The Breakfast Club - Money & Wealth w/ Don Peebles

Episode Date: December 22, 2024

The Black Effect Presents... Money & Wealth! This special episode features Don Peebles! Don Peebles is a real estate entrepreneur, author, national media commentator and political leader. Peebles is the founder, chairman, and CEO of The Peebles Corporation, a privately held real estate investment and development company he established in 1983. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Money and Wealth with John Hobrient, a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, hey, this is John Hobrient and this is Money and Wealth Podcast. This is the first podcast episode post US presidential election 2024. I'm with my brother Don Peoples who is a legend in real estate and in business. You're going to get to know him and his story and what he has to tell you. But this we had to reschedule this for a number of reasons tied to our mutual schedule. But in many ways, this is now perfect timing. And it ties into this moment.

So let me see if I can set this up properly. When Dr. King was assassinated in 1968, before that happened, he said, I'm here to redeem the soul of America from the triple evils of war, racism, and poverty. He didn't say, I'm here to say, black people, even though his work helped a lot of black people. He was there for everybody.

And that last movement of the Poor People's Campaign had pivoted also to include poor whites, which were then and now the largest population of poverty in America. And he was assassinated on the eve of the launch of that movement, but he had pivoted to economics. Ambassador Andrew Young, my mentor, my role model in many ways, the guy who sort of helped to raise me in my adult life, our global spokesman at Operation HOPE, who was on the balcony, who helped to turn Atlanta, by the way, to the only international city in the South and the 10th biggest economy in the US, almost $500 billion in GDP.

He was there when Dr. King was assassinated. And he was the only member of his team to take that mandate from Dr. King and pivoted into political realm to structure power versus their protest for it and then to turn that into an economy which was the city of Atlanta as I just mentioned almost a 500 billion dollar economy and and Don pivoting to you, what Ambassador Young told me a couple, it wasn't a couple years ago, I'd say actually it was about eight years ago, 2016, as we had gotten the Freedmen's Bank renamed on the White House campus from the Treasury Annex building in honor of former

slaves who had chartered a bank to teach free slaves about money, financial literacy 1865. Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, he said, John, you need to stay focused on your work. I never said this publicly now till today. You need to stay focused on your work because if ever we lose political power, if ever we lose the rights that we hold dear, and he said, I can't imagine this happening. But the only real power potentially is economic power. If ever we lose political power, social power, even religious power, we'll only have economic power, the level of economics to pull back on. You have got to not diminish your work

or get distracted from it because we need an economic infrastructure for the underserved of this country. And it dawns on me that this is where we are, that the only true freedom is, I believe, and Chris Gorman of KeyBank is the one who gave me this quote, is potentially financial and economic freedom because once you have it, unless you screw it up, no one can take it from you. And it is, and we live in an economic democracy. We're, this country is, I keep saying a center,

slightly right, center, slightly right. It's an economic democracy. It's a inclusive, I like to believe it's inclusive capitalism because you and I came from nothing and made ourselves into significant somethings in America. I don't know another country in the world where our stories would have proliferated

at the level that they have. We might have worked for somebody, but you and I worked for ourselves. So I'm now turning to you because before we got on camera, we had a very powerful and important conversation, some of which I want you to recount here. But what do you say to Dr. King's vision that he was pivoting toward the economic agenda? And what do you say to Ambassador Andrew Young's premonition that at the end of the day, one of the few things you can

rely on that you have some control over is economic empowerment. And where are we with regard to that agenda? And then I want to get, of course, into your story and how you have built what you have built by the way, but those of you don't know, Don Peoples runs Peoples. I call the Peoples Corporation, but it's several entities within his company. That's a billion dollars plus in real estate development. Don Peoples. Well, great.

So, I don't know if I did mention that. Don Peoples is a brother, right? He's black. He's not black for a living. He's a great developer who happens to be black. He's a great leader who happens to be black, but he's proud of his heritage. And so am I. He's African-American.

Okay. Don, people. Absolutely. And in fact, I grew up during the civil rights movement. I was born in 1960 in Washington, DC, seat of our government, where many of the major protests and demonstrations and the fight in the halls of our government took place. I remember when Dr. King was assassinated, I was watching television about the assassination, but then the riots that followed were in my community. My mother had to drive me through a commercial corridor near our home and have me duck down so that I wouldn't be hit as a little boy.

And then, you know, I remember Robert Kennedy's assassination as well. I remember how, you know, and Malcolm X's focus, but I remember that, you know, there was a time of struggle in the country for us to have equal access to just basic civil rights and how we had to fight for those. And now our fight continues to be for economic opportunity. And Dr. King understood it. I remember his quote. It was what good does it serve for the Negro to have a seat at the lunch counter when they can't afford to buy a hamburger. And so that was all the relevance here about economic empowerment. And so he started the Poor People's March.

And ultimately, that's Poor People's Initiative and so forth to reset the table economically in the country, because our democracy is a capitalistic democracy, the way that the initiative and so forth to to reset the table economically in the country because our democracy is a capitalist, a capitalistic democracy was that economic opportunity must lead the way

he set the pathway for Andrew Young and then Maynard Jackson before him and got a lot of support throughout the state for that. But then people didn't realize what he had, part of his plan was to make it an economic engine. And he had to fight to make it, to protect the opportunity for minority business contracting. He required 35% to be for minority contracting,

for black contractors. And ultimately he fought, won that, and that started the pathway of creating significant black wealth in Atlanta, and it made Atlanta the mecca for black economic empowerment. But others followed him and followed Ambassador Young, Marion Barry in Washington, D.C., Harold Washington in Chicago, Tom Bradley in New Orleans, Tom Bradley in LA. So as you, so that civil rights generation knocked down these barriers economically for businesses like mine or Bob Johnson at BET, which would not have been possible if it was mine or

Bob Johnson at BET, which would not have been possible if it wasn't for him getting the cable television franchise for Washington, DC. So the political power in the 1970s and 80s was used to help generate economic empowerment.

And that's how I got started. Without that and without that mindset, it would have never happened. So I grew up in DC. My mother and I, my parents got divorced when I was five. My mother and I moved to Detroit. Mine too, I had five. Okay. And then in 1968, when I was eight,

my mother and I moved to Detroit for her to start a new life. And she, her sister was living in Detroit because her husband was doing his internship in residency in medicine. So my mother was a secretary at the Urban League and on Capitol Hill in DC. So she went to night school, got a real estate license, and she started working in real estate in DC. So she went to night school, got a real estate license, and she started working in real estate in Detroit. And then within a couple years had her own real estate brokerage business. And that was an environment of black entrepreneurship with Detroit. And I remember

my best friend, who's still one of my best friends in life. You know, I met him when I think I was ten and we were best buddies. His father, Barry Gordy, um my friend, Carrie Gordy. Um so Barry founded Motown and was running Motown which was in Detroit at the time and I remember the fact

that there was a black man running founded and ran Motown was very inspirational to me and it showed me early on that there was no limitation. So, anyway, I went back to was very inspirational to me and of the United States, including the mayor. So she wanted, yeah, so the thing about DC didn't have any rights to vote. And the citizens of 700,000 residents could not vote for anybody. Wow.

