Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Thomas Barnes, the owner of Experimax: is breaking stereotypes as the owner of an Atlanta-based go-to location for technology X-perts.
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations.
- 0:06Speaker 2: It's to show that she is the secrets of success
- 0:08Speaker 2: experience firsthand by Marketing and Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I
- 0:12Speaker 2: will know he's giving me advice on many occasions. And
- 0:14Speaker 2: in case you didn't notice, I'm not broke. You know
- 0:17Speaker 2: he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision make
- 0:21Speaker 2: because it's what he likes to do, it's what he
- 0:23Speaker 2: likes to share. Now it's time to hear from my man,
- 0:26Speaker 2: Rashan McDonald. Money Making Conversations.
- 0:29Speaker 1: Here we go.
- 0:30Speaker 3: It's always good to start out your day with positivity, happiness. Well,
- 0:36Speaker 3: I'm happy the weather was not burning down on my
- 0:40Speaker 3: shoulders and wasn't burning down on my bald head. And
- 0:43Speaker 3: so guess what I'm here to just bring on some
- 0:45Speaker 3: guests that's going to change your life with information And
- 0:48Speaker 3: I'm Rushan McDonald. If I didn't introduce myself, it was
- 0:51Speaker 3: introduced prior to that. I'm your weekly host of money
- 0:53Speaker 3: making conversation, masterclass and interviews and information that this show
- 0:58Speaker 3: provides is for you.
- 0:59Speaker 1: It really is.
- 1:00Speaker 3: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
- 1:02Speaker 3: start living your own.
- 1:04Speaker 1: But let's get this show started.
- 1:05Speaker 3: My first guess is a proud supporter of my home
- 1:08Speaker 3: radio station, WCLK. His name is Thomas Barnes. Thomas Bonne
- 1:12Speaker 3: is a product of the Atlanta Public school system. That's
- 1:15Speaker 3: important because a lot of people the public school system
- 1:17Speaker 3: gets a negative a lot of times when they talked
- 1:20Speaker 3: about education. He attended Morehouse College and he has a
- 1:24Speaker 3: degree in management from Georgia State University, and an emphasis
- 1:28Speaker 3: on that management degree is CIS Information Systems. He's an
- 1:32Speaker 3: example of seeing an opportunity and pursuing an opportunity to
- 1:35Speaker 3: the fullest. He did not let COVID a stereotyping stop
- 1:39Speaker 3: him from pursuing his dreams. Thomas owns Experimax, a complete
- 1:44Speaker 3: retail computer store where they specialize in sales, service, and
- 1:47Speaker 3: support of all things Apple. Please work with the money
- 1:51Speaker 3: making conversations, Master Class, Thomas Barnes.
- 1:53Speaker 4: How you doing, Thomas, it's evening good, evening good, even
- 1:55Speaker 4: if mister McDonald, are you sir? I'm doing great. Thank
- 1:58Speaker 4: you for having me to see you that. I'm humble,
- 1:59Speaker 4: I'm great.
- 2:00Speaker 3: Opportunity Thomas, A black man owning a computer store?
- 2:04Speaker 1: Is that normal? Come on, come on.
- 2:09Speaker 4: I would have to say it absolutely is not. I mean,
- 2:12Speaker 4: quite candidly, my background, as you mentioned, is it in
- 2:19Speaker 4: the IT space in general, we as a people a
- 2:22Speaker 4: minority in business ownership, having a computer store, any type
- 2:26Speaker 4: of technology related store. That's even a smaller number. So yeah,
- 2:32Speaker 4: I wouldn't say I one of one, but one of.
- 2:34Speaker 3: A few because you have to chuckle because I know
- 2:37Speaker 3: you expect me to ask ask a question to you
- 2:39Speaker 3: like that. But that's the honest space that we are in.
- 2:42Speaker 3: And that's why I mentioned the fact that you know
- 2:45Speaker 3: in your introduction that Atlantic Public School a student, that's
- 2:48Speaker 3: where you came from. Because interested the kids, the kids
- 2:51Speaker 3: who come to the get get educated in these particular
- 2:54Speaker 3: formats because I came from public school, and we get stereotyped,
- 2:59Speaker 3: and you talk a little bit about overcoming those stereotypes.
- 3:02Speaker 3: As you described to us, who is Thomas Bonds.
