# Overcoming the Odds: Motivational journey from rural America to corporate success and owning multiple Jersey Mike’s Franchises.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 19 Dec 2024, 27 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/758fe066-fa08-4a96-908d-b24a0168bee8/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Keith Millner. An entrepreneur, international traveler, author and servant leader, Keith is a renaissance man. After a three-decade career in corporate america in multiple senior executive roles, he transitioned to entrepreneurship. He is co-founder and President of Coaching Catalyst, LLC a boutique executive coaching and business advisory firm and co-founder and President of Social Capital, LLC, which owns and operates multiple Jersey Mike’s franchises in metro Atlanta. As an executive coach, Keith has enabled hundreds of corporate, civic, and religious leaders to PERFORM BETTER. SMARTER. FASTER Company Description * COACHING CATALYST is a professional services firm dedicated to facilitating transformation through performance coaching, leadership/professional development and training. Our expert team delivers customized coaching, consulting, training, and facilitating. We integrate decades of practical, real-world experience with current theories and research-validated methodologies to produce measurable performance improvements. Our objective is to co-create rapid, sustainable, and measurable changes that enable optimal performance so that individuals, teams, and organizations Perform Better. Smarter. Faster. #STRAW #BEST #SHMS Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
[0:06] Speaker 2: I am Rashan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
[0:10] Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
[0:13] Speaker 2: stories and start planning their own. Listen up as I
[0:17] Speaker 2: interview entrepreneurs from around the country, talk to celebrities and
[0:21] Speaker 2: ask them how they are running their companies, and speak
[0:24] Speaker 2: with dog profits who are making a difference in their
[0:26] Speaker 2: local communities. Now, sit back and listen as we unlock
[0:30] Speaker 2: the secrets to their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
[0:35] Speaker 1: Welcome everybody. This is Rushan McDonald. Welcome. I am the host,
[0:39] Speaker 1: the weekly host the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. The interviews
[0:43] Speaker 1: and information that this show provides are for everyone. It's
[0:46] Speaker 1: time to stop reading other people's success stories and start
[0:49] Speaker 1: living your own. If you want to be a guest
[0:52] Speaker 1: on my show, Money Making Conversations Masterclass, please visit our website.
[0:56] Speaker 1: It is Moneymakingconversations dot com and click to be a
[1:00] Speaker 1: guest button. If you click to be a guest button,
[1:03] Speaker 1: it'll ask you for information. Please submit that information press submit.
[1:07] Speaker 1: After you filled out all the information, it will come
[1:09] Speaker 1: directly to me, my staff and I will examine your information.
[1:13] Speaker 1: Contact you to be a part of this show, and
[1:16] Speaker 1: this shows an information based show. I am not an
[1:19] Speaker 1: expert in everything. I am a person who brings on experts,
[1:24] Speaker 1: people who are very experienced in certain levels of this business,
[1:28] Speaker 1: from financial literacy, from entrepreneurship, to motivation to life and
[1:33] Speaker 1: I in turn have a conversation with them, and that conversation,
[1:36] Speaker 1: I hope inspires you, gives you information to make enable
[1:42] Speaker 1: you to make a decision, a decision that will turn
[1:44] Speaker 1: your life around. That's what Money Making Conversation Master Class
[1:47] Speaker 1: is all about. If you're listening for the first time, welcome.
[1:50] Speaker 1: If you're a regular listener, thank you for coming back.
[1:53] Speaker 1: Let's get this show started. My guest left Corporate America
[1:56] Speaker 1: and it's the co founder and president of Coaching Catalysts LLC,
[2:01] Speaker 1: a boutique executive coaching and business advisory firm, and co
[2:06] Speaker 1: founder and president of Social Capital LLC, which owns and
[2:10] Speaker 1: operates multiple Jersey Mike franchises in the metro Atlanta area.
[2:16] Speaker 1: Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Keith Milner. How
[2:21] Speaker 1: you doing, Keith?
[2:22] Speaker 3: I am terrific, sir. I hope you are as well well.
[2:25] Speaker 1: Cleech. We met at a live broadcast. Steven A. Smith
[2:28] Speaker 1: was in town and your wife introduced to me. She said,
[2:31] Speaker 1: you have to meet my husband. He has to be
[2:33] Speaker 1: on your show, Money Making Conversation Master Class. Now tell
[2:36] Speaker 1: me Keith. She was your manager, she was your broadcaster.
[2:40] Speaker 1: Why was she so inspired to get you on Money
[2:43] Speaker 1: Making Conversations Masterclass.
[2:45] Speaker 3: Well, first of all, I am extremely blessed to have
[2:48] Speaker 3: met my soulmate, my partner in life, love and philanthropy,
[2:52] Speaker 3: Miss Charmaine Ward Milner. And next to next to my mom,
[2:57] Speaker 3: she is She is my biggest supporter and my biggest advocate,
[3:00] Speaker 3: and it's always always always putting me first. And what
[3:04] Speaker 3: it is that we try to do together as a couple.
[3:06] Speaker 1: Well, you know, the interesting thing was, first of all,
[3:08] Speaker 1: when I met you man use your regular clothes on,
[3:11] Speaker 1: no suit. You didn't look like corporate, didn't look like
[3:15] Speaker 1: a person who had multiple jersey mikes around the city.
[3:19] Speaker 1: But you looked like a guy who believed in himself,
[3:22] Speaker 1: a person who has lived a life of success. Tell
[3:26] Speaker 1: us about your background before we get into the journey
[3:28] Speaker 1: of being a person in the corporate world and then
[3:31] Speaker 1: leaving the comfort world to believe in yourself and be
[3:34] Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. Let's start at the beginning.
[3:36] Speaker 3: Sure, I was born and raised a small farming community
[3:41] Speaker 3: in North Carolina, Readsville, North Carolina. Both my parents were farmers.
[3:46] Speaker 3: My dad was a second or third generation sharecropper, and
[3:50] Speaker 3: I just learned by watching what they did every day.
[3:54] Speaker 3: They got up early every morning, they worked from sun
[3:56] Speaker 3: up to sundown in the fields, and then they migrated
[4:00] Speaker 3: to the factories. My dad worked multiple jobs throughout my lifetime.
[4:06] Speaker 3: My mom then also went into went into text to work.
[4:09] Speaker 3: And it was a household that was full of love,
[4:12] Speaker 3: but it was also a household that was full of discipline.
[4:16] Speaker 3: I learned personal accountability at an early age. I learned
[4:20] Speaker 3: the value of your word. If you said you were
[4:23] Speaker 3: going to do something, you did it. If you were
[4:25] Speaker 3: told to do something, you got it done, and quite frankly,
[4:28] Speaker 3: if you didn't, there were consequences. And one of those
[4:31] Speaker 3: one of those key lessons that I learned early in
[4:34] Speaker 3: life that had served me well throughout my adult life,
[4:36] Speaker 3: both in my personal life and in my corporate life,
[4:40] Speaker 3: is choices and consequences. We make choices every day, Rashan,
[4:44] Speaker 3: and and if you make if you don't make the
[4:47] Speaker 3: right choice, there's going to be consequences, and if you
[4:50] Speaker 3: do make the right choice, it's going to be consequences. So,
[4:53] Speaker 3: you know, just growing up in that household, there were
[4:55] Speaker 3: just so many things that I watched my parents do,
[4:59] Speaker 3: I watched my relatives do, And at the time, I
[5:02] Speaker 3: didn't know that those were going to be lessons that
[5:04] Speaker 3: would propel me to the level of success that I've
[5:07] Speaker 3: been blessed to achieve. But in looking back that they were,
[5:11] Speaker 3: it was. It's a tremendous foundation.
[5:13] Speaker 1: Let me talk about this, the tobacco farm era you're
[5:15] Speaker 1: talking about rule So I'm sure you know radio, TV
[5:20] Speaker 1: wasn't wasn't many options back there. But what what made
[5:24] Speaker 1: you saw a seek out college? What was that your
[5:28] Speaker 1: parents inspiration? What your was the your student, the other students,
[5:32] Speaker 1: or your teachers in school said you can do more,
[5:35] Speaker 1: you can be better.
[5:37] Speaker 3: It was primarily my parents. As you know, Black parents
[5:41] Speaker 3: and the African American community in America and around the world,
[5:45] Speaker 3: we have always, always, always valued education. For so many
[5:50] Speaker 3: years during slavery and then the Jim Crow era, we
[5:53] Speaker 3: were denied slavery, as you know, we were not even
[5:56] Speaker 3: allowed to learn how to read, uh, And so black
[5:58] Speaker 3: families you know, put a high value on education, and
[6:01] Speaker 3: my parents weren't any different. I was fortunate that I
[6:05] Speaker 3: found out when I was in elementary school that I
[6:10] Speaker 3: was I would say, had above average intelligence, and I
[6:13] Speaker 3: liked school. I enjoyed learning. I just have an innate
[6:18] Speaker 3: curiosity about everything, and then school came easy to me.
[6:22] Speaker 3: And sometimes when things come easy, you know, you want
[6:25] Speaker 3: to do more of it. But it was really my
[6:28] Speaker 3: parents more so than any of the teachers. I'll tell
[6:31] Speaker 3: you Rashan. I went from elementary school to middle school,
[6:35] Speaker 3: to high school and college and I had only two
[6:39] Speaker 3: two black male teachers in twenty plus years of formal education.
[6:46] Speaker 3: And I think I might have had three black female
[6:50] Speaker 3: So no more than than a half a dozen black
[6:54] Speaker 3: male instruct of black instructors from Hype from elementary school
[6:58] Speaker 3: all the way through graduate school.
[7:01] Speaker 1: You know, when we talk about discipline, you know, because
[7:03] Speaker 1: that's what people needed to understand. That's a major part
[7:05] Speaker 1: of being an entrepreneur, you know. Like when I worked
[7:08] Speaker 1: at IBM, I had to get up to go to work.
[7:11] Speaker 1: In other words, they told me I had to be
[7:12] Speaker 1: working at eight o'clock. I had to get up to
[7:14] Speaker 1: go to work eight o'clock. As an entrepreneur, you set
[7:16] Speaker 1: your own rules and if you become lazy or you're
[7:21] Speaker 1: a person who wants to hit the snooze clock, that
[7:23] Speaker 1: is an option. That's an entrepreneur. And I say that
[7:25] Speaker 1: because you had discipline, because you were an athlete, so
[7:29] Speaker 1: that gave you added value of consistency, meeting standards, people
[7:34] Speaker 1: depending on you. And plus you are a quarterback. You
[7:37] Speaker 1: played a position where all eyes on you, keith everything
[7:42] Speaker 1: you did, and then you became a quarterback who set
[7:46] Speaker 1: a standard that was never set at this particular school.
[7:49] Speaker 1: Let's talk about that racial journey and the school you
[7:52] Speaker 1: went to and some of the setbacks you felt you
[7:55] Speaker 1: emostly had to take or go through to be the
[7:58] Speaker 1: person you are today.
[8:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was quite the journey. Rashaan I
[8:04] Speaker 3: attended Guildford College, which is a small liberal arts Quaker
[8:08] Speaker 3: institution in Greensboro, North Carolina. Did not intend to play
[8:12] Speaker 3: college football. I was a three spoored athlete in high
[8:15] Speaker 3: school football, basketball, and track and enjoyed it. But my
[8:19] Speaker 3: high school football coach thought that I had the talent
[8:22] Speaker 3: to go on and play at the next level. So,
[8:24] Speaker 3: unbeknownst to me. He was shopping my film around and
[8:27] Speaker 3: Guildford came and offered me a partial scholarship. But Guilford
[8:32] Speaker 3: was also a school that had a high academic reputation
[8:34] Speaker 3: at the time, and that's really what was more important
[8:37] Speaker 3: to me. But I did matriculate the Guildford College. Out
[8:40] Speaker 3: of fifteen hundred students there, there were only about fifty
[8:43] Speaker 3: African Americans and about fifty five football players. There were
[8:47] Speaker 3: only seven of us on the football team, and I
[8:50] Speaker 3: was the first starting black quarterback in the history of
[8:54] Speaker 3: the school. And it was not without a lot of
[8:56] Speaker 3: trials and tribulations. I learned that being the best is
[9:01] Speaker 3: not always what makes the decision in terms of who
[9:05] Speaker 3: gets on the field. I thought that was the case
[9:08] Speaker 3: growing up, because you know, typically teams want to win,
[9:11] Speaker 3: and if you want to win, you put the best
[9:13] Speaker 3: players on the team on the field. It's going to
[9:15] Speaker 3: give you the best chances of winning. But I learned
[9:17] Speaker 3: that at the collegiate level that there are other factors
[9:20] Speaker 3: that go into who gets on the field. And I
[9:23] Speaker 3: learned in corporate America that the best don't always get promoted,
[9:27] Speaker 3: the best don't always get the raises, the best don't
[9:29] Speaker 3: always get the great assignments, and so that prepared me.
[9:33] Speaker 3: My experience at Guilford prepared me as being the first
[9:35] Speaker 3: black quarterback and leading, you know, a group of minority
[9:40] Speaker 3: individuals on off the field.
[9:42] Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's interesting because I use sports a lot,
[9:45] Speaker 1: and I think sports is important if you just you
[9:48] Speaker 1: don't have to play sports to understand how it works.
[9:50] Speaker 1: You know, right now, the Atlanta Falcons, they got a
[9:54] Speaker 1: quarterback who's lost his game, and they got a rookie
[9:57] Speaker 1: quarterback sitting on the side, like everybody say play him,
[10:00] Speaker 1: play him, and like you just said, he may be
[10:03] Speaker 1: the better quarterback just sitting on the sideline, But that
[10:06] Speaker 1: doesn't mean he getting into the game because people trying
[10:08] Speaker 1: to get this other quarterback to get his act together.
[10:11] Speaker 1: And so, but that happens in corporate life because just
[10:14] Speaker 1: because employee is struggling, don't mean you just walk up
[10:18] Speaker 1: to him and say you fired. You sometimes have to
[10:21] Speaker 1: sit down and coach them, talk about and talk to
[10:23] Speaker 1: about audience, how being an athlete, being a leader, how
[10:26] Speaker 1: you've used athletics, sports teamwork in your managerial style and
[10:32] Speaker 1: in the corporate world. And then as an entrepreneur and
[10:36] Speaker 1: leading franchises absolutely well.
[10:39] Speaker 3: First and foremost, there's very very few things that happen
[10:42] Speaker 3: in life that you can do alone or do by yourself.
[10:46] Speaker 3: It's usually involved a number of other individuals, whether it's
[10:49] Speaker 3: in a team setting or a corporate setting, or again
[10:52] Speaker 3: in a franchise or a small business operation. So you
[10:56] Speaker 3: start with that mindset, right, I can't do this alone.
[11:00] Speaker 3: I need people, I need employees, I need workers. Then
[11:03] Speaker 3: the second thing is establishing a common goal. That was
[11:07] Speaker 3: one of the things that team sports taught me early
[11:10] Speaker 3: on is that regardless of your race, or your background,
[11:13] Speaker 3: or what your religious affiliation or political leanings are, when
[11:18] Speaker 3: you decide to join a team, there is a common goal.
[11:22] Speaker 3: And that common goal usually revolved around winning. Okay, So
[11:27] Speaker 3: in the corporate setting or in the entrepreneurial setting, winning
[11:30] Speaker 3: might be defined as making a profit, Winning might be
[11:33] Speaker 3: defined as generating the additional market share. Winning might be
[11:38] Speaker 3: defined as keeping the doors of the business open. And
[11:41] Speaker 3: so with that common goal, then you go into making
[11:44] Speaker 3: sure that you've got people who can play their positions,
[11:49] Speaker 3: people who can contribute to you winning. And when you
[11:53] Speaker 3: have individuals who may not be performing at the level
[11:56] Speaker 3: that you think they should, then there's an opportunity to
[12:00] Speaker 3: frame them, there's an opportunity to coach them, there's an
[12:02] Speaker 3: opportunity to motivate them, if they have bought into the goal,
[12:08] Speaker 3: if they have bought into the vision of what it
[12:10] Speaker 3: is that the team or the business is trying to do.
[12:13] Speaker 3: And you have to be patient. You really do have
[12:15] Speaker 3: to be patient because sometimes people it takes them a
[12:18] Speaker 3: while for the like to go on, if you will,
[12:20] Speaker 3: or sometimes it takes them a while to demonstrate the
[12:23] Speaker 3: skills that they need in order to do the job.
[12:27] Speaker 3: And so as a business owner, as a leader, as
[12:29] Speaker 3: a team sport participant, you have to practice. You have
[12:34] Speaker 3: to teach them and give them an opportunity to grow
[12:37] Speaker 3: and learn and be willing to allow them to make
[12:39] Speaker 3: some mistakes until they get it.
[12:42] Speaker 1: But come on, Keith, now, just like a football team,
[12:45] Speaker 1: some people can't make the team. Now, some people got
[12:50] Speaker 1: to be cut from this court now, so no doubt,
[12:53] Speaker 1: no doubt. Now, So how do you know you're president
[12:57] Speaker 1: of Coaching Catalysts LLC, boutique executive coaching and business advisory firm.
[13:04] Speaker 1: How do you work that into the model of your
[13:07] Speaker 1: teachings or your motivation When people come to you going,
[13:11] Speaker 1: I got my employees. I'm trying to get my staff
[13:14] Speaker 1: to a point of they understand what we're trying to
[13:16] Speaker 1: do at this company. How do you start sorting out
[13:19] Speaker 1: people who get it and people who don't get it?
[13:22] Speaker 3: Sure? I asked a lot of questions, and the first
[13:26] Speaker 3: question is usually, are you sure that they know what
[13:31] Speaker 3: their duties and job responsibilities are? You would be amazed,
[13:35] Speaker 3: or maybe you wouldn't because you're in this space.
[13:37] Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no no. I was looking at
[13:41] Speaker 1: my friend across the ground, said that's the number one.
[13:43] Speaker 1: But people don't know. People do not know. I would
[13:46] Speaker 1: tell you, I want you to finish the story, but
[13:48] Speaker 1: I want to tell y'all something. When I was at IBM, key,
[13:51] Speaker 1: I sat down. I started with two other white guys, right.
[13:55] Speaker 3: And.
[13:57] Speaker 1: I walked in the room and my suit asked me
[14:01] Speaker 1: what I wanted to do at IBM. I told them
[14:04] Speaker 1: I did not know, right, He said, okay, Rashana, well
[14:08] Speaker 1: get back with me when you when you figure out.
[14:11] Speaker 1: So I'm sitting on the sidelines right watching these white
[14:14] Speaker 1: guys just move up, move up, move up, move up,
[14:17] Speaker 1: and then I come back in you know, mad. Three
[14:21] Speaker 1: months later, he said, I see, I see them doing
[14:25] Speaker 1: things that you know, I'm not being offered an opportunity
[14:28] Speaker 1: to do. He said, Rashaan, they told me what they
[14:31] Speaker 1: wanted to do.
[14:33] Speaker 3: Mh.
[14:34] Speaker 1: They told me their goals, they told me their aspirations.
[14:37] Speaker 1: At IBM, you yet to do that. And so I'm
[14:43] Speaker 1: just telling you I've been there. You know, I'm getting
[14:45] Speaker 1: the check showing the work, working hard, but I didn't
[14:48] Speaker 1: know what I wanted, what I was supposed to do
[14:50] Speaker 1: because I never asked the role that can inspire me
[14:53] Speaker 1: to be a benefit at the company. So continue your story.
[14:57] Speaker 3: Yeah, well, and I appreciate you sharing that absolute So again,
[15:00] Speaker 3: as a you know, owner of a small business, several
[15:03] Speaker 3: small businesses, you cannot take for granted that your employees
[15:07] Speaker 3: are clear on what their job is or what their
[15:10] Speaker 3: expectations are. So you start there, and then the next
[15:13] Speaker 3: thing is you really have to assess whether or not
[15:15] Speaker 3: they have the skills, knowledge and ability and the determination
[15:19] Speaker 3: and motivation to actually get it done. If the answer
[15:22] Speaker 3: to that the second question is yes, then it's incumbent
[15:25] Speaker 3: upon you as a leader and the manager to train them,
[15:28] Speaker 3: you know, and after that you get give them an
[15:30] Speaker 3: opportunity to demonstrate and if you know, after a certain
[15:33] Speaker 3: period of time and it just depends on the complexity
[15:35] Speaker 3: of the responsibility or whatever. If they are consistently underperforming
[15:40] Speaker 3: or not demonstrating that they can actually get the job done,
[15:43] Speaker 3: then you have to free up their future.
[15:47] Speaker 1: I like that, so nice, free up their future. I'm
[15:50] Speaker 1: talking to Keith Mildner. When we come back, We're going
[15:52] Speaker 1: to have more of this Free Up your Future conversation
[15:55] Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversations Masterclass. I love it. Don't go nowhere.
[15:58] Speaker 1: If we were right back, we will will be right back.
[16:01] Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
[16:04] Speaker 4: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
[16:16] Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
[16:22] Speaker 4: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
[16:26] Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
[16:30] Speaker 1: I'm speaking with the co founder and President of Coaching
[16:34] Speaker 1: Catalysts LLCA at boutique executive coaching and business advisory firm,
[16:39] Speaker 1: and a co founder and president of Social Capital, which
[16:43] Speaker 1: is he owns Jersey Mike's franchises in Atlanta. You know,
[16:48] Speaker 1: because when I was coming up, you know, franchising or
[16:51] Speaker 1: the idea of black people owning in McDonald's and Burger
[16:56] Speaker 1: Kings and all these things. Jersey Mike, Why Jersey Mike?
[17:00] Speaker 3: Sir? Well? Relationships, Rashaan, My partner, mister Eric Harrison, had
[17:06] Speaker 3: a relationship with the owner of Jersey Mikes, and he
[17:11] Speaker 3: came to me. Eric came to me and said, Hey,
[17:13] Speaker 3: this is a great franchise. They've got a great product,
[17:16] Speaker 3: great brand, great reputation. I think we should go in
[17:19] Speaker 3: and buy some franchises. And I trusted him. He's a
[17:22] Speaker 3: great business mind. He knew the owner directly, and the
[17:26] Speaker 3: power of relationships got us a bit a good deal
[17:29] Speaker 3: with Jersey Mikes and we haven't looked back.
[17:31] Speaker 1: Okay, so now you are corporate the yep, thirty five
[17:37] Speaker 1: years trained. Now they told you when to come to work,
[17:40] Speaker 1: They told you your vacation days, your sick days, health benefits.
[17:45] Speaker 1: Now you really gotta tell with teenagers and people how
[17:50] Speaker 1: to make sandwiches. How did you get in ad they
[17:53] Speaker 1: teach you how to make sandwiches? Did you rather go
[17:55] Speaker 1: to sandwich making school? Tell us what went on that
[17:58] Speaker 1: keid you just say you just walked in the room
[18:00] Speaker 1: with a dude and he just hooked you up.
[18:03] Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you it was a thirty five year
[18:06] Speaker 3: journey to get my mind right to kay, because because I,
[18:12] Speaker 3: like many of my contemporaries, I was addicted to the
[18:16] Speaker 3: corporate paycheck. My definition of success and my assessment of
[18:21] Speaker 3: risk led me to believe that I had needed to
[18:25] Speaker 3: work for a fortune five hundred company, and my goals
[18:29] Speaker 3: were to get as high as I could, to get
[18:31] Speaker 3: to a point where I was responsible for a profit
[18:34] Speaker 3: and loss statement that I had as many people as
[18:37] Speaker 3: I could report in to me, and those things usually
[18:40] Speaker 3: led to you were making quite a bit of money.
[18:43] Speaker 3: What I didn't really understand was that that was probably
[18:47] Speaker 3: the riskiest path to take because you were not in
[18:51] Speaker 3: direct control of your own destiny. You were limited by
[18:55] Speaker 3: how much you could actually make. You were limited by
[18:58] Speaker 3: what you could do by somebody else's assessment of what
[19:01] Speaker 3: your potential was, or about somebody else's evaluation of what
[19:05] Speaker 3: your contributions have been during the course of the year
[19:08] Speaker 3: to the business. And we all know that entrepreneurship and
[19:12] Speaker 3: small business ownership is the best way to create generational wealth.
[19:18] Speaker 3: But it took me a long time to break that,
[19:20] Speaker 3: that break that shackle of the mind that no I
[19:23] Speaker 3: needed to work for, you know, a big company. So
[19:26] Speaker 3: it was it was a journey. It was definitely a journey.
[19:29] Speaker 3: So you're absolutely right. It did not happen overnight.
[19:31] Speaker 1: Okay. Cool, Now let's get back to this sandwich making. Okay,
[19:34] Speaker 1: because you can do You're not gonna get past that
[19:35] Speaker 1: because the big Kahunah, the big kohnah. Now I'm not
[19:38] Speaker 1: gonna have to now, you know, I'm gonna NPR.
[19:41] Speaker 3: You know.
[19:41] Speaker 1: They you can't say you like anything, you can't say
[19:44] Speaker 1: you love something, but the big kohouna with those hol.
[19:46] Speaker 3: Opinions, Yeah, number fifty six, come home, Keith.
[19:52] Speaker 1: Do you make those?
[19:52] Speaker 3: Brother?
[19:53] Speaker 1: Do you know how to make a big khoda?
[19:55] Speaker 3: Absolutely? I can do everything that's required in the store. Absolutely.
[20:00] Speaker 3: I can work the grill, I can shop the letters.
[20:02] Speaker 3: I can make the sandwich we call it sprinkling. I
[20:05] Speaker 3: put the huge song, I can bake the bread. I
[20:07] Speaker 3: can sweep the floor and I can and I can
[20:10] Speaker 3: balance the cash register at the end of the night. Absolutely. So.
[20:13] Speaker 1: So if you go in there, you know, everybody looking crazy,
[20:17] Speaker 1: don't want to work, you just send them all off
[20:19] Speaker 1: the front door, which I got this call your wife.
[20:23] Speaker 3: Huh. I try. I try not to send them all
[20:25] Speaker 3: out because it takes at least it takes at least
[20:27] Speaker 3: two people to keep keep the store open. But trust me,
[20:30] Speaker 3: there there there have been days when we just you know,
[20:33] Speaker 3: came from an event, a nonprofit event. We got to
[20:35] Speaker 3: sun our Sunday best clothes on and let's let's just
[20:38] Speaker 3: run by the store and check on it, and it
[20:40] Speaker 3: was in disarray. All you do is go to the back,
[20:42] Speaker 3: you grab grab an apron, wash your hands, you put
[20:45] Speaker 3: the gloves on, and you get behind the counter and
[20:47] Speaker 3: do what needs to be done to satisfy those customers.
[20:50] Speaker 1: I love it. I love it because some people detach
[20:53] Speaker 1: themselves from that part of it, you know, because entrepreneur
[20:57] Speaker 1: is what it is. It's like it is twenty four
[21:00] Speaker 1: and you wake up thinking about the business, you go
[21:02] Speaker 1: to sleep thinking about the business. I would tell people
[21:04] Speaker 1: you can, you can work a forty hour week job,
[21:08] Speaker 1: but you're gonna work an eighty hour week job being
[21:10] Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, and you will love working those eighty hour
[21:13] Speaker 1: jobs eighty hours versus living that forty hours because, like
[21:17] Speaker 1: you said, the early key it's about controlling your future.
[21:20] Speaker 1: It's about I've been fortunate.
[21:22] Speaker 3: Man.
[21:22] Speaker 1: I work for IBM, I work for the United States
[21:24] Speaker 1: Post Office, so I've worked as a young person for
[21:27] Speaker 1: a lot of great, high paying jobs. But as an entrepreneur,
[21:34] Speaker 1: I don't know if somebody gonna buy my product. I
[21:37] Speaker 1: don't know if somebody gonna show up and buy a
[21:40] Speaker 1: ticket that I'm trying to get them to buy. I
[21:42] Speaker 1: don't know if somebody I'm managing gonna keep me and
[21:45] Speaker 1: say let's ride or die. But I do know that
[21:49] Speaker 1: I feel a certain value and a certain responsibility to
[21:55] Speaker 1: the people that like you that I talk to to say, hey, man,
[21:58] Speaker 1: you can do it, and you can be different, and
[22:00] Speaker 1: you do not have to be not I want to
[22:03] Speaker 1: use the word slave, because I think that's just too strong.
[22:05] Speaker 1: You do not have to be a committed to a
[22:07] Speaker 1: Foyer week. If your vision is bigger, talk to us
[22:11] Speaker 1: about that.
[22:11] Speaker 3: Keith, Yeah, You've hit on a number of very very
[22:15] Speaker 3: important points. And I mentioned earlier in the broadcast risk
[22:19] Speaker 3: We tend as African Americans, we tend to look at risks,
[22:23] Speaker 3: particularly financial risk, from a very conservative standpoint, not really
[22:28] Speaker 3: understanding or having had someone show us that if you
[22:33] Speaker 3: own your own business, it is less risky than working
[22:37] Speaker 3: for someone else. I mean, Georgia is like many states
[22:40] Speaker 3: what's known as an at will employment state, meaning that
[22:43] Speaker 3: you could walk into your place of employment tomorrow and
[22:45] Speaker 3: they could say thanks, but no thanks. You know, you're
[22:47] Speaker 3: free to go without any reason and you have no
[22:50] Speaker 3: legal recourse, and a lot of people don't understand that right.
[22:54] Speaker 3: And there is by definition of capitalism, there is a
[22:59] Speaker 3: limit to how much they are going to pay you
[23:02] Speaker 3: for your time. The inputs of capitalism land, labor and capital.
[23:07] Speaker 3: And the way you make a profit is that you
[23:10] Speaker 3: generate more wealth than what it takes what it costs
[23:13] Speaker 3: to get those get those inputs. But when you own
[23:16] Speaker 3: your own business, you control the labor, you control the inputs,
[23:21] Speaker 3: and therefore you can charge what you want to charge
[23:24] Speaker 3: as long as you are generating enough value that your
[23:27] Speaker 3: customers are willing to pay for it. So that's that's
[23:31] Speaker 3: really the formula, if you will, that is the formula, And.
[23:34] Speaker 1: That's very true. I would tell you you pay what
[23:37] Speaker 1: people think you're valued at, you know, and that's why
[23:40] Speaker 1: you know quarterbacks are being paid sixty million dollars a
[23:42] Speaker 1: year even though they have not won Super Bowls, and
[23:45] Speaker 1: that's what the value is going. Same thing I learned
[23:47] Speaker 1: that long time ago when I was at IBM. I said,
[23:50] Speaker 1: if I want to get a raised, I got to
[23:51] Speaker 1: act like I. If I walk out that door, something
[23:54] Speaker 1: is not going to go good if I don't come
[23:56] Speaker 1: back the next day. That's how you get a raised.
[23:58] Speaker 1: You don't get a raised infecting it. I've been here
[24:01] Speaker 1: ten years, or I've been here fifteen years, I should
[24:04] Speaker 1: get a raise. That's not how it works, they are.
[24:06] Speaker 1: It works when you walk out that door. How do
[24:10] Speaker 1: they feel about you coming back in that door the
[24:12] Speaker 1: next day? If they feel they need you to come
[24:15] Speaker 1: back in that door the next day, you will get
[24:17] Speaker 1: paid to come back in that door the next day
[24:19] Speaker 1: at a valued rate. At a valued rate. Now, as
[24:23] Speaker 1: we close this interview, Keith, it's been wonderful. Thank you
[24:25] Speaker 1: for coming on my show. What advice would you give
[24:28] Speaker 1: to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds.
[24:34] Speaker 3: Well, I break it down this way. First and foremost,
[24:38] Speaker 3: it's your attitude. Okay, I'm a big proponent and server
[24:43] Speaker 3: and the one hundred Black men of Atlanta, one hundred
[24:46] Speaker 3: black men of America, and one of our mottos is
[24:48] Speaker 3: what they see is what they'll be. Okay, So if
[24:52] Speaker 3: you see people in your neighborhood, if you see people
[24:57] Speaker 3: in the city, if you see people in your church
[25:00] Speaker 3: that are entrepreneurs, then you can believe that it's possible
[25:05] Speaker 3: and you can talk to them and ask them what
[25:08] Speaker 3: was their journey like and how is it that they
[25:10] Speaker 3: got into the business, Much like what you and I
[25:12] Speaker 3: are talking about tonight, but it starts with having an
[25:15] Speaker 3: attitude and a growth mindset, and then I break it
[25:19] Speaker 3: down to what I call the five p's for Sean.
[25:21] Speaker 3: You have to plan, you have to prepare, then you
[25:26] Speaker 3: got to produce. Chances are you're gonna have to pivot,
[25:30] Speaker 3: and then you've got to preserve, persevere Wow, because everything
[25:34] Speaker 3: is going to not always go the way you wanted
[25:37] Speaker 3: it to go. And once you're an entrepreneur a small
[25:40] Speaker 3: business owner, what you did yesterday is not going to
[25:43] Speaker 3: have any impact on what you need to do today.
[25:45] Speaker 3: Every morning you get up and as the old sand,
[25:48] Speaker 3: as the old Swahili sand, every morning in the jungle,
[25:51] Speaker 3: the line wakes up running and the antelope wakes up running,
[25:55] Speaker 3: and the question becomes Who's gonna run the fastest, whether
[25:58] Speaker 3: the line's gonna eat or the antelope to live to
[26:00] Speaker 3: see another day.
[26:02] Speaker 1: I love it, brother, Thank you. Next time I want
[26:04] Speaker 1: you to studio with me. We want to take some
[26:06] Speaker 1: phone calls. Is that a deal?
[26:08] Speaker 3: That the deal?
[26:09] Speaker 1: Sir, your special brother, and I keep motivating and keep
[26:12] Speaker 1: making those big khunahs, man, because every time I eat
[26:14] Speaker 1: one from now on, you know what I'm gona think
[26:15] Speaker 1: about it. I'mnna think about you. I'm gonna think about you.
[26:18] Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass, Masterclass.
[26:22] Speaker 1: You are a special brother. Thank you, Thank you. Cool
[26:25] Speaker 1: when we come back, don't go nowhere. We got a
[26:27] Speaker 1: fantastic guest. She's from the Philadelphia area talking about her
[26:31] Speaker 1: manufacturing journey. It's amazing. Caller tropman, don't go nowhere. This
[26:38] Speaker 1: has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass posted
[26:42] Speaker 1: by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests on
[26:44] Speaker 1: the show today and thank you O listening to audience now.
[26:48] Speaker 1: If you want to listen to any episode I want
[26:50] Speaker 1: to be a guest on the show, Visit Moneymaking Conversations
[26:53] Speaker 1: dot com. Our social media handle is money Making conversation.
[26:57] Speaker 1: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
[26:59] Speaker 1: your gifts. Keep winning,

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.