Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Overcoming the Odds: Motivational journey from rural America to corporate success and owning multiple Jersey Mike’s Franchises.

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Overcoming the Odds: Motivational journey from rural America to corporate success and owning multiple Jersey Mike’s Franchises. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I am Rashan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: stories and start planning their own. Listen up as I
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: interview entrepreneurs from around the country, talk to celebrities and
• 0:21
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• 0:24
  Speaker 2: with dog profits who are making a difference in their
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: local communities. Now, sit back and listen as we unlock
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: the secrets to their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Welcome everybody. This is Rushan McDonald. Welcome. I am the host,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the weekly host the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. The interviews
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and information that this show provides are for everyone. It's
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: time to stop reading other people's success stories and start
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: living your own. If you want to be a guest
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: on my show, Money Making Conversations Masterclass, please visit our website.
• 0:56
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• 1:24
  Speaker 1: people who are very experienced in certain levels of this business,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: from financial literacy, from entrepreneurship, to motivation to life and
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I in turn have a conversation with them, and that conversation,
• 1:36
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• 1:42
  Speaker 1: you to make a decision, a decision that will turn
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: your life around. That's what Money Making Conversation Master Class
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: is all about. If you're listening for the first time, welcome.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: If you're a regular listener, thank you for coming back.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Let's get this show started. My guest left Corporate America
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: and it's the co founder and president of Coaching Catalysts LLC,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a boutique executive coaching and business advisory firm, and co
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: founder and president of Social Capital LLC, which owns and
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: operates multiple Jersey Mike franchises in the metro Atlanta area.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Keith Milner. How
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: you doing, Keith?
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: I am terrific, sir. I hope you are as well well.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Cleech. We met at a live broadcast. Steven A. Smith
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: was in town and your wife introduced to me. She said,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: you have to meet my husband. He has to be
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: on your show, Money Making Conversation Master Class. Now tell
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: me Keith. She was your manager, she was your broadcaster.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Why was she so inspired to get you on Money
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Well, first of all, I am extremely blessed to have
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: met my soulmate, my partner in life, love and philanthropy,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: Miss Charmaine Ward Milner. And next to next to my mom,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: she is She is my biggest supporter and my biggest advocate,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: and it's always always always putting me first. And what
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: it is that we try to do together as a couple.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, the interesting thing was, first of all,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: when I met you man use your regular clothes on,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: no suit. You didn't look like corporate, didn't look like
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: a person who had multiple jersey mikes around the city.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: But you looked like a guy who believed in himself,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: a person who has lived a life of success. Tell
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: us about your background before we get into the journey
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: of being a person in the corporate world and then
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: leaving the comfort world to believe in yourself and be
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. Let's start at the beginning.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: Sure, I was born and raised a small farming community
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: in North Carolina, Readsville, North Carolina. Both my parents were farmers.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: My dad was a second or third generation sharecropper, and
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: I just learned by watching what they did every day.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: They got up early every morning, they worked from sun
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: up to sundown in the fields, and then they migrated
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: to the factories. My dad worked multiple jobs throughout my lifetime.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: My mom then also went into went into text to work.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: And it was a household that was full of love,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: but it was also a household that was full of discipline.
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  Speaker 3: I learned personal accountability at an early age. I learned
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: the value of your word. If you said you were
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: going to do something, you did it. If you were
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: told to do something, you got it done, and quite frankly,
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: if you didn't, there were consequences. And one of those
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: one of those key lessons that I learned early in
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: life that had served me well throughout my adult life,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: both in my personal life and in my corporate life,
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: is choices and consequences. We make choices every day, Rashan,
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: and and if you make if you don't make the
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: right choice, there's going to be consequences, and if you
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: do make the right choice, it's going to be consequences. So,
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: you know, just growing up in that household, there were
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: just so many things that I watched my parents do,
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: I watched my relatives do, And at the time, I
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: didn't know that those were going to be lessons that
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: would propel me to the level of success that I've
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: been blessed to achieve. But in looking back that they were,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: it was. It's a tremendous foundation.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Let me talk about this, the tobacco farm era you're
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: talking about rule So I'm sure you know radio, TV
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: wasn't wasn't many options back there. But what what made
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: you saw a seek out college? What was that your
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: parents inspiration? What your was the your student, the other students,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: or your teachers in school said you can do more,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: you can be better.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: It was primarily my parents. As you know, Black parents
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: and the African American community in America and around the world,
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: we have always, always, always valued education. For so many
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: years during slavery and then the Jim Crow era, we
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: were denied slavery, as you know, we were not even
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: allowed to learn how to read, uh, And so black
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: families you know, put a high value on education, and
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: my parents weren't any different. I was fortunate that I
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: found out when I was in elementary school that I
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: was I would say, had above average intelligence, and I
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  Speaker 3: liked school. I enjoyed learning. I just have an innate
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  Speaker 3: curiosity about everything, and then school came easy to me.
