How John Hope Bryant Built a Non-Profit Powerhouse

Summary

Podcast Summary: "How John Hope Bryant Built a Non-Profit Powerhouse"

Podcast Information Recap:

• Title: Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant
• Host/Author: The Black Effect and iHeartPodcasts
• Description: John Hope Bryant, a successful entrepreneur, executive, and philanthropist, shares his insights on developing a wealth-building mindset, particularly addressing the Black community's financial challenges. Through his trademark 'Straight Talk,' Bryant offers practical advice to improve financial positions, create personal wealth, and empower families. Episodes primarily feature Bryant speaking directly to the audience, supplemented by interviews with inspirational individuals he encounters globally.

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Introduction to Operation Hope

Timestamp: [04:07]

John Hope Bryant opens the episode by introducing the primary focus: the creation of Operation Hope, a national non-profit organization generating an annual revenue of approximately $75 million. He emphasizes the organization's mission to promote financial inclusion, literacy, and economic empowerment, asserting that financial literacy is a contemporary civil rights issue akin to the right to vote.

“I believe financial literacy is a civil rights issue of this generation. I believe this is what Dr. King would be doing if he was still alive today.”
— John Hope Bryant [04:35]

Founding Operation Hope

Timestamp: [04:45]

Bryant recounts the inception of Operation Hope, detailing how he transitioned from a for-profit entrepreneur to establishing a non-profit entity focused on financial empowerment. He highlights the importance of maintaining organizational integrity, distinguishing between personal and corporate decisions to avoid emotional biases that could jeopardize the non-profit's credibility.

“Business is not personal. Whenever you make an emotional decision, it's going to be a bad one.”
— John Hope Bryant [05:10]

Navigating Non-Profit Regulations

Timestamp: [06:00]

Bryant delves into the complexities of operating a 501(c)(3) non-profit, explaining the distinction between ownership in for-profit corporations versus non-profits. He stresses the legal obligations to ensure that funds are used solely for the organization's mission, highlighting the severe repercussions, including imprisonment, for mismanagement or fraud.

“It's a felony to defraud the public funds to a charitable 501c3 nonprofit.”
— John Hope Bryant [07:25]

Ensuring Financial Integrity

Timestamp: [10:15]

Emphasizing financial stewardship, Bryant discusses the measures Operation Hope employs to maintain transparency and accountability. He highlights their consistent four-star rating from Charity Navigator, signifying that 88 cents of every dollar received directly supports their mission.

“We have audited financials and transparent books and records. We are paranoid about managing the money correctly.”
— John Hope Bryant [12:30]

Scaling the Organization

Timestamp: [15:40]

Bryant outlines the growth trajectory of Operation Hope, detailing how strategic problem-solving within the capitalist system facilitated the organization's expansion. By identifying and addressing gaps in banking services, especially for underserved communities, Operation Hope established a sustainable business model that supports millions across 42 states.

“Capitalism is problem solving. Entrepreneurship is problem solving.”
— John Hope Bryant [16:50]

Innovative Programs and Partnerships

Timestamp: [20:00]

Operation Hope's unique initiatives are highlighted, including their pioneering role in financial disaster preparedness and response, akin to an economic Red Cross. Bryant shares anecdotes about securing federal approvals to operate within bank branches, enabling them to offer financial counseling without the direct liabilities banks typically avoid.

“We are the only nonprofit allowed to operate inside of a bank branch in US History.”
— John Hope Bryant [22:45]

Overcoming Challenges and Adversity

Timestamp: [30:00]

Bryant narrates several challenges faced during the organization's growth, including dealing with internal mismanagement and external attempts to undermine Operation Hope's credibility. He underscores the importance of resilience, integrity, and unwavering commitment to the mission despite obstacles.

“Success is the best revenge.”
— John Hope Bryant [35:10]

Building Strategic Partnerships

Timestamp: [40:30]

A pivotal moment in Operation Hope's expansion involved securing a $130 million commitment from Shopify through persistent and strategic outreach. Bryant illustrates the significance of maintaining professionalism and perseverance in building partnerships that align with the organization's goals.

“Always, always say yes. Never let the perfect become the death of the good.”
— John Hope Bryant [45:50]

Current Impact and Future Vision

Timestamp: [55:00]

With over $4.5 billion invested into underserved neighborhoods, Operation Hope continues to scale its impact, offering financial coaching to employees of major corporations and partnering with leading companies to foster economic growth within Black communities. Bryant shares his vision for eradicating poverty and continuing Dr. King’s legacy through sustainable financial empowerment programs.

“We're teaching money, but I'm obsessed with helping you to take your life back.”
— John Hope Bryant [58:00]

Key Lessons and Takeaways

Timestamp: [60:00]

Bryant concludes with essential lessons for aspiring non-profit leaders and entrepreneurs:

• Maintain Integrity: Always prioritize the mission over personal gain.
• Be Resilient: Overcome setbacks with determination and strategic thinking.
• Build Trust: Ensure transparency and accountability to garner support and sustain growth.
• Innovate Solutions: Identify and address systemic problems with sustainable business models.

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Conclusion

In this insightful episode, John Hope Bryant provides a comprehensive overview of building and scaling Operation Hope into a financial empowerment powerhouse. Through storytelling and practical advice, Bryant emphasizes the importance of integrity, resilience, and strategic problem-solving in fostering economic growth and financial literacy within the Black community. His journey underscores the potential of non-profit organizations to drive significant societal change when guided by unwavering commitment and principled leadership.

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Notable Quotes:

1. Integrity Over Emotion:

   “Business is not personal. Whenever you make an emotional decision, it's going to be a bad one.”
   — John Hope Bryant [05:10]

2. Financial Stewardship:

   “We have audited financials and transparent books and records. We are paranoid about managing the money correctly.”
   — John Hope Bryant [12:30]

3. Problem-Solving in Capitalism:

   “Capitalism is problem solving. Entrepreneurship is problem solving.”
   — John Hope Bryant [16:50]

4. Resilience:

   “Success is the best revenge.”
   — John Hope Bryant [35:10]

5. Strategic Partnership:

   “Always, always say yes. Never let the perfect become the death of the good.”
   — John Hope Bryant [45:50]

6. Mission Focus:

   “We're teaching money, but I'm obsessed with helping you to take your life back.”
   — John Hope Bryant [58:00]

---

Final Thoughts:

John Hope Bryant's narrative serves as an inspiring blueprint for building impactful non-profit organizations. His emphasis on financial integrity, strategic growth, and unwavering commitment to the mission provides valuable lessons for both non-profit leaders and entrepreneurs aiming to drive meaningful change within their communities.

Transcript

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[Will Pearson]

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[Shannon Schuyler]

Listen to leading by Example executives making an impact on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Mango]

Hey Will, do you ever get overwhelmed by how much science happens these days?

[Will Pearson]

Constantly. I'm like, ah, there's so much science I can't keep track of it all.

[Mango]

Then it's a good thing. Our podcast Part Time Genius is counting down the 25 greatest science ideas from the past 25 years.

[Will Pearson]

That's right, Mango. We're talking animals.

[Mango]

In a paper called quote, chickens prefer beautiful humans. This was actually the title of the paper. They all discovered that, much like humans, chickens are attracted to symmetrical faces.

[John Hope Bryant]

Got it.

[Mango]

We're talking medical miracles.

[Will Pearson]

He's an endocrinologist who found a way to stimulate insulin producing cells using, wait for it, the saliva of a Gila monster.

[Mango]

There's no way to make that not sound crazy.

[Will Pearson]

We even talked to some of the experts behind these breakthroughs. It's a week full of fact packed stories you won't want to miss. So listen to the Part Time Genius countdown of the 25 greatest science ideas of the past 25 years starting Monday, March 3rd on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bob Pittman]

Hi, I'm Bob Pippman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. I'm excited to introduce a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Stories from the frontiers of Marketing. I'm having conversations with some folks across a wide range of industries to hear how they reach the top of their fields and the lessons they learned along the way that everyone can use. I'll be joined by innovative leaders like chairman and CEO of Elf Beauty, Tarang Amin, legendary singer, songwriter and philanthropist Jewel.

[Amantha Imber]

Being a rock star is very fun, but helping people is way more fun.

[Bob Pittman]

And Damian Maldonado, CEO of American Financing.

[John Hope Bryant]

I figured out the formula. I just have to work hard, then that's magic.

