Latest / Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant / Hood Hustle to Boardroom Power: The Underground MBA America Ignores

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Hood Hustle to Boardroom Power: The Underground MBA America Ignores · Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome The Money and Wealth with John Hobriant, a production
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Yo, yo yo.
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  Speaker 1: This is John O'Briant and this is the Money in
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Wealth podcast series twenty twenty six, Season three. And I
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  Speaker 1: want to thank everybody for voting for Money and Wealth
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: for the NAACP Image Award nomination. Missus Michelle Obama won
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: it and I am actually if I'm going to lose
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: to anybody, I'd love losing to her. She is a
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: winner and I love rooting her on. So that's a
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  Speaker 1: beautiful thing. See that we can be for ourselves and
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  Speaker 1: for someone else at the same time. So this is
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  Speaker 1: a powerful episode. By the way, I want to thank
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Effect Network, where I do this podcast. I'm
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  Speaker 1: also on the board of the Black Affect Network. So
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  Speaker 1: it's from the streets to the suites and back to
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the streets. And this episode underscores that this is going
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to be a banger. As they say, this is a
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  Speaker 1: really special episode. The Underground NBA the Talent America is
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  Speaker 1: ignoring Hood Economics Part one, so America spends a lot
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  Speaker 1: of time talking about crime and underserved communities.
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  Speaker 2: Today.
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk about something else, wasted talent. My
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  Speaker 1: whole premise of my parent company at Brian Grew Ventures
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  Speaker 1: is unleashing untapped human potential at scale. That's the whole
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  Speaker 1: premise of how I do business doing well and doing good.
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  Speaker 1: Doing well by doing good good capitalism, etc. A vision
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  Speaker 1: made real. So because waste of talent is literally the
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  Speaker 1: opposite of what made America great. What made this country great,
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  Speaker 1: with all of her warts and problems and mistakes, is
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: it optimized talent wherever it found it and turned that
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  Speaker 1: into aspiracial success. And people went from a storefront, a
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  Speaker 1: high school education, and a pickup truck at fifty one
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  Speaker 1: years of age. This particular person named Sam Walton as
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  Speaker 1: an example, and created the biggest retailer in the world world.
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  Speaker 1: We all know that to be today Walmart, and there's
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  Speaker 1: so many other stories like that. But we don't have
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  Speaker 1: to just talk about those stories. To be inspired or
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  Speaker 1: to be direction directionally aspirationally correct, we can go to
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  Speaker 1: some place that is generally referred to as a negative.
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  Speaker 1: I don't see it that way, which is the hood
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  Speaker 1: places where I grew up. So waste of talent may
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  Speaker 1: be the most expensive economic problem in America today. This
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  Speaker 1: is the basic premise, or one of the premises in
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: my upcoming book Capitalism for All Inclusive Economics in the
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  Speaker 1: Future Proofing of America Something. It's by the way, thank
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  Speaker 1: you off for helping to make it number one on
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  Speaker 1: pre order in its categories. Comes out March thirty first.
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  Speaker 1: So some of the most entrepreneurial people in this country
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  Speaker 1: are operating in what economists call the underground economy. Here's
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  Speaker 1: an economic reality check. Across the world, trillions of dollars
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  Speaker 1: of economic activity happens outside of the formal economy every year,
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  Speaker 1: informal retail, underground entertainment, cash businesses, unlicensed services. When people
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  Speaker 1: get locked out of opportunity, the economy doesn't disappear, it
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  Speaker 1: goes underground. By the way, one of the reasons I
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  Speaker 1: want to bring this back above ground or get everybody
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  Speaker 1: I can snatch them into the mainstream. It's not because
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  Speaker 1: I'm trying to get you to fit in somewhere. That's crazy.
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  Speaker 1: You already enough, your God's child. Everybody's unique. Everybody brings
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  Speaker 1: something special to wherever you are, whoever you are. But
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  Speaker 1: the cost of being poor is expensive, and the cost
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  Speaker 1: of an underground economy forces you into illegal activity because
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  Speaker 1: if you are in an underground economy, you're forced to
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  Speaker 1: get non traditional financing.
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  Speaker 2: Or put another way, if you're in.
