Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Marc Morial Full Interview
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- 1:04Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald.
- 1:07Speaker 1: Each Money Making Conversation talk shows about entrepreneurship and entertainment,
- 1:11Speaker 1: I provide the consumer and business owner access to celebrities, CEO, entrepreneurs,
- 1:16Speaker 1: and industry decision makers. I recognized that we all have
- 1:19Speaker 1: different definitions of of success. For some, it's a sizeable paycheck.
- 1:23Speaker 1: Mine is helping people wake up and inspiring them to
- 1:26Speaker 1: accomplish their goals and live their very best life. These
- 1:29Speaker 1: are my passions and that's what I'm going to do
- 1:31Speaker 1: for you. I want you to stop tripping over small
- 1:34Speaker 1: challenges and prepare to rise above the bigger obstacles that
- 1:37Speaker 1: life is going to present to you. The Money Making
- 1:40Speaker 1: Conversation interviews provide relatable information to the listener about career
- 1:44Speaker 1: and financial planning, entrepreneurship, motivation, leadership, overcoming the art, and
- 1:49Speaker 1: how to live a balance life. My next guest has
- 1:53Speaker 1: over forty years of leadership in the service of our communities.
- 1:58Speaker 1: He is the former mayor of New Orleans. He was
- 2:00Speaker 1: thirty six year olds thirty six years old when he
- 2:02Speaker 1: was first elected there. He is currently the CEO of
- 2:05Speaker 1: the National Urban League, the nation's largest historic civil rights
- 2:08Speaker 1: and urban advocacy organization. He has authored a very very new,
- 2:13Speaker 1: very very good book. It's new, brand new, The Gumbo Coalition.
- 2:16Speaker 1: Ten Leadership Lessons that help you Inspire, unite and achieve,
- 2:20Speaker 1: Now available wherever books are sold. Please welcome to Money
- 2:23Speaker 1: Making Conversations. The leader of the Gumbo Coalition, my man
- 2:28Speaker 1: Mark Morel. Hey brother, thank you for having me today,
- 2:32Speaker 1: and uh, good data. Your entire listening audience, thank you
- 2:35Speaker 1: so much. Well, you know, it's a it's a journey
- 2:37Speaker 1: we've had. We met over the years when I was
- 2:40Speaker 1: managing Steve Harvey and producing this morning show, and I've
- 2:44Speaker 1: seen you come in and as a representative of the
- 2:47Speaker 1: of the Urban League, just tell us exactly what is
- 2:50Speaker 1: the Urban League. National Urban League. National Urban League is
- 2:54Speaker 1: a historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization founded in
- 2:59Speaker 1: to help black people who were moving to the North
- 3:02Speaker 1: from the South to get away from segregation. The Ku
- 3:06Speaker 1: Klux Klan in lynching and they moved to America's urban
- 3:10Speaker 1: communities Detroit, Chicago, New York, Boston looking for work. But
- 3:14Speaker 1: what they found is they found discrimination, they found prejudice,
- 3:17Speaker 1: they found difficult conditions, and we rose to assist them
- 3:21Speaker 1: in both making the transition and in having a voice.
- 3:24Speaker 1: And those were our earliest days. In nineteen sixties, the
- 3:28Speaker 1: late Great Whitney Young became our leader and we became
- 3:31Speaker 1: a full partner in the nineteen sixties civil rights revolution.
- 3:35Speaker 1: Since then, we've been on the front lines working for
- 3:39Speaker 1: civil rights and economic opportunity through a dynamic network of
- 3:43Speaker 1: ninety affiliates that serve three communities in thirty six states.
- 3:47Speaker 1: In the District of Columbia. We're a premier job training
- 3:50Speaker 1: organization and job placement and organization. We do home buyer preparation,
- 3:55Speaker 1: We serve youth and free after school and academic preparation services,
- 3:59Speaker 1: and we serve some fifteen thousand entrepreneurs each year through
- 4:02Speaker 1: our small business centers. We're a dynamic vehicle to help
- 4:06Speaker 1: people find economic independence, and we're a voice on the
- 4:09Speaker 1: national stage for civil rights and economic opportunity. Very powerful,
- 4:13Speaker 1: very well articulate. I'm not trying to stomp you here
- 4:15Speaker 1: with this question. What is the difference between the P
- 4:18Speaker 1: and the National Urban League. We're like brothers or cousins. Uh,
- 4:23Speaker 1: you know the double a CP we founded a year earlier.
