Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Brand Building: In 2017 he founded Green Book Global, a travel review platform for Black travelers, partnered with Expedia.

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Brand Building: In 2017 he founded Green Book Global, a travel review platform for Black travelers, partnered with Expedia. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Rashan McDonald host the weekly Money Making Conversation
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Speaker 1: Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show provides
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Speaker 1: off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's
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Speaker 1: click the be a Guest button. If you are a
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Speaker 1: small business owner, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, influencer, or nonprofit I
0:27
Speaker 1: want you on my show. Now, let's get started. My
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Speaker 1: guess is the founder of green Book Global, the first
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Speaker 1: and owner travel review website and mobile app that enables
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Speaker 1: black travelers to plan trips with confidence and less anxiety
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Speaker 1: by providing user generated travel insights from the black perspective,
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Speaker 1: particularly about what it is to be traveling while black.
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Speaker 1: Green Book Global is to participant in Black Ambition. Let
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Speaker 1: me tell you about Black Ambition. Black Ambition was founded
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Speaker 1: by Grammy Award winning artists and producer for Real Williams. Happy.
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Speaker 1: Black Ambition is a national initiative that funds and mentors
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Speaker 1: black and brown entrepreneurs to build the future of innovation.
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Speaker 1: The program has awarded millions in capital and support to
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Speaker 1: founders across the industries to discuss green Book Global and
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Speaker 1: the significance of black ambition. Please welcome to the Money
1:19
Speaker 1: Making Conversation Masterclass, Lawrence Phillips. How are you doing, Lawrence?
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Speaker 2: All right? All right, so thank you, thank you so
1:24
Speaker 2: much for having me. Just a pleasure to be here.
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Speaker 1: Well, first of all, let's get a little background on you.
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Speaker 1: I'm based in Atlanta, Georgia, and there's some history with
1:32
Speaker 1: you in Atlanta. Let's talk.
1:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I'm actually in the a myself. I went
1:36
Speaker 2: to Georgia Tech, but I still got a rep hometown first,
1:39
Speaker 2: So I'm originally from Boston. I grew up in Boston
1:42
Speaker 2: with the high school in Boston, graduated from a math
1:45
Speaker 2: science high school. I put Boston on the map. And
1:47
Speaker 2: then after high school, I graduated and did electrical engineering
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Speaker 2: at Georgia Tech. So I'm a yellow jacket.
1:54
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna tell you something, brother, there's no joke, brother,
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Speaker 1: electrical engineering the Georgia Tech, that fifteen hundred SAT school
2:00
Speaker 1: you got to got to have for sure.
2:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of I made it out. I
2:06
Speaker 2: made it out, but it's done well. For my career.
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Speaker 1: Well, it's good, it's good, it's good. You know you
2:11
Speaker 1: say electrical engineering, yes, correct, yep, Okay, now we're talking
2:15
Speaker 1: about spreamebook Global, Yes, a traveling app so marriage the
2:22
Speaker 1: two for me with that degree plan and now you're
2:25
Speaker 1: in the traveling business. Yeah.
2:27
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I always heard when I went to technis
2:29
Speaker 2: like people want the engineering mindset right, and in college
2:33
Speaker 2: I was like, I never really understood what that meant.
2:35
Speaker 2: But as I after I graduated from college, I worked
2:39
Speaker 2: at Accenture doing IT consulting, and so I did system integration,
2:43
Speaker 2: so I didn't do electrical engineering, but the mindset that
2:45
Speaker 2: I had being an engineer, I went to IT consulting
2:48
Speaker 2: and with that we did SAP implementations. So basically I
2:52
Speaker 2: wanted to different clients, looked at their applications and helped
2:54
Speaker 2: redesign them and redevelop them for them to make them
2:56
Speaker 2: more efficient. And so had an amazing career at at Accenture.
3:02
Speaker 2: About eight or nine years in though I kind of
3:03
Speaker 2: got burnt out, so they're promoted me to managers. Again,
3:06
Speaker 2: amazing career, but about three months I was like, hey, guys,
3:09
Speaker 2: I'm tired.
3:09
Speaker 1: I quick, you know, I'm gona tell youself this found
3:12
Speaker 1: this sounds very famili I want to cut you off
3:14
Speaker 1: because I was at IBM. My career is in mathematics,
3:18
Speaker 1: modern sociology, you know. And there's a creative block because
3:23
Speaker 1: because I want you to finish your story. But let's
3:25
Speaker 1: talk about it. Being happy. You know you can be successful,
3:29
Speaker 1: and you you were being successful, laurn Okay, great job,
3:33
Speaker 1: you know all the things that people tell you you're
3:35
Speaker 1: supposed to be doing in life, and then all of
3:38
Speaker 1: a sudden, but you're not happy.
3:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, And.
3:42
Speaker 1: Talk about that transition, because that's when you start talking
3:46
Speaker 1: to your friends and they started asking you what's wrong?
3:49
Speaker 2: Man?
3:49
Speaker 1: You got everything you want. Great job, you know, you're
3:52
Speaker 1: graduating from a great school, So why you trip it?
