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Transcript

ITV #247: Earn Your Leisure Reveals The Truth About Invest Fest, Haters & Building A Billion-Dollar Brand | Inside The Vault · Inside The Vault with Ash Cash

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: any level that's success you're going to have hate.
0:01
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't want to have hate, don't be successful.
0:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you all have made whether it's directly or indirectly.
0:09
[SPEAKER_01]: You all have made millionaires.
0:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Legitly.
0:11
[SPEAKER_01]: There's been a lot of evolutions, but still earn your leisure, manages to still be the leader of the packet, if you will.
0:19
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you maintain that?
0:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Consistency.
0:25
[SPEAKER_01]: year one for a thousand, year number two, 12,000.
0:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's to the point where people ask me, how is it to talk to 25,000 people?
0:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, I don't know, because I can't see.
0:34
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so many people that is impossible to see everybody in the room.
0:40
[SPEAKER_01]: We said that a lot more work to do.
0:41
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot more places to go and explore because we also can't tell that story.
0:45
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys change the culture of even how people talk about wealth.
0:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Why are we thinking nationally or statewide?
0:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Why not think like everybody else is thinking like think globally.
0:57
[SPEAKER_02]: When you have a business, any business, you see it from where nobody else sees it.
1:01
[SPEAKER_02]: You believe there were nobody else believed that you put money in where nobody else would give you money.
1:04
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, the wealthy is man of color on the planet.
1:07
[SPEAKER_00]: The legal thing going there.
1:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I like his valuations about to be over 60 billion.
1:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Then it come from music and it didn't come from entertainment.
1:14
[SPEAKER_00]: In sports, it came from business, it came from cement.
1:20
[SPEAKER_01]: What has been the hardest part of growing this business on this brand?
1:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you want to watch this next video, but listen, if you are an entrepreneur, business coach, business consultant, or a small business owner who has a story and wants to learn how to create multiple strings of income from your story, I need you to text me right now, my book.
1:46
[SPEAKER_01]: to six, four, six, six, six, eight, seven, four, one, five, two.
1:50
[SPEAKER_01]: That is my personal number.
1:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I have been an author for over 12 years, I've written 10 books, four of them have been best sellers, and I've sold over 100,000 books.
1:59
[SPEAKER_01]: But I've also helped a lot of my clients, take their expertise and put it into a story, then create multiple streams of income from that.
2:07
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wanna help you do the same thing.
2:09
[SPEAKER_01]: So text my book to six, four, six, six, eight, seven, four, one, five, two.
2:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I, let's go back to the video.
2:32
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so welcome to another awesome episode of Inside the Voila Ashcast.
2:35
[SPEAKER_01]: The greatest one in my says show on the planet.
2:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, today's guests didn't just build a podcast.
2:41
[SPEAKER_01]: They helped change the conversation around wealth in black America.
2:46
[SPEAKER_01]: They took financial literacy out of the classroom and boardrooms and put it on YouTube and barber shops on stages and into millions of people's everyday lives.
2:58
[SPEAKER_01]: What started?
2:59
[SPEAKER_01]: As two lifelong friends with a vision has grown into a global media company, a podcast network, the world's biggest largest financial literacy festival and now a movement that expanding across the African continent.
3:15
[SPEAKER_01]: with the launch of EYL Africa, this conversation isn't about podcasting, it's about building an ecosystem, creating economic opportunities at scale and proving that ownership, education and culture can become a billion dollar business.
3:31
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you ever wondered,
3:33
[SPEAKER_01]: how to turn content into community, community into commerce and commerce, into generational wealth.
3:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't skip a second of this episode.
3:41
[SPEAKER_01]: These are my brothers, full circle moment man.
3:45
[SPEAKER_01]: We got Rashad and Troy found this.
3:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
3:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, earned your leads with some of my brothers.
3:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much.
3:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, sure.
3:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So Betty, what up, what up, man?
3:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Yo, it's crazy because we're everything like how we started, how you started, we're everything going on.
4:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I look up and I'm like, yo, I don't have an updated like y'all's done a lot.
4:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I think y'all would like my third episode on, on, uh, inside the vault.
4:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
4:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
4:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's so much to catch up on, uh, you know, whether y'all, and if you want me on him, you are always giving y'all flowers, uh, because y'all've done something in a space that nobody.
4:24
[SPEAKER_01]: figured out, you know what I'm saying?
4:26
[SPEAKER_01]: The timing was right, the formula was right.
4:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And the people that had been able to benefit and quote it myself off of like what you guys have built is phenomenal, right?
4:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you know, inside the vault started, you know, on your, you know, earning your leisure network.
4:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, we can see you grow, you know what I'm saying?
4:46
[SPEAKER_01]: We got, you know what I mean?
4:47
[SPEAKER_01]: We got a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit.
4:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
4:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So we could see you grow, but it's definitely, you know, something that, that you guys change the culture of, of even how people talk about wealth, you know what I'm saying?
5:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So I appreciate you guys always, always.
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to say it.
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Like what?
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Like what?
5:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but I mean, for those who don't know, if they don't know, rock, and they like, you all know who Troy is.
5:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know who we're saw this.
5:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know her in your leisure.
5:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, you guys.
5:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, man, you know, just, I will earn your leisure.
5:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess the best way to describe it is a media company.
5:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that specializes in finance and investing entrepreneurship and it's grown to a global brand.
5:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we've been able to reach people all across the world.
5:29
[SPEAKER_02]: We have different verticals.
5:30
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a book.
5:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve, you
5:56
[SPEAKER_02]: community.
5:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, that's what it was built around was community.
5:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that that's something that we've never lost.
6:01
[SPEAKER_02]: No matter where we went with this journey, it's still rooted in community.
6:06
[SPEAKER_02]: People still, you know, they watch market Mondays, they, you know, they, they,
6:11
[SPEAKER_02]: rely on us for information and for help and to bring stories to light and to, you know, translate difficult topics to relatable solutions.
6:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, that's that's what it was founded on and that's what it continues to be to this day.
6:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say that we are two guys from a small town in the York
6:35
[SPEAKER_00]: background in financial services, two guys that just followed their purpose.
6:40
[SPEAKER_00]: We actually were already on our own paths, but we had worked together, you know, as friends, trying to educate youth, realizing that the youth didn't have this Peace Corps financial education, but also in his professional world, realized that adults didn't have it, so how can we educate, how can we impact as many people as possible.
6:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what has been founded on, and that's what it still is, giving people an opportunity to learn, being able to co-complex topics, and be able to disseminate that to a large mass of people.
7:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And hopefully they use it today of vanishing over the past, you know, 78 years, I think they have.
7:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure, I think they're all like y'all have made, whether it's directly or indirectly, y'all have made millionaires, legitimately, right?
7:25
[SPEAKER_01]: When y'all started this platform, right?
7:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, like, I'm never so number 26.
7:31
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm the fact, I'm early, right?
7:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember being in the kitchen, right?
7:36
[SPEAKER_01]: What a dining room with the iPhones.
7:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Did y'all ever see the impact that you guys have?
7:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you ever see, like, it would be this.
7:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, um, you know, we definitely started something with the idea that it was going to help people and it was going to reach people.
7:54
[SPEAKER_02]: You never really know exactly.
7:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
7:56
[SPEAKER_02]: How is going to impact people or how many people is going to impact how far the reaches going to go.
8:01
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, that was the idea as far as, like you said, you know, you
8:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Starting even all in social media, from a financial planning standpoint, it was to scale.
8:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So, talking to you, you know, you worked in finance, so you know, you have a meeting with one person, one client, or if you do a seminar, you might have, you know, 25 people that come, but, you know, the scalable model, that's not really scalable.
8:22
[SPEAKER_02]: If you want to reach thousands, hundreds of thousands of people.
8:25
[SPEAKER_02]: social media allows you to do that.
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[SPEAKER_02]: You put out one post.
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[SPEAKER_02]: You might resent other people.
8:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You might reach a hundred thousand, right?
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[SPEAKER_02]: You might reach a million people with just one post.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Really remarkable if you think about it.
8:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I did was to always impact people at scale.
8:39
[SPEAKER_02]: That was the idea of impact people at scale.
8:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I said, you never really know how big that scale is going to be.
8:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
8:46
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's the whole point of, you know, going online, social media, YouTube, stuff like that.
8:51
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a
8:52
[SPEAKER_02]: go bigger than just your immediate, you know, circle that you, that you have in your neighborhood.
8:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think before it was a business, it was that it was, can we impact, can we have value?
9:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, if we can do that on a weekly basis, like how many people's lives can we change?
9:06
[SPEAKER_00]: It became a business, obviously, because we're figuring out, oh wait.
9:10
[SPEAKER_00]: This industry is something that you can monetize from.
9:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, wait, we can build community.
9:14
[SPEAKER_00]: If the community trusts us enough, we can actually build lifestyle.
9:18
[SPEAKER_00]: We can build brands.
