104: Doing It For the Community | Jay Jackson
The Value with Kevin ValleySeptember 23, 2024x
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01:28:49121.98 MB

104: Doing It For the Community | Jay Jackson

Join host Kevin Valley as he dives into the remarkable entrepreneurial journey of Jay Jackson, an award-winning entrepreneur and author. Jay shares his evolution from corporate life to owning a real estate company and establishing RYSE Creative Village, a nurturing hub for creators in music, film, and gaming. Discover his passion for community development and empowering artists, the importance of faith, curiosity, and mentorship, and his vision to bridge the gap between creators and major platforms like Netflix. Tune in for motivational insights, practical advice, and Jay's exciting plans for national expansion of RYSE Creative Village and their empowering efforts through crowdfunding. 00:00 Introduction and Personal Journey 00:51 Welcome to the Podcast 01:06 Introducing Jay Jackson 02:26 Jay Jackson's Philosophy on Dreams and Passion 03:58 Jay Jackson's Early Career and Entrepreneurial Seed 04:27 The Turning Point: Delivery Job Experience 12:41 Venturing into Real Estate 17:42 Navigating the 2008 Financial Crisis 20:36 From Real Estate to Salon Ownership 24:14 The Power of Curiosity and Execution 27:56 Leadership and Team Building 32:01 Cubicle to CEO: The Book 42:19 Rise Magazine and Community Impact 44:32 Launching on a National Scale 45:08 Relocating to Atlanta 46:27 Final Event in Orlando 52:04 Building RYSE Creative Village 59:28 Acquiring the School Property 01:06:22 Curating Creativity and Business Savvy 01:13:25 Funding and Crowdfunding Campaign 01:20:33 Long-term Vision and Challenges 01:26:24 Final Thoughts and Advice

[00:00:00] You know, I put myself on a path and I'm asking myself, why don't more people of color?

[00:00:06] Why don't more black folks?

[00:00:08] Boom!

[00:00:09] I know that there's a lot of people who rent but why don't they own it?

[00:00:12] So I began thinking about that and that's when that entrepreneurial sea that the

[00:00:17] gentleman planted years earlier began to take root.

[00:00:22] And I decided I said man, real estate, you know, I asked them around to several different

[00:00:26] people about this and they said well, you know, a lot of tactile education, right?

[00:00:30] People don't necessarily know how easy it is or the process that you can begin to prepare

[00:00:38] yourself for.

[00:00:38] So I said, you know, this is what I want to do.

[00:00:51] Podcast World, Kevin Studios, welcome to another episode of The Value, the language

[00:00:56] of business for those of you seeking to build or invest in businesses that are scalable

[00:01:02] and highly valuable.

[00:01:05] And your course, Kevin Valley, and today we are talking to a world-winning entrepreneur

[00:01:11] and author with a full-fungal track record in media, marketing and marketing communications

[00:01:17] as a massive effect.

[00:01:19] This gentleman's accomplishments and experience has been in recognition of his 2012 and

[00:01:24] in entrepreneurs the year by the African American Chamber of Commerce, the business

[00:01:29] journals, 2010, 40 under 40 in business.

[00:01:34] The 2010 On ExoWord for Excellence in Business, the 2013 Black Business Become from New

[00:01:41] Black Business Investment Fund on October 1, 2011 years from being the Red Westbrook

[00:01:48] named Brides Magazine Day by the City of Orlando.

[00:01:52] And in 2015, he also had another holiday named after him, 40 Jay Jackson Day.

[00:01:59] So we were welcome Jay Jackson, British in the City of Orlando, currently represents

[00:02:05] an hard fourth-lath of Jay Hoidunse.

[00:02:08] Man, I'm doing well, man, I'm doing well.

[00:02:11] He was reading off those accomplishments, man, it takes me back.

[00:02:16] I got it, I got to accomplish some more stuff, man.

[00:02:18] This is long time ago.

[00:02:20] Hey, man, well, you still have young guys, you still have young guys, you still have

[00:02:23] full life ahead of you, so I'm a little too.

[00:02:26] So I want to read a quote to you and I want you to tell me what it means.

[00:02:31] Okay.

[00:02:31] And a good goes, we all have to power the dream.

[00:02:35] We all have the ability to take action towards our dreams and we all possess the talent

[00:02:40] to decide to successfully achieve all dreams.

[00:02:45] Wow, man.

[00:02:46] You know, while you taking me back there, man, and I'm a big proponent of finding your passion,

[00:02:55] finding something that is your natural God given talent, working hard to develop that talent

[00:03:01] into a skill and then utilizing that skill to accomplish your goals and dreams.

[00:03:07] And so that's what I live by, man.

[00:03:09] One of the things, if there was anything that frustrates me, it is individuals that don't

[00:03:18] take control that are doing something that they're not happy with finding yourself living

[00:03:23] a life that they aren't happy with, right?

[00:03:25] And not taking action to really control their destiny and so I'm a firm believer in that.

[00:03:31] So that's really kind of a model that I live by.

[00:03:36] Yeah, I'm delighted to take into a way that comes from, right?

[00:03:40] Because I see that cool to actually buy Jay Jackson's senior.

[00:03:44] I don't know if that's you or your dad or your grandpa.

[00:03:45] That's me.

[00:03:47] I'm the senior.

[00:03:48] I'm the senior.

[00:03:50] Although I have a lot of lessons that I learned from my father, from my pops.

[00:03:55] It's gone on.

[00:03:57] All right.

[00:03:58] So tell me about what went into the Jay Jackson.

[00:04:02] I'll be speaking to today.

[00:04:03] Of course, you want to spend time talking about what you don't write now in rise,

[00:04:08] creates a village and all of that.

[00:04:09] But I'd like to learn a little bit more about the guests before we get into the

[00:04:14] into the core business, right?

[00:04:16] So I read that you had your own childhood struggles and that is really caused for

[00:04:21] your passion, reaching back up, repairing any next generation of leaders.

[00:04:24] Talk about that a little bit.

[00:04:26] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:04:27] So if there was these pivotal things of pivotal points in our life that are life changing

[00:04:34] and so I thought I could go back to one thing that really kind of changed my trajectory.

[00:04:40] It was a time where I had gotten fired from this job.

[00:04:45] I worked for you all, had worked for their foot number of years, and had gotten this job

[00:04:49] working for a company called Airborne Express.

[00:04:52] And you know, Airborne Express, I don't even know their DHL now, but they're, you know,

[00:04:58] delivery service like fan X man.

[00:05:01] I remember I got this job and typically they give you a route in the area that you live

[00:05:08] in because, you know, they want to kind of make sure that you're familiar with the area

[00:05:12] area that you're delivering to and when I got the job, they put me in the side of town

[00:05:18] which was, you know, real foreign to me.

[00:05:20] So I lived on the west side of town that was kind of the hood, you know, that's where

[00:05:25] the low income, you know, where you live that.

[00:05:27] And so they put me on this east side of town and east side was much more fluent part

[00:05:33] of Orlando and this is all in Orlando.

[00:05:35] It was much more fluent that, you know, you had a lot of major corporations on that side

[00:05:40] of town.

[00:05:41] And so I remember man, when they gave me that route, you know, I had a real bad attitude

[00:05:46] about us at man, you know, if you, you know, if you just put me on the side of town where I'm

[00:05:50] well, I'm familiar with man.

[00:05:52] I could do a much better job.

[00:05:53] I know that area, right?

[00:05:55] That was my comfort zone, right?

[00:05:57] And so they say, well, either you've worked this east side or you find a new job.

[00:06:03] And so for the first two, right, but the first two weeks on the job man, I had a real

[00:06:07] poor attitude, you know, just was not happy.

[00:06:11] I wasn't getting my way.

[00:06:12] And so just had this, you know, this real bad attitude.

[00:06:15] And so two weeks into the job man, I pull up at this house and most of the deliveries

[00:06:20] I was doing were to people home, people's homes and we're talking 20, we're talking,

[00:06:25] this wasn't even 20.

[00:06:26] This was, you know, maybe 19, 90, five or so, 96.

[00:06:33] Right?

[00:06:33] So this is before, you know, delivery and before Amazon became, you know, so big.

[00:06:37] So, you know, all of these people were getting packages that delivered to their houses.

[00:06:42] And that was for it to me and itself.

[00:06:44] And so two weeks on the job man, I pulled up at this house and it's the largest house

[00:06:47] I had ever seen in my life, you know.

[00:06:50] And it wasn't even really a big house, but at the time, you know, I'm coming from, you

[00:06:54] know, shotgun houses and apartment complexes and things like that.

[00:06:57] And so I mean, you know, I looked at this house and I was like, man, this is a beautiful

[00:07:01] house.

[00:07:02] And so I walked up to the door and I, and I, I run into doorbell and then usually we don't

[00:07:07] have to deliver drives to you, you know, you know, run up to the door, throw the package

[00:07:12] at the front door and rain the door better take off running, right?

[00:07:15] And as usually what you do, right, but this particular day man, I don't know.

[00:07:18] I was just, it was just something that was overcoming me, man.

[00:07:21] And so I, I stood there running doorbell, stood there in a gentleman answer to the door

[00:07:26] and it was, you know, maybe like one two o'clock in the afternoon.

[00:07:31] And and I said, he asked that a door and I said, man, my name is Jay.

[00:07:35] And I'm your new delivery driver.

[00:07:37] And I'm just curious, you know, I've never seen a house this beautiful.

[00:07:42] And I was just wondering, what do you, what do you do for a living man?

[00:07:45] Because I was like, you know, how do you, how do you live like this?

[00:07:48] I've never seen this.

[00:07:49] And so he was actually generous.

[00:07:51] He said, you know, when I run a business from my home, and I was like, well, you

[00:07:54] run a business from your home.

[00:07:56] And I said, so you're trying to tell me like, you know, at the time, when it first

[00:08:00] started to come and say, first I'm shaking, you know, and got the package at my hand shaking

[00:08:03] because I don't know what to expect.

[00:08:05] But then I got a little more bold and I'm like, what do you mean you run a business from your

[00:08:09] home?

[00:08:09] And he said, well, you know, you know, you know, you know, run a business from my home.

[00:08:13] And he actually let me and show me a little round into his office.

[00:08:18] And you know, as I think about this kind of crazy now.

