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The Breakfast Club
INTERVIEW: John Hope Bryant Debunks The Myths of Capitalism, Talks Inclusive Economics, New Book + More
01:09:58
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- [00:00]
Charlamagne Tha God
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human hold up.
- [00:06]
DJ Envy
Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up.
- [00:08]
John Hope Bryant
The Breakfast Club. Y' all finished or y' all done?
- [00:12]
Lauren LaRose
Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy. Just hilarious. Charlamagne, the guy. We are the breakfast club. Lauren LaRose is here as well. We got a special guest in the building.
- [00:19]
DJ Envy
Yes, indeed, John Hope.
- [00:21]
Lauren LaRose
Bryan is back. Welcome.
- [00:22]
John Hope Bryant
Honored to be with you.
- [00:23]
Lauren LaRose
New book, right now, Capitalism for All. Available right now.
- [00:27]
DJ Envy
Now, you know, that's a provocative title, Capitalism for all. People will say it sounds good, but has capitalism in America ever actually been for all?
- [00:36]
John Hope Bryant
Not really.
- [00:37]
DJ Envy
And is it good for all?
- [00:39]
John Hope Bryant
Can be.
- [00:39]
DJ Envy
Okay.
- [00:40]
John Hope Bryant
I mean, look, the Bible says money's not evil. It's a love of money that's evil. And look, you know, 2008 economic crisis was really bad for a lot of people. Wasn't bad for me. I didn't take one of those reverse subprime mortgages with a negative amortization loan. Pick a payment where every payment you made, you were broker, you owed more money. After every payment was a negative amortization loan. That's financial literacy. That's people taking advantage of our people. You know, good capitalism is where I benefit and you benefit more.
- [01:16]
DJ Envy
No, you've been benefiting for a long time.
- [01:18]
John Hope Bryant
No, no, standby. Okay, good capitalism. My definition, good capitalism, where I benefit and you benefit more. So somebody designing a. A comb or glasses or, you know, that jacket and. Okay, I like the jacket. The. The glasses make me enhance my look. It's worth the money I'm paying for. Bad capitalism is where I benefit and you pay a price for it. Rape, murder, sex trafficking, drug dealing. You know, we can talk gangsterism on Wall street or Main Street. Good debt and bad debt, Right? Good debt is something that's tied to something that appreciates real estate, stocks, bonds and businesses. Bad debts tie something to depreciates financing, jewelry, you know, and so all these things are neutral. It depends how you use them. Right. So something hit me two days ago when I was preparing to come in here, and I didn't want to come in here with just talking about a book, because it's not about the book. It's about. This is about a business plan for the rest of our lives. But how do I explain that? It hit me like we're in the third reconstruction right now. From the streets to the suites. The color. The only. The only. The only colorblind color is economic green. That's the only colorblind color now. Second reconstruction. We thought we. I'm talking about Black people now. We thought we made it. We thought we were free. Reality is we didn't make it. Somebody made it for us. Andrew Young, who is here? Ambassador Andrew Young, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Dorothy Height, Greta Scott King. The heroes and sheroes of the second reconstruction and the president, President Johnson and the legislatures created these, this infrastructure post slavery, first reconstruction freedom where we had affirmative action, we had, you call it DEI now you had set aside contracts. You have, you, you have, you, you have voting rights and all public access laws. So we're like, okay, cool, we're free. No, you're in a bubble. We're in a 70 year bubble of protection. This is deep when you think about this. We thought we were operating in the free enterprise system and capitalism and we were out here doing our thing and no, you're operating in a padded sale.
- [03:44]
DJ Envy
Expand, expound on that.
- [03:47]
John Hope Bryant
This. It only hit me a couple of days ago. I mean I've been wondering like why am I so uncomfortable? Why do I think we're in trouble? We thought that when we got that job in the 60s, we were able to go to the lunch counter in the 60s that we were free. We thought, okay, we got the right to fold. We got. No, that was dependent upon somebody else according your respect and dignity. It was dependent upon the government always being fair and reasonable. It was dependent upon the popular public never turning, turning against us. It was dependent upon Dr. King, Andrew Young and others given their life so that we might have life so that we have the right to vote. I mean it's literally codified in a, in, in the cons, you know, in the amended constitution. So we would have the right because we were considered property. So these things were afforded us, not provided to us. It wasn't an original thing. It was a, it was a layered on thing. It was a box of protection that thank God all that came before us gave us. But they gave it to us, we didn't give it to ourselves and we don't own it. And it could be taken away as we're seeing now. Boom. And what hit me? Why am I so uncomfortable? We cash a check, we don't write it. We had access to the lunch counter, we don't own it. We bounce the basketball, we don't own the stadium. I was hit a basketball game with Tony Wrestler, the owner of Atlanta Hawks, my business partner and friend, two weeks ago. They won that night and he was very happy. But I was in the players area where they parked the cars. I mean it looked like a parking lot. It Looked. It looked like one of your car shows. It was absolutely beautiful. And I'm so proud. These brothers legitimately making their money and all that kind of thing. The humblest car in the whole parking lot was here was Tony the only one not dripping in jewelry. Tony, Tony. That jeans on a pullover. His wife, Jamie Gertz, dressed down. They worth? I don't know. I don't tell their business, but 15 billion.
- [05:51]
DJ Envy
Executive producer of the Magic City documentary, too, by the way.
- [05:53]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
No, that's not.
- [05:54]
John Hope Bryant
That's right. Honorary black people, really cool people. They put the money where their mouth is. But we don't own that. They do. And he paid the players with his petty cash. But the players are not flossing, but they're flowing like they own the whole situation. I mean, they're on the. I asked Tony, how much does the front row cost? I looked there. Tony, by the way, Tony's up at the 10th row. We up. You call it a nosebleed. Seats. We're up at the 10th row. I'm cool with it. I'm with the owner, but down. He's like, oh, yeah, that's. He knew the price of every seat. 3,500 per ticket per seat, per game. He knew. And because he. Cha Ching, Cha Ching, Cha Ching.
- [06:34]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Yeah.
- [06:34]
John Hope Bryant
Another billionaire friend of mine used to own strip clubs and. And. And all kind of other clubs. And he said to me one day, we should go to one of these clubs. I'm like, what do you mean we? You mean we should go to the. You don't. You. Didn't you own these clubs? I've never been to one. My children have never been to one. My family have never. I won't let them go. He. For 20 years, he bought them, owned them, sold them. So I'm looking at the system and saying, we cashed that check. We never wrote it. We didn't. We weren't. We didn't graduate to owning the company or CEO at scale. We didn't graduate to ownership. We didn't. We didn't take the next leptic. We got comfortable in the second reconstruction. And then when the mood shifted in this country, it all fell away. And what hits me now is falling away all at once. And now you have a government that's either neutral to you or hostile. We never had this in the history of this country. At the federal level, you had a mayor. You had a governor. Never at the federal level. So now the civil rights assumptions are fading away. People are talking about white people are being discriminated against. They're flipping the civil rights acts on some on. On their heads. You can't. So you're on your own. You cannot rely on the government. You're being thrown into 300,000 black women. Last year conservative number were unemployed qualified competent people. The unemployment rate for black people is double the national average today in growing. So you have. Economically, we're being thrown into the fire. Politically, we've thrown in the fire. Socially, you're thrown into the fire. Right. An AI changing the game all at the same time. I'm saying, you know what? We've been doing so much with so little for so long. We can almost do anything with nothing. We just need to master this new game. Because to quote Reverend Jesse Jackson, where the God rest his soul, where the rules are published and the playing field is level, we kill it. The arts. Top of the game. Congratulations on Netflix, by the way.
- [08:45]
DJ Envy
Thank you, sir.
