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EYL #148 Black Owned Digital Bank · Earn Your Leisure

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Speaker 5: All right, guys, welcome back EYL Atlanta Edition. This is
2:43
Speaker 5: our second home for sure. We spend so much time
2:45
Speaker 5: out here. So this is gonna be a dope episode
2:48
Speaker 5: because there's something that we have never covered as far
2:51
Speaker 5: as the banking industry.
2:52
Speaker 4: Shout out to Killer Mike.
2:54
Speaker 5: We had the honor speaking to Killer Mike, and obviously
2:57
Speaker 5: everybody knows that he's involved with Greenwick Bank, and he
3:00
Speaker 5: gave us like a kind of an overview of the
3:02
Speaker 5: whole situation, but we never actually spoke to like somebody
3:06
Speaker 5: that's actually running the bank.
3:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got questions. He was like, y'all gotta ask Ryan.
3:11
Speaker 3: Ryan on here, y'all gotta ask Ryan.
3:13
Speaker 2: Okay.
3:14
Speaker 5: So Ryan Lover is the co founder and chairman of
3:16
Speaker 5: Greenwood Bank. If you're not familiar with Greenwork, Greenwood Bank
3:19
Speaker 5: is Greenwood Bank is a black owned fintech bank that
3:23
Speaker 5: is launching very very soon, and he's the founder of it.
3:28
Speaker 5: So this is the first time that we've actually spoken
3:31
Speaker 5: to somebody that's actually running a bank. So we have
3:34
Speaker 5: a lot of questions and he has a long history
3:37
Speaker 5: outside of the banking industry, started Bounce TV.
3:41
Speaker 3: I think that's what makes this even more impressive, Like
3:43
Speaker 3: he doesn't have a banking background, but as a bank Yeah.
3:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, So he was gracious enough to invite us in
3:49
Speaker 5: his home and we're head to do this interview. I'm
3:52
Speaker 5: sure it's going to be a legendary situation. So thank
3:55
Speaker 5: you for having us. Appreciate it man, thank you for
3:57
Speaker 5: coming to my home.
3:58
Speaker 7: Man, and uh, it's some time with me to talk
4:01
Speaker 7: about Greenwood and my long history, uh in the entertainment,
4:09
Speaker 7: in the media, now in the banking world.
4:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, we forgot one thing. He's an HU guy.
4:15
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Howard Universe.
4:19
Speaker 2: Shout the Howard.
4:20
Speaker 5: Absolutely the Bison's should I say the.
4:25
Speaker 4: Yeah Hampton you.
4:26
Speaker 7: Know we're the real h first and foremost you said, yeah,
4:30
Speaker 7: you know exactly. Guys that went to Hampton must couldn't
4:34
Speaker 7: have gotten into.
4:35
Speaker 2: Howard shout Envy.
4:40
Speaker 5: You have it all all right, So let's get into this.
4:43
Speaker 5: So you're the head of the bank. But before that, right,
4:47
Speaker 5: you find you found Bounce TV. Right, So how do
4:51
Speaker 5: you make your way from going to Howard bounce, TV, banking.
4:55
Speaker 4: It's like a lot of different parallels here. That's not
4:58
Speaker 4: really yeah, and that's.
4:59
Speaker 7: It important to kind of get into. It's a great
5:03
Speaker 7: question because I was, as I was mentioning, if there
5:08
Speaker 7: wasn't my if I didn't enter my past chapters in
5:14
Speaker 7: different industries, there would be no Greenwood. So, you know,
5:18
Speaker 7: just to be clear, from the Bay Area in California,
5:25
Speaker 7: went to Howard University, graduated from Howard. Actually at Howard,
5:31
Speaker 7: I was bitten by the entertainment bug, right, So there's
5:35
Speaker 7: a at Howard University. As you guys know, there's a
5:38
Speaker 7: long history and lineage of successful black entrepreneurs, all right,
5:47
Speaker 7: and I was a part of the culture of successful
5:52
Speaker 7: black entrepreneurs that were born at or came out of
5:56
Speaker 7: Howard University. So Howard University graduated. I have a degree
6:01
Speaker 7: in accounting. Ironically, uh you know, and I knew, you know,
6:07
Speaker 7: after graduating, I wasn't cut to be an accountant. All right,
6:11
Speaker 7: love business, but accounting just wasn't I believe my calling.
6:16
Speaker 7: Uh So relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, started a studio called Noontime.
6:24
Speaker 7: So we made records from everybody from Mary J. Blige,
6:29
Speaker 7: Aliyah Sean P. Diddy Combs, a good friend of mine
6:33
Speaker 7: who I met at at on Howard's campus, and a
6:36
Speaker 7: litany of other hip hop and R and B artists. Uh.
6:41
Speaker 7: That was super popular uh in the in the nineties
6:45
Speaker 7: in the early two thousand. So that's kind of where
6:48
Speaker 7: I cut my teeth. From a business perspective, is in
6:51
Speaker 7: the is in the music, music business, right, So I
6:54
Speaker 7: started Noontime publishing and production company, and from there I
6:59
Speaker 7: knew that it was important to create content that mattered
7:05
Speaker 7: to our culture. And I realized that if you create
7:09
Speaker 7: content that means something that matters, it'll stand the test
7:15
Speaker 7: of time. That's kind of where I got my start.
7:18
Speaker 2: So we went from New Time to Bounce, is how it?
7:21
Speaker 3: Because, I mean, we're talking about Greenwood and the first
7:24
Speaker 3: time we're actually talking about somebody who has their own bank. Well,
7:26
Speaker 3: we've never spoken to anybody who had their own broadcast networks. Yea, yeah,
7:29
Speaker 3: I mean it was at first.
7:31
Speaker 7: No, no, without a shadow of doubt. So spent ten
7:34
Speaker 7: years in the music business. Noontime was an incredible journey
7:39
Speaker 7: for me from a music perspective. Then I transitioned from
7:44
Speaker 7: Noontime into television media. So I worked at a television network,
7:51
Speaker 7: Turner Entertainment Network, TBST and T Adult Swim Cartoon Network.
7:56
Speaker 7: Created programming, scripted and unscripted program for those networks. You know.
8:03
Speaker 7: Spent six years there at Turner and really learned the
8:08
Speaker 7: media business, utilize my resources and relationships to kind of
8:14
Speaker 7: broaden at the time Turners involvement and understanding of our culture.
8:23
Speaker 7: And then from Turner in twenty ten, I started a
8:27
Speaker 7: Bounced TV African American broadcast network. Started off just me
8:31
Speaker 7: and my partner. Grew that network to over two hundred
8:35
Speaker 7: and fifty employees. We Bounced TV is in over one
8:42
Speaker 7: hundred and ten million households across the country. And I
8:46
Speaker 7: got to tell you guys, really what I prided myself
8:49
Speaker 7: on what Bounce is is. And I got five children
8:51
Speaker 7: from twenty two all the way down to zach is eight,
8:56
Speaker 7: as so many kids I go age of, but I
8:59
Speaker 7: prided myself with creating responsible programming that was entertaining that
9:07
Speaker 7: all of my children could watch and I did not
9:10
Speaker 7: have to change the channel if a show that I
9:13
Speaker 7: programmed actually was on right. So, so credible content, responsible content,
9:23
Speaker 7: entertaining content, uh, for the for the culture is really
9:28
Speaker 7: what we prided ourselves on at Bounced TV and and
9:31
Speaker 7: it resonated with the community.
