Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by Marketing and
Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's given me
Speaker 1: advice on many occasions, and the occasion didn't notice. I'm
Speaker 1: not broke. You know. He'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do,
Speaker 1: it's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
Speaker 1: hear from my man, Rashan McDonald. Money Making Conversations. Here
Speaker 1: we go. Welcome to Money Making Conversation master Class. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Rashan McDonald. Welcome to the show. I think
Speaker 1: today is there's no perfect time to start following your dreams.
Speaker 1: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
Speaker 1: start living your own. People always talk about their purpose
Speaker 1: or gift. If you have a gift, lead with your
Speaker 1: gift and don't let your friends, family, or co workers
Speaker 1: stop you from planning or living your dreams. We were
Speaker 1: discussing all these things, like we do every week, how
Speaker 1: to overcome the odds to be successful. My guest is
Speaker 1: doctor Robert, He's the CEO. Of Conquer Worldwide. Conquer Worldwide
Speaker 1: is a consulting firm that offers business advisory services and
Speaker 1: financial consulting to individuals and corporations. Doctor Watkins has invested
Speaker 1: in over two hundred new business owners, assisted thousands of
Speaker 1: families to change the trajectory or their financial legacies, and
Speaker 1: has facilitated more than ten million in capital for startups.
Speaker 1: Please work for the Money Making Conversations Masterclass, Doctor Robert Watkins.
Speaker 1: How are you doing, sir? I'm wonderful, Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for having me. Now, where are you based at?
Speaker 1: Based in Orlando by way of Atlanta. Born in Detroit,
Speaker 1: but I have an office in Atlanta, but I'm living
Speaker 1: and living my best life right now in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you one thing very familiar with Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 1: I'd like to call that Mosquito contract. Okay, because you
Speaker 1: go down there, you drive every home seems to have
Speaker 1: a screen on their back porch. Yeah, well we're no
Speaker 1: different there. So, you know, Disney being down there, you
Speaker 1: know they've they've done a pretty good job controlling the
Speaker 1: critters down there. So but yeah, we need those screens
Speaker 1: to stay away from them. Schigles absolutely. Let's talk about you.
Speaker 1: Say that I ten year intro has invested it over
Speaker 1: two hundred new business owners, assisted thousands of families to
Speaker 1: change the financial trajectory of their legacies. Talk about your background. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I used to teach business that university actually here in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: And when people graduated from my NBA program in business
Speaker 1: that it was out of business school, they were called
Speaker 1: back two years later say doctor Wat, because I need money.
Speaker 1: And then I would go into churches and I would
Speaker 1: teach you in business and financial and all the people
Speaker 1: in the church it was like doctor wat, because I
Speaker 1: need money. And so we started a financial company to
Speaker 1: help students and to help people who have dreams and visions,
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, a dream without
Speaker 1: resources is a nightmare. And when people don't have the capital,
Speaker 1: they live in what I call holy frustration. And so
Speaker 1: we started a financial company about seventeen years ago, and
Speaker 1: we do about sixteen seventeen million dollars a year in
Speaker 1: lines of credit, term loans and lots of one hundred
Speaker 1: to three hundred thousand dollars. Most people don't need a
Speaker 1: million dollars, they just need maybe fifty or sixty seventy
Speaker 1: thousand dollars to get off the ground, and we have
Speaker 1: created probably many more than two hundred new real estate investors,
Speaker 1: probably somewhere around seven or eight hundred now of brand
Speaker 1: new real estate investors, and especially those they are in college.
Speaker 1: I say, you don't have to wait to graduate to
Speaker 1: invest in property to start building wealth. The earlier you
Speaker 1: do it, the better. But the access to capital, which
Speaker 1: all these other banks that were controlled by non minorities
Speaker 1: typically say no, eighty percent of the time, we say yes.
Speaker 1: And we have taken the frustrated entrepreneur and created wealth
Speaker 1: for those people in the hundreds. So we've been doing
Speaker 1: a really good job. I'm really proud of my team. Now,
Speaker 1: how does one get in touch with you? When you
Speaker 1: talk about these financial opportunities? There's always paperwork involved, and
Speaker 1: they usually when from the minority perspective, that's when they stop.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to do the paper nobody wants to do
Speaker 1: the background check it. But everybody wants to, Hey, I
Speaker 1: need to help give me some money. Right, So there's
Speaker 1: steps to this whole program. There's steps to people really
Speaker 1: engaging themselves with their financial assistance. Talk about that, well,
Speaker 1: the difference between us that we have our own underwriters.
Speaker 1: Underwriting is really where the magic happens in terms of
Speaker 1: getting to a yes. Most of us know about underwriting
Speaker 1: when we're buying a home. We're not building our life right,
Speaker 1: our dreams. So I have two underwriters that work for
Speaker 1: me full time, and they understand the plight of guys
Speaker 1: like me or a black man who grew up in Detroit,
Speaker 1: who are as supposed to die of a drug bust
Speaker 1: or some gang violence. But I'm certainly not supposed to
Speaker 1: be talking to one of the most successful men in
Speaker 1: the world right now about business. So but we have
Speaker 1: those two underwriters who understand the sensitivity of our backgrounds. Right,
Speaker 1: we may not have the best credit, we may not
Speaker 1: have the best experience when it comes to certain matters
Speaker 1: going to the next step. So we're taking all of
Speaker 1: those factors. When you control the writing, you pretty much
Speaker 1: can control the yeses. Yeah, I'm talking talking to doctor
Speaker 1: Robert Watkins. He's the CEO and founder or Conquer Worldwide.
Speaker 1: And it's important to talk about what we always talk about. Now.
Speaker 1: You hear about fintech, financial tech, we talk about greenwood,
Speaker 1: we talk about black banking, we talk about trying to
Speaker 1: create financial structures where we can walk in and see
Speaker 1: somebody like us who may be under more understanding, and
Speaker 1: allow us an opportunity to grow our dreams. And grow
Speaker 1: our dreams always needs financial assistance. Now, when I talk
Speaker 1: about your background, you know I did my research to
Speaker 1: military guy, Sir, how did that help you out as
Speaker 1: far as discipline? Did it provide discipline? Did you give
Speaker 1: your sense of direction? Absolutely? For I went in the army,
Speaker 1: I was seventeen years old and I graduated. I ran track,
Speaker 1: so I was really good in tracking. I remember coming
Speaker 1: home after graduating and my mom asked me, so, what
Speaker 1: are you going to do in life because I didn't
Speaker 1: want to go to school. And I said, well, I'm
Speaker 1: going to ride around and get high. She said, oh okay. Really,
Speaker 1: she didn't get mad at me or anything. I stayed
Speaker 1: out the one o'clock in the morning. I came home.
Speaker 1: She was she just said, oh you okay. I said,
Speaker 1: I was okay, And I got up That next morning
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, I'm really grown now, and it
Speaker 1: was I got up and I heard a guy. I
Speaker 1: told her I just wanted it around and get high.
Speaker 1: That was mine. That's all I wanted to do and
Speaker 1: get a double white trailer. That was my plan to success.
Speaker 1: That was it. And I got up that morning, sir,
Speaker 1: I just hadn't stop you say, so that was a
Speaker 1: that was a dream, my dream when I got out
Speaker 1: the high school to be a forklift driver. So I
Speaker 1: can't laugh to lye. Okay, and I'm taking some I
Speaker 1: got a job as a forklift driver. So when you
Speaker 1: say that, because that was my dream, and I and
Speaker 1: I and I have to slow that down because you know,
Speaker 1: our dreams could be so small. Yeah, if we just
Speaker 1: opened our opportunities that people meant to us to show
Speaker 1: you what we can be. And so you told your mom,
Speaker 1: I'm a ride around and get high and get a
Speaker 1: double white trailer. Cool. That was it, and she said,
Speaker 1: oh okay. I got up there. Next morning, I heard
Speaker 1: a man in my house, just my mom, just raising
Speaker 1: by herself. I went down stairs. First thing I saw
Speaker 1: in some shiny boots around the corner and I looked up.