And so they, in 74, they got the right to elect their own government. And so that was a big deal there. And so my mother told me that I needed to go and volunteer and work for one of the candidates who was running for chairman of the city council her former boss at the Washington DC Urban League uh got him Sterling Tucker and then I could pick somebody else and I was upset with her that she was taking up my summer for this and so I picked so I did some research and I picked

the most radical candidates and it was Marion Barry who was running for the city council and he was a part of the civil rights movement. He was co-founder of the student nonviolent coordinating committee, SNCC, and was very

active in the civil rights movement and then also the fight for economic inclusion. So 14 years old, I volunteered for his campaign. He won, Sterling Tucker won. Since it was a new government, Barry drew straws for terms, whether it was two or four years. He got a short straw, so he ran two years later. I was more active in his campaign and got to know a little bit better. I was one of the advanced people for him. And then when I was on my way to college, and I spent my last two years, my mother was big on politics, so she had me become a page. She used her relationships on Capitol Hill. I got appointed a page, spent my last two years of high school going to school at the

top floor of the Library of Congress from 6 a.m. to 10 30 and then walking across the street and working in the U.S. Capitol. So I was a page on the floor of the House of Representatives under Tip O'Neill, the speaker at the time. And then I worked in the offices of Charlie Rangel, Ron Dellums and John Conyers. I got a good sense of politics. So Barry and Sterling Tucker run for mayor to unseat the first elected mayor. So it's three way race.

And Barry runs, I go off to college and the primary, he wins. And then I'm in college at Rutgers going into, studying pre-med. And then after that, after my first year, I quit, went back to D.C. and started working. You start you study pre-med. Why? My uncle was a I was very close to him.

He was a role model and he was a doctor. And he was telling me not to go into medicine, but I wanted to go into medicine because I want to look my mother and I struggle financially. I wanted to have what would because I want to look my mother and I struggle financially. I wanted to have what would be a stable income stream. I really wasn't driven to try to be ultra rich. I was driven to have a nice stable lifestyle be to take care of myself, take care of my family and that be good and then maybe maybe and invest in real

estate over time and and make some money doing that but after my first year, I decided that it wasn't for me and I decided to go back to DC and and start working in the real estate business and I became a sales agent but interest rates were 20 plus

percent. It was 1979 so I could slow that down. Hold on. People need to hear that. Slow that down. First of all, and bachelor young and you have something in common, Don, you have a lot in common but one thing his father was a dentist and had a nice middle class lifestyle. One of his sons to

be dentists and his brother became a dentist but in bachelor young after studying it for a bit was like, no, that's your dream. That's not mine. I don't want to be a dentist. I respect your dad. Thank you. I'm going to be a pastor and I want to preach her.

And then when he told his daddy was going to follow Dr. King, his dad like literally rolled his eyes. It's like you know what have I done with my what have I done with my with the sacrifice of my life? Of course, the rest is history that of all that Ambassador Young did with his life, which is the legacy really the living legacy of his family. You could have been a doctor because you saw somebody who was a role model,

who you admire, your uncle, and that was enough for you. You model what you see. We talked about, we talked earlier about the power of words and the power of what we see and what we feel and what we hear in our lives and how that influences us positively and negatively. Your uncle influenced you so much,

you went to pre-med, to school, to maybe frame your whole life. And luckily you had a strong constitution. Your mother also, what's her name? Congress? Yvonne. Yvonne Willoughby Poole. Yvonne Willoughby Poole.

Let's say her name and let it live in history because without her, you wouldn't be you. name is Yvonne Willoughby Pool. Yvonne Willoughby Pool. Let's say her name and let it live in history because without her, you wouldn't be you. I say my mother's name will need a Smith because she reminds me of your story. The same story

divorced 5 years old at age 5 when they go do things when they go live with my auntie not really my auntie girl her girlfriend to save to to build her to buy her home. Now on your story, your mother interceded several times, including getting you a page position. Is that right? Yeah. I mean, she's a bold, audacious,

strong-willed woman. It sounds like, is that right? Yes, she was. She was very big on exposing me to what the world had to offer. And so she really worked very hard to let me know what was out there. And so every chance she could get, she would introduce me to someone else.

When she was working in DC, she met a real estate developer who was pretty successful and asked if he would meet with me for lunch one day. And he did, and I got a real estate developer who was pretty successful and asked if he would meet with me for lunch one day and he did and I got a chance to meet with a very successful developer over lunch when I was maybe

sixteen. Wow. How did your mother know? First of all, she's still with us. No, she passed away about uh 12 years ago. Okay. My mother passed away a year. They both been promoted. Hopefully they're cooking Cooking gumbo together in heaven, but she but but she certainly left a great legacy with you So how did she know Don to that relationship capital and exposure? Was so important was there something on in her life and the way she grew up that made this obvious

yes, an interesting story, because she learned it from her father, my grandfather. And he was from North Carolina, move he and his brothers moved up to DC, first New York and then DC to for better opportunities. He got a job as a doorman at Wharton Park Hotel. And he worked as a doorman for 41 years. But DC was the government town, so he got to know many of the members of Congress and political people. And then he would take, and my grandparents have five daughters. My mother was a middle one and and my grandmother died when my mother was a

teenager. So my grandfather really took care of his daughters, worked around the clock, but he would bring them to the hotel on Sundays for you know a you know like uh a brunch my grandfather, for example, government. Um my my another to help his family. Yes. And and that was as a doorman to be able to do that. So, it's all about exposure. So, my mother taught me because of what she did is

she generally, you know, she was a relationship builder. So, it was never kind of about something for her. Yes. It was how could she offer some value or help somebody else? Yes. And then build up a relationship and one day if she needed help with me

or something, she could. Yeah. And and so I learned the value of relationships myself and uh and that you know like I learned to it was more valuable for me to build learn politics and build a relationship with Barry than it was to earn some money. build and learn politics and build a relationship with Barry than it was to earn some money. So, I was doing it on a volunteer basis. So,

but I benefit I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Barry. There'd be no chance. Really? Yeah. I think and I think I'm a capable person but yeah I mean so Barry I go back to DC. Barry is mayor and come on Barry and Barry everybody. And so he's he's mayor and he is in his first term and I'm working as a real estate agent and then I end up going to work for my mother as an appraiser because she had a consulting business and and then Worked as a subcontractor for another company my aspirations were to have my own appraisal business Barry's running for reelection I'm 22 years old and I understood politics. So I said, okay, I'm gonna help him

I lived in war three, which was a had a big white population and he had struggled over more three. So I did a meet the mayor event with several of the community leaders. And so we had this large gathering of residents and then I also did a fundraiser for him. He was running against Patricia Roberts Harris, who had served in President Carter's administration as Secretary of HUD and HW. So everybody thought Barry would lose and And I thought he would win. And so I did a fundraiser for him to get two days after the primary I scheduled it for because you

could deficit spend in DC, you could run up a campaign debt. And so I sent out an invitation to everybody who had given Harris more than $1,000 and then other supporters and I got a little host committee together of more mature, more experienced people than me and we did this event at the Capitol Hilton in DC on 16th and K. And we were kind of struggling a little bit but at one point the campaign was gonna cancel it

but I got them to stick it out. I was struggling a little bit to you know, but you know, and at one point, they were the campaign was going to cancel it but I got them to stick it out. So, um Barry wins. He beats her by four to one. Crushes her. Wow. Wow. So, two days later, we have our event. It's so big that they were

bringing in extra tables because all the people who had given her Harris money were trying to redeem themselves with him. They raised a huge amount of money and I got the chance to introduce him and that showed him that I was no longer the

little teenage guy that he had had, you know, working as his advanced person as a volunteer, but I was now somebody that could be helpful to him. Yes. Within a matter of months, one of the campaign team members called me. What happened is many of the people in the campaign transitioned to work in the government. So one of them called me and offered me a position as president of the real estate commission.

