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Successful Failures: Resilience, Reinvention, and Success with Alex Greene · Marci talks money (and life)

• Marci Grossman (00:05) Welcome to Marci Talks Money and Life. I am Money Marci. My guest today is Alex Greene, also known as Mr. GreeneStuff. And I don't know that my introduction can do him justice, but I'm going to try. He considers his life an example of successful failures while he learns from life's setbacks and achieves amazing goals. He was a guitar player who had to pivot after a hand injury. He has been homeless. He has won Emmys and Tellys for children's programming. He has raised millions in private investments and negotiated global IP and licensing deals. His story is about resilience, adaptability, and reinvention. And he is a fabulous storyteller. Welcome, Alex. Alex Greene (00:52) Thank you Marci. You know what? This is a pleasure. It was great meeting you a few days ago and in the pre meeting. It really is a pleasure to be here. Marci Grossman (01:02) I am thrilled to have you. When we were talking before, I think we could have gone on for days talking. So I'm so excited to share you with my audience because you have gone through the whole range of financial situations and your attitude, I'm gonna pick myself up and I'm gonna get moving again and finding success again and just... the resilience and everything else. And now you're pivoting to become a speaker and help people, to learn these skills that you have that have helped you achieve these things. And I just love sharing inspiring stories. Alex Greene (01:41) I appreciate that. Marci, I started out, and I got to go back to like when I was nine years old. My mother was a... very religious person. was Pentecostal and she used to drag us to church all the time. And they were having a contest, see who could bring in the most people in this church. was in Wabash, Indiana. And the prize was a Bible with your name written in gold leaf at the bottom. I was just compelled to win And I mean, I went to work. I took their little flyers and I talked to all the kids at school, I even went to some of their homes and talked to their parents. I ended up winning that Bible. I was determined. And I think that sets the standard of how I look at things. And I just feel like if you want it, it's there for you to achieve it. And there's no reason for you not to at least try. And that's just been my motto. And that's the way I go at things. When I was 18 years old as you mentioned. I took a job in a factory and I lost three fingers on my left hand which is my chording hand for playing guitar. And it devastated me. I didn't know how I could go through life without my guitar in my hand. I mean that's, I was fanatical about playing guitar. I wanted to be a rock star, you know, as most teenage boys do, you know. So anyway, Shortly thereafter, within a few weeks, I got married I had met a young woman that, at the time, I was in love with. And she really was the person that encouraged me to pick the guitar up and learn how to play left-handed. You know, you go through life and as you're trying to do things, there's always someone there that's beside you. You may not realize it, but they're there. And every step of the way of everything that I've done, there's always been somebody, whether it was the artist I was working with, whether it was a manager, whether it was a TV host that I had met somewhere, there's always someone there to help encourage you. That's what I want to do is I want to be able to encourage people to, it doesn't matter what they trip over, pick yourself up and continue moving forward. I don't believe in roadblocks. I believe in detours. Marci Grossman (03:56) That's a great way to put it. I like that a lot. I'm gonna use that. Alex Greene (03:59) More than welcome to. So where do want me to begin? Marci Grossman (04:02) There are so many places you could begin. So you lost the fingers on your left hand, so you switched to playing guitar, reverse, and where did it go from there? Because you've had continuous ups and downs. Alex Greene (04:13) Oh, absolutely. I joined different bands. I played the Detroit club scene for a long time. I started doing cover tunes and I didn't like being a human jukebox. So I decided I really wanted to get into my own music and so We put together another group, went on TV, did some music videos, did all the crazy stuff that most musicians do. And as always, we're working day gigs because there's not enough money in playing as a musician, especially in Detroit. The clubs pay a little bit, but they don't pay a lot. I continued playing and then I ended up getting custody of my son when he was nine years old and I was working as an insulator during the day playing the clubs at night and it was really bothering him that I would go off and play because he'd have to have a sitter and so forth and I Just thought you know what it's time for me to settle down. I'd hit 30. I knew that the chances of succeeding after that point were really off the charts and very