9:33
Speaker 3: What kind of shows did did we bring first to
9:35
Speaker 3: Turner and then obviously to Bounce. What what are some
9:37
Speaker 3: of the shows that you know the audience might be
9:39
Speaker 3: familiar with.
9:39
Speaker 7: Yeah, so, so you know, I didn't program Tyler the
9:46
Speaker 7: Tyler Perry slew of shows, but I was a part
9:49
Speaker 7: of on the executive side identifying that that that kind
9:56
Speaker 7: of content will resonate within our community. So before, for
10:00
Speaker 7: I was at Turner, there was no Tyler Perry, There
10:05
Speaker 7: was no Ice Cuban, Joe Roth, there was there was
10:09
Speaker 7: no a Jada Pinkett and Will Smith. But while I
10:13
Speaker 7: was there, that programming existed because I helped the Turner
10:20
Speaker 7: Entertainment Networks understand that our culture in our community is
10:25
Speaker 7: not a fad. It matters and and you know we
10:30
Speaker 7: are We come in many different shapes, sizes, colors, and
10:36
Speaker 7: have many different interests and you know, Turner should broadcast
10:43
Speaker 7: content they kind of spoke to a culture that was diverse.
10:49
Speaker 7: So so I was instrumental in helping the network understand
10:54
Speaker 7: really who we are as a as.
10:56
Speaker 2: A white culture.
10:59
Speaker 5: You said it not me, So how do we get
11:07
Speaker 5: to start in Greenwood?
11:11
Speaker 7: So you know sold Bounce in twenty seventeen, you sold Bounced,
11:18
Speaker 7: sold Bounced TV, so launched a network.
11:21
Speaker 2: Can we say how much?
11:22
Speaker 7: We sold it? For three hundred and two million dollars?
11:24
Speaker 7: I wrote that two scripts and you know, quite candidly speaking, guys,
11:32
Speaker 7: I thought about retiring. You know, I love sports, I
11:37
Speaker 7: loved my family, and you know, I wanted to do
11:43
Speaker 7: something that didn't necessarily force me to have to wake
11:49
Speaker 7: up at five point thirty in the morning and work
11:54
Speaker 7: all the way through ten o'clock at night. Right. So,
11:57
Speaker 7: a good friend of mine, because so you know, I'm
12:01
Speaker 7: not speaking of Greenwood, I'm not a banker nor a technologist, right.
12:06
Speaker 7: I am an individual who's built businesses, multiple businesses in
12:11
Speaker 7: multiple industries for our culture and our community that I
12:15
Speaker 7: believe have always have always created a content that has
12:21
Speaker 7: resonated and been consistent, educational, and has helped our community advance.
12:30
Speaker 7: So a good friend of mine got a name of
12:32
Speaker 7: Paul Judge, who is actually a technologist, said you know,
12:35
Speaker 7: I know you just sold a Bounce CV for three
12:38
Speaker 7: hundred and two million dollars. You just can't just ride
12:41
Speaker 7: off into the sunset. You have more resources, more life,
12:47
Speaker 7: more energy that you need to lend to the culture.
12:51
Speaker 7: He said, listen, man, I don't want to do anything right.
12:57
Speaker 7: And he said, listen, you've got a ton of resource relationships.
13:01
Speaker 7: You need to look into another avenue, another another way
13:07
Speaker 7: to you know, kind of help our people advance. You
13:12
Speaker 7: should think about the neo banking space. Didn't know much
13:16
Speaker 7: about the space in any way, shape or form. But
13:19
Speaker 7: what I didn't know try and Rashad is that I
13:24
Speaker 7: had built multiple businesses over the course of my life
13:30
Speaker 7: and I never utilized banking resources to build any of
13:34
Speaker 7: those businesses. And to me, that was an atrocity.
13:40
Speaker 3: When you say that, you mean like, so you didn't
13:41
Speaker 3: get loans from banks.
13:44
Speaker 7: You know, not only did I not get loans from banks,
13:49
Speaker 7: My first thought about building business was not to go
13:54
Speaker 7: to banks to get loans. I never thought about, hey,
13:58
Speaker 7: any alterior are alternative lending facility to build a business.
14:05
Speaker 7: It's always been utilizing personal resources to build brands and businesses.
14:13
Speaker 7: Unlike unlike my friends who are in counterparts, who are
14:21
Speaker 7: non African Americans, the first thing they think about is
14:24
Speaker 7: going to banks or lending institutions right to further their
14:28
Speaker 7: ideas and their dreams. I never thought about that. And
14:33
Speaker 7: the reason why I never thought about that, rightly or wrongly,
14:36
Speaker 7: is because we know generationally, you know, banking resources have
14:42
Speaker 7: not been kind to individuals of color, have not been
14:47
Speaker 7: kind to us for a number of reasons. And my
14:53
Speaker 7: thought process was, you know, at the point where I
14:56
Speaker 7: decided to start green Would was not to look at
15:02
Speaker 7: all the atrocities that have occurred, but more so to
15:07
Speaker 7: look at how I can be a part of the
15:09
Speaker 7: solution versus talk about the problem. Right. So you know,
15:14
Speaker 7: again not a not a not a banker, nor a
15:17
Speaker 7: technology but I build businesses and I know what business
15:20
Speaker 7: owners need and what they and what they want, what
15:23
Speaker 7: they deserve to have, and I want to be at
15:26
Speaker 7: Greenwood a conduit for that.
15:28
Speaker 3: So when you're when you're doing this, I can imagine,
15:31
Speaker 3: like you said, you had sold the company and obviously
15:34
Speaker 3: up one hundreds of millions, and they might I'm assuming
15:38
Speaker 3: it might have been a little bit opressiittive like I
15:40
Speaker 3: have to do something because I've accumulated this, I've had
15:43
Speaker 3: more resources than the average person in my community. After
15:47
Speaker 3: that happens, right, what's the next step do you find
15:51
Speaker 3: a team once Paul convinces you, now sure, yes, I
15:53
Speaker 3: need to do this.
15:54
Speaker 2: Who's a team and how do you go about finding them?
15:56
Speaker 7: No, that's right. So so just to be clear, you know,
16:01
Speaker 7: Greenwood is a digital digital company providing banking resources for
16:07
Speaker 7: the community. That's that's who we are. We are, Uh.
16:13
Speaker 7: We're going to roll our products out in this fashion,
16:17
Speaker 7: a debit spending card, credit products, lending products, lifestyle products.
16:24
Speaker 7: We will be a full service banking platform for our community.
16:31
Speaker 7: You know, we're full service banking in your in our
16:34
Speaker 7: in our consumers hands, Apple and Android pay, mobile deposits
16:45
Speaker 7: at M services across across the country, two day early pay.
