Latest / Inside The Vault with Ash Cash / ITV #190: Why Only 2% of Hotels Are Black-Owned… and How Davonne Reaves is Flipping the Game

Transcript

ITV #190: Why Only 2% of Hotels Are Black-Owned… and How Davonne Reaves is Flipping the Game · Inside The Vault with Ash Cash

0:00
[SPEAKER_07]: The biggest thing is I really wanted to see more people who looked like us at the ownership team.
0:07
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you find deals?
0:08
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you know when a hotel is for sale?
0:14
[SPEAKER_02]: could anybody just walk in and say, hey, I got the money.
0:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to be a hotel owner.
0:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody in a mama probably heard of the phone.
0:21
[SPEAKER_07]: And an answer is no.
0:23
[SPEAKER_07]: We had a recent deal that closed early this year.
0:25
[SPEAKER_07]: She raised over a million dollars.
0:27
[SPEAKER_07]: Majority of the invest is a black.
0:29
[SPEAKER_07]: It's like, oh my gosh, this is a beautiful thing.
0:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Only hotels is like a version of a freedom suit, where you're like, look, we couldn't do it.
0:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And now because we couldn't do it, we're doing it now.
0:42
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, all of those different things and then strategies that you maybe did with your smart smaller property You could do it with your larger property.
0:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So your why is bigger than just like hey, let's make some money This is like a radical act of Defiance and let let me let me take back what you would you took away
1:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you want to watch this next video, but listen, if you are an entrepreneur, business coach, business consultant, or a small business owner who has a story and wants to learn how to create multiple strings of income from your story, I need you to text me right now, my book.
1:25
[SPEAKER_01]: to six, four, six, six, six, eight, seven, four, one, five, two.
1:29
[SPEAKER_01]: That is my personal number.
1:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I have been an author for over 12 years, I've written 10 books, four of them have been best sellers, and I've sold over 100,000 books.
1:38
[SPEAKER_01]: But I've also helped a lot of my clients, take their expertise and put it into a story, then create multiple streams of income from that.
1:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wanna help you do the same thing.
1:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So text my book to six, four, six, six, eight, seven, four, one, five, two.
1:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I, let's go back to the video.
2:11
[SPEAKER_02]: So welcome to another awesome episode of inside the vault with Ash Cash, the greatest money mindset show on the planet.
2:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Listen, on this episode, this is a legendary episode.
2:22
[SPEAKER_02]: We are sitting down with a true trailblazer in the hospitality industry, a woman who went from the front desk agent to award winning hotel owner, managing over one billion dollars in hotel assets.
2:39
[SPEAKER_02]: changing the game for generations to come.
2:42
[SPEAKER_02]: She is the founder of the Vaughan group, the visionary behind Vester, the first black-owned hotel investment crowd funding platform and the creator of stay black experience, the largest directory of black-owned hotels.
2:59
[SPEAKER_02]: She's not just taking ownership.
3:02
[SPEAKER_02]: She's not just talking ownership.
3:04
[SPEAKER_02]: She's creating owners with over 200 hotel owners and investors to her credit and more than 4,000 people educated on hotel acquisitions.
3:15
[SPEAKER_02]: She's rewriting the narrative on what wealth and access looks like in our community.
3:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Her book,
3:21
[SPEAKER_02]: How to buy a hotel dropped its second edition as she just made major moves selling two hotels in Oklahoma.
3:30
[SPEAKER_00]: You see her forms black enterprise and Margot Watts, now she is here with us inside the vault to give us game.
3:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's welcome the queen of hospitality, the mogul behind the moment, the Vaughan Big Devon Reaves.
3:46
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you, Ash.
3:48
[SPEAKER_07]: We need you to introduce.
3:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, big, big, big energy, big hotel owner.
3:56
[SPEAKER_07]: I love it.
3:57
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm here.
3:57
[SPEAKER_07]: The queen is here.
3:58
[SPEAKER_02]: The queen is here.
4:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm excited because we were supposed to make this interview happen a long time ago.
4:05
[SPEAKER_02]: But I believe in divine timing.
4:07
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh yeah, absolutely.
4:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I believe in divine timing.
4:09
[SPEAKER_07]: Then you go, baby.
4:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And I believe that this had to happen now because from the first time I met you, you, and I say this would all do a spec, you were just a hotel owner.
4:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And when I say that, what am I saying, all do a spec, like just on the hotel is a big deal.
4:27
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, it is.
4:28
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm starting to learn that.
4:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
4:29
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a big deal.
4:30
[SPEAKER_02]: So as so when I say just a hotel owner, I'm saying you would just a hotel owner, which is a big deal.
4:36
[SPEAKER_02]: But now you've done so much since then.
4:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
4:40
[SPEAKER_02]: That this is the energy I need.
4:41
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I'm the boy.
4:43
[SPEAKER_02]: But before we start, the those who don't know in your words, who is the Von Reigns?
4:50
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, one, thank you for the introduction.
4:51
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes, man.
4:54
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, in other words, the queen of hotel, and they found words, I'm just Dave Von, who started at the front desk.
4:59
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
5:00
[SPEAKER_07]: I went to Georgia State University, be Georgia State University, or shout out to any Panthers who's listening in.
5:05
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm a mom.
5:06
[SPEAKER_07]: I have a Sunday and dream here who just, he is the motivation.
5:11
[SPEAKER_07]: I probably wouldn't be here talking to you without him because he just,
5:13
[SPEAKER_07]: He just gave me so much light and so much love.
5:16
[SPEAKER_07]: I just, I try to do the right thing.
5:19
[SPEAKER_07]: My grandmother that I was raised to treat people better than how I wanted to be treated.
5:25
[SPEAKER_07]: And the biggest thing is I really wanted to see more people who looked like us at the ownership table.
5:33
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, in Atlanta, we're very fortunate to be around a lot of black leaders, a lot of black wealth.
5:40
[SPEAKER_06]: Absolutely.
5:41
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, you know, we've had, would black mayors since with the 1980s, um, you know, so this is a black city, right?
5:49
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, black hotel owners in the city, right?
5:52
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, and then when I stepped outside of Atlanta, I realized how spoiled I was.
5:56
[SPEAKER_07]: because I started working for a company in Boston called CHM Warning.
6:01
[SPEAKER_07]: And that's when I managed to billion dollars in assets.
6:03
[SPEAKER_07]: Start hit hotels that were bringing in, you know, $100 million in revenue, $200 million in revenue, a year, a hotel that was bought for a billion dollars.
6:12
[SPEAKER_07]: So all of these different asset classes in hotels that I was overseeing, and the owners did not look like us.
6:19
[SPEAKER_07]: When I saw their bank account, you know, I was like, oh.
6:25
[SPEAKER_07]: I want to be a part of this, right?
6:27
[SPEAKER_07]: And I only do, I want to be a part of this.
6:29
[SPEAKER_07]: I want other people to who look like me to be a part of this, to come into these conferences.
6:35
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, there's what, over 59,000 hotels in United States.
6:39
[SPEAKER_07]: Less than 2% are owned by black people.
6:42
[SPEAKER_07]: Less than 1% are owned by black women.
6:45
[SPEAKER_07]: Now, we've been owning hotels as a community since the late 1800s, right?
6:49
[SPEAKER_07]: Cause of that one point in time, we can own hotels, okay?
6:53
[SPEAKER_07]: The Indian community from India, they've been owning hotels probably since the late 60s, 70s, not they own over 60% of the hotels.
7:05
[SPEAKER_06]: Wow, right.
7:06
[SPEAKER_07]: So we're helping our wealth, and I think it was a study done over what $110 billion of black people.
7:14
[SPEAKER_07]: That's how much we spend in travel.
7:16
[SPEAKER_07]: But that money isn't, but we don't own a lot of it, right?
7:19
[SPEAKER_07]: Because we only own less than 2% of the hotel.
7:22
[SPEAKER_07]: So that's what got me to be like, wait a minute.
7:25
[SPEAKER_07]: Because I'm seeing the money that's being made and I'm seeing the money that's flowing through other communities and not ours and I was like, okay, wait a minute.
7:33
[SPEAKER_07]: I have access to it, meaning I have the community from working, you know, in that company in Boston, I was only black person there.
7:40
[SPEAKER_07]: So I was like, okay, how can I, because my mentor told me they've on, we help knock the door down for you, all right?
7:47
[SPEAKER_07]: And when you realize that you're sitting in a table and no one looks like you and you stop noticing then you become the problem.
7:55
[SPEAKER_07]: So always remember that you have to bring somebody with you, you always have to bring somebody with you.
8:01
[SPEAKER_07]: We broke the door, you just went through it.
8:05
[SPEAKER_07]: But so now my job is,
8:07
[SPEAKER_07]: You said divine, right?
8:09
[SPEAKER_07]: My job and what I felt like that I was placed on this earth for is to bring more and more people on my calling, is to bring more people who look like us and to the commercial real estate or hotel investing space.
8:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, so you said a lot there and I feel like you had like put some respect in your name for real, right?
8:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Because like what you're doing is radical.
8:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
8:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
8:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it's revolutionary.
8:36
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, it is.
8:40
[SPEAKER_02]: part of an ecosystem that when we talk about the black dollar, we don't talk about that.
8:47
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I'm saying?
8:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Because we talk about financial literacy, we talk about clothes, we talk about cars, we don't talk about travel, we don't talk about hospitality, we don't talk about, you know, like you said, the billions of dollars that is leaving our community and going to other communities.
9:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love the stats that you mentioned.