difficult. So I decided to lay the guitar down and continue working. But I was working for small companies. I couldn't afford my rent and just all the bills. And we ended up homeless. He moved in with his aunt for about three months while I hustled and tried to pull everything that I could pull together to start my own business. And as I mentioned, there's always someone there to support you. When I was searching to try to do jobs, I went to a guy that was building his brand new house and I told him my situation. He wrote a check out to my company that I was just starting so that I could buy ladders and buy all the equipment, the insulation and things like that to insulate his home. And he did that because I was an underdog and he felt that I needed the help. And while I was doing his house, while I'm insulating it, I'm getting it all, you know, ready for the drywall and so forth. He went out and got me five other homes in that neighborhood, which is a very exclusive neighborhood. And you know, these are at that time, probably half a million. to a million dollar homes, this was in 1985, '86. What ended up happening was I started my own insulation company and I was able to get on my feet, get my son and I our own home and move forward. Within a few years of that, I find myself just going out of my mind because music was my lifeblood and I wasn't doing that. I was working as a contractor and not having any enjoyment other than the fact that I'm providing a home and food for my son, you know? So I called this guy that I knew, his name was Jim White. He had a television show called Stars of Tomorrow. He was also a singer in the Four Tops. He met with me and he lectured me for 45 minutes. He just did not let up. He couldn't understand why I was working in construction and not doing something in entertainment because he knew who I was. And so I ended up leaving that meeting and at the end of the day, I had sold my three used trucks. I sold my equipment. I placed my employees. I had three guys that were kind of part time and I placed them with my competitors and I had $10,000 at the end of the day after selling everything, which was nothing. But this is, you know, 1988. And I called another guy that I knew Peter Tocco. He just passed a few months ago and just a wonderful human being. and he was also a singer. Anyway, I called him and I said, what do know about wine? And he laughed. He says, well, I am Italian. And I said, OK. Marci Grossman (08:01) Ha Alex Greene (08:02) I want to buy a bunch of wine. I've got a crazy idea, but I got to move forward on it. So I gave him the money. He purchased about 14 bottles of wine and the cheapest wine that he bought was about $450. And the most expensive I believe was $800. I got this wine, I shipped it to New York. I bought one of these industry trade books and I called all these record A & R guys. and I said, I'm coming to New York. I'll be there on such and such a time. I'd like to have a meeting with you. I went to all these meetings. I presented them a bottle of wine as a token of appreciation and it gave me new contacts. When I left New York that week, I'm sitting on the airplane and I'm smiling and I'm thinking, I'm a music promoter. So. Marci Grossman (08:53) You Alex Greene (08:53) Now I had to find talent to start sending to these record companies. And the reason why I did that, I gotta back up here a little bit, is because when I was performing, I couldn't find an agent. I couldn't find a manager that would go to any lengths to try to make sure that we were successful. So I always knew that that was a serious element for everyone to have. Anyway, what I did was I went home and I looked at a Billboard magazine and I thought, I'm going to put an ad in here. and either I'm gonna get blackballed or I'm gonna make a lot of money. So I put this ad in the middle of the classifieds and I specified where I wanted it to be, dead center, you know? it said if you're looking for a record deal, call Alex J. Greene. And I put my phone number in there and my phone started ringing. I was getting calls from across the country, Austria, Australia. It was amazing. And I started representing artists. Then one day I get this crazy phone call from an attorney and he told me of this young artist that wanted to meet with me. So I said, well, all right, because I was in the middle of doing a deal at that time with Arista Records. Things really started picking up. I really thought, this is it. I'm going to make a lot of money promoting these artists. I'm starting to produce a little bit. Everything was going great. And then all of a sudden the industry just started shifting. It just wasn't happening like I thought it was going to. So I, there were pitfalls and so forth like that. I managed this artist for about seven years, really tried to get her going. She was amazing. she played just about every instrument. I signed her to Warner Brothers. We ended up losing the deal inside of 18 months and here I am almost broke again. Now I have to reinvent myself one more time. Marci Grossman (10:40) Napster at that point in time that hit the industry. Alex Greene (10:43) Yes, Napster really changed the whole way we do business. And everybody that I knew that was in the record industry, they were finding different jobs, they were all leaving. All the record companies were consolidating. The A & R departments were, no one was into development. Most of the record labels just stopped developing artists at that time. And I'm sitting in my office and I'm doodling around just, and I can't draw a straight line, but I'm sketching out this idea that I had for a kids show. By this time I've remarried, I've got toddlers at home and I'm having an issue trying to get them to go to bed. It was a nightmare. And so I saw Barney on television and I thought, God, I could never let that in my house, you know? Never let my kids watch it. And so one morning I started to go to the offices. It's all during the downturn of the industry. And my son wouldn't let me out of his sight. So it was hard for me to take a shower and to be able to get to the office and plus get them to daycare and so forth. But I turned on Barney, I put him in front of it and I started waving my hand in front of his face and he'd move his head to see around my hand. And I'm thinking, oh my God, Barney's a king. I ran upstairs, I took a shower, I came downstairs. He's still glued to Barney. And it started dawning on me. You know what? There's something here. And then my kids, you know, they wouldn't go to bed at night. So I came up with this idea of a TV show that would teach kids to go to bed. I put together a business plan. I went crazy over this. I just thought, this has gotta be it, you know? So I wrote this business plan. It took me about six months to do this. I had started another insulation company because, you know, like I said, the record industry had fallen through the holes in the ground. And as I was, putting together this business plan, I'm really honing in on the whole thought of teaching kids to go to bed. All right, now I gotta figure out how in the world am I gonna raise this money? I didn't know anybody with money. My family didn't have money. My friends didn't have money. And I'm thinking I'm going to need $1.2 million to get this show off the ground. In fact, I went to all the major studios in Detroit area, Grayson Wild, Producers Color, all these different companies. And... found out that I was a little bit off. That it was, the quotes I was getting was like 2.7 million dollars to develop the characters, to do all the things that I wanted to do, and to produce four shows. My mind started thinking, no way. I'm gonna stand on a curb with a DVD in my hand after spending 2.7 million dollars and say, now what? You know? So. I started looking into it a little bit more and I thought, all right, I gotta get out there. I gotta figure out how to get out there. Well, that was in '97 was when I started working on the show concept when in '99 through the whole Napster thing. And then this was probably, this was 2000 and 2001. Marci Grossman (13:36) So what year was this? Alex Greene (13:50) And so what ended up happening was during the Napster days, I started writing a pamphlet and it was called... How and Where to Find Investors. Totally based on my assumptions, no facts at all, just my assumptions. And it was a 30 page pamphlet, and when I got through writing it, I thought, no one's ever gonna wanna read this garbage, and so I filed it away. Well, when I was writing my business plan, when I was working on the idea for the kids show, I completed the plan and I was standing in my front door or at my front door and I'm looking outside and I'm thinking, I have nowhere to go with this, nowhere. And I remembered that pamphlet. I went down in my basement. I went through the file cabinet until I found it. I brought it upstairs. I sat in my den and I read it and I read it again. and I realized I had unknowingly written a roadmap on what to do. Several years prior to needing to have it. I'm telling you the truth, this is amazing. I looked at it, I read it, and I followed it every step of the way. I packed up all of my colorful drawings and everything that I had, and I started going to upscale neighborhoods, and I would go into a restaurant, and I'd sit in the middle of the restaurant, spread everything across the table. People would walk by, they'd look and they'd what's going on here? And I'd tell them, they'd go, that's cool. And they'd go on. Well, one day this elderly gentleman, he just came out of the blue and says, what are you doing? You know, and he pulled the chair out and he sat down and started looking at everything. And we talked and he said, I know somebody that would be interested in this. And I said, who is that? And he said, his name is Jimmy Giftis. . He is the owner of the National Coney Islands. And I said, really? He says, give him a call. He wrote his name down on a piece of paper. And then he wrote his name and he said, by the way, my name is Buck, Buck Rogers. And I'm going, my God, I got a wacko on my hands, you