- 3:06Speaker 4: I'll be very honest with Atlanta's home as I mentioned,
- 3:08Speaker 4: as you just mentioned, I am a product of Atlanta
- 3:11Speaker 4: Public Schools, graduated from Venician Hills Elementary. Thereafter I went
- 3:16Speaker 4: on to attend DM Thoro High School and I'm a
- 3:20Speaker 4: proud allumvenments of DM Thereoll High School. When I first
- 3:23Speaker 4: went to Theale High School, they were opened a vocational
- 3:25Speaker 4: program offering several different tracks that you'd go in, one
- 3:29Speaker 4: of which was electro mechanics. From a very early age,
- 3:33Speaker 4: probably around ten or eleven. I can't explain that this
- 3:35Speaker 4: guy had an interest in electronics and so forth, and
- 3:38Speaker 4: before gaming as we know it today, I always had
- 3:41Speaker 4: an interesting games. Back then we had the Mateil handheld
- 3:44Speaker 4: games and so forth. So I was always pretty good
- 3:47Speaker 4: at math and science. So as I excelled through high school,
- 3:51Speaker 4: going through my senior year, I took some ap courses
- 3:54Speaker 4: at ap CAALC and so forth. So you know, I was,
- 3:56Speaker 4: you know, going back to stereotypes, you know, I was
- 3:59Speaker 4: a person that all its like math and science. I
- 4:01Speaker 4: was always just kind of gravitated to it or come
- 4:03Speaker 4: from a family educators, but math and science was just
- 4:06Speaker 4: kind of my thing. So I knew early on that
- 4:09Speaker 4: I wanted to go to college, and quite candidly this
- 4:12Speaker 4: way I was brought up in my family. I never
- 4:15Speaker 4: had a conversation with my mom and my parents in
- 4:17Speaker 4: terms of so what are you gonna do when you
- 4:19Speaker 4: finished high school? Because going to college it was kind
- 4:22Speaker 4: of like second nature for my family. My grandparents, unfortunately
- 4:27Speaker 4: they were weren't college educated, but they saw that all
- 4:30Speaker 4: of their kids were college educated, and I just followed suits. So,
- 4:34Speaker 4: you know, my brother attended Georgia State University, had another
- 4:36Speaker 4: cousin who went to Northwestern, and another cousin with the UGA.
- 4:40Speaker 4: So I just followed what I saw. It was natural
- 4:42Speaker 4: to me. So for me, it was just a matter
- 4:44Speaker 4: of choosing the school, not so much what I was
- 4:47Speaker 4: going to do. And I remember applying to more House.
- 4:51Speaker 4: I was going to take the essayt a second time,
- 4:53Speaker 4: And actually, once I received my septance letter from more House,
- 4:57Speaker 4: I didn't even really bother applying the other schools. What
- 5:00Speaker 4: I wanted to do was accomplished. I started off the
- 5:02Speaker 4: more House as a double major. Morehouse has a program
- 5:06Speaker 4: with Georgia Tech. We can do three years of more
- 5:07Speaker 4: House and two a Tech. I lady decided that I
- 5:10Speaker 4: didn't want to do electrical engineering, but I still had
- 5:12Speaker 4: an interest in computers.
- 5:13Speaker 1: And why didn't you want to do electrical engineering? Why
- 5:16Speaker 1: didn't you want to do that?
- 5:17Speaker 4: I don't know how, I guess the best way I
- 5:20Speaker 4: could explain it just in terms of all of the
- 5:27Speaker 4: nuances that one has to do as an engineering and
- 5:30Speaker 4: I wouldn't necessary to say it becomes mundane. But for me,
- 5:35Speaker 4: I wanted to do something different, something more. And again
- 5:37Speaker 4: I always kind of gravit towards gravitated towards technology. I
- 5:41Speaker 4: always had an interest in business. I always had an
- 5:43Speaker 4: interesting business as well. My brother was an accounting major
- 5:46Speaker 4: at Georgia State, and I can remember I could have
- 5:48Speaker 4: been no more than about the fifth grade. My brother's
- 5:51Speaker 4: ten years my senior, and he had come home one
- 5:53Speaker 4: day with an accounting book and I just remember looking
- 5:55Speaker 4: at it and I was thinking to myself, I can
- 5:57Speaker 4: do that, because again not that was a brain child,
- 5:59Speaker 4: but always like math and science.
- 6:02Speaker 3: It's interesting about your story is that it's about influencers
- 6:05Speaker 3: when I get you to tell your stories, because like
- 6:08Speaker 3: I said, you know, when I was growing up, you know,
- 6:11Speaker 3: my father's a truck driver, nothing negative about that, and
- 6:14Speaker 3: I was influenced. The first job he ever gave me
- 6:17Speaker 3: was an opportunity. I was fifteen years old, was at
- 6:19Speaker 3: a trucking company. And that trucking company, everybody that was
- 6:23Speaker 3: around me was manual labor. You know, unloading boxes, were
- 6:28Speaker 3: driving forklips, and guess what, no matter how good I
- 6:31Speaker 3: was in high school when I graduated, because that has
- 6:34Speaker 3: such influence on me. Thomas went and got a job
- 6:38Speaker 3: as a forklip driver, even though I could have went
- 6:40Speaker 3: to college, because I was influenced and I want people.