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  Speaker 1: Interesting business models, you can't go to the bank, so
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  Speaker 1: you end up having to pay twenty thirty, forty to
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  Speaker 1: fifty percent for your cost of funds. The loan shocks
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  Speaker 1: the people around the hood. Who lends money in an
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  Speaker 1: unlicensed manner. The only way you can pay that back
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  Speaker 1: is more legal activity. So it becomes like a circular
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  Speaker 1: firing squad. And we never get out of this thing.
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  Speaker 1: It's prison, probation, parole and death. And my people, the
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  Speaker 1: people I know who I grew up with, are brilliant, amazing,
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  Speaker 1: and to quote the late Reverend Jesse Jackson, got wrest
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  Speaker 1: of soul. The rule was a published in the playing
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  Speaker 1: fielder's level. We kill it. Professional sports killed it. The arts,
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  Speaker 1: I mean in the professional sports is not just traditional sports.
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  Speaker 1: Like we've gone on the tennis right and f one racing,
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  Speaker 1: Lewis Hamilton and now you know Michael Jordan's gone from
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  Speaker 1: basketball to NASCAR and winning, uh. And it goes on
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  Speaker 1: and goes on and goes on. So the arts killing it, Politics,
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  Speaker 1: public service, killing it from a slave to the President
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  Speaker 1: of the United States of America, faith, from from a
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  Speaker 1: community pastor of one hundred people to the Great Bishop T. D.
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  Speaker 2: Jakes, et cetera.
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  Speaker 1: We've we've we've excelled in all these areas, so moral
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: authority and civil justice, social social justice, the uplift of
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  Speaker 1: freedom through self determination, through the expression of our freedom.
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  Speaker 1: First level of freedom, which is government structure, so that
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  Speaker 1: before governments, before our public service and politics, came civil
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  Speaker 1: rights and social justice. People like uh, of course, doctor
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  Speaker 1: Martin the King junior credit Scott King, doctor Dorothy Heyde,
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  Speaker 1: and my mentor, Ambassador Andrew Young. These are just some examples.
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  Speaker 1: But we have never succeeded at scale and capitalism and
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  Speaker 1: free enterprise. And I believe it's what we don't know
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  Speaker 1: that we don't know, but we think we know. We
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: got these bad business plans and we've been becoming experts
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  Speaker 1: at that won't be sustainable. And then folks then typecast us,
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  Speaker 1: seeing us in those roles, and then discount us, and
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  Speaker 1: then the story ends.
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  Speaker 2: So the hustler.
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  Speaker 1: Alone with a hustler story alone has a little has
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  Speaker 1: very little pathway forward. Here's the story of a young hustler.
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  Speaker 2: That I encountered. He had work ethic.
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  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about the next door neighbor, Tweet, who lived
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  Speaker 1: next to me. I'm thinking about and he was not
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  Speaker 1: a good person. Thinking about George, who was a good person,
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  Speaker 1: my best friend, who who was murdered with Tweet, trying
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  Speaker 1: to act like Tweet, talk like Tweet, hung like Tweet,
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  Speaker 1: got killed with tweets selling drugs in the neighborhood. And
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  Speaker 1: George had a grades. I wanted to be like George. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: George wanted to be like Tweet, did not have good
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  Speaker 1: role models. That story did not end well. I don't
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  Speaker 1: want that for you. I want something better for you.
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  Speaker 1: Those stories don't have to be the end of our
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  Speaker 1: story and just begin to begin to become the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of it. I'm gonna get to that in it. A
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  Speaker 1: saint is a center that got up. You can make
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  Speaker 1: a mistake and not be a mistake. As my father
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  Speaker 1: in law, doctor David Dalton, would say, we're all angels
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  Speaker 1: with dirty faces. There is no perfect but I expect
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  Speaker 1: you to get up and rise above. And unfortunately George
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  Speaker 1: and Tweet never made it to their phase too. And
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  Speaker 1: if I don't mention their name. Their stories are lost
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  Speaker 1: for life. The guy who saved my life, I keep
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: calling him, Oh see, I'm not sure that's his name,
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  Speaker 1: but I never got his formal legal name as they
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: call it, his government name as they call it. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: he saved my life. I was like six seven years
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: of age. You can read the story in a couple
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  Speaker 1: of my books. But he went to go sell drugs
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  Speaker 1: part time to try to make ends meet, and.