know. I'm hearing the Twilight Zone music, you know, and I took the piece of paper and I called the guy and his secretary answered and I said, Buck Rogers told me to call him. She says, hold on. And he came to the phone and he goes, this is Jimmy, who's this? And I told him and he said, how in the hell is Buck? And I just went, my God, he's real, you know? And so anyway, Jimmy came on board later on, but I kept doing this and going to all these different restaurants. I chased Jimmy for a year and a half after sending him my business plan. He wouldn't even talk to me. He had no interest. I ran into a guy and he says, let's have a meeting about this. I'll put a group together and let's see what we can do. So I was prepared. I went to the meeting and they were all excited. They wanted to have a meeting a couple of weeks later. And so I left there thinking, I did it. I did it. I know I've got this. Three days before the meeting, the towers fell. It was over. I thought not now. And what I meant was not ever, but you know, it was like I was just on the cusp of being able to finally get something together and this has to happen. And everything was all dark and gloomy. No one wanted to do anything. Everybody's panicking. Nobody is even thinking about tomorrow. Everybody was lost. So I get a phone call and it was one of the investors and he said, we need something good. Meet me at my house on Friday and pick up a check. So I went to his house, he gave me a $20,000 check, and I thought, I don't know if I can do this. But I have to now. I just took somebody's money. You know, I'm, I'm in this up to my eyebrows. And so I just proceeded forward. And over the next year, year and a half, I raised about $150,000. I went to my very first television conference. It was called NATPE, N-A-T-P-E, which is the National Association of Television Program Executives. it was just an average, you know, One booth after another. I felt like as I'm sitting there and somebody's walking by, I felt like saying, hey, can I make you a key chain? You know, it was just one of those things, you know. But one morning, it was the day before the conference was over, I'm hearing, congratulations, congratulations, and thinking, what the heck's going on? When I get to my booth, there's a stack of newspapers. It was a Las Vegas Sun. And my booth was on the front page with my assistant. And it was amazing. I sent 20, 25 newspapers home. By the time I got back from the conference there was $200,000 in my bank account and we were on our way. It was just a matter of reinventing and reinventing and reinventing. And so we finally, we got to a point where I'm building these sound stages. I'm having all this work done. I've got eight employees. There was only $200,000 that went out for, you know, paying all the bills and things like this. This is probably another period of another year or so. I got down to where I didn't have very much money left. And the unit next to the unit that I was in the middle of the building and it was only 3,200 square feet. There was four units in this building and the one next to me was vacating. And I thought maybe I should get this and expand. So I was talking to the woman that did my set design and I said, what do you think I should do? She says, well, I'd look at my checkbook and if there was more than $20,000 in it, I'd probably do it. I walked to my office I opened up the checkbook there was $22,000 in the account. So I grabbed the unit and, you know, coming from a construction background, I built the recording studio and things like this. And it was just being framed out. And I thought, I gotta do something. I gotta get money in the door. Otherwise we're gonna end up closing the doors. I remembered Mitch Hotts at the Macomb Daily, because he was a really big fan of the artists that I had signed to Warner Brothers. I thought I'm going to give him a call and have him come in. So he came over and he looked at it I told him I was doing this children's show and it was called My Bed Bugs. And he looked at everything that was going on. He says, I'm having my photographer come here today. We're going to take some pictures and I definitely want to do a story on it. I said, okay, great. The photographer came in a few hours later. Two days later, I'm on the front page of the McComb Daily. At this time, I'm down to roughly about $8,000 in the account. And I'm thinking, I'm not gonna make it, you know. Within two and a half weeks, there was $875,000 in my account. People started coming in. The investors that were already in started telling their friends and friends started telling friends. And it was just, it was amazing. It just started really coming together. I thought, wow, this is fantastic. At this point, I've raised a million dollars. One of the main guys that helped me out, he was a retired banker. He's the one that, in fact, he brought Jimmy Giftis on at a later time, which is a great story. Maybe I should tell you this now. Joe Michael was an investment banker, he's retired. He wanted to really be involved in the show. When