Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Full Episode: Professional Tennis influencer Kamau Murray & Magnolia Network series host & entrepreneur Jonathan Morris
Transcript
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- 1:18Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to Money Making Conversations.
- 1:29Speaker 1: It's to show that she has the secrets of success
- 1:31Speaker 1: experience firsthand by marketing and Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I
- 1:35Speaker 1: will know he's giving me advice on many occasions in
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- 1:40Speaker 1: he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision makers.
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- 1:49Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald money making conversations. Here we come. Welcome to
- 1:53Speaker 1: money Making Conversation. I am your host, Roshan McDonald. It's
- 1:56Speaker 1: time to stop reading other people's success stories. Do you
- 1:58Speaker 1: hear me say that every week? I'm gonna say it
- 2:01Speaker 1: every week so you can get it in your head.
- 2:03Speaker 1: It's time to stop reading other people's success stores and
- 2:05Speaker 1: start writing your own. Always leave with your gifts. People
- 2:08Speaker 1: talk about passion, Leave with your gifts, and don't let
- 2:11Speaker 1: your age, friends, family, of or stop you from planning
- 2:14Speaker 1: or living your dreams. I said it every week. I
- 2:16Speaker 1: didn't find out who I was mentally. I was very
- 2:19Speaker 1: successful in to my forties when I really started accepting
- 2:22Speaker 1: my gifts, accepting responsibilities. So it may not happen when
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- 2:32Speaker 1: dream capabilities. My interviews I provide on money making conversations
- 2:36Speaker 1: are with celebrities, CEO, entrepreneurs and people I like to
- 2:40Speaker 1: call industry decision makers. My next guest is Jonathan Morris.
- 2:44Speaker 1: I'm gonna calling a good friend you straight out of
- 2:46Speaker 1: Fort Worth, Texas most of the Magnolia Network series Self Employed.
- 2:52Speaker 1: The show is streaming on the Magnolia App and Discovery Plus.
- 2:56Speaker 1: Entrepreneur Jonathan Morris travels the country to share the racial
- 3:00Speaker 1: stories and new challenges of small business owners and their
- 3:03Speaker 1: journeys to building their dream jobs. The show features entrepreneurs
- 3:07Speaker 1: from a variety of backgrounds and in Fort Worth, he
- 3:09Speaker 1: owns a barbershop in the hotel. We're gonna talk about
- 3:12Speaker 1: all that, of course the TV show Self Imployed, but
- 3:15Speaker 1: we're also gonna talk about building his dreams please working
- 3:19Speaker 1: the money making conversations for the very first time. Jonathan Morris,
- 3:22Speaker 1: how he's doing, Jonathan are you doing this morning? So?
- 3:25Speaker 1: So you know got fort Worth right there? Man? Logo
- 3:28Speaker 1: on your shirt A chest man, I want to wear
- 3:31Speaker 1: for Worth on my heart. Man. I love this. I
- 3:33Speaker 1: love this city. I love everything. I love most things
- 3:35Speaker 1: about it. It's a it's a it's a growing city.
- 3:38Speaker 1: Like people don't know where the twelfth largest city in
- 3:40Speaker 1: the nation. Now, quietly that I did not know. If
- 3:45Speaker 1: you give me your perspective, Like I'm from Houston, Texas.
- 3:47Speaker 1: You go up forty five north. You know we're fort
- 3:49Speaker 1: Worth in Dallas. You know, so Dallas is always the
- 3:52Speaker 1: dominant market. You have all itt in fort Worth, Dallas.
- 3:55Speaker 1: And so now he's telling me, now fort Worth is
- 3:58Speaker 1: the twelfth largest city. Now that's news to everybody knows.
- 4:01Speaker 1: Every everybody knows our our big brother, a big brother
- 4:05Speaker 1: to the to the east, Dallas. Um. Before words, we're
- 4:08Speaker 1: a little maybe a little more understated a little, but
- 4:12Speaker 1: we're doing I think out there there's a lot of
- 4:13Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of good things happening in
- 4:14Speaker 1: the city. Now, you know, you're you're I brought you
- 4:16Speaker 1: on the show to talk about this new show on
- 4:18Speaker 1: Magnolia Network called Self Employed. Set us up a little
- 4:23Speaker 1: bit about what exactly that show is because of the
- 4:25Speaker 1: fact that you are a barbershop on I believe you've been.
- 4:27Speaker 1: You had that shop about six years, correct years some years,
- 4:32Speaker 1: and so I'm fair for me with that range because
- 4:34Speaker 1: my brother, my younger brother, he's in the DC area,
- 4:36Speaker 1: he has four and so so when the COVID hit,
- 4:40Speaker 1: you know it really you know, we was just talking
- 4:43Speaker 1: about the opening because he couldn't open because he was
- 4:45Speaker 1: face to face a service oriented business and that you
- 4:49Speaker 1: that was like five going into your six year talk
- 4:51Speaker 1: about how COVID impacted your business and how did you
- 4:55Speaker 1: recover from it? You know it. You know, in March
- 4:59Speaker 1: of UM, as the rest of the world was experiencing,
- 5:04Speaker 1: um what this new uh, this new hurdle that we
- 5:09Speaker 1: were all facing together, UM was was hitting us. The
- 5:13Speaker 1: barbershop industry was one that was especially hit our business.
- 5:17Speaker 1: Like you said, we are literally face to face UM,
- 5:20Speaker 1: and you know, inches away from folks face. So when
- 5:22Speaker 1: it comes to congregating, it was a no go. So UM.
- 5:26Speaker 1: You know, the toughest thing was Shawn for for for
- 5:29Speaker 1: me as a business owner, was the uncertainty UM and
- 5:34Speaker 1: dealing with it not knowing, you know, once we close,
- 5:37Speaker 1: not knowing when we'd be able to open up. And
- 5:39Speaker 1: you know, as a as an employer, UM and having
- 5:42Speaker 1: to go to my team, UM, of of of a
- 5:46Speaker 1: barber's and stylist who you know, this is their livelihood,
- 5:49Speaker 1: going to them and saying, hey, guys, not only UM,
- 5:53Speaker 1: do I not have a job for you in this moment,
- 5:56Speaker 1: I also don't know when UM, I'm going to But
- 6:00Speaker 1: if you hang on, you know, Luckily for us, you know,
- 6:03Speaker 1: being a small team, you know, it's it's like a
- 6:06Speaker 1: it's like a little little family, you know, UM. And
- 6:09Speaker 1: we had to check in on each other and we
- 6:11Speaker 1: have to make sure we're doing okay. We went we
- 6:13Speaker 1: went two months UM completely closed until opening back up
- 6:18Speaker 1: in May. And when we opened back up, we opened
- 6:20Speaker 1: up with a lot of safeguards, right. We wanted to
- 6:23Speaker 1: UM make sure that as we were inviting people back
- 6:26Speaker 1: into the space, UM we were doing so as as responsibly,
- 6:31Speaker 1: um as possible to to create a safe environment for
- 6:35Speaker 1: our for our for our customers, but then also our
- 6:37Speaker 1: our staff. And so the community responded really well. A
- 6:41Speaker 1: lot of them came back to us, um um and
- 6:44Speaker 1: you know, we we we've been able to bounce back,
- 6:47Speaker 1: but we're still you know, very much um in this
- 6:49Speaker 1: tricky space. As as small businesses, particularly ones that are
- 6:53Speaker 1: dealing face to face with the public. Well, you know,
- 6:54Speaker 1: I'm talking to Jonathan Morris. He has a barbershop and
- 6:57Speaker 1: a hotel we're gonna talk about that in a minute
- 7:00Speaker 1: in the fourth Worth area Fort Worth, Texas, as he
- 7:02Speaker 1: calls it. Uh. He's an entrepreneur and the host of
- 7:04Speaker 1: the new series on Magnolia app and Discovery Plus series
- 7:09Speaker 1: called Self Employed. Now, I bring up these different conversations
- 7:13Speaker 1: because everybody has a different role a different impact with COVID.
- 7:16Speaker 1: Like I would tell you something, John, I didn't know
- 7:18Speaker 1: what to do, you know, And so when you were
- 7:20Speaker 1: servicing customers that closed, it had to be a little fearful,
- 7:25Speaker 1: but you had to move past a fear to run
- 7:28Speaker 1: your business. Are to operate your business carefully and uh safely. Yeah,
- 7:34Speaker 1: And I think that for us, that was that was
- 7:37Speaker 1: rooted in how we communicated with our with our clients
- 7:39Speaker 1: and even how we communicated with our staff. Um that
- 7:43Speaker 1: you know, we were luckily to be be open again.
- 7:47Speaker 1: We're luckily, we're we're we're lucky to be able to
- 7:50Speaker 1: provide a service to our community. But at the same time,
- 7:54Speaker 1: we understand that people are apprehensive, um and we you know,
- 7:57Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, wanted to hold that and
- 8:00Speaker 1: through that and communicate with them that, you know, we
- 8:02Speaker 1: wanted to create an assay environment as we possibly could
- 8:06Speaker 1: given the circumstances of a global pante There was no
- 8:10Speaker 1: there was no there was no book written on how
- 8:12Speaker 1: to how to go about it. Right, there's the same
- 8:14Speaker 1: part because like I said, I didn't know how to
- 8:16Speaker 1: opened the door. I didn't know all the podcast, I
- 8:18Speaker 1: didn't know how to say a load of people in public.
- 8:20Speaker 1: It was just really really a life of isolation. And
- 8:24Speaker 1: then you're a people of person. I can tell your personality.
- 8:26Speaker 1: You're such you're so engaging, which is probably one of
- 8:29Speaker 1: the reasons you're the host of the new series. How
- 8:31Speaker 1: did they come about the whole self employed? Give everybody assists?
- 8:35Speaker 1: So I gave a you know my cliff note of
- 8:37Speaker 1: what self employed is, tell us what it is and
- 8:40Speaker 1: how you became the host. Yeah. Sure, so you know,
- 8:44Speaker 1: I I never set out to host the television show.