9:19
[SPEAKER_00]: We can build events.
9:20
[SPEAKER_00]: All those things come from it.
9:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But the initial idea was impact.
9:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
9:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just add value on a daily basis.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And once we did that, all right, can we add it on a weekly basis with something consistent?
9:29
[SPEAKER_00]: OK, we can do that.
9:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, they're going to be
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[SPEAKER_00]: attention every Tuesday that episode is going to drop.
9:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather than it, it just being about us, which it was for the first five episodes, five or six episodes, can we highlight other people and show their value?
9:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
9:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So people saw the value in us.
9:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Then it was, oh wait, I'm tuning into next week because there's somebody that can directly impact me, whether it was for somebody who was
9:51
[SPEAKER_00]: telling you how to, you know, create your own book, become your own author, or was I got a CPA.
9:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, what's that?
9:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Or I need that tax season is coming up, all we know about is get an income tax.
10:01
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't even know how the tax system works.
10:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Or it's a mortgage broker, or a trademark attorney.
10:05
[SPEAKER_00]: All these things that are in your everyday world, or should be in your everyday world, we didn't really value at that level until it's front street, we get an education on it, and we're understanding why we needed and how we can benefit from having it.
10:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, when you think about the impact that you guys had or have, how do you stay consistent right or how do you keep evolving right because when we look at this space the space has evolved.
10:34
[SPEAKER_01]: many times since you since the first time that first episode right drop to now there's been a lot of evolutions but still you know earn your leisure manages to still be you know you know top of bind you know the leader the leader of the pack if you will how do you how do you maintain that
10:55
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the key to success.
10:57
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like every single day, you can't take any day or every single day, you've got to be consistent and you have to be innovative and you have to keep over the times and you have to change and you have to add new things, you've got to evolve over the course of time.
11:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think that in this it's like a daily fight, like it's like a boxer.
11:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you've got to spot every single day, you've got to jump rope, you've got to run miles, you've got to lift weights, you can't afford to
11:18
[SPEAKER_02]: stop doing it, you can't afford to just be on cruise control, just do the same thing you doing five years ago.
11:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, like, you know, things change, they consume this change, algorithm change, the world changes.
11:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So, pauses the amount of being consistent, every single day looking at what's out there, looking at what we can do to be different in this space, looking at how we can partner with new people, look at how we can add value to new sectors.
11:40
[SPEAKER_02]: it's just constant like every single day so you never really get a chance to really like rest on your laurels because I thought once you do that thing you're in trouble.
11:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I think we have the advantage.
11:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Much like you where we get to show up as ourselves every single day.
11:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, very nice.
11:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So every day we get to be who we are right before there was an onion leisure.
11:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a raid doing social media.
12:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it was a very interesting that, right?
12:04
[SPEAKER_00]: It's no secret that he's still interested in it because you can see it in the output of the content.
12:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I was already reading and educating.
12:11
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I did for 14 years.
12:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I'm educating.
12:15
[SPEAKER_00]: The topic has changed, but every day I got to go learn.
12:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
12:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I got to go teach.
12:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And ever for me to teach, I got to go back.
12:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Same cycle.
12:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Learn something.
12:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Learn learn learn learn learn.
12:23
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, go teach it.
12:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Go teach it.
12:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
12:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Because number one that means I've grasped it, but now I can give it to somebody else.
12:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully they can benefit.
12:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So the authenticity and the consistency together.
12:33
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the reason why it's like we're not even looking like who's with us, who's with us.
12:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we're together.
12:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go.
12:38
[SPEAKER_00]: We got we got all we need.
12:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there a is there a number is there like, yo, when we we reach 100 million and we out we leave.
12:46
[SPEAKER_01]: When we become a billion all of this is there is there a number or is this just a life.
12:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I think that, you know, you adjust your number over the course of time.
12:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess there's two numbers.
12:59
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like a company valuation number.
13:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
13:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And then an own personal, you know, security comfort network number.
13:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
13:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, so I did it definitely enough because you got to have goals in life.
13:10
[SPEAKER_02]: But.
13:11
[SPEAKER_02]: As far as a number, well, I speak for me personally, as far as a number where I'm like, I'm not doing this normal.
13:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not at that point because I still think that there's still a lot more to do.
13:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I don't think that we are where we have potential to go as a company.
13:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I think that there's a lot more, like, you know, and it's still exciting.
13:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you still have fun with it.
13:31
[SPEAKER_02]: To me, it's not boring.
13:32
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not, you know, not fun.
13:34
[SPEAKER_02]: We're moving around the world.
13:36
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we're really blessed.
13:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I haven't even thought about like, I don't want to do this anymore.
13:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you know what I mean?
13:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm over it.
13:44
[SPEAKER_02]: At some point, you know, we would, but I don't even think about it like that.
13:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
13:48
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like, what's the last chapter of your book, right?
13:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, for me is being like, leisure's been earned.
13:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:54
[SPEAKER_00]: We did, yeah, no.
13:55
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get there at some point.
13:56
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think more importantly is like being appreciative of the time that we're actually in.
14:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
14:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, because 10 years ago, there wasn't an ask guy.
14:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was during Elysia.
14:05
[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that that exists now, and the fact that people can benefit from the information from the example that's being said, from the aspiration and inspiration, it's unique.
14:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So we got to look at that.
14:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man, you know, he always says about that.
14:19
[SPEAKER_00]: At some point,
14:20
[SPEAKER_00]: what happens when we're not doing this, right?
14:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why the education piece is always vital to me because if I can teach you how to do something, eventually you'll be able to teach other people and you won't be as reliant, you know what I mean?
14:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the goal, so we'll ever stop learning, no, I ever stop trying to teach, no?
14:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
14:37
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I've been spiritually cold to do.
14:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm gonna do that in any format.
14:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it looked like this one who knows in 15 years, but I'm always gonna be learning and always gonna be teaching.
14:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, um, and that's fast.
14:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
14:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, it's funny because year number six, um, you know, I've had the honor To be on every year.
14:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I got nervous to see it all because I know only I know only get it sex early I know only get it sex early.
15:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna be honest me.
15:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I got nervous.
15:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I say it was my run over and I'm not gonna be
15:09
[SPEAKER_01]: You got Jordan rings, just like the governor, the last list.
15:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Shiny, you saw text me like, yo, yo, yo, what's up, D?
15:18
[SPEAKER_01]: But you, everything heard as, tell me your ass.
15:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Look into the camera, tell him everything.
15:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything heard.
15:24
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a fact.
15:25
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a fact, though.
15:26
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't say it, but you're number six, man.
15:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, um.
15:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And to see to see where, like, the growth of it though, you know what I'm saying?
15:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Because, you know, I remember year one, right?
15:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Year one, 4,000 that was restraints, right?
15:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is, which is why couldn't, you know, couldn't grow further than that.
15:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Year number two, 12,000.
15:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he can number three is just, it's just, you know what I'm saying?
15:51
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't even, like, I guess to the point when people ask me, you know, how is it to talk to 25,000 people?
15:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I say, I don't know, because I can't see, I can't see like legit, like from the stage, it's so many people that is impossible to see everybody in the room.
16:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, that's a fair.
16:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, and so to, to, to, to, like,
16:12
[SPEAKER_01]: It's no exaggeration like the largest financial festival on the planet like it's for real.
16:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Where did the idea come from and how does it feel, man, to really still continue to grow and to continue to have this impact to the point where it's like a thing now.
16:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I consider myself an OG in this game now.
16:35
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of new people in the space or whatever and I'm watching all of them
16:42
[SPEAKER_01]: stage next year.
16:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was like, it's something that they talk about something.
16:46
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?
16:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, it's a goal.
16:48
[SPEAKER_01]: It's definitely a goal.
16:49
[SPEAKER_01]: It's definitely a goal.
16:49
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, what was the, what was the, what was the genus, and I don't know the story, but just for those who don't know, what's the genus is a story, but then also like going into years six, like how is that, how does it feel?
17:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
17:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It feels amazing, man.
17:03
[SPEAKER_02]: So, well, thank you for being that every investor, like, you know, we don't take that for granted.
17:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you're appreciative of us, but we're appreciative of you as well.
17:10
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the first and foremost, but, I mean, I did came just from looking at the landscape.
17:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Always wanted to be different.
17:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
17:16
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the best advice I ever got was, like, look where everybody else is doing and do the exact opposite.
17:18
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you
17:23
[SPEAKER_02]: a brand has to have like a flagship event like that's usually an official for for branding purposes.
17:31
[SPEAKER_02]: So we at that point in time what we like we got to have something like that we could hang our hat on like annual like an annual thing and um
17:40
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of business conferences.
17:42
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of business symposiums How can we be different so I at that time I had never heard of a business festival before I had never heard of it So I might that will be a good idea to have a business festival But then it's like what encompasses a festival you if you say you're gonna be different you really do have to be different so
18:03
[SPEAKER_02]: in the marketplace, right?
