Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Marlon Evans on Funding for Minority Entrepreneurs & the Importance of Black Wealth Creation

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Marlon Evans on Funding for Minority Entrepreneurs & the Importance of Black Wealth Creation · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
0:07
Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by Marketing and
0:10
Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
0:13
Speaker 1: advice to many occasions. In incase you didn't notice, I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: not broke, you know, he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs
0:20
Speaker 1: and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do,
0:22
Speaker 1: it's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
0:25
Speaker 1: hear from my man, Rashan McDonald. Money Making Conversations. Here
0:29
Speaker 1: we go. Welcome to Money Making Conversations. I am your host,
0:33
Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. I recognize that we all have different definitions
0:37
Speaker 1: of success. For some, it's a sizeable paycheck. Mine is
0:40
Speaker 1: helping people wake up and inspiring them to accomplish their
0:42
Speaker 1: goals and live their very best life. These are my
0:45
Speaker 1: passions and that's what I'm going to do for you.
0:47
Speaker 1: I want you to stop tripping over small challenges and
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Speaker 1: prepare to rise above the bigger obstacles that life will
0:52
Speaker 1: present to you. My next guest, Maul and Evans, receives
0:56
Speaker 1: his BA and Political Science and m A and Sociology.
0:59
Speaker 1: From Stand For University were competed on the football and
1:02
Speaker 1: Track football treating Track and Football team. Marland was named
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Speaker 1: CEO of next qu, an investor that creates and accelerates
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Speaker 1: front frontier tech companies with an emphasis on digital health
1:15
Speaker 1: and financial tech. He's on the show. So that discussed
1:17
Speaker 1: being a minority entrepreneur, something I am and something we
1:20
Speaker 1: discussed on the regular basis on Money Making Conversation, the
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Speaker 1: story behind the Next Cube HBCU Founders Program, and the
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Speaker 1: importance of black wealth creation and generational wealth through entrepreneurship.
1:31
Speaker 1: Please welcome to Money Making Conversation, my man, fellow sociology major.
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Speaker 1: I'm a minor, Marlon Evans. How doing well? Thanks appreciate
1:41
Speaker 1: you having me on. Well, you know, first of all,
1:43
Speaker 1: let's let's go back to a couple of things. When
1:46
Speaker 1: I when I read through your bio, I love policy.
1:49
Speaker 1: I think my degree is in mathematics, but policy was
1:52
Speaker 1: something I fell in love with. I actually memorized the
1:55
Speaker 1: Constitution and because it was just such a fascinating read
1:59
Speaker 1: for me. And then so that's policide of me that
2:03
Speaker 1: that I lend myself to you, that's what you got
2:05
Speaker 1: your degree in. And then your masters and sociology. That's
2:08
Speaker 1: my minor. If I had to do it all over again,
2:11
Speaker 1: I would not have gotten a degree in mathematics. I
2:14
Speaker 1: would have gotten a degree in sociology because it really
2:16
Speaker 1: opened my live, my mind on how information is being
2:19
Speaker 1: disseminating in this country and how black people are denied.
2:23
Speaker 1: There are their story in America. Correct. No, absolutely, just
2:28
Speaker 1: from a structural perspective, and we don't have to go
2:31
Speaker 1: through the entire entire history of it. I think it's
2:34
Speaker 1: all well well documented. But you know, when I was
2:38
Speaker 1: first starting within political science, I thought I was heading
2:41
Speaker 1: down the law the law school path as a way
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Speaker 1: to help perform some of those inequities, and quickly quickly
2:49
Speaker 1: realized that I think being being a lawyer was it
2:53
Speaker 1: what was in the cards? Uh, you know for me.
2:56
Speaker 1: I mean I enjoyed those those classes, but really like
3:00
Speaker 1: I could have a greater impact by working directly with
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Speaker 1: with people, and that's kind of how I got my
3:06
Speaker 1: I got my start along this time. Now when you
3:09
Speaker 1: say path, what what? What path? Are we talking about?
3:11
Speaker 1: Because like I said, there's so many different layers to you.
3:14
Speaker 1: I don't want to like think that we're just over
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Speaker 1: there talking because everybody has a journey. You know, when
3:18
Speaker 1: I got I left IBM and I became a stand
3:21
Speaker 1: up comic, and then I then I became a nightclub
3:24
Speaker 1: owner a very popular comedy club. Then I became a
3:27
Speaker 1: sitcom writer, and then I came to manager of Steve Harvey.