- 6:42Speaker 3: That's why I brought up the Atlanta public school system,
- 6:44Speaker 3: because people need to understand how you can influence a
- 6:47Speaker 3: child's life, especially early on especial whly become a team
- 6:51Speaker 3: just by making an impression of what they can be,
- 6:54Speaker 3: of the possibilities. You always saw the possibility of education
- 6:57Speaker 3: in your life, correct, Thomas, That is true.
- 7:00Speaker 4: I was very fortunate. I can honestly say I was
- 7:03Speaker 4: very fortunate. My upbringing, my grandparents, my mother I had,
- 7:07Speaker 4: my brother is an example, my cousins, aunts, uncles. Again,
- 7:11Speaker 4: I gotta say I come from a family's educators. Most
- 7:14Speaker 4: of my family either went to Jacksolle State University or Tugaloo.
- 7:19Speaker 4: But of course Atlanta is home for me and for me,
- 7:22Speaker 4: I'll never forget. This is very important, now that I
- 7:24Speaker 4: think about it. I never forget probably my sophomore year
- 7:27Speaker 4: high school, being around the family a Christmas times is
- 7:30Speaker 4: you know, we're all familiar with and I was reilling,
- 7:33Speaker 4: retting off all these schools I was considering going to,
- 7:36Speaker 4: but they were all PW eyes. And I never forget
- 7:40Speaker 4: my late uncle who passed away a few years ago.
- 7:43Speaker 4: He answered the question why not a HBCU. I honestly
- 7:47Speaker 4: didn't have a good answer for I don't know, you know,
- 7:51Speaker 4: I don't know, like you know, I'm gonna looking at
- 7:53Speaker 4: you you think of another name of major, ew I
- 7:56Speaker 4: that's what I was leaning towards. Now you I said,
- 7:58Speaker 4: I had a cousin who was a civil engineering major
- 8:01Speaker 4: right Northwestern. So it was at that point, Christmas time
- 8:07Speaker 4: of my sophomore year in high school, I started giving
- 8:10Speaker 4: HBCUs a consideration. And from that point, I remember taking
- 8:15Speaker 4: the psat my sophomore year in high school, and from
- 8:19Speaker 4: there I just start looking at boring the possibilities at HBCUs.
- 8:22Speaker 4: And I said, my senior year comes about. I took
- 8:26Speaker 4: the SAT. My school was decent. It wasn't the best,
- 8:29Speaker 4: but it wasn't you know, horrible. Had some high school classmates,
- 8:35Speaker 4: some of which were going into engineering as well. They
- 8:37Speaker 4: went to Alabama A and M. I literally only applied
- 8:41Speaker 4: to two schools coming out of my senior year outside
- 8:45Speaker 4: the Moorhouse and the school was formerly called Southern Tech
- 8:49Speaker 4: here Marietta, which is now part of Kennessas State University. Again.
- 8:52Speaker 4: So I wanted to go into engineering, and looking back
- 8:56Speaker 4: at I had an opportunity to go to Hampton Clark,
- 8:59Speaker 4: several other schools I never even really bothered to apply again,
- 9:03Speaker 4: I applied to more House. That was kind of where
- 9:05Speaker 4: I knew I wanted to go based upon his reputation.
- 9:08Speaker 4: It's history, uh, the legacy of MOREHT.
- 9:11Speaker 3: But you wouldn't even have considered that unless your uncle
- 9:14Speaker 3: would have said, whoa, I'm.
- 9:15Speaker 4: Very honest with you again, my my late uncle iy Richard. Wow.
- 9:23Speaker 4: Just even thinking about him, his influence on me makes
- 9:26Speaker 4: me wow. Yeah, honest, what you just said is true.
- 9:31Speaker 4: I mean until he said that to me Christmas time
- 9:33Speaker 4: of our sophomore year in high school, all I was
- 9:36Speaker 4: ever considering was p w Es God untruth.
- 9:40Speaker 3: You know then, because you know, when I bring guests
- 9:42Speaker 3: on the show, I like to share their stories because
- 9:44Speaker 3: the fact that this is a whole this part of
- 9:47Speaker 3: the interview is really about influencers.
- 9:49Speaker 1: It's really about people playing a role, you know, subtly.
- 9:53Speaker 3: You know, all he was doing was making a suggestion
- 9:55Speaker 3: open your mind, you know, no stereotype, don't don't under
- 9:59Speaker 3: educate your self because there are opportunities out there that
- 10:02Speaker 3: they say this is where you should go.