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  Speaker 3: And sometimes when things come easy, you know, you want
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: to do more of it. But it was really my
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: parents more so than any of the teachers. I'll tell
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: you Rashan. I went from elementary school to middle school,
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  Speaker 3: to high school and college and I had only two
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  Speaker 3: two black male teachers in twenty plus years of formal education.
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  Speaker 3: And I think I might have had three black female
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  Speaker 3: So no more than than a half a dozen black
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  Speaker 3: male instruct of black instructors from Hype from elementary school
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  Speaker 3: all the way through graduate school.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: You know, when we talk about discipline, you know, because
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: that's what people needed to understand. That's a major part
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: of being an entrepreneur, you know. Like when I worked
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: at IBM, I had to get up to go to work.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: In other words, they told me I had to be
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: working at eight o'clock. I had to get up to
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: go to work eight o'clock. As an entrepreneur, you set
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: your own rules and if you become lazy or you're
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: a person who wants to hit the snooze clock, that
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: is an option. That's an entrepreneur. And I say that
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: because you had discipline, because you were an athlete, so
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: that gave you added value of consistency, meeting standards, people
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: depending on you. And plus you are a quarterback. You
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: played a position where all eyes on you, keith everything
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: you did, and then you became a quarterback who set
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: a standard that was never set at this particular school.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that racial journey and the school you
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: went to and some of the setbacks you felt you
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: emostly had to take or go through to be the
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: person you are today.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was quite the journey. Rashaan I
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: attended Guildford College, which is a small liberal arts Quaker
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: institution in Greensboro, North Carolina. Did not intend to play
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: college football. I was a three spoored athlete in high
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: school football, basketball, and track and enjoyed it. But my
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: high school football coach thought that I had the talent
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: to go on and play at the next level. So,
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: unbeknownst to me. He was shopping my film around and
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Guildford came and offered me a partial scholarship. But Guilford
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: was also a school that had a high academic reputation
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: at the time, and that's really what was more important
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: to me. But I did matriculate the Guildford College. Out
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  Speaker 3: of fifteen hundred students there, there were only about fifty
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: African Americans and about fifty five football players. There were
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: only seven of us on the football team, and I
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: was the first starting black quarterback in the history of
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: the school. And it was not without a lot of
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: trials and tribulations. I learned that being the best is
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  Speaker 3: not always what makes the decision in terms of who
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: gets on the field. I thought that was the case
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: growing up, because you know, typically teams want to win,
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  Speaker 3: and if you want to win, you put the best
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: players on the team on the field. It's going to
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: give you the best chances of winning. But I learned
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: that at the collegiate level that there are other factors
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: that go into who gets on the field. And I
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: learned in corporate America that the best don't always get promoted,
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  Speaker 3: the best don't always get the raises, the best don't
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: always get the great assignments, and so that prepared me.