- 4:26Speaker 1: They're primarily a volunteer organization that does civil rights activism.
- 4:31Speaker 1: They've got a large network their rural, suburban and urban communities.
- 4:36Speaker 1: We are in addition to being a civil rights organization,
- 4:39Speaker 1: we're also UH do direct services and most of our
- 4:42Speaker 1: work is carried out by a paid professional staffers who've
- 4:46Speaker 1: got two thousand employees across the nation and UH ninety
- 4:51Speaker 1: physical locations in those communities. So we work closely together
- 4:56Speaker 1: on a wide range of issues, but distinctly we have
- 5:00Speaker 1: the same mission, but we carry out our work sometimes
- 5:03Speaker 1: in complimentary sometimes in different ways. Right. I always view,
- 5:08Speaker 1: this has always been my view that you know, the
- 5:10Speaker 1: national urban Lee was more business. They always always felt
- 5:13Speaker 1: that you guys had they had had more of an
- 5:16Speaker 1: active role in the shaping the economics of of African
- 5:20Speaker 1: Americans or blacks. Was I was. I was, as I'm
- 5:22Speaker 1: wrong or incorrect one as you're accurate. Yeah, we have
- 5:25Speaker 1: a distinct focus on the economic opportunity, on helping people
- 5:28Speaker 1: find jobs and helping small black businesses and medium sized
- 5:32Speaker 1: black people's businesses grow and develop, helping people become homeowners.
- 5:36Speaker 1: There's no question that our focus on economic empowerment is
- 5:40Speaker 1: what I call it, which is opportunity, it's justice, it's independence.
- 5:44Speaker 1: Uh is really really what makes us unique, what makes us.
- 5:48Speaker 1: What I call sweet generous was not the Latin word.
- 5:51Speaker 1: It means one of a kind. Now, let's let's go
- 5:54Speaker 1: to the book now, because of the fact that I
- 5:56Speaker 1: just wanted to such a stage. Let everybody know what
- 5:59Speaker 1: you're doing current, how you've been doing that job since
- 6:01Speaker 1: with two thousand three, correct, two thousand three, after eight
- 6:05Speaker 1: great years as mayor and my beloved hometown New Orleans,
- 6:09Speaker 1: of two terms because two terms was the limit, right Uh?
- 6:12Speaker 1: And then I found an opportunity after practicing law for
- 6:16Speaker 1: a year in between city hall and this job, to
- 6:19Speaker 1: to to lead this incredible urban league movement. I'm standing
- 6:23Speaker 1: on the shoulders with some great people like Whitney Young
- 6:25Speaker 1: and Vernon Jordan just to name a few. Vernon Jordan's
- 6:28Speaker 1: powerful name right there. Um a good friend of min
- 6:32Speaker 1: I'm gonna call a good friend of mine, Lavelle. Uh.
- 6:35Speaker 1: Saw you in New Orleans and talked about a book
- 6:39Speaker 1: I did. Now you you know your type of I
- 6:41Speaker 1: look at your life that that book almost feels like
- 6:43Speaker 1: a TV show, Okay when I read it, and so
- 6:46Speaker 1: so that means a lot of people have come your
- 6:48Speaker 1: way and tapped you on the shows. You should write
- 6:50Speaker 1: a book, You should write a book. What what does
- 6:52Speaker 1: she say to you, Lavelle, say to you that sit
- 6:56Speaker 1: you in the direction you know it's time? Tell you
- 6:58Speaker 1: what she did? You know, she she's that down and
- 7:00Speaker 1: she said, you know, you should write a book, but
- 7:02Speaker 1: you should write a leadership book. I said, interesting, she says,
- 7:06Speaker 1: not a memoir on autobiography with the book about leadership,
- 7:10Speaker 1: because she says, that's what people want to hear. They
- 7:13Speaker 1: want a book that they can use. They want a
- 7:15Speaker 1: book that they can learn from. And you know, I
- 7:18Speaker 1: was impressed. I mean, here was a sister uh connected
- 7:21Speaker 1: with the major publishers, HarperCollins, Uh and uh, it was
- 7:25Speaker 1: really really exciting. And you know, she pushed me. She
- 7:28Speaker 1: pushed me, and I said, I said yes, And I
- 7:33Speaker 1: kind of said, well, you know, walked me through the
- 7:36Speaker 1: steps because I do have an idea because my mom
- 7:39Speaker 1: wrote a book. But walked me through the steps. And so,
- 7:42Speaker 1: you know, we sat down. She said, put some ideas
- 7:44Speaker 1: on paper, right up, an outline. Let me take a
- 7:46Speaker 1: look at it. So one thing led to another and
- 7:48Speaker 1: we spent lots of time together working on this book,
- 7:52Speaker 1: and her guidance and insight was just so helpful to me,
- 7:56Speaker 1: just so helpful. I couldn't have done it without her,
- 7:58Speaker 1: and really her challenge you. And I wanted to do
- 8:01Speaker 1: a book for a long time. Myself published the Book
- 8:03Speaker 1: of Speeches in the ninety nineties. About fifteen years ago,
- 8:07Speaker 1: I started working on a book. I had an agent.