[Bob Pittman]

Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to math and Magic on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[John Hope Bryant]

Peace of the Planet.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

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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 is John O'Brien. And again, money and wealth is the series and the topic today. It's something I've never really talked about. It's something I've never unpacked. But I'm going to unpack it with you today. It's how I created a 75 million dollar a year national non profit organization that in many people's minds is a bit of a powerhouse for financial inclusion and financial literacy and economic empowerment. You may hear the announcements and press releases and things like that, but I'm going To unpack and as I've said, I'm going to do with the entire series in this podcast. These podcast episodes is to unpack and demystify the how, the what, the who to a lesser degree, the why. We sort of know the why though. I'll get into a bit of that. But I'm going to get you into the wheelhouse of what I did 32 years ago in founding operation but created 60 different entities and I'm happy to unpack other. Those, those, the other entities. If any of those are of interest to you, just send me a note on social media to me and my team and let me know the ideas you have of what you'd like me to talk about. I've talked about the Promise Homes company before which I substantially sold a few years ago. I still own an interest in that. That's the company that owns seven bought, you know, 700 homes and from Atlanta through North Florida, I walked through that. But I'm happy to go into detail there. There's my other ventures. I won't go through them. But today I want to unpack the non profit which most people know me through, which is really my passion. I believe financial literacy is a civil rights issue of this generation. I believe, and I say this respectfully and humbly, I believe this is what Dr. King would be doing if he was still alive today. I believe this is a game changer for this generation is as important as the right to vote. But none of that is the reason that Operation Hope has become this behemoth. Let me take you back to its founding, but let me start by making something clear. I say it several times and different interviews, but I'm going to make it claim and make this clear with regard to my own enterprises. Business is not personal. Whenever you make an emotional decision, it's going to be a bad one. So please know that with a nonprofit corporation, it is a corporation. It's not a plaything, it's not a toy and you don't own it. Here's a, here's a wake up call. I founded Operation Hope. I gave it its original money, I birthed it. I created this incorporation documents. I'm the founder, chairman and chief executive officer. I took my money from my for profit and gave it to, lent it to my nonprofit, gave some of it to my non profit and lent some of it to the nonprofit which I expected that money to come back to me. Most of it was a gift, unintended gift, but a gift. But I don't own this nonprofit. It's actually Operation Opus owned by the American public because it's a 501c3 nonprofit corporation. Now it is a corporation, just like Netflix is a corporation. It's a corporation just like Tyler Perry Studios is a corporation. It is a corporation just like any other for profit entity. The difference is that when you apply for a tax exempt status for that corporation in order to not pay taxes on revenue and income and all that stuff, transactions to be tax exempt, you have to have a purpose that is for the public, public purpose. And the shareholder stops being you, the individual. Please pay attention to this. This is very important. I don't want you to end up in prison. I don't, I don't want anybody here listening to this to end up in bad stead with the federal government, particularly the irs. This is so important to get this right. When you have a for profit corporation and you're the shareholder and you take the risk and you get and it does well and it's profitable depending on the shareholder agreements and the kind of shares that you have and whether you're the sole shareholder and so on and so forth. Theoretically, that money is yours. You take it out as you see fit. Take it out in the form of salary, take it out in the form of a loan. You can invest it, you know, you can, you can sell the company, you can sell your shares, you can dilute the shares and do whatever you want. You are, you are a shareholder in a for profit enterprise. But when you run a 501C3, in my case, 501C3 nonprofit, it starts out as a normal corporation. You then apply to the Internal Revenue Service for tax exempt status. And if they grant that status, you become a different entity. No different than I said. The institution of marriage existed 3,000 years before Christ our Lord endowed it with spiritual dimensions. It existed as an agreement to protect wealth and then it became spiritually endowed. Of course we know the life of Jesus and so on and so forth. And now it is a different thing, rightly so. But it started out as a contract. Similarly, by the way, what I just told you is literally true. I've talked about that several times. How marriage started out as a business agreement. If you think about the royal houses in Europe and you had two family members effectively marrying each other. Sort of disgusting. But anyway, two family members marrying each other. They didn't even live in the same castles or the same rooms sometimes, but they were protecting the assets of the family. That's why they, that's why one royal house would marry another royal house it wasn't back then for love. So in this case, you start out as a for profit corporation, a regular generic corporate entity, a C Corp or S Corp, whatever, and you request tax exempt status from the federal government. Now when you do that, and it gives you this tax exemption, and there are different types of tax exemption, so you research that yourself. By the way, a church is another form of a tax exempt organization. But let's stay focused. Mine is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. The minute. And by the way, if it's pending, if your tax exempting status is pending, you can take that corporation and go to somebody else who has an existing nonprofit and they can host your nonprofit. I've done this for several entities, people I trust. You got to be able to trust the people who bring you this. But I have hosted other nonprofits who are trying to get their tax exempt status, so tax exempt status. So folks who want to donate to them can send the money to Joe's Feeding Pantry through Operation Hope. And we're a bit of the caretaker. We're carrying the money in trust. And the folks making the contribution still get their tax exempt status even though they get their tax or they get the benefit of their tax contribution, the charitable contribution, which they then write off their taxes because they're sending the money to Operation Hope, which is tax exempt, even though the entity that they are trying to donate to is still pending with the irs. Now back to the story. Once you make something tax exempt like that, you no longer own it. You have traded a benefit, You've traded your interest, your ownership of that entity for the public good. And now you're talking on the public good versus your own good. And you, and you. And as a result of that, because the money's not flowing to you, the interest is not flowing to you, you don't want the taxes to be owed by you either. And the government says, well, you're doing good work. We're going to give you a, we're going to give you a, a break, a pass on any earnings you make. We're not going to charge you for that. And then on top of that, we're going to give those who donate you money a benefit, a tax exempt status for their donation, their contribution. Why am I telling you this? I have some rules at Operation Hope. One of the rules, and I've had these rules for 32 years, I can benefit my nonprofit, but my nonprofit cannot be seen as benefiting me. Now, I didn't say my nonprofit couldn't benefit me. I went further and said my nonprofit cannot be seen perceived as benefiting me. Right. I've also said, don't, don't do anything you don't want to see on the front page of the New York Times in five years. Don't put me in a limousine by accident. In charge of the Operation Hope. Don't, don't put me in a, in, you know, in some luxury hotel suite and charge it to Operation Hope. Don't buy me a first class plane ticket with rack rate. In charge of the Operation Hope. So we have policies for travel, right? I used to travel for years and years and years. I traveled cheap, cheap, cheap coach, right? I remember one ticket trip I took early in the founding issue of Operation Hope. Rachel, my chief of staff now for 30 plus years, just, she's an amazing human being. She was trying to save some money. So she put me this one, we lived in la. I lived in la. She put me on this plane that was going someplace in the US but for some reason it detoured to South America, went through Mexico on his way. It was a cheap, very cheap ticket. And there was a chicken underneath my seat in my coach seat. My feet were already, my knees were already at my chest, but there was a chicken put underneath the seat. And boy, did I let Rachel have it. But she's like, hey, you told me to find the best, the best, the cheapest ticket. And I did. Don't, don't, don't be mad at me because I did my job. We've had so much fun and so many fans with fabulous memories over these, these 32, two years and we don't have time. I'm now, as I'm not recounting this, we won't have time to get through all this on this one podcast. But I hope you like this. I hope this is enjoy, enjoyable. I'll try to get some left through these key lessons for you of do's and don'ts. And then maybe I have to come back and do part two. You will. You'll tell me whether you're too bored with part one for me to do part two, but I'm happy to go deeper into this. So never do anything you don't want to see on the front page of the New York Times in five years. So if so, as Rod McGrew, my dear friend, would say, think three times and act once. If you think about something and it doesn't sound right to you and you got to think about it again, think about it a third time, you probably shouldn't do it, it's probably going to end up badly if something is to your benefit. I have an expense report, not an expense account. There's a difference. I don't carry the corporation's credit card. I use my credit card and I'm reimbursed by the company for the company's expenses. It's my non profit. I don't have an expense account. An expense account means that you have an account with the corporation. It allocates certain monies to you for whatever, and you just have to account for the monies that are being allocated to you. But when, when it's a 501c3 charitable nonprofit, you're using the public's money and you cannot use that money like it's your own because, well, it's not your own. Right? And you can go to jail. Do I have your attention? Now? You can go to the popo, you can go to prison, and you can go to jail. Which one's worse now? Go to jail. Yeah, jail. Then you can go to prison. If you are seen. It's a. It's a felony to defraud the public funds to a charitable 501c3 nonprofit. There have been many nonprofit founders who have gone to jail because they thought that the money they were using, they treated it as if it's their own. So I'm paranoid about certain things. These are some frameworks that you have. I know I'm a black man in America, so I've got to be twice as important, twice as intelligent, twice as honest, twice as smart, get up twice as early, say twice as late, work twice as hard, have twice as much integrity, and that's fine. Just make haters, make me better. But no one's harder on me than I am. So I. I just make sure I take care of the business. So I, I run this nonprofit like a for profit. Did you hear me? Even though it's not my for profit.