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  Speaker 3: My experience at Guilford prepared me as being the first
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  Speaker 3: black quarterback and leading, you know, a group of minority
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: individuals on off the field.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's interesting because I use sports a lot,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: and I think sports is important if you just you
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: don't have to play sports to understand how it works.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: You know, right now, the Atlanta Falcons, they got a
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: quarterback who's lost his game, and they got a rookie
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: quarterback sitting on the side, like everybody say play him,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: play him, and like you just said, he may be
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the better quarterback just sitting on the sideline, But that
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean he getting into the game because people trying
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: to get this other quarterback to get his act together.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: And so, but that happens in corporate life because just
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: because employee is struggling, don't mean you just walk up
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: to him and say you fired. You sometimes have to
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: sit down and coach them, talk about and talk to
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: about audience, how being an athlete, being a leader, how
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: you've used athletics, sports teamwork in your managerial style and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: in the corporate world. And then as an entrepreneur and
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: leading franchises absolutely well.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: First and foremost, there's very very few things that happen
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: in life that you can do alone or do by yourself.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: It's usually involved a number of other individuals, whether it's
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: in a team setting or a corporate setting, or again
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: in a franchise or a small business operation. So you
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: start with that mindset, right, I can't do this alone.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: I need people, I need employees, I need workers. Then
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: the second thing is establishing a common goal. That was
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: one of the things that team sports taught me early
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: on is that regardless of your race, or your background,
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: or what your religious affiliation or political leanings are, when
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: you decide to join a team, there is a common goal.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: And that common goal usually revolved around winning. Okay, So
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: in the corporate setting or in the entrepreneurial setting, winning
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: might be defined as making a profit, Winning might be
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: defined as generating the additional market share. Winning might be
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: defined as keeping the doors of the business open. And
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: so with that common goal, then you go into making
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: sure that you've got people who can play their positions,
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: people who can contribute to you winning. And when you
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: have individuals who may not be performing at the level
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: that you think they should, then there's an opportunity to
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: frame them, there's an opportunity to coach them, there's an
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: opportunity to motivate them, if they have bought into the goal,
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: if they have bought into the vision of what it
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: is that the team or the business is trying to do.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: And you have to be patient. You really do have
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: to be patient because sometimes people it takes them a
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: while for the like to go on, if you will,
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: or sometimes it takes them a while to demonstrate the
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: skills that they need in order to do the job.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: And so as a business owner, as a leader, as
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: a team sport participant, you have to practice. You have
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: to teach them and give them an opportunity to grow
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: and learn and be willing to allow them to make
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: some mistakes until they get it.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: But come on, Keith, now, just like a football team,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: some people can't make the team. Now, some people got
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: to be cut from this court now, so no doubt,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: no doubt. Now, So how do you know you're president
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: of Coaching Catalysts LLC, boutique executive coaching and business advisory firm.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: How do you work that into the model of your
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: teachings or your motivation When people come to you going,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: I got my employees. I'm trying to get my staff
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: to a point of they understand what we're trying to
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: do at this company. How do you start sorting out
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: people who get it and people who don't get it?
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Sure? I asked a lot of questions, and the first
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: question is usually, are you sure that they know what
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: their duties and job responsibilities are? You would be amazed,
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: or maybe you wouldn't because you're in this space.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no no. I was looking at
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: my friend across the ground, said that's the number one.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: But people don't know. People do not know. I would
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: tell you, I want you to finish the story, but
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I want to tell y'all something. When I was at IBM, key,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I sat down. I started with two other white guys, right.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: And.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I walked in the room and my suit asked me
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: what I wanted to do at IBM. I told them
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I did not know, right, He said, okay, Rashana, well
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: get back with me when you when you figure out.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: So I'm sitting on the sidelines right watching these white
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: guys just move up, move up, move up, move up,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and then I come back in you know, mad. Three
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: months later, he said, I see, I see them doing
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: things that you know, I'm not being offered an opportunity
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: to do. He said, Rashaan, they told me what they
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: wanted to do.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: Mh.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: They told me their goals, they told me their aspirations.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: At IBM, you yet to do that. And so I'm
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: just telling you I've been there. You know, I'm getting
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the check showing the work, working hard, but I didn't
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: know what I wanted, what I was supposed to do
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: because I never asked the role that can inspire me
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: to be a benefit at the company. So continue your story.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, and I appreciate you sharing that absolute So again,
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: as a you know, owner of a small business, several
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: small businesses, you cannot take for granted that your employees
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: are clear on what their job is or what their
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: expectations are. So you start there, and then the next
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: thing is you really have to assess whether or not
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: they have the skills, knowledge and ability and the determination
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: and motivation to actually get it done. If the answer
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: to that the second question is yes, then it's incumbent
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: upon you as a leader and the manager to train them,
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: you know, and after that you get give them an
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: opportunity to demonstrate and if you know, after a certain
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: period of time and it just depends on the complexity
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: of the responsibility or whatever. If they are consistently underperforming
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: or not demonstrating that they can actually get the job done,
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: then you have to free up their future.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: I like that, so nice, free up their future. I'm
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: talking to Keith Mildner. When we come back, We're going
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: to have more of this Free Up your Future conversation
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversations Masterclass. I love it. Don't go nowhere.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: If we were right back, we will will be right back.