And ultimately, I spoke to a person at the head of boards and commissions. And she said that that wasn't the right position. I wasn't qualified for that position because you had to be a broker and I was only a sales agent. But a property assessment appeal board would be good for me. But they had just filled all the slots and the and the and the appointees are on the mayor's desk. And my mother had served the the the the the

the the the the the the the the

the the the the the the the the

the the the the the and I went and met with him and asked to meet with him and I made my case and he said, okay, let me look into it. A couple of days later, the woman called me back and said, oh my god, I just want to I've got good news for you. I went into the mayor's office and I told him, Mary, you were such an impressive young man that we had to appoint you and he has nominated you for the property assessment appeal board. And I thanked her. I knew she didn't do it but I thanked her for it and thank you for all the support and so forth. And and so I served on the board the

following year. The chairman's position was the chairman with term had expired and I asked Barry not to reappoint him and I asked Barry to pick somebody else and I made a deal with one of the older members on the board to to pick him but he didn't want to he said he didn't want to do it so I told the mayor my first choice was this guy right but um if he's not going to do it I'd like to do it. How old were you?

I was 23. I love it. And his deputy mayor gave me instructions on how to make it easier for the mayor to get some of the people that I had met during the fundraising and so forth, who the mayor respected to call the mayor and say they thought I'd do a good job, which I did. And so Barry told me that, well, you know that the guy who was supporting his name

is Ted Wade. He said, you know that he's been was supporting, his name is Ted Wade. He said, you know that he's been trying to get to meet with me and he's been asking and he's been telling people to call me because he wants to be chairman. Right. I said, but he told me he didn't want it. He says, well, he can't be trusted. So he says, so let me think about it, Don. And I'll get back to you.

And I met with him in his big office and so forth. And because I've been on the Hill, I was accustomed to the big office. And so I was still a little nervous, but I wasn't as intimidated because I'd been exposed to it. But I was very humble and respectful. But because of the deputy mayor, he taught me,

he said, look, you have to make your 23 years old. You have to make this. This is the most powerful board in the city. Wow. To make this easier for the mayor because him appointing a 23 year old young black man. That's not easy to

oversee all these real estate property owners. Yeah. Um so you gotta make it easier and he showed me how and because of that, Barry calls me up and says, hey, I'm going to, you know, announce your appointment tomorrow. I'm going to come down to City Hall and and you know, and he asked his assistant what time was it and and so on and said she'll give you all the details and I'll see you then. was it and and someone said she'll give you all the details and I'll see you then and uh so came in um and he announced my appointment uh and then swore me in.

Couple things that jump out by the way I've got my own Mary and Barry stories. Our backgrounds parallel so much and Mary and Barry helped Operation Hope when we went into Anacostia. He was a leader of one of the wards there. And I put a hope inside my first Hope Center. We have 1,500 now. My first on the ground Hope Center, which was we have 1500 now. My first on the ground Hope Center which

was with E trade. We built uh on Good Hope Road. I believe it was called her. It was a whole road. My first building that I built was on Martin Luther King Avenue just south of Good Hope Road. Wow. Coincidence is God's way remaining anonymous. Yeah. Uh but to stay focused on this incredible story of yours, your mother taught you

something else, uh, and it's something that ambassador young has said, uh, that I'm going to repeat men and women fail for three reasons, arrogance, pride, and greed, and a quote that I use that I did not create, but I use ambassador young loves this quote from that I use all the time, which is to talk without being offensive, listen without being defensive and always leave even your adversary with their dignity. Humility, stepping over mess, and I didn't, humility is really an underrated quality.

And you said about five minutes ago, basically I'm paraphrasing, being smart wasn't enough. You said, I know I was smart, I know I was sharp, but I'm not gonna get this position just because I'm smart, just because I'm worthy. I need to have relationship capital. I need to understand, I need to read the tea leaves, I need to read the room, I need to make sure

I've got the right people pitching for me, vouching for me. I need to make the job for the mayor easier to tell me, to empower me. Am I saying that right? You're saying it exactly right. And there's some lessons here for the audience on success. And we're not just storytelling here.

We're giving you a narrative and an inside channel. And again, keep in mind that Don and I are two of the largest people who happen to be of African American descent in the country, who are running big books of real estate and businesses with hundreds of employees. I don't know how many employees you have, Don. I've got 400. But you know, we're, you know, this didn't happen by accident. And a lot of his story. So a lot of successes, it's just good habits. It's good habits and, and discipline and execution. Uh, but good habits is, is, is a big part of this.

Don had good habits from an early age. And for anybody who's having a child or thinking about it, first of all, you should delay it as long as you can. Cause you want to make sure you have maturity to give it that child, but you can't be a baby mama or baby daddy. You have to be a mother and a father. If Don had a baby mama, he'd been screwed. If he had a baby mama, in other words, I got you, but I had you, but I've got

no whatever with the streets chase you run you. I, you know, I'm sort of concerned about you, but I'm not responsible for you. No, no, no. He had a mother. I had a mother. You talk about his grandfather. You know, I know my grandfather, RB Smith. I know my second grade grandfather, George Young fought in the civil war,

uh, protected Memphis. Know your story. Know your story. Know your story. And if you're gonna have a child, be a mother and or a father. Be parents because that's often who your children are most influenced by. And so if it wasn't for your mother being your advocate,

and I think your grandfather you said, opening those doors in DC before her, you wouldn't be who you are today. No, and look, also my father, I mean, my father and I had a good relationship overall. And I got my work ethic from him. Not only did he work his full-time job at the government, he also kept a part-time job

as a car mechanic and set up his own little business in the garage of our house. And so he always was willing to work for what he wanted and he worked to provide. And he had this great work ethic. And one of the things I think about pride, and I look at it, I think in some regards, my father, and I think my grandfather to the same thing My father was more so what he he grew up very hard and segregated rural, Virginia And so he didn't want to ask anybody for anything His whole thing is I'll do it myself