- 8:09Speaker 1: I got too busy. I lost sight and lost I
- 8:12Speaker 1: guess I just lost sight and lost interest. And so
- 8:15Speaker 1: lavell you know, she she, she challenged me. And I'm
- 8:18Speaker 1: just excited that something that was a little intimidating at
- 8:22Speaker 1: first has come together. I think it's a great book.
- 8:25Speaker 1: It's a beautiful book. It's a beautiful will inspire people.
- 8:28Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you. You know, you hear the worried.
- 8:30Speaker 1: A lot of common sense used in common This book
- 8:33Speaker 1: is a smart common sense. And when I say that
- 8:37Speaker 1: is that I'm a successful guy. I can say that.
- 8:40Speaker 1: My resume tells me. I can say that publicly, and uh,
- 8:43Speaker 1: and I have plans to be successful in the future.
- 8:46Speaker 1: This book. When I started reading it, okay, it's a
- 8:49Speaker 1: little bio pick in the beginning, Okay, because it sets
- 8:51Speaker 1: everything up and then, but at the end of each
- 8:53Speaker 1: chapter you do a recap about what you just read
- 8:56Speaker 1: it just to outline and detail exactly the bullet wants
- 9:00Speaker 1: that you can take. In fact, when you buy this book,
- 9:02Speaker 1: you can you can almost rip out every recap and
- 9:05Speaker 1: just stayplose together and put them on your refrigerator and
- 9:08Speaker 1: put them on your mirror, and that can be your
- 9:10Speaker 1: vision board at your house. That's how you say this,
- 9:14Speaker 1: you know, when it comes to I say, the most
- 9:16Speaker 1: important education I ever had was not the undergraduate degree
- 9:21Speaker 1: I have from the University of Pennsylvania, not the law
- 9:24Speaker 1: degree I had from Georgetown, not the twelve to fifteen
- 9:29Speaker 1: honorary degrees that I'm so privileged have been awarded. It's
- 9:34Speaker 1: the PhD in common sense I got from my mama.
- 9:38Speaker 1: My mama, like so many mamas, was just basically a
- 9:43Speaker 1: person of common sense. She knew how to read people.
- 9:47Speaker 1: She knew how to read people in terms of who
- 9:49Speaker 1: she could trust, who she couldn't trust, who to be
- 9:53Speaker 1: weary of. She understood, and she sort of, you know,
- 9:57Speaker 1: willed that into me. You know, I learned watching her.
- 10:00Speaker 1: I got an incredible dad, but my mom, in terms
- 10:03Speaker 1: of really influencing you know what I think and who
- 10:07Speaker 1: I am. It was just such a powerful, powerful, powerful influence.
- 10:11Speaker 1: And it was all about common sense and keeping your
- 10:14Speaker 1: feet on the ground and never getting a big head
- 10:17Speaker 1: and not thinking you all that as as we say.
- 10:22Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I love my mother for for
- 10:25Speaker 1: for teaching me that. And that's why I love about
- 10:28Speaker 1: this book. She she taught it to me. But it's
- 10:31Speaker 1: almost like I didn't know I was being taught it.