- 10:04Speaker 1: Not necessarily that's true.
- 10:06Speaker 3: Options are available if you show curiosity, if you show research.
- 10:10Speaker 3: And that's what led you to more House, which was
- 10:13Speaker 3: an HBCU where all of us school not saying anything
- 10:16Speaker 3: negaive about Georgia Tech. Can I say anything neggara about
- 10:18Speaker 3: University of Georgia. I went to the University of Houston,
- 10:21Speaker 3: but I did consider going to Southern University in Baton Rouge.
- 10:24Speaker 3: I remember I went down there doing the uh, you know,
- 10:28Speaker 3: ramp up weeks to school. And the only reason I
- 10:31Speaker 3: didn't go because it reminded me of my high school.
- 10:33Speaker 3: The colors were blue and gold, the mascot was Jaguar.
- 10:36Speaker 3: That was my high school. And I say, and that
- 10:38Speaker 3: so that that that's that's what I'm not going to
- 10:40Speaker 3: experience that again. And that's why I wind up going
- 10:43Speaker 3: to the Universe Houston. That's a whole nother story. But
- 10:45Speaker 3: when I look at you, a guy who has been
- 10:48Speaker 3: has been influenced by educators, has been influenced by individuals
- 10:52Speaker 3: who have been used academics to be successful. That allows
- 10:57Speaker 3: you to say I'm an owner store and not even blink.
- 11:02Speaker 3: How did that come about?
- 11:04Speaker 4: I'll be very honest with you, Rashaan. Since a very
- 11:07Speaker 4: early age, I've always known I wanted to own my
- 11:10Speaker 4: own business. Wasn't exactly sure what I knew. I always
- 11:14Speaker 4: wanted to own my own business. I've always been interested
- 11:19Speaker 4: in franchises over the years. So I can remember going
- 11:22Speaker 4: back to even being an undergrad my early twenties, going
- 11:26Speaker 4: to the bookstore, picking up Ink magazine and other similar
- 11:29Speaker 4: type magazines and looking and seeing, you know, who are
- 11:33Speaker 4: the top fifty of the top one hundred, top five,
- 11:35Speaker 4: you know, the hottest new companies that were around at
- 11:39Speaker 4: the time. So I just always knew I want to
- 11:42Speaker 4: have a business. I've always been interested in towards franchises
- 11:45Speaker 4: on ask me why, just something I've always been interested in.
- 11:49Speaker 4: And so as a result of that, that curiosity never
- 11:51Speaker 4: has gone away. So started working in my field when
- 11:55Speaker 4: I was about twenty two, and even to this day
- 11:59Speaker 4: I still do some it consulting. But that really is
- 12:03Speaker 4: what led me to where I am, and back in
- 12:06Speaker 4: twenty twenty, really when COVID first started. I was working
- 12:12Speaker 4: for a corporate job up in Alfaretta here in Atlanta
- 12:16Speaker 4: then twenty twenty one, rows around and my project, my
- 12:20Speaker 4: contract at the time, so I do a lot of
- 12:21Speaker 4: contract work. Came to an end that may, and so
- 12:25Speaker 4: here I am at home and seeking another job and
- 12:31Speaker 4: also was doing some IT training on my own. But
- 12:34Speaker 4: at that time I start pursuing what I always knew
- 12:36Speaker 4: I wanted to do a business. But interestingly enough, as
- 12:41Speaker 4: I'm looking at researching companies, the very thing that I do,
- 12:45Speaker 4: it technology computers, was the furthest thing from my mind.
- 12:49Speaker 4: I'm looking at jog at stores, I'm looking at all
- 12:53Speaker 4: types of other businesses other than the very thing I do,
- 12:56Speaker 4: not because I didn't want to. I was afraiding thing.
- 13:00Speaker 4: I was just kind of looking at it'storing my options
- 13:02Speaker 4: and other things because I myself think I'm a self
- 13:05Speaker 4: proclaimed foodie. I love no food, eating out, the dying experience.
- 13:09Speaker 4: So I was looking everything. But then my research led
- 13:13Speaker 4: me to my now owned store experiments for franchise, and
- 13:17Speaker 4: my research and that like wow. This company is founded
- 13:22Speaker 4: in the South Florida. It was founded up on Apple
- 13:25Speaker 4: products back in twenty four.
- 13:28Speaker 1: Do you use Apple products?