3:30
Speaker 1: So there's always a journey to this conversation. Now I'm
3:32
Speaker 1: the host of Money Making Conversation, one of several platforms
3:35
Speaker 1: that are important in my life. So let's talk about
3:38
Speaker 1: your journey. You know, athletes have been an athlete played
3:41
Speaker 1: a major role in your life, and so was you
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Speaker 1: a scholarship athlete? Talk about that and then being able
3:47
Speaker 1: to to balance academics and athletics at a school like Stanford. Yeah, no,
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Speaker 1: I was. I was blessed to receiver scholarship to play
3:56
Speaker 1: play football at Stanford. And one of the things about
3:59
Speaker 1: being in that environment, it's like just the rising tide
4:02
Speaker 1: lifts all boats. So I just felt like I was
4:05
Speaker 1: just trying to, you know, hit the level of expectation
4:09
Speaker 1: that my peers were, Um, we're kind of setting for themselves.
4:14
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, you know, they're the bars that they're setting.
4:16
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods is walking through the training room. You know
4:20
Speaker 1: someone like Jenny Thompson, Olympic swimmer, who's who's just around
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Speaker 1: and you see the dedication that they put to their
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Speaker 1: their craft and it just inspires you to you to
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Speaker 1: do more. So the lessons learned on the athletic field
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Speaker 1: of what you need to do to be not just successful,
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Speaker 1: but to be at the highest fliest level, I carry
4:43
Speaker 1: those with me into my daily life as a as
4:47
Speaker 1: a professional, waking up a little bit earlier that everybody else,
4:51
Speaker 1: putting in a little bit of extra extra time, making
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Speaker 1: sure that everything you do is that that utmost kind
4:59
Speaker 1: of level of excellence that you expect for yourself. All
5:03
Speaker 1: of that I learned is as an athlete, because that
5:06
Speaker 1: after being an athlete, gave you the discipline to really
5:09
Speaker 1: understand and also the ability to become a leader work
5:14
Speaker 1: with people. And that's been important to know because it's
5:17
Speaker 1: because it's interesting. I look at your resume. You know,
5:19
Speaker 1: football and then track and fear because track can be
5:21
Speaker 1: can you say track is much more on an individual
5:23
Speaker 1: sport football I mean a team sport. So yeah, you
5:27
Speaker 1: have two different mindsets. You was working at working with
5:30
Speaker 1: you know, you had you on the track, you kind
5:32
Speaker 1: of like push yourself. On a football team, you have
5:35
Speaker 1: teammates who can push you. Correct. Yeah, I know. I
5:39
Speaker 1: had to be a little bit careful because my wife
5:41
Speaker 1: is a tract coach, so I can't say too much
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Speaker 1: on that because she will say it's a team, it's
5:48
Speaker 1: a team sport. Um. But yeah, there's it's obviously more
5:52
Speaker 1: individual in terms of you know, it's just you at
5:55
Speaker 1: that star Was you running around that oval? Come on? Now?
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Speaker 1: Is is you when when they say go? You going
6:02
Speaker 1: by yourself? Brother? Unless you're gonna you go? Is nobody?
6:06
Speaker 1: Come on? Brother? I got you back. If you missed
6:07
Speaker 1: that tackle, I got you. Nobody is telling you. They
6:10
Speaker 1: tell you if you slow down, you slow down, you
6:13
Speaker 1: speed up, you speed up, you get tired, you get
6:15
Speaker 1: a cramp. I am string is all on you, brother,
6:18
Speaker 1: So and so I got debater, but see your wife.