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: I'm speaking with the co founder and President of Coaching
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Catalysts LLCA at boutique executive coaching and business advisory firm,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: and a co founder and president of Social Capital, which
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: is he owns Jersey Mike's franchises in Atlanta. You know,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: because when I was coming up, you know, franchising or
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the idea of black people owning in McDonald's and Burger
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Kings and all these things. Jersey Mike, Why Jersey Mike?
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: Sir? Well? Relationships, Rashaan, My partner, mister Eric Harrison, had
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: a relationship with the owner of Jersey Mikes, and he
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: came to me. Eric came to me and said, Hey,
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: this is a great franchise. They've got a great product,
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: great brand, great reputation. I think we should go in
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: and buy some franchises. And I trusted him. He's a
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: great business mind. He knew the owner directly, and the
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: power of relationships got us a bit a good deal
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: with Jersey Mikes and we haven't looked back.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, so now you are corporate the yep, thirty five
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: years trained. Now they told you when to come to work,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: They told you your vacation days, your sick days, health benefits.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Now you really gotta tell with teenagers and people how
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: to make sandwiches. How did you get in ad they
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: teach you how to make sandwiches? Did you rather go
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: to sandwich making school? Tell us what went on that
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: keid you just say you just walked in the room
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: with a dude and he just hooked you up.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you it was a thirty five year
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: journey to get my mind right to kay, because because I,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: like many of my contemporaries, I was addicted to the
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: corporate paycheck. My definition of success and my assessment of
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: risk led me to believe that I had needed to
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: work for a fortune five hundred company, and my goals
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: were to get as high as I could, to get
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: to a point where I was responsible for a profit
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: and loss statement that I had as many people as
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: I could report in to me, and those things usually
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: led to you were making quite a bit of money.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: What I didn't really understand was that that was probably
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: the riskiest path to take because you were not in
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: direct control of your own destiny. You were limited by
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: how much you could actually make. You were limited by
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: what you could do by somebody else's assessment of what
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: your potential was, or about somebody else's evaluation of what
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: your contributions have been during the course of the year
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: to the business. And we all know that entrepreneurship and
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: small business ownership is the best way to create generational wealth.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: But it took me a long time to break that,
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: that break that shackle of the mind that no I
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: needed to work for, you know, a big company. So
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: it was it was a journey. It was definitely a journey.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: So you're absolutely right. It did not happen overnight.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Okay. Cool, Now let's get back to this sandwich making. Okay,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: because you can do You're not gonna get past that
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: because the big Kahunah, the big kohnah. Now I'm not
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: gonna have to now, you know, I'm gonna NPR.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: They you can't say you like anything, you can't say
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: you love something, but the big kohouna with those hol.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: Opinions, Yeah, number fifty six, come home, Keith.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Do you make those?
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Brother?
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Do you know how to make a big khoda?
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Absolutely? I can do everything that's required in the store. Absolutely.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: I can work the grill, I can shop the letters.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: I can make the sandwich we call it sprinkling. I
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: put the huge song, I can bake the bread. I
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: can sweep the floor and I can and I can
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: balance the cash register at the end of the night. Absolutely. So.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: So if you go in there, you know, everybody looking crazy,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: don't want to work, you just send them all off
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: the front door, which I got this call your wife.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: Huh. I try. I try not to send them all
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: out because it takes at least it takes at least
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: two people to keep keep the store open. But trust me,
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: there there there have been days when we just you know,
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: came from an event, a nonprofit event. We got to
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: sun our Sunday best clothes on and let's let's just
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: run by the store and check on it, and it
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: was in disarray. All you do is go to the back,
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: you grab grab an apron, wash your hands, you put
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: the gloves on, and you get behind the counter and
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: do what needs to be done to satisfy those customers.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I love it. I love it because some people detach
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: themselves from that part of it, you know, because entrepreneur
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: is what it is. It's like it is twenty four
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: and you wake up thinking about the business, you go
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: to sleep thinking about the business. I would tell people
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: you can, you can work a forty hour week job,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: but you're gonna work an eighty hour week job being
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, and you will love working those eighty hour
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: jobs eighty hours versus living that forty hours because, like
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: you said, the early key it's about controlling your future.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: It's about I've been fortunate.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I work for IBM, I work for the United States
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Post Office, so I've worked as a young person for
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: a lot of great, high paying jobs. But as an entrepreneur,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know if somebody gonna buy my product. I
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: don't know if somebody gonna show up and buy a
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: ticket that I'm trying to get them to buy. I
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: don't know if somebody I'm managing gonna keep me and