- 8:47Speaker 1: One day back in twenty nineteen, I gotta I got
- 8:52Speaker 1: a phone call from a good friend of mine who
- 8:54Speaker 1: owns a video production company here in Fort Worth, UM,
- 8:57Speaker 1: and he said, Hey, I've been meeting with the Magnolia
- 8:59Speaker 1: people and we kind of pitched them on an idea
- 9:03Speaker 1: of a TV show. Um. They like what you're doing
- 9:06Speaker 1: with your barbershop and for Worth um. And we uh,
- 9:11Speaker 1: we started that discussion of what what what this TV
- 9:14Speaker 1: show could be, what it could look like. And of course,
- 9:16Speaker 1: you know I told them, I say, listen, I'm not
- 9:19Speaker 1: an actor. I'm just an entrepreneur um and and I
- 9:23Speaker 1: love engaging with other entrepreneurs and learning about their stories.
- 9:26Speaker 1: And I find myself to be particularly inspired by other
- 9:29Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and people who are following their dreams, writing right
- 9:33Speaker 1: in righting there, writing their own story. As you said, um,
- 9:37Speaker 1: and you know, uh, we crafted this show where I
- 9:41Speaker 1: go around the country and I meet with people across
- 9:44Speaker 1: different backgrounds who who who landed into entrepreneurship, and becoming
- 9:49Speaker 1: self employed from all all walks of life who are
- 9:53Speaker 1: running you know, all different sized businesses. Right. Um, So
- 9:56Speaker 1: we traveled around the country and we sat down to
- 9:59Speaker 1: tell you about learn their stories. You know, your personality
- 10:02Speaker 1: really helps the series. Okay, you know, you meeting different people,
- 10:05Speaker 1: but you engage and you you you you have a
- 10:07Speaker 1: welcoming personality and Jumathan and I think that really helps
- 10:10Speaker 1: the series. Well, you know, you know, rich like, I'm
- 10:13Speaker 1: just curious, you know, and when I'm sitting down and
- 10:16Speaker 1: talking with these these entrepreneurs, you know, in a lot
- 10:19Speaker 1: of ways, I can empathize with a lot of the
- 10:21Speaker 1: things they've been going through. Um. And so you know,
- 10:24Speaker 1: so long as they allow me to just be myself,
- 10:28Speaker 1: uh and ask the questions that I would want to ask,
- 10:31Speaker 1: you know, ask folks even if the cameras weren't even rolling.
- 10:34Speaker 1: You know, I think that that's what has made the
- 10:36Speaker 1: show fun. And you know, people, um have been really
- 10:40Speaker 1: inspired by it. And I hope that more people see
- 10:43Speaker 1: the people that we're featuring on the show, and you know,
- 10:46Speaker 1: they take the lead to pursue their own dreams and um,
- 10:50Speaker 1: even if even if they're not entrepreneurs, we hope that
- 10:53Speaker 1: this this show really helps people to know that even
- 10:56Speaker 1: supporting entrepreneurs, supporting small businesses, um, we can all play
- 11:00Speaker 1: a part in what that looks like in our communities.
- 11:02Speaker 1: But the interesting thing about it, because you know, you know,
- 11:05Speaker 1: you're an entrepreneur, you know, you're a marketer and social media.
- 11:09Speaker 1: Now you're on you know you you you look you
- 11:11Speaker 1: was a star. You started for Word Texas area. Now
- 11:14Speaker 1: now you're on the TV show, you on the app
- 11:16Speaker 1: Magnolia are growing the Disney Discovery plus you see a
- 11:20Speaker 1: commercial one that every time you turn on TV. And
- 11:23Speaker 1: so now you're getting into the social media aspect. What
- 11:25Speaker 1: has changed about this New Foul Fame. It's gonna grow
- 11:28Speaker 1: because the more the show gets popular, the more people
- 11:31Speaker 1: download the show and watch the show. How does that
- 11:33Speaker 1: allowed you to like work on your brand or grow
- 11:36Speaker 1: your brand outside of the television show, you know, as
- 11:40Speaker 1: a as a small business owner. You know, you know,
- 11:43Speaker 1: I'm I've been over the last three years in the
- 11:45Speaker 1: middle of you know, working on this show. I've been
- 11:48Speaker 1: working on my new business, which is this small this
- 11:51Speaker 1: twenty one room hotel and for Worth and so you know,
- 11:54Speaker 1: the more the more platform or opportunities that I have
- 11:58Speaker 1: to to tell people about UM to talk about entrepreneurship.
- 12:02Speaker 1: I hope that it helps to feed you know, uh,
- 12:05Speaker 1: my little baby, my my my new business. As we're
- 12:08Speaker 1: you know, venturing into this this this, this new you
- 12:11Speaker 1: know for me, untraveled territory and so UM, the more
- 12:15Speaker 1: people that that that we can reach and we can
- 12:17Speaker 1: speak to and UM share share this idea of of
- 12:22Speaker 1: what you know and in this, in this, in this
- 12:26Speaker 1: regard what a hotel can be in for Word, Texas, UM,
- 12:29Speaker 1: let's slide over to that hotel, because you know you
- 12:32Speaker 1: have a locally owned boutique hotel and bar and for
- 12:35Speaker 1: words and cultural district, and you know, it's a lot
- 12:38Speaker 1: of things I've done in my life. I thought about
- 12:40Speaker 1: doing a restaurant. I've thought about you know, I thought,
- 12:42Speaker 1: of course, I was a performing comedian acting just a modeling,
- 12:47Speaker 1: I managed talent, but a hotel that I only stay
- 12:50Speaker 1: in hotels. The fact that you made the delete to
- 12:54Speaker 1: want to be an owner of a hotel and it's
- 12:57Speaker 1: a boutique hotel with a bar, talk about that. Yeah,
- 13:00Speaker 1: So you know, the idea of a hotel for me
- 13:05Speaker 1: came from you know, traveling and when I travel, I
- 13:11Speaker 1: like to connect with the city. I like to connect
- 13:13Speaker 1: with where I am. I want to be um in
- 13:16Speaker 1: in a in a place that gives me a true
- 13:18Speaker 1: sense of a place. Right. Um. And as I looked
- 13:21Speaker 1: around Fort Worth, the city that I love, the city
- 13:24Speaker 1: that my father, my grandfather, my grandmother, my mom was
- 13:28Speaker 1: called home for a very long time, and this place
- 13:31Speaker 1: where I, you know, ventured into entrepreneurship. I look around
- 13:35Speaker 1: and I don't see that place. I did not see
- 13:37Speaker 1: that place. Uh. And I said, you know, I want
- 13:42Speaker 1: to create this space that authentically UH says something about
- 13:47Speaker 1: this this this this little big town. Um. And doesn't
- 13:51Speaker 1: you know in a way that I would. Obviously I've
- 13:53Speaker 1: stayed in a lot of those, but I never never
- 13:57Speaker 1: owned one. And so um, you know, I ran into
- 14:01Speaker 1: I was I was out and ran into a good
- 14:02Speaker 1: friend of mine. And this is back in summer teen,
- 14:07Speaker 1: just three years ago. And you know, we were just
- 14:10Speaker 1: catching up on our businesses and what's going on. And
- 14:13Speaker 1: I said, Alan, I said, I really want to do
- 14:15Speaker 1: a hotel. And so we started that conversation. UM. And
- 14:18Speaker 1: now Alan with my business partner in this project, and
- 14:21Speaker 1: we you know, we had to we had to findal location,
- 14:23Speaker 1: we had to fund the funding, we had to uh,
- 14:28Speaker 1: you know, really put together what this, what this could be.
- 14:30Speaker 1: So over the last three years, that's what we've been doing.
- 14:32Speaker 1: Hotel rice Um is a twenty one room hotel with
- 14:36Speaker 1: a lobby bar that sits in the Cultural district right
- 14:39Speaker 1: across the street from the new uh fourteen thousand seet
- 14:42Speaker 1: Dicky's Arena, which is bringing you know, droves of people
- 14:47Speaker 1: into the city, and so we just want to be
- 14:49Speaker 1: at a spare space we can serve people who are
- 14:51Speaker 1: coming to the city as well as being a honestly
- 14:54Speaker 1: a cultural hub for for locals as well. It's finally
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- 16:51Speaker 1: and the ad Council. Okay, so you're you're you're twenty
- 16:54Speaker 1: one rooms. Okay, so it's it's a different atmosphere. So
- 16:58Speaker 1: how our big the rooms, the room space and you're like, sweets,
- 17:02Speaker 1: you have like all of the same size room the
- 17:04Speaker 1: double beds and kings. What are they sure? We have
- 17:06Speaker 1: five different size rooms at the hotel we have one Sweets.
- 17:10Speaker 1: We have one once the Presidential if you if you will,
- 17:15Speaker 1: doesn't have a living space and things that we're around
- 17:17Speaker 1: like five square feet on that and then we have
- 17:19Speaker 1: smaller sweets all the way down to like two d
- 17:22Speaker 1: square feet. Um. So, different price ranges, different views of
- 17:26Speaker 1: the city, but really comfortable spaces. We wanted to create
- 17:30Speaker 1: something that was not necessarily high luxury, but was you know,
- 17:34Speaker 1: had a utilitarian but a cool, comfortable, welcoming feel um
- 17:38Speaker 1: to to attract traveler, the traveler that we felt like
- 17:42Speaker 1: was coming to Fort Worth wasn't able to find the
- 17:45Speaker 1: independent boutique hotel kmical Field. Well, you know the interesting
- 17:49Speaker 1: thing I'm talking to Jonathan Morris. He's the host of
- 17:51Speaker 1: Self Imployed on the Magnolia app. That's what you can
- 17:53Speaker 1: find and also on Discover, the Plus streaming network. Uh.
- 17:57Speaker 1: The reason I was just talking about this entrepreneurship because
- 17:59Speaker 1: you know, if you're gonna host the show called self
- 18:01Speaker 1: employd you should know something. Okay, he knows. The one
- 18:05Speaker 1: thing he does know the people business. You know, he's
- 18:07Speaker 1: in the he's a barbershop owner, hotel owner. If those
- 18:11Speaker 1: are two business you better know some people and be
- 18:13Speaker 1: and also be service oriented. Now when he when he
- 18:16Speaker 1: talks about a hotel, Drice, it reminds me of a
- 18:18Speaker 1: New York hotel. And so because if you if you
- 18:22Speaker 1: go to New York City. It wasn't the size that
- 18:24Speaker 1: he said freaked me out. He said five hundred square feet.