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  Speaker 2: Then his end was met. They murdered him.
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  Speaker 1: Those who thought they understood they owned the hood in
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: my neighborhood murdered him right in front of me. His
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  Speaker 1: story is gone. I'm tired of these brilliant people ending
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  Speaker 1: in a dead end situation. All these people had leadership ability,
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  Speaker 1: sales ability, organizational skills, influence in the neighborhood, amongst other.
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  Speaker 1: Tweets certainly influenced my best friend George. He certainly influenced
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: more than I did, because I wanted to be like said.
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to be like George and George and wanted
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  Speaker 1: to be like tweet. By the way, we spent a
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  Speaker 1: lot of time trying to growing up, trying to impress somebody. Ultimately,
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  Speaker 1: we don't want to be like. Now, let that sink in.
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  Speaker 1: So here's a signature thought for you. Some people go
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  Speaker 1: to Harvard Business School. I've been to one of their
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  Speaker 1: executive programs and graduated, completed it. But may people want
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  Speaker 1: to go to Harvard Business School, and that's cool. Others
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  Speaker 1: go to what I call the underground NBA, right, and
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  Speaker 1: that's what we're going to talk about today. The underground
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  Speaker 1: NBA teaches negotiation, marketing skills, distribution, customer psychology, risk management,
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  Speaker 1: but it lacks they lack it lacks the NBA. The
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  Speaker 1: underground NBA credit as in accessing good credit or even
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  Speaker 1: getting credit for all of these skills. Ultimately, because the
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  Speaker 1: world will forget about many people unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier,
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  Speaker 1: and they also lack mentorship, ability to give it or
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  Speaker 1: get it.
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  Speaker 2: And they lack capital.
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  Speaker 1: Now, the hood may not have enough MBAs, but it
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  Speaker 1: has plenty of hustlers, and these husters have a genie.
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  Speaker 1: As I've often said, illegal drug dealing may be immral
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  Speaker 1: and ethical, and selling death to your own community, if
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  Speaker 1: that's what's happening, is repugnant. But what these drug dealers
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  Speaker 1: are not are dumb. They understand import export finance, marketing, wholesale, retail,
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  Speaker 1: customer service, security, territory, logistics, HR, human resources. They really are,
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  Speaker 1: in many cases brilliant entrepreneurial talents small business owners, if
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  Speaker 1: you will, with a really crappy business plan and crappy
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  Speaker 1: role models and no access to mainstream opportunities. My friend
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  Speaker 1: Michael Milkin, who's appeared in this podcast several times, has
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  Speaker 1: said he's the innovator of really modern Wall Street finance.
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  Speaker 1: He said that intelligence is equally distributed, but opportunity is not.
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  Speaker 2: Let's change that.
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  Speaker 1: That's again with my book Capitalism for All Inclusive Economics
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: in the Future, Proofing of America that comes out on
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  Speaker 1: the two hundred and fifty anniversary of this country this
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  Speaker 1: year and the one hundred anniversary of History Month this year.
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  Speaker 2: Can't make this up.
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  Speaker 1: To quote Ambassador Andrew Young, coincidence is God's way of
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  Speaker 1: remaining anonymous. That's what this moment is all about. So
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  Speaker 1: let's get into this. The economic ecosystem of the hood.
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  Speaker 1: The hood is not an economic desert. It's an economic ecosystem.
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  Speaker 1: Let me explain. Street vendors equals retail instinct sneaker resellers
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  Speaker 1: equals e commerce, arbitrage, street DJs equals the entertainment industry.
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  Speaker 1: Underground distribution equals or leads to logistics networks. Okay, some
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  Speaker 1: of the best marketers in America are standing on street corners.
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  Speaker 2: Can I get an amen? This is the church of
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: what's happening now? And what have you done for me lately?
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  Speaker 1: What if the person you see hustling on the street
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  Speaker 1: corner isn't the problem. What if they're an entrepreneur who
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  Speaker 1: never met a banker like I did, or a mentor
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  Speaker 1: who showed them the legal version of.