6:20
Speaker 1: So I want to be okay because trying to get
6:22
Speaker 1: through this interview with you missed Evans. Okay. Well, I
6:26
Speaker 1: think what you what you raised is so so important,
6:29
Speaker 1: especially especially now where like um, it's this idea of
6:35
Speaker 1: of hard work, kind of pushing yourself beyond what you
6:39
Speaker 1: you think you can do, just from a physical standpoint
6:43
Speaker 1: is I think society has kind of said, well, what's
6:48
Speaker 1: the easiest path, or how can we create something that
6:52
Speaker 1: gives you five shortcuts to get to where you need
6:54
Speaker 1: to be, Whereas the learning that you get from going
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Speaker 1: through those struggles really defines who you are and built
7:02
Speaker 1: that that character. So I have two daughters of of
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Speaker 1: my own, and I'm I'm always encouraging them to kind
7:09
Speaker 1: of when it gets hard, that's the good part. That's
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Speaker 1: when you want to lean in because it teaches you
7:15
Speaker 1: so much about about yourself and met kind of self
7:19
Speaker 1: discovery that happens in athletics is the same thing that
7:22
Speaker 1: happens in entrepreneurship, where you're starting something from scratch. You
7:28
Speaker 1: have naysayers, just like you do in athletic though you
7:31
Speaker 1: really think you can make it to the NFL, come on,
7:33
Speaker 1: what are the chances? The same thing happens that starts
7:37
Speaker 1: you really think you could be the next Facebook or
7:39
Speaker 1: or Uber. Come on, that's you know, it's once in
7:42
Speaker 1: a lifetime type thing. And so you have to hear
7:45
Speaker 1: a lot of nose, a lot of people saying you
7:47
Speaker 1: can't do it, and you still need to be able
7:50
Speaker 1: to kind of push through that and I think we
7:54
Speaker 1: as a society, getting back to sociology and now more
7:58
Speaker 1: with the advent of technology, are trying to make it
8:02
Speaker 1: so you don't have to work hard, which I think
8:05
Speaker 1: is ultimately not what's in the best interests of assess
8:09
Speaker 1: people and as a community at at large, you know,
8:13
Speaker 1: there's really we're gonna get to the story behind the
8:15
Speaker 1: next cube HBC, you found a program, But I wanted
8:18
Speaker 1: to bring up something about working hard and being able
8:21
Speaker 1: to push yourself because you know, we always want to
8:24
Speaker 1: push ourselves and want to stride out, stride to the
8:26
Speaker 1: next level of success. And sometimes I look at my
8:28
Speaker 1: life and I always tell people and my opening UH
8:32
Speaker 1: introduction I've talking about everybody has a different version of
8:35
Speaker 1: what success. Some people are a sizeable paycheck. I don't
8:39
Speaker 1: know if I'm if satisfaction UH is in the language
8:44
Speaker 1: of a person who's successful, Because if you have a billionaire,
8:46
Speaker 1: they want to make two BILLI you know you have
8:48
Speaker 1: a millionaire, they want to be upcome a billionaire. You
8:50
Speaker 1: want a person who has one nice car, they might
8:52
Speaker 1: want two cars, they might want three houses. And that
8:54
Speaker 1: satisfaction what drives you to be successful. Like every morning
8:58
Speaker 1: you talk about work up, wake up early. I it
9:00
Speaker 1: up at four o'clock Monday to Friday. I'm up at
9:02
Speaker 1: four am for m and that's part of my mantra
9:06
Speaker 1: to be successful. I don't I can't hit snooze. I
9:08
Speaker 1: can't wake up at four o'clock on Monday and two o'clock.
9:11
Speaker 1: I work on Twoday. I wake up at seven o'clock.
9:13
Speaker 1: That's no, that's my whole world of trying to be
9:16
Speaker 1: successful is incorrect. And know I was talking to John
9:19
Speaker 1: O'Brien and we were talking about from nine to five,
9:21
Speaker 1: you work five and nine? Is on you nine and nine?
9:25
Speaker 1: That's that's mailbox money, and that's the goals of what
9:27
Speaker 1: you're talking about. You're trying to take advantage of that
9:29
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. And that's what the HBC. You found
9:32
Speaker 1: this program that you're putting together. Let's talk about that.
9:35
Speaker 1: It's about wealth, Black wealth creation, which we all talk
9:37
Speaker 1: about the rally experience. Because you're interesting in the sense
9:41
Speaker 1: Moreland because as a as a black athlete, if if
9:45
Speaker 1: black people, especially athletes, had the same entrepreneurial spirit and athleticism,
9:51
Speaker 1: because black people really believe when they're go in the
9:54
Speaker 1: BACKCA I played basketball I don't care what ag. I
9:57
Speaker 1: really believe I can make the NBA. I really believe
9:59
Speaker 1: I could probably play and NBA even though I may
10:01
Speaker 1: not have had the talent. Same thing with football, you
10:04
Speaker 1: felt you could be or the NFL player. Okay, if
10:07
Speaker 1: we had the same mentality when it came to academics
10:10
Speaker 1: and feel that we could be the next doctor to
10:13
Speaker 1: mix scientists, the next Bill Gates, the next Warren Buffett.
10:17
Speaker 1: That's where your program is really center on trying to
10:21
Speaker 1: change that mantra from athleticism to entrepreneurism. Correct, Yeah, No,
10:27
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a mindset, right, this this idea
10:31
Speaker 1: that you not only do you have the capacity and
10:35
Speaker 1: the and the talent, but you have to then also
10:41
Speaker 1: be able to kind of think creatively and say, all right,
10:46
Speaker 1: if this is um if this is something that I
10:49
Speaker 1: am passionate about, you know solving, is there another way
10:53
Speaker 1: to go about doing that? And that's the innovation component
10:57
Speaker 1: of entrepreneurship is what I think is is the most exciting.