- [08:46]
John Hope Bryant
Congrats. Top. Top of the game. Not the black game, not the brown game. The game. Faith. Our brother Bishop T.D. jakes and many others. Politics. From slavery to the President of the United States of America, President Barack Obama. Professional sports. Too many examples to name Jordan's now gone from basketball to nascar. By the way, congratulations on your sponsorship of a NASCAR team. I'm paying attention. But we haven't done it in capitalism and we're in a capitalist democracy. It's the music business. It's the business of music. It's a sports business. It's a business of sports. Nothing happens without understanding how the money moves and the dollar works and how wealth is created. But no one gave us that memo. That's my fourth book. And no one taught us about financial literacy. That's my last book. And no one's gamed us ungain capitalism. That's this book. And. And God has a sense of humor. Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. Andrew Young quote. We're on the 250th anniversary of America is the 100th anniversary of black History Month. Thank you. Carter G. Woodson can't make this up. And for the first time in history, you cannot have a future. You cannot have a country that's. You never had a country that wasn't the superpower of the world if it wasn't the economic power ever Rome all the way forward. You cannot now have a superpower. The economic power without black brown people and women never happened in the history of America. But the demographics have shifted and so now they need us to succeed.
- [10:27]
DJ Envy
When you say we've never done it in capitalism what about the Bob Johnson's, Robert Smith's, the David Stewarts, the Byron Allens?
- [10:35]
John Hope Bryant
Somebody told me yesterday. Forget who it was. I know. I think it was Bishop. T.D. jakes. If you've got a. When you can name the success stories we failed. Name white entrepreneurs. It's just name. Name white billionaires. Name Jewish billionaires. You can't. It's just too many.
- [10:55]
DJ Envy
Do you have to be a billionaire to be at the top of the game?
- [10:57]
John Hope Bryant
No, no, no, I just, no, I was just, I was just giving that as a, as a category. I mean, name black. Sorry, name white. Multi millionaires or centimillionaires. There's too many to name. It doesn't matter what category. Small business owners, Fortune 500 CEOs, it's too many to name. I get what you're saying, but when you come to black people, you literally can go, oh yeah, you know, and by the way, kudos on that. Fantastic. It's a North Star, but it's the exception, not the rule. I want to make it the rule. I sent you a video yesterday, remember?
- [11:29]
DJ Envy
Yeah.
- [11:30]
John Hope Bryant
Of all these, these white folks here on vacation. Everybody's walking around on their phone, short pants, T shirt. Everybody's wondering. It's like, this is business. What business leaders look like on vacation. Everybody's gonna. I want to see that with black America and brown America everywhere, every city.
- [11:45]
DJ Envy
Are you trying to fix capitalism or sell people on believing in a system that hasn't always worked for them?
- [11:49]
John Hope Bryant
I want to, I want to, I don't want to do either. I want to upgrade the software. So I guess you can call it fix it. But I, I want to, I want to, I want to repair it and I want to upgrade it. I also want to upgrade us as we do it. Because even if capitalism was, was repaired, we aren't prepared for the, for the moment. In my opinion, there was like a hundred billion dollars committed to black people and brown people after George Floyd's murder.
- [12:16]
DJ Envy
You ain't seen none of it.
- [12:18]
John Hope Bryant
None of it. Not one dollar. The press release was issued, but we, we never, we never got to the point where we went to, with a business plan to whoever was, was on the press release. Hey, I, I'm gonna, I want to move on. $10 million of that equity, $20 million of that debt. I want to buy that company. I've got my, my, my lending set up. I've already got the credit. Right. I've got, you know, I understand the economic structure. My LLC is in place. I'm already got Bonding from, you know, we, we weren't playing the game the way the, the games need to be played.
- [12:50]
DJ Envy
You know who used to make, make sure that those corporations, you know, did what they said he was going to do? Reverend Jesse Jackson.
- [12:56]
John Hope Bryant
Yeah, yeah. Yes, but we gotta, yes, but we, now we even. He would say he shook the tree. He needed us to make, he needed us to plant the seed and make, and make it into something. We don't need tree shakers now, just, just tree shakers. We need plant makers. We need to build the plant. We need to, we, we need to, we need to go from PhD to PhD and we have to do this right now. I mean this is the fierce urgency of now. To quote Dr. King, this is, this is that moment of both problem and opportunity. Artificial intelligence. To quote Van Jones, 99% of black people don't know a thing about AI, but 99% of white folks don't know a thing about AI either. And the first jobs is taken are white people, white middle class attorneys, accountants, anybody who's in anything can be processed. That six figure incomes gone away instantly. Then it's going to come for customer service jobs. But we, we, you can't fall from the floor. And the very, and the very thing that we were good at has never valued being creative, duckling diving, being innovative, being resilient over the rounded through it, we're going to get to it. Being creative. These are very leadership, these are the very things that AI can't do.
- [14:14]
Lauren LaRose
Now this conversation that we're having, I feel like we have this conversation every two years, right? We talk about, put a mirror into our community and we talk about that we don't have home ownership, that we don't have assets. And we look at all the things that a lot of us do have, whether it's cars, it's jewelry, it's this. When does that change and we start going into a plan to do something different, right? When does that change? Because we have these conversations every year, you know, and you know, we'll say hey, look at the owner of the company, he's wearing a ugly polo and some khakis and everybody else is wearing $10,000 Chrome Heart jeans, right? We go through this every couple of years, but how do we change that? Because if not, it's just the same conversation over and over again, right? And you talk about the 2008 market, the real estate market that fell and yeah, it fell because I think a lot of people that didn't have means found it their only way to get in Right. Because a lot of people's credit scores were low. A lot of people didn't have the finances to put down on their first home. A lot of people don't know much about. I remember in that 2008 market, I think my interest rates at the time when I bought my house was like 12.
- [15:22]
John Hope Bryant
That's right. That was the average. Right.
- [15:23]
Lauren LaRose
I didn't know any better. I asked a friend at the time, which was, was Busta Rhymes. And Busta Rhymes was like, use my guy and you use this guy and you think 12 is what you. What it is. And then you learn. So how do we change that? You know, because people don't know who to trust anymore.
- [15:38]
John Hope Bryant
Right? So first of all, I never let the perfect become the death of the good. So I'm glad you got in the game in 2008. I almost lost my house in 2008. It was not because I got a bad mortgage, but it was some other things going on. But you know, it went down in value. All my friends told me to sell it. They were broke. Luckily I didn't. But I couldn't pay the property taxes easily. And I rented out to a, a police officer, a black police officer, to be specific, in la. He didn't pay his rent right on time. But I held onto it. And it went from 200,000. I bought it for 200,000 down 160 or something. People, everybody sell, sell, sell. I hold onto it. And five years later I looked up, it's worth $750,000. And I sold it, got a capital gains, took that money, 1031 tax free exchange, flipped it into a Property now worth 5 million. But I, but, but. So I don't begrudge you or anybody else trying and getting in the game. You were actually pioneering, actually. And everybody who tried were pioneering. But pioneers get arrows. Here's what gives me hope, man. I'm trying to do so I get emotional. I went to Delta last night late. We coach all 100,000 Delta employees at Operation Hope. But the person who sent me at the curb, young lady, she put out her American Express blue card and then her Mar Express platinum card. And she's like, I've been on this grind for two years, John. My credit score is 7 11. And she knew everything about her entire financial picture. I didn't start this conversation. She ran her mouth from the time we headed to that curb to the time I got on that plane, talking about her life and how it had completely transformed and her self esteem is up. I get on the Plane, three people walk on. Can I get a picture? Y' all aren't used to this. I've been doing this for 33 years. I don't know what happened. It's like a switch is flipped. And I've had a billion video views in two years. But this thing I'm talking about right now, this is like the last eight months. I can't go anywhere. I'm on the plane. Can I get a picture? I get off the plane. Yo, man, what's up? Come at midnight. Something's happened, man. I don't know what it is, but it's inspiring.
- [17:53]
DJ Envy
And you're not saying that because of. For ego purposes. You're saying that because of the information
- [17:57]
Liberty Mutual Male Voice (Ad)
that you're putting down.
- [17:59]
DJ Envy
No, I'm saying people are eating the information.
