you are an athlete, correct, Yeah,
3:49
Speaker 1: for sure. I mean you gots and it's super expecting, right.
3:51
Speaker 1: I mean most people are fans or whatever. They only
3:55
Speaker 1: see us on Sports Center, right, they don't. You know,
3:57
Speaker 1: we don't have too many outlets where we get a
3:59
Speaker 1: chance to, um, you know, show the other side of
4:03
Speaker 1: our life, right, the things that we do in the community,
4:06
Speaker 1: the investments that we make, you know, so, um, you
4:09
Speaker 1: know it's important for like platforms like what you have here,
4:12
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, to be able to highlight
4:14
Speaker 1: athletes and allow us to show the world that we
4:17
Speaker 1: are more than athletes, and we're more than guys who
4:19
Speaker 1: just contrible a basketball and make a make a hoop.
4:22
Speaker 1: You know, the interesting thing about it is that you
4:24
Speaker 1: know when you were giving it a talent and I
4:26
Speaker 1: want to I want to be Uh. I have to
4:29
Speaker 1: slow it down when I say the word talent because
4:30
Speaker 1: then everybody has a talent. But if you don't work
4:33
Speaker 1: on it and mature it, then guess what, it's just
4:35
Speaker 1: a talent. Let's talk about the process of once you
4:39
Speaker 1: realize you had the ability to play basketball, and then
4:42
Speaker 1: people I saw you having that ability to play basketball,
4:46
Speaker 1: how did you move forward and making it an opportunity
4:48
Speaker 1: that you can make money with it? Well, you know,
4:52
Speaker 1: for me, like, uh, my basketball talent came from nowhere,
4:57
Speaker 1: almost right when I grew up. Believe it or not,
5:00
Speaker 1: is uh. You know, I was always the biggest kid
5:02
Speaker 1: in class. But I was the biggest kid in class.
5:05
Speaker 1: You know, my real team is Albert. So I used
5:06
Speaker 1: to be fat Albert growing up. So I used to
5:09
Speaker 1: be bullied a little bit, you know, about my size
5:11
Speaker 1: and my weight. So you know, the way I could
5:14
Speaker 1: take out my frustration was on a football field. So
5:17
Speaker 1: I played football up until I was a freshman in
5:19
Speaker 1: high school. And that's when I had a gross spurt.
5:21
Speaker 1: So I went from you know five ten to six four,
5:24
Speaker 1: and you know, played on the freshman team. Wasn't that good. Uh,
5:27
Speaker 1: But for some reason, you know, my AU coach guy
5:30
Speaker 1: named Sandy Payon and then Jay Syriac, they saw a
5:32
Speaker 1: talent in me somehow, and you know, they started to
5:35
Speaker 1: invite me to work out some different things like that,
5:38
Speaker 1: and you know, over time, I fell in love with
5:40
Speaker 1: the game, and you know, going into my junior years,
5:42
Speaker 1: when I made a commitment that you know, I wanted
5:44
Speaker 1: to be a ranked athlete. You know, I was wasn't ranked,
5:47
Speaker 1: but I saw a lot of the guys that was
5:48
Speaker 1: in the top one hundred and top ten, and I
5:51
Speaker 1: just felt like there wasn't that much better than me.
5:52
Speaker 1: You know, It's just that they just have been playing longer.
5:55
Speaker 1: So I just really dedicated myself to the gym and
5:57
Speaker 1: just got really good man and over year spend, I
6:01
Speaker 1: went from an unraped you know, uh, you know player
6:04
Speaker 1: to the number one player in the country. Right. So
6:07
Speaker 1: once I got to that point, you know, all the
6:09
Speaker 1: number one players in the country was going to the league.
6:12
Speaker 1: So I was just like shoot the vodka to the
6:15
Speaker 1: point I'm the number one player, I'm gonna go pro too,
6:18
Speaker 1: And pretty much that's how I made my decision. I
6:20
Speaker 1: was just like, I'm the one player everybody else is
6:22
Speaker 1: going from too, and that's how. But the key key
6:27
Speaker 1: to you was when you got to the n B
6:28
Speaker 1: and you had you had mentors, you know, because that's
6:31
Speaker 1: where a lot of players like you that are young
6:34
Speaker 1: don't have a real professional athletes pull you aside. Talk
6:38
Speaker 1: about that experience in the importance of mentorship for a
6:41
Speaker 1: young man who was suddenly in a legal adults. You know,
6:45
Speaker 1: all the responsibility being an adult is placed on you
6:47
Speaker 1: and you have money. Yeah, it's it's uh, you know,
6:52
Speaker 1: it's it's eye opening. You know when you go from
6:55
Speaker 1: literally like nothing, so now having a million dollars in
6:59
Speaker 1: the bank is it's like you can't fathom it. And
7:02
Speaker 1: you know, for me, where I was just really lucky
7:03
Speaker 1: was that I got on a you know, Indiana Pacers
7:06
Speaker 1: squad that had just lost in you know, seven games
7:09
Speaker 1: to Michael Jordan's Bulls. So they brought back up a
7:12
Speaker 1: fully veteran team. So I had guys on my team
7:15
Speaker 1: that just taught me everything. They told me how to
7:17
Speaker 1: be a professional, which is the most important thing, right.
