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Speaker 1: Here amazing interviews with entrepreneurs, creatives, and thought leaders, people
Speaker 1: who are doing amazing things in the black community. Listen
Speaker 1: to The Black Market on my Heart radio, app, Apple
Speaker 1: Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome to Money
Speaker 1: Making Conversations. It's the show that she has the secrets
Speaker 1: of success experience firsthand by marketing and Brandon expert Rashan McDonald.
Speaker 1: I will know he's giving me advice to many occasions.
Speaker 1: In the case you didn't notice, I'm not broke, you
Speaker 1: know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision makers.
Speaker 1: It's what he likes to do. It's what he likes
Speaker 1: to share. Now it's time to hear from my man,
Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald money making Conversations. Here we come. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation. I am your host, Rashan McDonald. It's time,
Speaker 1: like I tell people every week, to stop reading other
Speaker 1: people's success stories and start writing your own. And I
Speaker 1: always tell people hear people talk about their gifts, they
Speaker 1: talk about their passion. If your gifts leave with him,
Speaker 1: and don't let your age friends family or cowork or
Speaker 1: stop you from planning or living your dreams. Interviews. I
Speaker 1: bring on the shows for you. It's celebrity, CEO, entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: and industry decision maker. My next guest is one of
Speaker 1: my favorites Man. He was on the show about a
Speaker 1: year and a half ago, Molly Music. He's a gospel
Speaker 1: artists first and foremost, or who will not be put
Speaker 1: in a box. He loves the freedom of creating amazing
Speaker 1: music no matter what the genre is, gospel, R and B,
Speaker 1: hip hop or rock, whatever he feels, that's his move.
Speaker 1: Molly Water Grammar this year for the song moving on
Speaker 1: his hit collaboration with Jonathan mcreynold's. He's nominated for three
Speaker 1: Stellar Awards this year. He's got it back on the
Speaker 1: road because COVID shut everybody down in twenty but he's
Speaker 1: getting back out there. Gotta make that check, gotta make
Speaker 1: that check. The things have started to open up across
Speaker 1: the US and we'll be announcing new music and new
Speaker 1: tour dates coming soon and I'll be the first to
Speaker 1: put them out there for my man, Please work with
Speaker 1: the money making conversations again, Molla Music, How you doing,
Speaker 1: Molly Wow McDonald how's it going. What an honor beautiful
Speaker 1: introduction to be back again. Ay, world, let's get it well.
Speaker 1: The thing about you that you know when we talked, man,
Speaker 1: it was almost because I have I come from a
Speaker 1: big family, Molly, you know, from Houston, Texas. I have
Speaker 1: a six sisters, two brothers, and I felt I was
Speaker 1: talking to my younger brother here. Man. You know because
Speaker 1: because you know you, you know you, you got that energy. Man,
Speaker 1: you you you still have unconquered territories that you want to,
Speaker 1: like I want to, want to want to make a
Speaker 1: difference in. But the more official thing is we always
Speaker 1: can get boxed in, especially we do R and B.
Speaker 1: People think all you should be doing R and B.
Speaker 1: You do country? What you what Black? What you're doing
Speaker 1: over in country? You should be over there. And so
Speaker 1: we've seen so many walls coming down in our era
Speaker 1: in this timeline. Are you feeling that's comfortable for what
Speaker 1: you're trying to do as well? I do feel that
Speaker 1: it's effective, but come a ble is not the words.
Speaker 1: It's good for what we want business to do, it's
Speaker 1: good for the spreading of our wings, but it's kind
Speaker 1: of like a racial conversation. You open up the doors
Speaker 1: to be heard out by a different race, and then
Speaker 1: it gets uncomfortable for just because you start bringing out
Speaker 1: different issues. I recently traveled to Nashville to do some
Speaker 1: songwriting with Chad lead Saying of the rock band Christian
Speaker 1: rock band Unspoken, and it was a challenge for me,
Speaker 1: especially coming from soul background gospel background, but I had
Speaker 1: to remember I have songs out like Gimme, Gimme Ready,
Speaker 1: aim impulses, songs that have rock feels for it. So man,
Speaker 1: the spreading and the falling of the genres, it's definitely good.
Speaker 1: I've been watching it happening hip hop and other genres
Speaker 1: for a long time, and I'm glad that it's finally
Speaker 1: made it to the gospel. Well, you're interesting, But it's
Speaker 1: about a beat, isn't it, Because when you're talking about
Speaker 1: you know, because it is like a one three or
Speaker 1: two four beat when you're talking about music, when you're
Speaker 1: talking about R and B beats and you're talking about
Speaker 1: we're talking about rock beach, especially because they can hang
Speaker 1: out those a lot longer. How does that you know?
Speaker 1: Because we all know that gospel is driven by emotion
Speaker 1: and and so and so you're emotionally driven guy, and
Speaker 1: then you're going to rock. A lot of times it's
Speaker 1: just driven by sound. So how do you blend the
Speaker 1: two to get the results that you want? Excellent question. Well,
Speaker 1: they bring me in normally as a lyricist, I write
Speaker 1: lyrics like the you know I mean comes only to
Speaker 1: still killing and destroyed. Come in with things like that,
Speaker 1: I said a Christian rock band. One thing about the
Speaker 1: genre gospel is it is sound. It doesn't necessarily have
Speaker 1: a sound anymore. Of course, you have the Mahellia Jackson.
Speaker 1: You know, it comes up. You know, you have the
Speaker 1: no you not. You know, a house of prayer and
Speaker 1: that's your house of prayer. You get what I'm saying. Town,
Speaker 1: you have Baptist music, UM worship music like hill song
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. If you notice, the music could
Speaker 1: be anything. Gospel and Christian has now solely based in
Speaker 1: genre around the content. As long as at some point
Speaker 1: you say that Jesus christis Lord, it could sound like
Speaker 1: any type of beat, right, you get what I mean?
Speaker 1: So our genre is mostly about the edification of God.
Speaker 1: But it is because we're just talking musing that Molly okay.
Speaker 1: You know, because of the fact that when you look
Speaker 1: at R and B, you know, like you started naming
Speaker 1: different artists that they lie themselves in the whole genre.
Speaker 1: Because because when you got the hip hop and rap,
Speaker 1: it just like tore it self away from R, it
Speaker 1: towards it. This this is not even RB. They don't
Speaker 1: even sing it okay, clearly not safe. And then when
Speaker 1: you get into R and B yet soul, you know
Speaker 1: you had had the deal. So all those different genres.
Speaker 1: So when when you start talking about gospel, I started realizing, man,
Speaker 1: there are many many layers. When you talk about the
Speaker 1: man Jackson, you talk about Kirk Franklin, you talk about you,
Speaker 1: you know, Donnie McClerkin. John Ki inquired, how did that?
Speaker 1: And that's from a creative standpoint, that's a challenge. Hum, yeah,
Speaker 1: it could be. But what I noticed while coming up
Speaker 1: in church is a lot of the creativity came out
Speaker 1: of one person um creatively. Like you might have had
Speaker 1: six people at Ricky Dill it's quiet, but they were
Speaker 1: all a lot doing riggy and everything that were coming
Speaker 1: out of their mouth. And the band was something that
Speaker 1: he probably heard at a coffee table that a few
Speaker 1: mornings before and taught them say with Hezekiah so being
Speaker 1: a praise of worship leader. First, I know that you
Speaker 1: could spend time with God in the car, tell some
Speaker 1: vocalists how to part go, tell the band, and so
Speaker 1: you know what, You're in a hospital of praise. So
Speaker 1: a lot of the big ideas can come out of
Speaker 1: one person. Beethoven had a whole orchestra, but it was
Speaker 1: his music every line. So I think it's just um,
Speaker 1: you know, just based on who the idea is coming
Speaker 1: out of, and it could be one person, even thought
Speaker 1: be many people of health. You know, when I want
Speaker 1: to look at you, Morley, I always say I have
Speaker 1: to bring this question to everybody who comes to the show.
Speaker 1: What did it start for you? Because I look at
Speaker 1: myself and I try to pinpoint. I always tell people
Speaker 1: I've been doing this since I was eighteen years old
Speaker 1: when I really looked at my life. You know, I've
Speaker 1: been I've been uplifting, I've been creative. I've been a
Speaker 1: person who who thought differently, just saw I saw a
Speaker 1: different path to success. I came from a black neighborhood,
Speaker 1: but I didn't want to die in a black neighborhood.
Speaker 1: I thought there was more to the world out there,
Speaker 1: and eighteen years old. I was committed to seeing more
Speaker 1: of that world. So that so I locked that date.
Speaker 1: That's important when it really started for me. And then
Speaker 1: I went to college and college changed my life. What
Speaker 1: did it start for you? Mallo music? Well out begged
Speaker 1: my father for pro Tools, which is a sound or
Speaker 1: wave recording software that is about maybe five hundred or
Speaker 1: six hundred dollars. It requires us computer monitor, mouth, sound speakers.
Speaker 1: I was asking my dad for this at thirteen years old.
Speaker 1: I would like because my dad was saying, oh, this
Speaker 1: is not a money making conversations, I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I understood. I asked him around thirteen after going to
Speaker 1: a studio with a friend, and that's how I learned
Speaker 1: that's how people get their voice to come out of
Speaker 1: the radio. As a young boy, I'm always hearing mom saying,
Speaker 1: I'm always hearing my sisters saying, but I'm like, how
Speaker 1: do we come out of the radio like Luther Van drawls,
Speaker 1: you know? And I didn't know if it was some
Speaker 1: type of process and it was proteols and like you know,
Speaker 1: electronic and software based computers was what it was. After
Speaker 1: the tape started going for you laid it on wax.
Speaker 1: But now you could do it digitally, I asked my
Speaker 1: after that thirteen, No, fourteen, no fifteen, No, Dad's sprint lead.
Speaker 1: He got it for me around sixteen. I was mastering
Speaker 1: it around seventeen and utilizing it for church stuff like
Speaker 1: putting thunder behind my past, this preaching if he spoke
Speaker 1: about a value or war, trying to find ways to
Speaker 1: use the technological sound advancement that I was blessed with
Speaker 1: by my dad at sixteen to do what my mom
Speaker 1: was making me do. And a son, now you got
Speaker 1: this pro too, but don't talk about no women, don't
Speaker 1: talk about no bottles, and you're gonna be talking about God.
Speaker 1: I don't want no curse words. And make sure that
Speaker 1: you creativity, creatively, don't do that same note stuff. I said, okay, man,
Speaker 1: I could do that. So I think that that's what
Speaker 1: set my values early. So even though I had a
Speaker 1: huge future and I probably wouldn't been doing all types
Speaker 1: of music, my values were set based on me getting
Speaker 1: music for church, God being put into my heart in
Speaker 1: my gift, and me promising the people who gave it
Speaker 1: to me that I wouldn't straight from that path. As
Speaker 1: I grew older, that got more and more difficult because
Speaker 1: I want to be more rebellious, I want to start
Speaker 1: echoing sounds that I hear. But holding onto those values
Speaker 1: kept it unique and especial anointing on it like a
Speaker 1: conversation because of the fact that talking about you earned it,
Speaker 1: you know, because at thirteen they knew you were talented.
Speaker 1: But did they know that did you understand the value
Speaker 1: of this five dollars or six hundred dollar device? Because
Speaker 1: two people, if you if you give somebody a car
Speaker 1: and let them loan it, then guess what there they
Speaker 1: If they reckon, they go, I'm sorry. But if they
Speaker 1: were tied to the damage of direct then they have
Speaker 1: a different conversation when they come talk to you. And
Speaker 1: so now at that early age were their friends who started,
Speaker 1: i know, tied to the church. And you started seeing
Speaker 1: people reacting to your beach, react to your music because
Speaker 1: you're in gospel, man, Because you know, the thing about
Speaker 1: it is, if you're a rap, if you're an R
Speaker 1: and B, you know, yes, you cat you know, if
Speaker 1: R and B you singing for the ladies, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. If you're wrapped in the streets just
Speaker 1: just doing rhyme for your crew, who were you doing
Speaker 1: it for? My pastor gave me the opportunity to be
Speaker 1: minister of music and start playing at his church when
Speaker 1: I was eleven. Now, I said, I asked my dad
Speaker 1: for protos that thirteen. So I already been singing as
Speaker 1: minister of music and playing learning chords in the church
Speaker 1: for three years already one of Yamaha d X seven.
Speaker 1: Now that's as old the keyboard as you could Yet
Speaker 1: big I'm blowing contradge is out trying to change in
Speaker 1: the middle of that. It's not what I need. So
Speaker 1: I was a young musician coming in at the shift
Speaker 1: of a technological era, like synthesizers were growing into bigger stuff.
Speaker 1: When the churches just before I started playing in church,
Speaker 1: which was very early, were mostly organ all right, So
Speaker 1: we didn't have an organ in that church. So the
Speaker 1: keyboard wasn't enough. So I wanted strings, I wanted all
Speaker 1: these different types of things. So that's what kind of
Speaker 1: set the tone. It was to please my pastor. It
Speaker 1: was to be able to show that I was ready
Speaker 1: for the leadership position that he gave me, even though
Speaker 1: I was so young. I anticipated for people to say
Speaker 1: I was unauthorized and should not be associated with such
Speaker 1: a position lighten and stuff music. So I gave my
Speaker 1: all to it. I gave my commitment and it kind
Speaker 1: of gave me responsibility before I wanted friends. So now
Speaker 1: even though I had friends and companions, I was if
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing chorus, I was trying to make sure
Speaker 1: I got back to learn my pro tools because my
Speaker 1: dad wasn't from the bound me software that I didn't
Speaker 1: know how to use. So now I have to read
Speaker 1: user books, manuals, and I became pretty obsessive and a
Speaker 1: bit of a nerd over the technological part. Once I
Speaker 1: started bringing CDs to school, it was over. I'm singing
Speaker 1: for the dances, I'm I'm doing the National Anthem prerecorded
Speaker 1: over the I just was finding ways to use the
Speaker 1: pro tools and it became really awesome, but it didn't
Speaker 1: hit until the world heard it on my Space. And
Speaker 1: that's where social media comes in. That so my music
Speaker 1: was right on the curve of a shift, and once
Speaker 1: everybody heard it online because black Planet just died, I
Speaker 1: was in my Space artist. By the time they found
Speaker 1: Molly Music, I had my song I Hate You No
Speaker 1: music all I have to give, and I think forward
Speaker 1: on my my space page and the rest is history.
Speaker 1: Well history is still giving you uh love, you know
Speaker 1: Grammy with your boy Jonathan mc reynolds, who have had
Speaker 1: on the show, you know, working with artists like that
Speaker 1: because he's really creative, he's young. And U talk about
Speaker 1: collaborations because that's a key because you know, I've listened
Speaker 1: to writers and especial producers because they brought in for
Speaker 1: a talent, but they also have to be true enough
Speaker 1: to understand who they're worked it with, but also its
Speaker 1: strong enough to be able to get the finished product
Speaker 1: to the end in his own So talking about when
Speaker 1: you when collaborations, the one you did with Jonathan mc renolds,
Speaker 1: which want to grab me by the way moving on,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It was such a gift to
Speaker 1: be able to hold that coming out of the box,
Speaker 1: and it represented what collaboration represents for me. Sacrifice. Everybody
Speaker 1: wants it to be them alone. Everybody wants to win
Speaker 1: a race because of how good they are. But so
Speaker 1: many things were going on and I just really wanted
Speaker 1: to help so many people. I noticed once I got
Speaker 1: finished acting inside of the like movie industry, that the
Speaker 1: most important investment was like the last two million dollars
Speaker 1: that a movie needs and people can come on as
Speaker 1: a final investor because a movie ran short on a
Speaker 1: ten million dollar budget or something that they give the
Speaker 1: final two and then it is the breaking point of it.
Speaker 1: That's what I started doing with my music. Jonathan had
Speaker 1: a whole album, The People album was killing. He had
Speaker 1: a whole campaign. But collaboration was just so we could
Speaker 1: bring our jet packs together to get over the edge.
Speaker 1: Of course we could do something effective in gospel, but
Speaker 1: can we put a dent in the world, And that
Speaker 1: was something we weren't planning to do. But the collaboration
Speaker 1: goes in depth. It was agreement from me and Jonathan
Speaker 1: and Spirit, but then it also was our teams. I'm
Speaker 1: with r C. A I and he is with E one,
Speaker 1: and those companies also collaborated for us to have the
Speaker 1: success that we had based on, you know, working the record,
Speaker 1: calling people. It was two labels collaborating. So I'm very
Speaker 1: proud of what Gospel Music did because we obtained this
Speaker 1: reward on this award by working together. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of people who just simply don't do that. In God, well,
Speaker 1: you know you're there. R C. I with my board
Speaker 1: Phil Thornton, who I call him. Hey, don't get me
Speaker 1: started on field. That guy is awesome and he's been
Speaker 1: grinding from the beginning. So I was so excited to
Speaker 1: see that his promotion finally came. So it's like Steve mash, Oh,
Speaker 1: you have a team now that you're coaching. Can I
Speaker 1: play with y'all? I wasn't necessarily interested in functioning with
Speaker 1: the system this way, but if you're over it, I
Speaker 1: know God has involved, prayers involved, and I could have
Speaker 1: success and it worked out. I'm happy. You know that
Speaker 1: the beauty of you, that there's a certain genuine love
Speaker 1: of conversation because you know this is this is not insulting.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of people they won't they you
Speaker 1: know their gospel. They just come there. They're real church. You'relleluya,
Speaker 1: praised the Lord. It's a blessing to be here today.