16:50
Speaker 7: So all of the resources in the in the uh
16:55
Speaker 7: functionality that traditional brick and mortars have, Wood will have
17:00
Speaker 7: as well, as I mentioned, not a banker, not a technologist,
17:04
Speaker 7: but all the businesses. To answer your question, Troy, all
17:07
Speaker 7: the businesses that I've built have been built on an idea,
17:11
Speaker 7: hard work, UH, strong prayer. Right. I'm a family man, love,
17:17
Speaker 7: love the Lord, but also surrounding myself with people who
17:22
Speaker 7: are professionals and who know what they do in their
17:26
Speaker 7: areas of expertise. Right, So my my record company that
17:32
Speaker 7: we built Noontime. I'm not a rapper singer, can't dance
17:36
Speaker 7: my way out of a paper bag, right, but I
17:38
Speaker 7: can identify talent and I I and I identified some
17:42
Speaker 7: of the top producers writers in the industry to create
17:50
Speaker 7: the platform and the success at Noontime and joy Bounce TV.
17:57
Speaker 7: Same thing. Uh, you know, it's all about building a
18:02
Speaker 7: media company with professionals that have done that have worked
18:08
Speaker 7: in the media business for decades. Same thing with banking,
18:12
Speaker 7: right you know. I won't go into detail, but there
18:19
Speaker 7: was a myth that that there were that there is
18:23
Speaker 7: not enough or a lack of banking talent that exists
18:27
Speaker 7: in the African American community that work in traditional finance.
18:33
Speaker 7: Not the case. When I decided to launch Greenwood, I
18:38
Speaker 7: had talent coming from traditional financial institutions and from other
18:45
Speaker 7: banking sources that wanted to participate with Greenwood as a mission.
18:51
Speaker 7: So that's kind of what we did, all right.
18:54
Speaker 5: So let's les, let's get into this conversation to meet
18:56
Speaker 5: matatoes a right, So how do you start a bank?
18:59
Speaker 4: All right?
18:59
Speaker 5: What's the first board of directors? What is the first
19:04
Speaker 5: steps to start a bank?
19:06
Speaker 7: So in order to start a bank, one you've got
19:10
Speaker 7: to have capital. So, you know, this same time last year, ironically,
19:19
Speaker 7: after I decided, after I decided that I was going
19:24
Speaker 7: to start Greenwood Digital Banking for our community, I decided
19:31
Speaker 7: that one, I'm going to utilize my own personal capital
19:36
Speaker 7: to start the bank, but I'm also going to raise
19:39
Speaker 7: capital from angel investors and not just capital from any one,
19:47
Speaker 7: you know. For me, I wanted to partner with people
19:51
Speaker 7: who one understood our mission and just so we clear,
19:56
Speaker 7: you know, Greenwood is in place. One to eradicate predatory lending.
20:05
Speaker 7: I'm going to put all check cashing businesses out of business. Two,
20:09
Speaker 7: Greenwood is going to recirculate capital in the community. You know,
20:16
Speaker 7: an O to to Greenwood, which is and O to
20:20
Speaker 7: the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Right in the nineteen twenties,
20:25
Speaker 7: the Greenwood District was a hotbed for African American and
20:30
Speaker 7: minority businesses that thrived. And the reason why those businesses
20:35
Speaker 7: thrived is because capital recirculated in the community. So one
20:40
Speaker 7: dollar recirculated dozens of times before it left it left
20:47
Speaker 7: the community. Unfortunately, in today's community, one dollar recirculates in
20:53
Speaker 7: our community recirculates only six hours, right, So my one
20:58
Speaker 7: of my missions at Greenwood is to recirculate capital in
21:01
Speaker 7: the community. The third mission that we have UH is
21:07
Speaker 7: to deploy capital to deserving borrowers. I mentioned earlier that
21:12
Speaker 7: I UH and you know, all candor some of some
21:16
Speaker 7: other African American business owners that I know don't have
21:21
Speaker 7: the same access to capital that others have from other communities.
21:27
Speaker 7: We want to eradicate and extinguish that fact of the matter.
21:32
Speaker 7: So one, you've got to raise capital.
21:34
Speaker 4: So how much? How much money?
21:35
Speaker 7: So we raised three million dollars. That's it. We raised
21:38
Speaker 7: three million dollars initially.
21:39
Speaker 4: That's all. That's all it took.
21:41
Speaker 7: Initially, That's all it took. Right, So we announced October
21:45
Speaker 7: eighth Greenwood, after we after we raised three million bucks, right,
21:51
Speaker 7: a kid, you not. The day that we announced that
21:55
Speaker 7: we were launching Greenwood. The next day, ten thhis thousand
22:00
Speaker 7: folks signed up on our waiting list. The next day
22:03
Speaker 7: after that another ten thousand. At the end of the month,
22:06
Speaker 7: there was one hundred thousand folks in our waiting list.
22:08
Speaker 7: At that point, I knew that we needed more resource
22:13
Speaker 7: to scale and if we were going to service the
22:17
Speaker 7: community the way clearly the community said they needed to
22:21
Speaker 7: be serviced. So I had no idea that I was
22:26
Speaker 7: going to go into and move into a Series A
22:30
Speaker 7: round of funding this soon in our lifespan, we have
22:35
Speaker 7: a product that launches at the end of the summer.
22:38
Speaker 7: You know, our goal was to raise three million dollars,
22:42
Speaker 7: raise capital for our angel round, and then launch our
22:48
Speaker 7: our digital bank, and then slowly but surely acquire customers
22:54
Speaker 7: to participate right in our In our process, we have
22:58
Speaker 7: five hundred close six hundred thousand folks on our waiting
23:02
Speaker 7: list at the moment. That's scale. So I knew that
23:07
Speaker 7: we had to raise more capital. We had to scale internally,
23:13
Speaker 7: We had to raise capital to market our product. We
23:17
Speaker 7: had to raise capital to hire as well. So we
23:20
Speaker 7: started off Rashad and Troy with three employees. We now
23:27
Speaker 7: have fifteen. By the end of the year, we'll have
23:30
Speaker 7: twenty five employees. By the end of next year, we'll
23:33
Speaker 7: have close to one hundred employees running or assisting me
23:38
Speaker 7: in running Agree with Digital.
23:41
Speaker 5: So all right, so three million was initial, but then
23:44
Speaker 5: you realize that that definitely wasn't gonna be enough for
23:46
Speaker 5: six hundred thousand customers. So you go and you take
23:51
Speaker 5: money from Benure capitalists and other angel investors.
23:55
Speaker 4: Yes, and how much money is you raise?
23:58
Speaker 7: Yep, So I'm proud to on now ounce. So I'm
24:02
Speaker 7: proud to announce the amount of money that we raised,
24:05
Speaker 7: but I'm more proud that we raised it from a
24:10
Speaker 7: wide mosaic of investors.
24:13
Speaker 4: Right.