11:01
Speaker 1: And we all have that in our in our heart,
11:05
Speaker 1: in our kind of souls. Like most people if you
11:08
Speaker 1: walk up to them and they say, yeah, I had
11:10
Speaker 1: this amazing business idea, I didn't really do anything with
11:13
Speaker 1: it because you know, I don't even I didn't even
11:16
Speaker 1: know where to where to start um. And that kind
11:20
Speaker 1: of uh fact that a lot of these great ideas
11:26
Speaker 1: are dying on the sign is what inspired us to
11:29
Speaker 1: watch the Founders program, where we can go into the
11:33
Speaker 1: at early stage while there's still students. They have an
11:37
Speaker 1: opportunity to take risks that they may not be able
11:41
Speaker 1: to take two or three years out when they're trying
11:44
Speaker 1: to pay bills and those types of things, UM and
11:47
Speaker 1: inspire them at that point to say, here's here's a
11:50
Speaker 1: process that you can go through if you do have
11:53
Speaker 1: an idea. Here's a platform that can support you getting
11:58
Speaker 1: your idea and turning it into uh, you know, into
12:02
Speaker 1: reality and just by simply making that you know, connection.
12:08
Speaker 1: Now we there's no guarantee, but at least the opportunity
12:14
Speaker 1: won't just fade away because the person thought like they
12:18
Speaker 1: didn't have access to the to the resources, and that's
12:22
Speaker 1: what the resources all about. I was reading this by Diversity,
12:24
Speaker 1: by Commitment to Diversity and launch of HBCU found this
12:27
Speaker 1: program on January januine July All and Evans. There there
12:33
Speaker 1: has to be a better way. You can always do
12:35
Speaker 1: more when Facebook what feels like an unsummountable challenge. I
12:39
Speaker 1: refer back to the message my dad chaired me as
12:41
Speaker 1: a child, which he continues to reiterate to this day.
12:44
Speaker 1: Growing up in Maryland as an African American in the
12:46
Speaker 1: post Civil War Civil rights era, I was afforded opportunity
12:50
Speaker 1: to just a decade before, we're all limits for Americans.
12:53
Speaker 1: Now off limits for Americans with the pandemic. What's going
12:57
Speaker 1: on with social change? What is not off of them?
13:01
Speaker 1: It's anymore where can we go when you set for
13:04
Speaker 1: a plan that you have in place that started in
13:07
Speaker 1: the pandemic era? Yeah, well, I think you know, obviously
13:12
Speaker 1: it's been a horrible situation. But where there's crisis, there's
13:16
Speaker 1: also opportunity in the fact that things are so virtual now.
13:22
Speaker 1: I mean, we can connect people in a way that
13:27
Speaker 1: we weren't able to do, or we were always able
13:30
Speaker 1: to do previously, but now people are hyper um you know,
13:33
Speaker 1: alert to the fact that Okay, I can have an
13:37
Speaker 1: impact on not just ten students, but hundreds of students,
13:42
Speaker 1: three hundred students plus, which is what we have currently
13:45
Speaker 1: signed up in the program, all through a virtual platform.
13:49
Speaker 1: Where is if we if we needed to go to
13:51
Speaker 1: each of the of the d HBCUs like step by step,
13:56
Speaker 1: that we wouldn't be where we are right now and
13:59
Speaker 1: be able to launch a full national program in the
14:03
Speaker 1: course of four months. So that I think number one,
14:07
Speaker 1: just the fact that the that the technology, the infrastructure
14:10
Speaker 1: is there. And then I think number two, because we
14:13
Speaker 1: have these two things going on. We have the global
14:16
Speaker 1: pandemic and then we have the Black Lives Matter movement.
14:21
Speaker 1: People are now sensitized to that fact of oh gosh,
14:25
Speaker 1: I didn't even realize all of this that was going
14:28
Speaker 1: on in the inequities. How can I get involved? Now? Know?
14:34
Speaker 1: You just like me when they said that, I remember
14:36
Speaker 1: I got so many phone calls from my white friends, go,
14:38
Speaker 1: I didn't know how How did you operate? Well, yeah,
14:42
Speaker 1: we just had to operate. So I'm not going to
14:46
Speaker 1: tell you that I'm some hero. It's just the hand
14:50
Speaker 1: that black people are dealt with, you know, have to.