Speaker 1: I got that. I got that. But I really think,
Speaker 1: I really think, Molly, I can eat some boba que
Speaker 1: with you. You know what I'm saying. I really think
Speaker 1: I could play some basketball with you. I know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. We can scream the TV a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I really do believe that, man,
Speaker 1: because that is that's part of your upbringing. You know,
Speaker 1: the spiked the fact at eleven years old you was
Speaker 1: giving a leadership role, which is a mature thing and
Speaker 1: also can be something that can like pigeonhole a person's personality.
Speaker 1: But how did you really maintain your personality? Man, with
Speaker 1: all that pressure? But loving you old talking to adults
Speaker 1: considered a gifted individual because you just don'ta slide on
Speaker 1: over there, but to your parents over they're going, really, boy,
Speaker 1: take that trash out there, boy, boy, if you don't
Speaker 1: clean up your room, because that was happening at the house.
Speaker 1: So that really kept you straight correct, yes, and didn't
Speaker 1: coming up in Savannah, Georgia. It was happening outside the house.
Speaker 1: You can get by anybody in Georgia. So it was
Speaker 1: a blessing because I'll see, I'm thirteen years old and
Speaker 1: the power God falls at a at a meeting um
Speaker 1: and then I get spoken to by one of the
Speaker 1: elder women, one of the grandma and this is all
Speaker 1: she's gonna say. She will never get around the same.
Speaker 1: Good job. She says, don't forget where you come from.
Speaker 1: That and that's that means that she seen me going play.
Speaker 1: She forgot to tell me that, but she let me
Speaker 1: know no matter what, that I needed to be humble.
Speaker 1: And I remember those people or they'll say, all right,
Speaker 1: keep doing what you're doing. Don't change nothing. They're gonna
Speaker 1: ask you to do this, do that, don't change nothing.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, ma'am, you know I'm gonna stay that path.
Speaker 1: And I just remember those people who say, remember the
Speaker 1: little people when you get there. And it's cool because
Speaker 1: it's a bit back and forth because you have some
Speaker 1: elite people who want to feel that they're around other
Speaker 1: pompous people. Um, but that's just not the way that
Speaker 1: I'm bringing it. God brings all success, and we're lucky
Speaker 1: to get whatever we get in the first place. And
Speaker 1: it's all about loving people. So that's the greatest wealth.
Speaker 1: Any money that I ever got came from somebody. Absolutely
Speaker 1: get what I mean. Absolutely, Hey, Molly, I'm talking to
Speaker 1: about the music man m three uh Grammy Grammy win
Speaker 1: this year with his collaboration moving on with Jonathan mc
Speaker 1: reynolds and then some interview and Phil Thornton and then
Speaker 1: I just run through this list though all the artists
Speaker 1: from the label R C A I, which is based
Speaker 1: out of Nashville, and I saw Molly Music three nominations.
Speaker 1: I said, I got to get it, and this is
Speaker 1: just we could have ago. I said it was crazy.
Speaker 1: I've been It's awful, I said. I said, I got
Speaker 1: to get him on the show and talk about this
Speaker 1: because you know what I said, Because when you said
Speaker 1: the Stellar Awards, I see you because because we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about this year, but I want to go back
Speaker 1: in because that's when you're gonna really tell me the
Speaker 1: story of how this happened. For you have to work
Speaker 1: through the obstacles of last year. They get where we
Speaker 1: got absolutely and so those three nominations, how does that
Speaker 1: make you feel? You know, uh, just talk about the
Speaker 1: steps and that process, Like you said, the team, because
Speaker 1: we don't do this by ourselves, and sometimes you get
Speaker 1: out there, we feel like we buy ourselves. But you
Speaker 1: at three nominations Stellar Awards talk about that determination, perseverance
Speaker 1: and faith. I can't necessarily say, like in releasing it,
Speaker 1: like oh man, this is locked up. It wasn't like
Speaker 1: that for me because there was so many business things
Speaker 1: that started to happen. This was my first project as
Speaker 1: an owner of k approved E and t which is,
Speaker 1: you know, my company, that's where I'm going to be
Speaker 1: releasing other artists so they don't have to endure the
Speaker 1: things that I had to endure it to get where
Speaker 1: I am. So my attempt from being independent and not
Speaker 1: being signed anymore than now in this license and situation
Speaker 1: with philth Thor and Ron Hill over r c A.
Speaker 1: I I wanted to create a label to when I
Speaker 1: saw the next Molley's and when I saw the next time,
Speaker 1: and I could protected it, you know, harvesting and push
Speaker 1: it out. So the Book of Molly was my first
Speaker 1: project from that licensing thing, and it was difficult financially
Speaker 1: paying producers, uh publishing, of getting clearances on any samples,
Speaker 1: getting all musicians taken care of. It was cool because
Speaker 1: it's it's a blessing on a small level. But if
Speaker 1: you play piano on a John Legend song, how much
Speaker 1: money are you gonna ask for at the end get
Speaker 1: You're not gonna say no, it's okay, just give me
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars. You're gonna be trying to find out
Speaker 1: how they get enough money for the rest of your
Speaker 1: life because you played piano on a John Legend support
Speaker 1: pay some points that was one of the things that
Speaker 1: had me a bit discouraged rowing in, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's always that way because of the fact that I
Speaker 1: would love just to be a talent, but because then
Speaker 1: you're sitting over there just answering to somebody to be
Speaker 1: able to make that commitment paying taxes, you know, paying
Speaker 1: for paying value. And you can understand that how this
Speaker 1: really works, how a tyler pair of real work. I
Speaker 1: can assure you fair now is everybody paying okay? How
Speaker 1: will packer? How all these thieve harger all these people
Speaker 1: are able to do? Renee, Oprah Winfrey. You're just doing
Speaker 1: what they're doing. And believe me, they know who they pay,
Speaker 1: and they also know the the pain and prastruction of
Speaker 1: being an entrepreneur. So you went from a talent to
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, and that's important because that allows you to
Speaker 1: collaborate and know what money you would do properly or
Speaker 1: what makes you so much for noting that, that's so
Speaker 1: awesome for you to see and and catch because I
Speaker 1: can only hope that that is what happens, because a
Speaker 1: lot of people still see me as a talent. But
Speaker 1: you can only go so far there without the property.
Speaker 1: And this is a huge step for me. So you're
Speaker 1: right online and you can't really make too many changes
Speaker 1: for people, yourself or the world from this the artist's position.
Speaker 1: So it's good to be in a position that you
Speaker 1: can make some things happen, not for yourself, you know
Speaker 1: the thing about That's why, that's why I created shows.
Speaker 1: I could talk to individuals like you, Mama, because because
Speaker 1: because as a talent or an individual who buys tickets
Speaker 1: or you can get caught up in the show business
Speaker 1: of the show and it can make you believe that
Speaker 1: you can't do that, or they tell you you can't
Speaker 1: do that because it's so complicated. And so I could
Speaker 1: assure you when you was making this transition, it was
Speaker 1: a lot of as they say, trepidation, fear, you know,
Speaker 1: uh am, I gonna make a mistake. I don't want
Speaker 1: to mess up. And then when you did it, I
Speaker 1: remember I did a big my first Neighborhood Awards back
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. By two thousand three, when I finished it,
Speaker 1: I realized, I said, I started crying because of the
Speaker 1: fact that all along I could have done this when
Speaker 1: I had been told I couldn't do it, because it
Speaker 1: was so hard to do and so when I hear
Speaker 1: you saying, man, it was a lot of stress, it
Speaker 1: was like, that's part of the process of walking through fire. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you do it again and again and again, and
Speaker 1: guess what, it's not because it's easier because you trist
Speaker 1: yourself right. And that's why we're trying to get it.
Speaker 1: When I'm talking to you as a person who said,
Speaker 1: look what, I won't be pigeonholed because I want to
Speaker 1: know what it feels like to do R and B music.
Speaker 1: I want to know what I feel like do rock music.
Speaker 1: I wanted to feel hip hop music because guess what,
Speaker 1: then I understand my value. And that's all this conversation
Speaker 1: about is about your value. The first time I met you,
Speaker 1: I always felt I was talking to a uniquely different
Speaker 1: individual because you value things differently. And now you tell
Speaker 1: me you've been doing this since you were eleven years old,
Speaker 1: I appreciate and respect you even more. Man, I'm grateful
Speaker 1: for that. I was blessed to be able to have
Speaker 1: those responsibilities and you just nailed it. I'm so honored
Speaker 1: that you've been seeing and following what I've been able
Speaker 1: to do, because I can only hope that it is
Speaker 1: that a lot of times, you know, as you said,
Speaker 1: we think with myself and that people miss it. So
Speaker 1: it's really cool to see. But all of the positions
Speaker 1: were necessary. The first one was a servant leader. My
Speaker 1: mother was doing a lot of the management with Holly Carter.
Speaker 1: I was young. I had confidence in the music, but
Speaker 1: I'm not necessarily confidence in the meeting room, so I
Speaker 1: wouldn't speak much. I was also directed and told not
Speaker 1: to speak much. How have I started noticing that at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, I had the final say.
Speaker 1: So if I had the final say, I started trying
Speaker 1: to work my way into getting the first say, and
Speaker 1: you know, versus it kind of going all the way
Speaker 1: through and it me seeming like it's not that. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, that's the only way
Speaker 1: that I can keep it in God's hands. That's the
Speaker 1: only way that I can keep the integrity of my
Speaker 1: anointing clear. If I wasn't in a situation where I
Speaker 1: can control these things, people will continue to say, even
Speaker 1: in churches, Molly, we want you to sing, but don't
Speaker 1: sing this song. Don't say this, don't be this, don't
Speaker 1: act like this. Once I started recognizing and seeing that
Speaker 1: that's what was going to happen. Early in gospel, I
Speaker 1: knew it was time to get out because there was
Speaker 1: no way to be what I was without the housekeepers
Speaker 1: of the places I was going to sing at, protecting
Speaker 1: their people, right, and they protect their people from me.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, well, I just got to get out
Speaker 1: so I could go ahead and be everything that God
Speaker 1: said and then you guys don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: what you're telling me not to do. And it worked
Speaker 1: out in spite of a world of people, a whole
Speaker 1: wave of creative people, and it's caused me to not
Speaker 1: be able to stop even when the world stops. During
Speaker 1: the pandemic, I was a visualizing myself as a Joseph, like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: everybody may not be able to get the best of
Speaker 1: what they wanted or liked while everything was flowing, but
Speaker 1: they could at least get this weak They could at
Speaker 1: least get something. And uh, and I have it stored up,
Speaker 1: so how can I bring it out? I already have
Speaker 1: an album out. How can I release the more and
Speaker 1: partner with other people and keep saying? And it worked,
Speaker 1: you know. COVID shut down Music, shut Down Live, shut
Speaker 1: Down Tour, dates. Now we got new music. We got
Speaker 1: two dates coming up. Tell us how one is gonna
Speaker 1: play yourself out for Oh man, it's so packed and stacked,
Speaker 1: and a lot of my colleagues are excited because they're
Speaker 1: saying that this is what they wanted. But during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: I recognized that I did not want to make my
Speaker 1: money on the road, primarily maybe up when I was
Speaker 1: younger and all this stuff like that. And I get
Speaker 1: opportunities to sing and travel now because I really want
Speaker 1: to see my people and I love the stage. Um. However,
Speaker 1: as a soul, you know, commodity or a stream of income,
Speaker 1: I don't feel like it's the ways. Uh, there's so
Speaker 1: many ways to make a thousand dollars ten thousand dollars
Speaker 1: overnight if you can get the education and look versus
Speaker 1: waiting a whole month stressing your body and banging your
Speaker 1: body to gain five thousand dollars you know here seven
Speaker 1: thousand dollars there. Um, sitting down forced me to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is God's way of taking everybody's strongest thinct from them.
Speaker 1: So this is a year for us to adopt and
Speaker 1: adapt new hobbies. And I used it to create new
Speaker 1: streams of income just in case the ones that closed
Speaker 1: and never came back. So now I created five, and
Speaker 1: then the five I had came back, and I was
Speaker 1: ten streams of income. And you know, it's a really
Speaker 1: crazy thing. And I wanted to make sure that the
Speaker 1: other five had nothing to do with music. So now
Speaker 1: when I sing, I primarily use the increase that I
Speaker 1: get from singing to tap into another entrepreneur. Mine to
Speaker 1: be able to buy stocks or invest in juices or
Speaker 1: milk or something that the stores are buying, so that
Speaker 1: I'm making money without being great. You know what I'm saying. Well,
Speaker 1: you know I because I'm I look at that. I
Speaker 1: went back and I told my stockbroker. I said no, no, no,
Speaker 1: don't put me in a fund. Said, I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you what I want to buy. I picked our tent
Speaker 1: stocks that I said, these the ones I want to buy.
Speaker 1: Oh you know I would he trust myself, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I never trust myself. And so but I want to
Speaker 1: close and sing this about you is that you know,
Speaker 1: we've seen everybody as we go back live and thing,
Speaker 1: we've seen an over ground sweiler. People wanted to see
Speaker 1: live events, you know, people concerts, selling out the two
Speaker 1: or three shows comedy show. I think this is going
Speaker 1: to be such a unique moment for you, Molly, because
Speaker 1: to be able, this is the annointing time I think
Speaker 1: for individuals like you to get out there not only
Speaker 1: to deliver your music, but to hear people wanted to
Speaker 1: receive it. And I just think it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: great year for you, man, and I respect so much
Speaker 1: what you've accomplished in the past. You got my hands up,
Speaker 1: so you got my hands up. I receive it. I
Speaker 1: want to walk in it with grace and um heavenly anointing.
Speaker 1: I just don't want to take any credit for it
Speaker 1: because I can mess it up with human frustration, limitation,
Speaker 1: all this stuff like that. But I do feel like
Speaker 1: it's a last of events, so I don't want to
Speaker 1: just keep saying to everybody, this is the time for stories, plays,
Speaker 1: short short stuff, conversations like this on stage. It's time
Speaker 1: for people to, I guess, feel what it feels like
Speaker 1: to be around people again. And if we're creating, of
Speaker 1: in making events that are new, then we could just
Speaker 1: continue to That's what I'm talking about. This, that's all
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, because you know, because when you were
Speaker 1: talking about you know, you know you make five thousand,
Speaker 1: then we I know, we got that. But the basis
Speaker 1: of what we do in gospel is emotion. It's driven
Speaker 1: by opportunities. It's driven by a blessing and the fact
Speaker 1: that you are about to step out into the world
Speaker 1: and be received again and people are about to understand
Speaker 1: the value of the Holy Spirit. My man, my hands
Speaker 1: up because Wow, palms out, hands up. Point that you, baby,
Speaker 1: point that you Molly music man, I feel what you're
Speaker 1: saying is so right. I had a conversation with Jonathan
Speaker 1: mc reynolds. We're getting ready to do a Victory Lab album,
Speaker 1: just something for us together since God brought us to victory,
Speaker 1: and he was saying, Molly, some people are looking for
Speaker 1: you to take the mic and just sing it that
Speaker 1: way for nobody else. Don't do nothing else. We're looking
Speaker 1: to you. And it was really special for him to
Speaker 1: give me that moment because sometimes as a leader or
Speaker 1: you know, somebody in a authority position, you might not
Speaker 1: take the full power of the dominion that God gives
Speaker 1: for the sake of caring. But sometimes He just needs
Speaker 1: you to do like Christ, handle the work and let
Speaker 1: everybody be blessed. That's all, man, That's all I gotta
Speaker 1: say to your young brother, because I'm glad you've took
Speaker 1: the time to talk to me, because I'm following you
Speaker 1: as I always follow you, and I feel blessed that
Speaker 1: I know you. Thank you for coming opportunity again. I'm
Speaker 1: just as blessed as the first time I said. The
Speaker 1: people are and man, I'm going to be looking to
Speaker 1: check back on you. Man, I feel something on you.
Speaker 1: To thank you, sir. We will be right back with
Speaker 1: more money making conversations with your host, Rashaan McDonald. It's
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Speaker 1: You are now tuned into the Money Making Conversations. Minute
Speaker 1: of Inspiration with Rushan McDonald. Despite being known for loud,
Speaker 1: bombastic comments and his trademarked propensity to debate, a much
Speaker 1: softer side of Stephen A. Smith is revealed when discussing
Speaker 1: the inspiration for his success. The final product is for
Speaker 1: the fans. I'm about the work, the process, the grind,
Speaker 1: the day in and day out, meticulous, medious work that
Speaker 1: you have to put in to perfect your craft. And
Speaker 1: the reason why that resonated with me so profoundly, Rashaun,
Speaker 1: is because that's what I attached to all my work.
