Conversations With Black Millionaire Entrepreneurs

Conversations With

Black Millionaire Entrepreneurs No Non-Sense Lessons from Those Who’ve Been There, Done That!

© 2007-09 Bro. Bedford. All Rights reserved www.brobedford.com

Conversations With Black Millionaire Entrepreneurs ________________________________________________________________________

About the author Bro. Bedford is founder of How To Be A Black Entrepreneur.com and President of G.B.I. Group L.L.C. a private investment firm Bro. Bedford is considered by many to be a fresh new voice with new and innovative ideas for Black Empowerment particularly in the areas of Entrepreneurship and Investment/Finance.

He has been featured on Radio One and XM Radio, he has also appeared on several other radio and television programs across the Country. He is the author of several e-books, reports and courses: Conversations With Black Millionaire Entrepreneurs: No Non-Sense Lessons From Those Who’ve Been There, Done That! www.conversationswithblackmillionaires.com Black Entrepreneur Gold ™ : Strategies and Marketing For Business Profit and Growth. http://www.blackentrepreneurgold.com Digital Publishing Riches: Make A Small Fortune Working Just a Few Hours a Week From The Comfort Of Your Home! http://www.digitalpublishingriches.com Information Marketing Biz: The Perfect Home Based Business http://www.informationmarketingbiz.com How To Buy Silver & Gold To Protect Your Wealth and Savings. http://www.howtobuysilverandgold.com

________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

-2 -


About the author Bro. Bedford is founder of How To Be A Black Entrepreneur.com and President of G.B.I. Group L.L.C. a private investment firm Bro. Bedford is considered by many to be a fresh new voice with new and innovative ideas for Black Empowerment particularly in the areas of Entrepreneurship and Investment/Finance.

He has been featured on Radio One and XM Radio, he has also appeared on several other radio and television programs across the Country. He is the author of several e-books, reports and courses: Conversations With Black Millionaire Entrepreneurs: No Non-Sense Lessons From Those Who’ve Been There, Done That! www.conversationswithblackmillionaires.com Black Entrepreneur Gold ™ : Strategies and Marketing For Business Profit and Growth. http://www.blackentrepreneurgold.com Digital Publishing Riches: Make A Small Fortune Working Just a Few Hours a Week From The Comfort Of Your Home! http://www.digitalpublishingriches.com Information Marketing Biz: The Perfect Home Based Business http://www.informationmarketingbiz.com How To Buy Silver & Gold To Protect Your Wealth and Savings. http://www.howtobuysilverandgold.com


www.brobedford.com

-2 -


NOTICE: You Do Not Have the right to reprint or Resell this E-Book! You Also May Not Give Away, Sell or Share the Content Herein If you have purchased this ebook from anywhere other than http://www.howtobeablackentrepreneur.com,, you have a pirated copy http://www.howtobeablackentrepreneur.com

Copyright 2007-09 Bro. Bedford

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, mechanical, including photocopying, photocopying, recording, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without express writer, dated and signed permission from the author.

DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES:

The information presented herein represents the view of the author as of the date of publication. Because of the rate with which conditions change, the author reserves the right to alter and update his opinion based on the new conditions. The report is for informational purposes only. While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided in this report, neither the author nor his affiliates/partners assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or organizations are unintentional. If advice concerning legal or related matters is needed, the services of a fully qualified professional should be sought. This report is not intended as for use as a source of legal or accounting advice. You should be aware of any laws, which govern business transactions or other business practices in your country and state. Any reference to any person or business whether living or dead is purely coincidental.


www.brobedford.com

-3 -


This e-book is dedicated to all those who have a sincere desire to be entrepreneurs, to bring out the best of what God has placed in you. It is my earnest Prayer that this book helps you on your journey.


www.brobedford.com

-4 -


GIVING THANKS

I’d like to give thanks to the God, the Author and Creator of the Heavens and Earth. I’d like to give thanks to my family for all of the support and love that they have given me over the years. I’d like to give a special thanks to My Wonderful, Loving, and Supportive Wife and our beautiful children. I’d like to give thanks and deep appreciation to Cathy Hughes, Les Brown, George Fraser, Dennis Kimbro, Randal Pinkett, Andrew Morrison and Ephren Taylor for allowing me into their world to share the message of Black Entrepreneurship to our people. I’ve learned so much thank you. I’d like to give thanks to all of those who subscribe to my e-zine. I Hope and Pray that this book and the e-zine is beneficial to you.

To Your Victory and Success,

Bro. Bedford


www.brobedford.com

-5 -


Lessons

My Conversation with Dennis Kimbro Characteristics and Traits of Millionaires…4 common chords of successful millionaires…How to discover your area of Excellence…The difference between haves and have nots

My Conversation with George Fraser The Power of Networking…5 hurdles you must overcome…what makes successful entrepreneurs successful…Transcending management to leadership…10 best businesses for black people

My Conversation with Randal Pinkett Experience on the Apprentice…Before you get started as an Entrepreneur…Competitive Mind vs. Cooperative Mind…Be a Campus CEO…Importance of a Business Model…Importance of Technology…Mistakes

My Conversation with Andrew Morrison How Oprah Winfrey found him…The Secret that boosted him from under $100,000 to over $3,000,000…The Difference between Entrepreneurs and Managers…Keys to starting a business for under $500…How to write and sell your own book


www.brobedford.com

-6 -


My Conversation with Ephren Taylor Middle School Entrepreneur…retiring at 19…the importance of a Mentor…Should you be running your company…The difference between a private company and public company…How to raise Capital…Reality Check

My Conversation with Les Brown Effective Speaking…Developing your Mindset…Having a smarter group…Communication skills…the secret to a $640,000 contract…the power of small numbers…Mental Conditioning

My Conversation with Cathy Hughes The start of a Media Empire…Overcoming sexism…The importance of a Banking Relationship…The Quiet Storm…Talk Radio…First Steps for Black Women…Most Important trait for Business


www.brobedford.com

-7 -


Preface There will never be a shortage of someone giving you advice on what you should be doing in your business and personal life. The question becomes are they qualified to give the advice they are giving. The bigger question is why are you allowing unqualified individuals to give you advice on how to shape and guide your future. My life is all about shortcuts. No that doesn’t mean that I look for the easy way to do things, however, that is not a bad thing either. But it does mean that I strive very hard to equip myself with the knowledge necessary to accomplish the task at hand. And that means seeking out qualified individuals and gaining the education and experience that they have to offer that adds value to my life. And I don’t mind paying for it, no matter what the cost. If I could pay $1,000 and receive a technique, receive insight that could add $10,000 worth of value to my life why wouldn’t I. It’s a no brainer for me. This book just scratches the surface on such a broad subject as Black Entrepreneurship. You have well over $2 billion worth of business experience coming from those that I interviewed. We would not have enough space to answer every question in a 100 books, but in this book we do answer some. My life has been enriched by interviewing these giants of ours and I Hope and Pray your life will become enriched by reading the interviews. To You Victory and Success Bro. Bedford


www.brobedford.com

-8 -


Foreword I have been asked on more than one occasion over the life of my career, “How do I become a successful entrepreneur and are there any books I would recommend to achieve entrepreneurial success?” I have repeatedly stressed how you can generate value by creating a brand identity that helps you generate deal opportunities. You should look for sectors that are growing and identify strategic partners who can bring something to the deal that you don’t such as capital, talent, and infrastructure. The answer to the second half of that question is there isn’t any one book that can give you everything you need to know about being a successful entrepreneur. However, I will say that the best way to get you started on your journey of entrepreneurship is to learn from those who have already gone down the road before you. Learn from those who have left footprints. In Conversations with Black Millionaire Entrepreneurs you’ll get real life changing information from some of the most successful black entrepreneurs in America today. All in one source, all at the same time. Although I didn’t have a book like this when I started, I believe it is a valuable resource for those who are striving to become successful entrepreneurs. Bro. Bedford has provided a tremendous service to the African American community with these interviews. My Conversations with Black Millionaire Entrepreneurs is not just a book, but also a valuable guide and resource for those looking to achieve wealth and success.

Bob Johnson, Founder of BET and The RLJ Companies


www.brobedford.com

-9 -


Conversation with Dennis Kimbro Bro. Bedford: This is Bro. Bedford from How To Be A Black Entrepreneur.com and joining me today in conversation is Dr. Dennis Kimbro one of the great Black minds in the world today. He is an educator, author, professor, lecturer, and a researcher. Dr. Kimbro is universally characterized as one of the most insightful and scholarly writers in the field today. His honors and awards from the business community are just to numerous to name. He has been featured in several publications, Success Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine. He has appeared on several television programs Larry King, CNN. He’s been in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the USA Today. I could go on an on about this giant that we are about to have a conversation with today. First and foremost we want to thank you Dr Kimbro for joining us today. Is there any thing that you would like to open with? Dennis Kimbro: I’m fine, thanks for having me and I’m ready to go. What ever you want to discuss I’m fine. Bro. Bedford: Whenever I am in the midst of those who want to be successful Entrepreneurs I ask them have they ever read Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice by Dennis Kimbro and some to my surprise have not read the book or encountered you in the past, so can you tell us a little about yourself for those that are not aware of you. Dennis Kimbro: Well I just want piggyback on what you said. Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice was really the last book written by Napoleon Hill. There are people out there who don’t realize that. They ask, what is the difference between your book and Dr Hill’s? Well there isn’t any difference that is Dr Hill’s Book. I was going around the country interviewing successful African-Americans for a book that I was writing that was tentatively titled What Makes the Great, Great. And over the course of my research I interviewed Earl Graves the publisher of Black Enterprise Magazine. When I got back home from New York there was a message on my recorder from non-other than W Clement Stone. He left a message that said, “young man we heard of you, when can you come to Chicago I would like to meet you”. I returned His call and about 10 days later there I am in the suburbs of Chicago standing in front of this paragon called W. Clement Stone. Now for your readers, who don’t know who W. Clement Stone was, he was Napoleon Hill’s personal manager and he was the Bill Gates of his time. At one time he was arguably the wealthiest individual in the country. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 10 -


He says to me, “young man based upon what we see and hear we have a proposition for you”. I say, “What is that Mr. Stone”. He says, “We want you to finish, update, and complete a book”. I said, “what book?” and when I asked that question W Clement stone reached across his credenza and pulled out the last 100 written pages of Napoleon Hill and dropped it in my lap and said, “this book”. I thumbed through it and there were no chapter headings. It was like 100 pages on a number of subjects and I said to him, “I’m honored, but I can’t do this”. He said, “why not?” I said, “I’m working on a book of my own.” He said to me, “If you have any sense push your book aside and finish this”.

At the time of his death Napoleon Hill was attempting to write a Black version of his all-time classic. He got 100 pages into the manuscript and died of a stroke. He was 84 years old and W Clement Stone held on to those pages for 16 years. If Napoleon Hill had lived one more year, what became Think and Grow Rich; A Black Choice coming out in ’91, ’92 would have come out in ’71, ’72. That’s my history and that’s why both of our names appear on the cover of that book. Bro Bedford: That is a wonderful history. What inspired you to take on such a task of writing a book such as What Makes the Great, Great and then of course going on to write Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice? Dennis Kimbro: I was looking at wealth and poverty in terms of my education, particularly my dissertation at Northwestern. I was looking at wealth and poverty among underdeveloped African Countries and when I finished I knew I didn’t want to examine that subject any more, but I was still enamored with wealth and poverty. I said to myself being a little bit cathartic and introspective, “you know why don’t you look at wealth and poverty among individuals, particularly African-Americans in this country?” I developed a three page questionnaire and I went around the country and I said, “ Well, let me interview those who have some semblance of success”, at that particular time the John Johnsons, the Earl Graves of the world particularly entrepreneurs. With What Makes the Great, Great, I expanded it to all domains. I looked at Olympic athletes, I looked at corporate climbers, and I looked at people who carved their name on the tablet of success. So it was that type of audience and that type of framework that I began to examine a host of questions.


www.brobedford.com

- 11 -


Remarkable thing about these individuals is that they’re unremarkable, they just use the same traits, keys, and qualities over and over again. In What Makes the Great, Great. I found nine criteria for greatness, nine virtues of greatness. If you read Think and Grow Rich: a Black Choice, you’ll see 12 different issues or certain skill sets that these men and women had in common. The bottom line is anybody could use those skill sets to place themselves, himself, or herself on the fast track of success. At the time it was very rarely spoke about. I don’t pat myself on the back or say that I am different or unique, but that arguably was one of the first books out there that let black America know that you don’t have to be a victim, you can certainly be a victor regardless of the field that you’re in. Bro. Bedford: When I read and study your work, I sense that that this is a man on a mission. You mentioned you wanted to look at wealth and poverty and then specifically go after Black America to show us that these laws and principles are available to everyone, I am intrigued by your sense of mission to cris cross the country to do that. Is this how you got your start as an entrepreneur? Dennis Kimbro: That’s basically what I did. When you interview one of these individuals that certainly stokes the fire for you to go on and interview somebody else. I knew because these folks didn’t know me from Adam, I had to get the biggest man or woman on the block. So what I did was try my best at the time to go after John Johnson of Ebony Magazine and it took me two years to get John Johnson. It took me more than two years to get Ben Carson, arguably the greatest neurosurgeon in this country. I was persistent, I was diligent, and I was ambitious. When I told people what I was doing they said, “Oh my God, you’re doing that”. Regardless, it was a sevenyear ordeal and I was naive, because I thought it would take me no longer than 18 months and when I say seven years, I mean seven years of financial hell and high water. This was a full time proposition. Yeah, I was working in corporate America at the time, but after about the third year if these folks gave you the interview sometimes you had to go the next day. You couldn’t say you had a meeting with your boss or you had to do ABC, xyz, and 123. When these individuals called ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 12 -


you had a choice, either go get the interviews or keep a roof over your head. I decided to go get the interview. I initially started out with a list of 50 individuals. That initial list of 50 grew to 100, from 100 to 150. I quit counting at 150 interviews. All I can tell people is I got a chance to meet and sit down with all of them, everybody from Condeleeza Rice to T.D. Jakes. Bro. Bedford: You mentioned something that really strikes a chord with me. In my endeavors with How To Be A Black Entrepreneur.com I try to give insight into the realities of entrepreneurship. You mentioned the financial hardships that you had to address as you were striving to get these interviews. That leads into my next question, you mentioned financial, but what were some of the other problems that you faced? Dennis Kimbro: You’re going to be bombarded with 50 million different challenges, 50 million different roadblocks. Money is only going to be one of them. When you talk about entrepreneurship in the Black community, we as African Americans don’t even pursue entrepreneurship as a viable career option. You have 33.4 million African Americans in the United States and only 3% run and operate their own business. And when you look at this 3% I wouldn’t dare call all 3% entrepreneurs. When you discuss entrepreneurship, naturally you’re going to discuss and take part in five different levels of owning and operating a business. The majority of the people we call black entrepreneurs, they don’t do that. All they want to do is: 1) Keep a roof over their head 2) Put food on the table 3) Get the clothes out of the cleaners That’s not entrepreneurship. Just because you own a mom & pop hamburger stand doesn’t mean you’re an entrepreneur, but if you own several McDonalds you’re an entrepreneur. We don’t even look, we don’t even examine, and we’re not even attracted to entrepreneurship as a viable career option. That’s the bottom line. No matter who I interviewed I found 4 common chords in all of these men and women.


www.brobedford.com

- 13 -


1) They dreamed Big Dreams, they had a dream, a passion, something they desperately wanted to accomplish in life. They didn’t get in this business to make a killing, to corner the market or make a whole bunch of money. They worked extremely hard and over the years of working hard, they finally lifted up their eyes and you know what they found? They found that they were standing in a pool of liquid Gold. In other words as the Bible says, “Do these things and then success would be added unto you.” So they went the extra mile, they kept their shoulder to the wheel, they stayed focused. 2) They were inner directed vs. outer directed. In other words they weren’t so quick to believe well meaning friends or family members who said you can’t do this or you can’t do that, they walked to a beat of a different drummer. And that’s why the old poet Robert Frost was so apropos when he wrote years ago, “ two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,” in other words you’re unique. You can’t succeed being like everybody else. You must take the lonely road. Differentiation is the key. That speaks to differentiation. DIFFERENTIATION IS THE KEY. Right now there are 21 different ways to market or sell a product or service, number one is Word of Mouth, number 21 is Internet, 20 is TV, 19 is Radio, 18 is Magazines. So what’s so different and unique about your product or service, what’s so different and unique about you? You can walk into any Food Line, you walk into any A&P, you walk into any Kroger, and you walk into any Publix and go down the breakfast cereal isle. Right now between Kellogg’s and Post they produce 20 different variations of breakfast cereal. From Fruit Loops to Cocoa Puffs, Raisin Bran to Special K. Last years Marketing and operating budget-$1.5 billion dollars to differentiate all those breakfast cereals. Right now General Motors manufactures 33 different automobiles, from the Buick Lesabre to the Hummer. Last years marketing budget to differentiate all 33 of those automobiles-$2.5 billion dollars. So you’re an Entrepreneur, why does the market place need another source of supply. You’re not the only one out there making hamburgers; you’re not the only one out there making a widget. Why does the market place need you? So, describe your business in 10 words or less. Describe your business in 5 words or less. Describe your business in 1 word. What is your Unique Selling Proposition? ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 14 -


3) They dedicated themselves to life long learning. The information is there. One of the qualities these Entrepreneurs had in common, they ALWAYS seek out new INFORMATION. In other words, they are very particular whom they allow in their CIRCLE. So who is in your circle? I’m speaking rhetorically now. Who is in your circle? See you can’t be the sharpest one in your group. If you’re the sharpest one in your group, you can’t grow, and when you stop growing you begin to die. SO WHO’S IN YOUR CIRLE? Who’s making you feel stupid? Who’s making you feel like a jerk? Who’s making you feel like an idiot? Who’s compelling you to go out and get the book, buy the book, read the book, apply the book, highlight the book, use everything in the book that you’ve read, PUT IT INTO ACTION? You better pray that someone in your group is compelling you to do that, If not you’re DEAD. Bill Gates, the wealthiest individual in the world right. He is not going to bring anyone in the circle who can’t add to him. He’s worth what? $44- $50 Billion, you do the math. That’s $100 million dollars a day, $4 million dollars an hour, $67-$70,000 dollars a second. He’s not going to waste his time with somebody. Who do you think he’s going to allow in his circle, someone that will help him go forward. But what do we do, we do the same thing over and over again. Not these Entrepreneurs…they know. They know the two greatest days of your life: 1) The day you were born. 2) The day you know why. And last but not least, these men and women flat out refuse to fail. I’m not saying that they didn’t fail, many of them failed their way to success, but failure was NEVER a viable option for them. There you are. Bro. Bedford: Those traits are worth their weight in GOLD. Anyone attempting to become an entrepreneur, I don’t think you can learn those traits from any textbook. It takes someone who has gone out to interview those and really see the inner workings of successful entrepreneurs to find out that these are the most important traits that you must have. Dennis Kimbro: That’s what I found over and over again. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 15 -


Bro. Bedford: If you were to advise a new Entrepreneur, someone just starting his or her business, what should be the first steps taken to become a successful Entrepreneur? Dennis Kimbro: Number one, not every idea is an opportunity. You have to be critically clear on what you are trying to do. To make sure that your vision is Crystal Clear you've got to ask yourself some hard charging questions. Why does the marketplace need another source of supply and who are you to bring this market to bear? Who is your customer? Tell me who is your customer in terms of all the Graphics... Demographics: Give me the age, race, sex, and income of your customer... Psychographics: Why does your customer buy from you? Geographics: Is your customer located in New York? Is your customer located in Miami? Is your customer located in Houston? Once you tell me who IS your customer, tell me who IS your NON-customer. Who are the individuals who currently aren't using your product or service, but would use your product or service in the future if you made a slight change or modification to it? Would you rather have all the black women who read Essence Magazine or would you rather have all the black women who read Red Book, McCall's, Cosmopolitan, or Oprah Magazine? That’s crystal clear. These are all magazines that continue to take their business to the next level by expanding on something that Essence created in 1969 or 1970. Bro. Bedford: I find that what you’re saying Dr. Kimbro is so intriguing. Based upon what you’re saying, it’s not an insurmountable task, but when you give all of these things that a person should consider: 

The demographics



Your target market



What books do they read

That turns a lot of individuals off from even wanting to pursue entrepreneurship. Dennis Kimbro: Yeah! Entrepreneurship is dirty work, ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 16 -


Bro. Bedford: Laugh. I never heard it put that way. Dennis Kimbro: Entrepreneurship in not easy. If it were easy everybody would be doing it. One thing about entrepreneurship, it is critically fulfilling. When you discover your gifts! When you discover your area of excellence! And how do you discover your area of excellence? You ask yourself 4 critical questions. Question Number 1-What do I love to do? What do I have a passion for? What can I throw my whole heart and soul into? Question Number 2-What would I do for free? If no one ever paid me a dime, if no one ever gave me a financial reward for my efforts what would I do for free? Because if you’re doing what you love to do and you’ll do it for free you’ll work as you play and if you work as you play you’ll never work a day in your life. Question Number 3-What comes easy to you but difficult to somebody else? In other words, what is your area of unfair competitive advantage? Then last but not least-If you can’t answer these questions openly and honestly, then go to those people you respect and admire and ask them, what do you see me as? What do you think I’ll be good at doing? Sooner or later in life you’ve got to do that. Bro Bedford: Right, those are very powerful words. Based upon today’s economy and the things that are going on, how important is it for, you gave us some startling numbers at the beginning, but how important is it for the black community to embrace entrepreneurship as a means of not just making money as you mentioned earlier but almost as a means of survival. How important is it? Dennis Kimbro: Well it’s critically important because when you examine wealth, I mean this is as far as the train is going. If we want to reach our destination, we have to walk from here. When you look particularly in wealth creation, in black America, there’s so much pathology, the numbers are staggering. Do you know that 32% of African-Americans don’t even save at all? Do you know that 28% of African Americans spend more on a weekly basis than they bring in? Do you know that one out of ten African-Americans, are in 401K, Stock Market, Money Markets and Mutual Funds? These are wealth-bearing assets and we don’t even participate. We’re not even at the party. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 17 -