- [18:01]
John Hope Bryant
They're eating the information up. It's got nothing to do with me. I've been saying this for 33 years. If I was special, I should have been special 30 years ago. There's nothing to do with me. I'm emotional because I'm like, oh, my people smart. We getting the memo. I'm not screaming into the wilderness. I just think Dr. King gave that I have a Dream speech, man, a hundred times before the march on Washington. So many times that Mahalia Jackson said, if you looked at the tape, she's off to the left. Tell them about the dream, Martin. Translation, I've heard this speech so many dang on times. Will you please give me something original? And he ripped. He started. He started rapping black children, white children, Jews and Jews. But before that, he thought he was not effective. And there's so many leaders who. I'm sure you show up here and you. Well, you're saying it now. We've been talking about this for every two years. I just think you gotta wait for the moment. You can't go to grace, but you can prepare yourself well for the coming of grace to you. Our people are smart, man. But if it looks easy, if it looks like there's an easier route, we gonna take it. That's in human nature. Nobody changes in good times. Why would you. You just go shopping. We only change in bad times.
- [19:13]
DJ Envy
But capitalism is a dirty word to a lot of people. Like, they don't even want to hear it. And they hear the word billionaire, they hear the word capitalism. They just think it's something evil. They think that it's ruined America. It hasn't worked for everybody. What do you say to those folks?
- [19:29]
John Hope Bryant
That's wrong. It's wrong on several levels. First of all people say, let's go. Let's not even talk about billionaires, just talking about rich. I hate rich people. I hear this all over the place. I hate rich people. No, you don't. You hate rich people until you become rich. What you hate is a game system. What you hate is that you've been working two jobs. You, you, you toe up on the floor, you got too much month at the end of your money and no matter how hard you work, you can't seem to get by. And so you look at these people who are half wits and people are half as smart as you are at the top and you go, if they're winning and I'm losing, if I'm taking an L, they must be crooks. This system must be rigged. No, if you hang around nine broke people, you'll be the 10th, right. Why do you go to Harvard? Because it's going to make you five times smarter than a state university. No, the class of 2026 at Harvard is going to hook each other up for the next 40 years. Connections, connections. Relationship capital. Why are you part of, why are you part of a country club? Why are you part of a fraternity or sorority? Why are you, I mean, people don't think about it this way. These are all clubs. What kind of clubs are you hanging out? Are you just hanging out in the club? Are you a member of a club? Right. If you're a member of a club, what kind of club is it? Most places I go, I'm the only brother there. I want to change that. It's not something I, that makes me proud, but somebody's got to put their foot in the door. Somebody, somebody's got to get in the door and stand there. I was with last week, it was Robert Smith. God bless what he's doing. He did this aware fest in for HBCUs, raised money last week.
- [21:05]
DJ Envy
I saw that.
- [21:07]
John Hope Bryant
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and we just happened to run each other in a hallway. Robert Smith comes over. Is Tyler Perry. Yo. Dapping it up. We have a private moment, conversations while it takes a picture. They post it like, oh, no, that's what we, that's what we want to see. Now you can't, you can't make this up. But that's basically three businessmen right now. We need to see business women too. But we, I just think that, I think business celebrity is a new celebrity. I think capitalism has to include us in the capital stack. When I was growing up, I didn't know until I walked down the street. As I talked financial literacy that the muffler shop was a capitalist. I didn't know. The nail salon. The nail salon. I got my nails done yesterday. They didn't do it for free. I paid them. Right. You got children. No one's taking care of those children for free.
- [21:53]
DJ Envy
That's right.
- [21:53]
John Hope Bryant
Unless it's your grandma. I mean, real talk.
- [21:56]
DJ Envy
Yeah.
- [21:56]
John Hope Bryant
Help me out here. You're getting your hair done. They're not doing that for free. Somebody doing your, your, your. Your. What they call it, my wife calls it, when somebody does your. Your. Your clothes.
- [22:08]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Wardrobe.
- [22:08]
John Hope Bryant
Your wardrobe. You have dry cleaning, too. They're not doing that for free. But. But even that one's an easier one. Wardrobe is a little bit more nuanced. They're not doing that for free.
- [22:16]
Lauren LaRose
Even if.
- [22:17]
John Hope Bryant
Am I right?
- [22:17]
DJ Envy
You're right. Even if you don't believe in capitalism, your behavior will be that of a capitalist because of the system that we're in.
- [22:23]
John Hope Bryant
No, no. Go one step further, Charlemagne. We're all capitalists. So, okay, if you're going to work and they paying you a salary or hourly, you're using your human capital and you're trading it for compensation. Now, it would be the lower. A lower level of risk. You're not taking the risk in the enterprise. You're not Bob Pittman at iHeart. Right. You're not Charlemagne at Black Effect Network, but you are. You are risking your time and you wanted to be compensated for. For compensation. Otherwise you show up for free. Right? So capitalism is at every level. It doesn't matter how much risk reward. Now, I'm an entrepreneur. It's the highest level of craziness. But I take a lot of risk. I want a lot of reward. If I. If it pays off. We need more people who look like us who are getting reward for that risk. If. And do it like. What's a drug dealer? Come on, let's real talk now.
- [23:14]
Lauren LaRose
Entrepreneur.
- [23:15]
DJ Envy
Yeah.
- [23:16]
John Hope Bryant
Illegal and ethical. Okay, let's set that out to make that clear. But then if you're a successful drug dealer. Knows an oxymoron. You're not dumb. No, you understand. Import, export, finance, marketing, wholesale retail, customer service, employees, security. Hr.
- [23:32]
Lauren LaRose
The HR is a little more dangerous
- [23:33]
Charlamagne Tha God
than quality control and control distribution.
- [23:38]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Yeah.
- [23:38]
John Hope Bryant
If you're a. If you're a gang leader, you're a frustrated union organizer. These are people with. These are folks with talents and skills. Man. Look, it's real talk. Where did NASCAR come from? Moonshine running in the Appalachian Mountains. Poor white people running from the police selling alcohol, which was illegal. They realized this is you know we're going to end up dead or in prison, Probation, parole. We can't do this. Let's stop the moonshine part. What part of this are we good at that's legal? The driving. We can now we can't drive on the street like that. Okay. So they, they went up on the beach and they then they found a field and they were going circles because they use. It was just. They found. It was a small field. That's how that started running in a circle. Nobody would naturally drive a car in a circle is what it was. It was a real estate. Somebody gave them. Well, that same family that, that started that it. Don't trust me? Go do your research for those families that billionaires in NASCAR today, same families are running the moonshine. They just mainstreamed it, legitimized it. Now it's got logos on it now. Now Michael Jordan is in the game, right? All I'm saying is let's stop hating this game and let's master it.
- [24:49]
Charlamagne Tha God
Question for you, right, so when you say something like that and people, you talk about people having an issue with capitalism, it's the fact that like you got people that get to a certain point. So like you say you go into country clubs, wherever you go, you're normally the only black person. Jay Z, I've heard him talk about capitalism and somebody to get in. Because when you get to a certain point, you're not doing business with people that look like you.
- [25:07]
John Hope Bryant
His 444 album was by the way, a financial literacy album.
- [25:09]
Charlamagne Tha God
Right? But when you get to these places, the truth of the matter is a lot of people don't make it there, right? So when we're trying to get to this equal for all, capitalism for all place, who's more responsible to make that happen? Is it the person that's in the room to throw down the resources or is it the person that really doesn't have the ladder? I know you have that chapter in your book, right? To climb up and continue climbing even when it gets to the point where like I can't even see the person that's already made it in the room and nor can they see me because there's such a disconnect.
- [25:37]
John Hope Bryant
Like, so you've asked a really, really good question and you actually answered it too. It's both. I'm responsible if I'm in the room or don peoples or whoever it is, because to whom much is given, much is required. Service is the pay is is the rent you pay on your success and giving back and lifting up because we were lifted up. I mean, somebody opened the door for me. So we must go out of our way to help our brothers and sisters to come up. But it's a hand up, not a hand out out. If you, if you tell your rear end, if you, I'll hire you because you're black, I will fire you if you're incompetent, straight up, right? And I, and I have a bunch of, of black vendors. In fact, most of my vendors are black and women and minority. But if they tear their rear end three, four times, you're done with me. I, I, I'm, I'm not tolerating that mess. You can waste my money, you can't waste my time on the other side of that, that, that situation. If I'm trying to come up and I'm trying to get that John Bryan contract, or I'm trying to get that Charlemagne or you know, whoever Lauren, the country, I need to make sure I'm top of the mark. I make sure that, that I, that when I leave the room, nobody should say, but, you know, I like, I like, you know, I, I like. But, but I, I, I, I like, I like them. But no, no, no, that's a problem. When you're born black in America, you got to be twice as smart, twice as intelligent, twice as well dressed, show up twice as early, leave twice as late, and understand you'll get half the pay. And don't have an attitude about it. Just, just let the haters make you better over the round through it. We're going to get to it. Life's not fair. And there is no perfect. Don't let the perfect be the death of the good. I was saying that earlier, but I, I lost my point. Don't have the perfect. Beyond the death of the good, there is no perfect. This game is not changing. It's getting worse, harder, quicker, faster. And it's going to leave us behind with us sitting here noodling around, rearranging the deck chairs in the Titanic. We have got to get our hustle, focus on the right thing.