7:19
Speaker 1: I always say, the foundation that they lay with me
7:22
Speaker 1: is the reason why that I was able to play
7:23
Speaker 1: for sixteen years. And you know, to your point, a
7:26
Speaker 1: lot of the younger guys that do get drafted, you know,
7:29
Speaker 1: in the first the top ten, they usually go to
7:31
Speaker 1: teams that aren't really good, right, And usually they're not
7:33
Speaker 1: really good because this poor leadership, the team is extremely
7:37
Speaker 1: young and they just have nobody to you know, kind
7:40
Speaker 1: of give them direction or whatever. So I always say, like,
7:42
Speaker 1: as much as I wanted to be a top fifteen
7:44
Speaker 1: pick or whatever, and I looked at the teams that
7:46
Speaker 1: I wanted to draft me, I think that guy was
7:49
Speaker 1: definitely looking out for me by putting me on a
7:50
Speaker 1: pacer team that had guys like Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson,
7:54
Speaker 1: Chris Mullen, and Tonio Davis who actually allowed me to
7:57
Speaker 1: live with him my freshman. ILL tell this story, quick story.
8:00
Speaker 1: I had got h you know these books I called
8:02
Speaker 1: them at the time in the mail and I looked
8:04
Speaker 1: at him and they had like the year and dating
8:06
Speaker 1: my name on it, and I didn't know what they were.
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Speaker 1: So I took him and put it in my closet
8:10
Speaker 1: and like two weeks later, I come home from practice
8:12
Speaker 1: in Antonio has these same books and he's like signing them.
8:15
Speaker 1: So I asked him what they were and he was like,
8:17
Speaker 1: in my taxes. I was like, I got those same
8:22
Speaker 1: books taxes. So it's like so, I mean, it was
8:31
Speaker 1: on the court and off the court, you know the
8:33
Speaker 1: way that these guys leave me, you know, help set
8:37
Speaker 1: me up to, like I said, be able to play
8:39
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Speaker 1: looked at background. Al I man into Steve Harvey Camp
10:41
Speaker 1: and man, it was hot and we were just laughing
10:43
Speaker 1: and we we we were phone called each other period
10:46
Speaker 1: and we kind of like it lost uh like disconnected there.
10:49
Speaker 1: But the thing I loved about this guy man was there.
10:52
Speaker 1: You know, you always think people gotta have a degree
10:55
Speaker 1: to do this. You have to get a certain to graduate.
10:58
Speaker 1: And here you are, like you said, you fished your life.
11:02
Speaker 1: Decision on everybody else was number one, they went pro.
11:03
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go pro. But then while you was a pro,
11:07
Speaker 1: you had the smart the sense to learn how to
11:11
Speaker 1: be a professional and learned there is life after basketball.
11:16
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm talking about. You decided to start
11:18
Speaker 1: investing in your after life career while you were still playing.
11:22
Speaker 1: Why was that so important? Well, you know I had
11:26
Speaker 1: a financial so so you know, quick story. Uh, I
11:29
Speaker 1: got plenty of stories, but my U I think it
11:32
Speaker 1: was my third year in the league. I was sitting
11:34
Speaker 1: in the locker room, and I was sitting next to
11:36
Speaker 1: um Derek McKee, and somehow we just started talking about
11:40
Speaker 1: investing and how much money, you know, had I saved
11:43
Speaker 1: at that point, and he was asking me questions that
11:45
Speaker 1: I didn't really know the answer of, right, because I
11:49
Speaker 1: was focused on playing right. I had had a back surgery,
11:52
Speaker 1: so I was just trying to get back and just
11:54
Speaker 1: focusing on the game and never like really looking at
11:56
Speaker 1: my finances. But when he asked me some questions I
11:59
Speaker 1: didn't know the answer. He was like, I'm gonna give
12:01
Speaker 1: you some homework answer these questions for me. And I
12:03
Speaker 1: went back and I looked at everything and I started
12:06
Speaker 1: asking questions, and what I realized was like I had
12:08
Speaker 1: like three hundred and fifty thousand dollars saved, and I
12:10
Speaker 1: had a couple of assets here and there, but for
12:13
Speaker 1: the most part, I was still broke, right and this
12:16
Speaker 1: is after I had probably already made about three million bucks.