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  Speaker 2: The game like I did.
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  Speaker 1: What if the real issue isn't talent, it's opportunity. As
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  Speaker 1: I've said before, if you hang around nine broke people,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: you'll be the tenth. The opposite is also true. Let's
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: give a proof point here. And I'm doing this intentionally
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: so that this does not become somehow a black conversation
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  Speaker 1: or black and brown conversation.
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  Speaker 2: Right, this replies to everybody everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: You may or may not know this, but Nascar, the vaulted,
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  Speaker 1: multi multi billion dollar industry called NASCAR, came from moonshine
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  Speaker 1: running in the Appalation mountains.
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  Speaker 2: Did you know that. Let's unpack this a little bit.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: More bootleggers were running Moonshine successfully for years through the
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Appalation Mountains, and they were getting chased by the police
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: because it was illegal and what they were doing and
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: how they were doing it was illegal. And they realize
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  Speaker 1: this is a dead end situation. What did I say
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: about the hood, prison, probation, parole and death right? And
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  Speaker 1: they realize it's are some smart person after murders and
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: mayhem and all this drama, some person within the ranks
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  Speaker 1: of the bootleggers, the Moonshine runners realize, we can't keep
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: doing this, but we do have Let's do a process
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  Speaker 1: of elimination. We can't do this, we can't do that,
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  Speaker 1: we can't do the alcohol. We can't be running from
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  Speaker 1: police on you know these roads. But what can we do?
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  Speaker 1: What are we good at? What's how do we reduce
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: this to deduct the negatives and at in the positives
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: that well, my god, we drive, well, we're really good.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Mechanics and navigators and coordinators of mountain road expeditions. Really
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: think about thinking about these road races now.
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  Speaker 2: That happened throughout the world.
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  Speaker 1: They're not even escorted that now today are escorted by
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: police with all these fancy cars being driven through you know,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: exotic cars driven through deep country roads and Europe and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: elsewhere in here. That also, I believe is an offshoot
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: of what I'm talking about with these guys running moonshine
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: through the Appalachian mountains. But this is that's a possibility.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: This is what I'm gonna tell you as a certainty.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: They decided, let's focus on driving the cars. So they
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: modified the cars that outran the police, and when ambition ended,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: those same drivers built NASCAR.
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  Speaker 2: That's right.
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  Speaker 1: They went from driving on the in the you know,
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  Speaker 1: and and running from the police in the hills and
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  Speaker 1: the mountains and the foothills, to driving on uh, the beaches,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and driving in the lake beds, and driving on the
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  Speaker 1: dirt surfaces, and driving in what we now call stadium
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: environments around in circles. And they called they got a crowd.
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  Speaker 1: They start charging an entrance fee, and one thing led
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: to another, and literally, if you can you can trace
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: several of the the billion the multi billionaire families today
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: of NASCAR.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Literally fate you know, chase those.
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  Speaker 1: Families back to moonshine runners the same name, the France
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: family and several others, don't trust me, go do your
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: own research. America didn't lose the talent of those bootleggers,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: it redirected it. And like NASCAR, is a multi multi
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: billion dollar industry today that has logos attached to the
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: cars and a lot of respectability is televised and no
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: one even talks about the fact that these were illegal
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: moonshine runners and bootleggers. We can also take folks from
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the streets and graduate them into the suites, into legitimacy.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about some other stories immigrant informo economies.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: As an example, you have the Jewish garment industry, the
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Italian food businesses. I don't want to tell you what
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: folks called Italians in the early twentieth century, but I'll
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: just give you a hint and say it's a phrase
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: some people use about blacks even to this day.