So all you have to do is look at the data and don’t tell me that white America leads the parade, because white America doesn’t lead the parade. When you look at wealth and wealth creation, Asians lead the parade. The average Asian household is $63K, whites come in second, and they’re about $53, $54, $55, and Hispanics come in 3rd about $44 or $45 and Black America, $29K. We don’t even pursue entrepreneurship; we don’t even look at it. We’re in a heavy weight fight and we’re precariously close to the referee going in our mouth, pulling out the mouthpiece and waving that this fight is over with. The day that I graduated from high school, June 1968, 72% of my race and 72% of my generation finished high school with me. I’m 56 years old. Do you know what it was last year, 50%? We don’t even finish high school. We don’t even finish high school. Twenty-nine percent of Americans have a college degree compared to 13% of African-Americans. We say that education is a priority, but we don’t act like it. Every ninety seconds of the day, every ninety seconds of the day, a black child is born to a teen mother. Every ninety seconds of the day, a black child is born to a teen mother who will not finish high school. Every four minutes of the day, a black male is suspended from school. Every forty minutes of the day, a black male is convicted of a violent crime. So I mean those are the numbers. The book that I’m working on now Haves vs. Have Nots , where I am surveying black millionaires. I could tell you everything you want to know about a black millionaire. The average black millionaire gets up between 5-5:30 everyday and calls it a day at 10:30-11 o’clock at night. The average black millionaire owns two cars. If one is not a Mercedes, the other one is going to be a Lexus and the other will be a General Motors. The average black millionaire goes to church twice per week, Sunday service or a Wednesday night bible studies or auxiliary meeting during the week. Black females tithe and black males give 10-12% of their money in charity. And the church that they attend, less than two thousand members. Bro. Bedford: So no Mega Churches. Dennis Kimbro: No Mega Churches for them. If you want to be a black millionaire, this is the sure fire principal to be a black millionaire. Are you ready? Earn a $100K by age 30. Make sure your annual income is six figures by age 30. Almost guaranteed. Bro. Bedford: That came be scary for those who are over the age of 30.


www.brobedford.com

- 18 -


Dennis Kimbro: Yeah, there you are right there. That’s it. That’s it in a nutshell. 27%, more than one out of four are Harvard MBA’s are millionaires. What’s a sure fire principal in the black community? Here it is, six-figure income by age thirty. If you do that then you are well on your way. Bro Bedford: What would you say to those who are over the age of 30? Dennis Kimbro: Well what I have found in my research is what they call a calculus of consumption. When I say a calculus of consumption, if the independent variable is time, I know how the Haves, look at it and Have Nots. The title of the book is Haves vs. Have Nots: What Black Millionaires Know That Other Do Not. So far example, if the independent variable is time a have not will look at time from present to the past, but the have always looks into the future. If the independent variable is family unit, the Have Not, matriarchal, the Have, patriarchal to legacy. In other words, if your a Johnson, your last name is a Johnson, your grandfather succeeded, your father succeeded, you have got to measure up. That’s legacy. IF the independent variable is education, the have not, looks at education from K12, but the have, looks at education as life long. If the independent variable is driving force, the have not, I’m just trying to survive. Survival, I’m just trying to live day-to-day, but the have, achievement. So there you are in a nutshell. If the independent variable is money and you listen to me, if the independent variable is money, the have not looks at money like act rich, spend it, consume it, but the have, act poor, conserve it, save it. I didn’t mention anything about race, I didn’t mention anything about age, I didn’t mention anything about start up capital; all you have to do is change your thinking. And this is from millionaires. I asked them 118 questions, no athletes, no entertainers, these are just men and women that you pass in the street that you wouldn’t give the time of day to. Like I say the remarkable thing about black millionaires, is that they are unremarkable. Bro Bedford: One of the things that I hear you’re saying Dr. Kimbro is that we are in need of a serious paradigm shift.


www.brobedford.com

- 19 -


Dennis Kimbro: Oh without a doubt! Number one you have to have leadership and we don’t have the leadership in the black community right now. We don’t have the leadership. You got to have the leadership because it’s lacking. Bro Bedford: We’ve normally have had our leadership come up through the churches and different civic organizations, with this new paradigm shift where would we look or where do you foresee this type of leadership coming from? Dennis Kimbro: Well you can learn from anybody. You can learn from anybody. The fact of the matter is don’t focus so much on the individual as you focus on the principles. That’s just like Hansel and Gretel in the forest, just follow the breadcrumbs, not so much the individual as the actions. As the actions and that’s what’s critical. Bro Bedford: You know, that’s one of the principles or messages, I try to send to my subscribers and I really stress, is that we have to learn from those who have walked the path before us. We have a tendency to, when we see successful people, we almost run and try to out do them in a different way instead of following the principles or the footsteps that you just mentioned or those crumbs or those bread crumbs to get that type of success. Where do you see that change? Or is it possible for the institutions in the urban communities to give us those types of examples or that type of thinking that we would gravitate toward those who are successful without being envious and jealous? Dennis Kimbro: Yes it needs to start with our institutions. The number one institution is the family unit. The quickest way to wealth is marriage plus savings. That is the quickest way to wealth. Now that’s the good news, the bottom news is that when I look at our marriage numbers, of course it’s just like anything else, we’re lacking again. Fifty-five percent of the country marries, Black America 24%. Why? Because of our view of manhood or what our young males think of manhood is certainly lacking and certainly runs counter to the rest of the country. Why? Because we see our images on BET, we see our images on TV and we hear them on the radio and that has nothing to do with really where our institutions are headed and where they’re going. Number one is the family unit. Number two is the education system. In this day, unbelievable, in this day we need to build up our educational institutions. We have 100 historic black universities and black colleges and only one, only one, Spellman College is what they call competitive or more competitive I should say. Those are the particular areas that we have to concentrate on. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 20 -


Bro Bedford: It’s very inspiring at the same time because individuals such as yourself and I love what George Fraser and what a few others are doing. If we could find a way because I don’t believe the educational system or the traditional educational system is going to provide these kinds of examples for one; nor the curriculum, or the inspiration to expand our minds the way that you say. So there really has to be a different way that we educate each other in the black community. Would you agree? Can you expound on that? What type of means? I like seminars. Dennis Kimbro: Well I mean again going back on the principles or when you talk or dialogue on education, it’s very simple. R.I.E. 1)-Relationships-Foster relationships between relationships between faculty and students.

administration

and

faculty;

2)-Insistence-You insists this is the way it’s going to be done. You tell your students that the only reason you can see far is because you’re standing on somebody’s shoulders. 3)-Last but not least. Expectation-You expect and demand the best. You see people to don’t get in life what they want, people get in life what they expect. People want to be wealthy but they expect to be poor. People want to have a nice circle of friends but they expect to be friendless. Bro Bedford: The expectations are so important. I asked one young man the other day what is that he wanted out of life and he appeared to have a death wish, I mean he knew that he was going to die before he was 21. He said what’s the use of reading that or studying this because I know I’m not going to live long. The expectation is very limited in the black community. How do we raise that bar? What is it that we can do immediately? Dennis Kimbro: Well, there’s certainly a crisis between black males and the rest of the country and the rest of society. If you weight 325lbs. and you’re 5’10” and your blood pressure is 190 over140 and your cholesterol is in excess of 275 and you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and you haven’t exercised in years and I approached you and say hey, it’s the first of the year, let’s join this gym and join weight watchers and your reply is “I don’t need that, I’m in good shape, I don’t need that”, what would you be saying? You’re saying that you’re in denial. Well here you have a subset of individuals, all males and they happen to be black males and they’re 6% of the population; and of that 6% they’re responsible for 50% of all violent crimes. Did you know that in the year 2005, FBI Crime Statistics says there were 14,725 murders in 2005? And of those 14,725 murders, black males ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 21 -


committed 50%. 7,362.50 (actual) murders in 2005 were committed by black males and of those 7,362.50 murders that were committed by black males; 91% involved a black victim. And out of the 7K plus murders committed by black males, Columbia University History Department says that that’s more than in 150 years that all the blacks died during slavery. Now when I approach you and say, we have to do something about the mental health of black males and you tell me we’re fine or you do nothing, just like the first analogy that I gave you, the overweight, chain smoking, you’re in denial. Our mental health is not where it should be. When I interviewed with Dr. Alvin Poussaint and asked what is greatness? What is success? He said, “Black America will never be great until it begins to take care of its children”. Bro. Bedford: Right. Dennis Kimbro: I gotta run my brother. Bro Bedford: No, I really appreciate the time, are there any closing statements or remarks that you’d like to make. Dennis Kimbro: No, the key characteristic that they all had was finally is belief. You believe in yourself or no one else will. Only you keep score. Bro Bedford: I want to thank you once again and I look forward to talking with you again hopefully real soon. Dennis Kimbro: Take care. Bro Bedford: Thank you, you too. Bye. Dennis Kimbro: Bye-Bye.


www.brobedford.com

- 22 -


Conversation with George Fraser Bro. Bedford: This is Bro Bedford from How to be a Black Entrepreneur.com and joining me in conversation today is another one of the great black minds in the world today none other than George Fraser. He is the chairman and CEO of Frasernet Inc. He is considered by many to be the new voice for African-Americans and one of the fore most authorities on networking and building effective relationships. He is the author of two books, which everyone should have in their library Success Runs In Our Race The Complete Guide to Effective networking in the African-American Community and Race For Success The Ten Best Business Opportunities For Blacks In America. He is a very popular speaker and an author and his inspiring talks on success principals, effective networking, wealth creation, business ethnics and valuing diversity are not just popular amongst corporate professionals but very popular amongst college students. He has been solicited by CNN and Wall Street Journal for his views. Upscale magazine has named him one of the “Top 50 power brokers in Black America”. And Black Enterprise Magazine called him “Black America’s #1 Networker”. And if I went on with all of the business accolades and awards over the past years for Mr. Fraser we would run out of time for this interview. First we want to welcome you and thank you for this opportunity this morning Mr. Fraser. George Fraser: Thank you so much, Bro Bedford for having me on and thank you for taking time out of your busy life to do this interview I am deeply appreciative and hopefully, today through your interview we can add value and add some insight to the lives of black people, as they seek to change the condition of our people to create and start more businesses and thus create work and jobs for our people. Which is really the only way to raise up the poor. For we must create work and jobs for our people as every other culture group, that come to this great country has created work and jobs for their people. So thank you for having an acute interest in that subject matter and allowing me to express my views with you today. Thank you Mr. Fraser. Well let’s get started when I am doing any Bro. Bedford: interviews or surveying those who want to become successful black entrepreneurs. I always ask them what books they have in their library. I’m a firm believer that we should have the books from the giants from our community that will help guide us on that path, so I always ask individuals, “Do you have Success Runs In Our Race in your library by George Fraser?” And sometimes to my surprise those that our on the track to entrepreneurship do not have the book or have not encountered you. So just briefly could you give a little information on your background for those who may not know you or have not encountered you? ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 23 -


George Fraser: Yes, I live in Cleveland, Ohio but I’m a native of Brooklyn, New York. My father came to this country in the early 1900’s from Guiana and married a beautiful fair skin sister Ida May Baldwin from Lumpkin, Georgia. They lived in Brooklyn and had 11 children, 8 boys and 3 girls so I’m from a family of 11. At the age of 4 my mother became mentally ill and was institutionalized for her entire life and my father who was a cab driver because when he came to America in the early 1900s, could not get a good education to get a good job, so he was driving a cab, as was a lot of immigrants who come to this country and he could not take care of 11 children, working 12 to 14 hours a day. So we were put into an orphanage broken up into three’s and then I spent my entire young life until I aged out of foster home. In foster homes growing up in the streets of Brooklyn New York was very, very traumatic experience as a young man. I then went on to high school and graduated with a vocational degree in wood working because my teachers and guidance counselors at the time did not feel as though I was college material, fortunately I did not feel that and for many years worked in the night shift in LaGuardia airport mopping floors while I went to college and the rest is history. So the point here is that life is not about where you start, it is about where you finish, don’t let anyone make the decisions about your life that you feel deeply and go on and do Gods work and the chips will fall where they may. I went on to leadership positions with Procter & Gamble, United Way and Ford Motor Company for about 20 years. At the age of 41, 42 decided that I wanted to start my own business so I’ve been in business now 20 years. I started with a provocative idea and that was to teach black people the power and importance of relationships, the power and importance of networking, the power and importance of developing superior interpersonal and people skills so that we as a people can leverage more effectively the collective resources of black people, our intellectual capital, our financial resources, our human capital to take our people to the next level. I had sort of identified that particular thing as I watched and observed as experience in my own life, my ability to climb the ladder of success very quickly, not because I had the pedigree of Ivy League education with fancy degrees, all though education is profoundly important, but I was able to climb where others were not able to climb and do good because I had really good people skills and interpersonal skills and my ability to get along and work with other people at work, at home, and in the community, really enabled me to rise. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 24 -


I was able to achieve goals through networking and team work where other people just were not able to achieve although they had all of the working knowledge and they had all of the analytical skills but they didn’t have other kind of skills, operational skills and they didn’t have the people skills. So I identified that with something that we as black people really needed to work on especially considering how much Willie Lynch is still deeply imbedded in the subconscious mind of black people. The tremendous crab in the barrel mentality, the bad self-image and self-hatred that we had was really something we needed to work on and change so that the people can rise. So to do that I start a business called Frasernet and it was to teach black people in the area of networking. I began that by putting on networking events each month in Cleveland Ohio, which is where I live and then from there produced a directory from all the business cards I had collected at each of these events where 3 or 4 hundred people would show up once a month. We produced some success guides The Networking Guide to Black Resources. Then from there I went on to write a book about networking 14 years ago called Success Runs In Our Race The Complete Guide To Effective Networking In The African- American Community. That book is now the seminal work on networking in black America. It began the conversation about networking in black America. It is required reading in 57 historical black colleges. We just brought out the 10 th Anniversary updated version of Success Runs In Our Race and the rest is history. From the book came speaking engagements from speaking engagements we begin to put on conferences, Our global conference called Power Networking in Atlanta and then from the annual conference we begin to put on quarterly events now in eleven different cities around the country teaching black people principals morally grounded spiritual leader principals of effective networking, building relationships, and most importantly economic development, wealth creation the closing of the income and wealth gap, which is deeply and closely connected to us sort of getting together to get ahead. Where we have a lot of us doing a little instead of a few of us doing a lot. That is my life story that is the reason why God has put me here that is my purpose in life. I get tremendous enjoyment and satisfaction from doing that. It’s not like work to me. I believe that any one who is on purpose, anyone that is doing what God put them here to do not only will they do it well, but with excellence and enjoyment and fulfillment and they will find a way to make a profit and make a difference. That is what Frasernet is all about. The Web site is called Frasernet.com people can go there and find out all kinds of information about the things that we are doing, the membership programs, the programs that we put on in each city and the annual ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 25 -


conference. I’m just excited to be alive and excited to be able to do God’s work and to bring our people to an understanding about themselves and our people and about community and about the goals and objectives that we must change in the 21 st century. Bro. Bedford: Wow! That is such a wonderful story Mr. Fraser I’m so glad that you have given us the opportunity to take a look at your personal journey, sometimes when we see an individual some what in a finished state we think it is easy, that they just leaped frog to that position. It’s so wonderful to hear a refreshing story to know that you had some hardships but you overcame some of those hardships. Particularly with entrepreneurship what were some of the most critical problems that you faced in the beginning stages of Frasernet.com? George Fraser: The problems that I faced and the team that we put together to start Frasernet were the problems that are really no different than the problems most African- Americans have when starting and building and growing a business. The first thing I had to overcome was the teaching of our generation, I’m a baby boomer, I’m 62 years old, so when growing up it was very, very important that our parents taught us that we must get a good education and get a good job. That was the mantra for our generation of parents because they could not get a good education to get a good job in America. That’s what they wanted for their children to get a good education and find work to get a good job and work for other people. That was deeply embedded and deeply planted in both the conscious and subconscious mind of black people of my generation. Now that is not what I taught my two sons 29 and 25. I taught them to get a good education and to create a job. Create a job for themselves, to create a job for their children and if God gives them the power and the glory to create work and jobs for our people that’s what they learned. Therefore my two sons are very entrepreneurial and I’ve been blessed to have them work within our company Frasernet and ultimately this company will be their company. So, that was the first thing to get over that. Get over the notion that we have to get a good education to get a good job. Get an education to create a job. That is the first and most important thing. The second thing that I had to over come because I left a six figure corporate job with the velvet handcuffs of retirement, health insurance, vacations. The infrastructure of support did not require me to taking money out of my pocket. Any time I managed something for Procter & Gamble all I had to do was make a phone call and the money was there to do the work.


www.brobedford.com

- 26 -


I had to overcome self-doubt and most black people have to overcome self-doubt. Can I really do this? Am I capable of managing and meeting, starting, and thinking about building a business? That’s huge it’s easy to say Bro. Bedford. This is very, very hard to do. Self-doubt, because the influences that we have around us meaning our friends, our colleagues, our peers, people that we work for continue to feed that self doubt when they tell you man you have a good job you’re working for Procter & Gamble, you’re working for Ford or you’re working for the United Way and so that feeds the self doubt and it builds a callous to giving that up and venturing out on your own. Next, I had to overcome this whole idea of being risk adverse. Black people are risk adverse. We’re risk adverse because, those of my generation, we are the first generation to really have anything, to have some disposable income as a result being middle class. We use that disposable income to buy a home, to buy stereos, to buy entertainment and so we don’t want to risk that. We finally have something and we protect it and we don’t want to give it up and we don’t want to put what we have our home, or our nice car or our nice furnishings, we don’t want to put that at risk by cutting off a stream of income from the man, from the job that might put that in jeopardy so we are risk adverse. So we have to overcome the fact that, if we were able to do the work that we are doing for others to achieve and to attain the tangible things, that we can also work as hard as we work for others if we apply the same work and effort to our own selves that we can also achieve the same if not more for ourselves. Now this is related to the 3 rd obstacle that we have around entrepreneurship and that is the scarcity mentality verses the abundance mentality. So we have a scarcity mentality. We tend to think that the number of opportunities or the breadth of opportunities for us is limited. Therefore this opportunity to have this great job if we give it up will not be able to find another great job or if we go into this business we will not be able to find another business. So we have this scarcity mentality and really we should have an abundance mentality, because God has made enough for everyone. I tell people all the time when I speak Bro. Bedford that we do not lack opportunity as black people in America we lack capacity that’s the key difference. There is unlimited opportunity for black people in America. Unlimited opportunity we just have to build the capacity to seize that opportunity. Now how do we know that there is unlimited opportunity? Go into any urban center in America where businesses were closed because we decided that we didn’t want to do those business and other immigrant groups come into our community open up the convenience stores open up the cleaners open up the franchise McDonalds, Burger King, Church’s and they do good business. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 27 -


They employee themselves, they are 100% of their economic base. They then take our money back to their community because they do not live in our community and then they spend our money with their people in their community, educating their children. So there is unlimited opportunity it doesn’t matter what it is that you want to do. It is there for you to do it if you prepare yourself. If you get over self-doubt and if you get over this risk aversion that we have and place your bet, put your money on the table place your bet, do your homework gain some knowledge. Even if you have to work in the business yourself for free as a volunteer, which I did in order to learn my business. I worked in the event planning business. I worked as volunteer raising money talking to sponsors for volunteer initiatives like UNCF and learned how to conduct my business. So we have to get over this scarcity mentality. The 4th obstacle that we have to get over, this is heavy duty, I’m going to say something that might be a bit controversial, but I think its real based on my 20 years of observation of black folk. And that is our fear of asking questions. We won’t ask questions, we think that if we ask questions we look stupid or unprepared. Well I will say to brothers & sisters you’re stupid if you are not asking questions. We have to get over this notion of asking people for help and asking questions and taking notes and doing the training and the work necessary to prepare ourselves to go into business. In fact the sign of an intelligent man or woman, is that they are asking questions. Now the key is who are you asking the questions of? Hopefully you are asking the questions of people who are engaged in the business that you would like to be engaged in. In fact there is nobody in any business in America that owns that business all by themselves in a vacuum. There is no one who has the monopoly on anything in the country. So whatever business you think you want to go into whatever idea, unique idea you may think that you have. I promise you there are at least 50 other people in the business so how do you get close to the person in that business? How do you learn from that person? Because there is enough business, I don’t care what category it is for everybody. The way you get closer to the person in that business that you want to do is, find a way to serve them, find a way to add value to what they are doing, find a way to help make them wealthy doing what they are doing and then they will give you the keys to open the door to that particular opportunity and then you will be able to go into that door and expand that opportunity.