I met him, he came to the studio and he just loved it. To him, it was like going to Disneyland. It was very colorful and it just kind of knocked your socks off when you walk into this sound stage and everything's black and you flip the lights on and this colorful stage bounces back at you. So one day he called me up and he says, Hey Sonny boy, what are you doing on Wednesday? I said, I don't know. What do you got going? He says, I want to bring a friend of mine in. I said, okay. And he says, I want you to do something really special. I said, all right, I'll do that. So he called me up that day and he said, we're coming at 730. You got everything ready? And I said, I'm all set for you. I said, by the way, who you bringing? And he says, Jimmy Giftis. I said, he's not going to do anything. I chased him for a year and a half. He loved the business plan, but then he told me to call him back in two weeks. And now a year and a half later, I'm still chasing him. He says, you leave that to me. He says, you just take care of what I asked you to do and we'll do it. I said, okay. So I thought I really got to fix this guy. I got to make sure I get his attention. So I have my art director get into one of the costumes and sit in the corner. And I told him, whatever you do, don't move. But if he goes to touch you, I want you to grab his arm. So they got there, they walked. ⁓ it was beautiful. It was so great. I had this other guy, Randy, that worked for me we walked into the room and I yelled lights and Randy hit the lights. This stage just lit up. Marci Grossman (22:18) Kids show haunted house, it's all the same thing, right? Alex Greene (22:31) Jimmy left my side, he walked over to this bed. Now this bed is 10 and a half feet wide and 14 and a half feet long. It's the size of a bedroom. And you know, the mattress was roughly almost five foot high. You know, huge bed. And so he's touching it. He goes over to the fish tank. He's touching it. He touches the armoire and he's moving across the room and he gets over to the character and he goes to touch him. And he grabs his arm. Joe was standing there and he hits his chest with his hand and he goes, what the hell you tried to do? Give us a heart attack. And Jimmy Giftis looked at me and he goes, you got me. He shook his head and as he walked out, he's grabbing these pamphlets that I had and they left. The next morning. Joe Michael called me up. Sonny boy, where are you? And I said, I'm on my way to the office. He says, I'll meet you there in 15 minutes. Okay. So he comes in and he throws a $50,000 check on my desk and he says, he just bought himself a seat on your board. Marci Grossman (23:31) Ha ha ha ha. Alex Greene (23:32) And I said, absolutely. So it was just a great story. Jimmy was such a great guy. God bless his soul. He passed away many years ago. Marci Grossman (23:40) you're lucky you're meeting all these people along the way who help you and introduce you to other people. But it also sounds like you were one of your helpers as well because you wrote a pamphlet that you thought was nothing. And then when you found it later, it was a blueprint that you needed to start moving forward. Alex Greene (23:57) Absolutely. You know, it's amazing what happens in life as you go through challenges. You find yourself, down and out and not knowing what you're gonna do and a light comes on and I've had so many of those and that's why, what I say about successful failures. It's just unbelievable what can happen and every successful failure leads to another opportunity. And that has happened throughout my life. Marci Grossman (24:24) Now I have to say this for the audience because listeners, since I don't do a video podcast, don't know that I am looking at a ⁓ sizable wall of these statues that you seem to have. Alex Greene (24:36) You know, we were really fortunate. Let me adjust that for you. There you go. The first year when we got onto television, I mentioned Joe Michael and I got to bring him up again. I had pitched my concept and we had... recorded our very first episode so I sent it to Detroit Public Television to a guy that I kind of knew there. I sent it to him. He handed it to the head of programming. And then I get a phone call from Joe Michael says, I have some materials that you have me in my van. What do you want me to give to the CEO of public television, the general manager? I go, when are you meeting him? He says, I'm sitting with him right now. I'm going to go to the van and get it. Tell me what I got to give him. I said, give him everything you got. He called me up a few hours later on in the day. And he said, Steve wants to come down and see the studio. And he says, set something up so we can come down. They came through about eight o'clock at night. They told me they had 15, 20 minutes to spend. Three hours later, he's leaving and he gave me a show date when we were gonna start airing. We only have one episode. We needed six and we only had two months to do it. So we had to write those episodes, we had to get them shot. We turned them in on time and they