- 13:30Speaker 4: I do? I do? And so I sat there and
- 13:36Speaker 4: thought it. I went, wait a minute. I was like,
- 13:38Speaker 4: you know, when you think about it, Apple is a
- 13:41Speaker 4: very niche market. Apple's a very niche market. So much
- 13:46Speaker 4: so just up to date right now, we just went
- 13:49Speaker 4: to our iPhone users. This one point eighty five billion
- 13:55Speaker 4: b billion iPhone users in the world.
- 14:01Speaker 1: Okay, so yeah, to repeat that, put that b on there,
- 14:07Speaker 1: billion billions.
- 14:10Speaker 4: We're just about iPhones. We're not talking about their other products.
- 14:12Speaker 1: Wow.
- 14:13Speaker 3: Hey, Tomas, know that idea because I want to go
- 14:15Speaker 3: to break to cut your story short. If you hear
- 14:18Speaker 3: his story. His story is about uh, not be his stereotype.
- 14:22Speaker 3: His story is about influencers. His story is about research.
- 14:26Speaker 3: His story is also about not thinking you are qualified
- 14:31Speaker 3: to go over here, but realize that your qualities over here.
- 14:34Speaker 3: You know your strength, go to your strengths instead of
- 14:36Speaker 3: your something you might like to do. What you might
- 14:39Speaker 3: like to do might not learn lead you in the
- 14:41Speaker 3: right direction long term, but your strength can hold you there.
- 14:44Speaker 1: When you fall down, it can pick you up.
- 14:45Speaker 3: We're right back with more of my interview with Thomas
- 14:48Speaker 3: Barnes on money making conversations Masterclass.
- 14:56Speaker 5: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
- 15:00Speaker 5: with Rashawn McDonald.
- 15:01Speaker 1: HBCUs represent Black excellence.
- 15:04Speaker 6: If you attend or are an alumnus of an HBCU,
- 15:07Speaker 6: we want to hear about your story. The My HBCU
- 15:11Speaker 6: Story Digital Library will allow current HBCU students and alumni
- 15:15Speaker 6: to share their stories. More information is available at HBCU
- 15:19Speaker 6: College day dot com. You can upload a photo.
- 15:22Speaker 1: The photo can.
- 15:23Speaker 6: Be recent or from when you attended your HBCU. More
- 15:26Speaker 6: information is available at HBCU College day dot com.
- 15:31Speaker 5: Now let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashawn McDonald.
- 15:37Speaker 1: I'm talking to Thomas Barnes.
- 15:38Speaker 3: He did not let COVID a stereotype and stop him
- 15:41Speaker 3: from pursuing his dream. Thomas owns a spiramacs as a franchise,
- 15:45Speaker 3: a complete retail computer store where they specialize in sales,
- 15:49Speaker 3: service and support of all things apples. And as we
- 15:52Speaker 3: were going to the break, he was talking about one
- 15:55Speaker 3: point eight billion phones and that's just one portion of
- 16:00Speaker 3: the old industry. What really made you believe that there's
- 16:03Speaker 3: a franchise and what are the advantages of going into
- 16:07Speaker 3: business with a franchise.
- 16:09Speaker 4: So great question. So for starters, I just always been
- 16:14Speaker 4: a firm believer anything that's quote unquote subscription base is
- 16:17Speaker 4: gonna make money or to support or supporting services around it.
- 16:20Speaker 4: You're going to make money. Why do I say that? Simple?
- 16:24Speaker 4: You have if you have any at the home, if
- 16:26Speaker 4: you have cable a home, that subscription base. So whether
- 16:29Speaker 4: you use that service or not, you don't watch any TV,
- 16:32Speaker 4: if you got comcasts, you're gonna pay that bill every month.
- 16:34Speaker 4: You have a cell phone, whether you use that phone
- 16:36Speaker 4: or not, you're gonna you're gonna pay that bill every month.
- 16:39Speaker 4: You have a lot of us have gim memberships, and
- 16:41Speaker 4: then since January this year, guess what, you're still paying
- 16:45Speaker 4: that monthly membership. So when I think about technology and
- 16:49Speaker 4: you look at iPhones, anything revolving around that, people going
- 16:52Speaker 4: to always need a phone repair. You don't need your
- 16:55Speaker 4: battery replace. You're gonna need the grass, the glass on
- 16:59Speaker 4: your phone own replace. You're gonna buy a laptop, the
- 17:02Speaker 4: battery's gonna have to replace. You're gonna always need technology.
- 17:06Speaker 4: I never forget my freshman year of our college at Morehouse,
- 17:10Speaker 4: Tony Brown, the journalist. I remember him coming to visit Morehouse,
- 17:14Speaker 4: and he made a statement that I to this day
- 17:17Speaker 4: I believe it is so true. And he just talked
- 17:18Speaker 4: about technology and computers, how that it was the one
- 17:22Speaker 4: thing that leveled the playing ground because you look at
- 17:26Speaker 4: so many things, we are always behind and we're lacking.