- [27:33]
DJ Envy
I don't disagree with you, but you work twice as hard to get half the pay initially. That's why people don't like capitalism.
- [27:39]
John Hope Bryant
So what? Life, life's not fair. I didn't create the system. I'm telling you how to work it. Look, there's some things that are just is. Why, why is a black neighborhood worth less than a white neighborhood? Because in the 1920s, 1930s, the federal government redlined. We don't have time to Go into details here. But literally, the federal government put a red marker and said, these neighborhoods are dangerous. And then there was a green neighborhood and yellow neighborhoods. So where did the federal guarantees go for mortgages? Went to the green and the yellow neighborhoods. Where the banks finance the loans in the green and the yellow neighborhoods. Where did nobody finance alone? In the red neighborhoods. So the real estate got depressed in values in the red neighborhoods. You follow me? And the real estate's increased in value because they were able to get financing at prime rates in the yellow and the green neighborhoods. Now, that's historic and that's 100 years old. I can't change that. And I'm not gonna sit here and debate about it. But when I bought that condo for $200,000 and sold it for $750,000, I cleared a profit of $550,000. I'm not saying. Yeah, but the guy across the freeway was double that. It probably was double that, by the way. But that's.
- [28:58]
Lauren LaRose
That's.
- [28:58]
John Hope Bryant
That ain't got nothing to do with me. That's still my $550,000, and I still turn that into $5 million. My money still works for me. My wealth works for me. My success works for me. But if you spend your time being angry, angry is not a strategy. Frustration is not a business plan. And by the way, I ask people this, how's that work for us so far? So we've tried everything else. So what I said about when I first came in here, we tried everything else. We tried government. We tried civil, civil service, social justice. We've tried working for the man, not working for the man. We've tried illegal. We tried, you know, we tried all we try. How's it worked? Does that set us free? It's like when people ask me about this, it's like somebody saying, well, why should I try God? Because God cannot possibly mismanage and screw up your life worse than you had. Give them a shot.
- [30:00]
Lauren LaRose
My question is, you know, people like easy conversations, right?
- [30:04]
John Hope Bryant
Yeah, yeah. It's not an easy one.
- [30:06]
Lauren LaRose
They like to be guided, right? And the reason I say they like to be guided because a lot of times people just don't know, right? We only see what our environment is, right? That's why for long time, people wanted to be rappers, they wanted to be basketball players, they wanted to be baseball players. What people see, what they see fast. They want to be drug dealers because they see the local drug dealers.
- [30:21]
John Hope Bryant
That's right.
- [30:22]
Lauren LaRose
So for people that's out there, what do you tell people? Because they want to be guided. Right. I see you post something that says, you know, think about buying a business rather than starting one from scratch. So, so break that down of, of those recommendations.
- [30:35]
John Hope Bryant
Yeah, yeah. So now we're getting to the real. Let's, let's bust up another myth. I want that bag. I want that cash. I want that dollar. I want that money. Get the heck out of here. It's useless. All money is, is an exchange of value. I could take your jacket right in the back of your jacket, pay to the order of routing number, checking account number, and an amount. Take your jacket to the bank. And they'd have to go in the, in the bank, in the back and start huddling about whether they are under a legal responsibility. You know where I'm going to cash your jacket. Because all a check is. When we used to use checks, all a check is, is a medium to transfer the value of the money that's in your account. Right? So we've gotten obsessed. We're looking for love in all the wrong places and obsessing about the only thing, the wrong thing about money. It's not. You make money during the day. You build wealth in your sleep. This is, this is a big one. Where are we spending all of our time? Short term cash. So if your outflow exceeds your inflow, then your overhead will be your downfall. If I'm an NBA player, by the way, 70 of NBA players, 70% of NFL players bankrupt in five years after retirement. 70 of those who win the lottery bankrupt five years after they get the money. So it's not just about the money. If it was about the money, everybody be cool. They are not financially literate and they're not using the money to build wealth. Take that money and put it into an asset. And the asset can be on your ass. Put in an asset. Can I say that you already did. And, and, and, and buy homes, buy tangible assets. That will compound. That's the first key to building wealth. Because when the income stops, the bills continue. This is really important. I don't know why we don't get this. If you're making, if you're an NBA player, you're making $5 million a year, and your bills are three and a half million dollars a year. You're gonna be broke.
- [32:35]
Lauren LaRose
You broke. IRS taking half.
- [32:38]
John Hope Bryant
Yeah, but, but even. Okay, let's make it easier because you're really, you're really smart. You got that already? Let's assume you make $5 million a year and your bills are a million and a half dollars a year and you have no other skills and you're 28 and your contract lasts eight years, you're going to be broke because when you finish that contract, guess what? Your bills still are.
- [33:02]
Lauren LaRose
1.5 million years.
- [33:03]
John Hope Bryant
1.5 million years. What's your income now?
- [33:05]
Lauren LaRose
Zero.
- [33:06]
John Hope Bryant
Zero. So it's just simple math. At some point it's gonna crawl. The lines are going to cross. And it's happened now for 30 years. We've been watching the same movie for 30 years. It's a slow moving train wreck, right? But we don't learn. So right now you said another key thing. Why are we spending $20,000 for a GoFundMe campaign? A start, you know, to raise money from our relatives. Going to be upset with us on the pizza shop startup that's going to fail. Why not go and buy a million dollar business, a seven figure business in your town that's already successful. There's a hundred between 88 trillion and $100 trillion of wealth is going to transfer in the next 10 to 15 years by baby boomers. These are white wealthy people, mostly men, who are all trying to retire at the same time. In the book I talk about that there's 10,000 people leaving the economy every day. It's. This is a deep number. Let me phrase that. They're 10,000 baby boomers leaving the economy every day by death. They're dying or another retirement.
- [34:07]
DJ Envy
Retiring. Okay, okay, okay.
- [34:08]
John Hope Bryant
Everybody wants to go play golf at the same time. So they own businesses now. Now what are they doing? This money you're going to. They're going to give the stocks, the bonds, the cash, the houses to their wives, their husbands and their children. Kids don't want the businesses. It's too much work. There's nothing wrong with the business. This is an opportunity for us. Go meet yourself a white person. I'm being sarcastic. Go meet you an Asian person. Go meet. You. Go meet. Go meet a black person, owns a business. I don't care what color they are. It's a green person. Go find somebody. When you drive down the street, you listen to this on the radio. Driving down the street, you see that office building, those little squares, those are all businesses and architecture, business, a dent. A dentist is a business. The lawyer is a business. Whatever you're going to in those little squares or the retail, those are all businesses. Find one that looks around 65, befriend them, get to know them, should prove to them that you are competent. Because their kids don't want the business. And they may not even like Their kids and real talk and say, look, I'd like to buy after about six months or a year building that relationship. This can't be a game. Now a real, real Mr. Joe or Mrs. J. I'd like to buy this business. Are you interested? Well, you know, I really, I really would like to transition. You have any money? Well, no, but I got a lot of hustle and I could probably take. Get a bank loan for half of this. I've already done run the numbers and if you carry back paper, which means they finance, the owner finances part of this carry back paper for 40% I can get the 10%. It's a million dollar purchase. I'll get $500,000 loan, 40% carry back from you and I'll bring a hundred thousand and I'll buy your business. And by the way, if it doesn't work, you get it all back. If I fail, you get the business back in three to five years. That's a great deal. Everybody wins. Fair exchanges, no robbery.