14:53
Speaker 1: You know, I do get nervous in the police office
14:55
Speaker 1: supports me black and white. I get nervous because quite frankly,
14:59
Speaker 1: I don't know they pulling me over, and frank frankly,
15:01
Speaker 1: I don't know the story did I have to make
15:04
Speaker 1: up to go home safely? And so so when I
15:06
Speaker 1: hear when you when you start talking about I had
15:08
Speaker 1: to interrupt you because you know, people when they when
15:11
Speaker 1: they I just found out now we found out a
15:13
Speaker 1: long time ago. Yeah, absolutely, and you know that's a
15:19
Speaker 1: part of the education. But at least now they want
15:22
Speaker 1: to have that conversation. And many corporates we've we've partnered
15:26
Speaker 1: with with some they've been you know, this has been
15:29
Speaker 1: a priority for them in the past, and now they're
15:32
Speaker 1: doubling doubling down. So being able to tie up with
15:36
Speaker 1: A T and T and and Morgan Stanley and there
15:39
Speaker 1: are other corporates that are were in conversation with. They
15:42
Speaker 1: realize that they need to be doing doing more as well,
15:46
Speaker 1: and see our our Founders program as a way to
15:49
Speaker 1: reach students and informed that they weren't otherwise. And the
15:54
Speaker 1: reality is, and like you said, both of us aren't,
15:56
Speaker 1: aren't HBCU grad. There are a few that get most
16:00
Speaker 1: of the attention. You have, the Howards, the more House,
16:04
Speaker 1: the Spellman's of the world that have you know, traditionally
16:08
Speaker 1: that's where the corporates are going to, you know, to
16:11
Speaker 1: recruit I was talking to a corporate the other day
16:14
Speaker 1: and they said that these Spellman has something like seven
16:17
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty corporate sponsors, which is fantastic, but you
16:24
Speaker 1: know what those you know, those the rural HBCU in
16:28
Speaker 1: Mississippi or Oklahoma or nashal like, are they getting that
16:33
Speaker 1: same type of attention. So we were committed as a
16:36
Speaker 1: part of this program to not only service those schools,
16:40
Speaker 1: but we're now up to sixty hpc s I which
16:44
Speaker 1: it was all a hundred hundred plus to make sure
16:47
Speaker 1: that every student within the um one of the hbcs
16:52
Speaker 1: feels like they have access to to our program. Yeah,
16:55
Speaker 1: that's a hundred and fours by the way, And I
16:59
Speaker 1: appalled that because like a lot of programs like I
17:02
Speaker 1: point out this, they know what they The United Negro
17:05
Speaker 1: College Fund doesn't fund a fund all one hundred and
17:08
Speaker 1: four HBCU school. That's not how it works, you know.
17:11
Speaker 1: It's like in the funds of what they considered the
17:14
Speaker 1: top or they recommended schools that they have in their program,
17:17
Speaker 1: and it goes from there. So you have to look
17:19
Speaker 1: at schools. I was born and raised in Houston, Texas,
17:22
Speaker 1: so I had Texas Southern in Houston, and I had
17:24
Speaker 1: Prayer of View and m down the road and I
17:26
Speaker 1: had Gramlin next over the next day in Louisiana, then
17:29
Speaker 1: at Southern Universe. So the HPCU experience was always around me.
17:33
Speaker 1: But I went to the University of Houston that was
17:35
Speaker 1: a school, even though I went down to Prayer of
17:36
Speaker 1: View or with all my friends were there. I went
17:38
Speaker 1: to Texas. I went to Southern University, all my friends
17:40
Speaker 1: were there. I said, well, I want to go somewhere
17:42
Speaker 1: where I wanted a different experience. But that didn't mean
17:45
Speaker 1: I lost my black identity. I lost my Black culture
17:48
Speaker 1: because when I see HBCUs, I feel it's not only
17:52
Speaker 1: a need for me to bring value. And also that
17:55
Speaker 1: when I realized that eighty percent of the dentists come
17:57
Speaker 1: from HBCUs who are black, you know, eight percent of
17:59
Speaker 1: the teachers from hbc s are black. And for the
18:02
Speaker 1: pent of the congressmen who are black in Congress are
18:06
Speaker 1: from HBCU schools. All these numbers are not numbers are
18:09
Speaker 1: making up the black stem graduates are from HBCU schools.
18:14
Speaker 1: All these numbers are numbers that I have memorized and
18:18
Speaker 1: I and I speak it out because people need to
18:21
Speaker 1: people who don't know a shock huh yeah. Yeah. So
18:26
Speaker 1: what I'm saying when I say that, mollin, is that
18:28
Speaker 1: it's important that people don't act like they're doing a favor,
18:32
Speaker 1: like you know, you know HBCUs you should be like
18:36
Speaker 1: pumping billions of dollars into HBC used when you see
18:40
Speaker 1: the results that's coming out of them, well you hit
18:45
Speaker 1: it right on the head. Because we're I'm an investor,
18:49
Speaker 1: like I have shareholders that I have to report back
18:52
Speaker 1: to and they're looking for a return on on investment.