- 17:29Speaker 4: We don't get these things first. When you talk about education,
- 17:32Speaker 4: you talk about technology. Computers have changed the world. You know,
- 17:37Speaker 4: you look fast forward to today, you talking about artificial
- 17:40Speaker 4: and artificial intelligence AI. So computers they run the world.
- 17:46Speaker 4: So you talk about technology, That's just something I've always
- 17:49Speaker 4: been drawn to. And as a result, I said, you know,
- 17:51Speaker 4: subscription based services or any supporting services ancillary services around that,
- 17:57Speaker 4: You're gonna need those items. You're gonna need that service.
- 18:00Speaker 4: So hence, you know what I said, Apple is a
- 18:02Speaker 4: niche product. People love that Apple products.
- 18:05Speaker 3: Let mess this question right quick, Thomas about Apple just
- 18:07Speaker 3: a june because my daughter she uses an Apple phone.
- 18:10Speaker 1: I'm an Android guy, I'm an androider. Okay. My wife
- 18:14Speaker 1: she got Android and a Apple.
- 18:15Speaker 4: Okay, that's that's I have one to be.
- 18:20Speaker 3: Why do you need two phones? You just tell me.
- 18:22Speaker 3: She just looked the other way. Just look the other way.
- 18:24Speaker 3: Respect and so so, But is there age group that
- 18:29Speaker 3: they may favor a particular Apple. Is that a younger
- 18:33Speaker 3: group or much more or I get that feeling that
- 18:35Speaker 3: is the case.
- 18:36Speaker 1: Can you help me out with that?
- 18:38Speaker 4: Yes and no. I remember a good friend of mine
- 18:41Speaker 4: at long saying to me, when I was first pursuing
- 18:44Speaker 4: this business, and you said, here's a alements of Clark.
- 18:47Speaker 4: I remember him saying to me, He's like, gee. He
- 18:49Speaker 4: was like, man, if you were in high school, if
- 18:51Speaker 4: you're a teenager, you're a young adult. He was like,
- 18:53Speaker 4: you don't have a phone, and you're not cool. You're
- 18:56Speaker 4: not cool. On the flip side of that, I can
- 18:59Speaker 4: tell you based upon the users I see each and
- 19:03Speaker 4: every day. My customer base range is from fifteen to
- 19:06Speaker 4: eighty five. I'm not exaggerating. I would say the majority
- 19:10Speaker 4: of them are probably between that twenty to fifty group.
- 19:16Speaker 4: I do have a fair amount of people that are
- 19:18Speaker 4: sixty sixty five plus or singers if you will, that
- 19:22Speaker 4: use iPhones because you know, they have come to use
- 19:26Speaker 4: Apple over time. I've had some customers come in and
- 19:30Speaker 4: have given me computers that they used to use upon
- 19:34Speaker 4: a time they just simply won't recycle. I have a
- 19:36Speaker 4: laptop sitting at my store right now is one of
- 19:38Speaker 4: the very first Apple products. Product probably came out Circle
- 19:41Speaker 4: nineteen eighty four. So, you know, you talk about people
- 19:45Speaker 4: who have gone up with technology, Apple was it way
- 19:49Speaker 4: back when? You know, when Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
- 19:54Speaker 4: or competing against each other, if you will, they're competing
- 19:57Speaker 4: against you know, each other in a different space. But
- 20:00Speaker 4: Apple again, one point five billion iPhone users, You're talking
- 20:05Speaker 4: about a product that's not going anywhere anytime soon. People
- 20:09Speaker 4: are gonna always need their their product, service or looking
- 20:13Speaker 4: to buy the next new things.
- 20:16Speaker 3: Really interesting when you said that, you brought up Steve Jobs,
- 20:18Speaker 3: you brought up Bill Gates, You can bring up the US,
- 20:21Speaker 3: You can bring up uh, the owner of Facebook, Zucker
- 20:27Speaker 3: You know you know that that's really that really tells
- 20:31Speaker 3: you how technology has made these guys superstars. Because you
- 20:35Speaker 3: can't tell me who runs four. You can't tell me
- 20:38Speaker 3: who runs a Hunter. You know, you can't tell me
- 20:40Speaker 3: runs Ge. You can't tell me who runs Comcast. But
- 20:43Speaker 3: in that world and that social media world, these guys
- 20:47Speaker 3: are stars and you say their name and the average
- 20:49Speaker 3: person knows who they are or who they were, And
- 20:53Speaker 3: that really such such a tone for how technology has created.
- 20:58Speaker 3: Like you said, that leveling plan field, leveling the plan field.