- [36:06]
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- [36:15]
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- [36:19]
John Hope Bryant
Oh no.
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- [36:31]
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- [36:34]
John Hope Bryant
Right, so, and I already said a negotiation is where everybody leaves the table slightly annoyed.
- [36:40]
DJ Envy
Explain that. Break that down real quick.
- [36:42]
John Hope Bryant
People who don't understand capitalism. Okay, so this is a, this is a consumer. This is the, this is the, this is the producer economist here. Economic. This is economic. This is the capitalist here. And this is the consumer.
- [36:54]
Lauren LaRose
You got left hand and right hand guy because members radio. So people driving in the car.
- [36:57]
John Hope Bryant
Oh, I'm sorry, yeah, yeah. Left hand is the. Is consumer, right hand is the capitalist. Okay, this is negotiating table at the mic. The consumer's job, please listen to me. Is to pay the least amount of money while getting the most amount of value. The capitalist job is to re. Is to get. Is to extract the most amount of money while giving the least amount of value. That, that's your job. The consumers, that's your job, is to pay the least for the most. The capitalist job is to get the most while giving the least. Everybody has a job, a negotiation. Now in our economy, the price is already set you go to the store, it already has a price on it. But you go to third world country or a second world country, you're, you're haggling with the, you're talking to the merchants in the corner, you trying to figure out the prices. A good negotiation is where everybody leaves that negotiation slightly annoyed because nobody got everything they wanted.
- [37:52]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Yeah.
- [37:53]
DJ Envy
I want to ask you a few questions. Right. Because people are here.
- [37:55]
John Hope Bryant
John, I'm just gonna make sure that we're covering all the ground because you just, you said something really important, which is, and I want to underscore, Go find you a business broker. Stop all this Jang Yang. Go find a business broker in your town. Stop talking about a billion dollar company. Stop talking about $100 million company. You ain't got $50 to your name. Go to your. In Columbus, Georgia or wherever you live, there is a dentist with three locations making seven figures. Buy that business.
- [38:24]
DJ Envy
But see, that's why I want to start. Right? We always hear build wealth, buy the business. But how do you build wealth by the business? When you starting with nothing, you got bills and bad credit.
- [38:32]
John Hope Bryant
That's what I started. Bills, bad credit afforded, credit score. I was homeless at latte here and airport in Los Angeles. For anybody, your listeners who are driving by latiera, an airport. That, that, that parking lot was my home for almost a year as homeless person. My credit was toe up from the flow up. And I could have filed bankruptcy, but I wanted to honor my debts. My mother treated me, trained me to, to live up to my responsibilities in my dad. So I had to work my way back from nothing. So I'm not talking at somebody, I'm talking with you. I'm saying, where did they begin? Right where they're sitting, the lowest credit score. Look, let's go back to the original premise. I said, you thought that you'd won. No, somebody won it for you. Now win for yourself. Because you can't control legislation, racism, whether somebody's going to hire you, fire you. You can't control that. You can control your credit score. Black people have the lowest credit score on average in America, 620. Which means that yours is 700 and yours is 800 and mine is 750. And Pookie, Nim, JoJo, and our cousins are five hundreds and it's all balances out, but on average it's 620. You can't get a decent car loan at 620. You know the car business. What is it, 18 interest? Yeah, about that. That's, that's, that's not a Mercedes is Mercedes payments and it's going to blow up. By the way, by the way a car, a car dealership is three businesses. The, the sales, the sales side the least profitable the financing department and the maintenance department. Those are the most profitable, right? So that car is most profitable. Maintenance is most profitable. It's going back to them. So we have the lowest credit score. If you want to buy a house you can't buy a house at 620. You need 700. Well you, you, you can get a house. It's going to be a really bad loan and you shouldn't get an adjustable rate loan ever to buy a house. Nothing that is five figures or more should be adjustable rates. Please hear me. You want to buy a business. You cannot get a business loan at 7. At 600 credit score. The banker is not being racist. Well they might be racist but they're not being racist. When they turn you down it's bad. It's a bad credit decision because small business is the riskiest form of. If you listen to me, if you have a job and you've listened to what I'm saying, get your credit score to 700. Go to your computer at midnight. Just test my theory and ask for a 35000 credit card. Watch the computer say yes. Don't believe me? Go, go test my theory. Go get our coaching or somebody's don't pay for it. We do our, we do it on scholarships. I'm not charging you at operation Hope. Get your credit score to 700. Just don't, don't believe the thing I'm saying. This is the first step. Get your credit from toe up and the flow up from 600 to 700. By the way it for every 50 points of increase in your credit score you live five more years. I'm a reverse that back it up. If you live in our neighborhoods, check cashes, payday loan lenders, rental owned stores, title lenders, liquor stores, pawn shops you live your credit score is on average 580 to 600. You live to 61 years of age. I, I agree.
- [41:41]
DJ Envy
I believe that wholeheartedly because people people statistics show that people would wealthy people live like 12 years longer.
- [41:48]
John Hope Bryant
20.
- [41:49]
DJ Envy
It's 20.
- [41:49]
John Hope Bryant
Okay, so 15 minutes. So so somebody here is listening from Chicago. Lincoln park downtown. That's 740 credit score. They live to, they live in there almost in their 90s. 15 minutes away is Garfield Park. That's 580 credit score. You live 61 years of age. 15 minute drive on the freeway. Nothing else is different. But the. But, but your money affects your mind. Your mind affects your mindset and your mentality and your depression or lack thereof. And a surviving mindset. If you are struggling and hustling and worrying all the time, eating bad food, not getting your rest, you're gonna die early. So, so affecting one affects everything else. So anybody listening to this, just take. I, I will put up right now, I'll put up ten thousand dollars. Ten one thousand dollar examples. You have ten people who call in your show, contact you and they're going to take this test. How much? I'm gonna do what John Bryan says. I got a job, my credit score is toe up. I'm gonna get my credit score within a year to 700. And I'm gonna go to the computer and ask something. Less than $75,000, less than $100,000 in consumer credit. And if I get declined, John Bryan owes me $1,000. I'll pay it. I know the answer.
- [43:05]
DJ Envy
And one thing.
- [43:06]
John Hope Bryant
I get approved.
- [43:07]
DJ Envy
You, you at Operation Hope, you actually help people repair their credit 100%.
- [43:12]
John Hope Bryant
And I've delivered four and a half billion dollars worth of capital just through Operation Hope. In what I'm talking about, we actually say no loans denied. We're the only nonprofit allowed to operate inside of a bank branch in U.S. history. And on the walls of our offices there's no loans denied. We approve you subject to the resolution of your primary denial factors. We figure out why you'd be declined for a loan. We figure we figured out. We tell you what's up. We help you fix it, repair it, upgrade it, and then we send you back over to the bank who wants to make your loan because if they don't, they go broke. So the bank tells you. We know what the bank's criteria is, otherwise we wouldn't send you back to them. So when we have never had a situation where we actually had to fund the loan in 33 years out of $4.5 billion because the bank always says yes once we repair it, because they want. It's not about a black person or a Latino person or an Asian person or an Indian person. It's a green person. They want good loans, but our credit score once again is the lowest in the country. So get in the game by getting your credit score up. You'll live longer, you'll be happier. By the way, and as the lady told me again from Delta last night, I'm getting yeses. She said her whole life changed. Yeah, the bank's telling Me? Yes. I mean, can you imagine what that does?
- [44:30]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Yeah, of course.
- [44:31]
John Hope Bryant
To your confidence in your self esteem. So I'm just very excited about this. I just think this is our moment in our time and once you get one win, it leads to, to the second one and the third one and all of a sudden you're flying.
- [44:45]
Lauren LaRose
I do have one. I gotta run. I'm sorry. But I just got one question before I go. You know the biggest conversation.
- [44:50]
John Hope Bryant
I love you being had, you having you at the table, man. I want you to go now.
- [44:53]
Lauren LaRose
You know what is I got a doctor's appointment. I gotta make sure I stay healthy.
- [44:55]
John Hope Bryant
Okay.