Speaker 1: Everybody right now is celebrating Stephen as World coming on
Speaker 1: ESPN Plus, so they're talking about my sports and it
Speaker 1: was Stephen A. Smith the NBA Show, and would first
Speaker 1: take all I think about it. It's going day to
Speaker 1: day and making sure that I do everything that I
Speaker 1: can to deliver to the audience what their expectations are
Speaker 1: of me and to exceed those expectations. If you want
Speaker 1: to hear this full interview with Stephen A. Smith, visit
Speaker 1: money Making Conversation dot com. Keep winning. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations with your host, Rashaan McDonald. My next
Speaker 1: guest is Tressa as a real smart work. She's an
Speaker 1: award winning book publisher and movie producer. Tressor is the
Speaker 1: CEO of Life Changing Books LCB and co founder Megamind
Speaker 1: Media LLC. In two thousand three, other right, in her
Speaker 1: first novel, her very first novel, Tressa Wow resigned from
Speaker 1: her teaching tenure in the Maryland Schools District for fulfill
Speaker 1: her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Since then, LCB had
Speaker 1: published over a hundred and sixty two titles and print indigitously,
Speaker 1: becoming one of the leading independent publishing companies striving in
Speaker 1: the literary industry today. Since launch of Megamind Media, Tressa
Speaker 1: has produced several award winning movies which have been adapted
Speaker 1: to UH to film and tell TV shares for networks
Speaker 1: such as Viacom, BT Networks, TV one, b t Her
Speaker 1: Urban Movie Channel and more. With such a large varia content,
Speaker 1: Tressler has positioned megamnd Media to become one of the
Speaker 1: fastest growing film production company from book to film adaptations
Speaker 1: in America. Please working to money making conversations. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: calling my good friend because you know, I saw a
Speaker 1: movie last year. She didn't know I saw it all in.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying with a little mama and
Speaker 1: at least Neil tressor as a real small warld. Just
Speaker 1: ma'am that I know about you. I know about you
Speaker 1: before you knew about me. Oh that's so dope. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for having me. As I shared earlier,
Speaker 1: there's no better place to be on a Monday, money
Speaker 1: making Monday, talking about money making conversations with you. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. I appreciate you. Know when I it
Speaker 1: was really interesting because my staff when they always bring
Speaker 1: names up to me about people who will be interesting
Speaker 1: guests because what they're trying to do. I try to
Speaker 1: get the guests to tell their story, their journey because
Speaker 1: we all want to be a version of you. I
Speaker 1: always tell people, don't be Rashan mac, don't be a
Speaker 1: version of yourself, a better version of me, because you
Speaker 1: because you gotta learn from your mistakes and you gotta
Speaker 1: understand why you're successful, Trying to implement, trying to trying
Speaker 1: to duplicate me, a version of me can't work. So
Speaker 1: in your intro, it says, after your first novel, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: now I answer this question. Was it a hit selling novel?
Speaker 1: Just hey, Rashan, I got it out there, I decided
Speaker 1: to exit. Yeah, so you know what it was? It
Speaker 1: was an unexpected hit um. I was actually teaching a
Speaker 1: year prior to of that, never had any thoughts about
Speaker 1: writing a novel or going into the book publishing industry.
Speaker 1: But obviously that was my faith because I was pregnant
Speaker 1: and three months in I was on recess duty, having
Speaker 1: all of these issues with pregnancy and ended up going
Speaker 1: to the doctor thinking that something was wrong. Something was wrong,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't detrimental. They said, hey, right now, you
Speaker 1: gotta go on bad rest at this very moment for
Speaker 1: the next six months until you deliver. So that was
Speaker 1: life changing for me. I went on bad rest at
Speaker 1: that very moment, and one of my family members came
Speaker 1: over and I kept saying, what am I gonna do?
Speaker 1: Six months? I got this little bell here ringing it
Speaker 1: so my husband could bring me some food. I was
Speaker 1: like this is not gonna work. I'm I'm too ambitious
Speaker 1: for this, and she said you should write a book.
Speaker 1: That was the start. I literally started listening to some
Speaker 1: stories UM, of some things that were happening at her job,
Speaker 1: and that was the inspiration to pen my very first novel,
Speaker 1: A Life to Remember. UM. By the time that my
Speaker 1: daughter was born, her name is Billy. She's nineteen years
Speaker 1: old now, so that tells you how long ago that was, UM.
Speaker 1: And so I published that book after all of the
Speaker 1: naysayers kept saying, don't publish it on your own. Uh,
Speaker 1: don't self publishing, it's not the way to go. I
Speaker 1: didn't listen. I said, I'm gonna learn to do it myself,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna do it well. And I did that. UM.
Speaker 1: I published the book. In my first two months, I
Speaker 1: was able to make forty dollars and sold five thousand
Speaker 1: copies independently self publishing, and so it was a huge success.
Speaker 1: I never went back to work, and I started building
Speaker 1: my book, my book empire from their life changing books,
Speaker 1: now it is yours, your book empire tied strictly to
Speaker 1: your talent, or you bringing outside writers, or you out
Speaker 1: there nurturing other talents under your megamind uh So definitely
Speaker 1: I started nurturing other talent um instantly. You know, when
Speaker 1: you're when you're good at something, other people like you said,
Speaker 1: they want to emulate that, they want to duplicate it.
Speaker 1: And so because of my teaching spirit, I said, let
Speaker 1: me teach others to do what I do. Um. And
Speaker 1: so by two thousand and five, which was you know,
Speaker 1: four years after that happened for me, I had already
Speaker 1: had about thirty authors under my label Life Changing Books.
Speaker 1: And although they were writing books, I was still writing myself. Um.
Speaker 1: To date, I've written seven books myself, and all of
Speaker 1: the others are written by outside authors who came to
Speaker 1: me and wanted to be a part of my team.
Speaker 1: And your team consisted because now we're just talking about
Speaker 1: you only on only interviewing you. Okay, when I hear
Speaker 1: two books digitally and the heart back or paperback all
Speaker 1: me you you're telling me you're one woman operation. Well, well,
Speaker 1: let me say this. Obviously, as you grow, you're able
Speaker 1: to bring in people who do things better than you. So,
Speaker 1: for example, I'm not a book editor, I go and
Speaker 1: hire editors to edit the books I'm not. You know,
Speaker 1: a big marketing firm, but I know how to go
Speaker 1: and hire the marketing firm to make that happen. So,
Speaker 1: you know, it's been really really successful for me, which
Speaker 1: has really put me in position because of all the
Speaker 1: content that I owned. It put me in position to
Speaker 1: transition into the movie industry with a company that I
Speaker 1: created Ineen called Mega My Media. Okay, cool, I love
Speaker 1: this story. We're talking about a person who I have
Speaker 1: to say that, Okay, you became a writer now, but
Speaker 1: you were it was an educator, you know, high school level,
Speaker 1: elementary school level. So what made this transition other than
Speaker 1: the fact that he was in bed for six months?
Speaker 1: You know, bid rested your daughter, who's inn eighteen years
Speaker 1: of age right now, what really clicked in your head
Speaker 1: to say this is a possibility. Well, I feel like
Speaker 1: I've always had the entrepreneurial spirit in me. Um. Growing up,
Speaker 1: I watched my grandfather literally have six and seven different jobs,
Speaker 1: and I didn't understand it back then. We just kept saying, well,
Speaker 1: what is he doing now? Why is he going here?
Speaker 1: What is this all about? And he taught me as
Speaker 1: I was growing up, So it was just something that
Speaker 1: was just in me that by the time I graduated
Speaker 1: from college, I knew, Okay, my family said I need
Speaker 1: a college degree, but let me tell you this. I
Speaker 1: know that I want to be an entrepreneur. I just
Speaker 1: didn't know what type of entrepreneur, what industry it was
Speaker 1: at the moment. And then once I started teaching, I
Speaker 1: fell in love with helping others. That was big for me.
Speaker 1: Uh And so I do believe that outside of being
Speaker 1: on bad rest and given that opportunity, I would have
Speaker 1: gone into entrepreneurship at some point anyway, just because it
Speaker 1: was always in me. But that was the moment where
Speaker 1: I said, this is it. This book is successful. It's
Speaker 1: all about writing and creating content, which is my thing.
Speaker 1: I love it. I can create for days. And so
Speaker 1: that was my moment and I just took advantage of it.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of times people get their
Speaker 1: opportunities but they don't execute on it. They say I
Speaker 1: want to do something, but they don't push forward. And
Speaker 1: that was something that I was I was really waiting
Speaker 1: for that moment to figure out what it was, what
Speaker 1: was my passion, what was my gift? I wanted to
Speaker 1: agree with that. I would agree with that, you know,
Speaker 1: I look at my life, and a lot of people
Speaker 1: say you do a lot of things. Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: I do what I enjoyed doing. Let's go and be
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I remember when you were
Speaker 1: finding your dreams Steve Harvey, and I was in l
Speaker 1: A two thousand on the local radio station named two
Speaker 1: point three to B. They're finding our dream started making
Speaker 1: decisions in our life that some people because a lot
Speaker 1: of people was wondering why was he doing local radio
Speaker 1: when you know Bernie was doing the movie Centre was
Speaker 1: having those Super Bowl commercials. And so you have to
Speaker 1: define your path and stick with your path and then
Speaker 1: see if you ever if you have a plan, and
Speaker 1: so I have to believe that when you made the
Speaker 1: decision to walk away, I know four your thousand dollars
Speaker 1: and two months is a lot. That's that's nice. You
Speaker 1: know you started adding that up over years period. You
Speaker 1: know you've elevated the tax bracket. But still that had
Speaker 1: to be a plan. What was the plan tied to
Speaker 1: you eving your your your educational background because you wanted
Speaker 1: to be a school teach. You what to school to
Speaker 1: be a school teacher? You were you were teaching and
Speaker 1: changing and shaping your minds, but then at one point
Speaker 1: you to say it's about me and what I want
Speaker 1: to do too, and how I can change mind this
Speaker 1: way too as well. Correct correct, correct. I think the
Speaker 1: defining moment for me came with um, my husband saying, yes,
Speaker 1: let's do it, because you know, everybody around me said, now,
Speaker 1: wait a minute. You just went to school to get
Speaker 1: a masses in education, just finish. Why are you now
Speaker 1: leaving this industry and why are you taking this chance? Um?
Speaker 1: I remember family member saying you got summers off, and
Speaker 1: I said, and I'm gonna have the rest of my
Speaker 1: life off in a manner, I'm gonna really go and
Speaker 1: do this. But my husband was the one who said,
Speaker 1: I got you, let's do it. Um. He did ask
Speaker 1: me about my strategy. You know, how are you gonna
Speaker 1: do this? Are you personally gonna be the one writing
Speaker 1: the books constantly? And I said, no, I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: complicate my success. I'm gonna build a publishing house just
Speaker 1: the same way you see other big publishers out here
Speaker 1: have been doing. And it's gonna be a learning process.
Speaker 1: So I would say, in my very first two years,
Speaker 1: I made so many mistakes, just you know, just a
Speaker 1: lot of the takes. But I learned from them and
Speaker 1: I started gaining mentors, and I said, I want to
Speaker 1: find the people who are shaping these bigger companies, bigger
Speaker 1: publishing houses, that let them show me what to do.
Speaker 1: And by the time I got a couple of contracts
Speaker 1: with like Borders Books back then and Walden Books, those
Speaker 1: were big entities that were interested in helping um female
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs at the time. Uh. And by the time I
Speaker 1: got those contracts and being able to walk into those
Speaker 1: bookstores and seeing my name on the books on the
Speaker 1: in the in the front window and on the shelves,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I got this now. And so
Speaker 1: I knew at that point that the strategy work. But
Speaker 1: but my husband was the key to that with saying,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna support you in this. I'm going
Speaker 1: to train so as a real small wood they creative
Speaker 1: life changing books as well as megamind Media. And when I,
Speaker 1: when I, when I, when I listened to you talk,
Speaker 1: you know there's always uh, I want't s here the
Speaker 1: word disconnect because it's almost here, like how you know,
Speaker 1: you know, how does this happen? Because you know you
Speaker 1: have Amazon out there. You have borders, they got they
Speaker 1: got marketing machines. You know, they got advertising dollars. You
Speaker 1: know they you know you you you can say their name.
Speaker 1: You know Megamond doesn't pop into your mind less you
Speaker 1: think of someone some animated movie or something like some
Speaker 1: superhero or some villain or something like that. That's when
Speaker 1: you think of Megamond. But how did you believe in
Speaker 1: yourself so much? So? You know something? I I I
Speaker 1: can do this to other people, not only myself, but
Speaker 1: I can do that. Kelp me slide into that lane
Speaker 1: understanding because of the fact that at the beginning of
Speaker 1: my show, I always tell people to lead with their
Speaker 1: gifts and don't let your age friends and family and coworkers,
Speaker 1: and that's what you was, what's happened in your life
Speaker 1: co workers and friends and families, and said, but you
Speaker 1: you you you you what your school for this? I
Speaker 1: would excluse to be my degree in mathematis and sociology. Okay, whoa,
Speaker 1: I love it. Okay, so you you you're talking to
Speaker 1: the right person. When just saying that degree is something
Speaker 1: I love. I brag about it. I put it on
Speaker 1: my wall. I tell people probably I have a degree
Speaker 1: of mathematics, but that doesn't define who I am and
Speaker 1: who I can be. Now you're doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: You went against the grain because even though you're not
Speaker 1: Simon and Suite Schuster, even though you're not Amazon, even
Speaker 1: though you're not Harper College, what made you believe the
Speaker 1: treasure as a real small wood could do this? Yeah? Well, one,
Speaker 1: faith plays a big part of my life. Um, I
Speaker 1: am always uh in prayer. Obviously, we know that you
Speaker 1: have to do more than just pray. You gotta actually
Speaker 1: do some work. Yeah, that's that's really big for me.
Speaker 1: And so you know, I feel like if you found
Speaker 1: a strategy, if you really believe in yourself enough, and
Speaker 1: so people love to say I believe in myself. Do
Speaker 1: you really believe in yourself when things when things start failing,
Speaker 1: when you are not succeeding, do you give up? Or
Speaker 1: do you hang in there? Again? I really always take
Speaker 1: it back to my childhood. I've watched my grandfather failed,
Speaker 1: but I watched him still get up and go to
Speaker 1: the event or to the gig or whatever was happening. Um,
Speaker 1: And we did a lot of you know, talking about
Speaker 1: how did we turn this around? How do we stay
Speaker 1: in the game, how do we make it work? So
Speaker 1: I think from me learning that at an early age
Speaker 1: and then growing up myself and and saying, hey, I
Speaker 1: want to do this. You know, walking away from your
Speaker 1: job doesn't mean you get the opportunity to go back
Speaker 1: to it. It doesn't mean you get the opportunity to backtrack.
Speaker 1: At this point, once I made that commitment to go
Speaker 1: for it, I was in it, even when even the
Speaker 1: years that weren't as great, I was in it. Even
Speaker 1: when the rejection came. I was in it, and I
Speaker 1: took and I stayed in it. Even when I started
Speaker 1: making my media. My first movie almost took me all
Speaker 1: the way out. I was like, Lord, why why did
Speaker 1: I get into this business? What is going on here?
Speaker 1: But I knew I wasn't going to quit. I knew
Speaker 1: I was going to keep going. It's it's something where
Speaker 1: you have to tell yourself, I got this despite the setbacks,
Speaker 1: despite the challenges. But you also have to be real
Speaker 1: with yourself and know that those things are going to happen.
Speaker 1: I think people try to fool themselves saying, oh, you
Speaker 1: know on social media, this person is doing this and this.
Speaker 1: You know you'll see me on the red carpet all
Speaker 1: the time. But you you have no idea what I
Speaker 1: went through to get there, you know, So I just
Speaker 1: I think people need to understand. Don't just say you
Speaker 1: believe in yourself. You really gotta believe in yourself enough
Speaker 1: to push through it all. You know, it's really great
Speaker 1: when I'm listening to your motivation. And you know, like
Speaker 1: I said in when I saw your movie All In,
Speaker 1: that you could produced in your wrote starting eleast Neil
Speaker 1: as well as Little Mama the Rapper, Um I was
Speaker 1: first of all, you gotta have talent on the screen
Speaker 1: to really make the words and the and the plot
Speaker 1: have any substance. Okay, you know you could, you could
Speaker 1: have all You have a great book. If it's not
Speaker 1: directed correctly or written correctly, then the translation is nothing.
Speaker 1: And little Mama, if you don't know about her skill set,
Speaker 1: please join the club. She's very talented. Of course, at
Speaker 1: least Neil is. You know, her role is played her
Speaker 1: mama in the movie. And and little Mama had three kids.
Speaker 1: You're just dragging around all over the town and trying
Speaker 1: to just find her place in life. Or your movies
Speaker 1: female centric of female focused movies. Yeah, yes, absolutely, most
Speaker 1: of them are uh female focus. But also what's very
Speaker 1: unique about the movie that you're speaking of All In?
Speaker 1: You know, as an African American screenwriter, you have the
Speaker 1: ability to change the narrative. Right. So at megamand any
Speaker 1: movie that you see from me, it is going to
Speaker 1: show African Americans in a good light bottom line. So
Speaker 1: in the movie All In, little Mama didn't start off
Speaker 1: in a good light, right, She was struggling and beginning,
Speaker 1: But by the time you got to the end, what
Speaker 1: was happening. She was an entrepreneur, She opened up her
Speaker 1: shop and all was well. Right. So that was me
Speaker 1: I had. I had the the the decision making opportunity
Speaker 1: as to how I was going to end that film.
Speaker 1: And so I believe that the more content creators that
Speaker 1: we get out there who have that same mission, where like,
Speaker 1: how are we gonna look on screen? You know? And
Speaker 1: so I wrote another movie, UM that was based off
Speaker 1: of a book from Life Changing Books called The Available Wife. UM.
Speaker 1: This movie is actually airing on BT this month. But
Speaker 1: when you watch how these African American females look, you're
Speaker 1: gonna say to yourself, oh my goodness, like who did this?