And if I can't provide it for me myself then I'm not I don't need it But I learned a lot from him and also my mother's four sisters, they got married, three of their husbands, the one that was a doctor, the other one a lawyer, the other one a school teacher. I learned from each one of them and they were models for me and role models for me. And I happened to have grown up in an environment in a family where money was not something that was elevated or it was you know worshiped it was more about hey you needed to take care of yourself and be supportive of your family but that there you know your your existence and

your you know your contributions to our society are very different. And it's not about money. And so I think that that probably helped me quite a bit in terms of being able to be grounded and so on. And one of the interesting lessons I learned, one of the best lessons I learned from Barry is in that election for his first campaign for mayor, and I didn't witness this,

but I was told this story probably a hundred times. So the most prominent black business person in the city of Washington was supporting Sterling Tucker. And he was not just supporting him. He was really speaking very nasty and negative about Barry. Saying he, you know, he wasn't articulate cause he grew up in the segregated South, even though Barry had a degree in chemistry

and was getting a master's in chemistry before he left to fight in the civil rights movement. But he dogged him, I mean, totally. And the bank's biggest customer was the city of Washington, DC. So when Barry won, this guy was depressed. And so he, you know, got up the next day, went to work, got in a little late and he walks in the reception area of his offices at the bank.

And Marion Barry is sitting in the reception area of his offices at the bank and Mary and Barry is sitting in the reception area. Really? And he you know stood up shook his hand and said now can I have your support? Wow. Mary and Barry did that Mary and Barry did that unbelievable and that's that's

that's wicked smart and that was Bill Fitzgerald, the banker who owned Independence Federal Savings and Bank and Savings and Loan, which was the largest black owned bank in the country at the time and throughout Barry's campaigns and his scandal,

it was Bill Fitzgerald who was rock solid for Barry, unyielding supportive of him from that point on. And it was that what Barry did is he gave this man who was certain that he was gonna lose his biggest client and the mayor of the city was gonna put him on his shit list and that would have been it and he wouldn't be able to do business

and instead Barry helped him. And I learned that from Barry. Ultimately, we used to play poker as a group and Barry included me in their poker games. And so I became very friendly with a bunch of different black business people I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black

Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a group called the Black Bucks, and I was in a big fan of me. So And that is one of the messages that Don and I were both trying to articulate before we got on camera about how we, all of us, everybody needs to be gracious and find a higher frequency in the coming weeks and months.

Because there are four countries that want to take us out. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. We're not each other's enemy. That's if you want to have an enemy, I mean, I don't see anybody as my enemy. If you want to say an enemy, that's your enemy. They hope that we hate each other. They hope that we that we kick it and pick each other continue to. And so I'm really hoping that we can find a higher frequency. And now, we've had a potentially the election of a lifetime here. But as I said to Charlemagne and some others this morning, we were trading text messages. Where else in the world?

Well, first of all, I said, where else in the world? Because you and I, our stories have come up age, up from literally slavery, where we control our own destiny. But where else in the world could you have a superpower, yet alone the sole superpower, have an election of tens and tens of millions of people? It's transparent. It's passionate.

It's vibrant. It's vibrant. It's violent free. It's drama free. It's scandal free. It appears. It's it's seen is unrigged is unbought. It is what it is. You can like it the outcome and not like the outcome. But it is what it is. And tomorrow today you get up and you go to work or you go to, you have a conversation about it and you figure out how you go, but you know, you, you express yourself in Russia. You just disappear China.

You just disappear. Right. So, uh, people, you know, people need to understand that even in the Bible says you cannot grow except the legitimate suffering. You cannot grow except what legitimate suffering. Where would Andrew Young be if he hadn't been fired from the UN? Little known story, but he was by you know, this vaulted successful. You know, he was one of the most powerful black men in America. And, and he was a UN he was the first black UN ambassador in the history of the country And they fired him for talking to the palestinians

Yes, they fired him for talking to the palestinians something. Of course is Just nothing but common sense now. You need to talk to everybody And uh, he he had his he had for a couple days don his head was low and he was wondering what the future held but he he realized that god sits on the throne and And god was not in any way through with him, but rainbows follow storms and he gets called to become mayor of Atlanta and he wonders whether he should do that and this older lady says to him, you know, boy, we wasted our time on you. We had you with Dr. King. We supported

you. We rooted for you and did this. you did that, but then we need you. You just shrug your shoulders. We just wasted our time on you. And that turned him around, that caused him to run for mayor. And Don, last story, I'm gonna get back to you because I wanna make sure we spend the last 10, 15 minutes on how you came from where you are there

to this billion dollar portfolio and where it comes next and how people can get the art of how you did your transactions and grew your business. So in this unique narrative of Ambassador Andrew Young, he becomes mayor and grows this incredible portfolio of inclusion, gives his phone number to all the business people, saying if anybody tries to bribe you, whatever you call me, if you have any problems at all, everybody had his home phone number, and he attracted 70 trillion, 70 billion billion of foreign investment to Atlanta on his, on his personal

rapport and people and his, and folks and giving folks his phone number. Now he couldn't have done what he did without Maynard, right? The Maynard created black wealth, but in bachelor young really created the first international city in the South. And, but it was, it was a lot a lot of his, he will say himself, it wasn't just his successes, it was a lot of his failures. He got a call from Quincy Jones's dear friend, the black godfather.

Oh, Clarence the one. Clarence the one. I knew Clarence, so Clarence called him one day, and again, I can't say it completely here, but I'll, so is this a crazy Negro? You didn't say Negro. Is this a crazy Negro running for mayor, black man

running for mayor, running for Congress actually in in Atlanta? Yes. Are you out your mind? Are you out of your dang on mind? He said, if you crazy enough to run, I'm crazy enough to support you. And did a concert for him in the stadium here, filled it up,

and gave him the campaign money. He was the first congressman from Georgia since Reconstruction. And of course, UN ambassador, congressman, mayor, we know the rest of the story. But it was not the successes, it was how he managed the failures. It was gracious when he won and when he lost. But also understanding his story was not over.

It was a hundred yard dash, not a marathon. It was a marathon, not a hundred yard dash, and it was a long game. So you've been playing the long game in your life. And you have said on this call, there's not about permanent friends, but permanent interests. Did I get that right? Yes. And so you went from that humble beginning and setting up the setup, and the payoff

was that you created now a business that is one of the biggest runs by a person of color in real estate, I'd argue, in the world, but certainly in the US. Tell us about that business, how you built it, where you are now, and where do you want to go? And is there a lesson here for folks other than the narrative of your life of how to do a deal that you want them to know? Sure, I mean I think the first thing is that you got to prepare yourself to be able to do deals and to prepare yourself to be in business. And so that

means how you live your life, how you conduct yourself in terms of building relationships. You want people to root for you. Most of the time people won't root for successful people, but you want them to root for you. And you want people to think decently of you and you want to be able to build relationships like I learned from my grandfather and my mother. And so it's building relationships, not making enemies. So the arrogance and having humility instead is very helpful, but building some relationships and learning from other people

and reading and understanding the business to being somewhat of a student of it. That puts you in a position to be able to be in the mix and be able to be successful when the opportunity comes. And then to put yourself in the mix of where you'll see opportunities. I knew that by being in the mix in DC politically, that was my pathway to being more engaged in the business. And when I was appraising houses for uninsured mortgagesages, that wasn't gonna do anything for me, earn a living,

and me to be and learn more about real estate, but also me being in touch with where people are, how they're living and so on. But it was the Property Assessment Appeals Board that put me in the mix. It paid $25 an hour. When I met, when we had board meetings, I would have done it and paid them for it because it was all about me learning and being able to be a you know, a player in the business world.