- [44:56]
DJ Envy
Another prostate exam. Crazy, mind blowing.
- [45:01]
John Hope Bryant
I don't know.
- [45:01]
Lauren LaRose
Go ahead. Don't knock it to your child.
- [45:03]
DJ Envy
I'm just joking.
- [45:04]
John Hope Bryant
What's important. Everybody get your process. That's right.
- [45:06]
Lauren LaRose
That's not a problem. Prostate though. But you know, my question to you is, is when should parents start having these conversations with kids, right? And the reason I ask that is I have six and I see the difference between when I started being an entrepreneur and I started messing around with money then with my kids, right? So like my kids, they got this thing now they about to get in trouble, but they'll go to Walgreens or they go five below, they buy candy and they sell candy at school.
- [45:31]
John Hope Bryant
That's right, right.
- [45:31]
Lauren LaRose
It's a profit. I let him do it because I just love that they're starting business and business mind that early. You know, he's mad at me because he doesn't have Apple pay. So he's like dad, these kids want to pay me the Apple pay, they can't pay me. So my question to you is at what age do you start with kids with credit, with credit cards, with having a bank account with whether it's real estate, whether it's stock market, whether it's whatever it may be, at what age do you start and what's the way they should start for parents out there? So they're not 40 year old parent just getting their first home. So they're teaching these kids a lot earlier. So what age and what's the mission or the way that they should do it?
- [46:06]
John Hope Bryant
First of all, you're a great parent, man. Thank you. This is what you just said.
- [46:10]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Sure.
- [46:10]
John Hope Bryant
That's fantastic.
- [46:11]
Lauren LaRose
I'm sending my son down to you for a month.
- [46:15]
John Hope Bryant
I'm sending. Cause he's.
- [46:16]
Lauren LaRose
Yeah, he's on it. He'll train you, he'll train you, come out with a little bit muscles. But I'm sending him to you but
- [46:21]
John Hope Bryant
go ahead, it's all good. So do you know what my first business was? No.
- [46:25]
Lauren LaRose
Stripper.
- [46:26]
DJ Envy
Oh, damn. John's married.
- [46:30]
Lauren LaRose
I said he could have been a stripper.
- [46:32]
DJ Envy
That flirt and cut it out, by the way.
- [46:34]
John Hope Bryant
I was a dancer on American band Strain and Soul Train. Quite literally, I was a band. I was a whole nother part of my life years and years and years ago. First business.
- [46:43]
Lauren LaRose
First business.
- [46:44]
John Hope Bryant
I'm sorry, I was. I rent a candy house. Just the same thing as your kids doing. I was nine years old and I went to a financial literacy lesson in Compton, California. This banker did not want to be there. White banker did not want to be there. His banker made him come. Community service. We didn't want him there. He came in once a week for six weeks. All the rest of my kids, the friends of my friends were there playing games and throwing paper. Paper planes, all kind of things. Because I had saw my best friend get murdered with the drug dealer trying to sell for money. And because I saw the guy who saved my life getting murdered two years before that over money, drugs, and my mom and dad divorced. Over money. When I was four or five years old, I was like, okay, how do I get out of this situation alive and legal and profitable? So I'm looking for an answer, and this banker comes in my classroom. So by the third time I raised my hand, he came in the third week, excuse me, sir, what do you do for a living? And how'd you get rich legally? And I was serious. He said, I'm a banker, not finance entrepreneurs. I said, I don't know what an entrepreneur is, but it is legal. I'm going to be one. And he started unpacking this. That's when I said, I walked down the street and saw the muffler shop and the candy shop. So with the liquor store. And I sell you selling wrong kind of candy. And he told me to go away. He knew what he was doing. He had a college degree. I said, I've got cavities. And I didn't realize I was asking for a joint venture. But I was like, work with me. Let me help you sell candy. And he dismissed me. So I worked as a box boy. He wanted some. He wanted to have me up front at the candy counter. And he was gonna pay me top dollar after school. This is. This is indicative of our community. We're always taking these flossy jobs, taking the high profile stuff, rocking the mic. We don't own it. No, I don't want that job. I want the box boy. Because I want to know where the inventory was. I want to open the inventory box, pull out the inventory list that that banker told me about and look for the source of the inventory, the wholesale rate, what he bought it for and the retail rate and the profit margin. I found out three weeks later I quit. I went home, borrowed $40. My mother made $300 a week selling candy just like your son and put the liquor store out of the candy business. Now that did wonders my self esteem. I was 10 years old. Now in Atlanta in kindergarten we thanks to mayor Andre Dickens and mayor Keisha Lance Bollins before we have a bank account called a Hope child savings account for every kindergarten kid in Atlanta Public School schools. 12000 accounts. Now studies have shown if you have money in an account. Sorry, you had a. You're a kid with no money in the account. You're 25 more likely to go to college if you put money in that account. 50 bucks, 100 bucks, it's. The kid is 75 more likely to graduate from college at kindergarten. So kids are paying attention to consequences and connecting the dots at a very early age. I don't think you can start early enough because money transmits and transfers into everything we do.
- [49:40]
Lauren LaRose
One last question, but I gotta run. I'm so sorry y'.
- [49:42]
John Hope Bryant
All.
- [49:43]
Lauren LaRose
I was reading something where they say the Jewish community, right when they look at a job, they look at it differently. Let me know if you think it's real, if you think it's true or if you heard this right. They said when the Jewish community looks at a job, they look at it as first. When they go to that job, they look at it to understand the job meaning learn the process of actually what the job is about. They said the second year they. They look at the connects of the job to figure out how to do it on their own. They said the third year is they usually quit and start that job as kind of like being in competition. Do you see that a lot? And Is that true?
- [50:14]
John Hope Bryant
100% true.
- [50:15]
Lauren LaRose
Break it down because when I heard it I was amazed. I thought I was.
- [50:18]
John Hope Bryant
By the way, the Jewish community is a model. I joke sometimes and say we need a black Jewish business plan. And I'm only partially joking. Jews are 2%, I think of the US population and 40 of the billionaires. Let that sink in.
- [50:33]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Wow. Damn.
- [50:35]
John Hope Bryant
Should I say it again? The Jewish there's only 15 million Jews in the world of 8 billion people. And black people have to come to Africa with Jews are to Israel which is a resource whole nother Conversation. But Jews are only 2% of the US population, but they are 40% of the wealth of the billionaires in this country. And they've done it on their own. They've done it because they've been discriminated against. I mean, they're still being to this day. And so, and by the way, anyway, it's a whole nother conversation, but I think we have a lot to learn from, from, from the Jewish community. I think we have to learn from our African brothers and sisters who come here from Ethiopia and Nigeria, and they go working at the box. They're the bellman at the Park Hyatt. Then they get their buddies to be bellman. Then they, they're, then they're in the. First, they're in the front desk, and then they're at the concierge desk, and then they buy. Then they get an Uber car, and they get a black car, and then they get an apartment, and they're all living together and they're all running this business. It started as a job, as a gig, to just the exact point. They learned the game. They. Why? Why the front desk? That's where people are checking in. That's a trade that, that now you know who can pay, who can't. Why the concierge desk? Because they're, they're making arrangements to go to concerts, to go to events, because that's where the transaction for transportation goes. Why then Uber? Because that's the easiest way to get into transportation. And then they start renting the car. Then they want to, Then they buy the car and why the, why the apartment? They're living together so they can pool their money.
- [52:10]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Yeah.
- [52:11]
John Hope Bryant
Until they can buy a house. It's real. We need to, we need to make smart sexy again. We've been making dumb sexy for way too long. We've dumbed down and celebrated it. We've got to make smart sexy. We got to make, we got to make boring sexy. A lot of what I'm saying is basic. We, we have mastered the complicated. We now get back to the base. That's why I, I, I, I'm saying capitalism for all I'm saying. Try it. It's not like we tried this at scale and it didn't work. People want to talk about Greenwood or, you know, Tulsa or, you know, okay, that was five square blocks. That wasn't the whole city. It wasn't the whole state. It wasn't a decade. And people, if you want to deal with Tulsa, let's deal with Tulsa. Example. So Tulsa was an example of black success, black ownership, black excellence. White folks burned it down. Racist. Horrible. What happened next? Because that's where the story ends with a lot of people we rebuilt, lasted into the 1960s. What happened? Integration. Once we realized. Once the laws changed again, the second reconstruction. And we can go to a white man's barbershop or a white man's dentist or white man's store. We want to try it out. I understand that we. We wanted the thing that was denied us. I get it. But what happened to the core businesses that relied on that closed economy? They failed.