www.brobedford.com

- 28 -


That’s what we have to do and that’s where we should be asking questions. Asking questions of people who are already doing what you want to do. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are no secrets in America anything you want to know about anything could be found in a book, could be found on a CD, could be found in the person who is already actively engaged in doing that business, so we have to get over asking questions. So what are the 4 or 5 big things? 1) Get over self-doubt. 2) Get over this whole notion of being risk adverse and take some risk, but do it intelligently, do your research. 3) Get over this idea of a scarcity mentality and understand that there is an abundance out here. 4) Get over this idea to get a good education to get good job. No get a good education to create a job. 5) Get over this idea that you don’t want to ask questions because you don’t want to look stupid. No you’re stupid if you are not asking questions. If you get over those things, those are the greatest challenges or obstacle that most aspiring entrepreneurs have to deal with in the quiet of their own mind, in the quiet of their own space and pump themselves up and begin taking action. Bro. Bedford: That was great I really appreciate that. There is something that you mentioned there this fear of asking questions. To my subscribers some of them are new some have established businesses, but are struggling somewhat and I always advise through the subscription base that you should always look for a model that you can model your business after and not be ashamed to model your business after them, so when you said the fear of asking questions that is really something that I’m a big promoter of, going to those who are successful and doing what you are attempting to do. George Fraser: That’s right if you go to people who are successful and do what they do that’s why they’re successful. They will not hesitate to tell you what they do. By the way anyone that is hesitant to tell you what they do they are not really that successful. Because there are no secrets in America successful people are always looking to help other people to become successful. This is why they are really successful. We are not talking about corporate secrets and we are not talking about someone giving you their recipe for their hot sauce. No have your own recipe for your own ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 29 -


hot sauce but they will tell you how to get out here and promote your secret recipe hot sauce. There are no secrets ask them and they will tell you because successful people understand the purpose of life to be successful. The purpose of life is very simple Bro. Bedford. It is to love, to give, to serve, and to add value to someone or something. Successful people understand that and they are ready, willing, and able to do that and that’s why they are successful. If they are not they will not be successful. That is how God has designed the system. Bro. Bedford: Can you explain the importance of effective networking and why every entrepreneur must learn to network? George Fraser: Yes, There are a number of reasons. To transcend from management to leadership, when you own a business you are in effect becoming a leader. You have to have good management skills certainly to grow that business, to grow the people who will help you to build that business, to grow your team so you need good management skills. But ultimately as a small business you need great leadership skills so that means you have to transcend just good operational skills and analytical skills which is problem solving. To having good relationship building skills, relational skills that all requires good networking skills. If you do not have good relational skills or relationship building skills you cannot transition from a manger to a leader you can’t, you just cannot do it. If by accident someone anoints you or you appoint yourself, as a leader to help build a team you will not succeed as a leader with out having good relationship building skills, without having superior interpersonal skills and people skills. The ability to lead and to follow, the ability to build a team and to be a part of a team, the ability to cultivate, nurture and develop relationships at work, at home and in the community. The ability to love and to like people and to have people to love and like you. You have to have those skills, those good working skills in order to grow your business. There is no business that I know of where you can succeed at on your own by yourself in a vacuum. You have customers so you need good relationship building skills with your customer. You have suppliers you need good personal and relationship building skills with your suppliers. Ultimately you will have an employee or 2 or 3 or 100 you need good interpersonal and people skills or networking skills in order to build that. You may need sponsors, you may need investors, so there is a whole myriad of people that you will need on your team to grow your business. Thus it requires great interpersonal and people building skills, great networking skills and those who are best at that will be the most successful. The reason I am ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 30 -


successful is not because I am so bright. It is because of the one skill that I talked about earlier, that is I developed superior interpersonal and people skills. And that is why I have succeeded. So if I can do it anybody can do it. But I recognized that was the thing that had to happen in my life in order for me to magnify, grow, and to build my business. My business started out with just George and now its George and 12 other people and all of those people who started with me are still with me. That says something about how I handle and manage those people. How I nurtured them, how they were fulfilled and through building they were provided the things they needed to provide in their own lives. That’s what we look for, relationship building skills, networking skills are absolutely, critically important because you can’t succeed at the highest levels in America without them, and it is just not possible. Not only that, relationship-building skills help you to fully realize your potential. Each of us have unlimited potential. How do we know that? Because we would not be alive if you did not have or God did not plant the seed in you for unlimited potential, but we know that the greatest enemy of potential is success. Why? Because you can build on success but you can’t rest on it. If you do you become fat, happy, and stupid. We know life is hard, but it’s really hard if you’re stupid. So what am I saying, each of us must prepare for success, you have to strive for success, you must achieve success, you must celebrate our success, and then we have to forget about it and then live your full human potential. We get a little success here or there and we wallow in that to often, live on that, feed on that longer than we should be feeding on that and we are ignoring the potential that we have. Because we are not magnifying that, we are not multiplying that success, we are not building systems that will enable us to create revenues and dollars to employ our people. We are not doing that because we have not honed or developed our people skills, our networking skills. So it is critical, critically important and this is what the book, Success Runs In Our Race talks about in great detail. Yes, it is a great book on networking but for those who have read the book you know that for the first half of the book I talk about networking in black America from a historical, moral, spiritual, African centered perspective. The Spirit of Networking has been going on in our community that a lot of people discount or don’t understand and have not conceptualized how networking, we were not calling it networking back in the day, but that what was going on. So we have to have some perspective around what has enabled us to achieve what we have been able to achieve in spite of the fact that America kept its foot on our necks for 350 years we still over came and rose like the Phoenix. How did that happen? ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 31 -


What did the most successful of our people, in spite of the oppressive conditions, what did they understand and what did they do and how did they do it to enable them in spite of the circumstances the ability to go to school, to be educated as we are able to be educated. It was against the law at one point in time to even read a book. How did they do it? There is a rich history of very effective networking whether it was the Black Church, whether it was the black fraternities or sororities, those were networks. Those were like-minded people coming together helping each other, serving each other, finding opportunity for each other, supporting each other and lifting each other up. Those were networks. That’s really what they were. So, let me just recap for a second. To be a leader is to understand that you must transcend being good at just functional and analytical skills. You must perform relational task that enable you to create a fabric of personal contact that provides support, feedback, insight, resources, and information that’s called networking Bro. Bedford. Leaders understand that the alternative to effective networking is to fail. You simply will not reach a leadership position or you will not succeed at leadership without effective networking skills. Leaders are great networkers and can effectively work with a diverse array of people. We all must become leaders in our own special way. Bro. Bedford: That’s powerful. The next thing I want to ask because you really triggered something while you were speaking. You were talking about this being a cycle of not being complacent, reaching a certain level of success than you get complacent then that causes us to not really realize our full potential so we constantly have to be in this cycle of improving ourselves and going to the next level. By you saying that, I want to ask you, in your second book you talked about the 10 best business opportunities for blacks in America. I look every day in the paper and I see the different type of industries that are closing down, and outsourcing. What is it that you see that gives us the best opportunity for blacks in business, especially considering the way that technology has advanced and has allowed us to have home offices now. Where do you see opportunity for black people as it relates to entrepreneurship in the future? George Fraser: My second book Race For Success The 10 Best Business Opportunities for Blacks in America was written almost 10 years ago. What I saw a decade ago is still relevant today. If we act on these 10 best business opportunities it would enable us to do two things, to make a profit and to make a difference. To do well while doing good. In other words we have to kill two birds with one stone. We must do well and we must make a profit so that we can make a ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 32 -


difference. You’ll notice I said profit first, I didn’t say make a difference. Because you can’t make a difference in a market-based economy, in a democratic capitalistic society where the only color that really matters Bro. Bedford is green. That’s the only color that really matters. Slavery was all about money it was all about economics. You cannot make a difference in America without making money. We must make money. Our Jewish brothers and sisters understand that, our Asian brothers and sisters understand that. We must make money and then we can write checks to began the process of solving our problems. Because everything is about money and leadership, money and leadership. Now why do I put it in that order because we know that money in the hands of the unrighteous will do unrighteous things? Money in the hands of the righteous will do righteous things. But first let us put some money in the hands of the righteous. Which means we have to make a profit. Let me say that another way. At the end of the day when we finish pontificating adnauseam about our issues somebody has got to write a check. Our Jewish brothers and sisters can write a check, our Asian brothers and sisters can write a check, our Arab brothers and sisters whether we agree with them or not can write a check. We can’t write a check. Now we can organize, we can plan, we can lay out an agenda and then we must take our agenda to someone else and say, “excuse me sir would you write a check, so that we can do this.” And then they have the opportunity to say, “maybe I will maybe I won’t. I might write a check if you change that rule over there to my liking, if you do this instead of that. Now when you do that Bro. Bedford I might consider writing a check.” Then it becomes their agenda and not ours. Because it applies to the very simple golden rule right “those with the gold rule”. Bro. Bedford if you’re writing a check for something or someone your hard earned money and when it comes to you, you are going to want to agree with what that agenda is would you not? Bro. Bedford: Right George Fraser: If you don’t agree with that agenda you are not giving to write a check. So that’s basic common sense. So Money! So where are the areas that we can do well while doing good and make a profit to make a difference.


www.brobedford.com

- 33 -


1). The area of education. We need more black owned private schools. More small businesses are needed who are suppliers of a variety of products and services needed in the $800 billion dollar education system in America, one of the largest industries. And this would be especially true for urban education where 80% of our children are…well that’s a whole another story. That system is really improperly educating our children. But there is money being generated, billions and billions and billions of dollars. Question becomes how much of those billion of dollars. There are products and services that are being purchased, what percentage of those product and services from pencils, paper, milk, cookies, juice, training what percentage of the dollars that are being generated in the educational system in America today go to black owned business? What percentage of the teachers, the Professors, the people who are doing the training in those systems and getting paid for that, What percentage of those dollars are being recycled back to our people? We need more black teachers in our urban schools. Certainly, we need more black males. If you want to look at what are the job opportunities? Well, there are huge numbers of opportunities in the areas of education, training, coaching. We have a whole generation of young brothers and sisters who are professionals who need coaching and training. We have a whole generation or two of us that have been privileged with the opportunity to climb the corporate ladder and to learn. Well God didn’t give you that information and that knowledge just for you. How are you packaging that up? Monetizing it and giving it back to our community where we have a whole generation of people that are in an economically illiterate state. So if you know information about money, if you know information about finance, about Real Estate, about credit, well then you need to bring that knowledge whether you’re in your church or your fraternity or your sorority at night, on the weekends and train our people with the knowledge that you have gained. And you can monetize that. You can write books. What have I done with my knowledge I’ve written books, I’ve put on training sessions, I’ve monetized it. I’ve turned it into multiple streams of income. So, the whole area of education and training in our community, 50 years ago we could’ve said that we didn’t have the expertise, we didn’t have knowledge, we didn’t have the experience, we didn’t have the wisdom. Well that is not true today. We have millions of us that have gotten that knowledge because of the sacrifice that 10 generations made to open these doors. So we now have this knowledge, we have to bring it back and reinvest this knowledge back into our community and that can be monetized and that is a huge business opportunity, education. It’s a place where we can do well while doing good. That’s opportunity number one. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 34 -


2.) Is in the area of financing and banking . We need more black folks who are skilled in money management, in investment strategies that can advise and train the masses of our people. We are an economically illiterate people. Now fifty years ago, we didn’t have any black folks who were members of the New York Stock Exchange. We didn’t have any black folks in investment banking and finance. Today we do. We have black folks that graduated from Ivy League schools, working on Wall Street making millions of dollars working at all the financial companies and getting all kinds of training on how to manage your money. We have black folks who have the ability at all levels of the banking world. We can start and build banks because we know how to do that because we got the training; we’ve got millions of dollars. So there’s a huge opportunity in the area of finance and banking; whether you’re looking at it from an employment standpoint or an entrepreneurial standpoint. There’s a huge area of opportunity. 3.) We touched on it; small business development: in general is needed to include neighborhood services, franchising, travel and leisure, multi-level marketing. There are unlimited small business opportunities. Like I said, we do not lack opportunity, we lack capacity. We have to get over some of the problems that we have in thinking about growing small businesses in our communities. There are huge opportunities right in your own neighborhoods. 4.) Is in the area of technology. We must become creators of computer & software and become Internet content & service providers. I don‘t even want to begin to tell you what’s happening in the world of digital technology. Everything is moving fast in that direction. Everything is going in direction of digital technology. Everything will be downloaded into hand held devices. Everything from music to entertainment, to book and CD’s, and tapes and speaking and poetry, the distribution system is completely evolving and changing in the world of music and entertainment. There’s unlimited opportunity in the world of technology and everyday we pick up the business section of the newspaper, and we see new white people making millions of dollars dabbling in the world of technology; starting internet businesses and selling those businesses a year or two later for five hundred to six hundred million dollars. Why are black people not doing this, as creative as we are? More people have become wealthy because of real estate than any single entity in the history of the world. I think the second way to wealth today is through technology. Look at the wealth that is created through the understanding and the packaging of the myriad of ways technology has affected our lives. Technology is a huge area opportunity. 5.) Is in the area of publishing . We want and must write and publish more books, magazines and newspapers for us to have a greater control of our minority ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 35 -


images, of black images, words, pictures that inspire us and not stereotype or limit us. We must control our own imagery. With the ease of self-publishing today, whether you want to tell your story which is an inspiring story or you want to give people information, training and knowledge that God has gifted you with, today you can self-publish and publish books for really pennies on the dollar. The world of publishing is wide open. We have to begin to control our own images and publish them. And more black people are doing that. It’s a huge area of opportunity. 6.) Would be engaging in real estate development that fosters the rebuilding of urban neighborhoods. That’s $20 trillion dollars over the next twenty years to rebuild urban neighborhoods and infrastructure. Black folks must financially participate in that expenditure, okay. We cannot allow our urban centers to be regentrified and all we end up with at the end of 20 years and $20 trillion dollars is to be a renter. That is what we used to be. We must move from being consumers and renters to being owners and savers. It’s critically important that we get involved in real estate development, minimally in our neighborhoods which are being regentrified which means black folks are being moved out, the cost of housing is increasing because it’s close to downtown, these urban centers; it’s close to communication cores; it’s close to the transportation hub; so these are very desirable places for others to develop and then we’re just moved out. We cannot allow that to happen. We see it happening in Harlem. We see it happening in Brooklyn, NY. We see it happening in Philadelphia. We see it happening in Los Angeles. Every place where we have traditionally been, other folk are now claiming those areas, increasing the value of those properties and we’re losing out. It’s a huge area of opportunity to engage in real estate development and so we really, really, really have to fix that, another huge area of opportunity. 7.) We have to leverage entertainment and music which is a traditional and unique strength that black people have but we must include ownership and distribution of our creative output. This is the key, ownership and distribution. Not like the old school groups back in the day, we’re the creative force, we created the music, but other people owned 95% of the publishing and controlled the distribution of it okay. Only a few of our artist like James Brown were smart enough to say, no, no, no, I own all of my stuff as well as Ray Charles. He owned his own production. He owned his own work. We are a creative force when it comes to entertainment and music. In America, we created the only original music forms in America brought to the world, through Jazz. We created Rock-n-Roll, we created Rhythm and Blues, and we created Hip Hop. I don’t even want to begin to tell you the billions and billions ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 36 -


of dollars that have been generated because of those music forms over the last seventy-five years that we own very little of. We need to fix that in the 21 st century. 8.) Would be to leverage sports, but not just as talent. We don’t want to be 20 million dollars slaves okay. You see if I’m Shaq, and you can pay me $20 million dollars a year to play on your basketball team; how much are you making? We have to own the teams, not just be the talent on the team. We have to be the agents and the skilled craftsmen and technicians. That’s how we need to leverage sports. We have to be owners and agents. We have to recycle the hundreds of millions dollars from these salaries that our athletes earn back into our communities by encouraging them to use black agents; to use black lawyers; to use black accountants; to buy their cars from black dealers; to buy their insurance from black agents. They’re not doing that. There’s a huge opportunity to leverage sports, not just the talent, but as owners, agents and recycling those dollars. 9.) Is health care, the biggest industry in America, by developing more small businesses that service the biggest industry in America and one that has enormous impact on black folks and is currently undergoing great upheaval and change. I know several multi-millionaires that look like us that are engaged in Healthcare. That is a huge business, huge opportunity and we need to get engaged, not just as physicians and dentists, but also as business owners. As the whole healthcare industry is going to readjust and come out with new programs and plans to make healthcare more affordable. All of the ancillary and side businesses that will develop out of this quantum change is going to happen in America; in the area of healthcare and that is going to happen in the next generation or two. 10.) And the final one is global commerce forming new business alliances in Africa, South America, the Caribbean and China. It’s a huge opportunity in all of those areas. If you visited Africa recently, you will notice that the Chinese are all over Africa. There are as many Chinese in Africa as there are Japanese in Hawaii. What are they doing in Africa? They’re building infrastructure for these African countries so they can have access to oil. China needs oil to grow, so they’re investing and building infrastructure in our African countries so they can have first dibs on the oil. We have to get into China, we have to get into Africa, we have to build strategic alliances and do joint ventures and partnership in the Caribbean and in South America. So there are huge opportunities for those who are engaged in international business.


www.brobedford.com

- 37 -


Those I believe are the ten best business opportunities for Blacks in America and we have a lot of work to do, but it’s plenty of opportunity. It goes back to what I said earlier, we are not lacking opportunity, we are lacking capacity. Bro Bedford: As we get ready to wind down here Mr. Fraser, one last question. I hear how your passion comes through when speaking on our plight and how we must move forward to accomplish these things. That leads to my last question for you. What is the chief trait or characteristic you think is critical for us to achieve this entrepreneurial success on all of the endeavors that you just mentioned? What is the chief trait or characteristic that you think one must have in order to go forward? George Fraser: That goes to a mantra that I ask every time I go and speak around the country about 125 times per year. I ask my audience to repeat after me with enthusiasm and that mantra goes “It’s not about me, it’s about we. It takes teamwork to make the dream work; we have the timber, let us build”. So the core requirement, the chief asset, the critical mindset that we as black people must have in the 21 st century is one of connecting the dots. Networking, getting together to get ahead that is the core, core trait. Because you see, we have everything we need to succeed freedom, civil rights, voting rights and public access. We have a $790 billion dollar annual economy, if we were a nation, we’d be the 10 th richest nation in the entire world. We have five trillion dollars worth of intellectual capital from just one generation, the baby boomer generation, and we have nine million of us 66% of the black work force that are doing okay that are in executive managerial, supervisory, professional, vocational, technical, administrative, sales and different type of positions. So we have everything to succeed except each other. We must now internalize God’s vision for black people and the way this vision works is to first understand that there are three phases to development of any people. First there is dependence, let’s call that slavery. Then there is independence, let’s call that freedom and the final stage, the most sophisticated and critical phase that we must reach in the 21 st century is interdependence-that is the highest form of cultural development. Jewish people understand this; Asian people understand this; Arab people understand this. Interdependence! We must believe and we must begin to think interdependently and connect the dots so that we can leverage our tremendous resources and intellectual capital and take our people into the 21 st century. If you had a sheet of dots that could represent beautiful educated and moneyed black people all over America. It could also represent black churches and it could also represent black institutions. But if you look at that sheet of dots, you’ll notice that there is no power there because we have everybody doing their own thing. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 38 -


Caught up in a Euro centric value of rugged individualism. There is no power in rugged individualism, the power is in understanding that beautiful African proverb that says, “it takes a village to raise a child”. Also there’s another beautiful African proverb, it says, “When spiders unite, they can tie up a lion” . This is where we must go in the 21 st century. This means we must get beyond this Willie Lynch Syndrome which still effects to many black people, not all, but too many. This crabs in the barrel mentality this negative self-imagery and self-hatred, with deep belief that the white man’s ice is colder and that the white man’s sugar is sweeter. We have much work to do on ourselves, but we have the tools, we have the knowledge, we have the people. We have a plan, we’ve laid out, and the objective is simple. The objective is that in the 21st century, Bro. Bedford black people must become the number one employer of black people. Black people must become the number one employer of black people. To do that we must act on six simple goals and then someone has to provide us with tools to help us achieve those goals. We can talk about those goals and tools at another time. The vision again, the vision and the objective is not complicated, black people must become the number one employer of black people in the 21 st century. Jewish people are the number one employers of Jewish people. Asians are the number one employers of Asians. Arabs are the number one employer of Arabs. We must do that for our people. Bro. Bedford: You’ve given us quite a bit to really think over, study and really try to move forward to bring this into reality. If someone wants to get in contact with you or to purchase both of these monumental books where should they go or how should they contact you? George Fraser: Sure, they can just go right to our website, www.frasernet.com. Everything you want to know about FraserNet, our twenty-year-old organization, if you want to become a member, there’s information on how to become a member. If you want to buy the books, CD’s and tapes all the information is there. If you want to attend our annual conference in Atlanta, all the information is there. If you want to attend any of our quarterly business meetings, in eleven different cities around the country all the information is right there. All dates, times and places of those meetings are free and open to the public. They are business meetings therefore business attire is required. Bro. Bedford: Great, I’ll be reaching out to your Detroit Director, Donna McClung this week to see what I can do to help with your visit here. I want to be apart of that so I’m looking forward to meeting you Mr. Fraser.


www.brobedford.com

- 39 -


George Fraser: God Bless you. Keep doing God’s work. And remember, it takes teamwork to make the dream work. Bro. Bedford: Yes. Thank you very much Mr. Fraser for your time. George Fraser: Thank you so much. Bro. Bedford: Bye now. George Fraser: Bye-bye.


www.brobedford.com

- 40 -


Conversation with Randal Pinkett Bro. Bedford: This is Bro. Bedford from How To Be A Black Entrepreneur.com. Joining me today in conversation is Dr. Randal Pinkett. Many of us know him as the winner of the forth season of the NBC hit reality TV show with Donald Trump The Apprentice . Dr. Pinkett has established himself as an entrepreneur, speaker, author, scholar and community servant. He is the Co-Founder, President and CEO of BCT Partners. A multimillion-dollar management, technology and policy consulting firm based in Newark, NJ. He’s a sought after public speaker for corporate youth and community groups. Dr. Pinkett has been featured in Black Enterprise and Ebony as one the 30 Leaders Under 30 issue. He’s been featured in Parade Magazine, New York Times and the Boston Globe. He’s also appeared in segments on BET and CNN. I would advise everyone to go his website www.randalpinkett.com, to see the list of his business accolades, his business ventures and this list of his academic accomplishments. Today, I want to thank you for joining us, the author of Campus CEO, Dr. Randal Pinkett. Dr. Pinkett thank you sir for joining us today. Randal Pinkett: Thank you Bro. Bedford, it’s great to be on the program. Thanks for having me on. Bro Bedford: Yes, sir. I want to get right to it because I know you have a very hectic schedule and there’s a lot of things I know that my subscribers and listeners want to learn from you. But first could you first tell us about your experience on The Apprentice? Randal Pinkett: Absolutely! It was a great experience being on The Apprentice. I was the forth season winner of the show which was the end of 2005. I spent the year 2006 working with the Trump Organization. I took a leave of absence from my firm BCT Partners and I’m very excited to return to BCT full time in 2007. I have maintained a consulting relationship with the Trump Organization. The relationship persists but I’m now able to apply the learning’s that I was able to glean from having been both on the show and also having a chance to shadow Donald Trump. Bro Bedford: That’s interesting you mentioned that because many of us know you as the winner of The Apprentice of the forth season but many of us didn’t actually know you had already started your own company and that you were a successful entrepreneur prior to The Apprentice. So could you tell us how you got your start as an entrepreneur? Randal Pinkett: Absolutely. Well, interestingly you could argue that my start as an entrepreneur began in childhood. Where I opened a lemonade stand and selling my own toys and a variety of other enterprising activities when I was very young. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 41 -