So I was trying to build my own appraisal business because I was a subcontractor for another appraisal company and I need I'mcontractor for another appraisal company. And I'm the top clients were HUD, one of the top clients for residential. And so I tried my mother had had housing and urban development for those who don't know that US Department of Housing, Urban Development. And they ensure mortgages for moderate and low moderate income home purchases. And then they also ensure multifamily loans as well. So my mother had done work for them. So I used to go in and drop off her appraisal reports

and so forth. So I became friendly with the staff there. So I tried to get on the approved list there, and I couldn't do it. By that time, one of my high school classmates was working for Ron Dellums. So I asked him to write a letter of recommendation for me and have the congressman sign it and the congressman and so signed it and then I say and then also can you make

a call for the congressman to speak to the area director for the HUD director for Washington DC and put in a good word for me. He did, and I got a meeting with her, spoke to her, and then I stayed in touch, and then a few months go by, I stay in touch, and then I asked my friend to give the congressman a touch base again, just see how things are going, and that he'd known me since I was 16 years old, etc. and I'm going to do a good job. He's confident. So ultimately, I

got my first client started my appraisal business and one of the things that we said was that if he's qualified to be chairman of the property assessment appeal board in DC that reviews all hundred and sixty-five thousand properties in Washington DC, he should be qualified to to appraise some property for Hut. And that was a so it gave me a little bit of a building block and then I used relationships. And then from there, I guess within the mix. Yes, so we built I was building my appraisal business but I wanted to get into development. So I took a shot at a couple of different deals

that were parcels owned by the government where I thought I had an edge and um and I couldn't you know, neither one of them became successful but I had a symbol investors and all of that. Um so you took a

shot. You're in DC now. You know all the players. Yeah. Uh you take a shot. You're on your chair of an important committee. You've you've've gotten this relationship through a Congressman, you've gotten this deal through HUD, you've gotten this, and now you take a shot at properties that you understand controlled by people who you know, and they didn't happen. The first two deals did not happen. Right? Please listen to me, everybody.

Listen to what Don is saying. This whole fantasy that that you're going to be a microwave success story overnight, or that you put a business card and put CEO in your name and lease a car and go to some fancy meetings and buy some suits and take an Instagram shot of you being a successful person. That's not the way it works. Only in the dictionary does the word success come before the word work because it's alphabetical? You get he did everything right and it still didn't he said earlier being smart is not enough being competent It's not enough and he didn't give up He takes no for vitamins just like me you. So, those two deals didn't happen. Continue. Right. Those two deals didn't happen and

Barry could have made either one of those happen but he didn't and for and I understood why different reasons and different politics. So, I happen to be in my office, my appraisal office and I'd sublet some space to a real estate broker and he comes into my office and he says,

hey, I got a piece of property you should look at by. And I said, okay, where is he? He says, Anacostia. I said, well, why would I wanna own anything in Anacostia? I mean, as a depressed community, I wanna build an office building in downtown DC. Right. He says, look, he shows me this letter

and there's a letter on the mayor of Washington, DC's letterhead. in downtown DC. Right. He says, That letter was written to a white developer who was working on buying this piece of property in Anacostia from my subtenant's client. And I said, so what's the issue here? Why are you showing it to me? It looks like the deal is all done. He said, well, my client wants $900,000 for this property and the developer won't pay more than 700. And I said, wait a minute. So they're arguing over 200 thousand dollars.

It was like 650. I think it was 650. But they were arguing over 200, 250 thousand dollars. Right. You're kidding me. And so I look at the letter and I said, can I have a copy of it? And we make a copy of it. And I said, OK, let me get back to you tomorrow.

So I called the investors that I'd assembled for the other deal. And I called them. Didn't happen, which failed and didn't happen. Never got it. But I knew them. And I said, how would you like to own 50% of an office building that we will build as pre-lease to the District of Columbia for twenty years. Oh my god. Oh my god. And they said, well, what's the deal?

And I said, well, you guys put up all the money and I bring the deal. I bring the land and I bring the deal and and and so and you would own twenty percent of that. No, I don't. I own fifty percent. Wow. Okay that? No, I you know who I am because at that time I was somewhat prominent. Right. So you know that if the mayor is going to do this for this group, chances are he'll do a deal with me, especially with my partners who are putting up all the money and have the experience. But we can't buy your property until we have a deal with the city. But the price is not an issue. We're going to pay you exactly what you asked for. You want to nine hundred thousand dollars. We're going to pay you nine hundred thousand dollars.

We're going to give you a hundred thousand dollar're gonna pay you $900,000, we're gonna give you $100,000 deposit and if we don't close, it's yours. And I calculated what it costs to carry the property after 90 days, we'll pay to carry the property. You gotta give us six months to make our deal. Made a deal, signed a contract, partners put up the money and then I wrote a letter to the mayor and I wrote him a letter. In fact, no, I wrote the city council member for that district and the city of Washington's director of, you know, of government services, general services, wrote him a letter saying that we own the property. We understood that they were willing to lease it and the rent that

you all are proposing is twenty22.50 a square foot triple net we're going to do a building. Claim triple net Don, claim triple net please. The triple net means that $22.50 rent to the owner. Net means that the tenant has to pay the property taxes, has to pay all operating expenses of the building, insurance, utilities, et cetera. So they have to pay all the expenses so that the developer or the owner of the building

gets $22.50 per square foot and a net of all expenses. So the tenant pays all operating expenses. For those listeners who didn't follow that, run the tape back, listen to it slowly. That's a brilliant deal. Because basically that meant that Don knew exactly, and his investors knew exactly what they would receive in a return. Net of all expenses that could kill you.

Property taxes, things that go up and down, utilities, all that stuff. It was triple. So he had a 20 year lease with a credit tenant credit means somebody you know is credit worthy. The word credit comes in Latin word credit credibility. You knew the person was credit worthy. It's the government in DC doesn't get a better tenant than that 20 year lease. So you can get predictable income, which then gives the property the property a value for 20 years. And he knew exactly what what net cash flow would come to him and his investors because it's triple net. And as the government goes bankrupt, which was not likely and hasn't,

he had a great deal. It wasn't a good deal. This was a great deal. He negotiated a great he negotiated success upfront. He was financially literate, wasn't just a good developer, wasn't just smart, wasn't just lucky. He created his own luck. He was smart and he was financially literate. Wasn't just a good developer. Wasn't just smart. Wasn't just lucky. He created his own luck. He was smart. He was financially literate. And he understood the budget and the balance sheet. And he took risks because he cut the deal before he wrote the letter to the council person. Or got back to the mayor.