3:56
Speaker 2: Right?
3:56
Speaker 1: Right right?
3:57
Speaker 2: I'm not telling you what to quit their job. It
3:58
Speaker 2: was my personal. Uh, you don't say I listen to
4:03
Speaker 2: I am? I am, I am.
4:05
Speaker 1: This is my main compainsays master class Lawrence. I'm used
4:07
Speaker 1: to use an example. Brother. You hear his brother right here,
4:10
Speaker 1: Rashon McDonald did it. Lawrence Phillis did it? Lawrence Phillis
4:14
Speaker 1: tell us your job? How did you go from a
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Speaker 1: guy who was successful elevated eight years living the life
4:21
Speaker 1: of everybody that you went to from Boston to Georgia Tech,
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Speaker 1: one of the top premier engineering schools in the country.
4:28
Speaker 1: But then all of a sudden, it's just my future. Yeah,
4:31
Speaker 1: floorish yours down.
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Speaker 2: So actually I was on a private jet and this
4:35
Speaker 2: last client too. I had to go to my client
4:37
Speaker 2: side and I said, okay, you know, we're boy from
4:38
Speaker 2: Boston from the hood and you made it. You want
4:40
Speaker 2: to little private jet go to me the client. That
4:42
Speaker 2: was the only time I got on the jet too,
4:44
Speaker 2: but it was cool. It was one time that's all
4:45
Speaker 2: I needed. But it really came down to like, hey,
4:49
Speaker 2: like I'm not like this is great, but I'm not happy,
4:52
Speaker 2: Like I feel like I needed something more. I needed
4:54
Speaker 2: a break because there's a lot of work as well too,
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Speaker 2: And so even my girlfriend at the time, right, I said, hey,
5:00
Speaker 2: I'm doing great, but I think I just need to
5:02
Speaker 2: take a break and travel around the world. Like it's
5:03
Speaker 2: just something I had a passion for and so travel's
5:06
Speaker 2: always been something that's been an integral part of me.
5:09
Speaker 2: So my fam is from rob Batos, so going back
5:11
Speaker 2: and forth there and I think I mentioned to you
5:14
Speaker 2: before I was in a program called Summer Search, and
5:16
Speaker 2: that Summer Search program took basically like kids that are
5:19
Speaker 2: in people of color in the city and took them
5:21
Speaker 2: on summer trips into the wilderness, typically for the first year.
5:24
Speaker 2: So I did like a whole thirty day trip in
5:27
Speaker 2: the wilderness, like no showers, no bathrooms, ninety plus miles
5:30
Speaker 2: in the wilderness as a high school kid. And that
5:34
Speaker 2: really built my resiliency up, just to think, like, hey,
5:36
Speaker 2: if just because you mean I think it can happen,
5:38
Speaker 2: doesn't mean it can't, right, So I never would have
5:39
Speaker 2: thought in a million years I could enjoy a thirty
5:42
Speaker 2: day camping trip without having a bathroom in sight, right,
5:45
Speaker 2: And so that confidence is also relaid back over in
5:48
Speaker 2: my career. I was like, listen, although i might be
5:50
Speaker 2: doing well, I'm still not happy. And I'm confident enough
5:52
Speaker 2: to say, hey, I'm gonna put this to the side
5:54
Speaker 2: and focus what I think will make me happier. And
5:56
Speaker 2: that was traveling around the world. So I did that.
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Speaker 2: Now I made a decent amount of money, but I
6:00
Speaker 2: didn't have enough money to travel around the world, so
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Speaker 2: I did hack it as best I could. So Delta
6:05
Speaker 2: had it around the world flight. So I got a
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Speaker 2: lot of miles from doing all this traveling, and so
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Speaker 2: it was actually the year they were ending there around
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Speaker 2: the World program using miles. That kind of pushed me
6:14
Speaker 2: over the top. So me and a buddy of mine
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Speaker 2: that also enjoyed travel, we had enough miles and we
6:18
Speaker 2: used that to do our big flights across the world.
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Speaker 2: And so I did thirty plus countries all seven continents
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Speaker 2: including Antarctica in less than a year.
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Speaker 1: Wow. Wow, and that experience for a person of color. Okay,
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Speaker 1: let's talk about these different lanes of activity, these different environments,
6:37
Speaker 1: these different cultures. What was the reaction to you or
6:40
Speaker 1: your reaction to these different cultures, because when I travel,
6:44
Speaker 1: I am exposed to so much and I feel so comfortable. Yeah,
6:49
Speaker 1: sometimes you ought to don't understand the stress that we
6:51
Speaker 1: live under. Oh and then you and a person of
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Speaker 1: color in America versus when you travel, Please just discuss
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Speaker 1: that the reality to my listeners.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, So, I for one, I love culture, right, So
7:02
Speaker 2: just being able to be respectful but also really like
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Speaker 2: learn by other people's cultures I think is just super amazing.