24:14
Speaker 7: So to answer your question, we raised thirty million dollars
24:17
Speaker 7: to our balance sheet for Greenwood Series A. But we
24:22
Speaker 7: raised that capital from six of the seven top US
24:26
Speaker 7: banks in the country, all led by truest Ventures, other
24:32
Speaker 7: entertainment companies, other media companies, venture capitalists, and individuals as well,
24:41
Speaker 7: all individuals, companies in corporations who are one passionate about
24:47
Speaker 7: our mission, who believe in what we're doing, and who
24:52
Speaker 7: have agreed to in lockstep join arms with us to
24:58
Speaker 7: close this why wealth gap that exists in America. Green
25:03
Speaker 7: was not going to do it all by itself by ourselves, right,
25:07
Speaker 7: you know. And the wealth gap that exists in America
25:10
Speaker 7: is not going to be closed in one year, or
25:12
Speaker 7: in two years, or in five years for that matter.
25:15
Speaker 7: But we are a part of, as I mentioned earlier,
25:18
Speaker 7: going to be a part of the solution versus the problem.
25:22
Speaker 3: That's interesting because you have JP you have Bank of America. True,
25:26
Speaker 3: it's like you said, Wells Fargo's involved, PNZ Bank, all
25:29
Speaker 3: financial institutions that are now supporting your financial institution when
25:34
Speaker 3: you presented it to them, What made them say, you
25:36
Speaker 3: know what, we're not going we could do this ourselves.
25:38
Speaker 3: What made them believe in your vision for Greenland?
25:40
Speaker 4: Yeah?
25:41
Speaker 7: So I think one, they saw the team that we
25:46
Speaker 7: put together. We have a world class banking team. I
25:51
Speaker 7: think Two, they understood the mission. They understand that we're
25:56
Speaker 7: passionate about deploying capital into our community. We circulated in
26:00
Speaker 7: capital uh and closing and closing the wealth gap. Three,
26:04
Speaker 7: I really believe Rashad and Troy that that they understand
26:10
Speaker 7: that you know, although we're providing digital banking services, but
26:15
Speaker 7: the guys that are running the the digital bank in
26:20
Speaker 7: Greenwood are not bankers, right. We are business people that
26:25
Speaker 7: that authentically understand the plight, the situation and where the
26:34
Speaker 7: community as businesses want to want to go and grow.
26:40
Speaker 7: You know, I understand where Pinky Coal from Slutty Vegan was,
26:46
Speaker 7: where she is and where she wants to grow. Right.
26:50
Speaker 7: I don't know if another financial institution or even another
26:57
Speaker 7: challenge your bank understands where pinky wants to go and grow.
27:02
Speaker 7: I can give you a number of different examples in
27:07
Speaker 7: Atlanta alone of minority business owners that have great ideas,
27:14
Speaker 7: that have a wealth of talent, but just don't have
27:18
Speaker 7: the access to capital and the resource to become as
27:23
Speaker 7: big as they We know that they can be, but
27:26
Speaker 7: I do I know, I know those individuals.
27:29
Speaker 3: So they're looking at you like it's not a competition.
27:31
Speaker 3: You actually have a pulse in the community that they
27:33
Speaker 3: don't have a reach too.
27:34
Speaker 7: I look at myself as Robin Hood. Okay, I look
27:37
Speaker 7: at myself as Robinhood. I don't look at and I
27:40
Speaker 7: get the question all the time, or why do you
27:42
Speaker 7: think all these institutions now you know, want to participate
27:47
Speaker 7: in the message, in the movement. And you know my
27:51
Speaker 7: answer to that question is I don't have the bandwidth
27:55
Speaker 7: to think about what happened yesterday and a hundred years ago.
28:01
Speaker 7: My goal and my mission is to solve help solve
28:05
Speaker 7: the problem now and in the future. And if these
28:09
Speaker 7: banking institutions want to utilize Greenwood as a conduit to
28:14
Speaker 7: do it, and Ryan Glover and Paul Judge and our
28:20
Speaker 7: world class team at Greenwood to do it, so be it.
28:24
Speaker 7: We are here to be that conduit and to spread
28:28
Speaker 7: that goodwill and mission and capital. The other thing I
28:32
Speaker 7: want to mention too is there's a yin and a yang.
28:37
Speaker 7: There is having access to capital, right, but there's also
28:42
Speaker 7: a financial education component to our mission as well. It's
28:48
Speaker 7: one thing to know or have access to capital, but
28:51
Speaker 7: it's another thing to also know what to do with it.
28:54
Speaker 4: Right.
28:54
Speaker 7: So our mission is to give access to capital, but
29:00
Speaker 7: also help and educate our community to understand what they
29:06
Speaker 7: can do and what they should be doing with the
29:09
Speaker 7: access to capital, utilizing the resources that we have.
29:13
Speaker 5: So was there any hesitation as far as having the
29:17
Speaker 5: other banks that traditionally have not given loans to people
29:22
Speaker 5: of color to have them involved in your bank? Did
29:26
Speaker 5: Did you ever think like this might be a conflict
29:29
Speaker 5: of interest or it might, you know, be looked at
29:33
Speaker 5: as something.
29:35
Speaker 4: That is not, you know, in line of what we're
29:38
Speaker 4: trying to do.
29:39
Speaker 7: Not in any way, shape or form with SAD. I
29:43
Speaker 7: have a very old school mentality on the way business
29:53
Speaker 7: at any level should work and operate. And I believe
30:00
Speaker 7: that it takes a village to raise a child, right.
30:06
Speaker 7: I believe that it takes a well oiled conglomerate of
30:11
Speaker 7: resource to to affect a culture, a generation, a or
30:25
Speaker 7: a thwart an issue or a problem that has existed
30:29
Speaker 7: for generations. Right, so the non access of capital in
30:37
Speaker 7: our community has existed for generations for hundreds of years.
30:45
Speaker 7: You know, one digital bank with a great mission, with
30:51
Speaker 7: tons of personal resource isn't by itself going to thwart
30:59
Speaker 7: and solve that problem. I looked at it as not
31:05
Speaker 7: only will we need you know, the six out of
31:09
Speaker 7: seven top banks and the other companies. I think we're
31:13
Speaker 7: gonna need, not just more resources on our own, Can'tly speaking,
31:19
Speaker 7: I believe that there needs to be more greenwoods.
31:24
Speaker 3: Right.
31:24
Speaker 7: You know, you know when I started Bounced TV, you
31:29
Speaker 7: know there was you know, b et.
31:32
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33:22
Speaker 7: He existed. There are other African American networks that existed,
33:28
Speaker 7: but that we also had a bounce, had a lane
33:33
Speaker 7: of our own. And you know, you guys have cable.
33:36
Speaker 7: There are a thousand channels that you can pick up
33:39
Speaker 7: on cable. Right, there's only six or seven African American
33:43
Speaker 7: network still to this day, right, that exist on cable, right,
33:49
Speaker 7: but there should be more. Right, So Greenwood is existing,
33:55
Speaker 7: and I believe a pioneer in the digital space, digital
34:00
Speaker 7: banking space for black and brown people and allies. Right. So,
34:05
Speaker 7: so I don't want my consumer just to be of color.