- 18:27Speaker 1: The two hundred square feet. Okay, cool, I've been in
- 18:30Speaker 1: the two hundred square feet. You open that door, that's
- 18:32Speaker 1: the bed. Guess work that you you're the TV right there.
- 18:37Speaker 1: The little bit of TV right there, bathroom right there.
- 18:41Speaker 1: You know you're in that bed, not that you're in
- 18:43Speaker 1: there two d scraarefoot room not to entertain, but to
- 18:46Speaker 1: go to sleep. That's why I read Glord. After a
- 18:49Speaker 1: long night you put you your hang upboard everything and
- 18:52Speaker 1: the thing about those whom they are, So I'm gonna
- 18:54Speaker 1: used to work cute from a standpoint of everything's right there?
- 18:57Speaker 1: Am I telling us the true? Jonathan? You know I
- 19:00Speaker 1: like to use the word concise, Okay, practical, right right,
- 19:04Speaker 1: right right, because you want to do you want to
- 19:07Speaker 1: create a space that you know you have everything you
- 19:09Speaker 1: need is affordable. Um And ultimately what we want to
- 19:13Speaker 1: do is we want to get people out into our city.
- 19:14Speaker 1: We want to get people absolutely absolutely to discovers offer.
- 19:20Speaker 1: Because that's why I wanted to stop people because people
- 19:22Speaker 1: here a number two hundred crab feet. That's well, look,
- 19:25Speaker 1: I'm just tell you something. Sean McDonald and stayed in
- 19:27Speaker 1: many two hundred scrapfoot When you go in there, that's
- 19:31Speaker 1: what I'm just preparing everybody. When you go in there,
- 19:33Speaker 1: when you open the door, you will see the bad
- 19:35Speaker 1: you will see you will see the TV, you will
- 19:38Speaker 1: see the restroom door. But it's all good. Like you said,
- 19:41Speaker 1: it's convenient. It's like staying in a cruise ship if
- 19:45Speaker 1: you've been in the cruise ship, but it's bigger and
- 19:48Speaker 1: it's nice. Either we're out the way without the way
- 19:51Speaker 1: that you can walk out and you go about your business.
- 19:54Speaker 1: But the beauty of that, the establishing that, is that
- 19:56Speaker 1: his personality is in the cultural district of Fort Worth,
- 19:59Speaker 1: which mean just tied to personality. And so if you
- 20:02Speaker 1: go to places that New York, you go to Chicago,
- 20:04Speaker 1: you go to go to San Francisco especially, you know,
- 20:07Speaker 1: and you find those type of hotels when you walk
- 20:10Speaker 1: down the streets. I can, I can. I can clearly
- 20:12Speaker 1: see a hotel properties like that in New York because
- 20:14Speaker 1: I lived there so many years and it was always fun.
- 20:17Speaker 1: What has been the most dynamic and most interesting part
- 20:20Speaker 1: of developing that type of hotel property in the four
- 20:23Speaker 1: Worth area town, you know, for Shawn from me UM,
- 20:26Speaker 1: it's been how much of the local community we've been
- 20:29Speaker 1: able to impart in the design and development of the
- 20:32Speaker 1: space UM with in the hotel, every room that you
- 20:37Speaker 1: walk into you're going to see art from local artists
- 20:41Speaker 1: UM and if by being even more if if a
- 20:44Speaker 1: more transparent There are people that I call friends who
- 20:47Speaker 1: are UM influencing the city through their talent, through their creativity,
- 20:53Speaker 1: whether it be the photography on the walls or sculpture
- 20:57Speaker 1: that we have, consources that we have UM are paintings
- 21:02Speaker 1: or even down to the bed frame and the desk,
- 21:06Speaker 1: or local carpenters, people that you might mess around and
- 21:09Speaker 1: see at the lobby bar downstairs right after you check in.
- 21:12Speaker 1: You know, it is very much UM for word, through
- 21:17Speaker 1: and through, and it was just a way for us
- 21:19Speaker 1: to express who we are UM as a city and
- 21:22Speaker 1: and and and as uh as as the people that
- 21:26Speaker 1: they live here. Absolutely, the beauty of being an entrepreneur,
- 21:30Speaker 1: which is self employed, is about you know, we all
- 21:32Speaker 1: have these American dreams, but we also go out there.
- 21:36Speaker 1: There's your show, because I've seen a couple of episodes,
- 21:37Speaker 1: but I haven't seen the entire series. Is it a
- 21:40Speaker 1: is it a shot that you learn from you show?
- 21:43Speaker 1: You see missteps and people overcoming missteps. Talk about the
- 21:47Speaker 1: series that the granular nature of the series because you
- 21:50Speaker 1: I'm I'm an entrepreneur, so I know I've made mistakes,
- 21:53Speaker 1: it will make future mistakes because it's a lot of
- 21:55Speaker 1: things you do on gut, you do on instinct, you
- 21:57Speaker 1: do on you hear the word faith A people go
- 22:00Speaker 1: out there on faith saying they don't want to work
- 22:03Speaker 1: a normal job every and more. If I'm putting in
- 22:05Speaker 1: eighty hours and put it right now, put eighty hours
- 22:07Speaker 1: into my dream and you get that a lot out
- 22:09Speaker 1: there on your show Self Imployed, talk about how you
- 22:12Speaker 1: manage expectations, but also to show the upside of the
- 22:16Speaker 1: show and not making it the show where you show
- 22:18Speaker 1: the dark side of it. You know. I think that
- 22:21Speaker 1: if there's one thing that I learned and I hope
- 22:24Speaker 1: people take away from watching the show, is that every
- 22:26Speaker 1: single one of these entrepreneurs that were following has had
- 22:32Speaker 1: to base some level of risk, some more than others. Right.
- 22:36Speaker 1: But if everyone, um to some degree is stepping out
- 22:39Speaker 1: on faith, um, every single one of these entrepreneurs has
- 22:43Speaker 1: hit roadblocks, obstacles has hit um uh parts of their
- 22:49Speaker 1: their their journey there for a lot of people would
- 22:51Speaker 1: be enough to say, you know what, that's okay with me.
- 22:54Speaker 1: I'll go ahead and take the W two and somebody
- 22:57Speaker 1: else can uh can worry about running this this show, right, um.
- 23:01Speaker 1: But they persevered through those things and the other thing
- 23:05Speaker 1: that you know, every one of these entrepreneurs that we've
- 23:07Speaker 1: that we've that we've UM we featured, they're all still
- 23:13Speaker 1: in the learning process. Nobody has got all the answers.
- 23:16Speaker 1: And I think that that is a way that really
- 23:19Speaker 1: humanizes UM the small business or the or the or
- 23:23Speaker 1: the entrepreneurial journey for people. That I hope that people
- 23:26Speaker 1: are able to see themselves UM in people right. They're
- 23:29Speaker 1: able to identifying that, hey, this is this is just
- 23:32Speaker 1: a person just like me UM who was able to
- 23:36Speaker 1: uh step out their on faith UM and and bring
- 23:39Speaker 1: their dreams of life. Here's the interesting to Jonathan, because
- 23:41Speaker 1: I'm gonna read a quote from an article that you had.
- 23:43Speaker 1: You know, we'll learn about their stories about self imployed.
- 23:47Speaker 1: We'll learn about their stories and learn about where they
- 23:49Speaker 1: have been where they are right now, what the challenges are,
- 23:52Speaker 1: and understanding how they've had to adapt and pivot, which
- 23:55Speaker 1: is important because we all pivoted during the COVID Around
- 23:58Speaker 1: us is an opportunity to share a light on what
- 24:00Speaker 1: it looks like for someone to take that idea and
- 24:04Speaker 1: cultivate that idea enter their dream and their dream work
- 24:07Speaker 1: life of being self imployed. I wish I want to
- 24:10Speaker 1: say that quote first of a pretty profound quote, and
- 24:13Speaker 1: I'm glad I had an opportunity to read it during
- 24:15Speaker 1: our interview. Is that I look at myself and and
- 24:20Speaker 1: and like you said, some people are just w two people,
- 24:23Speaker 1: which means they will they will working for the hour
- 24:24Speaker 1: weak jaw. And I know that the younger generation, millennial
- 24:28Speaker 1: generation was really hidden hit hard. Everybody's talking about they
- 24:31Speaker 1: don't want to they want to skip steps, you know,
- 24:33Speaker 1: they don't want to working for the our weak jaw.
- 24:35Speaker 1: But because of technology, have you seen an age difference
- 24:39Speaker 1: out there when you've done your show? Is it or
- 24:42Speaker 1: it's just you've just been just out there and everybody
- 24:44Speaker 1: wants to be successful because I know it's as entrepreneurs,
- 24:47Speaker 1: the female industry that the women have really become a
- 24:50Speaker 1: dominant force as entrepreneurs, and also blacks have stepped up
- 24:54Speaker 1: their game as entrepreneurs. Tell us what you're seeing out
- 24:57Speaker 1: there while you're doing the show. I know you're not
- 24:59Speaker 1: the ex for you five years about we can have
- 25:01Speaker 1: this different conversation because you've have been everywhere all of
- 25:03Speaker 1: this kind of talk about what you're seeing now? Well, um,
- 25:07Speaker 1: one of the things that I wanted to make sure
- 25:09Speaker 1: that we we we did before we before we even
- 25:12Speaker 1: started filming it is I want to show a diverse
- 25:15Speaker 1: range of entrepreneurs. And so we talked to you to
- 25:20Speaker 1: some some younger folks UH that are in the in
- 25:23Speaker 1: the earlier stages of the entrepreneur and we've talked to
- 25:26Speaker 1: we talked to some folks that are a little bit
- 25:28Speaker 1: older and they've been doing it for a while. UM.
- 25:30Speaker 1: And again I just hope that again people are able
- 25:32Speaker 1: to see themselves and identify with that. But I do
- 25:36Speaker 1: think that UM, particularly UM demographics that are underrepresented in
- 25:44Speaker 1: the entrepreneurial space, UM can see themselves, whether that be women,
- 25:50Speaker 1: whether that be people of color, UM being able to
- 25:53Speaker 1: see themselves represented. I think it's huge and I'm just
- 25:56Speaker 1: I'm just glad we were able to do that. We
- 25:59Speaker 1: talked all allow all ethnicities, UH parts of the country,
- 26:04Speaker 1: and and that that's me It was really important. But
- 26:06Speaker 1: I do think that you know, over these next few years,
- 26:09Speaker 1: and I think that the pandemic is one of the
- 26:11Speaker 1: things that's going to be UH will have been a
- 26:13Speaker 1: catalyst for it is more and more people UM stepping
- 26:18Speaker 1: out and and pursuing their dreams, taking those those those
- 26:22Speaker 1: dreams from ideas to to reality. And that's true. Technology.