- 10:33Speaker 1: It just kind of is from the powers of observation
- 10:36Speaker 1: and the lessons she taught you. But you but you're
- 10:39Speaker 1: giving those lessons back to us in writing in an
- 10:41Speaker 1: organized manner, which is a blessing in itself. I'm talking
- 10:44Speaker 1: to Mark Moreal. He's currently the CEO of the National
- 10:47Speaker 1: Urban League. He has a book called The Gumbo Coalition,
- 10:50Speaker 1: Ten Leadership Lessons that help you Inspire, unite and achieve
- 10:54Speaker 1: Now from Houston, Texas. So when you start saying the
- 10:56Speaker 1: word gumbo, I knew exactly what you're talking about from
- 10:59Speaker 1: all from a special thing about special thing about gumbo
- 11:05Speaker 1: is no two gumbos are just alighte. And and when
- 11:09Speaker 1: you always when you when you think you finished preparing gumbo,
- 11:14Speaker 1: you can also you can always add a few actually
- 11:16Speaker 1: ingredients and make it just that much better. And that,
- 11:19Speaker 1: to me is the essence of gumbo, is that it
- 11:21Speaker 1: as a collection and an amalgamation of various ingredients. In
- 11:25Speaker 1: America and the communities that we live in are that
- 11:28Speaker 1: today made up of all types of people, ethnic backgrounds,
- 11:33Speaker 1: religious backgrounds, all sorts of dispositions and orientations. That's the beauty.
- 11:39Speaker 1: See the Gumbo Coalition reflects that very essence, the essence
- 11:43Speaker 1: of of of diversity, of inclusion, of a multifaceted uh
- 11:48Speaker 1: if you will nation, We know you would, like you
- 11:51Speaker 1: said that, we are taking this from the book the
- 11:54Speaker 1: Gumbo Coalition. It was built to include not only African Americans,
- 11:58Speaker 1: but also white Latino Asian straights, gage, young, old, and
- 12:03Speaker 1: all religious groups of my marvel. So the diverse hometown
- 12:06Speaker 1: New Orleans, that's where it started. And you've carried that
- 12:09Speaker 1: same mantral, that same lesson or that same common sense
- 12:13Speaker 1: put it in this book, but also you use it
- 12:15Speaker 1: to us it in your everyday practices, and that's how
- 12:18Speaker 1: you carry it through the various chapters in the book. Correct,
- 12:22Speaker 1: New Orleans was a city that in leading the city,
- 12:26Speaker 1: you couldn't win an election without a coalition. If you
- 12:29Speaker 1: couldn't put a coalition together, you couldn't win an election.
- 12:31Speaker 1: But you have to have a base. You have to
- 12:34Speaker 1: have a powerful base. I had a very strong base
- 12:36Speaker 1: of African Americans, but my base is also made up
- 12:39Speaker 1: of you know, public housing residents, uh, young people, small
- 12:44Speaker 1: business owners, uh. You know, activists made up my political
- 12:48Speaker 1: base and it's what I started from. But the base
- 12:51Speaker 1: was not enough to win an election. The base is
- 12:53Speaker 1: not enough uh to carry me to victory. So we
- 12:57Speaker 1: had to build off the base and build this broad
- 13:00Speaker 1: and why coalition in America to day, to lead effectively
- 13:04Speaker 1: at any level, you have to build coalitions. You have
- 13:07Speaker 1: to operate off of a base, but build a coalition
- 13:10Speaker 1: that allows you to leave with effectiveness. Awesome, when we
- 13:14Speaker 1: come back the next break are when break down some
- 13:17Speaker 1: of the chapters. I'm talking to. Mark Moreal, the current
- 13:20Speaker 1: CEO of the National Urban League, has an amazing book
- 13:23Speaker 1: that is that it's available everywhere online to be bought.
- 13:27Speaker 1: It's called The The Gumbolt Coalition. Tend leadership lessons that
- 13:30Speaker 1: help you inspire, unite and achieve. We'll be right back
- 13:33Speaker 1: with more money making conversation with Mark Moreal. It's finally here,
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- 15:32Speaker 1: E R dot ai Hi di ru Sean McDonald and
- 15:35Speaker 1: you're listening to money making conversations, information that you should
- 15:39Speaker 1: use as an entrepreneur, as an entertainment, as an as
- 15:41Speaker 1: an employeer, as an everyday person who's working forty hours
- 15:44Speaker 1: a week. We're living in the times of pending that
- 15:46Speaker 1: as we say the pandemic times a time where as
- 15:49Speaker 1: African Americans we are overtly affected by the COVID nineteen virus.