[Mango]

Hey, Will, do you ever get overwhelmed by how much science happens these days?

[Will Pearson]

Constantly. I'm like, ah, there's so much science, I can't keep track of it all.

[Mango]

Then it's a good thing. Our podcast, Part Time Genius is counting down the 25 greatest science ideas from the past 25 years.

[Will Pearson]

That's right, Mango. We're talking animals in a paper called.

[Mango]

Chickens Prefer Beautiful humans. This was actually the title of the paper. They all discovered that, much like humans, chickens are attracted to symmetrical faces.

[John Hope Bryant]

Got it.

[Mango]

We're talking medical miracles.

[Will Pearson]

He's an endocrinologist who found a way to stimulate insulin producing cells using, wait for it, the saliva of a Gila monster.

[Mango]

There's no way to make that not sound crazy.

[Will Pearson]

We even talked to some of the experts behind these breakthroughs. It's a week full of fact packed stories you won't want to miss. So listen to the Part Time Genius countdown of the 25 greatest science ideas of the past 25 years starting Monday, March 3rd on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Amantha Imber]

Need something to level up while you juggle work and life? I'm Dr. Amantha Imber, an organizational psychologist and the host of the podcast How I Work. It's a show where I interview some of the world's most successful people who share their unique tactics, routines and strategies for balancing work, family and personal growth. How I Work will give you practical tips to turbocharge your career and your life. Search for How I Work on the free iHeart app or in whatever podcast app you're listening to.

[John Hope Bryant]