- 26:26Speaker 1: Technology has been a different game changer for so many
- 26:28Speaker 1: people to pursue their dreams. But also the reality is
- 26:31Speaker 1: that the pandemic has made everybody to see that there
- 26:34Speaker 1: is a finite opportunity. There's a window. If you don't
- 26:37Speaker 1: take that window, if you're not happy with the wind
- 26:38Speaker 1: are you looking through, then you can change it and
- 26:41Speaker 1: you can change about putting forth a plan, rules in
- 26:44Speaker 1: plays and winning with that. What is your bigger takeaway?
- 26:47Speaker 1: Because the beauty of me and I want to maintain
- 26:49Speaker 1: a friendship with you, Jonathan, and because of the fact
- 26:52Speaker 1: that you're so engaging and you you you you say
- 26:56Speaker 1: natural stories that a lot of people understand, Like you said,
- 26:58Speaker 1: well know, I said, I want to I want to
- 27:01Speaker 1: be in the hotel business, you know, and win the team.
- 27:03Speaker 1: I get the phone call they say, hey, man, we
- 27:05Speaker 1: got this idea we want to pitch. None of this
- 27:07Speaker 1: is like you know, he's one of these guys who
- 27:09Speaker 1: walks through, he sees an opportunity, he grabs it, and
- 27:12Speaker 1: he matures it. And that's what being an entrepreneur is.
- 27:15Speaker 1: And I want to let everybody know that's why he's
- 27:17Speaker 1: an excellent host, because he goes through life, but he's
- 27:21Speaker 1: a planner and he's not afraid of diet as they say,
- 27:24Speaker 1: multiple streets of income, or diversifying his portfolio because some
- 27:28Speaker 1: people say, I'm in the restaurant business, that's all I'm
- 27:30Speaker 1: gonna do. Now you're in the barbershop business, you're in
- 27:32Speaker 1: the hotel business. Now you're on TV as a host.
- 27:36Speaker 1: What drives that level of confidence to diversify and trust
- 27:40Speaker 1: your talents? A couple of things. Number One. One thing
- 27:44Speaker 1: I do a lot is it is just for me.
- 27:46Speaker 1: I write down I did every day. Some of them
- 27:50Speaker 1: are good ones, some of them are bad ones. Some
- 27:52Speaker 1: of them will see the light of day. Some of
- 27:53Speaker 1: them will be balled up and thrown in the trash.
- 27:57Speaker 1: And but and that's that's just that's just kind of
- 28:00Speaker 1: that's what I do. That's my my my method that works.
- 28:03Speaker 1: That that works for me. Writing down ideas, UM, writing
- 28:06Speaker 1: down those dreams before they even become, you know, a
- 28:11Speaker 1: fleshed out plan. But also I think you know, understanding
- 28:16Speaker 1: and recognizing what opportunity looks like. UM. I think that
- 28:21Speaker 1: a lot of times I hear of folks, you know,
- 28:24Speaker 1: when they think about opportunity, the only thing, the only
- 28:26Speaker 1: opportunity they look for is one that look like a
- 28:29Speaker 1: paycheck and connect connected to it, right, And a lot
- 28:32Speaker 1: of times that that thing that opens up the next
- 28:35Speaker 1: door to the next door to the to that that
- 28:40Speaker 1: that money making conversation, right. Uh, sometimes you don't always
- 28:44Speaker 1: got dollars attached to it. But I think that, you know,
- 28:46Speaker 1: building relationships even just like you just said, you know,
- 28:50Speaker 1: that phone call that I got from a friend about
- 28:52Speaker 1: a TV show that he was gonna that was a
- 28:54Speaker 1: relationship that we have fostered for years running to what
- 28:58Speaker 1: is now my business part um in the hotel in
- 29:01Speaker 1: the hotel project that brings a completely different skill set
- 29:05Speaker 1: to the to the table than than I do. That's
- 29:08Speaker 1: a that was relationship building, um over years way before
- 29:12Speaker 1: the thing that was the thing that the thing that
- 29:15Speaker 1: people see you know came you know, came to fruition.
- 29:18Speaker 1: And so you know, I'm a big believer in and
- 29:22Speaker 1: fostering and leaning into relationships. Um. You know, I am
- 29:26Speaker 1: not an expert and just about anything, but um, I
- 29:30Speaker 1: think that I have a hunger for knowledge and it's
- 29:34Speaker 1: a natural curiosity. Um. And a lot of times, you know,
- 29:38Speaker 1: for me, when when I see that somebody else has
- 29:41Speaker 1: done something, I gotta think to myself, well I could
- 29:44Speaker 1: I could do that too, um. And so sometimes just
- 29:48Speaker 1: it means finding the right people to connect with, to
- 29:51Speaker 1: to to to to put yourself in a right position
- 29:54Speaker 1: for the opportunity that leads to the opportunity, that leads
- 29:57Speaker 1: to the opportunity. So well, I would tell you his brother. Uh.
- 30:01Speaker 1: Magnolia Network and Discovery Plus has found the right host
- 30:05Speaker 1: for the TV series Self Employed. If you're in the Forward,
- 30:08Speaker 1: Texas area, you know, the twelfth largest city in America,
- 30:12Speaker 1: stop buying, say get your nice cut, find your nice
- 30:15Speaker 1: bad Next time I talked to me properly, say come
- 30:17Speaker 1: over and eat at my restaurant. He's gonna get the
- 30:20Speaker 1: trifector for you. He's gonna make you look good. He's
- 30:23Speaker 1: gonna feed you, and he will put you to sleep.
- 30:26Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you, brother for coming on my show,
- 30:29Speaker 1: Money to Make Conversation. Appreciate it. We will be right
- 30:33Speaker 1: back with more Money Making Conversation with Rushan McDonald. You
- 30:38Speaker 1: are now tuned into the Money Making Conversations. Minute of
- 30:42Speaker 1: Inspiration with Rashan McDonald hiever ra Sean McDonald for Money
- 30:45Speaker 1: Making Conversations with your Daily Madden of inspiration. This week,
- 30:49Speaker 1: I sat down with activists and founder of Legal Equalizer
- 30:52Speaker 1: Ink and By Jack. After having many of the humanizing
- 30:56Speaker 1: encounters with the police, and By decided to create a
- 30:58Speaker 1: mobile app that a lot users to record police encounters,
- 31:02Speaker 1: provide information on legal rights involved an encounter and received
- 31:05Speaker 1: legal advice at the scene while he pulled over. So
- 31:09Speaker 1: when I started to act, it wasn't even to start
- 31:11Speaker 1: a business, and it wasn't to make money. It wasn't
- 31:12Speaker 1: anything more so than hey, if I get pulled over,
- 31:15Speaker 1: I want my mom. I wanted my girlfriend at the
- 31:18Speaker 1: time and know where I was. I would know my
- 31:19Speaker 1: best friends to know where I was. And I wanted
- 31:21Speaker 1: the video of anything happened so people could not argue about, hey,
- 31:24Speaker 1: what did he do wrong? So that that's what got
- 31:26Speaker 1: the impetus to start thinking about creating something to start
- 31:28Speaker 1: protecting people when they got stopped. If you want to
- 31:31Speaker 1: listen to this foor interview would Invitey's available on Money
- 31:34Speaker 1: Making Conversations dot com. And we're live here outside the
- 31:39Speaker 1: Perez family home, just waiting for the and there they
- 31:43Speaker 1: go almost on time. This morning, Mom is coming out
- 31:46Speaker 1: the front door strong with a double arm kid carry.
- 31:48Speaker 1: Looks like dad has the bags. Daughter is bringing up
- 31:51Speaker 1: the rear. Oh but the diaper bag wasn't closed. Diapers
- 31:55Speaker 1: and toys are everywhere. Oh but Mom, it's just nailed
- 32:00Speaker 1: the perfect car seat buckle for the toddler. And now
- 32:04Speaker 1: the eldest daughter, who looks to be about nine or ten,
- 32:06Speaker 1: has secured herself in the booster seat. Tadzips the bad
- 32:09Speaker 1: clothes and they're off. Ah, but looks like Mom doesn't
- 32:13Speaker 1: realize her coffee cup is still on the roof of
- 32:15Speaker 1: the car, and there it goes. That's a shame that
- 32:20Speaker 1: mug was a fan favorite. Don't sweat the small stuff.
- 32:23Speaker 1: Just nailed the big stuff, like making sure your kids
- 32:25Speaker 1: are buckled correctly in the right seat for their agent's eyes.
- 32:28Speaker 1: Learn more n h t s A dot gov slash
- 32:30Speaker 1: the Right Seat visits n h s A dot gov
- 32:33Speaker 1: slash The Right Seat Brought to you by NITZA and
- 32:36Speaker 1: the AD Council. What grows in the forest trees? Sure
- 32:41Speaker 1: know what else grows in the forest our imagination, our
- 32:44Speaker 1: sense of wonder and our family bonds grow too, because
- 32:48Speaker 1: when we disconnect from this and connect with this, we
- 32:54Speaker 1: reconnect with each other. The forest is closer than you think.
- 32:58Speaker 1: Find a forest near you and start exploring. I Discover
- 33:02Speaker 1: the Forest dot org brought to you by the United
- 33:04Speaker 1: States Forest Service and the AD Council. If I could
- 33:08Speaker 1: be you and you could be me for just one hour,
- 33:12Speaker 1: if you could find a way to get inside each
- 33:14Speaker 1: other's mind, walk a mile in my shoes, wacome mile
- 33:18Speaker 1: in my shoes. Shoes. We've all felt left out, and
- 33:23Speaker 1: for some that feeling lasts more than a moment. We
- 33:26Speaker 1: can change that. Learn how it belonging begins with us.
- 33:30Speaker 1: Dot org brought to you by the AD Council. Welcome
- 33:33Speaker 1: mile in the machine. Now let's return to money making
- 33:39Speaker 1: conversation with Rashaan McDonald. My next guest is Comal Murray.