- 15:54Speaker 1: We're gonna come out of it. We're gonna come out
- 15:56Speaker 1: of as a people, but we're gonna come out of
- 15:58Speaker 1: a different people with different bat use in different cores.
- 16:01Speaker 1: And when I read a book like this that the
- 16:03Speaker 1: Gumbo Coalition Ten leadership lessons that help you inspire uniting
- 16:07Speaker 1: the chief is about putting the right people around you
- 16:11Speaker 1: consistently understanding you cannot do it alone. Each chapter screams that,
- 16:15Speaker 1: Each chapter screams to you that you better have a
- 16:18Speaker 1: plan that just don't jump out there on faith. Jumped
- 16:21Speaker 1: out there on faith with a plan in both hands.
- 16:24Speaker 1: And also when you land, make sure you're landing with
- 16:27Speaker 1: people who believe in you and can assist you in
- 16:29Speaker 1: your plan for success. That screams in your book mark
- 16:33Speaker 1: it really does well, you know. I tell you my
- 16:37Speaker 1: hope is that the book is going to inspire the
- 16:40Speaker 1: next generation of leaders. And I talked about setbacks. You
- 16:44Speaker 1: talk about challenges and talk about uh the unexpected, and
- 16:48Speaker 1: I also talk about where the expectations of me were
- 16:51Speaker 1: not that high, Like when I had to argue before
- 16:53Speaker 1: the State Supreme Court in Louisiana as a twenty six
- 16:56Speaker 1: year old, and the name partner in the law firm
- 17:00Speaker 1: I was in told me going into the Supreme Court
- 17:02Speaker 1: that I was going to lose the case. And I
- 17:05Speaker 1: remember thinking I was so angry with him for telling
- 17:07Speaker 1: me that, but I didn't say a word. I got up,
- 17:09Speaker 1: gave an argument, and then as we were walking out
- 17:12Speaker 1: of court, he asked me, he stopped me, said where
- 17:14Speaker 1: did you learn how to argue like that? I never
- 17:16Speaker 1: saw a young lawyer argue that way before before this court.
- 17:20Speaker 1: And anyway, I said, well, coach, I've been on your
- 17:24Speaker 1: team for a year. You need to put me in
- 17:26Speaker 1: the ball game, because your lieutenants had me sitting on
- 17:29Speaker 1: the bench. And a month and a half later, I
- 17:34Speaker 1: won the case and I decided to leave the law
- 17:36Speaker 1: firm and do my own thing. And so you know,
- 17:38Speaker 1: they're setbacks and people trying to diminish you, even you know, unintentionally,
- 17:43Speaker 1: and it was intentionally or unintentionally, And so you know,
- 17:47Speaker 1: the book is not all you know, not all roses.
- 17:51Speaker 1: It's also about setbacks. It's also about challenges. It's also
- 17:54Speaker 1: about low expectations. It's also about overcoming great challenges and
- 17:59Speaker 1: and it's also it's about networking, it's about innovation, you know,
- 18:03Speaker 1: it's about compassion. Uh. Great lessons, it's about teamwork. Great
- 18:09Speaker 1: lessons I learned, and I learned them from others, and
- 18:12Speaker 1: I learned it from observing, and I learned them from
- 18:15Speaker 1: getting kicked, getting pushed, getting knocked down and having to
- 18:19Speaker 1: get back up. Well, you know, it's interesting. Let me
- 18:22Speaker 1: just compare something. Um, I currently marriage Steven A. Smith,
- 18:25Speaker 1: one of the highest profile talents in sports. Man. I
- 18:29Speaker 1: love steven A. Smith, that's my boy. I managed him now.
- 18:32Speaker 1: But when I met y'all, was managing Steve Harvey and
- 18:35Speaker 1: we originally start. I'm just doing a comparison to you,
- 18:37Speaker 1: and that's why I feel as you started in New Orleans,
- 18:40Speaker 1: but what you're doing at the National Urban League is
- 18:42Speaker 1: what's your destiny? Is where we needed your voice because
- 18:45Speaker 1: Steve we was great in l A. Man. We was
- 18:47Speaker 1: l A just tearing it up man and number one
- 18:50Speaker 1: morning show in l A from two thousands two thousand
- 18:52Speaker 1: and five. But I would look at him. I always
- 18:54Speaker 1: felt that he had more to offer in a national platform.