But I got my first start officially in business when I was in college. My two college roommates, Jeff Robinson and Aldmon Porter, opened a compact disk store out of our dormitory and combined that with an education and training operation as well. We actually grew that to a six-figure enterprise within about seven years. I’ve been in and out the entrepreneurial arena all of my life but it was college where I got my first break. Bro Bedford: What were some of the major challenges that you faced because there are some things you point out in campus CEO that we want to talk on a little latter. But what were some of the major challenges that you faced with your startups as an entrepreneur? Well, I faced some of the same challenges that many Randal Pinkett: entrepreneurs face. Like lack of financial capital, trying to build relationships that could lead to opportunity. A lot of what I’ve learned about business is that it’s really based on relationships and being out there and networking with people. When you’re just getting started, as was the case with us we were still trying to establish a track record and establish credibility. So, I know for us our first, well across from the two companies that I would consider my two major undertakings. One being the education and training company, our first big break just came through some might say serendipity where we were out doing pro bono work in high schools and a young lady went home and told her mother about us and her mother happened to be an executive at a large non-profit. To make a long story short, she hired us for our first big contract. For BCT Partners, which is a consulting firm, one of the areas that we specialized in is Information Technology. Our first big contract for BCT was with our church and when I say our, I’m referring to three of the four founding partners. We all attend First Baptist Church in New Jersey and the church gave us our first opportunity to do a major project. They knew us, they believed in us and they bet on us. From there we were able to use that project as an example and a reference point for going after projects thereafter. Those are both examples of when preparation meets opportunity and that it could lead to success. Bro Bedford: What would you say was the key to your preparation for overcoming those challenges? A lot of the subscribers that we have are new entrepreneurs and there are some seasoned entrepreneurs who I get a lot of emails continuously asking how do I get over this obstacle, or how do I overcome this problem or this challenge. What was the key to you being able to overcome some of those major hurdles?


www.brobedford.com

- 42 -


Randal Pinkett: I think the key for me has been really having a strong team and surr surrou ound ndin ing g myse myself lf with with indi indivi vidu dual alss who who are are like like-m -min inde ded, d, who who are are simi simila larl rly y comm commit itte ted d and and equa equall lly y tale talent nted ed.. In fact fact,, the the thre three e gent gentle leme men n who who help helped ed to establ establish ish that compact compact disc store remain remain as my business business partners partners to this day. day. Mr. Lawrence Hibbert, Jeff Robinson and Dallas Grundy are gentlemen that I went to college with at Rutgers and they’re still owners in BCT Partner Partner until this day. Just having those men around me as a support mechanism and motivator and just being able to create collective positive energy to withstand the challenges and the hurdles hurdles and the obstac obstacles les that that came at us. I could not imagine imagine doing doing it alone. alone. I just could not imagine doing it by myself. Rightt I see. see. Now if you you were were to advis dvise e some someon one e who was was Bro. Bro. Bedford Bedford:: Righ interested in starting a business, of course I think the first thing I would tell them is go and get Ca Camp mpus us CEO. But if you want want to advise advise someo someone, ne, a new perso person, n, and they wanted to get your advice on starting up a business, what would be the first step they should take? Interes estin tingly gly for me, the first first step step of gett getting ing into into busin busines esss is Randal Randal Pinkett: Pinkett: Inter actually looking within one’s self and taking the time to really, really reflect on what it is that you’re you’re passiona passionate te about. about. What What is it that you love to do and that you you would want want to do whether whether you got paid for it or not. That That introspe introspectio ction n to me is the first first and and most most impo import rtan antt step step.. Now Now that that’s ’s not not to sugg sugges estt that that ever everyo yone ne’s ’s pass passio ion n necessarily necessarily directly translates translates into an entrepreneuria entrepreneuriall opportunity. opportunity. But it’s it’s the begin beginnin ning g of the conve convers rsat atio ion. n. I think think that that the the subse subsequ quent ent topi topics cs of conve convers rsat ation ionss are are what what you are are good good at. It’s It’s one one thing thing to be pass passio iona nate te about about some somethi thing ng and and it’s it’s another another thing thing to be good good at somet somethin hing. g. Thir Third, d, what is your your capaci capacity? ty? Mea Meaning ning what kind of money, what kind of relations relationships hips,, what kind of knowled knowledge ge and what kind of insight insight do you have have to differe different nt areas? areas? And then last but not least, what does the market suggest is a viable opportunity. Because I could be passionate about fast food and I could be great at fast food and I could could have the capa capaci city ty to star startt a fast fast food food oper operat atio ion n but I might might look look at my neighborhood neighborhood and say say that that’s that’s saturated. saturated. There are are no opportunities opportunities there. there. The market market is the last last factor factor that you have to consider. consider. You have have to say where where is there something new and innovative that I can capitalize off of. Right, right right.. That’s That’s great great advic advice. e. Great Great advic advice. e. Now as as I’ve I’ve been been Bro. Bedford: Right, studying your bio, I’ve been reading deeply and reading your material, Campus CEO and really reading your blog that you put out after there was this big world wind of contr controve overs rsy y surro surround unding ing your your decis decisio ion n at the end of The The Appr Apprent entic ice. e. You You don’ don’tt come come off as a person person who is a staunch staunch competito competitor. r. You seem seem to work in a differen differentt mode mode,, kind kind of coop cooper erat ative ively ly as oppo oppose sed d to compe competi titiv tively ely.. I know know a lot of peop people le took took your decisio decision n at the end of The Apprentic Apprentice e as a competitiv competitive e statement statement.. But ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 43 -


when I read your blog, it was really just a statement of you embracing the fact that you worked hard and you earned that position. My question to you is do you see those as opposing mindsets when you have a competitive mindset as opposed to a cooperative mindset? Randal Pinkett: Well that’s a great question and I certainly appreciate you doing your homework homework on my commentary, my blogging, blogging, and my opinion opinion after the finale. finale. I would echo much of what you said, before answering your question, which is that indeed my statements at the finale were a confident and comfortable assertion of the fact that that I believe believe that that I ear earned ned the victory. victory. I believe believe there was no reason reason to suggest, nor to even ask that that title be shared because again, I worked very hard and more to the point that that question had never been posed before and quite interestingly has not been posed since. But nonetheles nonetheless, s, in terms terms of cooper cooperati ative ve vs. competi competitive tive.. I believe believe we live in days days and times where competition is a good thing and there will always be competition in busines business. s. But it rea really lly depends depends on what what your style style and your approa approach ch to business business is and and how how you you choo choose se to cond conduc uctt your yourse self lf.. I beli believ eve e that that you you can can actu actual ally ly be successful successful interestingly interestingly either through a competitive competitive or a cooperative cooperative model. But it does beg the questions, which better aligns with your values and your principles. I was an athlete in college, so I know what it actually means to compete at certain levels levels and I compete compete everyda everyday y in business. business. As far as relations relationships hips are concerned concerned,, and I’m talking about business relationships, I looked at ways that we can make the pie bigger bigger for everyone. everyone. As opposed opposed to believin believing g that for me to take more of the pie, means that you’ll have less. like that. that. Inst Instea ead d of taking taking a slic slice e of the pie, just just make make the pie Bro. Bedford: I like bigger bigger.. I really really do like that that that’s that’s great! great! What What was you’re motiva motivation tion for writing writing a book book such such as Campus Campus CEO , agai again n whic which h is a ma marv rvel elou ouss book book.. What What was was your your motivation for writing this book? Randal Pinket: My motivation for writing the book was first and foremost, wanting to pull together all of the information, resources, advice, tips and strategies that I would have wanted wanted in my hands when I was first getting started started in business. As you know I started started when I was was a student. student. It is my attempt attempt to give the next generat generation ion of entrepreneur’s, everything that they need in a single resource that they can, not to just follow in my footsteps but exceed my own accomplishments as well as those of other other entrepr entrepreneu eneurs rs who starte started d when when they were students students such as Bill Gates, Gates, Michael Dell or the guys from Google or Yahoo or even a Russell Simmons or a Sean “Diddy “Diddy ” Combs, who started when they were in school as well.


www.brobedford.com

- 44 -


It’s really me trying to bring all that information together and say this is what I would have wanted when I was getting started. Man, n, it’ it’s funn funny y tha that you you said said you you wante anted d to brin bring g all tha that Bro. Bro. Bedford Bedford:: Ma info inform rmat atio ion n toge togeth ther er beca becaus use e it is a book book that that’s ’s full full of a weal wealth th,, a weal wealth th of informa information tion and knowledg knowledge. e. When When you look at the title, you see Campus CEO , but outside of the campus, every entrepreneur needs to know all of this information as it relates relates to being a start up business or even a business that’s seasoned. seasoned. I wanted to ask ask you you about about two part partic icula ularr area areas. s. How How impor importa tant nt is it for for an entre entrepr prene eneur ur to understand understand a business model. Many entrepreneurs entrepreneurs want to start a business but they never never give give ser seriou iouss thoug thought ht to what what type type of busine business ss mode modell they they have have or should should have. have. Could Could you expound expound on that a little little bit? Absolutely, ely, absolut absolutely. ely. The business business model model is something something I talk talk Randal Pinkett: Absolut about in Campus CEO . In that chapter, chapter, I talk talk about about the differe difference nce between between vetting vetting and understanding understanding your model against against your plan. The plan is what most people are familiar with which is the written document with all the marketing research and the compet competitiv itive e analysi analysiss and financia financiall projec projection tionss and the like. But the model model rea really lly distills and describes how your company basically makes money. It’s like thinking of a system, so for Amazon.com to make money, they’re able to advertise through Internet channels that they have products and services available, people go to the site, they order, they fulfill that order and that’s when they make their their money. That’s That’s a model. model. When we did educa education tion and and training, training, word word of mouth was one of our more powerful powerful mechanism mechanismss for advertisi advertising. ng. That That led into decision decision makers makers who would would procure procure our services. services. Then Then we would bring facilitat facilitators ors onsite onsite to do workshop workshopss and we would get paid via invoicing. invoicing. That That was our model model for making money. It’s It’s intere interest sting ing that you can can twea tweak k a mode modell and and you can study study other other models models.. For For instance if you look at the Internet banner advertising was a model, subscriptions to a webs websit ite e was was a mode model. l. Free Free access access with a more more adva advanc nce e conte content nt on a pay-p pay-per er-access access,, that’s that’s a model. model. So there there are lots of differe different nt models models to making making money. money. It’s It’s figuring out what’s the best model for what you’re trying to do and being really innovative and creative in approaching it. Bro. Bedford: That leads into my next question, because I see that you’re very pass passio iona nate te abou aboutt tech technol nolog ogy. y. How impor importa tant nt is it for for toda today’ y’ss entre entrepr prene eneur ur to embrace embrace technology. I look at what you just said about the business model because because I also find that a lot of today’s entrepreneurs, we kind of operate off of old business mode models ls,, kind kind of anti antiqu quat ated ed busi busine ness ss mode models ls.. How How impo import rtan antt is it for for toda today’ y’ss entrepreneur to embrace technology and to incorporate that into a more up-to-date business business model? ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 45 -


Randal Pinkett: Well I’ll say this. Embracing technology is required for today’s entrepreneur. I can’t imagine an entrepreneur, who endeavors to be successful in the 21st century, that doesn’t embrace technology. That’s not just for entrepreneurs who choose to operate in the technology space, that’s for any entrepreneur. I don’t care if you operate a retail operation, a restaurant or a website, technology is a tool that can help you do what you do better. In Campus CEO , I have a whole chapter called, “Gaining the Technology Edge” where I go through a whole list of free resources, and different websites and tools, technology tools that entrepreneurs can utilize to help them conduct business better. There was a lot of research that went into that chapter and a lot of really useful tools that are in there. Bro. Bedford: Yes and that’s why that chapter in particular stuck out to me. Again with a lot of the subscribers that I have, those are the questions that come up and sometimes I’m baffled at the fact that we will not embrace the newer technology as you mentioned in the book that will help to make our operations become more effective. That was something that really stuck out to me and I really want to point a lot of my subscribers to get the book and to really study that aspect of Campus CEO . As we’re dealing with entrepreneurship, and I know that it is a trial and a struggle with what I’ve tried to do with How To Be A Black Entrepreneur.com and I know all of the things that you’re doing. What is the most important trait or characteristic that you think a person must have, if they are to achieve success as an entrepreneur? Randal Pinkett: Without question the answer is perseverance. One of the recurring themes that I was able to walk away from writing Campus CEO as part of the process was interviewing entrepreneurs, particularly young entrepreneurs. And one of the recurring themes throughout those engagements was just the idea that no matter whom you are or what you’re looking to do, you’re going to run across challenges, roadblocks, obstacles and hurdles. Failure is not falling down, failure is staying down and not be willing to dust yourself off and get back up. Anyone who believes or anyone who’s listening and believes that it is necessarily going to be an easy road, just take the time to talk to any entrepreneur, including myself and we’ll be the first to tell you that it’s not easy. There are no guarantees, but with the perseverance temperament, with a temperament of being able to demonstrate resilience and stick-to-itiveness as some might say. That’s the X factor, that’s what gets you over the hump. Bro. Bedford: Now you also have another chapter and I guess it kind of links to what you just mentioned about being able to persevere over all of these obstacles and hurdles. Sometimes I run across entrepreneurs who tend to think mistakes are ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 46 -


bad. You have a whole chapter about mistakes that every student entrepreneur makes. Would it be safe to say that mistakes are unavoidable? Randal Pinkett: Well I can’t go so far so unavoidable. I’ll say that they have not been unavoidable for me. And I have not come across to many entrepreneurs for whom it’s been unavoidable for them either. Now I would have to believe that there’s someone out there, sitting in an office, you know counting their money that just had it easy. And you know it was all smooth sailing, but I would also argue that if that person exists or those people exist, then they’re few and far between. If success is what you desire, failure, generally speaking is unavoidable. It’s one of those things that you hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Bro. Bedford: Yes sir that’s great advice, great advice. What’s next for Dr. Pinkett? I know you have Campus CEO , and I here about some things that you’re doing online with competitions. Could you expound on that a little bit more to help my subscribers to get a better grasp on what you’re doing with your new book and upcoming activities? Randal Pinkett: Sure, Bro. Bedford. Basically this year, I’ll be really focused on building BCT Partners and certainly promoting Campus CEO . I’m in the midst of my national tour right now. Your listeners can go to www.campusceo.com to see where I’ll be in the next weeks and months. Then beyond that I’ve got some other book projects that I’m working on. The next one that I’ll likely release is called, “ Black Faces in White Places” . That is a book as the name suggests that provides strategies for people of color who find themselves as one of the few, if not the only person of color in a predominately white environment. Be it a school or a corporation or for entrepreneurs at a boardroom table. How do you successfully navigate those kinds of institutions and still maintain your identity. Bro. Bedford: Wow that one sounds good; I can’t wait to get that book. Randal Pinkett: Yeah, there’s a lot of good excitement around that one. Bro. Bedford: Yeah I can’t wait. One of the things about this forum is that I’ve interviewed some great people and I could not complete this series without including you. I want you to know that not simply because you were on The Apprentice, but pretty much based upon what you just mentioned. The way you handled and conducted yourself, you didn’t show any form of intimidation in the boardroom. So, when you just talked about the book that you’re coming up with, I think a lot of the processes of business intimidates entrepreneurs. I look to you as an example to show us that we can measure up and that we can compete on that type of level. So I really appreciate you for that.


www.brobedford.com

- 47 -


What I want to ask you now is if there’s any other information that you would like our subscribers to have, where they can contact you, where they can go and get the book, how should they purchase the book; could you give them that information now? Randal Pinkett: Absolutely, absolutely. For the listeners that are looking to find out about me or get a copy of Campus CEO , they can learn more about the book at www.campusceo.com. If you’re listening and you’re an entrepreneur or you have a young person in your family or an entrepreneur in your family, an aspiring entrepreneur, then this book is perfect. I would suggest you go out and get it ASAP. Do not delay and do not be denied and go to www.campusceo.com and get a copy. If you want to learn more about what I’m up to or where I’ll be speaking or just to get updated, you can go to: www.randalpinkett.com. Even there, there’s a contact Randal link, you can reach out to me and say hello or shout me out or let me know what you’re up to in your neighborhood. Bro. Bedford: That’s great. I really appreciate you Dr. Pinkett for giving us this opportunity to take a peak inside of your life to really see what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. I’m going to be encouraging all of my subscribers and new subscribers as they come on to, of course not just go to the site, but to buy the book and underline what they need, highlight it and utilize the book because it is a road map that I believe would help a lot of us to overcome the hurdles that we’re experiencing in our business. I also mentioned to some of your helpers, that I’ve been getting a tremendous response from some of the interviews and we will be compiling the interviews in a format to make it available to people so that they’ll always constantly have your information in their face. I want to make sure that you are amplified because I believe you’re a great example of what it is we can accomplish in entrepreneurship Randal Pinkett: Oh, I appreciate that Bro. Bedford and congratulations to you on everything you’re doing with the website and what you’re doing with this outlet. I know you’re equipping individuals with the tools and the inspiration that they need to take themselves to the next level. So you should be commended as well. Bro. Bedford: Thank you very much and I will be reaching out to you too because I would love to bring you to Detroit, where we need some entrepreneurship going on in Detroit. I know you’re very familiarly with what’s going on with the Big three, so you have a lot of people who are out of work, who haven’t looked at entrepreneurship as a viable option. I’m looking forward to hopefully bringing you to Detroit some time in the future. Randal Pinkett: Sounds like a plan. Sounds like a plan, I’ll see you in Detroit. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 48 -


Bro. Bedford: All right, thanks a lot, I’ll talk with you soon. Randal Pinkett: All right, Bro. Bedford thank you. Bro. Bedford: Thank you, Dr. Pinkett. Bye. Randal Pinkett: Bye.


www.brobedford.com

- 49 -


Conversation with Andrew Morrison Bro. Bedford: This is Bro. Bedford from how To Be A Black Entrepreneur and joining me today in conversation is a gentleman I truly admire. He has taken the art of being an entrepreneur and broken it down into individual parts and has made it easy to understand. Joining me today is Mr. Andrew Morrison. Mr. Morrison is the founder of Small Business Camp-an entrepreneurial training, coaching and marketing services firm. The Company delivers an intensive 2-day program that allows the participants to walk-in with just an idea and leave with a marketing plan, public relations strategy, money-making website, direct-mail campaign and 90 days of follow-up coaching. In New York City, Andrew hosts a weekly show on 98.7 KISS-FM called, “Money Making Mondays” He is also an adjunct faculty member at New York University and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Andrew built a multi-million dollar company by providing innovative direct marketing services to Fortune 500 companies. He was featured in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, Crain’s Magazine 40 under 40 and Advertising Age. He also appeared as a “Young Millionaire” on the Oprah Winfrey show. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Young Direct Marketer of the Year award and serves as a Deacon at the Abyssinian Baptist Church located in the village of Harlem. Aside from his church activities, he serves on the advisory board of Project Enterprise-a NYC based micro-lending organization. Andrew recently completed his first book entitled, “21 questions that can Build Your Business in 90 Days.” If you visit his site www.SmallbusinessCamp.com you will be able to access all of the information about his other endeavors. So without further delay thank you for joining us Andrew Morrison. Andrew Morrison: Thank you so much Bro. Bedford for having me Bro. Bedford: I’m just excited. You are truly one of the individuals that I look to as it relates to entrepreneurship. I look at you as a 21 st Century or as I like to call it an Information Age Entrepreneur. A lot of our people are not aware of these forms of marketing that you display, so I really look to you and I thank you for giving us this time this morning. Andrew Morrison: I really appreciate your comments but I want to remind everyone that my success is really based on my pain. I’ve taught people the reason why I’m one of the smartest, baddest marketers on the planet is because I’ve lost a great deal of money doing it. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 50 -


So often times your pain will help you to unlock your wisdom. And there is someone out there reading these words right now who is either going through tremendous pain or you’ve just been through some pain. And I want you to begin to honor that pain. That pain is offering you a very powerful lesson. Honor your pain but always choose peace and always take action. Bro. Bedford: Thank you for those encouraging words. I know you have a hectic schedule. I don’t want to delay. Lets get into some questions, some meaty things. First, how did you get your start as an Entrepreneur? Andrew Morrison: Well, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur as a young person. I remember in High School my first entrepreneurial activity was with Junior Achievement and we sold hangers door to door. We made these real nice hangers and we sold them door-to-door and I had a very bad stammering problem back then. So I would knock on somebody’s door and I would start to stutter. I would start to stumble over my words and I would simply point to the hanger. They kind of felt sorry for me so they would buy this hanger from me anyway. Then when I went to college I had a very incredible experience being the first African American president of our student union. We had approximately 7000 white students on campus, only 200 minority students. And I achieved a great milestone. And that really showed me how whatever you think about and focus on you can really begin to achieve. Right out of college I started my first company, which was a direct marketing firm, and I must give credit to the Black Expo USA. Because they were my first client and I helped them build a data base of participants of Black Expos and that showed me the power of developing data bases and being able to market to them effectively as well. Bro. Bedford: Now you say you started right out of college and The Black Expo was your first client, how did that lead to other contracts that eventually put you on the Oprah Winfrey show? ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 51 -


Andrew Morrison: My favorite quote comes from Booker T. Washington the wizard of Tuskegee. Booker T. said, “Success leaves footprints”. Someone needs to right that down. “Success leaves footprints”. At that time I was working at night basically as a typist building my business during the day and I was probably doing $50-$75,000 a year at the same time working at night. Then I wanted to know what were other successful companies doing to build their businesses. This is why it is so important for you to begin to join organizations. I joined the Direct Marketing Association. This is an international organization with thousands of members and I got to hang out and talk with other CEOs of Direct Marketing companies. Back then I’m making less than $100,000 a year struggling, working at night trying to build a business during the day. And now I have mentors, other CEOs who tell me to develop marketing promotions around very particular seasons and make your mailing program much larger. So I went from $100,000 a year to over $3 million dollars in sales by doing a simple concept. Mailing during key promotional periods to more and more people. And so I began to develop data base marketing campaigns that would occur during Black History Month; that would occur during a holiday season; that would occur during Mother’s Day. And by doing so brand managers came to me knowing I was developing a targeted promotion during their key advertising seasons as well. So there is a lesson here; it is to find somebody who has gone ahead of you. I study martial arts and in martial arts, the word sensei, it doesn’t really mean teacher. Your sensei is someone who has gone ahead of you. And so you want to find someone who has gone ahead of you and they then can support you and help you move to the next level as well. Bro. Bedford: That lead to you eventually being on the Oprah Winfrey show. What type of experience was that getting and being on Oprah? ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 52 -