Speaker 1: The guy was wearing a green uniform and he said,
Speaker 1: you're Robert Watkins. I'm in my underwear. I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: who are you? He said, welcome to the Army's son.
Speaker 1: My mom signed my butt away to the army and
Speaker 1: it saved my life. Now I was mad. I was scared,
Speaker 1: but I was a knucklehead and I've never really heard
Speaker 1: my voice in the first time. This is where I
Speaker 1: grew up, when private and basically training. Private Jackson called
Speaker 1: me to the front of the platoon and he said,
Speaker 1: called the men to attention. I said me. I said
Speaker 1: who am I? And he said, he says, soldier, do it?
Speaker 1: And I said, men attend, jun and those men snapped
Speaker 1: to attention. I heard my voice for the very first time.
Speaker 1: I really believe I grew up in that moment, that
Speaker 1: my voice mattered. Something clicked on the inside of me,
Speaker 1: and I really believe I went from being a boy
Speaker 1: to a man in that moment, and so I carried
Speaker 1: that responsibility and I realized that I was insecure about
Speaker 1: who I was. And so that discipline that learned in
Speaker 1: the service, caring about your fellow man, caring about caring,
Speaker 1: having a mission, having an assignment, and complaining what you started.
Speaker 1: It's made me the man I am today, which is
Speaker 1: really important because I always tell people about the setting
Speaker 1: goals and then completing the goal, because you can't go
Speaker 1: to the next goal unless you wrap up a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't understand that. They just have a lot
Speaker 1: of things happening in their lives, but not one of
Speaker 1: them is a completed goal. And so I call that
Speaker 1: busy frustration because you keep you're frustrated because you're not
Speaker 1: doing anything, but you got all these business that's taking
Speaker 1: up time for you to complete something. And so that's
Speaker 1: what you're saying. Goal orientation. That's what we're talking about now,
Speaker 1: and that's what drives successful business. Now. When you did
Speaker 1: go to college and then you became a fraternity demand, yeah,
Speaker 1: I did. I played Skapa Alpha Side and so I'm
Speaker 1: still active when I can. Well, you know the reason
Speaker 1: I bring that because I'm a re member Omega side
Speaker 1: Fire and so and I tell people, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying fraternity life for everybody, but it did. I
Speaker 1: was a guy just just wandering through college. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie to you. It took me seven years to graduate,
Speaker 1: and four and a half years of that I was
Speaker 1: still a freshman basically. And then when I played I
Speaker 1: really it gave me a sense of goals, It gave
Speaker 1: me dates. I always tell people operate on thirty ninety
Speaker 1: day and six month intervals in my life because the
Speaker 1: typical person operates on that thirty day window. They're always
Speaker 1: worried about the rent. I always worried about the rent,
Speaker 1: always worried about paying that bill the next thirty days.
Speaker 1: And so I had to get out of the thirty
Speaker 1: day cycle, which is typical for minority households, to the
Speaker 1: ninety day cycle. Then I went to the six month cycle,
Speaker 1: and then I project a year like you're supposed to
Speaker 1: do with a business. Because you can't project a year
Speaker 1: in advance, then you don't know if you can make money,
Speaker 1: which means you don't have a real plan. And so
Speaker 1: that's why you wanted to bring that up, because it's
Speaker 1: not saying whether you tie to your fraternity now and
Speaker 1: the active member. It's about a certain discipline you've had,
Speaker 1: back to back levels or discipline in your life. One
Speaker 1: with the military, the second worlds to fraternity. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And that's where I really learned about the bond right
Speaker 1: um and in brotherhood because I was the only child
Speaker 1: growing up, and so I had to get out of selfishness.
Speaker 1: You can't be selfish and help your brother. You got
Speaker 1: to get out of yourself and so that was a
Speaker 1: great experience for me there on the campus and pledge
Speaker 1: in camp out for sale, and I love the queues
Speaker 1: as well. You know you all in the Divine nine.
Speaker 1: I think that we're working more together ever before, and
Speaker 1: it's a wonderful thing. Absolutely. Let's let's get to why
Speaker 1: we brought you on the show. You know, it's about
Speaker 1: financial advice, business advice, and I did little research, you know,
Speaker 1: with to your social media and I saw these nice
Speaker 1: little things that I wanted to bring up. And let's
Speaker 1: talk about, you know, five reasons why small businesses and
Speaker 1: churches fail. Well, the number one thing is just a
Speaker 1: lack of leaderships, just incompetency. You're only going to go
Speaker 1: as far as the people around you, I would say,
Speaker 1: and you say this as well, that you can hang
Speaker 1: around nine broke people, guess will be the tenth one.
Speaker 1: And you go into a lot of small businesses and
Speaker 1: certainly not here. You have competent brothers here that are working,
Speaker 1: that are focused, that they're a technical they know your vision.
Speaker 1: I sense that. I mean, you go into some churches,
Speaker 1: black churches and white churches, but mostly the black churches
Speaker 1: where I'm hanging out in you know, the Bible talks
Speaker 1: about how we need faithful and able, not just faithful,
Speaker 1: but faithful and able. And so that's the number one thing,
Speaker 1: is that just having incompetency around a competent leader that
Speaker 1: is frustrating. Well, you know the thing about it because
Speaker 1: the reason I brought that up because I heard because
Speaker 1: rarely do you hear the word business in church in
Speaker 1: the same sentence. But really, a church is a business.
Speaker 1: It's organized, and a lot of people want to ignore that.
Speaker 1: But what also happens is it's also like in the business,
Speaker 1: you expect full time service, you pay somebody full time.
Speaker 1: In church, I don't know if that's the same mentality
Speaker 1: until you start treating it like a business. You know,
Speaker 1: some churches are when you go wow, you have to
Speaker 1: say wow, because you know they have fourty hour week
Speaker 1: people they do, they have film crews, they have they
Speaker 1: have leadership groups. Or it is a business. And so
Speaker 1: when you say five reasons why, that's one of them
Speaker 1: is leadership. What's the next another is this is lack
Speaker 1: of resources, a lack of money. Now, the reason why
Speaker 1: white churches excel much faster than white churches, it's simply
Speaker 1: because of education. Yes, sir, and it's because if you're
Speaker 1: hearing about wealth building products, stocks, investing, etc. And the
Speaker 1: only thing you're hearing in another church is just giving,
Speaker 1: give and give and giving. You know, typically when a
Speaker 1: black person guilts, typically genuinely speaking, they're giving out of
Speaker 1: a paycheck, So it really is sacrificial giving. When a
Speaker 1: white family guilts, an average, they're giving out of wealth,
Speaker 1: an overflow, they're giving out of a business, they're giving
Speaker 1: out a stock, a retirement fund, ira mutual fund, they're
Speaker 1: giving out of some type of wealth product. When you're
Speaker 1: giving out of a paycheck, it's like even I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give this church one hundred dollars, I'm gonna have lights
Speaker 1: right right, So we have to use words like sacrificial giving,
Speaker 1: and we can offering have to be thirty minutes long
Speaker 1: just to get people to give, because they're giving out
Speaker 1: of their life. So what we have to do is
Speaker 1: start educating our people about money. And you're the leader
Speaker 1: in this area, so that we can give more and
Speaker 1: do more and leave something that's lasting for this next generation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I'm speaking to doctor Robert Watkins, you know, Conquer
Speaker 1: Worldwide CEO and founder, when we talk about things like
Speaker 1: this because I'm not. That's the last question of asking that.
Speaker 1: Because I always tell people give away everything, then people don't.