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  Speaker 2: It's a derogatory phrase.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Korean meaning they were discraded against two right as new immigrants,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Korean retail networks. Right, So you know again, Jewish garment industry,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: these were outliers going to insiders. Italian food businesses outliers
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: going to insiders, Korean retail networks, outliers going to insiders,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: uh Indians from India who went into the motel business
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: because they couldn't find anything else that would allow them
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: to organize themselves. Now they owned sixty percent of all
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: motels and hotels in America and mainstream and now are
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: associated with huge, respectable.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Brand brands outsiders to insiders.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Throughout America's history, immigrant community started with informal economies when
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the when the front door of opportunity was closed to them,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: they opened the back door, side door, went through a window,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: over and arounded through it.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: They want to They're going to get to it. They
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: just got it done.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: When opportunity opened, those same activities became legitimate industries. Right,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: So why talent gets trapped? There are three barriers financial literacy.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: This is why I call financial literacy the civil rights
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: issue of this generation. If you don't know better, you
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: can't do better. Is what you don't know that you
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: don't know what you think you know. Credit access. You
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: can't access good credit if you don't have a good
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: credit score. And good credit score comes from financial literacy.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: So number one leads into number two. That's why I'm
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: obsessing about a seven hundred credit score for everybody and
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: the way you change America. One of the ways you
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: change America is raise your credit score neighbored by neighborhood,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: block by block, neighbored by neighborhood, block block, block, house
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: by house, by one hundred points.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: It'll just stabilize the whole country. Again.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Break this down in detail in my upcoming book number three, Mentorship.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: You model what you see.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: No matter how much I love you, my son or
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: my daughter, if I don't have wisdom, all I can
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: give you is my own ignorance. From out of love.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: We passed down bad habits from generation generation. Again is
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: what we don't know that we don't know, but we
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: think we know. That's killing us. You cannot play in
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: the economic game if nobody teaches you the rules. And
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Bastor Young had this great quote, to live in a
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: system of free enterprise and not to understand the rules
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: of free enterprise must be the very definition of slavery.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Can I get an amen? This is the church of
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: what's happening now? And what have you've done for me lately?
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: This is what Operation Hope does. This is why I
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: founded this organization, which is now the largest financial literacy
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: coaching organization in America. Why we raise enough money so
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: that everybody who calls us can get a coaching scholarship
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: value at a thousand dollars twenty five hundred one thousand
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: dollars dollars. And if you're a partner, if your employer
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: is a partner of Operation Hope, valued at ten thousand dollars.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: But whatever it is, it's no cost to you. You
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: have to invest your time. So call Operation Hope today
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: or go get that Hope and hand app and download
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: it today and change your life.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: So now let's talk about the talent audit.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Instead of asking what's wrong with underserved communities, we should
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: conduct a talent audit. That's right, a talent audit. I
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: want to identify some existing skills leadership, sales, negotiation, marketing, logistics.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: By the way, here's a gift for you.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: I'll come back in another episode and deal with it
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: separately because I want to focus on artificial intelligence.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: But I believe now that while.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: There's going to be a lot of disruption and pain
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: on the front end of artificial intelligence, and a great
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: in the society because a lot of job is gonna
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: be lost as efficiency comes in wicked fast, on the
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: back end of all this innovation, there's gonna be jobs
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: that come back. And I think that those as like,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: your job is not gonna be to AI. Your job
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: is gonna be lost maybe to somebody who can use AI.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: So we master AI and we bring people of color, minorities,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: African Americans, you know, people who are who've dealt with
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: unders with challenges and are used to that are going
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: to bring unique skills. Even I believe poor whites and
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: you know, uh, they're more poor whites and better than
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: poor anybody else.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Women.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I think anybody who's dealt with struggle and has had
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: to become resilient and become creative will be will be
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: will be providing a unique and incredible value added to
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: artificial intelligence that will actually be will provide outside value
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: to themselves in the job market. But that's another video,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: another podcast, for another time. Back to this topic of
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: talent audit. When you do a talent audit of the hood,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: what you find is in dysfunction, you find entrepreneurs. The
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: solution the hustle to business pipeline. That's right, That's what
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: I said, the hustle the business pipeline. What America needs
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: is a hustle the business pipeline all across this country,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: community by community. The steps are financial literacy, credit building, mentorship,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: access to capital, business ownership. The goal is simple, turned
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: hustlers into entrepreneurs. Now, let me come back a little bit,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: let me rewind the tape in the conversation just a
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: little it. And for those who are saying this sounds great,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: but how do I make this real in my life?