18:04
[SPEAKER_02]: But a large vendor marketplace, like how essence fest would have, right?
18:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Food trucks, like how like La Paluso, or like a music festival we have, like, you know, most business conferences they have, like breakout sessions, or it's in like a hotel.
18:19
[SPEAKER_02]: I haven't seen something like what large stages like how investors has a large stage that reminds me of like rolling loud or like woots picnic, what they have multiple stages and both stages of large stages happening simultaneously right and it's like the screen or a large screen and LED lights and pyro and you know a VIP night we could have a music music element to it because music has always been a part of investors as well even a
18:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we started that, like.
18:51
[SPEAKER_02]: where we had a flyer that looked like a musical festival, where it was just names, and it wasn't pictures, it was just names, right?
19:01
[SPEAKER_02]: But that was done because we're looking at Rollin' Loud, we're looking at music festival flyers.
19:05
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how music festival flyers look, even the coloring and like clouds and it's all the whole theme is to make it like a music festival, like a cultural festival, but rooted in business.
19:19
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, looking back on it, I guess that's like a revolutionary idea because like I said, down, I don't think that that was done before.
19:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
19:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Even what we have, we have it in the summer.
19:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
19:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Most of the time, our business conferences in the winter or the fall or the spring, because people go on vacation during the summer, and the summer is not traditionally, you know, you work in finance.
19:39
[SPEAKER_02]: This is don't get done in the summer most of the time.
19:41
[SPEAKER_02]: People three day weekends, you want to go off course, like people will check out, like, okay, summer hours, CB back in September, like they will get down to business.
19:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Real serious business a lot of time doesn't even get done during the summer.
19:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's like to have a business conference, a business festival during the summer.
19:58
[SPEAKER_02]: That alone is not traditional, right?
20:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was just really just trying to be different.
20:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
20:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what Invest Fest was birthed out of, like, just being different to see his growth has been tremendous because, like, his family humbling to see, how many people benefit from it?
20:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, finally.
20:15
[SPEAKER_02]: We actually had a $100 million impact.
20:18
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what you had GBT said.
20:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
20:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And that from Rye shares, that's from vendors, that's from nightclubs, that's from restaurants, that's from hotels.
20:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So I don't think people really fully appreciate the ecosystem.
20:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
20:30
[SPEAKER_02]: EV teams.
20:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Security.
20:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Genitorial staff.
20:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, GWCC, the first couple of years, they didn't have anything for the whole entire month.
20:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
20:38
[SPEAKER_02]: We were the only event that they had the whole month.
20:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, they took off for August.
20:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
20:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So.
20:43
[SPEAKER_02]: when you look at it, sometimes, you know, people who look and say, okay, we're shot and Troy earned your leisure, but it's like, it's thousands of people, and some people could even benefit more than us, right?
20:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you might have a restaurant or whatever, like, and that's great, we want that, because that's real economic empowerment, sure.
21:04
[SPEAKER_02]: That's not just saying something like, and that's that, that's real economic empowerment.
21:08
[SPEAKER_02]: So to see people in enthusiastic about getting on the stage or having the best booth in the vendor, yeah, market play, you know, just being involved, VIP night, you know, it's humbling, because whenever you have an idea, it's like a child, right?
21:23
[SPEAKER_02]: You have the nurture it, you have to, you know, see it to fruition.
21:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So when you have a child and then,
21:28
[SPEAKER_02]: you have a child at 18 and you see them graduate from high school and they go on off the college like it's like you you sacrifice and you put all that work in and now this is like the reward that you get to see as a parent right so as a business owner
21:44
[SPEAKER_02]: when you have a business, any business, you see it from where nobody else sees it.
21:49
[SPEAKER_02]: You believe that there were nobody else believed that you put money and where nobody else would give you money.
21:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you went to trials and tribulations, you went to people doubting you, you went through so much different stuff.
21:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And then when you see it actually become successful and it's like, it's encouraging.
22:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
22:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I second everything he says is it's actually humbling to note that people look at it like that, right?
22:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it was something that was just an idea and it's been curated into something that's, you know, an annual pilgrimage, I was saying, right?
22:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you think of what investors has become, it is the culminating event of the entrepreneurial world.
22:26
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the fact, right?
22:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if you're serious about business, definitely an opportunity.
22:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
22:29
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not there, well, why not?
22:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
22:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you're talking about the leaders in entertainment, but also the leaders in finance, entrepreneurship, business, real estate, all coming together to give information.
22:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And so something that has that meaning like minded people, if you're out part of it, then what are you really doing?
22:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
22:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think one of the key things is that, like you said, it really isn't about us.
22:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Like when you say that you've got on the stage, I'm looking at like, man, Ash gets to speak and find out that many people.
22:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's going to give them that type of moment again?
23:01
[SPEAKER_00]: What's that moment life for him?
23:03
[SPEAKER_00]: We watch it from the vantage point.
23:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, we're privileged to be part of the founding team of it and be on the stage, but I like it for everybody else.
23:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Or also, they've been earning your leisure fast.
23:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And so like the vendor that gets to highlight their business, that started with t-shirts and now becomes one of the main sponsors of a space.
23:21
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a growth, I go to every, every year.
23:24
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, wow, you're back again, you're back again.
23:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So it has so many different components, right?
23:28
[SPEAKER_00]: The learning component, the engineering component, the entertainment component, all those things, the machine, one, which makes it super unique, which is why you see that retention.
23:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
23:38
[SPEAKER_00]: You start seeing people that was there.
23:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo, here's my wristband from here around here.
23:43
[SPEAKER_00]: My wristband from here is six because they understand the value that's coming with that weekend.
23:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And every year, it's a challenge.
23:51
[SPEAKER_00]: They ask you and it.
23:52
[SPEAKER_00]: We felt pretty confident about it.
23:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we've got this, we've got a down pack.
23:57
[SPEAKER_00]: We heard all the feedback from you at one, heard a year five, we got it, let's do it Sunday night.
24:03
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, you know, man, I'm proud of us.
24:05
[SPEAKER_00]: We really did something that, you know, we set our minds to, yeah, Tuesday, how are we going to do better for 26?
24:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And so now we got to work 11 months, people to enjoy these three days.
24:17
[SPEAKER_00]: We know how important they are, because their relationships don't stop after those three days.
24:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
24:22
[SPEAKER_00]: The business doesn't stop.
24:23
[SPEAKER_00]: That might just be the start of the catapult that you needed to continue to scale man.
24:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, we're excited for it, but very humbled and privileged to be in a position.
24:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
24:32
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you deal with the backlash though, right?
24:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I think there's always going to be people who have opinions and critics and things that add nature, people who
24:43
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, who are living to say, you know, this, you know, this wasn't this and I can't believe that right because that that's the other piece of it is that Come Monday, come Tuesday, there's think pieces, there's people who Probably benefited but still are, you know, talk like how how do you guys deal with that.
25:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, you know, it says a lot about the times that we are, but it's just human nature as well.
25:07
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like
25:09
[SPEAKER_02]: When somebody can't do something, it's a few things that a person can potentially do in that situation.
25:16
[SPEAKER_02]: If they can't do something, then they can have aberration.
25:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And the inspiration is say, well, I'm not at this level, but I'm inspired, oh, you can become a hater.
25:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's usually how it works.
25:30
[SPEAKER_02]: You either get inspired or you become a hater.
25:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, and because if you really think about it, nobody's done what we've done.
25:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
25:38
[SPEAKER_02]: You talking about just invest fast a long, right?
25:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, let's look at this from a critical standpoint.
25:43
[SPEAKER_02]: We just said, Chad, GBT said I had $100, and what we didn't say that.
25:47
[SPEAKER_02]: That's all of people that are benefiting from it, and so rarely, right?
25:50
[SPEAKER_02]: But then you have a pitch competition.
25:53
[SPEAKER_02]: where entrepreneur, last year, it was $250,000.
25:55
[SPEAKER_02]: It's $125,000 to two businesses, a black woman and a black man.
26:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Who else is really doing that?
26:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Then you have the things that you can't even measure.
26:07
[SPEAKER_02]: We just posted some might I met his wife at investors.
26:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Like that's the biggest investment that you have from our make.
26:13
[SPEAKER_02]: We forced to run an opportunity for people to be around 25,000 Mostly black people that are all positive.
26:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there's never been a fight out in Vesfeste.
26:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there's never been any violence that in Vesfeste Isn't it like so it's like okay, you're saying we have a hundred million dollar impact to the city of Atlanta We hope 400 business vendors
26:35
[SPEAKER_02]: that's selling their products for three days that we don't get any commission from.
26:38
[SPEAKER_02]: We can, you don't get any commission from that.
26:40
[SPEAKER_02]: We put in people on stage, they get opportunities for being on the biggest stage that they've ever been on.
26:47
[SPEAKER_02]: We're giving away $125,000 at least to a startup, a startup business, right?
26:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And
26:55
[SPEAKER_02]: You bypass all of that to Nick pick and say, well, there's too many celebrities, but all like I don't like his outfit, but he's shown a picture of him shoes.
27:04
[SPEAKER_02]: It says a lot of like I said, it says a lot about the times, but
27:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't focus on that, because if 25,000 people can, you can't focus on 10 people, because the 10 people, I call it the vocal minority.
27:18
[SPEAKER_02]: It seems bigger than what it really is, because these people, the average person's not really going to take their time to make a critical think piece.
27:25
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, you've got to shut the deal with your life.
27:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Bye, bye, bye.
27:28
[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, it takes a special type of person to actually sit down and critically break something down and find every negative floor that you could possibly find.
27:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So when that voice comes out, there's a myose, and it's a myose, and it's like, yeah, this is a lot of negativity, but that's 10 people.
27:43
[SPEAKER_02]: when 25,000 people came.
27:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you look at it in a picture, it would be 10,000 versus 25,000.
27:49
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not even a blip on the radar, but like I said, it's a vocal minority.
27:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So any level of success you're going to have hate.
27:57
[SPEAKER_02]: If you all want to have hate, don't be successful.
27:59
[SPEAKER_02]: That's it.
28:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And the more successful you are, the more hate you're going to have.
28:03
[SPEAKER_02]: But most of the time, it's just confused as a narration.
28:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Because most of the time, it'd be people that actually had tried to get all of it in fast value.
28:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And on EYL, yeah, yeah.
28:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you know, that's like a disgruntled employee.
28:18
[SPEAKER_02]: So for sure.
28:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you know, I mean, like at some point in time, the love of admiration turned into very toxic hate.
28:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And you once did mire the situation, either from a close or from afar, and then that got twisted like Selena.
28:33
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, Selena, if you're on the story of Selena, she wanted the biggest stars of all time.
28:37
[SPEAKER_02]: She got killed by not somebody that hated her, right?
28:43
[SPEAKER_02]: She got killed by a president or a fan club.
28:45
[SPEAKER_02]: He loved her so much.
28:46
[SPEAKER_02]: She loved her so much date.
28:49
[SPEAKER_02]: She killed her.
28:50
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the president of the fan club.
28:53
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how dangerous sometimes it's like, you know, it's a thin line between love and hate.
28:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Like sometimes people love you so much that in a deranged sense that love turns into a toxic hate.
29:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not the one thing is like, I never focused on negative energy.
29:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, for sure.
29:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I just can't let it into my intermediaries.
29:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
29:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
29:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you've been around me enough.
29:11
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's always going to be positivity.
29:13
[SPEAKER_00]: It's always going to be about upbringing and uplifting people.
29:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
29:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not immune to the critique, obviously I'm aware of it, but I don't focus on it.
29:21
[SPEAKER_00]: If the critique is something that we can actually improve on, let's use it.
29:26
[SPEAKER_00]: When people are overly criticized, it's like, what's the goal here?
29:30
[SPEAKER_00]: If someone at the feedback has been something that we can improve on, but there was, hey, how do we, you know, we get more food options?
29:36
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, well, we're going to open a full and the back of the
29:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
29:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, the sound could be better in the main stage.
29:47
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
29:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we covered it the whole room.
29:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So like those type of things are understandable because number one it says that obviously respect us and obviously value what we're doing.
29:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to see it to improve.
29:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
29:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Then let's do that.
30:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And when we improve, make sure that you have the same critique when you see those improvements.
30:04
[SPEAKER_00]: But most people will say, okay, let me find something else.
30:07
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where it gets a little tricky, but our thing is like focus on the people of focus on you and you can see every day with 20,000 people a day, right?
30:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and this year we've actually added a Thursday piece to it.
30:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, you're talking about over 75,000 to 80,000 people throughout the course of a weekend.
30:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So listen to 10 people, maybe 20, let's say it's 50.
30:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I hear you.
30:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, but right now my focus is the 80,000 people that we can impact throughout this weekend Yeah, you know, we we take that as That's the win all right.
30:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, these people are with us.
30:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I hear what you're saying But that's not lose the focus of the people who actually come here and support it this movement and came here with a like-minded Idea of how can I get better today?
30:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I'll leave this weekend.
30:52
[SPEAKER_00]: How will I be better?
30:53
[SPEAKER_02]: But also from business standpoint, it's actually helpful because like you said, I mean, a hater, they actually make valid points sometimes.
31:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just an intoxic, distructful way.
31:05
[SPEAKER_02]: But you can actually learn from a hater, or you can use their hater as a marketing strategy as well.
31:11
[SPEAKER_02]: But what the hate also does is it creates opposition as a business entrepreneur.
31:19
[SPEAKER_02]: If you don't have opposition, you should create so.
31:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Because it keeps your name out there.
31:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you really think about it,
31:27
[SPEAKER_02]: whether it's sports, whether it's music, there's always oppositions, whether it's Superman and Batman, they have they have an arch nemesis, Superman would not be Superman if you didn't have an arch nemesis, it wouldn't be the same story, Spider-Man wouldn't be Spider-Man if you didn't have an arch nemesis, like Batman would not be Batman if you didn't have the Joker, you kind of need that and like I said if you don't need it, you could actually create it, but
31:54
[SPEAKER_02]: they actually work for you, if you know how to channel the energy.
31:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I think while I said, like, hey, this is your marketing strategy.
32:01
[SPEAKER_02]: They actually do because even if you look at any of the hate that we've had, it actually only elevated our platform.
32:06
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's actually only more people that came to them come to investors every single year.
32:11
[SPEAKER_02]: So what they do is they they tell a narrative, they tell a story for you that only
32:15
[SPEAKER_02]: has people more interested.
32:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
32:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Because a lot of people which is going, they might not even a herd of situations.
32:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, no, let me check it out for myself.
32:23
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
32:23
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
32:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me go down and grab a hole for myself.
32:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So they actually keep your name in the new cycle.
32:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
32:29
[SPEAKER_02]: But they also have a divide and they create some level of opposition and you need your course supporters, they need opposition.
32:37
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like you saw Argentina play Egypt.
32:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, if everybody was an Argentinian fan, it wouldn't, or if everybody was an Egyptian fan, the Argentinians need the Egyptians.
32:49
[SPEAKER_02]: The Egyptians need the Argentinians.
32:51
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
32:52
[SPEAKER_02]: They kind of need each other.
32:53
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
32:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So you can actually go forward.
32:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
32:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So the Cowboys need the Giants.
32:59
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I'm saying?
33:01
[SPEAKER_02]: The Bulls needed the Detroit piston.
33:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
33:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Even, and so in our situation, it's more like a kind to the Harlem bloke products.
33:12
[SPEAKER_02]: They need the generals, the Washington generals.
33:16
[SPEAKER_02]: They need them because they got to play against somebody.
33:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
33:18
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why I see our situations more like the Holland world products because they never lose.
33:24
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's like our opposition has been losing.
33:29
[SPEAKER_02]: But we never really lost, but we still are thankful for any opposition because it does us an opportunity to win.
33:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
33:37
[SPEAKER_02]: We have to beat somebody.
33:38
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
33:41
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it, that's it, that's it, that's it.
33:44
[SPEAKER_02]: If it loses for six years, so it's like, we need them so we can keep winning right here.
33:49
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the challenge.
33:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, what would they say?
33:51
[SPEAKER_00]: They said that, let's show them.
33:53
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you almost need that to show what you really can do.
33:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
33:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Because anytime there's doubt, we never doubt each other and we never doubt ourselves.
34:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But there might be inkling the doubt, oh, they can't do it, oh, they can't get this person.
34:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, next year is not going to be the same.
34:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I learned nothing from that.
34:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you're going to enjoy seeing the time.
34:12
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
34:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Watch us prove it to you again.
34:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, well, this investment was only the easier.
34:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It was black out.
34:19
[SPEAKER_00]: It was marketing money.
34:20
[SPEAKER_00]: It's always a new time,
34:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Our thing is like, I watch what happens next.
34:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Watch what we're going to do next.
34:26
[SPEAKER_00]: To the point now, with our core audience that core, like demographic of people, they're not even surprised on what they'd like.
34:33
[SPEAKER_00]: It becomes like the beehive.
34:36
[SPEAKER_00]: You say something negative?
34:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
34:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me show you the positive.
34:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
34:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me show you how they changed my life.
34:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me show you how the information on that episode changed how I was thinking about finance.
34:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
34:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for sure.
34:45
[SPEAKER_00]: They fight for you.
34:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
34:46
[SPEAKER_00]: But if they can't fight it,
34:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, as a fact, yeah, you just gave us an exclusive, you set some seven and Thursday, it's also as me.
34:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man, so every year we're trying to improve, you know, like we said last year, we had the pitch competition, which we were over 250,000.
35:04
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things that people have been asking throughout the years of the best best is, cannot bring my kids, right?
35:09
[SPEAKER_00]: They feel like, all right, these top bics are for adults, and can it really be something catered for my young adult?
35:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we took that, again, it's a challenge.
35:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we create something for young adults?
35:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this year, Thursday, we got our earned as a academy in Vesfest.
35:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So all Thursdays for young adults, we got over 518 age high school students that are coming in that are going to get pretty much a Vesfest type programming that you're going to have speakers, we have a pitch competition with a 10,000 dollar giveaway.
35:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, pretty incredible, and then we got presentations and breakout rooms, hate it to young adults.
35:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Now why?
35:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we've been bringing kids down from our neighborhood since the beginning of the investigation.
35:50
[SPEAKER_00]: We started bringing kids down from the Bronx route to Councilman Riley and partnership with him.
35:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But we were missing the teenagers that were going to school here in the Greater Atlanta region, right, just so happens that this year is like at the start of the school year for them.
36:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So imagine when you put them in this environment, you show them with a vendor marketplace so it's like you show them people in the world of business that come from that community.
36:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Can it be aspirational and inspirational?
36:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm sure it can.
36:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Inside of that will also debut when I'll correct them here in Atlanta.
36:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So most schools that I come from we've got for education, you don't know how it is.
36:24
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't learn about finance.
36:25
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a part of the core curriculum.
36:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're bringing that with that with with Dave, you want to hear in Atlanta.
36:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully some schools pick it up and see you know as an opportunity to make it a part of the regular curriculum for the school year.
36:37
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a 16 to 20 week program.
36:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So it could be a semester or it could be a
36:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to make sure that that piece is left behind.
36:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Invest Fest isn't happening, the financial education still exists.
36:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
36:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Friday.
36:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So VIP night.
36:54
[SPEAKER_01]: We took about $100 million in fact.
36:57
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't talk about VIP night.
36:59
[SPEAKER_01]: How thousands of people get fresh.
37:01
[SPEAKER_01]: They dip out, you know what I'm saying?
37:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Like security, like everything.
37:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's a vibe, it's a movie.
37:12
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a fact what we don't we don't it was like right and then also on 30 we we working on something special to one of the greatest hip-hop ever We we working on on a special special night Thursday night.
37:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I'll say that's what we're highlighting loyalty Yep, we're just we're showing that at the highest level for sure
37:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And obviously, we are demonstrating some of that, but these gentlemen have been an inspiration for us.
37:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So we look forward to doing something.
37:43
[SPEAKER_02]: We're looking at that on Thursday, but then Friday, okay.
37:46
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's, let's plant the picture for investors.
37:49
[SPEAKER_02]: All day Friday is educational programming.
37:52
[SPEAKER_02]: We actually got that from somebody that had a very negative critique.
37:54
[SPEAKER_02]: What they was like, look, there's no breakout sessions.
37:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, this is, this is terrible.
37:58
[SPEAKER_02]: They didn't know.
38:00
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not a bad point that you're making.
38:02
[SPEAKER_02]: You're just saying it in a very toxic way, yeah.
38:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so now we have a whole day of breakout sessions and black rock and we got block.
38:12
[SPEAKER_02]: We got breakout session rooms where it's all day education, learning about ETF, learning about real estate, learning about loans, learning about so much stuff with different stuff, three different rooms.
38:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And we have the vendor marketplace that's open all day on Friday.
38:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So all day, so invest fast actually starts on,
38:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Thursday, really, or Friday, that's a part of people to know.
38:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't get the on Saturday if you can get the on Friday, that'll be better for you.
38:37
[SPEAKER_02]: You're from a registration standpoint, you can register on Thursday.
38:40
[SPEAKER_02]: So all day Friday is education, all day.
38:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Friday night, VIP, we want to do something different this year.
38:45
[SPEAKER_02]: We've been doing VIP pretty much, consistently the same way for the last five years.
38:51
[SPEAKER_02]: This year, it's at a different location.
38:54
[SPEAKER_02]: It's completely indoors.
38:55
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a ballroom, and it's a gala.
38:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Black tie, and we're going to be honoring some of Atlanta's royalty.
39:04
[SPEAKER_02]: So we honor and ti.
39:05
[SPEAKER_02]: We honor and germane to pre.
39:07
[SPEAKER_02]: We honor and kisha land's bottom.
39:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And we have jagged edge.
39:12
[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to be singing performance.
39:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So Atlanta all across the board.
39:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's going to be a vibe.
39:21
[SPEAKER_02]: It's catered the right way.
39:23
[SPEAKER_02]: We got the music playing.
39:24
[SPEAKER_02]: We got the red carpet vibe.
39:28
[SPEAKER_02]: That excellence, you like, you know, so I got the touch ready.
39:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you ready?
39:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I got the touch ready for the support.
39:35
[SPEAKER_00]: The bundles blew too.
39:36
[SPEAKER_00]: That goes into the feedback piece right over the years.
39:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Even for us, it was like, when we were doing VIP, well, what are some of the factors that we couldn't change?
39:45
[SPEAKER_00]: We could have the weather.
39:47
[SPEAKER_00]: If it rains and we outdoors, all right, well, what do we do?
39:49
[SPEAKER_00]: We got to get a tent.
39:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we got to get a tent insurance.
39:52
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, well, we can't control heat.
39:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So everybody's coming dressed.
39:58
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the deluis is sweaty.
40:00
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, say, you got the towel over your head, look at you, you left the box in the edge.
40:04
[SPEAKER_00]: So we can't control the climate and we can't control the precipitation.
40:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So can we do something indoors?
40:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
40:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's do the scala, gallows indoors.
40:12
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have to worry about whether anymore, right?
40:14
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to be fresh on night.
40:15
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll be fresh on night.
40:16
[SPEAKER_00]: right like you're going to be in the situation as elevated so that was one of the key takeaways let's have an elevated experience so when we say back time once you're showing up yeah like it's a back time event sure i mean we should want to represent because when we all do it together yeah it looks phenomenal absolutely it looks like i'm not
40:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I could, I see the vision though, I pretty see it, because you already know where it's going to look like, I already know what it's going to feel like in there.
40:45
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, one thing that you several shy, and you've said, you know, throughout this whole journey is always due to the opposite, right?
40:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And that what everybody else is doing.
40:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And,
41:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Africa.
41:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
41:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I remember, you know, everybody was talking about real estate, real estate, and then then the Trevor Shaw come up with a 400 million.
41:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll approach it.
41:14
[SPEAKER_01]: On another continent, and I'm like, yo, what's going on?
41:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And then
41:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's constant trips, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
41:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I knew something was cooking, I knew it, I knew someone was cooking, I just couldn't pull my end on it, and then the announcement comes out, E.Y.L.
41:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Africa.
41:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Talk about that journey of just investing on a motherland, but now highlighting, you know, just trying to just talk about that.
41:40
[SPEAKER_02]: relationship, man.
41:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
41:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Once again, it's a vision.
41:43
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a vision to do something in Africa, specifically, okay, Ghana, because that's kind of like, Ghana is like the bridge, yeah, to Africa.
41:52
[SPEAKER_02]: They've done a great job branding themselves and really embracing, like, Black people in America as far as the year to return.
41:58
[SPEAKER_02]: That was a brilliant marketing strategy on it behalf.
42:00
[SPEAKER_02]: So when we got to Ghana, you know, it's just we met our counterparts in Ghana,
42:10
[SPEAKER_02]: and shockable our child to him, he introduced us to our partners, Kwame and Alvin, and they had the same vision.
42:18
[SPEAKER_02]: They already had the land, but as far as the real estate project is concerned, they wanted to have a bridge between the diaspora and Africa and Ghana specifically.
42:30
[SPEAKER_02]: and Alvin specifically, he had came to Invest Fest before.
42:34
[SPEAKER_02]: True, yes.
42:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So he saw Invest Fest for himself and he was just so impressed by it.
42:39
[SPEAKER_02]: He's like, I got to tap him with this.
42:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I mean, they got him.
42:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Because that's what it was like,
42:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, it's hard to appreciate something when you so close to it, yeah, and it's also hard to appreciate something that you, it's consistent, because it's like we went to a few places in Africa, but when we went to Guinea, and as soon as we got off the plane, we was meeting with the people that was hosting us, and one of the people he was just saying, look.
43:06
[SPEAKER_02]: which I did.
43:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd never saw it before, ever.
43:09
[SPEAKER_02]: He's like, you had 25,000 black people come together under one roof and it wasn't for a sporting event.
43:16
[SPEAKER_02]: It wasn't for a musical concert and it wasn't for church.
43:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was like,
43:23
[SPEAKER_02]: It just, it don't even, it just was unbelievable.
43:26
[SPEAKER_02]: The album was the same way.
43:28
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, you know, coming from Africa.
43:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is a black country.
43:31
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, they just see an end.
43:32
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, this is unbelievable.
43:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So I don't think, sometimes, I say I have to say, people might come to a advice for us and they, they might not even have a full appreciation.
43:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Like when I say it's never been done before, it's really never been done.
43:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I never, yeah.