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Speaker 2: But you just don't realize, like you said, like the
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Speaker 2: amount of pressure and stressure on in the USA. When
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Speaker 2: you come out of it, it's like, wait a minute,
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Speaker 2: I don't have to necessarily worry about this as much, right,
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Speaker 2: and so like it definitely was a relief, but I
7:23
Speaker 2: was going also to so many different places. I still
7:26
Speaker 2: wonder because I'm still from the US. I still have
7:28
Speaker 2: like that you know, that lens, and like, well is
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Speaker 2: it okay for us? And there's still like it's still
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Speaker 2: the world, right, so there are some things to be
7:34
Speaker 2: worried about. But would have made me more profitable was like, hey,
7:38
Speaker 2: is there a platform that can tell me what it's
7:39
Speaker 2: like travel well black in some of these cities, what
7:42
Speaker 2: racism like in some of these cities. And so there's
7:45
Speaker 2: plenty of like like there's a troop advisors out there,
7:47
Speaker 2: there's like Yelp and those types of you know, like
7:50
Speaker 2: even like some of the brands that expeeded, they have
7:52
Speaker 2: reviews about hotels, but not about the travel well Black experience,
7:55
Speaker 2: and so that's what I was really looking for. And
7:57
Speaker 2: so I was like, man, I really wish, you know,
7:59
Speaker 2: this was out there. And what really pushed me over
8:02
Speaker 2: the top was I met a young lady in Paris
8:04
Speaker 2: at a hostel and I talked to We started talking
8:07
Speaker 2: about chocolate and I was like, I love chocolate, like
8:09
Speaker 2: I love dark chocolate. There's all the different types of chocolates.
8:12
Speaker 2: And she's like, oh, you should go to Brussels in Belgium.
8:14
Speaker 2: At that point, I had no idea where Brussels was,
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Speaker 2: you know where Belgium was. I was like, okay, is
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Speaker 2: it okay for us? Because she was a black woman,
8:21
Speaker 2: and she's like, oh, no, you'll be good, You'll be good.
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Speaker 2: And literally within twenty four hours I was in Brussels.
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Speaker 2: I needed that co sign to say like, now you're good,
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Speaker 2: You'll be fine over there, and that's all I needed
8:31
Speaker 2: to go forward. So that's kind of the ideas, like
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Speaker 2: that that head and noduct. Now you'll be straight, here's
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Speaker 2: what's to watch out for, but have a good time.
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Speaker 2: And that's kind of what the green book Global like
8:39
Speaker 2: app really is about.
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Speaker 1: France Paris. When I was in high school, I had
8:44
Speaker 1: no clue and I had an opportunity to take French
8:47
Speaker 1: and I went. I would never go to France, and
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Speaker 1: as an adult, I went to France. And if I
8:53
Speaker 1: had to do my life all over again, I would
8:56
Speaker 1: move to France because the culture. That's what I was
8:58
Speaker 1: just talking about, the relaxation and the comfort zone. There
9:02
Speaker 1: are a lot of people walking around France that look
9:04
Speaker 1: like us, okay, and really that's what this conversation I
9:10
Speaker 1: want to make sure people understand, because this interview is
9:13
Speaker 1: about you. You've established a travel company, it's tied to
9:17
Speaker 1: a very effective app but we have to understand that
9:22
Speaker 1: the experience that we often are exposed to in America
9:27
Speaker 1: is not what we would get when you travel to
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Speaker 1: South Africa, where I've been, when I went to France,
9:32
Speaker 1: all the countries I've cruised around the world almost and
9:36
Speaker 1: every time I go somewhere, the experience is different getting
9:39
Speaker 1: off a lot. Long as you're respectful, long as you
9:42
Speaker 1: understand and respect the culture, not walking in looking at
9:45
Speaker 1: all crazy dressed or disrespectfully dressed. That's when issues have
9:49
Speaker 1: become when they feel tourists abuse the culture and I
9:54
Speaker 1: respect the culture. Follow with more detail on that, because
9:57
Speaker 1: I also want to talk about blind You know to
9:59
Speaker 1: me about the Ambition Black Ambition program, because that is
10:04
Speaker 1: significant in that conversation, But I want to talk about
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Speaker 1: the global aspect of you as a young man growing
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Speaker 1: and maturing to understand the value of travel.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and so one thing again, being black in America
10:16
Speaker 2: just makes you look at the world very differently. But
10:19
Speaker 2: being black and having the US passport around the world
10:21
Speaker 2: is almost like it's like it's almost like a free
10:24
Speaker 2: pass in a sense where people just respect at least
10:27
Speaker 2: previously respecting that blue passport. But also when you're an American
10:31
Speaker 2: and you're black, because our culture transcends across borders, you
10:35
Speaker 2: already looked at as cool. We already looked at as
10:36
Speaker 2: someone they want to be a part of and connect with.