Speaker 1: Who did It's the moment that you see them. They
Speaker 1: have nice, nice careers, entrepreneurs. Everywhere they look good, they are.
Speaker 1: Everything that they do is gonna put you on another level.
Speaker 1: So we don't have to always put ourselves in movies
Speaker 1: where we are the underdog. But that doesn't have to happen.
Speaker 1: But it starts with who has the pen, who's doing
Speaker 1: who's doing the writing, and who's making the decisions. We
Speaker 1: don't use the interesting thing about it because we all
Speaker 1: talk about budgets, okay, and that that's you know, who
Speaker 1: you know because you're getting some amazing talent and I
Speaker 1: know your budgets, aren't you know, We're not talking about
Speaker 1: Will Packer budgets. And some of these, even his movies
Speaker 1: are the most profitable movies in the in the in
Speaker 1: the Hollywood history is Will Packer movies. So when you
Speaker 1: when you start looking at new talent veteran talent bringing
Speaker 1: them to your project, how do you have the casting? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we typically connect with the agents that have either
Speaker 1: seen our product or know someone who knows us, right,
Speaker 1: because it's all always about who you know. In the
Speaker 1: very beginning, when I produced my very first movie, nobody
Speaker 1: knew who we were. So it was very difficult to
Speaker 1: get talent. But once they saw secrets, UH centers wanted
Speaker 1: some of the movies that I did first. They then said, oh,
Speaker 1: this is this is a great you know, a great
Speaker 1: company to go and work for. I know they're gonna
Speaker 1: be treated well. I know they're gonna look good on screen,
Speaker 1: and so from there has become very easy. So now,
Speaker 1: for example, I'm casting for a new movie as we speak.
Speaker 1: You know, when when we're being introduced to certain agents,
Speaker 1: we're just really send it over are real and saying, hey,
Speaker 1: here's a new movie that we're doing, here's the script,
Speaker 1: and and it's it's much easier now. Um, and our budgets,
Speaker 1: like you said, we don't have the mega budgets, but
Speaker 1: at our budget level, talent knows that, oh, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be seen in a good light, and this is something
Speaker 1: I want to be a part of. Absolutely, Because when
Speaker 1: you can, would you consider your movie is independent productions
Speaker 1: or how how how is that featured? Yeah, we're considered
Speaker 1: independent filmmakers. Now, that's that's the beauty of your industry.
Speaker 1: Because of the fact that now when I when I
Speaker 1: after reference all in because that's a movie I saw
Speaker 1: and I fell in love with your talent. I fell
Speaker 1: in love with the concept and it was a feel
Speaker 1: good story and it goes back to me. And that's
Speaker 1: why I relate to you a lot, because I wrote
Speaker 1: Sitcom's Sister Sister, you know, Jamie foxx the Parkers, and
Speaker 1: it was all about you know, heavy said women feeling
Speaker 1: good about themselves. That were the Parkers. Jamie Fok was
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, young man finding themselves. And when when I
Speaker 1: went to the series in the last two years, we
Speaker 1: took him out of the hotel and made him, made
Speaker 1: him a business, put him in the professional business world.
Speaker 1: And then Sister Sister, that was two twin teenagers coming
Speaker 1: of age because we took him from high school to college.
Speaker 1: And I always feel good about that and my whole brand.
Speaker 1: If you look at what we did with Steve Harvey,
Speaker 1: it was always about uplifting black people. Same thing up
Speaker 1: doing with stephen A. Smith. So it's about the positive
Speaker 1: image that you creat that we are now getty now.
Speaker 1: You know when you started way back in the early
Speaker 1: two thousands, you know, when nobody out there wanted black content.
Speaker 1: Nobody was looking for us, you know, and then you
Speaker 1: battle with TV want you battle with Open Network. You
Speaker 1: battling with BT just to try to get a little
Speaker 1: little meaty with your stuff. How has the reaction been
Speaker 1: to your brand now that suddenly people want black content.
Speaker 1: We got the Netflix out there, the Amazon, the Hulse
Speaker 1: on it, a new network coming out of this time
Speaker 1: to the oh Hulu relationship. What is happening with your brain? Girl?
Speaker 1: You gotta be feeling good about yourself. Your faith is
Speaker 1: paying off. Yeah, yeah, hard work pays off, I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: And so when I think about it, I'm so glad
Speaker 1: that you brought that up, because I always tell people
Speaker 1: it's a part of staying through it all, like saying
Speaker 1: the course. When when I first did Secrets in sixteen,
Speaker 1: we took it to a b FF, very first time
Speaker 1: doing any of this, I remember being in the movie
Speaker 1: theater or the screening and actually looking around going, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, this is real. This is really real. Now
Speaker 1: people are in here watching this movie. And so God
Speaker 1: bless me big time because right after the screening I
Speaker 1: met someone from BT and they said, Hey, you need
Speaker 1: to meet such and such. They're gonna call you next week.
Speaker 1: And that happened. Um got a call from BT the
Speaker 1: very next week. And said, hey, we want to license
Speaker 1: this movie, So staying the course, staying committed. I didn't
Speaker 1: I didn't even know that that was going to happen
Speaker 1: to me. I honestly was going there saying, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take a chance on myself. I'm gonna market this film
Speaker 1: like crazy. See who shows up at my screening, and
Speaker 1: if nothing happens, I'm gonna keep going. I'm gonna figure
Speaker 1: it out. I'm gonna get it on somebody's network. But
Speaker 1: it happened very quickly, and from there the train has
Speaker 1: not stopped moving. Well that's a good train. Now that
Speaker 1: now you have some project coming out on up on
Speaker 1: bt her tell us about the tell us about the
Speaker 1: the process of Megamond, of of taking these books and
Speaker 1: adapting them for film. You know, we all know you
Speaker 1: to brain Child. You know you are the Megamond talk
Speaker 1: to us about their dressing. Yes, yes, so so obviously
Speaker 1: with Megamond, our primary goal is to take the books
Speaker 1: that are in the book catalog, from life changing books
Speaker 1: and adapt those into the movies. So that's the primary goal. However,
Speaker 1: along the way, when people see that you can produce
Speaker 1: um that you're putting out good content of course they're
Speaker 1: going to tap into you to do projects with them
Speaker 1: as well. So the partnership with bec Her UM with
Speaker 1: these health initiatives came with UM. One of the executives
Speaker 1: over there, Loresa Bates Um, she was looking for someone
Speaker 1: to UM partner with them on the health initiatives. So
Speaker 1: they have a series called The Waiting Room, The Couch,
Speaker 1: and now the Hotline. All of these series are projects
Speaker 1: that highlight health issues or some type of of issue
Speaker 1: that African American women face. So for example, The Couch
Speaker 1: touches on mental health, Uh, the Waiting Room touches on
Speaker 1: breast cancer awareness, and now the Hotline touches on domestic violence.
Speaker 1: And so this is a series that UM you know
Speaker 1: obviously you know bt Her feels really strongly about and
Speaker 1: I am actually the producer for for that series. And
Speaker 1: so we bring in celebrity directors. We've had Vivica Fox,
Speaker 1: Mona Scott Young, Victoria Raoul, Andessa Bell Callaway. Uh, the
Speaker 1: list goes on, but they basically come in, they take
Speaker 1: us an episode and they direct that episode. And the
Speaker 1: reason why we tapped into uh celebrities to do this
Speaker 1: is because we know when they speak people listen. So
Speaker 1: when you have a Shirley Ralph talking to you about
Speaker 1: why you should go and get a mamogram early. Uh,
Speaker 1: and why she decided to direct a an episode about
Speaker 1: breast cancer awareness. UM. So these these short films episodes
Speaker 1: are very very powerful. UM. We have a set of
Speaker 1: them coming out in July for The Couch, which are
Speaker 1: the mental health UM series. Tress on the Vivigate Fox
Speaker 1: movie that she directed, was that shot d C Area. Yes,
Speaker 1: we shoot all of our movies in DC. It was
Speaker 1: so funny because I was just tell you a little
Speaker 1: funny story because one of the locations that she chose
Speaker 1: was a very good friend aboute did you guys use
Speaker 1: Laura foods? It was her. So so we are so
Speaker 1: I'm on the phone, We're talking to Laura and then
Speaker 1: she won't Foxes in my office directing. It is so
Speaker 1: funny that you saying that, because I knew exactly the
Speaker 1: project that you were talking about that was recently shot,
Speaker 1: by the way, it was shot this year. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we actually shot two series at Laura's um facility. We
Speaker 1: did Want with Dandy Smith and Mona Scott Young. Her
Speaker 1: film was shot there as well. UM, and you know
Speaker 1: obviously I know Lord, just because she's amazing when it
Speaker 1: comes to money. Yes, and she talked about you to
Speaker 1: me before Rashawn, But I actually did not make the
Speaker 1: connection until now. Well good because now you know because
Speaker 1: of the fact that you are. It was so funny,
Speaker 1: But I said, I gotta ask what difficult shoot that
Speaker 1: indc because it was recently done. But when I look
Speaker 1: at these projects and looking you're evolving as a brand.
Speaker 1: You are a brand now. You know. You may have
Speaker 1: when out on faith, you may have. You know, God
Speaker 1: told you need to send the bed for six months
Speaker 1: and get you a little re ring bell and you
Speaker 1: wrote a book, but you are a brand. What responsibility
Speaker 1: comes with you being a brand tresser as a real
Speaker 1: small wood Yeah. I think for me, Um, the responsibility
Speaker 1: that I take is number one. I said before, I
Speaker 1: get to control the narrative, right because we are. We
Speaker 1: have a lot of eyeballs on us now. So even
Speaker 1: if I wanted to act crazy, I can't, right because
Speaker 1: there's too many people watching me. Um. I take the
Speaker 1: fact that although I don't teach in the classroom, I'm
Speaker 1: still an educator and there are a lot of young
Speaker 1: people watching me. Following me, wanting to duplicate my success,
Speaker 1: and so I don't take that lightly. UM. So responsibility
Speaker 1: for me is that I watch what I do. I
Speaker 1: make sure that I am pulling other people up and
Speaker 1: showing them what to do. UM and I am encouraging
Speaker 1: people all the time to go for it, but go
Speaker 1: for it with a plan, right right. And then then
Speaker 1: the plan is that you know it can that's be
Speaker 1: just faith. It has to have a plan tied to
Speaker 1: I always tell people you go out on faith, but
Speaker 1: somewhere along like you better have some reason or a
Speaker 1: budget tied to that. That that that faith. And when
Speaker 1: I when I look at what you're doing, what you
Speaker 1: I gotta ask this question because we said, you know
Speaker 1: your your books are female centric because people come to
Speaker 1: me all the time. You know, I can't get everybody
Speaker 1: at Simon Schuster or Harper College or some of the
Speaker 1: major labels out there. Do do you how do you
Speaker 1: how do you can screen people who want to bring
Speaker 1: novels or memoirs to your to your your book label
Speaker 1: l CP. Yeah, we have a screening process. So pretty
Speaker 1: much we send all traffic to um trust the ozareil
Speaker 1: dot com and from there people who want to go
Speaker 1: to casting, they can figure it out, you know, once
Speaker 1: they get to the site. If they want to, you know,
Speaker 1: submit a project. It's an easy way for me to
Speaker 1: streamline everything, all questions straight to that site. Because of course,
Speaker 1: if I'm doing radio interviews and all these different things,
Speaker 1: I can't always try to figure out how to help
Speaker 1: somebody answer each individual question. So we send everybody right
Speaker 1: there and they can get all the answers that they
Speaker 1: need in terms of um, you know, us looking at projects,
Speaker 1: whether it's a screenplay, it's a novel or whatever, it
Speaker 1: is okay cool. So so if someone because I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna sending some people, you're wait now because I have
Speaker 1: no i have no clue as to what to do,
Speaker 1: because I'm not familiar with because Amazon takes a lot
Speaker 1: of your money, to my understand, and then you know,
Speaker 1: when you do self publishing, and so when you talk
Speaker 1: about self publiclay are you going through Amazon? How how
Speaker 1: does your self publishing system work for you? Yeah, we
Speaker 1: still utilize Amazon. It's obviously not the only outlet that
Speaker 1: we have, but you know, we use Baker and Taylor,
Speaker 1: we use Ingram. Amazon is just easy for everyone, you know,
Speaker 1: whether I think I'm always in this love hate relationship
Speaker 1: with Amazon. But at the end of the day, it's
Speaker 1: easy access. And because America loves Amazon, they go there
Speaker 1: for my films, they go there to buy my books.
Speaker 1: But ultimately we get a chance to disseminate the information
Speaker 1: when they come to trust to ozarel dot com. So
Speaker 1: it's just the easy I love it. First of all,
Speaker 1: let's not just say America, but the world loves Amazons. You.
Speaker 1: You know, they can be buying your books in Africa
Speaker 1: and the Caribbean, in Spain, in Europe and Russia because
Speaker 1: they're watching my movie Shot all the time. But that's
Speaker 1: what that's That's what I'm saying, is that you are
Speaker 1: a brand down and so you know, I know I'm
Speaker 1: going to continuous conversation because you know, you're so enchanting
Speaker 1: and from the standpoint of you know, when I when
Speaker 1: I when I come across people like you who are
Speaker 1: naturally talented, you know, it's it's always the next level
Speaker 1: when I'm trying to figure out, you know, what's the
Speaker 1: next level for you. That's why we have to talk
Speaker 1: more off the air because of the fact that I
Speaker 1: see gifts in you. I'm not saying you're satisfied. I'll
Speaker 1: never say that. But what are the next step? Because
Speaker 1: you you, you know you, you know big dollar you
Speaker 1: should beat some big dollar projects. You know you should
Speaker 1: be afraid, you know, twenty five million dollar budgets. If
Speaker 1: they're throwing around the Netflix and all this stuff, you
Speaker 1: should be doing those things. And so I'm claiming it.
Speaker 1: I'm claiming it speaking into existence. I'm just trustful. I
Speaker 1: don't just talk like that's just because you know you
Speaker 1: look good. I'm talking about because you're good. Okay, So
Speaker 1: you know if you Ugglass think I talked to way
Speaker 1: because you're good girl. You all right? So so in
Speaker 1: the future, let's let's let's stay in touch. And I
Speaker 1: just want to share your story on money making conversation
Speaker 1: about how you made a decision as a elementary high school.
Speaker 1: You had a master's degree in education and you decided
Speaker 1: to you know, someone the follow my dream and the
Speaker 1: Nate sayals. Your friends, your family, your co workers told you, hey,
Speaker 1: care are you crazy? Same people told me when I
Speaker 1: would leaving IBM be a stand up comment. They said,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be Edin Murphy. I never told you
Speaker 1: I wanted to be Edin Murphy and I told you
Speaker 1: I want to be richer prior you assuming something I
Speaker 1: never All I want to do is just be ras
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald and guess what. It's worked out for me,
Speaker 1: and it's working out for you. And that's what money
Speaker 1: making conversations about. Then people hear these stories of success
Speaker 1: to let them know if you follow your faith with
Speaker 1: a plan and a budget, you can win too. But no,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be some low roads, the low roads go
Speaker 1: to let you know how to not fall back into
Speaker 1: the low roads. The high roads when they come, let
Speaker 1: you know how what it takes to stay at the
Speaker 1: high road. Because the back to your success. And thank
Speaker 1: you for coming on Money Making Conversation, Trusting, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for having me. I really really love this conversation.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you and I'm glad you was able to
Speaker 1: put two and two together with Laura Foods. Now you
Speaker 1: know talk, that's my girl. But again she swaps, she
Speaker 1: knows out the hend your money and she's a hard worker. Again,
Speaker 1: come back on my show, and we need to promote
Speaker 1: something else and also just tell your story to my
Speaker 1: fans who will vote audio as well as video for
Speaker 1: money Making conversations. Okay, awesome, thank you so much. Have
Speaker 1: a great day. Okay, we will be right back with
Speaker 1: more money making conversations with your host Roshawn McDonald. Look
Speaker 1: for your children's eyes to see the true magic of
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Speaker 1: States Forest Service and the AD Council. You are now
Speaker 1: tuned into the money making conversations. Minute of Inspiration with
Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald Lamar Rutger beginning his career on daytime soap
Speaker 1: operas As the World Turned and All My Children, Lamar
Speaker 1: discovered when COVID nineteen hit, it changed the game in
Speaker 1: television production. You know, everything now is being so condensed,
Speaker 1: wanting because you are also trying to not only minimize costs,
Speaker 1: but minimize basic leaves, exposure risks and all that. So
Speaker 1: you're literally working virtually every day for a month, one
Speaker 1: day off every six you know, seven days or something
Speaker 1: like that. The hours are crazy, so you've got to
Speaker 1: take care of your body and be careful about being
Speaker 1: fatigued and make sure you're getting a proper rest and
Speaker 1: recovery and nutrition. I have COVID compliance officers on set.
Speaker 1: You know again, we get tested on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: I think that people are doing the best they can
Speaker 1: because we and they also don't want to get shut down.
Speaker 1: If you want to hear this full interview with lamon Rocket,
Speaker 1: visit money Making Conversation dot com. Keep winning. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversations with your host, Rashwan McDonald. My
Speaker 1: next guest is a guy I've seen it a long time.