Andrew Morrison: It’s amazing how so many people often tell me “ I want to be on Oprah”. OK there is a process. And I want you to understand that Oprah is looking for you. STOP looking for Oprah, she is looking for you. She has 5 people working full time and I’m not exaggerating. 5 people working full time 9 am to 9 pm looking for you. Going through magazines, watching television to find you. No one can find you because you’re not packaged properly. You’re so focused on your content you don’t understand the power of the context of your content. Move from your content, what you do and wrap it in a different context. By wrapping it in a different context then people can begin to get you. Then Oprah’s 5 full time staff people will then be able to find you. Let me kind of tell you what I did to allow Oprah to find me. I wasn’t looking for her she found me. Here is the first thing I want you to do. I want you to find a trade magazine for your industry. Whatever industry you’re in I guarantee you there is a monthly or weekly trade publication. In my industry, direct marketing, in was DM News. It is best to find a publication that comes out every single week. Why? Because they are always looking for content. My first PR hit was when I wrote an article about direct marketing to African Americans for DM News. Once I wrote that article, it’s amazing. I first analyzed other articles; once again “success leaves footprints”. Every article has a quote, every article has a fact, and every article has information to help solve a problem. I wrote the article I positioned myself as an expert and they ran the article the exact same way. That one article then allowed me to then take that article and share that article with Advertising Age. Once Advertising Age wrote about me I shared that article with Crain’s New York Business. Now Crain’s New York Business wrote about me. And so now I’m going to Wall Street Journal with ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 53 -


Crain’s New York Business, Advertising Age, and DM News. I’m now written up in the Wall Street Journal. Then I’m in Entrepreneur Magazine. Then I’m on CNBC and then I appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s show. So it’s not an overnight success. Overnight success takes a couple of years. So what you want to do is start now though by getting published by writing and speaking. Bro. Bedford: That is something. Now you mentioned getting published. I know like no time before it appears to be easier to self-publish. Can you give us some concepts around self-publishing? Andrew Morrison: Man, the toys, the technology that’s available to you right now to get things going is incredible. And so I have no patience for anyone who tells me “Andrew I can’t get it started, I don’t know where to start”. ALL THE TOOLS ARE THERE! You can have conference calls right now all around the world for free using freeconferencecall.com. You can publish a book online adobe-PDF and then you can sell that book to people. You can do a press release using Prweb.com or Blackpr.com and so the opportunities are right here in front of you. And that is the reason why I created the Small Business Camp because when you come to my 2-day boot camp, it is a boot camp, I’m in your face, there are no excuses because the tools are right here. You are in front of a computer so if you want to get that press release done we’ll get it done. You want to get a book done we’ll get you a book done. We’ll get you a website done, we’ll get the cover designed. Listen, you tell me what’s your biggest excuse right now? Who needs to be on your team? Well guess what! There are websites of people who are looking for you. Two quick websites are elance.com and guru.com. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 54 -


There are professionals all around the world who are willing to support you in getting that first book done. So here is the key to writing your first book. I first want you to identify a problem. Find a problem. Find a problem that lots of people are having and find a problem that people are willing to pay for your solution. So if people are having a problem and they don’t want to pay for your solution, that’s not a good topic for a book. So you find a problem, you find people who want to pay for a solution and then you begin to list the top 10 ways to solve the problem. Let me give you the hustle right here. You don’t even have to have the 10 ways. You can interview other people who have already solved the problem. And by you interviewing others and you just writing one or two pages that could become your first book and so what’s your excuse. You have none. I want you to start today. This program is worthless if you simply hear it and don’t take action. All power lies in Action! So take it today! Bro. Bedford: You mentioned your boot camp. I was on one of your teleconferences and I’m amazed when people come from there and after your 2 day intensive training how they start businesses. I believe your specialty and what I love about you is that you are able to take a person with an idea and help them create a concept that they can start for under $500. Now a lot of our people think that you need millions and millions of dollars just to get started in business. Could you expound on some of the concepts on how you can start a business for under $500? Andrew Morrison: To me it is amazing that people who are new to business all say, “You know what Andrew it takes lots of money to start a business.” People who have made money know it doesn’t take any money to make any money. What it takes to make money is for you to establish—here is a word everyone should write down, it is important to folks to get a pen and paper handy, my clients call me Andrew “do you have a pen” Morrison. Before I begin to spit some knowledge I’m going to say, “do you have a pen”, because I’m going to spit some knowledge. Don’t ask me what I just said because you missed it, so grab a pen when I’m speaking. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 55 -


Pardon me for my arrogance; let me move forward. Here is the word I want all of our listeners to write down. All money transfers hands for one reason and one reason only. It is based on this one word. I want you to get this one word. Once you understand this word then building a business for less than $500 dollars becomes a cakewalk. Here is the word. Are you ready for it? The word is TRUST Trust!

Trust!

Trust!

Once you begin to establish trust you can begin to establish community then you can begin to establish commerce. This is how you can begin to build any business for under $500. Here is a powerful word too, it is called deposits. So if you have no money---I’m doing some work right now in the New York City housing projects, because I’ve discovered that nobody is going back into the hood and educating our people on how to get it going. How to keep your same hustle but change your product. Lets change your product to a legitimate product. Here’s what you can do. You can simply do an event. You can simply do a bus ride. How much does it cost to rent a 40-50-passenger bus for 3 or 4 hours? It cost you roughly say $1200. So I’m saying to you, your cost to rent that bus if you divide it by 50 people or so is going to be less than $50 a person. You can then sell that same opportunity to other people and make a big profit. So what I’m saying to you is that by getting deposits, getting folks to trust you and pay you in advance, you work the numbers out, you’re able to make a profit without putting any money out on your own.


www.brobedford.com

- 56 -


Take a look at your passion. If your passion is childcare, well let’s start a childcare business. If your passion is tutoring lets get it going when it comes to tutoring. Whatever your passion is, whatever your calling is lets begin to connect the dots and let’s create a business model around that calling. If you like to design fashion, design clothing; lets have a fashion show. Better yet lets get some young kids in the community to model your fashions and you get your friends to video tape that fashion show. Guess what all of the grandparents are going to be in there saying, “hey that’s my baby up there in the fashion show” and the DVD, you get to sell that as well. And you can sell tickets to get into your fashion show. All I’m subscribing will cost you less than $500 dollars to get it started. So what’s your excuse? What’s really holding you back? Bro. Bedford: Great information. Now you mentioned something there. I did an interview with Randal Pinkett, the winner of the Apprentice season 4 and we had this discussion about how we do not utilize technology and up to date business models. I know you’re a master at Internet Marketing. When I mention Internet Marketing to Black People I get a strange look because we simply do not know what Internet Marketing is. Can you explain what Internet Marketing is and how viable that is for us as an opportunity today? Andrew Morrison: My background is electrical engineering I worked for IBM Vision Equipment Corporation designing risk-based microprocessors. OK So I tell people I’m what you call a recovering engineer. What happen is those of us who are in the know with technology we get so caught up with the lingo and the terms and making it faster and better we’re not properly communicating the value proposition to the end user. And that is why I like to use the word toys. Lets just look at a toy. Lets just look at something that will help you either make money or save money. So when someone comes to you with a technology that helps you—see basically anytime you are faced with a task. Get in the habit of either; ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 57 -


1) Automating the task 2) Delegating the task 3) Or eliminating the task And technology helps you to automate the task. So I want to suggest to you that you can begin to automate your process of capturing clients by having a blog. Now you don’t even need to know what a blog is. All I am simply saying to you is there is some technology online that will help to increase traffic to your website. All the search engines like a blog. A blog is basically a digital diary. You go online every single week, once a month, or even twice a month. You’re simply typing up your comments, what’s next for you, what’s been happening in your business and put some photographs up there as well. So by having that blog and by having certain key words and connecting that blog to your website that will help to increase more traffic. Also, what I want you to do too is this; on your website you should sign-up with google ad sense. What is google ad sense? Basically that is a way for you to have certain ads from google on your own web page. Anytime someone clicks on that URL on your web page guess what happens? Google will send you money. So there are ways for you to begin to make money with no money by simply adding a blog and by using google ad sense. What you want to do is not get caught up in all of these terms and concepts. All I want you to know is-- listen you know what “ I heard from Bro. Bedford and Andrew Morrison that there is opportunity to make money online using Google ad sense and also having a blog. You need to simply know its important and its possible. Once you know that then you’ll begin to build a team. I don’t want you going out trying to learn all of these new things. Stop that! Build a team. Find other people who know what that is and begin to partner with them to make it happen.


www.brobedford.com

- 58 -


Bro. Bedford: You know you are a dynamo. You have so many things going on. I know that you are speaking in several places and you are constantly coaching and mentoring and tutoring. How do you manage your time? I find that that is one of the major obstacles for a black entrepreneur starting up is that there is an issue with managing their time. What would you advise as a good method to managing your time? Andrew Morrison: That is a great question. I’m going to share with you a secret. I’m kind of hesitant to share this with everyone but I will go ahead and put this out there to everybody. People think I’m really busy. People call up “ Andrew I know you’re really busy but I gotta ask you”. People call me up like they are in a rush. They don’t realize that I have got large blocks of time where I am not doing nothing. I’m doing absolutely nothing. All day Tuesday, all day Wednesday, all day…I have nothing to do. I have carved out these large blocks of time where I have nothing to do. Alright here is a concept I want you to understand its called the “theory of constraints” its an engineering concept. The “theory of constraints” suggests this that if you constrain a system you’ll optimize it. If you have less time to make money during the week you will actually make more money. And so here is an exercise I’d like everyone to do. Imagine you only had one day a week to make your money. Imagine you only had two days a week to make your money. What would you do during that one day or during those two days? So I’ve got 2 days a week where I make my money and the rest of the time I can chill. Here is a big breakthrough for everyone. I want you to begin to work from your lifestyle; don’t work from your business. Stop trying to build a business. I don’t know what that term means, building a business. I know how to live a life.


www.brobedford.com

- 59 -


So I design a business that supports my lifestyle. If I want to wake up at noon, I wake up at noon. If I want to work 2 days out of the week I work 2 days out of the week. So set a goal. You want to put $100 grand in your pocket, $50 grand in your pocket, take Fridays off and vacation 3 months out of the year then build a business around that lifestyle. So forget about all of these different time management techniques. If you don’t have a purpose, a plan, and a strategy around your lifestyle then you’ll go from technique to technique always being frustrated. So first keep your end goal in mind it’s about living your highest and best life. Bro. Bedford: I have a question that I always ask all of the interviewees that I have interviewed, because I think this is key. Many people think that there is this magical solution to becoming a successful entrepreneur. I always ask what trait or characteristic do you think a brother or sister must have if they are to achieve success as an entrepreneur? Andrew Morrison: That is a great question. It kind of goes back to if entrepreneurs are born or if they are made. I think this term entrepreneurship has too many positive labels. I’m going to put it to you that way. OK! Because those of us who are really in this daily grind we know what it is really like. People say entrepreneurship, but this is what I know. I know people who have lost their houses. I know people who have lost their marriages. I know people who have committed suicide over this thing about being an entrepreneur. When people tell me “Andrew I just started my own business I’m an Entrepreneur” my first words to them is my condolences to you. I’m not quit sure if you know what you are really about to get into. I predict.

I predict.

Here is my prediction. That one-day entrepreneurship will be classified as a form of mental illness. Both Laugh


www.brobedford.com

- 60 -


It needs to be. As an entrepreneur we hear things that people don’t hear. We see things that people don’t see. That’s mental illness as far as I’m concerned. So I want you to separate an entrepreneur from a manager. Some of you are good managers. Some of you are good once something is built you can then manage a process. Understand your role. I’m a creator. I hear things that people don’t hear. So I’m out there creating. That’s pure entrepreneurship. Don’t try to be in my lane. I want you to understand your own unique gifts, your own unique calling. Some of you are trying to go out here and be an entrepreneur when you’re really called to be a manager. Some of you need to…most of you need to do this...go out there and get yourself a franchise. That’s what you need to do. Don’t start from scratch, start from an existing proven model and you manage that model. So we need to separate entrepreneurs from managers. Bro. Bedford: Profound. Interesting that you mentioned some of those things because when we see individuals such as yourself and when we read your Bio and talk about your successes sometimes people could perceive that you didn’t have any hurdles or obstacles or challenges when you began. You mentioned some of the things you witnessed from what other entrepreneurs have gone through. I know from my own experience that many of those types of things are an absolute fact. By facing those same challenges and hurdles how did you overcome them? Andrew Morrison: The most powerful concept that I have learned…man if I could wave a magic wand and all of our listeners began to develop a new habit. Because basically its all about your habits. What do you do on a habitual basis? If I could help everyone to begin their day by doing nothing. If I could help people begin their day in silence. You see the whole world is impacting you. The whole world is trying to tell you what to think, how to act and also what to do. I’m telling you that the reason that you are stuck right now. The reason why somebody can’t find a way out is because they have not become still.


www.brobedford.com

- 61 -


I want everyone to begin to have a practice. A daily practice of stillness. Give yourself 15 minutes in the morning, first thing in the morning. 15 minutes before you go to bed just sit there and do nothing. Sit there and be still and remember your calling, remember who you are. You can face any tragedy, any obstacle in life if you know who you are. Many folks go through life disconnected from the Divine Power Source. You don’t know who you are. You don’t know whose you are, nor do you know who sent you. And so when you see someone doing things, “quote, unquote”. It’s because they know why they are sent. And whatever obstacle they face in life its simply a stepping stone, it’s not a stumbling block. I’ve trained thousands of people and I’ve always wondered why some people get the training and other people don’t. It’s really because those who get it, I help them to remember who they are. Once you know who you are then you step into your greatness and you begin to do what you were sent to do. Everyone listening to me right now, you were sent to do something. I don’t want you to find it. Don’t search it out. Just simply remember it. Once you move back to remembrance…man you are unstoppable. There are two things you need in this life. Number one is Power. You need power to do what you were sent here to do. Number two is Wisdom. Once you have the wisdom, the insight, the intuition to do what you are suppose to do and the power to do what you were sent to do…Who can stop you? What can be held against you? Nothing And that’s when you begin to move to a place of Knowing, Understanding and also Acting. Bro. Bedford: That is great that is so great. You’ve given us so much already to digest. What’s next for Andrew Morrison? What’s coming up with you? Andrew Morrison: Man, I’m in the same boat that everybody else is in. I ask my clients what’s next? I ask myself what’s next? What’s next for you is this how can you maximize the moment? How can you take all of your gifts, all your skills and take it to a whole new level? How can you begin to expand your territory?


www.brobedford.com

- 62 -


I’ve been struggling with that question myself. Let me rephrase that, I haven’t been struggling with that I’ve been listening for the answer. So stop struggling over the question and begin to listen for the answer. Open yourself up for higher thoughts, for Divine Guidance. Let me share with everybody. I don’t mind admitting this to everyone. I just discovered television, I just discovered it. Something clicked in my head that said, “Andrew you need to be on television, you need to have a TV show, you need to begin to share these concepts in an engaging and fun way that helps people unlock there own greatness and show them a step by step plan on how to make it happen”. And so what’s next for me is television. I’m about to step into uncharted territories. But guess what? I know the process. The process is first you declare an intention. I’m telling the whole world lookout. I’m going to be on television. I’m not worried about being on TBS or BET. I can start on you tube. The technology is there. I can have my own TV show tomorrow. You can have your own show tomorrow. So what’s really holding you back? You need to admit that. What’s been holding me back? I don’t mind telling you. I get all these accolades but there is still this person inside of me. There is still this High School student inside of me that says, “Andrew, you’re not ready. Remember how you messed up that speech. Remember all of the mistakes you’ve made in your career. Who’s going to believe you?” What you need to do is to begin to speak to that critic inside of you. The critic inside of you is trying to remind you of things you need to improve upon. How you can get better and help others get better as well. So by speaking to my own internal critic I am now about to step out and TV, Lookout! Bro. Bedford: I hear you. I’m looking forward to that. Where can we see you next and get more information from you and see what’s going on with you on a daily or regular basis? Andrew

Morrison: Your

best

bet

is

to

visit

my

website

www.smallbusinesscamp.com Join my email list and you’ll be able to hear about my upcoming events. I will be speaking at George Fraser’s Powernetworking event in Atlanta at the end of June. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 63 -


I will be speaking at the Essence Magazine Women Who are Shaping the World Conference. I will be speaking on behalf of several other organizations that are coming up. By visiting my website www.smallbusinesscamp.com you’ll be able to access that information. Bro. Bedford: Well we are looking forward to seeing you at some of these places and I’m hoping we can get you here in Detroit. There needs to be more entrepreneurship going on here. With all of the layoffs and everything that’s going on with the automotive industry some are not looking at entrepreneurship and building our own businesses as a viable career option. So I’m looking forward to trying to get you here soon. Andrew Morrison: I want to come to Detroit and put those folks on fire. On fire with possibilities. The greatest therapeutic formula on the planet is Hope. The folks in Detroit simply need hope and they need hope by someone showing them the possibilities. So it would be my honor to go out there and show folks possibilities and give them a step-by-step plan to make it happen. It’s all about making it happen. Let’s make it happen. Bro. Bedford: We are going to make it happen. I look forward to it real soon. Again thank you Mr. Morrison for your time. I look forward to speaking with you real, real soon Andrew Morrison: Outstanding! Bro. Bedford: Thank you Andrew Morrison: Thank you


www.brobedford.com

- 64 -


Conversation with Ephren Taylor Bro. Bedford: This is Bro. Bedford from How To Be A Black Entrepreneur.com and joining me today in conversation is Mr. Ephren Taylor. At 24 years old this gentleman has had more business success than most people have in a lifetime. He is already “a history maker” by being the youngest African-American CEO of a publicly traded company, City Capital Corporation; a business development firm focusing on making loans and equity investments in developing businesses, he owns three other businesses and his empire oversees over $250 million in assets and continues to grow. This hip-hop generation born self-made multi-millionaire started his historical journey at the age of 12 by rejecting the misconception that young people are powerless. Like most young men, Ephren enjoyed playing videogames; however his parents lacked the financial means to purchase them. So he began making videogames and later formulated a company to house his operation. By the age of 16, Ephren owned his second company, which became a multimillion-dollar enterprise GoFerretGo.com. This innovative website connected high school and college students with employers. Ephren is still making connections-he connects individuals, corporations, and churches to wealth. With a diverse client list from Wall Street to South Central, including stock market day traders to Hip-Hop icons such as Snoop Dogg. Beyond his unprecedented accomplishment in the technology field and the financial industry, Ephren is an ordained minister, an author, public speaker and real estate mastermind. In his ministerial duties, Ephren talks about vision driven wealth and regularly consults with churches to help them plan and finance projects that further their mission. Ephren has authored five e-books and is currently penning his first bookstore release, which is a self-empowerment book. As a speaker, Ephren connects with audiences with an energetic, humble, and interactive style that inspires audiences to expand their visions and move to action. In the real estate arena, Ephren is highly respected for his willingness to invest in community redevelopment projects such as leading the effort in the Kansas City Historic Jazz revitalization. A true wealth engineer, Ephren is becoming for the hip-hop community what Warren Buffet is for baby boomers, the premier financial expert for a generation. Thank you for joining us today Mr. Ephren Taylor ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 65 -


Ephren Taylor: Hey how is it going! I’m happy to be here. Bro. Bedford: I know you’re pressed for time with all of the things you have going on, I’m truly honored that you were able to give me a few moments of your time this morning. Ephren Taylor: No problem Bro. Bedford: Let’s get started. I know we’ve already touched on some things, but how did all of this start for you? Ephren Taylor: Oh! The beginning of it, well in the galaxy far, far away (laugh) long, long time ago. It all begins actually at home, how you’re conditioned at home. The things your parents instill in you and the home environment I believe plays a crucial part in a child’s long-term success. Just for the remainder of their life.