43:45
[SPEAKER_02]: But not only has it never been done for black people, it's never been done for any people.
43:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you know what I mean?
43:50
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's like when you could do something and it's never been done in human history, that's kind of like you've got to have a full appreciation of this, right?
43:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
43:59
[SPEAKER_02]: So I say that to say like,
44:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Africa.
44:04
[SPEAKER_02]: The first thing we do, the real estate project, they already had, they had to then we worked it out and I was pretty quickly too, like within a couple of days we worked it out like, you know, it's what we want to do.
44:13
[SPEAKER_02]: But then Alvin, he's been such a great resource and a great shepherd for us all throughout Africa relationships.
44:21
[SPEAKER_02]: He knows everybody that we meet other great people.
44:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just a domino effect, you know what I'm saying?
44:26
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like ain't thing else, I mean, you meet one person and meet another person and then they want to introduce you to this person and they got this opportunity for you, this government official wants to meet you.
44:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So just drive low, we probably traveled to like 16 countries in two years in Africa and it's just been all organic, get it and invite it to this person meet and then just like, look, we are seeing this for ourselves, but this is bigger than just us seeing it.
44:50
[SPEAKER_02]: We need to export this, so that's the vision behind EY Africa to really have not just us making content about Africa.
45:00
[SPEAKER_02]: These are people on the ground in different countries in Africa reporting on what's going on in Africa giving information.
45:08
[SPEAKER_02]: The right information, yeah, paying the narrative the right way.
45:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, that's the vision that, you know, who knows who that could lead to in person events, different things to that nature.
45:18
[SPEAKER_02]: We just started with content, and we really, really want to just reshape the narrative that Africa has been painted on the first so long.
45:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I think how you let up it to the question is, it's kind of how the community feels.
45:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And that says a lot about the work that we've done up into this point where if we go somewhere, there's an expectation that something's coming from that.
45:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, right like I can't I know they going there for a reason they was in London something's happening in London They go to Toronto something they gonna do something to Toronto they keep going Africa Something's coming.
45:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and so when when you know that With super intentional about it.
45:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we're going to each country, but we're not going there saying like here's the message We're going to learn first the scene who's doing what and then we're saying yes
46:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Opportunity exists here.
46:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Matter of fact rather than just telling you we're gonna show you Yeah, right like you probably never have been to Abhijan or even heard Abhijan and go to law We've been there.
46:13
[SPEAKER_00]: We can tell you what's happening there.
46:14
[SPEAKER_00]: We've met with local officials There's opportunity here here the opportunities and so every place we go we're looking to help educate people about Opportunity but people trust us enough because of the track record that we've had.
46:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so now again It's it's a narrative thing.
46:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Guess Ghana is beautiful Nigeria is beautiful
46:32
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of countries we haven't been to there at beautiful that we're still waiting ago.
46:36
[SPEAKER_00]: But now we can save narrative because what we've seen on the content is that number one the population is very young.
46:42
[SPEAKER_00]: The population is very eager for the place that we've been.
46:46
[SPEAKER_00]: They have education, but what if we tied in what we know from a financial literacy standpoint there?
46:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Because, yeah, it's been championed.
46:53
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been able to see some of the impact that we've had domestically.
46:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
46:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we go to other countries, they say, look, we watch out, too.
47:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if the topics don't even resonate to what we are here, but watching it, what if they could have something that was curated directly for them in their country, sometimes even in their native language?
47:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, but people trust the brands so much that when we collaborate with people in different regions and different countries, we put the stamp on it.
47:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that a vision that we talked about years ago about, we could be out there.
47:28
[SPEAKER_00]: We really could do it, right?
47:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Like these become satellite spots for us.
47:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And the fact that we keep going, it also makes people okay, wait.
47:36
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't look like a bad place, right?
47:38
[SPEAKER_00]: We grew up in a world where it was feet of child, right?
47:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a dollar, flies on the face, hands, and you know, you go, like, I'm just saying summers.
47:47
[SPEAKER_00]: It's ugly, it's just saying summers.
47:48
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?
47:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you go to a cry, you're like, yeah, man, this feels like Jamaica, the meat.
47:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, right?
47:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we in Kagali were wanting to, and this is one of the cleanest places I've ever been in the world.
48:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
48:02
[SPEAKER_00]: We were in Nairobi, Kenya.
48:06
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very few times in life, I'm like, we could live here.
48:11
[SPEAKER_00]: When you talk about the advancement and technology, when you talk about opportunities, cost of living, all these things exist.
48:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you have a massage mara, right?
48:22
[SPEAKER_00]: You can actually see that.
48:23
[SPEAKER_00]: You can go to the beast, it's why it's sent.
48:25
[SPEAKER_00]: All these things exist.
48:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody's showing it.
48:28
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not showing it for a reason.
48:29
[SPEAKER_00]: More reason, in fact.
48:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So that gives us opportunity to now be super intentional about showing it with purpose and with reason.
48:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's funny because I think about I think about Haiti, right?
48:38
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, uh, I went to Haiti for the first time in 2020 or my life.
48:43
[SPEAKER_01]: My mother, who's born in Haiti was like, no, don't, don't, you know, recipes of my mom.
48:49
[SPEAKER_01]: She was like, no, don't ever go back to Haiti.
48:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, why, she's like as dangerous as this and because she's been in the country so long and she's heard all these things, you know, we went to Haiti, it's not just my whole family with the Haiti and it's beautiful right and it's even like you think about the hypocrisy right.
49:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Washington D.C. is the murder capital, a lot of are still is of of America.
49:13
[SPEAKER_01]: But nobody says America is horrible.
49:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So you'd say one city, porta prints, who there's a lot going on.
49:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you blame that on a whole country and people believe that.
49:23
[SPEAKER_01]: But then when you start thinking about all the resources, right?
49:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Bill Gates.
49:28
[SPEAKER_01]: owns property in Haiti, Oprah, in law, right, there's so that so much resources in Haiti that there's something that the reason why they tell us not to go, and so when you think about Africa.
49:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And you think about every resource in the world, every resource, but also right when you think about the communication that making it seem like low is don't go there, right, and so what what you guys are doing is groundbreaking, right, and I haven't even seen the full vision of it, but I already know that just based on
50:01
[SPEAKER_01]: The truth is that you're off taking so far and just kind of showing the good side, so showing all that stuff, but showing the opportunity that like this is really gonna, like it's a monumental thing to do, you don't understand.
50:14
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you trust though at the same time, right?
50:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I know, you know you're got a $400 million project that you all worked on, all you're working on.
50:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, yeah, we made the deal between days,
50:29
[SPEAKER_01]: where you are here in America, I would assume that, you know, this business laws, this things that protect you, right?
50:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And, but when you go internationally, is those same type of things set up?
50:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there protection when you're investing in money?
50:45
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you know who to work with who not to work with?
50:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah, you still have the legal on barriers.
50:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's a little more complicated because, like you said, it's not just in America.
50:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, we have America, we have an American lawyer.
50:56
[SPEAKER_02]: We work with a lawyer that would be in Africa.
50:58
[SPEAKER_02]: They'll have communication with each other.
51:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, you know, we'll iron out framework as far as like a legal document as different things as a nature.
51:06
[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, you definitely got to protect yourself.
51:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure that you
51:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You do your due diligence, make sure you vet, make sure that you, you know, see things for yourself, you know, just look on Instagram and just wires on my money, make sure you have legal framework, you know, American bank account, you know.
51:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you do diligence for sure, and anything you're doing, but definitely when you don't anything overseas, you want to make sure that you're crossing all your T's and dying or not dying on your eyes, because that's definitely an important part of it for sure.
51:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and you see a lot of people being taken advantage of that way, which is why it's important to travel, right?
51:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So how many times have you seen this in Ghana?
51:45
[SPEAKER_00]: A part of Zadane, I got in, not only are we building what they're, we've actually seen the businesses, we've actually sat down for dinners like we've had meetings.
51:53
[SPEAKER_00]: We've had their attorneys on with our attorneys, right?
51:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So obviously there's a brother that's being built, but the business empire is being built as well on that same ground of like, there's a trust here.
52:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And like he's right now waiting for us to come back.
52:08
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's his birthday.
52:09
[SPEAKER_00]: We just have this, this can't ship in this idea of where we see the diaspora going.
52:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you'd say, like if you think about the resources that it ain't Haiti,
52:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm multiplied out by every resource in the world.
52:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
52:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about the amount of land that can be developed and isn't developed.
52:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about the level of technology that could be used by the masses of people, right?
52:31
[SPEAKER_00]: You're talking about a population that's under the age of 30.
52:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I think 75% of the population is under 30.
52:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
52:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about the working capital, the working force that is there.
52:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So all the opportunities when you look at other places in the world, like thing of a Europe, very much developed, there would be tough to build there.
52:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, right, actually.
52:47
[SPEAKER_00]: That infrastructure is very old.
52:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
52:49
[SPEAKER_00]: America is it as modern.
52:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
52:51
[SPEAKER_00]: We've had an instructor that's still standing right from decades ago.
52:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes centuries ago.
52:57
[SPEAKER_00]: The opportunity here is, yeah, we can develop, we can build, we have infrastructure, technological peace, it has to be developed of course, but who's going to do it?
53:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
53:07
[SPEAKER_00]: There's an opportunity for us to do it.
53:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
53:10
[SPEAKER_00]: What other place in the world would be at significant thing you said about Haiti is really come our mom said the same thing about Jamaica, don't go back, don't go back, I'm like I have to go back, why number one I need to see it, but I need to people who also see like in one generation, look how this can change.
53:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
53:24
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like.
53:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
53:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
53:28
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you get us involved though, right?
53:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Meaning, you know, African Americans, because when you think about Africa, a lot of what we've seen in America, we've seen in different places that happen there.
53:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I know there's a lot of,
53:43
[SPEAKER_01]: people because because we're not the only ones that see it, I hear the conversations from other ethnicities who know how rich the country is or the continent is and they're doing, again, which is why there's trying to have these negative things to say to stop people from going there.
53:58
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we create a movement where we understand that we have to be part of this, you know,
54:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And the first part is education, really just informing people like, you know, like I said, painting the right narrative, showing opportunity, showing like, you know, people that are a success story, showing, you know, how the culture like exposing that to people.
54:23
[SPEAKER_02]: The next step is that people will have to, you know,
54:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Travel.
54:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and actually see it for themselves.
54:28
[SPEAKER_02]: There's only so much do you can actually see from Instagram like you got to actually see it for you So you got going to grab even from a educational standpoint of knowing what not to do like you you'll learn like okay Like oh this I need to really know what type of property to buy and I need to have the right landlies I need to you know different things but you'll need to know that by actually traveling talking to people and actually seeing what other people have experience, but
54:51
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not for everybody, everybody's not going to be a world traveler, everybody's not going to be an international investor, but at least give yourself some different options.
54:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you know, like, that's something that just why not we live in a world where the world is becoming more and more flat as far as like, you know, people are moving around and the political uncertainty is especially here.
55:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
55:13
[SPEAKER_02]: feel like if you don't have a second option, you're doing yourself with this service.
55:16
[SPEAKER_02]: You're like, if anything happened, and we've seen that with this administration, but just in general, you can't put all your eggs in one basket, you've got to diversify your portfolio.
55:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So the same thing as far as what traveling and potentially living somewhere else, where I have a dual citizenship board, just invest in some way or just learn it about something like,
55:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Why would you want to limit yourself to earth, to earth is big?
55:40
[SPEAKER_02]: I would you want to limit yourself to just one place.
55:43
[SPEAKER_02]: That's not the blueprint of anybody.
55:45
[SPEAKER_02]: That's really at the highest level.
55:46
[SPEAKER_02]: The people at the highest level possible.
55:49
[SPEAKER_02]: They've never limited themselves to one space.
55:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
55:51
[SPEAKER_02]: You just say Elon Musk or Bill Gates or you could talk about Jack Dorsey or you.
55:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you name it.
55:57
[SPEAKER_02]: They got properties all over.
55:59
[SPEAKER_02]: They have investments all over.
56:00
[SPEAKER_02]: They're doing business in every single country.
56:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So they are at the highest level possible.
56:05
[SPEAKER_02]: They haven't limited themselves.
56:06
[SPEAKER_02]: They always think globally.
56:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Why are we thinking nationally or statewide?
56:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Why not think like everybody else is thinking like think globally?
56:15
[SPEAKER_02]: That's sure.
56:16
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it's just got to expand your mind.
56:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's what I think the UI Africa page is important.
56:22
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just because it gives them a glimpse.
56:24
[SPEAKER_00]: If they can't travel, yeah, at least see.
56:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
56:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
56:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, when you build up a trust, people look forward to what you're doing.
56:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It gives us opportunities now.
56:33
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, there's 16 countries, but there's 54 in Africa.
56:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
56:36
[SPEAKER_00]: We still got a lot more work to do.
56:37
[SPEAKER_00]: No, a lot more places to go and explore and highlight people because who else is going to tell that story?
56:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like nobody was telling the story, but far that's still in this.
56:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
56:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So who's telling the story there?
56:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there's a lot of creators out there that the creator kind of me is big there.
56:51
[SPEAKER_00]: The music scene I obviously we know is a bit there, but the business scene is is just as big.
56:56
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just very right with the wealthiest man of color on the planet.
56:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a legal day in voting, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
57:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
57:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's fast Africa.
57:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, they too.
57:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just they too.
57:28
[SPEAKER_01]: What has been the hardest part of growing this business moment is right?
57:35
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just putting the right people in position.
57:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
57:38
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, whenever you're dealing with talent, it's like a coach, like, you know.
57:43
[SPEAKER_02]: It's hard to deal with other people sometimes, as far as, like, you're in a tree, you trust somebody with something they don't deliver, or they don't have the same vision, or the same work I think that you may have, and you've got to go on a different direction, or you can't go on a different direction, so you've got to be forced to figure things out.
57:59
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's difficult, you know, because that's how you can control sometimes.
58:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you know, you deal with other people.
58:06
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't only do so much, then you've got to rely on somebody else to do something.
58:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, that's always, um, delegating authority, picking the right people, managing that situation is, is someone going challenged.
58:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
58:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
58:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And you've been here for the start, asked the show.
58:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, there's a very small population of people.
58:26
[SPEAKER_00]: who sat in that dining room, was in that green wall, and you've seen that evolution.
58:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So a lot of the people that you should see us with, don't see us, many people with us.
58:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's okay, and that's a learning lesson for us.
58:37
[SPEAKER_00]: But it will make us better.
58:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, because we'll learn that, hey, if they're not qualified for the position, don't put them in that position.
58:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
58:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've done that at time after time and try to create positions that didn't even exist to tell people,
58:49
[SPEAKER_00]: that the end of the day we want to see everybody win, especially people that are close to us and come up with us.
58:54
[SPEAKER_00]: But unfortunately, that's not always the case and we got to be okay with that.
58:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's probably the most difficult part, understanding, you know, sometimes.
59:04
[SPEAKER_00]: when you're trying to do your best, you're going to make mistakes, but the good will inside of you is what you can take away from and say, and I learn from it, still love these people, but the brand that we've built in and the integrity that we have for it can't be compromised at any close.
59:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
59:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
59:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, how do you, how do you balance the work with family personal life, right?
59:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Because, um, you know, you guys are always on a plane, always traveling like like the the work it looks like.
59:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this is not saying it is, but it looks like the work is your life here.
59:43
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you how do you balance family friends just, you know,
59:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that's the answer for me.
59:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, really.
59:50
[SPEAKER_00]: What you see is my life.
59:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
59:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, like, you know, obviously my wife is part of business.
59:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So that helps.
59:58
[SPEAKER_00]: My kids have grown up in it.
59:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they understand it.
1:00:02
[SPEAKER_00]: They're watching it happen in real time.
1:00:05
[SPEAKER_00]: They're learning in real time.
1:00:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I use the thing about the balance question, how would I do it?
1:00:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I think having a strong partner definitely for me helps.
1:00:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And she understands it because he's in it.
1:00:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So, when I have to travel, she got his stands by after travel.
1:00:18
[SPEAKER_00]: When I have to be up late or I have to go to...
1:00:21
[SPEAKER_00]: She understands that we gotta go record live.
1:00:22
[SPEAKER_00]: We gotta show five episodes.
1:00:24
[SPEAKER_00]: She understands it because she's inside the business.
1:00:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So the communication there, I mean, is really brief, right?
1:00:30
[SPEAKER_00]: She understands like, she trusts what I'm doing is one of benefit the entire family.
1:00:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So that helps, right?
1:00:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, this has become my life.
1:00:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Education has always been my life.
1:00:39
[SPEAKER_00]: This is my new form of education.
1:00:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody gets the benefit from it.
1:00:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:00:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm like, so it's just the life, it's just lifestyle, like, you know, so in our too much really balancing, I'm trying to make time for the important thing.
1:00:54
[SPEAKER_02]: By starting, you know, from home, go to this game, make sure I spend time with whatever just had the opportunity to take him with me to Morocco.
1:01:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, try to stuff like that.
1:01:04
[SPEAKER_02]: That's important.
1:01:06
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think, you know, you just gotta, you gotta prioritize things and just carve out time for family.
1:01:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, especially like, you know, kids, I support, so, you know, you might have to, you know, come back early.
1:01:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Or like you say fly and out there or, you know, just face time in the morning or something like that.
1:01:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So just be mindful.
1:01:31
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what it was also important is that Sometimes you don't compromise.
1:01:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:01:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And so one of the things that I don't compromise is my kids.
1:01:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:01:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So if it's their birthday, I don't care what's happening.
1:01:43
[SPEAKER_00]: If I got to fly back, I'm flying back for the birthdays.