Speaker 1: He's one of my favorite people. Al Harrington. He has
Speaker 1: a retired NBA star as the CEO and founder of
Speaker 1: the premium cannabis company Viola Incorporative. Inspired the name in
Speaker 1: honor of his grandmother, Viola Harrington, after seeing how cannabis
Speaker 1: helped Viola, who suffered from glaucoma and diabetes. Al's entrepreneur
Speaker 1: endeavors begin and doing his NBA career when he strategically
Speaker 1: invested in startups across the cannabis industry. Then in Al
Speaker 1: brought Viola to the market after overseeing the carefully created
Speaker 1: cultivation and extraction and production. This part of his mission
Speaker 1: is to say this entrepreneur opportunity is for everybody. He's there.
Speaker 1: He's a leader in the business. He's throughout this country.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the locations that he's grown his
Speaker 1: business over one hundred employees. Wow, please walcome to the show.
Speaker 1: My man, he's an entrepreneur. Don't like I said, Well,
Speaker 1: just said what Lebron said. More than the athlete, that's
Speaker 1: my man right here, Al Hariton, I ain't doing all
Speaker 1: you know. I I had to bring it up man,
Speaker 1: more than an athlete, man, because I'm on an interviewing
Speaker 1: UM Chris Paul and Chris Paul Goy. He was in
Speaker 1: the interview. He talked about the guy said, guy was
Speaker 1: caught off guard that he knew more than just about
Speaker 1: the game that he played. He said, Man, we do
Speaker 1: we dribble, We do want to just dribble a basketball. Man.
Speaker 1: We eat, we live, we have family, we do business deals.
Speaker 1: And that's really sometimes you can get caught off by that.
Speaker 1: People just kind of like short change you because you
Speaker 1: are an athlete, correct, Yeah, for sure. I mean you guys,
Speaker 1: and it's super expected, right, I mean most people are
Speaker 1: fans or whatever. They only see us on Sports Center, right,
Speaker 1: they don't you know, we don't have too many outlets
Speaker 1: where we get a chance to um, you know, show
Speaker 1: the other side of our life, right, the things that
Speaker 1: we do in the community, the investments that we make,
Speaker 1: you know, so um, you know it's important for like
Speaker 1: platforms like what you have here, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: to be able to highlight athletes and allow us to
Speaker 1: show the world that we are more than athletes, and
Speaker 1: we're more than guys who just can dribble a basketball
Speaker 1: and make and make a hoop. You know. The interesting
Speaker 1: thing about it is that you know when you're giving
Speaker 1: that talent and I ways say I want to be uh,
Speaker 1: I have to slow it down when I say the
Speaker 1: word talent because then everybody has a talent. But if
Speaker 1: you don't work on it and mature it, then guess what,
Speaker 1: it's just a talent. Let's talk about the process of
Speaker 1: once you realize you had the ability to play basketball,
Speaker 1: and then people I saw you having that ability to
Speaker 1: play basketball, how did you move forward and making it
Speaker 1: an opportunity that you can make money with it? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, for me, like, uh, my basketball talent came
Speaker 1: from noway almost right when I grew up. Believe it
Speaker 1: or not I was. You know, I was always the
Speaker 1: biggest kid in class. But I was the biggest kid
Speaker 1: in class. You know, my real tum is Albert sized
Speaker 1: fat out. But growing up so I used to be
Speaker 1: realied a little bit, you know about my size and
Speaker 1: my weight. So you know, the way I could take
Speaker 1: out my frustration was on the football field. So I
Speaker 1: played football up until I was a freshman in high
Speaker 1: school and that's when I had a gross spur. So
Speaker 1: I went from you know five ten to six four,
Speaker 1: and you know, played on the freshman team. Wasn't that good. Uh,
Speaker 1: But for some reason, you know, my AU coach guy
Speaker 1: named Sandy Paon and then Jay Syriac, they saw a
Speaker 1: talent in me somehow, and you know they started to
Speaker 1: invite me to work out some different things like that,
Speaker 1: and you know, over time, I fell in love with
Speaker 1: the game, and you know, going into my junior years,
Speaker 1: when I made a commitment that you know, I wanted
Speaker 1: to be a ranked athlete. You know, I was wasn't ranked,
Speaker 1: but I saw a lot of the guys that was
Speaker 1: in the top one hundred and top ten, and I
Speaker 1: just felt like there wasn't that much better than me,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just that they just have been playing longer.
Speaker 1: So I just really dedicated myself to the gym and
Speaker 1: just got really good man and over a two year span,
Speaker 1: I went from an unraped you know, uh, you know
Speaker 1: player to the number one player in the country. Right. So,
Speaker 1: you know, once I got to that point, you know,
Speaker 1: all the number one players in the country was going
Speaker 1: to the league. So I was just like, shoot, if
Speaker 1: I came to the point I'm the number one player,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go pro too. And pretty much that's how
Speaker 1: I made my decision. I was just like, I'm the No.
Speaker 1: One player. Everybody else is going from too, and that's
Speaker 1: how But the key key to you was when you
Speaker 1: got to the n B and you had you had mentors,
Speaker 1: you know, because that's where a lot of players like
Speaker 1: you that are young don't have a real professional athletes
Speaker 1: pull you aside. Talk about that experience in the importance
Speaker 1: of mentorship for a young man who's suddenly in a
Speaker 1: legal adults you know, all the responsibility being an adult
Speaker 1: is placed on you and you have money. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's uh, you know, it's it's eye opening. You know
Speaker 1: when you go from literally like nothing, so now having
Speaker 1: a million dollars in the bank. It's just like you
Speaker 1: can't fathom it. And you know, for me, where I
Speaker 1: was just really lucky was that I got on a
Speaker 1: you know, Indiana Paces squad that just lost in you know,
Speaker 1: seven games to Michael Jordan's Bulls. So they brought back
Speaker 1: up a fully veteran team. So I had guys on
Speaker 1: my team that just taught me everything. They told me
Speaker 1: how to be a professional, which is the most important thing, right.
Speaker 1: I always say, the foundation that they lay with me
Speaker 1: is the reason why that I was able to play
Speaker 1: for sixteen years. And you know, to your point, a
Speaker 1: lot of the younger guys that do get drafted, you know,
Speaker 1: in the first the top ten, they usually go to
Speaker 1: teams that aren't really good, right, And usually they're not
Speaker 1: really good because it's poor leadership. The team is extremely young,
Speaker 1: and they just have nobody to you know, kind of
Speaker 1: give them direction or whatever. So I always say, like,
Speaker 1: as much as I wanted to be a top fifteen
Speaker 1: pick or whatever, and I looked at the teams that
Speaker 1: I wanted to draft me, I think that guy was
Speaker 1: definitely looking out for me by putting me on a
Speaker 1: pacer team that had guys like Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson,
Speaker 1: Chris Mullen and Tonio Davis who actually allowed me to
Speaker 1: live with him my freshman. I'll tell his story, quick story.
Speaker 1: I had got, uh, you know these books I called
Speaker 1: him at the time in the mail and I looked
Speaker 1: at him and they had like the year and dating
Speaker 1: my name on it, and I didn't know what they were.
Speaker 1: So I took him and put it in my closet.
Speaker 1: And like two weeks later, I come home from practice
Speaker 1: and Antonio has the same books and he's like signing them.
Speaker 1: So I asked him what they were and he was like,
Speaker 1: the my taxes. I was like, well, I got those
Speaker 1: same books downstairs and taxes. So it's like so, I
Speaker 1: mean it was on the court and off the court.
Speaker 1: You know the way these guys U leave me and
Speaker 1: you know, help set me up to, like I said,
Speaker 1: be able to play for sixteen years. We know the
Speaker 1: beauty of youw Herid were looked at background and al
Speaker 1: mad at the Steve Harvey camp and man, it was
Speaker 1: hot and we were just laughing and we we were
Speaker 1: phone called each other period and they were kind of
Speaker 1: like it lost uh like disconnected there. But the thing
Speaker 1: I loved about this guy man was that, you know,
Speaker 1: you always think people gotta have a degree to do this,
Speaker 1: You have to go to a certain to graduate. And
Speaker 1: here you are, like you said, you fished your life decision.
Speaker 1: Everybody else was number one, they went pro. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go pro. But then while you was a pro, you
Speaker 1: had the smart the sense to learn how to be
Speaker 1: a professional and learned there is life after basketball, and
Speaker 1: that's what I'm talking about. You decided to start investing
Speaker 1: in your after life career while you were still playing.
Speaker 1: Why was that so important? Well, you know, I had
Speaker 1: a financial so so you know, quick story. Uh, I
Speaker 1: got plenty of stories, but my uh, I think it
Speaker 1: was my third year in the league. I was sitting
Speaker 1: in the locker room and I was sitting next to
Speaker 1: um Derek McKee, and somehow we just started talking about
Speaker 1: investing and how much money, you know, had I saved
Speaker 1: at that point, and he was asking me questions that
Speaker 1: I didn't really know the answer of, right, because I
Speaker 1: was focused on playing. Right. I had had a back surgery,
Speaker 1: so I was just trying to get back and just
Speaker 1: focusing on the game and never like really looking at
Speaker 1: my finances. But when he asked me some questions I
Speaker 1: didn't know the answer. He was like, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you some homework answer these questions for me. And I
Speaker 1: went back and I looked at everything and I saw
Speaker 1: asking questions, and what I realized was like I had
Speaker 1: like three hundred and fifty thousand dollars saved, and I
Speaker 1: had a couple of assets here and there, but for
Speaker 1: the most part, I was still broke, right And this
Speaker 1: is after I had probably already made about three million bucks.
Speaker 1: And that was very i opening for me at that time,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And it really, like, you know,
Speaker 1: just made me look at everything differently. And and Derek
Speaker 1: also introduced me to his financial advisor, which was an
Speaker 1: older gentleman out of Lexington, Kentucky. And what I like
Speaker 1: about this gentleman was one he really challenged me out
Speaker 1: the gate. You know. It was just like, you know, um,
Speaker 1: you know any business opportunities that you want to do, Um,
Speaker 1: I'll look at them for you, but you know you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to present to me why this is a
Speaker 1: good deal and start vetting deals on my own at
Speaker 1: a very young age. And it just started giving me
Speaker 1: more business sense and more business acumen and how to
Speaker 1: ask the right questions and not just fall for any
Speaker 1: opportunity that would actually come my way. You know. So
Speaker 1: I'll always give him a lot of credit for those
Speaker 1: two gentlemen, because you know, you know, I think I
Speaker 1: was maybe twenty one, maybe twenty two years old is
Speaker 1: when I started to have those kind of conversations, and
Speaker 1: it just really inspired me to just learn more. Every time,
Speaker 1: you know, a deal came across my plate, and you know,
Speaker 1: from an entrepreneur standpoint, like I just you know, I
Speaker 1: love business man. It's like it's like the game. You know,
Speaker 1: what I'm saying and what I've learned about how translated
Speaker 1: what I've learned in sports two businesses. It's all about team,
Speaker 1: you know. So anytime I look at the deal, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the team who's involved. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: who's gonna be executing, who's gonna set the pick, who's
Speaker 1: gonna be three point shooter, who's gonna you know, what
Speaker 1: are the specialists that you have within your organization on
Speaker 1: why this is a good business opportunity and why this
Speaker 1: is gonna win. And you know, ever since I've taken
Speaker 1: that approach. Man. You know, I've been pretty successful. You know,
Speaker 1: I would definitely say every idea or everything that I
Speaker 1: invested in did not work, but most did. And then
Speaker 1: you know, you look at this business that I'm in
Speaker 1: now in cannabis. You know, this is our tenure and
Speaker 1: the ursary. I'm very proud of that. You know, we've raised,
Speaker 1: you know, just under twenty five million dollars. Six million
Speaker 1: of that was my own money. So I scanned the
Speaker 1: game and I'm ten years in and running the business
Speaker 1: as cash for positive where I look at a lot
Speaker 1: of my counterparts that don't even look like me one
Speaker 1: that they already have all the advantages to raise hundreds
Speaker 1: and a lot of them are out of business. So
Speaker 1: you know, I would just say that we've done a
Speaker 1: really good job. And I think I've done a really
Speaker 1: good job at the way I approach business. And I'm
Speaker 1: just continue to learn, man, because like to your point,
Speaker 1: I came out of high school. I didn't go to college.
Speaker 1: I don't have no business degree. A lot of decisions
Speaker 1: I've made is off of my gut. But you know,
Speaker 1: I've definitely learned how to look and do diligence on
Speaker 1: the opportunities before I jump on them. I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you some wow. Uh. If you made three million dollars
Speaker 1: and you were able to say three dollars, you were
Speaker 1: pretty smart to say. I'll just tell you right right there.
Speaker 1: You were not a dummy. Okay, you might say you
Speaker 1: were broke, but that was a pretty smart move. So
Speaker 1: you mean that you were listening along the way, which
Speaker 1: means that you understood that you need to put money
Speaker 1: to the side. You know what to do with the money.
Speaker 1: But the people who came into your life said, you
Speaker 1: got that, let's build that, and this is how you
Speaker 1: have to come to me. So you won't be coming
Speaker 1: up with no nightclub pitch, no car wash, pitch with
Speaker 1: no with no amazurization tied to the five year plan.
Speaker 1: And so when you when you got into the cannabis business,
Speaker 1: you know right now it's it's it's you know. I
Speaker 1: remember when I first read about cannabis business, I just
Speaker 1: didn't understand it and I was like confused, you know,
Speaker 1: was it legal? Can you how can you do? You know?
Speaker 1: The athletes they couldn't mess with it. Now you're here
Speaker 1: that the NFL is relaxing their rules, the NBA is
Speaker 1: a relaxing their rules if they're they're using the word
Speaker 1: medically and induced reasons as to why you can use
Speaker 1: cannabis CBD. When did it start changing because you dropped
Speaker 1: in when it was just like, you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of people say a good deal, but I'm was stay
Speaker 1: away and watch now people are wanting to invest into
Speaker 1: your brand. Yeah, I mean to your point, when I
Speaker 1: jumped in, it was not pop learn. You know, now
Speaker 1: every entertainer, athlete, everybody's making investments and you know, trying
Speaker 1: to endorse products. You know, when I did this, you
Speaker 1: know I was I put my contract at risk. UM,
Speaker 1: I put my freedom at risk essentially, right, you know,
Speaker 1: and we still do. I mean, it's still federally illegal.
Speaker 1: And I can be very honest with you now ten
Speaker 1: years later. When I first started, I was like you,
Speaker 1: I didn't know what the hell I was doing and
Speaker 1: what the meeting into. Um. All I knew was that
Speaker 1: I had seen it help my grandmother. UM. With my
Speaker 1: grandmother's background being that you know, she's a lady, she's
Speaker 1: she's a lady of the Lord. I tell you all
Speaker 1: the time, my grandmother not going to heaven. We're all
Speaker 1: going to hell. For sure, where you got a chance
Speaker 1: open minded enough to try cannabis and then work. And
Speaker 1: you know, for her when she tried it, the first
Speaker 1: thing she did was go downstairs and read a Bible.
Speaker 1: He told me. You know, the first time she read
Speaker 1: read a Bible went over three years. So that's what
Speaker 1: just really inspired me, like I said, to just learn more.
Speaker 1: And you know, from that day, from when I made
Speaker 1: the first investment getting out you know, our building that
Speaker 1: we have in Colorado now ten years and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: being robbed, being you know, having the plans, get sick
Speaker 1: in the in the facility, all these different obstacles that
Speaker 1: came our way. Um, I had every reason in the
Speaker 1: world a quick right and just like you know what
Speaker 1: this ain't for me. You know, I could be golfing
Speaker 1: right now, right, you know, to say enough money that
Speaker 1: I could be doing something totally different in my life.
Speaker 1: But you know, I just really value that I had
Speaker 1: an opportunity to change the perception of cannabis to the
Speaker 1: world by using my platform speaking on it. And it
Speaker 1: went from that to trying to change the stigma to
Speaker 1: now my purposes around the around the inclusion and diversity
Speaker 1: of the industry. You know, and how it in fact
Speaker 1: impacts the black community because they use cannabis to enslave
Speaker 1: us in to destroy our communities. Now all these you know,
Speaker 1: we own less than four percent of the industry, There's
Speaker 1: billions of dollars being made, and there's still all these
Speaker 1: barry is for black people to participate in something that
Speaker 1: was nothing wrong with it in the first place. Right.
Speaker 1: So that's why my focus is literally on trying to
Speaker 1: right the wrongs that happened to our people in our community.
Speaker 1: And you know, I will say that it's very hard,
Speaker 1: you know, because if you don't have the capital to
Speaker 1: be able to really go out and support these people,
Speaker 1: because this industry is so cash intensive, you know, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of challenges. But you know, I feel
Speaker 1: like we've been able to you know, use you know,
Speaker 1: our our platform in different ways where it doesn't always
Speaker 1: require us to have to put in money. You know,
Speaker 1: we could use just our influence, some of our resources,
Speaker 1: just our knowledge, just giving people the right course to
Speaker 1: go down instead of going down the way that I
Speaker 1: already went down and that was not the right way,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's just really just trying to just
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what's the best way to have
Speaker 1: impact on our community. And you know that's what that's
Speaker 1: that's what is constantly motivating me every day to continue
Speaker 1: to grow this business. You know something, you know, you
Speaker 1: got over Huden employees. You know your your franchises in California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon,
Speaker 1: and Washington. And I'll tell you, I was watching HBO
Speaker 1: when the early stages of this cannabis andy and they
Speaker 1: were showing this this this white guy. He had security
Speaker 1: all around them, okay, and he had to go to
Speaker 1: a warehouse and he had to have cash, and they
Speaker 1: were saying something like, you know, you can't deposit this
Speaker 1: money in the bank. It was like I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: that means like everything the cash transaction, you couldn't deposit
Speaker 1: the money in the bank. That scared me. I would
Speaker 1: hold up. I gotta worry about my wife. I got
Speaker 1: worried by my daughter. Somebody gonna kidnap somebody. How did
Speaker 1: you How did you manage man to like, uh, survive
Speaker 1: you with all these barriers. You couldn't put the money
Speaker 1: in the bank's cash induced you know, you gotta have
Speaker 1: security around you all the time. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I was blown away. Man there that that ran me
Speaker 1: out the back door. I went, no way, no way,
Speaker 1: because people are coming there, man, they were coming. Are rich.