gave us a trial and then they extended it to 13 episodes. Then they wanted the second season and this all happened very fast. That was in 2004 when we hit the airwaves. The 2005 Emmy Awards happened in January, or the early part of 2005, and it was for 2004. Well, we ended up winning four Emmys that very first year. And the best thing about it was when I was looking for camera guys, when I was looking for audio, all the professionals, I went to everybody that I knew that really had a name for themselves, and they gave me outrageous numbers I couldn't afford. ⁓ So I went to Specs Howard. I got four kids to run cameras and they all four won Emmys that year. Very first time out of school. It was excellent. Marci Grossman (26:45) does make the rest of their career seem a little bit harder when you start off like that. Alex Greene (26:49) ⁓ you know, it was funny because I was standing at the bar grabbing a drink and this camera guy, says, I've been in this business for 45 years and I've never won an Emmy. I've had every opportunity to do so. And now I'm getting beat out by four punks. And I'm smiling. You know, he didn't know it was my show. it was nice to see that these young kids, they won. We won in four different, categories. And my four camera guys all won one for camera work. it was excellent. And then the following year I won six. And then the first year we also won four Tellys and then the next year we won eight Tellys. So in the two years of broadcasts where we were in heavy production we were doing well. We continued on I had 52 employees I started attending more conferences we ended up licensing to 30 countries. We did several national broadcast deals and then 2008 hit and it's time to reinvent again. Marci Grossman (27:47) Yeah, the economy tanked for pretty much everyone in 2008. Alex Greene (27:51) It really did. But, I keep picking myself up and now I find myself, I want to... reinvent myself again, I want to help others. Because I know what it's like to be down. And I know what it's like to get kicked when you're down. I know what it's like to have things in your hand and have them taken away. I really honestly believe that everybody has it within them to make a step forward, to make a step upward. I had a young lady come to me just a couple of days ago and she's from Columbia. She got married, she came here and her and her husband, they're artists. They're very cute couple. And she says, "I want to do some things. I would really like to have you mentor me if you would." And I said, absolutely. Tell me what you want to do. And she couldn't do it. She's trying to tell me and she started crying. She's really very withdrawn and shy. And she just feels that there's a thumb on her forehead and she can't lift it off to get going. And I told her, you know what, there is a thumb on your forehead. And when you move it, you're going to find your fingerprint. I got nothing stopping you. and I will help you. We will get you through this and you will get underway. And within a few minutes she really started looking at things a little bit differently. I just honestly believe everybody can do it. If you wanna do something, there's nothing stopping you. No one's gonna write a check, tape it to a rock and throw it through your window. It's not gonna happen. Open the door. You can go to the right, you can go to the left, you can go forward. But you have to get out there. You know, I told you I wrote a book called "The Investor's Networking Guide". And that, I think there's 45 pages in that book. It's on Amazon. It's all about networking. No one does this alone. You come into this world, you're not alone. When you go out, hopefully you're not. I always say, when it's time to leave, that's your box. No one loves you enough to get in it with you. You got to do what you have to do. What's going to make you happy? What's going to satisfy your soul? And as long as it doesn't hurt anyone and it helps people go for it. Get up and do it. Marci Grossman (29:56) I think that's great advice and really it's for anyone in any field, whether it's a creative or working in a shop or whatever it is, you want to reach out and help people coming up behind you and see how the people around you and above you can help you because we're here as a community, whether we realize it or not. Alex Greene (30:16) absolutely. You know, I always say that it doesn't matter if you're manufacturing toothpicks or TV shows. It comes down to one thing. The end user. Somebody has to want it. So if you have an idea that you believe people will want. Do everything you can to get out there and get it done. And there's always someone that can guide you. That's what I'm here for. I try to help as many people as I possibly can. Like I said, I know the pitfalls. I'll give I think it's a great story. It actually happened to me. I told you I had raised a million dollars at this point. We hired a management consulting firm to come in and look at everything that we're doing. And so the accountant comes in and he says to me, he says, Alex, you've raised