34:09
Speaker 7: I also want our consumer to be allies, individuals who
34:14
Speaker 7: aren't necessarily African American or Latino or of color, but
34:20
Speaker 7: individuals who understand our struggle and are compassionate to our struggle.
34:27
Speaker 7: So I want there to be other Greenwoods. I want
34:30
Speaker 7: to I want to inspire other folks to build, to
34:34
Speaker 7: build Greenwoods after us.
34:36
Speaker 3: All Right, so you guys obviously had the financial firms
34:40
Speaker 3: that are backing you, but you also have fintech companies
34:42
Speaker 3: MasterCard and Visa that.
34:44
Speaker 2: Are involved in the commen world as well. What was
34:46
Speaker 2: that process like in getting them on board?
34:48
Speaker 7: Great question. So strategically I wanted to partner with both
34:54
Speaker 7: Visa and MasterCard. You know, as I mentioned earlier, you know,
35:00
Speaker 7: we could have gone to one or two banking sources
35:07
Speaker 7: to raise our Series A capital, But strategically, I wanted
35:11
Speaker 7: to create a mosaic of of of partners that had
35:17
Speaker 7: different resources and relationships that could help us go and
35:22
Speaker 7: grow right as we grow. With MasterCard and Visa, same process.
35:30
Speaker 7: So we have a relationship with MasterCard on the debit side,
35:37
Speaker 7: and we have a relationship with Visa that will roll
35:42
Speaker 7: out a credit products with with Greenwood. Strategically, so we
35:47
Speaker 7: have debit products that we're partnering with MasterCard on and
35:52
Speaker 7: in credit products that we're partnering with Visa on. And
35:55
Speaker 7: the reason why we did that is because I understand
35:58
Speaker 7: that MasterCard they have their own own relationships right. For example,
36:02
Speaker 7: MasterCard has relationships with the Major League Baseball right. Visa
36:09
Speaker 7: has relationships with the NFL. Right. So having multiple relationships
36:16
Speaker 7: with multiple institutions gives Greenwood the opportunity to have multiple
36:23
Speaker 7: partnerships right in in the country and in the world.
36:28
Speaker 7: So so strategically, you know, that's kind of how I
36:33
Speaker 7: think in how I operate.
36:36
Speaker 5: So as far as okay, so having a bank is
36:40
Speaker 5: still a business right. So the business model of banking
36:43
Speaker 5: is that they charge interest and they invest the money
36:48
Speaker 5: in the capital markets and they make money on your
36:51
Speaker 5: money sitting in the bank. That's like the third grade explanation, right,
36:56
Speaker 5: that's right? Is that is that your that's the business model.
36:58
Speaker 7: That's the model. So yep. So at thirty thousand feet
37:03
Speaker 7: we are launching a dibbit, a debit and spending card
37:07
Speaker 7: at the end of the summer. That's the first product
37:10
Speaker 7: that we're rolling out. And there's what's called interchange, right,
37:14
Speaker 7: that exists when customers utilize or swipe their card, there's interchange,
37:20
Speaker 7: just exchange that we get a small piece, the FDIC
37:26
Speaker 7: insured bank gets a small piece. The merchant also makes
37:30
Speaker 7: a small piece piece. So that's the interchange model. Okay.
37:36
Speaker 7: We also, as I mentioned, will launch credit products where
37:41
Speaker 7: interest comes comes into play and we'll have we'll have
37:47
Speaker 7: competitive credit rates on those products as well. We'll also
37:53
Speaker 7: have investment products that we'll roll out as well, So
37:58
Speaker 7: there and lending product. So all of the products that
38:03
Speaker 7: Greenwood will roll out, they'll all be a creator, a
38:08
Speaker 7: creatively priced that our consumers will be able to take
38:13
Speaker 7: advantage of. But our biggest asset, I believe assets over liabilities, uh,
38:23
Speaker 7: is that we have the ability to identify credible and
38:28
Speaker 7: solvent borrowers in our in our community, individuals that wouldn't
38:35
Speaker 7: have the same opportunity to have that access to capital
38:40
Speaker 7: that that others in other communities.
38:44
Speaker 4: Well, how do you so?
38:45
Speaker 5: All right, this is interesting because it's like you walk
38:48
Speaker 5: in the thin line. I'm assuming because you have to
38:51
Speaker 5: make money, That's right. We never apologize to making money.
38:54
Speaker 5: That's a way in business for it, that's right. But
38:56
Speaker 5: you also don't want to be a predatory Linda, and
38:59
Speaker 5: you don't want to take a that's correct. But then
39:02
Speaker 5: when you don't want to lend somebody money that can't
39:05
Speaker 5: pay it back, that's right. But then you also want
39:08
Speaker 5: to get people opportunities that doesn't necessarily have opportunity somewhere.
39:11
Speaker 7: Else, that's right.
39:13
Speaker 4: So great question, how do you walk that line?
39:15
Speaker 7: All right? So I'm gonna give you a quick analogy.
39:17
Speaker 7: So I come from the media space, television media space.
39:21
Speaker 7: You all are familiar with the Nelson ratings, right, and
39:25
Speaker 7: Nelson ratings really you know, you know, kind of identify
39:30
Speaker 7: the important or the successful shows that exist across the country.
39:35
Speaker 2: Right.
39:36
Speaker 7: Do you guys know anyone anyone that has an actual
39:41
Speaker 7: Nelson box in their house? Right? You know? No? I
39:47
Speaker 7: don't either, Right. So that is a metric that media
39:52
Speaker 7: uses to identify qualified, incredible content, But we don't know
40:00
Speaker 7: how those programs are identified or rated. Okay. In the
40:07
Speaker 7: banking space, we're judged on credit right now. Credit is
40:12
Speaker 7: a good barometer to use for you know, ninety percent
40:19
Speaker 7: of the community on whether you pay your bills, how
40:23
Speaker 7: often you pay your bills, you pay them on time.
40:26
Speaker 7: But I think, me personally, there are other metrics that
40:30
Speaker 7: we should in the banking industry be using that we
40:33
Speaker 7: plan on using to identify qualified and credible sources that
40:41
Speaker 7: we would say, hey, Rashard Greenwood will stick their neck
40:46
Speaker 7: out on the line to loan earn your leisure X
40:51
Speaker 7: number dollars to build a bigger and broader media business
40:56
Speaker 7: that you're building. Okay, there are other things that I
41:00
Speaker 7: believe that bankers should look at outside of purely credit
41:07
Speaker 7: to identify qualified borrowers, and we are going to kind
41:14
Speaker 7: of do that at Greenwood.
41:16
Speaker 3: It feels like there's this social responsibility in what you're saying,
41:20
Speaker 3: and so is part of the products that you said,
41:23
Speaker 3: Like you said, we have spending and savings products as
41:25
Speaker 3: part of the products and education component when people are
41:28
Speaker 3: applying to get these loans.