For me it started in middle school, because I had a need. I liked to play video games, like most kids and so I bought a book, taught myself how to program computers, started working on the school computers. At the time we didn’t own a computer in our house. Just using what resources I had. My parents just weren’t going to buy $49-$50 video games like all of the other kids on the block, so I was kind of left out a lot of the times. My mom said, “ Why don’t you go and figure out how to make your own game.” I think she was being sarcastic, but low and behold there was a book at the bookstore on how to do just that. So I read it, created a video game and started selling copies of it to the kids at school. I did pretty well. Later on I got to the 8th grade I was still into computers, programming, still doing web sites. This is when I realized that I needed to become an entrepreneur. I had built this web site and got paid about $3,800, which I thought I was a rich person. $3,800 bucks a couple of years ago in the 8 th grade, I was the man. My parents are questioning me about where all this money is coming from. (Laugh) But at that time I realized I was on the wrong side of the equation especially contracting my self out to working for other people. Because the guys I built this ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 66 -


website for, I did all the creation of it, the design, all of that, these guys made $800,000 off of my creation. I was like; you know what I’m never going to get to millionaire status being behind this computer screen. At that moment in time, I started reading different magazines, Business 2.0, Inc. Magazine, Forbes, Fortune trying to figure out what was the secret to all of these mega-billionaires and how they were doing it. Because I wanted to be like them. I had forgotten about wanting to be an athlete, actor, or singer because I was realizing the real money was on the other side of the equation. Through my research I figured let me try this Internet boom. So when I was in high school I created a company that connected high school and college students with employment online. Sort of like Monster.com Through doing that and through all the trials, I had no idea how to run a company, so I just kept reading books how to write a business plan, how to market your company. We started with $250 each, my partner and me, we had $500 total. We grew that company to about $3 and a half million dollars. We rose about 3 quarters of a million dollars of capital while we were in high school. It took us a long time to raise that money, because we applied to venture capitalist after venture capitalist and got denied, denied, denied, denied. Probably over about 65 to 70 times, until finally some Angel investors believed in us, took us aside and it kind of worked from there. I had 13 employees, my high school history teacher left work to come work for us. I had a very, very interesting time in high school. I left there, did my IT consulting company, working with insurance and pharmaceutical companies helping them to automate their processes and got burnt out working 80 hrs a week being a very young 18, 19 years old. So I sold my piece back and actually retired at 19. I was done. I thought I was out. (Laugh) ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 67 -


I got married and that changed real quick. I was pretty much motivated to do something more productive with my life. So I came out basically with a couple of church members buying houses, selling them back and forth just to raise money for the church. And then we grew that little concept into a one house, two houses and got so good at it we started doing hundreds of houses. So now we oversee probably almost $200 million plus in real estate development. On the gas projects that we’re invested in, one of the companies we bought, they did $40 million dollars last year. We just took them out a couple of weeks ago and wrapped them into our fold. So right now we are just pretty much on an acquisition target. Buying out other companies flying all across the world trying to do it, so I guess living the other side of the entrepreneurial thing. Really trying to grow a substantial business. But our main purpose at City Capital is to benefit the communities that we serve in through economic empowerment and we’re dead set on making that happen through the institutions we work in. A lot of bankers won’t work with us because of the neighborhoods we work in or the people that we choose to serve and work with. So for us it’s about taking a corporate stand and really as a corporate citizen almost taking a lot of social and cultural and economic issues in this country almost onto our own hands and dealing with it in a successful manner. Bro Bedford: Since you had phenomenal success early as an entrepreneur, can you describe some of the obstacles that you faced that might not be apparent? Ephran Taylor: Hmm where do we start? I was born in Mississippi, that’s one right there. (Laugh) Young African-American male trying to do business as a teenager. We were an odd couple especially my high school venture. My business partner, he was a white read headed Jewish kid and I was a black Christian kid. We were both not exactly the two people who normally tried to be successful in business. (Laughing) ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 68 -


There was a ton of obstacles. One is all of the capital companies, you know we weren’t old enough to get a loan, we couldn’t get venture capital backing because we didn’t have management experience. I mean realistically, your seventeen years old how much management experience are you going to have. The only thing I know how to manage is maybe building a computer at the time. Our main thing that really made us successful was is that we had mentors. All my life I have always had a business mentor which has helped me to avoid a lot of the business pitfalls that a lot of individuals make. And also, when my mentor opened the door it was like a third party endorsement or somebody opening the door for you. So his Rolodex became my Rolodex. His Rolodex with an endorsement was great. That helped me to make a lot of success earlier on. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs jump into it kind of on their own with the Superman Syndrome not realizing just because you have a vision for something doesn’t mean you should be the one implementing it. What I tell a lot of people is that you may come up with a great concept but that doesn’t mean you should be the CEO of the company or should be running it. A lot of times as entrepreneurs one of the biggest things is stepping aside. But as far as obstacles, I mean we’ve had obstacle after obstacle. Even unto this very day banks will not go with us because we are in areas that are considered too urban. You know exactly what that means. A lot of times we have to come up with creative solutions to deal with it. I’m thankful for the obstacles we had because if it were easy something would be terribly wrong. You wouldn’t really appreciate the successes you have later on. Even when we took the company public, being one of the youngest African Americans to do it and one of the few out of the 10 publicly traded companies controlled by African Americans There is a lot of difficulty dealing with Wall Street. It’s kind of like you have to prove yourself time and time again, but as people always put up roadblocks we’ll ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 69 -


find a back door way or another way to actually do it and we’ll just keep overcoming and keep moving. For us the battle is just beginning. We look forward to many more obstacles or opportunities as we choose to call them at City capital. Bro. Bedford: Is it more pressure having a publicly traded company vs. a privately held company? Since you’ve been on both sides. Ephren Taylor: Oh my goodness the pressure! (Both Laugh) I would say in a private company you really just have one business to focus on and work with and you can do it from there. But in the public sector I answer to everybody. I got the SEC on one side; I got an Auditor on the other side. I got people that are short sellers and predatory investors on another side then I got my regular shareholders that I got to deal with on another side. And then after I deal with all of that, then I can work on the business. (Both Laugh) On the public side (oh man) I tell people it’s not for the faint of heart and it’s definitely not for light pockets. Everything is expensive, I mean you go from paying your accountant maybe $1,000 a month if you’re a pretty large business to maybe spending, a comptroller runs you $60,000-$70,000 just internally and then your auditors hit you for $30-$40,000 every quarter. That’s just accounting. No matter what happens. And the bigger you get the more expensive it becomes. I mean it’s a number of things that change drastically with a publicly traded company. However, the benefits are access to capital. I mean there is a lot of it out there, but you have to realize very early on that all capital is not good capital. Right now I have term sheets for 50 or 100 million dollars on my desk, but because they are predatory type capital, you can’t exactly take it on. There are a number of things that you have to watch for as a public company. There’s a lot more work and a lot more vigilance that you have to have on managing all the pieces to it. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 70 -


Bro Bedford: Sure, Now you mentioned raising capital several times. One of the main questions that I get from my subscribers is how do I get capital to do this or to do that, where should I go for start up capital? What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs that are seeking to raise capital for their ventures? Ephren Taylor: You know what the hard thing for me to realize was; being an entrepreneur for the last 12 years, I haven’t been at it that long, but I was fortunate enough to realize, especially in the last 2 to 3 years that it is actually more work to raise a thousand dollars or a hundred thousand than it is to raise a million dollars. A lot of entrepreneurs don’t believe me until I take them in and show them how much easier it is. And one of my mentors, who is now one of my directors was telling me that it is more capital out there then there are deals. And in talking to Wall Street bankers and talking to these hedge funds their main problem is that they have too much money and they can’t deploy it fast enough. I’ve talked to hedge funds and the small one’s are sitting on almost a billion dollars and they can only move a couple hundred million of it. They can’t figure out other places to put it. So, if you are an entrepreneur and you have a great concept and great idea and you actually have a decent plan. Right now my advice is no one reads business plans any more they just read executive summaries and the numbers are together and you can prove the concept. And what I mean by that is, let’s use the T-shirt business as an example, you may have a great design but if you haven’t sold one t-shirt no one is going to fund you. I can tell you that now. If you don’t have any clients and if you can’t prove that somebody wants your service or need or that there is a growth market for it. Investors are looking to make 100% to 200% of their money. You have to be able to deliver something of that nature and as I was alluding to before you may not be the best person to execute it. So start searching around for whom you would like if they could to run your company. Start getting with them and talking with them preliminarily and maybe getting them lined up and saying, hey, if I get this money can you run the company for me and take it to the next level? ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 71 -


The sooner you realize what you don’t know and finding people who do know what you don’t know the better off you will be. Really raising capital takes persistence and it takes opening up your eyes. Don’t run to the bank it ain’t gonna happen. Bro. Bedford: Right! Ephren Taylor: They’re way to conservative. There are angel investor networks; there are clubs that meet every month. Be prepared to travel. The city that you are in may not be the best place to raise the capital. There were a lot of times I had to fly out to Los Angeles or go to New York or go out to the east coast. I very rarely, matter of fact almost a never raised capital in my hometown of Kansas City. Bro. Bedford: Wow! Ephren Taylor: It’s always been from the outside. And so you have to be prepared to actually make that move and go where the money is and make the pitch and be prepared to be told no probably 100 times before you get a yes. But when you are told no ask why they said no. Either it’s going to be because you didn’t have enough management experience or the concept is not solid and if it’s not solid go back and work on it. Go find other experts and run it by some people maybe it’s not solid and you need to hang it up. But go through that process and look forward to the no, because it is going to keep leading you to improving the plan and getting to that yes. Bro Bedford: There is something that you mentioned when you said that maybe you will have to go back and revisit your plan or your idea, I have with my subscriber base a lot of new budding entrepreneurs and I always want to give them the realities of entrepreneurship, so I always ask what is the first step that you would advise someone just starting in the arena of entrepreneurship what is the first step that they must take if they want to become successful as an entrepreneur? Ephren Taylor: First step is called the reality check. Are you truly ready to be an entrepreneur? And, so many people have this misconception, this is one of things that we are teaching at my entrepreneurial Institute at Cheney, is that ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 72 -


you’ve got to really have the right mind set of the sacrifice that is going to be required of you. Its not I come out with this business plan and somebody’s going to give me a ton of money and then oh I’m rich. There is going to be a lot of sleepless nights. There are going to be family members that are upset with you. If you are not willing to put it all on the line. Don’t do it. If you are not willing to put your house up and willing to be homeless, don’t do it. If you are not willing to lose it all and start all over again I don’t recommend you doing it, because there is another entrepreneur who is willing to risk it all. That risk tolerance, the ability to make decisions and actually stick with it weather the consequences are good or not. Those are some of the key things to look at. I’m not saying to go out there and be reckless, but you really have to be willing to sacrifice, it’s almost like a military tactic sometimes, because the business world is a harsh reality. But my advice is really just mentally checking to see. Ask yourself do I have an entrepreneurial personality? Can I sell? And if you don’t have sales skills go out and take a couple of sales training seminars and learn to present, learn to sell all before you try to jump into an actual business. Get the main core skill sets and competencies. See what your vision is, put it in plan, run it by a couple of people first and then go find some provisions to be able to make it happen and prove the concept. Once you prove the concept it becomes pretty easy to actually raise the money and take it to the next level. Bro. Bedford: Proving the concept first is of great importance though. Ephren Taylor: Start small. Everybody has the big idea. Well, if you got a big idea find one piece to work on and then get that done first and then move on to the next piece. Bro. Bedford: Almost like a proto type. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 73 -


Ephren Taylor: Absolutely. Bro Bedford: Okay. Great! I know that we getting close to you having to run. What trait or characteristics do you think a person must have if they are to achieve success as an entrepreneur? Ephren Taylor: Characteristic? Oh Man, one they have to be very persistence. They have to be able to think on their feet. Resourcefulness is something that I advocate, being able to find resources, locate those resources, find individuals, and acquire talent. That’s going to require a little hustle mentality. And definitely presentation and sales skills you’ve got to have them. You’ve got to be able to sell clients, be able to sell investors, be able to sell the market. You’ve got to be a sales person. Entrepreneurs who are sales people are usually the most successful ones. Bro. Bedford: Yes sir. Now are your 5 E-books still available? Ephren Taylor: No, we pulled them off the market. I recently signed with Wiley Publishing and the first main bookstore release actually comes out November. Which is a lot of the things we talked about today. I do caution people that it will not be a fluffy; fluff motivation book that everybody can be an entrepreneur and everybody can be successful. It will actually be the real deal. Nothing drives me crazier more than all these motivational guru books that say everybody can do it if you follow these 5 steps. Bro. Bedford: Right, Right! (Both Laugh) Ephren Taylor: That’s not how it happens. All you’re doing is setting yourself up for disappointment. They are sending people out there definitely unprepared to really be able to make it happen. And so our main thing is really to talk a lot about what I had to go through, what I did as well as a lot of my team members had to go through for us to be able to make it happen. Bro. Bedford: Okay, are you still currently on your Wealth tour? Ephren Taylor: Yes! We are on our Urban Wealth Tour. Matter a fact I leave tomorrow morning heading to Battle Creek, Michigan. Actually me, Jeff Johnson known as Cousin Jeff from BET, social activist and economics activist teaming up to deal with some of the issues, a lot of issues that’s in our community. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 74 -


So we are looking forward to those we are going to Washington D.C. in the month of June as well as Las Vegas during 100 Black Men National C onvention. So, there’s a lot going on and your readers can find out more about that at www.urbanwealth.net and they also can find out more about our company at www.CityCapCorp.Com. Bro. Bedford: www.CityCapCorp.com Ephren Taylor: Yes sir Bro Bedford: Are there any other closing remarks you have for the budding or successful entrepreneurs? Ephren Taylor: I’ll pretty much say the main thing that I tell everybody is to be extremely persistent and don’t get discouraged at the first round of no’s. It took me 18 months to really build my first successful venture in High School It required a lot of sacrifice and a lot of no’s, I was being told no everyday, but through that it finally actually happened. Sometimes it requires being able to see what others can’t see and you have to have a passion for what ever you do. If you don’t have the passion you’re ultimately going to fail or lose involvement or desire for it. So if you’ve got the passion and persistence you should be able to make anything happen in this world. Bro Bedford: Great! I’m going to try to get down to Battle Creek to see you tomorrow. I wanted to see you when you where here in Detroit you where here and it happened to be at the exact same time as the NAACP Freedom Fund Weekend Dinner. I was actively participating in that and I wanted to get over and see you. I may try and make my way to Battle Creek to meet you and at least shake your hand. Ephren Taylor: Absolutely! Look forward to meeting you. Bro Bedford: Alright Thank You Mr. Taylor for this time God Bless and I hope to talk to you very, very soon. Eprhen Taylor: All right Thank You.


www.brobedford.com

- 75 -


Conversation with Les Brown Bro. Bedford (BB): This is Bro. Bedford from HTBABE.com and I am just overjoyed with who is joining me in conversation today. This gentleman has risen into international prominence by delivering a high-energy message that tells people, how to shake off mediocrity and live up to their greatness. His message is not one of theory; here is a man that actually practices what he preaches. He is an internationally recognized speaker. He is also the author of the highly acclaimed and successful books, Live Your Dreams and the newly released, It’s Not Over Until You Win . He hosted a national syndicated talk show, which focused on solutions rather than problems. He’s one of the worlds leading authorities in understanding and stimulating human potential. I can go on and on about business accolades and awards this gentleman has received throughout the years. He’s the one and only, world-renowned speaker, successful entrepreneur, best selling author, radio and television celebrity, Mr. Les Brown. Thank you Mr. Les Brown for joining us today. Les Brown: Well thank you so much and you proved that $5 can go a long way. I’m going to give you $6 next time for that build up all right. Bro Bedford: (Laughter). Thank you Mr. Brown. I am truly honored. You are truly one of my heroes as it relates to successful black entrepreneurs. As I started compiling these interviews, I knew that this series would not be complete without your voice being added to this series. So I thank you once again. I am truly honored. Les Brown: Well thank you so much for having me, sir. Bro. Bedford: Yes sir. Well let’s get started because I do know you’re a very busy man. How did you get your start as an entrepreneur? Les Brown: Well we all know that it all starts with a decision that we want to be our own boss and it’s something what want to do, we want to do it our way and go into the market place and test ourselves with our products, our services or our information. I decided that speaking was an arena that I love the business of it, I love changing people’s lives and I wanted to take on the challenge of going into this industry where I had no experience and no prior knowledge of what it would take to do it, something that was very challenging and establish myself as the intellectual resource for corporate America. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 76 -


This was twenty (20) years ago. There was no such thing as an African American motivational speaker, Black motivational speaker. So at that time to want to get a $1K per hour to train white corporate America, how to achieve their corporate goals was just not done. It was not something that most people had envisioned and that’s what I set out to do. In our community, if you have a desire to help people, because of our conditioning and because of past experiences in our history, we chose to become ministers. I think that’s why we have more churches and ministers than we have businesses because that was the first avenue of expression. But this was some area that had never been carved out. A brother motivating corporate America, so I like that kind of stuff. (Laughter) I was gonna motivate the man. Bro Bedford: (laughter) Les Brown: (Laughter); so it was fun and it has been fun. It’s been a great ride for twenty years and I’ve earned just over $52 million dollars and it’s been a fascinating, enlightening and empowering experience. Bro Bedford: Yes sir. I’m sure just as you mentioned going into to white corporate American and motivating them, I’m sure that was a serious challenge. But I want to ask you what where some of the major challenges that you faced or that you had to overcome in your beginning stages as an entrepreneur? Les Brown: Well one of the first things I had to do was I had to sale myself on that. One of the things that I would suggest is, are you open to some coaching? Bro Bedford: Yes. Absolutely. Les Brown: One of the things I suggest that you do is drop the title “Black Entrepreneur”. Bro Bedford: Uh hum! Les Brown: I had to begin to face something that my mentor said to me. He said, “Les, you’re more than you’re paint job and if you see yourself as a black entrepreneur, then they will see you how you see yourself and how you see yourself connects with the history they have about black entrepreneurs. You have got to position yourselves as you are the one and your message is for the planet and knowledge and your expertise and your level competence and your confidence as you bring it forth, that they’ll forgot about your paint job ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 77 -


based upon your content and your character and deal with you because you can impact their bottom line. You’ve got to out work them and out think them but there cannot be in your thinking “I would like for you to do business with me because I’m a black entrepreneur and so on”. Because that doesn’t work at the level you want to go at. I don’t speak at black history time and Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, I speak all year long. And so, I get $25K an hour speaking domestically to corporations and $55K internationally. And so at that level, doing that three to four times per week and having the reputation for specializing and custom designing a presentation to meet the needs of corporations. Going up against major firms not having their PowerPoint presentations, not having the MBA’s and PhD’s and competing against them on a yearly basis. Usually, if they see my name on a roster for a contract they usually come and talk to me about sub-contracting with them because they know I most certainly will get it. And so, it’s about one, how you vision yourself, having a larger vision of yourself beyond your paint job and seeing yourself as a force to be reckoned with on the planet, that’s number one. And two, holding yourself to a higher standard that they don’t because in order for us to be considered average we have to be extraordinary. We have to be at least five to ten times better we can’t just be as good as; we have to be better than. And so, the whole regiment that I went through to train myself so that 1) The fact that I happen to be black, 2) The fact that I never worked for a major corporation, 3) That fact that I don’t have any major college education, 4) That I had no track record of achievement in this area, 5) I had no recommendations and had no colleague or anyone to point me out and say, he can do this and was asking for a $1K an hour to motivate a corporations to do something I had never done and ask them to fill out an evaluation form to tell me what they want me to tell them. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 78 -


Now to me when I call the psychic hotline and they ask me what’s my name, I say well you tell me. (Laughter) so to me when I look back, I said Aretha Franklin used to have a song called “How I Got Over” and sometimes I look back and I wonder, how I got over? (Laughter) I can sing that song! Yes! And let me share something with you. Bro. Bedford: Sure. Les Brown: As entrepreneurs, there are five things that are indispensable for making it in the global economy: 1. Is your mindset. I cannot tell you how important that is that you work on that on a regular basis. Your mindset is crucial when you are in business. And just to deal with the emotional, stressful, unpredictable, volatile environment that you just don’t know what’s going to happen from one minute to the next. Bro. Bedford: Uh hum! Les Brown: There are many people between you and the money and people you have to depend upon. I used to be insulted, when I would hear years ago, white people, when they were asked about why don’t you have blacks working and they would say well send me some that are qualified and want to work. I used to be insulted by that, now, you ask me (laughter) aren’t you going to hire some brothers and sisters, send me some who are qualified and who want to work. I’m here to tell you, it’s amazing how people just want a paycheck. They don’t want to work. In the twenty years I’ve been doing this, I’ve earned just over $52 million dollars. That’s crumbs! Had I not been narrow in my thinking; I should have selected people, not based upon their paint job to formulate my team. I should have selected them based upon their competence and their being in the business Bro. Bedford: Uh hum! Les Brown: and partnering with me and growing with me because I out grew the team I had for a long time. And now at this stage in my life, I’m an old man now, I’m sixty-three. The fact that I can do a 140 push-ups non-stop does not erase the fact that I’m old now. I forget that because of my energy and because of what I’m doing now. I’m still excited about what I’m doing because this is not work. The only part that’s work is getting ready to go to the airport. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 79 -


That’s what I charge them for. The speech is free, I charge them $25K to go through the airport and get another prostate examination. That’s what I charge them for. (Laughter). Bro. Bedford: Right, yes sir. Les Brown: But as I’m looking at my life, I’ll give you case-in-point; usually in the month of December, the speaking business and training business usually is very slow. It’s around Christmas time and so you might do $30-40K dollars max that month and that’s a good month. Bro. Bedford: Uh hum! Les Brown: In an hour and a half because of the strategic relationship and as a result of the strategic relationship, it gave me access to a market that I did not have access to. I learned the process of how to deliver a sales presentation that I did not know before then. In an hour and a half, I earned $410K dollars Bro. Bedford: Uh hum. Les Brown: Okay. What was changed? Same person, twenty years in the industry a different relationship, a different team that the difference of being in the business and the business being in you that introduced me to strategies and a process that I was not aware of because I got on this track twenty years ago and one of the things that’s very important is: 1. Working on your mindset 2. Making sure you stay ahead of the game in terms of your learning and being a master in this arena 3. Surrounding yourself with people who are continuously involved with growing and staying ahead of you. That’s the mistake that I made. I didn’t do that. Now I understand what when I was on a board with T.D. Jakes. He came into the room and he said, good evening it’s so great to see all of you hear. Let me put this out here, as soon as I know as much as the rest of you around this table, you’re fired and I’ll get another group. That was a strong statement. People laughed nervously, but now I understand that you have to have people around you that know more than you. Bro Bedford: Uh hum. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 80 -


Les Brown: And as soon as you know as much as they know, you no longer need them. I had people around me where I knew more than them. It was Dennis Kimbro, who wrote “Think And Grow Rich, a Black Choice” , he said if you’re the smartest one in your group you need to get a new group. Bro. Bedford: Uh hum. Les Brown: So I was the smartest one in my group and I did not know what a liability that was to me business wise. You have to have people who know more than you and who are continuously growing, staying ahead of the game and bringing you stuff as opposed to you bringing them stuff. The other thing that’s very, very important as an entrepreneur that most people and particularly African Americans, don’t invest in, I’m about to get off this call and I’ve been on a call with this company called American Home Mortgage and they have a national corporation. That has been an advantage for me in dealing in the market that I deal in because 99% of my customer’s are white; and that is mindset, working on yourself on a regular basis, listening to motivation messages, reading positive material to reprogram your mind to overcome the subtle, unconscious mental conditioning that keeps us from playing on a high level and it just creeps back in. And I’ll give you some examples if we have the time. But the other thing that’s very important is investing in your communication skills. Put you’re money where you mouth is. It gives you your ability to communicate because I did that and I still do that. I trained last year just over five thousand doctors. I taught them how to communicate with their patients and to increase their patients’ compliance in taking their hypertension medication. That was 30 minutes a day, Monday thru Thursday, a $640K dollar contract. Bro Bedford: Uh hum. Les Brown: Thirty minutes a day, 12 (noon) until 12:30 p.m.; four days a week. (Laughter). I’ve never been a doctor and I never had a patient. How did I beat out all of these other white firms? Not only was I able to express and connect with the pharmaceutical company that was going to release the contract, but I conducted communications intelligence. Unlike my white competitors who came there with an idea of what it took to teach these doctors how to communicate with their patients. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 81 -