10:39
Speaker 2: So there's just like this openness and this insight that
10:42
Speaker 2: they actually want to learn more about you, typically in
10:44
Speaker 2: a respectful way. But again culture normous make them coming
10:47
Speaker 2: to play there. But you want to think that living
10:49
Speaker 2: in the US, you you would you would be caught
10:51
Speaker 2: up with so much fear in the US that you
10:53
Speaker 2: would think everybody hates us, just like the US is
10:56
Speaker 2: like you know what is it? It's racist as apple pie, right,
10:58
Speaker 2: Like that's the core of a unfortunately, with a lot
11:01
Speaker 2: of things happen in the US with our history. So
11:04
Speaker 2: I think it's just that fear that we have. And
11:06
Speaker 2: so that's the idea, is that when you go into
11:09
Speaker 2: a country or a city that's not in the USA
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Speaker 2: and you're disrespectful, you're open to culture, people bring you in. Again,
11:16
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's one hundred percent of the time,
11:18
Speaker 2: and that's why green Book Global is there, but it's
11:21
Speaker 2: really encouraging. Mike had an amazing year traveling the world. Amazing,
11:25
Speaker 2: very little hiccups happened with me traveling around the world, right,
11:29
Speaker 2: And I hear that from tons of other people as well.
11:31
Speaker 2: So my hope is that this inspires people that give
11:33
Speaker 2: other countries a chance the US and you know that's
11:36
Speaker 2: if that's where you live. Great, there's still things you
11:38
Speaker 2: can do in the USA too, don't get me wrong.
11:40
Speaker 2: Still amazing places there as well. But don't don't think
11:43
Speaker 2: because you might have these problems in the USA, that's
11:45
Speaker 2: it's across the world that these things, similar things are happening.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely talking to my man, Lawrence Phillips, green Book, green
11:53
Speaker 1: Book Global. Now let's talk about Black Ambition. Black Ambition.
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Speaker 1: Felicia Hatcher could producer director of this program, which is
12:02
Speaker 1: founded by Pharrell Williams, has been distributing millions of dollars.
12:07
Speaker 1: It's fifty years is gonna happen in Miami and you're
12:10
Speaker 1: gonna go down there. Tell us about your relationship with
12:14
Speaker 1: Black Ambition and how in what significant role is playing
12:17
Speaker 1: in your brand.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely so Black Ambition that you mentioned has been
12:22
Speaker 2: around for about five years, and so this is my
12:24
Speaker 2: third time applying, So maybe this is also something that
12:27
Speaker 2: you know, listeners can can maybe carry something away from.
12:30
Speaker 2: It's like, I didn't give up. They told me not
12:31
Speaker 2: the first time, get any little bit of feedback, all right,
12:34
Speaker 2: I didn't get sulty, I sad, Let me just keep grinding.
12:36
Speaker 2: I applied the second time, still got another note and
12:39
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, dang, you let another of people
12:40
Speaker 2: in here. Like I think I'm cool, But what I
12:43
Speaker 2: what I use that to say? Like, hey, you might
12:46
Speaker 2: think you better for somebody.
12:47
Speaker 1: Hopefully you get too far down, like what do you
12:49
Speaker 1: what are you applying for in Black Ambition? First of all,
12:53
Speaker 1: let's let's get that cleared up. What are you applying for?
12:56
Speaker 1: What were you applying for that made you apply three times?
13:01
Speaker 2: Well? You apply to get money, right, So that's kind
13:03
Speaker 2: of the ultimate goal is that you would get funding
13:05
Speaker 2: for your your your business, and then you get the
13:08
Speaker 2: exposure of the network, which I can also talk into
13:10
Speaker 2: as well, but ultimately, like there's a big I think
13:13
Speaker 2: the first was a million dollars that you would actually
13:15
Speaker 2: get as a prize winner, and I think they broke
13:17
Speaker 2: it up in the chunks now, but that's what you're
13:19
Speaker 2: really applying for. But I think just that the growth
13:22
Speaker 2: that I had through that period just made me not,
13:25
Speaker 2: you know, think not not to overstep the value that
13:29
Speaker 2: I think I'm bringing with my company that other people are.
13:32
Speaker 2: I'm bringing more value or better value in different areas, right,
13:35
Speaker 2: And so that really gave me humility saying like, hey,
13:37
Speaker 2: you didn't get it the second time, but I'm still
13:39
Speaker 2: going to continue to apply and say this is how
13:41
Speaker 2: I grew the third time, finally got past that first round,
13:46
Speaker 2: got it to the semi finals, which I semi finals,
13:48
Speaker 2: let's do it winning. And then one of the things
13:53
Speaker 2: that they have, which is optional, was called the Evolt
13:56
Speaker 2: Evoke Wellness Program. It was like a three week program
13:59
Speaker 2: that all about wealth this and it was something that
14:01
Speaker 2: you know, typical accelerators that I've been in, they don't
14:03
Speaker 2: have that, right, and I thought that thing it was
14:06
Speaker 2: life changing for me. It really just made me unpack
14:09
Speaker 2: myself in a way that I thought I've already done.