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: say let's ride or die. But I do know that
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I feel a certain value and a certain responsibility to
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the people that like you that I talk to to say, hey, man,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: you can do it, and you can be different, and
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: you do not have to be not I want to
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: use the word slave, because I think that's just too strong.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: You do not have to be a committed to a
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Foyer week. If your vision is bigger, talk to us
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: about that.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: Keith, Yeah, You've hit on a number of very very
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: important points. And I mentioned earlier in the broadcast risk
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: We tend as African Americans, we tend to look at risks,
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: particularly financial risk, from a very conservative standpoint, not really
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: understanding or having had someone show us that if you
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: own your own business, it is less risky than working
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: for someone else. I mean, Georgia is like many states
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: what's known as an at will employment state, meaning that
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: you could walk into your place of employment tomorrow and
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: they could say thanks, but no thanks. You know, you're
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: free to go without any reason and you have no
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: legal recourse, and a lot of people don't understand that right.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: And there is by definition of capitalism, there is a
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: limit to how much they are going to pay you
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: for your time. The inputs of capitalism land, labor and capital.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: And the way you make a profit is that you
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: generate more wealth than what it takes what it costs
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: to get those get those inputs. But when you own
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: your own business, you control the labor, you control the inputs,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: and therefore you can charge what you want to charge
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: as long as you are generating enough value that your
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: customers are willing to pay for it. So that's that's
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: really the formula, if you will, that is the formula, And.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: That's very true. I would tell you you pay what
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: people think you're valued at, you know, and that's why
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: you know quarterbacks are being paid sixty million dollars a
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: year even though they have not won Super Bowls, and
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: that's what the value is going. Same thing I learned
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: that long time ago when I was at IBM. I said,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: if I want to get a raised, I got to
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: act like I. If I walk out that door, something
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: is not going to go good if I don't come
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: back the next day. That's how you get a raised.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: You don't get a raised infecting it. I've been here
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: ten years, or I've been here fifteen years, I should
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: get a raise. That's not how it works, they are.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: It works when you walk out that door. How do
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: they feel about you coming back in that door the
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: next day? If they feel they need you to come
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: back in that door the next day, you will get
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: paid to come back in that door the next day
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: at a valued rate. At a valued rate. Now, as
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: we close this interview, Keith, it's been wonderful. Thank you
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: for coming on my show. What advice would you give
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Well, I break it down this way. First and foremost,
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: it's your attitude. Okay, I'm a big proponent and server
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: and the one hundred Black men of Atlanta, one hundred
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: black men of America, and one of our mottos is
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: what they see is what they'll be. Okay, So if
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: you see people in your neighborhood, if you see people
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: in the city, if you see people in your church
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: that are entrepreneurs, then you can believe that it's possible
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: and you can talk to them and ask them what
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: was their journey like and how is it that they
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: got into the business, Much like what you and I
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: are talking about tonight, but it starts with having an
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: attitude and a growth mindset, and then I break it
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: down to what I call the five p's for Sean.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: You have to plan, you have to prepare, then you
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: got to produce. Chances are you're gonna have to pivot,
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: and then you've got to preserve, persevere Wow, because everything
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: is going to not always go the way you wanted
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: it to go. And once you're an entrepreneur a small
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: business owner, what you did yesterday is not going to
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: have any impact on what you need to do today.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Every morning you get up and as the old sand,
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: as the old Swahili sand, every morning in the jungle,
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: the line wakes up running and the antelope wakes up running,
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: and the question becomes Who's gonna run the fastest, whether
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: the line's gonna eat or the antelope to live to
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: see another day.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: I love it, brother, Thank you. Next time I want
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: you to studio with me. We want to take some
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: phone calls. Is that a deal?
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: That the deal?
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Sir, your special brother, and I keep motivating and keep
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: making those big khunahs, man, because every time I eat
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: one from now on, you know what I'm gona think
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: about it. I'mnna think about you. I'm gonna think about you.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass, Masterclass.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: You are a special brother. Thank you, Thank you. Cool
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: when we come back, don't go nowhere. We got a
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: fantastic guest. She's from the Philadelphia area talking about her
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: manufacturing journey. It's amazing. Caller tropman, don't go nowhere. This
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass posted
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests on
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the show today and thank you O listening to audience now.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: If you want to listen to any episode I want
• 26:50
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• 26:53
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• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: your gifts. Keep winning,