I spent a lot of time finding patients who were taking their medications and asked what role their doctors played in doing that. I talked to patients who were doing it, to find out or to give me a portrait of the personality and the style of the doctor, his staff and his practice and what role that played in them being cooperative in the process. Bro. Bedford: Uh hum. Les Brown: As well as talked to doctors who felt that they were successful in getting their patients to take their medications. That was the heart and soul of my presentation. The insights that I brought, made them know, even though I didn’t have an MBA, even though I have no health care training whatsoever in my background that this man knows what he’s talking about. And I got the contract. Bro Bedford: Question, excuse me. I heard you a couple of years ago and I heard you say that you had succeeded as a speaker, but you had failed at the speaking business. Is that when you made that transformation? Les Brown: Absolutely! I’ve made over $52 million dollars not knowing what the hell I was doing. Bro Bedford: Laughter Les Brown: Yeah, yeah and the reason is because right now as late as Saturday, Saturday. I was in Summerset, New Jersey training a guy named T. Harv Eker’s speakers and trainers on how to tell stories and position your story so it has value for an audience and to move them, to motivate them, to persuade them to get them to make the choices that you want them to make. I got up early that morning to go down and see what was going on before me. They were doing a training called, How to Present the Irresistible Sale . Bro. Bedford: Uh hum. Les Brown: They gave the top ten secrets of guys that I work with that because I’ve known them for years and we speak in different places and very seldom we are in the same place unless we’re on stage then we speak and we run and we’re gone. So I got a chance to see all of these various presentations and some I had seen before, but now looking at them from the inside out finding out why the work. I had eighty people to speak to. I was there going through the training with them. I came up on the stage, I stayed in the room, did not ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 82 -


leave, came up on the stage to do my presentation and then paused in my presentation because I had an hour and a half to do but I had to catch a plane and planes had been cancelled coming into Chicago, so I had to cut it to fortyfive minutes. So I said, well let’s see how well I learned the irresistible sale and people began to laugh in the audience. Now mind you, for twenty years, I prided myself on two things: 1) Being the highest paid speaker at $25K per hour. The only people that earn more than I do are guys like Gullianni out of New York; former President Clinton; Zig Ziggler earns like around $11K; Jack Canfield, $20K; Mark Victor Hansen, who co-wrote Chicken Soup For the Soul, those guys get around $10K. But most of the celebrity speakers taper off around $10K-$15K highest. I get $25K for thirty minutes and sometimes I’ve spoken for less as five minutes, flew to Hawaii and spoke for five minute, four minutes and they paid me $25K dollars and I left. (Laughter) four minutes… Bro. Bedford: Laughter, Les Brown: Because the people ahead of me went over. But internationally, I charge $55K, plus they usually have me with seven interpreters. Next week, I’m going to Ottawa, Canada, Calgary and speaking to over six thousand entrepreneurs there. But what happened was, here I am priding myself as being one of the highest paid speakers on the planet and T. Harv trains his people, not to get a fee. Wow! I’m saying whoa, what does he mean by that? And then here I pride myself as getting more standing ovations than anybody in the industry and here he is training his people not to get a standing ovation. He trains his people to get a running ovation to the back of the room to buy products. I said whoa! That presentation because I changed and used the running ovation strategy and they thought they knew I was going to do it. I talked about it at each step, now I’m going to do this, he told us to do this. They knew the steps, the elements to drive them to the back of the room and they still got up and went back there and bought over a $130K dollars worth of products. Blew me away. Eighty people! Eighty people. So the lesson in that is Dwight Pledge, one of the speakers I’m training now is… doing it is not, I love the excitement of going to Ottawa, Canada or speaking to American Home this morning and blowing their minds. I like that. I like it when I come in the room and they look and they know he doesn’t play football, he’s not a basketball player, he doesn’t sing, he doesn’t dance, but he’s about to make our nose bleed. Okay. (Laughter) ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 83 -


Bro. Bedford: Laughter. Les Brown: I like the voice in my head. This priest, this Catholic Priest was at an event where I spoke and he said, what a paradox, God has raised from among his oppressor a motivator to motivate his oppressor. (Laughter). Bro. Bedford: Laughter. Les Brown: I like it when they give me that check and I run to the bank speaking in unknown tongues (laugher) Bro Bedford: (laughter) Les Brown: It’s so much fun because the looks on some people’s faces are like what are you going to do? Who are you? And just to break them down, I like that. I like it, write this down. I like that. Bro. Bedford: Right, right. Les Brown: My challenge is now, what turns me on now, that’s okay, but what turns me on now is training others to do it and I’ve got some speakers now that’s giving the old man a run for his money. And I like teaching and training people how to negotiate how to develop their leadership potential, how to impact the sales process, build relationships and quadruple your income in any industry, how to establish a brand, a reputation and dominate your niche. That’s what my goal was when I came into this industry. To dominate it and that’s what I do. Now I’m learning the business. I dominate the speaking aspect of it. That’s a different mindset. I’m learning the business; I’m now working with a person like T. Harv Eker, who’s earned over 200 million dollars in a year. Bro Bedford: Uh hum Les Brown: Well I hear people say, well he’s white, no that’s not the biggie, so what. This is an area where we have an advantage. He has a process and he has a team of people that know some stuff that I don’t know. And now I probably will have about 1/3 of his team who volunteered to come work with me. Many of them are going to put in there resignation to come and work with me because they like they way I do business and how I operate. That’s going to take my stuff. I will probably do what took me twenty years to do, with this new team that I’ve assembled and they’ve got a brother up in there ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 84 -


too and a sister. I saw them, they’re coming. It will probably take me less than 15 months with the knowledge that they’re bringing. Bro. Bedford: That took you twenty years. Les Brown: took me twenty years, yes. Twenty years. But I don’t care. 52 million dollars, a good God and a healthy heart and you can make it through the winter in Miami, FL. (laughter) Bro. Bedford: That’s right, that’s right Les Brown: I’m telling you, my brother. Bro. Bedford: I know you have to go. Can I ask one more Question? Les Brown: Go ahead, I can talk to you, go ahead. Bro. Bedford: Okay, You spoke about the importance of speaking and communication as an entrepreneur and I think you touched on that beautifully. In connection with that what is the most important trait or characteristic that a young brother or sister must have if they’re on the track of entrepreneurship? Les Brown: And that is a belief in themselves, see communication skills are important, but who you are behind the words that’s far more important than the words themselves. Because under every deal, underneath every conversation, underneath every presentation, there’s the energy, there’s your conviction, there’s your character, there’s your spirit. And for you to convince someone to hire you, to consult with you, to accept you as the vendor that their going to do business with, that connection, that decision cannot just be cerebral it just can’t be based upon the numbers. I deliberately charge more money than everyone else. And so, I'm making a statement about my stuff. Oh you want something cheaper, fantastic. I can get you a $10K speaker. I just happen not to be the one. I train them and I know a lot of them and let me give you their numbers. Bro Bedford: Uh hum. Les Brown: Gladly, because I have over 3K request a month, I mean a year and so I’m not out looking for business, I don’t generate business, business comes to me. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 85 -


You do that through holding yourself to a higher standard operating out of the thinking of Henry David Thoreau, who said “do not go where the path may lead, but go where there’s no path and leave a trail” . The regiment in which I train myself and in which I’m now training and putting together a structure to train my speakers on, a regiment that my competition cannot even respond to because they didn’t train themselves like I train myself. They didn’t have to they had privilege. 87% of what they want is available to them because they have the complexion of connection. I didn’t have that. So I had to train myself in a different kind of regiment. They can go up give the same speech for 30 years and regurgitate that “one speech fits all situations”. I didn’t have that option being black. So I had to train myself in a different kind of way. They operate out of the thinking of the Dale Carnegie course, which is a great course, tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve told them. I couldn’t do that. I have to go from a different place. I train my speakers to conduct communication intelligence. My favorite book says, “In all thy getting, get understanding”. Find out who they are. Bro. Bedford: Uh hum Les Brown: Once you find out who they are, craft a message in a language in which they can relate to. Don’t let what you want to say get in the way of what they need to hear so that you can make impact, because impact drives income. And because of that standard that I train myself on, they can’t do that. They just can’t go up on a stage and start speaking on any subject matter in any industry and command the kind of money that I get. I’m training my speakers to be flexible and versatile to do that on any industry, period. Five minutes prep, and they’ll think you’re the expert for the hour that you talk. So we always have to hold ourselves to a higher standard, when it comes to the knowledge because knowledge is the new currency and coming to express it, to communicate it, to relate to different people on different levels. Once you open your mouth, that person is making an assessing of you. Bro. Bedford: Uh hum Les Brown: So this voice that you here was not always here. By being trained by Mike Williams who’s been my mentor for the past 37 years, out of Columbus, OH, who was born in Coshocton, OH. This brother who dropped out of Ohio State University, trained and mentored me over the years. He was my newsman and I was a community activist and he was during the sixties and I admired him. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 86 -


He was a speaker then and I was one of his groupies and went around watching him and studying his style. I was fascinated with it. He had a big Afro and we called him treetop. Big huge Afro. Both: Laughter Les Brown: Like Angela Davis type. Then he came to the station working as a newsman and between the records, convinced me that I can be more than a disc jockey, more than the man about town, Les Brown, more than LB, triple p, Les Brown, your planet plan popper, that I can communicate to the planet. He went about the business of teaching me and here we are the rest is history. Bro. Bedford: That’s a wonderful history. I’m sure that many of our subscribers and hopefully those who will begin to subscribe will really appreciate your message. Can you tell the subscribers and the listeners, how they can get in contact with you and get a hold of this wonderful training that you have? Les Brown: Mike Williams and I, we do the training ourselves. In fact, next year because of T. Harv Eker, I said oh my God He said Les, did you notice that out of eighty people, sixty three (63) signed up for your speaker training? I said yes. He said, “its four days”. I said, yes. He said, Les you charged $2500 dollars. He said, that’s too cheap, that’s too cheap. He said, we give four day training and they give $20K a head, it’s too cheap. So, people who are coming, they better hurry up. Both: Laughter Les Brown: Laughter: because it’s going up my goodness gracious. I said, Oh No! They have sold out. I probably have, if I’m lucky. They’re trying to get another room. We probably have about five seats available because they bought them out. They want to know how could he do this, not knowing the business. They know I don’t know. They know I’m not joking because they ask me questions and they can’t believe that they don’t know this. (Laughter) How did you get here? I said, I don’t know. But there are some things that I do know that I focus on. 1). What was my strength? What were their weaknesses? And how can I exploit that and make that my strength? I was thinking in terms of dominating the market. When Toastmasters International did a poll of 51,000 members worldwide to select the five top speakers in the world, they selected General Norman Swartzkoff, Barbara Walters, Robert Schuler, Paul Harvey and myself. I got more votes than all of them combined, which was a great honor. And was ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 87 -


selected by the National Speakers Association for the Speaker’s Hall of Fame, it’s called a CPAE Award, where you’re selected by your peers. To me my goal was/is to create a path for other African-Americans to come down and once getting here to train them because now you learn, you earn and you pass it on. Now that I’m in my Colonel Sanders years, it’s time to pass it on to others and that’s what we’re doing in my training summits. Success is not convenient. Seize the moment. Bro. Bedford: They can go to www.lesbrown.com? Les Brown: If they want to sign up, what I’ll do for a special for you as entrepreneurs, it’s $2500. If they call you, you call me and give me their information, well give them a $500 discount. Bro. Bedford: Yes, sir! You also have a cruise coming up as well. Les Brown: I have a cruise once a year come up, Cruise Your Way to Greatness . On this cruise, we’ll share with people, the many strategies to creating multiple streams of income and how to… we’re doing a piece called Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is. Another one is How to Leverage and Build Relationships Beyond Our Community . The other one that is very important is Balance. How do you make it in a world where in many cases there are some people taking care of their parents while their taking care of their kids and run a business. And you have a kid that decides to make go crazy, you know. How do you maintain sanity in insane situations? And there are some strategies. It’s some of the things that I’ve learned that I think will be helpful to them. How do you handle it when you’re an entrepreneur and someone in your family has been diagnosed with an illness? Or you’ve been told you have cancer, like I was ten years ago and so you got two or three years. I beat those odds and saw it as a project as opposed to a death sentence. So those are some of the things we’re going to deal with. They can go to our website and register for that as well. Bro. Bedford: Okay and get all of your books and audios at the website? Les Brown: Yes, tell them that if they’re serious. This is just for people that are serious. There’s a set of CD’s called Choosing Your Future . It’s the best work I’ve done and I like them and I don’t like them because I don’t think I’ve done anything that’s superior to those yet. It’s a six-week series that was going ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 88 -


to be the last tapes that I was going to do before venturing into television. But the venture into television didn’t last as long as I thought it was going to. We’re doing something now. But Choosing Your Future , you can get that one online. The other one is called, Presentation Power, Part I & II . That’s a must for everybody’s library that’s an entrepreneur because it teaches how to communicate on the phone, small settings one-on-one and larger groups. I’ve spoken to over 80,000 in the Georgia Dome. So I teach you things that I’ve learned not from the books but from university of hard knocks, but that’s what I teach. This takes you up and beyond “The Secret”. Everybody is talking about “The Secret”. The Secret works very well for white folks. Bro. Bedford: Laughter Les Brown: But the stuff that we need, it’s above and beyond. In fact, I’m going to do a book called Above And Beyond, The Secret. You know because when we come in there is no secret. (Laughter) Bro. Bedford: Right. Les Brown: Yeah, we aren’t going to get the business , okay. Let me give you an example. Here in Chicago, just imagine talking about mental conditioning, Chicago, one was considered a very progressive city. Right now it’s a mayor’s election. Where do you live? Bro. Bedford: I’m in Detroit. Les Brown: Okay. Chicago has 52% of Black registered voters. Fifty-two percent of the voters are Black and they voted a higher percentage than whites. White people in Chicago represent 30% of the vote. Now twenty years ago, when Mayor Harold Washington was in office, black people got 44% of the contracts of a 2 Billion dollar budget. Twenty years later Mayor Daley elected with 80% of the black vote with two black people running against him. Not one black leader endorsed these two black people. One person, Dorothy Brown, is a clerk of court, she’s an attorney, she’s an MBA and she is a Certified Public Accountant. He (Mayor Daley) was elected with over 80% of the black vote. Now let’s look at the contracts, twenty years later what percentage of the contracts do you think that black people get? Now they got 44% twenty years ago under Harold Washington who was elected with the black vote. What ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 89 -


percentage do you think they get now with over 80% of the black vote for Mayor Richard Daley? Bro. Bedford: I’m going to jump out there and say probably less than 25%. Les Brown: Black people get 6% of the contracts. White contractors get 92%, Latino’s get 2% and Black contractors get 6%. Bro Bedford: That is a drastic, 6% that is a drastic drop. Les Brown: Yes indeed. Bro Bedford: Drastic. Les Brown: Yes indeed Bro. Bedford: Paradigm shift right, is that a paradigm shift? Les Brown: That’s not a paradigm shift, that’s mental conditioning. You have to get underneath that. The level of self-loathing and self-hatred, that has to be interrupted. What people do what they produce is the result of the conversation they believe about themselves. And so, getting underneath that stuff and giving them a larger vision of themselves and empowering them to break through the good ole boys network Mindset of we’re going to take care of a few, and you few, you control the masses. Bro Bedford: Uh hum Les Brown: Yeah, it’s quite an interesting thing. Fascinating to watch this stuff.

Quite interesting indeed.

Bro. Bedford: Sounds like we have a challenge ahead of us. Les Brown: Oh without question. I think it’s very exciting and I’d like the opportunity to deal with it and I probably, but I got to first go and get this money. Laughter Bro. Bedford: Laughter


www.brobedford.com

- 90 -


Les Brown: I got to get this money right now. I got another goal over here that’s got me real excited where I can make more money at home than on the road. I like that one. Bro. Bedford: Yes, yes. We probably are going to have to bring you back on to talk about that sometime soon. Les Brown: Oh man, there’s so much money. This is a 58 Billion dollar industry. This is an industry, just think about this. We’re the only people that have more churches than we have businesses. Bro. Bedford: umm Les Brown: More ministers than we have entrepreneurs. We have the highest poverty rate, the highest incarceration rate, and highest crime rate. For every African-American Male that goes to college, one hundred go to jail Bro. Bedford: umm Les Brown: Okay. So as we look at ourselves looking into the future, we have to incorporate spirituality with practicality. Bro. Bedford: Uh hum. Les Brown: Bill Gates says the retraining of Americans will be the biggest budget in this century. We’re going through something that the media doesn’t talk about. It’s called the three (3) P’s: Purchase, Power, and Parity. The belief is that over the next 10 to 15 to 20 years as we now are moving forward into the global economy, American workers will have to do more, do it faster, do it better with less resources and permanent part-time employees with no health benefits. Eventually they hope to achieve in 15 to 20 years, a level economic playing field because the only countries that we are in war with are poor countries. We’re not in war with any wealthy countries. Poor countries are what we’re in war with. So when they say we are twenty-five thousand people working for a corporation and they layoff ten thousand people. Those ten thousand jobs don’t go away they spread those ten thousand jobs among the fifteen thousand that’s still there. Bro. Bedford:

Uh hum

Les Brown: Now that introduces a speaker. Now comes on the stage a trainer because now they need to be trained on how to do more, do it faster. They need ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 91 -


to be trained on how to develop their leadership potential, that fifteen thousand that’s still there. They need to be trained how to accommodate those new ten thousand jobs. They need to be trained how to raise the level of morale and give people a sense of certainty in an uncertain situation where there’s no such thing as job security. They need to be trained how to optimize the efficiency of the operation and how to create a shift in the mindset of people so they don’t think in terms of sabotaging the company and come back and shooting people and going postal. They need to be trained on how to accommodate this level of transformation that’s taking place, this level of work and feel good about it. Bro. Bedford:

Uh hum

Les Brown: That’s where we get paid $25K an hour to do. BB:

Training.

LB:

Yes, sir.

BB:

Yes, sir.

LB: Let the record show. As I’m telling you it’s a serious business up in here and one of the few areas that I know that being an African-American, being a black man is an advantage. Because when Tony Robbins, or Zig Ziggler or Jack Canfield or Chicken Soup for the Soul goes on stage and says you have the power to live your dreams, they look at him and they look at themselves and say, if he can do it, I can do it. But when you and I go on stage and say, you have the power to live your dream, they look at you and think about our history and look at themselves and say, if he can do it, I know damn well I can do it. Let me get the hell out of here now (laughter to loud-Smile) BB:

Laughter

LB:

As they leave there running.

Both laugh LB:

It’s fun man I tell you.


www.brobedford.com

- 92 -


Bro. Bedford: I can hear that you are having just a ball doing what you do and that’s one of the most powerful characteristic that I like, I love about you. The energy and the excitement that you bring to what you do Les Brown: You know what’s exciting to me now? Training somebody, giving them everything I know to beat me. That’s the most fascinating thing. When I’m on the road, I had one of the most powerful moments in my life as a speaker, when two weeks ago, one of my speakers spoke after I spoke, Ed Blunt out of New York. He’s been in training for two years. A lady came up to me and said, “I hope I don’t hurt your feeling by what I’m going to say”. I said, not all. She said, we don’t need you anymore, we’ve go Ed. I said, well thank you very much. (Laughter) BB: Laughter Les Brown: That was the greatest compliment I have ever gotten as a coach. People say that after my daughter speaks or Ed Blunt, Kevin Bracey, Johnny Wimbrey, Erika McKay or any of the other speakers. They always say that. I mean my top sixteen, and that to me is (pause while a conversation is going on with people in Les’ office) a great compliment. LB: Yeah BB: I’m sure you have to go, correct? LB:

Yeah, but go ahead, you want to ask me another question?

I just want to thank you. I mean you’ve given such a wealth of knowledge BB: and again I will do some… LB: You’re a goldmine. Listening to you, what a great voice. man BB:

Well I’m coming to you.

LB:

You aught to come down there man in Orlando, FL.