14:12
Speaker 2: And so I would say that my main takeaway was
14:15
Speaker 2: like my white statement for me personally, and essentially they
14:20
Speaker 2: had to go through this exercise where you had to
14:21
Speaker 2: like pick a couple of words and then you had
14:23
Speaker 2: to do a couple of pages and again it was
14:26
Speaker 2: a multi week process. But the end of it, my
14:28
Speaker 2: wife statement was I'm a protective and innovative steward of
14:32
Speaker 2: Black restoration and healing. And so that is what the
14:36
Speaker 2: essence of Green Book Global is. It's all about being
14:39
Speaker 2: innovative where technology. We're trying to make sure we stay
14:41
Speaker 2: with AI and use technology to our advantage. We're protective
14:45
Speaker 2: of our black community, right we need to protection our
14:48
Speaker 2: black women are black men, and so we have a
14:50
Speaker 2: safe space for us to be ourselves but also to
14:52
Speaker 2: learn from each other steward. Like I, although I feel
14:57
Speaker 2: like so much has been pushed into me from God,
14:59
Speaker 2: from my family, my friends, from my environment, that I
15:01
Speaker 2: don't really think this is my own. This is me
15:03
Speaker 2: just being a good steward of what God has given me,
15:05
Speaker 2: and so I'm just trying to, you know, do good
15:08
Speaker 2: by that and then restoration and healing, like the Black
15:11
Speaker 2: community's restoration. We need healing, and so we want to
15:13
Speaker 2: make sure that in a way that we can do
15:15
Speaker 2: it in the travel space, because when you travel, it
15:18
Speaker 2: really is a mental health kind of uplift. You can
15:20
Speaker 2: kind of refill your cup and travel. So that's those
15:22
Speaker 2: are all the different elements of how just that part
15:25
Speaker 2: of the program is super impactful.
15:27
Speaker 1: For I know you have an app. How can we
15:29
Speaker 1: reach out to you and start using your services? Lawrence?
15:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, So if you go to iOS or Android and
15:35
Speaker 2: type in green Book Global, you will find the iosp
15:39
Speaker 2: and Android app there. We actually had over one hundred
15:41
Speaker 2: and fifty thousand downloads just this year. We ranked top
15:45
Speaker 2: thirty in the App Store for travel this year as well.
15:48
Speaker 2: Partner with Expedia. I went through the Expedy Accelerator and
15:50
Speaker 2: I've done multiple campaigns and partnerships with them. So I'm
15:54
Speaker 2: looking forward to really twenty twenty six and continue.
15:56
Speaker 1: Excuse me, Lawrence, excuse me, Laurence. I did love people
16:00
Speaker 1: who are humble. We've had over one hundred and fifty
16:04
Speaker 1: thousand downloads this year, you know, brother, congratulations, thank you,
16:09
Speaker 1: thank you. Congratulations the team off the harget. Okay, so
16:15
Speaker 1: how are you marketing it. What how are you getting
16:18
Speaker 1: the word out that you can achieve such a significant
16:22
Speaker 1: download number for a new app, and a travel app
16:25
Speaker 1: in a very competitive field.
16:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, so we are unapologetically black and all
16:31
Speaker 2: about safety. So I think there's there's richest and niches, right,
16:34
Speaker 2: So we're I'm very comfortable. It took a while. I'm
16:36
Speaker 2: not gonna lie the evolution of just being unapologetically saying
16:40
Speaker 2: where a black travel review app. You know, we want
16:42
Speaker 2: all users to you know, get insights from it, but
16:44
Speaker 2: our target demographic are black travelers, and so really our
16:49
Speaker 2: social media has done that for us, right, So we
16:51
Speaker 2: have over one hundred and fifty thousand followers on Instagram
16:54
Speaker 2: and just those videos going viral. And also we've been
16:57
Speaker 2: in the game for a while, right, So twenty fifteen
17:00
Speaker 2: it's when I did happen. Took until twenty eighteen for
17:02
Speaker 2: the website to be stable and all through. At that time,
17:05
Speaker 2: I'm posting on social media getting really Actually I went
17:08
Speaker 2: to Brazil and I ran to someone for a travel
17:10
Speaker 2: conference and they said, hey, I actually used your app
17:12
Speaker 2: like eight years ago, and I've been following your journey, right,
17:15
Speaker 2: And so people have been followed our journey as we
17:17
Speaker 2: kind of grew, and so I think being in the
17:19
Speaker 2: game long enough and just leveraging social media to allow
17:23
Speaker 2: us to get that exposure has been why you know,
17:26
Speaker 2: we've been able to get you know, that opportunity to
17:29
Speaker 2: get those many eyeballs, and we're just offering something that's
17:31
Speaker 2: not available in the market, Like you can't find the
17:35
Speaker 2: twoes that we have in the market outside of our app.
17:38
Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere. We will be right back with more
17:40
Speaker 1: insights from Money Making Conversation master Class. Welcome back to
17:54
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation master Class hosted by me Rashaun McDonald.
17:58
Speaker 1: Let's get back into it. Let's talk about the history
18:01
Speaker 1: of the Green Book. We have to talk about the
18:04
Speaker 1: history the significance of it. You are a modern day
18:07
Speaker 1: version of it because you're using the app, but it
18:10
Speaker 1: was started why back in the day the floor.
18:12
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, So I always thought, like you know, sometimes
18:15
Speaker 2: people like, why aren't you calling it the Black Book? Right, Like,
18:17
Speaker 2: so there's a history behind while we're called the Green Book.