Speaker 1: You're smart, dude, you can make a lot of money
Speaker 1: outside that HBO special. I would hell, no, no way,
Speaker 1: no way, no no. It has its challenges, man. So
Speaker 1: you know when I came in, banking definitely was tough.
Speaker 1: I started off in Colorado, so Colorado had some form
Speaker 1: of regulation and different things like that. We first started,
Speaker 1: we definitely did have a bunch of cash, but that
Speaker 1: was only for maybe like the first year to eighteen
Speaker 1: months that Credit Union started to take banking and they
Speaker 1: got filthy rich. You know, I would say, like it
Speaker 1: was thirty five hundred dollars for us to have just
Speaker 1: to holding account with the bank monthly. It was a
Speaker 1: monthly feet of thirty five hundred bucks. And then we
Speaker 1: would have to pay two to three percent on every
Speaker 1: deposit over ten thousand dollars. You said, wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: wait wait a brother, you said, they chalked you thirty
Speaker 1: five dollars a month for their account. Did two oh
Speaker 1: their account ten thousand dollars? So yeah, yeah, or the banks,
Speaker 1: So if you was willing to take the chance we're
Speaker 1: banking you got rich. That's just been calling me, Risha, Dude,
Speaker 1: do start off black banks something. I've been saying that
Speaker 1: for a while. I just it's only so much time
Speaker 1: in the day for me, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I still think that the banking is a huge need
Speaker 1: and opportunity in the space, and especially as more black people,
Speaker 1: especially social equity continues to be more relevant in the space.
Speaker 1: I think people would love to bank with somebody that
Speaker 1: looks like them and in someone that can understand them
Speaker 1: in their needs, you know what I'm saying. So there's
Speaker 1: definitely an opportunity there. So we can talk about that
Speaker 1: offline for sure. You know, man, talking to you, man,
Speaker 1: I n b a doctor. Dude, you are so well honed,
Speaker 1: so articulate, so smart in this whole entremur neural space.
Speaker 1: Do you realize who you are? Do you realize how
Speaker 1: you communicate? Man? That's what when I met you with
Speaker 1: this brother's shock. Man. But sometimes you know, you're just
Speaker 1: one of those natural guys that don't appreciated respect the
Speaker 1: knowledge that you pour into people. And it's tough because
Speaker 1: like obviously I'm living everything in in real time right
Speaker 1: and Obviously, I'm constantly working every day in the building,
Speaker 1: so you don't really get a chance to sit back
Speaker 1: and kind of just realize, you know, what you have
Speaker 1: been able to build and what you've been able to
Speaker 1: to to actually create for others. But you know, my
Speaker 1: my biggest thing is like I really feel like this
Speaker 1: is a legacy opportunity for myself and everybody that's involved
Speaker 1: with it. And you know, that's what I continue to
Speaker 1: sell to my employees. It's like, you know, this is
Speaker 1: what we're doing is not only for us, it's for
Speaker 1: it's for other people to at some point be able
Speaker 1: to you know, benefit from as well. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think that when you set up a business, where
Speaker 1: is about serving the people. I think that the reward
Speaker 1: that comes back you can't put a number on it. Right.
Speaker 1: So I've never been the guy to say I want
Speaker 1: to create a billion dollar company, right, you know, let's
Speaker 1: just see what a chips for what they made. But
Speaker 1: I just feel like it we continue to serve people,
Speaker 1: continue to help people, continue to be consistent with within
Speaker 1: the brand and the products that we produce. I think
Speaker 1: sky's the limit for us. Man. I'm tell you something, Man,
Speaker 1: I was impressed when I first met you, man, you
Speaker 1: were just just you just don't understand your abilities. Right
Speaker 1: now you are walking talking poster for black opportunity athlete
Speaker 1: transition to normal life entrepreneurship, uh planning, And I just
Speaker 1: want you to say, you're on my show here might
Speaker 1: making conversation. I need you on CNBC. I need you
Speaker 1: a CNN, I need you on everything MSNBC because, man,
Speaker 1: your game and your conference. I need you on to
Speaker 1: cover a black enterprise. Okay, that's how smart you're talking
Speaker 1: because you're missing your mixing community and opportunity, and that's
Speaker 1: what doesn't get spoken a lot in the community, and
Speaker 1: everybody wants to hear that. Did your backstory of how
Speaker 1: you started was based on your grandmother, So when you
Speaker 1: start mixing all that together. Because I've been trying to
Speaker 1: get you about a year and a half on my show. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm mad at you because you need to be on
Speaker 1: more than my show. You, my brother, need to be
Speaker 1: on more than my show. Your special man, I said
Speaker 1: that back then and here and how you've developed as
Speaker 1: a man as a business person. Your story needs to
Speaker 1: be told more than just on this show. It needs
Speaker 1: to be across the board because you're employing people, then
Speaker 1: you're you're telling me rouch I'm trying to get more
Speaker 1: people into the game, but also I'm trying to break
Speaker 1: it down the numbers of where it was. At one
Speaker 1: time it was they was putting us in jail for
Speaker 1: this same thing and putting three and teen years sentences
Speaker 1: on us. Now the white people selling it and they're
Speaker 1: not going to jail, but then they won't let us
Speaker 1: buy it to sell it. Right, Yeah, it's it's I mean,
Speaker 1: we could, we could go on and on about that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's really screwed up. And you know
Speaker 1: I always would I always say when I talk to people,
Speaker 1: and especially when I talk to like, you know, black
Speaker 1: business leaders in these communities that don't want cannabis, and
Speaker 1: I just tell them all the time, like you got
Speaker 1: to really take another step back and look at this
Speaker 1: because it's happening and this is generational wealth at risk
Speaker 1: for our community. You know, I really feel that this
Speaker 1: cannabis plant will be a you know, a hundreds a
Speaker 1: couple of hundreds of billion dollars a year industry, and
Speaker 1: if we can have a seat at the table and
Speaker 1: carve out our peace, I feel like we can take
Speaker 1: something that destroyed our community to actually rebuild it. You know,
Speaker 1: it's so many different ways of you know, uh participating
Speaker 1: in the space from you know, himp industrial hip. You
Speaker 1: know how many people reach out to me saying that
Speaker 1: their family own land and all these different parts of
Speaker 1: the country, and I'm like, yeah, let's start producing himp
Speaker 1: on there because I envisioned at some point um building
Speaker 1: communities made out of him himp homes and different things
Speaker 1: like that. Is there's so many different ways that this
Speaker 1: plant can impact our community. It just hasn't been unlocked
Speaker 1: yet because it's been illegal. And then also people from
Speaker 1: our community have some form of ps PTSD of just
Speaker 1: seeing so many people being locked up in lives ruined
Speaker 1: that they just can't wrap their head around like this
Speaker 1: is now an opportunity where we can create real wealth.
Speaker 1: So that's what I just continue to speak on and
Speaker 1: just you know, continue to let people know and spread
Speaker 1: the good news because you know, cannabis is the most
Speaker 1: dynamic plant in the world, and as we continue to
Speaker 1: unlock all the things that it does, you know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna really be sitting twenty years from now thinking about
Speaker 1: how dumb it was that you know, cannabis wasn't you know,
Speaker 1: a primary source of wellness a very long time ago.
Speaker 1: You know, here's a there's a thought as we close
Speaker 1: up because of the fact that when I talked to you,
Speaker 1: what exactly does your company do? I want everybody to
Speaker 1: clear understanding. You know you in you in California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon,
Speaker 1: and Washington. You have a hard your employees. What does
Speaker 1: your company do? Now? So we were we're pretty much
Speaker 1: a vertically integrated company, so we actually we cultivate, we manufacture,
Speaker 1: we have some retail locations. UH. So that's called like
Speaker 1: pretty much vertical integration. UH. And the state is a
Speaker 1: little different. So like in Colorado were vertically integrated, Michigan
Speaker 1: with vertically integrated, UH, Oregon with vertically integrated. But you know, California, Oklahoma, Washington,
Speaker 1: those are places where we actually do white label agreements
Speaker 1: or we actually provide those producers. There are genetics to
Speaker 1: grow specifically for us, and then obviously we package it
Speaker 1: and we market it. So essentially, you know, Viola is
Speaker 1: a brand. Um just think of it almost like a speech.
Speaker 1: You don't stop, first of all, stop man, vertically integrated
Speaker 1: white label how many people you know, you know what
Speaker 1: you're talking about. Bro believe he just he That's what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. You're so into your game when you
Speaker 1: start talking, you forget I'm talking to a lot of people.
Speaker 1: They may know Presenter that people don't know what white
Speaker 1: labeling is and definitely don't know what vertically integrated is,
Speaker 1: So you couldn't explain that they're white labeling because so
Speaker 1: we could just let everybody know the greatness of our
Speaker 1: Parentally integrated means that we control the supply chain, you know,
Speaker 1: from start to fiel almost from seed to cell. So
Speaker 1: that means that we cultivated, we manufactured, whether we break
Speaker 1: it down into oils or concentrates or we just make
Speaker 1: pre roles, that's that's considered manufacturing. Then we actually package
Speaker 1: it for distribution is to to our end user, which
Speaker 1: is the dispensaries that we work with or our own dispensaries.
Speaker 1: So that's what vertical integration is. And white labeling means
Speaker 1: that you know, you have a brand that's really strong
Speaker 1: where you could do strategic partnerships with other cultivators and
Speaker 1: manufacturers where they will agree to produce product for you
Speaker 1: to put into your packaging. So that you can now
Speaker 1: enter into that state in the asset light model, which
Speaker 1: I mean when asset light model means that we don't
Speaker 1: have to come in and been like most cultivation UH
Speaker 1: costs anywhere from five to ten million dollars to build
Speaker 1: out a five hundred to a thousand life facility. So
Speaker 1: if you don't want to go into that state and
Speaker 1: you know, spend that capex, UH, you will find a
Speaker 1: partner that has lights and that respects your brand and
Speaker 1: we'll be able to cultivate for you so that you
Speaker 1: can actually into that market without having to put up
Speaker 1: that upfront money. But the brand actually leads the way.
Speaker 1: My man, Man, you're special man as an African American,
Speaker 1: and I know you're trying to break walls, breakdown path.
Speaker 1: How can you be an assistant uh in getting there?
Speaker 1: I know you're saying you're trying to normalize the process.
Speaker 1: Is it is it about just getting money? How do
Speaker 1: I just want to get licensed in this business? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean it depends. I mean, like you know, with
Speaker 1: the license and situation, it's it's very it's unique. Right,
Speaker 1: so places on the West coast, like you know, Oregon, California,
Speaker 1: it's relatively easy to get a license. Um, it's expensive obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, because you have to you know, submit applications,
Speaker 1: pay all these different fees and different things like that,
Speaker 1: and then once you actually win the license, now you
Speaker 1: need you know, anywhere from you know to the ten
Speaker 1: million dollars to build out your facility, depending on the
Speaker 1: size of it. On the East Coast, that's where it's
Speaker 1: really really competitive. And on the East Coast is where
Speaker 1: pretty much all the opportunity is because all those licenses
Speaker 1: are all limited. Right, So New York there's only ten
Speaker 1: vertically integrated licenses that they gave out, and when you
Speaker 1: think about how big the New York market is, you
Speaker 1: know that ten licenses will never be enough, right, They're
Speaker 1: gonna have to add probably another hundred. But the way
Speaker 1: they set it up is these first ten will be
Speaker 1: vertically integrated, like I talked about earlier, which gives them
Speaker 1: an advantage right when entering into the market because they
Speaker 1: already have a market share and they already have somewhat
Speaker 1: of a foothold already. But that license process, the reason
Speaker 1: why those ten operators aren't black is because or none
Speaker 1: of the black people couldn't even really afford to apply
Speaker 1: was because that whole application process was probably a five
Speaker 1: to seven million dollar package. Right there was probably fifty
Speaker 1: sixty companies that had to put five to seven million
Speaker 1: dollars in their package to apply and only ten one.
Speaker 1: So you think about that, like you could go and
Speaker 1: use all the resources you know, when you'll put your
Speaker 1: five million dollars together and win, right right, It's so,
Speaker 1: it's so so the East is extremely expensive. And you know,
Speaker 1: even us. You know, I have another company called Village
Speaker 1: Uh that me and my co found in Viola. We
Speaker 1: started and you know that company, we we we pretty
Speaker 1: much raised five million dollars to start that company to
Speaker 1: go after licenses. And you know, last year we was
Speaker 1: awarded a license in Maryland where you know, we beat
Speaker 1: out some of the big Coca Cola's and heser Busch
Speaker 1: back companies. We were the number one ranked application in
Speaker 1: the state of Maryland. And then in Missouri we won
Speaker 1: for vertical integration. We won. We was number one in cultivation,
Speaker 1: number one in tell and number three and manufacturing. And
Speaker 1: you know, we're still waiting on New Jersey, Illinois, Georgia.
Speaker 1: We're great to put in New York. So I've tried
Speaker 1: to figure out ways to kind of you know, participate
Speaker 1: in every way possible, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: I've been having some success. So to answer your question,
Speaker 1: how can you support me? Right? We are constantly always
Speaker 1: raising money. Um. You know, all these new opportunities that
Speaker 1: come you have, like I said, you have to find
Speaker 1: a way to fund them. So um, you know you
Speaker 1: could be my first investor. You know, from this call
Speaker 1: and from there, my brother I would tell you the
Speaker 1: man man's first of all, you know we can talk
Speaker 1: off our lives because you're brilliant. Man. I just feel that, uh,
Speaker 1: as part of the service of your businesses you like
Speaker 1: you know, magic is his business. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You have that same charisma. Your intellect is off the chart,
Speaker 1: your articulation is your beast, and your smile is brilliant.
Speaker 1: And so again, Man, I want to thank you for
Speaker 1: reuniting with me Al Harrington and getting to talk and
Speaker 1: just see where your life is treating you well. Man,
Speaker 1: And uh, thank you for coming on money Making Conversation there.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. We will
Speaker 1: be right back with more money Making Conversations with your
Speaker 1: host Rashan McDonald. You are now tuned into the Money
Speaker 1: Making Conversations Minute of inspiration with Rashan McDonald's how would
Speaker 1: is changing its perception of African American programming just as
Speaker 1: entertainment trailblazer Deborah Martin Chase, who is currently the executive
Speaker 1: producer on Queen Latifa's new CBS drama series, The Equalizer.
Speaker 1: I got in this business because, like I was growing up,
Speaker 1: I did not see people on screen who looked or
Speaker 1: felt like me, and so I wanted to break down stereotypes.
Speaker 1: I wanted to create images that would empower us and
Speaker 1: would help people to understand that, you know, they had
Speaker 1: the power to do whatever they wanted to do in life.
Speaker 1: And there was a period in Hollywood where people weren't
Speaker 1: interested in making movies about women, about people of color.
Speaker 1: It was all about the big temp pole movies and
Speaker 1: action movies. I would walk into offices and people's eyes
Speaker 1: with glaze over when I told them, you know what
Speaker 1: I was thinking about. If you want to hear this
Speaker 1: full interview with Deborah Martin Chase, visit Money Making Conversation
Speaker 1: dot com. Keep winning. Welcome back, Hi everyone. Al Roker
Speaker 1: here as a guy with his own catchphrase. I appreciate
Speaker 1: that Smokey's only said only you can prevent wildfires, but
Speaker 1: I'm filling in because there's a lot more to report,
Speaker 1: like when they're parched or windy conditions out there. You
Speaker 1: gotta be extra careful with things like burning yard waist.
Speaker 1: After all, wildfires can start anywhere, even in your neck
Speaker 1: of the woods. Go to Smokey Bear dot com to
Speaker 1: learn more about wildfire prevention brought to you by the U. S.
Speaker 1: Forest Service, your state Forrester, and the ad Council. And
Speaker 1: we're live here outside the Perez family home, just waiting
Speaker 1: for the and there they go, almost on time. This morning,
Speaker 1: Mom is coming out the front door strong with a
Speaker 1: dumb alarmed kid carry looks like Dad has the bags.
Speaker 1: Daughter is bringing up the rear. Oh, but the diaper
Speaker 1: bag wasn't closed. Diapers and toys are everywhere. But Mom
Speaker 1: has just nailed the perfect car seat buckle for the toddler.
Speaker 1: And now the eldest daughter, who looks to be about
Speaker 1: nine or ten, has secured herself in the booster seat.