- 33:44Speaker 1: He is a founder and CEO of x S Tennis,
- 33:47Speaker 1: the Tennis Channel commentator as well. If you watch Tennis
- 33:50Speaker 1: Channel much as I watch, We're gonna get you why
- 33:51Speaker 1: I watch you so much? And the professional tennis coach,
- 33:54Speaker 1: which is really key because of the most proud thing
- 33:57Speaker 1: I like to talk about these An HBCU Grab. He's
- 34:00Speaker 1: a alarm. He's out there and the HBC's are getting
- 34:03Speaker 1: so much notoriety nowadays, and it's great to see that
- 34:06Speaker 1: we're not just UH because a lot of people look
- 34:08Speaker 1: at hbcs and you have a perception about the band
- 34:10Speaker 1: a halftime and all the sports. It's really bigger than that.
- 34:14Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about his experience and his
- 34:17Speaker 1: proud background of relationship that he has with with with
- 34:20Speaker 1: HBC used. But here's the producer of the first professional
- 34:23Speaker 1: tenement tennis tournament produced by the African American Excess Tennis
- 34:27Speaker 1: Village in Washington Park is a sixteen point nine million
- 34:31Speaker 1: dollar Black owned and operated tennis facility. Is one of
- 34:35Speaker 1: the largest indoor and outdoor tennis facilities in the United States.
- 34:39Speaker 1: Murder see a tennis scholarship I said earlier Florida A
- 34:42Speaker 1: and m UH proceidiously known as fam Mute, where he
- 34:46Speaker 1: also served as a graduate assistant coach. HBC graduates only
- 34:49Speaker 1: the third African American coach to approach to coach a
- 34:53Speaker 1: Grand Slam champion. We're trying to show to talk about
- 34:56Speaker 1: his programs, UH, what he's doing. His future is gonna
- 34:59Speaker 1: be like about the state of tennis not only for
- 35:02Speaker 1: African Americans, but just tennis in general. This weekend that
- 35:05Speaker 1: the years open, we saw it got really young, but
- 35:08Speaker 1: we also saw a lot of great talent. That is
- 35:10Speaker 1: like when we talked about Coco Golf, Sloan Stevens, so
- 35:13Speaker 1: a person he coaching. He's coached. So welcome to money
- 35:17Speaker 1: making conversation. I'm calling my friend because he knows a
- 35:19Speaker 1: lot of people I know, come out, Murry, where would
- 35:23Speaker 1: this show come out? Thank you for having me. Glad
- 35:26Speaker 1: to be here. Well, you know made uh you know tennis.
- 35:29Speaker 1: You know when you talk about black people in tennis,
- 35:31Speaker 1: you know you're all the way back to the author asked,
- 35:32Speaker 1: and if you go even further author Gibson, and then continued,
- 35:36Speaker 1: then the Williams sisters have dominated it and it's kind
- 35:39Speaker 1: of made like, uh that the blacks have really started
- 35:42Speaker 1: populating the game, But really it still is a game
- 35:46Speaker 1: where blacks are still trying to find their way on
- 35:48Speaker 1: the tennis court. Am I right? And making that accession
- 35:51Speaker 1: that that that statement, Yeah, I mean we don't have
- 35:54Speaker 1: the generational lineage, uh that you know white people do, right,
- 35:59Speaker 1: You know, I think that you know a lot of
- 36:01Speaker 1: a lot of the reasons why some of these kids
- 36:03Speaker 1: make it as their parents played in college and their
- 36:05Speaker 1: parents parents played in college, so you know, after there
- 36:09Speaker 1: is a total trial and error game in terms of
- 36:11Speaker 1: trying to make a professional tennis player, and very few
- 36:14Speaker 1: parents get it right the first time. And so the
- 36:18Speaker 1: kid that doesn't make it right whose parents groomed them,
- 36:21Speaker 1: their kids perhaps might make it because now they don't
- 36:23Speaker 1: have to search around and they know, hey, at this age,
- 36:27Speaker 1: you go to this person. At this age, you go
- 36:28Speaker 1: to this person. Then you go play this tournament. So
- 36:31Speaker 1: you know, you know what why you know why people
- 36:34Speaker 1: have more uh lineage in the game because they've just
- 36:39Speaker 1: been doing it long. You know, back in the day, uh,
- 36:42Speaker 1: you know, black people and Jewish people were not allowed
- 36:44Speaker 1: to join tennis clubs and so um, you know, Jewish
- 36:47Speaker 1: people had the wherewith all to create their own tennis club.
- 36:50Speaker 1: So you have clubs like York Rackets in Toronto or
- 36:52Speaker 1: Hill Crest out in l A. But black people did
- 36:55Speaker 1: not have that same opportunity. You know, we may have
- 36:57Speaker 1: taken over park and called it the club, but if
- 37:00Speaker 1: it's a part and no indoor opportunity, so I think
- 37:02Speaker 1: that we're playing catch up as it relates to um,
- 37:07Speaker 1: you know, black tennis players who have played in college
- 37:11Speaker 1: now having kids and now knowing the road. And so
- 37:15Speaker 1: once we start, once those kids kind of come of age,
- 37:18Speaker 1: we'll see, we'll see the last gape of tends to
- 37:20Speaker 1: be a lot more colorful. You know my daughter, you
- 37:22Speaker 1: know who, I love her to death. You know she
- 37:24Speaker 1: started she picked up a record when she was six
- 37:26Speaker 1: years old and so basically getting played it because she
- 37:29Speaker 1: was eighteen years of agent. She blew out on the
- 37:31Speaker 1: A C L injury and I saw that process. That process'
- 37:35Speaker 1: is a you know, it's a very um I want
- 37:38Speaker 1: to say, it's a it's it's you know, you're out
- 37:40Speaker 1: there with a coach, a lodge. You get up a
- 37:42Speaker 1: lot of your personal life to be what is it
- 37:44Speaker 1: when you look at it? Because you did the same thing.
- 37:46Speaker 1: This is your story too, because you know the amount
- 37:47Speaker 1: of time you have to put in on that court
- 37:49Speaker 1: and sometimes the social life is not going to be
- 37:52Speaker 1: part of that. But you were blessed, I would say,
- 37:54Speaker 1: because you got to go to college. A lot of
- 37:56Speaker 1: these kids don't go to college, and so life kind
- 37:58Speaker 1: of stops for them. From an entertainment perspective, on the tour.
- 38:02Speaker 1: That's their world. And so talk about you as a
- 38:05Speaker 1: youngster getting into tennis and how important it was for
- 38:09Speaker 1: you to gain some type of social behavior when you
- 38:12Speaker 1: went to family. Yeah, you know, I think that the
- 38:16Speaker 1: individual nature of the sport caused the tennis players to
- 38:20Speaker 1: be a little bit behind socially, not as comfortable being
- 38:24Speaker 1: around people. Has been a lot more time in isolation
- 38:27Speaker 1: or just in the car with their parents, driving you know,
- 38:30Speaker 1: to and from the tenants court for hours. And so,
- 38:33Speaker 1: I mean it is a fact that tennis players are
- 38:36Speaker 1: are developed slower on a social aspect compared to you know, basketball,
- 38:40Speaker 1: football players who spend so much time with each other. Um.
- 38:44Speaker 1: But I you know, I think that you know, obviously
- 38:47Speaker 1: have an opportunity to go to college. Um, you know,
- 38:51Speaker 1: allow me to definitely gain some social skills, but it
- 38:53Speaker 1: all goes over the cost. You know. I didn't want
- 38:54Speaker 1: to play protenants, you know. Um, I would not say
- 38:57Speaker 1: that if I had the opportunity to play protendants and
- 38:59Speaker 1: seven teen years old, that going to college just to
- 39:02Speaker 1: get socialized would have been a good thing. I would
- 39:05Speaker 1: have gone and taking out opportunity. I didn't really want
- 39:07Speaker 1: to play pro tennis. Wasn't good enough, wasn't interested, didn't
- 39:11Speaker 1: have the lineage or to know how. Um, but I
- 39:14Speaker 1: do think that having been a good tennis player, uh,
- 39:18Speaker 1: and been very cerebral and and prep and mentally present
- 39:22Speaker 1: during the entire process. When you combine that with my
- 39:25Speaker 1: HBC experience and going to college, getting educated, getting a
- 39:29Speaker 1: master's degree, getting socialized, that did allow me to enter
- 39:34Speaker 1: the professional tennis or Berck right. I mean it is
- 39:37Speaker 1: like the most closest knick club you can have. Um.
- 39:42Speaker 1: It allowed me to enter it with a sense of confidence. Um.
- 39:47Speaker 1: You know, so I would say it was definitely going
- 39:50Speaker 1: to college having had the experience of being a good
- 39:54Speaker 1: player help me now, you know, now you have to
- 39:57Speaker 1: come out you kind of like you know, you said
- 39:58Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I didn't want to do pro. I didn't
- 40:00Speaker 1: have the skill set for being pro. But then you
- 40:03Speaker 1: got a scholarship. So somebody saw something talent did you
- 40:05Speaker 1: you know, and and it took you to the state
- 40:08Speaker 1: of Florida. And so but how did you get come out?
- 40:11Speaker 1: How did you get involved with tennis? How did what
- 40:13Speaker 1: age that you started? Who? Why did he become a
- 40:16Speaker 1: love for you? Because this is what you do now
- 40:18Speaker 1: is a passion. Yeah, so I would say it wasn't
- 40:22Speaker 1: necessarily a love all the time. You know, my my brother,
- 40:27Speaker 1: my older brother played you know, big time basketball. He's
- 40:30Speaker 1: like six nine to sixty now, but he Uh, my
- 40:34Speaker 1: parents took his as his a U team to Africa. Uh,
- 40:38Speaker 1: and we came back in the middle of the summer,
- 40:41Speaker 1: and all the tennis clamps, all the tenis camps were closed.