9:07
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, around the, you know, those from India, right, because at the end of the day, you know, if we were owning hotels as the 1800s,
9:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And they've only been holding hotels from the 60s and 70s.
9:22
[SPEAKER_02]: This sort of like thought process around not being able to do something because of time or being left behind or not being included in things of that nature is actually a fallacy, right?
9:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And so talk a little bit about that, right?
9:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, how do we
9:43
[SPEAKER_02]: change that paradigm, how do we shift it to understanding, if you will, especially like entrepreneurs, right?
9:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'll be very transparent.
9:55
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't like to talk numbers, but I will for this particular case.
10:00
[SPEAKER_02]: In 2022, you know, Salute to my brother Marvin, Salute to my brother Storm, you know, we did something phenomenal, right?
10:08
[SPEAKER_02]: We created a company called Path
10:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We did a big, you know, a big activation and Hollywood Florida, you know, we were able to get T.D.
10:22
[SPEAKER_02]: J.
10:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Grant Cardone, Mironman Golden, Diabetes, all the heavy hitters.
10:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And the one thing though, you know, I won't say the total amount of money that we invested in that event.
10:36
[SPEAKER_02]: The hotel cost us 1.3 million dollars so we just the hotel.
10:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I was just the hotel So I'm not gonna give all the other numbers right, but just the hotel just the hotel Was $1.3 million dollars that we invested in a in an event space that we don't own correct Right, we don't own that we didn't own that hotel space
11:00
[SPEAKER_02]: We have no residual benefit from it.
11:05
[SPEAKER_02]: We did not search, we didn't own it, meaning even as a community.
11:09
[SPEAKER_02]: So we did not circulate money into our back-to-hour community.
11:13
[SPEAKER_02]: We circulated back to another community.
11:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'll be honest, you know, for the amount of money we invested,
11:24
[SPEAKER_02]: We weren't treated with red carpet in the beginning.
11:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Eventually we did, but in the beginning, we weren't treated with the red carpet that we would have liked.
11:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And so even for us as entrepreneurs, right?
11:40
[SPEAKER_02]: So in our community, you know, you're around.
11:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm around a lot of high earners, seven figure, eight figure earners.
11:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Even us investing in hotels, that's not something that has been presented to me or my community in a way that allows me to understand how radical this action is.
12:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And so how do we change that paradigm?
12:07
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, for one, having this conversation, right?
12:10
[SPEAKER_07]: So as the exposure, you have a large audience.
12:13
[SPEAKER_07]: You have a large community, so congratulations.
12:15
[SPEAKER_07]: I know it's a lot of work for doing.
12:17
[SPEAKER_07]: I respect it with what you do.
12:20
[SPEAKER_07]: And I hate to hear that you know you weren't treated,
12:25
[SPEAKER_07]: you know, that rare carpet because that's a lot of money.
12:27
[SPEAKER_06]: Absolutely.
12:27
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
12:28
[SPEAKER_07]: That's a lot of money.
12:29
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, so we don't have to talk online to see, you know, you know, hotel and in the next time you have an event, because, you know, when you, when you, you know how this works, sometimes money isn't everything, sometimes it's power, right?
12:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
12:46
[SPEAKER_07]: So we're going to make sure your next event, we're going to talk to the
12:49
[SPEAKER_07]: you get treated with, you know, respect that hate there.
12:52
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm still a hospitality driver.
12:53
[SPEAKER_02]: No, and I'm no, but it's funny book because one of the things, you know, I said, I said to myself, I'm not ever doing an event that large at a hotel, right?
13:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
13:04
[SPEAKER_02]: That was one of the things I came up with, and you know, salute to my brother, Wall Street Trapper.
13:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I say, you know, if I ever do an event, and again, I'm going to the Freedom Center, I'm going to- Oh, that's right.
13:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to his building, right?
13:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a large.
13:16
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, that's right.
13:17
[SPEAKER_02]: 50,000 square, 50,000 square for the kids.
13:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
13:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, I'm going there.
13:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going there, you know what I'm saying?
13:24
[SPEAKER_02]: That's right.
13:25
[SPEAKER_02]: It's important to me.
13:25
[SPEAKER_07]: I love that.
13:26
[SPEAKER_07]: But you're still going to New Hill, too, right, for a bit.
13:27
[SPEAKER_07]: That's what we're still going to see.
13:28
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, yeah, sure.
13:29
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, maybe who knows next time, even I had your own hotel, date, date, date, date, date.
13:33
[SPEAKER_07]: We go on.
13:33
[SPEAKER_07]: Starting that conversation.
13:34
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what we do that.
13:36
[SPEAKER_07]: That's what we do.
13:36
[SPEAKER_07]: But the biggest thing that I've learned, a lot of, it's a misconception, right?
13:41
[SPEAKER_07]: A lot of people think that the black community do not have money.
13:44
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
13:46
[SPEAKER_07]: and we keep proving them wrong, right?
13:49
[SPEAKER_07]: I think with the hotel space, there's a lack of not necessarily capital, but the like knowledge and access.
13:59
[SPEAKER_07]: And really the awareness, right?
14:01
[SPEAKER_07]: Because when I grew up, I didn't know that I could own a hotel.
14:04
[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, I grew up, I don't know about you, but I was watching Jamie Foxx.
14:08
[SPEAKER_07]: Right.
14:09
[SPEAKER_07]: They all, they were the black hotel rooms, and filming, and filming.
14:13
[SPEAKER_07]: that they own a hotel that's true right you know think about that right so we literally grew up with this in our face and we still didn't ask still didn't think that until like recently I was like oh
14:27
[SPEAKER_07]: Like, you know what I mean?
14:28
[SPEAKER_07]: And it was a full service hotel.
14:29
[SPEAKER_07]: It wasn't even like a surprise.
14:30
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a full service hotel.
14:32
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a restaurant.
14:33
[SPEAKER_07]: And it's just a witness.
14:35
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, I didn't come from a family of entrepreneurs.
14:37
[SPEAKER_07]: My dad was a firefighter.
14:38
[SPEAKER_07]: My mom was an HR.
14:40
[SPEAKER_07]: My grandmother worked for.
14:43
[SPEAKER_07]: She worked for a hospital as a nurse to sister.
14:46
[SPEAKER_07]: So my dad, he was, he didn't believe in entrepreneurship.
14:49
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm just going to lead it over there.
14:50
[SPEAKER_07]: And he was like, look, you worked.
14:52
[SPEAKER_07]: you get pinching, and that's it, you're tired, and then you die, that's your life.
14:56
[SPEAKER_07]: That was just his mindset because that was just the age you know that he came up in.
15:00
[SPEAKER_07]: So it didn't dawn on me and so I tried to start it to change my circle, right?
15:05
[SPEAKER_07]: And I started, when I worked at the high, I got my start at the height, you can see Atlanta, I joined this organization called Under 30 Gateway at the college,
15:14
[SPEAKER_07]: and it was this group of Indians we're all in the 30 and I'm thinking I'm a super star and I'm super star at the hotel you know I'm like I'm this man bitch in the management of the world they were like what we all told them they just dropped my little I was like wait what should be all that's like yeah we developed okay they left out the the the minor note that they inherited you know to me they they say that
15:37
[SPEAKER_07]: But that would be awareness, that was when the bold edges like it was just click.
15:43
[SPEAKER_07]: I was like, because I like the, you know, I like to be best.
15:45
[SPEAKER_07]: I like to be different, because you can see what my entrance, right?
15:48
[SPEAKER_07]: You know what I mean?
15:49
[SPEAKER_07]: So I like to do things at the top.
15:52
[SPEAKER_07]: I want the top position.
15:52
[SPEAKER_07]: And I was like, I thought the top position was being a generated.
15:55
[SPEAKER_07]: No, the top position is being the owner.
15:57
[SPEAKER_07]: because at the time, when I worked at the High Eurgency in Atlanta, it was owned by the High Yet family or the Pritzker family.
16:03
[SPEAKER_07]: And so I just thought the highest on the highest of the Marius on the Marriott's, the Hilton on the Hilton, you know, that's a different story of this family.
16:12
[SPEAKER_07]: But anyway, so that's just what I thought.
16:14
[SPEAKER_07]: So to answer your question of how people get it, first is the awareness, right?
16:19
[SPEAKER_07]: And a lot of times with our community, this is just what I've seen.
16:22
[SPEAKER_07]: I've been teaching about distance 2019.
16:24
[SPEAKER_07]: And I hear a lot of people, you know, they love staying at the risk cost zone about it risk-alting.
16:29
[SPEAKER_07]: Risk-alting is a very expensive.
16:31
[SPEAKER_07]: I would not recommend that for anybody.
16:32
[SPEAKER_07]: To start off, my hundred risk-alting.
16:35
[SPEAKER_07]: I would recommend anybody.
16:36
[SPEAKER_07]: And I took it to my people, started with Motel 6.
16:41
[SPEAKER_07]: side of with the super eight.
16:43
[SPEAKER_07]: It may not be sexy.
16:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
16:44
[SPEAKER_07]: It would not be sexy if herself to just do you do you invest in real estate?
16:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I do.
16:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
16:48
[SPEAKER_07]: Was your first real estate property was it like sexy?
16:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I know it was in the hood.
16:52
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a hood.
16:54
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a yeah.
16:55
[SPEAKER_07]: So I didn't think of my first real estate that I did among, right?
16:58
[SPEAKER_07]: It's not the your first property isn't it's not going to be the best.
17:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
17:02
[SPEAKER_07]: Right, um, and that red roll was good.
17:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Even even though I was in the hood, but it got you started Right, the cash flow was coming in.