18:56
Speaker 1: We're going into these these schools. Yes, there's a component
19:00
Speaker 1: of their words. It's educationally. We want to make sure
19:03
Speaker 1: that the students, would you know, who haven't had access
19:06
Speaker 1: to understand what it means to be an entrepreneur will
19:11
Speaker 1: make the mostake about it. This isn't just a theoretical exercise.
19:15
Speaker 1: We anticipate that by getting connected into these these schools
19:21
Speaker 1: and helping develop some of these ideas, some ideas coming
19:24
Speaker 1: out of it are going to be ones that we
19:26
Speaker 1: want to invest in, and we're going to be first
19:29
Speaker 1: in line because we were there at the at the beginning,
19:32
Speaker 1: and that's what all investors want. They want that proprietary
19:36
Speaker 1: deal flow that they get to see first before you know,
19:39
Speaker 1: everybody else, you know, jumps on the bandwagon. And and
19:42
Speaker 1: we feel a hundred percent convinced that as one, two, three,
19:49
Speaker 1: and the numbers start picking up of really successful startups
19:54
Speaker 1: coming out of HBTs, then everybody is going to be
19:57
Speaker 1: flooding the you know, flooding the doors to get you
20:01
Speaker 1: access and be on the front lines of it, which
20:03
Speaker 1: is again going to be this rising tie that lifts,
20:07
Speaker 1: that lifts everything. And and so we're playing are hopefully
20:11
Speaker 1: a part in that to ignite that spark and then
20:15
Speaker 1: once it's once it's lift, and we anticipate other folks
20:19
Speaker 1: coming around and saying, huh, I didn't realize that there
20:23
Speaker 1: is just that level of talent there, Maybe I should
20:26
Speaker 1: take a second look. And that's what I was getting at,
20:29
Speaker 1: you know, not realizing and then being surprised. But then
20:34
Speaker 1: and I just really want to know when I when
20:36
Speaker 1: I read about you know, Netflix making their donation and
20:41
Speaker 1: to the hbc U schools, and you know, I mean,
20:46
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to say it, right, is that these
20:50
Speaker 1: donations along what would you let me say that won't Secondly,
20:54
Speaker 1: if you just sit back and realize when I saw
20:57
Speaker 1: no or whenever here President Trump, you like he's done
21:00
Speaker 1: a favor, like I've done more for black people. Stop
21:03
Speaker 1: stop stop, Okay, Look, we're not asking for favors. And
21:09
Speaker 1: that's why I think Black people have started have to
21:11
Speaker 1: start trumpeting their success. And that's why I was talking
21:14
Speaker 1: about earlier when I was talking about athleticism in the
21:17
Speaker 1: black community, we trumpet that, you know, we see that
21:20
Speaker 1: as a real opportunity to get out of the hood,
21:22
Speaker 1: and a lot of times we don't see that academics
21:25
Speaker 1: is really the real opportunity to get out of the
21:27
Speaker 1: hood and stay out of the hoods through academics. And
21:31
Speaker 1: that's what you're doing with this pro with this Founders program,
21:34
Speaker 1: is moving academics to the forefront and then letting everybody
21:38
Speaker 1: know the value of HBCUs am I hitting on the am,
21:41
Speaker 1: I speaking in the right direction. You are? You are?
21:44
Speaker 1: I mean, just and that the whole which you just
21:48
Speaker 1: mentioned around athletes and entertainers kind of being put on
21:53
Speaker 1: a pedestal, which is great, and just thrilling down into
21:57
Speaker 1: that a little bit just to make the point of well,
22:01
Speaker 1: why why were they successful? Because there was a level
22:04
Speaker 1: start at the beginning of our conversation of hard work,
22:07
Speaker 1: of hustle, of ingenuity, of you know, the Chips may
22:12
Speaker 1: have been against it, but they figured out a way.
22:14
Speaker 1: I mean, all of that is entrepreneurship. There were some
22:16
Speaker 1: students I was talking to over the weekend. It was
22:19
Speaker 1: a Saturday and the Sunday, and they were involved in
22:21
Speaker 1: this program with the Black Venture Capital Consortium, and I said,
22:26
Speaker 1: first of all, let me just give you guys a
22:28
Speaker 1: shout out for the grind. It's a Saturday, it's a Sunday,
22:32
Speaker 1: and you you all are sitting in here listening to
22:36
Speaker 1: me share about this, about this program, trying to better yourself.