[00:08:21] But at the time, man, I was like, so you're trying to tell me, you know, wake up in the morning,

[00:08:25] draining the job that you don't like, you know, fighting traffic to go and work with people.

[00:08:32] You don't like working with doing something you don't like doing.

[00:08:35] And then getting off and, you know, counting down the clock to get off.

[00:08:38] And then go through this rat race all over again every single day, five days a week.

[00:08:44] I'm trying to say, you know, go through that because that's all I had ever seen, right?

[00:08:47] You know, you know, and looking at my parents.

[00:08:49] And he said, no, I love what I do.

[00:08:51] And I'll tell you that was the day that the entrepreneurial seed was planted in my head.

[00:08:58] And it also was the day that my mind was expanded.

[00:09:01] And, and I had to step out of my comfort zone, right?

[00:09:03] I had to be forced out of my comfort zone.

[00:09:05] I didn't step out of it, you know, voluntarily.

[00:09:07] I had to be forced out of it.

[00:09:09] But that exposed me that exposure, you know, really changed my life because from that point on,

[00:09:15] my attitude changed so I could look at things from a different perspective.

[00:09:18] And I began asking the supervisor there, hey, man, you know, I'm open to delivering,

[00:09:24] you know, and working weekends, you know, working on weekends to deliver to other areas that

[00:09:29] I'm not familiar with, right?

[00:09:30] And, you know, I was the first time I ever set foot on a college campus because I was delivering

[00:09:35] packages there.

[00:09:36] First time delivering package to the Lockheed Martin, which is, you know, we know as a, you know, big defense

[00:09:42] contractor, so just being on that campus.

[00:09:44] And so, you know, just at that change my life, man.

[00:09:47] And that's when our realized man, we have the power to, to control our destiny.

[00:09:54] There is really so much value in this, and spent trying beyond your comfort zone.

[00:09:59] Absolutely.

[00:10:00] Because you absolutely.

[00:10:01] You know, it's so funny like I didn't, you like you just triggered this memory.

[00:10:06] So back when I was about 20, three years old, right?

[00:10:10] Okay, cool.

[00:10:11] I had to go with a car near the side of the, I just had a real island.

[00:10:14] No, I'm interested in that.

[00:10:16] Oh, yeah, I just had a real island.

[00:10:17] It's 45 minutes away.

[00:10:23] But I mean, I'm in poor the speed.

[00:10:25] I'm in poor the speed.

[00:10:25] I'm in poor the speed.

[00:10:26] I'm in poor the speed.

[00:10:27] And they sent me down by, I'm a split squad member.

[00:10:29] But I was just just, just, you know, it was next to San Fernando, which is so pretty.

[00:10:33] I mean, anyway.

[00:10:35] So I was there for both, I would say about seven months or so.

[00:10:41] And I would get a drop from my friends aunt and the then six year old son would be in the car.

[00:10:47] I mean, we go in down, we go in down, we go in down, we're going down, we're going down, we're going

[00:10:49] down, we're going down, we're talking to this guy.

[00:10:52] And one day, I look at your kid, because he's going far to go in far to go to school as well, right?

[00:10:58] Because it's more close to there, whatever.

[00:11:01] And I see, you're Mark, do you get tired of having to wake up early to come

[00:11:06] and maybe it's all the same every day.

[00:11:08] It's good at school.

[00:11:10] And he said, no, he's over my friends.

[00:11:14] And if further you go, you more, you see, and you more, you see, you more you learn.

[00:11:21] And he was 60 years old at his time.

[00:11:22] Six years old.

[00:11:24] His mother's in her own.

[00:11:25] I look like his mother's in that like I'm you beaming.

[00:11:28] Yeah, no.

[00:11:30] Wisdom wisdom man at that little at that young age man.

[00:11:33] See, again, you know, perspective man, perspective.

[00:11:38] And I tell you man to me success in anything starts with, you know, really broadening and looking at things for a positive perspective.

[00:11:49] Indeed.

[00:11:50] And I'll give you one quote that I just, I got just the day actually from a friend of man.

[00:11:56] Now this is from a fixed page, Julia Caesar.

[00:11:59] He said, the tide in the affairs of men, which taken by the flood leads on to fortune.

[00:12:07] In other words, if you take the rough road, the unknown, the wilderness, if you will.

[00:12:15] At the end of that road, if you can endure that, that's where you get, that's where you get a victory.

[00:12:20] And that, that, me not could apply to entrepreneurship, I could apply sports and the tea and anything.

[00:12:26] That's as well as a lot of discipline and

[00:12:28] like what you said earlier, curiosity.

[00:12:32] That was your first point in the direction of entrepreneurship.

[00:12:36] Somebody essentially tapped you and said, hey, this is what could happen if you,

[00:12:40] if you go down this path.

[00:12:42] Yeah.

[00:12:42] I want to fast forward a little bit to 2003 where you go deeper into, you go deep into real estate.

[00:12:49] Tell me what, what got you into that and how are you?

[00:12:53] We'll talk about that at the senior level.

[00:12:55] No, absolutely so that story I just shared ties into that.

[00:13:00] So, sets moved on from airport express and had gotten a government job.

[00:13:05] And so I worked for the county and I had a job working for the county.

[00:13:13] And so I had gotten myself a good job, you know, benefits and things like that.

[00:13:17] And so I purchased the home.

[00:13:20] Now keep in mind, I still have that entrepreneurial seat planted in my head.

[00:13:23] And I wind up purchasing a home at age of 22.

[00:13:29] So, you know, went through that process man.

[00:13:31] Thank you and went through that process and I didn't know anything about it.

[00:13:35] But it was like, you know, I want to own.

[00:13:38] I don't want to rent.

[00:13:40] And so, and again, thinking back to the days of delivering packages and seeing these beautiful homes.

[00:13:46] And I'm like, you know, I want to own a home like that.

[00:13:49] So again, that you know, even the seeds of that were planted.

[00:13:52] And so, went through the process.

[00:13:54] I had didn't have good credit at the time.

[00:13:57] But had gotten with the mortgage lender who helped me get my credit together.

[00:14:02] Right? We went on.

[00:14:03] We put, you know, she put me on a six month program.

[00:14:06] Right? And I was making money just not making the best choices, you know, prior to that.

[00:14:12] Right? So, she helped me get on a payment program.

[00:14:14] That could help me get my credit together.

[00:14:16] That could help me save money at the same time.

[00:14:19] And still, they enjoyed life. And so as a result, man, six months, you know, six months in the process.

[00:14:24] I bought my first home. And so, you know, my parents, they didn't buy their first home till they were,

[00:14:29] you know, in their mid-40s.

[00:14:31] And so, you know, I'm like, man, why did it take so long?

[00:14:34] Right? For you all to buy your home.

[00:14:36] And I mean, I'm like, I wasn't fully prepared.

[00:14:39] But, you know, I put myself on a path and I'm like, you know, I'm asking myself, why don't

[00:14:45] more people of color? Why don't more black folks?

[00:14:49] Boom. I know that there's a lot of people who rent, why don't they own it? So, I began, you know,

[00:14:55] thinking about that and that's when that entrepreneurial sea, that the gentleman plan it, you know,

[00:15:00] years earlier began to take root. And I decided I said, man, real estate, you know, I'll

[00:15:07] ask the route to several different people, you know, about this and they say, well, you know,

[00:15:11] a lot of, you know, education, right? People don't necessarily know how easy it is or, you know,

[00:15:18] or the process that you can begin to prepare yourself for. So, I said, you know, this is what I want

[00:15:23] to do. I went and got my, you know, got my real estate license and taught, you know, learn,

[00:15:28] got with the mentor in the business and he really taught me a lot about the industry. And

[00:15:33] and I want to share, you know, something as I'm sharing this story, you know, so I got into

[00:15:38] real estate in 2003. I spent the first year trying to figure things out on my own, you know,

[00:15:44] and I struggled really bad, man. And so there was a gentleman I knew that we went to the same

[00:15:50] church, he was much older than me. And he had a very successful career in real estate. And so I asked him,

[00:15:57] you know, could I come work with him and he be my mentor? And he said, yeah, you, you can, you,

[00:16:02] you can come to the company that I'm working for for a banker. And he said, but listen,

[00:16:07] you're going to come underneath me. So, you're going to be an agent underneath me. And this is

[00:16:13] good, the commission split that I'm going to, you know, split with you and you'll be my buyer's

[00:16:18] agent. And so I actually was taking the pay cut or taking the commission cut to work on a

[00:16:23] need him. But it was one of the greatest things that I could have did because, you know, I worked

[00:16:29] on a need him for two years. And I learned so much about business. And so, you know, you can't be a

[00:16:36] free to put yourself in position where you may have to take a pay cut or you may have to make

[00:16:42] less money if you're going to be able to get something in returning, something that benefits,

[00:16:47] you know, and so I wanted to share that because that was also a decision that I made that

[00:16:54] that why not changing my life even when I got into business, right? And so yeah, so I've worked

[00:16:59] on these him for two years after that worked on my own work for, I went to a different smaller

[00:17:05] brokerage because I always knew I wanted to open up my own. But now I've worked gotten a

[00:17:10] mentorship. I've worked for Cold War Baker, which is a large company. I went and worked for a

[00:17:15] smaller company to find out how they work. And then it gave me the insight that I needed to

[00:17:20] start my own company. And so I started my own company in 2005. I started my own company,

[00:17:25] own real estate broker, and I had a team of agents and everything. So that was that that

[00:17:31] entrepreneurial seat that I talked about earlier, taking root, right? And you know, ultimately

[00:17:38] built my own little brokerage. So how did that go? So we had 2005. I know the market crashed

[00:17:46] with it in 2006. In 2007, 2008, yes, year or night, on time. So I started my real estate company

[00:17:53] built my little team of agents. I did farewell, man, because the market was on fire. So this is

[00:18:00] when interest rates were dirt, they were extremely low. Market was booming, so the price in

[00:18:08] the value of houses was climbing significantly. And so it was making money hand over fits.

[00:18:15] And I invested another little small, you know, excuse me, companies. And then 2007 hit,

[00:18:24] oh man, the market crashed, right? 2008 was it was really in the dumps that I remember.