We have a ratio at Operation Hope. That's that. Well, it's the expense ratio is what I'm getting to. But on Wall Street, a for profit company is judged through bond ratings. So you have a AAA bond ratings or you know, double a bond rating. But there are companies that rate the quality of your debt, the quality of your, you know, the quality of your company and it's a public facing rating. In the non profit world you have a couple entities that do the similar, a similar thing. This one that we use is called Charity Navigator and their top rating is a four star. And we've had a four star Charity Navigator rating for over a dozen years now. Sorry, over 10 years now, I think it's 11. And that means in short that in order to hit that rating there's several, several benchmarks. But one of them is that basically about 88 cents of every dollar that comes into Operation Hope. So a dollar comes into operation hope and 88 cents goes to the mission. Do you hear me? So it's not shopping, it's not partying, it's not, not lunching, restauranting. You know, it's not. It's it. No, it is. The 88 cents of every dollar goes to, in our case, coaching, counseling, supporting the mission. And 12 cents of that dollar goes for useless things like me and to a less degree, my senior management team. So that's called a very efficient nonprofit. You don't want to have a nonprofit that has a bad efficiency rating. You don't want to have a nonprofit where 60 or 80 cents of every dollar is being used for administration, for salaries, for fluff. And 20, 25% is actually going to the mission. It should sound sort of obvious, but people don't think about that. For some reason, even a nonprofit worth 50 cents on the dollar is going to the mission. And 50 cents on the dollar is going to somebody's pocket or to administrate administrative expenses is actually not a good thing. So you should want to aim for, you know, somewhere above 70 cents of every dollar. I believe should be more like 85 cents plus of every dollar that goes to the mission. As a result of us having 87, 88 cents of every dollar coming in going to the mission consistently. And we have audited financials and transparent books and records like you can go to the Internet and find out what my senior team and I guess me is compensated for at the non profit. It's, we're a public entity. You can pull our tax documents and go through it. And people have. Right. I've had people, you know, call the organization Operation Hope and write us letters and all this kind of stuff. Years and years ago when people didn't like me talking about check cashiers or payday loan lenders or rent to own stores, I would have people trying to shut me up. And so they would send letters, they'd go through our financials and send letters. I mean, luckily, which is, I mean I'm paranoid about things like books and records. That's how people get you. So you don't. You're not gonna catch me slipping. They thought they did and they were wrong. And our books were just tight. They made certain assertions which I knew weren't right. So we have audited financials. You can have, by the way, a bookkeeper do your financials. You can have a tax pro do your financials. Those are not bulletproof. That's just somebody doing your books and records. Somebody has to certify that these books and records are actually accurate. And we use an audit firm in addition to our accounting firm to certify that our company is doing what we're saying it is that we are doing and that we're running it in the proper way. And so I have a chief financial officer, I have a chief accountant, I have an accounting team, I've got audit firm, I've got bookkeepers, I've got project managers. We are paranoid about managing the money correctly. Let's go back now to so. So operational today is 75, 70, $75 million. It fluctuates 65 million, 75 million. But it's a lot of money, and that's every year. And it's the budget was. I mean, I think actually it around 2000, when the pandemic hit, we were about 20, 25 million. So you can see the budget has doubled, tripled since then. We have invested, through Operation Hope, $4.5 billion into underserved neighborhoods for homeowners, small business owners, entrepreneurs, those trying to, you know, lift their lives up. And that 70 $75 million budget facilitates us doing coaching and counseling in bank branches. We're the only nonprofit allowed to operate inside of a bank branch in US History. How did we do that? It wasn't a wish, Hope and a prayer wasn't a good feeling. It was me going to the federal banking regulators and writing a letter to all the federal banking regulators. It's called the ffiec. It's not important for you to know what that means, but it's basically all the regulatory agencies into one one group. Fdic, Federal Reserve Comparative Currency, cfpb, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And writing them a letter made a case for why Operation Hope is a 501c3 nonprofit should be allowed to operate inside of a bank branch so that I can get the bank branch to do for, for a bank what it couldn't do for itself, which is the coaching council, its customers, or prospective customers. The bank can't do that because they're afraid to be sued. They might fall, they might, you know, run into a law or something that they are running afoul of by trying to counsel somebody. So we are in the bank where we're not employed by the bank, they're employed by me. That gives me the advantage over a bank employee. And so we can work with that, consult that client to get their credit score up 54 points in six months, 36 towards 54 points. Their debt down as much as $3,800. Their savings up about $1200. So the bank, for somebody making 48, $50,000 a year, the bank and then say yes. So getting the bank out of the no business and into the yes business so the bank can say yes and give you prime credit. Why is that important? That's why we have 300 physical locations for Operation Hope and 1200 satellite locations for a total of 1500 Operation Hope locations in 42 states. Sorry. And that's why we're a sustainable business model and continuing to grow, because we have a product that solves a problem. What capitalism is, is problem solving. Entrepreneurship is. Well, capitalism is not necessarily problem solving. Capitalism is making a profit putting in your pocket. It' complicated that, but I simplified it. But entrepreneurship is problem solving. A business model is problem solving for a profit, for a return on that investment. So if so, I found a problem in banking and this is one example that I wanted to solve and that's turned into a sustainable business model. I had a problem with youth financial literacy. I wanted to solve. I'm still solving that from a business model of. Even though we've taught millions of kids financial literacy, that is not. That model is not as refined. That's called Hope Inside for Kids as my Hope Inside for Adults model is. There's a Hope Inside disaster model that's slightly refined. We are the only organization that is approved by the federal government to do well. We pioneered actually emergency financial disaster preparedness response and recovery. Sorry for the long explanation, but we're basically the economic Red Cross for the country. And we did that after. I created it after 911 because I had employees in Bankers Trust building across from, well, I think it's called Banker's Trust. It was across from the towers at 911 when the towers came down, they ran it, they fell into the building where my employees were at, my employees running out the building. And it dawned on me it wasn't just rich people and these buildings who were, you know, lives were impacted and some people lost their lives. It was the janitors, the office workers, the, you know, the parking valets. And when they lost their life. And the wife is grieving, she's also having to pay rent or mortgage that same week or that same month. And now she doesn't know where the bank account is because they didn't talk about that. She doesn't. He didn't have any reserves, so we had to work with female on their behalf and American Red Cross. And so after the cameras leave the disaster for a few days, the real disaster, the secondary disaster begins after the loss of life, which is I have a car loan and no car anymore. I have a home. No, no home anymore. I have a small business loan, no small business anymore. I've got bills and no jobs. So we created a program, Rainbows After Storms. Cannot have a rainbow without a storm. First we created a program guided, blessed by the federal government. It's actually a funny story around this. And became the nation's partner for FEMA and Homeland Security in the American Red Cross for emergency disaster preparedness, preparedness response and recovery. And we're actually responding now to the Los Angeles fires. God bless those who are affected. By that. So here's the funny story. I was. This was the George Bush administration, President Bush after 9, 11. So I came up with this idea and I went to go see the President's team and they liked my idea. And before they could let me proceed with it, I had to go talk to the. I think it was a general counsel, but it was basically the President's lawyer in the White House. And he's like, well, this sounds like a great idea, but we can't have any liability here. You need to go back and come back, go work out the liability. I know you're working with the insurance companies and some loan executives from insurance companies back there. I believe it was State Farm, I don't remember. And go work it out with them and come back and prove that this is not a risk. I didn't know what the guy was talking about really, but I faked it. Well, so I went back to. I mean, how do you create a business plan for something that's never happened, never existed before? I created this out of whole cloth. It was an idea. So I go back, I flew back to LA and I sat down with my team and I said to Rachel, my Chief of Staff, when this. I don't know what I'm asking for, but I'm telling you, when I go back to Washington next week, I need a thump. Well, what does that mean? That means that when somebody looks through this risk management binder, we're going to prove that we're safe and trustworthy to, to do this emergency disaster work, coaching work that when the lawyer at the White House and his team flips through, you know, this binder, it thumps on their desk and they. Right. It overwhelms them. So I get this binder, I fly back to dc, I go to the attorney's office, the White House, and I drop it out on his desk. He looks up at me, looks down at that, looks up at me, grabs it to with one hand, right? Looks, looks at a couple pages. Yeah, this looks about right. He asked me a couple of questions, he signed off on it and that was it. And I signed an agreement with Tom Ridge, who was the first secretary in the history of Homeland Security. That was George Bush administration. And this little black boy from Compton had created the nation's first emergency financial disaster prepared his response and recovery agency. Let's back up now. I'm taking you, I've really taken you from Operation Hope backwards. I'm going backwards now. I want to start at the beginning, but this works too. I'm gonna tell you another story. This was now President Bush, Bush the father. So that was Bush the son, I believe. This was not Reagan. I believe this was George Bush the father. He was president and secretary of hud, was Jack Kemp, football star and friend. So I had somehow maneuvered myself through the. A small business association to sit in the front row. This is actually not an Operation Hope story per se, but it's still. I'm still going to tell you because it's a. It's instructive. And I'm sitting in the front row for the national. The National Federation of nfib, National Federation of Independent Business. And I'm sitting in the front row. And how do I get there? I'm the only black guy who's a member of nfib. I always keep showing up where nobody's at. So I would go to the National Founder Federation of Independent Business. Nfib, I think is what it's called. And I was the only chocolate drop in the room trying to do business, trying to build a business. Anyway, so the President Bush is going to. Is doing this thing and he's in and he's speaking, and they're inviting some folks to come there, and they're just completely all white. They're like, well, can you come, John? Sure. So they sit me in the front row and the President notices me. They were invited to the White House. Now the President's going to speak again. And. And they had. They wanted some background information on me. So I get to the White House and they. They were, I guess, impressed with the work I was doing in community, which included Operation Hope. I just started Operation Hope, I believe. I'm trying to think of the years if this might have. This might have slightly predated Operation Hope, because I think Operation Hope started when I started in earnest when, when. When Clinton had come in office. So anyway, he calls my name, he says, I commend John Bryant for his work in community and so on and so forth. And so I was so excited to get up. The President walks by me and I shake his hand and I said, you know, can I have your business card to the President, United States? And he just points up, I right live right there. Well, Jack Kemp and other Cabinet members saw me talking to the President, and so I went to say hello to Secretary Jack Kemp, who saw me talking to the President, and I said, can I come see you? He's a secretary hud. He says, sure. I fly back to L. A. We call Jack Kemp's office to confirm the appointment. We only ask for 15 minutes. Who's going to ever turn you down for 15 minutes? I fly back to. From LA to DC for my 15 minute meeting. I'm in Jack Kim's office and he says, what are you doing in Washington DC? See you, Mr. Secretary. Oh, that's really great. He's putting his football, throwing his football, you know, in the area. He's got a Chief of Staff there with him. Oh, that's really great. What else are you doing here in DC? I'm here to see you, Mr. Secretary. Oh, that's again, that's really great. No, what other meetings do you have in dc? No, I just came all this way to see you, Mr. Secretary. I came and saw to see the President. He said nice things about my work and community, which I appreciate it. And I really wanted to meet you because I want to do some business with hud, Housing and Urban Development Department. So now he feels guilty because he's only given me 15 minutes. So what did he do? Extended the meeting to an hour. Then he said, look, follow me. So he goes down because he's going to swear in Raul Carroll. Got rested. So as a. As the FHA commissioner, Federal Housing Authority, first black man I believe to be sworn in as a. No, that was another guy who was, who was FHA commissioner. Raul was the president of Ginnie Mae. There's Fannie Mae and there's Jenny Mae. Never mind all the details. He just. He was a bad brother, right? And Raoul Carroll's his name and Raoul had his family there. And so Jack Kemp says in the middle of swearing ceremony for Raul Carroll, because I was tagging along with him, he says, oh, and by the way, my friend is here from la. Meet John Bryant. Well, I just met the dude, right? But he called me his friend Raoul Carroll didn't know anything different any better. So then I said to Raoul Carroll, congratulations. Can I come see you when you get settled? Sure. So I fly back to la, I get another plane ticket, I fly back to Washington D.C. i go sit down with Raul Carroll. Now, Raoul Carroll doesn't know me from Hilla Beans, but he knows I was introduced by the Secretary of Housing Urban Development, which is his boss, as his buddy. And Washington's about proximity to power, so he know I'm the only brother around, so he knows to be nice to me. So I asked for a business deal. And again, it's not important we get back to Operation Hope. The long and short of it is I got the business deal. I even got then GE Capital. Ge, GE Servicing the finance and service, the business deal that I got Raul Carrol and Jennie Mae just on the power. Luckily, that deal did not go through. I would have lost a lot of money right at the end of that deal going through. The President lost his presidency, Bush lost reelection. I believe it was, I'm pretty sure to Bill Clinton. So the deal just unraveled at the last minute, thank God. But I had made it all that way with my mouth and integrity, not, you know, I didn't lie. Everybody else was, was fudging the truth, not me. I just followed the money and, and, you know, and didn't give up. That's operational story. I'd followed the money. I made it about the green. Not black or white or red or blue. We were founded in a bipartisan way, by the way, George. So I went. Tom Bradley was mayor of Atlanta, was the Democratic mayor of Atlanta, the first black man to run a city like the city of la. I said, the mayor of Atlanta. My bad. Tom Bradley was the mayor of Los Angeles for 20 years and had no black man had ever run a city like that, a major economy before. And I became a bit of a mentee to Tom Bradley through friends like Will Marshall and Bill Raphael, others who were supportive of me. As a young man trying to make it. I used to carry a little computer. I still to this day it's called an iPad. But back then I had a big compact computer and I had a Radio Shack computer. These things would. That plus the brick that had on my shoulder called a mobile phone back then would break somebody's back. How am I? Good shape today. I used to carry all that stuff all the time to every business meeting and go. So many stories. I can't tell you all these stories. There's no time. But anyway, Tom Bradley took to me and when the riots happened, he created Rebuild la. I became the youngest board member of Rebuild Los Angeles for Peter Uberoff. And I asked Tom Bradley for some startup money, money for Operation Hope. Tom Bradley, this is what, this is why I want you to be bipartisan. Follow the money, right? Tom Bradley, a Democratic mayor, reached out to outgoing President George W. Bush. I'm not sure if it was obvious at that point he, he wasn't going to be reelected. But he reached out, I think it was to George W. Bush, the president, United States, a Republican, and asked him for some money for, for this young man that he, he was impressed by after the Rodney King riots and was going to do some stuff to help economically. Tom Bradley's administration said, we don't have any money. We're on our way out the door. But we. There's this little grant, this 7J grant, the $61,000 available. I think I had a budget of $600,000 or something. We have $61,000 available at the Small Business Administration. U.S. small Business Administration. Do you want that? I just said yes. Always say yes. It always stuns me when somebody has in a business or something and they don't want to take like the American Express card because the fees are too high. Wait a minute. Are you arguing with me about what percentage of the profit you're going to get from what my purchase I'm going to make you, or is. Are you going to let the thing sit on the shelf and not sell it to anybody? So versus making. If you're selling it for 10 bucks and there's, you know, and you're making. I'm making this up. Making a. You want to make a dollar profit off of 10 bucks or $2 profit off of 10 bucks? No, you're going to make a $25 profit or $75 profit because. Because the fee is increased because it's Amex. Look, just sell the thing, get it off your shelf and buy something else. Don't let the perfect become the death of the good. When somebody would say something to me as an entrepreneur, the answer was always yes. And I work out the details later. Never let the perfect become the death of the good. So when they offered me $61,000, it was 10% what I was looking for, but I said yes. I took that $61,000 budget and money and put it to work and sent out a press release, let everybody know that we got this grant, we were legitimate from the federal government. Then I used that money to raise to get private banks and corporations in South Central LA or in LA who wanted to help, who were not giving money to rebuild la, which was the big baller in town to give me to match me some money for me.