22:40
Speaker 1: I mean that mentality is what makes for successful entrepreneurs
22:45
Speaker 1: and we just want to flip that light and say, look,
22:48
Speaker 1: you can do this as well. You've proven it, whether
22:51
Speaker 1: it's on the athletic field or entertainment or the fact
22:54
Speaker 1: that you're sitting there on a Saturday or Sunday. You've
22:57
Speaker 1: proven you have that desire and at will. Now let's
23:02
Speaker 1: just make sure it gets tied into the two resources
23:05
Speaker 1: that can help that that grow. And that's what we're
23:08
Speaker 1: we're hoping to do through the HBC founders program, and
23:11
Speaker 1: that's a program. When I went to high school Marland,
23:14
Speaker 1: I was I was just a gifted kid, you know,
23:16
Speaker 1: academic because I just walking a room and see something
23:18
Speaker 1: walk out the room. It was just in my head
23:21
Speaker 1: and so I didn't want to pick up a book,
23:23
Speaker 1: didn't care about college. I remember my daughter. My father
23:26
Speaker 1: was a truck driver and so when he gave me
23:29
Speaker 1: my first job opportunity, Uh, my mentors were forklift drivers
23:35
Speaker 1: and black men who I loaded trucks. So that's what
23:37
Speaker 1: I wanted to be. When I graduate from high school,
23:40
Speaker 1: despite being in the top percentage of my class, I
23:43
Speaker 1: went and got a job as a forklift driver because
23:46
Speaker 1: that was my vision. That was my man. They had cars,
23:49
Speaker 1: they can go in the grocery store by what they
23:51
Speaker 1: want by and they were having a good time. I thought,
23:54
Speaker 1: that's a that's that was good enough for me, and
23:56
Speaker 1: it's about raising the standards. And so what happened well
24:00
Speaker 1: at the simultaneously, I would live in that life. But
24:03
Speaker 1: I had some teachers who said, this guy is really gifted,
24:07
Speaker 1: and so they moved me into a small group of students.
24:10
Speaker 1: By ten of us are one of my best friends,
24:11
Speaker 1: Regina Rodney. She graduated from Rice and Shall Roberts she
24:15
Speaker 1: graduated from Port University. I didn't know why they went
24:18
Speaker 1: to those schools. I would like, that's how far away
24:20
Speaker 1: I was from academics. And when I when I say,
24:23
Speaker 1: individuals like me are those of those can be those
24:26
Speaker 1: casualties if we don't do what you're doing with this program,
24:30
Speaker 1: we don't put in and I think, like I said,
24:33
Speaker 1: put blinders on opportunities that are real and focused kids
24:37
Speaker 1: like me on real opportunities, and then we become the
24:40
Speaker 1: stars of the community and we go give back because
24:43
Speaker 1: academics are the key for long term success. As you know,
24:46
Speaker 1: it's an athlete. God has giving you a window where
24:49
Speaker 1: your athletic skill will shine after a while, they would
24:52
Speaker 1: deteriorate year after year after year. Academically. I tell everybody,
24:57
Speaker 1: you can't repull my degree, my degree, mathematics degree in
25:01
Speaker 1: that wall. Nobody's going to report that. They can report
25:03
Speaker 1: your call, they can reput with your house anything if
25:07
Speaker 1: you don't have a position to be able to pay
25:09
Speaker 1: for it. And that's why I want you to bring
25:11
Speaker 1: you on the show to talk about this, because you're
25:13
Speaker 1: stopping the repo opportunities in people's lives, especially in the
25:17
Speaker 1: black community, if they get their academic story together. M H. Now,
25:22
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Yeah, and we we
25:26
Speaker 1: recognize that, um, we're not. We have to play our
25:31
Speaker 1: our part, but it's eventually it's going to take a
25:33
Speaker 1: larger kind of effort. And which is why we're pulling
25:37
Speaker 1: in these these corporates and saying, hey, books, it's not
25:41
Speaker 1: just about writing a check. We need you to engage,
25:46
Speaker 1: we need you to mentor we need you to be
25:48
Speaker 1: that example for these students to say, hey, maybe it's
25:52
Speaker 1: I don't end up going on and launching a business,
25:55
Speaker 1: but I can go work for a T and T
25:58
Speaker 1: or word Morgan stand Lane and then maybe I do
26:01
Speaker 1: that for a little while and then I remember all
26:03
Speaker 1: the things that I learned as a as an entrepreneur,
26:06
Speaker 1: and then I start my own business. But more and
26:10
Speaker 1: more of us need to show up and say, look,
26:14
Speaker 1: this is where, here's an example, here's a pathway for
26:20
Speaker 1: you to to get there, and if this is something
26:22
Speaker 1: that you're interested in, we're going to be here to
26:24
Speaker 1: be supportive of that. My question before we leave the
26:28
Speaker 1: name next queue, which there really any X word? Three? Uh?
26:32
Speaker 1: Where did that come from because the name of the
26:35
Speaker 1: coming next cube, even though it says any x three, yes,
26:39
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's next cube. And part of it is
26:42
Speaker 1: that there's kind of things often come in come in three.