17:10
[SPEAKER_07]: You had the question was the same thing with hotels, right?
17:13
[SPEAKER_07]: So I talk about getting from that consumer to on the mindset, right?
17:19
[SPEAKER_07]: So we consume, you know, you know, I'm sure when you travel you say it really nice hotels So do I right when I travel I say it nice hotels But when I'm in the ownership, you know, I'm my first hotel
17:32
[SPEAKER_07]: acquired with a group of folks, we acquired in Oklahoma home two suites.
17:37
[SPEAKER_07]: That was a lucky, I went, it was just, we bought it during COVID, you know, it was just, we took over the loan pretty much from somebody and that's how we got in.
17:49
[SPEAKER_07]: We only had to put like a 10% down payment.
17:51
[SPEAKER_07]: And so it was just the right timing for that particular deal.
17:55
[SPEAKER_07]: Probably, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
18:18
[SPEAKER_07]: We bought those same thing right around during COVID.
18:21
[SPEAKER_07]: We took over the long for someone because they had to finish their renovation.
18:25
[SPEAKER_07]: So we bought the two hotels for 17.8 million.
18:28
[SPEAKER_07]: So we got a group of investors.
18:31
[SPEAKER_07]: A same thing with Oklahoma's Army, we did the same thing.
18:33
[SPEAKER_07]: Got a group of us, the investor.
18:35
[SPEAKER_07]: Indiana got a group of investors.
18:37
[SPEAKER_07]: I think we had to raise like $4.3 million.
18:38
[SPEAKER_07]: And then we used that the finished renovated hotel, brought in a new management company.
18:48
[SPEAKER_07]: and Indianapolis Fissures and a Hampton Inn in Skysberg, Indiana, we bought it for 17.8.
18:55
[SPEAKER_07]: We just sold it for $22 million.
18:57
[UNKNOWN]: Woo!
18:57
[SPEAKER_07]: So yeah, I know I've been getting a lot of like, you know, DMs, you know, family members, like, that's my family.
19:05
[SPEAKER_07]: I was like, what are you, right?
19:07
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, my family, you and I'm telling you some different things.
19:10
[SPEAKER_07]: So, um, so that that strategy that I was talking about, you know, Hampton in, it was in the rule.
19:16
[SPEAKER_07]: It was a smaller town, an Indianapolis Fisher that was with a hundred and forty five rooms.
19:21
[SPEAKER_07]: So the strategy on that, what we did,
19:22
[SPEAKER_07]: We bought it as basically a two-pack to hotel portfolio.
19:28
[SPEAKER_07]: We sold the stay-murch sweet thing for about 14.3 million.
19:34
[SPEAKER_07]: Since the two hotels were on the long, we sold the Stabrich Sweets.
19:38
[SPEAKER_07]: We used that to pay off the both hotels on the mortgage.
19:42
[SPEAKER_07]: So when we sold the Hampton Inn, that was just straight, pocket.
19:45
[SPEAKER_07]: Nice, nice, nice, nice.
19:47
[SPEAKER_07]: And so a lot of times I'm going back to, yeah, yeah, question, how can we start?
19:51
[SPEAKER_07]: A lot of this stuff, we kind of already know, because people forget that hotels are real estate.
19:55
[SPEAKER_07]: So if you're a real estate investor, it's just a little bit more complicated because it's operating business, sitting on a real estate and a franchise model.
20:04
[SPEAKER_07]: But if you understand the fundamentals of the real estate and your team players change, so the same people that show use for investment properties, maybe residential, even if you do office or retail is going to change for hotels.
20:17
[SPEAKER_07]: But the fundamentals are still the same, right?
20:20
[SPEAKER_07]: You still have to do your due diligence.
20:22
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, you still have to submit it.
20:24
[SPEAKER_07]: L.O.I.
20:24
[SPEAKER_07]: which is letter of intent, right?
20:26
[SPEAKER_07]: You still have to underwrite it to make sure it makes sense.
20:28
[SPEAKER_07]: You still have to get a pre-approval letter.
20:30
[SPEAKER_07]: You still have to get financing.
20:32
[SPEAKER_07]: Get down payment is probably going to be like 20 to 30%.
20:36
[SPEAKER_07]: If you don't have it, there are creative ways that you can do it.
20:38
[SPEAKER_07]: You can use business credit.
20:39
[SPEAKER_07]: Everybody's talking about business credit.
20:40
[SPEAKER_07]: Right.
20:41
[SPEAKER_07]: You use business credit.
20:42
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, if you got some friends and y'all coming and put a, uh, you know, 10 friends out of 100 each, that's a million dollars, right?
20:49
[SPEAKER_07]: Um.
20:50
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, all of those, those different things and and strategies that you maybe did with your smart smaller property, you could do it with your larger property.
20:57
[SPEAKER_07]: A lot of people use that, they use their retirement to invest, all right.
21:01
[SPEAKER_07]: A lot of people, they use, they pull out the stock of them, you know, this disclaimer, not a financial advisor, at a lawyer, so make sure you seek advice, but those are different things.
21:10
[SPEAKER_07]: That's why I launched Vester, my profile and platform.
21:13
[SPEAKER_07]: you know, if you don't have the full, you know, down payment, then you seek out equity partners.
21:18
[SPEAKER_07]: I've never met a hotel, I never just met a hotel owner, and it was only one person, ever, even billionaires.
21:25
[SPEAKER_07]: They still partner with people.
21:27
[SPEAKER_07]: So a lot of times in our community, we think that we have to do it by ourselves for what?
21:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.
21:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So what we do it?
21:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't normally do this, but you're really, really good, though.
21:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thank you.
21:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because you're guiding the conversation so flawlessly, so I hope you're, I didn't want to stop and say that because I hope they appreciate how you're gliding, because you set it up, it's like, I'm a hooper.
21:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So you just gave me the ad, let's talk about that soon.
21:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's talk about that soon.
22:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's talk about that soon.
22:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So you're telling me, if I want to invest in a hotel,
22:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have to have all the money myself.
22:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I can go to Vester and Ralphund and raise funds to buy a hotel.
22:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Tell me about Vester.
22:17
[SPEAKER_07]: basically crowdfunding, we're, for those who don't know what crowdfunding is, let me break down.
22:23
[SPEAKER_07]: Everybody in a mama probably heard it going for me.
22:25
[SPEAKER_07]: Go funding.
22:26
[SPEAKER_07]: That's essentially crowdfunding.
22:29
[SPEAKER_07]: It's just more of a donation base.
22:30
[SPEAKER_07]: So when you give your money on crowd on, go funding, you're not getting your money back.
22:35
[SPEAKER_07]: You just hope and pray that it's going to a good crowd.
22:37
[SPEAKER_07]: There you go.
22:37
[SPEAKER_07]: That's just donation.
22:39
[SPEAKER_07]: That's as a little different.
22:41
[SPEAKER_07]: We launched in 2022 on July 11th.
22:44
[SPEAKER_07]: That's my five-less birthday.
22:46
[SPEAKER_07]: He's not here with us anymore.
22:47
[SPEAKER_07]: So I wanted to pick that date because that way.
22:49
[SPEAKER_07]: So sad day for me because he's not here, but it's in celebration of me launching Vester.
22:54
[SPEAKER_07]: and then also a little Beyonce, she got a song called Seven The Living.
22:58
[SPEAKER_07]: I was like, let me just go ahead and just, you know, that's the fine time that you don't remember, you know, I just go, that's my niece's birthday to you.
23:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Seven The Living, she can't really live it.
23:07
[SPEAKER_07]: And so I was like, good girl, that's like a birthday.
23:10
[SPEAKER_07]: And so I was like, okay, and when I was raising capital for my hotels, it can be challenging.
23:17
[SPEAKER_07]: So you can't just like market and be on Facebook, a social media and be like, yo, y'all want to invest in this hotel.
23:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
23:23
[SPEAKER_07]: Even if you have like a whole bunch of followers, you got a big email list.
23:26
[SPEAKER_07]: Hey, I want to invest.
23:27
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, you can't do that.
23:28
[SPEAKER_07]: That's like a legal.
23:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Awesome, legal to do that.
23:31
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes, you have to get.
23:32
[SPEAKER_07]: So it's a SEC Securities Exchange Commission.
23:35
[SPEAKER_07]: We, Vester is a member of Fendra, Fendra stands for the Financial Industry Regulatory Society's like, go through an application process.
23:43
[SPEAKER_07]: It was harder to go through Fendra, get through, get approved by Fendra than it was to buy a hotel.
23:48
[SPEAKER_06]: Wow.
23:48
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes.
23:49
[SPEAKER_07]: It is very hard.
23:50
[SPEAKER_07]: It's a background check because I'm dealing with, it's like, almost getting approved like a bank.
23:54
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm dealing with a lot of money and dealing with people, it's security, right?
23:58
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
23:58
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
23:59
[SPEAKER_07]: And so that, and so we had to go through a proof of process, background check, like it was just a lot of work.
24:04
[SPEAKER_07]: Wow.
24:05
[SPEAKER_07]: And I had to build the tech, so I don't know how to build tech, but I hired somebody to build the tech.
24:09
[SPEAKER_07]: And so I raised the money myself.
24:11
[SPEAKER_07]: I didn't go through VC funding.
24:13
[SPEAKER_07]: I raised it because I raised money for hotels.
24:15
[SPEAKER_07]: I had this idea and I was like, it has to be a way for folks like myself to raise capital from their community.
24:23
[SPEAKER_07]: And also has to be a way for folks to invest too, right?