41:31
Speaker 7: So so content, as you as you guys know, is
41:35
Speaker 7: a part of our DNA. You know, I come from
41:42
Speaker 7: the media space, so creating content to educate is important
41:51
Speaker 7: for us, you know, looking at Earn your Leisure as
41:57
Speaker 7: an example, which I believe is a bible to educating
42:04
Speaker 7: our community. Uh, you know, and a resource for me
42:12
Speaker 7: that is untraditional compared to you know, some of the
42:17
Speaker 7: other programs that you may see on linear television for
42:21
Speaker 7: for our community, right, I think utilizing content to educate
42:28
Speaker 7: folks uh in a entertaining but but but uh educational
42:35
Speaker 7: way is absolutely a way to to kind of educate
42:40
Speaker 7: our community on on money.
42:44
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for words.
42:47
Speaker 5: So all right, the boarder directors, board of directors conversation.
42:53
Speaker 5: Who is your board of directors? How important is it
42:56
Speaker 5: to have a board of directors?
42:57
Speaker 7: It's very important. So so I sit on the board,
43:02
Speaker 7: Paul judges on our board. Bo Young investor Andrew young
43:06
Speaker 7: Son is on the board. And there are two other
43:11
Speaker 7: individuals a part of our board that are part of
43:15
Speaker 7: our Series A investment investment community, and we selected those
43:19
Speaker 7: individuals not just because they are in the banking community,
43:23
Speaker 7: but because they have resources in the digitals, in the
43:26
Speaker 7: digital banking space. As I mentioned earlier in our in
43:29
Speaker 7: our series in our Angel Investment round, in our Series
43:36
Speaker 7: A round, it wasn't just about receiving a check from
43:42
Speaker 7: certain individuals. It was money is always important. As you
43:47
Speaker 7: mentioned Rashad that you know we're running a business, so
43:50
Speaker 7: money you need capital to run the business, but it's
43:53
Speaker 7: also about partnering with the right individuals who have resources
43:59
Speaker 7: that can help your business grow and develop. So our
44:04
Speaker 7: our border directors not just are include individuals who have
44:09
Speaker 7: capital and access to capital to help our business grow,
44:12
Speaker 7: but also have resources as well. So it's always selecting
44:16
Speaker 7: the right partnerships. In my personal opinion, that's as equal
44:20
Speaker 7: as important as as the capital. So our our border
44:24
Speaker 7: directors are important not just to help the business to
44:30
Speaker 7: start the business, but also help it grow as well.
44:33
Speaker 5: All right, So you guys are online bank. What is
44:37
Speaker 5: the difference between online and physical obviously physical locations, but
44:41
Speaker 5: I'm assuming that you didn't want to do the physical
44:43
Speaker 5: bank because it's a lot more overhead and it's a
44:46
Speaker 5: lot harder to manage than the online situation without.
44:49
Speaker 7: Without a shoutout of doubt. So so you know, we
44:53
Speaker 7: look at what we're doing at Greenwood as as a
44:56
Speaker 7: bank in a box, okay, a digital bank in a
44:59
Speaker 7: box where where you know, we're providing the same digital
45:06
Speaker 7: experience or banking experience as traditional banks, but we believe
45:12
Speaker 7: that we're providing a more authentic service for our community
45:17
Speaker 7: without the overhead, without the brick and mortar overhead that
45:21
Speaker 7: traditional banks, traditional financial institutions have. So those additional expenses
45:32
Speaker 7: drive the cost of doing business up right, So you
45:37
Speaker 7: take a look at your business. Earn your leisure as
45:40
Speaker 7: an example, You guys gather and create content, from my understanding,
45:48
Speaker 7: not necessarily in a set structure that you have hundreds
45:55
Speaker 7: of employees that you where you gather the content and
46:00
Speaker 7: other services that you provide in a brick and mortar space.
46:03
Speaker 7: You guys go and you go get the content and
46:08
Speaker 7: go craft the content and go to the people where
46:11
Speaker 7: they are. That's what we're doing. We are meeting our
46:16
Speaker 7: customer where he or she is, not necessarily having our
46:22
Speaker 7: customer come to where they think we should be. So
46:28
Speaker 7: to me, at us, that's a more important way of
46:33
Speaker 7: providing banking services.
46:35
Speaker 3: So you guys, obviously you started with the capital to
46:37
Speaker 3: get the bank and said series as funding.
46:39
Speaker 2: Then you had the board that you put together.
46:42
Speaker 7: Every business that I've built, as I mentioned earlier, has
46:45
Speaker 7: been built around best in class executive talent. There's you know,
46:54
Speaker 7: there is no sustainable business that will thrive without individuals
47:06
Speaker 7: one who are best in class and have done what
47:09
Speaker 7: you're paying them to do for for some time. So
47:16
Speaker 7: so you know, I knew that there is there is competent,
47:22
Speaker 7: incredible banking talent that worked at traditional fies and worked
47:27
Speaker 7: at other challenger banks that understood our mission and our motive.
47:35
Speaker 7: And I I make folks offers that they can't refuse
47:41
Speaker 7: candidly speaking, So so you know, you know, I I
47:45
Speaker 7: sold the fact that that we're authentic, that we're providing
47:51
Speaker 7: a service that hadn't been provided to our community, that
47:56
Speaker 7: we were going to make history. Uh And and you know,
48:02
Speaker 7: I I believe that there was a community of minority
48:08
Speaker 7: banking individuals and talent that that wanted to participate in
48:13
Speaker 7: our in our mission and what we were building, and
48:16
Speaker 7: that's what happened.
48:17
Speaker 5: So like the debit card, well people be able to
48:20
Speaker 5: use that ATM machines, And how does that work since
48:22
Speaker 5: you don't have ATM machine like they go to like
48:24
Speaker 5: Chase and then they get charged like a fee for
48:26
Speaker 5: using it a Chase yep.
48:27
Speaker 7: So So so we have partnerships ATM partnerships with Truest,
48:35
Speaker 7: with P and C, with Wells Fargo, UH with All
48:41
Speaker 7: Points and Money Pass. So I'm proud to announce we
48:45
Speaker 7: have the widest broadest swath of free UH service use
48:54
Speaker 7: of ATMs across the country. So so the you do
48:58
Speaker 7: you there are no charge for any of our customers at.
49:03
Speaker 4: Those locations locations so in that.
49:08
Speaker 7: Those locations are growing weekly. So we are making other
49:12
Speaker 7: deals with other banking institutions to even grow that that
49:16
Speaker 7: service in that way.
49:17
Speaker 3: From from a technology standpoint, what kind of technology can
49:20
Speaker 3: we expect from Greenway. I know, like some some things
49:23
Speaker 3: they have where you can take the picture of the
49:24
Speaker 3: check and it's directly deposited. I know, we can use
49:27
Speaker 3: uh zell and we can use cash up by these
49:29
Speaker 3: things that will all be a part of the green situation.
49:32
Speaker 7: Yep, yep. So so from the technology side, so we're
49:36
Speaker 7: we're starting uh, best in class full service banking in
49:41
Speaker 7: your hand. Uh As I mentioned Apple and Android pay,
49:47
Speaker 7: we'll have we have over a thousand uh ATM locations
49:53
Speaker 7: at the moment today early pay. Uh so all of
49:58
Speaker 7: the digital services that our competitors have, Greenwood have as well.