- [53:40]
DJ Envy
I want to ask a couple more questions. Right.
- [53:42]
John Hope Bryant
I hope I answered your question. Send your. Send your son to me, man.
- [53:45]
DJ Envy
Congrats on your prostate. But listen, do you think too much emphasis gets put on personal responsibility when structural barriers are still very real?
- [53:56]
John Hope Bryant
No, because it's not. This is. This is an end conversation, not an or conversation. You have groundwater effects, and then you have tidal effects. Groundwater are things you can't change. Baseline things you can't change. We need Washington, D.C. congress people. That's why your elected officials really matter. They've got to change those laws and affect that in a way that changes the groundwater. Change the system. Meanwhile, you got title effects. Where is the wind blowing? Where's the opportunity flowing? What are you doing about it? And to me, the one thing. I'm a control freak. I want to. I want to handle the thing I can control. And I built my whole life without the government's intervention. I'm not asking for permission. All money is is freedom. Do you know how good it feels going well? You know, it is to go into a room, as I did last week, and give people a $5,000 scholarship just because I felt like it.
- [54:55]
Charlamagne Tha God
Just.
- [54:56]
John Hope Bryant
I didn't go to a committee. Yeah. I didn't have to go to a. Write a right paper or.
- [55:01]
DJ Envy
I love it.
- [55:01]
John Hope Bryant
You know. Yeah. You know what? I think I'm. I think I'm gonna give five $1,000 scholarships today. You know, I'm gonna give Clark Atlanta $5 million of financial coaching scholarships. Sitting in a board meeting, you know, and just text my people. I just committed to $5 million. You know how good that feels?
- [55:18]
DJ Envy
I love it.
- [55:19]
John Hope Bryant
See, that. That's what I'm talking about. And the government had nothing to do with. With that. The groundwater effects had nothing to do with that. I was in rental real estate. I gave people a chance to go from rent to own. I built that company and sold it for $120 million. I have. I'm in digital media I got a podcast with you that's doing Money and wealth podcast that. That just was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
- [55:41]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Amazing.
- [55:43]
John Hope Bryant
I've. I've got these, the books. Don't. Don't you know, that is not my lifestyle, but it is something that fulfills me. I've got, you know, I've created 50 businesses, none of which are in finance and financial literacy and real estate and all these different areas AI now, none of these involving the government. We're just. We're traumatized. We're. I think we are. We. I think we are depressed, distressed, traumatized. And. And now what did Malcolm X say? We've been bamboozled. You've been tricked, you've been fooled, you've been hoodwinked, You've been run amok. So now it's the, it's the shadow that's scaring us. It's the, it's the threat of. It's the history of. It's the legacy of that keeps us from moving. And all I'm saying is this is your time. This is your time.
- [56:30]
Charlamagne Tha God
I think it's just like when I'm listening to you say that I, you know how, like there's always a conversation about like the one, like the person that makes it out of their neighborhood or like whatever, right? And it's like, what's that? I always try to think about, like, what's the difference? Like, we went to the same schools, we went to the. Maybe I went to college, maybe you didn't. Or we've experience the same people. What is the difference? And it's that mindset. But like there's still. That, that still happens. Like, there's still people who are just as smart, went to the same schools, who one thing threw off their trajectory and then they fall back on the whole blaming on the system conversation. So we just remove that from our mind because there are people that are still trying, want to do things that still keep coming up against this. Like something. So, like, how? What do we do?
- [57:09]
John Hope Bryant
You're giving excellent questions. Yes. Remove it from your mind. I walk through life consciously oblivious of most things around me because the stuff just doesn't matter. I'm. I am laser focused. I tell people I'm coming that way. I'm gonna encourage you to move out of the way. I don't want to run over you. I don't want to hurt you. I'm giving you fair warning. I'm coming that way over to round it through it. I'm going to get to it. I take no for vitamins, success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. I'm coming that way. I'm warning you, that breeds confidence that people are like, oh, dang, I don't even like you, but I respect you. I mean, that's sexy. Okay, maybe I'll join you. You know what I'm saying? I was gonna get him your way with me, I'll get. So, yes, you have got to ignore the drama and keep it moving. That's him, by the way.
- [57:56]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's the drama, right?
- [57:58]
John Hope Bryant
Ignore the drama, keep it moving, and let me now go to the other side. The mainstream situation is they've got so many success stories and so much infrastructure. They can be. Have. Have wits and half smart and half dumb and they just get carried because their, their boy is the CEO of a company and they're in the. And his sister is tired of the nephew sleeping on the couch. Can you give him an internship? Right, sure. Right. So he's not all that smart, but he still gets in. So that is an unfair advantage. We need to create that unfair advantage for our nitwit cousins. And you're only going to do that role modeling. Why my businessman? I'm sorry, why am I an entrepreneur? My daddy was a businessman. His daddy was a sharecropper. And his daddy was a slave who's fought in this, in the, in the Union army and protected Memphis, Tennessee as a, as a. George. George Young, who is an officer. Why is my mother an investor and why was she so good to me and tell me she loved me? Because her mother didn't tell me her she loved her, so she turned a negative into a positive. My mother owned seven homes. My grandmother owned a shotgun shack. My great grandmother owned one house from slavery with a border. A renter. I own 700. We're not geniuses, we're role modeling is an old saying. 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. So out of love, we pass down bad habits from generation to generation. I can't guarantee you that being, being positive and doing this is going to make you a success. I cannot. But I absolutely guarantee you that being negative and not doing this is going to make you fail.
- [59:38]
DJ Envy
Like you keep saying. Try it. This is my last question, right? Is the wealth gap a capitalism problem or who has access to capitalism problem?
- [59:51]
John Hope Bryant
The wealth gap is a historical problem because it already exists. How the capitalism, right? Because of bad capitalism, which we talked about earlier. Slavery was bad Capitalism. Absolutely. Let's. So let's go to the book. In an example I gave this a 50 year old. It's a, it's a 50 year story. It's a 50 year old history of what's already happened. That proves my point. So in 1968, whatever, Dr. King and Andrew Young, all these people, Dr. Dorothy Height fought for civil rights. Civil rights. And we, we got affirmative action through President Johnson, President Kennedy and Honorary President King. Dr. King. And then Dr. King gets assassinated and then Kennedy, Nixon comes in which is a reaction to. By the way. It's still happening. It's a. So Nixon was a reaction to Johnson. Conservative reaction to so called liberal. By the way, Johnson was a responsible reaction into Lincoln in 1800s and some would argue that what's happening now is a reaction to Obama. To Obama. Okay, but let's go back to your point. So in 1972, women, a white woman could not get a bank account. In 1972, not 1872. She couldn't get a loan unless her husband co signed it. There was a whole debate about women's roles. You, you guys couldn't have had, you guys couldn't be sitting here in 1972. White version of. You couldn't be sitting here because you had to be at home with babies or whatever. You were not supposed to be in the workplace. There's a whole debate. So finally they said breakthrough debate. We're going to give affirmative action but we'll give it to white women. I'm cool with that. No problem. That opened the door to black women, Latino women and all women. What's the, what's the result? Today women are a third of the U.S. economy, $30 trillion economy and women are 8 to 10 trillion of that every year. So we hadn't got that experiment right. This would be, we'd be a second tier nation today and also ran country. So we need to now apply that to what people call diversity and inclusion or what some people call dei, which I think is useless. Forget all these program names. Forget all this drama. The math says. The math says that my rich friends need my poor friends to do better, if only to stay rich. The math says that 40% of black of this country economy is diverse people us. The math says that within 10 years this will be a majority of minorities. Now we're starting to get to the real deal. Unless we only speaking Chinese in 20 years there's not enough successful college educated white men for the first time in history to drive economic growth for the next 20 years. Now if you haven't heard anything I've said. I hope you heard that. That's never happened in the history of this country. This country actually needs you to be successful in order for them to keep their cars, their boats, their yachts, their houses, their businesses. We are a consumer base. We are a customer base. We are untapped capital. We are smart. We are good business people. We just have not been invested in. And I think that is what's happening. That is the new, that is the opportunity that's now in front of us for the next 10 years. And I've written a business plan for black America. I've given you copies of it.