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Like, how do I know.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Specifically how this affects me and what I could do
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: to transform my life? And how do I If you're
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: still lacking sort of confidence that you have unique skills
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: that can be applied anywhere, Uh, then maybe you need
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: just a little bit more of a boost. Maybe you
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: need to understand just a little bit tighter, a little
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: bit with more specific a little bit more specificity right
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: of why your talent's not wasted or how to not
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: waste that talent of a hustler and legitimize it. So
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: let's get into this a little deeper. The hood is
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: not a place for losers. A hood is a place
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: where you can't afford to lose, So you win by
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: going over to a rounded.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Through it until you get to it.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: We've been doing so much with so little for so long,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: we can almost do anything with nothing. What are businesses,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: industries examples right of how we have taken nothing and
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: turned it into something in these communities. I've already mentioned
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: two examples. I've mentioned the drug dealer. Well, I've already
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: mentioned one example, and I mentioned the bootlegger and how
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: that's turned into two. NASCAR, did you know that gang
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: leader is a frustrated union organizer. I knew a guy
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: who's a gang leader in my community. I knew and
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: admired him. I wanted to be like him. Actually, I
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: admired him. He was a local, local, six square block celebrity.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: He knew everybody. He could sell anything, he could organize people,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: He could move product faster than anyone around him. He was,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: so he was more than a gang leader. When I
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: say move product, you can probably figure out the rest.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: The problem wasn't the lack of talent. The problem was
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: that nobody ever showed him the legal version of the game,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the legal version of himself. So the underground economy teaches
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: you things, but it leaves out things. So let me
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: connect some some more dots, drug distribution, logistics, street vendors again,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: retail instinct street marketing, branding okay, sneaker resale e commerce
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: that arbitrage and supply and demand. So the markets again
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: are standing right on that street corner. Think about street
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: rap right, a global hip hop industry from underground tapes
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: to billion dollar businesses graffiti.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: What does that.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Remind you of global art brands? Street artists became global designers.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: America has always converted underground creativity into mainstream industries, sometimes
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: without us. There are some of the biggest brands in
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: the world. I won't mention them here, but you can
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: research some of the top brands of European brands, their
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: household names. It appears they were actually inspired if you
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: want to call it that, from Cloth Kent, the cloth
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and other cloth and looks from Africa.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: But the folks from Africa.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Had the hustle, but didn't have the pipeline to a
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: business plan or acts as the capital or industries, and
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: so their story was lost, if you want to call
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: it that. Their ideas, some people would say, quote, we're stolen,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: so we want to create now again a hustle to
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: business pipeline.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: We want to.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Un rig the game so that you can play it too.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: People say they hate rich people. My response, no, you don't.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: You hate rich people until you become rich. What you
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: hate is a game system, a system that, now, matter
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: how hard you were, you just cannot seem to get ahead.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Let's fix that. So now, let's.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Add these specific industries so that we go from concept
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: to creativity, to community to commerce to capitalism. Let's connect
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: all these dots so we can create this pipeline to
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: true prosperity. I've already told you about the drug dealer.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: It's really an underground entrepreneur, a supply chain operator again,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: inventory management, pricing strategy, customer segmentation, risk management, territory management,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: distribution networks. Here's the legal pathways for that. Logistics companies,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: retail business ownership, operates, food distribution businesses. Somebody who can
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: run a drug distribution network can run a logistics company.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Can I get an a man again? Here there's a
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: gang leader, as like a labor organized or a community leader.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Their skills include leadership and loyalty business sorry, leadership and
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: loyalty building. Right, it is the business of leadership and loyalty. Actually,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: conflict resolution, territorial negotiation, group identity formation, chain of command structures. Okay,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: what are the legal pathways for this person. Union leadership,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: nonprofit leadership, political organization. By the way, I hire somebody
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: with those skills I probably already have from this who
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: is actually I know, actually, I know I have form
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: a gang organizer. I know I have political organizing, security,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: company leadership. Right, some gang leaders are just frustrated CEOs.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Here's a third industry, prostitution, the escort economy.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: What does that translate to skills and talent? Why?