26:47
Speaker 1: So there's three aspects to our you know, to our business.
26:51
Speaker 1: We we do our investing, we have some work we
26:55
Speaker 1: do with our corporate partners, and then we work with
26:59
Speaker 1: later stage companies. So those are kind of the three
27:01
Speaker 1: main activities. But probably more, you know, symbolically is just
27:08
Speaker 1: thinking about how we can provide kind of exponential um
27:13
Speaker 1: growth for the companies that are that are working with us,
27:17
Speaker 1: that you bring what you're bringing to the table, we
27:20
Speaker 1: bring what we are bringing to the table, and then
27:22
Speaker 1: that's going to generate even you know, exponential return. So
27:26
Speaker 1: that that's a part of the the rationale behind the
27:30
Speaker 1: name and um in the future because you know, I
27:34
Speaker 1: know you said a T and T s on board.
27:36
Speaker 1: You're working on Morgan Stanley to come on board these
27:39
Speaker 1: financial commitments to be able to build a model that
27:42
Speaker 1: has long term success and not success is not the
27:45
Speaker 1: righting the tide of change which came about using the
27:48
Speaker 1: George Floyd killing and people feeling there's a certain degree
27:52
Speaker 1: of sympthy. This is what I want to make sure.
27:55
Speaker 1: I don't want your sympathy, I want your I want
27:58
Speaker 1: your support. I want your support because this is value.
28:01
Speaker 1: This is like you know you, you know you you
28:03
Speaker 1: you you mind, uh diamonds because it has value. You
28:08
Speaker 1: use real for oil because it has value. I'm just
28:11
Speaker 1: letting you you support these HPC use in the academic
28:15
Speaker 1: opportunity because it adds value. Uh. It brings in corporate citizens, taxpayers,
28:21
Speaker 1: good people who create highland value and also make this
28:24
Speaker 1: country safe and academically less challenge and more competitive in
28:29
Speaker 1: the global scale. That's why I want to make sure
28:32
Speaker 1: people understand I don't need your sympathy. I just need
28:35
Speaker 1: you to start mining and supporting the value that HBCUs
28:39
Speaker 1: and African Americans in general bring to this country. Yeah. No,
28:45
Speaker 1: and that's those are the conversations we're having with the
28:47
Speaker 1: corporates and Morgan Stanley has signed on AT and T
28:50
Speaker 1: has signed on others well, and what we're sharing with
28:53
Speaker 1: them and they know this this this is just fact,
28:55
Speaker 1: like more diverse companies are more successful companies. So they
29:00
Speaker 1: know within their own institutions that they need to start
29:03
Speaker 1: recruiting a more diverse pool of talent because that's going
29:07
Speaker 1: to impact their shareholder value down the road. So they
29:11
Speaker 1: understand it. They're just needing now to figure out how
29:14
Speaker 1: do we do this on a more systematic way so
29:18
Speaker 1: that we're reaching all of the all of the talent.
29:22
Speaker 1: And they see our program is one piece of that.
29:24
Speaker 1: There's other things obviously that they will they'll be doing
29:27
Speaker 1: to help help dry those those goals. But yeah, this
29:32
Speaker 1: isn't this is not a handout. This is a way
29:35
Speaker 1: for you to create more shareholder value by tapping into
29:40
Speaker 1: great talent that's going to help your your business. And
29:43
Speaker 1: so we see it as a win. If the companies,
29:46
Speaker 1: the students going through the program start a company or
29:49
Speaker 1: if they go work for one of our partners, that's
29:51
Speaker 1: also a win for us as well. Well, I know
29:55
Speaker 1: you can appreciate it being an athlete who was recruited
29:57
Speaker 1: to uh, you know, first tier tier one institution called
30:01
Speaker 1: Stanford University, and you got that b A and the
30:04
Speaker 1: political science and that masters and sociology, and that we
30:07
Speaker 1: have a kinship, my friend, I want to I want
30:09
Speaker 1: you to stay in touch with me. I've launched a
30:10
Speaker 1: platform called HBCU Awards, will recognize uh, black excellence at
30:16
Speaker 1: HBCUs and black people in general, and act in a business,
30:20
Speaker 1: entertainment and entrepreneurship and so these are these are lanes
30:25
Speaker 1: I want to be able to advance. And I just
30:27
Speaker 1: wanted to bring you on the show, Mall and just
30:29
Speaker 1: do your platform. But it's a platform you can use
30:31
Speaker 1: anytime you feel like it. Okay, now, I appreciate thanks
30:34
Speaker 1: for having me already. If you want to hear more
30:36
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations interviews, please go to Money Making Conversation
30:39
Speaker 1: dot com. I'm Sean McDonald. I'm your host.