24:26
[SPEAKER_07]: Because if you don't really know hotel owners, how can you invest in a deal, right?
24:31
[SPEAKER_07]: If you don't know, yeah.
24:32
[SPEAKER_07]: again going back to the access right if you don't know the high-king invest and so after I was raising capital people's like okay they found winter next deal and it was like you know it's kind of hard to remember and track and I was like it got to be a string so I created a marketplace I'm a solution person and there's a problem with the solution yeah so instead of me complaining let me figure it out and that's just that's just high-priced and so creative that's there
24:54
[SPEAKER_07]: And I wanted the process to be, okay, I'm raising capital.
24:59
[SPEAKER_07]: I need the way to market.
25:00
[SPEAKER_07]: If I already have a community, how can I market?
25:04
[SPEAKER_07]: If I have, it's some folks who just don't want to own a hotel.
25:06
[SPEAKER_07]: Right.
25:07
[SPEAKER_07]: And that's fine.
25:08
[SPEAKER_07]: They might, I'm not trying to do all that.
25:09
[SPEAKER_07]: Just tell me we're an investor.
25:10
[SPEAKER_07]: I get my reach out.
25:11
[SPEAKER_07]: My investors.
25:13
[SPEAKER_07]: Some of them, the majority don't want to own.
25:15
[SPEAKER_07]: They keep it after we just closed.
25:16
[SPEAKER_07]: They're like, yo, they want what's the next deal?
25:18
[SPEAKER_07]: Like you.
25:19
[SPEAKER_07]: You just make them online and grow because we got them about, you know, 12 to 14% return.
25:24
[SPEAKER_07]: I want 0.5x on a money and they have to do anything.
25:26
[SPEAKER_06]: Nice.
25:26
[SPEAKER_07]: And they get to stay at the hotel for free if they want.
25:28
[SPEAKER_07]: You know what I mean?
25:29
[SPEAKER_07]: Some of them got discounts.
25:30
[SPEAKER_07]: So they're like, yo, just you do the work.
25:31
[SPEAKER_05]: Right, right.
25:32
[SPEAKER_07]: Let's just invest with you, right?
25:33
[SPEAKER_07]: And so with Vester, I wanted to create that community, and I'm so proud to say this, that since 2022, we raised over $2.5 million, because of that, two hotels have closed.
25:50
[SPEAKER_06]: Nice.
25:51
[SPEAKER_07]: Majority and investors have black.
25:53
[SPEAKER_06]: Nice.
25:53
[SPEAKER_07]: A gentleman launched a fund that's going to buy more hotels and the car wash was able to be closed.
25:59
[SPEAKER_06]: Nice.
26:00
[SPEAKER_07]: And I didn't realize how big it was until people
26:04
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, to me, I'm just, I'm just in the moment.
26:06
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm just like, hey, I'm just trying to bring out to the table.
26:09
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
26:10
[SPEAKER_07]: And...
26:11
[SPEAKER_07]: The fact that, you know, I went to investor retreats and these people now because of those investors who invested in that hotel was the, the Wendom Hotel in Lake Charleston shout out to Chia out to them.
26:21
[SPEAKER_07]: They were the first deal that closed on investor.
26:23
[SPEAKER_07]: They raised like a million dollars in a month.
26:25
[SPEAKER_07]: And through, and because of investor with the marketing arm, because we're like an extension of marketing arm.
26:29
[SPEAKER_07]: They were able to raise $3 million dollars.
26:32
[SPEAKER_06]: Wow.
26:32
[SPEAKER_07]: So it was like a $12 million acquisition.
26:34
[SPEAKER_06]: Wow.
26:34
[SPEAKER_07]: And they renovated a holiday in the converter and so Wendom.
26:37
[SPEAKER_07]: All majority black investors, yeah, about ninety-seven percent black investors.
26:41
[SPEAKER_07]: The ownership group is black, the majority of it's black women, the management company that operates the day-to-day operations black, the crowdfunding platform that was used to raise the equity black on, then they partner with Wyndham, Wyndham has a program called Black Owners Lodging Developers.
26:57
[SPEAKER_07]: They were the first hotel a part of the program,
27:03
[SPEAKER_07]: to launch, to open under that program, they gave them basically, I don't wanna say them out, but they gave them a decent amount to help them get to the crossing lines, to open and because of, and then they partnered with a lender, but they were so proud of that deal, they launched a $100 million fund to help other black people buy hotels.
27:26
[SPEAKER_07]: because the issue, some issue is the money is getting the finance, but it's really, it's harder to get equity than it is to get finance, than it is to get a mortgage.
27:33
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
27:33
[SPEAKER_06]: It really is.
27:34
[SPEAKER_07]: For people who have about a house, so for people about real estate, that what's the hardest part?
27:38
[SPEAKER_07]: It's the equity, you get the debt, it's just the equity.
27:41
[SPEAKER_07]: And I thought that that was an issue.
27:42
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm like, okay, again, going back to me, being a problem to Harvard, what can we do to help, right?
27:47
[SPEAKER_07]: And so,
27:48
[SPEAKER_07]: Then we had our a recent deal that closed early this year independent hotel and Louisiana We stay sweet.
27:56
[SPEAKER_07]: She raised over a million dollars majority of the investors of black.
28:00
[SPEAKER_07]: You know ownership group majority of it is black and so all of these
28:05
[SPEAKER_07]: It's like, oh my gosh, this is a beautiful thing.
28:09
[SPEAKER_07]: And now it's somebody's people, but they want to, not they want to own, right?
28:13
[SPEAKER_07]: Because they, because technically through the later's eyes, if you invest in a hotel passively, and they're eyes, you're technically your owner.
28:20
[SPEAKER_07]: Because a lot of times, you can't really buy a hotel unless you have ownership experience.
28:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was gonna be my question because I know like,
28:28
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, sometimes it's not just the money, right?
28:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I know that, you know, my wife and I had looked into buying restaurant like franchises and things like that nature.
28:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And one of the staff drops stock gaps for us was we had no experience.
28:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we had the capital, we had everything that we needed, but they needed you to have, you know, so like,
28:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Like all because it's, you know, it's like, all right, do you have X amount of money and assets check?
28:54
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to say, so all the things we check, the one thing we didn't have the experience, and so that was gonna be my next question is like, you know, how could anybody just walk in and say, hey, I got the money, I wanna be a hotel owner.
29:08
[SPEAKER_02]: and the answer is no, right?
29:10
[SPEAKER_07]: The same thing, I've seen billionaires give turn down, trying to literally, they can buy their hotel in cash.
29:14
[SPEAKER_07]: We have the money, but because they don't have the experience.
29:19
[SPEAKER_07]: Even Sheila Johnson was really the queen hotel.
29:21
[SPEAKER_07]: She launched us a solemnander of the brand.
29:24
[SPEAKER_07]: She talks about, you know, when she launched a solemnander, no, the difficulty is in challenges that she had.
29:29
[SPEAKER_07]: And she, of course, she had the capital.
29:30
[SPEAKER_07]: She just so B.T.
29:32
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, what their ex has been, you know, she had the capital, but the experience, right?
29:37
[SPEAKER_07]: And so what my, my first investors who invested in Oklahoma, they were able to buy their first hotel was a quality and a myth is, and because they invested,
29:49
[SPEAKER_07]: And my home to sweet and Oklahoma, it helped them with that experience.
29:54
[SPEAKER_07]: So that's another pathway that, you know, again, sometimes it's not the money.
30:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
30:00
[SPEAKER_07]: It's the access in the 90s.
30:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So if I hear you correctly.
30:03
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
30:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Devonne Reeves.
30:05
[SPEAKER_02]: If I hear you correctly, if I wanted to be a hotel owner in the past, it was like, I had to have connections.
30:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have to know you or somebody.
30:15
[SPEAKER_02]: in order to invest in a hotel in order to get the experience to do it on my own.
30:21
[SPEAKER_02]: But you've created an app and a crowdfunding application that somebody could invest in hotels through your app.
30:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And by being a passive investor in that hotel,
30:38
[SPEAKER_02]: it would qualify me for the experience to be able to eventually own my own hotel if I wanted to.
30:44
[SPEAKER_07]: That's the pathway that a lot of investors are.
30:46
[SPEAKER_02]: That you created.
30:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
30:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
30:48
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, it's just a market place.
30:51
[SPEAKER_07]: And we just don't do hotels.
30:52
[SPEAKER_07]: We do other commercial asset crisis.
30:54
[SPEAKER_07]: It's just because I'm known for hotels that this.
30:56
[SPEAKER_07]: So we, like I said, we raised capital for a car wash. Yeah.
30:59
[SPEAKER_07]: There's currently a, um,
31:01
[SPEAKER_07]: a co-working space in Jacksonville, Florida that that that's being raised.
31:08
[SPEAKER_07]: I think those are the only I think a multi-family asset classes will be coming pretty soon.
31:13
[SPEAKER_07]: So today we have about three deals on there, probably about it.
31:17
[SPEAKER_07]: about the end of this quarter or end of Q3, we'll probably have nine deals on the site.
31:23
[SPEAKER_07]: So it's been word amounts.
31:25
[SPEAKER_07]: We're growing.
31:26
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm so fortunate.
31:27
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm so blessed.
31:28
[SPEAKER_07]: It is hard.
31:29
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, it was it was hard.
31:32
[SPEAKER_07]: And I thought watching this, you know, because.
31:34
[SPEAKER_07]: The hotel game was, I want to say it was, it was just easier because I grew up in it and I had a lot of connections in the hotel space.