[Mango]

Hey, Will, do you ever get overwhelmed by how much science happens these days?

[Will Pearson]

Constantly. I'm like, ah, there's so much science, I can't keep track of it all.

[Mango]

Then it's a good thing. Our podcast, Part Time Genius is counting down the 25 greatest science ideas from the past 25 years.

[Will Pearson]

That's right, Mango. We're talking animals in a paper called.

[Mango]

Quote, chickens prefer beautiful humans. This was actually the title of the paper. They all discovered that much like humans, chickens are attracted to symmetrical faces.

[John Hope Bryant]

Got it.

[Mango]

We're talking medical miracles.

[Will Pearson]

He's an endocrinologist who found a way to stimulate insulin producing cells using, wait for it, the saliva of a Gila monster.

[Mango]

There's no way to make that not sound crazy.

[Will Pearson]

We even talked to some of the experts behind these breakthroughs. It's a week full of fact packed stories you won't want to miss. So listen to the Part Time Genius countdown of the 25 greatest science ideas of the past 25 years starting Monday, March 3rd on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Amantha Imber]

Podcasts While this podcast might be keeping you from being distracted, here's something to level up your focus. I'm Amantha Imber, host of the podcast How I Work. It's a show where I interview some of the world's most successful people and uncover how exactly they construct their days. From how to combat a scrolling addiction to morning rituals and productivity hacks. We explore how some of the best stay disciplined and manage their time efficient effectively. Where Ambition meets inspiration Search for how I work on the free iHeart app or in whatever podcast app you're listening to.

[John Hope Bryant]