- 21:01Speaker 3: But I think when I when I talk about your business,
- 21:03Speaker 3: where's your business located? And what exactly do you do
- 21:06Speaker 3: at Experiment?
- 21:08Speaker 4: A great question. Thank you for that question. We're located
- 21:10Speaker 4: at fifty nine twenty five nine two zero Roswell Road,
- 21:14Speaker 4: Sweet Bears, some Boy one five, right outside of the perimeter.
- 21:18Speaker 4: If you're going two eighty five north going towards perimeter,
- 21:20Speaker 4: mall get off, take a left. We're in the park
- 21:23Speaker 4: side shopping Plaffa, directly across from Loads and Chick fil A.
- 21:26Speaker 4: We're not even two minutes off the expressway again.
- 21:30Speaker 1: Landmarks, Lows and Chick fl A.
- 21:34Speaker 4: We're directly crosses on the other side of the street. There.
- 21:38Speaker 4: We're open ten to five money through Saturday. And what
- 21:40Speaker 4: do we do, Like I said, as you said earlier,
- 21:42Speaker 4: we do sales, service, repair, all things Apple. Whether you're
- 21:46Speaker 4: trying to buy a new computer, buy a computer, laptop, desktop,
- 21:49Speaker 4: buy iPads, get one fixed upgrade of computers. If you
- 21:54Speaker 4: think you may possibly have malware, your computer is slow,
- 21:57Speaker 4: you need to do hard drives. You run out of
- 21:59Speaker 4: this space. All of those services. So we offer plethora
- 22:03Speaker 4: of services from A to Z. I always tell people
- 22:05Speaker 4: it's not much that we don't do. When it comes
- 22:07Speaker 4: to Apple products. Sometimes we ask so we are authorized
- 22:11Speaker 4: Apple repair store. Actually we are not quote unquote an
- 22:14Speaker 4: Apple repair store, which it works to I advantage as
- 22:17Speaker 4: well as you the consumer, and reason being because we
- 22:20Speaker 4: don't necessarily have to operate up front of the Apple guideline.
- 22:23Speaker 4: Go to that. If you go to an Apple store
- 22:25Speaker 4: and you say you have a twenty eighteen laptop and
- 22:28Speaker 4: you're trying to get it upgraded, more than likely they're
- 22:31Speaker 4: going to tell you your computer is too old. You come
- 22:33Speaker 4: to us, We're gonna work on it without a problem.
- 22:36Speaker 1: Okay, everything we service to do.
- 22:39Speaker 4: We also provide warranty. All repairs come with a ninety
- 22:41Speaker 4: day warranty. Everything that we sell in the store comes
- 22:44Speaker 4: with the twelfth month warity was a possible warranty extension.
- 22:47Speaker 4: That's phones, iPads or computers.
- 22:50Speaker 3: I never ask you this now I know you say
- 22:52Speaker 3: you're all Apple all day? Okay, what about Android? Can
- 22:55Speaker 3: the brother just stumble in there with Android and anything?
- 22:57Speaker 5: You?
- 22:58Speaker 4: Absolutely we can. As I mentioned earlier, I myself I
- 23:01Speaker 4: have both an Android and an iPhone. I have both
- 23:04Speaker 4: an Apple Mac computer and I have a Wonders based computer.
- 23:06Speaker 4: But if you want to come in and get a
- 23:08Speaker 4: Samsung device repaired, need to get the glass fixed on it,
- 23:11Speaker 4: or battery replaced. Or even if you have a Windows
- 23:14Speaker 4: computer that you got a virus on, you need to
- 23:16Speaker 4: get a check up on you.
- 23:17Speaker 1: Let's talk about that virus's let's talk about that.
- 23:19Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you somebody, I've hit some buttons and
- 23:22Speaker 3: then it comes back and tell you if you if
- 23:24Speaker 3: you shut down, your computer would never work. And I'm
- 23:27Speaker 3: sure I'm not the first person who's been frightened to
- 23:29Speaker 3: death by these threats, these computer threats.
- 23:34Speaker 1: What is real and what's not real? When you get
- 23:36Speaker 1: these threats, you have.