31:40
[SPEAKER_07]: Like I just, I mean, I was in it since I was in college.
31:43
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, I worked in Boston, I worked at Horr else.
31:45
[SPEAKER_07]: So I, you know, grew up pretty much in the industry.
31:48
[SPEAKER_07]: And I had a lot of connections and you know, it was just easy to make a phone call.
31:51
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
31:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
31:52
[SPEAKER_07]: You grew up in it.
31:54
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, what that didn't happen.
31:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
31:56
[SPEAKER_07]: Right.
31:56
[SPEAKER_07]: I had to learn luckily.
31:57
[SPEAKER_07]: I had a really good lawyer who was able to help me navigate it.
32:00
[SPEAKER_07]: The biggest thing is building teams.
32:02
[SPEAKER_07]: So having to write people on, you know, your team who understand securities and being so shout out to my founders, my tech founders, I feel your pain is hard, you know, sometimes you like, oh, I had to turn the lights off in the beginning and then like, divine time.
32:16
[SPEAKER_07]: That first deal.
32:17
[SPEAKER_07]: When them and that was because we had to deal that didn't go through the first time.
32:20
[SPEAKER_07]: And that wasn't that wasn't the first deal for Vester and I've just realized that it was the holiday and that converted to Wendom and it was our first investors who invested in Oklahoma and that was the first deal to close, you know, a successfully raised capital on Vester.
32:37
[SPEAKER_07]: going to that part that you mentioned is just a space where you get an access.
32:43
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm basically connecting the person who needs capital to the person who has a capital and who wants an investment, and just make it, we do the, you know, of course you have to do your due diligence, but I've turned down deals.
32:55
[SPEAKER_07]: So just because you like, hey, I got this deal.
32:57
[SPEAKER_07]: I've turned down this if that background check don't come right.
33:00
[SPEAKER_07]: If I feel like you don't know what you're doing,
33:06
[SPEAKER_07]: My job, I told Finn room in the SEC that I want to make sure these investors are okay.
33:12
[SPEAKER_07]: So if the deal doesn't sit right, meaning that you can't tell me how the investors are going to get their money back.
33:18
[SPEAKER_07]: I can't rock with you.
33:19
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
33:21
[SPEAKER_07]: I have to be able to some people don't care.
33:23
[SPEAKER_07]: Some people will take your money.
33:24
[SPEAKER_07]: I can't do that.
33:25
[SPEAKER_07]: I have to have the sleep at night.
33:26
[SPEAKER_07]: Again, I was real close to my grandma.
33:28
[SPEAKER_07]: She's no longer with this.
33:29
[SPEAKER_07]: But I don't know about you and your family, but I couldn't embarrass my family.
33:32
[SPEAKER_06]: Back, sure.
33:33
[SPEAKER_07]: My grandma was like, you've been not embarrassed me.
33:34
[SPEAKER_07]: So that's how I go, but I can't embarrass my grandma.
33:37
[SPEAKER_07]: Even though she's not here, I still can't embarrass her.
33:39
[SPEAKER_07]: You see, I'm saying, so that's what, that's the integrity.
33:41
[SPEAKER_07]: That's what I have to do to sleep at night.
33:43
[SPEAKER_07]: And I just try to be transparent as possible.
33:46
[SPEAKER_07]: And I think that's how we've been able to grow organically.
33:48
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, we've been able a lot of the deals that we get on word of mouth.
33:52
[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, just literally how did you hear about this word?
33:55
[SPEAKER_07]: People would be following me.
33:56
[SPEAKER_07]: People would be following me for years.
33:58
[SPEAKER_07]: Their first investment was was on Vester.
34:00
[SPEAKER_06]: Wow.
34:01
[SPEAKER_07]: They were like, they've been following you.
34:02
[SPEAKER_07]: I've been taking it class.
34:04
[SPEAKER_07]: I've been doing your your your research.
34:06
[SPEAKER_07]: I've been saving up my money.
34:07
[SPEAKER_07]: I've been building up my retirement because somebody wouldn't know they'd use their retirement.
34:10
[SPEAKER_07]: Some people started off getting life insurance because they didn't know that they can get cash value life insurance and use that to invest So all of these things that they didn't know they're like oh, I can invest and they were and then when that first deal They were ready They were like oh my gosh, I got here his whatever it was to invest They were able to invest and now they can bring their children into the whole town be like baby You part you are part of that so when I hear those stuff
34:33
[SPEAKER_07]: That's when he hits, I'm getting chills just thinking about it.
34:36
[SPEAKER_07]: When they tell me like, they find, because of you, I'm here, I'm like, oh, my gosh, and their children.
34:42
[SPEAKER_07]: And then now, it's children saying they want to own hotels.
34:46
[SPEAKER_07]: They, the, just the mind of them now, they know that, okay, you know what, I can, I can do this.
34:52
[SPEAKER_07]: I can, I can own this and now the brands are looking more to, right?
34:56
[SPEAKER_07]: The brands are coming to me.
34:58
[SPEAKER_07]: Hey Dave, we want to see more and more people who look like you.
35:02
[SPEAKER_07]: So they coming up with programs.
35:04
[SPEAKER_07]: I just told you about the fund.
35:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, sure, sure.
35:06
[SPEAKER_05]: That's a fund.
35:08
[SPEAKER_07]: For folks, shout out to Mel and the money.
35:10
[SPEAKER_07]: That's some of them folks.
35:11
[SPEAKER_07]: They invested in a race, but that's not a thing.
35:13
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:14
[SPEAKER_07]: So they were part of that deal.
35:16
[SPEAKER_07]: And just to see that, right?
35:19
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, because reminding people,
35:21
[SPEAKER_07]: We use the auto tells us again at one point.
35:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
35:25
[SPEAKER_07]: That's the only hotel that we could say here.
35:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
35:27
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
35:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
35:30
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you find deals?
35:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, like, how do you know when
35:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, a hotel is for sale.
35:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Like is there a website?
35:39
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, that's a good question because you won't you don't really see hotels.
35:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like if you were a bar, it'd be like, oh, that may be odd.
35:46
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I'm saying?
35:47
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, you're not going to see.
35:48
[SPEAKER_07]: I thought won't hold to Elfacell and I was released.
35:50
[SPEAKER_07]: I thought it was funny.
35:51
[SPEAKER_07]: But in the state, no, so you have to work with like a hotel broker so shout out to my, my good friend and brother O'Mara, he had a hotel broker.
35:58
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, there's not an MLS for hotel, so you can go to LootNet, um, you can go to Crank
36:04
[SPEAKER_07]: 10X is more of the auction website, but I was, I would say with Luke Ned or Cracksie, and then find a hotel broker.
36:11
[SPEAKER_07]: There's some brokers out there that do commercial real estate, or they do find a hotel broker.
36:16
[SPEAKER_07]: And you can ask them what hotels have you closed on?
36:18
[SPEAKER_07]: Because again, this is your first time.
36:20
[SPEAKER_07]: So if you don't know what you're doing, you can't work with somebody that don't know what they're doing, because this is a lot of money.
36:25
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
36:26
[SPEAKER_07]: But that earned money down.
36:27
[SPEAKER_06]: For sure.
36:28
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, and it's not, like, you know, couple, like five times, it's like 30, 50, that was like, this is 1% of the purchase price, right?
36:35
[SPEAKER_07]: And so, you know, you want to make sure you're dealing with the right people, so that would definitely say work with the hotel broker.
36:41
[SPEAKER_07]: You can Google it.
36:42
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, it's Marcus and no chap is a company jail.
36:46
[SPEAKER_07]: It's so many different, you know, hotel brokers that that you can work with.
36:49
[SPEAKER_07]: I would just Google it with whatever your region is, or whatever market.
36:52
[SPEAKER_07]: So, start with really the market, just like real estate, and it's,
36:55
[SPEAKER_07]: start with the market that you want to be in and then go for it.
36:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you have like any, I know you, you know, wrote a book.
37:05
[SPEAKER_02]: do you have any courses, programs, education, right?
37:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Because for me, hearing your mission, hearing your vision, I'm not Googling.
37:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm calling to you.
37:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to go to the person who has done it, the person who talks about a 17.5 million dollar purchase, not shenotl, that's why I wouldn't talk to you.
37:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Because he was like, yeah, well, a 17.5, yeah, we sold up a 22 million, and I'm saying they're like,
37:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm
38:01
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, so like, so like my, you know, I'm Haitian, right?
38:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Haitian American, my parents are from Haiti.
38:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And people don't know that every January first, we, we, like, it's our independence day, right?
38:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So Haiti was the first three black republic.
38:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And every January first, it's Haitian independence day.
38:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And we drink what's called soup jumim, right?
38:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And the reason why we drink this soup because it's an act of rebellion, because we couldn't, right?
38:28
[SPEAKER_02]: We couldn't drink this particular soup.
38:31
[SPEAKER_02]: It's only like the wealthy people that drunk it or whatever the case may be, and so every January 1st to celebrate, it's almost like a nannannannann to our former presses, it's like we call it the freedom suit, and so owning hotels is like a version of a freedom suit, where you're like, look, we couldn't do it, and now because we couldn't do it, we're doing it
39:00
[SPEAKER_02]: So your Y is bigger than just like, hey, let's make some money.
39:04
[SPEAKER_02]: This is like a radical act of defiance and let me take back what you would you took away, you know what I'm saying, and so talk a little bit about.
39:16
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, as a case, you have outside of people.
39:18
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
39:19
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, for one, thank you for that.
39:20
[SPEAKER_07]: So definitely I have, we have courses.
39:24
[SPEAKER_07]: I do in-person events.