1:01:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, if it's uh, you know, adversaries, I have not been there for a few times, but how we gonna get that time back together.
1:01:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:01:54
[SPEAKER_00]: having a strict rule like hey I'm not doing that right because of of this day like my I remember my daughter's graduation had to miss it but I called her in advance and she was just like that it's okay it's only fifth grade I got a few more and then I'm gonna go and then when I heard her say that it put me at ease yeah yeah you know me being away from follows things like that yeah
1:02:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they're important, but the kids are so grounded and our kids are the same age, um, they understand it and they live in it.
1:02:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't beat them, right?
1:02:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I give them a lot of credit and I've said that to them a few times.
1:02:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, y'all are really good.
1:02:28
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, it's,
1:02:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I was my dad, I began kicked out of school every day, I'd be talking shit to people, like all the things.
1:02:35
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not in every day, you know, they're really good kids, man, so they deserve to work.
1:02:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, some things, even when he said, he would miss his kids birthday, if it was some things, he'd rather miss your table.
1:02:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So some of them are missing this, you're right there.
1:02:52
[SPEAKER_02]: As an entrepreneur, there's always exceptions to the rule.
1:02:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
1:02:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I haven't missed it yet.
1:02:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll say that.
1:02:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I haven't missed it.
1:03:00
[SPEAKER_02]: It's going to be great.
1:03:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so fat.
1:03:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I haven't missed it yet.
1:03:03
[SPEAKER_02]: It goes, if whole of core, right.
1:03:05
[SPEAKER_02]: But I sit down, right.
1:03:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Then we all go in.
1:03:08
[SPEAKER_02]: OK. Well, if he said he only took people's allowed in the room.
1:03:11
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm saying we're having an interview's happening.
1:03:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:03:13
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where the family's going.
1:03:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:03:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:03:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And my wife went and had a no other way.
1:03:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:03:18
[SPEAKER_00]: to go be like, hi, where's it at?
1:03:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'll be in the kitchen with me.
1:03:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying, it's like, one of those things, you know?
1:03:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it, I love it.
1:03:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there anything that I didn't ask on the episode or anything I wanna share with the inside of us?
1:03:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, you got the book, and you deserve to be rich, and you know, you was the first person that actually broke down the book industry to us, that's a classic episode of you didn't watch that.
1:03:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Then you came back and broke it down again from AI standpoint, so that was two different viewpoints as far as book publishing, but the book is been great for us and it's it's a great, it's a resume builder, like you know I'm saying like it's a great thing and put on your resume to say like I have a book, you know, I'm an author, a new year of times, but it's only a little bit.
1:04:09
[SPEAKER_02]: That.
1:04:11
[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, so, and people, you know, they buy books, we speak at schools, and you told us all this stuff before.
1:04:17
[SPEAKER_02]: So, the book is something that, as I said, it's a legacy play as well.
1:04:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, people could still read your book, like, you know, so, and it's just travels, it's like one of these things, like, you know, it goes everywhere, like, you know, they had a book club in jail, but they purchased the books, and we got kids in school, reading books, and we got,
1:04:35
[SPEAKER_02]: It's, you know, it's people with all the different walks of life, you know, you never know who's going to reach a book, so the book is but something that we've really been proud of you deserve to be rich.
1:04:43
[SPEAKER_02]: You've been pushing that for over a year now and definitely would encourage anybody to, you know, check it out.
1:04:49
[SPEAKER_02]: If you, if you're interested in having that literature and kind of like a blueprint of everything that we've talked about from the beginning to now, as far as like finance and it's told in story story format.
1:05:00
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, that the book has definitely been like a thing for us like, you know, it's not just something like and I could I know I it's different from content because you do the best interview in the world right It's going to bury you here It's over.
1:05:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you don't say you might have a two week run even have the month run.
1:05:16
[SPEAKER_02]: It's still over.
1:05:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but the book
1:05:19
[SPEAKER_02]: people still they'll reference that and you know a year later people still represent a book that people still you know book in us to do book silence and still buying a book in bulk purchases so that's something that you help people with so I would encourage people to really really take that serious the book because you just like you say everybody it don't even matter how many books you sell everybody's money on race there's no competition
1:05:44
[SPEAKER_02]: But the fact is that everybody got a story to tell.
1:05:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody had some information that they can provide.
1:05:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And that that book thing really does last forever.
1:05:54
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's a YouTube app.
1:05:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate it.
1:05:58
[SPEAKER_01]: You try this.
1:05:59
[SPEAKER_01]: We run it.
1:05:59
[SPEAKER_01]: We run it.
1:06:00
[SPEAKER_01]: We run it.
1:06:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to give you your flowers though, it like seriously speaking before you was saying that I'm thinking of myself like number one you've been so basalt since the day we met you Since you walked into that door.
1:06:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like you're just doing it all in a name.
1:06:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but you were like you said you were the first person to actually break down the business of literature in the way that you did.
1:06:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And I never forget after we shot that episode was on Saturday, I think the Monday we sat down stairs on my way we need to do a book and started doing the audio recording for our first book when it came time for like four or five years later when the publishing companies like do you guys have anything like get some things that we recorded like four years ago we can update obviously.
1:06:41
[SPEAKER_00]: But that thought was initiated because you gave it to us.
1:06:45
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people came on the show and we heard their ideas and we can do this.
1:06:50
[SPEAKER_00]: It goes as definitely one of those I want to give you credit for that.
1:06:52
[SPEAKER_00]: But also, there was a conversation you had with us during that time about public speaking.
1:06:59
[SPEAKER_00]: and showing us like how you can go out and have people book you to come speak and here's your very card and at the time we hadn't spoken anywhere we would be on episode 26 we even know that was an option so that became a stream force as well but you gave us the knowledge on that I want to definitely give you your fellas would come in an aspiration for us but inspiring us to do some more things as stream to add a book, add purpose speaking because you had already been doing it so good as you as your flower was about that.
1:07:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I appreciate you guys appreciate
1:07:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And another class that I've ever so appreciate your, like I said, um, I'm forever grateful, you know, I'm saying because I've, um, you know, been blessed by the platform, been able to, you know, I know my purpose in life is to amplify voices, right?
1:07:45
[SPEAKER_01]: It's to help people, you know, maximize their full potential and you know, I, you know, I've been in the space for a while.
1:07:52
[SPEAKER_01]: But the ability to talk to so many people, right?
1:07:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause you mentioned being in different countries.
1:07:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember like looking at my analytics from inside the vault.
1:08:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like a 156 countries like that.
1:08:06
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't say it to be able to have a voice.
1:08:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And even a method was it last year or was it 24?
1:08:11
[SPEAKER_01]: It was one of the years, my man was from Brazil.
1:08:15
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't even really speak English for real.
1:08:17
[SPEAKER_01]: But he was like, Oscar, Oscar, like he was at invest fast.
1:08:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was like talking like, like he was so hot.
1:08:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he hugged me, he was like so happy to see me.
1:08:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So you know, I'm forever grateful.
1:08:28
[SPEAKER_01]: My brothers forever, you know what I'm saying?
1:08:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I appreciate all that you have done, all that you're doing for the culture, all that you're gonna continue to do.
1:08:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And God's will is Shao Ba, right?
1:08:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And God's will.
1:08:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, and again, my support is unwavering.
1:08:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So whatever, whatever, you never say, whatever I could do, you know.
1:08:50
[SPEAKER_01]: If people wanted to connect with you, if they wanted to find you, where can they find you?
1:08:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't earn your leisure across social media platforms.
1:08:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it tickets to invest fast August, 7th August, 9th in Atlanta?
1:09:00
[SPEAKER_02]: We still got a few vendor booths available as well.
1:09:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you're a business owner,
1:09:05
[SPEAKER_02]: If you want to get in front of thousands of people, sell your products or your services, I suggest you do that.
1:09:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, that's it, man.
1:09:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Social Media, like I said, social media, YouTube or in your leisure.
1:09:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's it.
1:09:16
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the company.
1:09:17
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
1:09:17
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, John, we are closing out the vault.
1:09:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Another awesome episode of Inside the Vault with Ashcast.
1:09:22
[SPEAKER_01]: They're greatest money mindset show on the planet.
1:09:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure you visit us.
1:09:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Go to inside the vault show dot com.
1:09:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Follow us on all social media platforms at inside the vault.
1:09:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Me, I am Ashcast, make sure you visit me.
1:09:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I am Ashcast dot com.
1:09:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Follow me on all social media platforms at I am Ashcast.
1:09:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And make sure you join the abundance community, go to theabundancecommunity.com.
1:09:44
[SPEAKER_01]: We need to talk about EYL University, and we forgot about that.
1:09:46
[SPEAKER_01]: But make sure you're out to happen, and you don't need to go there, too.
1:09:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, go there, EYL University.
1:09:52
[SPEAKER_01]: But we'll see you on the next time, same time, same place, and God's will.
1:09:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Peace!