Speaker 1: Dad SIPs the bad clothes and they're off, But looks
Speaker 1: like Mom doesn't realize her coffee cup is still on
Speaker 1: the roof of the car and there it goes. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's a shame that mug was a fam favorite. Don't
Speaker 1: sweat the small stuff, just nailed the big stuff, like
Speaker 1: making sure your kids are buckled correctly in the right
Speaker 1: seat for their agent's eyes. Learn more n h t
Speaker 1: s A dot gov slash the Right Seat visits h
Speaker 1: s A dot gov slash the Right Seat, brought to
Speaker 1: you by NITZA and the AD Council. What grows in
Speaker 1: the forest trees? Sure no. What else grows in the forest,
Speaker 1: our imagination, a sense of wonder, and our family bonds
Speaker 1: grow to you because when we disconnect from this and
Speaker 1: connect with this, we reconnect with each other. The forest
Speaker 1: is closer than you think. Find a forest near you
Speaker 1: and start exploring. I Discover the Forest dot org, brought
Speaker 1: to you by the United States Forest Service and the
Speaker 1: AD Council. To money making conversations with your host Rashaan McDonald,
Speaker 1: My next guest is a former NFL star Herman Moore.
Speaker 1: Herman isn't a football player who now owns a business.
Speaker 1: He's a businessman who happens to their played professional football.
Speaker 1: Football is his playing career. That's something he did like
Speaker 1: everybody has something they've done in their past, what should
Speaker 1: you hold onto it? And he's made that transition as
Speaker 1: a very successful NFL analysts promoting products as offender Centa Bond,
Speaker 1: I love Sinnabal, business consul, the corporate and nonprofits. He
Speaker 1: has been trading cryptocurrency, which I know nothing about, and
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's an expert. Well, we definitely got
Speaker 1: to talk about that because that has been the top
Speaker 1: of my list. Is has been the headlines of every
Speaker 1: financial trade magazine the last couple of years, is Crystal Currency.
Speaker 1: And he's the founder of what all these products you
Speaker 1: see in front of me, Golden Grooming Company. I've had
Speaker 1: this product for about a month the schedule interview. But
Speaker 1: guess what, I've been sneaking and using it now, you
Speaker 1: know you kind of holding on to it. His products
Speaker 1: so good. And this this little calm right here I'm
Speaker 1: holding up. It sits on my desk because I have
Speaker 1: with everybody know, I have a nice little beer. I
Speaker 1: keep my beer tight. You know what I'm saying. The
Speaker 1: company's mission is to help black young men and adult
Speaker 1: men look and feel their best because we believe that
Speaker 1: when you look good you feel good and then when
Speaker 1: you also do good, please work with the money making conversations. Herman,
Speaker 1: more pleasure. Thank you very much for having me. Hey, Herman,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you man this like here because my staff
Speaker 1: there was we finally got her and I said, hey man,
Speaker 1: I I kind of know him because this little comb
Speaker 1: here sits on my desk every day, so at least
Speaker 1: for three or four time is on my face. And
Speaker 1: so these are the type of products that you have
Speaker 1: for golden grooming that makes a thing accessible and makes
Speaker 1: it comfortable for a person like me can carry in
Speaker 1: your bag. I can, like this little calmer here, I
Speaker 1: can slip it into my top pocket and nobody would
Speaker 1: ever notice it. Correct, That's that's correct. What we look
Speaker 1: for is grooming is something that I think we all
Speaker 1: need to pay attention to, especially when you're looking at
Speaker 1: trying to make sure you present yourself as your best.
Speaker 1: And we we know that when you you feel good
Speaker 1: and you look good, you do good. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: just that's just a fact. And I think if we
Speaker 1: provide those products and we're not just products, but high
Speaker 1: quality products and an affordable price that allows us to
Speaker 1: be able to make an impact there. Well, you know
Speaker 1: the interesting thing about all your product because they sent
Speaker 1: me a nice little line from the brush too, like
Speaker 1: an off air. I shared a little secret with you.
Speaker 1: You have thisself small patch solid cologne, which I've never
Speaker 1: seen in my life. You know, we all know cologns
Speaker 1: coming a little scroped by a little spray. You have
Speaker 1: what what what made you think of this idea? Because
Speaker 1: I love up it and again something else I care
Speaker 1: with me when I travel, So it really it makes
Speaker 1: me believe that you are a forward thinking individual because
Speaker 1: you're thinking of things that a person like me who's
Speaker 1: super busy, who wants to stay groom but also likes
Speaker 1: to smell good but not I would like to use
Speaker 1: the word discreetly and also carried Colma necessary discreetly but
Speaker 1: still have them available because they have high quality. Talk
Speaker 1: about this uh, this small past solid cologne. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: solid cologne is a nice little product because when you
Speaker 1: typically use aerosol or you use a spray, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of it that's being lost in the air, and
Speaker 1: you know, when you're trying to transition it from that
Speaker 1: actual packaging to your your body or your your fabric
Speaker 1: or wherever you you play Sir Colone with this. It's
Speaker 1: just an application that simply rub it on and it
Speaker 1: stays on pretty good. It really has nice sense and smells.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be coming out with a different line of
Speaker 1: the solid cologne and not only gives your further a
Speaker 1: longer yield in terms of the product, but it also
Speaker 1: gives you the convenience that you've mentioned, being able to
Speaker 1: take it with you wherever you want and if you
Speaker 1: want to, you know, just tap it in and refresh
Speaker 1: up a little bit. You can do that. Um, I
Speaker 1: can't take credit for that. That is our our development team.
Speaker 1: That is our our scientists and our chemists that we
Speaker 1: have that constantly of working on ways to provide better
Speaker 1: quality products and also just innovative products to the to
Speaker 1: the marketplace. Well, you know this is why I love
Speaker 1: it because of the fact you're absolutely right. Because you've
Speaker 1: seen some people they spread in the air and they
Speaker 1: walk into the walk into the aroma of the scent
Speaker 1: or and sometimes when I have the aerosault, I have
Speaker 1: pointed towards me and then it hits sometimes on my clothes,
Speaker 1: not exactly where I wanted, and then I finally have
Speaker 1: control of my cologne. That's what I really like about it.
Speaker 1: If I want to put it on my neck, I
Speaker 1: want to put it on my wrist. I feel comfortable
Speaker 1: with that. And I really really think that this is
Speaker 1: something I've never seen this before. That's why I have
Speaker 1: to bring it up at the top of our conversation,
Speaker 1: her Man, because of the fact that I know you're
Speaker 1: giving credit to somebody else for doing it, but you
Speaker 1: have to be the visionary and bringing it to the stores. Correct. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's correct, and we we always look at also, um
Speaker 1: coming you mentioned earlier some of my earlier ventures like Centabon,
Speaker 1: and we looked at everyone had to have, for instance,
Speaker 1: like the cinnamon rolls a big cinnamon role and you
Speaker 1: have to have the knife and the fork to eat it.
Speaker 1: Then we started getting into what was called manis because
Speaker 1: we want to have something that was a little bit
Speaker 1: more portable and has a different functionality to it. That's
Speaker 1: no different. You have to constantly look at ways to
Speaker 1: improve and innovate within your product category or your service category,
Speaker 1: and that's what allows you to be distinguish yourself and
Speaker 1: differentiate yourself from the competition. But also you're you're also
Speaker 1: addressing a need anytime you can solve problems, and then
Speaker 1: also we can also eliminate waste and add profitability to
Speaker 1: our company, but also give a greater yield to the customer.
Speaker 1: You're giving a minute of mutually beneficial value back, and
Speaker 1: I will take credit and the fact that that is
Speaker 1: what we look for. That's what I look for all
Speaker 1: the time, because you want to make sure that you
Speaker 1: have a very balanced business approach. I'll just tell you something, man,
Speaker 1: about send the ball. I wonder I was just gonna
Speaker 1: say that as a credit, you know, but you're gonna
Speaker 1: just bring it up in our conversation. So now you
Speaker 1: because I'm I'm a desert nut. Everybody knows that about me.
Speaker 1: Now you have the minis and then you have the
Speaker 1: regular huge that sound like to get that right when
Speaker 1: they putting the putting the uh the cream on top.
Speaker 1: You know, I like it when you know it's hot.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you, man, And so I would just
Speaker 1: tell you it's the same bond now the Mini and
Speaker 1: the regular, but the regulars taste so much better. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna let you herman, for some reason, getting that
Speaker 1: big old piece of bad and breaking it up and
Speaker 1: taking that fuck and separating it. You can't go wrong, man.
Speaker 1: I know, I know the whole packaging about the minis,
Speaker 1: but those those giants, I call them giants since you
Speaker 1: have the minute now, but those are the way to go, man,
Speaker 1: the regular size of the way to go. I can
Speaker 1: tell you this. I can tell you're not eating many
Speaker 1: at though, because those things pack lock calories. That was
Speaker 1: rolling with love and it was rolling and we had
Speaker 1: that that that to make sure that we know Heyshon's
Speaker 1: coming in and make sure his has got that extra
Speaker 1: icing on it. A glass of milk. Come on that, brother,
Speaker 1: you you're gonna run me out that store. We're gonna
Speaker 1: run me out that store. And I really, you know,
Speaker 1: let's go a little history because I'm a football's fan
Speaker 1: and so I know about your athletic abilities on the field.
Speaker 1: But we all know there is a time that you're
Speaker 1: gonna realize that you can't play anymore. You can you
Speaker 1: can you can hear it every day. Average life, especially
Speaker 1: of a football player. Maybe five years, five or six
Speaker 1: years of a full time NFL player. Now, when did
Speaker 1: you start transitioning mentally? Interesting? I want to be what
Speaker 1: is my life after football? Well? I started doing it
Speaker 1: my career ended a two dollars and two and I
Speaker 1: really started making that transition my final year two thousand,
Speaker 1: two thousand and one. I started reading for about a
Speaker 1: year and learning a little bit about the industries that
Speaker 1: I wanted to approach, understanding also was I going to
Speaker 1: basically start to a startup or was I going to
Speaker 1: take on a franchise system. And I chose to go
Speaker 1: with Mailbox et cetera, which was my very first franchise
Speaker 1: that I purchased, and then from there I ended up
Speaker 1: becoming the second largest cente Bond partner, owning all of
Speaker 1: Florida and all of Michigan stores. And doing that process,
Speaker 1: I assembled and put together a team that would help
Speaker 1: me with the operations because that wasn't my background. My
Speaker 1: background is in marketing and communications. But I want to
Speaker 1: make sure I surrounded myself with those that would would
Speaker 1: give me the right advice. Now, will say this, you
Speaker 1: can put all the people around you that you want,
Speaker 1: but if you don't understand what they're doing and the
Speaker 1: direction that they're leading you or the information that they're
Speaker 1: giving you, then it's it's really not doing you that
Speaker 1: great of because because then it's all based on who
Speaker 1: they are and the character that they possessed on whether
Speaker 1: or not they're leading down the right path. So I
Speaker 1: I learned I had some bumps and bruises in there,
Speaker 1: But at the same time it's allowed me to become
Speaker 1: a very disciplined business owner now going through all those experiences.
Speaker 1: So I'll be tough to change any of those things. See,
Speaker 1: I've been keeping you in business, not you said you
Speaker 1: in Florida and all that. I actually have been keeping
Speaker 1: you in business because I used to go to Orlando
Speaker 1: all the time because they got a center bar right
Speaker 1: there in Orlando that I would go into all the time.
Speaker 1: When when I look at you as a leader, because
Speaker 1: this is this is about leadership, this is about team
Speaker 1: by walking in because you're also saying you you you know,
Speaker 1: because I'm assuming you're based in the in the Detroit area,
Speaker 1: are not correct? That's okay. So when you're saying you
Speaker 1: have businesses that are not drivable, how do you maintain
Speaker 1: that level of management, that level of professional listener to
Speaker 1: make sure you're meeting your your bottom line and your
Speaker 1: expectations of service to people, even though you can't just
Speaker 1: walk into door and check yeah, well, what I did
Speaker 1: is interesting. I've always been into technology, and getting involved
Speaker 1: with this allowed me to bring some of the discipline
Speaker 1: only as an athlete and just having this very regimented
Speaker 1: process in which we go by, but I brought the
Speaker 1: concept of team knowing that it was more than just myself.
Speaker 1: So you when you talk about that leadership, there's no different.
Speaker 1: It's transitioning that into the business world and knowing that
Speaker 1: you're willing to go in not only learn all the
Speaker 1: things that my employees were doing in my team members,
Speaker 1: but also to show them that I was willing to
Speaker 1: put in the work. And by doing that, they saw
Speaker 1: I was an absentee owner. Uh, that I was very
Speaker 1: much hands on, but I wasn't so much where it
Speaker 1: was granular and that I was micromanaging uh them, but
Speaker 1: I was showing that there was there was an expectation
Speaker 1: that there was accountability on all levels from your top down. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then from there it's it's really learning from your mistakes.
Speaker 1: You gotta make mistakes in business, You're gonna make mistakes
Speaker 1: in life. It's all about what do you do with
Speaker 1: those lessons in those those things that don't quite work
Speaker 1: sometimes and the things that do work well, How do
Speaker 1: you utilize that to help you continue along that path?
Speaker 1: And for me, I was able to take all of
Speaker 1: those elements and and really start to develop what I
Speaker 1: call a playbook. So it's once again bringing in a
Speaker 1: lot of those that you know, I don't try and
Speaker 1: use the analogy of sports all the time, but it
Speaker 1: is is developing a playbook that leads you down this
Speaker 1: path to success, and that that's really have been all
Speaker 1: about it. So watching my business, when you mentioned that
Speaker 1: I put technology in place, I actually started to develop
Speaker 1: a back end piece on our point of sales systems
Speaker 1: which will allow me at that time to receive real
Speaker 1: time receipts UH to my computer, which wasn't was unheard
Speaker 1: of at that point because you typically had to get
Speaker 1: the printed receipts and then have everyone facts that to you.
Speaker 1: But we're able to develop programs to do that. And
Speaker 1: every time I've I've been part of any type of
Speaker 1: business or startup, I've looked at what resources are available,
Speaker 1: including technology as being a platform and a foundation of
Speaker 1: that work. You know, an interesting thing about when I
Speaker 1: listened to you, your articulation, your professionalism. You just happen
Speaker 1: to play football, you know, because I consider the Magic
Speaker 1: Jobs is a good friend of mine. And you know,
Speaker 1: even before he became a basketball star, he wanted to
Speaker 1: be a business owner. He wanted to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: And he's and and he's shown it. After his basketball
Speaker 1: life is ended, he's equally as a Hall of Famer
Speaker 1: in the business world as he has been on the
Speaker 1: basketball courts. What did it all start for you? This
Speaker 1: mentality to be an entrepreneur? What did it start for you? Know?
Speaker 1: You came from a single parent home. Talk about that
Speaker 1: upbringing that shifted you in this direction about where you
Speaker 1: are at today, it was always you know, it goes
Speaker 1: back to my my youth. I started out in school
Speaker 1: and I was in the head Start program, which has
Speaker 1: been in the news as of late in some areas.
Speaker 1: And uh, you're you're giving you you're already put at
Speaker 1: a limitation sometimes before you get started. I noticed when
Speaker 1: I went into a college or high school, I was
Speaker 1: always directed into courses that were really weren't challenging me.
Speaker 1: They weren't gonna they weren't going to stretch me or
Speaker 1: put me in a place where I get to go
Speaker 1: and say, okay, can I test and utilize all the
Speaker 1: ability that I have now, they give me that opportunity
Speaker 1: in sports when they can see that potential in the athleticism,
Speaker 1: But why can't you see that potendial in my my
Speaker 1: my ability from a mental standpoint and from an intelligence standpoint. Um,
Speaker 1: and quite often sometimes we start to buy into that.
Speaker 1: So I stopped buying into that, uh long into you know,
Speaker 1: very early into my football career. Uh midway through my
Speaker 1: my college career. I started realizing that, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna take these classes just that it's gonna
Speaker 1: keep me eligible. I want to take classes that we're
Speaker 1: gonna provide me a career any event that football doesn't
Speaker 1: work out, because it's not gonna be long term transition
Speaker 1: that into the football professional football stage. I started to
Speaker 1: see that as much as we think we're in controlful,
Speaker 1: we don't own the team. We don't own the ability
Speaker 1: to to really create our faith. Uh. You could be
Speaker 1: a great player, and at that time I was doing
Speaker 1: really well, but if I have a disagreement with my coach,
Speaker 1: he still has the ability, just as an owner of
Speaker 1: a business, to basically fire me or let me go.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to make sure I always had control
Speaker 1: of my destiny, and from there I decided I would
Speaker 1: never settle for good when great is available. I heard
Speaker 1: that one place and I said, you know what, going forward,
Speaker 1: everything that I do, I'm always gonna push the envelope.