There was this company called Bankers Trust. I'd asked for $600,000 from Bankers Trust, still trying to meet my budget and they had approved it. And I had a city councilman on my board. I won't name his name because he's still in the mix right there. I want to embarrass him, but you would know who he was. He was on my board of directors. And when I said I'm I'm going to rebuild that some eradicating poverty in the world or something like that. Eradicating poverty in my lifetime. He wrote. Eradicating poverty in the X district. I'm not going to tell you which district. Now I'll tell you. It's the 8th district that miss nothing. Historians can figure this out. Eradicating Poverty in the 8th district is what he wrote. He crossed my glitter head out. I crossed that out and said eradicating poverty in the world. I was Mission Authentic and he resigned from my board. Now mind you, this is South Central la. The riots happen in South Central. I needed credibility. When he resigned from the board, that resignation letter somehow made it into the offices of Bankers Trust that had my grant application. Do you know they turned, they put that into committee, which means you'll never see it again. I mean, you'll never get that money. That councilman or his staff sent that letter because he was upset with me that I wouldn't just kowtow to him and do what he said. And he sent that letter to the board. They're making the committee the decision about this money with Bankers Trust. And Bankers Trust just said, I met with him and they were like, well, we're going to consider this. We're going to put in the committee and evaluate it. Committee is a nice way of saying you're not getting this money until like the end of the world. And I never got that money. And they thought I was going to fold up and go away and I just doubled down again. An entrepreneur works 18 hours a day to keep from getting a job. And just because you're an entrepreneur of a non profit organization, it doesn't matter. I take no for vitamins, right? First they will ignore you, then they criticize you, then they try to copy you and then in time if you keep going, then you win. I had a vision at a mission. I was not going to be controlled by anybody. Now this is really important because if I had allowed that city council person to control my agenda so that I could get some city funds and whatever, whatever, whatever, I would still be the South Central LA only non profit, you know, wrapped up in local stuff and which is all good. It's important. We need organizations that are just focused on local. We do. That just wasn't my mission. I already had a global vision. I was just starting out inspired by the potential I saw in my community after the Rodney King riots. He didn't like that. He didn't like. He couldn't control me. That happened several times with other elected officials and I to this day, Operation Hope only has about 15% of federal or public funds in our budget. Most of our money is private and that has really allowed me maximum flexibility. It's much harder to raise private money. But once I got a business plan down and a reputation for raising private money and looking after it, well, people raised send me millions of dollars today and they know I'm not going to abuse it. We have audit financials also of course, every year, but they know I'm not going to abuse it. So they wire money to wherever we tell them and know that we're going to treat it right and it's done informally. People wire me millions of dollars to Operation Hope and it's never a big deal because they just know that we're going to treat it right. And, and today when a lot of nonprofits are having problems because they're maybe they can't get money out of the federal government or whatever, I don't have that problem because I don't have a lot of money locked up in the federal government, but it's just harder to get my kind of money because, well, you got to create a legitimate business plan. So again, there's so many stories and I'm just jumping around. I apologize, but it was really important for me to. To give you some lessons about how to run a proper corporation. And there's so many examples of what happens when you don't do that, right? You go to jail or you. Or you. You go out of business. So we started out in South Central la. Initially, it was about financial literacy for children in public schools. I was doing that essentially for free with volunteers at a big bank. I won't name the bank. You would know who it is. Who. I designed their financial literacy program. They then decided I was going to become their captured financial literacy organization. I'd run their program with mine. And they thought that because they were the big bad whatever bank, that I would just say yes. And I said, no, we're not doing that. We're honored to create a program for you. I hope it helps you. I'm off and running. And they said, well, we're not going to give you any money. I said, fine, I'll go get some money from somebody else. There are 8 billion people in the world. You don't like somebody saying to you, just go talk to somebody else. Again, this bank tried to do the same thing that this elected official did. And to be real clear, the bank you want to. If you want to call the bank, the white bank, okay, you can do that for this conversation. That makes you feel better. But the elected official who tried to jam me up twice, two different elected officials, three actually were black, right? So pimping is everywhere, right? People try to take advantage of. You are of every power, every stripe. So you really. There's. I call it the bum factor. 20% of people in your family are bums. 20% of people who are Republicans are bums. 20% of People who are Democrats are bums. 20% of Latinos, whites, blacks are bums. 20% of. I mean, it's just a bum factor. It's everywhere. So you should not generalize anybody take people as they come and give them the benefit of the doubt. But when they try to trip you up and sell you some, you know, some wolf tickets, just say no, because you're going to be the one caught with your hand and cookie jar later and you're going to be the one that's going to be in trouble. So I always think long term, I Step over mess and not in it. I'm never thinking about the transaction. Always thinking about, how is this going to look again. Five years out, looking backwards. So we started operational again locally. Talking about financial literacy. I didn't have a business plan for that. We did small business stuff. I had a small business plan from the sba. Just told you about that money. I had a line of credit from Cedars bank, which changed his name 28 times. Bank. William Hannah was my banker. I remember. We got a line of credit. I had a sba. It was a MAP program, mobile assistance program. I created this van that we'd go around doing mobile technical assistance for small business in Los Angeles. And I got the SBA to fund that. That was another grant. Got them to fund that, and we'd go around and do mobile technical assistance for small businesses. And that program was going pretty well until it wasn't. But that lasts for two or three years. And I. And I got a bank to give me a line of credit. I think was $25,000. In fact, that's exactly what it was to finance. Because what happened is you put a grant. You get a grant from the federal government, they don't just give you money. You got to do a request for a draw against the grant. First of all, you got to match the grant. Private money. It's a whole nother story. And then you got to submit to the federal government to be reimbursed for the cost of what you're spending on this program now in accordance with the budget that you gave them. I didn't have the money to advance and float while the federal government, wait, took its time to pay me back. So I went to bank, to Cedars bank, and they asked him for a line of credit. William Hammond, the CEO, went right to the top. It was a community bank. Told him my vision. He believed in me. Gave me $25,000 line of credit on my word, secured by this SBA grant. Now the federal government shuts down, and they weren't writing checks to anybody. They had shut down for months. And I went to William Hann, I said, Look, I need $100,000. I think it was $100,000. I need $100,000 line of credit. I don't have any collateral. I can't give you anything else but my word, right, I'll pay you back, but if I don't get this, I'm out of business. And William Hanna told me later he went to his chief financial officer. I can remember the lady's name, but I Won't say it. She's still in banking, I think, and I just want to embarrass her. But she told William Hanna, don't make this loan to John. You'll never get your money back. I know because he told me and he overruled her. And he gave me this loan for $100,000. And when I found out that she, the chief financial officer had recommended. Chief credit officer, recommended chief credit officer makes credit decisions in the bank, recommended that I should not get that loan. That wasn't. It wasn't directly racism. She was a minority herself, frankly. She just didn't believe in me. I was a young kid and, you know, you know, everything she knew, thought she knew about the young kid, a young black kid was. Looked like it, had credit risk all over it. She just loaning money to rich people. I don't blame her and I don't. And I don't judge her, but I was going to pay that money back and prove her wrong. So I hustled and we pay that money back, every dollar, every dime. And I made sure I walked past her office when I had the payoff slip and put it. And make sure she saw it because I put it on her desk and put it on William Hannah's desk, ultimately, and took his hand and said, thank you, and we're friends to this day. William Hannah changed my life. And when I started out with $25,000 lines of credit, and now I have lines of credit in the millions unsecured on my name. Okay, now there's all these little tests that you've got to go through. I remember Mary Airsome, who still works for me to this day. She always gets mad at me because I don't know the exact year that how many years she's been with me. 28 years, whatever. Lanceford has been me for about 30 years. Rachel's been free for 31, 32 years. Janae Roscoe has been with me for 20 years. And all these people, these legacy leaders who've been with me. So Mary was. Mary comes in and she's. She'd been, you know, she little white girl from. She won't mind me saying that because we actually call her White Chocolate because she's been South Africa to everybody more times everybody at opera show other than me, as we opened the offices in South Africa, she ran them all. But anyway, Mary, a lot of great stories of Mary. First one, when she came. She came in, she. She was from New York City and she wanted to work for me. And I said, I Don't have any money. And what do you. And what are you going to do in South Central la? I mean, aren't you. Are you okay? Like, are you safe? She's like, I just. We told me I just built 38 homes in Watts with Habitat for Humanity. I'm like, are you smoking something? You can't even walk through Watts. Well, she was right. She did go to Watts and built 38 homes through Habitat for Humanity. Once I realized that she had done that, I hired her immediately. And I. And I gave Mary every job title I had because I, you know, if you could walk and shook EMS at Operation, if you walk past my desk, I'd hand you a task, right? Competency was not important. So Mary had a chief financial officer job. She had. She had every title. So this was the development officer. And this is how bad we were back in the day. Mary. We. We had this grant, I think it was $90,000 or something, from the city of Los Angeles. And the deal was, you took draws against the grant, and let's say the work costs $60,000, and you had a $90,000 grant, so you actually had a $30,000 profit that you could pay your staff and your bills with. Well, Mary being so altruistic. I said, well, Mary, payrolls do. Like, where's the money? Like, we did the work. She says, oh, no, John. We were so efficient. I just gave the rest of the money back to the federal government. I mean, to the city of Los Angeles. What are you out of your dang on mine? Right? We need that money for payroll. Took Mary out of that job immediately. Right? Let me tell you this other Mary story, but hold on. I used to have to write checks out of my checkbook. First of all, I used crack certificates of deposit CDs. You don't even know what those are, but certificates of deposits, Basically a fancy name for a savings account for my own business. I would break these 25 $50,000 CDs to pay operation Hope's bills because Operation Hope was broke. And. And I would write a check on a Friday for payroll and give the check to Rachel. And I said, look, if the donations don't come in by Monday, payrolls due was actually payroll was Friday night. The checks, you know, need to clear. I said, you know, if you need to deposit my check, here it is. And I'd go off about my business for my weekend. I had complete faith in Operation hope. Probably wrote 10 checks over time to Rachel for a payroll. She never had to cash one of them, but she Always knew I was there if she needed it. And the staff knowing that I would do that meant the staff would stay up late, come in early, stay up late, work weekends and would never complain. Okay, here's another Mary Airsome story. Okay, am I telling you this is entertaining, but am I helping you to run a non profit to build it? I mean, we were doing so much with so little, so long, we could almost do anything with nothing. I got to break this up into, into chapters and stories. I'm only get, I've covered the last few years and the first couple years. So you just have to have hoots but encourage. We were building a Hope inside location back then. It's called a Hope Banking center in South Central la. Oh, so many stories. I need to stop. We were building this Hope center and I want to put a digital cyber cafe in. This is about fundraising now. And of course I didn't have any money as usual. And I thought Vice President Al Gore, then the Vice president, he loves technology. I just need to get his attention about this. He'll fund it. So I would go to, I'd run around the country, wherever the Vice President was and try to get his attention unsuccessful. And you can't just run up on the vice president. Secret Service will shoot you. But I, you know, get close to him, shake his hand. But I couldn't have a conversation. Finally I was able to get to go to a Christmas party at the Vice President's residence. I finagled an invitation and I gave him my best 90 second spiel. Don't, don't waste somebody's time talking to them for 5 or 10 and 20 minutes. If you can't, as my friend Hugh Price has said, he's former president of the National Urban League. If you can't say something simply and quickly and crisply, as if you're old, slightly. See, now Auntie can understand it. It's not clear in your own head. I remember that quote precisely. So I had my elevator pitched down and I told the Vice President United States about my vision of having an inner city cyber cafe. Because people in the inner city did not have access to the Internet. We had a banking center set up, which is a whole nother story because this racist banker who used to be CEO of Hawthorne Savings, had to give me money because he was not compliant with the Community Reinvestment Act. He had to give money to somebody. And my friend Tim Chrisman, who was chairman of that bank, who was not racist, was a good guy. He knew the CEO was racist. But we were just trying to get money out of him. He told me what to say and how to say it. I went in, gave this guy my spiel. He said everything he could say to offend me. That didn't work. I didn't respond to it. At the end of the meeting, I said, this guy's not giving me anything. And then he said, I'm going to give you a million dollars to build this banking center. So that built the banking center even though the guy was racist? Yes, that story is completely true. Hawthorne Savings, thank God, was acquired by somebody else. So I don't have to worry about them being upset with this. They're going away. But thank you, Tim Christman, for giving me the support I needed. He also became chairman of Operation Hope.

[Mango]

Hey, Will, do you ever get overwhelmed by how much science happens these days?

[Will Pearson]

Constantly. I'm like, ah, there's so much science I can't keep track it all.

[Mango]

Then it's a good thing. Our podcast, Part Time Genius is counting down the 25 greatest science ideas from the past 25 years.

[Will Pearson]

That's right, Mango. We're talking animals in a paper called.

[Mango]

Quote, chickens prefer beautiful humans. This was actually the title of the paper. They all discovered that much like humans, chickens are attracted to symmetrical faces.

[John Hope Bryant]

Got it.

[Mango]

We're talking medical miracles.

[Will Pearson]

He's an endocrinologist who found a way way to stimulate insulin producing cells using, wait for it, the saliva of a Gila monster.

[Mango]

There's no way to make that not sound crazy.