39:26
[SPEAKER_07]: I have what you call it, inner circle.
39:28
[SPEAKER_07]: I focus more on quality.
39:31
[SPEAKER_07]: Now since I have, you know, have, have vested now.
39:34
[SPEAKER_07]: So I really, a lot of my shift is towards that.
39:37
[SPEAKER_07]: So I have, um,
39:38
[SPEAKER_07]: trust it folks who I work with and I have what you call the inner circle pretty much and It's a small group of people who are work was I'm working with directly and I'm pretty much walked them along the way I get them introductions to the to the brands I get them I basically help them build their team Right cuz I could say some folks You know either you had time we have money.
40:02
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, right then folks with the money they don't have a time
40:08
[SPEAKER_07]: And in the folks who have the time, we do have some young events and different things to help people.
40:14
[SPEAKER_07]: And then, or they just go through Vester to invest.
40:18
[SPEAKER_07]: So we do have educational stuff, definitely, following for that.
40:22
[SPEAKER_07]: The inner circles, like I said, is what I work with people directly.
40:25
[SPEAKER_07]: I have one of my students.
40:28
[SPEAKER_07]: He's developing or clients.
40:30
[SPEAKER_07]: He's developing a 20.
40:34
[SPEAKER_07]: No, no, no, no, I take it back.
40:35
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, I'm off a 50 million dollar project.
40:38
[SPEAKER_07]: And two signed air zone is something happy to hear that.
40:41
[SPEAKER_07]: I remember he reached out to me, found me on YouTube.
40:43
[SPEAKER_07]: So I'm on YouTube.
40:44
[SPEAKER_07]: I do have a lot of educational stuff on YouTube.
40:47
[SPEAKER_07]: He reached out to me from YouTube.
40:49
[SPEAKER_07]: And he reached out to Hilton.
40:52
[SPEAKER_07]: And they didn't call him back.
40:54
[SPEAKER_07]: Like, you know, he reached out to me.
40:56
[SPEAKER_07]: He, you know, reached out to me, did a strategy call.
41:00
[SPEAKER_07]: And I was like, OK, well, I know some folks at Hill 10 reached out to Hill 10.
41:03
[SPEAKER_07]: They responded back within 24 hours.
41:05
[SPEAKER_07]: And he was like, oh, I'm working with you.
41:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, we're working.
41:07
[SPEAKER_07]: So going to your point, you know, it's a lot of stuff that's about relationships, right?
41:11
[SPEAKER_07]: You come from the finance world, so you know how to work.
41:13
[SPEAKER_07]: So there's a lot of stuff that's just dealing with relationships.
41:16
[SPEAKER_07]: The biggest thing is probably just, you know, I have folks who I work with so if I can't help you then I can make you with my friends in the industry who are whole talk and soul sense who can help you along the way because my time has become more limited now and it's certain things that I can't do because of, you know, compliance reasons.
41:35
[SPEAKER_07]: So I do make sure that you're in the, I'm more of a connector.
41:39
[SPEAKER_07]: So like I have a lot of players, I'm not gonna hold so close.
41:43
[SPEAKER_07]: So I have a lot of in-person events, I do webinars, you know, I have my book.
41:48
[SPEAKER_07]: And then I have my inner circle for the folks who, the inner circle is really for people who are ready to acquire within a year.
41:54
[SPEAKER_07]: In fact, I was just on the call with my inner circle members earlier, talking to IAsG.
41:59
[SPEAKER_07]: They wanted a, um,
42:00
[SPEAKER_07]: They're looking at the IAsG brand.
42:02
[SPEAKER_07]: We also have in-person events at the brands.
42:05
[SPEAKER_07]: So I will go to IAsG headquarters.
42:10
[SPEAKER_07]: We had a chief development officer come and speak to us.
42:12
[SPEAKER_07]: Which is a big thing.
42:13
[SPEAKER_07]: So shout out to IAsG shout out to Julian Smith.
42:17
[SPEAKER_07]: We early just the year we went to Hills and hate quarters, so we go to different so we you know Which is I didn't realize it was a big deal people like they find how many people can walk up to the brands Or is and just go and have any bad.
42:29
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh my god.
42:29
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, yeah, so that's what we do in the inner circle Bring them so that would they come learn about the brands?
42:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah
42:34
[SPEAKER_07]: A lot of the brands that have diversity programs shout out to choice choices one of my first sponsors.
42:39
[SPEAKER_07]: So we've been to choice headquarters before.
42:41
[SPEAKER_07]: And so these are the brands who are actually talking to you.
42:44
[SPEAKER_07]: Remember I said sometimes you can't, they don't respond well, I bring them to you, right?
42:48
[SPEAKER_07]: The people that can actually help you get to the closing table.
42:51
[SPEAKER_07]: So you can understand the brand.
42:53
[SPEAKER_07]: So you can understand the mission to see if you want to work with them.
42:56
[SPEAKER_07]: A lot of the brands that have a different incentive program.
42:58
[SPEAKER_07]: during my educational courses or if I walk you through it or if I get connecting with the right people to help you along the way, then those are the things that we do.
43:05
[SPEAKER_07]: We pretty much, the biggest thing to get to the closing table is having the 18 is having the right team, the right people on your team, and so I bet them.
43:14
[SPEAKER_07]: I have like a one-strike rule.
43:17
[SPEAKER_07]: Because I'm connecting first timers.
43:20
[SPEAKER_07]: So if you mess up, that's going to make me look bad for you.
43:24
[SPEAKER_07]: Can't embarrass you, right?
43:25
[SPEAKER_07]: And so if a lenders, they say, they hey, they find I reach out to this lender and this lender didn't respond, got to go.
43:31
[SPEAKER_07]: Because you don't have that much time to close these deals.
43:35
[SPEAKER_07]: So I really proud myself on connecting people with the right lawyers.
43:40
[SPEAKER_07]: with the right brands.
43:41
[SPEAKER_07]: If you need a feasibility study, if you need a property condition assessment, which is the same thing as an inspection report.
43:48
[SPEAKER_07]: If you like buying a house, I connect you with the right people to help you get money.
43:54
[SPEAKER_07]: Brands, they offer programs where they give you money.
43:57
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, lenders, because not all lenders financial tales, right?
44:02
[SPEAKER_07]: That's just, you know, so where do you go?
44:04
[SPEAKER_07]: There's SBA programs where you can get up to $5 million.
44:08
[SPEAKER_07]: So I connect you with the people, you know, who you need, and that's what I do a lot in my inner circle, just to make it, you know, we went to Belize.
44:17
[SPEAKER_07]: I had two of my inner circle members there, developing a hotel in Belize.
44:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Wow.
44:21
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, so we went out there to see it a couple of times and so my inner circle members, we go, we're going to Columbia next year and because the brands are like, hey, this is where we need hotels.
44:31
[SPEAKER_07]: And typically, if you go where they need hotels, they give you money to help you develop.
44:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And so what's your, what's the vision, right?
44:40
[SPEAKER_02]: So so far, I think you've helped over 200
44:43
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you know, hotel investors, right, or people become hotel investors, what is the vision, is it, is it, you know, we're, you know, less than 2% is it, you know, 20%, 10%, do you have, have you, have you thought about, like, when it's all set and done, you know, what, what impact is Devon Reed going to have Reeves going to have in the hotel business for black people.
45:08
[SPEAKER_07]: The number is my head if we can just get a billion dollars on the assets, assets and the management.
45:16
[SPEAKER_07]: That's the number that's just been stuck in my head.
45:18
[SPEAKER_07]: So when you said that that's the number that's right, the percentage was.
45:22
[SPEAKER_07]: If we can get the five to ten percent, I would be happy, five to ten percent.
45:27
[SPEAKER_07]: I would be five to ten percent by twenty thirty.
45:30
[SPEAKER_07]: Mm-hmm.
45:30
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
45:30
[SPEAKER_07]: What is it?
45:31
[SPEAKER_07]: Twenty twenty.
45:32
[SPEAKER_06]: Five.
45:32
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
45:33
[SPEAKER_07]: So what?
45:34
[SPEAKER_07]: Five to ten percent by twenty thirty.
45:35
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
45:36
[SPEAKER_07]: Some people think that's why that's a huge jump.
45:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
45:38
[SPEAKER_02]: No.
45:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Ten percent.
45:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
45:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Five to ten percent.
45:41
[SPEAKER_02]: For sure.
45:42
[SPEAKER_02]: For sure.
45:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And then.
45:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So.
45:44
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, that's their black on-craft funding platform.
45:48
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the first, right?
45:52
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, for hotel investments, other, you know, you do other deals as well.
45:58
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, what problem were you solving when you started this like?
46:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know you mentioned it before, but like when you dig deep into
46:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, tech, um, crowdfunding, you know, what's the, what's the, what's the, what's the, what's the problem that you were solving?
46:17
[SPEAKER_07]: The problem that I'm solving is access.
46:21
[SPEAKER_07]: Hmm.
46:21
[SPEAKER_07]: Uh, the problem that I'm solving is, it's capital.
46:25
[SPEAKER_07]: And it's not just, just hotels because I've noticed.
46:29
[SPEAKER_07]: Once you, I'm planning the seat that can open and that can expand in the different things, right?
46:36
[SPEAKER_07]: So maybe they can't do a hotel today, but they can start with the multifamily today.
46:41
[SPEAKER_07]: They can do a hotel tomorrow.
46:43
[SPEAKER_07]: Maybe they see a office building or maybe they see some land, right?
46:47
[SPEAKER_07]: So it's just really more so just planning the seat to get them started because ownership is key, right?