- 40:44Speaker 1: All the camps are closed in my neighborhood and only
- 40:47Speaker 1: camp that was still accepting enrollment was a tennis camp
- 40:51Speaker 1: because they basically had three people enrolled in it because
- 40:53Speaker 1: nobody in my neighborhood wanted to uh. And so you know,
- 40:57Speaker 1: I I stumbled upon the game. My godfather, Reggie was
- 41:00Speaker 1: a tennis player, and he said, hey, you need somewhere
- 41:02Speaker 1: to babysit. Com out, go ahead and take them just
- 41:05Speaker 1: on his park on eighty seven. And Jeffrey and my
- 41:08Speaker 1: mom took me there, really just hoping to be able
- 41:10Speaker 1: to drop me off and get some cheap babysitting, right. Um.
- 41:13Speaker 1: You know, so it's it just uh, it just happened
- 41:17Speaker 1: that way. And then you know, even then, I you know,
- 41:22Speaker 1: didn't love it. You know, I was leaving my tennis
- 41:24Speaker 1: racket and the gardeners can at the courts because I
- 41:26Speaker 1: was my daughter to wrap transportation, you know what I mean,
- 41:30Speaker 1: So I I it was. It was like a walk
- 41:32Speaker 1: of shame almost home from the tennis court for a
- 41:36Speaker 1: long time, until I started to get decent. I had
- 41:39Speaker 1: some success and had a sense of pride for myself.
- 41:42Speaker 1: It's so funny because you know you're right about you know, socially,
- 41:47Speaker 1: you know you are behind your skill set. I was
- 41:50Speaker 1: telling to my work the worse she coun eventually catch up,
- 41:53Speaker 1: I said, when she goes to college and starts meaning
- 41:55Speaker 1: with people. Because you're out there by yourself from a standpoint,
- 41:58Speaker 1: but what you do get you do mature faster from
- 42:01Speaker 1: a standpoint. If that's what you want, you have to
- 42:03Speaker 1: work hard for You have to be disciplined, You have
- 42:05Speaker 1: to arrive at a certain times, you have to put
- 42:07Speaker 1: in a certain amount of hours. So it does prepare
- 42:09Speaker 1: you for life. So when you open your tennis village,
- 42:13Speaker 1: like you said, you know, everybody's not gonna be a
- 42:14Speaker 1: Venus Williams or Serena Williams, or or anybody else who
- 42:18Speaker 1: has a high skill level of the current pro what
- 42:20Speaker 1: is the purpose of opening up your tennis academy or
- 42:23Speaker 1: the exx tennis village. So you know, when I was
- 42:27Speaker 1: growing up, after that summer when I started playing tennis,
- 42:31Speaker 1: I found a free program at the High Park Racquetball
- 42:33Speaker 1: Club and um, you know, in that environment, I was
- 42:38Speaker 1: like the black mecca of tennis in Chicago. You're the
- 42:40Speaker 1: only black's club in Chicago. It was black professionals, doctors, lawyers.
- 42:46Speaker 1: Um it was you know, when I have to ask
- 42:47Speaker 1: came to town, he always stopped by there. That's where
- 42:50Speaker 1: I met first Magazini Garrison, like it was the place
- 42:53Speaker 1: uh Katrina Adams learned to play there Donald young. So
- 42:56Speaker 1: it was like a black mecca and I went there
- 43:00Speaker 1: every day after school just for the free tennis program
- 43:02Speaker 1: and the convenient babysitting for my mother. Um. But that
- 43:06Speaker 1: environment where you see black people, uh just sort of
- 43:10Speaker 1: they're congregating around the game tennis, basketball in the gym,
- 43:14Speaker 1: drinking smoothies and wine. You know. You know that helped
- 43:18Speaker 1: me as a student. That kept me off the street,
- 43:20Speaker 1: right And you know, I can't tell you the number
- 43:23Speaker 1: of times that I would be leaving out the club,
- 43:25Speaker 1: walking to the bus stop to try to get a
- 43:27Speaker 1: right to take the bus home and a and a
- 43:30Speaker 1: and an adult would give me a ride in it's Cadillac,
- 43:32Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so that environment where
- 43:35Speaker 1: it was, um wasn't forrest mentorship, but it was just
- 43:40Speaker 1: a the kids isn't here belong to us. We're gonna
- 43:42Speaker 1: make sure we practice with them, spar with them, helping
- 43:46Speaker 1: with their homework. I used to sit down on my
- 43:48Speaker 1: knees and do my homework on the bench, right, and
- 43:51Speaker 1: will come over, Hey, what you're doing. Let me help
- 43:53Speaker 1: you with that math problem whatever it is, right, And
- 43:55Speaker 1: it was totally authentic and not forced. And so, uh,
- 43:59Speaker 1: my old was to create that same environment. So we
- 44:03Speaker 1: built the facility literally a mile west of that facility. Um,
- 44:07Speaker 1: we got classrooms so the kids don't have to sit
- 44:10Speaker 1: on their knees and do homework on the floor. Um,
- 44:14Speaker 1: we've got adults in the building who have worked with
- 44:15Speaker 1: all who have the opportunity to, you know, you know,
- 44:19Speaker 1: very just unintendedly, you know, meet with kids and get
- 44:22Speaker 1: to know these kids so that when they do grow
- 44:24Speaker 1: older and get the intern you need internship, they have
- 44:27Speaker 1: some sort of barometer there. So that was the goal,
- 44:30Speaker 1: was just to recreate the environment that I think kept
- 44:32Speaker 1: me alive. I mean, I grew up on the South
- 44:35Speaker 1: side of Chicago, uh, and I had a lot of
- 44:38Speaker 1: opportunity to do bad things. And I was a middle
- 44:42Speaker 1: child in the middle class family, in the middle class neighborhood, right,
- 44:45Speaker 1: And so I had the opportunity to do a lot
- 44:48Speaker 1: of bad things. I could hide in my family because
- 44:51Speaker 1: my brother was, you know, doing his thing on the
- 44:53Speaker 1: basketball court. And you know, my parents were busy. Both
- 44:58Speaker 1: my parents work, you know what I mean, And so
- 45:01Speaker 1: has kept me on the straight and narrow here point blank.
- 45:03Speaker 1: I mean, I I knew and still know people who
- 45:07Speaker 1: did you know, bad things, you know what I mean.
- 45:12Speaker 1: Adoption of teens from foster care is a topic not
- 45:14Speaker 1: enough people know about, and we're here to change that.
- 45:17Speaker 1: I'm April Denuity, host of the new podcast Navigating Adoption
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- 45:31Speaker 1: slash podcast, or subscribe to Navigating Adoption Presented by adopt
- 45:35Speaker 1: us Kids, brought to you by the U S Department
- 45:37Speaker 1: of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families,
- 45:40Speaker 1: and the ACT Council. Look for your children's eyes to
- 45:43Speaker 1: see the true magic of a forest. It's a storybook
- 45:47Speaker 1: world for them. You look and see a tree. They
- 45:50Speaker 1: see the wrinkled face of a wizard with arms outstretched
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- 46:05Speaker 1: a forest near you and start exploring. I Discover the
- 46:07Speaker 1: Forest dot org brought to you by the United States
- 46:10Speaker 1: Forest Service and the Council. What grows in the forest trees?
- 46:15Speaker 1: Sure you know what else grows in the forest, Our imagination,
- 46:19Speaker 1: our sense of wonder, and our family bonds grow too,
- 46:22Speaker 1: because when we disconnect from this and connect with this,
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- 46:32Speaker 1: you think. Find a forest near you and start exploring.
- 46:36Speaker 1: I Discover the Forest dot org brought to you by
- 46:38Speaker 1: the United States Forest Service and the AD Council. You
- 46:42Speaker 1: know that's best pay check. Where life is about, you know,
- 46:45Speaker 1: being in the position where you got mentors, You've got
- 46:47Speaker 1: people who kept you straight. I always tell people about myself.
- 46:50Speaker 1: You know, I come from the inner city in and
- 46:53Speaker 1: you know, people kept me. I'm sitting here because people
- 46:55Speaker 1: guided me in the right direction. They kept me out
- 46:58Speaker 1: of trouble. You want some word, some people might use
- 47:00Speaker 1: the word mischief. You know, mischief can lead to trouble,
- 47:03Speaker 1: and trouble can lead to incarceration depending on what direction
- 47:06Speaker 1: you take it. But you're sitting here today a man
- 47:09Speaker 1: who's making a difference in people's lives. You know, you
- 47:12Speaker 1: serve nearly three thousand students annually through your Tennants, your
- 47:16Speaker 1: tennis program, and then you're sending kids to to to
- 47:19Speaker 1: college through scholarship programs. How does that make you feel?
- 47:22Speaker 1: You know, because everything starts with the dream. Come out.
- 47:25Speaker 1: You know what I'm speaking to, Come out Murray. He's
- 47:27Speaker 1: the CEO Excess Tennants. You've seen them on the Tennis
- 47:30Speaker 1: channel as a commentator, but more important, he's a professional
- 47:33Speaker 1: tennis coach. You know, you're making a difference, You're changing lives.
- 47:36Speaker 1: I created this show, Money Making Conversation to introduce people
- 47:40Speaker 1: like you to view, to my viewers and to my
- 47:42Speaker 1: listeners to say wow, you can do this too. But
- 47:45Speaker 1: you have to have a plan and your plan is
- 47:48Speaker 1: changing lives. So when you wake up every day, how
- 47:50Speaker 1: do you feel? Oh man, let me tell you. It's
- 47:55Speaker 1: hard work. So I'm glad that the buildings built, and
- 48:00Speaker 1: I'm glad that we're operating. We've been operating four years.
- 48:02Speaker 1: We we started going in two thousand and five. Right then,
- 48:05Speaker 1: we've got our older facility. We got control of that
- 48:08Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight. Uh, And we moved in
- 48:10Speaker 1: this build in seventeen. But it was not easy. Uh
- 48:14Speaker 1: And so when I woke up in the morning, I'm exhausted.
- 48:17Speaker 1: I'm very grateful that we were able to get to
- 48:19Speaker 1: the finish line, but exhausted because the work never stops. Um.