- [63:10]
DJ Envy
People download this if they want.
- [63:12]
John Hope Bryant
They can go to Dream Forward. You just go to John o' Brien and Dream Forward or go to capitalism for all the new website for the book or go to and get the book or go to Operation Hope. I made it real easy. Go to Operation Hope website Brian Group Ventures website Capitalism for all website Dream Forward or just type in my name and business plan for black America. Download it. There's not one thought, there's not one mention of the government in here anywhere. Right? And this is, and if we don't do this, here's what I can tell you. Black net worth is scheduled to be by 2053 0. If we do nothing but complain and whine and, and belly ache. This, this is before the government walked away from you. This is before we were thrown into the fires of capitalism. It was scheduled to be zero, but with my plan says it could be $3.5 trillion in 10 years. That's a billion dollars. A trillion dollars in business acquisition. It's a, it's a trillion dollars. So let me give you some more math. If you raise your credit score to 700, we go from 620 to 700. Less than 100 points. That's worth $750 billion of net worth in 10 years. You take that 700 credit score, you do what? Buy a house. The number one way you build wealth in America is home ownership. Don't buy it in New York City or la, it's too expensive. Go to a second tier city. Go to where the puck is going. Go to a city that's on the, that's, that's. I, I could have never been wealthy living in la. I had to go buy, I moved to Atlanta And I bought 700 homes for $88,000 each in Atlanta. Those homes are now worth $400,000 each. Just do the math. But I moved there in 2009 so find the next Atlanta, find the next Nashville, find the next la, find the next stop. Stop trying to do everything in one place, right? Yeah. And, and buy a house with that high credit score and that's worth $800 billion now that 800 billion and 750 billion, that's help me now, 1.5 ish trillion. Go buy these businesses that already exist. That's another trillion artificial intelligence levels of playing field. You can start a business, a million dollar business with one person and technology with for a thousand bucks. That's never happened. A million dollar business, that's a trillion dollars in tenure, that's $3 trillion. And I haven't said government one time. Why are we obsessing? Why are we screaming at the TV all day about something you can't control? You've got the largest reality TV show in the history of the world going on in Washington D.C. and every day is a new episode. And they got us. They got us. They got us completely whipsawed and we sitting there obsessing about something you have no control over as they keep you distracted from something else.
- [65:59]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Yeah.
- [65:59]
John Hope Bryant
So focus. Be obsessed with your time in your mind. Focus on what you can control. By the way, 90, I say this in the book. 90% of all GDP in this country comes from cities, not the federal government. 90% go in your neighborhood, volunteer in your school board, volunteer for your mayor, volunteer at your school, where your kid goes, start a business in your neighborhood, give back, get your own home. Right? I mean that's a full time job. Yeah, I'm just get to the basic. Get an insurance policy, get a will, get a job, get a life, get your credit score right. Okay, I'm. Stop preaching.
- [66:44]
DJ Envy
My man John.
- [66:45]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
I do want to say thank you John, for helping me and my husband, putting us together, putting us with a financial advisor.
- [66:51]
John Hope Bryant
Oh, nice.
- [66:52]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Yo. I appreciate it. Shout out to Lance Virgil. Operation Hope. I totally appreciate it because we was about to pay some money to learn about financial literacy and John was like, man, like he literally kicked into like the uncle who was ready go off cuz he found out that, you know, we were about to pay for some financial literacy that you know, we, that we can learn at Operation Hope. You just put us with a financial advisor. We about to start these courses, man. So I appreciate you.
- [67:21]
John Hope Bryant
That's beautiful. And it's also beautiful that you were not afraid to say that right on the air. This is what I'm talking about. This is what, this is what makes, makes me, makes warms my heart again. I can't say these names, but if you know the kind of folks calling my phone, these are. These are household names. And they're like, look, I'm. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.
- [67:39]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Yeah.
- [67:40]
John Hope Bryant
Like, help me. I'm trying to do this. I messed this up. Help me fix this. Some of the biggest stars and names on the planet are saying, I'm tired of struggling.
- [67:49]
DJ Envy
Oh, yeah, some of them called me to get to you.
- [67:51]
John Hope Bryant
Yeah.
- [67:51]
DJ Envy
So can you connect me with John o'? Brien?
- [67:54]
John Hope Bryant
I'm just very inspired, man, about this moment. I think we have a real shot.
- [67:57]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Yeah.
- [67:58]
John Hope Bryant
A real shot at turning the tide on this. Rainbows only follow storms.
- [68:02]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Yeah.
- [68:03]
John Hope Bryant
You cannot have a rainbow without a storm first. You cannot grow. Except the legitimate suffering. And who has suffered more than us? We've been doing so much with so little for so long. We can almost do anything with nothing over to round it through it. We gonna get to. We're not gonna give up. So my white friends are like, oh, there's a crisis. We have a crisis every Tuesday. Crisis don't bother us. So the. The fact that you said this, I'm honored to help you, but the fact that you acknowledge this. And by the way, kudos in your book. I ordered some.
- [68:33]
Guest Woman (possibly a co-host or guest)
Thank you. Appreciate that.
- [68:34]
John Hope Bryant
It says a lot about your maturity and your growth because half of this is just showing up in your own life. No one's coming to save us. We got to do that for ourselves. Has this been useful? I mean, has this been. Is there anything that jumps out?
- [68:47]
DJ Envy
No. Very much so.
- [68:48]
Charlamagne Tha God
You gotta get to.
- [68:50]
DJ Envy
And we got a couple of calls to action. You know, we want you to go to, you know, what is it? Dream forward.
- [68:55]
John Hope Bryant
Dream forward. Yep. You get to download the business plan
- [68:57]
DJ Envy
for Black America, an inclusive economic business plan for black America. And we want you to go pick up the book Capitalism Fall by my guy, John Hill Brunt.
- [69:04]
John Hope Bryant
I also bought. I wrote a business plan for Latino Americans, for Native American Indian, for women's, for rural white neighborhoods. I wrote one for everybody.
- [69:12]
DJ Envy
So y' all better read both. Yes. Don't do that. I'm just saying bank gotta read both. That's all. It's John o'. Brien. Go pick up Capitalism for All. And make sure you download the Money and wealth podcast on the Black Effect Podcast Network. John o' Brien will actually be with us at the Black Effect Podcast festival in Atlanta, Georgia on April 25th. He's on the. The AI panel, I believe. Yeah, the AI panel. So come check out John Hope Bryant at the Black Effect podcast festival, Saturday, April 25th in Atlanta, Georgia. John. Love you, brother.
- [69:44]
John Hope Bryant
Love you back. Let me just say this before we wrap up.
- [69:47]
DJ Envy
You.
- [69:47]
John Hope Bryant
You. You are a bad brother. People have no idea how smart you are and what an underground prophet you are about the community. You really care about your community. I get calls from you at midnight on the weekend, and you. It's never about you. It's always about how do we make our community better. And people don't know you're an owner. And you lift other people up with your book imprint and your podcast platform. You could have done this all for yourself, by yourself, but you bring other folks with you, and that's the kind of role model we need to emulate, man.
- [70:19]
DJ Envy
Thank you, John. I appreciate you. Go pick up Capitalism for all available everywhere. You buy books now. John o', Brien. It's the Breakfast Club.
- [70:26]
John Hope Bryant
Hold up.
- [70:27]
DJ Envy
Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up.
- [70:30]
John Hope Bryant
It's the Breakfast Club. Do y' all finished or y' all done?
- [70:35]
Liberty Mutual Female Voice (Ad)
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- [70:45]
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- [70:48]
John Hope Bryant
Oh, no.
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- [71:00]
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- [71:03]
Charlamagne Tha God
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