He was at risk if the deal had gone sideways. The mayor changed their mind. Or city council person decided they didn't like him. He's toast. Okay. Go ahead, Don. So there, and in fact, there's some drama to it. So we make a deal, and so we send the letter to the city. The first argument I had with the investors, there were three white guys

who were real estate investors, two Jewish guys and a Greek guy. And they said, why in the world are we offering $18.75 a square foot the other the mayor wrote a letter saying $22.50 this is a minority deal Those deals always cost more money to do business with minorities. You should be charging $25 a foot I said no You don't understand the reality of the world here and the reality of the world is I've got to be better

There is no way we're gonna get this deal if I'm not better. One, I'm black. Two, I'm a friend and an ally of the mayor's. So, we have to make this where they'd be fools not to take our deal. I said, but we're gonna do something smart. We don't spend a money per dollars per square foot. We spent absolute dollars. So, we're gonna. We don't spend a contract. We're going to build a bigger building. So, the mayor, so the so so so all so

we send a letter to the council member and then probably within within almost hours, I get a call from the mayor and the mayor said, Don, what are you doing? First of all, the way it happens is, you know, it's his assistant Jerry

and he's like, I, what are you doing? Further, the way it happens is, you know, it's his assistant, Jerry, and she says, hold on, hold on for the mayor. So, mayor, hey, Don, what are you doing over in Anacostia? I mean, council member Nadine Winter just came up, came, just left my office. She was yelling and all crazy in here saying, you bought this property in Anacostia. And and now you're you took it from, you know, some other people who were going to build a building over there. And I guess they were friends of hers or something. And I said, Well, yeah, Mr. Mayor, I did buy

a piece of property, I put it on a contract, because the city was interested in leasing office space there and you want to help rebuild economic, you know, neglected communities. And I know that you have been an outspoken advocate of economic empowerment for black entrepreneurs. This is Anacostia, a predominantly black community in a commercial quarter destroyed by the 1968 riots. Been neglected ever since. black community in a commercial quarter destroyed by the 1968 riots been neglected ever since. I'm a black developer and I figured that it would be

better if I built it in a community that's reflective of my people and I'm doing it and I'm doing it on better economic terms and I don't know why she's mad. She should be happy. She's a black council member and everybody's talking about how you all want to help more black entrepreneurship. Okay, here you go. And he says, yeah, man, she is, she is furious. And, um, and I said, well, and I shouldn't have said it, but I said it.

I said, well, Mr. Mayor, if it's a real problem for you, I could walk from the deal. And then he paused for a second and he paused And so in this thing, you know what you want to do is a priority. He says, all right, let me think about it. I'll get back to you. And then a couple of days later, he calls me back up

and I'm all worried, calling back up and say, you know, we're going to go forward with that deal. It's the right thing to do and you're saving us money and you're doing a better building and Council Member Winter is going to need to get over it. Now I'd like you to go down and meet with her and try to get her to feel good about this. But you can go there knowing that we're going forward.

And so I did that, went in, and then met with her, got her on board. But a few, like a couple weeks later, I get a phone call from a reporter in the Washington Post. later, I get a phone call from a reporter in the Washington Post, I get it and I was out of the office. So I returned the phone call. And I call the guy up and he says this is Tom Sherwood. I'm an investigative reporter for the Washington Post. And I thought it was a special interest story about a black developer helping the black community. And he says that we want to talk to you about this lease deal that you're doing

with the mayor and that's above market rent. And so and so he want to talk to you about it and so forth. So I said, well, alright, let me get back to you. So I call the mayor's office talk to his press secretary, right? She and then his intergovernmental affairs person. And they tell me what I should do the interview. And then they've talked me through how to do it. Right. And that was my first real interaction with the media. And, and so I do this interview.

How are you at this point? I was 26. Unbelievable. 11. And so I go and meet with this guy in my office. And I recorded the interview. And we do the interview. And I kept saying, well, here's a letter

that the mayor sent to some other what a developer um other than me and it was for twenty-two dollars and fifty cents a square foot. Yeah. I'm using it eighteen seventy-five uh square foot. My deal is better. So, it's the market was what this person offered and what the city signed a commitment letter for. He just didn't control the property and I figured out the city of Washington offered and what the city signed a commitment letter for. He just didn't control the property and I figured out how to control the property and you know and I'm

doing it for less money. So, that got me some and I called a couple of city council members and they were supportive of me as well and and and so couple days later, front page of the Washington Post right next to Ronald Reagan's Iran Contra, a fair issue

where they're trading, you know, on drugs for arms. Right. It's my little building in Anacostia and it was a front page story in the Washington Post and they were trying to make controversy out of it but it wasn't. I saw the mayor that I saw the mayor that day told me don't worry about it. But then I go into this prominent restaurant where I started never I'd been going this pop with this Washington local business and political power restaurant called Joe and Mose.

Right. And that was where like Bill Fitzgerald, the banker I talked about earlier would go every day for lunch and all the power broke many of the power brokers would be there for lunch. So I go there. I became more of a regular. So I go in. Bill Fitzgerald standing at the bar. He gets up and he comes over to me and he hands me a glass of champagne and he says, welcome to the club. And and what he told me is there will be no fans. Yeah, there will not. There you will not, the Washington Post and the establishment,

you are now their target. Yeah. And you will not have fans and they will not be in your fan club. Yeah. And, but you're gonna have to keep going and not let none of this bother you. You just keep focusing, stay on your point,

don't do anything wrong, and you're fine. Yeah. But I was like worried that my deal was going to blow up and then Barry said he'd stick it out and then it was lingering and then one of the council members who had ran against him and lost said, look, you need to sign the lease now and get it over with. Just put an end to this now. this now. And that was it. Got my deal done. And signed the lease in 1987. Just turned 27. And then built the building in two years, we brought it in early. And that building was my first building and I was netting back then about my share was

about 400 grand a year. So I no longer had to work for a living and then I can start focusing and it was just me. So I could just be helping my mother and I could just focus now on what's the next step. Yeah. And then from that one building, oh, and I forgot to get it financed. The National Bank of Washington did the construction loan. Right. And the way I met them is the chairman of the National Bank of

Washington with Barry's campaign chairperson. So Barry introduced me to him. Right. He did the construction loan and found an insurance company for me to take the construction loan out and repay the construction loan and give me a permanent loan for 10 years and So it's for those issues which are followed that he had he purchased it. He needed a banker a lender to do a construction loan to get the building up and Then with the construction loans not the final financing you need a permanent financing a long-term vehicle at preferably fixed rates. So you know what the monthly outflow is because the construction loan often is at adjustable

rates and it is not very economical deal. You don't want to keep it long-term. But he got the construction loan, which is typically two years or less on a building like that. And then he did a permit loan loan which is what the insurance company mentioned that allowed him to finance it institutionally uh for the life of the building. Okay, go ahead. And so that freed me up and from that one

building was a 10 million dollar project cost. Um I built I built a business that where I had about ultimately about two and a half million square feet of space in DC. You know, in other sites I could build more, I expanded into Miami and then other parts of the country.