Speaker 1: I got all the information. I don't need to follow up.
Speaker 1: I want people to research. I want people to google
Speaker 1: you and find out your brand and the vastness of it.
Speaker 1: Why are you on this show today? Well, I love people,
Speaker 1: and I love seeing people prosper. What breaks my heart
Speaker 1: is seeing poor people. Broke can be fixed. Poor as
Speaker 1: a mindset. And when I see people living below not
Speaker 1: the property line, but living below their potential. Living in
Speaker 1: potential is frustrating. And when I see guys on the street,
Speaker 1: or I see even in corporate America who are not happy,
Speaker 1: that breaks my heart because I believe that every man
Speaker 1: has a purpose, and I learned that as an orphan.
Speaker 1: I never met my birth more than my birth father
Speaker 1: before so I was born as a ward of the
Speaker 1: state of Michigan, and so I had to climb out
Speaker 1: of that situation and started with my mindset. And so
Speaker 1: when I see people who are living below their kingship
Speaker 1: or their queenship, it seems like I need to do something.
Speaker 1: That's why I write books, That's why I speak so passionately.
Speaker 1: I do business conferences, and I have a finance conference,
Speaker 1: I mean finance company, have a consulting company as well,
Speaker 1: So we just don't give the money. We said, well,
Speaker 1: here's one hundred thousand dollars, but let's turn this one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand into three hundred thousand into five hundred thousand
Speaker 1: into a million over the next five years. Right, But
Speaker 1: here's some c capital and we stay with them. We
Speaker 1: have a We started bedding breakfasts, tech companies, buy old companies,
Speaker 1: healthcare companies. It all started with just a dream. Like
Speaker 1: most people come in with bad credit and no money,
Speaker 1: no experience, but they have a vision and that thing
Speaker 1: is more valuable than anything that is that we can
Speaker 1: ever pay for. Let me ask you this, doctor rockers
Speaker 1: Um in the military, you said you found your voice. Okay,
Speaker 1: when did you find your vision? I got to a
Speaker 1: place when I was I was married and my first
Speaker 1: marriage failed, and it really is because I didn't know
Speaker 1: who I was and I got to a place I
Speaker 1: was living in holy frustration. I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I have to have a purpose. And I was selfish
Speaker 1: and that was it was all about me and my
Speaker 1: house and cars, and it's all about my brand. My company.
Speaker 1: What I was doing. You know, I was in Atlantic
Speaker 1: and I realized that it's not a good winning formula.
Speaker 1: And when I got to the place, I started losing things.
Speaker 1: Um an bankruptcy or anything on it, but I lost.
Speaker 1: I lost a couple of cars and house, got on
Speaker 1: the water, and found myself in divorce court. And I said,
Speaker 1: you know what, I created all of this. I'm taking
Speaker 1: responsibility for who I hurt. I'm taking responsibility for what
Speaker 1: I have not done. I'm taking my responsibility for being
Speaker 1: a man and who I am today. And that was
Speaker 1: the beginning of the shift for me. And I believe
Speaker 1: God gave me a vision of kings and priests, that
Speaker 1: we're kings and we're priests where the kings. We're kings
Speaker 1: in the marketplace, and we priests of our homes. And
Speaker 1: I started a nonprofit ministry members. Yeah, we have seventeen
Speaker 1: thousand men there and we have a big conference coming
Speaker 1: up in June ninth and tenth in Orlando. And we're
Speaker 1: kings and priests. We're kings in the marketplace, and the
Speaker 1: priest of our homes. I wasn't a good priest of
Speaker 1: my home. I was paying the bills, I was a
Speaker 1: good provider, but I wasn't a good priest. I wasn't imparting.
Speaker 1: And so this is a message that I'm trying to
Speaker 1: take the men, especially that we can be both at
Speaker 1: the same time. You can have money, but you'd better
Speaker 1: be sensitive and vulnerable and humble at home. Be a
Speaker 1: good father, and be a good husband. And nobody cares
Speaker 1: about your money. If you're mean all the time, no
Speaker 1: one cares about your money. If nobody liked you, hey,
Speaker 1: nobody wants to see you at home. And that was
Speaker 1: my life and so um I was able to turn
Speaker 1: things around. And and that's my that's my life mission
Speaker 1: and that of course and Alliss, that's your vision and
Speaker 1: it ties to the king and priest. And that's an event.
Speaker 1: Tell us more about that event. Yeah, So June ninth
Speaker 1: and tenth, it's a Friday and Saturday in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 1: We've got rondezvous was one of our headliners of new addition. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's going to be there. Poison. Well, he loves family,
Speaker 1: you know, he loves real estate, and uh he lives
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, I'm sure you know. And and uh
Speaker 1: so he loves what we're doing here and helping men.
Speaker 1: And we've got some other's special guests, but it's two
Speaker 1: days of just pure impartation. We got Luther Ragsdale that
Speaker 1: that's coming. He's bought soon and managed over two billion
Speaker 1: dollars in real estate before age forty. He's right here
Speaker 1: in Atlanta as well. He's going to be joining us
Speaker 1: talking about well and so. But the whole point is
Speaker 1: for us to be better men and better fathers, and
Speaker 1: better lovers to our wives, and better citizens and then
Speaker 1: playing it forward to the next generation. You know, when
Speaker 1: I when I think about this, relationships you and I
Speaker 1: are created because it's not the only information that we're sharing.
Speaker 1: But also I think when I set down none, I
Speaker 1: think I know why I wanted to create money making
Speaker 1: conversations with a great conversation. There's not so much limited
Speaker 1: to just people think that business owners or entrepreneurs or
Speaker 1: a certain type. You can be an entrepreneur, as a singer,
Speaker 1: as a dancer. You know, you know, there's there's so
Speaker 1: many levels and you have to because of the way,
Speaker 1: especially social media. I would say anybody who has a
Speaker 1: social media account, it really is an entrepreneur because they
Speaker 1: have the ability to market themselves and to recognize that
Speaker 1: they have a brand. Once you lock on and realize
Speaker 1: that social media is more than just posting food and
Speaker 1: posting pictures or you're going on vacation, then you have
Speaker 1: a business that you can produce and create. Now, when
Speaker 1: I've talked to a money guy, you're a money guy,
Speaker 1: you know you're already corrected. Were shot. I think I've
Speaker 1: done more than two hundred new business owners. We did
Speaker 1: include the real estate, it's probably about seven hundred, so
Speaker 1: we'd alway biggert that. So you facilitated financial legacies. Now
Speaker 1: I have to ask somebody like you about investments saves.
Speaker 1: What are we doing that? Because you hear and I'm
Speaker 1: not asking you to be an expert when you say this,
Speaker 1: but the magic word that you hear all the time,
Speaker 1: now it's crypto. Yeah, yeah, and listen the bad news
Speaker 1: and it's good news, and there's bad news. The bad
Speaker 1: news inflation is high and interest rates of high, got it.
Speaker 1: But the good news is CD rates for example, annuities
Speaker 1: are at all time fifteen year high. Yes, okay, So
Speaker 1: this just means so when you talk about cryptocurrency, and
Speaker 1: I will never advise someone to do something that I'm
Speaker 1: not doing. But when we talk about compounding interests, you
Speaker 1: can take five hundred dollars and put it into an
Speaker 1: annuity right now that is averaging three percent per week
Speaker 1: if you leave it in there for five years, reinvesting
Speaker 1: all of the money back into it, just automated. Just
Speaker 1: put the five hundred dollars in there, walk away from
Speaker 1: it from five years. At the end of five years,
Speaker 1: that is one million, eighty eight thousand dollars. You are
Speaker 1: now a liquid millionaire. That's true. We should have started
Speaker 1: this interview. You should to have my whole production crew everything.