a million dollars and you've sold 4 % of your company. I didn't know. I said, is that a good thing? He says, is that a good thing? He leans in over the table and he says, you're an effing genius. It was by accident. I just had an idea of how things should be structured. And I figured if I looked at a pie, I would make a peace sign and then I take off one of the legs and the larger piece of the pie I had to hold that meant the other half of the pie I could sell and you divide those up into par values. And I, I, purchase a bunch of, you know, a lot of cars, a lot of stock, you know, when I set my company up and then I divided it up. Well, I divided it up so that I could raise $10 million if I wanted to. and still maintain control. But anyway, shortly after that, one of my board of directors, he was the president of a Fortune 500 company based out of Indiana. He said, I want you to go to South Bend, Indiana. I want you to see this law firm and make sure that everything's really good in the books. He says, I just, have a sneaky feeling that you have some problems. So I said, okay. So I went to this meeting and I gave her all of everything that she needed. All, you know, all the company books, the registers, everything. It was probably about a month later. She called me up and she says, ⁓ are you, are you standing up? And I said, yeah. She said, sit down. So I sat down and I said something wrong. She says, I believe so. She says, you know who the security and exchange commission is? And I said, yes. She says you broken five rules and they're not good ones. You've exceeded your number of non-accredited investors. You brought in accredited investors without issuing any regulation forms. You did not file your regulation D forms. You went across state lines and there was another one that I don't remember. And she says, you've really got a serious problem now. And I'm thinking, oh God, I'm trying to do a children's show. You know, I'm trying to do something good. And I said, so what's the next step? She says, you have to do what is called a rescinding offer. I have to rescind my offer and give them 6 % interest. So their money back plus 6%. I've raised over a million dollars and the money's spent. What happens if I can't pay them back? She goes, you're going to jail. So I had to go to my board of directors. I had to explain that situation to them. And one of them, a Godsend, he was my angel investor. He said, don't worry about it. I'll give you whatever you need. We'll get through it. We'll pay whatever fines that are necessary and so forth. The attorney had to fly in and meet with the board. It was $50,000 in legal fees just to take care of this issue. And I had to offer everyone their money back. It was a nice little binder, almost a half an inch thick. They had to disclose how much money they made, and so forth. A lot of disclosures in this stack of papers, let me tell you. This was process of over three months. And I'm on Xanax at this time, because I'm thinking I'm going to go to jail. I'm walking around, I'm having heart palps and everything else, and I'm just in panic for several... months. My attorney called me up and she said, are you sitting down? And I said, yes. She says, you can stand up. And I go, what's going on? And she said, this is my first time in my law practice in my career that I've ever seen this, but no one rescinded. All of your investors, all 102 of them have decided to stay with you. She says, I've never seen this. You've got a lot of people that like you and like what you're doing. And it was all over. And from that point, I raised about eight and a half million dollars. And like I said, we syndicated it ourselves. I reached out to syndication companies and couldn't get the results I wanted. I signed with one company and within 90 days I had to pretty much go back and renegotiate a deal and get my rights back. We had 17 % of the United States and It wasn't enough. I had to get this thing across the country and there was just no other way about it. So in 2005, I remember reading an article and it said that the FCC was changing the rules and regulations for digital television because all these digital channels were starting to happen. Now I was using APT for my public television distribution, American Public Television, and I was signed to Detroit Public Television. And so after getting my distribution rights back, I had 17 % of the United States. Within 90 days, we had 71%. How I did that was because when I read that article from the FCC, I got all of my materials ready to go out to all the digital channels across the country. They sat there for 18 months, packaged up, addressed, ready to go. And one day I get a phone call from public television, WXON is interested in picking up the the show. And I said, well, but you have it in Detroit, so that's up to you. He says, no, well, this is for their digital channel. FCC just released the rules and all the digital channels are hammering for children's programming because they have to have three and a half hours of children's programming. I hung up. I Got them in the intercom and I told Randy to get to my office, load that stuff up in the car and get it to the post office. And we had, I don't know, probably about 3,000 packages that were going out across the country. And like I said, within 90 days we had 71%. It was just amazing. We had a wonderful ride. I had a great staff. 