And so today we do business in Boston, New York, DC, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Miami, LA, San Francisco, Vegas, and all that from the one building. So, we've completed several billion dollars of projects. Our pipeline today is over six billion dollars of development projects around the country. I'm trying to get the rights to

building, which is 167 feet tall, which would make it the tallest building in the western hemisphere. Um all that from that one opportunity and if I didn't have that one opportunity and being prepared to take it, being not worrying about what I was going to get

out from Barry early but building a relationship of somebody that I respected and being useful to him. Even that building was a source of pride. He did and was here at the groundbreaking and that building kick started the revitalization of Anacostia and today Homeland Security has a three billion dollar headquarters there. The Department of is that the building Homeland Security's building? No, no, that's not the building but all of that happened as a result of that first investment. Gotcha. Cat catalyst to create all of that economic development.

And ironically, the government after 20 years, the next mayor renewed the lease for 10 years. And then we renovated the building and the city leased it for another 16 years and my son oversaw the renovations. So I don't have 30 years after me building it, my son who is working in the company, he oversaw the renovation of that building and the city's been there for another 16 years. And still only today we still make money off that building and have been making money off that building for 35 plus years. This has been a master class, everybody. If you did not know anything about real estate development,

he just walked you through how he built an empire and he unpacked a critical deal which triggered every other deal in many ways. He talked to you about humble beginnings. He talked to you about his grandfather. His grandfather, a doorman, had relationship capital because everybody coming in out of that hotel, he got to know. He talked about how his mother built Relationship Capital and his father helped him. His father was a hard worker. Don, your story and my story are so similar

in so many ways we don't have time to go into it, but it is heartwarming to me to know, because I didn't know all this backstory, how there's so much simpatico here. But he talked about, and this is the most important thing I want people to listen to here, integrity, integrity. He could have taken the short route a couple of times. He could have been about himself,

but he told the mayor, the then mayor, Marion Barry, if you don't like this deal, now he's got the money at risk now. This is the second risky thing he'd done on this property. First of all, he went on a contract without having gone back. He could have gone to the mayor in advance and tried to reassure him that this was a good deal. He could have gone to the city council person, but by the way, they would have set him up. The porters then could have suggested this was some kind of a cooked agreement,

some kind of a, not fraud, but bribery or whatever, it could have made something up. Oh, you gave them free dinners and lunches or whatever. He stayed clear of all that. He did his deal on the strength of the transaction, went undercut his competition, could have taken more money, but it wasn't greedy. Undercut it, made it sure it was competitive,

tightened it up, put Ed himself at risk because you cannot do anything in life without putting yourself on the front lines. He backed his own deal. Then he went to the mayor. Then he had to wait. He said, look, if this doesn't work out, if you don't like it, that's fine with me.

I'll recover, but my relationship with you is that important. I did the same thing with Tony Restre, Michael Arigatty, when I sold Promise Homes Company. I could have sold it at a much higher Company. I could have sold it at a Much higher price. I could have sold it a much lower price, but I simply said Whatever you guys want to do you're my partners here I want to honor my commitment to you get you in and out in five years and ultimately they did exactly what you did with Marion Barry they said no we're with you

But I was willing to take much less to keep my word. He did that. That was a big deal I did in Promise Homes Company. He did that on his first deal. And the way he did it allowed him to talk to that reporter with a straight face and with integrity. And it was nothing that reporter could do, but report the news. I mean, there was no, you couldn't make it up.

It was nothing to make up. Now, all they did was give you great advertisement on the front page of the local paper, ultimately, and made you the guy, made you part of the club. There's a guy said, clearly, welcome to the club. You've been hit at, you've been knocked on your head now. Welcome to the club. So another message for everybody, I rather you respect me and learn to like me

than like me and never respect me. And what Don has built is a global reputation of respect. And people also like him. They know when he shakes your hand, you've got a deal. He'll keep his word. He has a man of integrity. So many lessons here. You have the really a master class

in up from nothing real estate development and integrity and relationship management. Whoever you are, wherever you come from, with no financial capital at all, work ethic, hustle, your own developed relationship capital, and your own innovation and creativity, you can be immensely successful. Don, in the last couple of minutes, we have what comes next for you.

You've got your son in your business now. I met him. He's really impressive. I love your whole family. What what's come next for you and what last piece of wisdom do you want to leave with the audience? Well, I mean, so and they're both kind of both connected. So, I think what was the one of the more important things about, you know, my trajectory aside from the building of the more important things about you know, my trajectory

aside from the building of relationships and the reciprocal relationship. I always wanted to create value. I didn't ask Barry to mentor me. I made myself valuable to him. Yeah. Valuable as a fundraiser. Valuable did a

great job on the property assessment of pill board. I told him you will never get a call about this board. You will never get a call about for you and not a liability. And so I tried to always perform. But, you know, it was my motivation for to make money was really to be able to pay my bills, to earn a living. It wasn't, hey, I needed to accumulate all these things.

It was more about I wanted to be comfortable, but I also wanted to have a purpose and the sense of purpose is to knock down these barriers. I wanted to have a purpose, and a sense of purpose is to knock down these barriers. I mean, Dr. King, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, they didn't fight and struggled so that I could make some more dollars and spend it on myself. Dr. King didn't die and give his life so that people like me could just make some money and keep it to ourselves. And so I feel a greater sense of purpose and so I use business as a tool

of transformation. It's a it's a tool where I can provide access to opportunities and ownership is the essence of power and so if I want to hire a contractor, I can do that. When I built the last building we did in New York, we just finished a little while ago, I bought it from the city of New York and part of in a competitive process. And when we did the interview, they said, you committed to 20% minority

and women-owned business contracting. No one's, the government can't even get to those numbers. How in the world do you think you're gonna get to those numbers? You're not ever gonna get to those numbers. And I said, well, we're gonna really work hard to try, but I think we'll get to the 20% numbers. And it's our first building in New York. And about a 580 million dollar project. Wow. So I brought in a construction company, a construction manager, it's actually the oldest black owned construction company

in the country, McKissack. I brought in Gerald McKissack and I said, look, I want you to oversee the contractor and I want you to make sure that we do better than 20% minority and women-owned business contract. And so I'm hiring your company to do that. And so we need to set up a structure and a system that we can excel at.