[00:18:31] I remember in my office, I used to have, I had two TVs that I had one on CNBC because I

[00:18:38] watched a stock market. So I just keep it on the kind of see what the stock market was doing

[00:18:43] and another one I had on CNN. And I used to watch, I remember the financial analyst at a time

[00:18:49] was, you know, about an alleyvel sheet who was actually on MSNBC now. But he was the financial

[00:18:57] analyst for CNN. And I remember man how the market's froze. The market's just crashed. The financial

[00:19:05] industry froze. Everybody stopped lending and it changed everything. But prior to that man,

[00:19:11] I had some good years. So I made some good money and then you had to figure something else out.

[00:19:17] And that's when Obama came in office in 2008 changed everything. So okay, yeah, my bad. Yeah,

[00:19:23] so that was the total $2,000 to $2,000. It will financial crisis you're free to. Okay, so

[00:19:28] yeah, I was looking at another interview that you mentioned a market crash in 2006. So I thought

[00:19:33] it was something else. Okay, it started going. It started declining, but it really,

[00:19:38] for these were the last years of Bush, right? And so it was a 2006, 2007. So he started declining

[00:19:44] in 2006, but it really crashed 2007. It's funny because you know, man, that's what made Obama

[00:19:56] even possible as a black man, because the market just, the economy crashed so bad.

[00:20:03] There were like, man, we just, we're willing to try anybody right now and he came along

[00:20:07] right at the right time. And he was like, we're even giving a black man a shot, right? And that,

[00:20:13] you know, in the rest of history. Yeah, but it sounds like after that, me, it sounds like you had

[00:20:20] a good run because to talk in a 91D, 2000, 900, yeah, by the African American team of

[00:20:28] comments. So what did you do between 2006 to 2009, to really to shine like that?

[00:20:35] Actually what it was was, you know, when I had done well in real estate, well with my real estate

[00:20:42] brokerage, I wind up buying. It was, it was a salon. It was like a barbershop slash lawn,

[00:20:51] you know, a little small mama pop type venue that again, I was, you know, money was coming in,

[00:20:56] handle a fist and in this lady who I actually, my brother worked at her shop. He was my barber

[00:21:02] and so I went in one day and she was looking to sell. And, you know, what she was selling for,

[00:21:08] I mean, the equipment was working more. So I was like, oh, I don't know anything about

[00:21:12] cutting hair, doing hair, any of that, but buy it and, and because of the mentorship I had

[00:21:18] from the gentleman in real estate, I understood that, man, I want to understand everything about

[00:21:23] the business. Yes, I may not be a barber, I may not be, you know, somebody who does hair performs

[00:21:28] services, but I want to understand the principles of the business because if you understand

[00:21:33] the principles of the business, then you can build something that can scale. And so I wind up going

[00:21:39] to this, they were had this big hair show at Atlanta at the time, the broader brothers hair show.

[00:21:45] And so I wind up, you know, I think I bought it in January, the broader brothers show was in February.

[00:21:49] So I, you know, booked a ticket and went to Atlanta spent the week there at this, at this hair

[00:21:54] show, the, the, the, the weekend, the weekend is like a three or four-day show. And I took a lot of

[00:22:00] the business classes. So they got all kinds of classes that take place at these things and classes

[00:22:04] on how to cut hair, do hair, do all different kind of techniques, but they also have salon management

[00:22:09] classes. And so I took those classes. I wind up buy some software that helps you, you know,

[00:22:16] kind of, you know, build out just a lot and manage it came back and remodeled this place,

[00:22:23] wind up recruiting, you know, people to work in there because I understood marketing. And so I,

[00:22:28] you know, built it out and we all grew that space, man. And I wind up buying a building. Again,

[00:22:34] this is the real estate background. I wind up buying a building that was 4,000 square feet. We wind

[00:22:40] up, you know, building this space out and it, and building it to not now it wasn't just a salon,

[00:22:46] but it was a full day spot. And so we had all the services that you could think of, the hair, the nails,

[00:22:52] the esthetician that deals with the skin, and at private rooms in the outlet. And so I have my

[00:22:57] real estate office in this same building, and this salon in the same building. And really what we did a lot of is

[00:23:05] that cannot, we did a lot of community development, meaning we did a lot of things to give back to the

[00:23:10] community. So, so that's all, that's one thing that I've been passionate about. So I would do real estate

[00:23:16] classes. We would also do events where, you know, during school when the school started up,

[00:23:22] you know, we would do free cuts and things like that for people from underserved communities.

[00:23:27] So it was, the awards came as a result of the get-up back efforts that we were doing. Because

[00:23:32] you know, I always say man, you know, I give not because I have much but because I remember what it means to

[00:23:39] have nothing, you know. I remember what it means to have nothing and so all always been kind of

[00:23:45] that philanthropic side of me. And so that's what sustained us man. And so when the market crashed,

[00:23:52] right, I still had this other business and even though people whose money was funny they still

[00:23:57] want to look at it, right? You know what I mean, I haven't even money but I want to look good,

[00:24:01] right in that cut me, that cut, I don't have to look like I'm broke, right? And so that cut

[00:24:06] us sustain it. I ultimately sold that building in that business and that kind of wrote me,

[00:24:13] through the next couple of years. Oh, nice. Yeah, love about this is this concentrate

[00:24:19] of your curiosity, right? To your asitators asked a guy on the in the rich home on the

[00:24:25] affluent side of him or line do hey, what do you do to afford this house? And then your curiosity

[00:24:30] to be like, very how does a bob? How does a hair salon on a bob shop work? You know that here

[00:24:37] is it's the understanding basis and then it seems like you're really good at executing as well

[00:24:42] because I mean to be able to come in off the street. Not knowing anything about the business.

[00:24:48] It was knowing that okay, I like a good haircut too, like everybody else. So then

[00:24:52] okay, let me expand this to the point where the place is not big enough to suit the demand that we have.

[00:24:58] That takes some special time, so skill. Right? No, I never thought about it. I never thought about

[00:25:04] that. And then it's funny that you said something. Yeah. Yeah, so I want to dissect that a little bit. So

[00:25:10] I know you have a you know, true proven track record in media marketing and marketing communications

[00:25:15] and all of that. But what does mean when has that come from how does that work? What was your formula?

[00:25:21] All right, so it's good that you know you understand the business. Well, what was your formula?

[00:25:24] What did you notice that other folks who have been in the industry for 10, 15 years did not notice?

[00:25:32] So so I'll say this man. The fact that I didn't do hair, the fact that I wasn't, you know,

[00:25:39] somebody who performed the services, I could look at things from a different perspective. Right?

[00:25:45] So always tell people just because you are good at frying chicken doesn't mean you need to open

[00:25:53] up your own restaurant, right? Because there's a different skill set, right?

[00:25:58] You know, just because you're good at the technical side of a task doesn't mean you're good at

[00:26:04] you know, building a business or building a scalable business. And so I think the fact that I

[00:26:10] didn't know how to do hair allowed me or you know, I didn't, I wasn't one of the people that

[00:26:15] was performing a technical services allowed me to look at it as a business opportunity that I could

[00:26:21] essentially scale, right? And it just gave me a different perspective. I didn't look at it from

[00:26:26] how many clients can I get. I looked at it from, you know, how many chairs can we fit into a building

[00:26:32] so that I can fit as many, you know, people that are working and then how can I market and

[00:26:37] advertise that can drive traffic to the business and so that, you know, I can then, you know,

[00:26:42] I'm bringing business to somebody who's actually performing the service and then I'm getting

[00:26:46] a percentage of their service. So in essence, man, it was the same model that you have in

[00:26:52] real estate, man. You have in real estate, you have people who are licensed, right? And so in

[00:26:57] hair industry, you know, this industry, these people are licensed. They go there, professionals

[00:27:01] themselves because they have to go get those professional license and then they have to have

[00:27:06] their license underneath, you know, a larger entity, right? And so these people who are, you know,

[00:27:12] so in real estate, I got to have a broker, right? I got my real estate license of my real estate

[00:27:17] sales professional, but I got to have my license with a real estate broker. In the hair industry,

[00:27:22] right? I have my cosmetology license, right? But I need to work out a shop because, you know,

[00:27:28] I can, I don't want, if I do a pair out of my house, then, you know, those are the purpose

[00:27:33] of getting my license. I don't need a license to do out of my house and if I want to be professional,

[00:27:37] then I need to work out of a shop. And so I actually looked at it the same way I looked at

[00:27:42] the real estate business. And so I said, okay, this is a business, this is not, you know, let's just,

[00:27:47] you know, cutting hair and thinking like that, this is a business that in any business,

[00:27:51] you've got to find a way to be able to scale. Yeah. Okay. So what I, what I, this one was

[00:28:00] often, you would, what I've seen at you also are really good at his, um, picking your right,

[00:28:05] uh, hiring properly, right? Pick it in your right people in the team, uh, bringing in people

[00:28:09] who are strong in areas where you are weak, where they're about to, but that's going to

[00:28:13] try and struggle to do the things with weaker because we don't want to spend any money to

[00:28:18] hire anybody, we don't trust people to do the things as good as you do. We don't trust them to be

[00:28:23] as passionate about it or my, like, whatever they try to steal our clients or the, the

[00:28:27] logic let's go on, right? So with all of this mindset, did you get all of this from your,

[00:28:33] from your mental, from the real estate days or is this just got into? Man, this is, this is,

[00:28:37] you know, from my mentor. This is from reading, you know, studying, um, you know, just reading

[00:28:44] other successful people. Uh, when you talk about, you know, hiring, I'm a firm believer. I do not

[00:28:51] have to be the smartest person in the room, right? I, I don't want to be, right? I want to have

[00:28:57] the bigger broader vision and always share this with my team. I said, man, listen,

[00:29:02] what I'm good at is big vision, big picture. This is the greater bigger broader vision for

[00:29:09] what we're doing. I'm like this is where, where, hey, this is Z, right? Now, I'm not sure of BC,

[00:29:18] D, E, F, right? I need you all to help, you know, help fill in the gaps and help, you know, chart

[00:29:26] path for how we get there. But I want you to understand with the, the greater broader vision is

[00:29:31] and that's what I, and that's what I do and, and, you know, I will, I study. So there's two things

[00:29:37] I'll share with you, man. Um, the first thing is that, you know, I, I learnt, you know, the difference

[00:29:42] between a leader and a manager and I, I, I've, I've accepted that I'm more of a leader, right?