You’re a goldmine,

BB: I will be there. I will be there. The other thing that I’m doing, I’ve interviewed Dennis Kimbro, LB: Yeah, BB: I’m glad you mentioned him ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 93 -


LB: He is so talented. BB: George Fraser, LB: Oh yeah, George Fraser, yes. BB: Cathy Hughes, the great Cathy Hughes LB: Uh hum. BB: And of course in doing what I’m doing, my whole ambition is to lead people to you all. You all are like the hidden hidden treasure treasures. s. Every Every time I’m doing present presentati ations ons,, I always ask, do you have Think And Grow Rich , in your library, and to my surprise, no! no! Do you have have Success Success Runs Runs in Our Race Race ? No! Les Brown: Uh hum. Bro. Bedford: Have you had any CD or motivational tape by Les Brown, and no! Les Brown: Umm Bro. Bedford: So that’s really my mission I believe is to make sure that we amplify those who have already been there and done that. Les Brown: Yes Absolutely. Bro. Bedford: I really want to lead people to you. Les Brown: And that’s how we grow. Bro. Bedford: Um hum. Les Brown: Well Well I apprecia appreciate te it. Thank Thank you. I look forwar forward d to working working with you. you. Bro. Brown: I look forward to working with you too. Les Brown: Thank you and God bless you. Bro. Bedford: Thank you, sir and God bless you.


www.brobedford.com

- 94 -


Conversation with Cathy Hughes Bro. Bedford Bedford:: This This is Bro. Bro. Bedfor Bedford, d, from HTBAB HTBABE. E.co com m an and d I am extre extreme mely ly excite excited d at about about who is joinin joining g me today today in conversa conversatio tion. n. Joining Joining me today is the the Founde Founderr and Chairp Chairpers erson on of Radio Radio One, One, Inc., Inc., the the larges largestt Africa African-A n-Amer merica ican n Broa Broadc dcas astt Comp Compan any y in the the na nati tion on.. Radi Radio o One One is the the firs firstt Afri Africa cann-Am Amer eric ican an company in radio history to dominate several major markets simultaneously and possesses the first woman owned radio station to rank number one in any major market. In 1995, Radio One purchased WKYS in Washington, D.C for $40 million dollars. The largest transact transaction ion between two black companies companies in broadcas broadcasting ting history. history. In 1999, when Radio One went public, Ms. Hughes made history again by becoming the first African-American women with a company on the stock exchange. Radio Radio One’s One’s value is curren currently tly in excess excess of $2 billion billion dollar dollars. s. Black Black Enterp Enterpris rise e named named Radio One the company company of the year. Fortune Fortune rated rated it one of the 100 best companies to work for and Radio One was inducted into the Maryland Business Hall of Fame. Recently, Recently, Radio One entered into another another venture starting starting TV One. According According to Blac Black k Ente Enterp rpri rise se,, TV One One in 2006 2006 was was the the fast fastes estt grow growin ing g ne netw twor ork. k. He Herr pioneering work has lead Essence to name her one of the hundred who have changed the world and one of the most powerful and influential persons. Radio Inc. continues to list her as one of the twenty most influential women in rad radio. io. Ebon Ebony y sites ites he herr as one of the ten most ost powe powerrful ful wom women in Black lack Ame Ameri rica can. n. I can can go on, on, an and d on and on with with all of the the busi busine ness ss accol accolad ades es and award awardss that that she has receive received d but we wouldn wouldn’t ’t have time for this intervie interview. w. So with withou outt furt furthe herr dela delay, y, I woul would d like like to than thank k you, you, the the inco incomp mpar arab able le an and d the the matchles matchless, s, Ms. Cathy Hughes. Hughes. Thank Thank you for joining joining us. Cathy Hughes: Hughes: Thank Thank you Bro. Bedford, Bedford, the reason reason that the introduct introduction ion is so long isn’t because because of my accomplishment accomplishmentss it’s because of my age. After you live so long it just just gets gets long longer er and longer longer.. I’ve I’ve been bless blessed ed by God God to serve serve my people and I thank you for this opportunity to share my story with your readers. Bro Bedford: Oh, thank you very much and I know you don’t have a lot of time so well get right to the questions. How did you you get your start as an entrepreneur? ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 95 -


Cathy Hughes: Well Well number number one; I’m a third third generat generation ion entrepr entreprene eneur. ur. It’s It’s kind kind of in my blood lood.. My fami family ly has has alwa lways work worked ed for for them emse selv lves es.. My gran grandf dfat athe her, r, well well I’m I’m actu actual ally ly a four fourth th gene genera rati tion on now now that that I thin think k abou aboutt it becau because se my grandf grandfath ather’ er’ss family family were were also also entrep entrepren reneur eurs. s. When When it’s it’s in your your DNA, DNA, it’s it’s just just a ma matt tter er of time time before before you have have to do it. For For one one thin thing g your your family family is kind of judgme judgment ntal al about about you working working for other other people. people. Most Most of them have needs in their businesses so if you’re not going to work for yourself, then you need to come and help them out. I alwa always ys knew knew that that ultim ultimat atel ely y I woul would d work work for for myse myself lf.. The The way way it actua actually lly occurred was I had created a program called “The Quiet Storm ” which went on to become become the number number one format format in the the history history of urban urban radio. radio. I was stolen stolen away from Howard University, where I created this format by a group of thirtysix stock holders in a company that was fifteen years old and had been trying unsuccessfully the entire time of its existence and had gone through millions of dollars, to get a dark signal back on the air in broadcasting. Well I was success successful ful in doing that that for them. them. I got them them on the air. air. I completely completely staffe staffed d the facilit facility. y. I named named it an and d I picked picked the the format. format. I did everyth everything ing from from soup soup to nuts nuts,, A to Z an and d then then they they ran ran out out of money money.. Well Well I ha have ve never never had, had, than thank k God, God, thank thank God, had a payc payche heck ck to boun bounce ce.. I belie believe ve that that if a pers person on works works for you, you, if somebody somebody is not going going to be paid, paid, it should should be you, you, not them. them. I had literally started to use my retirement money to pay my staff because the company had run out of money. I went went to them and said, said, “You all need an infusio infusion n of capita capital”. l”. They They said, said, “we want want you to put togeth together er a propos proposal al and go and shop for a loan loan for us”. I said, “excuse me, I’m a General Manager, I’m not an owner of this company and if I go out and secure a loan for you which is outside my area of responsibility, I think that I should be entitled to an equity stake in your company.” Well they laughed laughed at me. The youngest youngest person person on this board was seventy seventy years old at this time and I was probab probably ly thirty-e thirty-eigh ightt or thirty-n thirty-nine ine.. So to them them I was was a young arrogant arrogant whippersna whippersnapper, pper, with a lot of mouth. mouth. They said, “No we’re we’re not sharin sha ring. g. We’ve We’ve been been togeth together er for fifteen fifteen years; years; you don’t don’t know the sacri sacrific fices es we’v we’ve e been been throu through gh.” .” So I’m like yeah, yeah, but it wasn wasn’t ’t produ product ctiv ive. e. I'm I'm the the one one who who got got you you on the air. air. One One word word led to an anot othe herr an and d they they said, said, “Well “Well if you you think think you know so much, much, you need to go an and d buy your own radio radio station station”. ”. Well Well boom, it was like a light bulb went off in my head. It dawn dawned ed upon upon me me,, how how stup stupid id was was I bein being. g. This This grou group p of dist distin ingu guis ishe hed d individuals, thirty-six of them thought that I had the ability to get them a loan. So if they had that level of confidence in me securing a loan, I should be able to ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 96 -


do that for myself. I need to have more confidence in Cathy Hughes and I thanked them. I started putting my things in my briefcase and they said, “What are you doing?” Resigning! They said, “Why are you resigning?” I said, “ because you told me; I need to go and get myself a loan because I need to buy a radio station”. And that’s how I became an entrepreneur. I say to young entrepreneurs and young people all the time; sometimes what you think is your darkest hour, is in fact the blessing that God had intended for you to receive. But we don’t see it because we want something else and we’re so hell bent on doing it our way and getting what we want, but we don’t see what God has in store for us. On that day I’m telling you it was as if the heavens had opened up and I saw it crystal clear. Bro Bedford: That is such a wonderful story and as you were telling it, I of course read your history and I noted that there were some challenges when you went out to acquire your station. What were some of the major challenges that you faced in your beginning? Cathy Hughes: I was black. I was female and I was considered young. Bro. Bedford: All of which you could not change. Cathy Hughes: Yes all of which I could not change and I was in the child bearing age. I can’t tell you how many bankers said to me, “you might get pregnant”. Yeah, well what does that have to do with you loaning me a million dollars. I had more male bankers spend more time questioning me about my personal life than I did talking to me about my business acumen At that time I didn’t realize and again I say this to entrepreneurs, this is so critical. You have to have a productive working relationship with a bank. When you don’t have and most African American do not have a close relationship with a bank. Black preachers are the worst. On Monday morning they put hundreds of millions of dollars collectively into these banks around the country. And then when they want to build anything new, they have to go and beg for a loan. They don’t have relationships with a bank where they can say all right not only am I going to take my money out of here but I’m going to get ten other preachers in this city to take their money out of here too.


www.brobedford.com

- 97 -


Black people don’t realize the importance and I didn’t at that time. I had no idea that more often than not in securing financing, it’s based on a relationship. It’s not based on a business plan. It’s not based on the dream or the vision you have and it’s not based on your credentials. In so many of these situations, it’s based on a relationship that somebody already has with a lending institution. Bro. Bedford: I get that question a lot. Just this morning, I received a couple of emails from individuals and that was their main question. How do I go about acquiring financing to get started or to do this or to do that? Cathy Hughes: Absolutely. Bro. Bedford: Yes so a relationship has to be built. Cathy Hughes: A quick story, I had been in business for about eight or nine months, it was my first year. Within ninety days of me going into business the prime went into the mid twenties and my senior loan with Chemical Bank of New York was 2.5 points over prime. For one of those quarters my interest rate was at 28.25%, can you imagine? Anyway, a long story, short. I’m concerned about payroll because I’m trying to keep up my loan payments and my revenue or my cash flow hasn’t started to really be adequate to cover my expenses. I go to my bank where I had already deposited about 7 or 8 hundred thousand dollars over that time period and told them that I needed a $10K loan. I had a 10k short fall on payroll that I was concerned about and I needed a temporary $10K loan. I showed them a contract from an advertiser. I had $32K coming from and advertiser at that time, it was just not going to hit my account in a timely fashion to make sure that my payroll checks were secure and they told me no. They would not loan me $10K. I could not tell you, how again the heavens parted and light bulbs went off in my head. I realized that if had been standing in front of that loan officer asking for $30-40 thousand dollars to buy a Mercedes Benz, they wouldn’t have blinked, okay. I could buy any car I wanted for any amount of money I wanted, but they would not give me, a black businessperson $10,000 to make certain that my payroll was secured and covered. When I had a contract that showed them that I had $32K coming in within the next 30 days. Again, I realized relationship. Once I got the relationship, I love to tell this story. My lease was up on a building and I needed to move. A banker whom I did not know, a woman named Karen Calious, who was one of my listeners to my morning show. At that time, I was doing everything, hosting the morning show and running the ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 98 -


company. She realized that I was very close to losing a location for my facility because the District of Columbia, where I was located was supposed to be making one of these small business loans available to me and they didn’t. I had gone to closing on the building I needed to move into twice and both times they were dry closings. Nobody was there from the District of Columbia to fund the acquisition and I was coming dangerously close to my company being homeless. Long story short, she calls me up and she says you do not know me but I listen to your station every morning and I listen to your show. I have researched you and I have tracked you and she said, you have another closing and this will be your third and if you don’t come forth with the funding you will lose the building you’re trying to move your station to and I said yes. She said well I tell you what; one of my loan officers will be there next Tuesday. We’re going to fund the property acquisition for you. I said okay, what time should I meet them there and she said, you’re far to busy to have to meet us there, we’ll take care of it and the loan application will be in the mail. I filled the loan application out two weeks after the property was already purchased. That is what you call a banking relationship Bro Bedford: Yes it is. You are such a pioneer and a trailblazer. You mentioned the “Quiet Storm” and all of us listen to that but we don’t know where that originated. How did you come up with the concept of doing “The Quiet Storm”? Cathy Hughes: When I became the General Manager of Howard University Radio, WHUR, I was really excited about the opportunity but I also was very much aware of what I needed to learn. So I approached Howard University and I asked them if they would allow me a six-week sabbatical to go the University of Chicago and take a summer course called Physco-Graphic Programming. Which they said, “yes as long as they didn’t have to pay for it, I could go”. So I went at my own expense and I learned about programming a radio station to fit the listener’s lifestyle. This was before morning talk shows were popular. This was before talk radio stations were popular. What I learned in that six week class was that you can have a very successful format if you hit the right time with your audience and you service their desire. I was in Washington, D.C and DC has always been notorious for this overpopulation of women professionals who were basically man less and dateless on Friday nights. The Quiet Storm started off as a Friday night experiment to entertain women who didn’t have dates for the evening.


www.brobedford.com

- 99 -


That’s how I promoted it and that’s why I created it and then I went from Friday night, to Saturday night, to Sunday night and the rest is history. It went from one night a week to seven nights a week. Then it went from Howard University to, in its hay day, four hundred and eight five stations used my format. It was specifically created to entertain people who were dateless. Who were single and wanted companionship and wanting company. Bro Bedford: Wow! I’m just blown away by the way you have pioneered certain things and again not knowing. I’m a big talk radio format fan. I just love listening to talk radio. Then to find out that in your initial stages of getting your financing, you had to overcome that obstacle or that hurdle of being a talk format or music format. Didn’t you have that challenge? Cathy Hughes: They told me that black people could not talk and that advertisers would not support black talk. But let me tell you, the interesting thing was I had a battle with the advertisers. I had a battle with the lenders. They way I ended up on the air was quite by accident. I had to host the morning show because my lending institutions told me that I was the first 24hour news talk format from a black perspective in the United States. My lenders told me, number one, news talk as you well know, is the most expensive of all the formats. It’s a lot cheaper to just have a D.J. there spinning records. When you have a news talk format, you have to have news people. You have to have wire service. You have to have producers, researches and then you have to have hosts. So they said it’s to costly, go back to doing music. But I refused to go back to 24 hours of music because I had done research on what format was needed and wanted by the Washington, D.C. community and what they said overwhelmingly was that they wanted more news and information about themselves. They said they could turn on any station and find out what was going on at the White House or your know in Chicago or Poduck, Idaho but they could not find out what was going on in Southeast, D.C., which had the highest percentage of black residents at that time. So I knew that this was a needed format, a needed service in my community. So I started hosting it myself, but initially those first several years. My biggest battle did not come from my advertisers, or my lenders, it came from my audience itself. My audience felt that because some black people may have left an “S” off of a verb or put on one, that they were embarrassing their entire community. I said now wait a minute; one person cracking a verb does not bring the whole black ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 100 -


community down. My community is not that shallow and if you think that it is, then maybe you need to join somebody else’s community. Okay. I said, “and plus we’ll get the swing of this we’ve never been allowed to express ourselves before”. Oh I would get petitions from schoolteachers. I got a petition one day from 300 hundred black schoolteachers signed that said that my program was anti-intellectual and that I was embarrassing the black community. I said, “you all are the embarrassment to the black community that you would be so ignorant to send this type of petition in here and try to stop black people from expressing themselves. “ Then I had to really get a little heavy handed with them and I said if these black brothers and sisters don’t know how to talk correctly on talk radio it’s because you have not been doing your job, you’re the teachers. Bro Bedford: They got failed somewhere Cathy Hughes: Thank you. I said is this an apology. Then I read the petition on the air and read off their names. Well that was the last time that anyone ever said that black folk should not be allowed to talk in public. I just literally put a spot light on them. I said how dare you all be embarrassed by your own people, you know. Bro Bedford: Yes, yes. You know with my subscribers and this has been strange to me, not strange in fact that it cannot happen, but when I first started, How To Be A Black Entrepreneur.com (HTBABE), of course, my initial subscribers were male. Today my subscriber base is between 70 to 75% female. Cathy Hughes: Wow! Bro Bedford: So my question to you, if you were to advise someone who is interested in becoming an entrepreneur, particularly black women, what should be their first steps? Cathy Hughes: The first step for any entrepreneur is to clearly define what it is that you want to do. Ideas are like noses, all of us have one and we have to really quantify and qualify our ideas because everyone has dreams and aspirations. You have to do research, you have to read, and you have to be studied on what it is that you want to do. Unless, and I say this to a lot of women, unless you are already doing it. So many black women are already entrepreneurs and don’t realize it. Some of us have already been entrepreneurs since when we were in Jr. High school, ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 101 -


braiding all of our friend’s hair, okay, or cooking for some function, or researching a term paper for someone else or back in the days before computers, typing a term paper for somebody. So many of us were already entrepreneurs and didn’t realize it. Babysitting, cleaning somebody else’s dorm room in college to make a few dollars, okay. I’m like well if you’re making enough money to pay your tuition in college cleaning up everybody else’s dorm room, have you ever given any consideration to the possibility that maybe you should hire some other people and take over the whole campus? Ok , open a company! So you have to clearly define what it is that you want to do and quantify and qualify it and not just allow it to be a dream. It’s like I said, dreams are like noses, we all got dreams and ideas on something we can do. The most important aspect of a woman going into business I think is really identifying and forming a support group. So often, people who love us feel the need to protect us and they sometimes over protect us and make us squeamish and afraid to be adventurous. You have to be bold and adventurous if you’re a woman going into business. Even though more and more and more women are going into business, it’s still a male dominated game. So often in my case it was my mother. I can’t tell you, my mother would cry and beg me to please get a government job, you’re in Washington, D.C., you’re smart, people like you, give up you’re sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag Cathy. People think you’ve lost your mind, that you had a nervous breakdown what’s wrong with you. Go and get a good government job and stop trying. My mother was not trying to stop me from being a successful entrepreneur, she was worried about me. She was scared for me. I had lost everything to try to hold on to this business and she was ready for me to throw in the towel out of love and protection. But guess what? It was also discouraging. So I started lying to my mother. When she would call, she would say have you turned it around? I would say, oh yeah momma things are just great. But guess what? In lying to my mother about my business turning around, and doing great. I started to believe it myself. And once I started to believe it myself, guess what? It started to happen. So I tell women so often that your husbands, your brothers, your sisters, your mothers, your daddy, your neighbors and sometimes even your financial advisors and your lawyers are the first to want to protect you.


www.brobedford.com

- 102 -


It’s so interesting, black women, we don’t get a lot of help, but we get a lot of protection “allegedly”. A lot of advise on what we should be doing which discourages us because as black women we’re full of passion and emotion. So if someone tells us we’re making a mistake, most of us unless we’re just knuckle heads, most of us will stop and analyze it. Am I really acting crazy? I am sleeping in a sleeping bag, like my momma said and cooking on a hot plate. Maybe I am not really realizing. Okay. So you have to put on blinders. You have to be myopic. You have to keep your eye on the prize. You cannot sometimes share with people. You have to lie. When people say, how is it going? They maybe getting ready to foreclose on your underwear, but you got to say, I can’t tell you today was just fabulous. Both Laugh Bro Bedford: The best day I’ve had Cathy Hughes: The best day I’ve had since I’ve been in business. Like I said, if you say it enough, the first person that you’re going to convince is yourself because who’s hearing it more than anybody else, you. Bro. Bedford: Right. Cathy Hughes: Your attitude really does determine your altitude. Your attitude determines your altitude. But like I said, with women we normally can’t get a lot a financial or other help. Sometimes you don’t need the finances; you just need someone to give you a helping hand. But Lord have mercy, do people give us advice under the guise of I’m just trying to protect you. I’m just trying to look out for you. Well if you’re trying to look out for me, loan me that $10K I need to make payroll. Both Laugh Okay. I don’t need you discouraging me. It’s funny because people want to be politically correct. They don’t say to you point blank that you shouldn’t be doing this. They say things like; well do you think it’s really worth it? Do you think that you’re maybe sacrificing too much? What about you? What about your own personal life? I’m trying to build a business right now; my business is my personal life. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 103 -


So I tell women, don’t get discouraged and try to find somebody in a comparable situation, if not maybe the same situation but a comparable situation. People are amazed because entrepreneurs call me frequently and their like, you took my call. I’m like yeah because I can’t tell you how lonely it was for me when know one would take my call. I say it might take me a few weeks and sometimes, if I get back logged maybe a couple months. I’ve called people back and they’re like I forgot I called you Ms. Hughes. I say, I will return your call; you’ve just got to be patient because sometimes it’s just a word of encouragement that we need to get over the hump. Bro Bedford: Wow that’s beautiful. I saw you on the Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union the other day. I listened and watched just as I just heard you speak now, when I listen to you, when I see you, I hear a woman with passion and drive. Will you expound on your passion and what drives you? Cathy Hughes: God. I have a firm belief that God has used me as an instrument to be a voice for my people and as a vehicle for the upliftment and betterment for my people. I have twenty five hundred employees, of that about twenty-two hundred are of African decent and of that about 44% are women. That’s not me. That’s not a result of anything special about me. That’s a classic example of God using an ordinary woman to do extraordinary things for other individuals. My motivation, my passion, my commitment, my determination is all predicated on this deep, deep, deep, deep commitment and desire to leave my community just a little bit better when I close my eyes for the final time, then it was when I opened my eyes for the first time. I love my people. I love my community and I feel that it is an obligation that I have been charged with and a responsibility that I welcome to help as many black folks as I possibly can. I believe in the old adage “that a rising tide, lifts all boats” . So I feel that God has allowed my boat to rise with the tides, so that I can bring some other boats up with me. Bro. Bedford: That’s beautiful. I know you have to go but I have one last question if you don’t mind. ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 104 -


Cathy Hughes: No go right ahead. Bro Bedford: Yes. We just talked about your passion and your drive and in fact just many traits and characteristics that you have that just flow out of you. But what trait or characteristic do you think a person must have, if they are to achieve success as an entrepreneur? Cathy Hughes: Integrity. Your word must be your bond. Again if I could just share with you a little bit, I’m the Time Warner Endowed Chair for the Howard University School of Communications. I tell my class frequently that integrity; your word has to be your bond. You know the Japanese don’t use lawyers; their word is their bond. They have a thriving economy based on the fact that you have to be an honorable human being. I tell my classes that one of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make is that they run from the people that they owe money to, their creditors. When they know that they can’t make the payment, and we do this so much in our personal lives to. I say to them what I’m getting ready to share with you will work in your personal life as well as in your business life. When you owe someone something, you have given them your word that you’re going to pay them back. So when you’re not able to, you owe them an explanation or at bare minimum a notification that you’re not going to be able to live up to your word. So I tell them, I use this strategy and it’s why I was never foreclosed on. When I couldn’t make my payments, no creditor had to call me because I was calling them saying listen, Bro. Bedford, I am so sorry. I know I owe you a $1000, I don’t have your $1,000 dollars next Tuesday when it’s due, but I do have $200 dollars and I’m going to send you that $200 and I’m going to make good on that $800 dollars that I owe you as soon as I possibly can. No I can’t tell you exactly when that day is going to be, but I’m going to send you $25, $50 or $100 dollars the next minute I get my hands on it so that I can retire this debt as soon as possible. But I want you to know that I acknowledge that I owe you this $1000 dollars and Bro. Bedford, my word is my bond, you will be paid. Every single solitary one of my creditors got some type of payment from me. It was so interesting because oftentimes I would get a letter back saying, “hey your payment is so small that it’s not worth us processing it and obviously you need it more than us, here’s your check back.” ________________________________________________________________________ © 2007-09 Bro. Bedford – All Rights Reserved.

www.brobedford.com

- 105 -

Conversations With Black Millionaire Entrepreneurs

Recommend Documents