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Talent wise, sales and marketing. Here's the skills that are
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: present here. I'm not talking about I'm not making I'm
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: not casting inspersions on what they do. I'd like for
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: them not to have to sell their bodies. I like
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: not to dedignify themselves in this way. But I'm talking about,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: in this particular instance, how their skills are transferable, the
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: skills already present here. Persuasion, emotional intelligence, client management. Don't laugh,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I'm serious, client management, repeat, business generation, branding. I mean,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: you look at women today on who've taken this to
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: the next level. Only fans and all this stuff online.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: A lot of quote influencers, right, are escorts. I'd just
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: be real blunt about it. In places like Miami and others.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: My sources tell me that a lot of what you
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: see there there are folks really are esquarts where they're
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: masquerading as just influencers. Not everybody, but a number of
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: folks are paying their bills in this way. Again, I'm
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: not judging it here. I'm telling you that there's a
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: legal pathway out of this because you want to be
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: stuck in that, because it is going to end badly
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: if you stay in these professions for too long. Here's
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: some legal pathways. Sales professionals, luxury hospitality, yes, luxury hospitalities.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: Ladies mostly ladies. Guys do it too.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: These ladies are brilliant at branding that look of selling
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: that dream. Relationship management in business, talent management and entertainment.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: The ability to understand human psychology and relationships. It's one
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: of the most valuable skills you'll ever have in business.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: As somebody in business, I can tell you that's undeniably
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: the case number four hustlers and street vendors, translation retail entrepreneurs.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: The skills already present include understanding demand and supply and
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: demand instantly pricing, flexibility, customer interaction, location based marketing. Here's
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: my legal pathways, food trucks, e commerce sellers, retail storefronts.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Flea market is translation into brand building. You know you
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: mean remember flea markets. I used to sell at flea markets.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: My mother used to sell her handicrafts. It's flea markets.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Brings back to all kind of memories. Many successful sneaker
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: resellers started exactly this way. Number five car theft rings. Yes,
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: I said car theft rings, including the folks who tried
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: to who actually did steal my wife's car a few
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: years ago, right in front of her. What's a transferable
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: skill automotive engineering and mechanics. So here's some skills that are
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: already present advance knowledge of vehicle systems.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: You guys laughing, I'm serious.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: This is sort of funny, but I'm actually dead serious
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: about what I'm talking about in this episode. Your head
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: should be nodding from all of this. How you can
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: relate to these stories, or you know somebody who can
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: relate to these stories. You can pass this episode along.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of yes, I remember in this Electronics
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: and security bypass. I'm sorry they'll laugh on that one.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Mechanical troubleshooting, okay, legal pathways, auto repair businesses, vehicle security companies,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: automotive engineering, custom car modification, modification.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: This is really funny.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Someone who can break it a car system can also
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: build a better one. Hello, somebody can break into a car,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: can't secure that car. Our entail the design and security
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: system to keep that car being stold. In the future,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: you can become an advisor to a security company and
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: be brilliant at it. Again, this is an episode you're
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: going to probably listen to a couple of times because
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: there's a lot here to unpacked. Number six street gambling.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: What's the correlation finance and risk analysis? Here's some skills
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: already present. Probability thinking, risk assessment, rapid decision making, bank
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: row management, legal pathways, trading as in Wall Street trading,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: sports analytics. By the way, legal gambling, financial markets, betting
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: analytics companies working for them is what I mean? Or
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: starting one who knows owning one? I leave it like
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: that even better. Some of the best traders started as gamblers.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Some would argue some of the best traders are gambers,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: but I'm going to get into that. Number seven graffiti artists.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: What's the conversion graphic design in marketing? This is an
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: easy one to understand. So the skills include visual branding okay, topography,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: spatial awareness, identity creation, well some legal pathways. Graphic design firms,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: streetwear brands, advertising, mural commissions. Shepherd Ferry and Banks and
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: Banks b A and K s Y Banksy, the artist
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: turned graffiti into global art brands, is also a Hispanic gentleman.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: I'm blanking on his name, but he's huge in Florida. Huge.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: You can't go through the Miami Airport without seeing his
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: art store. I actually have some of the art here
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: in the house. Who literally came from nothing and created
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: a global brand that is worth hundreds of millions of
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: dollars up from nothing. That marade bootleggers, beverage industry. Right,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: that's the conversion. The beverage industry is the conversion. What's
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: the historical precedent here, I've already said Moonshine. Moonshine went
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: into NASCAR, bootleg Whiskey went into modern craft distilleries.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: What's the skill sets here? Production, supply chains, branding, distribution. Right,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: so that it's separate from the car driver Okay, complimentary,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: but different. There's a two it's split off. It has
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: two different complementary industries. Number nine, Pirated media sellers. I
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: can't I just can't wait for all the comments on
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: what you're gonna I'm gonna reinterpret or translate what I'm
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: saying about, how the respectability I'm giving these different occupations
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: and what you're going to call it in the comments.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: But I'll wait for that. Pirated media sellers. What's the
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: conversion digital distribution businesses? So, what are the skills that
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: are already present?