[Will Pearson]

We even talked to some of the experts behind these breakthroughs. It's a week full of fact packed stories you won't want to miss. So listen to the Part Time Genius countdown of the 25 greatest science ideas of the past 25 years starting Monday, March 3rd on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Amantha Imber]

While this podcast might be keeping you from being distracted, here's something to level up your focus. I'm Amantha Imber, host of the podcast How I Work. It's a show where I interview some of the world's most successful people and uncover how exactly they construct their days. From how to combat a scrolling addiction to morning rituals and productivity hacks. We explore how some of the best stay disciplined and manage their day time effectively. Where ambition meets inspiration. Search for how I work on the free iHeart app or in whatever podcast app you're listening to.

[John Hope Bryant]

Now, I've got this banking center, but I want to build a cyber cafe next to it. So I go and sell this idea to the vice president, I pitch him. He says, yes, this is a great idea. So I then went to Washington, D.C. for the Vice President's residence. The next day, met with the U.S. economic Development Administration and say, your vice president United States wants to support coming. He will cut. He's going to cut the ribbon for the Inner city Cyber Cafe on this date. It was like six weeks, eight weeks later. And. But the problem is I need to build it. It's going to cost me $600,000. I don't have the money. Will you give me the money for your vice president? So they said, we can't give you the whole amount, but we'll give you $300,000 grant. You got to raise the rest, the matching grant, no problem. I then took that $300,000 commitment. I went and they said, well, look, I said, do you guys know anybody who funds technology? Any computers and all this kind of stuff? Is it. Well, this is a guy named Steve Ryan. He's got a lot of clients there in technology. So I called this guy Steve Ryan and told him I spiel. He says, where are you? I said, I'm in D.C. i think he said he was in New York and he was there with his wife. I said, hold on, I'll be right there. So I flew to New York, met with him at a bar. His wife was checking me out to make sure that she was the one to make sure that I was not a charlatan. And he called me and says, yeah, my wife checked you out. She likes you. We'll help you. I'm gonna set up a conference call with you. These tech companies. So the call we. This is the next few days, tech companies get on the phone. One of the people on the phone was all saying, this is. This is a horrible idea. And I said, look, you need to get off the phone. You're negative energy. I told the other people on them, I don't. I don't need your money. And those I know I can't get a grant from you this short a period of time. But. But there's two ways to make money. Make more, you spend less. So I don't need your cash. I need your computers. I need your computers. I need your software. By the way, this is how I ended up with a partner named Intuit, who 20, 30. Really. 30 years later, the chairman of Intuit is. Former chairman of Intuit is now a very wealthy man. Brad Smith, who runs Marshall University in West Virginia. He's still on my board to this day. And he gave me A million dollars just recently. But, but back then, way back when, I didn't know him. I knew the vice president for giving, corporate giving back then at Intuit, which is makes Quicken software. And they weren't going to give me a dime. They didn't know who I was. But all I wanted was, I said, look, can you give me the software? Because you give me the software, I can grant it to small business owners in South Central la. It was called an in kind grant. Anyway, I got $300,000 of in kind computers and software and whatever from these tech companies. Didn't hang up the phone on that match the $300,000 grant from the private sector that matched the Federal grant for $300,000 comply made me compliant with that federal grant and then the money could flow. I then went to Turner Construction company and said, I need you to start work at cost because this is a good doing good work through my 501c3 tax exempt nonprofit organization. I'm going to give you a nonprofit in kind grant, in kind receipt for a charitable contribution for all the money you didn't make building this inner city cyber cafe. But you're going to get a lot of goodwill from building this. I want you to do that. And they're like, well, how, when you need this done at this point, I need it done in three or four weeks. That's impossible. Look, nothing's impossible. Just, just say yes. I'm gonna make you look great. We're gonna do a parade for you, whatever, right? So they're like, sure, they hide. They put this African dude. I always get assigned the black person. The whole white company get assigned. It doesn't have any more. We used to like. And this black guy did not want to be there. Did not want to be. I got one more story for you. Did not want to be in South Central LA at all. Nice guy, but didn't want to be there. Well, he was always there late. And so if he's late, the workers are late. Now I needed this work done on time. Now ladies, you're going to hate me for this next story. I apologize. But I'd had to do what I had to do. I said, I know how to get these guys to work. Mary Arson, please show up to the work site with your best smile and just stay there all day. And she'd get there early, bring coffee and donuts. And somehow these guys all showed up one time now for work sometime early and they stayed late. And they built this thing on cyber cafe. Now the vice president's team shows up, the security team, the Secret Service team, to do a security check. And it's a construction site, and they show up, and they're looking around, what the heck's going on here? And I showed up when they were there because I knew there'd be drama. I said, look, there's no problem. I'm doing your job for you. You can look right through the walls and see there's no bombs, there's no security threat. So they signed off on. On the. It's called an advance team. Did an advanced visit for security. They signed off on it. Vice President, United States came, cut the ribbon. We have photos of it. You can look them up online. It was a classic experience. And, yeah, that is how I met Michael Milken. That's a whole nother story. I don't have time to tell you, but there was one story that I did want to leave you with, and it left me just that. I see. I've got so excited now. I've got. I've gotten into this. All these battle wounds from. From Operation Hope and what we did and how we did it and what we ducked and what we. You know, the many times we could have got plastered, I'll tell you, I had this grant that went sideways. Well, it wasn't a. It was a series of grants that we had, and we. And we got the. We. We got the allocations wrong, and we had multiple years of. Of just bad books. One day we found out that our bookkeeper. It was a brother, did not have a bank account. This is like Operation was founded in 92. This is like a 94, 95. I think our whole budget was, like $300,000 or something. Budget is now, of course, 70, 75 million, give or take. But the guy. We had so much compassion in our hearts, we hired anybody, and we hired this guy. Rachel, listen to this. She'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Lance might know. And he did not have a bank account. Our bookkeeper did not have a bank account. Yes, we quietly walked him out the door, and, you know, we gave him a little gift to go away with. And that was not his fault. It was ours. We shouldn't have hired him in the first place. And we got our books and records straight because. Because, again, that's a perfect way to have the government shut your stuff down or worse, go to prison if you cannot account for public money. So we, from that time forward, once I got saved by that. I think Fred Smith was our president back then, who was a former assistant Deputy Treasurer for the State of California. Once I got our books and records straight, I made a vow I would never get into that situation ever again. I'd be paranoid about the money. And I was and I still am. There's been so many times I've had people steal from me. I've had, I had a former president of the organization take money. I've had board members try to oust me because they thought I was getting too brick for my britches. I was in LA and I now want to move from LA to a regional. I was in la. I think the first office we opened was New York. That's a whole nother story. But the directors who were in la, the board members who were in LA saw me getting on planes going across the country and they had to fight the freeway going from Southern California to Northern California. And they were a big deal in la, but no one knew them outside of la. And here, here I am, this little black kid from Compton in New York City and they were not feeling it. And so before I knew it there was a campaign to unseat me for my own non profit and I had to again, once again you got to learn to step over mess and not in it. And don't be emotional and don't get mad, get even. Success is the best revenge. And ultimately they resigned from the board. I didn't and I'm still here and they're not and, and I again I know the names and they were friendly until they weren't. Business and capitalism or gladiator sports is not personal. Do not take this stuff personal. I've just been amused by all these folks who underestimated me over time and they got caught slipping. I didn't. And these, I had this, this guy who, Bob Bishop was his name but he didn't exist. Meaning that he was a made up person. Somebody had hired somebody and to try to take me out because I was talking all this mess about the check cashing industry, whatever. And this guy supposedly named Bob Bishop, we investigated. This guy didn't exist. Like he was there but it wasn't a real person, but he was. But this person with his name was sending letters to my board members and again if my records weren't straight I, I'd have been out, I'd been out of there. But it was a lie and I was able to prove that he, that my, that I was running Opera show properly. He said I had basically had my hand the cookie jar of operation Note which anybody who knows me knows. It's just Absolutely not true. And, and he went away. I didn't. I mean literally. He just stopped. He just went away when. And I think the person who, who was associated with him went away with him. All these experiments experiences made me haters make you, make it make you greater. Like all these experiences just made me a better leader and a better person, made me more resilient. I don't hate anybody. I don't resent anybody. I'm a happy guy and I'm still as loving and supportive of even people who player hated me back then. People who, if somebody who player hated me back then called me day, I'd still try to help them. I actually do get these calls all the time. People want me to hire them all this stuff. We have 400 employees today. We're in 42 states. We have thousands of volunteers. We have millions of clients. Our partners are the best companies and biggest companies in the country of 5,000 community based nonprofit partners. We have a bunch of initiatives like One Million Black Business Initiative with Shopify, committed $190 million to that initiative. Maybe I'll tell you that story before I wrap up. We're already over an hour. Have you enjoyed this by the way, or you tired of hear me rambling? We have financial literacy for all which I co chair with Doug Millen, the CEO of Walmart, another great leader. And our missionaries get 80% of the Fortune 500 to make financial literacy part of its core mission. One MBB works well because it's just really about creating new customers for Shopify. I remember I was on Roland Martin show and somebody said, well, what's the big deal about Shopify? Why are they giving us all this money? I'm like, they want more customers, right? And it turns out even though I said that in 2020 after George Floyd's murder tears out, that's a, that was the best strategy for 2024. Like it wasn't DEI, wasn't some minority program. It's just we just, you know, they Shopify wanted more customers and we wanted more black businesses to be created and grown. And so those two things happen to work together. And there are a lot of other stuff operation was doing. But let me stop, go back to Shopify for a minute. I had done a town hall meeting. Normally I get paid to speak, but this time this billionaire who ran Shopify was a friend of mine and asked me to give a speech for his team for free. I. I said sure. And so I did it and it was over. And it was virtual. And in my payments for Speaking were that's not my job at operation Hope to give my personal time to speak. So if I want to pay to speak, if I want to get paid to speak, you know, that's my own business as long as I'm not doing it on Operation Hopes time or an operational capacity. So I did this for free. I. I speak for for a fee so I can afford to speak for free often. And when it was over, he said, well, what can I do for you? And I said, well, let's try to make sure right the George Floyd situations don't happen again. Help me, I don't know, help me create a new million a million new black businesses in America. And he said, that's interesting. Now I didn't say hook me up or hook my cousin up or hoop pookie up, my friend. I said, help me think big about these communities. He said, well, that's an interesting idea. Send me a proposal. So I wrote something up very short because you don't want to give somebody two, three, four weeks to forget about you again. Don't let the perfect become the death of the good. I sent it in right away and I waited a few days. Crickets, nothing. I waited a week. Crickets, nothing. So then I wrote a letter back to Toby. Hey, Toby, you know, love you brother. Thank you very much for being considerate and caring and wanting to help of the community. I recognize I didn't hear back from you that you're probably not interested. No big deal. We'll do something else down the road. Wish you well. Thanks for your care. Sign John Bryant Send. I get an email back almost instantly. What are you talking about? John Bryant we said yes. I go to my spam folder. There's a commitment of $130 million that would end up being a He said yes. But it ultimately became because I worked with it was Toby I there's a Toby Y used to be there there's now Harley Finkelstein who's the president, who's my guy and he supports us and this CAS and all these people there who have grown all these relationships with Shopify. But that was Toby, the founder and that ultimately ended up becoming $130 million commitment that I cut a deal I cut three days before my Hope Global forum that allows people to start businesses essentially for free on Shopify, which is E commerce. And just always, always check your spam folder. But always be gracious. Here's a rule I use for life and business talk without being offensive, listen without being defensive and always leave even your Adversary with their dignity. Because if you don't do that then they will. They will spend the rest of their life trying to make you miserable. It becomes personal except over mess and not in it. So Operation Hope today is coaching all dealt. This is hope. Inside the workplace is another business model I've created and we pioneered financial coaching with inside of corporate corporations. So we have. We're a financial Coach for all 100,000 Delta employees. Financial coach for UPS employees, financial coach. So now for some Walmart employees for Venetian hotel employees in Las Vegas. So we're paid more than it costs us to do it. That's our sustainability model. So we run nonprofit like you run a business, even though it's a 501C3 check exempt status and we check all the boxes. But we run it on a sustainable basis. And that's what I encourage you to do is to figure out can you solve a problem? Can you. But can you. But when you solve that problem, can you run the entity that you're trying to run it to solve the problem with, with the, the, the, with the highest level of integrity and, and yes, vision but business finesse, financial acumen and return on investment, whether that's a nonprofit or a for profit, the rules are all the same. If you want to hear more of these stories, if this is useful for you, let me know in the comments and I'd be happy to. As I'm going through this, there's so much of this background that I had to manage and maneuver my way through without getting triggered or upset or petty. I had to always sort of rise above and keep it going and never give up and never give in. And oftentimes doing things for free turned into opportunity later on. It was my way of proving that I was there for the right reasons. I wasn't there for a quick buck or a transaction. I was there because I believed 100% in the mission. And ultimately Operation Hope moved to home ownership, which became a big thing. We've done well over a billion or maybe $2 billion in homeownership disaster response mortgage crisis. We did mortgage crisis counseling and coaching. Banks paid us to work out mortgage to restructure mortgages for people. During the 2008 crisis, we did about a billion dollars of restructuring those mortgages. Yeah, I mean, and on and on and on and on and on. And I've worked with Republican and Democratic administrations. I've served as an advisor for three. We Rene. We triggered the renaming of the building on the White House campus called the Freedmen's bank. Building. And we're finishing, in our way, continuing our way, in our small way, the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And his poor People's Campaign, as well as the Freedmen's Bank, Frederick Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln of 1865. In 1968, this unfinished work, which we call Silver Rights From Civil Rights to Silver Rights Tell your friends to follow Money and Wealth. Tell them to buy the book Financial Literacy for All, which is a best seller a year after its publishing as of April. Tell your friends to follow us on social media at Operation Hope and at John Hope Bryant and be inspired, be encouraged, and listen to the other episodes I have on the series where we solve other problems for you. I want you to have a whole library of where I unpack and demystify how to live your best life and how to not just crawl up the ladder, but own that dang ladder. At some point, if you want to join the Opera Joe Mission, you can do it with a small contribution to become a member or for free. See, it's not about the money for me. We're teaching money. But I'm actually not obsessed about money. I'm obsessed with helping you to take your life back. John O'Brien, Love and Light I'll see you in the next episode. 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 Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Shannon Schuyler]