18:20
Speaker 2: So Victor Hugo Green and Alma Green essentially started the
18:23
Speaker 2: Green Book. So it was actually a physical book that
18:26
Speaker 2: was distributed between nineteen thirty six and nineteen sixty six
18:29
Speaker 2: in the USA to help black people travel safely. It's
18:33
Speaker 2: really about driving while black, right, So it told you
18:35
Speaker 2: what restaurants you can go to, hotels, gas stations, even
18:39
Speaker 2: towns to avoid. It really was like that Black tribal Bible.
18:43
Speaker 2: And so again Sundowntowns was something on the list, right,
18:46
Speaker 2: but it had a directory of restaurants and hotels where
18:49
Speaker 2: you can stay safely. And so we're continue on that
18:51
Speaker 2: legacy but in a mobile app, and so we also
18:55
Speaker 2: do it outside of the US as well. So we
18:57
Speaker 2: have a lot of tools dedicated to the US, but
19:00
Speaker 2: we also have a lot of like for example, AI
19:02
Speaker 2: can build you and that tenerrate to Paris in about
19:05
Speaker 2: thirty seconds right using the reviews from our app. So
19:08
Speaker 2: we definitely continuing the legacy. But that also is what
19:10
Speaker 2: emboded me and gave me the permission, if you will,
19:13
Speaker 2: to be unapologetically black, because we're continuing the legacy of
19:17
Speaker 2: the Green Book just in an app form.
19:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, in technology and technology, which is important. So give
19:24
Speaker 1: me an example of how your app works. Dan, you know,
19:28
Speaker 1: you know I'm a black person and let's use you.
19:31
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not trying to point out anything in
19:34
Speaker 1: a landmark a place you shouldn't go. But how exactly
19:38
Speaker 1: does your app work when I come on as a
19:40
Speaker 1: traveler looking for places where I feel comfortable that I
19:46
Speaker 1: can get great food or great hotel stay, a great
19:50
Speaker 1: vacation activity, talk to me. Yeah.
19:52
Speaker 2: So I'll give you maybe a couple of examples. So
19:55
Speaker 2: the first one, which is really our flagship product, is
19:57
Speaker 2: our Driving while Black road Trip Planner. So literally, if
20:00
Speaker 2: you go onto the app, there's a road trip, there's
20:03
Speaker 2: a car icon there because relating again to like driving
20:05
Speaker 2: will black, especially in the USA. And you'll see a
20:08
Speaker 2: map of the United States. You also see a lot
20:10
Speaker 2: of pins that represent different colors, so you'll have green, yellow,
20:14
Speaker 2: and red. So green means great. And so these are
20:17
Speaker 2: scores that happen from black people that have been to
20:19
Speaker 2: these cities, right, and so it's on a five star scale.
20:21
Speaker 2: So I always say this, we don't encourage or discourage
20:24
Speaker 2: anyone to go anywhere. We'll just giving you information that
20:27
Speaker 2: you typically won't have to make a more well informed decision.
20:30
Speaker 2: So green means great, it's four point five or above.
20:33
Speaker 2: Yellow meants average four dot O to four point five
20:35
Speaker 2: and below it four you're red, and so it's not
20:38
Speaker 2: necessarily as black friendly per our community, but also could
20:41
Speaker 2: be a sundowntown. And so you go on that road
20:45
Speaker 2: trip planner, you can plan a trip, let's say from
20:47
Speaker 2: Atlanta to Houston. You'll be able to see all these
20:50
Speaker 2: pins colors of cities that you're going through. In two.
20:53
Speaker 2: You also can out on black on the restaurants onto
20:55
Speaker 2: your right as well. So we have twenty five hundred
20:57
Speaker 2: of the top black on the restaurants. We partnered with
21:00
Speaker 2: another company called eat Oprah and they have about twenty
21:02
Speaker 2: thousand black on the restaurants and we took like, you know,
21:05
Speaker 2: the krem de la Creme of all those restaurants and
21:06
Speaker 2: put them on our app. But you also have cities
21:09
Speaker 2: that again while you're trying to not maybe red. So
21:12
Speaker 2: one city in particular, Vidora, Texas, is one that is
21:15
Speaker 2: kind of renowned for its being in sundown town. Uh.
21:17
Speaker 2: And so if literally if you're driving through by door,
21:20
Speaker 2: you can actually hit a button and say avoid, and
21:22
Speaker 2: our app will actually re route you around y door
21:24
Speaker 2: and it'll give you the turn by turn navigation.
21:26
Speaker 1: He let me let me just let me correct here.
21:28
Speaker 1: It's Vida buy no via textass right outside the bone,
21:32
Speaker 1: that's via the right via the Texas I'm gonna Houston,
21:34
Speaker 1: Texas born Oh okay, y to Texas is right between. Absolutely,
21:38
Speaker 1: that's East Texas, Brother Vida. Even to this day, that's sad.
21:43
Speaker 1: We can talk about it as soon as you get
21:45
Speaker 1: outside across the border of Lake Charles Louisiama. First cit
21:48
Speaker 1: you're gonna look at it's gonna be Vida, and then
21:50
Speaker 1: you hit the Beaumont. If Beaumont, you're ninety miles from home, Houston, Texas.