- 18:58Speaker 1: So we left l a huge contract and took a
- 19:02Speaker 1: lord deal to be uh syndicated nationally because we figured
- 19:07Speaker 1: we'll step back but go up and we did and
- 19:10Speaker 1: his voice as in a national level, I feel responsible
- 19:14Speaker 1: for President Obama being elected twice. I feel responsible for
- 19:19Speaker 1: a lot of the movements that are positive in music
- 19:22Speaker 1: for black Americans. Uh. But more importantly so when I
- 19:26Speaker 1: hear your journey, I'm not saying you're the same people,
- 19:29Speaker 1: but you are. You are an advocate, a game changer
- 19:32Speaker 1: in New Orleans if you were just staying in. So
- 19:35Speaker 1: it was a blessing to me in this country that
- 19:37Speaker 1: you were only given two terms, okay, because we needed
- 19:41Speaker 1: you to come out and and and and talk about
- 19:44Speaker 1: the five point empowerment agenda that's right, which is about
- 19:49Speaker 1: educational Come on. You know when I when I started
- 19:54Speaker 1: at the National Urban leg had no idea where the
- 19:57Speaker 1: journey would take me. But you know, I was blessed,
- 20:00Speaker 1: really blessed and privilege to have a chance to serve
- 20:04Speaker 1: as mayor serve as a Louisiana State senator at a
- 20:07Speaker 1: young age. I mean I got elected at thirty six.
- 20:10Speaker 1: I raised my hand I just turned thirty six years
- 20:13Speaker 1: old and accepted the challenge to be mayor. Well, most
- 20:16Speaker 1: of my colleagues who were mayors of major American cities,
- 20:20Speaker 1: they were fifteen to twenty years older than me. I
- 20:23Speaker 1: mean I would sit in the room with all the
- 20:24Speaker 1: other mayors and I was a young kid on the block. Well,
- 20:28Speaker 1: six years later they elected me to be their president,
- 20:31Speaker 1: the president of the U S Conference of Mayor. So
- 20:33Speaker 1: I was the youngest mayor to ever service president of
- 20:36Speaker 1: the U S Conference of Mayors when I took that
- 20:39Speaker 1: post in two thousand and so, you know, the opportunity
- 20:43Speaker 1: to serve. The reason why I make that point is
- 20:46Speaker 1: because I say to young people, you're never too young
- 20:49Speaker 1: to take on a challenge, never too young to serve,
- 20:52Speaker 1: never too young to excel, and don't let anybody diminish you.
- 20:56Speaker 1: But you've got to know you're ready. You got to
- 20:59Speaker 1: have the confidence in ability, and you've got to be
- 21:01Speaker 1: mature enough to make the difficult and challenging decisions. And
- 21:06Speaker 1: you know, I feel so so especially that I want
- 21:10Speaker 1: to give back the lessons I've learned. I want to
- 21:13Speaker 1: give back the insights that i've that I've I've learned,
- 21:17Speaker 1: and that's a motivation. Uh, indeed for the book, and
- 21:21Speaker 1: the chance to serve at the national level is something
- 21:24Speaker 1: special because I've literally visited almost every state in the Union.
- 21:28Speaker 1: I've been to every city. I've been on the uptown side,
- 21:32Speaker 1: on the downtown side. I've been in the fancy homes,
- 21:35Speaker 1: I've been in the neighborhoods. And that opportunity to meet
- 21:39Speaker 1: people and see and witness and experience their hopes, their fears,
- 21:43Speaker 1: their cheers, and their aspirations is just unlike anything else. Uh.
- 21:47Speaker 1: And I've always feel humbled and appreciative of that. It's
- 21:51Speaker 1: it's two things I want to make sure we talk
- 21:52Speaker 1: about before we leave the State of Black America, which
- 21:57Speaker 1: is like a phenomenal This is our nego vision. This
- 22:00Speaker 1: is something on your vision that was resurrected. And then
- 22:03Speaker 1: the then the five point Empowerment Agenda that was under
- 22:07Speaker 1: your agenda as well as the national correct. Yeah. So
- 22:11Speaker 1: we started out in two thousand and three. We needed
- 22:15Speaker 1: to have a framework and a plan to go forward.