50:04
Speaker 4: So how do you see people using it? So obviously
50:07
Speaker 4: it's not open yet.
50:07
Speaker 5: When it's open, I'm definitely gonna have an account, but
50:09
Speaker 5: right now I have chases my main account, and I
50:12
Speaker 5: have capital one. I was like online savings, just a
50:15
Speaker 5: slightly higher interest rate. That's kind of like how I
50:19
Speaker 5: have like my banking set up. How do you envision
50:22
Speaker 5: for people to use Greenwood do you use it? Do
50:25
Speaker 5: you envision I'm using that as their primary bank, as
50:27
Speaker 5: a bank that they have some money in, as a bank,
50:30
Speaker 5: that they have online savings, all of the above. Like
50:33
Speaker 5: what is your idea of how Greenway can be using
50:35
Speaker 5: a bank portfolio?
50:36
Speaker 7: Yep, great question. So we're building Greenwood for users in
50:44
Speaker 7: our community, an authentic digital banking experience for our community.
50:54
Speaker 7: We don't envision the entire minority community to leave right
51:03
Speaker 7: there their banking institutions that they currently bank in. I
51:07
Speaker 7: personally have three banks that I that I bank at.
51:13
Speaker 7: But Greenwood is a more authentic banking experience for our community.
51:18
Speaker 7: Greenwood is a a a banking institution that will provide
51:26
Speaker 7: other opportunities, mainly for African American and minority business owners,
51:34
Speaker 7: right to have access to capital to build personal and
51:38
Speaker 7: professional goals and dreams. That there are other financial institutions,
51:44
Speaker 7: more traditional banking institutions don't currently uh, they don't currently
51:50
Speaker 7: utilize those relationships for so so we envision for our
51:57
Speaker 7: community to look at us as an additional resource right
52:00
Speaker 7: from a business perspective, to have access to capital personally
52:07
Speaker 7: and professionally.
52:10
Speaker 3: So, I know you spoke about the spending and saving product,
52:13
Speaker 3: the lending product, and credit products, but I was intrigued
52:16
Speaker 3: because you said that there's going to be investment products,
52:18
Speaker 3: and so I'm thinking, and I've seen a lot of
52:19
Speaker 3: financial institutions do this now where you can invest directly
52:22
Speaker 3: into the stock market through your account or even I'm thinking, now,
52:26
Speaker 3: what is the role that crypto will play in green
52:27
Speaker 3: What is that something that you guys are looking to
52:30
Speaker 3: include and when you fully launch.
52:32
Speaker 7: Yep, not when we fully launch, no, no. So we
52:35
Speaker 7: will start with as I mentioned, debit is spending account right,
52:40
Speaker 7: and then we'll roll into credit. Then lending in crypto
52:45
Speaker 7: is a what we call a fast follow.
52:48
Speaker 2: Uh.
52:48
Speaker 7: So we're building our crypto products now as we're building
52:53
Speaker 7: our credit right products and our investing are our credit
53:00
Speaker 7: and investing in lending products as well.
53:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, one of the things that you said that you
53:04
Speaker 3: were going to do is this community involvement. I know
53:06
Speaker 3: that's a big part of what you're doing, and I
53:08
Speaker 3: was reading that every time every person that signs up,
53:11
Speaker 3: there's gonna be five meals that's given out and you
53:13
Speaker 3: partner with GOODA.
53:14
Speaker 2: That's our girl, Jasmine croch out to alumni.
53:18
Speaker 3: But also I think I believe ten thousand dollars a
53:20
Speaker 3: month is going to go to a small business.
53:22
Speaker 2: Can you talk about that lot yep.
53:24
Speaker 7: The recirculation of capital, as I mentioned, is one of
53:28
Speaker 7: our major missions. I mentioned earlier that the reason that
53:34
Speaker 7: the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma thrived and was so
53:38
Speaker 7: successful is because capital recirculated amongst multiple businesses multiple times
53:46
Speaker 7: in that community. So we have at Greenwood a give
53:52
Speaker 7: back program where our customers have the opportunity to round
53:59
Speaker 7: up they're change right and make a purchase. They're rounded
54:05
Speaker 7: change can either go to the naacp U, n CF Gooder,
54:12
Speaker 7: or a combination of all of those organizations per per swipe.
54:20
Speaker 7: So our goal is to create even a water wider
54:26
Speaker 7: swath of businesses that we want to participate in that program.
54:32
Speaker 7: The second thing that we're doing is we're identifying every month,
54:36
Speaker 7: as I mentioned, African American businesses that we want to
54:42
Speaker 7: deploy capital too in ten thousand dollars increments. So we
54:49
Speaker 7: have a program that will start this fall where we
54:54
Speaker 7: are deploying ten thousand dollars to that identified businessiness. And
55:01
Speaker 7: in fact we gave our first check too. We could
55:05
Speaker 7: have checked the T's Barbershop in Tulsa, Oklahoma last month
55:10
Speaker 7: as the inaugural minority business UH to start that program.
55:15
Speaker 3: Is that something that you plan on doing continuously? We
55:18
Speaker 3: were actually in to so we spent some days out
55:20
Speaker 3: there on the hundredth anniversary of the massacre and we
55:23
Speaker 3: got to speak to the locals and one of the
55:25
Speaker 3: things that they were saying is like, we need more.
55:26
Speaker 2: People to come back.
55:28
Speaker 3: Is that something that green would obviously be in the
55:29
Speaker 3: name is You're making considered efforts to make sure that
55:32
Speaker 3: that is those people are taking care of as.
55:34
Speaker 7: Well without a shadow of a doubt. I mean that
55:36
Speaker 7: that that community is at the core in the heart
55:42
Speaker 7: of what we represent. It's not just from a namesake perspective,
55:46
Speaker 7: it's also too Turmshod part of our DNA. The recirculation
55:55
Speaker 7: of capital again, I can't harp on that enough is
56:00
Speaker 7: really the life bread of what of what Greenwood is
56:04
Speaker 7: all about. Deploying capital in the community is what we
56:08
Speaker 7: are We're all about. You mentioned rishard predatory lending, you know,
56:14
Speaker 7: thwarting predatory lending is what is what we are all about.
56:19
Speaker 7: And those three nuances all existed in Greenwood, uh, and
56:25
Speaker 7: it was the reason why that community was successful and
56:28
Speaker 7: is the reason why I believe we will be as well.
56:30
Speaker 5: So when it when is it gonna launch? And I
56:33
Speaker 5: know a lot of people is on a waiting list.
56:34
Speaker 5: Right now you're talking to me o camera about the
56:36
Speaker 5: different phases that you have to go through the launch, So, yeah,
56:39
Speaker 5: what's the what's the what's the phases for the launch.
56:41
Speaker 7: So so we have close to six hundred thousand people
56:46
Speaker 7: on our waiting list currently. So we have three separate phases.