21:54
Speaker 1: That's how I used to see it. And so yes,
21:57
Speaker 1: it has always had a reputation, whether it's uh deserved
22:02
Speaker 1: or not, of being a place that people of color
22:05
Speaker 1: should feel uncomfortable.
22:07
Speaker 2: Right. And so another thing with the app too is
22:09
Speaker 2: we try to get recent reviews. Right. So for example,
22:12
Speaker 2: I think I had a recent one from Coleman, Alabama
22:15
Speaker 2: that was renowned for a sundown town and in the
22:17
Speaker 2: black family stayed there and they said, hey, felt a
22:19
Speaker 2: little awkward, but we were okay, right, And so the
22:22
Speaker 2: whole idea is like we have a historical view of it,
22:24
Speaker 2: we also want to get recent reviews to say, hey,
22:26
Speaker 2: has the town changed? Or is it still about the
22:28
Speaker 2: same bier am I saying it right? Is the recent
22:35
Speaker 2: reviews don't don't seem like much a change from what
22:37
Speaker 2: I've said.
22:39
Speaker 1: I don't think if I don't think people of color
22:42
Speaker 1: want I want to test it out. Let's put it
22:44
Speaker 1: that way, because we just blow on past that little city,
22:48
Speaker 1: like I said, Beaumont, then you hit the Golden Triangle,
22:50
Speaker 1: then you're in Baytown. Then you're in Houston, Texas. And
22:53
Speaker 1: if you got to go to Sanatoia, you just stay
22:55
Speaker 1: I ten West and take your Sanatoia then their passo.
22:58
Speaker 1: Next thing you know, you're in Los Angeles. So I
23:01
Speaker 1: just want to let you know I truly understand exactly.
23:05
Speaker 1: That sounds fantastic because when you travel, man, you know
23:08
Speaker 1: he's running out of the gas, a long gas. You're
23:10
Speaker 1: trying to get someplace to eat. You want to go
23:12
Speaker 1: in places that you feel want your business not staring
23:16
Speaker 1: at you because of the color of your skin. And
23:18
Speaker 1: that's what green Book Global gives you a using modern technology, correct.
23:24
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and so like that's our flags, your product. But
23:27
Speaker 2: then internationally, we don't have a roach your planet. But
23:29
Speaker 2: you can look at cities, right, so Paris, if you
23:31
Speaker 2: look at Paris, for example, we got two hundred reviews
23:34
Speaker 2: on Paris from black people, and so what makes it
23:36
Speaker 2: unique is that we don't review hotels or restaurants, you
23:39
Speaker 2: might offer those, but we review cities. So every city
23:42
Speaker 2: has a Black Friendly score based off our community, right,
23:45
Speaker 2: so Paris would have one, London has one. I mean,
23:47
Speaker 2: we have tons, thousands of reviews on the app, and
23:50
Speaker 2: so that's the way you can use it internationally too.
23:52
Speaker 2: So if you're thinking about a city to travel to
23:54
Speaker 2: in Europe or in Asia or even in Africa Australia, like,
23:58
Speaker 2: we have reviews and Black Friendly scores based on our community,
24:01
Speaker 2: and then they also have like recommendations and warnings as well,
24:04
Speaker 2: so you actually can see pictures from people's trips. You'll
24:06
Speaker 2: give you specific information outside of those scores too, and
24:09
Speaker 2: then we have AI for you.
24:13
Speaker 1: Let me just let everybody know you cause who I'm
24:15
Speaker 1: talking to her Lawrence. I'm talking Lawrence Phillips. He's the
24:18
Speaker 1: founder of green book Global, the first and only travel
24:21
Speaker 1: review website and mobile app that enables black travels to
24:25
Speaker 1: plan trips with confidence and less anxiety by providing user
24:30
Speaker 1: generated travel insights from the black perspective. I want to
24:36
Speaker 1: keep emphasizing that being the person as I remember when
24:39
Speaker 1: I left five BM I was, I left and pursued
24:41
Speaker 1: a career as a stand up comedian. And so I've
24:44
Speaker 1: been on into a lot of cities, and I'm gonna
24:45
Speaker 1: tell you, I've been in cities where black people did
24:48
Speaker 1: walk on the certain side of the street. I'm gonna
24:50
Speaker 1: tell you. And so because that's the community that they
24:53
Speaker 1: grew up here, and they understood that there are certain
24:55
Speaker 1: communities right now where people live on one side of
24:58
Speaker 1: the track and other people live on the others side of
25:00
Speaker 1: the trade. You just understood is understood. And so but
25:04
Speaker 1: I do know this. When you develop a platform like
25:07
Speaker 1: this and you start signaling out good and bad, have
25:11
Speaker 1: any cities reached out to you and try to change
25:16
Speaker 1: their THEIRMO on your platform?