46:56
[SPEAKER_07]: And so my big thing, I'm big on ownership.
46:59
[SPEAKER_07]: That's why I launched a platform that I own, right?
47:03
[SPEAKER_07]: Big, I'm not big on renting, you know, we didn't, one of my cousins say we don't rent in this family.
47:10
[SPEAKER_07]: I didn't understand it, but I get it now, right?
47:13
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, instead of, and I know some people they can't do it in the beginning, but you know, some people, they buy restaurants that's in the street mall.
47:21
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, if that strip mall, the owner, the strip mall, they decide to sell it.
47:24
[SPEAKER_07]: And you just did a build out, and you add a look.
47:27
[SPEAKER_07]: So, but what if you own that strip mall, and you put your restaurant in it, or you own the land where your restaurant sits on, nobody can't come in and say I'm taking it.
47:36
[SPEAKER_07]: So, I'm planning to see more.
47:37
[SPEAKER_07]: So, it's not just hotels, it's just, it's the big thing, it's ownership.
47:42
[SPEAKER_07]: owning land, owning as much as we possibly can because at one point we could not do it.
47:49
[SPEAKER_07]: And the biggest thing is not only that we couldn't do it, but that's what a power is.
47:54
[SPEAKER_07]: If you own a block, you paint a lot of taxes.
47:57
[SPEAKER_06]: Like sure.
47:58
[SPEAKER_07]: So if something goes wrong, I paint a lot of taxes.
48:05
[SPEAKER_07]: You want me to move my business somewhere else and bring tax money to a different community.
48:10
[SPEAKER_07]: I bet you that community will listen, right?
48:12
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm bringing jobs to a community because I'm owning something.
48:18
[SPEAKER_07]: So it's just bigger than I think some people just to hold up, no, I'm not creating jobs.
48:24
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm creating careers because I started off as a front desk agent and you know, I could have been a GM but now I'm owning, right?
48:31
[SPEAKER_07]: So that's what I'm creating.
48:35
[SPEAKER_07]: That's what I'm thinking.
48:36
[SPEAKER_07]: When I see a front desk agent, what do you want to do?
48:39
[SPEAKER_07]: Or if I see you out or whoever, what do you want to do if I see a student?
48:42
[SPEAKER_07]: What do you want to do?
48:43
[SPEAKER_07]: And if they actually want to tell them the light bulb when they're out.
48:47
[SPEAKER_07]: I like the thing big.
48:49
[SPEAKER_07]: I like to think so big that it will scare me, right?
48:53
[SPEAKER_07]: That's just who would have thought that I would have never thought years ago that I would have created a crowdfunding platform.
48:59
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't know anything about take, I don't know how to code.
49:01
[SPEAKER_07]: My six-year-old son knows how to code.
49:03
[SPEAKER_03]: I know.
49:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:05
[SPEAKER_07]: But the dream was so, and I wanted to be a billionaire, I wanted to be a unicorn.
49:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
49:09
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm going to say until we are unicorns.
49:11
[SPEAKER_07]: To some people that will scare them, they find, you ain't going to be a billionaire.
49:15
[SPEAKER_07]: You're not going to be a billionaire.
49:16
[SPEAKER_07]: I am, right?
49:17
[SPEAKER_07]: So I dream big, so that's really the issue.
49:20
[SPEAKER_07]: I want people to dream is big as they possibly can.
49:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
49:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
49:26
[SPEAKER_02]: What has been the most difficult part of either, I'd be both actually, not even either,
49:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, owning a hotel and then now getting into tech, what has been the most difficult part of both both for those?
49:44
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh gosh, tech is different.
49:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
49:46
[SPEAKER_07]: I will say tech is different.
49:48
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm just gonna say it's different.
49:49
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, I've
49:52
[SPEAKER_07]: The more and more I talk to other tech founders, I've realized how far I came.
49:57
[SPEAKER_07]: Meaning I didn't have to, I went from ideation to execution probably within a year.
50:02
[SPEAKER_07]: I didn't go through the venture capital route, right?
50:06
[SPEAKER_07]: I raised the money through private equity.
50:08
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, I've actually already started issuing dividends to my investors who invested investor itself.
50:13
[SPEAKER_07]: Nice, nice, nice.
50:15
[SPEAKER_07]: And so I,
50:18
[SPEAKER_07]: The difficult part was the, again, the access and then I was, so I had to teach myself.
50:25
[SPEAKER_07]: I had to, it was a lot of the regulations.
50:28
[SPEAKER_07]: I didn't, I didn't face, in my opinion, I didn't have to not yet.
50:36
[SPEAKER_07]: I hope it'll ever come with racer anything being a woman.
50:44
[SPEAKER_07]: I've been very,
50:46
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm not gonna say that I had like a perfect like, or I never experienced racism, I'm not gonna say that.
50:51
[SPEAKER_07]: But I would say it made it difficult for me, when I hear other people's stories.
50:57
[SPEAKER_07]: I did have some challenges, you know, I was the only, the industry that I'm in being in hotel ownership is not a lot of black people.
51:04
[SPEAKER_07]: Right.
51:05
[SPEAKER_07]: When I started going to conferences and going to events 10 years ago, I was like the only black person no conference would be like 400 people.
51:12
[SPEAKER_07]: So it was definitely uncomfortable.
51:16
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, the women though was it was other women, but it wasn't as many and it was like maybe one other black person maybe like one of the black women who were still friends to this day and it was
51:32
[SPEAKER_07]: It was, it, you know what actually being a black and being a woman, that wasn't the hurdles it was being young, okay?
51:39
[SPEAKER_07]: That was really the harshest.
51:41
[SPEAKER_07]: It wasn't that, that it was, it was just I was young.
51:44
[SPEAKER_07]: It was more like you two young, like they didn't, nobody took, when I said I want that on the whole, nobody like took me serious.
51:49
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
51:50
[SPEAKER_07]: It was like girl get late.
51:51
[SPEAKER_07]: They literally, like, I was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
52:13
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, if you don't want me to educate, if you don't, I just do it myself, and I just figured out.
52:18
[SPEAKER_07]: And that's how I'm saying here with you today, because I just didn't take no for answers.
52:25
[SPEAKER_07]: So I didn't take it as, oh man, I'm a black, I'm a woman.
52:29
[SPEAKER_07]: So when I hear these other stories, I'm like, oh, I'm fortunate because I didn't have to deal with that.
52:33
[SPEAKER_07]: But really, it was like I said it was just me being young, because I was the always the youngest.
52:38
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, I, and then it kind of worked in my favor sometimes being black and being a woman because you know, in order to get certain contracts You had to be so I was kind of like the diversity Yeah, so they kind of like put me at the table and I was like okay, I know what I would know it But I learned so much because that because that
52:56
[SPEAKER_07]: There we go.
52:57
[SPEAKER_07]: It was a see, this is crazy.
52:58
[SPEAKER_07]: It was crazy, it was crazy.
53:00
[SPEAKER_07]: And so they just kind of like, well, you know, because sometimes, my old companies that I worked at, they couldn't get contracts because there was no black people.
53:08
[SPEAKER_03]: And so they were like, oh, we got they, oh, we're right.
53:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
53:12
[SPEAKER_07]: Here's a woman, she's like in a woman's mouth.
53:14
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, okay, I'll say it, you know.
53:16
[SPEAKER_07]: So I can just sit there, but I learned so much, you know, I'm from that.
53:21
[SPEAKER_07]: So I'm grateful.
53:23
[SPEAKER_07]: And, you know, I'm grateful to have the right mentors.
53:27
[SPEAKER_07]: I brought myself, I'm big on relationships.
53:30
[SPEAKER_07]: So I think that's what helped me a lot.
53:32
[SPEAKER_07]: It was that I was, and I'm a strategic networker.
53:38
[SPEAKER_07]: So I pride myself and networking and build a relationships with the right people and working with the people who have the power because a lot of times people think the CEO has the power right It could be the assistant it could be the you know what I mean it could be the so I learned how to navigate that corporate world Who actually who I need to really build the relationships with and I think that helped me a lot with my journey and you know just being nice and
54:07
[SPEAKER_07]: and doing the right thing.
54:08
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I love that.
54:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, how do you balance legacy?
54:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Because you have, you wear different hats, right?
54:16
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you balance legacy building with being a mom, being a, you know, you know, founder, being a hotel owner, being a investor, being a community leader?
54:29
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you balance those things out?
54:30
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh my gosh, it's so hard.
54:32
[SPEAKER_07]: And there is no, like, right.
54:35
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't even know.
54:37
[SPEAKER_07]: I can tell you.
54:38
[SPEAKER_07]: I do have a team and they are really organized.
54:41
[SPEAKER_07]: So that helped.
54:43
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
54:45
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
54:45
[SPEAKER_07]: Because I am a true entrepreneur at heart with the, you know, I come up with the idea, excuse me, I like to look like in the morning.
54:52
[SPEAKER_07]: So I don't sleep, but what I do try to do is spend as much time with my son.
55:02
[SPEAKER_07]: because I see how important that is and I try to spend as much time as I can with my family.
55:12
[SPEAKER_07]: I try to make time for myself.
55:16
[SPEAKER_07]: Self-care is important.
55:19
[SPEAKER_07]: Try to take care of myself mentally because that is important.
55:25
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't know, but your old folks, my old folks say, don't lose your mind, don't lose your mind.
55:30
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't, you know, growing up, I'm like, what are you talking about?
55:32
[SPEAKER_07]: But now I see what they're talking about because, you know, mental health is huge.