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Demand sensing, prizing, arportrage, distribution. What are some legal pathways
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: e commerce platforms, streaming, content distribution, digital marketing, And there's
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: so many more. By the way, here's number ten. I'll stop,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: I'll drop the mic here. I think I've given you
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: enough to get your brain on street security.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: In four?
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, what's a conversion professional security firms? Again, this is
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: an easy one, and I've seen some examples of this
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: of gain leaders turning into security firms. I mean legitimate ones,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: not like Mafio so crazy stuff, right, not, you know,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: not the stuff that's masquerading as a security firm. I mean,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: are legitimate ones skills already present. Situational awareness basically being
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: able to see in the back of your head. They
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: say that, or they you know, you get that vibe thing.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Threat detection, threat assessment and threat detection, physical security operations. Right,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: what's the legal pathways? Private security companies, executive protection. I'd
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: hire somebody with these skills event security. This is these
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: are the more episodic in nature, which that fits some
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: people's personality who don't be held down to it. They say,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: a nine to five job or own a business, you
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: can do event security, make a good living. You can
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: work as in a club and do security. There's lots
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: of ways to mainstream that talent. The hood doesn't lack talent,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: as I said earlier, it lacks a legal infrastructure for talent.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm trying to provide here. Some of the
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: most entrepreneurial people in America are operating in the underground
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: economy because nobody showed them the front door. Let's show
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: fee folks the front door. Here's another parallel for you.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: The Italian mafia created Las Vegas. That's not hyperbol that's
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: literally true. And look at it now. It is one
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: of the most prominent places in the biggest economy in
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: the world, the United States of America. Las Vegas criminal
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: networks built casinos, hotels, entertainment industries. Eventually these became legitimate
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: corporate enterprises, some of them publicly traded stocks and worth
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: billions today. The same genius that builds underground economies can
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: build legitimate ones if we invest in financial literacy, credit access,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: an opportunity for all.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: This is why I created Operation I Hope.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: This is why I consider myself humbly stated the economic
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: plumber for our community. The talent audit of the hood
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: needs to be done on a regular basis. We need
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: to identify this talent and raise them up from the
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: bottom to the top. We need to make sure the
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: ladder reaches the bottom and goes to the top with
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: If somebody hustles hard and works hard, they can get
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: there on their own. I believe in the James Brown
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: version of affirmative action. Open the door. I'll get it myself.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: We want to open these doors so people can go
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: get it themselves. This is John O'Bryant. There's been the
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: Money and Wealth podcast series episode on that hood Hustle
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: made real that underground MBA that.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: Desire to.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: Go from the hood to unlimited highways to make capitalism
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: and free enterprise work for all of God's children. And
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: the next time somebody questions where whether your cousin or
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: your nephew or your friend has real talent and they
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: want to look down their nose at certain people, you
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: remind them of the hood activity that leads to entrepreneurial opportunity.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Drug dealers or the drug trade has a hidden skill
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: called logistics UH and a legitimate industry called distribution. Companies
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: and street vendors have a retail instinct and are and
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: could be a small business. Gang leadership have organizational leadership
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: UH and could be unions and management. Street marketing UH
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: understand branding and could be some of our biggest advertisers.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: Sneaker resale understand arbitrage, can be leading e commerce. Street
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: DJs understands music production and can lead the next iteration
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: of the music industry. The hood, again, is not an
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: economic desert. It's an economic ecosystem that hasn't been connected
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: to legitimate markets.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: Let's change all of that.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Maybe you'll be the mentor the hero or shero that
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: some young person sees and decide they want to be.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: So John o'briant's money and wealth, I'm out.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.