And she said, well, how much time are you gonna be willing to commit? I said, well, what do you mean? She said, well, one way to do it, part of this is gonna be you need to approve every contract so you can push it back. And so ultimately, we set up a system. I approved every subcontractor,

came with a decision memo random that I learned from Barry about here's Here's a contract here are the options and it would tell me who it was what they did Were they a minority or women-owned firm and it weren't why not what were the three bids and so on? So I could send it back and so One of the build one the one of the contracts we looked at was the facade contract got came to me and it

was a nominate. The exterior wall. So, it was a historic landmark building that was about 500 thousand square feet and the original New York Life Insurance Company headquarters and so we were restoring the limestone facade around this giant building. And so the contract to restore the exterior walls was 47 million dollars. And so just that contract,

just that contract. And so the lowest price was a, was a, was a black owned firm. Okay. And, but the contract that was submitted to me was for the next, um, lowest bidder, um, a non-minority firm. And the reason was because the minority firm couldn't, you know, they were not able to bond the job. They couldn't, they had a bond, they could bond half of their bonding capacity is about $25 million. And the bank would not give us any relief on that, they could bond half of their bonding capacity is about $25 million. And the bank would not give us any relief on that, on the bond. So the general contractor wanted to pick the non-minority firm.

But the schedule also it has a schedule in the contracts and everybody was around the same time period, about two years or so. So I said, go back to, I told my team, go back to the minority firm and this firm that you want to hire and ask them, does that mean that half the building gets done in a year? Right. And so they come back and they give us a schedule for half the building if they only did half. It's about, you know, 14 months or so for each one of them, basically. Right. And the price goes up a little bit. And so I said, okay, we're splitting the building up.

And we're gonna give the minority contractor half, and we're gonna do the other one half. And while it's gonna take us, it's gonna cost us a little more money, we're gonna make up for it, because we're gonna finish this at least eight months earlier on the exterior, so we'll be able to get the windows in

and other stuff faster. And so we did that, and that's how we were able to finish it. So we finished the project, and we had 38.5% minority contracting, and I was told I couldn't get 20. But that's why, a big part of why I do what I do, because it gives me the chance to provide opportunities and set a standard that if my company can do it, then the government should have the expectations

of all these other developers, the same thing. And so changing the marketplace and the expectations. But so I think that if you're going to be successful, I think you record you want to operate with integrity. You want to operate with a long term view. My mother taught me to think long term. I mean, that's a big thing for her. Think long term, not short term, long, long term, deferred gratification. That's right. And so you want to look at that way.

But you have to have a sense of purpose. Yeah. I think, you know, the purpose that I have is that I want to expand economic opportunity for black Americans and so I'm willing to continue to do this, have significant financial risk to myself to grow the business because I believe if I keep scaling the business up it creates more and more opportunity. And then hopefully, there are more developers like me and you, John, that will do the same thing. And we can ultimately get our community

to a place where we no longer disproportionately carry the burdens of poverty, but we become an economic factor in this country. And then many of the issues that our community confronts will go away because we'll have the financial resources to help ourselves. There's a quote that I love to use, Don. By the way, this has been absolutely great.

This is technically the longest podcast I've ever done for this series, but at every moment, every minute of it was worthwhile. There's not a moment of it that I think people will not sit on the edge of their seats. I often tell people who don't understand capitalism and free enterprise, and they think money is everything. Even if you want to distribute money like a socialist, you have to first collect it like a capitalist.

And that 88% of all jobs in America are private sector jobs. So the government gets their money from the private sector. And so if you want to have influence on your government, you have influence on your school district, your board of counselors, your city council. You want to have influence on the infrastructure. You want to have influence on the trajectory

of your community and your world. You want to become successful, as successful as you can be. You want to be a taxpayer. You want to be on record. You want to have integrity. So people come to you not just for a check, they come for your counsel. They come to you because you bring credibility

to any endeavor you assign your name to So anybody listening to this? I want you to watch listen to this two or three times and take notes because he really gave you a master class On how to build something from nothing done in the last word here And by the way, just there's so much here one of the things that really My heart sung when you said it you you hit 38% of minority contractors versus 20. They told you you couldn't do 20.

One of the reasons I stayed and wanted to build my real estate companies was the bigger I made it, the more minority contractors plumbing, heating, lighting, roofing, landscaping, both employment and contracts, multi-million dollar contracts I could let to people, which is sustainable wealth creation. It's not charity. It's not a one-off check or a one-off government check or a one-off charity check. I can give you a charity check for a thousand dollars or $10,000 one time, maybe, but I can give you a contract for tens of millions of dollars if the business will sustain it

and you qualify. That's what we've got to get. We got to get enough infrastructure for companies like yours and mine and Russell, Russell family and others, so that we are collectively doing so much business that we can literally employ, employ not just black America, but underserved America on a sustainable basis.

What's the total assets under management right now, or how are you, you know, I know private equity looks at this a little differently, but how do you equate your current success platform? Is it the amount of development you've done or assets you own now? What's that benchmark that you have that you can leave the audience with?

How many employees, you already mentioned the cities. Yeah, as a company, we are focused more on our pipeline because that really drives our revenue. Yes, and our goal is my 2026 that that we have an ongoing pipeline of about ten billion dollars and we just continue to add as we as we deliver and add and and so it is it and as a and it's a development business on that pipeline our goal has been to do And so, and as a development business on that pipeline, our goal has been to do just right around 40%

of that in profit. So, that's about $2.4 billion. And so, and that pipeline is about an eight year process, so you're adding and subtracting, but from beginning to end, an eight year process, right? So you're adding and subtracting and but you from beginning to end all that within that pipeline now will be completed within eight years or less. And so that's kind of how we measure and then we have been to grow our business. You know we really we we have developed for sale product we sold buildings etc. So now we're building a series of businesses now.

So one of the businesses that we're doing is a, we are doing a series 144A offering, which is a private placement that ultimately will probably go public, but of our public private business, which is a big core, about 75% of what we do, which I learned on that first deal, which doing business with the government.

So either we're buying buildings, sites from the government, or we're buying buildings from the government and then redeveloping them. That's about 75% of our business. And that company is called Affirmation Partners. And Raymond James is launching that offering next week. And so that's one of the things that we're building. We're also looking to build a private equity fund business to deploy capital to black entrepreneurs

and women entrepreneurs who have had very limited access to capital so that we can create more opportunities there. But and then we have a robust condo development business in Florida. And that was kind of the keys of our business. But it's about creating, you know, economic performance and and then growing our business to keep scaling it up. And so, you know, so that's kind of how we measure. But we measure by number of buildings and number and dollar amounts. I mean, that's the best example of kind of measuring us in terms of size.

So a developer will develop a project audience for their own account, but also for others. And they deliver those products through a pipeline of development process. And when they deliver it, they are rewarded for that. And sometimes it's fee income and sometimes it's ownership. And sometimes it's a combination of both. What you've heard is literally a master class and Don and I, he didn't know this.

I didn't know this about him. He didn't know this about me. But we both started with government service. We volunteered on a committee and we had integrity about that process. We were about giving, not getting. And we built relationship capital serving on those volunteer boards.

And as he said, we would have paid to be there. This is John O'Brien. This is my friend, Don Peoples. This is Money and Wealth. And this is a special episode that probably is my first, other than my conversation with Michael Milken, probably is my first master than my my conversation with Michael Milken probably is my first Master class in a certain area and this is real estate development. I hope you enjoyed it

Share it with everybody, you know Love and light let's go Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. So So So Thanks for watching!