- 48:23Speaker 1: But you know, around three or four o'clock when these
- 48:25Speaker 1: kids started walking in, these parents started dropping their kids off,
- 48:28Speaker 1: and they are first generation tennis players with no knowledge
- 48:31Speaker 1: and just a blank canvas. I mean, that makes it
- 48:33Speaker 1: all worth it. Um. But you know, I'll be I'll
- 48:36Speaker 1: be honest. You know, it was a lot of times
- 48:38Speaker 1: in the process where I was like, I got a job,
- 48:40Speaker 1: I got two degrees, I could do something else. Is
- 48:43Speaker 1: it worth a fight? You know, it shouldn't be this
- 48:45Speaker 1: hard to do good? And so uh, it has not
- 48:48Speaker 1: been like, um, a smooth role. But you know, I
- 48:52Speaker 1: feel like my South Side roots make make me tough
- 48:55Speaker 1: enough to power through it so that that I'll be
- 48:57Speaker 1: honest with you, it's it's uh, it's been a our role.
- 49:00Speaker 1: But it's good. It's very rewarding, uh to see this,
- 49:03Speaker 1: you know, everything coming fruition for us to have professional
- 49:05Speaker 1: tennis terments and stuff here. But you know, the role
- 49:08Speaker 1: was hard. I mean, I'll tell you, you know, just
- 49:10Speaker 1: I'm glad to see HBCUs getting the notoriety that they're
- 49:14Speaker 1: getting now because I would say, if I'm being honest,
- 49:19Speaker 1: a lot of when I was trying to raise money
- 49:22Speaker 1: right amongst corporations and amongst the wealthy crowd whom I
- 49:25Speaker 1: went to Ivy League schools and some of these you know,
- 49:27Speaker 1: larger institutions, I felt like, on a consistent basis that
- 49:32Speaker 1: my HBCU degree was a hindrance what I was trying
- 49:36Speaker 1: to do. It was like, you didn't go to Kellogg
- 49:40Speaker 1: or Booth, so your family NBA is not really an NBAT.
- 49:44Speaker 1: You know. I had that feeling, right, and it wasn't
- 49:46Speaker 1: just my insecurity. It was a real feeling, you know
- 49:49Speaker 1: what I mean. I think now, you know, supporting HBC
- 49:52Speaker 1: is believing their potential is a is a fad. But
- 49:56Speaker 1: you know, four years ago, it wasn't a fat Eight
- 49:58Speaker 1: years ago, it was I was sitting in the room
- 50:00Speaker 1: with four or five people that went to Harvard, Yale,
- 50:02Speaker 1: doctumun Boom, you know, and so you know it was
- 50:06Speaker 1: it was it made my life harder, right, Um, there's
- 50:12Speaker 1: in terms of proven I had the capacity and the
- 50:14Speaker 1: intellect to sort of make this happen. We know, come out,
- 50:16Speaker 1: I think from a standpoint, and you're absolutely correct. And
- 50:18Speaker 1: I always tell people that they were a vice president.
- 50:21Speaker 1: Kamala Harriston. Tell anybody that she went to Howard, they
- 50:23Speaker 1: would assume she went to Ivy League school because people
- 50:26Speaker 1: just don't assume that type of academic training can lead
- 50:29Speaker 1: to somebody being the vice president of the United States.
- 50:32Speaker 1: But you also were playing in the lane where you
- 50:34Speaker 1: know there was a rarity. You know, from the standpoint
- 50:37Speaker 1: of tennis, you know, you can't you don't associate tennis
- 50:40Speaker 1: with a with a historically black college and university. You
- 50:44Speaker 1: just don't do that. And so but you do you do.
- 50:48Speaker 1: From an academic standpoint, we realized that the percent of
- 50:50Speaker 1: the black doctors and Dennis or who are black con
- 50:53Speaker 1: from hsbc US. For the percent of the members of
- 50:55Speaker 1: Congress who are black come from hbcuent of the STEM
- 50:59Speaker 1: graduates who are black con from hbc USED. You know,
- 51:01Speaker 1: North Carolina Adan t graduating more black engineers either white
- 51:06Speaker 1: or black colleges. You know, that type of information is
- 51:09Speaker 1: what I'm about. That's that's why I got you on
- 51:11Speaker 1: the show because important people see there are so many
- 51:13Speaker 1: different styles because of the fact that you know, it
- 51:16Speaker 1: is limited amount of information. When I see that Mackenzie
- 51:20Speaker 1: Scotty gives out four point one billion dollars, but they
- 51:22Speaker 1: don't tell you why she gave out the four point
- 51:25Speaker 1: one million dollars. And so when I bring you on
- 51:27Speaker 1: the show to talk about you, I moved the conversation
- 51:29Speaker 1: of family to the forefront because here's a man making
- 51:32Speaker 1: a difference who should be recognized for his academic training
- 51:35Speaker 1: but also for his black excellence. And that's really one
- 51:38Speaker 1: of the reasons I brought you on the show because
- 51:40Speaker 1: now because I wanted to talk about this tennis tournament
- 51:42Speaker 1: that you're kicking off, because it's the first ever and
- 51:45Speaker 1: you're producing it. Yeah, well, let me say that you
- 51:49Speaker 1: think about black college tennis. I went to Family you
- 51:53Speaker 1: and I'm the third black person to coach a Grand
- 51:55Speaker 1: Slam champ slung students right. Walter Johnson was a he
- 52:00Speaker 1: coached out then Arthur Richard Williams was the second. He
- 52:03Speaker 1: coached Venus and Serena. And I'm the third and I
- 52:07Speaker 1: coached Long Stevens. Okay, so that's family number one right there. Uh.
- 52:12Speaker 1: Zack Evidence was the only black coach on the men's
- 52:16Speaker 1: pro tour. He was coaching Frances t Fo. He also
- 52:20Speaker 1: went to Family You. Okay, Wow, okay, cool, I'll be
- 52:23Speaker 1: a gibson the family. And so the Blacks that are
- 52:28Speaker 1: intentness also have a great history and in a relationship
- 52:32Speaker 1: with family, you know, with with HBCUs, you know what
- 52:35Speaker 1: I mean. So I think that's also you know, little
- 52:37Speaker 1: known fact. But I think it's important to know that.
- 52:40Speaker 1: You know, two years ago the only two black coaches
- 52:42Speaker 1: and all the protendants both went to HBCU uh and
- 52:46Speaker 1: so you know, even my teammate, my teammates know why
- 52:49Speaker 1: they will coach Melanie who Dan who you know if
- 52:52Speaker 1: you google her story years ago, she made this incredible
- 52:55Speaker 1: run in the U S Open so I think that, um,
- 52:58Speaker 1: you know, we've we've got a sort of uh promoted
- 53:01Speaker 1: it and talk about the more with Fami. You it
- 53:04Speaker 1: us at the Atlanta right when Melanie out of Atlanta. Absolutely,
- 53:08Speaker 1: I definitely know as we see you graduate intennis players
- 53:11Speaker 1: have had a big imprint on professional tenants for a
- 53:14Speaker 1: long time. Uh, you know, it's just so happened that
- 53:17Speaker 1: we're very modest personalities. You know, it's very modest. Lead
- 53:21Speaker 1: that to me, leave that shout out to me. That's
- 53:23Speaker 1: my job. My job is to get you to talk
- 53:25Speaker 1: about it, give you a platform to be able to
- 53:27Speaker 1: shout it out, and then we should accept the responsibility
- 53:30Speaker 1: that this is legitimate and we should support it because people,
- 53:33Speaker 1: you know, you could say it was tough, but you know, man,
- 53:35Speaker 1: you know six sixt point nine million dollars black owned
- 53:38Speaker 1: and operate a tennis facility. You're a really good talker
- 53:42Speaker 1: of people believe in what you have to say and
- 53:44Speaker 1: what you've accomplished. So I always say that sometimes we
- 53:47Speaker 1: work so hard come out that we kind of forget
- 53:50Speaker 1: that people believe in as if we don't sit back
- 53:52Speaker 1: and look at all our success, and sometimes the grind
- 53:55Speaker 1: can overwhelm you and my sinners over women. You brother, look,
- 53:59Speaker 1: you've coached Grand Slam tennis champion and we all saw
- 54:03Speaker 1: this weekend how tough that is. You know, Emma who
- 54:06Speaker 1: warned this weekend at eighteen years old the previous Grand
- 54:08Speaker 1: Slams he had to walk away because the pressure was
- 54:10Speaker 1: too great at the Wimbleton and so you see how
- 54:13Speaker 1: it affected Novak Djokovic, you know, and afterwards he said
- 54:17Speaker 1: he was relieved. You know, every every game he played,
- 54:20Speaker 1: Rob Labor was in the stands. You know what I'm saying, like,
- 54:24Speaker 1: what's up, You're gonna take it. You're not gonna take you.
- 54:26Speaker 1: You know, I'm saying, the skinny Russian come along and
- 54:28Speaker 1: he can't. Even everyone who served was during their ages
- 54:32Speaker 1: and so but but that's that pressure, you know, you
- 54:35Speaker 1: putting on a tennis tournament, that's another level of pressure
- 54:38Speaker 1: and expectations to talk about that. Yeah, so um, I mean,
- 54:43Speaker 1: you know, with covid Um, there was an opportunity to
- 54:45Speaker 1: add some tournaments of the calendar with the with the
- 54:50Speaker 1: pros not going to Asia this year because of the pandemic.
- 54:53Speaker 1: Uh and so you know it's a good you know,
- 54:55Speaker 1: I made sure that you know, just as I did
- 54:57Speaker 1: in my corporate career prior to twenty seventeen or prior
- 55:01Speaker 1: to when I left Corporate America. You know, I make
- 55:04Speaker 1: sure that when I'm at these advents and at these
- 55:06Speaker 1: tournaments that network continue to meet people, be a good person, um,
- 55:11Speaker 1: you know, really exemplify what it means to be a
- 55:13Speaker 1: black man who HBCU grad, who's educated, come from the family, uh,
- 55:17Speaker 1: and not just be seen as just a tennis coach.
- 55:19Speaker 1: And so over that time, I've had to you know,
- 55:21Speaker 1: build some relationships, um, you know in the C suite,
- 55:25Speaker 1: you know, with the Tennessee suite. Uh. And then you know,
- 55:28Speaker 1: I've been working to just sort of bring things like
- 55:31Speaker 1: that to Chicago because with excess tennants just a cradle
- 55:34Speaker 1: to grave approach. You know, the cradle is obviously teaching
- 55:36Speaker 1: the kids, and then the grave is being able to
- 55:39Speaker 1: support professional tennis and and and like bring it to
- 55:42Speaker 1: the inner city, you know, like you know, the kids
- 55:45Speaker 1: in this neighborhood don't have the opportunity to go to
- 55:46Speaker 1: New York and watch us open. So my goals to
- 55:48Speaker 1: bring us open to them. And so that was always
- 55:51Speaker 1: a part of the strategy, uh, in the vision and
- 55:54Speaker 1: this year we happened to you know, be able to
- 55:56Speaker 1: maneuver and negotiate to be able to pull it off.