[00:29:48] A leader expires, expires, right? And they share in the cast vision and then a manager is responsible

[00:29:55] for managing the process, the manager needs process, right? And so I'm not a manager and I know

[00:30:02] that's not my strength. That's not my forte. And so I try to surround myself with people who are

[00:30:08] good managers and it's that stuff. Um, and then the second thing, man, is I remember reading a story

[00:30:14] man about Henry Ford. Um, and there was this one me out that, you know, I can't at day, you know,

[00:30:25] had published something about him because he, I don't think he even graduated from high school.

[00:30:30] And so they, you know, called him in letter in and said he wasn't intelligent and they,

[00:30:36] you know, published all these things about him. He wind up suing, um, suing the newspaper.

[00:30:42] And so when they were in court and going through the trial and the process and things like that,

[00:30:47] they were, you know, the attorney, the attorney for the other side was asking him all of these

[00:30:53] technical questions about history and, you know, all of these things, you know, what happened

[00:30:59] on this particular date in history. And he was asking them all these, you know, academic,

[00:31:04] you know, things. And so, you know, Henry Ford said, listen, you know, I could easily try to

[00:31:10] cloud my mind with, you know, these, you know, irrelevant facts and times and things, you know,

[00:31:17] but really, on my desk, I have a row of buttons. You know, I'm saying he's like, you know, I can hit

[00:31:22] button and get somebody in my office that can answer any one of these questions that you're asking.

[00:31:27] Right? And so he really got them to understand and say, oh, yeah, he won the case because they said,

[00:31:33] that's the, the, the mindset of somebody with wisdom, right? So yeah, he might not have add all

[00:31:38] the, the intricate details, but he understood how to build out a team of people that had to

[00:31:44] if that had the, the specific information that he needed. And so I've always loved that philosophy.

[00:31:53] So 2009 to 2010, 2011, those were really good years for you in terms of recognition for

[00:32:00] like your hard work and everything. And so when he got the, he got about a few, he got a few awards

[00:32:04] that time. And all of a sudden, 2010, you actually put out a book.

[00:32:11] Yeah, he put out a book. Yeah, yeah, he'd be called to see you, the blueprint was starting

[00:32:16] on business. The, what was your thought process behind putting together that book?

[00:32:20] Man, I'll tell you, I didn't mean to cut you. You could finish up.

[00:32:23] Oh, you go. I'm sorry. You're good. Well, yeah, that those years, man, because I was

[00:32:27] transitioning from real estate and had sold the business. So those years were really also years

[00:32:35] of me prior to figure out what was next. You know, what is next for me? And now, by this time,

[00:32:46] I've, you know, I've started a real estate company and had grown that and had been successful

[00:32:51] prior to the market crashing. I had gotten into the health and beauty industry with no knowledge

[00:32:57] of the industry prior to getting in whatsoever and had one of the largest dayspos in Orlando.

[00:33:05] You know, so those things were, like you said, people were looking at that. And I didn't

[00:33:09] think anything other than people were like, man, how did you do that, right? And they know I come from

[00:33:13] the west side of Orlando, which I shared with you is really the underserved side of town. And so

[00:33:20] and so because of that, I would get asked to speak to, you know, a lot of youth groups

[00:33:24] and talk about entrepreneurship, talking about overcoming obstacles. You know, I would do a

[00:33:30] lot of, you know, get asked to speak a lot. And as a result, man, you know, people were asked me

[00:33:34] questions and, you know, just ask me questions about, you know, I thought, give my little talk

[00:33:39] and give a little bit of history. You know, they just asked me a lot of questions and I said,

[00:33:43] man, I need to capture, you know, some of these things that, you know, these things that people

[00:33:48] are asking me or what, I'm getting the consistent questions. And so maybe I should capture some

[00:33:53] of these things that put it into a book that I could easily say, hey, here's a blueprint

[00:33:59] dark with this, you know, this is it by all means that the end of the all but at least, you know,

[00:34:05] it was a very young book because I was very young at the time and so, but you know,

[00:34:13] this could be something that I could give to people. And so that was the idea and the concept

[00:34:19] behind cubicle to CEO and that's actually the, this is actually it up here. So

[00:34:26] cubicle to CEO, it's all dated. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, man, the blueprint for starting your own business.

[00:34:31] And because, you know, I started speaking at the youth groups and then, you know,

[00:34:38] you begin speaking at college campuses, right? And then they began speaking to business organizations.

[00:34:43] And I wanted to give them something, right? And what I realized is that, especially when you

[00:34:48] inspire people, they want a little piece of you, right? They're like, man, I was so inspired by

[00:34:53] what you were sharing. And they want a little piece of you to take to take with them. And so

[00:34:59] that's where the book, that's where the book ultimately came from. And I was like, this could be a little,

[00:35:04] a little extension that I wish I had when I was getting started. And so that was the big

[00:35:10] period of beginning. So why do you call it a young book? Because, man, you know, when I wrote it,

[00:35:17] you know, there was so much I didn't know, right? And so somebody who's been in business for a long

[00:35:23] time, I mean, it's basic, right? It's basic in nature. The things I've learnt, you know, to date

[00:35:29] are much more comprehensive. But I think it was certainly great. It was great for his time.

[00:35:36] It's great now for somebody who's getting started. That's why I said it's young, because,

[00:35:41] it's not overly heavy, you know, with things that you ultimately will have to learn. But at

[00:35:48] this time, it's just enough to inspire you and give you the basics to get something going

[00:35:54] or to even get yourself in the mindset, which is where, you know, to me, I believe you should

[00:35:58] start as the getting the mindset together. Yeah. I mean, and it sounds like that book really

[00:36:05] met people where they were, right? Especially, it's what sounds like who do people you

[00:36:11] who ask you no only questions, sounds like the younger folks from Westside Orlando or community,

[00:36:16] that look like Westside Orlando, who wanted to see that is, you know, it's hard to be what you

[00:36:21] can't see, right? Yeah. So, so luckily they got to see you and so now you could show them what

[00:36:28] was the real past or the blueprint, so how you think and how your approach things. And I love to

[00:36:34] hear a little bit about what was inside of that book, like if you have any tips, because in

[00:36:40] order, and so I'm sure there are a lot of young folks or early stage entrepreneurs who are put

[00:36:46] into get it, who are getting ready to put together their business plan, who only want to start a

[00:36:49] business, not show what business they want to start, who feel trapped in the corporate cycle,

[00:36:55] the golden hat cups, or sometimes bronze hat cups, or some sort of hat cups. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:37:01] Absolutely. You know, and really the main thing that I really addressed in this book, man, was

[00:37:11] really getting the mindset together, man. And I addressed technical things of how you

[00:37:18] incorporated things like that, but I really do a lot of addressing the mindset, you know,

[00:37:25] waking the entrepreneurial dream, right? And understanding, man, you do have a lot of

[00:37:31] the power to, you know. And also what I address is that entrepreneurship doesn't necessarily mean

[00:37:40] just starting your own business. You can be, you know, I forgot the term to use, but you

[00:37:45] can have an entrepreneurial mindset in a company, right? Oh, yeah, you know, that's been

[00:37:51] entrepreneur, right? Entrepreneur, absolutely. So I talk about that, but it's really like looking at

[00:37:56] at problems, man, and saying, you know, you'll always say every problem bears with the

[00:38:05] seed of opportunity, right? And so looking at products, if you're working in a company, then

[00:38:13] obviously you can, you see, you know, product that exists. How can I develop a solution to that

[00:38:20] problem? To me, that's what entrepreneurship is about. It's about again, you know, recognizing your

[00:38:26] eye, give a talent and then how do I merge my talents to, you know, my talents that I've

[00:38:32] then developed into a skill to, you know, solve prop that I see that exists. And so that's the

[00:38:39] very at the core of what I, what I talk about. I'm actually working on another book,

[00:38:45] wake up as star dreaming which will be much more comprehensive. Yeah, wake up as star dreaming.

[00:38:56] Yeah, that would be a lot more comprehensive. I remember man, I had another mentor who was, you know,

[00:39:06] very successful. He owned a number of, and this was a little bit later on in my professional career.

[00:39:14] He owned a number of successful hotels. And I was telling him about writing this, this young,

[00:39:23] you know, this book, this first book. And he told me he's like, Jane, well, maybe you need to get

[00:39:28] a little bit more experience out of these, you're belted and, you know, build up, you know,

[00:39:35] millions of dollars and things like that. And I said, what that sounds good, man, but, you know,

[00:39:40] some people just need to help a hand, where they're at right now. Right? They need to help a hand,

[00:39:45] right now, where they're at. I think what I've learned right now, I wish somebody would have shared

[00:39:50] with me earlier, it would have helped me overcome a little, you know, some of my obstacles. So,

[00:39:57] so, you know, I said, I'll write that, that'll be another chapter or that'll be another another book

[00:40:02] when I get to that point that you're talking about, but I don't have to wait.

[00:40:07] Yeah, it's great when you're talking to audiences, a young division of yourself.

[00:40:13] We have to really know what they need to help you wish that somebody would have told you.

[00:40:19] Absolutely. March 15, 2015 was proclaimed as G Jackson Day. Oh.

[00:40:27] That happened at the city of Orlando. I'm talking to the mayor of Orlando right now, what's happening?

[00:40:32] No, no, no, no, no, no. Man, I tell you, you know what? That was that day.

[00:40:39] So, you know, I'm moved to Atlanta in 2015. So, we started a company. So, interestingly,

[00:40:49] I want to back up a little bit because there's a key point that I want to make in this timeline

[00:40:57] that you're, that you are sharing here. So, you talked about 2009, 2010,

[00:41:04] you know, the different awards and things like that. And I talked about the book 2010, I wrote it.

[00:41:10] And so, as a result of me speaking to these different youth groups, man, I wind up,

[00:41:17] you know, not only did I have to, you know, get the, just see planet for the book.

[00:41:21] You know, I was all, I was intrigued by the fact that these young people just gravitate to me.

[00:41:28] And they say, you know, and I would ask them, what is about me? And they said,

[00:41:31] what you're so young, and at the time I had a lot less gray, you know, I had a little less in the middle here,

[00:41:37] you know, to me. So, they could really connect with me. They really related to me because I was a young guy, man.