12:19
Speaker 1: And that was very eye opening for me at that time,
12:22
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And it really, like, you know,
12:24
Speaker 1: just made me look at everything differently. And and Derek
12:28
Speaker 1: also introduced me to his financial advisor, which was an
12:30
Speaker 1: older gentleman out of lexing to Kentucky. And what I
12:33
Speaker 1: like about this gentleman was one he really challenged me
12:36
Speaker 1: out the gate. You know. It was just like you know, um,
12:39
Speaker 1: you know, any business opportunities that you want to do, Um,
12:42
Speaker 1: I'll look at him for you, but you know you're
12:44
Speaker 1: gonna have to present to me why this is a
12:46
Speaker 1: good deal. And start vetting deals on my own at
12:51
Speaker 1: a very young age, and it just started giving me
12:53
Speaker 1: more business sense and more business acumen and how to
12:56
Speaker 1: ask the right questions and not just fall for any
12:58
Speaker 1: opportunity that would actually on my way. You know. So
13:01
Speaker 1: I'll always give him a lot of credit for those
13:04
Speaker 1: two gentlemen because you know, you know, I think I
13:07
Speaker 1: was maybe twenty one, maybe twenty two years old is
13:10
Speaker 1: when I started to have those kind of conversations, and
13:12
Speaker 1: it just really inspired me to just learn more every time,
13:16
Speaker 1: you know, a deal came across my plate, and you know,
13:18
Speaker 1: from an entrepreneur standpoint, like I just you know, I
13:21
Speaker 1: love business man. It's like it's like the game. You know,
13:24
Speaker 1: what I'm saying and what I've learned about how translated
13:27
Speaker 1: what I've learned in sports to businesses. It's all about team,
13:31
Speaker 1: you know, so anytime I look at the deal, I'm
13:33
Speaker 1: looking at the team who's involved. You know what, I'm saying,
13:36
Speaker 1: who's gonna be executing, who's gonna set the pick, who's
13:38
Speaker 1: gonna be three point shooter, who's gonna you know, what
13:41
Speaker 1: are the specialists that you have within your organization on
13:44
Speaker 1: why this is a good business opportunity and why this
13:46
Speaker 1: is gonna win? And you know, ever since I've taken
13:49
Speaker 1: that approach, man, you know, I've been pretty successful. You know,
13:52
Speaker 1: I would definitely say every idea or everything that I
13:55
Speaker 1: invested in did not work, but most did. And then
13:58
Speaker 1: you know, you look at this business, said I'm in
14:00
Speaker 1: now in cannabis. You know, this is our ten year anniversary.
14:03
Speaker 1: I'm very proud of that. You know, we've raised you know,
14:06
Speaker 1: just under twenty five million dollars. Six million of that
14:09
Speaker 1: was my own money. So I skinned the game and
14:11
Speaker 1: I'm ten years in and running the business as cash
14:13
Speaker 1: for positive where I look at a lot of my
14:15
Speaker 1: counterparts that don't even look like me one that they
14:18
Speaker 1: already have all the advantages, and these hundreds and a
14:20
Speaker 1: lot of them are out of business. So you know,
14:22
Speaker 1: I would just say that we've done a really good job.
14:24
Speaker 1: And I think I've done a really good job at
14:26
Speaker 1: the way I approach business, and I'm just continue to learn, man,
14:29
Speaker 1: because like to your point, I came out of high school,
14:31
Speaker 1: I didn't go to college. I don't have no business degree.
14:33
Speaker 1: A lot of decisions I've made is off of my gut.
14:36
Speaker 1: But you know, I've definitely learned how to look and
14:38
Speaker 1: d diligence on the opportunities before I jump on them.
14:41
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you somethingow Uh, if you made three
14:43
Speaker 1: million dollars and you were able to say three and
14:46
Speaker 1: into dollars, you were pretty smart to say. I'll just
14:49
Speaker 1: tell you right right there. You were not a dumby. Okay,
14:52
Speaker 1: you might say you were broke, but that was a
14:53
Speaker 1: pretty smart move. So you mean that you were listening
14:56
Speaker 1: along the way, which means that you understood that you
14:59
Speaker 1: need to put money to aside. You know what to
15:00
Speaker 1: do with the money. But the people who came into
15:03
Speaker 1: your life said, you got that, let's build that, and
15:06
Speaker 1: this is how you have to come to me, so
15:08
Speaker 1: you won't be coming up with no nightclub pitch, no
15:10
Speaker 1: car wash pitch with no with no amazization tied to
15:14
Speaker 1: the five year plan and so when you when you
15:16
Speaker 1: got into the cannabi's business, you know, right now it's
15:20
Speaker 1: it's you know, I remember when I first read about
15:22
Speaker 1: cannabis business, I just didn't even understand it, and I
15:27
Speaker 1: was like confused, you know, was it legal? Can you
15:31
Speaker 1: how can you do? You know? The athletes, they couldn't
15:34
Speaker 1: mess with it. Now you're here that the NFL is
15:37
Speaker 1: relaxing their rules, the NBA is a relaxing their rules
15:40
Speaker 1: if they're they're using the word medically and induced reasons
15:43
Speaker 1: as to why you can use cannabis CBD. When did
15:47
Speaker 1: it start changing because you dropped in when it was
15:50
Speaker 1: just like you know a lot of people say a
15:52
Speaker 1: good deal, but I'm was stay away and watch Now
15:55
Speaker 1: people are wanting to invest into your brand. Yeah, mean
16:00
Speaker 1: to your point, when I jumped in, it was not popular.
16:03
Speaker 1: You know, now every entertainer, athlete, everybody's making investments and
16:07
Speaker 1: you know, trying to endorse products. You know, when I
16:10
Speaker 1: did this, you know I was I put my contract
16:12
Speaker 1: at risk. Um, I put my freedom at risk essentially, right,
16:15
Speaker 1: you know, and we still do. I mean, it's still
16:17
Speaker 1: federally illegal, and I can be very honest with you
16:20
Speaker 1: now ten years later. When I first started, I was
16:22
Speaker 1: like you, I didn't know what the hell I was
16:24
Speaker 1: doing and what the meeting into. Um, all I knew
16:27
Speaker 1: was that I had seen it help my grandmother. UM.
16:31
Speaker 1: With my grandmother's background being that you know, she's a
16:34
Speaker 1: lady of she's she's a lady of the Lord. I
16:37
Speaker 1: tell you all the time, my grandmother not going to heaven.
16:39
Speaker 1: We're all going to hell for sure. Where you got
16:40
Speaker 1: a chance open minded enough to try cannabis and then work.
16:46
Speaker 1: And you know, for her when she tried it, the
16:48
Speaker 1: first thing she did was go downstairs and read a Bible.
16:51
Speaker 1: He told me. You know, the first time she read
16:52
Speaker 1: and read a bib went over three years. So that's
16:55
Speaker 1: what just really inspired me, like I said, to just
16:57
Speaker 1: learn more. And you know, from that day, from when
17:00
Speaker 1: I made the first investment getting out you know, our
17:03
Speaker 1: building that we have in Colorado now ten years and uh,
17:06
Speaker 1: you know, being robbed, being you know, having the plans,
17:11
Speaker 1: get sick in the in the facility, all these different
17:14
Speaker 1: obstacles that came our way. UM, I had every reason
17:18
Speaker 1: in the world a quit right and just be like
17:20
Speaker 1: you know what this ain't for me? You know, I
17:21
Speaker 1: could be golfing right now. Right, you know, I can
17:24
Speaker 1: say enough money that I could be doing something totally
17:25
Speaker 1: different in my life, but you know, I just really
17:29
Speaker 1: value that I had an opportunity to change the perception
17:34
Speaker 1: of cannabis to the world by using my platform speaking
17:37
Speaker 1: on it. And it went from that to trying to
17:40
Speaker 1: change the stigma to now my purposes around the around
17:44
Speaker 1: the inclusion and diversity of the industry, you know, and
17:47
Speaker 1: how it impact impacts the black community because they use
17:51
Speaker 1: cannabis to enslave us in, to destroy our communities. Now
17:55
Speaker 1: all these you know, we own less than four percent
17:58
Speaker 1: of the industry, there's billions of us being made, and
18:01
Speaker 1: there's still all these barriers for black people to participate
18:04
Speaker 1: in something that was nothing wrong with it in the
18:06
Speaker 1: first place. Right. So that's why my focus is literally
18:10
Speaker 1: on trying to right the wrongs that happened to our
18:13
Speaker 1: people in our community. And you know, I will say
18:16
Speaker 1: that it's very hard, you know, because if you don't
18:19
Speaker 1: have the capital to be able to really go out
18:21
Speaker 1: and support these people, because this industry is so cash intensive,
18:25
Speaker 1: you know, there are a lot of challenges. But you know,
18:27
Speaker 1: I feel like we've been able to you know, use
18:30
Speaker 1: you know, our our platform in different ways where it
18:32
Speaker 1: doesn't always require us to have to put in money.
18:35
Speaker 1: You know, we could use just our influence, some of
18:38
Speaker 1: our resources, just our knowledge, just giving people the right
18:41
Speaker 1: course to go down instead of going down the way
18:43
Speaker 1: that I already went down and that was not the
18:45
Speaker 1: right way, you know. So it's just really just trying
18:48
Speaker 1: to just trying to figure out what's the best way
18:49
Speaker 1: to have an impact on our community. And you know,
18:52
Speaker 1: that's what that's that's what is constantly motivating me every
18:55
Speaker 1: day to continue to grow this business. Looks to see
18:59
Speaker 1: the true magic of a forest. It's a storybook world
19:03
Speaker 1: for them. You look and see a tree, They see
19:06
Speaker 1: the wrinkled face of a wizard with arms outstretched to
19:09
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19:13
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19:17
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19:33
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20:03
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20:06
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20:10
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20:32
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20:58
Speaker 1: know somebody, you know, you got over, had employees, you
21:00
Speaker 1: know your you know, franchises in California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon,
21:06
Speaker 1: and Washington. And I'll tell you I was watching HBO
21:09
Speaker 1: when early stages of this cannabis andy and that they
21:12
Speaker 1: were showing this this this white guy. He had security
21:15
Speaker 1: all around them, okay, and he had to go to
21:18
Speaker 1: a warehouse and he had to have cash, and they
21:22
Speaker 1: were saying something like, you know, you can't deposit this
21:24
Speaker 1: money in the bank. It was like I was like, okay,
21:28
Speaker 1: that mean he's like everything the cash transactions. You couldn't
21:32
Speaker 1: deposit the money in the bank. That scared me. I
21:34
Speaker 1: would hold up. I gotta worry by my wife. I
21:36
Speaker 1: got worried by my daughter. Somebody gonna kidnap somebody. How
21:40
Speaker 1: did you How did you manage man to like, uh,
21:43
Speaker 1: survive you with all these barriers. You couldn't put the
21:47
Speaker 1: money in bank it's cash induced. You know, you gotta
21:50
Speaker 1: have security around here all the time. And I was like,
21:54
Speaker 1: I was blown away, man there that that ran me
21:56
Speaker 1: out the back door. I went, no way, no way,
21:58
Speaker 1: because people will come in the app. They were coming
22:00
Speaker 1: at me. You're smart, dude, you can make a lot
22:03
Speaker 1: of money. I saw that HBO special I would hell, no,
22:07
Speaker 1: no way, no way. No. It has its challenges, man.
22:11
Speaker 1: So you know, when I came in, banking definitely was tough.
22:14
Speaker 1: I started off in Colorado, so Colorado had some form
22:17
Speaker 1: of regulation and different things like that. We first started,
22:20
Speaker 1: we definitely did have a bunch of cash, but that
22:23
Speaker 1: was only for maybe like the first year to eighteen
22:26
Speaker 1: months that Credit Union started to take banking and they
22:30
Speaker 1: got filthy rich. You know. I would say, like it
22:33
Speaker 1: was thirty five hundred dollars for us to have just
22:36
Speaker 1: to holding account with the bank monthly. It was a
22:38
Speaker 1: monthly feet of thirty five hundred bucks. And then we
22:41
Speaker 1: would have to pay two to three percent on every
22:44
Speaker 1: deposit over ten thousand dollars. You said, wait, wait, wait,
22:48
Speaker 1: wait wait a minute. Brother, You said, they choked you
22:51
Speaker 1: thirty five dollars a month for their account. Did two
22:55
Speaker 1: percent oh their account ten thous dollars. So yeah, yeah,
23:03
Speaker 1: so the banks. So if you was willing to take
23:04
Speaker 1: the chance we're banking, you got rich. That's just been
23:09
Speaker 1: calling me, Rishad, do start off black banks something. I've
23:14
Speaker 1: been saying that for a while, just it's only so
23:16
Speaker 1: much time in the day for me, you know what
23:17
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I still think that the banking is a
23:19
Speaker 1: huge need and opportunity in the space, and especially as
23:23
Speaker 1: more black people, especially social equity continues to be more
23:26
Speaker 1: relevant in the space. I think that people would love
23:29
Speaker 1: to bank with somebody that looks like them and in
23:31
Speaker 1: someone that can understand them in their needs, you know
23:33
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So there's definitely an opportunity there. So
23:35
Speaker 1: we can talk about that offline for sure. You know, man,
23:39
Speaker 1: talking to you, man, I n b a doctor, dude.
23:44
Speaker 1: You are so well honed, so articulate, so smart in
23:49
Speaker 1: this whole entremur neural space. Do you realize who you are?
23:53
Speaker 1: Do you realize how you communicate? Man? That's what that
23:56
Speaker 1: when I met you with this brother's shock man. But
23:58
Speaker 1: sometimes you know, you just one of those natural guys
24:01
Speaker 1: that don't appreciate something, even respect the knowledge that you
24:05
Speaker 1: pour into people. And it's tough because like, obviously I'm
24:11
Speaker 1: living everything in in real time, right and obviously I'm
24:16
Speaker 1: constantly working every day in the building, so you don't
24:19
Speaker 1: really get a chance to sit back and kind of
24:22
Speaker 1: just realize, you know, what you have been able to
24:24
Speaker 1: build and what you've been able to to to actually
24:27
Speaker 1: create for others. But you know, my my biggest thing
24:30
Speaker 1: is like I really feel like this is a legacy
24:32
Speaker 1: opportunity for myself and everybody that's involved with it. And
24:36
Speaker 1: you know, that's what I continue to sell to my employees.
24:39
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, this is what we're doing is
24:41
Speaker 1: not only for us, it's for it's for other people
24:43
Speaker 1: to at some point be able to you know, benefit
24:46
Speaker 1: from as well. And you know, I think that when
24:49
Speaker 1: you set up a business, where is about serving the people.
24:52
Speaker 1: I think that the reward that comes back you can't
24:55
Speaker 1: put a number on it. Right. So I've never been
24:57
Speaker 1: the guy to say I want to create a billion
24:59
Speaker 1: dollar company, right, you know, let's just see what the
25:01
Speaker 1: chips for what they made. But I just feel like
25:03
Speaker 1: if we continue to serve people, continue to help people,
25:06
Speaker 1: continue to be consistent with within the brand, and the
25:10
Speaker 1: products that we produce. I think sky's the limit for us. Man,
25:14
Speaker 1: I'm tell you something, Man, I was impressed when I
25:16
Speaker 1: first met you. Man, you were just just you just
25:20
Speaker 1: don't understand your abilities. Right now you are walking talking
25:26
Speaker 1: poster for black opportunity athlete transition to normal life entrepreneurship planning.
25:35
Speaker 1: And I just want you to say, you're on my
25:38
Speaker 1: show here might making conversation. I need you on CNBC.
25:42
Speaker 1: I need you CNN, I need you on everything MSNBC
25:46
Speaker 1: because Man, your game and your conference. I need you
25:48
Speaker 1: on the cover Black Enterprise. Okay, that's how smart you're
25:52
Speaker 1: talking because you're missing your mixing community and opportunity, and
25:58
Speaker 1: that's what doesn't get spoken a lot the community and
26:00
Speaker 1: everybody wants to hear that. Then your backstory of how
26:03
Speaker 1: you started was based on your grandmother, So when you
26:07
Speaker 1: start mixing all that together. Because I've been trying to
26:10
Speaker 1: get you a boy a year and a half of
26:12
Speaker 1: my show. Now I'm mad at you because you need
26:15
Speaker 1: to be on more than my show. You my brother,
26:19
Speaker 1: need to be on more than my show. Your special man,
26:22
Speaker 1: I said that back then and here and how you've
26:25
Speaker 1: developed as a man as a business person. Your story
26:28
Speaker 1: needs to be told more than just on this show.
26:31
Speaker 1: It needs to be across the board because you're employing people,
26:34
Speaker 1: then you're you're telling me, I'm trying to get more
26:36
Speaker 1: people into the game, but also I'm trying to break
26:39
Speaker 1: it down the numbers of where it was. At one
26:42
Speaker 1: time it was they was putting us in jail for
26:44
Speaker 1: this same thing and putting three and ten years sentences
26:47
Speaker 1: on us. Now the white people selling it and they're
26:50
Speaker 1: not going to jail, but then they won't let us
26:52
Speaker 1: buy it to sell it. Right, Yeah, it's it's I mean,
26:57
Speaker 1: we could we could go on and knowing about that,
26:59
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's really screwed up. And you know
27:03
Speaker 1: I always would. I always say when I talk to people,
27:05
Speaker 1: and especially when I talk to like, you know, black
27:07
Speaker 1: business leaders in these communities that don't want cannabis, and
27:11
Speaker 1: I just tell them all the time, like you got
27:12
Speaker 1: to really take another step back and look at this
27:14
Speaker 1: because it's happening, and this is generational wealth at risk
27:17
Speaker 1: for our community. You know, I really feel that this
27:21
Speaker 1: cannabis plant will be a you know, a hundreds a
27:23
Speaker 1: couple of hundreds of billion dollars a year industry and
27:27
Speaker 1: if we can have a seat at the table and
27:29
Speaker 1: carve out our peace. I feel like we can take
27:31
Speaker 1: something that destroyed our community to actually rebuild it. You know.
27:35
Speaker 1: It's so many different ways of you know, uh participating
27:38
Speaker 1: in the space from you know, HIMP industrial hip. You
27:41
Speaker 1: know how many people reach out to me saying that
27:42
Speaker 1: they family own land and all these different parts of
27:45
Speaker 1: the country, and I'm like, yeah, let's start producing hip
27:47
Speaker 1: on there because I envisioned at some point um building
27:51
Speaker 1: communities made out of him HIMP homes and different things
27:54
Speaker 1: like that. Is there's so many different ways that this
27:57
Speaker 1: plant can impact our community. It's just have been unlocked
28:00
Speaker 1: yet because it's been illegal. And then also people from
28:03
Speaker 1: our community have some form of ps PTSD of just
28:07
Speaker 1: seeing so many people being locked up in lives ruined
28:11
Speaker 1: that they just can't wrap their head around like this
28:13
Speaker 1: is now an opportunity where we can create real wealth.