56:53
Speaker 7: There is a a an alpha release where we uh
56:59
Speaker 7: test our product to a certain number of people. There's
57:02
Speaker 7: a beta process where we test our product to a
57:07
Speaker 7: wider swath of individuals in our community. And then there's
57:12
Speaker 7: there's a limited release where we basically open the rest
57:18
Speaker 7: of the community up to our products. So by the
57:22
Speaker 7: end of this year, we should have our our community
57:30
Speaker 7: fully engaged in our Greenwood products. Next year start the
57:35
Speaker 7: start of twenty two is when we'll open up Greenwood
57:38
Speaker 7: to the community as a whole.
57:41
Speaker 2: And that that's true for the United States right right now?
57:46
Speaker 2: Only is it the continental United States.
57:47
Speaker 7: Kind of the United States?
57:48
Speaker 3: Okay, that's a good question, right right, So because I
57:51
Speaker 3: know we I mean, it's not just African American, but
57:53
Speaker 3: the Latin ex community. So I'm thinking Puerto Rico, I'm
57:55
Speaker 3: thinking Dominican Republic, a lot of these places that would
57:58
Speaker 3: need this type of service. Is that something that we're
58:01
Speaker 3: looking forward to in the future without a.
58:02
Speaker 7: Shadow of doubt. So, you know, we are as a
58:07
Speaker 7: culture and a community, a global culture in community that
58:14
Speaker 7: I believe needs access to capital, you know, globally, just
58:20
Speaker 7: as we need access to capital from a continental United
58:24
Speaker 7: States perspective, so as as we as we go and grow,
58:29
Speaker 7: so will our products across across the pond if you will,
58:35
Speaker 7: you know, across the globe.
58:37
Speaker 4: Right, what can you say that people that you know?
58:40
Speaker 5: You know people, we have a hard time trusting each other,
58:43
Speaker 5: especially when it comes to money, So like, what kind
58:45
Speaker 5: of reinsurance can you give the people? Everybody's going to
58:48
Speaker 5: it's never going to be an issue, it's not issues.
58:50
Speaker 5: There's always gonna be issues, problems or things. That's just
58:52
Speaker 5: part of the game. But you know, to try to
58:55
Speaker 5: let them know that you know, you're here to help
58:57
Speaker 5: and you're not going to be, you know.
59:00
Speaker 4: Part of the problem. As far as like predatory lending,
59:02
Speaker 4: high interview stuff like that.
59:03
Speaker 7: That's a great question. I think. To answer that question,
59:08
Speaker 7: I have to let my personal history and track record
59:15
Speaker 7: in business kind of speak for itself. As I mentioned
59:21
Speaker 7: earlier on, you know, I started my professional career in
59:26
Speaker 7: the entertainment in the music entertainment space, and I prided
59:30
Speaker 7: myself on creating consistent quality products in the in the
59:38
Speaker 7: in the music business. Then that devetailed in the creating
59:43
Speaker 7: products in media. My stint at at Turner Broadcasting and
59:51
Speaker 7: Bounce TV, where I created uh credible in quality media
59:58
Speaker 7: content for the f An American community, which then in
1:00:02
Speaker 7: turn devetailed into me launching Greenwood a platform, a technology company,
1:00:11
Speaker 7: or released digital banking services for our community. In each
1:00:14
Speaker 7: of the chapters of my life, I have created con
1:00:18
Speaker 7: content that has been credible, that has been consistent, and
1:00:24
Speaker 7: I think that has resonated authentically with our community. Say
1:00:30
Speaker 7: what I've done in my other chapters is what I
1:00:33
Speaker 7: plan on and I'm going to do do at Greenwood.
1:00:36
Speaker 7: So as you mentioned, yes, there are there are hiccups.
1:00:40
Speaker 7: You know there are there are hiccups at Bank of America,
1:00:43
Speaker 7: there are banking hiccups at other African American banks and
1:00:49
Speaker 7: other challenger banks. So you know problems occur. But know
1:00:55
Speaker 7: that that I have over twenty five years, been consistent
1:01:01
Speaker 7: and stood behind every product that I've I've created and
1:01:07
Speaker 7: that I have released to my community, and Greenwood is
1:01:11
Speaker 7: no different.
1:01:12
Speaker 5: There you have it as an honor. What would you
1:01:16
Speaker 5: like to lead the people with social media for Greenwood?
1:01:18
Speaker 5: How can they get on the wait in lists? What's
1:01:20
Speaker 5: what's all the information website, all that stuffy yees www.
1:01:25
Speaker 7: Bangreenwood dot com. You know, you know, we are a
1:01:30
Speaker 7: growing digital bank that will grow. You know. I want
1:01:36
Speaker 7: you know, our community to understand that we are compassionate
1:01:41
Speaker 7: and passionate about our mission, that that we are sincere,
1:01:47
Speaker 7: and that we're going to continue to create products that
1:01:49
Speaker 7: we believe resonate with with our community authentically consistently. And
1:01:58
Speaker 7: I want to also mention that we're all about partnerships.
1:02:01
Speaker 7: So it's an honor and pleasure to be again in
1:02:04
Speaker 7: business with Earn your leisure and a partner with with
1:02:09
Speaker 7: the products that you guys are are working on and growing.
1:02:14
Speaker 7: As you know, what you're doing is important. And I
1:02:19
Speaker 7: think that the more that African American and just minority
1:02:25
Speaker 7: companies band together and work together, which doesn't happen that often,
1:02:32
Speaker 7: but the more we can sit down and and and
1:02:36
Speaker 7: create that bonding, the better I think we are as
1:02:40
Speaker 7: a community and a culture as a whole.
1:02:44
Speaker 4: There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, Troy housekeeping it
1:02:47
Speaker 4: on well.
1:02:47
Speaker 3: Congrats, congrats and thank you for opening up your home
1:02:49
Speaker 3: for us. And congrats to Ambassador Andrew Young and Killer
1:02:53
Speaker 3: Michael former lay Alma on this and amazing endeavor that
1:02:57
Speaker 3: you guys have taken on and thank you for the
1:02:59
Speaker 3: partner man.
1:03:00
Speaker 2: We're looking forward to it.
1:03:02
Speaker 3: And shout everybody on patreon dot com. That is our
1:03:04
Speaker 3: product paid program. Obviously Tier five members you have access
1:03:07
Speaker 3: to eyl University with over ten thousand members.
1:03:10
Speaker 2: That's a lot, man.
1:03:11
Speaker 3: I remember doing this and it was five hundred and
1:03:13
Speaker 3: now at ten thousand, which tells you that the community
1:03:16
Speaker 3: is growing, not only because of the information we're given,
1:03:18
Speaker 3: but the information that you were also providing to each other.
1:03:20
Speaker 3: So shout out to all the earners and shout out
1:03:22
Speaker 3: to the merch team. We got some new stuff coming,
1:03:25
Speaker 3: so be on the lookout for that. Love is love, y'all.
1:03:28
Speaker 4: Peace, Thank you for rocking with us.
1:03:31
Speaker 2: We see you next week.
1:03:32
Speaker 4: Peace.
1:03:34
Speaker 6: My graduates from my school being forced bad drop bag drop,
1:03:40
Speaker 6: Mike drop bad drop drop.
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