In a world of economic uncertainty and workplace transformation, learn to lead by example from visionary C Suite executives like Shannon Schuyler of PwC and Will Pearson of iHeartMedia. The good teacher explains the great Teacher inspires.

[Will Pearson]

Don't always leave your team to do the work that's been the most important part of how to lead by example.

[Shannon Schuyler]

Listen to Leading by Example Executives Making an impact on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Mango]

Hey, Will, do you ever get overwhelmed by how much science happens these days?

[Will Pearson]

Constantly. I'm like, ah, there's so much science I can't keep track of it all.

[Mango]

Then it's a good thing. Our podcast Part Time Genius is counting down the 25 greatest science ideas from the past 25 years.

[Will Pearson]

That's right, Mango. We're talking animals in a paper called.

[Mango]

Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans. This was actually the title of the paper. They all discovered that, much like humans, chickens are attracted to symmetrical faces.

[John Hope Bryant]

Got it.

[Mango]

We're talking medical miracles.

[Will Pearson]

He's an endocrinologist who found a way to stimulate insulin producing cells using, wait for it, the saliva of a Gila monster.

[Mango]

There's no way to make that not sound crazy.

[Will Pearson]

We even talked to some of the experts behind these breakthroughs. It's a week full of fact packed stories you won't want to miss. So listen to the part time Genius countdown of the 25 greatest science ideas of the past 25 years starting Monday, March 3rd on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bob Pittman]

Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. I'm excited to introduce a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. I'm having conversations with some folks across a wide range of industries to hear how they reach the top of their fields and the lessons they learned along the way that everyone can use. I'll be joined by innovative leaders like Chairman and CEO of Elf Beauty, Tarang Amin, legendary singer, songwriter and philanthropist Jewel.

[Amantha Imber]

Being a rock star is very fun, but helping people is way more fun.

[Bob Pittman]

And Damian Maldonado, CEO of American Financing.

[John Hope Bryant]

I figured out the formula. I just have to work hard then that's magic.

[Bob Pittman]

Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to math and Magic on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your pipe.

[Shannon Schuyler]

What if you ask two different people the same set of questions? Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast and now Mini Questions is returning for another season. We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions, including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe and Cord Jefferson. Listen to Mini questions on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Seven questions limitless answers.