28:16
Speaker 1: You know. So that's what I just continue to speak
28:19
Speaker 1: on and just you know, continue to let people know
28:21
Speaker 1: and spread the good news because you know, cannabis is
28:24
Speaker 1: the most dynamic play in the world, and as we
28:27
Speaker 1: continue to unlock all the things that it does, you know,
28:30
Speaker 1: We're gonna really be sitting twenty years from now thinking
28:32
Speaker 1: about how dumb it was that, you know, cannabis wasn't
28:35
Speaker 1: you know, a primary source of wellness a very long
28:40
Speaker 1: time ago. You know, here's a there's a thought as
28:42
Speaker 1: we close up because of the fact that when I
28:44
Speaker 1: talked to you, what exactly does your company do? I
28:48
Speaker 1: want everybody to clear understanding. You know you in you
28:51
Speaker 1: in California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington. You have
28:54
Speaker 1: all hard your employees. What does your company do? Now?
28:59
Speaker 1: So we were we're pretty much a vertically integrated company,
29:02
Speaker 1: so we actually we cultivate, we manufacture, we have some
29:07
Speaker 1: retail locations. UH. So that's called like pretty much vertical integration. Uh.
29:13
Speaker 1: And the state is a little different. So like in
29:15
Speaker 1: Colorado were vertically integrated, Michigan with vertically integrated, uh, Oregon
29:20
Speaker 1: with vertically integrated. But you know California, Oklahoma, Washington, those
29:25
Speaker 1: are places where we actually do white label agreements or
29:28
Speaker 1: we actually provide those producers. There are genetics to grow
29:32
Speaker 1: specifically for us, and then obviously we package it and
29:35
Speaker 1: we market it. So essentially, you know, Viola is a brand.
29:38
Speaker 1: UM just think of it almost like a set stop.
29:41
Speaker 1: First of all, stop man, vertically integrated, white label. How
29:45
Speaker 1: many people you know know what you're talking about? Brolie.
29:56
Speaker 1: He just he That's what I'm talking about. You're so
29:58
Speaker 1: into your game when you start talking, you forget I'm
30:02
Speaker 1: talking to a lot of people. They may know Presenter
30:06
Speaker 1: that people don't know what white labeling is and definitely
30:09
Speaker 1: don't know what vertically integrated is. So you couldn't explain
30:12
Speaker 1: that there white labeling because so we could just let
30:15
Speaker 1: everybody know the greatness of our Parentally integrated means that
30:19
Speaker 1: we control the supply chain, you know, from start to film,
30:21
Speaker 1: almost from seed to sell. So that means that we cultivated,
30:24
Speaker 1: we manufactured, whether we break it down into oils or concentrates,
30:28
Speaker 1: or we just make pre roles, that's that's considered manufacturing.
30:31
Speaker 1: Then we actually package it for distribution to to our
30:35
Speaker 1: end user, which is the dispensaries that we work with
30:38
Speaker 1: or our own dispensaries. So that's what vertical integration is.
30:42
Speaker 1: And white labeling means that you know, you have a
30:44
Speaker 1: brand that's really strong where you could do strategic partnerships
30:47
Speaker 1: with other cultivators and manufacturers where they will agree to
30:53
Speaker 1: produce product for you to put into your packaging so
30:56
Speaker 1: that you can now enter into that state in the
30:58
Speaker 1: asset light model, which I mean when I said like
31:01
Speaker 1: model means that we don't have to come in and
31:03
Speaker 1: spend like most cultivation UH costs anywhere from five to
31:06
Speaker 1: ten million dollars to build out a five hundred to
31:08
Speaker 1: a thousand life facility. So if you don't want to
31:11
Speaker 1: go into that state and you know, spend that capex, UH,
31:14
Speaker 1: you will find a partner that has lights and that
31:17
Speaker 1: respects your brand, and we'll be able to cultivate for
31:19
Speaker 1: you so that you can actually into that market without
31:22
Speaker 1: having to put up that upfront money with the brand
31:24
Speaker 1: actually leads the way. My man. Man, you're special as
31:30
Speaker 1: an African American, and I know you're trying to break walls,
31:33
Speaker 1: breakdown path. How can you be an assistant uh in
31:38
Speaker 1: getting there. I know you're saying you're trying to normalize
31:41
Speaker 1: the process. Is it is it about just getting money?