- 22:18Speaker 1: So we picked five issues education, economics, health, social justice,
- 22:24Speaker 1: and civic engagement, and we transformed that into five empowerment
- 22:30Speaker 1: goals Education, economics, housing, health, and justice. UH. And we
- 22:38Speaker 1: transformed the work so all of The work of the
- 22:41Speaker 1: National Urban League is aligned around those five issues, around
- 22:45Speaker 1: those five goals, around those five things, and we're clear
- 22:48Speaker 1: we can't beat all things to all people deal with
- 22:51Speaker 1: every single issue that might be of concern to Black
- 22:54Speaker 1: America or to urban communities. We needed to create a
- 22:58Speaker 1: coherent framework and focus, and that's indeed what we did.
- 23:02Speaker 1: The State of Black America was started by Vernon Jordan
- 23:05Speaker 1: in six and what I took over in two thousand
- 23:09Speaker 1: and three. It needed to be revived, it needs to
- 23:12Speaker 1: be strengthened. So we added a statistical component, a permanent
- 23:15Speaker 1: statistical component, where we measure the same numbers every single
- 23:19Speaker 1: year in an index called the Equality Index. We compare
- 23:23Speaker 1: blacks and whites, unemployment, health outcomes, lifespans, how homeownership rates,
- 23:30Speaker 1: and across the board, so that every year we can
- 23:33Speaker 1: report on the numbers, on the facts in so far
- 23:37Speaker 1: as America's this erasial disparities are concerned, and we report
- 23:41Speaker 1: on that, and we continue to report on that every year,
- 23:44Speaker 1: and it continues to show disparities not only in health,
- 23:47Speaker 1: but the greatest disparities are in economics. Not only in
- 23:50Speaker 1: health and economics, but in education, in how the criminal
- 23:54Speaker 1: justice system treats us in civic engagement. This is the
- 23:57Speaker 1: work you know of the urbanly movement today. This is
- 24:01Speaker 1: the work. It's framed around the state of Black America,
- 24:04Speaker 1: and we compare blacks and whites. We compare blacks, whites
- 24:07Speaker 1: and Latinos because we need to understand where we are
- 24:11Speaker 1: as a nation if economic parity is our objective. And
- 24:17Speaker 1: that was and that's that's what I'm just talking to
- 24:19Speaker 1: when I'm on speaking to you, is that when I'm
- 24:21Speaker 1: reading the book and I'm breaking down different chapters, the
- 24:25Speaker 1: one thing that I kept hearing ringing out to me
- 24:28Speaker 1: was this the plan, the plan, How you having a plan,
- 24:32Speaker 1: and then how you deliver the plan. That's what this
- 24:34Speaker 1: That's what this book really talks about. You know, you
- 24:37Speaker 1: have a lot of brilliant ideas. Basically what you're saying,
- 24:39Speaker 1: build a house, you have to have a plan. To
- 24:42Speaker 1: cook a good meal, you have to have a recipe.
- 24:46Speaker 1: To be a great musician, You've got to have a
- 24:48Speaker 1: musical score, even if you improvise in between UH to UH.
- 24:55Speaker 1: To lead, you need a plan. To fight a war,
- 24:58Speaker 1: you need a plan. To bring about peace. You need
- 25:02Speaker 1: a plan. So planning is a really important element of leadership,
- 25:07Speaker 1: and then knowing when to modify the plan. There are
- 25:10Speaker 1: times that come when you might have to throw the
- 25:13Speaker 1: plan right out the window, right out the window, and respond.
- 25:18Speaker 1: So right now we have to respond to this pandemic.
- 25:22Speaker 1: So we might put a plan aside, but what we
- 25:26Speaker 1: quickly do is develop a new plan. And it might
- 25:29Speaker 1: be let's develop a short term plan. Let's focus on
- 25:33Speaker 1: what we need to do, uh, in order to confront
- 25:36Speaker 1: the challenges now. So planning is critical, and learning how
- 25:40Speaker 1: to plan, and then communicating your plan, knowing how to
- 25:43Speaker 1: communicate your planny, knowing how to talk to your constituents,
- 25:46Speaker 1: to talk to your followers a much. But not just
- 25:48Speaker 1: have it living in a file, not just have it
- 25:51Speaker 1: living on your computer, not just have it living in
- 25:53Speaker 1: your head. You know when I when I, when I
- 25:56Speaker 1: was reading the book, you know I'm talking to Mark
- 25:58Speaker 1: Mareali these day all Currency or the National Urban League.