Speaker 1: I'm always gonna try and figure out disruption in a
Speaker 1: good way, not in a negative way, but one that
Speaker 1: would always say, am I truly trying and achieving at
Speaker 1: that level that is afforded to me as a person,
Speaker 1: as an individual. You know, it's really interesting when I
Speaker 1: to hear you because you know the modern athlete, No,
Speaker 1: I said the model athlete. Maybe the last I put
Speaker 1: you in that modern athlete group because it was after
Speaker 1: two thousands that the mentality changed. It was all about
Speaker 1: you know, football and then football in and players were
Speaker 1: just shocked. You know what it was gonna do with
Speaker 1: the next step. Now we have the modern athlete who
Speaker 1: are planning after the game. You know, a classic modern
Speaker 1: athlete is Lebron James. A classic modein athlete is Magic Johnson,
Speaker 1: a classic morthin that marthin and modern athlete is Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: You are a classic modern athlete, but you are earlier
Speaker 1: than them. So what who are your role models? Herman
Speaker 1: to point you in the right direction that you should
Speaker 1: be like this, that you should be prepping for this,
Speaker 1: because you seem to have laid a great foundation for
Speaker 1: a future as an entrepreneur post football. All right. So
Speaker 1: being in Detroit, we are around a lot of very
Speaker 1: successful former athletes like Bennie Johnson UH owning and running
Speaker 1: a billion dollar enterprise, Dave being former basketball player, UH
Speaker 1: professional basketball player becoming a mayor as well as having
Speaker 1: successful businesses. I watched Magic Johnson. I looked at how
Speaker 1: he started to command his brand, not just on the
Speaker 1: basketball court, but what he starts to do in terms
Speaker 1: of getting the value out of that, not just I'm
Speaker 1: gonna show up and be the face of something, but
Speaker 1: actually owning it. Um. That was that was impowerful and
Speaker 1: impactful for me to see Michael Jordan's going in and say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna have a brand that runs
Speaker 1: a line if I want to stand in the sports
Speaker 1: world that we have with the Nike, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have my own brand that is just that is solely him,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna run parallel but just as powerful and
Speaker 1: more recognized than even that. And he elevates, like in
Speaker 1: my opinion, so it's it's those are the people that
Speaker 1: I can look at, and there's many, many more. I'm
Speaker 1: sure if I really start to think back about it,
Speaker 1: But I said, you know what I see people who
Speaker 1: have pet have paved the way out of a profession
Speaker 1: like mind, and that you can talk about entertainment, you
Speaker 1: can talk about actors and actresses, you can talk about
Speaker 1: successful business people as a whole. But if the playbook
Speaker 1: is there, you just have to be a student and
Speaker 1: willing to receive it. And I was listening to tv
Speaker 1: ja'son one time and he talked about how sometimes we
Speaker 1: run behind opportunity, sometimes we run ahead of it, but
Speaker 1: we gotta figure out a way in which we put
Speaker 1: ourselves to where we're running parallel after where we're not
Speaker 1: missing it, we're not there before we're supposed to be,
Speaker 1: and we're not behind it, always never being able to
Speaker 1: catch up. And I've tried to figure out the position
Speaker 1: myself that way. And so you can take all these
Speaker 1: things in and you have a recipe, and but you
Speaker 1: gotta be willing to put in the work. Well, you
Speaker 1: know that the key is we was working. But also
Speaker 1: when I read on your history, it's always about young
Speaker 1: people here, like even the Golden Groom. It is about
Speaker 1: young people preparing themselves, looking professional, feeling good about themselves.
Speaker 1: And then you have a new entrepreneursial program or your foundation,
Speaker 1: tackle Life Foundation that you have you launched already of
Speaker 1: what stages it of that foundation called tackle Life, which
Speaker 1: is like tackling somebody, but tackling life instead of a
Speaker 1: player on the field. So you're about tackling life. And
Speaker 1: that's the foundation that is based on. Talk about it.
Speaker 1: So the Tackle Life Foundation, I actually started running it
Speaker 1: as a private organization in two thousand and nine. Uh
Speaker 1: then I be I got my uh foundation sort of
Speaker 1: fied in two thousand sixteen. And the I've always done camps.
Speaker 1: I've always done something that would try and bring empowerment
Speaker 1: or have a touch point with young adults to where
Speaker 1: we can still touch them and and influence their foundational growth.
Speaker 1: And what I see is that you have to be
Speaker 1: able to reach back and not it's not about what
Speaker 1: I do and what's appealing to me, but it's what
Speaker 1: does the world itself offer and how do we extract
Speaker 1: those different abilities and the mindset from individuals say who
Speaker 1: am I and how can I take this this knowledge
Speaker 1: or this opportunity and apply it to my vision in
Speaker 1: my goal. So everything that we do has been around that.
Speaker 1: We've done programs from UH computer programming, so we design
Speaker 1: websites and build um different types of projects that require robotics.
Speaker 1: We also now are into e gaming and eat sports,
Speaker 1: which is a big thing. There's grants and scholarships, especially
Speaker 1: at HBCUs that are getting really big into the sports
Speaker 1: and eat aiming platforms. We with this entrepreneurship program. If
Speaker 1: you look at the African American community, there were very entrepreneurs. However,
Speaker 1: the failure rate is high because we don't have access
Speaker 1: to not only the partnerships, the revenue of the tools.
Speaker 1: When I go and I meet with these large manufacturers,
Speaker 1: the first thing I saw, Rishan was that they mentioned
Speaker 1: they would love and I won't name these big retailers.
Speaker 1: These are your major major retailers. They said, you know what,
Speaker 1: we we want the African American products. We want the
Speaker 1: minority based product. But you know what, the product quality
Speaker 1: isn't there, the labeling isn't there. They don't have the
Speaker 1: systems and the logistics to be able to handle the
Speaker 1: workload or the capacity of the distribution that we need.
Speaker 1: They don't have these these things. Well, question I have
Speaker 1: for them is are you providing resources through your manufacturing
Speaker 1: partners to afford them that opportunity? And not many work.
Speaker 1: And then I looked at who we were and that's
Speaker 1: what spawned this entrepreneurship program to say, we are a manufacturer,
Speaker 1: We're an relying on someone to help us we get
Speaker 1: the rock goods. We also, through Team eighty four, my
Speaker 1: parent company, we do logistics and transportation and procurement and
Speaker 1: all these things and packaging. So we know what we'll
Speaker 1: do this ourselves. We'll create an entrepreneurship program to help
Speaker 1: us bring those young, aspiring people in who would love
Speaker 1: to learn about manufacturing of products and services that we offer,
Speaker 1: and then we would team up with them to actually
Speaker 1: launch that vision and we're gonna create this marketplace. So
Speaker 1: we've already started this program under leadership of a person
Speaker 1: I brought in who has done a great job. Her
Speaker 1: name is Christie's Abacar. She's our chief marketing and Communications officer,
Speaker 1: but she also runs our program and we're going we're
Speaker 1: on our way, and we we already have identified about
Speaker 1: four or five different companies or that we're gonna start
Speaker 1: with youth. Um, so we're very excited, very very excited
Speaker 1: about and it costs them nothing, right, that's the beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: But this is not going to cost them many things
Speaker 1: do Well, let me let let's let's slow it down
Speaker 1: and talk about it, because you said a lot. But
Speaker 1: you mentioned your communication director in your CMO and we
Speaker 1: know the name Tackle Life Foundations started in two thousand
Speaker 1: nine official twenty sixteen, which was officially recognized as a foundation.
Speaker 1: How does one is it a limit to the amount
Speaker 1: of students young adults? Is the age requirements? What are
Speaker 1: the requirements for participating in the Tackle Life Foundation opportunities? Well,
Speaker 1: for the for that particular program, the Entrepreneurship program, it
Speaker 1: starts with the age of eight team. Uh, we will
Speaker 1: go below that, but you have to get parents involved
Speaker 1: and in your executing documents with them. So we're looking
Speaker 1: at for those particular programs at a at a different
Speaker 1: age group. We don't necessarily play a cap because people
Speaker 1: could be entrepreneurial all their lives and UH, for us,
Speaker 1: we don't put restrictions limitations there. And to qualify for that,
Speaker 1: we've created a website that should be up here in
Speaker 1: about a month that will start to open it up
Speaker 1: to the public. We put we pick a few to
Speaker 1: work with. We're working with juvenile justice system to work
Speaker 1: with some that are are incarcerated and or are getting
Speaker 1: out that need to have a place in a VISION,
Speaker 1: So we wanted to start where areas of need would
Speaker 1: be there. We're also working with some of the youth
Speaker 1: organizations where we will hand select a few that have
Speaker 1: VISION to come in and participate in our program. But
Speaker 1: we're gonna open us up and uh, if you qualify,
Speaker 1: that'll be great, but we will do you know, some
Speaker 1: contract manufacturing as well. I have to mention that for
Speaker 1: those that are looking for partnerships that will help them
Speaker 1: scale so they don't have to do it out their house,
Speaker 1: right Uh, So they can definitely reach out to us
Speaker 1: uh and and at that capacity, and we're gonna do
Speaker 1: as much as we can within our means to be
Speaker 1: able to help. Well, I would tell you this, I
Speaker 1: want to know more and I would love to learn
Speaker 1: more be a part of this for you. Uh. My
Speaker 1: my talents, I've been doing this since I was eighteen
Speaker 1: years old, uplifting educating our backgrounds, degrees in mathematics, my
Speaker 1: mindors sociology. Work five years for IBM, so I have
Speaker 1: executive training and I'm an entrepreneur so and hearing this
Speaker 1: for the first time on this show, I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: let you know if you're looking for volunteers, I always
Speaker 1: you know I'm available. I'm not just saying that because
Speaker 1: I'm on this show trying to getting good good with you,
Speaker 1: because you already already got my groom and stuff. I
Speaker 1: don't need you no more. But I just know that
Speaker 1: what you're doing is important, especially for men of color
Speaker 1: and UH and if if I'm in a position to
Speaker 1: help you, I will help you. Okay, Now, I really
Speaker 1: appreciate that, and by all means I will reach out
Speaker 1: because I can't do it alone. So I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Cool. Well, I'm goning to switch gears to
Speaker 1: another subject that I know nothing about, but it's making
Speaker 1: the headlands cryptocurrency. First of all, explain to my listeners
Speaker 1: and views what exactly is cryptocurrency. Well, it depends on
Speaker 1: who you're speaking with. There. There are many of us
Speaker 1: who think that it is a decentralized service in the
Speaker 1: financial market that allows UH very steamless transactions and the
Speaker 1: the the purchase of of just basically this this coin
Speaker 1: that people think is just a phantom value, but it
Speaker 1: is a way in which to be able to move
Speaker 1: M dollars around UH in a in a digital space,
Speaker 1: versus using FIAT, which is you know what we use now,
Speaker 1: the American dollar, or something that is more physical and
Speaker 1: tangible that's tied to a UM some type of collateral.
Speaker 1: But it's something that I think it's worth looking at.
Speaker 1: And as I mentioned to you earlier, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not an expert on it. But what I've learned is
Speaker 1: I look at the value of systems, and I look
Speaker 1: at blockchain technology, and I look at a way in
Speaker 1: which you improve on some of the deficiencies that you
Speaker 1: find in the financial system. And that's what I think
Speaker 1: is grown. Has pretty much grown quite a bit, and
Speaker 1: it's caught the attention of many of those in the
Speaker 1: financial space. But the regulations are a lot lighter UH
Speaker 1: than what uh an unregulated, than what you see in
Speaker 1: the central banking system. But as those things get ironed out,
Speaker 1: I think there is a play here. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's going away. Well, I'm I'm pretty sure it's not.
Speaker 1: You can put regulations there, but there's just too many
Speaker 1: places in parts of the world, and it's a global participation.
Speaker 1: This isn't just about the United States. So for me,
Speaker 1: I mainly just play around with some of the smaller coins,
Speaker 1: but I will find some that especially Ethereum. That is
Speaker 1: where I put more of my time in every Well
Speaker 1: before I close, you know, we talked about the Golden Grooming,
Speaker 1: which I like. I said, this is at my desk
Speaker 1: every day. I'm you know, I use this all right,
Speaker 1: I use this. Man makes me feel good. I like
Speaker 1: to believe it makes me look good. Okay about coming
Speaker 1: from my dad right there, I'm grooming brother right in
Speaker 1: front of you on this interview. Okay, and that, but
Speaker 1: more importantly, we talked about you. You You're you're you're
Speaker 1: giving back. We talked about your ability to run a
Speaker 1: country from running run your business from state across this
Speaker 1: country using technology. Now you're in the podcast world and
Speaker 1: you I'm a big fan of this deep deep force.
Speaker 1: Uh sidekicker yours lo much Brown? How did you Why
Speaker 1: didn't you get decided to get into the podcast world
Speaker 1: with offensive tackle Lomas Brown talking about is that you're
Speaker 1: former Detroit Ty Detroit Lions teammates yeah, so with moments. Uh,
Speaker 1: what a great, great guy. We ended up being teammates
Speaker 1: when I came in one he was probably the toughest
Speaker 1: guy on me because lineman don't like for you to
Speaker 1: make mistakes because if you drop a pass that could
Speaker 1: have led to the yards closer to the end zone,
Speaker 1: that's fifty last yards they have to work off of.
Speaker 1: So uh, they threatened me quite a bit, which made
Speaker 1: me an all pro wide receiver and actually do my job.
Speaker 1: But afterwards, he is someone who is very much engaged
Speaker 1: in the community. He's very very philanthropic. Uh, he's just
Speaker 1: the nicest, nicest guy you could ever meet. And because
Speaker 1: of that, I wanted to figure out a space for
Speaker 1: him within first and foremost our company. So bringing him
Speaker 1: in as our chief Diversity and business development arm that
Speaker 1: was awesome. He's done a tremendous job there. But then
Speaker 1: he and I both have been in media for over
Speaker 1: twenty years, and having that background, we decided why not
Speaker 1: build a studio in our office, why not come up
Speaker 1: with our own camera crew, our podcast equipment, and start
Speaker 1: to do our own show. So we started a show.
Speaker 1: Because Lom is always if you don't if you get
Speaker 1: to know him the first thing he had he will
Speaker 1: say when he leaves a meeting, what you say next
Speaker 1: time we get together? Less great bread. And so we
Speaker 1: decided to call our show breaking Bridge, and uh, from
Speaker 1: then on, we've been having a blast. It allows us
Speaker 1: to talk about things that are relevant to us, things
Speaker 1: that are relevant to our community and and to our
Speaker 1: base of listeners and viewers. So that's uh, it's been fun,
Speaker 1: as you know, is having your own show. It's liberating
Speaker 1: and its rewarding because it gives you a voice in
Speaker 1: a place. Um that is again another channel on a
Speaker 1: platform that's supporting to us that you know, we can
Speaker 1: we can go out and be ourselves. Well, all right,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm a fan of you. I'm a fan
Speaker 1: of Lomas. And uh, how does one get talent on
Speaker 1: your show? Dudes? To do you have a booking agency
Speaker 1: that books to talent? We just you know, you just
Speaker 1: call them out of the blue. And how does people
Speaker 1: get on your show? Man? It's just you and him
Speaker 1: talking all the time, y'all just hogging all the information.
Speaker 1: How do people get on your podcast? Man? Go on,
Speaker 1: And we're not gonna just hog it all ourselves. We
Speaker 1: want to make sure we get some other people and
Speaker 1: then they're like, but but for now, it's been us
Speaker 1: reaching out to other people that we know. We have
Speaker 1: a plitha of absolutely people that we've met and we
Speaker 1: we we work with over our careers. But also with
Speaker 1: again I mentioned Christie's avocar, who has been really good
Speaker 1: at working with us to help bring in that talent
Speaker 1: as well as be the communication channel and making sure
Speaker 1: that gets facilitated and book But yeah, she's the one
Speaker 1: who's she's running that show for us. She's running the background.
Speaker 1: Her background was just so you know, Uh, she used
Speaker 1: to manage all of the content and digital content for
Speaker 1: the Detroit Lions for over seven years and then she
Speaker 1: came in to become part of our team. We've known her,
Speaker 1: so there's a comfort level there. She knows us as
Speaker 1: people and personalities. Um, so we had a we had
Speaker 1: a really good team. And uh, I I look forward.
Speaker 1: You gotta have moments and I on your show and
Speaker 1: then you gotta come on our show time. You gotta
Speaker 1: tell us what your favorite food is. You gotta eat
Speaker 1: when you're talking with us. That's brother. I probably because
Speaker 1: I gotta kitchen him stands. I probably make some pies
Speaker 1: and some donuts. While I'm talking to you doing the interview,
Speaker 1: teasing you, and you keep saying how skinny I am.
Speaker 1: I would just let you know how I eat right
Speaker 1: on your interviews yourself that we're okay, Well we'll do it.
Speaker 1: You know, we we got a soul food capital around here.
Speaker 1: Maybe you have to put the spread out. I'll put
Speaker 1: the spread out there on our side, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make you make your mouth all water and you're gonna
Speaker 1: be over there salvator too. Just read. I love it.
Speaker 1: It's a great interview, man. I appreciate the product promoting
Speaker 1: your products, and my newsletter on my social media got
Speaker 1: like a million followers. So I've just been waiting to
Speaker 1: get you on the show. And I have some friends
Speaker 1: of mine. I'm gonna tell her about tell her the
Speaker 1: contact with me and getting my boy stephen A. Smith
Speaker 1: on your show, so as you all the previous pace,
Speaker 1: you can entertain them and let them know about the show.
Speaker 1: So I just want to help you blow up, man,
Speaker 1: because you're a great person. You're doing a lot from
Speaker 1: the community. You made the transition, you're smart, and you
Speaker 1: got a sense of human and you're with my boy
Speaker 1: Loma's brown breaking brown brown. I appreciate that and uh
Speaker 1: showing his mutual and thank you so much for having
Speaker 1: me on to talk about what you are now Tuned
Speaker 1: into the Money Making Conversations Minute of Inspiration with Rashan McDonald.
Speaker 1: Comedian Kim cos is known for her famous role as
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Speaker 1: and what it really is a out is created a
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Speaker 1: and I coached them through building their business. We did
Speaker 1: a masterclass on self care. It really means reck. It
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Speaker 1: Time Out, a production of I Heeart Podcasts and Hello Sunshine,
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