31:44
Speaker 1: I just want to get licensed in this business. Yeah,
31:48
Speaker 1: I mean it depends. I mean, like you know, with
31:50
Speaker 1: the license and situation, it's it's very it's unique. Right,
31:53
Speaker 1: So places on the West Coast like you know, Oregon, California,
31:59
Speaker 1: it's relatively easy to get a license. Um, it's expensive obviously,
32:03
Speaker 1: you know, because you have to you know, submit applications,
32:05
Speaker 1: pay all these different fees and different things like that,
32:08
Speaker 1: and then once you actually win the license, now you
32:10
Speaker 1: need you know, anywhere from you know to the ten
32:12
Speaker 1: million dollars to build out your facility, depending on the
32:15
Speaker 1: size of it. On the East Coast, that's where it's
32:18
Speaker 1: really really competitive. And on the East Coast is where
32:21
Speaker 1: pretty much all the opportunity is because all those licenses
32:25
Speaker 1: are all limited. Right, So New York there's only ten
32:29
Speaker 1: vertically integrated licenses that they gave out, and when you
32:32
Speaker 1: think about how big the New York market is, you
32:34
Speaker 1: know that ten licenses will never be enough, right, They're
32:36
Speaker 1: gonna have to add probably another hundred. But the way
32:39
Speaker 1: they set it up is these first ten will be
32:41
Speaker 1: vertically integrated, like I talked about earlier, which gives them
32:44
Speaker 1: an advantage right when entering into the market because they
32:48
Speaker 1: already have a market share and they already have somewhat
32:50
Speaker 1: of a foothol already. But that license process, the reason
32:54
Speaker 1: why those ten operators aren't black is because or none
32:58
Speaker 1: of the black people couldn't even the afford to apply
33:01
Speaker 1: was because that whole application process was probably a five
33:05
Speaker 1: to seven million dollar package, right and there was probably
33:11
Speaker 1: fifty sixty companies that had to put five to seven
33:15
Speaker 1: million dollars in their package to apply and only ten one.
33:18
Speaker 1: So when you think about that, like you could go
33:20
Speaker 1: and use all the resources you know when you'll put
33:22
Speaker 1: your five million dollars together, right right, So it's so
33:28
Speaker 1: so the East is extremely expensive. And you know, even us,
33:33
Speaker 1: you know, I have another company called Village Uh that
33:36
Speaker 1: me and my co found in Viola. We started and
33:38
Speaker 1: you know that company, we we we pretty much raised
33:41
Speaker 1: five million dollars to start that company to go after licenses.
33:45
Speaker 1: And you know, last year we was awarded a license
33:47
Speaker 1: in Maryland where you know, we beat out some of
33:50
Speaker 1: the big Coca Colas and is a bush back companies.
33:54
Speaker 1: We were the number one ranked application in the state
33:57
Speaker 1: of Maryland. And then in Missouri we won for vertical integration.
34:00
Speaker 1: We won. We was number one in cultivation, number one
34:03
Speaker 1: in retail, and number three and manufacturing. And you know
34:06
Speaker 1: we're still waiting on New Jersey, Illinois, Georgia. We're great
34:10
Speaker 1: to put in New York. So I've tried to figure
34:13
Speaker 1: out ways to kind of you know, participate in every
34:17
Speaker 1: way possible, you know what I'm saying, And I've been
34:20
Speaker 1: having some success. So to answer your question, how can
34:22
Speaker 1: you support me? Right? We are constantly always raising money. Um,
34:26
Speaker 1: you know, all these new opportunities that come you have,
34:28
Speaker 1: like I said, you have to find a way to
34:29
Speaker 1: fund them. So um, you know you could be my
34:32
Speaker 1: first investor. You know, from this call and from there,
34:37
Speaker 1: my brother I would tell you the man man's first
34:40
Speaker 1: of all, you know, we're gonna talk off our lives
34:42
Speaker 1: because you're brilliant. Man. I just feel that, uh as
34:47
Speaker 1: part of the service of your business. You like you know,
34:51
Speaker 1: magic is his business. You know what I'm saying. You
34:54
Speaker 1: have that same charisma. Your intellect is off the chart,
34:58
Speaker 1: your articulation is your beast, and your smile is brilliant.
35:02
Speaker 1: And so again, Man, I want to thank you for
35:05
Speaker 1: reuniting with me Al Harrington and getting to talk and
35:09
Speaker 1: just see where your life is treating you well. Man,
35:11
Speaker 1: And uh, thank you for coming on money making conversation there.
35:14
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Okay, cool,
35:17
Speaker 1: if you want to hear see any of my interviews.
35:18
Speaker 1: For money Making Conversation, please go to money Making Conversation
35:21
Speaker 1: dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald. I am your host.
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Speaker 1: great savings counts as two goals, and so does around
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Speaker 1: the clock protection, so it's like four goals and that's
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Speaker 1: more than three. It's basing math forest metaphors by Progressive
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Speaker 1: Bundle and protect today Progressive centulty in trance Company and
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Speaker 1: AFIL gets discount of a little in all states or situations.
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Speaker 1: On April four, Dr Martin Luther King was shot and
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Speaker 1: killed in Memphis. A petty criminal named James Earl Ray
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Speaker 1: was arrested. Case closed right. James Sylvay was upon for
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Speaker 1: the official story. Some of the evidence, as far as
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Speaker 1: I was concerned, did not match the circumstances. This is
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Speaker 1: the MLK Tapes. The first episodes are available now. Listen
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