Speaker 1: So you talk about five hundred dollars. Five hundred dollars, okay,
Speaker 1: five years now. I want people to fact check me
Speaker 1: because there's something called a mortgage a compound calculator. Go
Speaker 1: to Google Google compound calculator to follow me on this
Speaker 1: and your principal investment five hundred dollars and then put
Speaker 1: in three percent per week. That's what a lot of
Speaker 1: these annuities are paying. Now. That's big, okay, And at
Speaker 1: the end of five years it's one million, eighty eight
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. That is you putting the money back in
Speaker 1: never checking it, right, It's just you just automated, don't
Speaker 1: even don't even let the money come to you, just
Speaker 1: automate it. But it fact check me on that. And
Speaker 1: now you're a liquid millionaire. And I'm doing this, my
Speaker 1: wife is doing it. You know. I got my youngest daughter,
Speaker 1: she's a sophomore at Georgia Tech. Um, I got it
Speaker 1: annuity for her. So that's the good news in this
Speaker 1: economy that people don't want you to know. Right, And
Speaker 1: then that's why I have you on the show, because
Speaker 1: you know I'm not I won't ever say I'm gonna
Speaker 1: at all. I'm just a person who brings on information.
Speaker 1: But when I am, when you say something like that,
Speaker 1: I love the factor you said, we're a fact checked me,
Speaker 1: you know, because a lot of people won't allow themselves
Speaker 1: be fact checked because they won't and I want allow
Speaker 1: those people to be on the show. I added out
Speaker 1: because what I won't do on this show is create
Speaker 1: false hype and false opportunity. Right, That's why I don't
Speaker 1: want to say the names of what I'm invested in. Uh,
Speaker 1: just just you can google me and if you call
Speaker 1: my office, we'd be like to share that with you.
Speaker 1: But that office tell us how we can get into
Speaker 1: conquer worldwide dot com, conquer worldwide dot com, conker worldwide
Speaker 1: dot com, con queer worldwide dot com. Or we have
Speaker 1: a great staff. They can call us at eight eight
Speaker 1: eight five two six one eight, And of course I'm
Speaker 1: all over social media. Robert Jay Watkins. Cool Um. It
Speaker 1: was I was reading through some things with you and
Speaker 1: it was like, it's a title caught my eye, how
Speaker 1: to build a team with no money? You know the
Speaker 1: reason I brought up because all we've been talking about
Speaker 1: is money, and then I saw that title, said, how
Speaker 1: to build a team with no money? Now I want
Speaker 1: to I'm gonna just stop right there and allow you
Speaker 1: to start educate me on that philosophy. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: the new currency is relationships. That's why I believe God's
Speaker 1: pushed us together. That's the new currency. Right, the economy
Speaker 1: is gonna get worse, and so you're you're you're only
Speaker 1: gonna go as far as the people around you financially speaking.
Speaker 1: And so how do you build a new team? How
Speaker 1: do you build a team with no money? First of all,
Speaker 1: you gotta have a compelling vision. You gotta have something
Speaker 1: that people want to be a part of. Right, That's
Speaker 1: what the dot com Eric taught us is that you
Speaker 1: create something nobody heard of, uber eats or even zoom,
Speaker 1: you know, until the pandemic hit. And when this next
Speaker 1: recession comes, which is going to be really, really mild,
Speaker 1: We're going to see new inventions. It's gonna be a
Speaker 1: new Instagram that comes up. Somebody's working in a garage
Speaker 1: right now, they're going to come to the table. So
Speaker 1: number one to have a compelling vision. Then number two,
Speaker 1: what is your value pop position? Right? How are you
Speaker 1: adding value to people, to people's lives. You're making them
Speaker 1: healthier're making them wealthier're making them skinnier. What do you
Speaker 1: What are you doing? That has to be key and
Speaker 1: people want to be a part of that. Um you know.
Speaker 1: I love the what the Bible says about that that
Speaker 1: where there is no vision, the people perish, and so
Speaker 1: you have to be able to cash vision. So when
Speaker 1: I go online, I'm casting vision because people need vision.
Speaker 1: And then number three, have a funnel, a tool, a
Speaker 1: place where people can come and connect to and we
Speaker 1: just do those three things, you'll be on your way
Speaker 1: to having a really good smart team. And then college
Speaker 1: students are everywhere, they all need experience, so there's nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with even if you're a startup. Just did share
Speaker 1: your knowledge with a college student and let them be
Speaker 1: an intern. It shooting is if we wrap up, I'm
Speaker 1: speaking to doctor Robert Watkins, CEO and founder Conquer Worldwide.
Speaker 1: If you want to follow them up the information that
Speaker 1: the website wide dot com conqueror worldwide dot com. You
Speaker 1: also have a conference June ninth, June ninth and tenth
Speaker 1: in Orlando called Kings and Priests for men only from me.
Speaker 1: They go to Kingsinc. Dot com dot com. Okay, Um,
Speaker 1: fear stopped a lot of people, men and women of
Speaker 1: all color. Doubt stops him, Regret stops him. What what
Speaker 1: what of those things? Fear? Doubt, regret? How do you
Speaker 1: overcome and don't allow that to be? Um? Limit your dreams.
Speaker 1: But first of all, bring awareness that you are those
Speaker 1: things I know as men, weren's not we were not
Speaker 1: taught to say, man, I'm afraid. We were not taught
Speaker 1: to say, you know those I'm scared. But when you
Speaker 1: bring awareness to that, man, this is I mean the
Speaker 1: first you know building and a bought on an office building.
Speaker 1: It's like they're not gonna let me do this. I
Speaker 1: was so afraid. But once I understood the process, any
Speaker 1: minute I bought a house before, this is easy, right, Well,
Speaker 1: am I gonna get the money? We am I gonna
Speaker 1: get to twenty percent down payment? We am I gonna
Speaker 1: get the million dollars? Well? How many people do I know?
Speaker 1: I think I know about twenty five people. Can I
Speaker 1: get half of those people to believe in this this vision?
Speaker 1: And before you know it, I had the money and
Speaker 1: before you know what, I was at the closing table.
Speaker 1: But it took five years of fear. So I could
Speaker 1: have did this a long time ago. But I had
Speaker 1: to first of all realize, Man, I'm just scared, right right.
Speaker 1: And when a person comes to that realization, then the
Speaker 1: shift can happens and now his heart can say it's
Speaker 1: time to overcome this. Right, And the field failure is
Speaker 1: very real to a lot of people. So you got
Speaker 1: to put yourself out there and just know that if
Speaker 1: I fail, I fail. But I never really fail. I
Speaker 1: just learned an expensive lesson right for the next level.
Speaker 1: As we close here, I'm gonna ask this because everybody
Speaker 1: needs to hear this. Talking to doctor Robert Watkins, what
Speaker 1: is your fr E that's free strategy to help everyday
Speaker 1: people get out of debt. Well, well, number one, you know,
Speaker 1: stop making new debt. You know, that's that's number one.
Speaker 1: Number two, here's whatever. When you stop making new debt,
Speaker 1: what's that? It's that Netflix? Is that what? Buying a card?
Speaker 1: You shouldn't have Stop with the credit cards, you know how,
Speaker 1: you know, here's get over the fear and come up
Speaker 1: that credit card. That takes a lot of faith to
Speaker 1: say I'm cutting up this credit card. And when you
Speaker 1: do that, if you say I'm gonna have I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go on a credit card fast. I'm not gonna use
Speaker 1: any plastic, including my debit card. You mentioned about the
Speaker 1: thirty day, sixty day, ninety day for ninety days, I'm
Speaker 1: not using any plastic. I'm not using plastic cups. That's how.