- 23:38Speaker 4: To be extremely careful in this day and age. With that,
- 23:41Speaker 4: I can assure you. Within the last six months, I've
- 23:44Speaker 4: probably had no less than five customers that have come
- 23:47Speaker 4: in and in some cases not just a potential threat,
- 23:51Speaker 4: but literally in it the're only cripped on something they
- 23:54Speaker 4: thought was legitimate and it wasn't. I can think of
- 23:57Speaker 4: an older couple, we'll mention their names, put a seventy
- 24:01Speaker 4: plus their accouncil compromise. They literally had to go to
- 24:04Speaker 4: the bank's close accounts, get brand new license everything. I
- 24:09Speaker 4: just had a young lady to come in probably about
- 24:11Speaker 4: two months ago, same thing, bank account compromised. So when
- 24:16Speaker 4: we talk about viruses, and we talk about not mailware
- 24:19Speaker 4: and threats, particularly something from a non trusted individual or user,
- 24:26Speaker 4: you have to be extremely careful. And sometimes some of
- 24:28Speaker 4: these texts and emails come across it look so legitimate.
- 24:33Speaker 4: You have to be extremely careful. I myself, and I'm
- 24:35Speaker 4: a technologist, about two months ago, received a text on
- 24:39Speaker 4: my phone and I was about to click on it,
- 24:43Speaker 4: and something told me not to it. I didn't. I
- 24:46Speaker 4: later called my bank and so forth and come to
- 24:49Speaker 4: find out what I was about to quick on what
- 24:52Speaker 4: not from my bank. And when I went in there
- 24:55Speaker 4: and showed things, the screenshot and everything, the gentleman at
- 24:58Speaker 4: my bank told me. He said, good thing that you
- 25:01Speaker 4: did not quick on it. He's like, that is no,
- 25:03Speaker 4: because everybody does this two factory authentication these days when
- 25:06Speaker 4: you're trying to verify stuff. He was like that, he said,
- 25:09Speaker 4: we do send two factory authentication text messages, but the
- 25:12Speaker 4: one I was about to quick on what's not legitimate,
- 25:16Speaker 4: So we talk about viruses. That is something we can
- 25:19Speaker 4: also ass issue with, either removing a virus or malware
- 25:23Speaker 4: or potentially getting software installed against those threats. That's another
- 25:27Speaker 4: service that we offer Expear Match and especially now back
- 25:31Speaker 4: to school we offer right now for a limited amount
- 25:34Speaker 4: of time, we can do free PC tune ups. You
- 25:37Speaker 4: come in and let us success it. We can tell
- 25:39Speaker 4: you what's going on with your computer and what services
- 25:42Speaker 4: need to be performed at a nominal costs. Have a
- 25:44Speaker 4: very confident, very confident and capable team that can assusue
- 25:48Speaker 4: with just with all matters. So whether I'm president in
- 25:51Speaker 4: the store, which usually I am there, or any of
- 25:53Speaker 4: my team members shout out to John and Trey can't
- 25:56Speaker 4: do what I do without them. We can take care
- 26:00Speaker 4: of you. That I can assure you we can take
- 26:02Speaker 4: care of you. And quite candidly, I think the reviews
- 26:06Speaker 4: that we get on our we have out there posted online,
- 26:09Speaker 4: they speak from themselves. Those aren't paid reviews anything like that.
- 26:13Speaker 4: Things that people have organically expressed to us in terms
- 26:17Speaker 4: of what they experience in terms of the services provided
- 26:20Speaker 4: at Experience Max and Family Springs again five nine two
- 26:23Speaker 4: zero Roswell road sweep B one one five seven seven
- 26:27Speaker 4: zero eight five seven across lows.
- 26:31Speaker 1: Got to put that in there, brother, got to put
- 26:32Speaker 1: that in there.
- 26:33Speaker 4: Cross.
- 26:34Speaker 3: Hey, Thomas Man, I want to thank you, brother. I'm
- 26:36Speaker 3: glad I finally got you back on the call. You
- 26:38Speaker 3: know you have been running around there man for a year,
- 26:41Speaker 3: because you tell your story and I like telling your strength.
- 26:44Speaker 3: Allowing you allow me to tell your story again, Thomas Boys.
- 26:49Speaker 4: Thank you, humble and grateful opportunity. I'm sure you and
- 26:51Speaker 4: I will talk again soon. Be blessed and have a
- 26:53Speaker 4: safe from president evening.
- 26:56Speaker 5: Let me tell you about the host of Money Making Conversations,
- 26:59Speaker 5: Rich McDonald. Rushan's a two time Emmy Award winner, three
- 27:03Speaker 5: time n DOUBLEACP Immage Award winner, sitcom writer, stand Up comic,
- 27:08Speaker 5: and former IBM executive. Thank you for joining us for
- 27:12Speaker 5: this edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations
- 27:17Speaker 5: Masterclass with Rushan McDonald is produced by thirty eight fifteen
- 27:21Speaker 5: Media Inc. More information about thirty eight to fifteen Media Inc.
- 27:25Speaker 5: Is available at thirty eight fifteen media dot com. And
- 27:29Speaker 5: always remember to lead with your gifts