[00:41:42] And, and, you know, that came from, you know, where a lot of them came from. And they say, well,

[00:41:47] we always see athletes, right? And they see entertainers, right? They see the people,

[00:41:52] the athletes and the entertainers. But they, you know, just like me, they didn't see entrepreneurs,

[00:41:56] much for Norris, right? People who were, you know, owning their own business and trying to

[00:42:01] scale those businesses. And so, um, and so again, you know, I said, man, we need to tell more of

[00:42:07] those stories because I'm like there's a lot of people out there who are not only just entrepreneurs,

[00:42:12] but people who are, you know, building and working in companies that are climbing the corporate

[00:42:17] ladder and becoming successful. And so, um, in 2011, we launched a magazine called Rise,

[00:42:26] RYSE Rise Magazine at the time. Um, and, you know, the magazine was never the business model for

[00:42:32] us. The magazine was really kind of the loss leader, but the magazine was the glorified business

[00:42:37] partner, which I had one, which I've been prepared to have, but one of the issues here.

[00:42:43] But I don't have one in front of me, but um, it was the, it was, you know, this full-color,

[00:42:50] gloss publication that was like a young professional version of a black enterprise magazine. And

[00:42:57] and so we spotlight it, um, up-will-emobile by Nordie Young professionals who were doing phenomenal

[00:43:03] things. And that's what Ryze stood for, recognizing the young, successful and empowered. Um,

[00:43:10] and so every time, you know, really the business model for us, every time we, we were releasing a new

[00:43:18] issue of the publication, which it was ever too much. Um, we would do this big cover and valing

[00:43:23] a bit. And so this is the marketing in me, right? Then you know, I said, man, you know, the magazine

[00:43:29] is just a magazine and, you know, but if we tie it to like this big cover and valing and this

[00:43:36] event, you know, on the mean that who's going to be under to, on the cover of the next issue of Ryze,

[00:43:43] right? Get your tickets. You need to be in the room. And so we would easily move 3, 4, 500, you know,

[00:43:49] 600 young professionals. Um, and pretty soon, you know, companies like Pepsi comes like State Farm,

[00:43:56] comes like BB&T bank, right? They were paying attention because we are moving, you know,

[00:44:03] hundreds of up-relimable young professionals and they number one wants to recruit. Right? You

[00:44:09] know, they want to recruit because everybody wants diverse talent, diversity and inclusion was

[00:44:13] was very big. Number two, they want to market to them, right? And so that was our core

[00:44:19] business model was marketing, working with these companies to do marketing. Uh, but the magazine itself

[00:44:25] was for that was for the people, right? And that was to share these inspiring stories so they could

[00:44:31] learn about other people who were utterly mobile. And so we lost that in 2011 which then

[00:44:37] did in Orlando for a number of years. I knew I wanted to do it on a national scale in Orlando

[00:44:43] as much as I love it because that's home for me. Um, it's, you know, Mickey Mouse town, right? And so

[00:44:48] it's known for tourism and healthcare. Those are the two, you know, central floaters, you know,

[00:44:54] those are the two main industries. And so I said, okay, well, Orlando is great, but if we're going

[00:44:59] to launch on a national scale then we got to go to a market that that we can catapult on a national

[00:45:06] scale, right? And Orlando just says not that kind of market. So in 2015, you know, I moved the company

[00:45:11] to Atlanta, uh, tried New York to New York. It was made way too massive, way too big. Um, I love New York

[00:45:18] because of the progression is. And so what, I, I, I went to New York for about, you know,

[00:45:23] four months, uh, just, you know, testing, you know, seeing the market and I realized it was way too big,

[00:45:30] way too expensive, way too cold, right? I'm from Florida, I'm a Florida boy. That's right. It's

[00:45:34] me too expensive. It's a thought. Yeah. Way too expensive, man. But when I came back to Florida

[00:45:40] at the being in New York, I knew then I was like, I can't stay here. I cannot stay in Orlando

[00:45:47] because, you know, the, the progressiveness, man. And I got around people with the, you know,

[00:45:52] there were hungry and driven and just moving. And so, um, now I'm like, I definitely got to

[00:45:58] leave Florida now. And so we moved the company in 2015 to to Atlanta, which I fell in love with

[00:46:03] it because it was really kind of a happy mix, man. It had, you know, still that Southern, that Southern

[00:46:09] field, Southern House, mentality field, but much more progressive significant, you know,

[00:46:13] a corporate headquarters so we can get to key decision makers. Um, social economic status was

[00:46:19] significantly higher, right? So it was just, it was a much better market. And so when we talk about

[00:46:25] now bringing it back to March 2015, that was the day that we wind up doing our last events.

[00:46:33] So January, we moved the company and as a, as a going away party celebration, we hosted our last

[00:46:41] event. And I brought in a gentleman who, who I looked up to for a number of years and he became

[00:46:48] a friend of mine, less brown, you know, the motivational speaker, man. And, and less less was like,

[00:46:56] hey, Jay, um, I'll do an event for you and I won't charge you. I'll do it for you for free. And he's like,

[00:47:02] I'll just make money on back room sales and things like that, but you can keep the door

[00:47:06] and that'll be my send off because he actually was living in Florida at the time. And he's like,

[00:47:11] that'll be my send off for you. And so we did this, you know, evening with less brown, man,

[00:47:19] which was a motivational evening where we were talking about what it means to rise and what it

[00:47:24] means to as he likes to say, you know, you got to be hungry, right? What does it mean to be hungry?

[00:47:30] And so, you know, that was a phenomenal evening for us. That was the last event,

[00:47:37] then last official rise event that we did in my whole town. You know, this is so amazing that

[00:47:43] all of this started from, oh, my, because the English was a lost leader, right? But it, yeah,

[00:47:48] it's just was a true that with the right message, I think that probably the message is more

[00:47:54] important than the business model, right? With the right message, a lost leader could be a market

[00:48:00] builder. That's absolutely right, but I know on a movement maker, look at me and my little

[00:48:06] thing. Yeah, look at you, man. You know, we need to work together on a marketing side of things,

[00:48:17] you know, so we're not, we're not, we're not, all right? Blackmaker,

[00:48:23] black American mega, I would say, you know, greatly, so I was there, but see, for,

[00:48:30] no, when Sir, 2022, I was there for a little bit, a Binton New York as well, not Binton,

[00:48:37] my wife lives in New York and in New York all the time. Florida, family, and Florida,

[00:48:43] everything, so I know what you're doing. And I like, and what you see where, all right, so New York

[00:48:48] has got that energy and everything, and it feels like your community in Florida, I like a

[00:48:54] not to hope we are in the island's field, right? No, things are little slow, what, not good. Yeah,

[00:49:01] when you go, well, man, when they make you, they're good, weather makes you like, hey,

[00:49:05] I'm not in a rash, man, we'll get to it. You know, no, you are so low, you know, not even

[00:49:09] low, you are so low. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, so, you know, you could easily get

[00:49:17] comfortable, like, complacent over here, you know, but yeah, that big city life, fast pace everybody's

[00:49:23] working, no matter what time it's day to the working, no matter what they're doing, cleaning the streets

[00:49:27] they're working, you know, they're building construction they're working, they're not sitting down,

[00:49:31] sitting down, drinking, with a man at work sign. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you know, so that's the energy

[00:49:39] really becomes contagious, right? And before we go on to the right streets of Venice, because

[00:49:45] I want to spend some time talking about that, would you recommend folks? You know, because we have

[00:49:51] a big, we have an audience, and of course, the islands are what not, all right? Would you recommend folks

[00:49:58] leave their comfortable environment to put you their dream or to expand what and scale what they're

[00:50:05] doing? So I'll say this, man. I'm happy I left home, right? Because while I was doing significant

[00:50:14] things, I feel like I was, I feel like I had hit a, hit a ceiling. Yeah, I knew a lot of people

[00:50:21] had a nice roller decks, but I wanted to, I didn't want to just be a big fish in a small pond.

[00:50:30] And nothing, you know, nothing, you know, nothing against Orlando, because I mean,

[00:50:35] there are people who are doing very, very well there. I need they've done, you know, a number of things,

[00:50:40] but sometimes, you gotta leave home, man, you know, what they say a prophet is never recognizing

[00:50:46] in their own land, right? And so, um, and so that for me, you know, may not be the case for everybody,

[00:50:53] right? But for me, it gave me a new, renewed vigor. And then there's things I'm doing now where

[00:51:02] we're getting to that, I probably would have never been able to execute and pull off

[00:51:06] in Orlando. And so, um, and so, you know, absolutely, I think sometimes, as we mentioned earlier,

[00:51:14] man, sometimes you gotta step out of that comfort zone. It is not easy, right? It's not easy,

[00:51:20] man, because it's comfortable, right? You know, um, but I, you know, I'm here really good too.

[00:51:28] Well, you gotta get it, you gotta get it, you gotta get it shipped in, man.

[00:51:33] But yeah, so I know for me, man, it was, it was something that, um, I'm thankful, man,

[00:51:41] it changed my life. You know, you have a lot of courts that have been written right and long since

[00:51:46] you've been talking here. You say every problem is a seat of opportunity. I wrote down a week up and

[00:51:53] start dreaming. Well, that's a book title, but I wrote that down. The prophet is never recognized in

[00:51:59] their own land. I think that was a hard hit in one. All right, now let's talk about the race

[00:52:06] of the race. 40,000 square feet. You bought the school, the Preston Arc Rags School.

[00:52:17] What that, what that old school building, right? And now your building,

[00:52:21] Rice, Creative Fellowships are dynamic, technical content production studio,

[00:52:27] and development in cubicters specifically, specifically design for creative professionals

[00:52:33] and Georgia's film entertainment, gaming and digital media industry. All right, so again,

[00:52:42] I'm going to repeat 40,000 square feet of property. How did you do this? One, two, I still am trying

[00:52:56] to figure this stuff. Okay, but what I, what I put love and I looked into, you were, you were

[00:53:03] gone who are the six thousand square foot property before me and then you have got the 40,000

[00:53:10] square foot property for like a lot of your price? Yeah, tell us all about that. Oh man, so

[00:53:19] man, I'll tell you this is so we move the company here. One of 15, like I said,

[00:53:24] spent some time trying to figure out the market, right? And so then we started working with companies

[00:53:30] like Georgia Power. And we were doing the marketing side of what we do. Now keep in mind,

[00:53:35] I don't have the same relationships or the same brand that I had in Orlando, right? So I got

[00:53:42] a brand building here as well and it's a much bigger market. But you know, so I let with the magazine

[00:53:50] because I know I'm like, okay, well we have this magazine and with this magazine, we know that

[00:53:56] you know, like folks don't get enough recognition, right? So we can, we can leverage the magazine

[00:54:01] and a power of recognition of a magazine to get our foot in the door and begin to build some

[00:54:06] relationships here, which is what we did and then, you know. So we, we wind up building relationships

[00:54:11] because I tell you man, when, when you publish a magazine and you're able to show it to people

[00:54:16] in this tangible and you can, you know, have it in your hand, you know, people begin to take notice

[00:54:21] of you real quick, right? Because people are like, hey, you know, hey, what do you, you know,

[00:54:25] because they want some recognition. Because I'll tell you man, when you become successful and

[00:54:31] you start making money, man, making money is good. But the one thing is especially black folks lack

[00:54:37] and, and they love is recognition, right? Recognition that what I am doing, I am successful at

[00:54:47] or I'm at the top of my game or I even aspire to be successful. And so recognize me, right? So

[00:54:53] they won't, they want that recognition or lack that. And so, you know, that made me, you know,

[00:55:00] built my allowed me to build a little bit of a network, you know, relatively quick moving into

[00:55:06] city because everybody's like, okay, with this guy publishes a magazine, want to be featured in it.

[00:55:12] And so that allowed me to then begin, you know, and also lever some of my relationships from

[00:55:17] from Florida, you know, with companies like BBNC bank and things like that. And so as we're now hiring,

[00:55:23] you know, freelancers because we're creating content and doing all of these various different marketing

[00:55:28] things. One of the things that I was really enamored with and really intrigued about when I moved

[00:55:35] to Atlanta was how much money was being generated from the production industry.

[00:55:42] Production industry was, I don't know if you know, but man, this is, you know,

[00:55:48] George's was neck and neck between two and three in terms of the top production markets, right?

[00:55:54] You got LA, you got LA, you got New York and you have George and it's because of those tax incentives

[00:56:00] and things like that. And so, and so everything films here, you know, Marvel, all of those,

[00:56:06] you know, these big huge movies film here, right? And one thing I've learned because, you know,

[00:56:14] in Orlando, I told you tourism and healthcare are the, you know, number one industry in Orlando.

[00:56:21] And so the government, you know, does a lot of things to incentivize those industries. And so

[00:56:28] I've seen the power of a government really, you know, doing things to drive industry.

[00:56:36] And so when I saw in the state of Georgia, tax incentives and things like that, I'm like, man,

[00:56:43] you know, this is the government, the state is really behind this. And so I'm like,

[00:56:48] that's the industry that you want to try to, you know, get a piece of, right? Because it's,

[00:56:52] you know, the government wants it to be successfully, smarter than economic development and job

[00:56:57] and so, you know, I was intrigued by that. And so as I'm hiring these freelancers,

[00:57:01] I'm like, I know you all are getting connected to all of these opportunities that are taking place

[00:57:06] here in Maryland's production. And more and more, I spoke with creative. They said, well,

[00:57:09] we don't even know how to get connected to the opportunities. We don't, you know, there,

[00:57:14] you know, while I've learned what I learned about the creatives is something that also learned about

[00:57:18] the people that were in the, in the hair industry, right? Very talented, right? Yeah, a lot of the

[00:57:24] talents skills, right? But don't always understand the business side, right? The business

[00:57:29] acumen of things, right? And so, you know, it were like, man, we don't even know. And so I realize

[00:57:34] I'm like, they have the talent, but they met, and especially when you talk about creatives with

[00:57:37] color, right? Don't always understand how to articulate their value proposition or how the proper

[00:57:43] network connections to get into opportunities. So I said, man, if we could build out an ecosystem

[00:57:51] and let me back up when I first moved to Atlanta, there was a space I used to go to call

[00:57:57] Atlanta Tech Village. And this is when I was trying to build my network, Atlanta Tech Village

[00:58:03] was this, you know, big facility that co-working space, they had offices, they would have programming,

[00:58:10] they would have networking events, it was like this big ecosystem for people in the tech industry.

[00:58:15] And I would go there because they would have a number of networking events and classes,

[00:58:18] I'm going to tell you, I'm always like, you know, I always like to learn. And they targeted

[00:58:24] the tech industry. So if you were trying to break into the tech industry, whether you want to

[00:58:30] get a job with Google or whether you want to, you know, start your own tech company, you wanted

[00:58:34] to work out of Atlanta Tech Village. And so, and so I said, man, if we could take that model,

[00:58:40] what they've done over there that they've proven concept and apply it to the creative industry,

[00:58:47] which is a multi-billion dollar industry in a state of Georgia, and we could take that same

[00:58:52] model, co-working office, studio spaces, programming, training, you know, all of that and build

[00:59:00] out our own ecosystem, then we got something that could be significantly successful. And so that was

[00:59:07] where the, you know, now the entrepreneurial seat planted, you know, here's a, here's a problem

[00:59:14] that exists and, and, and, and, and, let's create a solution to that problem, right?

[00:59:19] Let's, let's create a solution. And so that is where the whole concept and idea came from.

[00:59:26] All right, so I think concept and the idea, so no, talk to me about actually acquiring

[00:59:31] a building from a elementary school or as we say, the current, my primary school, oh, you able to

[00:59:38] get not building from from a, say, listen, I want to put together creative village, please.

[00:59:44] Man, let me tell you, man, I, I'll say this, man. I had this concept and I have to add that

[00:59:52] a lot of this stuff I'm talking about, man, what I've been leaving out is a measure of faith

[00:59:58] and a measure of grace, man, and a measure of faith that, hey, I may not have all the answers,

[01:00:05] but let me get started and I have faith that God is going to help me figure to rest out.

[01:00:13] But I mean, I have to have faith. I have something that I'm rooted in and so, you know,

[01:00:20] this, I got this concept and so I said, if I can find me, you know, five or six thousand square

[01:00:25] foot to execute this end, this would be significant. Found a building that was six thousand square

[01:00:30] foot, man. I just knew this was the space it was in the, in a part of town that was

[01:00:36] that was going through, you know, redevelopment and so I was like, man, you know, the

[01:00:40] that had been sitting for maybe two or three years. So soon as I go to put it all for another

[01:00:45] offer, comes in at the same time and I'm like, why are all these years is this been sitting here?

[01:00:50] Soon as I want to build and somebody else comes for it. And so, you know, that building

[01:00:55] wind up, we wind up losing that to a, you know, somebody who bought it for cash. And so,

[01:01:02] you know, I'm like, man, where am I going to execute this vision at? And someone said to me,

[01:01:06] man, you might need to look at these former Atlanta public school properties that are sitting

[01:01:12] vacant. They got a ton of properties that are sitting because they were consolidating schools

[01:01:18] at different points in time. Population then change people going to private schools, right?

[01:01:22] And so they were, you know, yeah, they just have the surplus of properties and I had never

[01:01:27] thought about buying a school, man. And so I stumbled across this thing. I got, I wanted to

[01:01:32] be holding a hold of the list and saw this property. I was like, man, this thing would be absolutely

[01:01:37] perfect. And so I said on the path, man, of trying to buy it, it was, you know, it actually

[01:01:42] 30,000 square foot we're going to be adding additional 10,000, but it was 30,000 square foot

[01:01:47] sitting on four acres of land. And so again, much more massive than I even anticipated,

[01:01:56] you know, your vision, your vision may be this big and God is like, you know, I got such a

[01:02:00] much bigger for you know, I need. And, you know, absolutely so I began the process of trying to

[01:02:08] acquire this Atlanta public schools, you know, we're like who to hell with you? But to hell

[01:02:12] you, you know, talking about buying one of our properties and they, you know, drug me through all of

[01:02:17] that mud. But I began going to the community and I began saying to the community, hey,

[01:02:23] this is because this school sat in the middle of a community. So I went to the, I went to the

[01:02:27] community and said, this is my vision for this property. This is what I envision, you know,

[01:02:33] doing and and and and launching in this building that's been sitting vacant for 15 years,

[01:02:39] right? And the community wanted something positive to happen because it's been sitting vacant. So

[01:02:43] you got dumping going on, you got criminal activity, you got, you know, squatters, you got all of

[01:02:49] these things that happened with a vacant property. So imagine you live across the street from a

[01:02:54] building that's boarded up and just, you know, all kind of vandalism and things. And so, um,

[01:03:00] and so, you know, I was telling the community, I'm trying to buy it but Atlanta public schools

[01:03:04] is really dragging this thing out with me and they don't want to move forward with me and the

[01:03:09] community wind up going down to the Board of Education meeting and speaking up on my behalf,

[01:03:14] man, and yeah, yeah. So again, man, I don't have all the answers, but, you know, I just get started,

[01:03:21] man, and you be surprised how, you know, you start moving and you start believing, you start operating

[01:03:29] in faith, um, how things start to happen and man. And so we wind up because the community

[01:03:35] put pressure on them, then we wind up going under contracts, right? And, um, and so now I'm

[01:03:41] under contract to, uh, to purchase a former Atlanta public school property, right? That's crazy. I can't

[01:03:47] even, you know, just even think about it now. Yeah. You ended up getting contractually. You

[01:03:55] had no get to this property, so much lower price than the six toes that the script for

[01:03:59] property is asking for. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was, you know, because it had been sitting so long,

[01:04:05] they hadn't really assessed any of the things and they were actually going through, you know,

[01:04:09] Atlanta public schools and sitting at Atlanta was going through this conflict, you know, and so

[01:04:13] these properties just sat. And so as the values were climbing, right? They were just, you know,

[01:04:20] Atlanta public schools, they didn't pay taxes on the property that they're government entity. So,

[01:04:25] so, you know, they didn't really, only thing they had to pay for with the any of these

[01:04:29] properties that they got a ton of them still is just, you know, keeping up the, the last gaping,

[01:04:34] you know, just keeping the grass cut. And so the property values going up and going up,

[01:04:38] then when I finally go to make an offer, right? You know, it's like we don't even know what the value is,

[01:04:45] right? And so I made an offer and, you know, they accepted. And yes, it was less than half the price of,

[01:04:51] it was less than half the price of what I was trying to buy to other property for it and get this,

[01:04:58] man. You know, we bought it. I got it in the contract and purchased it for a less than $500,000

[01:05:07] for ending, you know, as we mentioned, it's 40,000 square foot sitting on four acres of land.

[01:05:13] The appraisal came in, we were acquiring and the appraisal came in at 1.5 million. Right?

[01:05:19] Yeah, yeah, 1.5 million. So here I am, I'm buying this property with a million dollars worth of equity.

[01:05:25] Of course, we got to put millions into it. But I mean, you know, I could, I could have easily, you know,

[01:05:30] slipped it and sold it to some, some other developer that wasn't, you know, obviously the vision.

[01:05:34] But, um, yeah, man. So, you know, that again, um, having faith in grace, faith in grace,

[01:05:44] absolute love it. I, I hope you agree. So let's talk about the design and part of the creative

[01:05:49] industry and you very well put that, that creates a professionals on necessarily,

[01:05:56] they're necessarily wired to be business savvy, right? And I just thought like not left-brain, right,

[01:06:01] sort of kind of drum going on there. So, how do you see this creative village at your

[01:06:09] building? How do you see how do you see them being able to become more business savvy?

[01:06:14] Or is it that you're going to be connected to them with business professionals like you

[01:06:17] connecting with the head shop? How do you, with the head salon? How do you see this happening?

[01:06:22] So for us, man, it's about number one, always like to say, um,

[01:06:27] curating and cultivating creativity, right? So for us, it's about curating

[01:06:32] creatives, right? And because you got all of these creative talent at Lannas already known for the

[01:06:38] music scene that it had, you know, now we got film that goes along with that. But building a space

[01:06:44] that can curate and bring collectively, bring all of these people together. So, hey, I might be

[01:06:50] a great screenwriter, but how do I, how do I bring my screenplay to life, right? Or I'm a

[01:06:57] college and here, right? And how do I, you know, connect with people who are creating,

[01:07:02] you know, bringing a script to life. How do I connect with them? And, you know, as I share with you,

[01:07:07] I know I'm a big vision person, but you have to be, especially if you're, how for, you know,

[01:07:11] if you've got a big vision that you need a team around, you know, you need to connect with

[01:07:15] other people who understand that vision. And so for us, we knew this could be a hub for curating,

[01:07:23] um, curating all of these different creative, creative professionals. And so, um, you know,

[01:07:29] whether they be in music, whether they be in film, whether they be in gaming, right? And now giving

[01:07:34] them the tools and resources. They have a coworking community that can work out of it. But we're

[01:07:38] under construction now, but they are part of a coworking community. So for us, look at us,

[01:07:42] 50 dollars a month, I got a space I can work out of, I can connect with other people, right?

[01:07:47] There's studio space, so I can work in the studios and really begin to, uh, to just create,

[01:07:54] right? I got access to now, you know, acoustically engineered studios, right? On our part as

[01:08:00] as the organization, we have to curate programming, right? We have to bring in programming constantly

[01:08:07] that is now helping people, you know, develop their skills. Just like I told you when I

[01:08:12] real estate, I went and worked underneath this guy and learned the business side of things, right?

[01:08:19] Now these people can have access to the programming, so it's up to us to pull that programming together.

[01:08:25] And there for us, also our responsibility is to begin to build relationships with the

[01:08:30] Tyler Perry Studios and the Black Hall Studios and the, and the, and the lecture out studios,

[01:08:36] right? So that we can become a pipeline, right? Um, you know, helping people, and, and we still

[01:08:41] got work doing our side. We're in the construction book, you know, we want to build relationships with

[01:08:46] Amazon, we want to build relationships with Netflix, we want to build relationships with the labels,

[01:08:50] record labels, right? Because we want to be that can do it, right? Where you're coming into our

[01:08:56] facility, you're getting, you know, trained and you're access to to to to program and help develop

[01:09:03] your skills, right? You got there as I, as I mentioned at the very beginning of this, you know,

[01:09:08] recognized your guy, given talent. Where cards to develop a talent into a skill, right? And so now we're

[01:09:14] helping, you know, care rating programs for you to help you develop that talent into a skill

[01:09:19] and then utilize your skills to accomplish your goals and dreams. And so it's on us that then

[01:09:24] connect and connect you to, you know, opportunities. How do we, how do, how does a screenwriter

[01:09:31] create something that can be on on, on, stream on Netflix, right? How do I bridge that gap? How do I get

[01:09:36] there? Right? And there's enough stories, there's enough storytellers that exist, right? There's

[01:09:42] there's plenty more, you know, ease of raise and and taught up hair, ease and, you know, people that

[01:09:48] exist and not taking away anything from those talented people. But there's so many more stories

[01:09:53] that haven't been told. And we want to be a can do it too. And so many talented musical artists and

[01:10:01] things like that, that we've never experienced that, you know, we want to be a can do it for that.

[01:10:07] So is that in terms of the educational programming and the curious of programming and stuff?

[01:10:12] Is it that's a lot of that is going to be sort from the community or is it that you guys,

[01:10:19] so you're, you're on your management team are going to actually be creating courses.

[01:10:23] There's a mixture of both, it's a mixture of both. It's, you know, we want to be a can do it,

[01:10:29] right? And so anybody that's out there doing things on a high quality skill,

[01:10:35] we want to partner. I believe in collaboration, you know, we can't, we can't

[01:10:41] develop all of the program, all of the programming that is needed. Right? So we want to carry,

[01:10:46] we want to pull things in. There's, you know, that I got connected to this, um, to this group

[01:10:51] that does this on a, you know, at college they work with, you know, people that want to be

[01:10:56] into in the music industry and they work with, they have this organization, they're on the

[01:11:00] campuses of five or six colleges, right? And they're like, you know, we're on college campuses

[01:11:05] right now and they deal with the business of music. And, um, and, and, and always tell people

[01:11:12] man, if you sit in a movie, you go to the movie, you know, people think, you know, it's all about,

[01:11:17] you know, dinsel or, you know, or how, how, how, like Barry, right? People that sit in front of the

[01:11:23] camera, but if you stay to the end of a movie, man, there's a lot of jobs. There are a lot of jobs,

[01:11:28] right? And when you go, no credits roll, right? They're going to roll through the cash. But, you

[01:11:33] know, there's a whole production crew that have sustainable jobs, right? That have sustainable jobs

[01:11:40] because entertainment, even when that kind of me crashes, man, um, the one thing that we want

[01:11:46] is to be entertained, right? You know, I don't care how, when the financial market crashes,

[01:11:51] we want to get our mind off of the fact that, you know, our money is funny, right? And we want

[01:11:55] escape into into this world. And so, um, and so yeah, nice, it's not just things that we're creating,

[01:12:02] but it's certainly things that we're curating as well and collaborating with people who are doing.

[01:12:07] We want to be a hub. We want to be a resource for all of that program, make to work out of.

[01:12:14] And thanks for touching on the economic impact, um, in terms of the jobs I'll be created

[01:12:18] from all of the creative products, you know, so it was like you said, the credits, like,

[01:12:23] the five minutes to get through and they're like, yes, 10 fonts. Right? So a lot of jobs are

[01:12:28] created by movies and other creative projects. And, you know, I tell my son all the time,

[01:12:34] he's a, he's a creative professional. Um, and, and I'm like, you know, we look at Licky Manage,

[01:12:40] we look at Beyonce and, and they are, you know, certainly large in life, but I'm like, man,

[01:12:46] there's a whole creative team that are behind them, that are creating that persona. Right?

[01:12:53] Yes, they have talent in there, front of people. But like somebody has to come up with the

[01:12:58] concepts for, you know, everything that they're doing and the visuals and the visual effects,

[01:13:04] right? And all of that, right? You know, they're writing the songs, they're producing the music,

[01:13:10] right? Somebody is creating all of that, right? And those are sustainable jobs, right? And so,

[01:13:18] this is a, that's how we look at it. Right? So this is a big project. This is a multi-minute

[01:13:23] dollar project, right? Yes. I know you have a crowdfunding campaign out. I think it's sort of

[01:13:30] to try and erase 50,000 or crowfunding. But I imagine this is a lot more expensive than that.

[01:13:36] So if you've been able to, for nothing, I mean, not asking you to put a snow.

[01:13:40] Yeah, no, no, no, no. No, this is, this is very important, right? Because all of the stuff,

[01:13:46] all of this stuff cost money, right? I'm not just out here. And I want to be clear. I'm not

[01:13:51] somebody that's just sitting on moons and dollars to make this stuff happen, right? And so as I share

[01:13:56] with you, my strength is casting vision. My strength is, hey, listen, this is what we envision,

[01:14:06] this looking like, this is Z, you know, we're at A right now, you know, this is Z, right? And so

[01:14:14] you then begin to, you know, you got to find the resources to get you there. And so after hearing

[01:14:21] a lot of knows because, you know, what we're talking about doing is certainly innovative,

[01:14:27] you know, there's not a lot of examples that you can point to. And so of course when you're

[01:14:31] talking to, you know, investors, you're talking to, you know, lenders, you're talking to people like that.

[01:14:38] They're like, you know, how does this make money, right? How do you make money? How does this,

[01:14:43] lads, lads, lads, lads, lads. And so you got to begin to this and write yourself with the

[01:14:47] people that can help you build up the performance. This is how we generate revenue. This is

[01:14:52] how the business model works. And this is what revenue looks like year one year two year three

[01:14:56] year four year second, right? That you can knit articulate. So, so you have to learn to speak

[01:15:02] a different language, right? And so, and what I mean by that is as I'm talking to your audience

[01:15:07] and I'm talking about the bigger growth, the greater vision. This is not necessarily the same,

[01:15:14] you know, way I'm articulating it to a banker, right? I know you got to find into background,

[01:15:18] but the banker wanted to look at the spreadsheets, right? And then you want to see, okay,

[01:15:22] what, you know, what should net operating income and everything is said and done, how are you

[01:15:25] generating your revenue, right? What should break even point, right? They want to understand the

[01:15:30] financial aspects, right? And so now, you know, I can't sit up in and talk about these lofty,

[01:15:35] you know, visions. I got to talk about, you know, heart facts and what, you know, how many people

[01:15:41] did we need to be working out of this space for us to hit the numbers that we need to hit? How many

[01:15:46] tenants do I need to have in the building, right? And so, and so we went through that process.