- 55:58Speaker 1: So it was great, I mean, and and it it
- 56:00Speaker 1: really is. I mean, listen, what what black promotion, the
- 56:03Speaker 1: black ownership and a tennis event means is that you
- 56:06Speaker 1: can have black suppliers. When I go to the teenish tournaments,
- 56:10Speaker 1: there are no black suppliers. Getting a security firm that
- 56:14Speaker 1: got the contract? Is why the catering company got the contract?
- 56:16Speaker 1: Is white? Transportation company got the contract? Is white? Um?
- 56:20Speaker 1: You know when I go to US Open, I walk
- 56:21Speaker 1: fifteen feet and my credential gets checked every five feet.
- 56:24Speaker 1: You know this is this is the year after song one.
- 56:27Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, guys, my baby faces on that billboard,
- 56:29Speaker 1: right I am, I'm that guy, So let me buy right.
- 56:34Speaker 1: And so I think that just comes from not having
- 56:36Speaker 1: enough enough black, enough black bodies on the site. And so,
- 56:40Speaker 1: you know, being able to own this event really gives
- 56:43Speaker 1: me the opportunity to a give out wild cars to
- 56:45Speaker 1: up and coming black players and be uh support black vendors.
- 56:50Speaker 1: You know. So we have black hander, black security company,
- 56:53Speaker 1: black graphic design, black printer, black pr black marketing. Uh,
- 56:57Speaker 1: most of the ball kids were African Americans. Uh and so, um,
- 57:01Speaker 1: you know, it just really really gives an opportunity to
- 57:04Speaker 1: sort of continue what what the world is trying to
- 57:07Speaker 1: do now right, which is poor black people, and expose
- 57:10Speaker 1: the world to black people, because you know, I would
- 57:12Speaker 1: say about tennis, it's the ultimate melting pot. I mean,
- 57:16Speaker 1: it is the globalist of games. And um, you know,
- 57:22Speaker 1: we've got to start to welcome everybody into the game,
- 57:24Speaker 1: right the Serbians a check, Russians, the South Americans and Canadians,
- 57:30Speaker 1: I mean, all of us. We gotta grow from tunis
- 57:32Speaker 1: you that's coming to town? So you know, like the
- 57:35Speaker 1: world needs early exposure to each other, and this event
- 57:38Speaker 1: allows that to happen. Well you see that. You just
- 57:42Speaker 1: see all the mixed race winners and champions that are
- 57:45Speaker 1: in tennis nowadays, from Canada, from Japan. And but again
- 57:49Speaker 1: with that whole thing, you know, I talked to a
- 57:51Speaker 1: very humble man, come all merged, a humble guy. You know.
- 57:54Speaker 1: Excess Tennis Village is on thirteen acres, y'all. Okay, I
- 57:57Speaker 1: live on five acres. I know what thirteen nakeres looks like? Okay,
- 58:00Speaker 1: fifteen outdoor courts, twelve indoor courts. Okay, the fitness in
- 58:04Speaker 1: the classroom is located primarily and low income area of Chicago.
- 58:08Speaker 1: So when I talked to him, I look at him,
- 58:09Speaker 1: I look at the square and ago, brother, you're special.
- 58:12Speaker 1: You're doing something I know some people will consider impossible.
- 58:16Speaker 1: God gave you a talent, put you in the right direction,
- 58:19Speaker 1: and say, hey, man, your your your relatives, they pick
- 58:21Speaker 1: up that racketball. Your mom says you're gonna keep you
- 58:23Speaker 1: busy with babysitting duties. And then well you say you
- 58:26Speaker 1: didn't love it or not, there is a love for it.
- 58:29Speaker 1: And then you're making a difference because Sloan Stevens won't
- 58:32Speaker 1: be Sloan Stevens without you. She's not a Grand Slam
- 58:36Speaker 1: champion without you. And in the fact that you are
- 58:38Speaker 1: affecting three thousand students annually at your facility in Chicago
- 58:43Speaker 1: makes a difference. The fact that you're sending young students
- 58:46Speaker 1: to colleges on scholarship opportunity is impressive. And when you
- 58:51Speaker 1: say all those things, and I'm not just trying to
- 58:53Speaker 1: make you down in the dumpers, hey man, you need
- 58:56Speaker 1: to dump your chest. I'm just telling brother, you're special
- 58:58Speaker 1: and that's my job is to acknowledge that and to
- 59:01Speaker 1: get you to understand that you're a value member of
- 59:04Speaker 1: this world. Thank you, brother, I appreciate you. I appreciate
- 59:08Speaker 1: you having me on. I mean, you know, look, I've
- 59:11Speaker 1: got tons of people in my life that provide me
- 59:13Speaker 1: encouragement and when I started slowing down and kick me right,
- 59:16Speaker 1: but you know, Garrison is one of those people. Really
- 59:21Speaker 1: jeans one of those people, uh brother named Les Corney,
- 59:24Speaker 1: you know, because it gets hard. So I appreciate with
- 59:26Speaker 1: what you just said. I appreciate the encouragement. Um and uh, hey,
- 59:31Speaker 1: kudos to YouTube man, thank you for having me on
- 59:34Speaker 1: and and supporting what I'm trying to do. Yeah, I'm
- 59:36Speaker 1: gonna come to talk to my boys Stephen A. Smith.
- 59:38Speaker 1: We're gonna we're we're get we I'm gonna connect you
- 59:40Speaker 1: with him man after this interview. I gotta do some
- 59:42Speaker 1: extra for you to man because you specially yeah uh
- 59:48Speaker 1: and seven, they would appreciate that, you know. I think
- 59:50Speaker 1: you know. One of the things about this facility, it
- 59:52Speaker 1: was it was created with a lot of help from
- 59:54Speaker 1: NBA players. So my best friend in high school and
- 59:57Speaker 1: still to this day, is a guy Nam Quentin Richardson, Uh, yeah,
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: from Chicago, and then Dwyane Wade and Bobby Simmons and uh,
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: you know a lot of people sort of uh you
- 1:00:12Speaker 1: know it helps facility come here. Whether it's like, hey,
- 1:00:14Speaker 1: give me some game tickets so I can entertain this person. Well,
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: hey I need a chat. You got it, you got
- 1:00:20Speaker 1: the Mercedes. I need a chat. Um. You know, there's
- 1:00:23Speaker 1: a lot of basketball influence uh in this in this
- 1:00:27Speaker 1: facility as well, because in Chicago, in addition to the
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: business community, there's a lot of athletes, you know that
- 1:00:33Speaker 1: way we make it, make it from the stuff from
- 1:00:35Speaker 1: west Side. Now, who those athletes NBA athletes that you
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: just mentioned that kind of didn't hear, Quentin richards and
- 1:00:41Speaker 1: dwyang Way, Bobby Um, you know, they all kind of
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: stepped the road checks to support the calls. Still involved,
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: still support of uh working on phase two and three
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: with those guys. So. Um. You know a Kyan Dueling's
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: daughter trains here. You know, he's the coach of the
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: Utah Jazz live with me this summer. Um, he was
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: cus teammate back in the day. So you know, a
- 1:01:05Speaker 1: lot of a lot of help from a lot of
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: different sources with my man, you keep winning and again
- 1:01:09Speaker 1: I'm gonna promote this and keep you in the fore
- 1:01:11Speaker 1: front of black excellence, my brother, and again you're making
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: a difference and I can't if you ever need to
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: kick in the butt, just just as Bobby. I know Bobby.
- 1:01:22Speaker 1: We said, Bobby, he's he's in l A. When I
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: was in l A. We still on the same floor,
- 1:01:27Speaker 1: same condo. So you're doing very well, man, and uh,
- 1:01:30Speaker 1: you know his brother, and I know exactly that Chicago
- 1:01:33Speaker 1: world that he uh we talked about the last year.
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: We talked about on the phone during an interview, And
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: so I really appreciate you man, coming on Money Making
- 1:01:40Speaker 1: Conversations just to tell you a story and kick you
- 1:01:43Speaker 1: in the butt. Okay, thank you. If you want to
- 1:01:48Speaker 1: hear any of my interviews on money Making Conversations or
- 1:01:51Speaker 1: he us see my interviews on money Making Conversations, please
- 1:01:53Speaker 1: go to money Making Conversation dot com. I am Rashan McDonald.
- 1:01:57Speaker 1: I am your host. You've been listening to money Making
- 1:02:00Speaker 1: Conversations with Rashan McDonald. Please join us next week and
- 1:02:03Speaker 1: always remember leading with your gifts. Money Making Conversations is
- 1:02:07Speaker 1: a presentation of thirty fifteen Media Incorporated. You are now
- 1:02:12Speaker 1: tuned into the Money Making Conversations Minute of Inspiration with
- 1:02:16Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. Hi, ras Sean McDonald for Money Making Conversations
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: with your daily minute of Inspiration. Now, before there was Oprah,
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: before there was Our Senior Hall, there was Mr Soul.
- 1:02:26Speaker 1: This week, I sat down with Melissa Haslip, the producer, director,
- 1:02:29Speaker 1: writer on the award winning documentary film about the first
- 1:02:33Speaker 1: black late night talk show on PBS. The media started
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: with Soul Train, and it's important to recognize that Soul
- 1:02:41Speaker 1: was a television show, as you mentioned, that was on
- 1:02:44Speaker 1: PBS nationwide from nineteen eight to ninety three, and that
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: those were really critical moments in which we were trying
- 1:02:53Speaker 1: to reimagine ourselves on this cultural landscape and this American landscape,
- 1:03:00Speaker 1: and on the heels of the civil rights movement, Jim
- 1:03:02Speaker 1: Crow segregation so much. If you want to listen to
- 1:03:05Speaker 1: this full interview with Melissa Haslift is available on money
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: Making Conversations dot com. In this season of giving Coals
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- 1:03:37Speaker 1: I'm Tanya Sam, host of The Money Moves podcast powered
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