Speaker 1: That's how cool and committed I am. But that's that's
Speaker 1: number one, um getting out of debt. Number two. If
Speaker 1: you have a credit card amount, say it's a thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: and you have a thousand dollars in the savings account,
Speaker 1: take the thousand dollars dollars savings account and pay off
Speaker 1: the credit card. Now, a lot of people don't like
Speaker 1: to do that. Because we like to see our money online.
Speaker 1: We like to look at it and stare at it.
Speaker 1: And I'm the same way. I like to go online
Speaker 1: and see you. Okay, I'm good, right, But the credit
Speaker 1: card is at fifteen seventeen percent interest rate. I'm making
Speaker 1: point five zero five percent interest on my thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in the same as a count. So take that out
Speaker 1: and pay off the credit card. A lot of us
Speaker 1: don't like to do that, but that would be on
Speaker 1: your way to becoming debt free. Well you know that
Speaker 1: we don't because we don't know. Let me just tell
Speaker 1: you that now we don't know. And it's really interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm one of those common sense guys, and it's always
Speaker 1: good to hear an expert tell you you're doing something,
Speaker 1: because I've been doing that probably last year, spending more
Speaker 1: cash than credit card. And you know, because I love
Speaker 1: have cash, you know, love having have pocket, right, But
Speaker 1: then I'm spending a credit card. But keep patting my pocket.
Speaker 1: We got made some money, but but never realized we shall,
Speaker 1: won't You go ahead when you go to Chick fil like,
Speaker 1: go ahead and pay cash. It's a big trick move
Speaker 1: going on right there, because a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: want to take cash no more. Well, you know what's
Speaker 1: happening in China and Russia. So they just came together.
Speaker 1: I won't go too deep into woods there, but they
Speaker 1: just partnered. And the first thing they did was devalue
Speaker 1: the dollar. Essentially, they trashed the dollar. They devalued it,
Speaker 1: and that was an economic move. That was a war
Speaker 1: on America. So in the country, dollars are still king.
Speaker 1: Outside of the country, it's not gonna be worth anything.
Speaker 1: So we gotta be a little bit smarter because they're
Speaker 1: already we're talking about digital economics and cryptocurrency. They're twenty
Speaker 1: years ahead of it. So when you so, how should
Speaker 1: I feel If I'm a guy trying to lure my debt,
Speaker 1: trying to get rid of my credit card debt, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to these restaurants in these places they go,
Speaker 1: we don't take cash. Should I be mad at that?
Speaker 1: Should I stop supporting these type of businesses, or just
Speaker 1: understand that's the world we're living in now, Well, that's
Speaker 1: the world that's becoming. And when it comes to back
Speaker 1: to credit for a second, is if I don't have
Speaker 1: the money in my account, I'm not pulling out my
Speaker 1: credit card, right, Okay, I took my daughter to Ruth
Speaker 1: Chris Chris Steakhouse the other day, and so the bill was,
Speaker 1: you know, a couple hundred dollars. So I pulled out
Speaker 1: my credit card because I have two hundred dollars an account. Right,
Speaker 1: But if I didn't have the two hundred dollars an account,
Speaker 1: I need to take credit McDonald's. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I have to be real about my situation. But
Speaker 1: there's coming a time in America. You can imagine this
Speaker 1: where the dollar will not be received. Everything is going
Speaker 1: to one digital currency. And the move that China and
Speaker 1: Russia made last Thursday was the beginning of that. Wow,
Speaker 1: we're speaking to you as that closed man. Fantastic. Give
Speaker 1: us an information about how to reach you and also
Speaker 1: information about the event that's going on in Orlando. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Conquer Worldwide Coin, queer worldwide dot com. You see all
Speaker 1: of our services. We got a great staff. We do financing,
Speaker 1: we do business advisement, we do something as planning. But
Speaker 1: we want to our taglinage to grow your small business
Speaker 1: into a big business. Call us eight hundred eight five
Speaker 1: two six one one eight and we're all over social
Speaker 1: media at Robert Jay Watkins. Thank you for coming on
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation. You're fantastic, appreciate it. Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more money Making Conversations. Masterclass.
Speaker 1: HBCUs represent Black Excellence. If you attend or are an
Speaker 1: alumnus of an HBCU, we want to hear about your story.
Speaker 1: The My HBCU Story digital Library will allow current HBCU
Speaker 1: students an alumni to share their stories. Registration is open
Speaker 1: to everyone. More information is available at HBCU college date
Speaker 1: dot com. Click my HBCU Story. Next, you can upload
Speaker 1: a photo. The photo can be recent or from when
Speaker 1: you attended your HBCU. Then share your academic or social
Speaker 1: experience at your HBCU and how attending an HBCU changed
Speaker 1: your life. We also want to hear stories if you
Speaker 1: plays a fraternity or sorority. The goal is to use
Speaker 1: your my HBCU story to promote and uplift the HPCU brand.
Speaker 1: Your HPCU prepared you for success and now we want
Speaker 1: everyone to read about your Black excellence. More information is
Speaker 1: available at HBCU collegday dot com. You can click my
Speaker 1: HBCU story to share your story. Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashan McDonald. My guest
Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversations Masterclass is Ryan Wilson is the
Speaker 1: co founder and CEO of The Gathering Spot, a private
Speaker 1: membership network that has served that serves as a hub
Speaker 1: for collaboration and business connections for African Americans and minority
Speaker 1: The Gathering Spot opened in Atlanta in twenty sixteen and
Speaker 1: has expanded nationally. We discussed that during our interview in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. The Gathering Spots is required by Greenwood, Inc.
Speaker 1: Creating the most significant fintech and community platform for Blacks
Speaker 1: and minorities where they combine collaborate business community of over
Speaker 1: one million people. Please walk into Money Making Conversations master Class,
Speaker 1: Ryan Wilson. How are you doing, Ryan, I'm doing well.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me tell us about the Gathering Spot
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. I had to start before that with a dream,
Speaker 1: with an idea, who pushed an idea and how did
Speaker 1: it happen? So it did start before twenty sixteen. I
Speaker 1: like to say that a lot of times folks think
Speaker 1: that businesses start overnight, but our process was truly at night.
Speaker 1: I started writing about TGS in twenty thirteen, and my
Speaker 1: plan growing up was to be an attorney. So I
Speaker 1: was in law school in DC and came up with
Speaker 1: the idea to really rethink or reimagine the private city
Speaker 1: club experience. Sent the idea to my college roommate and
Speaker 1: we worked for about three years before the first gathering
Speaker 1: spot opened in March of twenty sixteen. So it's been
Speaker 1: seven great years now. Nah, that sounded really simple, Ryan, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, ye y'all had a great idea and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden it happened because we knew it
Speaker 1: didn't happened because people pushed back on great ideas, especially
Speaker 1: when it's not normal, especially when it's not part of
Speaker 1: a community that that experience happens. What were the pushbacks
Speaker 1: and what were the obstacles and getting it opened? So
Speaker 1: I actually counted the obstacles in the early days, so
Speaker 1: I thought it was important to know just how many
Speaker 1: of them we were collecting. Our first round of funding
Speaker 1: required three million dollars of capital to be raised, and
Speaker 1: it was ninety seven people that told us no in
Speaker 1: a row before we got to our first yes. At
Speaker 1: the time was twenty two twenty three years old, and
Speaker 1: we just kept going. I mean, the thing that we
Speaker 1: told ourselves during that time period was that we really
Speaker 1: were seeing something that the market couldn't see, right, and
Speaker 1: that honestly there was a good thing in the nose
Speaker 1: that we were getting from folks because they were actually
Speaker 1: indications that we were probably heading actually in the right
Speaker 1: direction because they couldn't see what we were trying to accomplish.