[01:15:51] And so, a little learning experience from me. So, there's time where I start off sharing

[01:15:55] the vision and then I have to take a step back and I have to bring in, you know, the CFO who can

[01:16:00] talk about, you know, what this looks like from a financial perspective and from an investment perspective.

[01:16:07] And so, that's important that you have to understand because it's different language, totally

[01:16:13] different language, right? And so, that being said, I mean we wind up securing funding from a

[01:16:21] minority on banks. So we hear it know from everybody but that didn't stop me. So we've secured

[01:16:25] funding from a minority on bank that gave us the construction money to build out what we're

[01:16:31] looking to build out. And so, I'm thankful for that because we've got millions of dollars that are,

[01:16:36] you know, set aside for us to get the construction done. And so, now we're at the stage and thankfully

[01:16:43] man, I've been creatively financing a lot of this out of pocket just by, you know, just putting

[01:16:52] money in here and there and raising a little bit of money from friends and family and things like that.

[01:16:58] And but now we're at the stage man where we've gotten the project, you know, pretty far along

[01:17:03] we're under construction right now so, you know, that process is happening. And the same way

[01:17:10] the community, the same way the community I talked about helped us get the property on the contract

[01:17:16] and I went to the community and they said, well, you know, we'll go out for the Board of Education

[01:17:20] meeting and speaking up on year 1, we want to offer the greater community an opportunity to invest

[01:17:27] themselves, right? And so, that's what caused us to launch the crowdfunding campaign. We said, you know,

[01:17:33] you know, we know we need to source some additional capital. Why not instead of trying to go to

[01:17:39] individual investors and try to make the pitch? Why not take it to the community and say, hey,

[01:17:45] for as little as $100, you can have a piece of ownership. You can have your name listed in the building

[01:17:51] on the rise, tribe, all that's what we call our audience, our followers we call it, they're part of

[01:17:57] our tribe, T are YBE, like we do the rise, right? And so you could have your name listed in the building

[01:18:05] and you could say, listen, you know, $400 I helped out what they were doing is not a donation

[01:18:10] it's an investment. So, you know, $100, you know, $500 a thousand dollars and, you know,

[01:18:16] and I've invested it and you know, I can expect some type of return on that. I got my name listed

[01:18:21] in the building and I'm supporting a project that's pretty damn dope, right? And so, you know,

[01:18:29] and so that's how we, that's how we looked at it. So, we said, let's open it up to our, you know,

[01:18:38] help us get it across the finish line. And so, we launched the crowdfunding campaign.

[01:18:47] And all that going so far.

[01:18:50] Oh, man, we've just launched it. So, we got us, we, you know, we're about to start ramping up

[01:18:54] and so we thank for the, for you to even give us a platform. So, people can, people can contribute

[01:19:00] at createatlanta.com. And so, you know, if you go to createatlanta.com then you can, you know,

[01:19:09] you can, you know, take it to a platform. So, all of this is SEC regulated. We got to go to the

[01:19:14] process of that because it's not a donation, it's not a contribution, it's an investment.

[01:19:20] So, so we had to work with a platform. We funder that handles all of that process of the legal

[01:19:26] aspects of it. And so, we're getting started and thankful to be getting the word out. So, we're

[01:19:33] thankful for anybody in that difficult process. The difficult process of of of, of, of,

[01:19:41] of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of,

[01:19:42] three, of crowdfunding campaign. I mean, I mean, the file in the file in the form C and all of these things like,

[01:19:48] this is a walk us through what is that process for you put things together. I crowdfunding

[01:19:52] campaign, especially in the US market. So, this that that's the good thing. Companies like we funder,

[01:20:00] they handle everything for you. So, they take a lot of that heavy lifting because we did,

[01:20:06] we re-retain and we have a security's attorney. We have a security's attorney who we were going to

[01:20:13] go ahead and start doing that and and he've recommended. We use one of these platforms like a

[01:20:18] Defender Republic, you know, things like that because it just it just handles everything for you.

[01:20:26] So, so thankfully using one of these platforms they handle, they handle most of that.

[01:20:31] Okay, great. Great. So, I need to look ahead. Well, and I know you're touched on this a little bit earlier,

[01:20:37] but what would you, what would you, what would you map out as your long-term goals, your long-term

[01:20:43] goals for rise, creative, and, I don't know man. This is so really where we where I see this being

[01:20:55] number one, we want to have multiple locations. So, while we're doing this at Lata,

[01:21:00] standing up this at Lata location, we would love to have locations in other markets that are

[01:21:07] ideal strategic markets as well. So, that is part of the long-term vision is to have

[01:21:13] multiple locations throughout the nation. And really, the greater broader vision for what we're doing

[01:21:21] is for us to be this multi-media company, this multi-media company that is, you know,

[01:21:29] become a breeding ground for the next generation of creative talent, right? And so when I say

[01:21:35] this multi-media company, yeah, we've had history producing a magazine, we want to get there

[01:21:41] our own content. We want to begin to, you know, to get into producing, you know,

[01:21:47] content documentaries, short-form content, long-form content that we did ultimately distribute

[01:21:54] all to the various different platforms and leverage the creative communities to do that. And so,

[01:22:00] you know, creating content where we're working with filmmakers to create that content, we're working

[01:22:05] with artists to, you know, musical artists to create the soundtrack for that content, right?

[01:22:11] And we become this multi-media hub that is sourcing that next generation of talent. So,

[01:22:19] that's the greater bigger broader vision for us. Always tell people, Ben, and again, I always

[01:22:27] have this big vision but Lata ties a tie to things that I, you know, that I've seen that have been

[01:22:33] successful. And if, if there's anything, if there was anybody that we would want to replicate

[01:22:41] in my eyes, there's many people know who Red Bull is, right? You know, we know Red Bull is the energy

[01:22:48] strength, right? But what people don't really understand, man, is the energy drink is just a small

[01:22:55] component of what they do. You have Red Bull has Red Bull media house, Red Bull media house, and if

[01:23:03] people look up Red Bull media house, you will see that it is this multi-layered, multi-media company.

[01:23:10] I have magazines, they have, you know, they have record labels, they are operating in the gaming space,

[01:23:18] they're creating content, right? Now, all of their content, everything is sitting at a

[01:23:24] downstream sports, right? So that is their niche is extreme sports. But, you know, everything is

[01:23:31] driven by that, right? And so that's why you'll see them doing sponsoring and even doing

[01:23:38] these daredevil, they'll film these daredevil, deaf-defying, you know, stunts, right? And that's

[01:23:45] content that they're creating, right? And they're distributing it through all of their various

[01:23:49] layers of their multi-media platform. And so what they are to extreme sports, I would love

[01:23:57] for rise, I would love for rise to be to content that is targeted at, you know, niche demographic

[01:24:04] of black and brown, black and brown audiences. I love that, man. I mean, that's going,

[01:24:14] flip that a little bit, right? Go ahead, go ahead. What would you say is what would be like

[01:24:22] your worst nightmare when it comes to what you want to achieve a rise, creative village? What would

[01:24:27] what keeps you up at night to say, I need to make sure this does not happen?

[01:24:35] What would be my worst nightmare, man? Well, what keeps me up? The worst nightmares

[01:24:44] people not getting the vision and therefore I don't obtain the resources to make it happen.

[01:24:52] That that is probably the thing that I get frustrated about the most because while I'm sharing

[01:24:58] all of this, while I'm sharing all of this greater broad of vision, it relies on you getting buy-in

[01:25:06] from people that may not clearly see the vision, but they buy-in to it and you have the resources

[01:25:15] to execute the way you need to execute. And so that's the thing that I fear the most is

[01:25:22] not having the financial resources to execute it the way that I envision executing it.

[01:25:32] And I mean, if we're being honest, man, that's the challenge that people of color have. That's

[01:25:40] the challenge that we often have is that we have these greater broad of vision. We say,

[01:25:45] man, these are ideas aren't colorblind. Our ideas aren't colorblind. They don't black folks

[01:25:52] have great ideas, lofty ideas as well. But the money isn't colorblind, right? Sometimes

[01:26:02] that can be our greatest challenge. So if there's anything that would be the greatest hurdle,

[01:26:09] I think the greatest hurdle throughout this whole process is just, you know,

[01:26:14] forcing the financial resources to continuously do the things on the scale that we want to do.

[01:26:23] I love it, man. All right, Jay, as we get ready to wrap up this episode, I'd like to give you

[01:26:29] one mic, open forum, open platform to get off anything that you think.

[01:26:35] Me, should have gotten to the audience this evening. Go ahead.

[01:26:41] Oh, man, listen, man, you've done such a good job of pulling so much out

[01:26:46] that I don't know. I think we covered, I think we covered a lot, man. I'm a big person, a big believer

[01:26:53] and getting out there and pursuing your dreams, man. I'm a big believer in and you take

[01:26:59] and control of your life, man. And there's one thing I always say, man, when it gets really tough,

[01:27:06] this is a, this is a mantra that I have. When it gets really tough, always,

[01:27:14] when it gets tough for me, man, sometimes I take a step back and I'm like, okay, let me back up,

[01:27:18] let me find somebody else. I can help, right? I'm pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing, you know,

[01:27:26] trying to push, push through, I'm hitting roadblock, hitting roadblock, hitting roadblock.

[01:27:31] Let me take a step back and let me find somebody else I can help because I'm a firm believer in

[01:27:37] so-ing seed, you reap what you sow. Right. And so if I want to sow, sow seeds of positivity,

[01:27:44] if I want to sow seeds of success, if I want to reap somebody investing in me, then I need to

[01:27:54] invest my time, energy, talent, and someone else. And someone else is dream. And so

[01:28:02] if there's anything that I've learned in taking control of your destiny, sometimes taking control

[01:28:08] of your destiny needs, you know, showing a seed in somebody else's.

[01:28:11] Podcasts will, there you have it. To it for the community with Jay Jackson. Subscribe to the

[01:28:19] value at the valley. Show slash subscribe. Check us out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,

[01:28:25] cast box, YouTube, wherever you listen to and watch your podcast. I'm with that Jay.

[01:28:33] I love it, man. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. I highly enjoyed it.

[01:28:38] Podcasts will, have it studios. We are out.