55:37
[SPEAKER_07]: It's huge and I'm glad that more and more people are talking about it.
55:41
[SPEAKER_07]: So I definitely try to take care of my mental.
55:43
[SPEAKER_07]: So I try to take care of myself.
55:45
[SPEAKER_07]: I just, uh,
55:49
[SPEAKER_07]: I try to travel, I try to do what makes me happy.
55:52
[SPEAKER_07]: I love crab legs.
55:53
[SPEAKER_07]: That's my happy time.
55:54
[SPEAKER_07]: He'll be laughing at it like you get ready.
55:56
[SPEAKER_07]: No, I get my crab legs and my little walk.
55:58
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't really drink that much.
56:01
[SPEAKER_07]: But that's my happy time.
56:03
[SPEAKER_07]: So I just do, I love to travel.
56:08
[SPEAKER_07]: I love to, you know, I love watch documentaries.
56:13
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm not really a reader.
56:14
[SPEAKER_07]: I watch documentary, so if the book turned into a documentary, I will watch it, so just finding things and people always trying to find what's the right answer.
56:24
[SPEAKER_07]: There's really no right.
56:24
[SPEAKER_07]: You just have to do what works for you.
56:27
[SPEAKER_07]: The biggest thing is just making time for yourself because if you don't slow down and if you don't rest, your body will tell you to stop.
56:36
[SPEAKER_07]: That's not good.
56:37
[SPEAKER_07]: That's happening to me a couple of times and I was like, I'm not letting that happen again.
56:40
[SPEAKER_07]: So I'm just giving your time to rest, whatever you can do, bike riding, whatever, you know, so I go get messages or we know whatever I can do to relax, watch my documentaries, you know, and I love watching movies and
56:56
[SPEAKER_07]: and going to the movie, so, you know, spending time with my son, and he just, and my son has expensive taste.
57:03
[SPEAKER_06]: Right, right.
57:04
[SPEAKER_07]: So I didn't create it at the whole, I don't know where he came from.
57:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.
57:08
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been here before.
57:09
[SPEAKER_02]: He's been here before.
57:10
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been very expensive.
57:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, right.
57:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, right.
57:13
[SPEAKER_07]: Right, right.
57:14
[SPEAKER_07]: So, you know, that's, that's how I balance it is just having people, I say no.
57:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
57:19
[SPEAKER_07]: sometimes I can be selfish.
57:21
[SPEAKER_07]: I wasn't selfish at first.
57:23
[SPEAKER_07]: I think that's something that women, men, I love y'all because y'all are quick to be like, I ain't doing it because my dad was like, I'm quick, I'm quick, I'm good.
57:31
[SPEAKER_07]: Right?
57:31
[SPEAKER_07]: And so I'm learning to be more selfish with my time, because you can't get any more time, right?
57:36
[SPEAKER_07]: You can't buy it, right?
57:38
[SPEAKER_07]: And so I'm learning to do better with that.
57:42
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm learning.
57:43
[SPEAKER_07]: Again, just to make time for myself and to do what makes me happy, so I can be at peace because I noticed when I'm better, that's when I'd be as close when I'm better, my son is happy, my son is happier, you know, when I'm better, I'm happier, I try to be a very positive person, I'm so grateful, I'm grateful for sitting with you literally, you know, for giving me his opportunity because it's so many people who wish that they could be sitting here with us.
58:12
[SPEAKER_07]: right and they're just praying and hoping that you don't ask.
58:16
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm sure that's probably what they wish for.
58:18
[SPEAKER_07]: So I'm so grateful just sitting here and being with you.
58:21
[SPEAKER_07]: And that's where that really, that's what helps me to answer your question is every day I wake up and I write the three things that I'm grateful for.
58:29
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.
58:30
[SPEAKER_07]: Because you know, with so many people that God didn't wake up this much.
58:33
[SPEAKER_07]: And I'm so grateful, you know, when I go to places and I see how people are living, or I see people on the street and I see what kids, and I just see all of these different things, and it's like, what God gave me in His life.
58:46
[SPEAKER_07]: And so that's really what keeps me going and keeps in balance is that God, I'm here for a reason.
58:53
[SPEAKER_07]: And so I thank God for giving me everything that I have and everything.
58:58
[SPEAKER_07]: that I hope to have and give me the vision to even think like this and give me the mind.
59:04
[SPEAKER_07]: So the biggest thing is just being just being grateful and just especially where I came from.
59:08
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I love that.
59:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
59:11
[SPEAKER_02]: What's next for divine Reeves and and how can people follow and and support you, Journey?
59:16
[SPEAKER_07]: What's next?
59:17
[SPEAKER_07]: That's gonna be a billion dollar company.
59:18
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, I'm telling you, it's happening, right?
59:21
[SPEAKER_07]: That's my girl, I'm not sleeping.
59:23
[SPEAKER_07]: What's that happening, I'm not taking that.
59:26
[SPEAKER_07]: But how folks can follow me, you can follow me.
59:28
[SPEAKER_07]: On Instagram, they've on Reeves, I'm on LinkedIn.
59:32
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm on YouTube, I have a book, how to buy a hotel, second edition, it's so much better than the first edition.
59:38
[SPEAKER_07]: I talk about, you know, the strategies that we did with,
59:42
[SPEAKER_07]: with creating that, that hotel portfolio coming from 17.4 million to 22, so I break that down and just give you all the tools that you need to help you get into the hotel ownership space and help you analyze deals.
59:55
[SPEAKER_07]: So that's how you can can find me and I look forward to connect.
59:58
[SPEAKER_02]: We got we got we got a work on a third book or second edition, but we got working on another book because I think that.
1:00:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I love how to buy hotel, very straightforward.
1:00:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Your mission is way bigger than that.
1:00:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that all of the history that you give in me around and the radicalness about owning hotel for us, I think we need a book that talks about that, that makes it clear that being a hotel owner is like a radical thing.
1:00:32
[SPEAKER_02]: because there's, again, there's so many people who are fighting the fight, but fighting against themselves that don't even know it.
1:00:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Right, yeah.
1:00:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, like, like, like, if you're, again, if you're investing in hotels, meaning, you know, you're going on vacation, like, we vacation a lot.
1:00:53
[SPEAKER_02]: We, you know, a billion dollars not going back into the community.
1:00:57
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a lot of money on, and, and honestly,
1:01:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It's obvious, after you said it, I'm like me as somebody who has been a financial freedom fighter for our community, I'm like, I never thought about that, right?
1:01:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Which is why I even said, gave you the story about how much we invested in our event and how much money, and here's the funny thing about it.
1:01:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, like, you know,
1:01:27
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a lot of money that we invested in this event into back-and-talk community, majority of our staff was black.
1:01:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Like so even as we generated a lot of money as well, but even as we were putting millions of dollars back into the community, that's the one thing we were proud of.
1:01:44
[SPEAKER_02]: We were like, y'all, we got the best event planners.
1:01:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Like all of that money that was circulating, like we were using specifically right accept the hotel.
1:01:58
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm saying $1.3 million that could have went through.
1:02:00
[SPEAKER_02]: That could have went through.
1:02:01
[SPEAKER_07]: That could have been going to the down payment on the $5 million.
1:02:04
[SPEAKER_07]: That's crazy to me.
1:02:06
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I'm saying?
1:02:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, so that's a sidebar, but I do, I do believe, like, your mission is bigger than just like, a bio hotel because I think, I think, and again, I've heard, you know, like, I've been around you for a while.
1:02:24
[SPEAKER_02]: So even as I'm hearing it,
1:02:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just looking at it as an asset class, as another way to invest your money, but again, yeah, this, yeah, so, we're gonna talk, we're gonna talk, we're gonna talk.
1:02:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we're gonna people follow you.
1:02:41
[SPEAKER_07]: You alright, you're the booking.
1:02:42
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it, that's it, that's it.
1:02:44
[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna people follow you.
1:02:45
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh yeah, you can follow me on Instagram, I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Facebook, I'm on TikTok now.
1:02:52
[SPEAKER_07]: So, do a danceist?
1:02:54
[SPEAKER_07]: You know I mean, I don't know to be dancing.
1:02:57
[SPEAKER_07]: I was on the roof, did you miss it?
1:02:58
[SPEAKER_07]: I got on the roof of my hotel, Oklahoma.
1:03:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
1:03:01
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I saw that, but none of them.
1:03:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, your creativeness in your social media is refreshing.
1:03:10
[SPEAKER_02]: It's definitely refreshing.
1:03:11
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a show.
1:03:12
[SPEAKER_07]: I was like, man, I gotta get on this hotel before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell it before we sell
1:03:39
[SPEAKER_02]: on the planet.
1:03:40
[SPEAKER_02]: I need y'all to rewatch this.
1:03:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I need y'all to share this.
1:03:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I need y'all to understand how radical it is to become a hotel owner specifically for our people.
1:03:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure you follow the Vaughan.
1:03:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure you invest, right?
1:03:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Go to Vester, become an investor.
1:04:00
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a great name, I love the name, let's make it a billion dollar company, right?
1:04:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's make it a billion dollar company.
1:04:08
[SPEAKER_02]: She is shattering ceilings and you know, you know, do some awesome things.
1:04:13
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's support our sister.
1:04:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I am Ascash, make sure you follow me on all social media platforms at I am Ascash, visit my website I amascash.com, make sure you follow the show inside the vault.
1:04:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Go to our website inside the vault show dot com join our community the abundance community at the abundance community dot com All right y'all.
1:04:33
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll be see y'all same time same place, but in God's will Peace