Speaker 1: But ninety seven people before the first yes, and then
Speaker 1: we after that first yes, we're able to move a
Speaker 1: little bit faster and start the construction process of the
Speaker 1: first TGS. Now the first TGS Atlanta Georgia. Okay, because
Speaker 1: you were saying, you said DC earlier in your conversation,
Speaker 1: why Atlanta, Georgia was the gathering spot to open it
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia was the perfect location. I think Atlanta
Speaker 1: is one of the more important cities in the country
Speaker 1: right now. If you look at the colleges and universities,
Speaker 1: if you look at the small business community, if you
Speaker 1: look at the large companies that call Atlanta home, and
Speaker 1: then if you look at the creative community. I really
Speaker 1: think that what we export more than anything else in
Speaker 1: the city is our culture. So when I thought about
Speaker 1: a place that I would want to be where there
Speaker 1: would be different people connecting with one another. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be in a city where black folks were in
Speaker 1: leadership and leading the city. But also we're doing it
Speaker 1: from a variety of different industries. And so I decided
Speaker 1: to come back home. I'm from here, but this city's
Speaker 1: special Atlanta. Atlanta is a as an incredibly special place,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to be a part of the growth
Speaker 1: of what I thought the city was going to experience.
Speaker 1: And I have to agree. I know that Steve Harvey
Speaker 1: and I when we left New York and we was
Speaker 1: trying to figure out a place where we wanted to
Speaker 1: set up our business, our headquarters, And in two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven we moved to Atlanta because we felt that
Speaker 1: it was just the right environment, the right type of
Speaker 1: African Americans to do business with. It was uploidly mobile
Speaker 1: as far as coast of living, we felt that was
Speaker 1: in line right there. And also, but in since two
Speaker 1: thousands and something, you've seen how the especially with Tyler
Speaker 1: Perry moving his theater down here and the other the
Speaker 1: tremendous growth in the television and film and streaming industry,
Speaker 1: and here in twenty sixteen you said, you know you
Speaker 1: have to be you have to kind of be a
Speaker 1: visionary when you start setting up these ideas. Was that
Speaker 1: Did you see that, Bryan or you just it just
Speaker 1: happened and you're excited about being a part of being
Speaker 1: along for the ride. I mean, I saw, but more importantly,
Speaker 1: I felt it. Right when I came back home, I
Speaker 1: could I could feel the energy that was in the city.
Speaker 1: And this is a big city to a certain extent,
Speaker 1: that still feels like a small town, right. You can
Speaker 1: build relationships here. So I would come back to Atlanta
Speaker 1: and we would get more done in a couple of
Speaker 1: days in the city, and it felt like we were
Speaker 1: getting done anywhere else we were trying to raise money.
Speaker 1: So I felt that energy. I felt felt the fact
Speaker 1: that people were rooting for you here, that they're willing
Speaker 1: to help you, and that was a part of the culture.
Speaker 1: So it made all the sense in the world. And
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, again, I'm in my early twenties at
Speaker 1: this part of the journey, so I didn't have much
Speaker 1: to be afraid of, right. It was. It was exciting
Speaker 1: more than anything else, just to be able to have
Speaker 1: the chance to have a chance well the days ry.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Ride Wilson, the co founder, the CEO
Speaker 1: of the Gathering Spot of private membership network that serves
Speaker 1: as a hub and collaboration for business connections for African Americans.
Speaker 1: And are these now if it takes a lot of confidence,
Speaker 1: I won't say the word arrogance to say you a
Speaker 1: young guy and say I need three million dollars and
Speaker 1: being go in the room convincing people I need this
Speaker 1: amount of money. Now, what's your background to give you
Speaker 1: that level of confidence? And what type of presentation did
Speaker 1: you have to put together to convince people that this
Speaker 1: would work? So I had to benefit. My parents were entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: and so I grew up not wanting to start a
Speaker 1: business at all because I saw that life. I saw
Speaker 1: what my parents went through to to build and scale
Speaker 1: of the companies that they had started. The best advice
Speaker 1: that I could give folks that are that are staring
Speaker 1: at an idea that they have is just to know
Speaker 1: that it isn't random, right, There's something that's really leading
Speaker 1: you to the point of wanting to do whatever it
Speaker 1: is that you want to do. And it's important to
Speaker 1: be a good steward of what I saw is my assignment,
Speaker 1: my my my mission is to connect people. I'm a
Speaker 1: community builder, and look, I don't I don't get a
Speaker 1: chance to do life over from what I understand, and
Speaker 1: so I didn't want to have any regrets about not trying.
Speaker 1: And at that point, again, I'm in my twenties, So
Speaker 1: if it didn't work out, my mind was like, well,
Speaker 1: I'll go back and I'll have plenty of time to
Speaker 1: figure out a plan B. But I couldn't live with
Speaker 1: the what if. And so our plan was to just
Speaker 1: to give it a shot. And thankfully, thanks to a
Speaker 1: lot of really really good people that were helpful to us,
Speaker 1: we were able to get off the ground and running.
Speaker 1: Now it's it's so enlightening. I'm born and raised in Houston, Texas, Okay,
Speaker 1: lived in Chicago for five years, in New York for
Speaker 1: four years, so LA for fifteen years. And so I
Speaker 1: understand the culture of this country, especially from the black perspective,
Speaker 1: because I've lived it, I've experienced it. And so you've
Speaker 1: expanded this this environment of the gathering spot. Now, what
Speaker 1: are the other two locations or other locations that you
Speaker 1: have all the locations that you were considering and why
Speaker 1: so we we built a second TGS in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: I met my I went to school in DC for
Speaker 1: Underground and for law school. Built the third one in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, and then what we have something called connected Cities,
Speaker 1: where if you know anything about the gathering Spot, we
Speaker 1: program a lot. We do a lot of events. And
Speaker 1: so our mission during the pandemic, when we couldn't gather
Speaker 1: in the way that we traditionally, what we're doing was
Speaker 1: to start to build things that you could do maybe
Speaker 1: that weren't necessarily connected to the physical locations. So in
Speaker 1: five other cities New York, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, and Charlotte,
Speaker 1: we have what we call connected cities. And so there
Speaker 1: are thousands of members that are a part of those
Speaker 1: clubs in the cities that I reference, that don't have
Speaker 1: access to a physical space yet, but do have access
Speaker 1: to our programming into the community. The goal is to
Speaker 1: build physical locations and all of those markets plus something. Okay,
Speaker 1: let me do you want to slow it down a
Speaker 1: little bit? Ryan, You know, because I know what the
Speaker 1: gathering spot is. When I read this out, I say,
Speaker 1: a private membership network. It serves as a hub for
Speaker 1: collaboration and business connect actions for African Americans the minority.
Speaker 1: What does that mean and how does that membership register?
Speaker 1: So we have the best way to understand TGS is
Speaker 1: that we build physical spaces where everyone's welcome. But we
Speaker 1: are focused on making sure that black folks in particular
Speaker 1: feel celebrated at everything at every turn of what we do.
Speaker 1: Our clubs have events space, so we host a lot
Speaker 1: of different events throughout the year. We have a restaurant
Speaker 1: in bar space, and then we have workspace. The reason
Speaker 1: why people join, though, is because of the network, because
Speaker 1: of the community. So my job each and every day
Speaker 1: is to try to figure out how to introduce people
Speaker 1: that ordinarily would not have met one another. The youngest
Speaker 1: member is twenty one, the oldest member is now ninety one,
Speaker 1: and so my job is to no matter what you do,
Speaker 1: and if you go to a gathering spot, you'll see
Speaker 1: people wearing T shirts sitting next to people who are
Speaker 1: wearing suits, right, and my job is to try to
Speaker 1: figure out where is the common ground and where can
Speaker 1: we build a relationship, hopefully for business purposes or honestly
Speaker 1: for people just to meet others that they need to
Speaker 1: know socially. You know, it's really interesting. I'm talking to
Speaker 1: Ryan Wilson, and you know, I've been together to start
Speaker 1: four events. I've been togethering spots for meetings. It's a
Speaker 1: certain pride that you give young entrepreneurs. That's that's that's
Speaker 1: my biggest takeaway Ryan, is that when I meet young entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: they said, can you meet me at the gathering spot?