52 people that just loved working together and just building something. You know, it was special to them. You know what I mean? ⁓ Marci Grossman (37:05) Well, you created the culture that made it what it was. I mean, let's call it that. They saw in you someone that was there. You had their backs. You've had a crazy ride with the ups and downs. I mean, If you were to look back at it now, would you have done anything differently? Alex Greene (37:24) Probably not. ⁓ You know what? I would. I would. I wouldn't be so nice. In negotiations, I wouldn't be so nice. To my people, my people meant everything to me always. Marci Grossman (37:25) Ha ha ha ha. Alex Greene (37:35) which Marci Grossman (37:35) that. Alex Greene (37:35) is a beautiful thing. But anyway, yeah, I've met a lot of a lot of people over the years and a lot of ups and downs, and you just got to find a way to pick yourself back up. And I think reinvention is key. I remember watching the late night show one time and Madonna was on and I was never a Madonna fan, but I became one that night. She said, say whatever you want about me. Just say something. And that stuck in my head. It just like, really, that's the whole point. You know, I remember... writing business plans for people after the industry, the fallout. And we had the film incentive here. We started writing business plans for people to help them get their projects off the ground. And the one thing I told them, said, treat this book like you're an evangelist. Get out there and preach. Don't take no for an answer. Keep preaching. And if you're in a crowd and you're not loud enough, throw that damn business plan on the ground and stand on it to make yourself an inch taller and scream a little louder. Marci Grossman (38:34) Ha ha ha! Alex Greene (38:36) And I believe in that philosophy. If you want to do it, go do it. The only thing holding you back is your door knob and your thumb. Marci Grossman (38:44) Yep, and both of them you are able to access yourself, so you gotta take the responsibility rather than looking for blame. Alex Greene (38:51) I mentioned it's a team all the way through and that throughout my life, you'd always meet somebody. Like I said, when I lost my fingers, it was my first wife. And God bless her, she has since passed, but she was the catalyst for me to learn how to play and stick at it because, believe me, flipping your brain over and doing something in opposite ways is not an easy task. And then there was a confidence you know. What's the word I'm looking for? Disformed, and so I had a confidence issue, but I was damn determined not to put that hand in my pocket and hide it. And I love drive in windows because it's on my left hand. I have to pay with my left hand. I have to get the food with my left hand. I will show it, I'm not afraid of it. I spoke one time at an event and the first thing I told my camera guy when he was videotaping it, I said, I'm gonna hold my hand up, I want you to put it on screen. He goes, really? And I go, yep, put it on screen. So I went out, I grabbed my mic. I raised my hand in the air and they put it on the big screen behind me and I said, this is the hand of determination. And that's how I started my speaking platform for the day. And I really honestly believe that you just don't let anything hold you back. So I got through that. And as I mentioned, people along the way as you go. When I decided to buy the wine I had Peter. When I was absolutely broke, a friend of mine said, you're the insulation man. And I thought, hey, that's not a bad title. So I called my company, The Insulation Man. I started it, like I said, with just a few ladders and a van. And then I built it up. And when I went into television, I called my two nephews and I said, I don't want you guys starving for the rest of your life. Here's the company. Take it and do well with it. And now they're doing over a couple million dollars a year in business and they've had it for 25 years. Marci Grossman (40:55) I think it's awesome. I love your story. I love your stories the resilience, getting back up. And I love this next phase of your life. I will be putting a link your website so people can find you. Alex, this has been truly my pleasure to have you here, And I look forward to seeing all the good you're going to do in this next phase. Alex Greene (41:16) I really appreciate your time. Marci, I love what you're doing and it was a pleasure meeting you Marci Grossman (41:22) I'll have you back, So, figure out what new stories to tell Everyone, thank you for listening. Thank you to Alex for being a fabulous guest, Mr. GreeneStuff. And this is Money Marci. Thank you for listening to Marci Talks, Money and Life. Alex Greene (41:27) Alright.