- 26:02Speaker 1: He has a fantastic new book called The Gumbo Coalition.
- 26:04Speaker 1: Ten leadership lessons that help you inspire that will that
- 26:07Speaker 1: will help you inspire united and achieve your goals, your dreams,
- 26:10Speaker 1: your organization and rising to the top. When I, when I,
- 26:14Speaker 1: when I was reading this and we were talking about
- 26:16Speaker 1: the plan, and then I got to the the you know,
- 26:18Speaker 1: the five points of an agenda, and then I got
- 26:21Speaker 1: to the state report, and then I started and I
- 26:24Speaker 1: read the report and it was something that really stunned me.
- 26:27Speaker 1: That was talking about Native Americans were denied an opportunity
- 26:32Speaker 1: to vote in two and then we're not guarantee. The
- 26:36Speaker 1: last state to guarantee you then was New Mexico in
- 26:40Speaker 1: the eighteen sixty two. And I always tell people my
- 26:43Speaker 1: degree is in mathematics. Numbers don't lie. And that's why
- 26:45Speaker 1: I like the way you do business. I would like
- 26:47Speaker 1: the way you talk with you in your book, you
- 26:49Speaker 1: talk about numbers, you bring up statistics, you you lay
- 26:52Speaker 1: out a plan that this is not a theory, this
- 26:55Speaker 1: is how you should do business. You showed examples of
- 26:57Speaker 1: how you did business, how you had to maneuver the people,
- 27:01Speaker 1: you had to maneuver with the people, you have to
- 27:03Speaker 1: work with, people who didn't like you, how you had
- 27:05Speaker 1: to bring them on your side of the table. And
- 27:07Speaker 1: I always tell people, I said, percent of the people
- 27:10Speaker 1: did not make money with I don't really care what
- 27:12Speaker 1: they for breakfast, I really don't. It's how I do
- 27:14Speaker 1: business with him in public, and that's what your book
- 27:17Speaker 1: is about. My book also talks about networking and working.
- 27:21Speaker 1: When we talk about different kinds of friends, you know,
- 27:24Speaker 1: you have intimate friends, and then you have, uh, those
- 27:27Speaker 1: who you are acquainted with, and then you just have
- 27:29Speaker 1: those that you professionally know. So the idea is you
- 27:33Speaker 1: can have I know a lot of people, but just
- 27:36Speaker 1: because someone's your friend doesn't mean there's your intimate friends.
- 27:40Speaker 1: But then many times acquaintances have great value. They validate,
- 27:46Speaker 1: uh they there there what sements your reputation or can
- 27:50Speaker 1: undermine your reputation if you develop a bad reputation. So
- 27:55Speaker 1: you know, in my book, it's all about practical tips.
- 27:58Speaker 1: It's all about experiences that I've had, and it's all
- 28:02Speaker 1: about the people who have helped need become who I've become,
- 28:06Speaker 1: but more important than their relatable experiences. That's what I
- 28:09Speaker 1: appreciated most about your book. I wanted to let you
- 28:12Speaker 1: know that I have a social media almost a million followers.
- 28:15Speaker 1: I have a fan club out every Friday at nine
- 28:18Speaker 1: am two any thousand fan club members. I want to
- 28:21Speaker 1: put a banner of your book in the man I'll
- 28:23Speaker 1: just let you know the man, I appreciate you. I
- 28:26Speaker 1: appreciate you and uh to come on my show and
- 28:29Speaker 1: allowed me to let you know the greatness that you've
- 28:32Speaker 1: accomplished in your life. What you know, but sometimes, like everybody,
- 28:36Speaker 1: you need to remind it that you are a gift
- 28:39Speaker 1: to America. You are changing not only you've changed my life,
- 28:42Speaker 1: but my daughters twenty two and you're laying a path
- 28:45Speaker 1: for how to have a great life. So thank you
- 28:47Speaker 1: for coming on Money Making Conversation, Mark Maria. I appreciate
- 28:50Speaker 1: you so much. God bless you and be safe, be healthy,
- 28:53Speaker 1: and keep the faith always and get those banners to
- 28:55Speaker 1: me so I can promote your book. Okay, you got
- 28:58Speaker 1: it all right. If you want to hear more interviews
- 29:00Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversations, please go to money Making Conversation
- 29:03Speaker 1: dot com. Rashean McDonald, I'm your host. Thank you. In
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