Speaker 1: You know, and and I meet It is at a table,
Speaker 1: you know, and the probably in the in the in
Speaker 1: the dining area. And you know, when you when you
Speaker 1: walk into the gathering spot, ladies and gentlemen, it's you met.
Speaker 1: It's an amazing experience because it's beautiful first of all,
Speaker 1: and you walk in and every step of the way
Speaker 1: you felt like you walk you walked into a world
Speaker 1: of professionalism. Every step of the way. Soon as you
Speaker 1: walk into the dining area, you know, everybody's everybody feel
Speaker 1: like they're motivated to do something unique for themselves and special.
Speaker 1: Like I guess you have to experience that to understand
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. Because when we walk this is
Speaker 1: not like walking into spaces. This is not like walking
Speaker 1: into we works where they do run out the offices
Speaker 1: and they do run out the desk and all that.
Speaker 1: This is the experience where you have people tied with
Speaker 1: the worried pride. Am I right? Then when I say that, Ryan, No,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. I mean that's our goal, right If
Speaker 1: I if I to use another reference point, I mean
Speaker 1: different age group here. But if you think about the
Speaker 1: experience that a lot of folks have when they walked
Speaker 1: into their high school cafeteria or the cafeteria at college,
Speaker 1: right where everybody was there. It was a place where
Speaker 1: that you could build relationships, you could work, you could
Speaker 1: hang out right, but it was family right, It felt
Speaker 1: it felt warm. That is what we are trying to
Speaker 1: make sure that the adults there are members of the club,
Speaker 1: have a similar experience. And so people are there for
Speaker 1: different reasons. Again, some folks are there to get some
Speaker 1: work done. Others are there to meet people and try
Speaker 1: to get business deals done. But all in all, we
Speaker 1: want it to be a welcoming and warm experience that
Speaker 1: you know was built for you. We have this idea
Speaker 1: a lot of times that the spaces that we moved
Speaker 1: in and out of were built for everybody. Well, look,
Speaker 1: my belief is that somebody was thinking about somebody when
Speaker 1: they built whatever it is that you're you're using. I
Speaker 1: was thinking about black folks when we were building the
Speaker 1: gathering spot, and so the music that you hear, the
Speaker 1: food that you'll eat, and the people that you'll see
Speaker 1: all go back to this very simple idea if we
Speaker 1: need to have a place where we feel comfortable. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I you know, this is the fun point
Speaker 1: by talking to Ryan. You know he talks about you know,
Speaker 1: I was in about early twenties, you know, gathering spots.
Speaker 1: Only seven years of age now, so it means he's
Speaker 1: nice in his early thirties. Okay, you know, I love
Speaker 1: talking to him because you know, I'm saw him like
Speaker 1: a couple of years. It was a big event that
Speaker 1: I tended hosted over the gathering Spot because it's also
Speaker 1: by community and I want to people emphasized that. That's
Speaker 1: why I've been to like several events there. I think
Speaker 1: the uh the African American Museum had an event there
Speaker 1: where they had the fundraiser there. I went to the
Speaker 1: event for that. Of course, recently was the Big Brother's
Speaker 1: Big Sister event where they were it was engaging black
Speaker 1: men to come to the gathering Spot and be mentors
Speaker 1: for for young young people. And this is the type
Speaker 1: of a home that you've created. Um, what makes you
Speaker 1: so proud about it? Ryan, Well, I'm grateful more than anything.
Speaker 1: Right when we started this journey, I had no idea
Speaker 1: that anybody was going to come into the first gatherings
Speaker 1: about twenty five thousand word feet, right, and so that's
Speaker 1: a lot of space to fill up on any given day.
Speaker 1: So to know that from the President of the United
Speaker 1: States to your favorite artists, uh, to the many many
Speaker 1: figures and leaders throughout including yourself that have spent time
Speaker 1: at TGS and hosted programs, talked about the important issues
Speaker 1: that are happening in our community. I'm just grateful that
Speaker 1: folks saw what we were, this idea that we had
Speaker 1: in our head, and have invested their their their time
Speaker 1: with us. More memories to count. I mean the club
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, we tried to look at it the other day.
Speaker 1: I think we're like ten thousand events in h and
Speaker 1: so it's it's humbling, it's amazing talking to Royan will
Speaker 1: soon be right back with more money making conversations. Mass
Speaker 1: plots don't go anywhere. It's about it's about changing lives
Speaker 1: and that's what I've you know, I'm gonna call him
Speaker 1: a young man, you know, because he started his idea
Speaker 1: and it's it's it's important to realize that if you
Speaker 1: have a dream, don't feel that you're too young or
Speaker 1: too old to start pursuing it. And he started it
Speaker 1: in his early twenties and he's still living it now
Speaker 1: in his early thirties. So the future is bright and
Speaker 1: future is strong. And now he's expanded. We were right
Speaker 1: back with more money Making Conversations Masterclass with the incredibly
Speaker 1: gifted and talented founder and CEO, co founder and CEO
Speaker 1: of The Other Spot, Ryan Wilson. Right back. Please don't
Speaker 1: go anywhere. We'll be right back with more money Making
Speaker 1: Conversations Masterclass. You are now tuned into the Money Making
Speaker 1: Conversations Minute of Inspiration with Rashaan McDonald. Following Tameron Hall's
Speaker 1: bittersweet exit from NBC Today Show more than two years ago,
Speaker 1: a lot of people wrote her off and some said
Speaker 1: it was a mistake to leave the show. Well, Tameron
Speaker 1: Hall has overcome the odds and now hosts one of
Speaker 1: the hottest shows in daytime talk. Most important to me
Speaker 1: and for me is that folks who are at home
Speaker 1: launching know what they're getting. They're getting a real conversation.
Speaker 1: I hope they're getting smart questions. We are looking for
Speaker 1: substantive ways to make our lives better as people, as parents.
Speaker 1: The human experience is a common thread. At the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I don't want someone keeping me from
Speaker 1: my dream. I don't want someone you know, standing in
Speaker 1: my way. I want inspiration. I want to be a
Speaker 1: better wife, I want to be a better daughter, I
Speaker 1: want to be a better mom. And so that's a
Speaker 1: big part of what we talk about on our show.
Speaker 1: If you want to hear this full interview with Tamarin Hall,
Speaker 1: visit Moneymaking Conversation dot com. Keep winning. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by ris Sean McDonald.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Speaking to Ryan Wilson,
Speaker 1: the co founding CEO of the Gathering Spot. He's on
Speaker 1: the show for some other things. They're American, I mean
Speaker 1: the African the Atlanta Business League has celebrating the nintieth anniversary.