25:19
Speaker 2: So it kind of the reverse is what happens. We
25:21
Speaker 2: actually talk to cities about their Black friendly scores and say, hey, like,
25:25
Speaker 2: we can work with you to help your city become
25:28
Speaker 2: you better rated. And so that's actually part of our
25:32
Speaker 2: strategy for systemic change. Right, so part one is making
25:35
Speaker 2: sure black people feel more comfortable to travel because we
25:37
Speaker 2: deserve it, right, we deserve to travel wherever we want
25:39
Speaker 2: to go, and I understand that there's fears and concerns,
25:42
Speaker 2: and so green Book Global is first trying to help
25:46
Speaker 2: kind of reduce that fear and increase that confidence when
25:49
Speaker 2: you travel. Part two for the systemic change is really
25:53
Speaker 2: the work with destinations to help them be more black friendly.
25:56
Speaker 2: And so that might be with marketing materials, but there's
25:59
Speaker 2: also a lot of data that shows that US based
26:01
Speaker 2: black travelers spent over one hundred and forty billion dollars
26:04
Speaker 2: on travel each year, and so with that there's a
26:08
Speaker 2: monetary value to being inclusive, and so that's what we're
26:11
Speaker 2: pushing with destinations to say, hey, not only should you
26:14
Speaker 2: be inclusive, but it actually pays you to be inclusive.
26:17
Speaker 2: And so an example of that is Portland, Maine. That's
26:20
Speaker 2: been our long term part of the last two years.
26:23
Speaker 2: And I'm from Boston too. I ain't never stepped foot
26:25
Speaker 2: in Portland, Maine. It's still like two years ago, and
26:28
Speaker 2: I'm from Boston, right, and so Portland's predominantly Maine's is
26:32
Speaker 2: predominantly it's like one of the whitest states in America.
26:35
Speaker 2: And so I already had my preconceived notions about Portland, Maine, like,
26:38
Speaker 2: I don't really know how to like think about it
26:40
Speaker 2: a little bit. And I had an amazing time when
26:43
Speaker 2: I was there, right, And so we spent about maybe
26:46
Speaker 2: four or five days built out in that tenterary, talked
26:48
Speaker 2: about the black history, and so we did some social
26:50
Speaker 2: media content rants and ads on our app as well,
26:53
Speaker 2: and people started going to Portland and people are like, oh,
26:55
Speaker 2: my gosh, Portland's actually kind of amazing, right, And so
26:58
Speaker 2: it's the whole idea of just being able to have
27:02
Speaker 2: a pathway to talk to destinations that want more travelers
27:06
Speaker 2: there to understand that there is power in that black
27:08
Speaker 2: travel dollar. But now we can say, well, what are
27:11
Speaker 2: you doing for the black community if we were to
27:12
Speaker 2: come there, right, like, do you have your version of
27:15
Speaker 2: Black Wall Street where you're black owned businesses, because that's
27:17
Speaker 2: what our consumers are, our travelers are going to want
27:19
Speaker 2: to see. If you don't have that, well, maybe talk
27:21
Speaker 2: to us next year when you do. Right, that's going
27:23
Speaker 2: to be kind of the goal that we have long
27:25
Speaker 2: term to really bring about systemic change on a destination level,
27:28
Speaker 2: because if we can get our community to really book
27:31
Speaker 2: on our app be part of our community. On the
27:33
Speaker 2: app right, we have more leverage to talk to destinations
27:36
Speaker 2: and that can drive systemic change in those places.
27:38
Speaker 1: Wow thinking the Lawrence Phillips. He's part of the Black
27:42
Speaker 1: Ambition event. But more importantly, this is a program where
27:46
Speaker 1: he tried three times. The third time to be a
27:50
Speaker 1: part of this program. They rejected them twice, which is
27:52
Speaker 1: a testament to what we talk about on Money Making
27:54
Speaker 1: Conversation Masterclass. You know, just because somebody said no doesn't
27:57
Speaker 1: mean they said no to you. Just know that at
28:00
Speaker 1: that time, and you're up against a lot of the
28:02
Speaker 1: world is about competition. If you're not willing to compete,
28:05
Speaker 1: then stay employed, staying there for the hour job, there's
28:09
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with it. But when you get in an
28:11
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial space, the competition goes through the roof and you
28:15
Speaker 1: have to be prepared to understand that. Because you are
28:18
Speaker 1: now in a competitive world. Then know the resistance, the
28:24
Speaker 1: people telling you, asking you, questioning your decisions happen all
28:28
Speaker 1: the time. But he has a great app travel app.
28:31
Speaker 1: You know he's based now in Atlanta, Georgia Tech Graduate
28:35
Speaker 1: by way of Boston six one seven area code. I
28:38
Speaker 1: know it by the way. I have been to Portland, Maine,
28:42
Speaker 1: beautiful state going to winter time. It is just like
28:45
Speaker 1: a Christmas card. Thank you, my man Lawrence Phillips for
28:48
Speaker 1: coming on Money Making Conversations Master Play. This has been
28:50
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me Rashaun McDonald. Thanks to
28:55
Speaker 1: I Guess and our audience. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com to
28:59
Speaker 1: listen or registered to be a guest on my show.
29:03
Speaker 1: Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning,