Hood Hustle to Boardroom Power: The Underground MBA America Ignores

Summary

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Episode Summary:

Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant
Episode: Hood Hustle to Boardroom Power: The Underground MBA America Ignores
Date: March 19, 2026
Host: John Hope Bryant
Network: The Black Effect Podcast Network & iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This powerful solo episode, hosted by John Hope Bryant, explores how the Black community and other underserved groups possess world-class entrepreneurial skills—honed in the so-called "underground economy" of the hood—but lack access to the mainstream economic system. Bryant argues that America has long ignored or wasted this talent, which is one of the country’s most expensive problems and greatest missed opportunities. Drawing parallels from history and sharing personal stories, he makes an urgent case for recognizing, respecting, and rechanneling “hood hustle” into legitimate business power. Bryant also lays out a practical “Hustle-to-Business Pipeline” and talent audit approach to convert raw street acumen into sustainable economic success.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The High Cost of Wasted Talent

• Bryant posits that America’s greatest economic mistake has been the systematic waste of talent, particularly in marginalized communities.
• He frames his mission—and his upcoming book, Capitalism for All: Inclusive Economics and the Future Proofing of America—around optimizing untapped human potential at scale.
• Quote:

  “Wasted talent may be the most expensive economic problem in America today.” – John Hope Bryant [05:00]

2. The Hidden Entrepreneurial Genius in the Hood

• Bryant dispels the myth that the hood is economically barren:
  • “The hood is not an economic desert. It’s an economic ecosystem.” [19:25]
• Many operate in informal economies due to being locked out of the mainstream, leading to innovation, but also vulnerability and cycles of illegality.
• Skills learned in the street often rival, and sometimes exceed, those taught in elite MBA programs—for example in negotiation, marketing, supply chain management, and risk analysis.

3. Barriers to Mainstream Success

Bryant identifies three key obstacles that prevent this talent from entering the formal economy:

• Financial Literacy:
  “If you don’t know better, you can’t do better. It’s what you don’t know that you don’t know but you think you know that’s killing us.” [26:10]
• Credit Access:
  “One of the ways you change America: raise your credit score neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block, house by house, by 100 points. It’ll stabilize the whole country.” [27:50]
• Mentorship:
  “You model what you see… No matter how much I love you, my son or my daughter, if I don’t have wisdom, all I can give you is my own ignorance—from out of love.” [28:30]

4. Parallels to Mainstream American Success

• From moonshine runners (who became the founders of NASCAR) to various immigrant success stories, Bryant demonstrates that many now-legitimate industries have roots in what was once marginalized or illicit activity.
• Quote:

  “America didn’t lose the talent of those bootleggers. It redirected it… If you can outrun the police, you can outrun your competition.” [21:40]

5. The Underground MBA: Skill Translation Table

Bryant details how classic “hustle” roles correlate to valuable business positions: | Street/Underground Role | Formal Economy Counterpart | Transferable Skills | |--------------------------|----------------------------------|--------------------------------------------| | Drug Dealer | Logistics/Distribution/Own Retail| Import/export, finance, HR, customer svc | | Gang Leader | Union/Community/Nonprofit Leader | Leadership, negotiation, organization | | Prostitution/Escort | Sales/Luxury Hospitality | Branding, persuasion, relationship mgmt | | Street Vendor, Hustler | Retail/E-commerce Owner | Location marketing, price-setting, service | | Car Theft Ring | Automotive Engineer/Mechanic | Security, troubleshooting, vehicle systems | | Graffiti Artist | Designer/Brand Marketing | Branding, spatial awareness, design | | Bootlegger (liquor/media)| Beverage/Digital Distribution | Supply chain, production, digital skills | | Street Security (enforcer)| Security Company/Event Protection| Threat detection, situational awareness | | Street Gambling | Wall St. Trading/Analytics | Risk analysis, bankroll mgmt, quick math |

Memorable quote for mindset shift:

“Some people go to Harvard Business School. Others go to what I call the Underground MBA.” [12:09]

6. The Hustle-to-Business Pipeline

• Bryant outlines concrete steps to convert street talent into sustainable business power:

  1. Financial literacy
  2. Credit building
  3. Mentorship
  4. Access to capital
  5. Business ownership

• Quote:

  “The goal is simple: Turn hustlers into entrepreneurs.” [31:00]

• He also pushes for a "talent audit" approach, focusing on finding and rechanneling the skills already present.

7. Personal and Community Stories

• Bryant shares formative stories from his youth—friends like George and Tweet, people with “A grades” and enormous promise, whose lives ended tragically due to a lack of access, mentorship, and opportunity.
  • “A saint is a sinner that got up. You can make a mistake and not be a mistake.” [11:40]
• Emphasizes the importance of preserving the legacy and lessons of those who did not get their “phase two.”

8. Operation HOPE and Financial Empowerment

• Bryant pitches Operation HOPE, the nonprofit he founded, as America’s largest provider of financial literacy coaching.
  • “This is why I call [financial literacy] the civil rights issue of this generation.” [24:00]
• Offers free financial coaching scholarships, inviting listeners to invest their time in themselves.

9. A Call to Action and Mindset Reframe

• Ends with a motivational riff on reframing respectability and opportunity.
• Dismantles the myth that underserved communities lack talent, arguing that it is the system that is rigged, not the people who are failing.
  • “The hood doesn’t lack talent. It lacks a legal infrastructure for talent. Some of the most entrepreneurial people in America are operating in the underground economy because nobody showed them the front door.” [51:10]
  • “We want to un-rig the game so that you can play it too… We want to open these doors so people can go get it themselves.” [53:00]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• Celebrating community over competition:
  “If I’m going to lose to anybody, I love losing to her. She is a winner and I love rooting her on. See that we can be for ourselves and for someone else at the same time.” [03:15]
• Financial knowledge as power:
  “To live in a system of free enterprise and not to understand the rules of free enterprise must be the very definition of slavery.” (quoting Ambassador Andrew Young) [29:35]
• On aspiration and role models:
  “We spent a lot of time growing up trying to impress somebody ultimately we don’t want to be like. Now let that sink in.” [11:45]
• Moonshine runners to billionaires:
  “America didn’t lose the talent of those bootleggers. It redirected it... NASCAR is a multi-billion dollar industry today.” [22:25]
• Systems, not people, are broken:
  “You hate rich people until you become rich. What you hate is a game system—a system that no matter how hard you work, you just cannot seem to get ahead. Let’s fix that.” [48:30]
• Everyone can mentor:
  “Maybe you’ll be the mentor, the hero or shero, that some young person sees and decides they want to be.” [54:00]

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Key Timestamps

• [02:45] - Episode intro, NAACP nomination, framing the subject
• [05:00] - Wasted talent as America’s greatest overlooked resource
• [07:00] - The cost and realities of operating in the underground economy
• [10:39] - "A saint is a sinner that got up" – lessons from lost friends
• [12:09] - "Underground MBA" and what it teaches
• [19:25] - “The hood is not an economic desert” – ecosystem analysis
• [21:40] - NASCAR: From moonshine bootleggers to billionaires
• [24:00] - Financial literacy as the new civil rights
• [26:10] - Barriers: Financial literacy, credit, mentorship
• [28:30] - “You model what you see” – passing down habits
• [29:35] - Free enterprise without rules equals “slavery”
• [31:00] - The Hustle-to-Business Pipeline
• [38:00] - Skill translation examples: Gang leadership, street vending, graffiti art
• [48:30] - “You hate rich people… what you hate is a game system”
• [51:10] - The hood’s entrepreneurial genius and the need for an infrastructure
• [54:00] - Call to action & mentorship

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Takeaways & Action Steps

• The core skills cultivated in underserved and underground economies are not deficits, but assets waiting to be harnessed.
• Financial literacy, credit building, and mentorship can transform a “hustle” mentality into legitimate, wealth-building entrepreneurship.
• Mainstream America cannot afford to continue ignoring this capacity; building pipelines from the street to the suite uplifts everyone, not just individuals.
• Everyone can play a part: If you have these skills, invest in yourself and seek legitimate opportunity; if you’ve made it or see promise in others, take someone under your wing.
• Resources: Operation HOPE for free, expert coaching; John Hope Bryant’s upcoming book for in-depth guidance.

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Summary sentence:
Bryant’s provocative, uplifting episode reframes street hustle as a source of America’s next business renaissance—if mentorship, financial literacy, and capital make the difference between wasted potential and generational wealth.

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Transcript

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[John Hope Bryant]

Welcome to Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant, a production of the Black Effect podcast network and iHeartRadio foreign. Yo, yo, yo. This is John o' Brien and this is the Money and wealth podcast series 2026, season three. And I want to thank everybody for voting for Money and wealth for the NAACP Image Award nomination. Mrs. Michelle Obama wanted. And I am actually, if I'm going to lose to anybody, I love losing to her. She is a winner and I love rooting her on. So that's a beautiful thing. See that we can be for ourselves and for someone else at the same time. So this is a powerful episode. By the way, I want to thank iheartradio and a Black Effect network where I do this podcast. I'm also on the board of the Black Effect Network. So it's from the streets to the suites and back to the streets. And this episode underscores that this is going to be a banger, as they say. This is a really special episode. The Underground NBA the Talent America is Ignoring Hood Economics, Part 1. So America spends a lot of time talking about crime and underserved communities. Today I want to talk about something else. Wasted talent. My whole premise of my parent company at Brian Group Ventures is unleashing untapped human potential at scale. That's the whole premise of how I do business. Doing well and doing good. Doing well by doing good. Good capitalism, et cetera. A vision made real. So because wasted talent. Is literally the opposite of what made America great, what made this country great with all of her warts and problems and mistakes, is it optimized talent wherever it found it and turned that into aspirational success. And people went from a storefront, a high school education and a pickup truck at 51 years of age. This particular person named Sam Walton as an example and created the biggest retailer in the world. We all know that to be today, Walmart. And there's so many other stories like that. But we don't have to just talk about those stories to be inspired or to be directionally, aspirationally correct. We can go to someplace that is generally referred to as a negative. I don't see it that way, which is the hood places where I grew up. So wasted talent may be the most expensive economic problem in America today. This is the basic premise, or one of the premises in my upcoming book, Capitalism for All Inclusive Economics and the Future Proofing of America. Something it's. By the way, thank you all for helping to make it number one on pre order and its categories comes out March 31st.

[State Farm Insurance Narrator]

So

[John Hope Bryant]

some of the most entrepreneurial people in this country are operating in what economists call the underground economy. Here's an economic reality check. Across the world, trillions of dollars of economic activity happens outside of the formal economy every year. Informal retail, underground entertainment, cash businesses, unlicensed services. When people get locked out of opportunity, the economy doesn't disappear, it goes underground. By the way, one of the reasons I want to bring this back above ground or get everybody I can snatch them into the mainstream is not because I'm trying to get you to fit in somewhere. That's crazy. You're already enough. You're God's child. Everybody's unique. Everybody brings something special to wherever you are, whoever you are. But the cost of being poor is expensive. And the cost of an underground economy forces you into illegal activity. Because if you are in an underground economy, you're forced to get non traditional financing. Or put another way, if you're in interesting business models, you can't go to the bank. So you end up having to pay 20, 30, 40, 50% for your cost of funds. The loan shocks the people around the hood who lends money in an unlicensed manner. The only way you can pay that back is more legal activity. So it becomes like a circular firing squad and we never get out of this thing. It's prison, probation, parole and death. And my people, the people I know, who I grew up with are brilliant, amazing, amazing. And to quote the late Reverend Jesse Jackson, God rest his soul, where the rules are published and the playing field is level, we kill it. Professional sports killed it. The arts, I mean the professional sports is not just traditional sports. Like we've gone on, on tennis, right? And F1 racing, Lewis Hamilton and now, you know, Michael Jordan's gone from basketball to NASCAR and winning and it goes on and goes on and goes on. So the arts, killing it, politics, public service, killing it. From a slave to the President of the United States of America, faith. From a community pastor of 100 people to the great Bishop T.D. jakes, etc. We've excelled in all these areas. Moral authority, civil justice, social justice, The uplift of freedom through self determination, through the expression of our freedom. First level of freedom, which is government structure. So that before, before governments, before our public service and politics came civil rights and social justice, people like of course, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Coretta Scott King, Dr. Dorothy Height and my mentor, Ambassador Andrew Young. These are just some examples. But we have never succeeded at scale in capitalism and free enterprise. And I believe it's what we don't know that we don't know, but we think we know. We got these bad business plans that we've been becoming experts at that won't be sustainable. And then folks then typecast us, singing us in those roles, and then discount us. And then the story ends.

[State Farm Insurance Narrator]

So

[John Hope Bryant]

the hustler alone with a hustler story alone has a little, has very little pathway forward. Here's a story of a young hustler that I encountered. He had work ethic. I'm thinking about the next door neighbor, Tweet, who lived next to me. I'm thinking about. And he was not a good person. Thinking about George, who was a good person. My best friend who was murdered with Tweet trying to act like Tweet, talked like tweet, hung like Tweet, got killed with tweet selling drugs in the neighborhood. And George had A grades. I wanted to be like George. Unfortunately, George wanted to be like Tweet. Did not have good role models. That story did not end well. I don't want that for you. I want something better for you. Those stories don't have to be the end of our story. It can just become the beginning of it. I'm going to get to that in a minute. A saint is a sinner that got up. You can make a mistake and not be a mistake. As my father in law, Dr. David Dalton would say, we're all angels with dirty faces. There is no perfect. But I expect you to get up and rise above. And unfortunately, George and Tweet never made it to their phase two. And if I don't mention their name, their stories are lost for life. The guy who saved my life, I keep calling him O.C. i'm not sure that's his name, but I didn't never, I never got his formal, you know, legal name as they call it. His government name as they call it. Anyway, he saved my life. I was like six, seven years of age. You can read the story in a couple of my books. But he went to go sell drugs part time to try to make ends meet. And then his end was met. They murdered him. Those who thought they understood they owned the hood in my neighborhood murdered him right in front of me. His story is gone. I'm tired of these brilliant people ending in a dead end situation. All these people had leadership ability, sales ability, organizational skills, influence in the neighborhood, amongst other tweets. Certainly influenced my best friend George. He certainly influenced him more than I did because I wanted to be like, as in I want to be like George. And George ended up wanting to be like Tweet, by the way, we spent a lot of time trying to, growing up, trying to impress somebody. Ultimately, we don't want to be like. Now let that sink in. So here's a signature thought for you. Some people go to Harvard Business School. I've been to one of their executive programs and graduated, completed it. But many people want to go to Harvard Business School and that's cool. Others go to what I call the underground mba, right? And that's what we're going to talk about today. The underground MBA teaches negotiation, marketing skills, distribution, customer psychology, risk management. But it lacks, they lack, it lacks the mba. Underground MBA credit, as in accessing good credit or even getting credit for all of these skills ultimately. Because the world will forget about many people, unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, and they also lack mentorship, ability to give it or get it. And they lack capital. Now, the hood may not have enough MBAs, but it has plenty of hustlers. And these hustlers have a genius. As I've often said, illegal drug dealing may be immoral, unethical, and selling death to your own community, if that's what's happening, is repugnant. But what these drug dealers are not are dumb. They understand import, export, finance, marketing, wholesale retail, customer service, security, territory, logistics, hr, human resources. They really are, in many cases, brilliant entrepreneurial talents, small business owners, if you will, with a really crappy business plan and crappy role models and no access to mainstream opportunities. My friend Michael Milken, who's appeared in this podcast several times, has said he's an innovator of really modern Wall street finance. He said that intelligence is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. Let's change that. That's again with my book, Capitalism for All Inclusive Economics and the Future Proofing of America that comes out on the 250th anniversary of this country this year and the 100th anniversary of Black History Month this year. Can't make this up. To quote Ambassador Andrew Young, coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. That's what this moment is all about.

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[John Hope Bryant]

So let's get into this. The economic ecosystem of the hood. The hood is not an economic desert. It's an economic ecosystem. Let me explain. Street vendors equals retail instinct. Sneaker resellers equals E commerce arbitrage. Street DJs equals the entertainment industry. Underground distribution equals or leads to logistics networks. Okay, Some of the best marketers in America are standing on street corners. Can I get an amen? This is the church of what's happening Now. And what have you done for me lately? What if the person you see hustling on the street corner isn't the problem? What if they're an entrepreneur who never met a banker like I did? Or a mentor who showed them the legal version of the game like I did? What if the real issue isn't talent, it's opportunity? As I've said before, if you hang around nine broke people, you'll be the tenth. The opposite is also true. Let's give a proof point here. And I'm doing this intentionally so that this does not become somehow a black conversation or black and brown conversation, right? This replies to everybody everywhere. You may or may not know this, but nascar, the vaulted multi, multi billion dollar industry called NASCAR came from moonshine running in the Appalachian mountains. Did you know that? Now let's unpack this a little bit more. Bootleggers were running moonshine successfully for years through the Appalachian Mountains. And they were getting chased by the police because it was illegal. And what they were doing and how they were doing it was illegal. And they realized this was a dead end situation. What did I say about the hood? Prison probation, parole and death, right? And. They realized it's some smart person. After murders and mayhem and all this drama, some person within the ranks of the bootleggers, the moonshine runners realized we can't keep doing this. But we do have. Let's do a process of elimination. We can't do this, we can't do that, we can't do the alcohol. We can't be running from police on these roads. But what can we do? What are we good at? How do we reduce this to deduct the negatives and add in the positives? Well, my God, we drive well. We're really good mechanics and navigators and coordinators of mountain road. Expeditions. Really think about thinking about these road races now that happen throughout the world. They're not even escorted that now today are escorted by police with all these fancy cars being driven through exotic cars driven through deep country roads in Europe and elsewhere. And here that also, I believe is an offshoot of what I'm talking about with these guys running moonshine through the Appalachian Mountains. But this is, that's a possibility. This, what I'm going to tell you is a certainty. They decided, let's focus on driving the car. So they modified the cars that outran the police and when prohibition ended, those same drivers built nascar. That's right. They went from driving on the, in the, you know, and running in front of the police in the hills and the mountains in the foothills to driving on. The beaches and driving in the lake beds and driving on the dirt surfaces and driving in what we now call stadium environments in circles. And they got a crowd. They start charging an entrance fee and one thing led to another. And literally, if you can trace several of the billion, the multi billionaire families today of nascar, literally trace those families back to moonshine runners, the same name, the Franz family and several others. Don't trust me, Go do your own research. America didn't lose the talent of those bootleggers. It redirected it. And like NASCAR is a multi, multibillion dollar industry today that has logos attached to the cars and a lot of respectability and is televised. And no one even talks about the fact that these were illegal moonshine runners and bootleggers. We can also take folks from the streets and graduate them into the suites, into legitimacy. So let's talk about some other stories. Immigrant informal economies. As an example, you have the Jewish garment industry, the Italian food businesses. I don't want to tell you what folks call Italians in the early 20th century, but I'll just give you a hint and say it's a phrase some people use about blacks. Even to this day is a derogatory phrase. Korean, meaning they were discredited against too. Right. As new immigrants. Korean retail networks. Right. So you know, again, Jewish garment industry. These were outliers going to insiders. Italian food businesses. Outliers going to insiders. Korean retail networks. Outliers Going to insiders. Indians from India who went into the motel business because they couldn't find anything else that would allow them to organize themselves. Now they own 60% of all motels and hotels in America and mainstreamed and now are associated with huge respectable brand brands. Outsiders to insiders. Throughout America's history, immigrant communities started with informal economies. When the. When the front door of opportunity was closed to them, they opened the back door, side door, went through a window, over around it, through it. They want. They're going to get to it. They just got it done. When opportunity opened, those same activities became legitimate industries. Right. So why talent gets trapped? There are three barriers. Financial literacy. This is why I call financial literacy the civil rights issue of this generation. If you don't know better, you can't do better is what you don't know that you don't know, but you think you know. Credit access. You can't access good credit if you don't have a good credit score. And credit. Good credit score comes from financial literacy. So number one leads into number two. That's why I'm obsessing about a 700 credit score for everybody. And the way you change America. One of the ways you change America is raise your credit score neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, block, block, block, house by House, by 100 points. It'll just stabilize the whole country. Again, break this down in detail in my upcoming book, number three, mentorship. You model what you see. No matter how much I love you, my son, or my daughter, if I don't have wisdom, all I can give you is my own ignorance from out of love. We pass down bad habits from generation to generation. Again, is what we don't know, that we don't know, but we think we know, that's killing us. You cannot play in the economic game if nobody teaches you the rules. Ambassador Young had this great quote. To live in a system of free enterprise and not to understand the rules of free enterprise must be the very definition of slavery. Can I get an amen? This is the church of what's happening Now? And what have you done for me lately? This is what Operation Hope does. This is why I founded this organization, which is now the largest financial literacy coaching organization in America. Why we raise enough money so that everybody who calls us can get a coaching scholarship valued at $1,000, $2,500,000. And if you're a partner, if your employer is a partner of Operation hope, valued at $10,000. But whatever it is, it's no cost to you. You have to invest your time. So call Operation Hope today or go get that Hope in Hand downloaded today and change your life. So now let's talk about the talent audit. Instead of asking what's wrong with underserved communities, we should conduct a talent audit. That's right, a talent audit. I want to identify some existing skills. Leadership, sales, negotiation, marketing, logistics. By the way, here's a gift for you. I'll come back in another episode and deal with it separately because I want to focus on artificial intelligence. But I believe now that while there's going to be a lot of disruption and pain on the front end of artificial intelligence integration in the society, because a lot of jobs are going to be lost as efficiency comes in wicked fast on the back end of all this innovation, there's going to be jobs that come back. And I think that those. Your job's not going to be lost to AI. Your job's going to be lost maybe to somebody who can use AI. So we master AI and we bring people of color, minorities, African Americans, people who've dealt with challenges and are used to that are going to bring unique skills. Even I believe, poor whites. And you know, they're more poor whites than merrily, the poor, anybody else, women. I think anybody who's dealt with struggle and has had to become resilient and become creative will be, will be. Would be providing a unique and incredible value added to artificial intelligence that will actually be. Will provide outside value to, to themselves in the job market. But that's another video, another podcast for another time. Back to this topic of talent audit. When you do a talent audit of the hood, what you find is in dysfunction, you find entrepreneurs the solution. The Hustle to Business pipeline. That's right. That's what I said. The Hustle to Business pipeline. What America needs is a Hustle to business pipeline. All across this country, community by community. The steps are financial literacy, credit building, mentorship, access to capital, business ownership. The goal is simple. Turn hustlers into entrepreneurs. Now let me come back a little bit. Let me rewind the tape in the conversation just a little bit. And for those who are saying this sounds great, but how do I make this real in my life? Like, how do I know specifically how this affects me and what I could do to transform my life? And how do I. If you're still lacking sort of confidence that you have unique skills that can be applied anywhere, then maybe you need just a little bit more of a boost. Maybe you need to understand just a little bit tighter, a little bit with more specific A little bit more specificity, right, of why your talent's not wasted or how to not waste that talent of a hustler and legitimize it. So let's get into this a little deeper.

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[Howie Mandel]

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[John Hope Bryant]

Gaming.

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[Megan McCardell]

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[John Hope Bryant]

needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bijan Robinson. When I'm on the field, they're feeling the pressure. I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down. It just makes me feel great before I run the play. Just like Bijan, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game plan for your mental health at loveyourmindplaybook.org Love your mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family foundation and the Ad Council. The hood is not a place for losers. A hood is a place where you can't afford to lose. So you win by going over, around it, through it, till you get to it. We've been doing so much with so little for so long, we can almost do anything with nothing. What are businesses, industries, examples of how we have taken nothing and turned it into something in these communities? I've already mentioned two examples. I've mentioned the drug dealer. Well, I already mentioned one example and I mentioned the bootlegger and how that's turned into nascar. Did you know that a gang leader is a frustrated union organizer?

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I.

[John Hope Bryant]

I knew a guy who was a gang leader in my community. I knew and admired him, wanted to be like him. Actually, I admired him. I. He was a local, local six square block celebrity. He knew everybody. He could sell anything. He could organize people. He could move product faster than anyone around him. He was a. He was. So he was more the gang leader.

[State Farm Insurance Narrator]

You.

[John Hope Bryant]

When I say move product, you can probably figure out the rest. The problem wasn't the lack of talent. The problem was that nobody ever showed him the legal version of the game, the legal version of himself. So the underground economy teaches you things, but it leaves out things. So let me connect some, some more dots. Drug distribution, logistics. Street vendors. Again, retail instinct, street marketing, branding, okay. Sneaker, resale, E commerce, okay. That arbitrage and supply and demand mark again are standing right on that street corner. Think about street rap, right? A global hip hop industry. From underground tapes to billion dollar businesses. Graffiti. What does that remind you of? Global art brands. Street artists became global designers. America has always converted underground creativity into mainstream industries. Sometimes without us. There are some of the biggest brands in the world. I won't mention them Here. But you can research some of the top brands, European brands, their household names. It appears they were actually inspired, if you want to call it that, from cloth, kente cloth and other clothes and looks from Africa. But the folks from Africa had the hustle, but didn't have the pipeline to a business plan or access to capital or industries. And so their, their, their story was lost, if you want to call it that. Their ideas, some people would say quote, were stolen. So we want to create now again a hustle to business pipeline. We want to un. Rig the game so that you can play it too. People say they hate rich people. My response? No, you don't. You hate rich people until you become rich. What you hate is a game system. A system that no matter how hard you work, you just cannot seem to get ahead. Let's fix that. So, so now let's add these specific industries so that we go from concept to creativity to community to commerce to capitalism. Let's connect all these dots so we can create this pipeline to true prosperity. I've already told you about the drug dealer. It's really an underground entrepreneur, a supply chain operator. Again, inventory management, pricing strategy, customer segmentation, risk management, territory management, distribution networks. Here's the legal pathways for that. Logistics companies, retail business ownership, Food distribution businesses. Somebody who can run a drug distribution network can run a logistics company. Can I get an amen again? Here you go. Here. There's a gang leader that's like a labor organizer, community leader. Their skills include leadership and loyalty. Business, sorry, leadership and loyalty building. Right. It is the business of leadership and loyalty, actually. Conflict resolution, territorial negotiation, group identity formation, chain of command structures. Okay, what are the legal pathways for this person? Union leadership, non profit leadership, political organization. By the way, I'd hire somebody with those skills. I probably already have from this. Who was. Actually, I know. Actually, I know I have former gang organizers. I know I have Political organizing, security, company leadership. Right. Some gang leaders are just frustrated CEOs. Here's a third industry, prostitution, the escort economy. What does that translate to? Skills and talent. Why talent wise? Sales and marketing. Here's the skills that are present here. I'm not talking about, I'm not making, I'm not casting aspersions on what they do. I'm not. I'd like for them not to have to sell their bodies. I'd like to. Not to dedignify themselves in this way. But I'm talking about in this particular instance, how their skills are transferable. The skills already present here, Persuasion, emotional intelligence, client management. Don't laugh. I'm serious. Client management. Repeat business. Generation branding. I mean, you look at women today on who've taken this to the next level. Only fans and all this stuff online, a lot of quote influencers, right, Are escorts. I just be real blunt about it. In places like Miami and others, my sources tell me that a lot of what you see there are folks really are escorts where they're masquerading as just influencers. Not everybody, but a number of folks are paying their bills in this way. Again, I'm not judging it here. I'm telling you that there's a legal pathway out of this because you want to be stuck in that. Because it's going to end badly if you stay in these professions for too long. Here's some legal pathways. Sales professionals. Luxury hospitality. Yes, Luxury hospitality. These ladies, mostly ladies. Guys do it too. These ladies are brilliant at branding that look, selling that dream. Relationship management in business, talent management and entertainment. The ability to understand human psychology and relationships is one of the most valuable skills you'll ever have in business. As somebody in business, I can tell you that's undeniably the case number four. Hustlers and street vendors. Translation Retail entrepreneurs. The skills already present include understanding demand. Supply and demand instantly. Pricing flexibility. Customer interaction. Location based marketing. Here's some legal pathways. Food trucks. E commerce sellers. Retail storefronts. Flea market is translation into brand building. Do you mean remember flea markets? I used to sell at flea markets. My mother used to sell her handicrafts at flea markets. Brings back all kind of memories. Many successful sneaker resellers started exactly this way. Number five. Car theft rings. Yes, I said car theft rings. Including the folks who tried to. Who actually did steal my wife's car a few years ago right in front of her. What's a transferable skill? Automotive engineering and mechanics. So here's some skills that are already present. Advanced knowledge of vehicle systems. You guys laughing? I'm serious. This is sort of funny, but I'm actually dead serious about what I'm talking about in this episode. Your head should be nodding from all of this. How you can relate to these stories or you know somebody who can relate to these stories. You can pass this episode along. It is a. There's a lot of yes I remember in this. Electronics and security bypass. I'm sorry to laugh on that one. Mechanical troubleshooting. Okay. Legal pathways. Auto repair businesses. Vehicle security companies. Automotive engineering. Custom car modification. Modification. This is really funny. Someone who can break it. A car system can also build a better one. Hello. Somebody can Break into a car, can secure that car, or can help design a security system to keep that car being stole. In the future, you can become an advisor to a security company and be brilliant at it. Again. This is an episode you're going to probably listen to a couple times because there's a lot here to unpack. Number six, street gambling. What's the correlation? Finance and risk analysis. Here's some skills already present. Probability thinking, risk assessment, rapid decision making, bankroll management, Legal pathways, trading, as in Wall street trading. Sports analytics, by the way. Legal gambling, financial markets, betting, analytics, companies. Working for them is what I mean. Or starting one, who knows? Owning one, I'll even like that. Even better. Some of the best traders started as gamblers. Some would argue some of the best traders are gamblers, but I'm not gonna get into that. Number seven, graffiti artists. What's the conversion? Graphic design and marketing. This is an easy one to understand. So the skills include visual branding. Okay. Topography, spatial awareness, identity creation. Some legal pathways, graphic design firms, streetwear brands, advertising, mural commissions, Shepard Fairey and Banks and Banksy. B, A N K S Y. Banksy the artist. Turn graffiti into global art brands. This is also a Hispanic gentleman. I'm blanking on his name, but he's huge in. In, in Florida. Huge. You can't go through the Miami airport without seeing his art store. I actually have some of the art here in the house. Who's who, who, who literally came from nothing and created a global brand that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars up from nothing. Number eight, bootleggers. Beverage industry. Right, that's the conversion. The beverage industry is the conversion. What's the historical precedent here? I've already said moonshine. Moonshine went into nascar. Bootleg whiskey went into modern craft distilleries. Right, what's the skill sets here? Production, supply chains, branding, distribution. Right. So that bootlegger is separate from the car driver. Okay. Complimentary but different. There's a two, it's split off and it's two different complimentary industries. Number nine, pirated media sellers. I can't, I just can't wait for all the comments on what you're gonna. How you're gonna reinterpret or translate what I'm saying about how I'm. The respectability I'm giving these different occupations and what you're gonna call it in the comments, but I'll wait for that. Pirated media sellers. What's the conversion? Digital distribution businesses. So what are the skills that are already present? Right? Demand sensing, pricing, arbitrage, distribution what are some legal pathways? E commerce platforms, streaming content distribution, digital marketing. And there's so many more, by the way. Here's number 10. I'll stop, I'll drop the mic here. I think I've given you enough to get your brain going. Street security enforcers. Okay, what's a conversion? Professional security firms is again, this is an easy one. And I've seen some examples of this, of gang leaders turning into security firms. I mean legitimate ones. Not like mafioso crazy stuff, right? Not, you know, not, not the stuff that's masquerading as a security firm. I mean a legitimate one. Skills already present. Situational awareness, basically being able to see in the back of your head. They say that or they, you know, you get that, that vibe thing. Threat detection, threat assessment and threat detection. Physical security operations. Right. What's the legal pathways? Private security companies, executive protection. I'd hire somebody with these skills. Event security. This is. These are more episodic in nature, which fits some people's personality who don't be held down to a, let's say a 9 to 5 job or own a business. You can do event security, make a good living. You can work as in a club and do security is a lots of ways to mainstream that talent. The hood doesn't lack talent. As I said earlier, it lacks a legal infrastructure for talent. That's what I'm trying to provide here. Some of the most entrepreneurial people in America are operating in the underground economy because nobody showed them the front door. Let's show feet, folks, the front door. Here's another parallel for you. The Italian mafia created Las Vegas. That's not hyperbole. That's literally true. And look at it now. It is one of the most prominent places in the biggest economy in the world. The United States of America. Las Vegas. Criminal networks built casinos, hotels, entertainment industries. Eventually these became legitimate corporate enterprises, some of them publicly traded stocks and worth billions. Today, the same genius that builds underground economies can build legitimate ones if we invest in financial literacy, credit, access, an opportunity for all. This is why I created Operation Hope. This is why I consider myself, humbly stated, the economic plumber for our community. The talent audit of the hood needs to be done on a regular basis. We need to identify this talent and raise them up from the bottom to the top. We need to make sure the ladder reaches the bottom and goes to the top with. If somebody hustles hard and works hard, they can get there on their own. I believe in the James Brown version of affirmative action. Open the door. I'll get it myself. We want to open these doors so people can go get it themselves. This is John Ho Bryant. This has been the Money and Wealth podcast series episode on that hood Hustle made Real. That underground mba, that desire to go from the hood to unlimited highways to make capitalism and free enterprise work for all of God's children. And the next time somebody questions where whether your cousin or your nephew or your friend has real talent and they want to look down their nose at certain people, you remind them of the hood activity that leads to entrepreneurial opportunity. Drug dealers or the drug trade has a hidden skill called logistics. In a legitimate industry called distribution companies, street vendors have a retail instinct and could be a small business gang leadership have organizational leadership and could be unions and management. Street marketing understand branding and could be some of our biggest advertisers. Sneaker resale, understand arbitrage can be leading e Commerce Street DJs understands music production and can lead the next iteration of the music industry. The hood again is not an economic desert, is an economic ecosystem that hasn't been connected to legitimate markets. Let's change all of that. Maybe you'll be the mentor, the hero or shero that some young person sees and decide they want to be. It's John o'. Brien. This is Money and Wealth. I'm out. Money and wealth with John. 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 Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite show.

[Megan McCardell]

This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.