Speaker 1: Before we get into that more detail, I just want
Speaker 1: to wrap my head around one more thing. The fintech,
Speaker 1: which is financial tech and the community platforms that are
Speaker 1: available at the gathering spot. When you're here, the word
Speaker 1: fintech a lot being thrown around. What exactly is that
Speaker 1: and how you guys being one of the lynch pins
Speaker 1: or one of the forward thinking platforms for that. So
Speaker 1: fintech broadly speaks to this idea that there are a
Speaker 1: new set of companies that are trying to provide financial
Speaker 1: services or financial solutions to people. Our particular solution we
Speaker 1: required our company called Greenwood, and the goal there is
Speaker 1: to bank our community at scale, providing a lot of
Speaker 1: different products, so from savings and credit to investing you
Speaker 1: will see the company over time really speaks to the
Speaker 1: entire financial health of our community. Why that's important is
Speaker 1: that at TGS I mentioned all the programs that we've
Speaker 1: been hosting for our entire history. A lot of those
Speaker 1: conversations get back to us talking about money, right, but
Speaker 1: we realized that we didn't actually have the tool. We
Speaker 1: could talk about it right, but we didn't have the
Speaker 1: ability to bank or or help our community actually gain
Speaker 1: access to the tools that we were speaking about. So
Speaker 1: what the two companies coming together helps to accomplish is
Speaker 1: that goal. We can talk about it and host our
Speaker 1: programs and meet one another, but then we also get
Speaker 1: connected to the right resources. Um that that again at
Speaker 1: scale becomes a really powerful thing. You know when I
Speaker 1: when I when I bring interviews onto the show and
Speaker 1: I it was a couple of things that happened in
Speaker 1: my life, you know, like to like I said, Ryan,
Speaker 1: I was born in Houston, and then I moved to
Speaker 1: New York when I thought I was going to be
Speaker 1: the next Eddie Murphy doing my stand up comedy career,
Speaker 1: and it was just how how empowering that city was
Speaker 1: emotionally for me. And when I moved to LA because
Speaker 1: you know, you you kind of grow up and you
Speaker 1: really realize how much history has taught to you about
Speaker 1: New York. So when you get up there, you kind
Speaker 1: of like walking around going wow, that's wow, Wow, Brooklyn Bridge, Wild,
Speaker 1: Empire State Building. And then I went to LA. It
Speaker 1: was the same way you know, Muscle Beach and uh
Speaker 1: Walk of Fame in the Chinese Theater, And it's becoming
Speaker 1: the same way with the city of Atlanta. This is
Speaker 1: becoming a lot of landmarks, big events are constantly being
Speaker 1: held here. And when you talk about the Atlanta Business League,
Speaker 1: what is your relationship with them and what's the purpose
Speaker 1: of us discussing on the show to that. So I
Speaker 1: have the privilege of serving as the new chair of
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Business League, and it's important for everyone to
Speaker 1: know if you are a black owned business in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: you have been impacted by the work of the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Business League. This is our ninetieth year as an organization,
Speaker 1: and so my job is in that very rich history
Speaker 1: to continue the effort to advocate and advance the interests
Speaker 1: of black owned businesses in Atlanta specifically. So we've got
Speaker 1: a great, great organization and a great history, but also
Speaker 1: a great current membership that is again focused on the
Speaker 1: issues of the day. Now we talk about the Congress
Speaker 1: It's purpose. I lined up our target audience, key takeaways
Speaker 1: for the attendees. Talk about that because it sponsors Norfolk
Speaker 1: Southern w CRK, and Atlanta AJC, which is is a
Speaker 1: print publication is located in the Atlanta, George area. Those
Speaker 1: important sponsors are important. You gotta mention them, you gotta
Speaker 1: be able to say what they do and they serve
Speaker 1: their purpose. But what audience are you really trying to reach?
Speaker 1: Because right now everybody's laying off everybody. You know, you're
Speaker 1: you know, Disney laying off. You know, Google laid off
Speaker 1: twelve thousand people via email. They didn't even want to
Speaker 1: tell you personally. And so you know, Amazons laying off people.
Speaker 1: So when you talk entrepreneurship and then you talk about layoffs,
Speaker 1: where does where does the excitement happen and where's the enthusiam.
Speaker 1: Enthusiasm of the Atlanta Business League helps out the individual
Speaker 1: as well as the small businesses. Yeah, so everyone is welcome.
Speaker 1: Keep that, please keep that in mind, right, But our
Speaker 1: focus is everything connected to black owned businesses that are
Speaker 1: in Atlanta and the folks that are interested in partnering
Speaker 1: with them. So you will see some of the largest
Speaker 1: companies in town. I thank you for mentioning our sponsors,
Speaker 1: but you will see some of the larger organizations in
Speaker 1: town that are interested in doing business with some of
Speaker 1: the businesses that are The members of the League also
Speaker 1: present the Congress that's coming up. It is April eleventh,
Speaker 1: and it's all day. It's from to three o'clock. The
Speaker 1: goal of the this is our sixteenth annual Congress on
Speaker 1: the State of Black Business. Goal of this day is
Speaker 1: again to talk about the important issues that we're seeing
Speaker 1: what we will engage what's happening in the market broadly,
Speaker 1: but then also give very practical advice by way of
Speaker 1: of of a panel discussions about what black owned businesses
Speaker 1: in the city can be or should be thinking about
Speaker 1: as they continue to grow and scale their companies. You know,
Speaker 1: it's really interesting dude, because and I think you can
Speaker 1: agree with me, Like in twenty twenty, you know, the pandemic,
Speaker 1: but also the unfortunate murder of George Floyd in the
Speaker 1: state of Minnesota, and there was a huge push for diversity,
Speaker 1: equity inclusion. Well, I'm out the business just like you.
Speaker 1: It feels like that law for that push because politics
Speaker 1: are getting involved in it means that you know, people
Speaker 1: trying to say diversity is a bad word shouldn't be us.
Speaker 1: It's like a reverse racism in a sense. Now when
Speaker 1: you talk about black businesses, you know at one time
Speaker 1: they were you know, companies will pursuing us, pursuing our opportunities.
Speaker 1: It feels not with a different hustle speed. Now am
Speaker 1: I Am I wrong in saying that? Bryan? Are you
Speaker 1: seeing something differently than what I'm seeing? No, I'm not
Speaker 1: seeing seeing much different. Look one of my favorite quoteses,
Speaker 1: do you really want to win or look good losing?
Speaker 1: And I think, unfortunately a lot of times in the diversity,
Speaker 1: equity and inclusion space, it's not always about winning, right,
Speaker 1: it's about looking looking good losing. That is not in
Speaker 1: our interest, right, we actually have to it's it's in
Speaker 1: everybody's interests, no matter who you are, that black owned
Speaker 1: businesses grow in scale. We've got to continue to see yes,
Speaker 1: them be started, right, but also watch these companies get
Speaker 1: to meaningful scale. What that means are more employment opportunities
Speaker 1: for folks. That means better participation in our communities and
Speaker 1: the ability to be able to to spend in our community.
Speaker 1: So look, I do agree with you that we are
Speaker 1: entering a time period where it feels like, um, you know,
Speaker 1: we we we we came saw and conquered as it
Speaker 1: you know, as we needed to for black home businesses
Speaker 1: and our advocacy and support of them. Right, We're not
Speaker 1: there yet, And I mean the ninety ninety years of
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Business League tells you pretty quickly that we've
Speaker 1: had a lot to discuss for a long time, but
Speaker 1: we're not nowhere near the finish line. And it's important
Speaker 1: to continue to keep a spotlight on what is a
Speaker 1: very important issue. He is a leader, a natural leader,
Speaker 1: still a young man and uh he's a leader when
Speaker 1: I say that. Combined collaborating business community of over one
Speaker 1: million people. The CEO and co found of the gathering
Speaker 1: spot located in um like you said, Atlanta, d C
Speaker 1: and as well as Los Angeles physical location, as well
Speaker 1: as hotspots in places like Chicago in Houston. Again, thank
Speaker 1: you for coming on my show, Money Making Conversation Masterclass, Ryan.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you having let me tell you about the
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rushan McDonald. People always
Speaker 1: talk about their purpose or gifts. If you have a gift,
Speaker 1: lead with your gifts and don't let your friends, family,
Speaker 1: or co workers stop you from planning or living your dreams.
Speaker 1: The interviews and information on his show are for everybody.
Speaker 1: Don't let change scare you. He's here to educate you
Speaker 1: because it's time to put your dreams into action. The show,
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass interviews CEOs, small business owners, influencers,
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